Six Operators will be affected by Siege's latest weapon changes


This article contains information about the 'release-date' of either a movie, game or product. Unless stated explicitly, release dates are speculative & subject to change. See something wrong? Contact us here

Rainbow Six Siege is always evolving and the latest set of weapon balancing changes is a testament to that. There isn't too much to talk about at the moment in terms of weapon balancing changes, but each change that is implemented is important when talking about a game that relies on precision plays, like Rainbow Six Siege.

We also know about what changes are coming to Siege's Operators and the next map to undergo a refresher.

Latest Siege Weapon Balancing Changes

First up, we have the Bearing 9...

Hibana, Echo, and Thunderbird will be using this weapon. It is being done, in part, to help the newest Operator join the game with a well-balanced loadout.

  • Modified recoil, easier to control:
    • The horizontal spread will be more constant and closer to the centre
Rainbow Six Siege Thunderbird Key Art Operation North Star
click to enlarge
STACKED LOADOUT? - Do you think the Bearing 9 is going to be enough?

This is being joined by a more substantial weapon balancing change to the SMG-12, another Siege secondary weapon.

This is currently being used by Vigil, Dokkaebi, and Warden.

  • Modified recoil, easier to control:
    • Reduced first shot kick
    • Reduced vertical kick
    • The horizontal spread will be more predictable and constant to the left
    • Long burst recoil will start on the 12th bullet (previously the 6th)

Operation North Star Release Date

Rainbow Six Siege's newest Operation, North Star, is due to begin in just a couple of weeks. Operation Crimson Heist is coming to an end, but Operation North Star isn't going to arrive in the main game just yet.

At the moment, the changes described above are live on the Rainbow Six Siege test servers. Ubisoft is due to implement the update fully on June 14th, though. This is just two days after Ubisoft's UbiForward presentation at E3 2021.

We don't have full patch notes for the update yet and we're not expecting a complete confirmation of changes for a little while yet. For now, there are the Y6S2 Designer's Notes from Ubisoft. These highlight some key changes, but everything is subject to change at the moment.

The weapon balancing changes mentioned above are included, but there's a lot more to learn about the next major Siege update.

For more articles like this, take a look at our Rainbow Six page.