Dust Line

Operators Balancing

• IQ's gadget now has enhanced visual feedback - We have changed the way IQ's device displays the environment and electronic devices. You can now see through the screen, and there will now be an outline of the detected devices. The effective detection distance is now 20 meters.

• Tachanka's LMG is now easier to place and easier to use -

• Montagne's shield adds side protection - We are introducing added protection to Montagne's shield to cover his sides. We believe this will make him a more interesting option, by pushing even further his defensive capabilities. This will allow him to enter rooms more safely and provide even more cover to his teammates.

• Frost no longer has a Nitro Cell - Building on the tweaks to Frost's Super 90 shotgun introduced with Patch 2.3, we have decided to replace her Nitro Cell with Barbed Wire. We saw that the reduction in range to the shotgun did not really affect her selection rate nor her win rate. Since she has a very good and useful unique gadget, we believe that this change will fit her role as a trapper better.

• Buck gets grenades & reduced recoil, but his shotgun loses range - We are removing Buck's Breach Charges due to the increase of Buck's shotgun destruction radius. Instead, we are giving him frag grenades which we think will make him a more aggressive offensive Operator. We are reducing the horizontal variation on the recoil for one of his primary weapons, the C8 rifle. That means that when you hold fully automatic fire, the gun will move a little less in the left/right direction. We have slightly reduced underslung shotgun's effective range by 2 meters, so it fits more as a tool than a clear-cut offensive weapon.

• Thatcher's EMP grenade gets a range reduction - We've reduced his unique gadget's effective range from 7m to 5.2m. The intention is to keep him from clearing a whole room of gadgets, from the top, bottom, or even sides. We want to encourage players into thinking where the best spot is to throw the EMP. Additionally, Thatcher's EMP now disables enemies' sights completely for 10 seconds.

• Sledge swaps Breach Charges for Stun Grenades - We have replaced his Breach Charges for Stun Grenades making his loadout options more versatile. We believe this change is for the best as Sledge has the equivalent of a better, reusable Breach Charge with him. He is also statistically almost never played with Breach Charges, which makes sense.

• Thermite swaps Frag Grenades for Stun Grenades - We are swapping Thermite's Frag Grenades for Stun Grenades. There are two reasons behind this change. The first reason is that Thermite has a very important unique gadget, making him one of the most pivotal Operators in an attacking team. The second reason is to limit the number of concurrent Operators that can bring Frag Grenades on the field. To us, two Operators with frag grenades is more than enough for an attacking team, and more than two would make it a lot harder for the Defenders to protect their objective. This will make Thermite slightly less offensive, while giving him more utility.

• The FBI SWAT Recruit Shield loadout will now have heavy armor - The FBI SWAT recruit equipped with a shield is now bearing heavy armor, making him a 3 armor and 1 movement speed instead of 2 armor and 2 speed. We made that change for shield-wielding Operators to be consistent in speed. We saw what kind of aggression the Recruit Shield could bring and a skilled player taking full advantage of his loadout was too strong. This change should help making him on par with other shield-wielding Operators and effectively allow the newer Rainbow Six Siege players to get accustomed to the movement speed that shield-wielders have.

• Introducing gadget placement cancellation controls - We have introduced a new flow for placing gadgets. Instead of holding a key or button and letting it go when you are ready to place the gadget, you can now press it to take out the gadget in your hands and then hold it to place the gadget. You can also cancel the placement at any time. This feature will need to be turned ON in the Options menu.

• Red Dot & Reflex Triangle sights now more precise - The green triangle in the Reflex Sight and the red dot in the Red Dot sight are now much smaller for better precision.

• Flash Hider & Compensator adjustments - We have reworked how the Flash Hider and Compensator function. We want them to have more significant roles, like the Silencer. The intention is to have each attachment reward a specific weapon wielding style.

• Flash Hider - Besides still partially hiding the flash, we have opted to reduce the time it takes for the weapon to center back and reduce the first shot recoil. This attachment will now reward single-shot and short burst firing.

• Compensator - We have added a cap on the maximum recoil this attachment allows for, making fully-automatic fire more potent.

• Stun Grenades now detonate faster after contact - Stun Grenades now detonate 1 second after making contact with a surface instead of having a 3 second fuse. We wanted to make that change because we think it will add a surprise effect and will make them more effective.

• Pump-Action Shotgun rebalance - We have improved the pump-action shotguns by giving them more effective range for their maximum damage. This means that their full damage will begin falling off at a further distance than previously.

• SDASS Compact - 53 damage up to 3 meters -> 53 damage up to 5 meters

• 591A1 - 48 damage up to 5 meters -> 48 damage up to 6.5 meters

• M870 - 60 damage up to 2 meters -> 55 damage up to 3.5 meters

• Controller aiming deadzone fix - There was an issue with deadzones on controllers that has been fixed, which will result in smoother and more accurate aiming while using a controller.

• No more penalty points for destroying your own gadget - You won't be penalized for destroying your own gadgets anymore. For example, if you're Rook and someone forgets to pick up an armored plate, you can now destroy the bag so the enemy can't take advantage of it, without losing points.

• Maintenance System Messaging - There is now an improved maintenance messaging system that will provide a prompt before the maintenance occurs. Additionally players will not be able to attempt to join a game during a maintenance.

• Edit playlist - Custom Games - You can now edit custom game playlists.

• Skip boot sequence - You can now skip the boot sequence by pressing any button.

• Options, Activity, and Squad menus - Now in-game menus, like the Options menu, are black.

• Reduced exposure on Operator's head positioning while aiming - We have grouped the camera and head placement tighter to expose the player's head less. This should mitigate the issue where you are looking down from a window and someone can see your head but you can't see theirs.

• Animations when leaning are now mirrored on both sides - ince all Operators are right-handed, leaning on the left or right gave a different head exposure. We have mirrored the animations in a way that exposes the head as much on the right than on the left.

• Indoors vs. outdoors lighting differences are now less extreme - We have improved visibility when looking inside and outside, from the opposite perspective. This is especially noticeable for extreme cases where it was too bright or too dark.

• Graphics update - We have improved many aspects of the graphics. One of them being the HDR rendering, so that the game will be more contrasted and saturated. Additionally some of the lighting on menus have been tweaked, and the lighting on the weapons has been improved.

• Added gun occlusion to make sound more realistice - In addition to sound propagation, we have added gun occlusion sounds to represent a more realistic sound profile. This means that you will have additional positional information when someone is firing behind a wall near you, or above/below you.

• Killcam black & white effect reduced - The black and white effect for the killcam is now greatly reduced.

• Near death visual effect reduced - The near death effect now desaturates the colors a lot less.

• Death animation polish - The death animation has been polished to make it more organic.

• Larger weapon preview size - The preview size of a weapon is now bigger in the menus.

• Car windows are now breakable - You can now shoot through previously unbreakable car windows.

• Anticheat and toxic behavior improvements

• Reduced friendly fire in PVE - Friendly fire damage percentage in PVE has been reduced from 0.25 to 0.1 in Casual, and 0.5 to 0.25 in Normal.

• More appropriate AI balance for Consoles vs. PC - We have rebalanced the PVE on Consoles to match win rates of PC. Previously, we observed that PC players have a higher win ratio at all levels of difficulty. This is mostly due to the fact that the mouse and keyboard are a more precise input device than controllers, making it more difficult for Console players to achieve the same results as their PC counterparts.

• In-game shop - More items from the in-game shop are now available for purchase by R6 Credits or Renown. Additionally, the overall cost of weapon skins have been reduced.

• In Season 2, we have reworked the weapon skin tiers to only include three tiers instead of five. We have also added a Seasonal Tier for the signature skin of Season 2.