Rainbow Six Siege Update Introduces Loot Boxes, Balance Changes, More

Rainbow Six Siege is getting a new update today, preparing the game for the upcoming arrival of loot boxes. Title update 2.1.1 will also introduce a bunch of bug fixes and balance changes when it goes live on all platforms later today.

Siege's loot boxes are called Alpha Packs. According to publisher Ubisoft, they will introduce a "chance-based loot system that will contain many "past cosmetics (like the Black Ice skins) as well as exclusive Legendary tier items that you will only be able to get in Alpha Packs." The company says it's staggering the introduction of Alpha Packs across platforms "to ensure the most stable deployment possible." To celebrate the launch, every user will receive one free loot box once they're activated on your platform of choice.

Elsewhere, a bunch of issues with Hibana's X-Kairos weapon have been resolved. The gun's pellets could previously be concentrated in too small an area under certain conditions, as well as trigger early if you fired two sets at a time. Lastly, the pellets could appear to still be stuck to a reinforced wall after detonation. All these problems have now been fixed.

Kanal's ongoing problem with spawn-killing has been tweaked again, meanwhile. The issue caused Ubisoft to close off the window in the Control Room as part of the previous Siege update. However, after fan feedback, that move has been reversed and an extra piece of cover introduced instead. Finally, many of Coastline's walls have been rebuilt entirely in order to fix a problem where they could not be properly destroyed.

The update drops today on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, though loot boxes will not immediately become available. It comes midway through Operation Health, Ubisoft's set of updates designed to improve the "overall Rainbow Six Siege experience." Unfortunately, Operation Health meant some DLC had to be canceled.

"The planned Hong Kong season will be pushed back to Season Three in August, while November's Season Four will feature South Korea," Ubisoft said at the time. "Poland will no longer have its own season in Year Two, but its GROM Operators will be available at the start of seasons three and four. The number of new maps has also been reduced to three, and includes the most recent map set in Spain."