Rainbow Six Siege Y6S3 Crystal Guard Patch Notes Revealed

Ubisoft has released the patch notes for Rainbow Six Siege Crystal Guard. Y6S3 of Rainbow Six Siege launches sometime in September, but the new season is now available on the PC public test servers, with the new operator Osa coming on August 18.

The main addition in Crystal Guard is the brand-new attacker, Osa. Rainbow Six Siege's first transgender operator, Osa's gadget is the transparent Talon-8 shield, which can be carried or deployed. The shield can be placed on the floor, or in windows or doorways, allowing her to observe the enemy while in full cover.

The Crystal Guard update also includes reworks of three maps; Bank, Coastline, and Clubhouse. All three maps have received technical overhauls to match modern standards and Bank has received an art overhaul. The new update now allows players to mix and match elite headgear and uniforms with any other headgear and uniforms, as long as it's for the same operator.

The update also includes a price reduction for five operators. Maverick and Clash now cost 10,000 Renown or 240 R6 Credit, Amaru and Goyo are now 15,000 Renown or 360 R6 Credits. Finally, Zero, also known as Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell, now costs 20,000 Renown or 480 R6 Credits.

While the alien-infested PvE spinoff game Rainbow Six Extraction was delayed until January 2022, the Rainbow Six Siege event inspired by the game, Containment, is still live through August 24.

Rainbow Six Siege's Crystal Guard update also includes a number of operator adjustments and fixes. You can read the full patch notes on Ubisoft's website or below:

Rainbow Six Siege Y6S3 Patch Notes

New Operator - Osa

Map Reworks

Bank

• EXT Boulevard vehicles have been moved to new locations to prevent runout eliminations.
• Some EXT Low Roof and EXT High Roof skylights have been blocked to prevent unfair firefights.
• Line of sight into EXT Back Alley has been adjusted to prevent spawn peaks.
• EXT Terrace has been updated to prevent spawn peaks.
• Filing cabinets between 1F ATMs and 1F Lobby have been removed to prevent easy shots into the interior balcony.
• All metal bars have been removed from B Vault to increase the ease of shooting.
• A new alleyway named EXT Side Alley connects EXT Boulevard and EXT Back Alley.
• Hatch in 1F Lobby now leads to B Vault.
• Railing in 2F Skylight Stairwell is now destructible.

Coastline

• The line of sight into the building from EXT Rooftop has been partially blocked to prevent unfair firefights.
• Some windows in 1F Courtyard are now blocked, and all open windows can be barricaded.
• A new 1F Reception bomb site replaces the 1F Service Entrance bomb site.
• 1F Service Entrance is now located between the 1F Reception bomb site and the exterior door, preventing Defenders from planting the defuser directly at the exterior door.
• Exterior wall in 2F VIP Lounge is now breakable and players can rappel up from EXT DJ Booth.

Clubhouse

• 1F Stock Room bomb site has been removed and there are now two bomb sites in 1F Bar, one behind the bar and one beside the stage.
• A doorway has been added between the bar and stage in 1F Bar.
• New props have been added to the bar area in 1F Bar.
• A path now connects EXT Kennels and EXT Graffiti Area.

ELITE CUSTOMIZATION

• In order to ensure headgear and outfits fit together with the introduction of Elite Customization, a number of tweaks have been made to existing Elite skins. These tweaks adjust components like wires and tubes that previously connected headgear and outfits together and could be cut off when customizing loadouts. Below, are some examples of these changes:
• Smoke - Added a backpack to the Elite Uniform with connectors for headgear that can be plugged in.
• Doc - Added a collar to the Elite Uniform.
• Sledge - Removed connecting tube on Elite Uniform and added an historically accurate filter to Elite Headgear to replace the removed tube.
• IQ, Echo, Glaz, Jager, Twitch - Removed the wire on Elite Uniform to prevent connection issues.

HP REPLACES ARMOR

Operator armor has been converted to health (HP). 3-Armor Operators have 125 HP, 2-Armor Operators have 110 HP, and 1-Armor Operators have 100 HP.

PLAYER COMFORT

OPPONENT RIM LIGHT

• By default, opponents are now highlighted with a rim light, which helps prevent unfair camouflage. This Interface Preference can be turned off in the Options menu.

DBNO SCORING

• Players will now get a kill score when they down or completely eliminate an opponent. Players will receive an assist score when they eliminate an opponent who was already downed by a teammate. Note: The 'kill feed' will display the name of the last player to damage the opponent, whether or not they got a kill or assist.
• The DBNO scoring event has been removed. This prevents players from gaining unfair intel when they down an opponent who isn't in their line of sight.

BALANCING

TWITCH REWORK

• Twitch now drives a standard drone during the Preparation Phase. Her Shock Drone is equipped during the Action Phase. It now jumps and fires lasers that destroy opponent devices instead of disabling them.

IQ REWORK

• IQ's Electronics Detector is now equipped with the Ping System 2.0, allowing her to identify and ping electronic devices through walls, including those held by Operators, like the counter defuser and Vigil's ERC-7.

MUTE CHANGES

• The area of effect for Mute's Signal Disruptor is now spherical instead of cylindrical, and the device lights up when active.

FUZE CHANGES

• Fuze's Cluster Charge can now be deployed on reinforced surfaces. When triggered, the sub-grenades take additional time to pass through reinforced surfaces, whereas they instantly pass through soft surfaces.

FLASH DETECTION CHANGES

• Ying's Candela, Blitz's G52-Tactical Shield, and the Stun Grenade use a new flash detection system that calculates flash duration. It takes the environment and angle of the explosion into account as well as players' distance and orientation. This means that if an Operator is affected, they will always be flashed at 100%, but the duration will change each time, increasing the reliability of the flash effect.

OPERATOR BALANCING

These changes will be broken down and explained in detail in our upcoming Designer's Notes blog post.

AK-12 (ACE AND FUZE)

• Increased first shot kick.
• Increased vertical recoil.
• Horizontal spread is now stronger and more constant to the right.
• Long burst recoil now starts on 10th bullet instead of the 12th.

FINKA

• Frag Grenade replaces Hard Breach Charge.

SLEDGE

• Removed SMG-11.

GLAZ

• Increased magazine capacity of OTs-03 to 15 bullets (from 10).

IANA

• Removed 2.0x scope from G63C.
• Removed 2.5x scope from ARX200.

TWITCH

• Twitch now drives a standard drone during the Preparation Phase. Her Shock Drone is equipped during the Action Phase. It now jumps and fires lasers that destroy opponent devices instead of disabling them.
• Note: The collision size of the Shock Drone has been adjusted, and as a result, it no longer fits through 6 drone vents. Level Design is working to correct this. The affected vents are located on the following maps:
  • Kanal - 2F Printer Room
  • Kanal - B1 Bathroom
  • Oregon - 1F Shower Corridor
  • Oregon - 1F Small Tower
  • Border - 1F Bathroom
  • Border - 1F Main Lobby

IQ

• IQ's Electronics Detector is now equipped with the Ping System 2.0, allowing her to identify and ping electronic devices through walls, including those held by Operators, like the counter defuser and Vigil's ERC-7.

MUTE

• The area of effect for Mute's Signal Disruptor is now spherical instead of cylindrical, and the device lights up when active.
• The area of effect is displayed for 2.5 seconds after deployment is complete.
• Bullet collision is more accurate as the device's antennas and handles have been added to the collision.

FUZE

• Fuze's Cluster Charge can now be deployed on reinforced surfaces.
• When triggered, the sub-grenades take additional time to pass through reinforced surfaces, whereas they instantly pass through soft surfaces.

TWEAKS & IMPROVEMENTS

GAME BALANCING

FLASH DETECTION CHANGES

• Ying's Candela, Blitz's G52-Tactical Shield, and the Stun Grenade use a new flash detection system that calculates flash duration. It takes the environment and angle of the explosion into account as well as players' distance and orientation.
• This means that if an Operator is affected, they will always be flashed at 100%, but the duration will change each time, increasing the reliability of the flash effect.

PLAYER COMFORT

POST-ACTION REPORT

• Post-Action Report has updated art representations in each tab. The information in the Battle Pass tab and the Packs tab is more specific and clear.

SHOP – ESPORTS

• A free gift (Esports Pack) can be acquired in the Esports category of the Shop.
• New items have been added to Esports Packs.

DISPLAY AREA

• Players can now scale the display area of the menu and in-game HUD. These options are in the Display section of the Options menu.

WEAPON MAGAZINES

• Adjusted ammo count for primary and secondary weapons to set a consistent magazine ammo range for each weapon in a weapon type.

DAMAGE DROP-OFF

• Adjusted damage drop-off for each primary weapon type (except for shotguns with spread pellets) to have consistent, linear curves.
• Unified damage drop-off for silencers (15%) across all primary weapons (except for shotguns with spread pellets).

FRIENDLY FIRE

• To help combat toxicity, friendly fire for thrown device hits and launcher hits has been removed.
• This change does not impact the effect of the gadget. For example, throwing a frag grenade at a teammate will not deal damage, but the explosion of the frag grenade will.

RARITY ICONS AND CARDS

• Improved the recognizability of different rarity categories for items and pack cards.

MATCH REPLAY

• Added gamepad functionality.
• Added support for Team Loadout.
• Added support for Banned Operator icons.
• Improved sounds overall.
• Reduced replay file size.

SPECTATOR MODE

• Spectator mode now shows the Operators who have been banned by each team and displays the magazine ammo in the loadout info.

OPPONENT RIM LIGHT

• By default, opponents are now highlighted with a rim light, which helps prevent unfair camouflage. This Interface Preference can be turned off in the Options menu.

DBNO SCORING

• Players will now get a kill score when they down or completely eliminate an opponent. Players will receive an assist score when they eliminate an opponent who was already downed by a teammate.
• Note: The 'kill feed' will display the name of the last player to damage the opponent, whether or not they got a kill or assist.
• The DBNO scoring event has been removed. This prevents players from gaining unfair intel when they down an opponent who isn't in their line of sight.

SCREEN SHAKE REDUCTION

• Screen shakes that result from explosions are now reduced across the board and are completely removed from certain device explosions. This helps make shooting more precise and competitive.
• Screen shakes are completely removed from explosions caused by:
  • Ela's GRZMOT Mines
  • Zofia's KS79 Lifeline concussion grenades
  • Echo's Yokai sonic bursts
  • Nomad's Airjab Launcher repulsion devices

FLINCH REDUCTION

• The flinch animation that used to occur when an Operator was hit by bullet damage is now reduced. This helps make shooting more precise and competitive.

MMR ROLLBACK 3.0

• To ensure fair players keep their MMR (such as when they win against a cheater), improvements to the system address the most relevant matches and restrict the time window in a current season when rollbacks occur.
• The messages displayed by the system have been improved.

GAME HEALTH

HP REPLACES ARMOR

• Operator armor has been converted to health (HP). 3-Armor Operators have 125 HP, 2-Armor Operators have 110 HP, and 1-Armor Operators have 100 HP.

NEW SKILL DISTRIBUTION

• The team detected a trend where Ranked players who reach Platinum don't play as much to reach Diamond. For this reason, Platinum now has smaller gaps between skill ranks, and more skill ranks have been added to Diamond, so high level players can climb skill ranks faster and have a greater sense of progression.
• New Platinum gaps (old ones in parenthesis):
  • Plat III – 3200 (3200)
  • Plat II – 3500 (3600)
  • Plat I – 3800 (4000)
• New Diamond gaps and skill ranks:
  • Diamond III – 4100
  • Diamond II – 4400
  • Diamond I – 4700
• Please note: This is not Ranked 2.0 – that feature will require more changes and will come at a later date.

INDIVIDUAL ATTACKER SPAWN

• Players can choose whether they want to spawn with other players or spawn alone.
• This setting is now always active in all playlists, allowing players more agency over their spawn selection and overall strategy.
• Since the setting is now always active, the option to vote for a single Attacker spawn location has been removed from Custom Game settings.

MAP ROTATIONS

• Instead of a big rework, this season there will be three maps with small changes: Bank, Coastline, and Clubhouse.
• Ranked/Unranked: No rotation, since Favela was introduced to Ranked and Unranked map pools midseason during Y6S2.
• Newcomer: Coastline replaces Favela in the Newcomer map pool.
• Note: Remember, Quick Match does not have a rotation.