Rainbow Six Siege Year 6, Season 2: North Star Officially Announced

Ubisoft has officially announced Rainbow Six Siege's Year 6, Season 2: North Star. The new season will feature the indigenous operator Thunderbird of the Nakoda nation--located in what is today's western Canada.

Thunderbird is a Defender with a focus on healing abilities and speed, though this comes at the expense of armor. She can use either the SPEAR .308 or the SPAS-15 shotgun as her weapon along with the BEARING 9 or Q-929 sidearm. Her Kóna healing station is a risk-versus-reward sort of device, as she can deploy it to heal anyone close to the device, but this means truly anyone; if enemies are nearby, they'll get healed, and this includes downed enemies, so it can inadvertently help the other team.

The Favela map has also been reworked for the North Star season, improving rooms and the map overview. "These changes will improve readability, making sure players always know where they are and where they are going when playing on Favela," Ubisoft said.

You'll be able to try out the changes very soon, as the Rainbow Six Siege Test Server will push North Star live on May 25.

A final release date was not given in the announcement, but a new armor system and "activities after death" will both be tested prior to it going live for the general player base. The former change will convert all armor into health to make it easier to tell how close you are to death, while the latter will let you control drones and gadgets in a round once you've been killed. Initially, these changes will not be in the live version of Year 6, Season 2, with Ubisoft soliciting players' feedback. Other tweaks include a new scoreboard, a bullet holes fix, and balancing for several operators.

Rainbow Six Siege is available now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and PC. The current-gen versions are available as free upgrades from last-gen versions in the same console family.