Rainbow Six Siege's Blood Orchid 3.0 Update Out Now On Test Server, Patch Notes Released

[UPDATE] Ahead of its release for everyone, the Blood Orchid update is out now on Rainbow Six Siege's test server. You can report issues here on Reddit.

The original story is below.

Rainbow Six Siege's next major expansion is coming quite soon for free. We already know about the new map and Operators, but the 3.0 update will also deliver a variety of other changes, additions, and improvements.

The map, as previously announced, is called Theme Park and is set in a creepy, dilapidated amusement park. In terms of Operators, there are two Defenders (Ela and Lesion) and one Attacker (Ying). Lesion and Ying are both tied to the Hong Kong theme of Blood Orchid, while Ela is a carryover from a previously canceled Poland expansion. The other Operator from that axed update will be released at a later time.

Blood Orchid caps off Operation Health, the series of updates intended to improve nagging issues with the game. Although Operation Health will be done after this, Ubisoft vowed to continue addressing problem areas. "In the future, we are still keeping the core pillars to focus on game optimization, top community issues reported by the community, and improving player experience. The groundwork in Operation Health will help us to continue to improve the game for the distant future."

Update 3.0 does make some significant Operation Health-related improvements. New servers are being implemented that "bring significant improvements to stability, connectivity, FPS, rubberbanding, and overall performance." Additionally, a new physics system will further mitigate rubberbanding, as well as teleporting.

Lighting has been improved so that it's easier to look from outside to inside or vice versa; until now, an exposure effect made it difficult to see much (the comparison images below show the difference). Skies have also been updated on all maps, resulting in a more dynamic look. Other visual changes include improved reflections, Operator models (for some characters), facial expressions, and textures. In the latter case, this is something that Ubisoft will work on for every map over the next year; for now, they've been made on Kafe Dostoyevsky.

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The full list of changes is quite enormous--there are also new weapon skins, fixes for Hibana's gadget, a reduction in load times, adjustments to damage falloff, map rotations, and much more. You can read about all of this in detail in the full patch notes.

Update 3.0 launches on the PC version's Technical Test Server tomorrow, August 29, and can be pre-loaded now. That was originally scheduled to be the release date for the live version on all platforms, but Ubisoft recently announced that it's now slated for launch on September 5. When it's released, the map will be free to all players, while Year 2 season pass owners will get all three Operators. The characters will then be available for purchase with in-game currency by everyone else a week after launch.