Today, Ubisoft revealed the second season of Rainbow Six Siege’s Year 9, Operation New Blood. This season features a complete remaster of the Recruit, the beloved original Operator, impactful balancing changes, introduction of the R6 Membership, and other important gameplay updates such as Playlist optimization and changes for player comfort. 

After nine years, Siege is reinventing its first Operator. The Recruit now sports a fresh look and features two new archetypes for playing as an Attacker or Defender, as well as the ability to customize their loadout by selecting two gadgets from those available depending on their role. This allows the Recruit to adapt to players’ strategies, fill gaps wherever needed, and provide new players with opportunities to explore different secondary gadgets and gameplay tactics. Striker, the offensive Recruit, can select two different gadgets from the wide range of attacking secondary gadgets.

They’re armed with the M4 or M249 as a primary weapon, and a 5.7 USG or ITA 125 as a secondary weapon. The defensive Recruit, Sentry, can select from any defensive secondary gadget in the arsenal. Sentry’s loadout features the Commando 9 or M870 as a primary weapon, and the C75 Auto or Super Shorty as a secondary weapon.  Since all players have access to the Recruit, Premium Battle Pass owners will receive an Operator voucher that can be redeemed for any Operator. Players who own all available operators will receive 600 R6 Credits. 

Rainbow Six Siege continues to emphasize fair and strategic play in Year 9 Season 2. With Operation New Blood comes balancing changes for Defending Operators Fenrir and Solis, who were too strong in matches and demanded significant attention from Attackers. The number of F-Natt Dread Mines in Fenrir’s possession have been reduced to 4 and are no longer bulletproof. Additionally, for the first part of Solis’ balancing update, the duration and range of her SPEC-IO Electro Sensor has been reduced to reflect player feedback and maintain balance between Attackers and Defenders. 

Also arriving this season is the R6 Membership. Active Membership holders will enjoy monthly drops of exclusive content that includes time-limited gear, animated Legendary skins, 10x Battle level skips, a Bravo Pack and access to the Premium Battle Pass. Following the introduction of the Marketplace beta, starting June 25, players who have Two-Factor Authentication enabled and are at least clearance level 25 will have access to the Rainbow Six Siege Marketplace, where they can safely and anonymously trade skins using R6 Credits.  

Operation New Blood adds the Standard Map Filter with selections for the Ranked Map Pool, Non-Ranked Map Pool, and All Maps. Players can now curate their unranked matchmaking experience to resemble casual or competitive play. Training and onboarding remain a priority, with significant updates to ensure that new and veteran players can sharpen their skills. Players can now train their aim and map navigation with feedback in Endless Drill. Versus AI also sees significant map and Operator additions to diversify the training experience. Other updates for this season include Caster Card changes to improve experience, changes to Stadium layout, as well as player comfort updates for audio and flashbang customization. 

Rainbow Six Siege is now available to play on Ubisoft+, Ubisoft’s subscription service, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, including on Steam, and Amazon Luna. 

For the latest news on Rainbow Six Siege and other Ubisoft games, please visit news.ubisoft.com.  To purchase Rainbow Six Siege, please visit store.ubisoft.com. For more information about Year 9, visit rainbow6.com/Roadmap.