Ubisoft has today revealed Rainbow Six Siege’s Year 7 Season 1 (Y7S1) – Operation Demon Veil – including a new map and a Japanese operator known as Azami.
This season also introduces permanent Team Deathmatch and Arcade game modes, gameplay updates including Attacker Repick, universal sights and more.
In Demon Veil, players can unlock Azami, a new Defender equipped with the Kiba Barrier gadget. Her throwable canisters deploy an expandable material that solidifies into a bulletproof surface, providing fast cover.
Azami’s gadget allows her to quickly repair holes in walls and floors, creating for a more mobile and versatile defensive approach. Azami is a medium speed, medium health operator, and her loadout features a 9X19SVN or an ACS12 as a primary weapon and a D-50 as a secondary weapon.
Alongside Azami, an exclusive new map arrives mid-season for the first time in Rainbow Six Siege in three years: Emerald Plains. Set in Ireland, this modern country club challenges players to master a new environment and its multiple levels.
The news comes after Irish operator Thorn was added to Rainbow Six Siege late last year.
In terms of future operators in Year 7, Season 2 will introduce a Belgian operator and an exclusive Team Deathmatch map set in Greece. Season 3’s operator will arrive from Singapore, bringing a new competitive map, and the last operator of the year will be from Colombia.
The development team will continue reworking several operators this year including Zero, Bandit, Dokkaebi and Thatcher.
Demon Veil also brings further gameplay updates, including a permanent Team Deathmatch game mode, created to provide the perfect environment for players to warm up and practice their aim before competitive matches, as well as offer a more casual gameplay experience within Rainbow Six Siege.
Match Replay is also coming to console players, a spectator mode that has been available on PC since 2020. There’s also operator balancing updates for Goyo and Valkyrie, plus an exclusive Elite skin for Nomad.
An ‘Attacker Repick’ function also arrives in Year 7 Season 1, allowing Attackers to change their operator and loadout during the Preparation Phase. The change aims to bring more impact during the Preparation Phase by allowing Attackers to use the intel gathered and adjust their strategy.
“Team Deathmatch has been created to provide the perfect environment for players to warm up and practice their aim before competitive matches, as well as offer a more casual gameplay experience within Rainbow Six Siege.”
In addition, the match header has been updated to help make informed decisions when changing their operator or loadout. Attacker repick is available for all game modes in the Quick Match, Unranked, Ranked, and Pro League playlists.
Y7S1 will also introduce a new Incentive Program: when players report issues on R6Fix and have their status reach “Under Investigation,” they will receive one reward per season, determined by the highest severity issue out of all their reports.
Players on both the Test Server and the Live Server can report issues and have a chance to receive each season’s reward during the following season’s Test Server.
In Year 7, the development team also says it will “strive to meet their continued goal of creating a secure and fair environment”, by taking steps towards addressing specific player behaviour to further anti-cheat efforts introduced in Year 6 like the Reputation System.
Season 1 introduces improvements towards detecting griefing and player disconnects, while Season 2 tackles players who misuse friendly fire through sanctions restricting reverse friendly fire as well as improving match cancellations.
In Season 3, players can access reporting options in Match Replay to address harassment in voice and video chat. Season 3 also introduces Reputation Scores for players, which will launch in Season 4 and start deploying rewards and sanctions to block repeat offenders.
A new privacy mode (aka streamer mode) will also be added to Siege this year.
Year 7 will also introduce a Shooting Range: playable spaces to practice, train and experiment without the pressure of a match. Another onboarding tool, Operator Tips, will let players get to know each operator, their gadgets, and any tips that might be helpful for Attacker or Defender strategies.
Ubisoft also announced that Rainbow Six Siege recently surpassed the 80m player milestone
There’s more info in this half-hour Siege Year 7 Season 1 reveal on YouTube.
This time last year, the Rainbow Six community reacted to the first openly gay operator Flores.
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
