As Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege quickly approaches its third year in the upcoming week thanks to the upcoming Outbreak Event and Operation Chimera getting underway at the exact same time; I was asked if I’d give the game another chance and so I have. But there were a few things I wish I’d known sooner than later and these tips and tricks have since helped me perform better in a game that I once thought as being extremely linear.

Since I often play games such as Battlefield 1 and Killing Floor 2, I’m not used to considering all possibilities that Siege has to offer when a match gets underway. After all, I’m not used to having to worry about multi-tiered buildings, ones where friends and foes can break the floors both above and below me, take out walls beside me, and ultimately end a single round in a matter of seconds. Now that I know what to expect, I can gladly share it with you all.

 

 

 

Don’t forget that maps have three stories at all times

Recently, I’ve learned to approach combat quite differently. Unlike other tactical games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or Battlefield 4, maps aren’t linear by any means. Players can use any piece of the map they wish to their advantage. While logic will tell you to hold the floor you’re on, you need to consider two things in one: Walls can be blown apart and so can floors.

If the attacking team has a breacher or a member with a shotgun such as Ash, Buck or Zofia can easily change how combat plays out. Each character can easily break a door, a floor, or a wall in order to change the ebb and flow of combat. This means you may wish to watch over destructible set pieces and use them to your advantage. Don’t be scared to knock a few walls down and attempt to lean combat in your favor. Just remember, what works to your advantage can always work to theirs.

 

 

C4, Grenades, Breach Charges and Explosives are excellent ways to distract your enemies

Whether you are an attacker or defender, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is all about tactical gameplay and using those tactical elements to your advantage. While grenades and C4 can easily kill your opponents, they can also alter how enemies will approach combat and what windows or doors they’ll attempt to use in order to fight against you. However, C4 or grenades can also be used to eliminate enemies that are rappeling if you are a defender, allowing you to knock an enemy out of the current round.

However, if you are attackers, you’ll want to think outside of the box. Misinformation will be key, knowing that enemy defenders have been thrown off regarding your whereabouts is even more important. Attackers have a huge advantage when it comes to this. Items such as breach charges, Twitch’s shock drone, and even Fuse’s thermite charges provide great distractions for your team, allowing them to throw enemies off and take them out from different directions as they prepare for an assault from that position.

 

 

“Spawn” Killing isn’t Necessarily Bad

One thing I’ve learned from both the Ubisoft sanctioned Rainbow Six Siege Invitationals 2018 is that “spawn killing” is all the rage. This early assault from defenders allows them to eliminate their enemy team rather quickly before they can breach a building. While this can result in trading kills, this also means that defenders can perform rather cheeky peek kills while on the go.

Most commonly, defenders would attempt to take out characters such as Thermite, Hibana, and Twitch early on, disabling the opposing team’s breachers from being active players. Similarly, it wasn’t uncommon to see a pro player eliminate one or two enemies before they died. While the pressure was low and the round still early, this approach allowed for players to prepare for the upcoming teams pending assault, allowing the team to accommodate to their fallen comrade.

 

 

Being a roamer and eliminating roamers – the key to success

One of the biggest things that I’ve learned is not to fear roaming around a map. Characters such as Caveira, Kapkan, Pulse, Vigil, and Ela are great roamers. However, there are other characters that become just as suitable such as Smoke, Mute, Echo, and Lesion. All of these characters can cause a sense of paranoia due to their ability to place traps, kill enemies from a profoundly well-established hiding spot on the map.

These characters are used as a primary source of paranoia, making it so that attackers have to wander around each map in order to locate defenders before they can head to their objective. If these players are able to remain undetected on the defender side, they can sneak behind attacking players, scoring crucial late-round kills in order to turn the tides of a match in their favor.

More importantly, for assault players, they will need to improvise a counter-tactic for roaming characters. Especially since opposing players such as Caveira can compromise an entire team, allowing the defenders to quickly readjust to the placement of their opposing team. In order to try and take on roamers, characters such as Jackal, Glaz, and Dokkaebi are great choices. These characters have the amazing ability to give away an enemies location whether just for themselves or for their team by marking where they saw an enemy last. While player characters abilities are great, don’t forget to use your drones.

Drones are a great way to draw out enemy players. If their weapons aren’t silenced, players can easily listen for the guns of enemy players, giving them away for a brief second. Let alone can drones draw player fire, they can also be extremely efficient at marking players and getting an idea where players are hiding. Just remember, you only have two of them and you don’t get more until your following attack round.

 

 

Don’t forget about Valkyrie and Pulse. They’re extremely useful.

When you are early in and still learning the game, you may find your go-to characters. For me, I’ve recently learned that I prefer using characters such as Pulse, Valkyrie, Kapkan or Mute when on defense. Each character comes with their own utilities for players to learn and these four can also be considered four of the most important characters for defenders to have on their side.

Unlike many of the characters on defense, Pulse is a great one to have since he can see the pulses of an enemy players heart, giving him an idea of where players are going. This “ability” that he has, can give him an edge against those players as he can mark their whereabouts for his fellow teammates. Additionally, Kapkan can tripwire mines that can wound or eliminate enemy players once they are tripped, allowing the team to have an idea where attackers are and allowing them to quickly eliminate opposing players.

Most importantly: Valkyrie. Valkyrie, unlike other characters, is your eyes in the sky. If players are eliminated early, she’s a great alternative to have on your team. Her ability to place camera’s throughout the map that players who have fallen can alternate between each camera, spotting enemies, and giving the team tactical information. But this also brings out another point: dying early isn’t necessarily bad, just remember to use the cameras and make sure you have a microphone so you can relay information to your team.

 

 

Don’t be scared to partially damage barricaded windows or door twice at their lowest points

If you watch or play Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege at any given time, there’s one important thing I’d never considered with my time playing the game.One of them included smashing a barricaded window or door twice at their lowest points (at their lowest points, windows don’t create a line of sight for opposing players to take advantage of).

If you do this, a single hit to that barricade will cause players to destroy the barricade itself, opening themselves up for an assault by defending players and giving them an idea of an assault players point of entry. Let alone does this cause them to give away their positions, players who do break the barricades will also find themselves having the vault function activated rather quickly, meaning they can get in and out of a room rather quickly by vaulting through a window without much trouble.

 

 

Anti-Breaching Tactics are a Must

Whether you are a newcomer or veteran alike, there’s a lot to learn about this game and one of the most important ones is anti-breaching tactics. These tactics are, in a manner of speaking, how you’d prevent characters such as Hibana, Thermite, Ash, and Zofia from creating points of entry.

To do this, there are several things you can do in order to prevent them from picking your team off by newly created points of entry. One of them being a careful picking of what attackers to eliminate first. To put it point blank, the four aforementioned characters should be of high priority. Each of them can cut through walls like butter, but more importantly, Hibana and Thermite can destroy reinforced walls like a hot knife through butter at any time.

In ranked, it’s not uncommon to see teams take full advantage of using characters such as Mute and Bandit to make walls impenetrable by enemy utilities. Mute’s ability to place his disruption devices around the map makes him a worthy foe, allowing him to lead enemies right to where he wants them through the placement of his devices. In turn, players can also use Bandit’s Shock Wire to electrify reinforced walls so that Thermite and Hibana can’t near the wall nor can their devices.

This allows for teams to create well-fortified areas outside of the ceiling and floors, which will still require player awareness to keep safe from enemy assaults from both above and below as they do happen quite frequently. Additionally, one of the best things players can do is also try to protect Bandit’s Shock Wires as they can be destroyed by opposing players if shot by a bullet or Twitch’s Shock Drone utility, which leave your walls vulnerable.

 

 

Last thing. Don’t camp as a defender if you don’t have to.

One of the last things to list is simple: don’t camp. Move, move, move. Even if it’s just a few inches, being on the move is extremely important in the early moments of a match. While drones are roaming about, you’ll want to take note that drones can still scan you and players will use them as much as they can in order to get the advantage over your team.

By moving and destroying drones, you’ll have the edge and keep the enemies on their toes, which will play out as a key to victory.

Closing thoughts – Lets Siege the Day

While it sounds like these are some pretty standard tips, there’s a lot to learn in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, and quite a few of these tips will help you get the edge against other players and will even give you the chance to possibly become one of the best of the best. While we can’t guarantee this will put you on par with the pros, what we can guarantee is these tips will help improve your combat capabilities.

With Season 3 starting here pretty quick, lets get strapped in and prepare to get this party started.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege Year 3 is now available for purchase on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. For those looking to attend the Limited-Time Operation Chimera and Outbreak Event are set to run from March 6, 2018, until April 3, 2018.

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About the Writer:

Dustin is our native console game reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the borders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPGs, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter or Facebook.