Rainbow Six Siege High Calibre patch notes – Meet Thorn, the latest Defender

We explore the Rainbow Six Siege patch notes, showcasing the major aspects of the upcoming High Calibre R6 season.

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It is that time of the year again, the Rainbow Six Siege Major is on, and so, Ubisoft has revealed the latest season. The new season is the High Calibre R6 season, which introduces some major system changes, adds in a new Defender named Thorn, and much more. Below you will find all the content you will expect to find in the Rainbow Six Siege patch notes that you’ll be able to test on the Rainbow Six Siege TTS when it goes live on November 9.  

Note, the Rainbow Six Siege patch notes that you will see below are guaranteed to happen. However, the balance content is still up for debate. You will not be able to find out what is happening on the live servers until three weeks into the future if the usual testing period comes at the end at its usual time. 

Rainbow Six High Calibre

Rainbow Six High Calibre is the next season. The major features of High Calibre include Thorn, the new Defender, along with an Outbreak map rework. Moreso, there is a new content updates, such as the option to change team colour from Orange, Blue and Yellow for accessibility and customization purposes. Finka, Echo and Mozzie also have big balance changes, which we will know more about when the TTS goes live with the balance changes. 

Also, there are new character customization options, the Apex Legends route for animated player cards, victory dances, and more. These are normally reserved for the elite skins, so it’s interesting to see how they get implemented for the regular operators.

Thorn R6

Thorn is the new Defender that is coming in the High Calibre R6 patch notes. The new defender is a two-speed, two-arm armor operator who uses the new UZK50Gi as her SMG choice. Alternatively, you can run the M870 Shotgun, along with the choice of the 1911 TACOPS or the C75-AUTO as secondary weapons.

Her special ability is called the Razorbloom Shell, which is a timed explosive detonating at the end of its two-second wind up, dealing big damage to those caught in the radius or one-shots them it very close to the device. At this moment in time, it takes around two seconds to charge up and detonate, so there’s strong counterplay to it. Not to mention that Thorn places these devices in a similar way to Wamai’ thrown disc. Lodging them into spots, with a radius around it showing where enemy operators will need to walk to trigger them.

Due to the wind-up, you’ll likely want to support the Razorboom Shell with barbed wire, a peak, or some form of wub wub. The slows from barbed wire, a lesion mine or a wub wub from Clash or Melusi helps make it more likely to go off and kill an enemy. Alternatively, you can spray down holes in floorboards and lay trips in doorways or next to windows. Below you can see the introductory clip of Thorn.

If you need to counter them, they are vulnerable to EMPs, explosives and bullets, meaning Twitch, Thatcher, IQ are all great counters.

UZK50Gi

The UZK50Gi is the new Rainbow Six weapon coming in the latest season. The gun is only available on Thorn but could become accessible for Operators in the future, as we have seen with the Vektor and the TSG.  The weapon has a 23 round magazine, but it packs a punch with its 50 calibre rounds, destroying soft surfaces with ease. It is still not as effective as a shotgun or explosive, but it’s a decent consolation prize.

TTS Changes

Ubisoft is changing the way the Technical Test Server operates. Rather than dumping the content on the TTS for three weeks straight, the content now gets tested in iterations. One stage will have the content that ships through the season. Then there will be another stage with major technical changes that need testing early, and a phase for specific balance changes. Hopefully, this new system allows Ubisoff’s devs to get more insightful data in all the metrics, so they can launch a season without its usual balance, bugs or other technical issues players and pros complain about every new season.

If you are interested in trying out the TTS for Rainbow Six High Calibre, then you can submit bug reports on the new fix site.

Rainbow Six Siege High Caliber release date

So, the answer for when the new season launches is not entirely known. Typically, a new season launches around three weeks after it goes live on the TTS. It is more than likely we’ll find the Rainbow Six Siege High Caliber release date occurs on November 30, give or take a day if there are any confidence issues, patch scheduling, or last-second fixes required.

Read More: R6 Patch Notes Year 6 Season 3.