Rainbow Six Siege New Season – When Is Crystal Guard Coming Out?

The new Siege season is here! See below for all the information currently available on the Rainbow Six Siege Crystal guard release date, and also the most crucial information from the Crystal guard patch notes.

Rainbow Six Siege Crystal Guard Release Date

Rainbow Six Siege Crystal Guard started playing on test servers on August 17, 2021.

The full Crystal Guard release date has been confirmed as September 7, 2021 by North Star – see the tweet below for the latest info!

The new Attacker, Osa, can deploy a bullet-proof shield to help her teammates dig in and push on when Crystal Guard launches on September 7. Take a look at what's to come with the UbiNews team.

— Rainbow Six Siege (@Rainbow6Game) August 16, 2021

OSA R6 - New Crystal Guard Operator Details

The new operator Osa hails from Croatia, and is part of the Nighthaven CTU. Osa’s character stats are listed below:

Primary weapons : 556XI assault rifle or PDW9 submachine gun
Secondary weapon : PMM
Primary gadget : Talon shield
Secondary gadgets : smoke grenades or claymore mines
Armour rating : 2
Speed rating : 2

Osa’s Talon Shield

The main defining feature of the new siege season operator Osa, is her primary gadget – the Talon shield. The Talon shield is similar to the regular deployable shield, except it’s a bit bigger – with the potential to cover a single doorway – and also is transparent. Players will also have the one-shot ability to detonate an explosive canister behind the shield towards the enemy – shattering its bullet-proof glass into their stupid faces!

Unfortunately, Osa’s Talon shield, being made of bulletproof glass rather than metal, is less durable than the regular deployable shield, and is vulnerable to C4 and impact grenades in particular.

Operation Crystal Guard Patch Notes

Besides the new Rainbow Six Siege operator, a large number of other changes come with the new RS6 Siege update.

New Siege Season Operator Changes

• AK-12 (Ace & Fuze): Increased first shot kick and vertical recoil for both characters. ‘Horizontal spread is now stronger and more constant to the right. Long burst recoil now starts on 10th bullet instead of the 12th.’
• Finka: ‘Frag Grenade replaces Hard Breach Charge.’
• Sledge: ‘Removed SMG-11.’
• Glaz: ‘Increased magazine capacity of the OTs-03 to 15 bullets (from 10).’
• Iana: ‘Removed 2.0x scope from the G63C and the 2.5x scope from the ARX200.’
• Twitch: ‘Now drives a standard drone during Preparation Phase. Shock Drone is now equipped during the Action Phase. The Shock Drone now jumps and fires lasers that destroy opponent devices instead of disabling them.’ Note: The collision size of the Shock Drone has been adjusted, and as a result, it no longer fits through 6 drone vents (see patch notes for details of which).
• IQ: The Electronics Detector is now equipped with the Ping System 2.0, allowing her to identify and ping electronic devices through walls, including those held by Operators, like the counter defuser and Vigil’s ERC-7.
• Mute: ‘The area of effect for Mute’s Signal Disruptor is now spherical instead of cylindrical, and the device lights up when active. The area of effect is displayed for 2.5 seconds after deployment is complete. Bullet collision is more accurate as the device’s antennas and handles have been added to the collision.’
• Fuze: ‘Fuze’s Cluster Charge can now be deployed on reinforced surfaces. When triggered, the sub-grenades take additional time to pass through reinforced surfaces, whereas they instantly pass through soft surfaces.’

New Siege Season Gameplay Updates

• Armor and health changes originally tested in Y6S2 are being rolled out in the main game (i.e. hp replaces armor)
• Flashbangs/flash effects affect everyone within a certain range, regardless of if they look at the flash or not when it goes off, but the duration of the effect has been reduced.
• The outline of each character has been made equally visible, regardless of which skin a player is using.

 

Full details of the patch notes can be found here if you want to know the other details of the new siege season, including seasonal weapon skins, operator balancing, general balancing, improving player comfort, and other tweaks & improvements.