‘Rainbow Six Siege’ reveals new operator Grim – an attacker with robot bees

Ubisoft has revealed what lies ahead for Year 7 Season 3 (Y7S3) of Rainbow Six Siege, with highlights including a new operator named Grim and a full-time return for the Stadium map.

First teased in a trailer on Friday (August 19), Grim is an attacking operator from Singapore, with a rating of three speed and one armour. The new operator will arrive on test servers on August 22, with a live release set for September 6.

Grim’s unique piece of kit is the Kawan Hive Launcher – an over-the-shoulder launcher that fires an electronic cannister. When the cannister hits a surface, it opens up to release robotic “bees” that track any enemies in their vicinity. For Grim and his allies, enemies revealed by this ability are tracked and visible through walls in real-time until they move out of the cannister’s range – though several robots will cling to them for a short while after.

Grim’s area-wide tracking ability makes him a “fantastic, aggressive intel gatherer” according to Ubisoft. The studio added that Grim synergises particularly well with attackers like Nomad and Gridlock who can help secure areas; as well as operators like Jackal that can assist in tracking enemy operators.

On the other hand, Grim’s biggest counter is Mute. Mute’s jammer prevents Grim’s cannister from releasing the swarm of robots, and also prevents allies from being tracked by Grim’s swarm.

However, other attackers are being given a new ability to counter defenders’ electronics, with a new EMP grenade gadget. These are available to Sledge, Montagne, Blackbeard, Dokkaebi, Lion, Gridlock, Nøkk, Osa and Recruit; and will disable all electronics within nine meter radius for nine seconds.

Elsewhere, Ubisoft has revealed that although a map set in Grim’s home nation of Singapore was meant to arrive as part of Y7S3, it was delayed to receive additional polish. Instead, Rainbow Six Siege‘s Stadium map is being made a permanent addition to all playlists. While previously reserved as a limited-time map, Stadium has been workshopped with professional Siege players to make it work as a permanent map.

Besides the planned new content, Ubisoft has also teased that this will be the “season of balance” and outlined everything else that’s on the way. Going forward, console and PC versions of Rainbow Six Siege will be balanced separately, and certain confirmed balance changes – including a recoil rework – will only be launched on PC.

Finally, more improvements to Rainbow Six Siege‘s reputation system – which launched in June – have been outlined. Players will soon be able to report a suspected cheater through the game’s match replay system, and anyone who is particularly toxic to their teammates will be automatically muted at the start of their matches.

In other news, Final Fantasy 14 is offering players a reward for turning in money that was given to them due to a bug.