Ubisoft has officially unveiled Operation Shifting Tides as the fourth and final season of Rainbow Six: Siege’s fourth year.
Although the initial Operation Shifting Tides announcement involved a brief teaser in which waves are seen crashing against some sort of square platform, the known structure of Rainbow Six Siege’s seasons, a handful of leaks from reliable sources, and official information straight from Ubisoft reveal more about the game’s fourth season.
Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Shifting Tides Release Date
Keeping in line with previous seasons, Ubisoft didn’t provide a release date for Operation Shifting Tides upon announcing it, however, Operation Shifting Tides became available on the Test Server on November 10.
Ubisoft has now confirmed that the release date of Operation Shifting Tides is Tuesday, December 3. Year 4’s Season 4 will kick off at the following times: PC: 9:00 AM EST / 14:00 UTC, PS4: 10:00 AM EST / 15:00 UTC, XB1: 11:00 AM EST / 16:00 UTC.
Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Shifting Tides Content
Rainbow Six Siege’s Operation Shifting Tides will follow a similar template to previous seasons, introducing two new operators, reworking a map and adding a mid-season event, among other things. Season four’s operators hail from India and Kenya, fulfilling the attacker and defender roles.
Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Shifting Tides Operators
The Indian attacker, Kali, uses the CSRX-300 bolt-action rifle that is a beast when it comes to damage and its ability to penetrate surfaces, breaching barricades and hatches in a single shot. On top of that, it leaves behind massive holes in breakable walls. In terms of sidearms, she has access to the P226 MK25 and C75 Auto. Her three available gadgets are the Breach Charge, Claymore and LV Explosive Lance, the latter’s role being mainly that of disabling enemy gadgets from a distance.
The Kenyan defender, Wamai, has access to two primary weapons in the form of the AUG A2 and MP5K. Sidearms-wise, he can use the D-40 and P12. The three gadgets available to him are the Barbed Wire, Deployable Shield and MAG-NET System. The latter is a thrown, adhesive gadget that attracts enemy projectiles to its position and self-destructs to detonate them away from Wamai or close to opponents.
Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Shifting Tides Battle Pass, Theme Park Rework, Limb Penetration System
Operation Shifting Tides will also introduce the second iteration of Rainbow Six Siege’s Battle Pass, which will feature both free and premium tracks, as is often the case with the model popularized by Fortnite. Season four will also rework the Theme Park map. Players will now experience constricted lines of sight that prevent spawn peeks alongside the removal of the Rail Platform area, among other changes.
Operation Shifting Tides also reworks Rainbow Six Siege’s limb penetration system, aiming for increased shot lethality and providing guidance as to where bullets land. The new penetration rules are split into three categories. No Penetration concerns Shotguns and Machine Pistols, whose bullets won’t pass through to another body part upon hitting one, which is how all guns behaved thus far.
Simple Penetration rules allow a bullet to hit a second body part behind the first hit appendage on the same target. They apply to Assault Rifles, Submachine Guns, Light Machine Guns, Pistols, and Revolvers. Lastly, Full Penetration allows the bullet to damage another person behind the initial target for 70% of the damage. It applies to Designated Marksman Rifles and Sniper Rifles.
Rappeling is also seeing a small, yet significant change. The move used to be automatic, however, Operation Shifting Tides will introduce a prompt similar to the one received when entering rappel. Thus, to exit rappel players will now have to press a key.
While we wait for Operation Shifting Tides’ release date, you can check out Rainbow Six Siege’s latest operators in action in the video below.
