Rainbow Six Siege Y8S3 patch notes: Operator changes, Operation Heavy Mettle, Lesion changes & more

Rainbow Six Siege Y8S3 patch notes: Operator changes, Operation Heavy Mettle, Lesion changes & more
Images via Ubisoft

Written by 

Lloyd Coombes

Published 

13th Aug 2023 20:30

Here is a complete list of the Rainbow Six Siege Y8S3 patch notes, so you know about all the new Operator changes coming to the game.

Rainbow Six Siege has grown from fairly humble beginnings into Ubisoft's premiere shooter (at least until XDefiant arrives), and the next update, Operation Heavy Mettle is just around the corner - meaning it's time for the Rainbow Six Siege Y8S3 patch notes.

Players can expect a new Operator, Ram, and her BU-GI Drone, but there's plenty more changing with the existing roster, too - notably with big changes to Lesion. Has your main Operator been affected? Read our breakdown of the Rainbow Six Siege Y8S3 patch notes below to find out what's new in the game's next update in Year 8.

Rainbow Six Siege Y8S3 Community patch notes

Rainbow Six Siege Frost character key art
Click to enlarge

These are the patch notes provided by Ubisoft, but there's more that's not mentioned. For one, the second part of the Grim rework that began in Operation Dread Factor is coming, as well as the long-awaited Frost rework which arrives later in Y8S3.

Grim will gain an alternate fire mode for their launcher, allowing canisters to be bounced off of walls for "trickier plays" (Ubisoft's words).

Frost's Welcome Mat gadget will now debuff players for 60 seconds when caught in it, with a blood trail and audio cues allowing players to track down Attackers. Players can remove it themselves, though.

Finally, Fuze's Cluster Charges can be used to launch their payloads from Deployable Shields and the Talon-8 Shields from Osa.

OPERATOR BALANCING

Lesion

Base Stats:

• Refill timer: Reduced to 20 seconds (from 30).
• Max. resources: Increased to 9 mines (from 8).

GU Mine

• Initial damage: Re-introduced at 5hp (from 0).
• Poison damage: Increased to 12hp (from 8).
• Poison timer: Reduced to 2 seconds (from 2.5).
• Cloaking removed.
• HUD Icon removed.
• Stepping on a GU Mine while being affected by another will reset the Poison timer
and deal the Poison damage instantly.
• Added Area of Effect feedback.
• Gadget isn't detectable by IQ's Electronic detector.
• Gadget isn't hackable by Brava's Kludge drone.

Loadout

• Weapons: Added Super Shorty as a secondary weapon option.

Zero

Argus Camera

Piercing rules: Can pierce through Deployable Shields and Talon Shields.

Quality of Life changes in Rainbow Six Siege Y8S3

Ram, the Y8S3 Rainbow Six Operator for Heavy Mettle
Click to enlarge

Player Comfort

Operator Guides

• New Seasonal Operator (RAM) Operator Guide is available in-game and in the Operator
section.
• Updated Operator Guides for Grim and Lesion with the balancing changes.

GPU Selection Option

• Piercing rules: Can pierce through Deployable Shields and Talon Shields.
• GPU Selection option allows players to select which graphics card to render the game with if several are installed on the PC.

Defuser Pickup Option

This new option lets players decide the defuser pickup behaviour from these choices:
• Automatic
• Manual
• Both (Default setting)

Defuser Found Update
• To be consistent with Bomb Found visuals, the location of an activated defuser is displayed in the HUD to Defenders once they've located it.

Cross-Save Functionality

Some parts of the player's saved profile will now be shared across all platforms, including:
• Visual customizations
• Common gameplay options
• Progression
• Matchmaking preferences

Additionally, Operator loadouts and equipped weapon attachments will be shared across console platforms, but not between consoles and PC.

Rainbow Six Siege Y8S3 Patch Notes: Game Health

Playlist Updates:

Quick Match Map Pool

• House
• Villa
• Club House
• Consulate
• Chalet
• Favela
• Coastline
• Tower
• Bank
• Nighthaven

Standard Map Pool

• Oregon
• Club House
• Plane
• Yacht
• Consulate
• Bank
• Chalet
• Kafe
• Border
• Coastline
• Villa
• Nighthaven
• Fortress

Arcade Game Modes

• Weapon Roulette added to the Arcade Playlist
• Headshot Only removed from the Arcade Playlist rotation ( expect it to return in the future)

For more on Rainbow Six Siege, check out our developer interview about what the next ten years holds.

Lloyd Coombes
About the author
Lloyd Coombes
Lloyd is GGRecon's Editor-in-Chief, having previously worked at Dexerto and Gfinity, and occasionally appears in The Daily Star newspaper. A big fan of loot-based games including Destiny 2 and Diablo 4, when he's not working you'll find him at the gym or trying to play Magic The Gathering.
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