Rainbow Six Siege Operation Neon Dawn Preview: Aruni For One More?

Rainbow Six Siege is about to get even bigger, as Ubisoft revealed all of the details for Operation Neon Dawn – the final Operation of Year 5.

Offering a new defender with a unique gadget, huge changes to one of the game's maps, and another suite of quality of life improvements, here's all we know.

Read More: Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Neon Dawn Release Date, Patch Notes, New Operator, New Map Rework, Seasonal Skins, Trailer, Gameplay And More For Year 5 Season 4

Rainbow Six Operation Neon Dawn Preview

New Operator: Aruni

Operators are undoubtedly the lifeblood of Rainbow Six Siege, and Aruni offers a unique trap called the Surya Gate that's sure to be popular.

Hailing from Thailand, Apha "Aruni" Tawaroong lost an arm and a leg on a mission with fellow operator Thermite, but remains positive and uplifting.

“Chin up, eyes on the horizon" is her motto, and more of her story will be revealed in this season's anime short.

She is a medium-speed, medium-armour Operator, and her prosthetic arm deals bonus damage to walls and barricades.

Gadget:

The Surya Gate projects a laser array that both detects and damages enemies as they pass through it.

While the generator that powers them is indestructible, they do deactivate for a period, either when an Operator or a throwable passes through. To re-activate, the generator needs to be shot.

Surya Gates automatically cover windows but leave a small gap on doorways for drones to pass underneath. They can also be set on walls to prevent breaching.

Friendly Operators can pass through as the beams will disengage when they're near, but this can be a telltale sign of a team's position, so try and steer clear unless absolutely necessary.

Loadout:

• P10 Roni submachine gun or MK14 EBR Assault Rifle
• PRB92 Pistol
• Secondary Gadgets: Proximity Alarm, Barbed Wire

Map Rework: Skyscraper

As speculated, Skyscraper is indeed getting a rework with the coming Operation.

The main balcony has been removed to prevent spawn-peeking, while the "Dragon" room is now an interior area, providing a bridge between the second floor House and Restaurant areas.

Oh, and players can now rappel onto the roof, too.

Balancing

We're still waiting for the full patch notes, but here are the balance changes for Operators that Ubisoft has confirmed so far.

Hibana

The X-Kairos Launcher will be able to toggle between 2, 4, or 6 rockets being fired at a time. This will allow players to manage Hibana's resources.

Echo

The Yokai drone now remains visible on ceilings, whereas before it was invisible. Players will now need to be more strategic when placing the Yokai.

Jäger

Jäger's Active Defense System now has a ten-second cooldown, meaning it won't be able to constantly stop projectiles for a period.

To balance that, it'll now be available for infinite use, rather than just two charges per round.

Quality of Life Changes

Ubisoft is making a few big changes, notably in runout timers and defuser planting.

Whereas Defenders would previously be marked for the opposition when spending two seconds outdoors, this has been reduced to one second. That means it's rarely worth a Defender heading outside, helping prevent roaming players abandoning their post.

Few things are more frustrating than accidentally dropping the bomb defuser when making it to the bomb site, and a new "No-Drop Zone" aims to counter this by preventing the defuser from being dropped when in a certain radius of the site. The defuser animation has also been bought closer to an Operator's feet to prevent clipping through objects or blocked defuser attempts.

Gadget interactions, specifically those that target other gadgets, have been overhauled. Sticky gadgets should now stick to bulletproof gadgets, with Ash's Breaching Round now able to destroy Melusi's Banshee Defense gadget, for example.

Finally, accessibility features including "Voice-To-Text" and "Text-To-Voice" have been added for in-game chat, as well as narration and hints in the options menu. These can be adjusted, as can in-game fonts.

Everything Else

Sixth Guardian:

A new charity initiative, a new bundle will be created each season for the in-game shop, with all profits being donated to charity.

We'll know the charity being chosen in the coming weeks.

Operators Price Decrease:

The following Operators will become cheaper to acquire as part of Operation Neon Dawn:

• Vigil
• Zofia
• Dokka
• Nomad
• Kaid
• Wamai
• Kali

All in all, Operation Neon Dawn looks like a strong end to a strong year of Siege content. While the headline addition is undeniably Aruni, Skyscraper's long-awaited revamp and smart quality-of-life tweaks make this feel like a great season for all players, regardless of investment.