Rainbow Six Siege Operation North Star Patch Notes: All Updates To Test Server

By Lloyd CoombesNews, Reviews, and Features Editor

Rainbow Six Siege's second operation of year 6, Operation North Star, hits the Test Server today, May 25th.

Adding a new operator, Thunderbird, reworking Favela, and adding a series of quality-of-life improvements, here's what you can find on the test server - including something for another Operation in the future.

Read More: Rainbow Six Siege Y6S2 North Star: Leaks, Release Date, Operator, Gadget and More For Year 6 Season 2

Rainbow Six Siege Operation North Star Patch Notes: All Updates To Test Server

As per Ubisoft's pre-season designer's notes:

GAMEPLAY AFTER DEATH (TEST SERVER ONLY)

Starting off with a big topic, we first want to make it clear that Gameplay After Death will not come to Siege's Live servers this season. Instead, we want to give you an early look at this rework on the Test Server for two important reasons:

  • You have more opportunities to familiarize yourself with these huge changes before they hit Live.
  • We have more time to get your feedback and adjust things ahead of release, as needed.

What are the changes?

We have added a number of gameplay elements for players on both sides to aid them after their operators have died:

ATTACKERS

  • Dead players can control and drive their own drone, including Twitch’s drone. You cannot drive the drone of another operator.
  • Antennas are shown on regular drones when the owner dies, in order to help opponents know if the drone belongs to a dead or alive operator.
  • The abilities of observation tools and gadgets can be used.
  • i.e. Twitch’s and Zero’s lasers
  • If you died with regular drones in your inventory, they will spawn at your original spawn location.
  • An operator ability like Twitch's Shock Drone won’t spawn after death.

DEFENDERS

Specifically for Defenders, we have added new tools to help counter the threat of Attacker drones:

  • Bulletproof Camera Rework
    • The camera can now rotate.
    • The camera can shoot an EMP burst to disable Attackers' electronic gadgets and drones for 8 seconds.
    • The first player in the camera can use the ability to shoot. Unlike operators' abilities, there is no notion of ownership.
  • Drone Counter
    • The Drone Counter is displayed exclusively to Defenders to help them track the number of regular drones their team has destroyed or captured.
    • This is intended to incentivize Defenders to be aware of the importance of destroying drones, especially in a context where dead players can still drone them out.
    • This counter is not meant to reveal extra intel to Defenders. It only reflects Defenders' actions and doesn't take into account special drones - only regular ones.
  • Echo, Maestro and Mozzie can control and use their abilities after death.
    • Note for Maestro: Teammates will be able to rotate the turret like any other observation tool, although Maestro will maintain priority over other Defenders.

Some additional topics to consider about Gameplay After Death:

  • A number of changes released before and during this season will also help player experience in this new context:
    • Yokai drones no longer have cloaking, limiting the potential source of frustration of dealing with invisible after-death drones.
    • The bulletproof glass of the Maestro’ Evil Eye can be shattered with a melee to deny vision when it is closed (same of the Bulletproof Camera and more on these below).
      • The introduction of the GONNE-6 helps a wider range of operators deal with these.
  • While it will not be available in this initial test, Attackers being able to repick their operator in the Prep Phase (coming later in Year 6) will encourage players to more thoroughly scout the objective and Defenders' setups to collect info, putting their drones at risk.
  • We are actively exploring and looking for more options relating to:
    • Dokkaebi's Logic Bomb affecting dead Defenders.
    • New secondary gadgets that can help with info denial.

DEATH EXPERIENCE

  • Adjusted the flow and content of replays after being fragged

ELIMINATED OPERATOR ICONS

  • When a player is eliminated, a transparent operator icon will appear in place of their body and remain for the duration of the round.

BULLET HOLES

  • Line of sight through bullet holes in soft surfaces has been blocked

HP REPLACING ARMOR (TEST SERVER ONLY)

  • Operator armor will be converted to HP:
    • 3-armor operators will have 125 HP
    • 2-armor operators will have 110 HP
    • 1-armor operators will have 100 HP
  • Rook's Armor Plates will grant a buff to permanent HP for the round:
    • Picking up Armor Plates will buff an operator's maximum HP by 20 until the end of a round
  • Any heals will heal up to this new maximum value for the duration of the round

SHATTERED GLASS

  • A melee hit will now shatter the glass of Mira's Black Mirror, Maestro's Evil Eye, and the Bulletproof Camera
  • Shattered glass is opaque and prevents these devices from being used to spot players
  • When Mira's Black Mirror is shattered, vision is denied on both sides
    • When the canister is destroyed, the device now shatters and explodes (solely a visual effect) instead of falling to the floor
  • When Maestro's Evil Eye is shattered, he has to open the device to see through it

SMOKE PROPOGATION

  • Toxic gas from Smoke's Remote Gas Grenade will not travel through walls, floors, and ceilings
  • A new sound plays when the canister is detonated
  • Toxic gas damage increased to 15 HP every 0.66 seconds while in area of effect

MUZZLE REWORK

  • Flash Hider
    • Reduces the speed and intensity of vertical recoil
  • Compensator
    • Reduces the speed and intensity of horizontal recoil

OPERATOR BALANCING

ASH

  • Reduced Breaching Rounds to 2 (from 3)
  • Modified R4-C recoil, harder to control:
  • Increased vertical kick
    • Horizontal spread will be more constant and stronger to the the right
    • Long burst recoil will start on the 8th bullet (previously the 12th)
  • Breaching Rounds are now immune to electricity

FINKA

  • Finka's ability will fill up teammates' base health. The exceeding boost health will be allocated as overheal

NØKK (TEST SERVER ONLY)

  • When HEL Presence Reduction is active:
    • Proximity-based gadgets are not triggered
      • Gadgets affected: Ela's Grzmot Mine, Melusi’s Banshee, Proximity Alarm, and Metal Detectors
    • Laser-based gadgets are triggered
    • Sounds made by Nøkk are no longer muffled
    • Glitch effect cancels proximity immunity, resulting in the activation of any gadget in range

MELUSI

  • Banshees are now deployed closed and will open when triggered, revealing a Banshee Core
  • Banshee Cores are vulnerable to bullets and melee attacks
  • The device now also detects enemies' feet (previously detected head and hip)

VIGIL

  • Modified K1A recoil, harder to control:
    • Mild increase to vertical kick
    • Horizontal spread will be more constant and stronger to the right
    • Long burst recoil will start on the 6th bullet (previously the 12th)

ZERO

  • Added same resource management system as Twitch's drone to Argus Camera
    • Cooldown: 15s
    • Initial/Maximum shots: 1

WEAPON BALANCING

BEARING 9 (HIBANA, ECHO, THUNDERBIRD)

  • Modified recoil, easier to control:
    • Horizontal spread will be more constant and closer to the center


SMG-12 (VIGIL, DOKKAEBI, WARDEN)

  • Modified recoil, easier to control:
    • Reduced first shot kick
    • Reduced vertical kick
    • Horizontal spread will be more predictable and constant to the left
    • Long burst recoil will start on the 12th bullet (previously the 6th)


GENERAL BALANCING

AREA OF EFFECT

  • Operators affected:
    • Jäger's ADS
    • Ela's GRZMOT Mine
    • Nomad's Airjab
    • Kaid's Rtila Electroclaws
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