Rainbow Six Siege adds two new operators in today's Shifting Tides update

Today is the day for this Shifting Tides update to Mr. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege that I keep hearing so much about. There's a returning map, two new operators, and the addition of limb penetration. Here are the highlights from the new update so you can start thinking about new strats before you encounter these new operators in the wild.

The Shifting Tides update is coming with a few different features that I'm sure I will learn in even greater detail when I hear my partner loudly calling them out to teammates in our office. Until I have the chance to properly study by proximity, Ubisoft's details on the two new operators will have to suffice. The new offensive operator Kali comes equipped with a CSRX 300 bolt-action sniper rifle with breach charges and claymores as gadgets. A bolt-action rifle seems like an odd choice for a close-quarters game like R6 but sounds like it will pair well with the new limb penetration feature.

Weapons will be separated into three types of penetration: none, simple, or full. Shots from a weapon with full penetration "will go through an Operator and hit other Operators behind them for 30% reduced damage for each additional penetration." Presumably this is the category that Kali's rifle falls into. Simple penetration, on the other hand, is for penetrating hands but not entire bodies. Weapons with this rating can punch through the arms and legs of a target to hit a more vital spot but cannot continue on to strike additional targets behind the first. Frankly I'm surprised it's taken so long to shoot through arms in R6 Siege given all the much less fleshy pieces of the environment that seem to get breached all the time.

The second new operator is a defensive choice named Wamai whose Mag-NET special ability sounds like his main draw. The adhesive gadget can attach to walls and ceilings and such and attracts other thrown explosives and forces them to detonate. "This way, not only can Wamai make Attackers’ grenades and projectile gadgets useless, he can also use strategic placement to turn those projectiles against them." Ubisoft say.

Shifting Tides also means the return of the reworked Theme Park map with various parts either changed or removed.

You can read the more detailed patch notes from Ubisoft's site and if you're so inclined, snag Rainbow Six Siege on Steam with a 60% discount for the next hour-and-a-bit until Steam's Autumn Sale ends.