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After being released on theRainbow Six Siegetest servers earlier this month, the full release of Y8S3: Operation Heavy Mettle is now right around the corner.
Once again, Rainbow Six Siege’s newest season will include plenty of balance adjustments to existing operators, gadgets, weapons, and plenty more. However, the biggest addition of the new season will be Ram, a new operator equipped with the deployable BU-GI Auto Breacher, a mini tank capable of forging a path of destruction.
READ MORE:Rainbow Six Siege: Every Map, Ranked
If you’re eager to jump into the next season of Rainbow Six Siege and check out the game’s newest operator, Ram, you’ll need to know the official release time and server maintenance schedule. Check out all of the release time details for Rainbow Six Siege Y8S3 below.
Rainbow Six Siege Y8S3 Update: Release Date And Start Time
The next Rainbow Six Siege update, known as Y8S3: Operation Heavy Mettle, will be released onTuesday, August 29th at 6AM PT / 9AM ET / 1PM UTC / 2PM BST.Servers will be brought offline at the aforementioned time for approximately 90 minutes whilstUbisoftprepares for the release of Y8S3: Operation Heavy Mettle.
During the server downtime, players will be prompted to download and install a new patch. The size of the patches for all supported platforms is yet to be revealed by Ubisoft.
Rainbow Six Siege Y8S3 Update: Designer’s Notes
At the time of writing this article, Ubisoft has not released the official patch notes for Y8S3. However, a new designer’s notes blog post has broken down everything to expect from the update. Check out the details below:
OPERATOR BALANCING
CLUSTER CHARGE
Now that Fuze can deploy the Cluster Charge on reinforcements, we will also allow him to do it on Deployable shields and Talon Shields. It is a small change but will create a new synergy between Fuze and Osa, allowing the use of his charges in places that weren’t possible before. Though there is a cost. As with any other bulletproof glass, the Cluster Charge will shatter the shields when the drilling is successful.
ARGUS CAMERA
This change won’t have a huge impact on matches, but it will bring consistency to the rules of piercing, if the gadget can get through reinforcements, it should also be capable of piercing Deployable and Talon Shields. Since the piercing action of the Argus Camera cannot shatter Mira’s Black Mirror, then the same rule applies to shields, so they won’t shatter either.
KAWAN HIVE LAUNCHER
One of the main weaknesses of Grim is the need to have line of sight with the location you want to activate the Hive in. With this update, we are introducing a new firing mode to address this. From now on, Grim can select if the projectile will stick or bounce after touching a surface. This adds to all the changes done in the previous season and will help you to apply the effect on your target.
BASE STATS
Dying because of something invisible is a source of frustration and is why we removed the initial damage from the GU mine at the beginning of Year 5. But this change also removed a situation we’ve been trying to recover for some time: the fear of stepping on multiple mines in a row.
We have reintroduced the initial damage and made stepping on multiple mines a bit spicier. If you are already poisoned by a GU mine and trigger another, you will receive the initial damage and an instant tick of poison damage from the one already on your foot, so you will need to be more careful. These 2 changes turn the mines into a threat again. We are also tweaking some extra values, like the poison damage and the timer, to make removing the nail more urgent.
Because of these changes we have decided to remove the cloaking completely, making GU mines always visible. This should eliminate the frustration and increase the skill ceiling, as you will need to look for good locations to place your mines. This also removes the only electronic part of the device, so IQ won’t be able to detect them, and Brava won’t be able to hack them.
GADGET BALANCING
DEPLOYABLE SHIELD
We have taken the opportunity to update the Shattered Glass System for Deployable Shields along with the changes to Fuze. If the shield receives a melee hit, the glass of the windows will be shattered.
WEAPON BALANCING
This is a big pass on every classical shotgun in the game. With these changes we are adding consistency and something you may learn. Ranges are normalized and based on the average kill distance in the game as well as the m590A1, which we know is a favorite at this time. The goal here is to reward good practices such as aiming for the head or holding angles. These changes are aimed at making shotguns less spray and pray, and more worthy as an option without removing what is currently working.
PLAYLIST ECOSYSTEM UPDATE
QUICK MATCH
As announced during the year 8 reveal, we started to look at how we could change Quick Match to make it much more… well “Quick.” We realized that we needed to make tweaks to other playlists for this new Quick Match to fit.
BASE CHANGES
We are also taking this chance to implement 2 new concepts to the Quick Match playlist:Pre-Setupsand theAttacker Safeguard
PRE-SETUPS
For every map in the map pool, we have designed 2 sets of pre-setups for every bombsite (this new feature is bomb exclusive) which include a number of pre-deployed reinforcements on the map as well as pre-placed rotations and holes.
These new pre-setups will allow defenders to jump into the action right away without having to worry about reinforcing the entire site.
ATTACKER SAFEGUARD
Attackers in Quick Match will no longer have to worry about possible spawn peaks or runouts at the beginning of the round as we are implementing 10 seconds of invulnerability at the start of the Action Phase (for attackers only). An attacker will become vulnerable again after those 10 secondsor if that attacker enters the building. This way, attackers will be able to approach the building without having to check every window.
We are also extending the already known “Red Walls” for 10 additional seconds to keep defenders from exiting the building while the attackers are making their approach.
These changes are aimed at making Quick Match a place in Rainbow Six: Siege that allows you to jump straight into the action and jump out to another match. We want players to feel that they can have their R6 fix easier, without having to worry about the basic and repetitive actions of a normal Siege match.
Additionally, we wanted to address the fact that some of the more classic maps in the casual map pool will not be included in the new Quick Match. We know that losing access to these maps can be frustrating and we will actively work towards adding them back to the map pool as soon as they are ready with their own new pre-setups.
STANDARD (PREVIOUSLY UNRANKED)
Part of this update includes changing what was previously Unranked and giving it a new identity inside Rainbow Six: Siege. With the Quick Match updates, we were losing a place in the game to experience a core Siege match outside of the Ranked environment, that’s why we decided to shift Unranked into what we now call the “Standard” playlist.
Standard will now also be the recommended playlist for new players coming into the game.
