During the Six Major Raleigh Invitational for Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft revealed gameplay footage for the game’s upcoming new Ember Rise Operators–Amaru and Goyo. Both Operators previously leaked, as has almost become customary for Siege at this point, but Ubisoft’s announcement has revealed a few more details that weren’t previously known.
Amaru is an Attack Operator armed with a grappling hook that allows her to quickly breach through windows that can’t be easily reached by others or ascend up through ceiling panels that are impossible to climb to by any other Operator. Her hook only has four uses and there’s a cooldown timer after she fires it out, so it’s best used for recon or flanking Defenders, not escaping from ambushes.
Goyo is a Defend Operator who can place a single portable shield that’s been booby-trapped with a Volcan charge. Destroying the shield causes it to explode and engulf the floor in flames, dealing heavy damage to any Operator in the immediate area.
What Do These Two Mean For Siege?
A whole lot actually. A whole lot. Both Amaru and Goyo acknowledge parts of Siege that have long been ignored or left unchecked. We’ll obviously need to get our hands on the new Operators and see how the playerbase use their gadgets, but both are likely going to force the creation of new strategies–especially Amaru.
Defenders have never had a good reason to reinforce floor panels before as attacks would typically only come from doors, walls, or the ceiling. Ash or Hibana could destroy floor panels from below with their gadgets, Breaching Rounds and X-KAIROS respectively, and any Attacker could use a well-placed shotgun blast or grenade to do it. However, every previous Attacker then had to wait for a Defender to wander over to the hole that had been created or lob up grenades and hope one of Jäger’s Active Defense Systems weren’t nearby. Amaru’s ability to now ascend through those panels adds a threat that’s possibly significant enough to change how Defenders have to think. At the very least, sacrificing a reinforcement barrier to close up a floor panel means one less barrier to shore up a wall or the ceiling. Defenders are going to have to learn how to be creative doing everything that they’ve had to do before but with fewer resources.
Which isn’t to say that Defenders are being left out in the cold, as Goyo’s gadget looks to be one of the deadliest traps Siege has ever included. For too long, Attackers would just rush Defenders’ deployable shields or smash them out of the way. Frost eventually changed that, though patches have made her less effective in dealing with this threat. However, similar to Frost’s Welcome Mat, Goyo’s Volcan is probably going to make Attackers pause before they just vault over a deployable shield–especially since Kapkan can booby trap the Volcan charge with his Entry Denial Device. As Attackers have grown wise to how Kapkan can place his traps, his worth has diminished, so Goyo’s addition to Siege may be what the Russian Operator needs to become a worthwhile pick again. Goyo works as a worthwhile trapper on his own as well, since smashing or shooting Goyo’s gadget doesn’t get rid of the obstacle either; it just activates the Volcan’s flames early and creates a choke point that the Attackers then have to deal with. Since the flames spread out in all directions as well, Goyo’s trap can be used offensively against Attackers too–a type of gadget that Defenders definitely need more of. At the very least, Goyo is going to help Defenders gain control of a round by forcing an enemy team to slow down and not rush.
