As changes, balance patches, and new modes come with every new season of Rainbow Six Siege, so too does a new operator. Kicking off year 7's first Siege season is the defender Kana "Azami" Fujiwara. She comes equipped with the 9x19 VSN submachine gun and the ACS 12 shotgun (both very good options in their respective weapon classes), a D50 handgun for a sidearm, and barbed wire and impact grenades as her secondary gadgets.
However, the main draw for Azami, as with any Rainbow Six Siege operator, is her gadget. The Kiba Barrier is a set of special kunai that deploy circular barriers when they connect to a surface. The barriers can be destroyed by three consecutive melee attacks, a single use of Sledge's Breaching Hammer, or any explosive ordinance (these include Ash's Breaching Rounds, Hibana's X-KAIROS breaching pellets, and Azami's own impact grenades, to name a few). They can also break if an enemy steps on them (so it can't wall off hatches). Apart from these instances, the barriers are completely bulletproof.
Placeable Cover At A Moment's Notice
It's that last fact that makes the Kiba Barrier so versatile. With it, players can create their own cover like in Minecraft - a game where practically anything can be made. They can place Kiba Barriers and peek angles which enemies don't expect unless they use their drones to scout out the area. Since a good portion of intel gathering happens during the preparation phase, Azami players can hold off deploying their Kiba Barriers until after the phase is done. This forces the attacking team to be more cautious around areas with Kiba Barriers, as they don't know where the defenders can get cheeky angles on them.
Defensively, placing Kiba Barriers walls off areas and forces enemies down paths the defending team wants them to take. If Azami players keep a few Kiba Barriers on hand while a match is ongoing, they can change the battlefield of a Siege map to their liking. Say a Zofia uses one of her impact grenades to destroy a wall. If an Azami is close by, they can throw their Kiba Barrier to close of said wall, forcing the Zofia to either use her other impact grenade or get another teammate to break it down for them. Even if the attacking team does manage to break down the Kiba Barrier, they end up wasting more of their utility and time by dealing with it (which is exactly what players want from a defending operator).
Secondary Gadgets and New Ways To Use Old Operators
Azami's secondary gadgets also synergize very well with her Kiba Barriers. Barbed wire can slow enemies down as they try to navigate the labyrinth Azami has made for them, but it's the impact grenades players want. With a couple of impacts in her pocket, she can break down her Kiba Barriers and flank the enemy. Once she's gotten a kill with her Rainbow Six Siege weapon, she can run back and replace the Kiba Barrier she just took down - allowing for some very mean hit-and-run tactics.
Then there's her synergy with her fellow defending operators. Azami is relatively new in Rainbow Six Siege, so players are still figuring her out, but placing a Kiba Barrier on a soft wall beside a reinforced wall with a Mira Black Mirror can protect players who want to use the good, old Mira trick (this is where a player uses the Black Mirror to see behind a wall and moves ever so slightly to a nearby damaged soft wall to get a shot on an enemy). Teammates can also place primary and secondary gadgets on Kiba Barriers, such as bulletproof cameras, Valkyrie Black Eye cameras, and Goyo Volcán traps.
This is the first time an operator is equipped with a gadget that adds more cover to the playing field instead of just blocking or destroying it (Goyo's old deployable shields were meant to be destroyed). It throws Rainbow Six Siege players off their usual gameplay style and forces them to adapt even more than usual to Siege's destructible environments. Kiba Barriers can be a bit wonky at times, as they don't always deploy exactly the way players want them to, but with enough time and experience from the community, Azami might just be one of the biggest game-changers Siege has ever had.
Rainbow Six Siege is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
