Though Azami is definitely the star defending operator of Rainbow Six Siege's new season, Demon Veil, players can't ignore the big change to Cesar "Goyo" Hernandez's gadget. Released during Operation Ember Rise alongside Amaru in 2019, Goyo's gadget for the past four years was the Volcan Shield - a placeable shield that looked very much like a normal deployable from the front. When attackers vault over it, defenders could shoot the explosive canister located at the back - thereby exploding the shield and carpeting the surrounding area in flame. These flames would damage anyone in the area and decrease available standing space.
Needless to say, Volcan Shields were very situational. Most players would place them on narrow passageways like stairs and doorways - areas where the only way through was over the shield. Even if enemies were funneled to places with Volcan Shields, defenders would either shoot the attackers as they vaulted (blocking the Volcan Canister), or shoot the canister too early. Rainbow Six Siege's first season of its seventh year does away with Goyo's old deployable shields, giving him just explosives to work with.
The Best Defense is an Explosive Offense
Now dubbed the Volcan Canister, Goyo's gadget can be placed on any reachable surface, including floors, walls, hatches, and wooden barricades (strangely, Volcan Canisters can't be placed on deployable shields). This gives the Rainbow Six operator a lot more gameplay options. Volcan Canisters can be set and detonated near choke points like stairs to prevent entry, or they can be placed on drone holes to prevent bomb and hostage sites from being scanned during the preparation phase (players can pick them up after and place them in more advantageous areas). One of the best uses for the Volcan Canisters is to place them on wooden barricades around windows and doorways. Since the attacking team has to break some of these barricades to get into the building, placing a couple of Volcan Canisters will cause the explosives to detonate once the wooden boards are broken.
Goyo's previous synergies with other defending operators are still present. Teams can still place Volcan Canisters near Maestro's Evil Eye cameras and detonate them remotely when enemies get too close. The same can be said for Kapkan's Entry Denial Device (EDD) traps. However, he has new synergies to add to his repertoire as well. Castle's Armor Panels can be fitted with Volcan Canisters, catching the attacking team off-guard if they manage to break them down. Even Azami's Kiba Barriers can be fitted with Goyo's Volcan Canisters, effectively creating new places to attach the explosives. These are just a few new ways the canisters can be utilized now that they aren't anchored to a bulky shield.
Volcan Canisters Are Still a Conditional Explosive
Even with this newfound versatility, Volcan Canisters are still very situational. Considering the unpredictability of Siege gameplay, Goyo players won't be able to hit all of their canisters in a single match. There are multiple ways an attacking team can approach an objective, and they are often going to take a path devoid of explosive canisters. It also doesn't help that Goyo has to interact with a deployable surface for four seconds to place a Volcan Canister. Enemy gadgets, such as Zofia's Grenade Launcher and Twitch's Shock Drones, can trigger canisters from a safe distance, and if the enemy team comes from the wrong direction, they can use the Volcan Canisters against defending teams. When compared to something like Tachanka's Shumikha Launcher, which does almost the same thing at a moment's notice, Goyo's Volcan Canisters are clunky to place and hard to manage.
Some players prefer Goyo's old Volcan Shields to the new Volcan Canisters, as the shields gave Goyo more utility to work with considering the defending team could place multiple shields to obscure which ones were explosive. Even if the Volcan Shields themselves weren't detonated, they would at least slow down the attacking team. Goyo's Volcan Canisters are more versatile than his old shields, but he still can't compete with the likes of Valkyrie, Jager, and Mute, all of whom have gadgets that change the battlefield on the fly, and thus put them at the top of the Rainbow Six Siege defending operators list.
Rainbow Six Siege is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
