Rainbow Six Siege's newest season, Operation Crimson Heist, is finally here: With it comes a map rework, quite a few interesting balancing changes, and an all-new Attacking Operator: Flores.
Flores is one of the most unique Operators in Siege so far, with a very interesting gadget capable of replacing the necessity for bringing a Thatcher, while still bringing familiar weaponry, unlike Kali. Flores originates from Argentina, and is also the first openly gay Operator in Rainbow Six Siege. He's a sort of Robin Hood kind of character, who robs from the rich to give to the poor.
RCE-Ratero Charge
The most interesting aspect of Rainbow Six Siege's Attacker Flores is his RCE-Ratero Charge, which acts as an explosive drone. It controls much in the same way as every other drone in Siege (besides Twitch's Shock Drone), though it's constantly moving forward and can stick to surfaces and explode. After deploying his drone, Flores has a little under ten seconds to get it where he wants it to be before the explosive timer automatically begins. He can also start the timer manually before that happens, either sticking the drone to a wall or letting it explode on the ground. Flores gets four of these RCE-Ratero Charge drones, and still has access to normal Attacker drones as well.
These drones are highly useful for a wide variety of reasons. Primarily, the drones are good for getting rid of Defender gadgets. Driving the drone into the proximity of the gadget and detonating it is going to get rid of any gadget in the area. That said, this can be a little difficult to accomplish if Defenders have eyes on the area, because they can simply shoot the drone. Accomplishing this in these situations is usually going to require teammates to put a little bit of pressure on the Defenders so that they can't easily look away to shoot the drone.
Other than utility destruction, the drone can be a very good way to score some easy damage on Defenders. In a gunfight, they'll still have to prioritize either shooting Flores' drone or moving out of the way of it once the detonation timer starts. That could easily put the Defender in a worse position for the gunfight, or else take the explosion to the face.
There are also certain sections of maps where this drone can be used vertically: parkour the drone onto a shelf or something and start the detonation by jumping as close to the ceiling as possible and sticking to a wall. If that's right below a popular Defender anchor point, it's going to be easy damage. This gadget makes Flores a difficult Operator to use, but rewarding once players learn how to use him.
Weapons/Secondary Gadgets
As far as weaponry goes, Flores can use either the SR-25 DMR, or the AR33 Assault Rifle. Most players are going to choose the assault rifle over the DMR, especially on console, but both weapons are very usable. The AR33 does have a bit of a disadvantage in one sense to many of the other assault rifles in the game with its reduced magazine size, so while it's not one of the best weapons in Siege, it's still a very good one. Flores sidearm is the GSH-18 pistol.
Flores has access to both Stun Grenades and Claymores; depending on the map or the particular plan Flores has, an argument could be made for using either of these. In most cases, more aggressive players are going to want to go for the Stun Grenades, while players who need to watch their own backs or cut off flanking routes are going to opt for the Claymore.
Rainbow Six Siege is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
