Highlights
- Ubisoft Montreal has introduced an update for Rainbow Six Siege that significantly buffs shotguns, improving their accuracy and destructiveness, thus increasing their versatility.
- The shotgun rework has the potential to impact the game's meta, particularly for defending operators, and the M870 shotgun is expected to stand out as a powerful weapon in the updated gameplay.
- The reactions to the shotgun rework are mixed, with some fans embracing the viability of shotguns for medium-range encounters, while others believe it has made Rainbow Six Siege more like Fortnite and strayed from its tactical FPS roots.
Ubisoft Montreal introduced a new update for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege that provides a massive buff to shotguns. The weapon rework, which comes with one notable caveat, same Rainbow Six Siege update that's currently causing some backlash among players.
While Ubisoft's hit competitive shooter offers immense loadout variety, it's been years since shotguns—aside from the M870—were consistently able to go toe-to-toe with the most powerful weapons in Rainbow Six Siege. The developers recently announced plans to address this power imbalance with Operation Heavy Mettle, which is the name of the game's Year 8 Season 3 update. The rework promised to make shotguns more accurate while aiming and also improve the destructiveness of their hip fire, consequently boosting their versatility.
That is precisely what Ubisoft Montreal did with the Rainbow Six Siege Y8S3 patch, which went live on August 29. The changes appear to encompass all in-game shotguns, although the ITA12L, M870, SG-CQB, and Buck's Skeleton Key underwent some additional tweaks meant to rebalance their overall performance, according to Ubisoft Montreal's official changelog. And while the patch notes don't go into any more details, Twitch streamer Nicholas "Jynxzi" Stewart has recently taken to TikTok to demonstrate the effect of the changes, having shared a gameplay clip that shows him taking down an operator with just two shotgun hits from some 40 feet out.
While this accuracy buff is clearly immense, it also appears to be circumstantial, as its full benefits can only be leveraged by aiming down the sights while standing still, according to recent player reports. Nevertheless, this boost to the overall versatility of shotguns is likely to have an immediate impact on the game's meta, especially in regard to the typical loadouts used by defending operators in Rainbow Six Siege. One particular weapon to watch during Operation Heavy Mettle is the M870, which was already an immensely powerful shotgun in the pre-buff meta.
The social media reactions to these changes appear to be a mixed bag. While some fans welcomed the fact that shotguns are now much more viable for medium-range encounters, others described the buff as overpowered, arguing that it makes Rainbow Six Siege play more like Fortnite than the tactical FPS it's supposed to be.
This shotgun rework is far from the only set of changes introduced in the Y8S3 patch. The latest season also debuted a new Rainbow Six Siege operator named Ram that some players criticized as a textbook example of power creep.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Ubisoft
