With the Rainbow Six Siege Six Invitational coming to a close, a brand new year of siege is being heralded. As always, there’s a lot to talk about as we head into Year 8 Season 1 – namely the Rainbow Six Siege Operation Commanding Force release time, and everything it entails.
Here you’ll find everything you need to know about the new operation, including the lowdown on new Brazilian operator Brava, a revamp of the FPS game’s reload system, a new penalty system for mouse and keyboard users on console, and more. Needless to say, you’ll want to brief yourself before heading back into the Rainbow Six Siege ranks.
Rainbow Six Siege Operation Commanding Force release time speculation
There has yet to be confirmation from Ubisoft as to when Y8S1 will kick off. With that said, we can speculate that the Rainbow Six Siege Operation Commanding Force release time will be 06:00 PT / 09:00 ET / 14:00 GMT on March 15, 2023.
The release time itself aligns with the typical patch timing for Siege updates. When it comes to the date, Ubisoft usually drops new operations on Tuesdays, and, historically, the first operation of a new year arrives in mid-March. For example, Operation Demon Veil (Y7S1) was released on March 15, 2022, and Operation Crimson Heist (Y6S1) arrived on March 16, 2021.
Rainbow Six Siege new operator Brava
Following the tradition of introducing a brand new operator , Y8S1 is introducing a brand new Brazilian operator, Brava. This one health, three speed Attacker is a tech expert, and has the following loadout and unique gadget:
- Primary Weapons: PARA-308 / CAMRS
- Secondary Weapons: USP 40 / Super Shorty
- Gadgets: Smoke Grenade / Claymore
Brava’s unique gadget is the Kludge Drone. This incredibly handy piece of kit – shaped like a miniature tank – has the ability to destroy, and even take control of Defenders’ electronics, such as Kapkan’s trap and Yokai’s drones.
Rainbow Six Siege Y8S1 Mousetrap
One of the big new features of Operation Commanding Force is Mousetrap. Now, players using a mouse and keyboard on console will have a gradually-increasing input lag penalty applied to their game. Ubisoft says this is to combat the unfair advantage KBM players get over their controller-based counterparts.
To gradually reduce, and eventually remove the penalty, players will have to complete matches using a controller.
Rainbow Six Siege Y8S1 reload system update
To make Siege’s gunplay more immersive, and to set a new consideration for teamplay, players will no longer be able to cancel their reload animation and maintain their existing ammunition – if there’s anything left in the magazine, of course.
Should players cancel their reload while there are rounds left in the existing magazine, they will be left with only one bullet in the chamber. As such, players will ideally need to commit to the reload from here on out, and have their team cover them in the process if they’re in the middle of a firefight.
Rainbow Six Siege Y8S1 additional new features
Aside from the headline changes, there are plenty of other new features coming to Siege in Y8S1.
To help further combat toxicity, players who are abusive in voice chat will now receive a Reputation penalty. While this penalty’s in effect, repeat offenders will be muted by default. While the muted player can still use comms, only those who manually unmute them will be able to hear what they have to say – for better or worse.
There are also a number of balance changes. Operator-side, Zero’s cameras can now be switched to see both sides of the walls or floors they pierce – this needs to be activated manually by the operator. Additionally, his teammates can also swap which side the camera’s facing, provided he has activated the pierce.
On the attachment front, Muzzle Brake will now reduce the recoil of the first shot by 50%, up from 45%. Meanwhile the Compensator’s recoil reduction will be boosted from 15% to 35%.
Onboarding’s getting a boost this season, too, through Beginner and Specialty Challenges. Each of Siege’s 12 specialties has its own section, with three challenges in each. Completing all three challenges will allow players to unlock a selected operator from that specialty. For example, Hibana from the Breach specialty, or Twitch from Intel.
When it comes to smaller quality of life changes, there’s a new ‘play again’ option in the play menu that sits beneath each playlist, allowing players to quickly hop back into their favourite modes without having to make unnecessary clicks and button presses. Furthermore, players can now set quick match preferences by toggling hostages, secure area, and bomb on or off in the new quick match settings menu.
Finally, there’s a new battle pass to grind, which also introduces the Bravo Pack Ticket. This item will let players pick something from the latest Bravo Collection. The ticket can be obtained by Premium players who reach level 100 on the Y8S1 pass.
And that’s everything you need to know about the Rainbow Six Siege Operation Commanding Force release time for now. As soon as the exact date and time are confirmed, we’ll be sure to let you know.