Rainbow Six Siege 1.96 Update: Full Patch Notes

Earlier today, a new update, version 1.96, went out for Tom Clany's Rainbow Six Siege. The update is brand new for PlayStation 4 and will be released next week for Xbox One. Since the previous update for the game only went out for PC, version 1.96 combines that patch with today's new notes. 

On PlayStation 4, the update is coming in at around 7.4 GB. There's still no word on what the download size for Xbox One will be but it should be fairly similar to that of the PS4. 

Mostly, this patch is a slew of bug fixes. However, there are some changes to the Ballistic Shield, so if you main Clash, Blitz, or Montagne, pay careful attention. Other than that, a few other operators went through some changes and there were some gameplay updates. 

Rainbow Six Siege 1.96 Update

The biggest piece from this update is the alteration to the Ballistic Shield. In short, the guard break effect now occurs when operators are hit with a certain type of damage. This damage is scaled to the severity of the guard break, so if only 50 damage is done, this will trigger the minimum guard break animation. 

However, any damage above 100 will trigger the maximum strength guard break animation. Speaking of damage, the explosion protection from the shield has been reduced by 14%. So operators standing behind the shield will now take slightly more damage. 

Below, you can read about those changes more in-depth along with the rest of the 1.96 patch notes.

Balancing

• Ace
  • Reduced the number of explosive ticks of the SELMA Aqua Breacher to 2 ticks (down from 3).
• Frost
  • Added the ITA12S as a secondary weapon.
• Glaz
  • Reduced vision recovery time to 0.4s (down from 1s).
  • Reduced movement penalization by 50% to 12s (up from 6s).
• Melusi
  • MP5 primary will replace the T-5. Optics available on the MP5 will be the red dot, holographic, and reflex.
• Oryx
  • T-5 primary will replace the MP5. Optics available on the T-5 will be the red dot, holographic, reflex, and scope 1.5x.
• Ballistic Shields
  • The guard break effect occurs when operators with a ballistic shield are hit by an explosion or take certain types of damage (from a scale of a minimum of 50 to trigger the guard break to 100 damage).
  • The severity of the guard break is proportional to the damage done to the shield. Electric damage and the minimum 50 damage threshold will trigger the minimum strength guard break animation.
  • Melee damage, concussion FX, sonic bursts, and explosions of 100 damage or higher will trigger the maximum strength guard break animation.
  • Operators positioned behind a Clash, Monty, Blitz, or Fuze are now also partially protected from explosion damage (this still applies even if they are from the opposing team). This protection also applies if the shield is on the operator’s back. Damage taken from the explosion is proportionally calculated based on the operator’s exposure to the blast.
  • Instead of folding Montagne’s Extendable shield, he now as a guard break animation.
  • Shield explosion protection is reduced to 66% (down from 80%).
• TCSG12+ACS12
  • Damage drop-off is now more progressive to reach minimal damage at 50m (instead of 20m).
  • Damage at max range increased to 68% (up from 48%).
  • Suppressor damage penalization normalized to -12.5% regardless of range.

Gameplay Updates

• Changes to the defuser interaction that allow players to pick up the defuser, even in situations where it might have originally been inaccessible, due to falling into difficult-to-reach spaces.
• Improvements to the chat filter feedback system.
• The ban ticker has been deactivated for custom games. It will remain visible in all other game modes.

Bug Fixes

• General
  • FIXED – Sometimes defenders spawn on top of each other when in 2nd Floor Master Bedroom on Chalet.
  • FIXED – Players can’t vault over the half-wall/railing in 2F Library Stairs on Chalet.
  • FIXED – Dropped defuser can be difficult to recover from behind the table of 2F Cigar Balcony on Kafe.
  • FIXED – (PvE) Barbed wire spawns issues in Situation 10.
  • FIXED – Poor lighting inside the cabinet between sofas in 1F Bar of Chalet.
  • FIXED – Players can use a deployable shield to get to the counter next to the piano on Chalet.
  • FIXED – Zero’s Piercing Camera can pierce and see through the ceiling in 1F First Aid on Plane.
  • FIXED – Missing SFX when picking up generic items.
  • FIXED – (PvE) Missing pre-barricaded doors/windows in Heavily Fortified Situation.
  • FIXED – Cancelling a Ranked queue can sometimes trigger an abandon penalty even when the player did not join a match.
  • FIXED – Secondary hard breach gadget’s blue light can sometimes be seen through a barricade when deployed on it.
  • FIXED – Residual black smoke is visible after some soft walls in the Basement of Chalet are destroyed.
  • FIXED – Minor map asset issues.
  • FIXED – If a deployable shield is placed in a doorway, players are sometimes blocked by the doorframe when trying to vault over it.
  • FIXED – Yellow Pings were not displayed in Replay Mode.
  • FIXED – Only the first Trax Stinger deployed could be targeted by the Smart Ping feature.
  • FIXED – Frost’s Welcome Mats becoming invisible when Frost was killed under certain conditions.
  • FIXED – Spas-15 and Bearing-9 reload animations have to be entirely restarted when the reloading was interrupted.
  • FIXED – Missing burn/fire SFX for smaller explosions that accompany an explosion.
• Zero
  • FIXED – Missing or incorrect interaction prompts for Zero’s Piercing Camera crosshair when aiming at certain map assets/surfaces.
  • FIXED – When aiming through see-through + unbreakable glass, Zero’s Argus Launcher does not detect an obstacle.
  • FIXED – Zero’s Piercing Camera is not piercing through the destructible floor on the carpet in 2F Gym of Clubhouse.
  • FIXED – The Argus Camera activation SFX can be heard when deployed on an electrified wall.
  • FIXED – The Argus Camera can sometimes pierce through other gadgets on the other side of a wall.
  • FIXED – The Argus Camera cannot pierce through the rug in 1F Great Room.
• Clash
  • FIXED – When affected by a Breach Charge detonation, Clash’s Shield is automatically placed on her back.
  • FIXED – Speed penalty does not gradually wane after being affected by Clash’s CCE shield.
  • FIXED – Fix for an issue with weapon swapping when Clash’s CCE shield is deployed.
• Nomad
  • FIXED – Missing fall damage for Nomad when jumping/vaulting from an elevated location 
• Fuze
  • FIXED – Fuse SFX for Secondary Hard Breach gadget is too long.
• Level Design
  • FIXED – Various LOD issues on maps.
  • FIXED – Various clipping issues on maps.
• Chalet
  • FIXED – The vault prompt at the stairway railings (1F Fireplace) was inconsistent and difficult to activate on Chalet.
  • FIXED – Vault prompt inconsistencies in stairway railings (1F Gaming Room Hallway and 2F Library Stairs) on Chalet.
  • FIXED – Defenders were able to scan Attackers through trees and rocks from EXT Campfire camera on Chalet.
  • FIXED – Navigation issues due to rock collision in EXT Snowmobiles on Chalet.
  • FIXED – Drones can fall through the map at EXT Front Yard of Chalet.
  • FIXED – Drones can teleport into the shelf at B Storage room on Chalet by forcing collision.
  • FIXED – Low lighting inside the wardrobe of 2F Master Bedroom of Chalet after breaking the doors.
• Border
  • FIXED – Throwable gadgets could be thrown through walls above certain windows on Border.
• Clubhouse
  • FIXED – Yellow Pings do not appear immediately when targeting TVs on Clubhouse.
• Coastline
  • FIXED – Valkyrie cam can be thrown through the wall in 2F Hallway on Coastline.

User Experience

• FIXED – Battleye ticker is now fixed. Previous banwaves carried out during the season were not visible due to a bug with the ticker.
• FIXED – In map ban phase, system always bans the map on the right when there are two maps left.
• FIXED – Ensuring all maps are properly randomized to show up in the map-ban phase.
• FIXED – Crashes when using Vulkan 
• FIXED – Various shop/cosmetic issues.
• FIXED – Various HUD/UI issues.
• FIXED – Reload prompt still appears even when interface preference is disabled.
• FIXED – Steel Wave Champions charm is very, very pink.
• FIXED – Players getting expired/older in-game notifications and pop-ups.
• FIXED – Banned players could hit the “Find another Match” button, causing odd in-game messages.
• FIXED – Custom color sights were not applied in Replay Mode.