Rainbow Six Siege Y9S2: Operation New Blood Release Date Window, and Everything We Know

Ubisoft hosted a panel at the R6 Manchester Major, which went into more depth on the upcoming season, including Operator updates for Solis and Fenrir. The long-awaited Marketplace feature has been confirmed to be arriving in Y9S2 on June 25. 

The Rainbow Six Siege Mid-Season Roadmap update has been released and it offers a look at some of the Year 9 Season 2 updates.

The full blog post is here, but we've updated this page (further down) with the confirmed and tentative details.

As per a new blog post on the Rainbow Six Siege website, Ubisoft has confirmed that they will be delaying the release of the Reputation System, which was intended to launch in Y9S2 in June 2024.

Full quotes explaining why, can be found in the blog post and down below:

"Thanks to your feedback, it's become clear that large changes are needed in order for the Reputation System to meet the requirements that we've set. With this in mind, Impacts based on your Standing will be no longer be introduced in Y9S2 and will instead come in a later season. Consequently, as the Reputation System will not see its full release in the coming season, it will remain in Beta for now."

Ubisoft have updated their roadmap for Y9, which currently gives tentative dates and planned content for the next three seasons. You can check out the full roadmap here. 

Striker and Sentry now fill the Recruit role on attack and defense, respectively, but each can do much more than their predecessor. Each can now be selected in Ranked play, and their appearance can be customized with the usual array of cosmetics, some of which will be available in the Operation New Blood Battle Pass. Unlike other Operators, Striker and Sentry do not have unique gadgets. Instead, each can choose two secondary gadgets to bring into the fray. So Striker can finally realize the Attacker's dream of solo opening an electrified wall by deploying Impact EMP grenades and a hard breach charge. They could also carve their own path towards the objective with a breach charge, and then cover their own flank with a claymore. For every secondary gadget an Attacker could choose, Striker gets to choose two, provided they aren't the same item.

Meanwhile, on defense, Sentry can do the same, but chooses from a very different pool of gadgets. They can focus on staying hidden from Attacker drones by bringing an observation blocker and placing a bulletproof camera nearby to further deter prying eyes. Or they can create some very dangerous situations by placing strategic proximity alarms and lurking nearby with a nitro cell to surprise unwary Attackers.

The key here is flexibility, as both Sentry and Striker open up possibilities for solo and team utility compositions that were not possible before. And each one has a versatile loadout to match: On the attack, Striker brandishes the M4 assault rifle or the M249 light machinegun as their primary, with the 5.7 USG pistol or ITA 12S shotgun as their secondary. Sentry, on the defense, wields the Commando 9 assault rifle or the M870 shotgun as their primary options, with the C75 Auto machine pistol or Super Shorty shotgun in the secondary slot.

Operation New Blood also brings balancing changes for Fenrir and Solis to address the two dominant Defenders. Fenrir will now only have four F-NATT Dread Mines to distribute, with two activation codes to deploy amongst them, and the mines will no longer be bulletproof in any state. This means fewer mines can be active at a time and they are easier for Attackers to remove. However, once a mine is destroyed, Fenrir will now be refunded the code instead of losing it, allowing him to more easily use the full complement of his mines. Additionally, his barbed wire option will be replaced with the observation blocker.

As for Solis, her SPEC-IO Electro Sensor will no longer be usable during the prep phase, giving droning Attackers a little more breathing room. Once the action phase is underway, the gadget will have a reduced duration of 10 seconds, as well as a reduced range of 12 meters; plus, it will need to be fully recharged before each activation. Finally, her Impact Grenade option is being replaced with barbed wire. Note that it will now cost Attackers about 5HP per second to move through barbed wire, so choose your steps carefully.