Ubisoft revealed the second season of Rainbow Six Siege’s Year 8, Operation Dread Factor, which will launch on 30 May 2023. This season introduces Fenrir, a new Swedish Operator, a rework of the Consulate map, and important gameplay updates including a new Aiming Lane for the Shooting Range, a new permanent arcade playlist, and more.

Operation Dread Factor calls Fenrir, a new tactical Defender, into action with his F-NATT Dread Mine gadget. This shadowy gadget releases a Fear Effect gas that temporarily limits a person’s field of view. As a result, strategic placement of the device disrupt an attack, allow players to watch entry points, and cover their flank temporarily. Fenrir is a two-speed, two-health Operator, and his loadout features a MP7 or a SASG-12 as a primary weapon and a BAILIFF 410 as a secondary weapon.

The map rework for Consulate completely rebuilds the experience for players, transforming all floors and sites to make it more balanced, complex, and rewarding to play. The changes to Attacker spawns aim to reduce frustration and increase safety, so there are less vulnerable locations outdoors and Attackers can more easily make it from the spawn location to the building. The reworked Consulate map brings variety with each match, inspiring players to develop new tactics to master their approach.

New improvements to the Shooting Range make it the ultimate testing and training grounds for players with the introduction of a new Aiming Lane. This new lane allows you to master any weapon with customized training including several target types, movement speeds, distances and more. Also included in this update is a breakable wall, letting players test the destruction damage of different weapons. Year 8 Season 2 also brings a new permanent playlist letting players hop into Arcade modes for quick and unique matches whenever they prefer; returning game modes include Headshots Only, Snipers Only, Golden Gun, and Deathmatch. The new playlist will also introduce a new game mode called Free for All.

Balancing updates arriving this season include a new gadget, the Observation Blocker. This intel denial gadget projects a digital barrier blocking the line of sight of opponent drones and Observation Tools so they cannot spot Operators and devices on the other side. This barrier is only visible from a drone or an Observation Tool and will not be visible to Operators. This season introduces the first part of balancing for Grim and aims to improve his gadget, the Kawan Hive Launcher: letting his Hives release their swarm charge faster and increasing the chance of it catching a nearby Defender. The swarms are now bigger and stay for a longer duration, but they track a Defender for less time after they step out of the swarm.

Operation Dread Factor adds new controller layouts with alternate inputs for shooting, crouching, and leaning to make Siege a more comfortable gaming experience for everyone. Also coming this season is Free Camera in Match Replay, allowing players to use a free camera while watching their replays and letting them view recorded footage and create content from any angle. In addition, Squad members can now let the Squad leader know when they are ready to play, letting them skip the remaining timer and begin matchmaking.

Rainbow Six Siege is now available to play on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.