Rainbow Six Siege PS4 update 1.96 brings mid-season changes

As promised by Ubisoft earlier this week, the PlayStation 4 version of Rainbow Six Siege has received a new update.

Rainbow Six Siege update 1.96 is now available to download following some brief server downtime this afternoon. It includes not one but two lots of mid-season changes for Year 5 Season 3 which started on September 3rd, adding Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher as playable Operator “Zero”.

Microsoft recently confirmed that Rainbow Six Siege will join Xbox Game Pass. It has also been revealed that Siege will receive a next-gen update on Xbox Series X|S and PS5, boosting performance up to 4K and 120fps. Finally, one more bit of Siege news: fan favourite Operator Tachanka is currently undergoing a major rework and is available to play on the Test Server.

For the full patch notes, see below. Ubisoft has also posted designer notes on the Y5S3.3 update, explaining the motive behind these changes.


Rainbow Six Siege PS4 Update 1.96 Patch Notes

BALANCING

ACE

Ace couldn’t handle all the thirst from his fans.

  • Reduced the number of explosive ticks of the SELMA Aqua Breacher to 2 ticks (down from 3).

FROST

Shoot your shot(gun).

  • Added the ITA12S as a secondary weapon.

GLAZ

Lonely Russian sniper looking for some love.

  • 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 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

  • 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.

Source: Ubisoft

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Senior Editor bursting with lukewarm takes and useless gaming trivia. May as well surgically attach my DualSense at this point.