Rainbow Six Siege’s fourth “season” of Year 3, Operation Wind Bastion, was announced early last month, but Ubisoft had been somewhat cagey about the update’s release date. This was likely due to Ubisoft decision to scrap planned Siege aesthetic changes  – reverting the visual tweaks had the potential to delay the update, but it seems that didn’t end up happening. Operation Wind Bastion should be available to most players as of now.

　　Scheduled Maintenance - Tuesday, December 4th for platforms

　　PC: 9:00am EDT / 13:00 UTC

　　PS4: 10:00am EDT / 14:00 UTC

　　XB1: 11:00am EDT / 15:00 UTC

　　Expected downtime: 1 hour

　　- Deployment of Operation Wind Bastion

　　- Wind Bastion Patch Notes > https://t.co/BIZNB6FQqW pic.twitter.com/N7BpbYCmd5

　　— Rainbow Six Siege (@Rainbow6Game) December 3, 2018

　　Operation Wind Bastion takes place in Morocco and includes two Operators, Kaid and Nomad, a new map, weapons, pro-team skins, and plenty of tweaks and little improvements. You can check out the Operation Wind Bastion update notes below:

　　New Content

　　Operators

　　Kaid

　　Gadget: “Rtila” Electroclaw

　　Kaid’s "Rtila" Electroclaw can electrify reinforced walls and hatches, barbed wire, and deployable shields, making it tougher for the enemy to breach the Kasbah and any facility he’s tasked with protecting. He enters the field with three of these throwable gadgets. Once they’ve attached themselves to a surface, they each electrify metallic objects within a 0.75 meter radius.

　　Nomad

　　Gadget: Airjab Launcher

　　Nomad’s custom rifle attachment allows her to launch Airjab repulsion grenades. They can explode midair when in close proximity to an enemy or they can stick to a surface and detonate later, again when an enemy is within range. Nomad enters the field with four Airjab grenades. These pushback devices are non-lethal but they disorient those affected.

　　New Map: Fortress

　　Welcome to Kaid’s Fortress. This large daytime map features a mudbrick kasbah and iconic architecture unique to the southern region of Morocco.  Based on real and existing structures, the many exterior stairs provide unprecedented access to the roof and drop-down points via the towers. Housed within the fortified and bare walls of the Kasbah are two floors of living and training space, each with its distinct rooms and halls. The multiple stairs and a ladder allow for rotations between floors.

　　Players will find both renovated and non-renovated areas on this map. The Art Team aimed to make the two sections distinguishable from each other, allowing players to better orient themselves in the Kasbah at any given time.

　　Wind Bastion Weapon Skins

　　Operation Wind Bastion features rich materials and artistic detailing with North African influences. The seasonal weapon skins are the humble Terra Cotta, the intricate Painted Floral, and the dignified Baroque Exalted. These will elevate your loadouts to new heights.

　　Pro Team BDU And Headgear

　　You can now support your favourite pro league teams by representing their colours.  During the previous Season, we released Pro Team weapon skins and charms. With Operation Wind Bastion, you can now acquire a matching BDU and Headgear to deck out a specific Operator from head to toe to cheer on your favourite Team.

　　Operator Balancing

　　Mute

　　SMG-11 has been added as a secondarySlight increase to SMG-11 DamageWe want to make Mute slightly more attractive as a choice, and make him a bit stronger overall. Giving him additional loadout versatility should meet both of those needs.Clash

　　Electric Damage increased from 3 to 5 damage per tickWith the last few patches, we wanted to make Clash less frustrating to play against. She is now very weak and underpicked, and we anticipate that Nomad will be a hard counter against her. Essentially, we are trying to make her stronger without making her too frustrating to play against.Smoke

　　Slight increase to SMG-11 DamageSmoke has incredible utility if used properly, but still a bit weak. Mute will also benefit from this change.Lesion

　　Slight decrease to T-5 SMGLesion is currently in a pretty good place, but is just a bit too strong. We are reducing his damage to bring him more in-line with where we would like to see him.Zofia

　　Reduced the total number of concussion grenades from 3 to 2Zofia currently has too many projectiles at her disposal, and is able to offer too much utility when compared to her teammates.General Tweaks & Improvements

　　Throwable Gadget Trajectory Change

　　We have changed the throw curves for throwable gadgets to be easier and more comfortable to use. All throwables now use this new curve except for the Nitro Cell. The Nitro cell is not using this new curve, as it will be classified in a different category defined as “heavy throw”. The throwables classified under heavy throws will not reach as far as the “regular” throw.

　　Operators

　　Kaid’s Rtila ElectroclawsAlibi’s PrismasEla’s Grzmot minesYing’s CandelasLesion’s Gu minesValkyrie’s Black EyesThatcher’s EMP grenadesSmoke’s Remote gas grenadesStandard gadgets

　　Stun grenadesFrag grenadesSmoke grenadesPlayer Comfort

　　Area Of Effect Feature

　　Beginning with Operation Wind Bastion, we will be implementing a new Area of Effect feature for Kaid and Nomad. This is designed to help new players better understand the area of effect when deploying a gadget. This will only be visible for the Operator placing the gadget. We also recognize that experienced players may not be interested in the visual feedback presented by this change, so players will have the option to disable it in the settings menu. As of right now, this feature will only be available for Kaid and Nomad, and do not currently have plans to add this feature to past Operator’s gadgets.

　　Game Health

　　SSAO Graphics Feature Change

　　We currently have two different SSAO techniques to render Ambient Occlusion: SSBC and HBAO+. Lately, our 3D team has been working on replacing the HBAO+ with a improved SSBC+ technique. We have done this because we want to have control on what is rendered on screen. Overall, this will give us greater control over the implementation of graphics options across all platforms, and enables us to increase the overall quality of image rendering across the board. There is no noticeable difference in performance between SSBC+ and HBAO+.

　　If you’d like to know about every single minor bug fix, you can check out the full, unabridged Wind Bastion update notes, right here.

　　Rainbow Six Siege is available on PC, Xbox One, and PS4.