Rainbow Six Operation Brutal Swarm details: Grim release, Stadium in ranked, more

Rainbow Six Year 7 Season 3 is here. Named Operation Brutal Swarm, players will be treated to new Operator Grim, a brand-new map in ranked, and plenty of gameplay changes. Here’s all you need to know.

As Rainbow Six Year 7 nears its halfway point, Ubisoft are continuing to pump out the changes. With 2022 marking a drastic uptick in new content such as maps, players were expecting something similar for Season 3.

Most of the new content has been delayed until later in the year, but Operation Brutal Swarm is set to boast plenty of long-awaited balance changes. And yes, Ubisoft wouldn’t dare skimp on missing the new operator, Grim.

Here’s what we know about Operation Brutal Swarm in Rainbow Six Siege, including when the Year 7 Season 3 update is bound to drop.

Rainbow Six Operation Brutal Swarm release date

Rainbow Six’s Operation Brutal Swarm will go live on the TTS on August 26, 2022, before shipping to live servers on September 6, 2022.

This comes after its reveal at the Six Berlin Major, which showcased everything players need to know about the Year 7 Season 3 update.

What’s coming in Rainbow Six Operation Brutal Swarm?

New Operator: Grim

Operation Brutal Swarm will bring the long-leaked Singaporean Operator Grim to the table in Rainbow Six Siege.

An attacker, his unique gadget, the Kawan Hive Launcher, brings “micro-tech” gadgets into Siege — something Ubisoft has long wanted: “We thought it was a very rich fantasy that leads to really interesting visual experiences,” gameplay design director Jeremie Carvin said.

The canister Grim’s gadget is contained in is bulletproof and can be deployed on any surface — wall, floor, or ceiling. He gets five of them, and the swarm of bees that follows reveals any defenders nearby. They’ll be tracked in live action, like Lion’s tracking, and they’ll also be debuffed with visual clutter and a lingering ping, similar to Alibi’s, once they leave the swarm. It can be stopped by Mute jammers though. Wamai and Jager can also stop it, as well as electricity.

He boasts the 552 Commando assault rifle as a primary weapon as well as being three-speed, making him very lethal to follow up on the gadget. Other options include the SG-CQB shotgun, as well as the P229 sidearm.

Grim is also part of Nighthaven, which is getting a big lore drop during the season. The section of Team Rainbow left by Kali is often seen as the ‘antagonist’ of the franchise, and could lead to some interesting interactions once it’s all made public.

Balance changes for LMGs finally arrive, but no Finka changes confirmed

While originally planned for Operation Vector Glare, the balance changes for LMGs in Rainbow Six Siege were delayed slightly as Ubisoft worked out how they wanted to approach it. Now their targeted solution is ready for Operation Brutal Swarm in Year 7 Season 3.

Creative director Alexander Karpazis added during the presentation Operation Brutal Swarm is “the season of balancing”.

The recoil system is being reworked with increased spread that staggers as you unload more bullets in a single spray. Both vertical and horizontal recoil are being increased to reward good trigger discipline, control, and crosshair placement. However attachments will have more affect on recoil — and there’ll be way more customization across all guns.

“We’re now making sure that burst-fire is the favored way to approach any kind of 1-on-1 interaction,” Karpazis said. “We looked at sustained fire and it has a lot of randomness that doesn’t answer to what the core of Siege is.”

That’s not the only balance change either. Ubisoft is implementing a new secondary gadget with Impact EMP Grenades on their way ⁠— something that could shake up the meta given Thatcher’s dominance.

Rook’s armor plates can now give players Withstand once they equip it and are put in a DBNO state.

PC and console will also be tuned separately from hereon out, rather than controller players dealing with the same changes as their mouse and keyboard counterparts.

As for Finka, no changes were highlighted as part of the official Y7S3 reveal.

New map delayed until Y7S4, but Stadium added permanently

The delays continue with the planned map release for Year 7 Season 3 ⁠— locked in at the start of the year ⁠— has also been pushed back three months to the final update of 2022.

However to compensate Ubisoft are adding a new map to the competitive map pool, Stadium. Once only available during events, the merge of Coastline and Border will be coming in a more permanent fashion across all playlists.

Developer Josam L Rene explained the map has been slightly reworked for ranked play: “We brought up the lighting so it’s less dark, distributed the spawns so they’re equal.”

Ranked rework also postponed

And finally, also not coming in Year 7 Season 3 and Operation Brutal Swarm is the Ranked 2.0 rework.

“As Y7S3 approached, we realized Ranked 2.0 would benefit from a little more time, so we’ve made the difficult decision to push its release back by a season. This way, we can ensure that the revamp to Ranked that you get in Y7S4 is the strongest it can possibly be,” Ubisoft stated.

Expect more details on that later in the year.