A season change is coming soon for Rainbow Six Siege: Operation North Star was recently announced. The focus of the second season of year 6 is the neue Operatorin Thunderbirdthat has the potential to have a decisive influence on matches – on both sides.
Thunderbird and many other changes from Operation North Star can already be played on the Rainbow Six Siege test server. Here’s a summary of what awaits you in the next season:
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R6 Siege: The most important innovations from North Star
The capabilities of Thunderbird
Thunderbird is a defender with three points in speed and one point in defense. It is therefore fast, but can withstand relatively little. But she doesn’t have to, because the North American native of the Nakoda Nation has a practical gadget at hand.
Die Kona Station: This is a placeable healing station that heals players in the immediate vicinity for 30 life energy – even over-healing is possible. The station consumes one ball for each healing, which then has to be recharged for 35 seconds. Permanent healing is therefore not possible. In return, players who have fallen to the ground can use such a healing ball to set themselves up again.
Basically, Thunderbird takes on a role similar to Doc, but could even drive him away. The rainbow expert and Youtuber Jericho Five describes Thunderbirds and says: »So can [die Kona Station] more than Doc and … even better. “
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Rainbow Six: Siege shows the new operator Thunderbird for the first time
Armament: In addition, from a defender’s point of view, Thunderbird can fall back on powerful weapons. The Spear .308 assault rifle, which is otherwise only carried by the attacker Finka, is used. According to the expert BikiniBodhi, the weapon roughly corresponds to the damage done by Jäger’s assault rifle. Thunderbird may only use 1x scopes, but the defender should still be able to hold long corridors against attackers due to the range and damage of assault rifles.
As an alternative, Thunderbird can use Caveira’s Spas-15 shotgun. In connection with their high speed, both weapons represent a strong armor that makes the new defender an unpleasant opponent. In addition, she is allowed to take impact grenades or a nitro cell with her.
The opera tor’s equipment is pretty strong all around, which the Youtuber BikiniBodhi acknowledges with a somewhat incredulous: “… what the heck ?!” In the video by Jericho Five you can see Thunderbird’s abilities in action:
Link to YouTube content
Thunderbird influences both sides
In addition to its obvious strengths in terms of armament, the Kona Station is above all, which should make Thunderbird a much-played (or often banned) operator in the future. So far, on the defender side, only Doc could heal other players with his healing pistol – although its use was very limited.
Thunderbirds healing stations are less mobile, but much more powerful if they are well placed. A single shot, explosion, or Twitch’s shock drone can easily destroy the station. Thatcher’s EMP grenade, however, only deactivates them temporarily.
In total, Thunderbird has three Kona stations that have a lot of healing power and unlimited “ammunition”. In the following clip from the English-speaking colleagues from PC Gamer two of the stations are so close to each other that the player can heal himself from 5 life points to 65 – an immense advantage and not previously possible in this way:
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Be careful when placing: This advantage can also become a disadvantage at the same time, because the Kona Station does not differentiate between friend and foe. Anyone approaching it will automatically receive healing, if available.
It is precisely here that Thunderbird can have a decisive influence on the outcome of a match. If, for example, an attacker has just fallen to the ground and has not yet been eliminated while the last defender destroys the defuser, the attacker can revive himself at the station and still win the round. A similar scene can be seen particularly well in the video of BikiniBodhi in minute 3:33, in which an opposing player who was switched off revived himself again:
Link to YouTube content
What about doc? Thundersbird’s abilities and weapon choices are already certain Player on Reddit agree, make her a fairly powerful operator on the test server and great competition for Doc, the other healing defender. In terms of speed, gadgets and weapons, Thunderbird is currently far superior to the Season 1 operator on the sheet of paper.
“Thunderbird has overtaken Doc in every way,” he says Reddit user MrTopSecret and fears for the operator balance. However, the last word has not yet fallen regarding the new heroine.
At the moment Thunderbird can only be played on the Rainbow Six Siege test server. The development team can still make changes until the release of Operation North Star, which is expected to take place in mid-June.
