Let’s make something obvious straight away: I am not an elite Rainbow Six Siege player. In fact, I am barely average. I make more mistakes than I should after nearly 200 hours of game time as it’s really one of those games that takes a lot of practice to become even just okay at. That being said, I’ve played more than enough to put together some Rainbow Six Siege beginner’s tips, the stuff I wish I’d known when I first started.
During every crack cocaine binge session that I like to call a match of Rainbow Six Siege, I usually try to abide by some basic rules for myself on what to do and what not to do. My K/D and Ranked wins are certainly nothing to make a shrine out of, but ever since I started playing it properly, I have been getting better.
If you’re struggling to breach windows effectively or to just not having bullets in your head at every turn, here are some Rainbow Six Siege beginner’s tips that should put you on the right track.
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Rainbow Six Siege Beginner’s Tips
1. Stop running everywhere
Sound is a huge part of Siege, so the last thing you want to do is go tearing around buildings where you know enemies are never far away. You might have to put your impatience aside and crouch your way around; it makes you harder to spot and makes your footsteps almost silent.
2. Use a headset
Again, sound is a key part of the game, meaning that neglecting it or embracing it can tip the balance your way or against you. For the full Siege experience, use a headset to immerse yourself and to hear any pesky enemies creeping their way through buildings. Here are a few quick recommendations for headsets.
3. Practice keeping your crosshairs at the level an enemy’s head would be when crouching
It might not seem like it at first glance, but Siege is a game all about stealth. Go in loud and proud and you might be caught out. Most players will crouch their way around maps, so practice levelling your crosshairs at where their head would be when crouching. Headshots are one hit and you’re done.
4. Proactive shooting
Know there’s an enemy lurking around the corner? Start shooting before you turn it to get shots off before them. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the FPS and in a game of such tight margins, it can be a clincher to make the first move.
5. Let the attackers come to you in a tight match
Too many times have I witnessed my teammates pissing off away from the objective when we’re defending at a critical moment to rack up some glory kills. This is especially annoying when the opposing team is down to one or two operators as it’s easier for them to pick you off. Don’t go chasing the glory, play it safe.
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6. Penetrative operators are key
Some operators are more essential than others and others have useless gadgets, OP weaponry, and charming French accents. If you’re attacking, you will most likely need a some kind of penetrative operator, those that can breach through reinforced walls. Thermite’s exothermic charges can do just thatand Thatcher’s EMP grenades can disable any electronics. Maverick and Hibana can also get through reinforcements, though far less aggressively. You’re at a mighty disadvantage if you don’t have any of these operators on your team.
7. Everyone needs to pitch in when defending
Listen, Caveira mains of this world: you still have two wall reinforcements to use, don’t go immediately running off to prepare the spooks. The first thing all defenders should do is strengthen walls as comprehensively as possible near the objective while fending off drones. And, for the love of God, if a Rook puts down his plates, please pick them up. The attackers can use any leftover plates.
8. Learn your maps
This is probably the most important tip on this list. Trust me when I say that after I learned where to be and when on Siege’s maps, my stats significantly improved. If you’re still unfamiliar with Siege’s broadly different maps, you can actually set up a custom game with just yourself included to explore all nooks and crannies at your leisure. You can also use this site to refer to them all easily.
9. Use distractions
Probably the most satisfying win in Siege is pulling off an audio distraction, whereby you confuse your opponents by setting off a breaching charge at one point before actually entering the room at another. This leaves them incredibly exposed and vulnerable if they all have their crosshairs pointed on one location and can be especially handy during a nail biting 1V1.
10. Until you know the maps, don’t risk Fuze on hostage
If I’m attacking on Hostage, my buttcheeks always clench when I hear the familiar sound of Fuze planting his gadget. More often than not, the hostage ends up being killed, especially irritating in ranked when the score is close. Until you know the maps inside and out, it’s not worth the risk of using Fuze, and if you spot any newbies trying it, give them a slap from me.
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11. Use grenades carefully
Just like Fuze’s gadget, haphazardly lobbing grenades into a room is a pretty effective method if you want to lose. It isn’t even just on Hostage; fail to properly gauge your teammates’ whereabouts and you could have a couple of juicy team kills to add to your CV.
12. Cook your grenades
No, I don’t mean serve your death-in-a-ball with some garlic bread and soup. Holding down the button for grenades allows you to “cook” it, meaning that opponents will have a hard time trying to avoid it. Be warned, dilly dally with it for too long and you could be left feeling a little embarrassed when you end up exploding. I learned that lesson when I was playing with some elite Russian players, became confused with what they were saying and ended up letting my grenade explode in my hand.
13. Learn how to deal with shielded opponents
It’s always a bit dread-inducing to hear the clunks and clanks of a shielded enemy traipsing around the building, unless you know how to deal with them. They can be taking down pretty easily with a nitro cell, but that’s not the only way to surmount their ridiculous health and protection. You can flank them and take them out from the side, or, quite audaciously, melee them to leave them vulnerable and then pick them apart.
14. Don’t all bed down in one room when defending
Unless you’re on Hostage, you shouldn’t all be sat in the same room. One well placed onslaught from Fuze and most, if not all, of you can be taken out. Even if you have a Jaeger on your team, it can still be a bit risky. I would always recommend one member of your team being a roamer: a player who roams away from the objective trying to take attackers off-guard. You can rack up serious kills if you find a vantage point near where you know attackers are likely to try to breach – the Club House and Oregon maps are roamers’ dreams.
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15. Reinforce your breach points
It’s pretty obvious that you should reinforce walls when defending, but there spots that can be even more treacherous to your team when not guarded properly. If you know attackers can breach through the ceiling, prioritise that over walls as it could mean on breach points one too many, leaving your team overwhelmed and exposed.
16. Exploit all breach points
On the other side of the coin, you should always use as many breach points when attacking as you can. Thermite is perfect at opening up paths and can cause serious destruction and distractions. Instead of breaching through one wall and having the team pour in through it, open up many, making the defending team panic as they don’t really know where you’re coming from. Placing Thermite’s special charge on one point and then using a standard breaching charge at another before simultaneously activating them is the perfect way to get the enemy flustered. Better yet, work with a Sledge to open up a few more holes.
17. Learn camera placements
When attacking, the first thing you should do off spawn is to destroy any exterior cameras. This will ensure that the defenders are unsure of your approach, making it far easier for you to get close to the objective without getting spawn peeked, which is not fun. Cameras flicker blue when they are being used; jump into a custom game to learn camera placements across Siege’s many maps.
18. Don’t let your drone die
Once you’ve found the objective in the preparation phase, don’t just drive around in circles and taunt the defenders. Instead, place it hidden near the objective so that you can easily refer to it to find out where the defenders are hunkering down later in the match. Don’t forget that you also have an extra drone to utilise if your preparation drone gets destroyed, though if your first drone is still active, you won’t be able to use it if you chuck out a second.
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19. Don’t clump up
One of the most aggravating things about Siege is that some players are too obsessed with thirsting and getting skills to consider their positioning. If you see a teammate holding a position, do not run out in front of them to see what they’re looking at to try and snag the kill instead. Friendly fire is very much a thing in Siege, and there’s nothing more annoying than you possibly getting penalised because a teammate wants to boost their K/D.
20. Hold angles like they’re your whole life
Siege can be all about fine margins with tiny pixels making all the difference. Holding a doorway or window ensures that you will have a better chance of getting the drop on an opponent, and you should be liberally using the lean mechanic to get the best possible angle. Sometimes Siege matches can come entirely down to who holds their nerve the best when holding angles, though it definitely requires some patience to get the hang of.
21. Resist tagging
When you spot an enemy on a camera or drone, you have the option to tag them to show them as a red icon to you and your teammates. This is quite hard to avoid with silent randoms, but all good squads will instead use verbal comms to let each other know where enemies are. This is because tagging will let enemies know they’ve been spotting, meaning that they will likely destroy the camera(s) and take a useful resource away from you.
22. Sometimes a hole isn’t bad
Yes, this point does run counter-intuitive to everything I’ve been saying so far about reinforcing, but sometimes a hole in a wall can be a surprise element for attackers. Use your impact grenades as a defender to instantly make a hole, or chip away at a wall with melee to make a smaller one. Having an open wall can be useful as it allows you to shoot out and then retreat to safety fairly easily. You can use traps, such as Frost’s bear trap, near the hole to make it harder for attackers to turn the tactic against you.
23. Don’t overlook attachments
Attachments are inexpensive and universal in Siege, meaning that if you buy one attachment once, you can then use it across all weapons that support them. Remember to play around with your attachments and see which one suits you best in terms of recoil, spread, and so on. Similarly, resist using a red dot sight as they’re somewhat pointless and can just give away your position.
After some top tips from actually decent players and not just a scrublord like me? Check out Matimi0 on YouTube, the guy is disgustingly decent at Siege and always has helpful videos on how to get ahead.
MORE SIEGE:
– 10 Reasons to Buy Rainbow Six Siege
– Rainbow Six Siege, I Was So Wrong About You
– Is Rainbow Six Siege’s Community Toxic?
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