Rainbow Six Siege Update 1.24 Is Live on PS4, Xbox & PC

Now that the maintenance is over on PlayStation 4, and ending before 9am PT on Xbox One and PC, players have revealed that Rainbow Six Siege update 1.24 is a 7.05GB download.

With today’s new update, Ubisoft has added Operation Velvet Shell, the first major content drop of Year Two. It includes the free Coastline map, an updated navigation interface that makes all player activities available in one place, a personalized play button that remembers your last played option, operators Mira and Jackal, and more. Season Pass owners receive instant unlocks of Mira and Jackal, while everyone else will have to wait until February 14 for them to be unlockable with Renown or R6 Credits.

Here’s everything that’s new in update 1.24:

New Operators

Mira has proven her strength and endurance but her best asset is her knowledge in mechanics. She is specialized in armoring process for ballistic protection. Equipped with the Vector 45 ACP and ITA12L as primary weapons, she can find the weaker spot on any machinery and reinforce it.

Jackal has developed his expertise in tracking down HVTs and intercepting narcotics shipments with the G.E.O.s. Equipped with the C7E and PDW9 as primary weapons, he triggered an acute sensitivity relating to his environment, which enables him to spot irregularities rapidly.

New Map

Coastline (Free For All Players) – Team Rainbow has been called to safeguard the seashore of Ibiza, Spain. Two of G.E.O.’s most resourceful Operators have been selected to provide their unique tactical expertise to the unit. Stationed on Ibiza’s rocky shore, course through Balearic ruins and navigate booming bars to neutralize the threat. Get ready for a surround flow of combat laced with chaotic rushes as you explore a paradise gone wrong.

New Weapon Skins

Celebrate Year Two Season One of Rainbow Six Siege with four new Velvet Shell Signature weapon skins. Chupinazo, El Dorado, León Furioso and Crossfader are sleek, vibrant designs inspired by the colors of the Spanish shores.

Customization – The Elite

Mobilize for Year Two of Rainbow Six Siege with the next instalment of Elite sets. Rook’s Gendarmerie set embodies a sense of security with their sturdy Kevlar tunic and iconic ballistic helmet.

Each set includes a matching Uniform and Headgear, Operator Card, Operator Title, Charm, and a Signature Victory Animation. Explore unique facets of history with these special packages tailored exclusively for this Operator.

New Features

Updated Navigation Interface

The new design will make all player activities such as challenges, news, and boosters all available in one place. It will also offer a quick access to your last gamemode selection. “It’s our first milestone in terms of UI,” Creative Director Xavier Marquis said, “so it’s very exciting for us.” Another element that was modified is the place the Operators now occupy. Marquis explained this thematic change: “Looking back at what we’ve built up until Year Two, we wanted to celebrate our heroes. This was our chance to give them centre stage.”

Personalized Play Button

In the newly designed menu system, you will notice that the primary button on your home screen menu is a little different. It will remember your last played option and will appear there. So for example, if you last played a Ranked match, clicking the play button will send you queueing into a Ranked match. If you want to change up to Terrorist Hunt or Casual, you can click the arrow to the right of the button or select the “Play” tab in order to get the other options.

Dynamic Challenge Display

In the new menu display, you will find a new way to track and manage your challenges. Your progression for each challenge will now be updated in this button. You will see several progression bars that will fill up when completing an action that counts towards that challenge. Clicking this button will pop out a panel that will display all of your current challenges.

Updated News Display

The news carousel has also been updated with a new look and more info. At the bottom of the menu you will see a familiar rotating carousel as before, but we now have the ability to share more info directly in your home screen when you click on that news item. Once selecting the item, it will open a panel on the right that will have detailed info.

New Rank Display

For the start of Year 2, we are changing a few things in the way that we display ranks. Firstly, the ranks in each tier will now go from four to one as you get closer to the next tier instead of one to four. For example, the lowest rank in the Gold tier will be Gold 4 and the highest will be Gold 1. The reason for the change is because we feel as though this is a more logical progression with regards to rankings, which normally are displayed in descending order.

A more obvious change is we are introducing a new look to the rank icons. In the past, we have noticed difficulty in trying to determine which rank is which at a glance. This new design we hope will make it more clear who is a Silver 1 vs a Plat 1.

Improvements

Harmonization of Sights Positioning in First Person Camera

Since the game released, sights’ positions in first person camera (which defines the space they take on screen) were inherited from their third person camera position, i.e. the real position that the sights had on the weapon rails.

While this might seem logical as it is the most realistic approach, it also had a negative impact: depending on the weapon, using the same sight could lead to vastly different experiences.

Our intention is that each sight should be comfortable, different but equally viable, and that when you select a sight you have a precise idea of what it will look like whatever the weapon is. Because of that, we’ve harmonised all the sights positions in first person camera.

You’ll also find a large number of bug fixes in the update, as well as changes to Capitao and IQ’s standard gadget loadout: Capitao’s 2 Frag Grenades are replaced by 1 Claymore (he still has his 3 Stun Grenades), while IQ’s 3 Stun Grenades are replaced by 2 Frag Grenades (she still has her 3 Breach Charges).

For the rest of Year Two, you can expect Season Two in May, Season Three in August, and Season Four in November.

[Source: Rainbow Six Siege (1), (2), (3), (4), Reddit]