Rainbow Six Siege Operation Split Fire Launches September 1 With Shield-Countering Defender Noor

Ubisoft is rolling out Rainbow Six Siege's Year 11 Season 3, Operation Split Fire, globally today across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. Revealed during the Esports World Cup, the season is built around competitive play and a brand-new shield-countering Operator, according to the publisher's official patch notes.

Noor is an Egyptian Defender whose fiery Horus Lance Launcher is designed to break Attackers who rely on ballistic shields. When the projectile embeds in a shield, it ignites after a short delay and spouts flames directly at the shield-bearer, killing in seconds unless the Operator moves the shield aside. The launcher also sticks to reinforced walls, hatches, deployable shields, and Operator gadgets such as Osa's Talon-8, Castle's barricades, or Azami's Kiba barriers, producing two-way fire hazards and even destroying hard-breach gadgets when timed correctly.

The new Defender is a two-speed, two-armor Operator who can choose between the Commando-9 assault rifle and the Alda 5.56 LMG as primary weapons, with the 1911 TACOPS or Bailiff 410 as secondary options. His gadget slots are the deployable shield and barbed wire.

Beyond Noor, Operation Split Fire ships a wide balancing pass. Kali's scope magnification is reduced to 3.5x and 8x with a faster shot cadence and larger ammo pool. Dokkaebi swaps EMP Grenades for Breach Charges, and her Jegeo Payload can now be interrupted by Mute jammers. Lion's EE-ONE-D scan warning window shrinks, Echo's Yokai Drone recharges faster, and Kapkan's Entry Denial Devices hit harder. The patch also brings a new Legend Division ranked playlist aimed at the most competitive Siege players.

Two limited-time events round out the launch window. A 3v3 Arcade mode runs September 8 through September 21, with first-to-four rounds capped at seven, a 30-second prep phase, and no operator reuse after a round win. The Wasteland Circuit event runs September 23 through October 12, putting players through diegetic drone-racing tracks full of shortcuts and obstacles, with a Wasteland Circuit Collection of dieselpunk-themed cosmetics to unlock along the way.

Operation Split Fire is the first major content drop following the test server period that opened on August 17. Players can jump in via Steam, the Epic Games Store, the Ubisoft Store, or with a Ubisoft+ subscription on consoles.

Sources: Ubisoft News — Rainbow Six Siege – Operation Split Fire, Rainbow Six Siege — Operation Split Fire season page