Rainbow Six Siege's Operation New Blood introduces new Recruit rework, Marketplace & key nerfs

Operation New Blood, otherwise known as Y9S2, promises plenty of significant changes in Rainbow Six Siege, including nerfs to some of the most popular Operators, the full introduction of the Marketplace, and technically two new Operators thanks to the Recruit rework.

While Operation Deadly Omen served as a great start to the game's ninth year, the new season looks to continue the momentum into the halfway point with plenty of changes that you won't want to miss.

I'm seeing double here, four Recruits!

One of the biggest and most anticipated introductions in Y9S2 is the Recruit rework, which has moulded the formerly blank slate into two new Operators for each side.

Striker takes to the Attacking side, whereas Sentry will help you bunker up and protect the bomb on Defence. While they don't have any unique gadgets to boast, they can instead bring in two secondary gadgets - picking from the entire selection that their side has to offer.

This does have one small limitation, as players won't be able to double up, preventing you from stacking EMP Grenades, Hard Breach Charges, or Frag Grenades - but you'll still have plenty in your arsenal to hamper the opposition side's plans.

Both Operators only have a limited number of weapons to choose from too, but thankfully they're some of the easiest to use in the game, which should hopefully ease players into the Siege experience better:

While this might not have quite been the complete overhaul that some players were expecting, it's still great to see the Recruit in a better and more viable position, which should definitely help keep things simple when attempting to learn the rest of the intricacies. Who knows, we might finally get a Recruit elite skin now!

Big nerfs for Solis & Fenrir

It's not surprising to see both Solis and Fenrir both hit with the nerf hammer, as their overwhelming strength has defined much of the Defensive meta since their introduction - when they're not banned, that is.

As painful as it is to see two of my favourite Operators reduce in strength, these changes are ultimately needed and should bring them in line with the rest of the Defence without completely neutering their power.

Solis

• Solis can now no longer use her SPEC-IO Sensor during the preparation phase
• Gadget use time has also been reduced from 20 to 10 seconds, and you're unable to use it again until it has fully recharged
• The gadget's range of effectiveness has also been reduced

As you can see, these changes are some of the most significant we have seen in a while and have the potential to completely shift how you play Solis going forward.

One of her biggest strengths came from her ability to deal with drones. Many players would spend the entire prep phase with the SPEC-IO active, searching for drones to take out. This will now not be possible, giving Attackers a big leg up as they enter the map again.

You'll also have much less access to the gadget too, as its uptime has been halved and you now can't pop it on again until it's full. This greatly hampers your ability to actively check areas and situations, and will certainly change how I play Solis as I like to stay on top of areas when roaming by scanning areas repeatedly.

On top of this, the reduction to the gadget's effective range will also mean that you'll have to get closer to the action and run the risk of exposing your position if you're not careful. It was admittedly a bit too strong to see electronics as far as she previously could, and this could also reduce her effectiveness when dealing with targets outside.

Fenrir

• F-NATT Dread Mine count reduced from 5 to 4
• Number of activated Dread Mines reduced from 3 to 2
• Mines now lose bulletproof status after being triggered

Fenrir hasn't been hit quite as hard as Solis, but he'll still feel hurt by the nerfs above. These changes look to directly target the ubiquity of Fenrir's presence on the map, reducing both the number of active mines and the overall mine count.

One of the reasons why Fenrir is so universally banned is due to his ability to control wide stretches of a map with well-placed mines. He'll now have to be more precise with his placement, and sacrifice map control and intel to the Attacking side.

Perhaps the biggest change of the bunch comes with the partial removal of the bulletproof status once a mine has been activated. This gives Attackers a means of dealing with the gadget once you've already taken advantage of its powers, and creates a balance that's more 'fair'.

Hopefully, this should mean that Fenrir is actually able to be played in games going forward, as he won't quite be the fear-inducing Operator he has been since his release.

Head down to the Marketplace in Y9S2

Players have been able to enjoy the thrills of an open Marketplace in its beta state for a while now, but from Y9S2 it'll be open to all and official in a complete state.

If you're unaware, this Marketplace will allow players to trade their skins freely with other players, with R6 Credits being the currency of choice. Think of the Counter-Strike community market but with all of your favourite Siege skins.

This gives players the ability to buy whatever they want, but also make bank on skins that they don't feel like using any more. If you've got any ancient seasonal skins, rare Black Ice cosmetics, or even any limited and exclusive skins then you could be in for some serious bank.

Controversial new Membership gives players 'free' stuff

While it might not have gone down well at the announcement, the introduction of a new Rainbow Six Siege Membership is intriguing at least.

You'll get a bunch of rewards every single month, including access to exclusive cosmetics, Bravo Packs, and the Premium Battle pass with a nice headstart. Content hidden behind paid subscriptions hasn't been the most popular option within the community, especially when there's already so much hidden behind the Battle Pass and various bundles.

Stay up to date with everything else on our Rainbow Six Siege homepage, including all of the best Attackers and Defenders, and a full overview of the ranking system for Competitive.