It’s 2021, and Rainbow Six Siege has 60 (!) operators. As Rainbow has recruited eight new spec ops friends each year, who to pick has only gotten more complicated. Modern Siege is full of laser gates and smart glasses, but good team composition still requires the basics: fraggers, supports, roamers, and anchors. No one operator fills each job perfectly. Sometimes a situation calls for the light touch of Maverick’s blowtorch over Ace's concussive water charges.
We want to help you overcome choice paralysis and guide you toward the best operators for your playstyle. Here's our at-a-glance look at the top picks in Siege's current meta, followed by a full breakdown of every operator's value on a well-balanced team.
Rainbow Six Siege: Best operators right now
As of July 2021, Rainbow Six Siege's meta is in a pretty good place. Ubisoft is continuing to hoist power away from defenders with more ways for attackers to deal with troublesome gadgets. Further changes are in the works that will allow attackers to re-pick their operator before a round starts, but for now, these are the top meta picks on attack and defense.
Attackers
- Ash: Point, shoot, explode.
- Zofia: Explosions and concussions.
- Flores: Blow up any gadget from afar.
- Hibana: The most versatile hard breacher.
- Twitch: How about that F2.
- Thatcher: The ultimate off switch.
Defenders
- Jäger: Grenade catching with an amazing rifle.
- Bandit: Anti-breach antics with speed and ease.
- Smoke: Versatile area control.
- Lesion: Poison traps that can win rounds.
- Mute: Jam up everything.
- Maestro: Laser-powered overwatch and a huge LMG.
The best Rainbow Six Siege operators, July 2021 log
Rainbow Six Siege Year 6 is in full swing for Season 2, North Star. Thunderbird has arrived alongside a new Favela rework (which is also coming to Ranked soon) and more experiments that are building toward a larger shift to the meta. Before the end of 2021, operators may be using gadgets after death and attackers may be switching operators in the prep phase.
In this North Star refresh, look for a new entry for Thunderbird as well as light refreshes to several operators to reflect recent changes.
Attackers
Very useful
Sledge & Buck
Sledge and Buck are two sides of the same coin, both accomplishing the same goal in different ways. They both excel at soft breaching: Sledge with his titular hammer, and Buck with his rifle-mounted shotgun. They’re both two-speed ops and both carry frag grenades, so the choice between them really comes down to the preference between Buck’s unmatched breaching speed and Sledge’s versatility. Bring one when you expect an enemy to pick an objective room with a soft ceiling, like Garage on Consulate.
Capitão
Capitão’s crossbow is a treasure trove of utility, bringing smoke bolts and fire bolts that aren’t countered by Jager’s ADS and are pinpoint accurate. Until recently, Capitão’s critical weakness was the lack of breaching. Now that he's been gifted a secondary hard breach charge, he's the Swiss Army knife of support. In a pinch, he can root out anchors, smoke off a defuser plant, or hard breach a path into site. Wowza!
Maverick
Maverick is a hard breacher like Thermite, Ace, or Hibana, but his playstyle couldn’t be more different. He cuts through walls with the subtle hum of his blowtorch instead of the piercing boom of a breaching charge. He excels at exposing Bandit batteries and Mute jammers on reinforced walls, but he can also dominate as a stealthy flanker, opening smaller murder holes to catch enemies off guard while his teammates draw attention from elsewhere. His versatile kit makes him a solid pick in almost any situation, but his blowtorch does take practice to use efficiently.
Ash
Ash is FPS comfort food: a pure run-'n-gunner with a powerful rifle and a lot of breaching power. Her greatest strength is the R4-C, which boasts all-around great stats with low recoil. Paired with her breaching grenade launcher that allows her to quickly open soft walls, she excels as a rusher who can overpower weaker defender weapons.
Thatcher
The perfect wingman for a good attack, Thatcher sets ‘em up so hard breachers can knock ‘em down. His EMP grenades can be thrown on the outside of a wall to disable electronic devices in its large radius. Most often, this is used to counter the electric reinforcement of Bandit and Kaid so that a hard breacher can penetrate the defense. Operators like Twitch can accomplish this task in riskier ways, but Thatcher’s EMPs make the job trivial. Against a savvy team, your hard breachers will be useless without Thatcher's support.
Thatcher’s 2020 rework does change things slightly, though. Now that Thatcher can only disable every gadget, it's easier for his grenades to potentially go to waste on a poorly timed breach that Bandit successfully tricks.
Zofia
Zofia is a powerful support and fragger combo. Her double-barreled grenade launcher has both impact grenades and concussion rounds that daze opponents when launched nearby. Zofia brings more utility to the team at the cost of weapon power and speed, but it’s an easy tradeoff to work with. On almost any composition, she’s an easy pick.
Viable, but not essential
Twitch
Twitch has what I consider to be one of the most thrilling roles in the game, because driving her shock drones is like its own metagame within Siege. It's hard to sneak the boxier, less maneuverable drone under the nose of a defense, and once it's there she needs to act fast: dismantling as many of the defenders' gadgets as possible before the jig is up. The shock drone is a powerful way to gather intel while also hindering the enemy, a role that she now shares with Sam Fisher's wall-piercing Argus cameras. But even when off the drone, Twitch sports a solid two-armor kit and the F2, one of the best weapons in the game.
Amaru
After a year of hooking into an early demise, Amaru's 2021 buffs have finally arrived. Now that she can ready her gun quickly after grappling through a window, she's a uniquely mobile attacker who excels and sudden entrances. She's the perfect offbeat pick against a team that's underprepared at the start of rounds or doesn't cover important regions of the map. She's also one of the few attackers with the new Hard Breach secondary charge, so things have really turned around for her.
Kali
Siege's second sniper confidently wields the CSRX 300, a powerful bolt-action rifle with a scope that magnifies 5X or 12X. It only takes one torso shot to down most enemies and a bullet can punch through seven walls. In a pinch, her LV Explosive Lance grenade launcher can take out anti-breach tech similarly to Thatcher. Her Lances are less reliable when facing the Bandit Trick and well-hidden Electroclaws, but they’re also great for destroying durable gadgets like Maestro's Evil Eye.
Nøkk
Nøkk’s combination of Caveria’s Silent Step and Vigil’s camera scrambler has always been tremendously useful, but an underpowered loadout made it hard for her to compete. After buffs to her kit in Year 5, Nøkk is in a much better place in the meta. Post-damage buff, the FMG9 is a pinpoint accurate laser beam with respectable damage. Shadow Legacy's new scopes have also giving her the 1.5X sight on her SMG, giving her a much-needed range boost. She now plays like the ultra-aggressive Caveira counterpart that she was originally billed as.
Gridlock
Two years after Gridlock’s introduction, she has proven an effective support pick. Her Trax Stinger traps can completely canvas flanking routes to protect against roamers, but her utility is stacked with smoke grenades and a secondary shotgun. She boasts high survivability at the cost of speed. In the hands of a cautious player, she’s a safety blanket that stays alive long enough to set her traps and assist with the defuser plant.
Blackbeard
Blackbeard has always been a divisive operator in the community. Players can’t seem to agree on whether he’s overpowered nonsense or mostly useless, and it’s because his gadget is so situational. His two mounted rifle shields essentially give him two extra lives at the cost of speed and ADS time, and in the right hands he is absolutely terrifying. If he’s holding a long angle or attacking a window from outside, he always has the advantage. A 2019 nerf slightly lowered the health pool of his rifle shields while also giving some of his speed back, but he remains a great pick when playing toward his advantages.
Jackal
Jackal's 2019 rework nerfed the effectiveness of his footprint-tracking Eyenox visor, but he remains good at hunting roamers, evidenced by his high ban rate in Ranked. Nobody’s location is safe from him, unless you’re the light-stepped Caveria. On the rare chance that you are allowed to play him, he also carries one of the game’s greatest assault rifles, the C7E, along with smoke grenades and a secondary shotgun.
Ying
Ying is all about overwhelming defenders with more flash grenades than they know how to deal with. Her three candelas each expel five flash grenades that can be rolled under a doorway, thrown into a room, or penetrate the other side of a soft surface. It’s a disorienting primer when pushing a site with proper coordination. She’s balanced by the low fire rate of her primary LMG, the T-95 LSW.
Glaz
In Year 5, Glaz went back to being the reliable sharpshooter he once was. The fire rate of his OTs-03 rifle has risen back up to its punchy consistency. The nerf to his smoke vision scope was partly reverted to make him an effective site pusher with an emphasis on caution. Enemies are highlighted in yellow at all times, but he needs to stand still to see through smoke.
Montagne
Montagne, lovingly known as Monty, is the attacker’s resident shield wall. His extending shield creates a barrier that few things can interrupt, so Monty is best used as a scout for spotting enemy locations while safely standing behind the shield. He doesn’t have many options when backed into a corner, but his powerful pistol can still contribute to a fight. The way shields interact with melee at close range is still inconsistent, so expect wonky behavior and occasional unfair deaths.
The GONNE-6 is a new secondary weapon for attackers with a single explosive grenade capable of destroying any bulletproof gadget.
Nomad
Another counter to roamers, Nomad’s Airjabs are fired from a rifle-mounted launcher and, when triggered by an enemy, push them onto the ground. When it comes to planting the defuser, there’s no better support pick. Her Airjabs don’t deal damage, but they do knock over victims long enough to pick them off without a fight. Nomad’s true power is that she does not have a real counter on the defender side. If the defenders allow her to cover a site in Airjabs, the round is essentially over.
Lion
Lion was in a bad place for a long time, but a 2019 patch finally reworked him into a reasonably powerful support operator. His full map scan has been tweaked to only ping enemies when movement is detected, similar to triggering Alibi's decoys. Defenders are still inclined to stand still during the scan, but it now it's over in a couple of seconds. He's far more balanced now and serves a real use, but he's still boring to play as.
His low-impact map scans have kept Lion near the lower-middle of the pack for a year, but his new secondary hard breach charge transforms him into a hybrid intel/hard breacher that can be effective against skilled roamers.
IQ
When it comes to enemy gadgets, nobody can provide more intel than IQ. With a communicative team, she can use her electronics scanner to warn friendlies of traps, expose certain roamers, and shoot Bandit batteries/Electroclaws through floors and ceilings. She lacks any other supportive utility, but powerful weapons and high speed gives her plenty of room to frag.
Finka
Finka’s adrenal surge ability is great for giving the team a boost to health and recoil before a fight. Even when randomly activated at the whim of Finka, her boost makes the team instantly tankier, which directly leads to more fights won. Her 6P41 LMG gets a huge power boost when combined with her recoil-reducing burst. Like Lion, her new secondary hard breach gadget legitimizes her as more than just an offbeat support op. On sites where big destruction isn't a worry, why not bring recoil/health buffs?
Dokkaebi
Similar to Ying, Dokkaebi has a strong support ability overshadowed by her lack of competitive weapons. Her Logic Bomb is a powerful tool that makes every defender emit a loud vibration sound from their phone. To anchors, it’s mostly a harmless annoyance, but the real value is how it reveals sneaky roamers. She can also hack the phone of a fallen defender to gain access to defender cameras for the rest of the round.
Her information warfare potential is unmatched, but her tradeoff is an awkward set of weapons. She can take either the Mk 14 DMR or BOSG slug shotgun. The Mk 14 is a middling DMR and the BOSG is more of a weird novelty.
Hard to make work
Fuze
The premise of Fuze's cluster charges make them seem powerful and exciting. In reality, experienced players have little issue avoiding these bouncing bombs, so instead, they’re best used as a way to destroy gadgets. But Fuze’s problem isn’t with his launcher, it’s with him. Even with his powerful assault rifle, he’s one of the only non-shield attackers with a one-speed rating. His slow running speed is definitely a factor to his low pick rate, but I’d argue the biggest hindrance is the extra noise that he makes. It’s important when attacking to make subtle movements to draw less attention to yourself, but the loud thud of Fuze’s boots can be heard a mile away. This is less of a problem for fellow one-speed Gridlock, who can cover her flanks with Trax Stingers.
Defenders
Very useful
Mute
Mute isn’t the flashiest defender around, but his impact can be immense. His signal jammers are extremely flexible since they can be placed anywhere with enough room and cover an impressive distance. Placed next to walls, a jammer can fill the role of Bandit with slightly less efficacy. On doors and windows, they’re great for jamming sneaky drones and troublesome claymores. His flexibility and respectable kit make him someone who's always useful, especially if there's a Ratero drone sneaking around.
Wamai
Wamai is a different flavor of Jäger. The South African defender throws frisbee-shaped MAG-NET traps that capture projectiles mid-flight, carries them to the device, and detonates whatever it caught. It doesn’t neutralize what it captures, but instead lets Wamai turn it against the attackers. He’s a wonderful remix of Jäger that encourages clever placement. Their functionality is more situational than the ADS, since attackers are more likely to discover and destroy a MAG-NET. Wamai gains more traps throughout the round, so he’s best played as a light roamer or anchor.
Mozzie
Mozzie can be a real nuisance for attackers in the right hands. His launchable Pest robots can be set as proximity traps to capture attacker drones or fired directly at them to nab them quickly. If you’re proactive, you can capture up to three and add a fleet of new cameras to your defense. He can also capture Twitch drones to turn their zappers on his foes or neutralize Flores' Rateros. It’s an incredibly powerful gadget that splits the difference between Mute and Valkyrie. Mozzie's deadly-accurate P-10 Roni SMG is one of the best around for quick headshots, too.
Pulse
Pulse is Siege’s OG information gatherer, and dozens of operators later, he remains one of the best. As long as every new op has a beating heart, Pulse will be able to see it with his scanner. He’s best utilized alongside a nitro cell, waiting for an attacker above and blowing it at their feet from below. He has no automatic way to call out the heartbeats he sees, so he can fall a little flat if the teammate isn’t on mic.
Mira
There used to be two eras of Siege: before Mira, and after Mira. When she released, her Black Mirror gadget opened up defenders to new strategies that powerfully lock down an objective. Merely placing her one-way bulletproof rectangle on a soft wall is a powerful deterrent because Mira is likely on the other side, watching for an opportunity to step over and strike.
Placing her mirrors in smart locations can take valuable time away from the attackers, but she also sports a powerful kit. Her Vector unloads its full mag in 1.5 seconds, but the fire rate and controllable recoil ranks it high among defender weapons. Her secondary shotgun (matching Jackal’s) lets her remodel walls without help from teammates and she even gets a nitro cell to further capitalize on her one-way information stream. With the gift of a 1.5X Scope on her Vector in Shadow Legacy, she can even compete at range.
Jäger
Jäger is a rare example of a defender without any obvious downsides. His gadget, the ADS, can be placed on walls and floors to zap away many different kinds of grenades and gadgets as they fly into a room. In the same way that Thatcher is a good companion for hard breachers, Jäger helps take away the advantage attackers try to achieve in altering an objective room. Nothing takes the wind out of Ash’s sails like throwing in a few flash grenades before a rush just to have them zapped away. A Year 5 rework slowed down his gadget considerably (it now zaps one projectile before going into a long cooldown), but he's still an integral part of a good defense.
Valkyrie
In the game of information warfare, Valkyrie is a top dog. Her three Black Eye cameras can be placed anywhere and provide a clear color picture and near-360 degree views of the map. Players are accustomed to hunting down her cams, but the best Valkyries mix up their hiding places and even toss them outside after the round starts. Giving the entire team three new vantage points is an incredibly valuable ability. As a counterbalance, her SMG is one of the weakest in terms of raw power. In the hands of a master and a team with good communication, Valkyrie remains indispensable.
Viable, but not essential
Rook
Rook is often only described as a great operator for beginners. While that’s true, he’s also just a great pick for most situations. His armor plates buff everyone’s health a bit and ensure that you’ll enter DBNO if you’re not shot in the head. For the already beefy three-armor anchors like Rook, the buff is appreciated but overall minimal. For one-armor roamers like Alibi or Caveira, the extra health can save their lives. He’s not a must-pick by any means, but can hold down the fort and help his friends survive. With a rework to Siege's health system due sometime in Year 6, Rook's ceramic plates may see some changes.
Melusi
Melusi is a thorn in the side of attackers. Her Banshee noise generators, ADS-sized trapezoids mountable on floors and walls, slow every attacker in their radius to a meandering walk until either blown up, hit with melee, or disabled. They’re an effective anchoring tool that make crucial chokepoints and hallways even more dangerous for attackers to brave. Her annoying dubstep alarms aren’t as essential as extra camera gadgets or breach denial, but she’s a wise pick against a team that moves fast (assuming she's not banned).
Goyo
Goyo's Volcan shields are a double-edged sword, and a very sharp one at that. His special deployable shields hide a red charge that explodes into a spread of fire when shot (or blown up by a grenade). Similar to Mira's Black Mirrors, anyone can use the shield if they're positioned correctly. But unlike a Black Mirror, a Volcan shield can roast you to death in seconds.
Positioned well, the Volcan shield is an effective way to deny a hallway or door to enemies. But if Goyo finds himself retaking an objective the attackers have taken over, there's a good chance his own gadget will get him killed. Even in the best circumstances, he's a risk. But his loadout choices of the Vector SMG and TCSG slug shotgun (plus a nitro cell) give him a ton of flexibility as a roamer or anchor.
Warden
Warden is designed to hard counter some of the attackers’ best support operators. His Glance Smart Glasses can see through the effects of flash grenades and smoke, abilities previously only held by Glaz and Ying. He’s a great answer to a team favoring flash/smoke entry, but his MPX SMG primary requires headshots to win most fights. His MPX can also equip the 1.5X Scope, a perk that Valkyrie doesn't share.
Maestro
Maestro has cemented himself as Siege’s ultimate anchor. His two Evil Eyes are bulletproof cameras that can also shoot laser beams that destroy gadgets and sting enemies. The durable cameras are a great help even without the lasers, but only Maestro can operate them.
His informational benefits are crucial, but his true power is the Alda LMG, the only of its kind on defense. It boasts some of the strongest stats on defense, and easily the largest capacity without having to reload. He can take on multiple opponents without needing a breather and excels at locking down the fort and knowing where the enemy is coming from.
Kapkan
Kapkan still feels inessential, but that doesn’t mean he can’t make a difference. His trip mines mounted on doors and windows are easier than ever to step into. The punishment for doing so is a harsh 60 health drop, which either kills you if you’re already damaged or puts you in a vulnerable spot for the rest of the round. His VSN SMG has some of the best balance between recoil and damage, plus his option of impact grenades or nitro cell adds some flexibility to how you want to play him. Any careful player can spot his traps easily, but he’s a fun pick against a team that favors rushing.
Alibi
Alibi is one of the more unique defenders of Siege. She places three “Prisma” decoys that project a full-sized fake Alibi that can fool enemies from afar. When the decoy is shot or walked through by an attacker (or their drone), their location is pinged for the next few seconds. It’s sometimes hard to tell if the decoys make a difference, but I still fall for them occasionally. It all depends on the situation: spread across an objective the decoys can be useful as alarms, and while roaming a crafty Alibi can use them to cover her tracks.
Caveira
Caveira is, by far, my least favorite operator to fight against. Her Silent Step ability dampens the sounds of her movements drastically, and her Luison pistol is deviously powerful. The worst part of getting bested by her is what happens after. If she’s able to pull off an interrogation, spotting every enemy on the map for a few seconds, it can easily win a round right then and there. Thorough droning and teamwork is the only way to reliably take her down. Experienced Cavs can interrogate enemies, stay undetected, and waste time for the attackers. If you let her get the better of you, good luck.
Doc
Playing Doc is like taking a more active role as Rook. His stim pistol can deliver three doses of 40 health from a distance, or self-apply. He can overheal for a total of 140 health, but the boost will deplete over time. He carries the same MP5 and P90 options as Rook, so he’s also a great anchor to take along. Since Doc usually stays near the objective, he’s best utilized after a fight or when roaming teammates come back to get healed.
Echo
Before Maestro, Echo was the only defender who spends the round mostly on cameras. His Yokai drones can jump up and stick to the ceiling. From there, it can fire sonic bursts that disorient opponents and interrupt gadget use. A recent tweak to his powerful drones eliminated their cloaking ability, forcing Echo to be smarter about placement. He's harder than ever to make the most of, but can single-handedly disrupt an attack in the best of times.
Ela
In 2021, Ela sits somewhere in the middle of the pack. Her Grzmot mines are traps that concuss and hinder attacker aim, but if you’re not nearby to capitalize on their detonation, they’re just fancy alarms. Her Scorpion SMG was the subject of a recent buff and subsequent nerf, but the end result is an easier recoil spread for its first few shots. There are better options for pure roamers, but her mines are a great tool against rushes and late-round attacker pushes.
Smoke
A popular pick with high-level players, Smoke is an anchor that takes finesse to maximize. His remote-activated poison smoke canisters are the best way to stop a defuser plant without exposing yourself. Though, they require good aim and precise timing.
Lesion
Lesion’s Gu mines provide a blanket of security across the map that can greatly disrupt (but mostly annoy) attackers. The mines are hard to notice when cloaked and force attackers to take a moment to remove the needle. Lesion becomes more useful the longer he lives since he earns more mines over time for a total of seven. In Year 5, Lesion’s Gu Mines were nerfed to not deal initial damage. Lesion also can’t see them through walls anymore, so his informational power has taken a significant hit. Still, a great loadout and useful gadget makes him dominant.
Vigil
Vigil is a stealthy roamer with somewhat opposite abilities to Caveira. Cav is strong when sneaking up on enemies but is foiled when spotted by drones. Vigil can’t step silently, but he can activate a backpack jammer that makes him disappear on cameras. Drones can still detect when he’s nearby, so enemies can still surmise where he’s hiding, but it gives Vigil a solid chance at fending them off. His K1A SMG hits hard and is controllable at longer ranges, so it feels kind of like Jäger’s 416-C.
Frost
Frost sets bear traps that snare enemies and take them immediately into a DBNO state. They can be saved by a teammate, but more often an enemy will finish the job. Her Welcome Mats are the most obvious trap in the game and can easily be disabled, especially after a 2019 nerf that lowered their health to 60. This is by design: it’s high risk versus high reward, but because of this her utility often goes to waste. In a fight her strange WW2-era SMG is alright, but its extremely low fire rate makes accuracy more important.
Castle
The reality of Castle’s bulletproof barricades is that they can hinder defenders as much as attackers if they're not placed wisely. On an experienced team, Castle can be a clutch pick to kill the attackers' momentum and punish a lack of breaching tools. He should be avoided by players who don't know the maps in and out.
Hard to make work
Clash
Clash is the only operator on defense with a shield, and it’s a really weird one at that. Her full-body shield can shoot taser bursts at enemies that slow them down temporarily. Unlike Monty, Clash’s shield can be meleed to knock it away and open her up for attack. She can’t shoot unless she puts away her shield, a process that takes longer than ever after a series of nerfs. After balancing, Clash is a useful support operator in the right circumstances, but a terrible anchor the rest of the time.
When a teammate is grouped up with you to help take out the attackers you’ve slowed, Clash can work as intended. But the rest of the time, you’re fumbling around slowing people without a good way to take them out yourself. She’s the very definition of “hard to make work,” but if you can pull it off, it’s a fun role to play.
