Rainbow Six Siege’s newest free update unveiled on May 14 included balance changes, a map rework, and a new defender, Fenrir. Now less than a week after the operator released on the Rainbow Six test server, fans have already found a way to abuse Fenrir in a way the developers never expected.
Fenrir is a Swedish defender who can throw down up to five F-NATT Dread Mine gadgets that release a Fear Effect when attackers get near, severely restricting the player’s field of view.
The intended way to play with these gadgets is to place them in key chokepoints where attackers are expected to push like in stairways and doorways and play near to them. When activated, defenders can swing out to get an easy kill on an enemy who can’t see them.
Instead, players have realized the F-NATT mines work just as well as a more aggressive tool by throwing them out deep into the enemy spawn at the beginning of a round as illustrated well by Reddit user DansomeWoja on the Rainbow Six subreddit.
Fenrir is notified when an attacker walks into the range of his trap, meaning the defender knows exactly where an attacker is. The Fenrir player can then jump back outside and shoot down the attacker who has a restricted point of view and is likely panicking to find and shoot the F-NATT mine.
With players usually getting bottlenecked when leaving spawn areas, it is usually fairly easy to predict where the enemy is coming from, making it less likely the Fenrir player will be double-teamed from two angles as they run out to nab the spawn kill. Furthermore, with players eager to get into the game, the sounds of attackers sprinting from spawn are very likely to mask the very quiet F-Natt Dread Mine deployment sound.
The clips from the Reddit post above taking place on the newly reworked Consulate map show just how powerful this trick is. The first thing Ubisoft developers said about the new design during the Operation Dread Factor reveal was that the changes meant “If you want to spawn peek you’re gonna have to work an awful lot harder for it.” Six days later spawn-peeking is easier than ever.
Related: Consulate is getting a rework in Rainbow Six Siege Operation Dread Factor
There are some issues with this strategy, however, with Fenrir’s loadout being the biggest downside. Fenrir is a two-speed operator that has a choice between the MP7 submachine gun and the SASG-12 shotgun as a primary weapon. To spawn-kill, players will likely need to be able to control the MP7 over long ranges. Not too hard but awkward at lower levels.
Secondly, defenders are spotted by attackers after just one second when they go outside meaning a particularly level-headed attacker may be able to get a lucky blind fire kill through the Fear Effect, though the odds are definitely in the defender’s favor.
Finally, shield operators such as Montagne, Blitz, Osa, and Fuze can be a good counter to this strategy as even if they have a restricted point of view, any bullets should be deflected off the shield. This would likely require the attackers to preempt the spawn kill attempt, however, and would slow down the attack drastically as the four other operators try to stay behind the shield.
Nevertheless, as a surprise pocket strategy or against less coordinated teams, this is an incredibly strong tactic for Fenrir which many fans have called to be patched out of the game before the new season starts on May 30.
Ubisoft has been trying to decrease spawn peeks for some time now by decreasing the time defenders can stay outside without being detected, deactivating gadgets such as Valkyrie’s Gyro Cam and Maestro’s Evil Eyes after they’re placed outside, and prioritizing the removal of spawn peek spots when reworking Consulate.
With this in mind, it seems unlikely Ubisoft will let Fenrir run wild on attackers that have only just spawned in with the most common suggestion being that his mine should deactivate when outside like most other defender gadgets.
Nevertheless, with just over a week to go before Fenrir releases into the main game, Rainbow Six Siege fans should get ready for some very aggressive plays.
