XDefiant’s first season to feature Rainbow Six faction, ranked mode, and heaps of new content

Shields up.

End of an Escort mission in XDefiant.
Image via Ubisoft

Following leaks earlier this month, Ubisoft confirmed today that the GSK faction from the publisher’s other major shooter franchise, Rainbow Six Siege, will arrive in XDefiant with the launch of season one this summer.

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The GSK faction will be playable when season one of XDefiant launches on July 2, with a full gameplay reveal scheduled for the day prior. The operators appear to be Bandit, Jäger, and Blitz from the GSG-9 faction in Rainbow Six Siege. Blitz is instantly recognizable with his trademark large police shield that uses flashbang technology. The gameplay trailer also features a faction ability that looks similar to Bandit’s Shockwire ability icon.

The new faction is just a single highlight of the new content coming to XDefiant in what is technically its first full season. Three new weapons—a sniper rifle, a shotgun, and Blitz’s blinding police shield—will be added as free additions. New maps in Clubhouse, Daytona, and Rockefeller are set to be added as well, with one coming each month.

Capture the Flag will join the list of game modes in season one, and it’s expected to be included in the modes playable in Ranked, which finally graces the servers in full. Up until this season, players have only had access to a trial version of Ranked.

XDefiant has gotten off to a strong start already, and the first full season of the game has the chance to build on the early success, though the task won’t be easy with excitement building toward the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

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Scott Robertson
VALORANT lead staff writer, also covering CS:GO, FPS games, other titles, and the wider esports industry. Watching and writing esports since 2014. Previously wrote for Dexerto, Upcomer, Splyce, and somehow MySpace. Jack of all games, master of none.