Solid Snake Joins Rainbow Six Siege: Metal Gear Solid Crossover Operator Guide | Operation Silent Hunt

Today, Ubisoft revealed one of the largest collaborations in Rainbow Six history: a partnership with Konami that will, for the first time ever, introduce an outside character as a new permanent operator – SNAAAAAAKE!

Solid Snake will join Rainbow Six Siege on March 3rd as part of the latest season, Operation Silent Hunt. The iconic hero will be voiced by the legendary David Hayter, known for voicing Snake throughout the series, up to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

Snake brings a range of gadgets, starting with his Soliton Radar MKIII, which allows him to pinpoint enemy positions, including the direction they are facing. This high-tech gadget is the first of its kind in the series and is likely to be banned frequently in ranked play. Snake’s gadget provides intel not currently available to attackers in the game. Along with the Soliton Radar MKIII, Snake will feature the TACIT .45 pistol with an integrated suppressor, the powerful F2 assault rifle, or the PMR90A2 marksman rifle, which is sure to pack a punch.

Snake isn’t done there. He will also have the ability to pick up utility pouches from fallen enemies or allies, adding to his arsenal of tactical weaponry with a secondary gadget mid-match. The Soliton Radar MKIII is Snake’s primary gadget, revealing enemy threats within the nearby range of the level you are on. It also offers other features to help players gain the upper hand. With a top-down schematic of the area, players will see a mini-map - another first for the game.

Green lines reveal the blueprint of nearby rooms, with dotted lines for soft walls and a striped background for soft floors. Default surveillance cameras are marked with yellow rectangles and a yellow cone indicating the camera’s field of view. Green means you are clear of threats, orange indicates a default camera is currently in use by an enemy player, and red means one or more players are close by and ready to be detected. Using Precision Mode, players can detect threats in real time, including the opposing team and the direction they are facing. Snake will launch with four uses of the Soliton Radar device per round, though this may change to three in the future. All of Snake’s audio cues, from alerts to other effects, evoke the iconic Metal Gear Solid experience.

With each new operator comes countermeasures, and Snake’s gadgets can be countered by several operators. Mute should be your main choice - though often banned - since standing next to a Mute device allows players to bypass Snake’s radar. Alibi’s Prisma holograms are detected as players on the radar, so smart use of a hologram could spell Snake’s downfall. Vigil’s ERC-7 Electronic Rendering Cloak can also bypass Snake’s radar, similar to Lion’s EE-ONE-D drone.

The Soliton Radar MKIII detects only default cameras. Bulletproof cameras, Valkyrie, Maestro, Mozzie, Skopos, and Echo cams cannot be detected by Snake’s radar.

Snake’s skill is unique in that he can have up to five different secondary gadgets. Frag grenades, stun grenades, smoke grenades, impact EMPs, and breach charges are all available for Snake to collect from fallen enemies or teammates. A fallen enemy or teammate will leave a utility pouch behind, granting Snake access to this pouch and allowing him to select which item to grab when interacting with the pouch or simply walking over it. Snake can only carry one item of each type at a time - no stacking frag grenades!

Players who purchase the R6S Battle Pass will have two weeks of early access to Snake starting March 3rd, while others will have to wait two weeks and purchase Snake with Renown or R6 credits. Snake isn’t the only one getting the Metal Gear treatment; Smoke and Snake will each unlock new cosmetics within the Battle Pass, and a special Metal Gear Solid-themed Dual Front assignment will debut the 6v6 mode’s final season.

A new in-game event called Redacted will be introduced, set on a Metal Gear Solid-inspired and modified map, featuring a new infiltration game mode. Redacted pairs two iconic stealth operators, Solid Snake and Zero (Sam Fisher), and will also add MGS skins for Jackal as Gray Fox and Ash as Meryl.

"We're excited to bring the world of METAL GEAR SOLID series into Rainbow Six Siege with Season 1's new Redacted event, a limited‑time 4v4 infiltration mode where Snake and Zero lead a team of elite operators to recover stolen data. Players will also discover exclusive skins such as Jackal as Gray Fox and Ash as Meryl, and we're thrilled to have David Hayter lend his iconic voice to Snake's in‑game cues" says Joshua Mills, Creative Director "The team also went a step further with 'Last Assignment', a new mission for Dual Front designed as a special nod to long‑time METAL GEAR SOLID series fans."

This may kick off Year 11 Season 1, but the Ubisoft team isn’t stopping there. More balance changes are coming to the game as well. The F2 assault rifle now features the addition of grips, Skopos has become faster with the boost to a three speed and quicker shell transitions, and can now punch through soft walls like Aruni.

Updated maps will continue with Villa, Coastline, and Oregon, and a 1v1 arcade event will be added mid-season. The full list of details can be found on the rainbow6.com site. In the meantime, let us know what you think of Snake joining the roster of R6S operators and the upcoming season in the comments below.