Looking for more details on the Rainbow Six Siege battle pass? Fortnite’s highly successful battle pass model has been replicated many times across the battle pass genre, and Ubisoft are looking to the system as an additional means of driving player engagement and funding ongoing support for Rainbow Six Siege. Unlike Fortnite, the Rainbow Six Siege battle pass doesn’t appear to be adding puzzle-based challenges, but it will boast two tracks of progression: one free, one premium.
The Battle Pass is not set to arrive until the end of Rainbow Six Siege Year 4, but in the meantime Ubisoft is committed to testing out the new monetisation system by testing out a free Mini Battle Pass called the “Call me Harry”. This first phase of the Battle Pass arrives alongside the Rainbow Six Siege Ember Rise release date, runs for seven days and includes seven tiers. This Mini Battle Pass will also provide some story snippets about the new director of Rainbow Six Siege, Dr. Harishva “Harry” Pandey, plus a neat chibi charm of Harry if you manage to complete all seven tiers.
Progression hasn’t been covered in much depth by Ubisoft, but we do know that players will progress through tiers by earning Battle Points, which can be gained through standard gameplay. It’s not currently clear if challenges will feature at all in the Rainbow Six Siege Battle Pass, but it seems highly unlikely given the competitive nature of Siege. To ensure you’re fully clued up before the Battle Pass comes out, here’s everything we know.
When does the Rainbow Six Siege Battle Pass release?
The full Rainbow Six Siege Battle Pass will release in Season 4 of Year 4, which is roughly at the end of November, 2019.
What rewards will players get from the Rainbow Six Siege Battle Pass?
A short video preview of the Battle Pass from Ubisoft gives us a rough idea of what to expect, including motion comics detailing the backgrounds of fan-favourite operators, plus weapon skins, charms, operator skins, headgear, what looks like a new wristwatch interface, XP boosters, and Alpha Packs.
We spoke to Rainbow Six Siege presentation director Alex Karpazis at the Raleigh Major 2019 in order to learn a bit more about the Battle Pass. “The Battle Pass solves a couple of things for us,” says Karpazis, “one is a new progression that’s removed from your rank and clearance level, and it’s also a new way to reward players for logging in and playing. We want to be generous so that players keep coming back to the game.”
Karpazis also says that Ubisoft want to use the Battle Pass as a means of “injecting story” into the game, but that story content won’t be locked behind a paywall. According to Karpazis, at the start of Year 4 Season 4 “you’ll have the motion comic you can watch right from the get go, and you can preview and read the story for all of the items in the Battle Pass as well”.
How much is the Rainbow Six Siege Battle Pass?
There’s still no word on the Rainbow Six Siege Battle Pass price. The test version that launches in Season 3 is completely free, but we’ll have to wait until Season 4 to learn more about the cost of the premium Battle Pass track.
How long is the Rainbow Six Siege Battle Pass?
Alex Karpazis says that the full Rainbow Six Siege Battle Pass that launches in Season 4 will run for “three to four weeks”, which is only a short portion of a standard Rainbow Six Siege season.
And that’s everything we know about the Battle Pass right now. Ubisoft is clearly ramping up its narrative efforts with Rainbow Six Siege, and this new progression system looks like an excellent way of adding rich story snippets to the game that players can ignore if they choose.