Rainbow Six Siege Clash: Y4S1 2019 update, what she can do and how to use her

Clash represents the first of her kind in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, as she's the only defender that uses a shield. This presents players with some interesting interactions, as well as a bit more variety in how a team defends their various objectives. However there is an art to using Clash's shield effectively and a recent buff has made her slightly more useful, so our guide will detail just how best to use it, recent changes, as well as go over the other tools she has for impeding the attackers' progress.

Clash operator guide

With effective use of our Rainbow Six Siege guide hub, you can get the most out of using Clash, but she also is relatively unique compared to the other defenders. She is especially good at making sure shots that are trying to target your allies are blocked. She's a bit more straightforward to explain than a lot of characters, but still has a few gadgets and interactions worth going over.

Clash's Stats

Armour: 3
Speed: 1

Clash's Weapon Loadouts

Her primary weapon is the CCE shield, which we'll go over in more detail in the skill section. Her two secondary weapons are the P-10C handgun and the SPSMG9 machine pistol.  A recent update has dramatically changed the SPSMG9, turning it into a fully automatic weapon, adapting the recoil to suit, and increasing the damage per bullet. To compensate for this, the 2-shot burst mode is gone and the total ammunition is now 121 rather than 161. The aim with this is to make her less reliant on team support to carry her through matches. That said, she still needs to equip each gun, rather than hip-fire with the shield up.

Realistically, though Clash is a lot more viable thanks to these changes, she's still very reliant on teammates to be as effective as she can be. We'll certainly see where she is once the player base has adjusted to the changes. One recent side effect has been that Clash has now lost the Muzzle Break attachment for the machine pistol.

Clash's Gadgets

Currently Clash has the impact grenades and barbed wire for her gadgets. Impact grenades can be useful for flushing out enemies that you've tunnelled into a corner, while barbed wire is good for herding players a particular route in order to better defend the point. Your teammates will probably appreciate the barbed wire a little more, but it's a personal preference as to which to use otherwise.

Clash's Skill

Clash's shield is a bit of a cross between Montagne's and Fuze's shields, in that it covers her entire body but can leave her somewhat vulnerable. It comes with the added benefit of being able to shock those who get too close, slowing them down and damaging them. The idea is to keep them at arms length, shocking them to allow for teammates to actually pick them off. This only affects enemies, so gadgets and drones are immune to the electricity. One interesting note is that the damage from the shield can spread from one target to another if they're extremely close to each other. It has limited capacity for the electricity, but is rechargeable.

There are a lot of caveats to this shield however. Firstly, because it's electrically charged, any EMP-like effects such as Thatcher's EMP grenades will disable the shock for a short time. She is also very vulnerable to melee attacks and stun damage, which will momentarily force her to move her shield, exposing vulnerable parts of her body to shoot. She can't even shield bash to retaliate, so don't get too close to enemies. Also, Capitaõ's crossbow is lethal thanks to her slow speed and reduced movement when using the shield.

Should I pick Clash?

With the shield comes a bit of versatility. Do you become a player that focuses on defending the point as much as possible, or do you accompany a dedicated roaming defender in order to protect them while they go about their stealthy business? Clash is however an operator that needs to be with others to use effectively, as she can get easily flanked while on her own.

She's definitely not the operator to pick for those looking to score kills, despite the overhaul of the SPSMG9, instead having more of a support role. In the right hands she can prove to be a nuisance for the attacking team.

Perhaps you'd like to know how she stacks up against other shield-based operators in Rainbow Six Siege? If so, check out our main Rainbow Six: Siege operators guide, which has links to each individual operator, as well as an overview on the more universally useful ones and which ones beginners should consider learning.