S21 COMMENTARY AND THOUGHTS

Greetings, /Diablo!
As the flavorful text of the Season ever so eloquently puts it, the air is thick with demonic stench, and Sanctuary crackles with elemental chaos - the Trial of the Tempests is nigh! This Season's power, as you might have already realized, evokes the S19 theme of devastating procs that dictate the flow of battle. Unlike S19 however, where those powerful effects were beholden to the mayhem of your own character, this time they answer to one thing only - the unrelenting flow of time itself!
Or, in short, it's a time-based proc. Of reasonable power, and quite a bit of RNG. We think. Its final version was never really shown on the PTR.
But I digress! It would be a lie to say I didn't have fun with S19's screen-obliterating procs, and if S21 manages to take me back to those blissful, post-D4 announcement BlizzCon days, I would be satisfied. Once again, we have two new sets to play with, and much like Season 20, it feels like one of them got the short end of the stick.
Necromancers got the Masquerade of the Burning Carnival set, a valiant attempt at freeing the class from the Land of the Dead, hyper-cooldown optimization tyranny. To the developer's credit, the playstyle is well constructed, and despite my early PTR gripes that "it's another Bone Spear thing, Pestilence exists, grr!", the interplay with Simulacrum provides just enough of a difference to really make it stand out. The changes to Simulacrum as a whole are one of the patch's highlights, and it finally stands toe to toe with other summoner options for Necros in terms of flavor, flexibility and enjoyment to play. And even though a considerable bump in damage would reaaaally be nice, I can't imagine Necromancers would be displeased by S21 - not after seeing how the new Legacy of Dreams-based Corpse Explosion and Poison Scythe builds trample the highest tiers of content.
Demon Hunters got the real sweet deal in my book though. I have long championed Strafe as the coolest skill in the class' arsenal (I might have watched the Matrix one too many times as a kid), and even though you could and maybe even did play a RoV Natalya's build with it back in the day... it just never really did it justice, did it? (No wonder Natalya DHs jumped ship to Rapid Fire first chance they got.) Now we have the real Strafe set in the face of Gears of Dreadlands, and I will be rocking this stylish 6-piece in order to style on demons and make pincushions out of them all Season long! I only wish Chakram got some love alongside Hungering Arrow and Bolas, but eh - there's always next Season.
Have a great Season 21, and as always - happy hunting!
-Deadset

>>LIST OF DETAILED GUIDES EVERY CLASS AND EVERY ACTIVITY<<

(No, really!)
 

THE COOL NEW STUFF, AND OTHER CLASS' HIGHLIGHTS

DEMON HUNTERS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: The Shadow's Mantle
Gears of Dreadlands - Hungering Arrow (and Bolas!)
Using the powers of the Gears of Dreadlands set, this Demon Hunter build combines the deadly precision of Hungering Arrow with the elegance of movement and battlefield maneuverability of Strafe. The end result is one of the most versatile, agile and honestly - just visually appealing playstyles in the game. Whether the interactions with Valla's Bequest are intended or not remains to be seen, but this is a guaranteed contender for the most played build this upcoming Season, and with good reason!
Gears of Dreadlands/Marauder - Support
Using the combined might of the Gears of Dreadlands and Marauder sets, this support Demon Hunter build combines the strong damage buffs and pulling utility from the Entangling Shot and Bolas barrage with the myriad utility and toughness buffs coming from the Companion synergy. I never thought I would include a support build as something to be excited about, but it has been so long since Demon Hunters were this desirable and this versatile in the meta, that I can't help but highlight it. Now if only they made Calamity good again. Sigh.
 

NECROMANCERS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Grace of Inarius
Masquerade - Bone Spear
Testing the full capabilities of the dedicated Masquerade of the Burning Carnival set, this Necromancer build focuses on a unique amalgamation of Simulacrums and Bone Spear to produce a crafty sniping playstyle that can take its time setting up fights due to its impressive endurance. While a tad underpowered for the highest of high endgame pushes, this is still a capable - and most importantly, Land of the Dead-independent (hurrah!) - build for all the CDR-weary Necromancers out there.
Legacy of Dreams - Corpse Explosion
Basing itself on the versatile and adaptable Legacy of Dreams power and stacking a bunch of empowering and synergistic legendary items, the Corpse Explosion Necromancer provides another supremely powerful and visually striking playstyle this Season - and this one relishes on exploding cadavers, which is about the coolest and most Necromance-y thing you could say. High contender for my second build this Season, I've wanted a top tier Corpse Explosion Necromancer ever since this class came into existence.
Legacy of Dreams - Poison Scythe
Emerging from a combination of the Season 21 changes to the build-defining Haunted Visions amulet, the adaptability of the Legacy of Dreams bonus, and the plethora of Poison-themed skills at the Necromancer's disposal, this Necromancer build offers a simple-yet-deadly playstyle that reaps enemies without a thought for cooldowns. Will this build tickle your fancy for mechanical mastery? Nah. Will it cause theorycrafters to break down build minutae in endless excel tables? Nah. Is it the strongest and laziest Necromancer thing since Bone Storm from ages ago? You betcha.
 

BARBARIANS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Might of the Earth
Suggested Top/Most Fun Build to Run: Wrath of the Wastes - Rend
Built from the ashes of a very old Rend/IK mixture, the Rend Wastes Barbarian truly shows the potential and terror of this DoT build. An unstoppable machine that whirls, cleaves and guts demons like Barbarians were always meant to do. With the newfound powers of Ambo's Pride, this build bleeds his enemies dry in an instant, turning what was once an unassuming bleed into a fearsome nuke that gets applied every second. Couple that with the savage elegance of Whirlwinding, and it's no wonder people will return to this build time and again when it comes to Barb progression.
 

CRUSADERS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Thorns of the Invoker
Suggested Top/Most Fun Build to Run: Aegis of Valor - Heaven's Fury Shotgun
One of the two new sets from Season 19 ascended Crusaders to a whole new level, and evoked the times when the Holy Shotgun was considered OP, because it was the only Reaper of Souls build that demolished T6. Hundreds of millions of damage and health spikes later, this (un)holy amalgamation of items delivers a mixture of Fist of the Heavens and Heaven's Fury Shotgun shots with righteous ferocity that have earned this build the one rigthful nickname: God Crusader. In short, it's still pretty damn OP, even with two Seasons in a row worth of nerfs.
 

MONKS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Sunwuko
Suggested Top/Most Fun Build to Run: Patterns of Justice - Tempest Rush
Rooting its powers firmly in the TR-dedicated Patterns of Justice set, this alternate take on Tempest Rushing gives its Sunwuko brother an equal competitor. The set empowers Sweeping Wind to astronomical proportions, stacking all the runes and swelling the vortex of destruction to a veritable cyclone.
 

WITCH DOCTORS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Jade Harvester
Suggested Top/Most Fun Build to Run: Mundunugu Spirit Barrage
The Mundunugu set empowers one of the most visually satisfying builds of Witch Doctors, Spirit Barrage, to a ridiculously powerful level that will (barring any unexpected changes) seal the WD's spot in group play for much longer than the flavor-of-month Poison Nova will for Necros. To top it all off, this build is very versatile across all game activities, and can be adapted to everything from bounties, through keyfarm and speeds, to high end solo and group pushing as the Trash Killer.
 

WIZARDS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Firebird's Finery
Suggested Top/Most Fun Build to Run: Vyr - Archon
Transforming the Wizard into an unstoppable being of Arcane destruction, the Achon build simply has it all - power, mobility, versatility. For the modest investment of two relatively easy-to-obtain sets - Vyr and Chantodo - this build will take you into the highest of Greater Rifts, and with a relatively simple to grasp playstyle to boot. This remains one of the strongest builds you could go for on a Wizard, and has an excellent character power-to-time-invested ratio.
 

GETTING STARTED THIS SEASON, OR HOW TO GET TO THE COOL STUFF

We can clearly see an influx of new and returning players - people looking for guidance and advice on early crafting, gambling, and character building foundations. This is my attempt to convey as much information as I can in a single thread.
At the very start of the Season, your first job is, naturally, to create a new seasonal hero. While this first choice does not lock you down too terribly, note that the Seasonal Journey rewards you once per Season - only for the character that completes the chapters first. Bearing that in mind, pick your character and go in game.
While in town, approach one of the followers that most closely matches your class (Templar for Barbarians, Monks and Crusaders, Scoundrel for Demon Hunters, and Enchantress for Witch Doctors, Necromancers and Wizards), select the "Inventory & Skills" option, take their weapon and equip it yourself - it is a significant upgrade over the base weapon that you start with.
Note that once you reach level 7, vendors in all towns - the ones with the nickname "the Fence" in their names - will start selling rings. Each of them has a chance to sell rings that increase your Average Damage (i.e. 2-4 Damage), which is a massive DPS boost early on.
 

Challenge Rift Completion and Kanai's Cube

After your character is created, head to the Game Settings menu, go into the Challenge Rifts and start the current weekly run. Note that you have to have completed at least one Greater Rift on your account (either in non-seasonal or previous seasons) to have Challenge Rifts unlocked. Challenge Rifts are a weekly challenge that provides a fixed character and a build (usually using quirky skills and/or heavily unoptimized stats and items), and challenges you to beat the Greater Rift completion time of its original owner.
The completion of the Challenge Rift is usually trivial and can be completed either solo or in a group, and will net you a Challenge Rift Reward cache. Open it up in-game with your brand new seasonal character and claim its contents: Death's Breaths, a couple hundred of each of the base crafting materials, Blood Shard, a couple million gold, and 15 each of the Act-specific bounty cache materials. With your newfound riches, upgrade both your Blacksmith and your Mystic craftsmen in town to their maximum rank.
Your next important step is to acquire Kanai's Cube. Kanai's Cube is found in The Ruins of Sescheron - the waypoint in the top right corner of the Act III map. From that waypoint, run left towards the city and make your way around the ruins; one of its far corners (typically upper right, lower right, or lower left) will have the entrance to the next zone, the Elder Sanctum. Once in the Elder Sanctum, make your way through the zone, practically to its other end. When you find the Cube and click it, it automatically transports itself back to town.
While you are at it, take a look at the Kanai's Cube guide for additional details on its use - it is an incredibly important part of your character progression at any point of the game, so make sure to acquaint yourself thoroughly with its properties.
 

Which Item to Craft and Extract in the Cube?

One of the strongest early game boosts that you can obtain while leveling is to craft a yellow (rare) level 70 item at the blacksmith, then try to upgrade it into a valuable legendary at Kanai's Cube, and finally extract its property for one of the Kanai's Cube legendary power slots. Note that this strategy is stronger for some classes over others, particularly favoring Demon Hunters, Necromancers, and somewhat Barbarians. The remaining classes can skip this step and directly go to gambling, sparing themselves some disappointment and saving some materials for level 70, since you can do this recipe exactly once at the Season's start (you only have so many Death's Breaths).
When choosing which rare item to craft, keep in mind that you are looking to upgrade them into a legendary that provides some form of skill damage multiplier that will skyrocket your leveling efficiency. Every class has a different set of valuable items to attempt for:
 

Barbarian:

• Craft a rare level 70 Two-Handed Mighty Weapon, and use the Upgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to try to obtain either a Fury of the Vanished Peak or The Gavel of Judgment.

 

Crusader:

• Craft a rare level 70 One-Handed Flail, and use the Upgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to try to obtain either a Darklight, Gyrfalcon's Foote or Johanna's Argument.

 

Demon Hunter:

• Craft a rare level 70 Dagger, and use the Upgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to obtain either a Karlei's Point or a Lord Greenstone's Fan. Demon Hunters are excellent at this strategy since they only have 2 daggers, and they are both great for leveling.

 

Monk:

• Craft a rare level 70 Daibo, and use the Upgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to try to obtain either an Incense Torch of the Grand Temple, Balance or The Flow of Eternity.

 

Necromancer:

• Craft a rare level 70 Two-Handed Scythe, and use the Upgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to obtain either a Bloodtide Blade, Maltorius' Petrified Spike, Nayr's Black Death or Reilena's Shadowhook. Necromancers are excellent at this strategy since they only have 4 legendary Two-Handed Scythes, and they are all great for leveling.

 

Witch Doctor:

• Craft a rare level 70 Staff, and use the Upgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to try to obtain either a Staff of Chiroptera or Wormwood.

 

Wizard:

• Craft a rare level 70 Wand, and use the Upgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to try to obtain either a Fragment of Destiny, Starfire, Unstable Scepter or Wand of Woh.

 
Note that this part of the leveling strategy requires some amount of luck for non-DH and non-Necromancer players. Leveling in a group minimizes the risk of RNG screwing everyone over, but sometimes you will be unlucky; this is nothing to be bothered by, as leveling in Diablo is still a fairly easy and straightforward process.
If you are lucky, however, and obtain one of the items outlined above, you will have just about enough Death's Breaths to use the Extract Legendary Power recipe in Kanai's Cube. Do that, and then slot the (now maximized) legendary power of the item in the Cube, netting yourself a considerable leveling bonus. Needless to say, adjust your build accordingly to the legendary power, i.e. if you get Guard of Johanna as a Crusader, make Blessed Hammer your main damage dealing skill throughout leveling.
 

Spending the Challenge Rift Blood Shards

Your next step is to try and gamble for valuable items from Kadala at level 1. Since not every legendary is available right from the start, the legendary item pools for some classes are restricted in a beneficial way to obtain another strong damage multiplier right from the start. If you do not consider the legendaries listed for your class particularly attractive, you can always gamble for Helms for a considerable chance at obtaining Leoric's Crown; extracting its power and socketing rubies in your helmets throughout leveling will net you a hefty amount of extra experience.
 

Barbarian:

• Gamble for Bracers, trying to obtain either Bracers of Destruction or Bracers of the First Men. Spend any remaining Blood Shards on Boots for a chance at Lut Socks.

 

Crusader:

• Gamble for Bracers, trying to obtain Gabriel's Vambraces. If you are lucky to get them quick, you can also spend some (or all, if you are feeling lucky) on shields for Guard of Johanna or Denial. At level 31, if you have any Blood Shards saved over, or new ones you are willing to spend, you can try your luck at Pants for Hammer Jammers.

 

Demon Hunter:

• Not many great options; you can gamble for Belts, trying to obtain the Hellcat Waistguard, although Grenade comes a little later in the leveling process. Otherwise, either go for Leorics Crown (helm) or the damage proc of Pox Faulds (pants). Another gambling strategy you can attempt is saving shards for level 30, when you can gamble on Quivers for a chance at Sin Seekers, or level 31 - for the additional chance at Holy Point Shot and Spines of Seething Hatred.

 

Monk:

• Gamble for either Boots (hoping to obtain Rivera Dancers or The Crudest Boots) or Bracers (hoping to obtain either Pinto's Pride, Cesars Memento or Gungdo Gear). Adjust your gambling strategy for Monk depending on the item you obtained (if any) on the previous step, where you upgraded a rare item (i.e. gambling for bracers if you got an Incense Torch of the Grand Temple, hoping to get Pinto's Pride).

 

Necromancer:

• Gamble for Gloves, trying to obtain Grasp of Essence.

 

Witch Doctor:

• Not many great options; you can gamble for Mojos, trying to obtain a Gazing Demise, but its usefulness is rather limited in early character progression. Otherwise, either go for Leoric's Crown (helm) or the damage proc of Pox Faulds (pants).

 

Wizard:

• Not many great options; you can gamble for Bracers, trying to obtain Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer, but its defensive properties are not very useful early on. Otherwise, either go for Leoric's Crown (helm) or the damage proc of Pox Faulds (pants). Another gambling strategy you can attempt is saving shards for level 31, when you can gamble on Rings for a chance at Manald Heal,or level 33 - for Source gambling for Etched Sigil.

 

Crafting a High Level Rare and Reducing Level Requirement

Pick a two-handed weapon category of your choice (2h Axes, Maces, Swords...) and craft a level 70 weapon of the chosen type. Avoid class-specific weapons, since they add a class-specific roll to the secondary stat pool (i.e. Max Fury), making this strat harder. You are looking for a roll with:

• At least a Crowd Control secondary stat - Chance to Stun, Slow, Fear,.. etc. On Hit;
  
• Ideally, also a Life per Hit primary stat;
  

If both these stats are present, you have eliminated a large part of the possible Secondary stats on the weapon. Thus, you can easily reroll the other Secondary stat (the one that is NOT the crowd control stat) into Reduced Level Requirement - making the item wearable up to 30 levels prior to level 70. This is a tremendous damage increase for a large chunk of your leveling process.
Of course, if you are very lucky, the Reduced Level Requirement can roll onto your crafted item outright.
 

Complete a Boss Bounty

An easy early boost to your character in Seasons is to check your bounties for any easily completed act boss killing bounties - the most famous examples being Zoltun Kulle (at the Archives of Zoltun Kulle waypoint) and Maghda (down from the Road to Alcarnus waypoint) in Act II. Another option is Azmodan at the very end of Act III. Simply run past the mobs and go straight for the boss kill.
The boss bounties reward you with a Diabolic Hoard chest that is guaranteed to drop you a couple of rare items; they will boost your overall character power nicely right at the beginning.
 
 

LEVELING UP

And this is it! You've made it to the actual leveling part! :) Outside the Cursed Chest strategy that requires Necromancer presence in the group, you have three major class-agnostic options:

Torment VI Traps Method

Turn the difficulty up to Torment VI and go to the Halls of Agony Level 1. Run and dodge past monsters that come in your way until you reach the falling blades traps; there, lure the monsters towards these traps and watch as they get slaughtered, netting you tremendous experience.
This method, while extremely efficient time-wise, is also (arguably) quite unfun and counter-intuitive, not to mention prone to mishaps. Needless to say, this strategy is not Hardcore-friendly and will result in the (frequent) death of your character.

Via Massacre Bonus

You can also consider leveling via Massacre bonuses — a very potent strategy in solo play. The Massacre bonus XP system was revised in Patch 2.4.1 into a multiplicative experience bonus that rewards you for chaining kills of monsters. The caveat is this bonus only works in bounties - and not during Rifts.
To successfully pull of long chains of monster kills, pick highly populated zones - the Cathedral (Act I), Halls of Agony Level 3 (Act I), and, most notably, Fields of Misery (Act I). The tactic is to always be on the move, leading monsters into one another, abusing Cursed Chests for monster spawns, and generally using skills with DoTs or high AoE (Rend for Barbarian, Blessed Hammer for Crusader, Multishot for Demon Hunter, Wave of Light for Monk, Locust Swarm for Witch Doctors, Blizzard for Wizards).
While Massacre leveling will require frequent restarts of the game (every 5-10 minutes), it will result in some of the fastest leveling in Diablo 3, clocking under the 2 hour mark when you get the hang of it. Due to its individual nature and the level of coordination required to pull it off in a multiplayer game, leveling by Massacre bonuses can only be recommended for 2+ players if they are experienced and have voice communication; this is predominantly a solo leveling technique. It also has the considerable downside of losing the increased legendary drop rate and blood shards of rifting.

Via Rifting

For groups and players that do not stress losing an hour in the 1-70 race, the general recommendation is to stick to rifts for the 1-70 journey. Rifts grant you increased legendary drop rate, blood shards for gambling, and a hefty "hand-in" bonus at the end. While rifting has a higher degree of randomness than bounties (map layout, monster density and composition are all RNG), the removal of Rift Keystones as a requirement to open them allows you to simply remake if you get a bad (difficult or slow) rift.
 

And this is it! Thank you so much for reading this megathread and my guides! Good luck and have a great Season 21!

After today's maintenance, NA can finally get their new latents from the latest hell level dungeon, namely Alt Arena 4 (AA4) which is the hell version of A6 dungeon. These new latents are

• Anti swapping latent
• Anti poison skyfall
• Anti jammer skyfall
• Void damage shield latent
• Void attribute shield latent

I know there will be alot new threads coming asking about these new latents, so might as well i open it in here, and summarize what you need to know about these latents. All these latents are powerful in their own way, which makes sense why currently you can only get this from AA4.
These latents, as mentioned, is ONLY obtainable from AA4 currently (and Pad Pass for JP). No event or PEM (even in JP) that distributes such latents yet. So if you still cannot clear A6, then forget about these latents. These latents can be gotten from the latents floor which is the 12th floor. They have the same stats as the latents on A6, with 300k HP each, and comes with crazy 99% shield and 2 billion defense. Dont expect any dual 7c cards will kill them easily. No poison that i knew of works on them (as in can go beyond 300k damage without any extreme setup).
Five (but only 4 actual legit) ways to kill these latents are by using

1. Guard break - Since they come with 99% shield, you need to be able to do at least 30m damage on card that has Guard Break in, which means you'll be doing 300k damage on both latents after 99% shield reduction.
2. Laser - There are few multi hit lasers out there like King Bradley that can work with these latents. Popular one in JP would be UVO V that can deal 500k laser damage 3 times.
3. AutoFUA - Get one that can deal 300k+ autoFUA damage. In NA, there should be few of these, but AA4 capable are very little, like Yugi.
4. Extreme killer setup (lol) - Put maximum enhance killers on your best damager card, and use buff like Carat's buff to increase the damage beyond the fourth wall. By YamaP's luck, you might be able to kill these cutie pie.
5. Using Rathian equip - Thanks to u/amrbel for suggesting this. With 3 turns delay, and equipped on card with ATK more than 2000, its possible to kill the latents in 3 turns, where each turn will deal 100k+ poison damage. (thanks to u/swng for correction)

These latents will occupy 6 slots on your latent slot. So think wisely if you wanna use it on your . For reincarnated / super reincarnated card which comes with maximum 8 slots, you can put the remaining 2 latent slots with killer latents or SDR, depending on your choice.
These latents are tradeable too, with any other 8* cards (namely the monster gems) of your choice.
Now as for these latents and what they can do..
​
👬 ANTI SWAPPING LATENT
Description : As the name suggest, this prevents monster from swapping your card with this latent on. Works ONLY if the card with this latent is on YOUR lead slot (not friend's lead slot) as monster always targeting on your lead slot as the swap victim. This is one of the 2 ways to prevent your lead from being swap inside dungeon (another way is to swap your lead to another one using swap card like Bonta-kun). To explain about swapping mechanism is that, it will swap ONLY your original lead that enters the dungeon. So if that original lead is replaced by someone else in your team using your own swapping skill, then monster's swapping will not work anymore on you.
Works best at : Anything that can swap your lead. In AA4 / A6, this will be Ishida Mitsunari. Other examples like Ras dungeon, and AA3's Rokks.
Best card to use at : Your most used lead. Seriously. Don't bother using this on lead that you will use as sub more. Prime candidate would be soon-to-come GH's Tsukuyomi.
Special note by u/fether : You can put anti swap on a sub too, and when that sub is targeted, the swap won’t happen.
This is a useful and niche team building strategy especially for a6/aa4 when only one of your sub has a very bad LS that you couldn’t survive after being swapped, leaving your lead 6 slots for a greater damage deal potential or SDR if your leads are transform for any other situations that you don’t want to destroy your team latent setup just for aa4.
​
☠️ ANTI POISON SKYFALL
Description : Eliminates any poison skyfall activated by monster immediately. Won't eliminate player's poison skyfall from skill or from poison awakening (thanks u/fether)
Works best at : Any dungeon that has the following monster - Hinomitsuha, Jormungandr, Awoken Freyja, Awoken Persephone, Antares. There are few more monsters that can put on poison skyfall which i couldnt remember.
Best card to use at : Your most used supporter and utils card for every endgame content. This latent is as good as having 6 SDR on your supporter. I put mine on Mickey and Friends.
​
🤡 ANTI JAMMER SKYFALL LATENT
Description : Eliminates any jammer skyfall activated by monster immediately. Won't eliminate player's jammer skyfall from skill or from jammer awakening (thanks u/fether). But seriously, its just jammer.. not a threat at all.
Works best at : Any dungeon that has the following monster - Hera Ur, Jormungandr. There are few more monsters that can put on jammer skyfall which i couldnt remember. According to u/Tsuchiev, this latent is good against the upcoming Chirin Dragon (needed as material to make Chinese gods equips) in AA2.
Best card to use at : Prolly anywhere you think this latent will be good at..? I never use one anyway.
​
👹 VOID DAMAGE SHIELD LATENT
Description : The card with this latent on will do VDP damage, that pierces damage shield when matching fire, water, wood, light, dark and heart.
Works best at : Anywhere that requires VDP awakening obviously. Arenas would be the prime candidates for this.
Best card to use at : Your most powerful sub. Currently on rank, Mega Aten is the strongest sub available that can make good use of this latent. With 7c SA, he can do 30x damage vs monster with single typing, 90x on dual typing, and 270x on triple typing. Nothing else come close to him, with added bonus of his active skill works perfectly with this latent. 2nd rank would be anyone with double 7c and 10c which is 20x damage vs every monster, like Dyer or Lucia (JP only for now). There are few cards with multiple killers and double 7c that works well with this latent too. In general, this latent works well on true rainbow team, and semi rainbow team (one that specialize in single main attribute, and rainbow subattribute).
Special note by u/fether : VDP latents requires 6 colors and does not give damage boost and applies only to one sub, and trust me even with Aten you won’t be doing the damage you’d expect. It still does damage and it’s not very good.
​
👻 VOID ATTRIBUTE SHIELD LATENT
Description : The card with this latent on will do attribute ignore damage, that pierces attribute shield when matching fire, water, wood, light, dark and heart.
Works best at : Not as prominent as VDP latent tho, but still arenas would be the prime candidates for this. Kaminue and Izanagi for A6 / AA4, Reincarnated Yomidra on AA4, Hamal and Odins on AA3, Noah Dragon on AA1.. can't remember the rest. Also that one C9 not yet arriving in NA, where all floors use attribute shield.
Best card to use at : Same as VDP latent. But the kick is.. this is attribute absorb. If only one card ignores the shield while every other got absorbed, i still think its going to be useless. Might as well use actual void attribute shield skill for this. However if you still opt to use this latent, then put the sub with this latent on the last sub spot on your team.
Special note by u/fether : For attribute absorb you don’t put it on “last sub slots”. In fact you put it in last sub with last sub attribute being absorbed, making it very dedicated card targeting a certain spawn. It works fairly well until there are asshole spawns like Yomidra that does random absorbs ¯_(ツ)_/¯
If you use this unstrategically you want your helper to have this latent, that’s is others to put them on their lead or you put them on your leads to help others.
​
Now comes the part to answer all the possible (and may be stupid as well) questions in here
​

• Which is the best latent of all?

Anti poison skyfall and VDP latents obviously. Anti jammer skyfall will be the most least useful for now, until Gungho decided to make a gimmick like putting Hera Ur before awoken Lakshmi on A7 / AA5 lol. Anti swapping and void attribute shield have a niche use case.. so its up to your own discretion.
​

• Anywhere else i can get these latents aside from AA4?

No.. even in JP to my best knowledge can only get this from Pad Pass outside of AA4 (thanks u/ShadyFigure). For NA its only AA4 that drops this for now.
​

• Can i buy it with MP

In your dreams..
​

• Can i get it from PEM machine

How i wish for this.. maybe in the next few months?
​

• Which card is the best for putting this

See above.. also depends on how you use it. If AA4 is like a playground to you, then you dont have to worry about which card is the best.. just use it as you see fit.
​

• Do i need to use all these latents on my team?

No. At most having poison skyfall and VDP latent on the correct card will be more than enough for any party.
​

• How do i beat AA4? I cannot get these latents if i cannot beat AA4.. Help me...

... You can open a thread for that and ask for help from everyone else.
​

• is the best card for ?

See above.
​

• Aww don't be such a %^&*(... teach me how to better use these latents..

I'm not sure how to teach you... best way is to use it on your party and experience it yourself. Farm as many of these latents as possible (if you are AA4 capable) and use it to your heart content.
​

• I have anti poison / jammer skyfall on my card, but monster still can spawn poisons / jammers on board.

Of course. Anti poison skyfall only eliminates poison / jammers skyfall. They don't give you 100% immunity to poisons / jammers spawned directly onto the board. Even with these latents, you still need to have proper amount of resistance to poison / jammer on your team.
​

• Can the anti skyfall works on blind skyfall?

No.
​

• Can i trade these latents.

Yes. With another 8* of course.
​

• Where can i find Pad Pass in NA. I wanna subscribe it!

How am i supposed to know.. ask Gungho NA for it.
​

• With VDP latent, does this mean i can say bye bye to VDP awakenings already?

Not really. If you ask me, both are 2 different methods to kill monsters with damage shield, and both are useful in their own way. VDP awakenings are more useful for mono color teams, while the latent one is useful for rainbow team. So VDP latent is not actually replacing VDP awakening or throwing mono color team to the trash bin. There are times where mono color teams with VDP awakening still rules over the latent.
​

• With attribute absorb latent, does this mean i can say bye bye to attribute absorb skill already?

Ugh no.. this is unlike the VDP counterpart. I don't find void attribute absorb latent being anywhere close to the actual skill in terms of usefulness. What you want is to prevent absorption from every card in your party, not just the card with the latent.
​

• With anti poison skyfall, does this mean i can say bye bye to anti Hinomitsuha equip in AA3 already?

This one i can say yes. You have one extra slot of putting other more useful equip into your party.
​

• Is it useful to have these latents on 2p / 3p

It sure is. In DMC's 3P dungeon, its fun to use my Lucia with VDP latent killing the last boss when the other mono color VDP killer players keep spamming nice asking me to pass the turn to them.
​

• Will these latents make AA4 any easier if i put it on my team?

According to u/zoopido, its a yes. Of course on AA4 capable team only, not that free Tyra Brachy and Plessie (thanks u/Riplore, sorry i just couldn't remember the water one lol) team you just got last 2 weeks ago.
​

• What about Rajang from Monster Hunter for VDP latent? His double 10c gives out 25x damage to enemy right? Stronger than Dyer and Lucia righttttt?

I'm sure everyone else will think twice before putting VDP latent to Rajang. I didn't even think of using him as sub on any of my team..
​

• What about for VDP latent?

That depends on where you're going to use that card at, your team, and its usefulness. Such card, despite can deal up to 36x damage on any matching dual typing monster, like Ciel, i cannot say if its worthy to put VDP latent on it or not. Worse even, if its a card that excels on mono color team only.
​

• How will these latents work in 2p?

(Thanks to u/fether) For anti poison and anti jammer skyfall, these 2 latents will be shared just like the hazard resistance in 2P. Anti swap, VDP and void attribute are specific to the card that uses it.
​

• How will these latents work in 3p

(Thanks to u/ShadyFigure) For anti poison and anti jammer skyfall, any active team that has these 2 latents will proc it on their turn in 3P. Meaning that if the skyfall happens on the turn where the team doesn't have either of these 2 anti skyfall, the moment the turn goes to the team that has it, it will eliminate the skyfall immediately. Anti swap, VDP and void attribute are specific to the card that uses it.
​

• I have a better idea for these latents.. how about

Sure whatever you say bro.. Give it a try and let us know. All the best, and may the force of YamaP be with you.
​

• I heard Fether just got Denebola and put anti jammer skyfall to her.. is that true? Is it going to be okay?

....
​

• Doncha think Mantastic is cool? Tehee~~~ :333333 i think Mantastic with VDP latent equipped will make him supermantastic~

....

With the announcement of the upcoming DLCs for Stellaris: Console Edition in the form of a new teaser trailer, which heavily hints at the possibility of getting all the DLC up to Megacorp, I will be doing a series of breakdowns for all of these upcoming DLCs, with the exception of the humanoids species pack because it doesn't offer any new gameplay features.
Please also note, I will not be covering the free features of the accompanying version of the game that these DLC released with, this is because we have no information on how exactly the new game versions will be released. Their will be exceptions to this if one of the free features was a major change to the game.
It is also entirely possible that some information in this breakdown may be incorrect come release, this is because the features in each DLC change from patch to patch, and it is impossible for me to know which version of the game these DLCs will be launching on. It is also impossible for me to know if any changes to these features will be made specifically for the console edition of the game, which is a possibility; this has already happened with megastructures in Utopia. All information gathered will be based on how the DLC functioned at it's launch. While I am certain to make mistakes, I do take every care to ensure the information gathered is as accurate of possible.
Today's breakdown will be focused on the next major expansion pack, Apocalypse.
Apocalypse primarily focuses on bringing new ways for you to kill your enemies to the game. Ever found yourself saying "Yeah exterminating xenos is cool and all, but I want to be able to do it quickly, like with a deathstar or something you know?" If you have, you're in luck. With this DLC, you'll be able to do just that.
For people who don't care for the specifics, the main features of this DLC are:

• Colossi, basically Stellaris's own deathstars, they have various different types of "planetkiller" weapons.
• Titan Class Ships, a ship bigger than a battleship, has its own unique weapon and can have attachments that improve the capabilities of the entire fleet in which it is present.
• Ion Cannons, a special type of defense for your Starbases, not Starports, Starbases; we'll get to that difference later.
• Marauders, a new type of unplayable AI empire. Marauders are basically space Mongols, they'll raid your planets but you can also hire generals, admirals and fleets from them. They can also produce a Great Khan, unify and become a midgame crisis.
• Some new ascension perks and civics.
• Unity Ambitions

This particular DLC coincided with the release of several major game changing additions of free content/mechanic reworks. These include:

• A border rework
• Starbases that replace starports and defensive military stations.
• Fleet command limit (not naval capacity which is already in the game)
• Most ascension perks become parts of the base game with this DLC.

For the sake of clarity throughout the rest of this breakdown, I will cover these free features/mechanic changes first.
Border Rework and Starbases.
In the current version of the game, borders are produced in what is probably best described as a "sphere of influence" outwards from a specific point i.e a planet or frontier outpost.
The border rework will be changing this system, instead, each system you own will have an "Outpost"/"Starbase" in it, which you have to construct similarly to how you would construct any type of orbital station. It costs a small amount of minerals and influence to build, but unlike frontier outposts, they do not require influence to maintain. A starbase establishes your control over that specific system, the current border range system we have will be entirely removed and all system ownership will be established via the construction of a starbases. In order to colonise a planet or exploit resources in a system, you must own it, hence must have a starbase built in that system. You will no longer be able to colonise outside of your borders.
Starbases themselves will replace Starports (as we currently know them) and Military Stations. A Starbase (Outpost) must be upgraded to provide benefits outside of simply establishing the ownership of a system. They can have defense platforms and ion cannons built around them for increased firepower; Defense platforms are designed in the same way ships are. Once an outpost has been upgraded into at least a starport, it can have special modules and buildings built on it that provide a range of benefits. There are 5 different Starbase tiers with each tier requiring a new technology.

1. Outpost - Have small amount of firepower and establish system ownership. They cost 100 minerals to build, and 75 influence per hyperlane jump from closest owned system. They take 100 days to construct. Has space for 3 defense platforms. It can be constructed at game start.
2. Starport - Has a larger amount of firepower. Costs 300 minerals to upgrade to from an outpost; this upgrade will take 360 days. Has room for 2 modules, 1 building and 6 defense platforms. It can be constructed at game start.
3. Starhold - Has yet more firepower. Costs 750 minerals to upgrade to from a starport; this upgrade will take 720 days. Has room for 4 modules, 2 buildings, and 9 defense platforms. Requires the "Starhold" technology to construct.
4. Star Fortress - Has a large amount of firepower. Costs 2500 minerals to upgrade to from a starhold; this upgrade will take 1080 days. Has room for 6 modules, 3 buildings and 12 defense platforms. Requires the "Star Fortress2 technology to construct.
5. Citadel - Has a massive amount of firepower. Costs 7500 minerals to upgrade to from star fortress; this upgrade will take 1440 days. Has room for 6 modules 4 buildings and 15 defense platforms. Requires that "Citadel" technology to construct.

Modules and buildings have a variety of effects. Multiple of the same modules can be built and the effects will stack. Only one of each building can be built on a starbase.
Modules

• Anchorage - Gives +4 Naval Capacity. Costs 100 minerals; takes 180 days to construct.
• Gun Battery - Adds 2 medium kinetic or laser weapons to the starbase. Increase armor hitpoints and hull points by +10%. Costs 200 minerals; takes 180 days to construct.
• Missile Battery - Adds 2 missile type weapons to the starbase. Increase armor hitpoints and hullpoints by +10%. Costs 200 minerals; takes 180 days to construct.
• Hangar Bay - Adds 1 hangar for strikecraft to the starbase. Increase armour hitpoints and hullpoints by +10%. Costs 200 minerals; takes 180 days to construct. Requires the "Carrier Operations" technology.
• Trading Hub - Creates +4 energy. Costs 100 mineral; takes 180 days to construct. Is only buildable if the system is colonised or has a trader enclave.
• Shipyard - Gives one ship building slot to the starbase. Costs 100 minerals; takes 180 days to construct.

Buildings

• Art College - Creates +10 Unity. Costs 200 minerals; takes 360 days to construct. Requires a diplomatic agree with an Artisan Enclave located in the system. Cannot be built by Determined Exterminators, Devouring Swarms, or Fanatic Purifiers.
• Black Hole Observatory - Gives +10 Physic Research. Costs 200 minerals; takes 360 days to construct. Requires the "Subspace Sensors" technology. Must have a black hole in the system.
• Colossus Assembly Yards - Grants the ability to construct a Colossus at the starbase. Costs 2000 minerals; takes 720 days to construct. Requires the "Colossi" technology. The starbase must have been upgraded to a Citadel. Starbase must have a shipyard.
• Command Center - Gives all allied ships in system +10% fire rate. Costs 500 minerals; takes 360 days to construct. Requires the "Command Matrix" tech. Starbase must have been upgraded to at least a Star Fortress.
• Communications Jammer - Reduces sublight speed and combat disengagement chance by -20% for hostile ships. Costs 100 minerals; takes 180 days to construct.
• Crew Quarters - Ships docked at this starbase have their upkeep reduced by -25%. Costs 100 minerals; takes 180 days to construct.
• Curator Think Tank - Gives +5 of each research type. Costs 200 minerals; takes 360 days to construct. Must have diplomatic agreement with a Curator Enclave located in the system, Cannot be built by Determined Exterminators, Devouring Swarms or Fanatic Purifiers.
• Deep Space Black Site - Produces +1 Unity. All colonies in system get +25% Governing Ethics Attraction and -20 Unrest. Costs 200 minerals; takes 360 days to construct. Can only be built in a colonised system. Requires the "The Living State" technology. Cannot be built by Hiveminds or Machine Empires.
• Defense-Grid Supercomputer - Gives capacity for another 8 defense platforms to the starbase. Costs 300 minerals; takes 360 days to construct. Requires the "Synchronized Defenses" technology.
• Disruption Field Generator - Reduces shield hitpoints of hostile ships by -20%. Costs 200 minerals; takes 180 days to construct.
• Fleet Academy - Ships start with +100 experience. Costs 200 minerals; takes 360 days to construct. Requires the "Interstellar Fleet Traditions" technology. Starbase must have a shipyard.
• Hydroponics Bay - Produces +3 Food. Costs 100 minerals; takes 180 days to construct. Cannot be built by machine empires.
• Hyperlane Registrar - Increases combat disengagement chance by +20% and reduces jump charge and cooldown time by -20% for allied ships. Costs 200 minerals; takes 180 days to construct. Requires the "Hyperlane Breach Points" technology.
• Listening Post - Increases sensor range. Costs 200 minerals; takes 360 days to construct. Requires the "Gravitic Sensors" technology.
• Naval Logistics Office - Gives all anorchage modules in the Starbase +6 Naval Capacity rather than +4. Costs 200 minerals; takes 360 days to build. Requires the "Interstellar Fleet Traditions" technology. Requires at least 1 anchorages module on the starbase.
• Nebula Refinery - Produces +5 minerals. Costs 200 minerals; takes 360 days to construct. Requires the "Mineral Processing" technology. System must be inside a nebula.
• Offworld Trading Company - Trading hubs produce an extra +2 energy. Costs 200 minerals; takes 360 days to construct. Requires the "Space Trading" technology. Must have at least 1 trading hub module on starbase.
• Resource Silo - Increases energy and mineral storage by +2500. Costs 100 minerals; takes 180 days to construct.
• Target Uplink Computer - Increases starbase weapons range by +50%. Costs 200 minerals; takes 360 days to construct.
• Titan Assembly Yards - Allows the construction of Titan class ships at this starbase. Costs 1000 minerals; takes 720 days to construct. Requires the "Titans" technology. Starbase must have been upgraded to a citadel. Starbase must have a shipyard.

You will have noticed the addition of "shipyards" under modules section, this is because starbases will now also function as your ports for constructing ships. You can build more than one shipyard on a single starbase, and each ship yard can construct/upgrade one ship at a time. That means you can now build multiple ships in tandem all in one place.
Your home system will start with a Starport level Starbase that comes equipped with a shipyard.
Fleet Command Limit
Expect to see the end of doomstacks, you will soon only be able to have a certain number of ships in a fleet. This fleet command limit starts very low at 20, but can be improved with technology, traditions and edicts.
Not every ship is worth the same amount of fleet command limit. A corvette is worth 1, a destroyer 2, a cruiser 4, a battleship 8, a titan 16, and a colossus 32.
Ascension Perks
Most ascension perks, all except the ascension path ones IIRC, will become free too. Worry not, this isn't Paradox swindling those of us that own Utopia, it was simply so that the ascension perks unique to Apocalypse weren't locked behind two DLCs.
Ascension Perks Specific to the Apocalypse DLC [Not Free Features From This Point]
There were 3 ascension perks that came with Apocalypse.

1. Nihilistic Acquisition - Gives you access to the "raiding" bombardment stance which allows you to steal pops from planets you attack.
2. Enigmatic Engineering - Increases sensor range and stops other empires reverse engineering your technology from debris. It's useless basically.
3. Colossus Project - Gives you the ability to research Colossi and their special planet killing weapons.

Now getting into the meat of all of the features of the paid DLC.
Colossi
Colossi are giant ships wielding "planetkiller" class weapons.
To be able to build them, you need to take the "Colossus Project" ascension perk, and then research the relevant research project in the situation log.
When the project is half completed, you will get an event asking you to choose which type of planetkiller class weapon you wish to develop, there are 5 different weapons, each with different requirements to be able to research them:

1. Global Pacifier - Turns, planets, habitats, and ringworld segments into shielded worlds permanently. Shielded worlds produce +10 society research. This is the only weapon with no specific requirements to research.
2. World Cracker - Turns regular planets into shattered worlds, vaporizes habitats, and irreparably ruins ringworld segments. Habitable worlds when shattered will produce a deposit of 4-16 minerals. Fanatic Purifiers and Determined Exterminators gain a small amount of Unity when this weapon is first used. Cannot be researched by (Fanatic Pacifist).
3. Neutron Sweep - All pops on the planet are killed, but the planet is not destroyed, nor are any buildings. Cannot be researched by Spiritualists or Pacifists.
4. Divine Enforcer - All organic, non-hivemind pops are turned into spiritualists. All robots and hivemind pops are killed. Victim planet gains +999% Spiritualist Ethics attraction for 10 years. Can only be researched by Spiritualists that have also researched the "Telepathy" technology.
5. Nanobot Diffuser - Can only be researched by "Driven Assimilator" machine empires. All biological pops become assimilated cyborgs. All robots and hivemind pops are killed. The victim planet becomes part of your empire.

A Colossi can only carry its armour, shields, and its one singular planetkiller class weapon; it does not have any slots for conventional weaponry. It does however have room for a form of power generation, FTL drive, thrusters and sensors.
A Colossus costs 20,000 minerals to build, takes 3600 days to build and takes up 32 fleet command limit.
Titans
Titans are the largest conventional ship in Stellaris.
They have special weapon slot for a "perdition beam", a weapon that does an incredible amount of damage (it can one shot kill most battleships). It isn't classed as an energy weapon and doesn't benefit from repeatable tech bonuses as a result, however functionally it is an energy weapon, doing -75% less shield damage, +150% armor damage and +125% hull damage.
They also have a unique attachments slot that gives buffs to your entire fleet such as increased fire rate or reduced enemy shield hitpoints.
To be able to build them, you must have researched the "Titans" technology and have constructed a "Titan Assembly Yard" in a Citadel level starbase.
Ion Cannons
They're cool but there's not much to say about them really, you're basically just strapping a titan's perdition beam to a starbase.
Marauders
With apocalypse, Marauder empire will spawn in your games. They largely mind their own business and stay inside their little patch of space, but they will occasionally venture out to raid empires, including your own.
If you build up a strong enough military, you will earn their respect and they will allow you to hire their fleets, generals, and admirals for a hefty some.
On rare occasions however sometime around 2300, a Great Khan will appear and unite the raiders and set out to conquer the galaxy. This event is classified as midgame crisis, killing the khan or his natural death is the only way the crisis ends. Following his death, one of two things will happen, all of his conquered territories will splinter into lots of smaller nations or a strong Khan will emmerge and form one singular nation out of his conquered territories; this nation will function just like any other nation.
It adds an excellent little challenge to the otherwise quite stale midgame.
Unity Ambitions
Unity Ambitions give you something to do with your unity once completing all of the traditions. They have a vast array of effects and are generally extremely strong, but also very expensive. They function like planetary edicts except they effect your whole empire. The amount of unity they cost to activate scales in the same way traditions costs do and the amount of time they last is 10 years each plus any edict duration modifiers you may have.
You unlock Unity Ambitions upon researching the "Ascension Theory" technology. There are 7 Unity Ambitions.

1. Scientific Revolution - Increases research speed by +20% and gives +1 research alternatives.
2. Desperate Measures - Increases starbase build speed by +100% when in a defensive war. Increases fire rate in home territory by +40%.
3. Fortress Proclamation - Starbase upgrade speed and defense platform build speed is increased by +100%.
4. Architectural Renaissance - Increases megastructure build speed by +50% and building build speed by +100%.
5. Hearts and Minds - Increases governing ethics attraction and ethics shift chance by +100%.
6. Omnifarious Acquisition - Empire mineral production is increased by +33%.
7. Grand Fleet - Naval Capacity is increased by +20% and ship upkeep is reduced by -20%.

New Civics
Apocalypse all gives you access to 3 new civics. These civics are:

1. Life-Seeded - Makes homeworld a size 25 Gaia world, but your founding species will have the "Gaia preference" making most other planets inhospitable to them. Cannot be chosen in conjunction with following civics: Mechanist, Syncretic Evolution or Post-Apocalyptic. Cannot be added or removed after game start.
2. Post-Apocalyptic - Makes homeworld a tombworld. Founding species gets the "Survivor" trait increasing their lifespan by +10 years and significantly increases habitability of all other planet types, especially other tomb worlds. Cannot be added removed after game start.
3. Barbaric Despoilers - Allows use of the "Despoilation" Casus Belli (it gives you energy and minerals for winning the war). Allowed to use the "Raiding" bombardment stance without need for the "Nihilistic Acquisition" ascension perk. Prevents joining federation or forming migration treaties. Can only be chosen by an empire with a militarist ethic alongside an authoritarian or xenophobe ethic. Cannot be chosen by xenophiles or Fanatic Purifiers. Cannot be added or removed after game start.

Summary
That sums up most of the particularly important stuff you can expect to see with Apocalypse, there are a few other changes that I omitted, but nothing too significant. Apologies for taking so long to get this one out, I've been extremely busy. As always, any mistakes let me know, if there's anything you think I didn't add or missed that really should be in here, let me know.
And oh yeah, shameless discord plug: https://discord.gg/6D3WAZF
And remember, SPACE!

Introduction

Hello prospective buyers & new players; welcome /Rainbow6! This post will help guide you in the right direction during the start of your Siege experience by providing you with useful information, answering common questions, and directing you to other helpful resources. The post is broken into two sections : "New Player's Guide" and "Buyer's Guide". If you have any questions be sure to ask in the comments below as others likely have the same questions, thanks!
If you're a player returning to the game and want an overview of changes, check out this wiki post
Here is the official ubisoft site with information about the free weekend, including a FAQ and launch time section

New Player's Guide

• Getting Started

Access the various parts of the menu by clicking "play" or the Arrow on the main menu

1. Watch all three tutorials.
   

   The tutorial videos provide a quick overview of the important details of the game and provide you with 200 renown (the currency that you will need to unlock things in the game) for each that you watch. They are short, well made, and explain the basics of the gameplay
   

2. Play through the first 5 or so situations.
   

   Focus on learning the controls and paying attention to the map layouts- these are the same maps as multiplayer. Do not stress if you cannot complete all three stars on each situation the first time through, you can always come back to them. The difficulty for these situations also does not matter, but normal is suggested so you can get use to the controls. You may wish to do more than 5 of the situations, but you likely should not do any less
   

3. Buy your first operator.
   

   Take a few minutes to read through each operator's description and select one that you are interested in. Consider picking up both an Attacker and a Defender if you have the renown for it. See the "Operators Great for New Players" section below if you are looking for some good operators for beginners.
   

4. Accept weekly challenges
   

   These are found by first clicking the daily challenges tab then clicking "more challenges" under the daily challenge pop up. Focus on weekly challenges that involve basic actions that you can passively complete and don't require specific operators. After you complete the challenge, open the challenge window back up and click "complete". You must do this to receive credit.
   

5. Go to terrorist hunt and try out your operators
   

   Most of the terrorist hunts modes use only an attacker. You can change your terrorist hunt settings by going to Settings> Matching making preferences> Turn off whatever modes you don't want under terrorist hunt
   

6. Buy attachments for your operators
   

   Depending on how much renown you have, buy a sight (Holographic or ACOG), a grip (vertical grip), and a barrel attachment (Flash hider for tap firing, Compensator for full auto fire, or Muzzle brake for semi-automatic guns). Do not buy the laser attachment yet, and do not buy skins or other cosmetics. You also most likely will not need to buy anything for your pistol (unless you're already swimming in renown). For Attackers, avoid shotguns and LMGs, they have limited uses for pushing objectives. For Defenders, consider the SMG option first, but use a shotgun if you really like the play style.
   

7. Go into casual
   

   You're likely going to not do very well - that's completely okay. Siege has a pretty steep learning curve to it, especially during the first few matches. During your early matches focus on learning maps, getting use to your guns, and understanding the flow of the game. Use your drones often, don't forget defender cameras, communicate well, learn from your deaths, and don't sweat misplays.
   

• Operators Great for New Players

Play through some situations first as they are easy ways to gain renown try out operators' abilities. For new players, set-and-forget abilities or abilities that are less complicated are usually better, as well as guns with lower recoil.
Attackers

• Sledge
  
  • What makes them good: His sledge hammer ability is probably the easiest to use among the attackers, he has average damage guns with low recoil, and he has frags. Sledge has long been a top pick for new players with good reason, he is perfect for less experienced players.
  • Loadout: L85A2 Assault Rifle: Scope of preference, Vertical Grip, Flash Hider or Compensator (depending on if you burst fire or full-auto fire). SMG-11 sidearm, Fragmentation grenades
  • Quick Tips: His ability makes a very distinct sound so be wary of defenders being alerted to your point of entrance. Take time to drone out a room before sledging into it. A lot of new players get into the habit of over using his ability which makes him easier to counter and eliminate.
• Thatcher
  
  • What makes them good: His ability is hard to mess up and very easy to understand while also nearly always being needed. Using it against reinforced walls that Bandit has electrified or Mute has jammed is pretty much all you need to do. Both his assault rifles are good.
  • Loadout: L85A2 Assault Rifle: Scope of preference, Vertical Grip, Flash Hider or Compensator (depending on if you burst fire or full-auto fire). Breaching charges are more useful for newer players than his claymores, as claymores take more map knowledge to use effectively
  • Quick Tips: Be very careful to not die before using the emp grenades to destroy Mute's Jammers/ Bandit's batteries and stick with either Hibana or Thermite so you can be sure to use your gadget in the right spot. Learning the trajectory and when it is safe to throw the EMP is key to mastering Thatcher.
• Ash
  
  • What makes them good: Her ability is very easy to use (just aim it at a destructible surface) , both of her guns are strong, and she is a max speed operator making her well rounded and good for new players
  • Loadout: G36C Assault rifle- it's lower recoil is easier to manage for newer players, Compensator or flash hider, vertical grip, scope of preference. Flash Bangs or Breaching Charges is a situational pick, but flash bangs are generally more useful due to her already having breaching capabilities.
  • Quick Tips: Do not use her ability on outside facing barricades, as just shooting the barricades with her assault rifle will destroy them and preserve her ability. Ash does not have a "noob-tube". While her ability does some damage to operators, it is not anywhere close to an AOE instant death machine like they are in other games. Avoid trying to kill operators with it.
• New players should avoid attackers such as Montagne and Thermite due to the relatively low strength OR high difficulty in use.
  

Defenders

• Rook
  
  • What makes them good: His ability is the easiest to use among the Defenders as well as almost always being useful. His MP5 is low recoil and easy to use and he has max armor. Long considered the best Defender for new players.
  • Loadout: MP5 submachine gun, vertical grip, flash hider, scope of preference. Deployable shield vs impact grenade is largely based on your team's composition. Pick the one the team lacks.
  • Quick Tips: Start every round by placing the armor immediately, preferably not next to a wall or object. Take a step back after placing his armor before putting it on, as it allows more defenders to access it at once.
• Mute
  
  • What makes them good: His ability takes a little more finesse that other top picks for new players but overall he still is very easy to use while being a key defender. His SMG has low recoil.
  • Loadout: MP5K submachine gun. Scope of choice with flash hider or compensator. Nitro cell for equipment
  • Quick Tips: Learn which walls must be reinforced for the objective. Walls close to the objective and walls which face the outside of the building near the objective are usually the most important to jam. Jamming walls should take priority over stopping drones.
• Doc
  
  • What makes them good: Similar to Rook, but his ability is often a little less useful for newer players. He features a play style similar to Rook with similar guns.
  • Loadout: MP5 submachine gun, vertical grip, flash hider or compensator, scope of preference. Barbed wire is generally considered to be better than deployable shields
  • Quick Tips: Keep an eye on friendlies health at all times, and heal friendlies which are knocked down or have taken damage. His ability can overheal people to above 100 health as well, which can be useful. Keep in mind that his ability can be self applied at any time to heal himself and also when he is downed to revive himself
• New players should avoid defenders such as Tachanka, Pulse, and Castle; their abilities require outstanding map knowledge to use effectively.
  

• Quick Tips

• Avoided getting frustrated. Angry players make bad decisions. If you're mad, take a round to do a terrorist hunt mission
• Stick with your team while learning the maps, especially if you're an attacker
• Use your mic to communicate - be sure to use directions and locations (compass is at the bottom of the screen, as is what room you are currently in)
• Learn all the operators names and abilities. Learn who has nitro cells and frag grenades. Here is a list of all the operators, their abilities, and important notes about them
• Always use a headset/headphones- Operators are loud and easy to hear, knowing where they're coming from is important
• The hostage is not invulnerable- the hostage will die if shot too many times or if explosives go off too close to (Be very careful with Fuze, grenades, nitros)
• Do not reinforce between the two bombs on defense on the Bomb game mode- it actually makes it easier for attackers
• Don't be afraid to ask people questions if you're confused. Casual is there to learn the game and most people will help.
• Play with friends or a play group whenever possible. It helps with the frustration of dying and learning the game more quickly

 

Buyer's Guide

• Buyer's FAQ

How do seasons/operations work?

Siege introduces a new operation every few months (4 throughout 2017). The current season is Year 2 Season 3 : Blood Orchid. The next season is Year 2 Season 4: Operation white noise, set to debut on the technical test servers on November 20th. At the start of each season: a new map is introduced which is free for everyone immediately, ranks are reset (placement matches must be redone), and new operators are released. The operators are given to Year 2 pass holders on the day the operation launches for no additional cost. Non-pass holders will have to wait 1 week after the start of the season to be able to buy the Operators. New operators cost 25,000 Renown or 600 R6 to buy for those without the Year 2 Pass. White Noise will introduce a total of three new operators to Siege: two South Korean operators, and one Polish operator.

What is included in the Year two Pass?

Here's an image of what you will get in the Year 2 Pass

• All 8 Year 2 Operators at no additional as they are launched (Mira, Jackal, Ela, Ying, and Lesion have already been released they will be available immediately upon buying the Year 2 Pass)
• One week access to the new Operators as they are launched (Non-pass holders will half to wait 1 week from the start of a new season before they have to option to buy the Operators for 25,000 Renown or 600 R6 credits)
• 600 R6 Credits
• Carbon R6 Charm
• 8 new headgears (as they are added)
• 8 new uniforms (as they are added)
• 5% renown gain bonus (expires Feb. 2018)
• 10% Store discount (expires Feb. 2018)
• 2 extra slots to hold daily missions (expires Feb. 2018) Here's the year two roadmap

Is the Year 2 Pass mandatory for a full Siege experience?

No, you can go without the Year 2 Pass and the game will still be wholly playable. The Pass allows owners to obtain new Operators without needing to spend renown (the currency awarded for completing actions in the game, mainly finishing matches). Non-pass-holders will be able to use renown to unlock them.
Most importantly, not having this pass will still allow you to be competitive in Siege. Passes just save owners from having to save up renown to buy new Operators.

How do I buy the maps/do maps come in the Year 2 pass

Maps are completely free to owners of every edition of Siege at the same time. You do not need to pay money for any maps.

Does the Year 2 Pass include Year 1 Operators? (the 8 that came out in 2016 )

No, the Year 2 Pass only covers Year 2 (2017)

How can I get all the Operators from the Year One Pass now that it is not widely available?

The year one operators are now all bundled in the "Y1 - 8 operator bundle" (also known as the legacy ops bundle) for 2400 R6 credits. You can find it at the bottom of the Operators tab in the main menu. Alternatively, you can purchase each non-base operator individually for 25,000 Renown or 600 R6 Credits.

Can I play with my friends if they have the Year 2 pass and I do not?

Yes, the Year 2 Pass does not affect matchmaking or grouping in any way.

Does it matter where I buy the game from(Steam, Uplay)? (PC)

No. For PC, all purchasers through Steam/Uplay will still all play against each other. You must install and run Uplay no matter where you buy the game from on PC.

Can I buy the Year 2 pass (or other DLC) from Steam if I own the game through UPlay? (PC)

No. If you own the game through Uplay, you cannot buy any DLC from Steam. Steam will not provide you with a key for the DLC.

Does the Year 2 pass transfer with my Uplay account if i change from [platform] to [a different platform]

No. No purchases, unlocks, cosmetics, experience, clearance level, or rank will transfer. You will start from a clean slate.

How is Siege's Playerbase/ Is it dying?

No, Siege has a robust player population. Siege's playbase has drastically grown since its December 2015 launch, with record numbers of players playing every day. Ubisoft has repeatedly shown that they are committed to the long term growth and health of Siege (especially with the Operation Health announcement), and Siege has even been nominated for "Best Ongoing Game" at The Game Awards 2017

• Information about the Game Editions

Starter edition

• A cheaper version of Siege aimed at people shorter on cash than time
• FAQ specifically for the starter edition
• Only Available on PC
• Always consider buying the standard over the starter (the grind in the starter edition is seriously no joke)
• Buying the starter edition will remove your progress on Operator unlocks from any free weekend as the free weekend uses the Standard Edition

Standard Edition

• The normal base game. This is the edition that all free weekend players are using

Gold Edition (Year Two)

• Product Description Image
• Includes the Standard Edition + the Year 2 Pass.
  • The base game + the first 5 operators from 2017, plus the next 3 at no additional cost

Complete Edition

• Product description image
• Includes the Standard Edition + the Year 2 Pass. + All 8 of the Year One Operators (Buck, Frost, Valkyrie, Blackbeard, Caveira, Capitao, Hibana and Echo)

Do any of the editions come with all the base operators (the operators that launched with the game)?

No edition of the game comes with the base operators already unlocked

Which version of the game do you suggest?

Of the 16,000 people polled in the latest subreddit survey, 63% said that they would suggest the standard edition for new players, 22% suggested the complete edition

Useful Resources

Looking for some suggestions on content creators to watch? Check out this megapost on the topic

https://www.reddit.com/Rainbow6/comments/6viol3/hi_im_new_to_siege_and_was_looking_for_some/

Looking to get an over-view of the maps? check out R6maps:

https://www.r6maps.com

Want to watch some competitive Siege? Check out the Proleague youtube channel (Proleague finals are this weekend as well)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWKHac5bjhsUtSnMDFCT-7A

Looking for people to group up and play with or maybe just talk about Siege and ask questions? Come join the official /Rainbow6 discord server!

There are dedicated channels for helping new players (training-ground), serious Siege talk (serious game discussion), looking-for-group-channels for each region and platform, as well as channels to stay up to date on Siege news.

Foreword

HUD overlay's in top form, ICARUS drive online, and TITAN dermal skin is up. Buckle up boys, because this banner's going rogue and we never saw it coming (but we totally asked for this). This week's banner feature broke the news on PNN and it's the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided units. We've powered up our Electromagnetic Pulse Shielding, so let's pour the bath water!
As always, we've got a small selection of other offerings from the community here and abroad to supplement your bathing experience. Without adeu:

• Howl's already gotten into it with his AUGMENTATION BEGINS banner review.
  
• Supplemental viewing for those interested in why they should be paying attention to Viktor and his DEF Scaling kit, presented by Howl's Advanced Unit Guide. This is also down below in his review in the Security System section of his 7* kit. Don't worry, Adam also got some of the advanced treatment; which you can find here at your nearest LIMB clinic. Can also be found down below in AJ's overview like Viktor's.
  
• Evillaugher1 talks about the Step-up banner here, but no official banner review just yet. Will update once he gets back from the LIMB clinic in Germany.
  
• Claic Yuzolt's Deus Ex Collaboration Banner Review! is up and ready. Clear some time for this one as it may take a while to get through this e-book.
  
• u/Memel0rdFFBE Is finally in stock. So far, we've got the Unit Review: Viktor Marchenko, and Eliza has the Unit Review: Adam Jensen now that the break has concluded.
  
• u/TomAto314 : Turns out, he's neither Pro-human or Aug. He's pro Gladio! (Actual recording of his reaction to pulling Gladio. Thanks Eliza!) He's finished up with this weeks PPD: Deu Sex. Be sure to drop him a line and wish him and his Gladio endeavor well! :D
  
• u/lemon_the_fool has taken up the watch of u/amhnnfantasy 's SYP with his own Lost Review series. Eliza has managed to find his Viktor, the Muncher review, as well as Adam Jensen, the Confused Damager has emerged from the Prague underground. It appears that his Trojan dog did not eat his finals paperwork. Up next, an interview with the Pro-Aug individual Talos Rucker after the break.
  

TL;DShould You Pull? Adam JensenViktorVáclav KollerFrank Pritchard

• Adam Jensen: A pretty solid start for the banner. His kit is very much a mono-e-mono style kit with very little in the way of AoE. Decent mods and a few Elemental Abilities means he can be a FD user. If you elect to go the TDW route with his own TMR in tow, expect the target he looks at to go up in smoke. As of right now though, the kits not the hottest thing going for him. It's not bad, but his kit's overshadowed by the power that his TMR. If you plan to pull on the banner, it's for Task Force 29 Agent for your soon-to-be 7* units.
  
• Viktor Marchenko: If Adam's really here for his TMR... that must mean that Viktor's the prize unit then for his kit? Indeed it is. He's got some Elemental damage with Human and Machine Killers to add on to him, but the real draw is his DEF scaling that we've only recently seen in Wilhelm's 7* kit. This newish mechanic means you can build your tank unit as they should be built, while also allowing you to double dip into dps roles with those tank stats. His 6* kit has more a ST focus, while his 7* kit blows the doors off the barn as he emerges as a true Titan of destruction in Security Systems (don't laugh, it's a nasty Ability). He may be built as a tank, but any vet will be pushing out numbers with their 'tank' that will put some 6* chainers output to utter shame. Be sure to grab up the Winged Saint in the Hanging Edge Event right now for pretty much BiS for Viktor here.
  
• Václav Koller: Uh... there were some... complications. Koller was caught by Botkoveli and has been missing ever since.
  
• Frank Pritchard: He really should've been the 4* base. Serves as a platform for shenanigans and Fresh Player Arena cheese. Level one up for eventual use, and lock the rest that you 100% TMR for the Mixer system down the road.
  

Banner Over all

• Fresh Players: A decent time here. The 3* base has some utility you can use later on when you're pushing yourself up to the machine trials, the 4* has an OK TMR for you to grab a few of, while the two 5* bases are the real prizes. Adam and Viktor are decent kits, but at this power level, you'll require a WoL for a few fights as Viktor doesn't have any cover to provide you.
  
• F2P <6MO: Here we can forget the 3 and 4* bases and focus on the prizes. Adam starts to lose his kit value while his TMR becomes the real prize you're after here, while Viktor starts to rise as a dps unit that can be a back-up tank as needed.
  
• F2P >6MO: Around this level, you'll really start to see Viktor (and maybe even Jensen) start to push out some pretty gnarly numbers.
  
• Vets: Here, this is the Viktor show. Jensen's TMR is going to be going on Onion Knight or Loren that you've got 7-ready in the wings. That said, you *can forgo pulling on the banner if you wish to, but do note that you'll be passing a pretty beastly TMR on Adam, and an unbelievable dps tank in Viktor. Personal call.
  
• Non-macro: The TMR's are free on this banner. Look at where you reside on the power curve, and enjoy the free TMRs.
  

TL;DR Folks, I wish ya luck on this banner!

-> ★★★★★★★ Adam Jensen Adam Jensen ATK

• Unit's animations
  
• TMR: TF29 Agent: +20% Equipment ATK when Dual Wielding, +30% ATK when equipped with a Sword, Throwing Weapon, Gun, or Fist (one proc per weapon)
  
• STMR: Jensen's Trenchcoat: ATK +35, DEF +20, SPR +20, SWAT Specialist: +50% ATK when equipped with a
  

: 100%

6* stats

HP (+50%)	MP	ATK (+50%)	MAG	DEF	SPR
3660+390 (4150)	170+65 (235)	160+34 (194)	100+26 (126)	140+26 (166)	133+26 (159)

^{*these stats do not incorporate passives. E= requires equipment to gain annotated bonus}

7* stats

HP (+10%)	MP	ATK (+50%, E: +20%, +60% TDW)	MAG	DEF (+20%, E: +20%)	SPR (E: +20%)
4780+540 (5320)	220+90 (310)	203+65 (268)	140+40 (180)	180+40 (220)	170+40 (210)

^{*these stats do not incorporate passives. E= requires equipment to gain annotated bonus}
Selects option four
Right out the gate, let's preface that Adam Jensen has a bit of an odd kit from my perspective. The entirety of his 6* kit is all Single Target, and the 7* kit has one AoE move; except it's a CD Ability. Why? Howl's gone in deep with TF29 to find out a few of the military-grade Augs that Adam's got equipped in him here.
Up first is Stealth Enhancer. 20MP for a 3 turn 3 Physical Attacks negated. Might have uses in some fights with phase transitions, but is largely passable here. Wall Breaker is next at 20MP and while it has a low mod, it does have a 3 turn 60% DEF Break. For the MP, it's not bad. P.E.P.S Knockback is next at 30MP. One hit with an ok mod that should've been the AoE Ability in his 6* kit. Smart Vision is the utility move with double threat at 30MP. It's got a Libra-effect for your monster-dexing needs, and a 45% Full Break to the target selected. A decent Ability that on the rare occasion will see use if you're combing for complete monster-dexing.
TESLA is his first Ability he gets in his 6* form at 45MP. Lightning Damage with an ok mod that also Imperils Lightning by 50% for 3 turns and also has 60% Paralyze tied in? If you're chaining with him, this is your pre-7* Ability to go to. Wideband Frequency-Jammer is next that'll drain 25MP. Here, you get to tag on a full 100% Physical Machine Killer for 3 turns with a low 1 hit mod, but this buffet has you here for the MK boost. Implanted Rebreather is pretty much the end all-be all of 'NOPE' in the game at 45MP. Putting down the turn and MP here removes all Status Ailments, as well as any Breaks on Adam. Furthermore, it grants him Immunity to -all- of them for 3 turns. This is PRIME Arena material here.
Quicksilver Reflex Booster offers you either a outright 50% KO or 1 hit with an ok mod to a ST for 35MP. The KO half means you can't use it in Arena, but the CS to off Ayakas in there would be GLORIOUS. TITAN is up next, a 3,500 HP buffer shield for 3 turns runs Adam 35MP. If you're about to pop a Phase change and know Stealth Enhancer isn't going to work, this will be the next Ability you turn to. The last Ability in his 6* kit is Nanoblade. It's going to be your non-chaining Ability you turn to at 50MP. It starts off with an ok 3x mod and climbs it's way up to a 14x mod, each use increasing it by 1x for a total of 7 turns to fully cap this. Can be a pretty good Finisher, but the turns might be some what prohibitive here.
In the Passives, there's a few Augments to cover that aren't in the stat graph. Mechanical Augmentations grants Adam Dual Wield at 5* 15, which is what you're looking for in a unit that's got some pretty good TDW stuff in his 7* kit. Energy Converter is a 10% MP Refresh to keep you in the fight. Lastly, Health System offers you an additional 1,800 HP heal with a 1x mod (roughly 2k a turn). Not too bad Adam, but I still say we haven't powered up all of your augmentations yet...
Adam's LB is Icarus Dash - Charged Dash. It runs you 32 LB Crysts and you get a ST 1 hit with a 10x mod that also decreases their Lightning Resistances by 90% for 3 turns. Capping it out ups the mod to 14.8x while the Imperil remains the same. Works as a solid start to TESLA spam.
Right, now that his base form is out of the way, we can turn to his 7* Kit.
101's Equip Passive is Juggernaut Collective Agent. If TF29 Agent is on Adam, he'll get another 60% TDW to add to the 20% from the TMR, a solid 20% bump to his ATK, DEF, and SPR, plus start off any fight with a 2k HP shield for 3 turns. Starting off strong.
105 is his first CD Ability, Explosive Heat Blade at 120MP. It opens up on turn 5 and has a 5 turn CD. If you power it up, you get a 12x 1 hit to a ST that also Imperils Fire by 100% for 3 turns. Pairs well with his next CD Ability...
Which you get at 110 and it's Typhoon Explosive System. It also runs Adam 120MP, and just so happens to chain with Tornado. It's a 12x 12 hit AoE (the only AoE in his entire kit) that Imperils Fire by 75% for 3 turns. It opens up on turn 1 and has a 6 turn CD. Seeing that it's the only AoE in his kit, you will be using this when it's off CD. The next CD Ability is Remote Hacking at 80MP. This is a 17x 1 hit that also buffs Adam with a solid 75% Physical Machine Killer for 1 turn. When you're not stacking Nanoblade, chaining with TESLA off his LB, or dropping his EHB->TES rotation, this will be up next.
Level 115 has a change here with Adam, it's not just a 20% DEF bump, but also a 10% HP hike as well. Not too shabby.
Lastly, 120's Capstone Passive is Focus Enhancement. It's a beefy 50% ATK increase that also adds a 2x mod boost to Nanoblade (5x-16x), P.E.P.S Knockback (5x), Quicksilver Reflex Booster (5x), and TESLA (5.5x).
Oh yes, his LB also got a small change in his 7* kit. Icarus Dash - Charged Dash now runs Adam 34 LB Crysts. It's new baseline power starts with a 15x mod and a 100% Lightning Imperil for 3 turns. Capped ups the mod to 20.8x as the Imperil and turns remain the same.
If you're pulling on this banner, it's for either Adam's TMR, TF29 Agent; or Viktor 7. 20% TDW and up to 60% ATK with four weapon types to choose from? Loren and OK are the primary benefactors of this god-tier TMR, and one of them is slated for the next 7 awakening batch. With an eye on the future, 7* Fayt may also be a unit that benefits from this. There's also a few others that can put Task Force 29 Agent to use, but those three are the big standouts. Since this is a raid event with TMR moogles, this one's a freebie if you manage to net yourself Adam. Don't forget to save one (or more) for the possibility we get the Mixer System to allow for you to pick up the TMR with the Empty moogle container you get from that.
Jensen's a brooding individual that never asked for this. His STMR is a rather fashionable Clothing item that's going to find itself right at home on himself, Olive, Prompto, and Rico Rodriguez in the near future.
In the Arena: Not much in the way of AoE here. His Implanted Rebreather is the stuff of legends in this game mode, but the rest of the kit doesn't really put it to great use. You can use Adam here, but not to great effect. If you happen to have a Pod to slap on him, then he'll be pushing Eliza out of the limelight here. Without the pod though, you can skip putting him on your Arena team.

So, how does Adam Jensen fare out of the box?

• Fresh Players: He's not a bad pick up for you folks. His kit is fairly friendly for you as it's got plenty of room for you to grow into. The lack of AoE on his 6* kit means that he might be benched for a few fights, but will remain a staple in your party line-up for a very long time as you acquire TMRs to really make him fly. For now though, he's grounded for you folks as he may have flown a little too close to the sun. His 7* kit does have that AoE you'll be looking for, but with the MP cost tied to it, don't expect to be spamming it out.
  
• F2P <6MO: Killing machine. This is where he starts to become a true monster. There's a pretty solid selection of TMR-level weapons and gear you may have in your budding arsenal to send Jensen in and leave Dubai a ghost town.
  
• F2P >6MO: If the last step had potential, you folks will easily be able to squeeze the most out of the currently known Augs in Adam. He's got a LIMB clinic scheduled in the future that may see him become a true augmented God, but this level pretty much reaches the limits of what Adam can provide for a team.
  
• Vets: Get his TMR. No, no. Get several of his TMR. Adam's kit is more the cereal as his TMR is the toy you're after here.
  
• Non-macro: You can see where you sit personally on the power curve above, and know that an S+ TMR is within your reach for free (if you manage to get him).
  

-> ★★★★★★★ Viktor Viktor Marchenko DEF CHAINPROVOKE TANK

• Unit's animations
  
• TMR: Energy Converter: HP +20%, DEF +30%, Auto-heal 1,800HP (1x), 10% MP Refresh
  
• STMR: Marchenko's Secrets: DEF +80% when equipped with , : 100%
  

6* stats

HP (+20%)	MP	ATK	MAG	DEF (+30%, E: +50%)	SPR (+20%)
3807+450 (4257)	173+75 (248)	155+30 (185)	109+30 (139)	160+30 (190)	124+30 (154)

^{*these stats do not incorporate passives. E= requires equipment to gain annotated bonus}

7* stats

HP (+20%)	MP (+20%)	ATK (E: +30%)	MAG	DEF (+20%, E: +30%, +40% TDW)	SPR (+20%)
4950+600 (5550)	225+100 (325)	202+50 (252)	142+50 (192)	208+50 (258)	162+50 (212)

^{*these stats do not incorporate passives. E= requires equipment to gain annotated bonus}
I'm still working through the second game. I still expect to select the fourth option.
Like Adam, Viktor here has a bit of a problem with his kit. He's a tank, in the cover era... that doesn't have any cover. That said, he too has a potential LIMB clinic visit in the future that may fix this issue. If it does, expect him to take on a prominent role in your party building when he does as he's got good Breaks, and a damn good chaining ability in his kit.
First up is P.E.P.S Knockback. Just like Adam's at 30MP. ST 1 hit with an ok mod. EMP Grenade is next at 48MP. A 50% MAG/SPR Break for 3 turns to all foes? Sign me up for the newsletter on that. Oh? Stun Grenade comes with that string? It's the mirror to EMP with ATK/DEF and same MP cost? I'll take it! Orchid is next, and it's a DOT for 36MP. For 5 turns, the sole target of this will take a minor 1 hit each turn over that duration. Showdown is up next. It's a 5 turn 100% Provoke that also buffs his ATK/DEF by 100% for the same duration; that also happens to increase his LB by 1-4 Crysts and runs Viktor 40MP. This isn't too bad for a self-buff at this level, and happens to do a few other tricks. If your team comp is set, you'll be able to pass using this though because he's got another voke Ability coming up.
Implanted Rebreather is the same as Adams at 45MP. Godly. Biocell Restoration is next at 50MP, and like Implanted Rebreather, is damn fine for Arena shenanigans. A 10k HP heal and 200MP Restore for 50MP is pretty damn good, and you should be able to keep enough mana after a Syphon Delta with the levels of SPR Viktor can reach. Pro-Augmentation and Pro-Human run in at 54MP. Both provide Viktor with a 75% Physical Killer to either Humans or Machines for 3 turns that also does a modest hit that scales to his DEF instead of ATK. When you aren't spending the turn putting up his voke or giving mechanics the finger with Rebreather, these are your go-to Abilities in his 6* kit. Confrontation is next at 50MP. This 100% Provoke also has a 25% Damage Mitigation (ALL) tied in with the costs. If you're using Victor as a tank, this one beats out Showdown depending on your party comp. Last up is Takedown. 64MP here nets you a hefty hit to a ST that scales to his DEF.
In his Passives, we've got a few more augs to cover. Cybernetic Prosthesis (phrasing) enables Dual Wielding at level 1... Score one to the Augs. Counter is exactly what you think it is, 30% proc rate for a normal attack. Last up is Revolutionist, which increases Viktor's ATK and DEF by 150% for 2 turns when he drops below 50% HP. Very handy as a built-in self buff that should be triggered fairly often.
Viktor's LB is Hyperion Plasma Blast. 18 LB Crysts puts it on the cheap side as it's an AoE 1 hit with a 6.1x mod at it's base, 8.5x max with DEF scaling instead of ATK. This isn't too bad. If you pick up Viktor and plan to toy about with him, his LB's worth a gander for your pots.
Turning our focus now to his 7* Kit, we see a few more Augs pop up. 101's TMR Equip Passive is Secrets of OldBlueEye. If Energy Converter (the TMR, not the Passive Adam has), Viktor gets a 30% boost to his ATK and DEF and opens him up to a new mechanic: DEF scaling with True Dual Wield. If you're using Viktor seriously, you will be propping his Materia slot with this to really push him up into some nutters numbers.
Awaiting us at 105 is what Adam should've gotten in his kit. Security System at 84MP is an AoE 30 hit with a 6.5x mod that scales off of DEF and it chains with Aureole Ray. Yeah... Viktor's a tank that will push out numbers that may make some of your other 6* chainer's blush. Again, for those who are curious to see why this is a big thing Howl's got you covered with his Viktor Marchenko Advanced Unit Guide.
Level 110 has three CD Abilities waiting for us here. Icarus Dash and Plasma Bolt are up first at 74MP. They're both a ST 1 hit 18.5x mod with DEF Scaling that also Imperils either Lightning or Fire (respectively) by 75% for 3 turns to the target. Both open up on turn 5 and have a 5 turn CD. Augmented TITAN is next an anti-tank buster CD Ability opens up on turn 1 and has a 3 turn CD. For the 80MP spent, you get a 100% Provoke, a 20% Physical Damage Mitigation, and 4k HP Shield for 2 turns. Not too shabby for phase transitions, but do note that it's physical mitigation, so if you've got some (ALL) to slap up, it'll stack.
115's 20% boost is to Viktor's SPR.
Lastly, we've got Mark of the Illuminati as his Capstone Passive. A solid 20% bump to his HP, MP, and DEF with a 2x mod boost to Pro-Augmented (6x), Pro-Human (6x), and Takedown (9.5x). The mod bumps are on stuff you may occasionally use in the Pro's, but Takedown here is outclassed completely by Security System. As far as Capstone Passives go, this one's pretty damn weak.
Energy Converter is Viktor's TMR. It's a tank version of Ayaka's TMR, and has all the goods your tank unit wants. 20% HP, 30% DEF, and a 1.8k HP, 10% MP Restore at the end of your turns will see to it that your tanks remain in the game for a long time.
His STMR is another big buy for any tank. 80% DEF when Equipped with a piece of gear they'll be wearing any way? Yes. Immunity to Sleep, Paralyze Confuse, and Petrify are simply additional augs to this pretty solid stat buff Materia.
In the Arena: Do you hate your fellow man? Good, so does Viktor. His 6* kit works well here as the focus will be getting up your voke to get his Counters going. After that, pick off the healer or highest threat target. His 7* kit changes slightly as you'll have Security System to AoE with. IR is only necessary on weeks with Stop available, otherwise it's all Confrontation into Security System spam. Gear him exactly as you would in PvE. Viktor here gets the seal of approval in both his 6* kit and 7* kit for the Arena shenanigans.

So, how does Viktor Marchenko fare out of the box?

• Fresh Players: The 6* kit isn't bad here for ya. He's basically a better Gladio without the cover. You'll be able to field him for pretty much the entirety of the first season, and even into season two; though he may be benched for one or two fights along the way for a WoL or Basch. As you continue your way through the game, you'll notice Viktor shift from being your primary tank to more a dps role given his kit. His 7* kit lends itself well to that eventual position in your team through Security System.
  
• F2P <6MO: Gear him like a tank, use him as a DPS. 6* kit will put in work on a ST, while the 7* kit opens you up to AoE shenanigans, and hoo boy will he level the field.
  
• F2P >6MO: You see where Viktor's heading right? You've all got the necessary tools to make him an Augmented Titan of destruction.
  
• Vets: Viktor here is really more a back-up tank at this level. You'll be decking him out with as much DEF gear as you can stuff onto him and will be powering out some pretty nuts damage with Security System. Gear may shift slightly as you can use him for voke required mechanics while your Wilhelm covers as a Safety Bit may make it's way onto him to negate the Death's he'll be soaking while doing so. If your pulling for a unit, Viktor's your prize here as Adam's TMR is going to power up your yet to 7* chainers.
  
• Non-macro: No mater where you sit on the power curve, you can see that Viktor's got a place on your team. His early start may be as your party tank, but in due time; you'll see him transition to one of your most reliable dps units.
  

-> Václav Koller Václav Koller SUPPORTATK

• Unit's animations
  
• TMR: Time Machine's Secrets: HP +20%, ATK +20%, +5% Physical Evade
  

: 30%
BlindParalyze: 100%

HP (+20%)	MP (+20%)	ATK (+20%)	MAG	DEF (+20%)	SPR
3462+390 (3852)	158+65 (223)	145+34 (179)	82+26 (108)	128+26 (154)	123+26 (149)

^{*these stats do not incorporate passives. E= requires equipment to gain annotated bonus}
Normally, we toss the 3* base into the firey pits of Paladia... but not this time. That's right. Koller here is the Aug scheduled for rapid unscheduled disassembly in Prague. About the only nice thing I have for Koller here is that he's usable in the Arena, but there are certainly better options.
Oh yeah, and Full Augmentation Potential, which is locked behind Controversial Augmentations chains with Octoslash... but it's locked behind a move to get to it.
Koller's TMR is Time Machine's Secrets (a hint to what happened in that two month window after Panchaea?) 20% HP and ATK with 5% Physical Evade that's stackable. It's free... so ya get it if you get the aug.

So, how does Václav Koller fare out of the box?

• Fresh Players: Time Machine's Secrets deserved a better Aug than this. Also, Koller should've been the 3* base here. Pritchard at least had a prominent role in the first, while taking more a backseat spot (so far) in the second game.
  
• F2P <6MO: Hey
  
• F2P >6MO: Free
  
• Vets: TMR
  
• Non-macro: You folks can pass on using Koller here, pump the moogles into his TMR and lock him for the Mixer. Simply put, Koller here's the AUG one out.
  

-> Frank Pritchard Frank Pritchard SUPPORT

• Unit's animations
  
• TMR: Cerebral Augmentation: HP +15%, MP +15%, : 20%
  

: 100%

HP (+20%)	MP (+20%)	ATK	MAG	DEF (+20%)	SPR (+20%)
2135+300 (2435)	124+50 (174)	84+20 (104)	90+20 (110)	85+20 (105)	98+20 (118)

^{*these stats do not incorporate passives. E= requires equipment to gain annotated bonus}
What a banner... the 4* base just got whacked. <_<
First up in Pritchard's kit is Misinformation at 6MP. ST Pocket Sand Blind and Confuse at a 50% rate. Just Watch Yourself! is next at 20MP. It's a 100% DEF/SPR Break Resistance for 3 turns to all allies along with a 30% Status Resistance to all Ailments. Scan Hacking is his Libra with a 50% DEF Break for 3 turns at 20MP.
Alright kids, time to get to brass tacks. Ex-head of Cyber-Security runs Frank 20MP and is a ST 1 turn Lightning imbue with a 30% Lightning Imperil for 1 turn. Sure, it's one turn and it's ST, but this is the first noteworthy Ability. Blade of Shintaro is more for Arena shenanigans. 6MP to remove Frank for a turn and turns it into Rewire Processors. Inflicts 1 random Status Ailment (100% Petrify, 30% the rest) to all foes makes for some of that good cheese. You Really Owe Me One! is the next big standout Ability in Pritchard's kit. For 35MP, you get:

• 70% = 20% Damage Mitigation (ALL) for 3 turns.
• 20% = 25% Damage Mitigation (ALL) for 3 turns.
• 10% = 30% Damage Mitigation (ALL) for 3 turns.

Hey, this 3* base is raising the god damn bar on Support units here. Fortunately, he's not done yet. That's Our Target! is his last Ability that bestows the target a 50% Physical Machine Killer for 3 turns for 38MP. Yeah. Not too shabby Pritchard. <_<
His Passives have a few things strewn about, but the only thing to really highlight here is his pitch to PNN in Nucl3arsnake as it decreases his chance to be targeted by syndication by 50%.
Frank has an LB, but let's not let his kit's strengths go to his head. It's not worth talking about, nor is it worth your pots.
His TMR is completely free, so grab up this decent TMR and lock the dupes for the Mixer down the road.

In the Arena: Yeah, you can use him here; but you really shouldn't. If you're new, Ex-Head of Cyber Security is going to be your staple Ability to move up to the 100 win streak trophy.

So, how does Frank Pritchard fare out of the box?

• Fresh Players: Good Utility here. Can be a decent placeholder for your arena needs.
  
• F2P <6MO: Here on out, he's a platform for trial cheese or other shenanigans of that nature.
  
• F2P >6MO: As above.
  
• Vets: Also as above.
  
• Non-macro: Won't say no to free TMRs. :D
  

Right. I've spent a fair amount of Praxis on my upgrades here, but I did save a few for you folks.
hands out lucky Praxis packets
Best of luck in the pulls tonight folks, and Godspeed! ^{may none of you fly too close to the sun either}

I replied to a post earlier that seems to be getting a lot of attention regarding the current state of Player versus Player. So I thought I would just make my own post and help those who are either new and or struggling with Player versus Player. In no means am I qualified to tell you what's good or bad, but I do have a substantial amount of Bounty Points with an above-average win-loss ratio.
Settings
You heard it hundreds of times but adjust your settings. Customize your HUD to your preference, there's a lot of information condensed in your HUD and you need all of it. Map awareness is important, just like any other game. Enemy arsenals online are fast, you can't spend precious time lost and confused not knowing where the enemy is. Sensitivity. Adjust your sensitivity until you can comfortably track enemy AIs such as Grief. He is fairly mobile due to his constant usage Blink. If you can consistently track him then you should be fine for Player versus Player. Not too fast and not too slow, don't max out your sensitivity if it doesn't need to be maxed. If you play consistently on max, then leave it on whatever best suits your playstyle. Don't have it too slow that you're unable to do consistent 180 turns. Players online are fast and you don't want to have them flying circles around you.
Keybindings
If you want to improve then make a custom keybinding layout. Do not copy one or ask for recommendations because you shouldn't try to force yourself in using someone else's keybindings. You play differently to how someone else plays. Please remember to map each Femto Armaments and not use the Next and Reserve functions, those are unreliable and inconsistent. Not every button needs to be mapped, this mostly refers to Outer skills, I'm assuming the majority of players are not taking Lab Modifications such as Explosion, Smash, Repair, etc.
​
Arsenal Builds.
With games that have thousands of different and unique combinations of parts and weapons to choose from, I hate to establish what is considered Best in Slot, because it removes the elements of testing and creativity. Except in Daemon X Machina, there are some parts that are just superior when comparing it to others. I'll start with the Head. Long Sword head is by far the most popular and strongest head unit to choose from. Its stats are way too strong to not use over the other head parts in the game. There are some noteworthy heads though. Liberator being one of its contenders for its similar Lock-On Size. Musou head for the large Lock-On Range for Sniper Rifles. Fluoresce Dominion is a well-balanced option. Sword Breaker and Hecatonchier heads are also noteworthy for their Firing Support. Which is overall better? Long Sword head is by far the most popular for a reason. Regardless of what build you're going for this head will remain superior compared to others unless you require the extra stats of Firing Support for builds to reach certain Fire Rate thresholds. Even with Sniper Rifles, Long Sword is still superior because the extra Lock-On Range from Musou will not be consistently used for its larger Lock-On Range in the current state of Player versus Player. Sniper Rifle builds with the Long Sword head are usually paired with Lock-On Range attachments because it's a simple damage boost to Sniper Rifles. In my opinion Sight Magnifier attachments are not needed for the Long Sword head because the Sight Size is already fairly large. You may use Sight Magnifiers to extend the Sight Size even farther if you wish.
Body. This should be obvious but Hecatonchier is also just too good to not use. It has high defensive stats and high Flight Boost Speed stats. The only weakness of this body is the Stun Resistance, with dual Tempest/Cyclops/Riot Light III being meta weapons of choice, which I will discuss later, the Stun Resistance of this body is one of its major weaknesses. The Raikiri body is also a contender but it's not as good as Hecatonchier. The Flight Speed of this body is one of its only positives, but Flight Speed is a stat mostly disregarded in the current state of Player versus Player because Flight Boost Speed is a far superior stat instead. The Halberd body is the most balanced body by far. Its overall stats are solid and it's a contender to being the best body if there are ever any nerfs to Flight Boost Speed in Player versus Player. A lot of the strengths and weaknesses of these body parts can be compensated with attachments. Even though Flight Boost Speed is one of the most superior stats, it does not mean stacking attachment to raise the stat is the most ideal way of looking at it. Min-maxing builds takes a lot of playtesting, and at the end of the day, it comes down to your playstyle. An example would be to compensate the Hecatonchier body with the Coolant Tank attachment because of it's low base Stamina Recovery. Other ways of compensating when min-maxing is to playtest with Lab Modifications. You can potentially have an increase of Boost Speed and or reduce the Stamina Usage by 10%, 15%, and or 25%.
Processor. There is no Best in Slot here, it comes down to what your build requires and or what you want from it. Firing Up is useful in builds that want to reach a specific Fire Rate threshold. If you are unfamiliar with what the Fire Rate thresholds are, then I recommend you visit the Daemon X Machina Discord found at the top of this subreddit. I also made the Fire Rate threshold guide found in the Discord. Boost Up processor is probably the most common option, purely to compensate for the use of slower Flight Speed and Flight Boost Speed body parts. Also, because I mentioned that Flight Boost Speed is such an important stat, players believe that it is required for Player versus Player. Memory Up processor is my favorite because it increases your memory capacity which then decreases your Lock-On Time. Hitting players in Player versus Player is tough as it is because of Flight Boost Speed and weapon Bullet Speed, so having a lower Lock-On Time has helped me hit more of my bullets. Stamina Up processor is not popular but can be potentially strong when paired correctly with other parts. One of the weaknesses of the Hecatonchier body is its low Stamina Recovery. Pairing the Hecatonchier body with Stamina Up and 25% reduced stamina usage from Lab Modifications will allow you to endlessly feather. What is feathering? Feathering is rapidly pressing your Boost button instead of holding in the button, this is far more cost-efficient, stamina wise, and you will travel faster than normally holding in your Boost button. Lock-On processor, this is a little niche and mostly only used when paired with a Sniper Rifle. I personally do not use this even with a Sniper Rifle because maintaining Optimal and Effective Range with a Sniper Rifle is unrealistic in Player versus Player because everyone is too fast. Aim Assist Processor is actually a toss-up. It's fairly strong yet has its obvious weaknesses. Aiming is one of the most difficult mechanics in Player versus Player, so having it automated can either help or break the user. This processor is indeed strong, but it's not for everyone, your playstyle, and weapon of choice will greatly benefit or dimish because of this.
Arms. Kusanagi arms are highly popular because of Reload Support. Reloading faster is an obvious increase in damage per second, but are they really that impactful in Player versus Player? Some weapons greatly benefit from Reload Speed, while others don't need it. Again, this varies based on which weapons you choose. Otus arms, it's description labels them as the arms optimized for Sniper Rifle usage, and they're not wrong. They have high precision, and are fairly balanced. Are they worth taking over Kusanagi arms though? Sniper Rifles do benefit from Reload Speed, and having the ability to unload multiple shots over a shorter period of time is a great boost in damage. Except, the scenario where your enemy is stationary long enough for you to unload multiple shots is very uncanny. Claymore arms are strong but fragile, they have high Fire Rate Support while still maintaining high stats across the board except for the Durability and Defense. I used Claymore arms in my example in the Fire Rate threshold guide I mentioned earlier. Use at your own risk, but note that you risk breaking your arm in battle against another player fairly easily. Ephialtes arms are usually the most common arm choice when using a melee-focused build. I personally do not focus on Melee combat in this game, so I can't further comment. A lot of the other arm choices are fairly strong, they all have their strengths and weaknesses but I only listed the note worth popular choices. I won't touch on attachment usages here because it varies when it comes to min-maxing.
Legs. This section will be fairly short for specific reasons. First, I would like to mention that Halberd and Hecatonchier are the most most-used Leg parts for their stats. Halberd, being top tier. I mentioned I wanted to keep this fairly short because I personally choose which Leg part based on what my Head/Body/ProcessoArms are missing. I do not choose Legs for their Land Mobility, because Land gameplay in Player versus Player comes up extremely rarely. Instead, I use either Gladius, Goliath or Fluoresce Dominion for their defense and resistance stats. Again, attachments won't be heavily touched on here because I also compensate them based on what my build is missing. I heavily mod into Memory Optimizer because I prefer lowering my Lock-On Time, but that's purely my playstyle.
Weapons in Player versus Player. Oh how you probably think this will be a long section, unfortunately, a large majority of weapons are simply not viable in Player versus Player because they are too slow and inconsistent. Bullet Speed and ammunition is a more important than Damage. Players simply move too fast for the majority of weapons to be viable. I mentioned Sniper Rifles throughout my post because Failnaught is the most common weapon throughout Player versus Player. The Failnaught, L variant, with three Ammo Expansion Mk III is by far the most popular weapon you will see when inspecting players via the Ranked Leaderboards. It has high precision, bullet speed, damage, and range. Its main flaw is the ammo, and that's easily compensated with three Ammo Expansion Mk III. With this setup, you’re essentially designing this weapon to be a better Assault Rifle. Another highly popular weapon would be the Gun Arm-MG, I listed this here instead of the in the Arms section above because that section felt long. The Machine Gun Arms are purely strong because they're overall really good. They have high damage, high ammo, decent range, fairly precise. To top it off, they do not need to reload nor do they benefit from Fire Rate Support. This means that you can be more flexible when choosing your Lab Modifications because you simply do not need the 50% Reload Speed stat. They also do not benefit from Fire Rate meaning you can use whatever Head and Processor you want because you're not required to meet a certain Fire Rate threshold. Tempest, Cyclops, Riot Light III. Stun based weapons are extremely strong in the current meta because they are so ammo efficient. You can't waste ammo by missing shots, unlike other weapons, because they require a target to be tethered. Because they are so ammo efficient, they are also extremely reliable pressuring your enemy with consistent chip damage. The only weakness of these weapons are their Effective and Optimal Range. You can compensate this with Range Extender attachments or Special Performance attachments to increase the Stun Potency. These weapons are usually paired with other weapons such as Azreal, Kagutsuchi, and or Melee weapons of your choice. The noteworthy melee weapons are Dainsleif, Excalibur, Murakumo S variant, Vargr Greed S and or L variants, Noble Pride S and or F variants, and the Baldur's Edge S variant (Baldur's Edge 1 not 2). Honorable mentions to the Grim Reaper III and Guilty Throne for being the more decent Assault Rifles, but still are not consistent enough to be viable. Silver Raven and Caladrius for being the stronger Machine Guns, but fairly inconsistent. I personally use the Silver Ravens, but I still rank them low because I'm not trying to be biased.
Aux. I'm keeping this fairly short. Reserve Magazine are strong because more ammo is more damage. Also, it's because the fact that everyone is so fast, and your bullets travel so slow, you're almost gaurentee to miss more than half of your clip trying to trade damage with your opponent each and every time. Cooling System and Propellent Tank, both are good choices and are self-explanatory. Propellent Tank sees more play because Mirage is really strong in the current meta. Down Booster and Hermes, both don't see that much play, Down Booster being the more popular choice between the two. Down Booster is very niche, because you can use it to help cancel the landing animation. You can also cancel the animation without it, but it’s takes more practice to do so. Hermes being more popular with slower arsenals, though slower arsenals rarely see any play whatsoever anyways. Radar Jammer, the sleeper aux choice. I run into this fairly often and it is strong, because of how fast pace Player versus Player is, it is very easy to lose track of your target. If you encounter a fast arsenal with Radar Jammer, you will find yourself confused and lost for a few seconds while trying to locate them without your radar. This can be an extremely strong Aux if you have above-average control over your arsenal. You can easily fly circles around your enemy while weaving in and out of the terrain to keep them confused and on edge.
Shoulder. You knew what was going to be in this section before you came to this part. Devotion. Devotion is the most abusable shoulder part in the current state of Player versus Player because it is its own win condition. The way the winner is decided when the timer reaches zero is whoever has the highest VP percent. This allows bad players to compete with skilled players because it's an obnoxious playstyle of a stall tactic. The first 4 minutes and 59 seconds of a round does not matter as long as you heal yourself with Devotion to automatically end the round in a Win or a Draw. I'm sure the majority of you all are well aware of the stall tactic. You avoid your enemy and make them waste as much ammo as you can while trying to maintain a higher VP percent than them. You can trade damage with them without worrying because you can simply heal yourself. Sending out mirage repetitively will either trick your opponent in chasing the wrong target and or allow the Mirage to deal damage to them while you remain safe. The tactic is to run and hide within the last few seconds of a match and fully heal yourself and send out Mirage in hopes that Mirage will damage the enemy making it so you Win or Draw. If the enemy also uses this Tactic then the Mirage can occasionally win you the game itself because it only requires 1 damage to either player to determine who wins. My 4 losses in total have come down to these types of players, running down the timers and avoiding me and having their Mirage do a single damage for their win. It only takes the ending score to be your 99% VP to their 100% VP to determine the winner. No Devotion No Problem. If you find yourself using Devotion against a player without it, it's simple, you will most likely win the round unless they are extremely skilled. If that's the case then you deserve that loss. Besides Devotion, Garuda is the next best shoulder weapon. It has poor damage, and poor lock on, it rarely ever deals damage, but it's a strong option. Why? because of the amount of ammo the Garuda has, you can sit there and barrage the screen with missiles and hope that they hit your target. The thing is, that it clutters the screen so much that eventually they will hit your target and the amount of pressure it provides is unmatched. Remember that the winner is decided based on who has the highest percent of VP at the end of the round, little chip damage over the course of a 5 minute round adds up significantly. Because there's such huge hate on Devotion currently, you will see the swap from Devotion to Garuda in a lot of Custom Rooms instead. They are usually the players who are tired of the Devotion meta in Ranked Player versus Player and actually want to play against someone who doesn't use it. Well, this is just as bad as the Devotion meta, because the chip damage is so obnoxious and strong. Allowing to maintain high speeds while barraging the screen with missiles that will eventually deal bits of damage to the target has little counterplay. Of course, the players who use Garuda insist and enforce the rule of no Devotion because they want just as easy wins that Devotion players are getting in Ranked.
Lab Modifications
This is just as important as your Arsenal build. I won't go into too much detail about this, but the game forces you to either play with Ranged weapons or Melee weapons. It's not optimal to go hybrid and choose a mixture of the two when it comes to your Lab Modifications. The 50% Reload Speed is extremely strong, especially paired with Kusanagi arms, you will essentially have instant Reloads, which is just an increase in damage per second. Melee damage and melee range are contenders but melee builds in the current state of Player versus Player are not as viable as they can be. If you enjoy playing with melee weapons, then so be it, play the game to how you enjoy it. Don't force yourself to use anything that someone says that's better if you're not going to enjoy it. You will not get better at any game if you only follow the meta, it helps, but self-improvements comes from your own playstyle. Blink. This is extremely strong in the right hands and playstyle. A lot of players hate this ability because they accidentally activate it and wind up out of the map leading to death. It takes a lot of practice but this is one of the strongest abilities in the game. I personally can not play without Blink in Player versus Player. Don't spam and roleplay as Grief or else you'll find yourself out of Stamina and will be a sitting duck waiting to get picked off by the hundreds of Sniper Rifle players currently.
Gameplay
Stance Dance. If you're not familiar with this term it means to change your Femto Armaments constantly. You should never be in the idle Femto Armament at any time unless you're out of Femto or your Femto Armaments are on cooldown. When to use which Femto Armament? Femto Wings should be used when dodging, chasing, or fleeing. The massive increase in speed that also does not consume your stamina is honestly overpowered. If you find yourself using Blink a lot or you feather a lot without Stamina Recovery then this is your best friend. You can infinitely feather with Femto Wings, and it should be used throughout your gameplay. Femto Assault, if I'm not attacking or shooting then I'm not in this Femto Armament. I only switch to Femto Assault when I fire my weapon, if I am no longer firing my weapon then I Stance Dance to either Femto Wings or Femto Shield. I use Sniper Rifles, Failnaught, I will switch to Femto Assault whenever I fire and immediately switch to a different Femto Armament. You should never toggle Femto Assault on and casually play. Femto Shield is looked down upon when comparing it to Femto Wings and Femto Assault, but Femto Shield is my primary Femto Armament of choice. When to use Femto Shield? With the popularity of Tempest, Cyclops, and Riot Light III, players are completely unaware that you can activate Femto Shield WHILE stunned. Yes, that means that whatever further damage an enemy proceeds to do after they have stunned you will be mitigated or even negated. Whenever an enemy flies over me I immediately switch to Femto Shield. I'm not a perfect player who never makes mistakes, and I'm not as fast as some players, but whenever I find myself lost for a split second. Femto Shield is just a guarantee damage mitigation allowing me to feel more confident in my movements. The average player spends their time in either one of the three Femto Armaments or idles for the majority of the match. I on the other hand Stance Dance between each Femto Armament at least 10 times per 5 seconds. Femto Armaments are that strong and you shouldn't limit yourself to only using them to whenever you remember to. They should all be constantly used with very little downtime between one another.
Terrain. This should be obvious. Use the terrain to your advantage. I don't understand why so many players are in the middle of the sky with no form of protection around themselves. You can easily bait an enemy arsenal to you by manipulating them with the terrain. If you exclusively use Machine Guns, for example, play lower to the ground. A lot of players tend to have slower Land Mobility than Air, so you can really take advantage of them given your location. I don't know how many times I've destroyed the VP canisters on certain stages and watched my opponent panic and fly into me because they also want the healing effect too. This leaves them vulnerable because I either Blink away and unload my Sniper Rifle on them because they believe that the VP cannister will out heal my damage. I can even lure them near me because of this and then I can unload Machine Gun damage on them at Effective and or at Optimal Range. Play near Femto Zone, Mirage is strong, I mentioned it early but it's essentially free damage at the cost of Femto. Just note that as long as Mirage is out you no longer have to the ability to Stance Dance between your Femto Armaments. Femto Armaments is such a huge role in my playstyle that I rarely ever use Mirage. The only times I find myself using Mirage is make up for a poor trade I did against the enemy and I took too much damage. Mirage will be a distraction while I heal up. Don't worry I'm not that type of player who runs and hides while using Devotion. I honestly don't use Devotion until my opponent uses it. Devotion is insurance to bad trades you might have made. Devotion is strong but the only reason why is because the winner is decided by the highest VP percent when the timer runs out. Otherwise, it is strong, but not overpowered. Remember that to those who are constantly shouting Ban Devotion or Nerf Devotion.
Ranking.
I hate to say it but for the time being, don't worry about your Ranking on the Leaderboards. The Ranking system is poorly designed. Don't be intimidated to play Player versus Player and get scared when encountering a player with high Bounty Points. You can easily abuse the poorly designed Ranking System by defeating players in Online Co-op in Duels. Yes, you heard me, you can get RANKED POINTS in FRIENDLY DUELS. A terrible design flaw that made me no longer enjoy playing Player versus Player. I no longer even enjoy playing Daemon X Machina because of this. An endless grind game with no rewarding endgame content. The only endgame content is Player versus Player, but that is easily abusable. Players are currently joining Online Co-op missions and challenging low ranked or even new players to duels for easy Bounty Points. This makes the skill level of the leaderboard extremely skewed because a below-average player can easily reach Rank 1 Global within a couple of hours. Meanwhile, skilled players can be stuck grinding for hours in Ranked 1v1 mode, not being able to climb because there are too many Devotion abusing players online. It's very inconsistent to gain Bounty Points without abusing Duels. Until further changes, I refuse to continue playing Player versus Player because I'm tired of grinding out matches only wake up the next morning and realizing a player has passed me by 50+ million points by duel abusing. Trust me, I know when players are duel abusing because you can easily inspect their equipment and see that they're using Deadly Drive, the notorious boss killing shoulder weapon. There is no reason to take it into PvP, so they are taking it into PvE and gaining points via Duels. You can call me salty or mad about this mechanic, but it's extremely unfair.
It's the equivalent of getting to Challenger in League of Legends by only playing against Bots or players below level 30.
If you want further assistance, feel free to join the Daemon X Machina Discord. My name on Discord and in-game is Raven. I am currently Rank 20 Global (as of this post edit)
EDIT: Grammar

Introduction

Hello prospective buyers & new players; welcome /Rainbow6! This post will help guide you in the right direction during the start of your Siege experience by providing you with useful information, answering common questions, and directing you to other helpful resources. The post is broken into two sections : "New Player's Guide" and "Buyer's Guide". If you have any questions be sure to ask in the comments below as others likely have the same questions, thanks!
*Free weekend is from February 15th to the 20th

• If you're a player returning to the game and want an overview of changes, check out this wiki post
  
• Here is the official ubisoft site with information about the free weekend, including a FAQ and launch time section
  

New Player's Guide

• Getting Started

Access the various parts of the menu by clicking "play" or the Arrow on the main menu

1. Watch all three tutorials.
   

   The tutorial videos provide a quick overview of the important details of the game and provide you with 200 renown (the currency that you will need to unlock things in the game) for each that you watch. They are short, well made, and explain the basics of the gameplay
   

2. Play through the first 5 or so situations.
   

   Focus on learning the controls and paying attention to the map layouts- these are the same maps as multiplayer. Do not stress if you cannot complete all three stars on each situation the first time through, you can always come back to them. The difficulty for these situations also does not matter, but normal is suggested so you can get use to the controls. You may wish to do more than 5 of the situations, but you likely should not do any less
   

3. Buy your first operator.
   

   Take a few minutes to read through each operator's description and select one that you are interested in. Consider picking up both an Attacker and a Defender if you have the renown for it. See the "Operators Great for New Players" section below if you are looking for some good operators for beginners.
   

4. Accept weekly challenges
   

   These are found by first clicking the daily challenges tab then clicking "more challenges" under the daily challenge pop up. Focus on weekly challenges that involve basic actions that you can passively complete and don't require specific operators. After you complete the challenge, open the challenge window back up and click "complete". You must do this to receive credit.
   

5. Go to terrorist hunt and try out your operators
   

   Most of the terrorist hunts modes use only an attacker. You can change your terrorist hunt settings by going to Settings> Matching making preferences> Turn off whatever modes you don't want under terrorist hunt
   

6. Buy attachments for your operators
   

   Depending on how much renown you have, buy a sight (Holographic or ACOG), a grip (vertical grip), and a barrel attachment (Flash hider for tap firing, Compensator for full auto fire, or Muzzle brake for semi-automatic guns). Do not buy the laser attachment yet, and do not buy skins or other cosmetics. You also most likely will not need to buy anything for your pistol (unless you're already swimming in renown). For Attackers, avoid shotguns and LMGs, they have limited uses for pushing objectives. For Defenders, consider the SMG option first, but use a shotgun if you really like the play style.
   

7. Go into casual
   

   You're likely going to not do very well - that's completely okay. Siege is well known for its significant learning curve, especially during the first few matches. During your early matches focus on learning maps, getting use to your guns, and understanding the flow of the game. Use your drones often, don't forget defender cameras, communicate well, learn from your deaths, and don't sweat misplays.
   

• Operators Great for New Players

Play through some situations first as they are easy ways to gain renown try out operators' abilities. For new players, set-and-forget abilities or abilities that are less complicated are usually better, as well as guns with lower recoil.
Attackers

• Sledge
  
  • What makes him good: His sledge hammer ability is probably the easiest to use among the attackers, he has average damage guns with low recoil, and he has frags. Sledge has long been a top pick for new players with good reason, he is perfect for less experienced players.
  • Loadout: L85A2 Assault Rifle: Scope of preference, vertical Grip, flash hider or compensator (depending on if you burst fire or full-auto fire). SMG-11 sidearm, Fragmentation grenades
  • Quick Tips: His ability makes a very distinct sound so be wary of defenders being alerted to your point of entrance. Take time to drone out a room before sledging into it. A lot of new players get into the habit of over using his ability which makes him easier to counter and eliminate.
• Thatcher
  
  • What makes him good: His ability is pretty intuitive, straight forward, and also nearly always being needed. Using it against reinforced walls that Bandit has electrified or Mute has jammed is pretty much all you need to do. Both his assault rifles are good, though you will likely find the L85A2 easier to control.
  • Loadout: L85A2 Assault Rifle: Scope of preference, vertical Grip, flash Hider or compensator (depending on if you burst fire or full-auto fire). Breaching charges are more useful for newer players than his claymores usually, as claymores take more map knowledge to use effectively
  • Quick Tips: Be very careful to not die before using the emp grenades to destroy Mute's Jammers/ Bandit's batteries and stick with either Hibana or Thermite so you can be sure to use your gadget in the right spot. Learning the trajectory and when it is safe to throw the EMP is key to mastering Thatcher.
• Ash
  
  • What makes her good: Her ability is very easy to use (just aim it at a destructible surface) , both of her guns are strong, and she is a max speed operator making her well rounded and good for new players
  • Loadout: G36C Assault rifle- it's lower recoil is easier to manage for newer players, compensator or flash hider, vertical grip, scope of preference. Flash Bangs or Breaching Charges is a situational pick, but flash bangs are generally more useful due to her already having breaching capabilities.
  • Quick Tips: Do not use her ability on outside facing barricades, as just shooting the barricades with her assault rifle will destroy them and preserve her ability. Ash does not have a "noob-tube". While her ability does some damage to operators, it is not anywhere close to an AOE instant death machine like they are in other games. Avoid trying to kill operators with it until you're more familiar with it's damage output.
• New players should avoid attackers such as Montagne and Thermite due to the relatively low strength OR high difficulty in use.
  

Defenders

• Rook
  
  • What makes him good: His ability is the easiest to use among the Defenders as well as almost always being useful. His MP5 is low recoil and easy to use and he has max armor. Long considered the best Defender for new players.
  • Loadout: MP5 submachine gun, vertical grip, flash hider, scope of preference. Deployable shield vs impact grenade is largely based on your team's composition, but impact grenades are generally viewed as more useful
  • Quick Tips: Start every round by placing the armor immediately, preferably not next to a wall or object. Take a step back after placing his armor before putting it on, as it allows more defenders to access it at once.
• Mute
  
  • What makes him good: His ability takes a little more finesse that other top picks for new players but overall he still is very easy to use while being a key defender. His SMG has low recoil.
  • Loadout: MP5K submachine gun. Scope of choice with flash hider or compensator. Nitro cell for equipment
  • Quick Tips: Learn which walls must be reinforced for the objective. Walls close to the objective and walls which face the outside of the building near the objective are usually the most important to jam. Jamming walls should take priority over stopping drones.
• Doc
  
  • What makes him good: Similar to Rook, but his ability is often a little less useful for newer players. He features a play style similar to Rook with similar guns.
  • Loadout: MP5 submachine gun, vertical grip, flash hider or compensator, scope of preference. Barbed wire is generally considered to be better than deployable shields
  • Quick Tips: Keep an eye on the Defenders' health at all times, and heal Defenders that have been knocked down or taken damage. His ability can overheal people to above 100 health as well, which can be useful in a pinch. Keep in mind that his ability can be self applied at any time to heal himself and also when he is downed to revive himself.
• New players should avoid defenders such as Tachanka, Pulse, and Castle; their abilities require outstanding map knowledge to use effectively.
  

• Quick Tips

• Avoided getting frustrated. Angry players make bad decisions. If you're mad, take a round to do a terrorist hunt mission
• Stick with your team while learning the maps, especially if you're an attacker
• Use your mic to communicate - be sure to use directions and locations (compass is at the bottom of the screen, as is what room you are currently in)
• Learn all the operators names and abilities. Learn who has nitro cells and frag grenades. Here is a list of all the operators, their abilities, and important notes about them
• Always use a headset/headphones- Operators are loud and easy to hear, knowing where they're coming from is important
• The hostage is not invulnerable- the hostage will die if shot too many times or if explosives go off too close to (Be very careful with Fuze, grenades, nitros)
• Do not reinforce between the two bombs on defense on the Bomb game mode- it actually makes it easier for attackers
• Don't be afraid to ask people questions if you're confused. Casual is there to learn the game and most people will help.
• Play with friends or a play group whenever possible. It helps with the frustration of dying and learning the game more quickly. Siege's discord is linked at the bottom of the post if you're looking for a place to group up.

 

Buyer's Guide

• Buyer's FAQ

How do seasons/operations work?

Siege introduces a new operation every few months (4 throughout 2018). The current season is Year 2 Season 4 : White Noise. The next season is Year 3 Season 1: Operation Chimera, set to debut on the technical test servers on February 20th. At the start of each season: a new map is introduced which is free for everyone immediately, ranks are reset (placement matches must be redone), and new Operators are released. The Operators are given to Year 3 pass holders on the day the operation launches for no additional cost. Non-pass holders will have to wait 1 week after the start of the season to be able to buy the Operators. New operators cost 25,000 Renown or 600 R6 to buy for those without the Year 3 Pass. Operation Chimera will introduce two new Operators to Siege, one from France and the other from Russia. Chimera will be unique for a Siege season as it will also ship with a limited time PvE event called "Outbreak". You can read more about the Outbreak Event here : Outbreak Info Link

What is included in the Year 3 Pass?

Here's an image of what you will get in the Year 3 Pass

• All 8 Year 3 Operators at no additional as they are launched (The first 2 operators will come out with Operation Chimera
• One week access to the new Operators as they are launched (Non-pass holders will half to wait 1 week from the start of a new season before they have to option to buy the Operators for 25,000 Renown or 600 R6 credits)
• 600 R6 Credits
• Meteorite R6 Charm
• 8 new headgears (as they are added)
• 8 new uniforms (as they are added)
• 5% renown gain bonus (expires Jan 31st. 2019)
• 10% Store discount (expires Jan 31st. 2019)
• 2 extra slots to hold daily missions (expires Jan 31st. 2019)
• Here's an image of the Year 3 roadmap

Is the Year 3 Pass mandatory for a full Siege experience?

No, you can go without the Year 3 Pass and the game will still be wholly playable. The Pass allows owners to obtain new Operators without needing to spend renown (the currency awarded for completing actions in the game, mainly finishing matches). Non-pass-holders will be able to use renown to unlock them.
Most importantly, not having this pass will still allow you to be competitive in Siege. Passes just save owners from having to save up renown to buy new Operators.

How do I buy the maps/do maps come in the Year 3 pass

Maps are completely free to owners of every edition of Siege at the same time. You do not need to pay money for any maps.

Does the Year 3 Pass include Year 1 or Year 2 Operators? (the 8 that came out in 2016 and 2017 )

No, the Year 3 Pass only covers Year 3 (2018)

How can I get all the Operators from the Year 1 or Year 2 Pasess now that it is not widely available?

The Year 1 and Year 2 Operators can be bought in separate bundles for 2400 R6 credits each. You can find the two bundles at the bottom of the Operators tab in the main menu. Alternatively, you can purchase each non-base operator individually for 25,000 Renown or 600 R6 Credits.

Can I play with my friends if they have the Year 3 pass and I do not?

Yes, the Year 2 Pass does not affect matchmaking or grouping in any way.

Does it matter where I buy the game from(Steam, Uplay)? (PC)

No. For PC, all purchasers through Steam/Uplay will still all play against each other. You must install and run Uplay no matter where you buy the game from on PC.

Can I buy the Year 3 pass (or other DLC) from Steam if I own the game through UPlay? (PC)

No. If you own the game through Uplay, you cannot buy any DLC from Steam. Steam will not provide you with a key for the DLC.

Does the Year 3 pass transfer with my Uplay account if i change from [platform] to [a different platform]

No. No purchases, unlocks, cosmetics, experience, clearance level, or rank will transfer. You will start from a clean slate.

How is Siege's Playerbase/ Is it dying?

No, Siege has a robust player population. Siege's playbase has drastically grown since its December 2015 launch, with record numbers of players playing every day. Ubisoft has repeatedly shown that they are committed to the long term growth and health of Siege (especially with the Operation Health announcement), and Siege has even been nominated for "Best Ongoing Game" at The Game Awards 2017

• Information about the Game Editions

Comparison Chart for the editions

Starter edition

• A cheaper version of Siege aimed at people shorter on cash than time
• FAQ specifically for the starter edition
• Only Available on PC
• Always consider buying the standard over the starter (the grind in the starter edition is seriously no joke)
• Buying the starter edition will remove your progress on Operator unlocks from any free weekend as the free weekend uses the Standard Edition unlock model

Standard Edition

• The normal base game. This is the edition that all free weekend players are using.

Advanced Edition

• Product Description Image
• The Standard Edition + 600 R6 Credits ($5 USD Value) and 10 Outbreak Packs (Cosmetic Loot Boxes for the upcoming season, ~$25 USD (estimated))

Gold Edition (Year Three)

• Product Description Image
• The Advanced Edition + Year 3 Pass (the next 8 operators that are coming out throughout 2018, regularly priced at $30 USD)

Complete Edition

• Product description image
• Includes the Advanced Edition + the Year 3 Pass. + All 8 of the Year One Operators + All 8 of the Year Two Operators (Year 1 : Buck, Frost, Valkyrie, Blackbeard, Caveira, Capitao, Hibana, Echo. Year 2: Mira, Jackal, Ying, Lesion, Ela, Zofia, Vigil, and Dokkaebi)

Do any of the editions come with all the base operators (the operators that launched with the game)?

No edition of the game comes with the base operators already unlocked

Useful Resources

Looking for some suggestions on content creators to watch? Check out this megapost on the topic

https://www.reddit.com/Rainbow6/comments/6viol3/hi_im_new_to_siege_and_was_looking_for_some/

Looking to get an over-view of the maps? check out R6maps:

https://www.r6maps.com

Learn more about the Six Invitational

https://rainbow6.ubisoft.com/siege/en-us/events/sixinvitational/index.aspx

Looking for people to group up and play with or maybe just talk about Siege and ask questions? Come join the official Rainbow Six: Siege Discord!

There are dedicated channels for helping new players (training-ground), serious Siege talk (serious game discussion), looking-for-group-channels for each region and platform, as well as channels to stay up to date on Siege news.