Rainbow Six Siege is an incredible game that pits players against in each other in close quarters hostile combat. One team is assigned to defend an area for different reasons, say holding a person hostage or guarding a set of bombs until the timer goes off, and the other is tasked with stopping it.
Being the defenders can be fun, but also very challenging. Enemy players will employ every trick in the book to get into the room your team is defending and it requires a lot of strategy to keep them at bay. While there are a number of evolving strategies to do this, here are some general tips that work regardless of the strategy being employed.
10 Don’t Camp In The Typical Spots
The game has been around for a while now and as a result, everyone has played defenders and learned the go-to locations for easy defending. While it may sound like a good idea to set up shop in a tried and true area, this is actually one of the worst things you can do.
Because these areas are so commonly utilized attacking players have been developing strategies for these specific spots. They also know exactly where to go and begin the invasion. You can gain precious seconds and possibly ambush the enemy by being where they don’t expect you to be, so get your team set up near the usual spots and use it to your advantage.
9 Deploy Shields In Doorways
Deployable shields are a great tool for giving you and your team cover from enemy fire and for reinforcing key areas to create choke points or simply another obstacle for the enemy to batter through.
One particularly effective tactic to tripping up the enemy is to deploy shields in doorways. This makes it harder for the enemy to chuck grenades through and can make a good deterrent from entering that room. It also buys your team time as it’s difficult to root out a defender firing from a doorway with a shield deployed.
8 Keep The Enemy In The Dark
The first step for any attacking team is to figure out where the target objective is and begin the assault. As a defender, it’s in your best interest to prevent them from figuring out where the objective is for as long as possible.
One vital way to accomplish this is to take down enemy drones as soon as they appear, this is the main way attackers will gather information so take them out. On a side note, it’s also a good idea to wait to lay your traps after the drones are down so the enemy has no idea where the traps will be or be sneaky and move them after the drones have seen them.
7 Keep Tabs On The Enemy
Just as it’s important your enemy is kept in the dark as long as possible it’s important for you and your team to know what the enemy is doing and where they’re coming from. Finding their spawn point is huge, but even just knowing which routes they’re taking to reach you can help your team prioritize where to lay obstacles.
Have at least one player assigned to stealthily wander the area and keep tabs on the enemy. Even just knowing which wall they’re congregating around will give you enough notice to turn the tables on them when they come barreling through.
6 Don’t Create A Box
This is a common mistake beginners will make when defending. In theory, it sounds good to pick a single room, reinforce all the doors, walls, and windows with your team in the center and traps sprinkled everywhere becoming a tortoise with teeth.
The problem becomes apparent when the enemy starts lobbing grenades into the room and your team is clustered together making a prime target for shrapnel. Don’t box yourself into one room, spread your defenses out and give yourself some options if the room is no longer viable to defend.
5 Create Layers Of Obstacles
Adding onto the previous entry it’s important to make sure you have layers of obstacles your enemy has to traverse. Make it a slog for them to overcome barriers and avoid traps. You want your enemy a little bloodied and light on ammo long before they ever reach you.
Have multiple fall back points, traps and barriers sprinkled throughout the building. Ideally, when you’re pushed back to that final fallback point your enemy will be too weak to do anything significant or the timer will run out. Rather than bulk defenses in one area, spread them out a little and you’ll find they go a lot farther.
4 Funnel The Enemies Down A Path
This was touched upon a little in the previous entry, but it’s important to emphasize. You want to give yourself the advantage by minimizing the number of entry points the enemy will use to reach you. It’s a lot easier to cover two entry points than seven.
Using your barriers and traps to create corridors for the enemy to go through will allow your team to concentrate fire, pin them down, create kill zones, and at the very least buy time. The more you can dictate your enemies path of attack the easier defending their attacks will be.
3 Pay Attention To Sound
It’s important to remember this isn’t a typical first-person shooter, you can’t fire at the incoming hordes like Doom guy on the walls of a modern Alamo. It’s all about tactics, caution, and paying attention to your surroundings.
Sound plays a big role in this as it can give you vital information about where the enemy is coming from. Knowing how far away they are, which direction they’re heading, and which room they’re in based on the sound their feet make can all be used to your advantage. It’s also important to remember that the same works in their favor, so step lightly and minimize the sounds you’re making.
2 Reinforce Outer Walls
It’s impossible to reinforce every wall so it’s important to prioritize. Before you know what the enemy’s plans are you need to reinforce potential weaknesses that can give the enemy a shortcut to your defenses.
Almost always the walls breached the most are the ones that lead to the outside. Attackers want a straight path from their spawn point to you, so reinforce the outside walls that give them that shortcut. Then once you know what they’re up to you can begin beefing up the walls that’ll give them the most headaches.
1 Teamwork Is Necessary
The absolute most important thing you can do to become a better defender is to have a well organized and cooperative team. You want your teammates sharing as much information with the team as possible, providing backup, covering each other when you fall back, and other supportive measures.
By learning to coordinate and operate as a team you’ll find that even mediocre players working together can hold their own against lone wolf experts that refuse to coordinate, so team up.