Introduction
Most players feel more comfortable first on defense as remaining more passive and letting attackers come to you can be beneficial.
Attacking in Rainbow Six Siege can be quite a chaotic and confusing task, especially if you are just starting your journey with the game. Generally, offense requires more decisiveness, structure, and teamwork to be executed well.
My aim in this article is to give you an overview of what is expected from attackers at different stages of the action phase.
Of course, this is not set in the stone form of attacking as some rounds will play differently, especially if attackers decide to rush objective.
However, in most cases, you will see such structure, so it is important for Siege players to understand priorities and expectations from different roles during each stage.
Attacking rounds in Rainbow Six Siege have usually 3 phase form of:
Approach
DEFINITION
WHEN DOES PHASE BEGIN:
This phase starts right after the action phase begins and attackers spawn in selected locations.
MAIN OBJECTIVE:
The main objective of attackers is to reach objective building without losing operators, especially those crucial to attacking team tactics.
The bonus goal during this phase is to punish spawn peeking defenders.
DURATION:
Optimally, the approach should not take longer than 1 minute of the action phase.
If your team consistently struggles to approach building without losing a man or spending more than a minute on it, then you should review your methods.
PHASE DESCRIPTION
In this initial action phase we can distinguish two types of approaches based on the above goals and roles of operators:
PASSIVE APPROACH
Operators who have an important task to fulfill from the utility perspective should prioritize staying alive during the approach phase.
Operators to play passively:
- Hard breachers
Thermite, Hibana & Maverick - Hard breachers support
Thatcher & Twitch - other operators crucial to team’s tactic
Example: Strategy revolving around Capitao supporting plant with his bolts.
A passive approach to objective means:
- spawn location selection
You should choose a spawn point that is close to your entry point or breach location.
Spawning on the South-West side of the map, while having to open the North-East wall is detrimental as it increases the risk of getting picked off while approaching destination and wastes limited time.
An exception to spawning closest to the objective is a scenario where defenders have spawnpeekers to that side of the map. - drone for initial 5-10 seconds
This may sound like a pointless tip, but seriously. You will avoid most deaths during the approach phase if you drone for the first few seconds of the action phase.
Spawnpeekers wait usually only a few initial seconds for careless attackers to cross their line of sight, after which they mostly retreat back or change location.
Meanwhile, you can check available drones to look for spawnpeekers or drone entry point of your entry fraggers.
Win-win situation! - check for spawn peeks
Place your preparation phase drone at the side of the map where you intend to spawn, with visual on windows & doors leading to your location. This way you will know about upcoming spawn peeks or runouts beforehand.
If you see the spawn peek attempt, tell it to your teammates and change spawn to a safe one.
AGGRESSIVE APPROACH
Any other operator who is not crucial to the team’s success from a utility perspective can play more aggressively during the approach phase.
The main objective remains the same, but punishing aggressive defenders gains significance.
Best players to take an aggressive attitude during approach phase are team’s top fraggers and operators assigned to be entry fraggers, which should go hand-to-hand.
Main characteristics of aggressive approach are:
- challenging spawnpeekers
If your team notices potential spawn peeks from defenders, aggressive players should choose spawn from which they can challenge defender.
Take advantage of intel gained and pre-aim the defender’s position. - decisiveness
I used decisive and not quick for a reason. Being aggressive does not mean being careless or reckless. As hard as it is to achieve the balance between two, try to avoid running around like a headless chicken.
Check for spawn peeks locations and drone your entry point, but act on it immediately. - choosing appropriate spawn
Similarly to passive players, you want to select spawn location allowing you to approach entry point in the easiest and fastest manner.
Breach & Clear
DEFINITION
WHEN DOES PHASE BEGIN:
This stage of the round begins once your team reaches the destination of approach phase, which is either objective building entry point or breaching area (exterior wall leading directly to the objective).
MAIN OBJECTIVE:
During this phase the main objective is to gain an advantage before the final push on objective happens, in both:
- on-site meaning by breaching the site
- the off-site way by gaining map control
DURATION:
This is usually the longest phase during attacking round and may last even up to 2 minutes.
The minimum time necessary is approximately 30 seconds for basic map presence.
Optimally phase should finish before the last 30 seconds of the action phase to allow a sufficient amount of time for objective completion.
PHASE DESCRIPTION
Once the phase starts, your team will likely split to two groups:
Breach
The main objective of this group is to open crucial angles and entry points to the objective site.
Breaching involves operators from the following roles:
- Hard breacher
To be used for breaching reinforced walls and hatches. Defenders are more than likely to reinforce all important entries to the objective to minimize angles available to attackers - Hard breach support
Support operators should accompany Hard breachers in case defense brought Breach denial operators.
Breach denial is focused on preventing Hard breachers from opening reinforced surfaces.
MAP CLEAR
The task of this group is to gain control over areas of the map by:
- pushing roamers back to the objective site
- isolating roamers
- killing roamers
Map control can be established both horizontally or vertically.
Clearing the entire map is not always required, but in most cases, you should try to establish at least minimal map control before processing to the final phase of the attack.
A map clear can be performed by any operator from roles not involved actively in breaching, or even by breaching a group once the breach is accomplished.
However, the best operators to perform map clear are:
- Entry fraggers
- Soft breachers
Objective push
DEFINITION
WHEN DOES PHASE BEGIN:
The last phase of the round should begin with either:
- your team being ready with breaching the objective & gained necessary map control (positive scenario)OR
- in the last 30 seconds of the round even if the above tasks were not achieved
MAIN OBJECTIVE:
The goal of this phase is to either:
- kill remaining defenders
- complete objective -defuse bomb, secure area or extract the hostage
DURATION:
Indefinite in case of secure area and hostage.
Example: Contested Secure area lasts until the team is eliminated or leaves the objective area, even if the time of round has expired.
Otherwise, till completion/failure of objective or until one of the teams has been eliminated.
PHASE DESCRIPTION
During the final objective push attacking team should:
- push cohesively as a team
Communicate the final push with your teammates.
It is significantly easier for defenders to hold off one attacker at a time than to repel multiple opponents at the same time. - attack objective from multiple angles
The number of angles available to attack objective will depend on your team’s success during the Breach & Clear phase.
Even in case of not so successful phase 2 outcome, try not to push objective from one direction as it simplifies the defense’s job.
An exception to the above tip are rushes, which do not follow this article phase split and benefit from concentrated firepower. - use remaining utility
Utilize remaining gadgets available at your disposal during the final objective push.
There is no reason to hoard further on utility unless it is going to be more useful during post-plant scenario (bomb game mode) - act decisively regardless of the situation
Not trusting your skill and judgment is very likely to impact negatively your aim and decision-making ability.
Instead, try to stay assertive and do not allow external factors to lower your self-confidence, even in difficult situations where your team is at a severe disadvantage. - judgment call: go for kills or objective
Make a call as a team on whether you go for objective or kills.
Neither is good nor bad. Instead, it depends on the situation.Going for kills is a good option in case your team is not in possession of the defuser (in bomb mode) and has no time to retrieve it before the round ends.
Focusing on objective may be the best option if you are at a man count disadvantage or if opponents have a heavy presence outside of the objective site (roaming).
Whichever option you choose, make sure the entire team is on the same page!
