Defending an objective in Rainbow Six Siege is a relatively easier task than attacking.
You need less coordination as a team and can set the objective site to your own preferences.
You can also choose to stay on the objective if you are not confident in your map knowledge.
The hard part of playing the defense in R6 Siege is to have a plan, preparing the objective according to that plan, and balance in aggressive/passive plays.
Our beginner tips for defending in Rainbow Six Siege will help you understand fundamental principles.
If you adhere to those essential tips, then you will be able to improve your defensive game quickly.
Remember: Rainbow Six Siege is a complex game with a steep learning curve. Improvement will take time. Try to learn from your mistakes, and don’t get too stressed about errors.
And most importantly – enjoy the ride!
NEW PLAYER TIPS
DEFENDING
DON'T REINFORCE BETWEEN BOMBS
If there’s one thing you are to remember from tips on defense, please let it be this one. It is one of the most crucial mistakes of beginners in Rainbow Six Siege.
Do not reinforce all the walls between objective sites.
You may reinforce one if the cover is needed or you want to set up your Mira’s Black Mirrors.
You may reinforce one if the cover is needed or you want to set up your Mira’s Black Mirrors.
Why is it bad?
You limit your team’s options. Attackers can plant on either site. If you do not have a rotation or line of sight between the bomb sites, then you make attackers’ job easier to both plant the defuser and defend it in the post-plant situation.
LEARN COMMON ROTATION HOLES
As an extension to the previous tip, observe how others (teammates or enemies) set holes between sites. Rotation holes are traversable openings in walls between the bomb sites. They allow defenders to rotate easily between objectives.
This, in turn, helps with:
- preventing a plant attempt from attackers
- re-taking objective site
TIME IS YOUR ALLY!
By default on the defense, your goal is to prevent attackers from completing the objective within round time.
Therefore, you win by default, and its attackers who have to complete the objective.
As a result, play patiently and utilize the time. Eventually, attackers have to come to you, so try to find a balance between wasting their time (more aggressive plays) and waiting for their action (passive approach)
Example:
10 seconds left and it’s 1v1, the defuser is not planted.
Assume a good position and hold an angle. Wait to see if the enemy pushes you unless you hear the sound of the defuser plant being initiated.
Sometimes, you will win without engaging your enemy. Other times, you may catch them planting a defuser.
STOP PEEKING
This is probably the one single tip that, when utilized, will net players significant improvement in winning ratio on the defense.
Seriously, players peek way too much on the defense!
Ye, we know, there is peeker’s advantage, and you should not be overly passive. BUT the number of times we see people peeking on the defense, losing the engagements, instead of wasting attackers’ time is astonishing.
LEARN HOW TO HOLD AN ANGLE
Holding angles means that you are keeping a line of sight, which the enemy has to get into to shoot you.
Here’s a list of basic principles to hold angles well:
- Don’t hold obvious angles
- Hide your body as much as possible
- Don’t expose yourself to many angles you have no control over
- Try to hold a “tight” angle
Visit our anchoring guide where we dedicate a section for holding an angle.
DON'T BARRICADE ENTRY POINTS TO THE OBJECTIVE
If you barricade entrances, then you’re safe inside, right? Well, no. Not in Rainbow Six Siege.
Barricading yourself inside the objective site has more significant downsides to your team than to attackers.
Attackers can quickly destroy barricades, but your team will have a hard time rotating. Your roamers may have no possibility to flank attackers or to retake the site.
So, resist this temptation of barricading yourself in the objective!
DON'T PICK CASTLE AS A BEGINNER
For some reason, Castle’s characteristics are attractive to new Rainbow Six Siege players, which is one of the most common beginner mistakes on the defense.
Castle is a difficult defender to utilize correctly and can easily backfire if misused, especially if used to barricade entrances to the objective – that’s a big no-no!
What are easy operators to pick on defense as a new player?
If you want to learn more about good defensive operators from different perspectives, then make sure to visit our defenders’ rankings.
DON'T STACK ON THE OBJECTIVE
A natural instinct may be for you to stay on the objective as a defender.
You may not feel comfortable without proper map knowledge.
Try to understand that to learn the maps, you need to traverse them!
You don’t want to have all defenders on most of the objectives. Such setup allows attackers to take control of the map quickly and then push defenders remaining on the site. If your team has 4 anchors (on-site defenders), then set yourself up outside of the objective and disrupt attackers.
GET COMFORTABLE WITH ROAMING
We get it. You don’t know maps well, so you try to simplify the game by staying on the site while defending. It makes sense.
The problem is that you won’t learn maps this way. At least, not on the defense.
Once you get more comfortable with the basics of Rainbow Six Siege, try to experiment with roaming the map. You will learn and improve much faster this way!
You may mess up at the beginning or feel lost, but that’s natural.
To improve your map knowledge, you can also jump in a custom match and roam around the map.
Check our roaming guide for further tips on how to perform this vital role well!
KILLS ARE NOT ROAMER'S PRIMARY OBJECTIVE
One of the most common mistakes new players do while roaming is trying to get kills as the primary objective.
Don’t get us wrong, kills are great. But they are a nice bonus.
The primary objectives of a roamer are:
- wasting attackers time
- map control
If you didn’t get a kill but wasted 2 minutes of attackers time, then you have probably contributed more significantly than a roamer who got a kill but died in first 30 seconds of the round (tho, that depends on who roamer killed)
CHECK OUTSIDE DEFAULT CAMS AT THE ROUND START
This is very useful in a few ways:
First, you may identify attackers’ operator choices before they shoot the camera.
Second, you will know from which side attackers are coming – this is often an indication of their plan of attack and can help your roamers.
As an extension to this tip: even if the camera is shot, it gives you intel!
Third, even the best players tend to forget about default cameras.
MAKE YOURSELF HARD TO LOCATE
We don’t mean running around the map like crazy, but you don’t want to be an easy target to find, even on the objective site.
Don’t hold 1 angle for the whole defensive round. Odds are that attackers have droned you out during the round.
Try to change your angles, modify head level (crouch, standing, prone) and relocate.
If you get spotted, change your position. Move to the side at the very least. You are predictable when staying on the ping and can be easily pre-fired.
SHOOT WINDOWS TO IMPROVE AUDIO CUES
If you manage to break a plank in the window, then you will hear sounds on the other side of the window much better.
This helps significantly with hearing rappelling sounds or gadget deployment on the window (breaching charges, Fuze’s Cluster charge, etc.)
You don’t have to melee or destroy the window much. What matters is breaking 1 plank – as shown on the print screen
