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XDefiant adds a Rainbow Six Siege faction and more with Season 1

Key art for the new Rainbow Six Siege inspired faction in XDefiant.
Ubisoft

Season 1 of Ubisoft’s new multiplayer shooter and Call of Duty competitor XDefiant begins tomorrow, so Ubisoft heavily detailed what players can expect from it in a new video.

For each season of XDefiant, Ubisoft will post an XDebrief video giving players an overview of what to expect from upcoming seasons of content. After an opening trailer, the XDebrief begins by delving into GSK, the new faction coming to XDefiant as part of its first season. This faction is based on Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft’s other popular competitive shooter, and has a defensive gameplay focus. They can deploy shock wire around objectives to make it hard for enemies to get close, use an active defense system to block explosives, utilize a flash shield to block bullets and stun enemies with a flashbang-like light, and have ballistic helmets that make getting headshots on them tough.

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Three new weapons are also coming to XDefiant as part of the free battle pass. These are the LVOA-C, a new assault rifle with a fast time-to-kill but high recoil, the L115, a medium-powered sniper rifle best for body shots, and the Sawed-Off Shotgun, a secondary weapon that is fantastic at close range. XDefiant’s ranked mode is also finally arriving and supports four different game modes: Occupy, Domination, Zone Control, and Escort. By playing Ranked Mode, players level up and rise through the ranks, with the lowest tier being Bronze and the highest being Legends. The top 500 players will receive a “special reward” at the end of a season.

XDefiant: Season 1 Full Reveal | XDebrief

While the first seven days of Season 1 will give players a “Ranked Practice” window to ease into the mode, after that, players can start working toward being one of the top players. XDefiant will also get some new maps throughout Season 1. Clubhouse, a map inspired by Rainbow Six Siege, will be available from day one, while maps called Daytona and Rockefeller will arrive mid-season.

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At the end of the XDebrief, there was a community Q&A, and Ubisoft teased that a Prestige-like system, more weapon mastery camos, keyboard and mouse support on consoles, Private Matches, a kill cam, Search & Destroy mode, and more are in the works. XDefiant is a free-to-play game available now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, with Season 1 beginning on July 2.

Tomas Franzese
A former Gaming Staff Writer at Digital Trends, Tomas Franzese now reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
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