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Tachanka rework: primary weapon, gadget, and expected release date

Rainbow Six Siege’s worst operator is officially getting reworked, here’s everything we know

Tachanka rework gameplay

Ubisoft has finally announced an upcoming Tachanka rework aimed at bringing the meme-tier defender back into the meta. Tachanka is currently the worst operator in the game with a mediocre kit and a gadget that’s borderline unusable in Siege’s almost fully destructible maps. As Tachanka’s LMG turret keeps him in one location, it’s too easy for attackers to work out where he is and simply shoot him from below, clear him out with a grenade, or to open up a new line of sight through a soft wall. While there are some cheeky tricks you can employ with the Russian monolith, he is almost never picked.

Ubisoft revealed their planned Tachanka rework at the Six Invitational 2020 to huge rounds of applause from the attendees. The rework keeps Tachanka’s aesthetic and overall defensive role, but should make him much more viable.

Full details are currently a little sparse, we don’t know what armour and speed values he will have, or what secondary gadgets he can equip. However, Ubisoft did show off some Tachanka rework gameplay, showing his new primary weapon and gadget in action. Join us as we round up everything that’s currently known about the upcoming Tachanka rework, from its expected release date to how his gadget will work.

Tachanka rework release date

It looks like the Tachanka rework could be arriving very soon, as Ubisoft appear to be revealing the latest iteration of the Russian monolith on October 7, 2020.

Ubisoft has not provided any specific date for the release date of the rework, but they have said that the new Tachanka is set to arrive in Year 5. With half of Year 5 out of the way, we could see the Tachanka rework arrive as a mid-season update in Season 3, or we won’t be seeing the Tachanka rework until Year 5 Season 4.

Interestingly, the Tachanka rework is already in the game and hackers have managed to use it in matchmaking, too. Barring a few tweaks and bug fixes, the rework is pretty much complete, so it can’t be much longer before the reinvented lord reclaims his throne on defence.

Lead game designer Jean-Baptiste Hallé mentioned during the Rainbow Six Siege Year 5 panel that more operator reworks are planned for Year 6, which suggests that while they have gameplay footage of the Tachanka rework he isn’t coming until later in the year. As Year 5 is a transitional year for Siege, those first two seasons on the roadmap where we’re getting two new operators mean it’s highly unlikely that we’ll get a full-scale operator rework in the first half of the year.

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Tachanka rework gameplay

There’s not much out there, and what there is definitely demo gameplay, but you can watch the Tachanka rework gameplay above to get a rough idea of his primary weapon and gadget will work. It looks like Tachanka could even be claiming a spot in our list of the best Rainbow Six Siege operators after this overhaul.

Tachanka rework primary weapon

Tachanka’s old turret-based LMG, the RP-46 Degtyaryov, is now his primary weapon. There are some key changes to it aside from the sudden mobility boost. Firstly, it appears that the turret can be equipped with a variety of attachments. In the clip we see a custom reflex sight and what could either be a grip or simply Tachanka holding onto the weapons bipod for stability. The other thing to note is the RP-46 Degtyaryov boasts absurd destructive capabilities, as we can see in the footage, Tachanka is able to quickly create a rotation hole to vault through by shooting a circle in a soft wall.

Tachanka rework gadget

As for the new gadget, the Tachanka rework will include a grenade launcher called the Kulakov Launcher, which fires incendiary rounds. These can be bounced off a couple of surfaces before detonating, and when they do they create a small patch of fire capable of stopping attackers from rushing through doorways. We see five rounds fired in the demo, and they appear to cycle very quickly, so it should be possible to react to defuser plants and deny large areas for a short duration.

The only other detail we can glean from the clip is that it looks like Tachanka is going to be a three armour, one speed operator – possibly with a speed penalty when using the LMG. The clip shows Tachanka moving very slowly, almost as slow as shield operators.