Solid Snake Joins Rainbow Six Siege in Operation Silent Hunt
Legendary stealth operative Solid Snake is coming to Rainbow Six Siege as a permanent playable Operator when Operation Silent Hunt launches on March 3 (ET). The crossover brings a new intel-focused toolkit, a season Battle Pass loaded with Metal Gear Solid content, and a limited-time event that pits Snake alongside another stealth icon.
New tools and playstyle: Soliton Radar MKIII and On-Site Procurement
Solid Snake’s signature gadget in Siege is the handheld Soliton Radar MKIII, a compact device that maps the floorplan of his immediate area and detects enemy presence on the same floor and connected staircases. The radar displays level layout in green lines and marks soft walls and floors with dotted or striped patterns, giving players usable environmental hints rarely available to other Operators.
The radar report uses a three-color alert system: green signals an all-clear, yellow flags an active CCTV camera being watched by an enemy, and red indicates detected hostile activity. Snake can also toggle a precision mode that reveals enemy icons and vision cones in real time, providing potent intel for solo infiltrations or coordinated team maneuvers. Precision mode has a limited number of charges and a cooldown between uses, so timing and economy matter.
Complementing the radar is Solid Snake’s On-Site Procurement ability, which lets him scavenge supplies from the battlefield to adapt on the fly. Together, these tools position Snake as an intel-gathering Operator who excels at hunting down Defender positions and creating openings for his team.
Battle Pass, cosmetics, and the limited-time infiltration event
The Operation Silent Hunt Battle Pass unlocks Solid Snake immediately at the start of the season and includes Metal Gear Solid-themed cosmetics. Among the new looks players can expect is a Psycho Mantis outfit tailored for Smoke, with additional franchise-inspired skins rolling out through the season.
Later in Operation Silent Hunt a limited-time infiltration event will introduce a new 4v4 gameplay mode where Snake and Zero lead teams to recover stolen data. That event will also bring more themed outfits and a narrative-flavored mission designed as a nod to long-time fans of the stealth genre. The seasonal offering aims to blend Siege’s tactical foundations with the sneaking-and-deception hallmarks of Metal Gear Solid.
Counterplay, balance and the discarded cardboard-box idea
Solid Snake’s Soliton Radar MKIII isn’t an all-seeing mini-map; there are built-in counters to preserve balance and encourage strategic responses. Defenders receive notifications when they’re detected, giving them windows to reposition, counterattack, or employ deception. Specific Operators can disrupt or evade the radar: hologram-based decoys can appear as normal Operators so long as they remain still, electronic cloaks can conceal presence entirely, and jammers block the radar’s scans within their radius.
Design discussions at the studio even considered adding a cardboard box item as a playful nod to the franchise. That idea was ultimately set aside after internal debate: Siege players’ intimate knowledge of maps would make such a simple hiding spot ineffective—most teams would quickly identify and shoot an out-of-place box. The decision underlines a broader commitment to preserving Siege’s tactical integrity while integrating recognizable elements from the crossover universe.
Solid Snake’s arrival marks one of the franchise’s most prominent crossovers yet, bringing a new intel-heavy Operator and a season framework that mixes fresh gameplay, cosmetics, and a timed event pairing two stealth legends. Operation Silent Hunt begins on March 3 (ET), and the season’s rollout will reveal the rest of the Metal Gear Solid content scheduled for later in play.
