Operation North Star released!

The second season of Year 6 has been released, featuring a new defender, a map rework of Favela, a new Battle Pass and many more changes. Find out all details of the new season in this article.

- Article by Tentix

Operation North Star is here! Image Source: Ubisoft

New Operator: Thunderbird

The new defender Mina "Thunderbird" Sky brings an automatic healing station to the game, which will heal both defenders as well as attackers in close proximity. Her "Kona Station" shoots stim projectiles similar to Doc and can not only heal but also revive downed operators - meaningful placement of her gadget will be essential. The Kona Station also has infinite ammo, but requires a cooldown before being able to heal again. Her loadout consists of the Spear.308 wielded by Finka as well as the SPAS-15 shotgun used by Caveria, combined with the Bearing-9 or Q-929 pistol as secondary weapons. Her secondary gadgets are explosive, as she can bring either Impact Grenades or a Nitro Cell.

Map Rework: Favela

One of the biggest problem with the original Favela was the amount of exterior walls - attackers could open up big parts of the building, giving defenders difficulties when doing rotations. To remove this chaos, many of the exterior walls have been removed. Also, the layout of the map has completely changed, resulting in completely new objectives, rooms and hallways - or as Level Designer Josam L René puts it: "This is a new map, set within the same exterior."

Battle Pass

As usual we also get a new Battle Pass, featuring not only the new operator, but also more than 100 cosmetic items. There also has been a slight change to the Battle Pass: If you have finished the Battle Pass, you can still continue to earn Battle Pass points and levels - you will receive a random Alpha Pack every for fifth level.

The new Battle Pass

Balancing Changes

Banshee Rework: Already shown a few months ago, the rework to Melusi's Banshees finally comes to the game. Her Banshees will now open when attackers enter their Area of Effect, allowing attackers to shoot them from distance.
Glass Break: This new mechanic will allow attackers to shatter the glass of Mira's Black Mirrors, Maestro's Evil Eye Cameras as well as Bulletproof Cameras. This will not completely destroy the gadget, however Mira can no longer look through her windows and Maestro can only gather information if he opens his cameras manually.
Smoke Rework: Smoke also receives a small rework to his gas canisters. Not only will the visuals be changed to make it easier for attackers to spot how large the area of effect is, but also the propagation of the smoke is now different as it will no longer be possible for the gas to go through walls.

Other Changes

Bullet Hole Rework: One of the most frustrating mechanics in the game are Bullet Holes. It is almost impossible to see them from a distance and give the users a big advantage. This mechanic will now be changed so you can no longer look through single Bullet Holes.
Dead Bodies: To remove frustration with client-sided dead bodies, corpses will now be removed after a few seconds. Instead, a small icon will appear on the place where the operator died, which allows attackers and defenders to know exactly which operator they killed.
Barrel Attachment Rework: To make Barrel Attachments easier to understand, they will also receive a rework: The compensator will now only decrease the horizontal recoil, while the flash hider will only affect the vertical recoil ("hop time") - the muzzle break will recenter your shots more quickly.
Death Replay: The Death Replay will receive a visual rework, which allows players to get more information when killed.

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