Rainbow Six Siege's big Tachanka rework arrives on a test server tomorrow

It's been a long time coming, but the rework of Tachanka, Rainbow Six Siege's most infamously awful fighter (seriously, we've been talking about this guy since early 2018), is just about here. Ubisoft said that the big changes that are being made to the Big Russian Boy, which will give him significantly increased mobility and area denial capability, will be available to players on a test server tomorrow.

Tachanka's DP27 light machine gun (who brings an LMG to a hostage rescue, anyway?) is no longer bound to a tripod but will instead serve as his primary weapon, meaning that he's no longer stuck in a single location. The gun is otherwise unchanged: It's got a low rate of fire and garbage optics, but it can chew holes through soft walls and hatches like nobody's business.

A possibly even more impactful change is the addition of a new gadget, the Shumikha incendiary grenade launcher. It looks like it will take some practice to master its bouncy ways, but its ability to set things (and people) on fire without requiring line of sight could be a game-changer, especially when used in concert with the hole-punching capabilities of the DP27. The launcher holds up to five grenades at a time and can fire them in rapid succession, but it reloads slowly, so Tachanka players will want to be careful about when and where they start popping off.

Speaking of being careful, Tachanka is also being given the Withstand ability, which will let him stand back up on his own when he's downed—probably a good idea for a guy who's going to be bouncing explosive fireballs off the walls.

The new and improved Tachanka will arrive on the Rainbow Six Siege PC test server on October 8, and will go live on all platforms at some point during Operation Shadow Legacy, which is currently underway. Full details are up at ubisoft.com.