The upcoming Rainbow Six spin-off, Rainbow Six Tactics, will feature permadeath, giving players another reason to carefully plan their campaigns. The new turn-based game will require players to think strategically about how they use their limited roster of Operators, particularly when playing with the feature enabled.

Rainbow Six Tactics was announced at Gamescom Opening Night Live, introducing a major departure from the franchise's usual formula. Unlike the competitive first-person shooter Rainbow Six Siege, the new game will be a single-player, turn-based tactical experience. Players will have access to just 15 Operators from Rainbow Six Siege's much larger roster, making the loss of individual characters particularly significant.

In an interview with IGN, Rainbow Six Tactics game director Martial Potron discussed the game's permadeath system, describing it as a "must-have" feature for fans of the tactical genre. However, players who do not want to permanently lose their Operators will be able to disable it. Permadeath will be available across every difficulty level, meaning players can decide whether they want the added pressure regardless of how challenging they want their overall campaign to be.

When permadeath is enabled, Operators who become too badly injured during a campaign will be permanently unavailable for the remainder of the playthrough. Since each Operator has unique abilities, losing an important member of the squad early could significantly affect future missions. Players will therefore need to consider the risks of every operation rather than simply sending their strongest Operators into every encounter.

Potron also explained how the development team approached the transition from a traditional shooter to a turn-based tactics game. According to the director, the Rainbow Six series already functions as a "Smart Shooter," requiring players to think carefully before acting and plan their approach to achieve the best possible outcome. Those qualities translated naturally into the turn-based format.

The development team also drew inspiration from the original Rainbow Six when designing the Breach system. Players can plan how they want to enter a location before executing the operation, choosing different approaches such as using explosives or coordinating multiple Operators' actions to maximize their effectiveness. Environmental destruction will also remain an important part of the gameplay, maintaining another recognizable element from the franchise.

One of the team's biggest challenges appears to have been recreating the uncertainty of a typical Rainbow Six Siege match in a turn-based environment. To accomplish this, Rainbow Six Tactics features a dynamic fog-of-war system that forces players to rely on scouting, drones, and other tools to determine what awaits them. Potron explained that hidden threats are designed to remain "dangerous without becoming frustrating," allowing the game to maintain tension without making encounters feel unfair.

Whether Rainbow Six Tactics can successfully translate the franchise's tactical DNA into a turn-based format remains to be seen. The game currently has a 2027 release window, meaning players could still have a considerable wait before getting their hands on it.

In the meantime, Rainbow Six Siege continues to receive updates more than a decade after its original release. Its next major update is scheduled for September 1 and will introduce Operation Split Fire, the new Operative Noor, a new Legend Division in Ranked mode, and a new 3v3 arcade mode.