Bank: The Vertical Map
Bank is one of Rainbow Six Siege’s original maps, released with the game in 2015, and it has been a ranked staple ever since. Ask any veteran what Bank is about and you will hear the same answer: vertical play. No other map in the pool punishes players who ignore the floor above and the floor below quite like Bank. Rounds here are won by the team that controls three dimensions, not two.
Bank is a large three-floor building — a basement level, a ground floor, and an upper floor — organized around a grand central atrium with a skylight. The atrium is the map’s defining feature: a tall open space that lets you see and shoot across floors, connecting the lobby below to the offices above. It is beautiful, and it is a death trap for anyone standing in the open.
The map’s size and verticality create a distinctive rhythm. Attackers cannot just walk at a site; they must clear the floor above or below first, or defenders will shoot them through the ceiling and floor while they plant. Defenders cannot just sit on site; roamers who control the stairs and the vertical space decide whether the attackers ever reach the objective intact. If you learn one idea from this guide, make it this: on Bank, the site is the last place you fight, not the first.
Callout note before we start: this guide uses the widely standardized Bank callouts that have been stable for years — Tellers, Archives, Lockers, CCTV, CEO Office, the colored stairs, and the exterior spawns. Regional and squad-specific variations exist everywhere in Siege, so always confirm names with your stack. Our broader R6 map knowledge guide covers how to build a callout system that survives those variations.
The Map at a Glance
Three floors, one atrium
Bank’s basement level houses the Vault, the Lockers, the CCTV room, and the garage areas — the classic basement bomb site (Lockers/CCTV) lives down here. The ground floor holds the Lobby, the Tellers, the Archives, the Open Area, and the Staff Room — home to the Teller’s Office/Archives and Staff Room/Open Area bomb sites. The upper floor contains the Executive Lounge, the CEO Office, the offices and hallways overlooking the atrium — where the Executive Lounge/CEO Office site sits.
The atrium skylight dominates the center. It floods the lobby with light and gives attackers rappelling or holding the roof sightlines straight down into the heart of the map. For defenders, the atrium is the great vulnerability: it connects everything, which means it threatens everything.
The exterior: three spawns, many doors
Attackers spawn at one of three locations: Boulevard to the northwest (near the main entrance and the parking garage), Jewelry to the northeast (by the jewelry store, close to the plaza and the main entrance), or Alley to the southeast (behind the building, near the Electrical room and the Printer window). Each spawn suggests different entries: Boulevard feeds the main entrance, the lobby, and the parking garage; Jewelry feeds the plaza, the main entrance, and the tunnel; Alley feeds the back of the building, the Electrical room, and the rooftop terrace.
Bank has an unusually high number of exterior doors and windows, plus garage access and rappel points. This is a blessing for attackers (many entries) and a curse for defenders (many entries to watch). Roamers exist on Bank precisely because the attacker can come from anywhere — someone has to be out in the map gathering information and wasting time.
Vertical Play: Bank’s Defining Skill
Why Bank is the vertical map
Most Siege maps have some vertical play. Bank has vertical play as its core identity. The floors are connected by destructible surfaces everywhere: wooden floors between the ground and upper levels, hatches between floors, and the open atrium. A defender below the Tellers site can deny a plant by shooting up through the floor. An attacker above the basement site can clear anchors before ever touching the stairs.
The practical consequence: no site take on Bank begins at the site. It begins one floor above or below, clearing the vertical space. Teams that skip this step walk into crossfires from angles they never checked. Teams that master it make sites feel empty before the execute even starts.
The key vertical relationships
Learn these floor relationships and you understand half of Bank:
- Above Teller’s Office/Archives: the upper floor offices and hallways let attackers open the floor and pressure the site from above. Defenders must contest or reinforce the ceiling.
- Above Lockers/CCTV (basement): the ground floor above the basement site — attackers who control it can drop hatches and shoot down into the site. This is why the basement site demands hatch control.
- The atrium: the skylight and the open center connect the lobby to the upper floor. Attackers on the roof or upper offices can pressure the lobby and the atrium-adjacent sites vertically.
- CEO/Executive Lounge: the top-floor site is attacked from the windows and the rooftop as much as from the stairs — verticality here means exterior height, not just floors.
Hatches: the map’s currency
Bank has a large number of hatches, and hatch control decides rounds. Attackers want hatches open to drop into sites and to shoot down; defenders want them reinforced or guarded to deny free vertical access. This is why hard breachers are so valuable on Bank — and why defenders who can electrify reinforced surfaces earn their keep. Bring the utility to open hatches, and bring a plan for which ones matter for the site you are attacking. Not every hatch is worth opening; the ones above or adjacent to the objective are.
The Bomb Sites
Bank’s four bomb site pairs each play differently. Ranked play uses the bomb sites below (per widely documented site layouts):
Lockers / CCTV (basement)
The classic Bank basement site. Defenders hold the Lockers and the CCTV room, with the Vault nearby. The defining feature is the hatch above: attackers who open the hatches from the ground floor can shoot directly down into the site, bypassing the fortified walls entirely. Defenders must either reinforce and guard the hatches or accept that the ceiling is hostile.
Defensive setup centers on the Vault hallway — a well-known angle down the corridor toward the site entrance — and on holding the stairs that feed the basement. Mira’s Black Mirror in the Vault hallway looking toward the site entrance is one of the most famous placements in all of Siege. Attackers typically clear the ground floor above, open hatches, and execute downward, using the vertical advantage to dislodge anchors before pushing the stairs.
Teller’s Office / Archives (ground floor)
The ground-floor site pair. Tellers and Archives sit adjacent, with the Lobby and the atrium nearby. The vertical threat comes from above: attackers in the upper offices can open the floor and deny the site from the ceiling. Defenders need to contest the floor above or reinforce the ceiling and hold the stairwells.
The main entrance and the lobby are the natural attacker approaches, but the skylight and atrium sightlines mean defenders cannot over-extend into the open. This site rewards patient attackers who clear vertically first and punishes rushes that ignore the ceiling.
Staff Room / Open Area (ground floor)
The Open Area is exactly what it sounds like: a large, exposed space that is extremely dangerous to cross without utility and cover. The Staff Room provides the enclosed anchor point. Attackers approaching through the Open Area face long sightlines from multiple defensive positions; smoke cover and coordinated entry are near-mandatory.
Defenders anchor the Staff Room and use the Open Area as a killing field, holding angles from cover. Attackers should treat the Open Area as a no-man’s-land: drone it, smoke it, and cross it with purpose — never linger.
Executive Lounge / CEO Office (upper floor)
The top-floor site. CEO Office and Executive Lounge overlook the atrium, and the site’s defining feature is its exposure to exterior angles: windows, the rooftop, and the terrace give attackers multiple ways to pressure the site without ever entering the building. Defenders must watch the windows as carefully as the doors.
The Exec Hallway and the Top Square area are the key rotation spaces. Attackers often split between a window/rooftop presence and a stair push, squeezing the defenders from two directions. Defenders who ignore the exterior get picked through windows they never checked.
Attacking Bank
Entries by spawn
- Boulevard spawn: the main entrance is the obvious entry, but it is also the most watched. Consider the parking garage: the garage ramp leads up to rappel points and the garage roof, with sightlines into the Lobby. The garage is a quieter entry that feeds both the ground floor and vertical positions.
- Jewelry spawn: the plaza and the main entrance are close. The tunnel entrance (via the open manhole near Jewelry) is the stealth option — it drops attackers into the basement level near the Vault area, which is devastating against basement-site defenses that are oriented toward the stairs.
- Alley spawn: the back of the building. The Electrical room door and the Printer window are the direct entries; the ladder to the adjacent rooftop leads to the terrace, with access to the upper floor through doors and windows. This is the vertical attacker’s spawn.
The skylight and rooftop
The rooftop and skylight are attacker assets that defenders must respect. From the roof, attackers can rappel and hold angles down into the atrium and lobby, cutting off defender rotations across the map’s center. The skylight itself is a vertical opening: attackers who control it can pressure the floors below. Defenders should never assume the roof is empty — a single attacker holding skylight control changes every rotation on the map.
Clearing before executing
The Bank attack formula: drone the floor above or below the site, clear the vertical space, open the relevant hatches or floor, and only then execute on the objective. Rushing the site without vertical clearance is the single most common way to lose attack rounds on Bank. The defenders are counting on you to skip it — they have crossfires set up specifically for the team that walks in blind.
Defending Bank
Anchor positions
Each site has its anchor spots, but Bank’s anchors share a trait: they must respect the vertical threat. Anchoring on site while attackers hold the floor above is a slow death. Good Bank defenses either contest the floor above/below the site with roamers or reinforce the relevant surfaces and accept a more passive posture. The Vault hallway angle on the basement site, the CEO window watch on the top floor, the Tellers counter positions — all of them work only when the vertical space is accounted for.
Roamers: Bank’s immune system
Bank is a roamer’s map. Its size, its many entries, and its staircases give roamers room to operate, waste attacker time, and gather information. The classic Bank roam controls the stairs and the floor above or below the site, denying attackers the free vertical clearance they need. Caveira thrives here — the map’s rooms and corners give her hiding spots, and interrogations on Bank are devastating because of how much ground attackers must cover.
But roaming on Bank requires discipline. The map is so large that a roamer who gets caught out of position cannot get back in time. Roam to waste time and gather intel, not to chase kills into the attackers’ spawn.
Stair control
Bank’s staircases are the map’s arteries. Whoever controls the stairs controls movement between floors, and movement between floors is the whole game on Bank. The colored stairs (commonly called by their colors) are the key rotation routes: defenders use them to reposition between sites, and attackers use them to collapse on objectives. Holding a staircase is rarely about the stairs themselves — it is about denying the enemy free vertical movement. A defender holding the top of a staircase does not need kills; they need the attackers to spend a minute clearing them, because a minute on Bank is a lifetime.
Operator Picks for Bank
These are widely agreed-upon strong picks, not a fixed meta — seasons shift the details, but the map’s structure keeps these operators relevant:
- Hibana (attack): Bank’s many hatches and the famous double wall near the top spiral stairs make Hibana arguably the best attacker on the map. She opens hatches for basement takes and creates sightlines across the upper floors.
- Dokkaebi (attack): her calls counter Bank’s roamers and briefly stop defenders from checking cameras — critical on a map where information decides rounds.
- Nøkk (attack): a classic Bank pick; the map’s heavy camera presence makes her gadget especially disruptive to defenders.
- Kaid (defense): with attackers bringing heavy hard-breach utility for the hatches, Kaid’s ability to electrify reinforced surfaces is premium.
- Mira (defense): her Black Mirrors are the backbone of Bank defenses on every site — the Vault hallway placement alone has won countless rounds. Our Mira operator guide breaks down her setups in detail.
- Caveira (defense): Bank’s layout is built for her roaming and interrogation playstyle.
Common Bank Mistakes
Attacking mistakes
- Skipping vertical clearance. The number one Bank error. If you did not clear the floor above or below the site, you did not actually attack the site.
- Ignoring the hatches. Hatches left unopened are opportunities wasted; hatches left unguarded after opening are flanks invited.
- Funneling the main entrance. The main entrance is the most obvious entry on the map and the most prepared-for. Vary your entries.
- Forgetting the skylight. An uncontrolled skylight means uncontrolled vertical pressure on the lobby and atrium for the entire round.
Defending mistakes
- Anchoring under hostile ceilings. If attackers hold the floor above your site and you have not reinforced or contested it, you are defending a shooting gallery where you are the targets.
- Roaming without a purpose. Bank rewards roamers who waste time and gather intel, not roamers who die in the first minute chasing a spawn peek.
- Neglecting the exterior. The windows, rooftop, and terrace are attack vectors, not scenery. The top-floor site especially demands window discipline.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes Bank different from other Siege maps?
Verticality. Most maps have some vertical play; Bank is built around it. The destructible floors, the many hatches, and the open atrium mean every round is fought across three dimensions. Teams that think in two dimensions lose on Bank consistently.
Which bomb site is hardest to attack on Bank?
It depends on the defensive setup, but the basement (Lockers/CCTV) is traditionally the most fortified — it has the fewest entries and the strongest defensive positions, provided the defenders hold the hatches above. The top-floor site (Executive Lounge/CEO) is the most exposed to exterior pressure. Neither is free.
Do I need a hard breacher on Bank?
Almost always, yes. The hatches are too important to leave to soft breach. Hibana is the standout pick because of how many hatches and key walls she can open, but any hard breacher is better than none.
How do I deal with roamers on Bank?
Drone thoroughly, use intel operators like Dokkaebi, and clear methodically rather than rushing. Bank’s roamers want you to sprint past them into a crossfire — deny them that by clearing floor by floor. Patience beats speed on this map.
What is the most important callout on Bank?
There is no single most important callout — but the stair callouts and the site-adjacent rooms (Vault, Server, the offices above Tellers) decide more rounds than any others, because they describe the vertical space where Bank rounds are actually won.
Is Bank attacker-sided or defender-sided?
Bank has historically leaned in different directions across seasons and site configurations, and the honest answer is that it depends on the current map pool tuning and which sites are in rotation. What does not change: the team with better vertical control and better information usually wins, regardless of side.
The Bottom Line
Bank rewards the team that thinks in three dimensions. Clear the floor above or below before you touch the site. Control the hatches. Respect the stairs. Watch the skylight and the windows. Bring hard breach, bring intel, and bring patience.
The map has been in the pool since 2015 because it produces great Siege: every round is a puzzle of vertical space, and the team that solves it first wins. Start with the fundamentals in our R6 map knowledge guide, then take these Bank specifics into your next ranked session — and when you are ready for the next map, our Clubhouse map guide applies the same vertical thinking to a very different building.