Why Drones Decide Rounds

Every attacker in Rainbow Six Siege starts the round with two drones, and the prep phase is 45 seconds of free information. The team that uses those 45 seconds well walks into the action phase with a plan and almost no surprises. The team that wastes them walks in blind and dies to the first corner they didn’t check.

Droning is the most undervalued skill in Siege. Aim gets the clips, but intel wins the rounds. A player with average aim and excellent droning habits beats a crack shot who never drones, because the droner never takes a fair fight — they always know where the fight is and how to avoid the bad ones.

This guide covers the full drone playbook: the two-phase mindset, a prep routine that works, re-droning mid-round, drone parking spots, beating denial utility, post-plant drone use, and the mistakes that make most players’ drones worthless. Everything here applies on the attacking side, at every rank.

Drone Basics: Understanding Two-Phase Droning

Siege’s intel game has two phases, and each has a different job.

Phase one — the preparation phase. You have 45 seconds before the action phase. During prep, your drone is disposable. Its job is to *find the site*: identify which bomb site the defenders chose, note which operators they brought, and map the general defensive shape. It doesn’t need to survive — it needs to deliver one good report before the action phase begins.

Phase two — the action phase. Every surviving drone is now precious, and its job changes from *finding* information to *confirming* it in real time. This is re-droning: checking a room again 30 seconds before you enter it, because defenders move. The prep drone told you where the enemy *was*. The action drone tells you where they *are*.

Most players fail because they treat both phases the same — hiding a prep drone all phase instead of gathering intel, or never re-droning and walking into rooms on 45-second-old information. Separate the two jobs and your droning improves immediately.

The Prep Phase Routine: 45 Seconds That Matter

Here’s a prep phase routine that works on any map. It takes the full 45 seconds and gives you a complete site picture.

Seconds 0–10: Spawn and send. Pick your spawn point, throw your drone out, and send it toward the building. Don’t waste time driving around the outside — go straight for the objective building.

Seconds 10–25: Find the site. Drive toward the rooms where bomb sites live. You’re looking for reinforced walls, barricaded doorways, defender gadgets (Mira windows, shields, barbed wire), and actual defenders. The instant you see the site, *say it out loud*. This is where your map knowledge pays off.

Seconds 25–40: Scan the shape. Back out one room and look at the *defense around the site*. How many anchors? Is there a roamer above? Did you spot specific operators — a Mira means expect Black Mirrors; a Jäger means entry denial nearby. Tag what you see. Every tag is free intel that persists even if your drone dies.

Seconds 40–45: Park or push. Make a choice: park the drone in a safe hiding spot near the site (under a desk, behind a plant), or push deeper for one more piece of information before it dies. If you’ve been spotted, push for info; if you’re hidden, park it.

The golden rule of prep droning: information you *call out* is worth ten times information you only see. A drone that spots the whole defense but whose driver stays silent helps nobody. Every useful thing your drone sees should become a voice comms callout within seconds. If you want to get better at this, our R6 communication guide covers callout structure that actually helps your team.

Attack-Phase Droning: Re-Droning and Drone Spots

Once the action phase starts, the value of a drone skyrockets. You have fewer of them, defenders are hunting them, and the information is fresher.

Re-drone before every push. Never enter a room your team hasn’t droned in the last 30–60 seconds. Defenders rotate. The room that was empty in prep might have an anchor now. Before any push, someone drones the approach, calls what they see, and the team goes in immediately — stale intel is worse than no intel because it creates false confidence.

Coordinate re-drones with your team. The most efficient pattern: one player drones while the others stack up to push. The droner calls “clear” or “one anchor in corner,” then the push happens within seconds. Self-droning is a solo-queue habit that costs time; a teammate droning while you push is the ranked habit that wins rounds.

Park drones as living cameras. A parked drone is a free camera for the rest of the round. The best spots see an important area (a stairwell, a flank route), are hard to notice (under furniture, dark corners), and sit out of foot traffic. Learn 2–3 parking spots per site and your team has permanent eyes on the flank.

The “second life” trick. When your drone gets spotted, move it. Most defenders hear the ping and search the wrong spot. A quick reposition buys another 30 seconds of eyes.

Protecting Your Drone: Beating Denial Utility

Defenders bring operators specifically designed to kill drones — most notably Mute’s signal jammers. Here’s how to keep yours alive.

Respect the jammer bubbles. When your drone goes static, you’re inside a jammer’s radius. Back out immediately along your entry path — driving deeper gets it stuck. Note the jammer’s location for your team (“Mute jammer on the main stairs”), because that callout marks an important defender position.

Approach from above or below. Jammers have limited vertical range. A drone coming in from the floor above or below can often slip past.

Bait the denial, then go around. Defenders place denial on the obvious paths. The second, less obvious route is often clean. If the main corridor is jammed, try the other side of the building or a different floor.

Accept losses strategically. A drone that spots the site and dies has done its job. A drone that draws a defender out of position to shoot it has done its job. The only truly wasted drone is the one that dies with no information delivered and no callout made.

Post-Plant Drone Use: Intel After the Defuser Goes Down

Once the defuser is planted, you’re no longer clearing — you’re watching. Drones are perfect for it.

Park a drone watching the defuser before you plant. Before the planter starts, someone parks a drone with line of sight on the defuser or the main retake route. Then everyone falls back and watches. The drone becomes your retake alarm.

Cover angles you can’t hold. You can’t watch every approach post-plant. A drone parked on the secondary retake route lets you focus on the primary one and glance at the feed — 3 seconds on the drone, back to your angle, repeat.

Use dead teammates’ drones. When a teammate dies, their surviving drones stay on the map and anyone can use them. Cycle through them to find the best-placed one and use it as your post-plant camera. Many rounds are lost because living players forget the dead left perfectly good drones behind.

Don’t drive post-plant. After the plant, a moving drone is noisy and easy to kill. Park it, hide yourself, and let the intel come to you.

Common Drone Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)

Mistake 1: Droning without calling out. You see everything and say nothing. Your team gains nothing. Fix: narrate your drone like a sports commentator — short, constant, specific. “Two anchors in site, one playing behind the bomb chassis. No roamer spotted on second floor.”

Mistake 2: The prep-phase hide. You spend 45 seconds carefully hiding your drone in a corner to keep it alive, learning nothing. Fix: prep drones are disposable. Spend them on information, not survival. Park only in the last 5 seconds.

Mistake 3: Pushing on stale intel. Your team acts on the prep-phase picture three minutes later. Fix: re-drone every approach within a minute of pushing it. Treat old intel as a hypothesis, not a fact.

Mistake 4: Self-droning your own push. You drone a room, then slowly walk in yourself while the intel goes stale and your team waits. Fix: let a teammate drone while you push, or drone, call it, and have someone *else* go first.

Mistake 5: Ignoring the jammer callout. Your drone gets jammed and you say nothing, so the next teammate drives their drone into the same jammer. Fix: “jammed” is itself a callout. Say where, every time.

Mistake 6: Forgetting dead teammates’ drones. Teammates die and their drones sit unused. Fix: make it a habit — when someone dies, someone else takes their drones. Especially post-plant, this is free intel you’re leaving on the table.

Mistake 7: Droning the same empty room three times. Your team keeps re-clearing an area that’s obviously empty while the clock burns. Fix: trust confirmed intel. Once an area is droned clear and nothing has changed, move on. The clock is a resource too.

Operator-Independent Drone Tips for Every Player

These apply no matter who you play — you don’t need a specific operator to drone well.

Drive smoothly. Drones are faster and quieter than you think. Small, deliberate movements spot more than frantic spinning. The jump clears small obstacles and reaches hiding spots that surprise defenders.

Listen. You can hear defenders before you see them — footsteps, barricades, gadget deployments. If you hear someone nearby, stop moving (the drone is quieter when still) and listen.

Sweep doorways. Before entering a room, stop at the doorway and sweep the camera across it. If your drone dies at a doorway, you’ve learned something: someone is watching that doorway.

Drone in pairs. Two drones on different angles of the same area beat one drone. One watches the room, the other watches the rotation into it.

Review your droning. When you review your R6 gameplay, watch your drone phases: count callouts per drone, drones that died with no information, and pushes on stale intel. Drone mistakes are easy to spot in replays.

Teach your stack. Agree on droning responsibilities with regular teammates: who drones prep, who re-drones mid-round, who parks the post-plant drone. This matters for beginners as much as veterans — good drone habits compound from day one.

FAQ: Drone Questions, Answered

How many drones does each attacker get?

Each attacker spawns with two drones: one deployed during the preparation phase and one held in reserve (accessible during the action phase). If your prep drone survives, you effectively have two drones in the action phase; if it dies, you have one. Use the prep drone aggressively for information and treat the reserve drone as precious.

Should I keep my prep drone alive or use it for info?

Use it for info. A prep drone’s job is to find the site, spot operators, and map the defense — then ideally park somewhere useful in the last seconds. Players who spend the whole prep phase hiding their drone learn nothing and waste the only free intel window in the round. Spend the drone; keep the information.

What do I do when my drone gets jammed by Mute?

Back out of the jammer’s radius immediately along your entry path — don’t drive deeper. Then call out the jammer’s location, because it marks an important defender position. Try approaching from a different floor (jammers have limited vertical range) or a different route. And tell your team so nobody else drives into the same jammer.

How do I drone against roamers?

Roamers hunt drones, so change your patterns. Don’t drone the same corridors every round. Use sound — you’ll often hear a roamer before you see them. Park drones in spots that watch roam routes (stairwells, key rotations) rather than driving into roamer territory blindly. And remember: a drone that spots a roamer and dies has done excellent work, because now your team knows where the roamer is.

Is it worth droning in casual or quick play?

Absolutely. The habits you build in casual transfer directly to ranked. Quick play is actually the best place to practice droning because the stakes are low — experiment with drone spots, practice your prep routine, and learn to call out consistently. Players who only start droning “when it matters” never build the reflex.

What’s the single biggest droning improvement I can make?

Call out everything you see, immediately. Most players’ droning isn’t bad because of bad drone *driving* — it’s bad because of silence. The drone sees the defense; the driver says nothing; the team learns nothing. Narrate your drone feed out loud, every time, and you’ll instantly become the most valuable intel player in your lobby.

The Bottom Line

Drones are the cheapest, most powerful tool attackers have, and most players use maybe a third of their potential. The formula is simple: spend your prep drone on information, re-drone before every push, park drones as living cameras, call out everything you see, and protect the reserve drone for the moments that matter.

You don’t need better aim to win more rounds. You need better information — and it’s been sitting in your pocket since the round started. Start droning like it matters, because it does. Pair these habits with solid map knowledge and clear team communication, and you’ll feel the difference in your win rate within a week.

Lair is the map that made vertical play mandatory. Most Siege maps *reward* thinking in three dimensions; Lair *punishes* you for forgetting the floor above or below exists. It’s an underground bunker — the headquarters of the villain Deimos — and everything about it, from tight corridors to hatch-laced ceilings, makes attackers feel claustrophobic and defenders feel exposed at the same time.

New to the map? Expect confusion for the first few games. The corridors twist, rooms look similar, and every ceiling hides someone waiting to drop through a hatch. But once the layout clicks, Lair becomes one of the most satisfying maps to play well — the team that masters its verticality wins almost by default.

One caveat: Lair is one of Siege’s newer maps, released in late 2023, and community callouts are still standardizing. Different stacks use different names for the same rooms. This guide keeps callouts general and focuses on the *principles* of playing Lair — they hold true regardless of what your stack calls each hallway.

Lair at a Glance

Lair is a three-floor map set in a subterranean facility — concrete corridors, metal walkways, tech-heavy rooms, and the oppressive atmosphere that makes every corner feel dangerous. It launched with Operation Deep Freeze in December 2023 as Deimos’s base of operations, and it immediately stood out for how aggressively vertical it is.

Its defining feature is density. Where maps like Bank or Oregon have open sightlines, Lair is compact and layered. Rooms stack on rooms, hatches connect floors both ways, and the “safe” floor you’re clearing often has enemies directly above or below listening to your footsteps. The map’s complexity is vertical, not horizontal.

The learning curve is steep but short. Lair’s layout is logical once you learn it: a central core with wings radiating outward, each floor following roughly the same skeleton. Run a few custom games walking it floor by floor — the method from our R6 map knowledge guide works perfectly here — and the “where am I” confusion fades fast. The “where are they” confusion takes longer, because on Lair the answer is often “above you” or “below you.”

Understanding the Layout

Think of Lair as three stacked plates with holes punched through them. Each floor has its own character, but they’re constantly interacting through hatches, stairwells, and destructible floors.

The top floor is the quietest — fewer objectives, more roaming space, and corridors attackers use for map control. The middle floor is the connective tissue: corridors linking the wings, rooms sitting directly above the basement objectives, and the floors attackers breach most. The basement is where the pressure lives — tight rooms, the most common objective locations, and ceilings attackers can open from above with near-total freedom.

The corridors deserve special attention. Lair’s hallways are narrower than average and frequently dogleg around corners rather than running straight. Long-angle holding is weaker here than on most maps; close-quarters clearing and sound information matter more. You will hear enemies constantly — through floors, walls, and corners. Learning to interpret that sound (above me or next to me?) is a core Lair skill.

The map’s visual language helps: concrete and steel, dim lighting, distinctive tech installations. Use them as landmarks (“the room with the server racks,” “the red-lit corridor”) — especially useful while callouts standardize. Agree on landmarks with your stack early.

Entry Points: Getting In

Attacking Lair starts with a decision most maps don’t force: *which floor are you attacking from?* Your entry should be dictated by the site and your vertical plan, not just spawn locations.

The golden rule: establish control of the floor *above* the objective first. Objective in the basement? Your round starts on the middle floor — clear it, open hatches, rain pressure downward. Objective on the middle floor? Start on the top floor. Attacking horizontally on the same floor as the site is the slow, painful route; attacking vertically is the fast one.

A practical entry routine:

1. Drone the floor above the site first. Lair’s roamers live on the off-site floors — walking into one blind is how attack rounds die early.

2. Take the stairs that matter. Identify which stairwell gives you the above-site control you need and commit. Splitting across stairwells gets you picked off in crossfires.

3. Clear with vertical awareness. Every room you enter: can someone be above or below me? On Lair the answer is almost always yes.

4. Establish the above-site hold before executing. Only start the final push once someone is above the site, ready to open hatches or cut rotations. Executing without vertical support is just feeding.

Flanks: Routes and Timing

Lair’s compact, layered design makes it flank-heavy for both sides — and flank awareness separates decent Lair players from good ones.

For attackers, the flank game is about stairs and wings. A defender who slips past your clearing team can use a different stairwell to appear behind you within seconds. The counter is simple: *leave someone watching the stairs.* On most maps that feels like a luxury; on Lair it’s a necessity. The most common attacker death here isn’t losing a gunfight on site — it’s getting shot in the back by a roamer who used the vertical space you ignored.

For defenders, flanking breaks attacker vertical setups. When attackers commit to the floor above the site, a well-timed flank from a roamer using a far stairwell can collapse their whole structure. Timing is everything: too early and you walk into the clearing team; too late and the hatches are open. The sweet spot is when attackers start committing utility to the hatches — they’re loudest, most distracted, and most vulnerable from behind.

Flank principles for Lair:

• Sound is your flank radar. Thin floors and tight corridors mean you hear *everything*. Attackers breaching hatches announce their position; defenders sprinting between stairwells do the same.
• The far stairwell is the flank highway. Whichever stairwell attackers use, the opposite one is your flank route. Learn the stairwells as pairs.
• Don’t flank alone late. A solo flank in the last 30 seconds is a coin flip. Flanks work best with 45+ seconds left, when there’s time to convert the pick.

The Key Sites

Lair’s bomb sites sit across the basement and middle floors, with basement sites the most common and punishing. Rather than site names that vary by region and update, here’s what matters about each *type*:

Basement sites are the map’s signature: tight rooms surrounded by destructible ceiling, forcing the vertical game harder than anywhere else. Attacking one without controlling the floor above is near-unwinnable against a coordinated defense. Defending one is about *denying the floor above* — roamers, vertical denial, making attackers pay for every hatch. Learn this: basement sites are won and lost on the middle floor, not in the basement.

Middle-floor sites play more conventionally with a Lair twist. Rooms are larger, sightlines longer, but the top floor above is still in play. Treat the top floor as part of the site: anchors need a plan for the ceiling — a teammate holding it, or pre-placed denial that makes vertical play expensive.

The top floor holds no bomb site but decides the round’s tempo. Attackers use it to stage the vertical game; defenders use it to delay and flank. Whoever controls it usually controls the round.

Honest note: Lair is newer and has been adjusted since release, so the exact site pool has shifted. Learn the *types* of sites and the principles for each, and verify the current layout in-game rather than memorizing any single guide’s site list.

Vertical Gameplay: The Heart of Lair

Lair’s defining mechanic is verticality — not the polite, occasional kind, but verticality as the *primary* axis of the game.

Attackers: clear the floor above the site, open the hatches, and pressure defenders who can’t watch doorways and ceiling simultaneously. A hatch opening above a doorway-holder collapses their position. Bring utility to open hatches — and the discipline *not* to drop through recklessly. Hatches are for pressure and information; dropping is for the execute, when the site is already breaking.

Defenders: deny and punish. Deny the floor above with roamers, wire, and shields in stairwells — make the vertical setup slow and loud. Punish hatch openings by contesting drops. The worst defensive mistake on Lair is conceding the floor above for free, then wondering why the site fell in twenty seconds.

Hatches are currency. Count them. Know which are reinforced, which sit above the objective, and who’s opened what. The team tracking hatch state makes informed decisions; the team that doesn’t is guessing. Our R6 map knowledge guide covers vertical principles generally — Lair is where you apply them at maximum intensity.

Attacking Lair

A good Lair attack has a rhythm: drone, take the floor above, open the vertical, then execute. Rush any step and the rhythm breaks.

The default plan: prep-phase drones on the floor above the objective and the roamers. First minute: clear that floor methodically — Lair’s roamers are listening for sprinters. Once it’s yours, open hatches and apply pressure: ceiling destruction, utility into the site from above, constant intel on defender positions. The execute comes last and should feel almost anticlimactic — with the vertical game set, defenders are displaced and the plant goes down in the chaos.

Droning is non-negotiable. Tight corridors and layered floors make dry-peeking suicidal. Keep drones alive past the first minute — you’ll need them to track roamers repositioning vertically.

Utility discipline matters more here than anywhere. Breach charges and vertical utility are your win condition — don’t waste them on random walls in the first thirty seconds. Coordinate: three attackers opening hatches in sequence with covering fire wins rounds; three attackers opening random hatches at random times makes noise.

Defending Lair

Defending Lair means making the attackers’ vertical plan expensive — in time, utility, and lives.

Contest the floor above the site. The golden rule. If attackers take it free, the site is on a timer. Roamers’ primary job isn’t kills — it’s *delaying* the vertical setup. Every thirty seconds bought on the middle floor is thirty seconds without open hatches, and Lair rounds are short enough that thirty seconds matters.

Anchor with vertical awareness. Know the ceiling situation at all times. If the floor above is lost, reposition away from hatch zones — holding under an open hatch is waiting to die. Play the site’s edges, near doorways, and let roamers and denial handle the ceiling.

Denial utility is premium. Wire in stairwells, shields covering hatch drops — place it to protect the *floor above the site*, not just the objective. Most defenders instinctively fortify the site itself; on Lair, fortify the approach.

The retake is always vertical. If the site falls, retake from above or below, not through doorways — those are kill zones with the plant covered. Come through hatches or up unwatched stairs, using the vertical space against the attackers.

Operator Picks for Lair

Skip fixed meta lists (they shift every patch). These are the *roles* that matter:

• Vertical destruction (attack): The single most important attacking role on Lair. No vertical answer means you’re playing the map wrong.
• Vertical denial (defense): Slow or punish the floor-above setup — traps, information, or area denial in stairwells.
• Information (both sides): Knowing which floor enemies are on is half the battle on a layered map. (Our Valkyrie operator guide covers one of the game’s best intel operators — she’s excellent here.)
• Hard breach (attack): Reinforced hatches exist; someone must open them. Don’t assume soft breach suffices.
• Flank watch (attack): Dedicate a player to stairs and the far wing. Lair’s flank routes are too fast to leave unwatched.

For newer players: pick operators you’re comfortable with that *also* bring vertical utility, not a “correct” pick you can’t play. A Buck you’re good with beats a meta pick you’re not. (Still building your pool? Our best operators for beginners guide is a good start.)

Common Lair Mistakes

Attacking the site on its own floor. The biggest Lair mistake. Pushing room-to-room on the objective’s floor while ignoring the floor above is slow, loud, and lethal. The vertical game isn’t optional — it *is* the game.

Conceding the floor above free (defense). No defender contesting the middle floor on a basement site makes the attackers’ job trivial. Someone must be up there wasting their time.

Dropping hatches alone. Tempting, fast, aggressive — and usually fatal alone. Drop with covering fire, during the execute, or don’t drop.

Ignoring sound. Lair gives more audio intel than almost any map. Players who slow-walk everywhere and never use sound cues throw away free information.

Wasting vertical utility early. Opening a random hatch in minute one “for pressure” just reveals your position and spends the utility you’ll need later. Every opening needs a purpose and a timing.

Playing Lair like any other map. The meta-mistake. Lair rewards vertical thinking, sound discipline, and flank awareness over raw aim. Adapt first, aim second.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Lair attacker-sided or defender-sided?

It depends on the lobby’s vertical game. Where attackers understand the floor-above principle, Lair feels attacker-leaning — the vertical pressure is brutally hard to stop. Where attackers push horizontally, it feels defender-sided. The map amplifies the vertical-play skill gap more than most maps amplify anything.

What’s the most important thing to learn on Lair?

The floor relationships: which rooms sit above which objectives, where the hatches are, and which stairwells connect them. Walk it in a custom game and learn it as a vertical stack, not three separate floors.

How do I stop getting flanked on Lair?

Dedicate someone to the stairs — that’s most of it. Beyond that: keep drones alive to track roamers, listen for sprint sounds telegraphing flanks, and don’t stack all five players on one floor.

Which operators should I ban on Lair?

Ban advice is perishable, so think in principles: protect your game plan. If your attack needs vertical destruction, protect those operators. If your defense needs intel denial, ban accordingly. Don’t ban on autopilot — ban for the plan.

Are the callouts in this guide the “official” ones?

There are no official callouts — they’re community conventions, and on a newer map like Lair they’re still settling. That’s why this guide stays general. Learn your stack’s callouts, agree on landmarks, and don’t stress about matching a guide word-for-word.

How does Lair compare to other vertical maps like Bank?

Bank is vertical in a grand, open way — big atrium, long sightlines. Lair is vertical in a claustrophobic way — tight corridors, thin floors, constant close contact between levels. Bank’s vertical game is about angles; Lair’s is about sound, hatches, and timing. For another newer-map perspective, see our Nighthaven Labs map guide.

The Bottom Line

Lair is Siege’s verticality exam. It doesn’t care about your aim if you can’t think in three dimensions — and it rewards those who can more generously than almost any other map. The formula is simple to state, hard to master: control the floor above the objective, respect the hatches, listen constantly, never leave a stairwell unwatched.

Start in custom games. Learn the floor stack — rooms above sites, hatch locations, stairwell pairs. Agree on landmarks with your stack, since the community’s vocabulary for this map is still settling. Then play the vertical game deliberately: drone the floor above, clear it methodically, open with purpose, execute with covering fire.

Lair feels chaotic at first. But the chaos is structured — three floors interacting — and once you learn to read it, Lair stops being the confusing bunker and becomes the map where your game sense matters most.

Introduction

Nighthaven Labs punishes teams who play it like a smaller, older map. Released in Operation Solar Raid (December 2022), it is set at the headquarters of the private military company Nighthaven — a futuristic offshore facility near Singapore, full of laboratories, server rooms, and assembly halls. The real lesson of this map: rounds are won by whichever team controls more of the building, not by whoever shoots straighter.

That is the central mechanic here, and everything in this guide flows from it. Three playable floors, an unusually breachable structure, generous exterior space — all of it rewards coordinated map control. Attackers who clear methodically win. Defenders who plan around denying space win. Solo heroes lose, on both sides.

One honest note: Nighthaven Labs is newer than Clubhouse or Oregon, and community callouts are still standardizing. Names in this guide come from widely used community sources and in-game labels, but your squad may use different ones. The map knowledge guide covers how to build a shared callout language — especially valuable on a newer map.

Map Overview: The Nighthaven Facility

The facility has three playable floors — basement, first, and second — plus a rooftop attackers can use for access. The aesthetic is deliberately futuristic: clean corridors, glass partitions, glowing server racks. It sits on an offshore platform, so the exterior includes a landscaped main entry and a helipad area, giving attackers generous outdoor room to maneuver.

A few structural facts shape everything about how the map plays:

It is big. One of the larger maps in the ranked pool. Defenders cannot be everywhere, roamers have room to work, and attackers must budget their time — a slow, undisciplined clear runs out of clock.

It is extremely breachable. Floors and walls across much of the map open to soft breach, making vertical play a defining feature rather than a niche tactic. This cuts both ways: attackers open the map from above, defenders from below. Ubisoft’s own description emphasizes the number of entry and breach points, warning defenders that holding one position too long is genuinely difficult here.

No staircase runs two floors. The map uses single-story staircases only: basement to first, or first to second, never basement straight to second. Rotations between floors take longer and follow specific routes, which shapes roam patterns and retake planning.

The exterior matters. Breakable exterior walls and doors give attackers direct access to some bomb sites from outside, and the rooftop opens angles onto the top floor. Defenders must plan for the perimeter, not just the interior.

The map has received updates since release, so verify current layouts in-game — the fundamentals below have held, but room details shift.

The Bomb Sites: What You Are Playing For

Ranked play on Nighthaven Labs rotates through four bomb site pairings. The widely documented sites, drawn from community guides and in-game labels, are:

• CCTV / Server (2nd floor) — the top-floor site, centered on the server room and CCTV monitoring areas. Holding the rafters and the connector corridors above and around it is critical.
• Tank / Labs (basement) — the basement site, built around a large tank structure and laboratory spaces. Notably, this site has an exterior-accessible wall, which makes it unusually exposed for a basement site.
• Control / Storage (1st floor) — a first-floor site pairing the control room with adjacent storage areas.
• Kitchen (1st floor) — the second first-floor site, typically paired with the cafeteria area.

Caveat: exact site pairings can rotate between seasons, and community room names vary. The official first-floor pair is Control and Storage — do not lump both areas together as “warehouse” in callouts. Before a ranked session, spend two minutes in a custom game confirming the current site list.

Each site has a distinct character. CCTV/Server rewards vertical control and punishes teams that ignore the rafters. Tank/Labs is a basement site that plays like a ground-floor site because of its exterior access. Control/Storage is the “honest” site: big, multi-entrance, winnable by whichever team executes cleaner. Kitchen plays around its many angles and surrounding corridors.

Map Control: The Central Mechanic

If you take one idea from this guide, make it this: Nighthaven Labs is a map-control map. On Clubhouse, a single well-placed anchor can stall an entire attack. On Nighthaven Labs, that anchor gets flanked, opened from above, or simply bypassed, because the map gives attackers too many ways in. The defenders who succeed here are the ones who contest space early, fall back in good order, and make the attackers pay for every meter.

In practice, map control means knowing which parts of the building your team owns at any moment — and acting on it. Attackers: drone a zone, confirm it, move in, hold it, repeat. Defenders: contest key zones, gather information, fall back before getting cut off.

Three habits separate teams that control this map from teams that get controlled:

1. Droning is non-negotiable. Uncleared space is dangerous space here. The team with better information wins the map-control battle before the first real gunfight.

2. Verticality is map control. “Controlling the second floor” and “controlling the first floor below it” are often the same fight, because the floors are so breachable. Whoever opens the decisive angles owns the round.

3. Time is a resource. Attackers who dawdle lose to the clock; defenders who contest too aggressively lose players, then the map. Plan all three minutes: attackers with a phase per minute, defenders with a retreat timeline.

Attacking Nighthaven Labs: Approaches That Work

Attacking Nighthaven Labs starts before you enter the building. The generous exterior — the landscaped main entry, the helipad area — gives you room to set up, drone, and choose your approach. Use that space. Rushing the nearest door is how attacks die here.

The drone phase matters more here

Your drone phase should be thorough: identify defender positions, the real site, and which stairs and hatches are watched. A classic beginner failure is droning the site, finding it empty, and concluding “site is clear” while three roamers wait above it.

Clear from the top down

The most reliable formula here is the top-down clear: take the rooftop and second floor first, then work down. Breachable floors convert top-floor control into angles on everything below. For Tank/Labs, top-down pressure through the first floor usually beats a direct basement push, since the basement’s exterior-accessible wall makes frontal approaches costly.

Bring the breach

Hard breachers are close to mandatory — a lineup without reliable hard breach stalls against the reinforced walls around sites. The standard core: a primary hard breacher (Thermite, Hibana, or Ace) plus breach support. Maverick deserves special mention for opening sightlines through reinforced walls on a map where angles are everything.

Roam clearing is the real attack

Here, the “attack” is mostly the roam clear; the site execute is the epilogue. Assign zones, clear them in order, and do not let stragglers wander. Intel and entry-fragging operators earn their keep. The Lair map guide covers similar roam-clear principles on another large, newer map.

Use the exterior

Some site walls breach directly from outside, creating executes defenders may not expect — but only after droning confirms they are not watching that wall. The helipad and main entry also give you positions for late-round angles into the building.

Defending Nighthaven Labs: Setups and Planning

Defending here is an exercise in honest planning — the map punishes every shortcut. The good news: a well-planned setup is very hard to break.

Reinforce with intent

Every reinforcement needs a reason: does it protect a plant spot, force attackers through a watched chokepoint, or protect a rotate? Prioritize walls around the site and the walls connecting the two site rooms — attackers love opening the connecting wall to play both rooms as one. Wall denial is one of the two great defensive strategies here; the other is the full-press contest below.

Two defensive philosophies

• The full press: contest everything early and try to break the attackers’ clear before it starts. High-risk, high-reward — it can end rounds in ninety seconds or collapse just as fast.
• The delay game: wall denial, crossfires on the expected execute, and force a late-round scramble. Steadier, and better for teams still learning the map.

Most good teams blend both: contest early with roamers, then fall back into denial for the execute.

The roam game

The map’s size makes roaming viable — but also makes getting cut off easy. Roamers need an information role (report attacker positions; kills are a bonus) and a retreat plan (which staircase, and when). With no direct basement-to-second-floor stairs, vertical retreats take longer than expected — plan for it.

Intel denial

Attacker drones drive the map-control battle, so killing drones is defending. Keep drones out of key areas during setup and the early round, have roamers shoot them on sight, and the attackers’ clear slows dramatically.

Site setup specifics

The formula per site: reinforce critical walls, open rotates between site rooms, place utility to slow the execute, and assign someone to the vertical angle. On CCTV/Server, contest the rafters and connector. On Tank/Labs, watch the exterior-accessible wall. On the first-floor sites, crossfires matter more than hero positions.

Vertical Play: The Map’s Defining Feature

This may be the most vertical map in the ranked pool relative to its size. Breachable floors, three stacked levels, and a rooftop mean the fight for “above and below” is rarely optional.

Attackers: open the floor above the site and play angles down — devastating on the basement and first-floor sites. Soft breachers who open floors fast are premium picks. Defenders: the mirror — open the ceiling below an expected attack, hold from underneath, and deny the top floor in the first place.

Hatches are this map’s fast lanes; whichever team controls them controls the tempo. Our Buck operator guide covers a classic vertical-play operator tailor-made for maps like this.

The practical rule: before every execute, ask “who owns the floor above and below the site?” If the answer is “the enemy” on either, you are walking into an unseen crossfire.

The Rooftop and Exterior Game

The rooftop gives attackers access angles onto the second floor and a staging area for the top-down clear. Defenders should not ignore it — a runout or late flank through roof access punishes attackers who treat it as safe — but defending the roof itself wastes bodies. The right answer to roof pressure is holding the interior positions roof attackers want to enter through.

At ground level, the landscaped entry and helipad are where attackers organize. The breakable exterior walls near sites are the real story: they let attackers skip whole sections of the interior clear. Defenders must know which site walls are breachable from outside and have a plan — utility, a watch position, or denial — for each one.

Operator Picks: Roles, Not a Fixed Meta

Operator balance shifts every season, so treat specific “meta” lists with skepticism. What does not shift is the set of roles Nighthaven Labs demands:

• Hard breach (attacker): effectively mandatory. Thermite, Hibana, or Ace as the core, with Maverick as a strong complement for sightlines.
• Breach support (attacker): someone to protect the hard breacher and handle denial — the EMP-grenade carriers and their alternatives.
• Soft breach / vertical (attacker): premium on this map. Operators who open floors and hatches quickly multiply your execute options.
• Intel and entry (attacker): the roam-clear engine. Drones win the map-control battle; bring operators who gather or exploit information.
• Wall/utility denial (defender): Kaid, Bandit, and Mute are the classic answers to hard breach, and they are as important here as anywhere. Our Mute guide covers one of the most flexible denial operators.
• Intel denial (defender): keep attacker drones out of your setup.
• Roamers (defender): the map’s size rewards them, but only with a retreat plan.

The honest version: bring the roles, adjust the names to the current season. A banned Thermite just means the Hibana or Ace steps up. The map punishes missing roles far more than suboptimal picks within a role.

Common Mistakes on Nighthaven Labs

Treating the basement site like a basement site. Tank/Labs has an exterior-accessible wall — defenders who set up a tight interior hold get flanked from outside, and attackers who assume “basement = hard” miss a free avenue.

Ignoring the floor above (or below). The most common way to lose here is executing onto a site while the enemy owns the floor above it. The vertical check takes ten seconds. Do it every time.

Roaming without a retreat plan. If you do not know which staircase you are leaving through and when, you are not roaming — you are donating.

Under-droning. On smaller maps a quick drone phase works. Here, uncleared space kills. Budget the time.

Forgetting the exterior walls. Both teams should know which site walls are breachable from outside before every round. Attackers who never check leave free executes on the table; defenders who never check get surprised.

Playing it like Clubhouse. Tight angles and static setups fall apart here. This map rewards movement, information, and space.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Nighthaven Labs attacker-sided or defender-sided?

It depends on the season and skill level. The breachability and exterior access favor organized attackers, but defenders who plan around map control and vertical denial hold it fine. At most ranks, the team with the better plan wins regardless of side.

What are the most important rooms to learn first?

The four site areas — CCTV/Server upstairs, Tank/Labs in the basement, Control/Storage and Kitchen on the first floor — then the staircases (which floors each connects), then the rafters and connector corridors up top. That covers most decisive fights.

Why do my callouts confuse my team on this map?

The map is newer and community callouts are still standardizing — two players can learn different names for the same room. Fix it with a two-minute pre-match conversation agreeing on names for sites, stairs, and key corridors. The map knowledge guide covers building shared callouts.

How many hard breachers do we need?

At least one reliable primary, ideally plus a secondary or Maverick. Too many reinforced surfaces around sites to go without. Have a backup plan for bans before the match starts.

Is roaming good on Nighthaven Labs?

Yes, with discipline. The size gives roamers room to gather intel, but retreats are long and vertical escapes need planning. Roam for information first, kills second, and always know your way home.

What is the single biggest key to winning on this map?

Map control. Own more of the building than the enemy, know what you own, and convert it into angles on the objective. Every section of this guide is just map control expressed differently.

The Bottom Line

Nighthaven Labs is a map-control exam disguised as a shooter map. Attackers win by droning thoroughly, clearing top-down, bringing the breach, and treating the roam clear as the real attack. Defenders win by reinforcing with intent, blending the press and the delay, roaming with a retreat plan, and never ignoring the vertical game.

Learn the four site areas first, then the stairs, then the rafters — and agree on callout names with your squad before you queue. Play for space instead of kills, and this map becomes the one where your team’s coordination actually shows.

Villa is the map that rewards patience and punishes chaos. Set in a sprawling Italian country estate, it is one of the largest maps in the rotation — three full floors, long sightlines, and a maze of rooms that make information more valuable than aim. New players get lost on Villa. Experienced players farm them there.

This guide covers the updated Villa: how the map is laid out, the four main bomb sites, how to attack and defend each one, the famous 90 hallway and red stairs, the vertical game, and the operator picks that fit the map. Callouts here follow the widely used community names, but remember that names vary by region and squad — the system in our R6 map knowledge guide explains how to standardise callouts with your team. And like the alpine lodge in our Chalet map guide, Villa punishes teams that play as five individuals.

Villa at a Glance

Villa is a three-storey Italian villa: a basement, a ground floor (1F), and an upper floor (2F). It is big — not just in floor space, but in verticality. Staircases connect every level, hatches let teams move between floors fast, and plenty of soft floors mean the round is often decided from above or below rather than in the site itself.

The map’s character is defined by its hallways. The 2F hallway — the famous 90, named for the sharp corner it turns near Aviator Room — is one of the most contested stretches of corridor in the game. The red stairs on the north side and the main stairs in the centre are the map’s two vertical highways. Control those, and you control Villa. Lose them, and you are playing someone else’s round.

Key rooms to learn first:

• 2F: Aviator Room, Games Room, Trophy Room, Statue Room, Bedroom, Bathroom, the 90 hallway
• 1F: Living Room, Library, Study, Dining Room, Kitchen, Main Stairs, Landing
• Basement: Laundry Room, Vault

A note on accuracy: Villa has been in the game for years and its layout is stable, but callouts drift between regions and squads invent their own shorthand. The names above are the widely recognised ones. If your squad uses different terms, agree on them before the round starts — a callout nobody understands is worse than silence.

The Four Bomb Sites

Aviator Room + Games Room (2F)

The classic Villa site. Aviator and Games sit at the top of the map’s most important corridor — the 90 hallway runs right past them. Defenders anchor inside the two rooms; attackers have to cross open ground to reach them.

Attacking: The standard take starts with 90 hallway control. Clear roamers from Bedroom and Bathroom, then work the hallway toward Aviator. Games Room has soft walls into the hallway, so attackers with breaching tools can open sightlines instead of pushing blind. The Aviator window is a common entry for a coordinated push, but it is exposed — use drones to confirm the room is clear first.

Defending: Anchor both rooms and deny the 90 hallway. The Games Room’s soft walls are a liability — reinforce what you can and hold crossfires through the doorways. One roamer in Bedroom or Bathroom delays the attackers’ 90 push significantly.

Trophy Room + Statue Room (2F)

Trophy and Statue sit at the east end of 2F. This site is defined by its roof access: there is a hatch above Trophy Room that attackers can use, and the Trophy balcony gives attackers a foothold on the exterior.

Attacking: The vertical option is the headline. Opening the Trophy hatch from the roof lets attackers pressure defenders without ever entering the hallway. Alternatively, push from Bedroom through Statue Room — the connecting doorway is a natural pinch point, so smoke cover or a flash helps.

Defending: Watch the hatch. A defender holding below the Trophy hatch with a shotgun turns the attackers’ best tool into a trap. Reinforce the Statue Room walls and hold the Bedroom doorway as your flank watch.

Living Room + Library (1F)

The 1F anchor site. Living Room and Library form a large combined space with multiple entrances — Main Stairs, the Study side, and exterior windows.

Attacking: The Study windows are the classic rappel entry: attackers rappel up and push through Study into Library. Alternatively, take Main Stairs control and push down into the site. Drones are essential here because the site’s size means defenders can be anywhere.

Defending: Spread across both rooms but keep a crossfire between them. The Study entrance is the most dangerous — a defender holding the Library-to-Study doorway controls the attackers’ best entry. Do not over-rotate to Main Stairs; attackers often fake one side and hit the other.

Dining Room + Kitchen (1F)

Dining and Kitchen form the second 1F site, on the map’s east side. It is more compact than Living/Library, which makes executes faster but also makes it harder for defenders to fall back.

Attacking: Push from the Living Room side or through the exterior Kitchen entrance. Because the site is compact, a well-timed execute with smoke cover on the Dining doorway usually decides the round. Clear the roamers first — Kitchen’s walls are soft in places, and a roamer above can shoot down into the site.

Defending: Hold tight angles. The compact site favours defenders who stay disciplined and trade. One player watching the Kitchen entrance while another holds Dining’s main doorway covers both pushes.

The Basement: Laundry Room + Vault

Villa’s basement site — Laundry and Vault — sees less play in casual queues but appears in competitive rotations. It plays like a classic basement hold: limited entries, strong defender positions, and attackers who must commit to stair pushes.

Attacking: Control the stairs — red stairs and vault stairs are your entries. Clear the basement roamers before committing; a single roamer in the basement wastes an entire attack.

Defending: Anchor the Vault and hold the stairwells. The basement’s tight corridors favour shotguns and close-range fights.

Attacking Villa: The Roof, the Windows, and the 90

Step 1: Clear the roamers

Villa is enormous, and defenders use that space. Before touching any site, attackers should spend the first minute droning and clearing roamers from Bedroom, Bathroom, and the 90 hallway. Villa’s roamers are not hiding — they are delaying. Every 30 seconds they burn is 30 seconds off your execute.

Step 2: Take the map’s highways

The 90 hallway (2F), the red stairs (north), and the main stairs (centre) are Villa’s three highways. Attackers who control two of the three can reach any site on their terms. Drones go first, always — Villa’s long corridors punish dry peeks.

Step 3: Use the windows

Villa’s exterior is an attacker’s friend. The Study windows (rappel into 1F), the Bedroom window (2F entry), and the Trophy balcony all give attackers entries that bypass the hallways entirely. Window play splits the defenders’ attention: they cannot watch the hallway and the windows at the same time.

Step 4: Execute with utility

Villa’s sites are large and multi-room, so executes need smoke cover and flashes. The final push should be coordinated — a solo entry into Aviator or Dining dies to the crossfire every time. Count down, throw utility, and push together.

Defending Villa: Positions, Roamers, and Information

The anchor core

Each site needs two to three anchors holding the rooms themselves. Villa’s sites are big enough that anchors must play crossfires, not solo angles. In Aviator/Games, one player holds Aviator while another watches the Games doorway. In Living/Library, the crossfire between the two rooms is the site’s backbone.

The roam game

Villa rewards roaming more than almost any map. A roamer in Bedroom delays the 90 push. A roamer on the red stairs wastes attacker drones and time. A roamer in the basement forces the attackers to clear an entire floor. The key is the retreat: Villa’s roamers should fall back to site when the attackers commit, not die for a single kill. Our Valkyrie operator guide covers the intel tools that make roaming safer.

Stair control

The red stairs and main stairs are the defenders’ lifelines for rotations. Lose both and your anchors are trapped in site with no reinforcements. Keep at least awareness — cameras, sound, or a player — on both staircases at all times.

Information wins

On a map this large, the team with better intel wins. Cameras in the 90 hallway, on the stairs, and at key windows turn Villa from a guessing game into a controlled defence. Attackers should expect to lose drones — bring a plan for the second half of the round when the drones are gone.

The 90 Hallway and Red Stairs: Villa’s Two Battlefields

The 90 hallway

The 2F hallway that turns a sharp corner near Aviator Room is called the 90, and it is Villa’s most important piece of real estate. Almost every 2F attack passes through it. Defenders who hold the 90 control access to Aviator, Games, Trophy, and Statue. Attackers who take it can hit any upstairs site.

The 90 is a long, straight corridor with minimal cover — a defender’s dream and an attacker’s nightmare. Attackers should never walk it dry. Drones, flashes, and smoke turn it from a kill zone into a corridor. Defenders should hold it from the corner, not from the middle — the corner gives you cover and a clean angle down the straight.

The red stairs

The north staircase — the red stairs — connects all three floors and is the fastest rotation route on the map. Whoever controls the red stairs controls the tempo: defenders rotate through them, attackers push up them, and roamers use them to disappear.

For attackers, the red stairs are the entry to 2F that bypasses the 90. For defenders, they are the flank route that punishes attackers who over-commit to a site push. Never ignore the red stairs. A round lost on Villa is often a round lost at the red stairs three minutes earlier.

Vertical Play on Villa

Villa’s floors are extensively soft — destructible — which makes vertical play a constant threat. Key relationships:

• Above Aviator/Games: attackers on the roof or upper positions can open the floor into the site. Defenders must watch above, not just the doorways.
• Above Trophy: the Trophy hatch is the map’s most famous vertical play. Attackers drop it; defenders guard it.
• 2F to 1F: much of the 2F floor above Living Room and Library is soft. Attackers who take 2F control can shoot down into the 1F sites without ever pushing the stairs.
• 1F to basement: the basement ceiling is vulnerable from 1F. Defenders holding Laundry/Vault must respect the floor above.

The rule for Villa: if you are holding a site, someone on your team should know what is happening on the floor above you. Vertical deaths are the most common way to lose a winnable round on this map.

Operator Picks for Villa

Villa favours operators who gather information and control space. These are general archetypes, not a fixed meta — balance patches shift specifics, so treat this as a starting framework.

Attackers:

• Intel operators (drones, cameras) — Villa’s size makes information the most valuable resource. Operators who bring extra intel tools pay for themselves.
• Hard breachers — the Games Room soft walls and site hatches reward teams that can open the map rather than push through doorways.
• Vertical attackers — operators with breaching charges or shotguns who can open floors from above fit Villa’s soft ceilings perfectly.

Defenders:

• Intel denial and cameras — defenders who place early-warning tools on the 90, the stairs, and the windows blunt the attackers’ drone game.
• Roamers with escape tools — Villa’s size means roamers need a way out. Operators who can reposition fast thrive here.
• Anchors with area denial — the large sites reward gadgets that slow executes: wire, shields, and deployable cover.

For newer players, our best operators for beginners guide covers easy-to-learn picks that work fine on Villa while you learn the map.

Common Villa Mistakes

Wandering without a plan

Villa’s size tempts players to roam the map aimlessly. Every movement should have a purpose: clearing a room, holding a staircase, rotating to site. Aimless wandering on Villa gets you killed by someone who was holding an angle the whole time.

Ignoring the floor above

The most Villa-specific mistake. Players hold a site doorway while an attacker opens the ceiling above them. On this map, “clear” means the floor above too. Check it, or have a teammate check it, before settling into site.

Pushing the 90 dry

Walking the 90 hallway without drones, flashes, or smoke is a donation. The hallway is long, straight, and held. Treat it with respect every single round.

Forgetting the red stairs

Both teams forget the red stairs at their peril. Attackers who never check them get flanked. Defenders who never watch them get pushed. Assign someone to the stairs or accept the consequences.

Solo executes

Villa’s sites are too large for one player to clear. The solo entry who pushes Aviator alone dies to the crossfire. Executes need at least two players and utility. If your team will not coordinate, play for picks and time instead of forcing the site.

Not droning the basement

Attackers heading for a basement take who skip the basement drone phase walk into the tightest kill zone on the map. The basement is small, dark, and held. Drone it like your round depends on it — because it does.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the main bomb sites on Villa?

The four main sites are Aviator Room + Games Room (2F), Trophy Room + Statue Room (2F), Living Room + Library (1F), and Dining Room + Kitchen (1F). There is also a basement site — Laundry Room + Vault — that appears in some rotations.

What is the 90 on Villa?

The 90 is the 2F hallway that turns a sharp corner near Aviator Room. It is the most contested corridor on the map because almost every upstairs attack passes through it. Control the 90 and you control access to every 2F site.

Where are the red stairs on Villa?

The red stairs are the north staircase connecting all three floors. They are the fastest rotation route on the map and a constant flank threat. Both teams should have awareness of the red stairs at all times.

Is Villa attacker-sided or defender-sided?

It shifts with the meta and the skill level, so treat any fixed answer with scepticism. Villa’s size favours organised teams on either side: attackers who drone and coordinate have plenty of entries, while defenders who communicate and rotate have plenty of space to work with. At most ranks, the better-organised team wins regardless of side.

How do I stop getting lost on Villa?

Learn it one floor at a time, starting with 2F — the 90 hallway, Aviator, Games, Trophy, Statue, Bedroom, and the red stairs. Walk the map in a custom game, then play 2F sites until the upstairs feels familiar. Only then add 1F and the basement. Trying to learn all three floors at once is why Villa feels overwhelming.

Which operators are best on Villa?

There is no fixed answer — patches change the specifics. As a framework: attackers want intel and breaching tools to handle Villa’s size and soft surfaces; defenders want roamers who can use the map’s space and anchors who can hold large multi-room sites. Pick operators you can play well over theoretically optimal ones you cannot.

The Bottom Line

Villa is a thinking player’s map. Its size, its three floors, and its soft surfaces mean that information and positioning beat raw aim more often here than anywhere else. Learn the 90 hallway and the red stairs first — they are the map’s two battlefields, and every round flows through one of them. Respect the vertical game: the floor above you is part of your site, whether you like it or not. Drone the hallways, coordinate your executes, and rotate as a team.

Villa punishes chaos and rewards patience. Play it that way, and the biggest map in the rotation starts to feel like home turf.

Consulate at a Glance

Consulate is one of Rainbow Six Siege’s oldest and most iconic maps — a European diplomatic building with a grand lobby, a basement garage, and some of the most famous staircases in the game. It has been part of the competitive map pool since the beginning, and in 2020 it received a full rework (Operation Neon Dawn) that reshaped several areas while keeping the map’s soul intact.

The building has four levels: a basement (home to the Garage), a first floor (Cafeteria, Lobby, Tellers, Archives, Visa Office), a second floor (Consul Office, Meeting Room, Waiting Room, and the surrounding offices), and a small third-floor balcony area. Attackers spawn outside — on the east side near the parking lot and garage entrance, on the west side along the street, or near the main entrance — and must pick which floor of the building to break into.

One important honesty note before we go further: this guide was written after the Neon Dawn rework, and callouts still vary by region and stack. Your team might call a room something slightly different from mine. That is normal. What matters is that your five players agree on the names — check our R6 map knowledge guide for how to build that shared language. Like our Bank map guide, this one sticks to callouts that have been stable and widely used for years, and it flags where the rework changed things.

Consulate’s identity is the vertical, staircase-driven fight. Yellow Stairs — the iconic staircase on the building’s side — has ended more rounds than almost any other piece of geometry in Siege. If you learn to take and hold Yellow Stairs, you can play Consulate. Everything else is refinement.

The Three Main Sites

Consulate’s bomb sites are famous enough that most players know them by heart. Each has a distinct personality, and each demands a different attack plan.

Garage / Cafeteria

The basement-and-ground combo: the Garage sits in the basement, with the Cafeteria directly above it on the first floor. This is the most-played site in Consulate’s history, and it is where the map’s vertical game is most punishing.

Attacking it: The classic take starts outside the garage. Attackers breach the garage door or the exterior wall, clear the basement, and then — crucially — take the floor above. Defenders love to play vertically here: anchors in the Cafeteria shoot down through the floor into the Garage, and a single defender above can stall an entire garage push. The correct attack clears the Cafeteria first (or at least contests it), then drops into the basement with the plant. Drones are everything: the basement is dark, full of cover, and full of hiding spots. Never walk into the garage blind.

Defending it: Hold the vertical. One or two players in the Cafeteria with the ability to open the floor (or just hold the angles through existing sightlines) make the garage nearly unplayable for attackers. But do not over-commit upstairs — if the attackers take the Cafeteria, your basement players are trapped. The garage itself needs an anchor who can play the tight angles, and someone watching the exterior garage entrance so attackers cannot just walk in. The rework adjusted some of the garage’s geometry, so re-learn your anchor positions rather than trusting old muscle memory.

Meeting Room / Consul Office

The second-floor executive suite: the Meeting Room and the Consul Office, connected through the surrounding offices (Waiting Room, Long Desk Office, Break Room). This is Consulate’s “executive” site — big windows, long sightlines, and multiple approaches.

Attacking it: The 2F take is about pressure from several directions at once. Common approaches: the east windows (rappel), the long desk side, and the yellow stairs side. The site is big, so a split push works well — two players press from the windows while two more work the interior. Intel wins this site: defenders spread across several rooms, and a drone that finds the anchors tells you exactly where to focus. Watch for defenders playing the windows aggressively; the rappel spots are famous and pre-aimed.

Defending it: Do not let attackers take the floor for free. The Meeting/Consul site is most vulnerable when defenders sit passively inside it and let the attackers surround them. Extend: hold the adjacent offices, contest the windows, and make the attackers clear room by room. The Consul Office balcony area is a classic defender position — but it is also a classic pre-fire spot, so vary your positioning. Rotate between the Meeting Room and Consul Office freely; the site is connected enough that you can play both.

Archives / Tellers

The first-floor document rooms: the Archives and the Tellers, tucked into the building’s interior. This site was significantly reshaped by the rework, so treat old guides with suspicion.

Attacking it: The Archives/Tellers take is an interior fight. Approaches come from the lobby side, the visa side, and above (vertical play from the second floor is real here). The rooms are tight, so utility matters more than raw aim: flashes, smokes, and intel decide these rounds. Clear the adjacent rooms before committing to the plant — defenders love to hide in the offices around the site and retake after the plant goes down.

Defending it: Play the depth. The Archives/Tellers site has enough connected rooms that you can give ground and retake. Do not stack all five players inside the two site rooms; spread into the lobby, visa, and the corridors, and collapse when the attackers commit. Watch the vertical: attackers above you on the second floor can make the site miserable if you let them set up.

Attacking Routes: How to Break In

Consulate attacks generally follow one of a few well-worn paths. Knowing them — and knowing when to deviate — is the core attacking skill on this map.

The Yellow Stairs Take

Yellow Stairs is the single most important piece of terrain on Consulate. The staircase connects the basement area to the upper floors on the building’s side, and controlling it gives attackers a highway into the building. The classic yellow stairs push: spawn on the relevant side, drone the staircase, clear any defender playing it, and hold it while the rest of the team works the site. Defenders know this is coming — they will contest it — but the stairs are wide enough and have enough cover that a coordinated team can take them. If your team does nothing else on Consulate, learn to take Yellow Stairs together.

The Garage Take

For basement-site rounds, the garage take is the direct approach: breach the garage exterior, drone the basement thoroughly, and clear it room by room. The critical add-on is the Cafeteria above — as discussed, skipping the vertical clear is how garage takes die. Send one or two players to contest the Cafeteria while the rest work the basement. The garage door itself is a famous breaching point; bring hard breach or find another way in, because the door will not open itself.

The Visa and Lobby Pushes

The first floor has two other classic entries: the Visa Office side and the Lobby/main entrance side. The visa push works the west side of the building, pressuring the Archives/Tellers area and the corridors. The lobby push is the boldest — straight through the grand entrance — and it works best as a fast, coordinated hit before the defenders settle. Both routes need droning: the first floor is full of tight corners and hiding spots, and walking in blind is a donation.

Spawn Discipline

Consulate’s spawns are spread out, which means your team starts spread out. The mistake is staying spread out. Pick your attack lane in the prep phase, group up on the relevant side, and move as a unit. Five players arriving at Yellow Stairs together is a take; five players arriving one at a time is a firing squad — for the defenders.

Defensive Setups: How to Hold the Building

Consulate defense is about layers: roamers upstairs and in the corridors, anchors on the site, and someone always watching the famous entries.

The Anchor Core

Every Consulate site needs two anchors who understand the site’s geometry. On Garage/Cafeteria, that means a basement anchor and a Cafeteria player holding the vertical. On Meeting/Consul, two players who can rotate between the rooms and hold the window angles. On Archives/Tellers, players who play the depth — site plus the adjacent rooms. Anchors should have their positions pre-planned, their rotations open, and their escape routes known. Consulate’s sites are all retakeable, so anchors should think in terms of delaying and trading, not dying in place.

The Roam Game

Consulate rewards roaming. The map is big enough that attackers cannot clear everything, and the staircases give roamers fast rotation routes. Good roam positions: the second floor above the basement site (vertical denial), the offices around Meeting/Consul, and the corridors near Yellow Stairs. The roamer’s job is information first, kills second — call out where the attackers are pushing, take a pick if it is free, and fall back before you get traded. A roamer who dies for nothing on Consulate has handed the attackers the map.

Denying Yellow Stairs

If the attackers’ best route is Yellow Stairs, the defenders’ best counter is contesting it. You do not need to hold the stairs permanently — you need to make the take expensive. A defender playing the top of Yellow Stairs with intel support can delay the push, force utility usage, and call the rotation. Even partial denial changes the round: attackers who spend 90 seconds taking the stairs have 90 fewer seconds for the execute.

The Basement Game

The basement deserves its own section because it plays differently from the rest of the map. It is dark, tight, and vertical — the Garage site lives here, and the basement connects to the building above through the stairs and hatches.

Attacking the basement is a drone-and-clear exercise. Every corner needs checking, every hiding spot needs a pre-fire or a drone. The basement’s saving grace for attackers is that it is small: once it is clear, it stays clear, as long as someone watches the stairs. Defending the basement is about the vertical and the darkness — play the angles the attackers cannot see, use the Cafeteria above, and never let them plant for free in the open garage.

Vertical Play on Consulate

Consulate is a vertical map, full stop. The floors are destructible in the key areas, and the team that controls the floor above the site controls the round. This is most famous on the Garage/Cafeteria site, but it applies everywhere: attackers above Archives/Tellers can pressure the site from the second floor, and defenders above a basement push can stall it indefinitely.

The practical takeaway: on attack, always ask “who is above the site?” before committing. On defense, always ask “are we holding the floor above?” If the answer is no, you are giving the enemy team a free win condition. Bring operators who can open floors, and learn which floors are soft — the rework changed some of this, so verify in custom games rather than trusting old guides.

Operator Picks: General Principles

Rather than a fixed list (which goes stale with every patch), here are the archetypes that fit Consulate:

• Hard breach for the garage door and the key walls. Consulate has several must-open surfaces; do not leave this to chance.
• Intel operators — drones win Consulate rounds. The map is big and full of hiding spots; the team with better information wins the clear.
• Vertical play tools — operators who can open floors or deny them. The vertical game is the map’s defining feature, so bring the tools to play it.
• Area denial for the defense — Consulate’s chokepoints (Yellow Stairs, the garage entrance, the site doorways) are perfect for denial utility that buys time.

For specific operator ideas, our Valkyrie guide covers one of the best intel operators for maps exactly like this one.

Common Consulate Mistakes

1. Ignoring Yellow Stairs. Whether you are attacking or defending, the stairs are the round. Attackers who never take them get funneled; defenders who never contest them get surrounded.

2. Skipping the vertical clear. The number-one cause of death on the Garage site. Clear the Cafeteria or die in the basement — those are the options.

3. Roaming without information. A roamer who does not call out is just a player who is not on the site. If you roam, talk.

4. Attacking alone. Consulate punishes solo plays harder than most maps. The entries are all watchable, the angles are all pre-aimed. Move with your team.

5. Trusting pre-rework muscle memory. The Neon Dawn rework changed enough geometry that old positions and old timings are unreliable. Re-learn the map in custom games.

6. Forgetting the basement exists. On non-basement sites, attackers sometimes forget the basement entirely — and a defender down there hears everything and rotates for free. Clear it or watch it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the main bomb sites on Consulate?

The three classic sites are Garage/Cafeteria (basement and first floor), Meeting Room/Consul Office (second floor), and Archives/Tellers (first floor). A fourth site combination has existed at various points in the map’s history, but these three are the ones you will play the most.

What is the most important area to control on Consulate?

Yellow Stairs. It connects the basement to the upper floors and serves as the main highway for both teams. Attackers who hold it can pressure any site; defenders who contest it slow every attack. Learn to take it, learn to deny it.

How do I attack the Garage site?

Breach the garage exterior, drone the basement thoroughly, and — critically — contest the Cafeteria above before committing to the basement. Defenders playing vertically from the Cafeteria will shred a garage push that ignores them. Clear top-down, then plant.

Was Consulate reworked?

Yes — Consulate received a full rework in Operation Neon Dawn (2020). The rework reshaped several areas, most notably parts of the first floor and the garage. Old guides and old muscle memory should be treated with suspicion; verify positions in custom games.

Is Consulate attacker-sided or defender-sided?

It has swung both ways across seasons and patches, and the honest answer is that it depends on the current operator balance and the site being played. Rather than a fixed answer, learn both sides: Consulate rewards the team that controls the vertical game and the staircases, regardless of side.

What is the best way to learn Consulate callouts?

Play it, die on it, and talk about it. Run custom games with your stack, agree on names for every room (starting from the established ones — Garage, Cafeteria, Yellow Stairs, Consul Office, Meeting Room), and correct each other kindly. Our R6 map knowledge guide has the full method, and the Clubhouse map guide shows the same learning approach on another classic map.

The Bottom Line

Consulate is a map about staircases and floors. Yellow Stairs is the highway, the vertical game is the win condition, and the three classic sites each test a different skill — the basement’s claustrophobic clear, the executive floor’s multi-angle pressure, and the archives’ tight interior fight. The rework changed the details but not the identity: control the stairs, control the floor above, and move as a team.

Learn it the same way you learn every map — one site at a time, in custom games, with a stack that agrees on callouts. Consulate has been in the competitive pool since the beginning for a reason: it is a fair, deep, endlessly replayable map. Master its staircases and its vertical angles, and you will feel the difference in every ranked game you play on it.

Border at a Glance

Border separates players who know Siege from players who just play it. A two-floor border crossing station with a compact footprint, exposed exterior approaches, and some of the most famous defensive holds in the game, it rewards preparation on attack and aggression on defense. Rounds here are decided by who controls the entries and who wins the roam game.

New to structured map learning? Start with our map knowledge guide for the callout system and learning methods. This guide is the Border deep-dive: every major site, the entries attackers actually use, the roam paths defenders run, and the mistakes that keep losing this map.

One honesty note: Border received a major rework years ago, and callouts vary by region. The names below are the long-established community standards. Consistency within your squad matters more than matching any guide.

Map Overview: The Border Crossing Station

Border is a fictional border checkpoint — part office complex, part security installation, part vehicle inspection yard. Two playable floors, a roof, and a wide exterior. It plays smaller than it looks because the important rooms cluster tightly: Armory and Archives east on 1F, Customs and Offices west, Workshop south, and Server, Ventilation, and CCTV upstairs.

The map’s defining tension is its compact interior versus its exposed exterior. Attackers spawn far out and cross open ground to reach the building, so defenders holding long angles from windows and the balcony can punish sloppy approaches. But once attackers are inside, the map compresses — rooms are close, rotations are short, and the action turns fast and loud. Win the entry battle and you usually win the round, because Border gives almost no room to reset once you commit.

The Key Sites

Border’s bomb sites are among the most-played in Siege. Know all of them — this map shows up constantly in ranked.

Armory / Archives (1F East)

The classic Border site. Armory and Archives sit side by side on the east ground floor, with the Armory Lockers forming the tight inner anchor. This is the default site for most teams, and the one attackers prepare for most.

Attacking it means the east approach: the balcony, the courtyard, and the Archives window — one of the most contested positions on the map. Take east control and pressure from multiple angles at once. The classic failure is trickling through the same window one at a time into prepared crossfires from Armory and the lockers.

Defending it means the lockers and the Archives hold. Set up in the lockers with angles into both bomb rooms, contest the east approach, and keep a roamer upstairs or in the courtyard to slow the take. The site falls when attackers walk into Archives uncontested — once they are planted inside it, retaking through the narrow doorways is brutal.

Customs / Offices (1F West)

The western ground-floor site. More open than Armory, more angles, and more dependent on surrounding map control.

Attackers stage from the parking lot and the western exterior, then work the Customs windows and doors. The key concept is the west-side take: clear the exterior, take the windows, push with droning support. Rushing Customs without clearing the roamers above is how attacks die — the site’s openness lets defenders reposition and flank freely.

Defenders hold it by controlling Offices and the western hallway, keeping angles on the entries, and using crossfires instead of hiding in corners. The classic mistake is over-anchoring inside the site: the rooms are too open for a static hold, and good utility will flush you out. Active defense — moving between Customs, Offices, and upstairs — beats turtling here.

Server / Ventilation (2F)

The upstairs sites are the vertical-play sites, less common than the ground-floor picks but frequent enough to need a plan.

Attacking upstairs starts on the roof. The hatch drops into Ventilation, skylights give angles into the upper hallways, and walking up the stairs into a prepared defense is volunteering for a crossfire. Open the hatches, pressure from above, force defenders off their angles, then commit.

Defending upstairs means holding the Server room and Ventilation angles with at least one player contesting the roof. Let attackers take the roof for free and you have surrendered the site’s main advantage. Watch the floor below too — attackers opening it from above can deny the entire site.

Entry Routes: The First Sixty Seconds

Border attacks live or die early. The exposed spawns make attackers vulnerable before they reach the building, and the chosen entry route shapes everything after.

The East Push

Balcony, courtyard, Archives/Armory windows — the most common attack vector on the map. Its strength is directness: you pressure the site seconds after reaching the building. Its weakness is predictability: every defender knows it is coming, and the Archives window is pre-aimed by half the player base.

Make it work by varying it. Take the balcony fast and rappel in; hold the courtyard and drone deep first; fake east and rotate west. The east push fails when it becomes ritual — the same rappel, same timing, every round.

The West Push

Parking lot, Customs exterior, western windows — the answer to teams that over-defend east. Slower and more methodical: clear the exterior with drones, take windows one at a time, build control before hitting the site. Less explosive than the east push but harder to shut down, and the natural complement when defenders stack east.

Windows as Positions

Border’s windows are not just entries — they are control points. The east balcony, the Archives window, the Customs windows, and the upstairs windows all offer angles attackers can hold for extended periods, cutting rotations and pressuring the site without committing inside. But windows are also the most predictable positions on the map: defenders pre-fire them, run out on them, and C4 them. Never sit in a window without droning the runout angles first.

The Roof Take

Against upstairs sites the roof is the third entry route — hatches, skylights, and angles defenders struggle to contest. Slower than the ground pushes but the highest-value play when the defense is upstairs. Defenders: contest the roof. One player on the roof stairs forces attackers to spend time and utility clearing you instead of hitting the site.

Roaming: Border’s Signature Defense

If Border has a defensive identity, it is the roam. Compact interior, short rotations, multiple staircases — a single roamer can pressure the east push, fall back to site, and flank the west take all in one round. Here, roaming is the default, not a luxury.

The Roam Paths

The classic roam starts upstairs or opposite the attack and works back toward the site as attackers commit. The upstairs hallways around Server, Ventilation, and CCTV are the roamer’s highway: drop down the main stairs into the site, rotate east to contest the balcony, or swing west toward Customs. Stay mobile, stay alive — a roamer dead in the first minute gifts a 5v4, but a roamer alive at the one-minute mark is a problem attackers must solve with drones and time.

The courtyard is the advanced zone. Roamers there contest the east push before it reaches the building, then fall back through the Archives area and reposition upstairs. High-risk — caught outside without support is a free kill — but it breaks attacks before they start.

The Attacker’s Answer

The most common attacking failure on Border is the un-cleared roam: a beautiful execute onto site, then death from behind by the roamer nobody found. Counter it with systematic droning — the upstairs before every ground-floor commit — and a flank watcher on every push. When you find the roamer, do not chase across the map: pinch with two players or ignore them and hit the site while they are out of position. Chasing is exactly what the roamer wants.

Site Defense Setups

Border defenses work layered: roamers upstairs and outside, anchors on site, everyone collapsing when attackers commit. The map is too small for pure anchoring — attackers isolate static defenders — and too open for pure roaming.

The standard setup runs two to three roamers and two to three anchors. Roamers start upstairs and on the flanks, contesting entries and gathering intel. Anchors hold the site — the lockers on Armory, the Customs angles, the Server room — with utility slowing the execute. As attackers commit, roamers fall back down the stairs into the site for the retake or the flank. The short distances make the collapse fast; teams that drill the timing win rounds that look lost on the kill feed.

Against the east push, put bodies east: a roamer in the courtyard or on the balcony approach, anchors on the Archives window angle, the lockers player ready for close quarters. Contest the window entry — if attackers come through the Archives window cleanly, the site is compromised.

Against the west push, keep a roamer west to slow the take, hold Offices and the western hallway as the fallback line, and prepare to retake Customs from multiple angles. The west push wins when defenses sit passively and surrender every window; it loses when each step is contested and attackers burn their utility before reaching the site.

Vertical Play

Border’s floors are close enough that vertical play is the normal state, not a special tactic. Attackers open hatches from the roof to pressure upstairs sites; against Armory, controlling the upstairs lets attackers deny the lockers and Archives from above, turning the site’s strongest positions into liabilities.

Defenders: never ignore the floor above or below your site. A player below with vertical denial can single-handedly stop a plant; a player who never checks the ceiling volunteers to die from above. The hatches, the skylight, and the destructible floors above the ground-floor sites are all well-known — there is no excuse for being surprised by them.

Operator Picks: Think in Roles

Border demands roles, not names. The geometry does not change with the meta.

Hard breach and entry are always valuable — without a way to open reinforced walls and hatches, attacks funnel into the same predictable entries. Intel and anti-roam counter the roam-heavy defense directly; a dedicated player droning ahead of the push is worth more here than a second entry fragger. Vertical operators decide the upstairs sites on both sides. Anchor utility — slowing executes, denying plants, holding angles — is the backbone of every site hold; the lockers player on Armory or the Offices player on Customs can stall an entire attack with the right setup.

Several of the best operators for beginners fill these roles comfortably — you do not need flashy picks to play Border well. For the intel role specifically, the Valkyrie guide is worth reading, and our Clubhouse map guide covers similar role thinking on another roam-heavy map.

Common Mistakes

Attacking without droning the roam. The number one Border error. Drone the upstairs every round, no exceptions — executes die to the roamer nobody found.

Rappelling the same window every round. Defenders pre-aim every known entry. Vary your entries and your timing, and sometimes do not rappel at all.

Roaming without a fallback plan. Roam for information and time-wasting, then fall back when attackers commit. Dying for one kill while the site needs you is a bad trade.

Ignoring the roof. Free roof for attackers means free vertical pressure. Contest it.

Over-anchoring on Customs. Too open for a static hold — play the surrounding rooms, stay mobile, retake instead of turtling.

Forgetting the vertical game. Both sides, every round. Open hatches as attackers; check ceilings as defenders.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the main bomb sites on Border?

Armory/Archives on the east ground floor, Customs with Offices on the west ground floor, and the upstairs sites around Server and Ventilation. Armory/Archives is the most common ranked pick.

Is Border attacker-sided or defender-sided?

It shifts with the season, and honest guides should say so. Border has historically leaned slightly defender-sided at most ranks thanks to the roam game and strong site holds — but drilled attacking teams that drone properly and vary entries win consistently. Preparation beats the map’s theoretical balance.

How do I deal with roamers on Border as an attacker?

Drone the upstairs and courtyard before every push, keep a flank watcher on every entry, and never chase roamers across the map. Pinch with two players or hit the site while they are out of position. Most roamer kills come from attacker impatience, not roamer brilliance.

What is the best way to attack Armory/Archives?

Take east control first — balcony, courtyard, the hallway above — then pressure the Archives window while a second element works the Armory side. Do not trickle in one at a time. Drone the lockers before committing; walking into that crossfire blind is how the take dies.

Should I roam on Border as a beginner?

Roaming here is powerful but demanding: it needs map knowledge, timing, and fallback discipline. Beginners learn faster anchoring on site and studying teammates’ roam paths first, then taking roam spots in unranked once the upstairs rotations and fallback timings are second nature.

How did the Border rework change the map?

It reshaped parts of the office and workshop zones and adjusted exterior cover and flows. The core identity survived — same major sites, same east/west push dynamic, same entry-and-roam character. Pre-rework site knowledge transfers; update your exterior approaches and rotation timings.

The Bottom Line

Border rewards the complete player. Attackers need droning discipline, varied entries, and the patience to clear the roam before committing. Defenders need layered setups, active roamers with fallback plans, and the discipline to contest windows and the roof instead of turtling. Nobody gets a free round here — every win is earned in the entry battle, the roam game, or the vertical fight.

Learn it one layer at a time: sites and callouts first, then entries, then roam paths, then vertical play. Pair this with our map knowledge guide for the method that makes it stick — and for the next roam-heavy classic, the Clubhouse map guide uses the same structured approach.

The Café That Punishes Sloppy Clears

Kafe Dostoyevsky is one of Siege's most storied maps — a cozy three-story Russian café with a fireplace lounge, a wood-paneled bar, and a bakery that has seen more gunfights than most war movies. The map was reworked with a new third-floor bombsite, new entry points, and expanded balcony access, and that rework changed how both sides play it. If your Kafe knowledge is from 2019, parts of it are wrong now.

What makes Kafe distinctive is its floor-by-floor identity. The third floor is the Reading Room and Fireplace Hall — open, vertical, dominated by the skylight. The second floor is the social heart: Bar, Cocktail Lounge, Dining, and Kitchen. The first floor is service space: Bakery, the redesigned Kitchen Service area, Freezer, and Coat Room. The basement is the Mining Room and Laundry — the map's most bunker-like site. Every floor demands a different clear, and the vertical connections mean a fight on one floor is never isolated from the others.

This guide covers the map as it exists today: the sites, how to clear each floor as an attacker, how to defend each bombsite, the vertical game, and the mistakes that cost rounds on Kafe. Our R6 map knowledge guide covers the general system for learning maps and callouts — this is the map-specific deep dive.

> A note on callouts: Kafe has a long history, and callouts vary by region and squad. The names below are the widely-established ones (Bakery, Kitchen, Bar, Cocktail Lounge, Reading Room, Fireplace Hall, Mining Room, Laundry, Freezer, Coat Room, Dining, Prep Room). If your stack uses different names, that's fine — the point is that everyone uses the same ones.

Map Overview: Three Floors, Three Personalities

Kafe is a medium-to-large map with three above-ground floors plus a basement. The exterior is a snowy Russian courtyard with a park on the west side, a river dock to the east, and rooftops accessible from the third floor. Spawns give attackers options on every side: the west park approach, the east river approach, and the south front entrance.

Third floor: Reading Room, Fireplace Hall, Cigar Shop, Pillars, White Corridor. The penthouse — wood paneling, bookshelves, the fireplace. The skylight in the Reading Room is the map's signature vertical feature, and the third floor hosts a bombsite (Reading Room / Fireplace Hall).

Second floor: Bar, Cocktail Lounge, Dining Room, Kitchen, Prep Room, Washrooms. The social core — open sightlines across the Bar into the Cocktail Lounge, the famous Bar-to-Kitchen angle. Bombsite: Bar / Cocktail Lounge.

First floor: Bakery, Kitchen Service, Freezer, Coat Room, Main Corridor, Front Desk. The rework turned the old Kitchen into Bakery and expanded the service areas. Bombsite: Bakery / Kitchen.

Basement: Mining Room, Laundry, Wine Cellar, connecting corridors. The basement site (Mining Room / Laundry) is tight, dark, and heavily defensible.

The rework's biggest changes: the third-floor Reading/Fireplace bombsite was added, the first-floor kitchen area was redesigned into Bakery/Service, balcony and rooftop access was expanded, and several soft walls and hatches were repositioned. If you're returning after a break, spend a custom game relearning the first and third floors.

The Bombsites: What You're Fighting Over

Reading Room / Fireplace Hall (3F)

The top-floor site. Reading Room holds the skylight — a massive hole in the ceiling. Attackers can rappel to it, shoot through it, or drop through it. Fireplace Hall connects through the Pillars and the Cigar Shop. This site is defined by vertical pressure: attackers on the roof can contest the Reading Room directly, and defenders must either hold the roof approach or set up crossfires that punish the drop.

Defending here means controlling the Pillars and Cigar Shop rotations, keeping someone watching the skylight, and being ready for the White Corridor push. Attackers want the roof, the Cigar Balcony rappel, and a coordinated skylight drop — or they bypass the skylight entirely and hit the White Corridor from the east stairs.

Bar / Cocktail Lounge (2F)

The classic Kafe site. The Bar is the anchor — the long counter, the back bar, the sightline into the Cocktail Lounge, which opens toward the Dining Room and Kitchen. This site is about angles: the Bar window from the west balcony, the Kitchen door, the Dining breach, and the Cocktail Balcony rappel.

Defenders set up in the Bar (behind the counter), the Cocktail Lounge, and the Kitchen, with roamers on the third floor threatening the vertical game. Attackers typically take the west balcony for the Bar window, breach or push the Kitchen, and work the Dining Room — or go vertical from the third floor and open the Bar floor from above.

Bakery / Kitchen Service (1F)

The reworked ground-floor site. The Bakery is the front room with the display cases; the Kitchen Service area is the back-of-house with the Freezer and Prep Room. This site is tighter than the others — shorter sightlines, more corners, more close-quarters fights.

Defenders hold the Bakery counter, the Freezer, and the Service corridor, with anchors watching the Front Desk entrance and the Bakery windows. Attackers breach the Bakery wall from the front, push the Coat Room, or drop from the second-floor Kitchen hatch into the Service area.

Mining Room / Laundry (Basement)

The bunker. The Mining Room is the large basement room with the mining exhibit; the Laundry connects through tight corridors. This site is the hardest to attack and the most claustrophobic — limited entries, long corridors, and defenders who can set up deep crossfires.

Defenders extend into the Wine Cellar and the basement corridors, hold the Laundry with utility, and keep the hatches above contested. Attackers must clear the first floor before the basement, then push the Laundry corridor or the Mining Room door — or open the floor from above.

Clearing Each Floor as an Attacker

Kafe rewards the methodical clear more than almost any map. The floors are connected, the sightlines are long, and a roamer left alive on any floor can collapse your execute.

Third floor clear

Start from the roof. The roof gives you the skylight, the Cigar Balcony, and the White Corridor windows. Clear the Cigar Shop and Pillars first — these are the roamer nests overlooking the Reading Room. Drone the White Corridor before pushing it. If the site is upstairs, the roof is your primary attack vector: coordinate the skylight drop (one player drops, two cover from the roof and Cigar Balcony) into a pre-cleared Reading Room, never a blind one.

If the site is below, the third floor is still worth clearing for the vertical game: the hatches and soft floors above the Bar and Kitchen let you pressure defenders from above. Never skip the third floor.

Second floor clear

Clear the Dining Room and the Kitchen/Pantry first — these connect to everything. The Bar-to-Kitchen doorway is one of the most contested chokepoints on the map; drone it, utility it, never swing it dry. Check the Cocktail Balcony for the rappel threat.

The Washrooms and the Prep Room are the hiding spots people forget. A defender in the Washrooms can hear your entire second-floor clear and time a flank. Drone every bathroom.

First floor clear

The Bakery windows and the Front Desk entrance are the obvious entries — which is why defenders watch them. The Coat Room and the Main Corridor are quieter. Clear the Freezer and the Prep Room before committing to the site.

Basement clear

Don't rush the basement. Clear the entire first floor first — a defender up there will drop the hatch on your basement execute. Then work the Laundry corridor and the Mining Room door with drones ahead and utility on the anchors. The basement is where impatient attackers lose Kafe games: the site is small, the defenders are dug in, and the only way in is through prepared crossfires.

Defending Each Site

Defending Reading / Fireplace (3F)

The skylight is the whole game. Someone must watch it — either a player positioned to contest the roof, or utility (a deployable shield, barbed wire, a camera) that gives early warning. Hold the Pillars and the Cigar Shop as your rotation backbone; these let you reposition between the Reading Room and the Fireplace Hall. The White Corridor is your flank watch — a defender here can catch attackers rotating from the east stairs.

Roam on the second floor, not the third. The third floor is the site; your roamers belong below, threatening the attackers' vertical game and ready to retake the skylight if it's lost. Never leave the roof uncontested without a plan.

Defending Bar / Cocktail (2F)

Anchor the Bar behind the counter and the Cocktail Lounge. The Bar window from the west balcony is the primary threat — have a player or utility watching it, and don't stand in the window's sightline during the drone phase. The Kitchen door and the Dining breach are the secondary threats; hold them with crossfires, not solo heroics.

Your vertical game is the third floor. Keep a roamer or at least a camera above the Bar — attackers who open the floor from above will end the round in seconds if uncontested. The Cocktail Balcony rappel is the late-round threat; have someone who can swing it or utility that delays it.

Defending Bakery / Kitchen (1F)

This is a close-quarters site — play it that way. Hold the Bakery counter, the Freezer, and the Service corridor with shotguns and SMGs, not long angles. The Front Desk entrance and the Bakery windows are the attacker entries; don't give them free. The Coat Room is the flank route — watch it.

The vertical threat is the Kitchen hatch from the second floor. Keep a player upstairs or a camera watching it — if attackers drop it uncontested, your Bakery hold collapses from behind.

Defending Mining / Laundry (Basement)

Extend, but not too far. Hold the Laundry with utility, the Mining Room with anchors, and the Wine Cellar as your rotation space. The basement corridors are your kill zones — set up crossfires, not single angles. Keep the hatches above contested; an attacker who opens the basement ceiling for free has already won the vertical game.

Don't roam far on the basement site. The site is small and the rotations are short — your roamers belong on the first floor, delaying the attackers' clear and threatening the hatch drops.

The Skylight and the Vertical Game

The Reading Room skylight is the most distinctive feature on Kafe and the most misplayed. Attackers can rappel to it, shoot through it, throw utility through it, or drop through it into the Reading Room.

As an attacker: the skylight is a tool, not a plan. The drop is powerful but telegraphed. Use it for pressure and only drop when the Reading Room is cleared or the drop is coordinated with a White Corridor push. The worst play is the solo drop into an uncleared room.

As a defender: respect the skylight, but don't over-rotate to it. One player watching the roof approach, or utility that gives early warning, is enough. The mistake is pulling two players off the site to stare at the skylight while the attackers walk in through the White Corridor.

Beyond the skylight, Kafe's vertical game is everywhere: the hatches above the Bar, the Kitchen hatch down to the Service area, the soft floors throughout. The team that wins the vertical game usually wins Kafe.

Roamers: Where They Live on Kafe

Third floor: Cigar Shop, Pillars, White Corridor. Second floor: Dining Room, Kitchen/Pantry, Washrooms. First floor: Coat Room, Main Corridor, Freezer. Basement: Wine Cellar, basement corridors.

As a defender, roam with purpose. Kafe's roamers win rounds by wasting attacker time and threatening the vertical game, not by chasing kills.

Operator Picks: General Principles

Kafe rewards the same operator archetypes as any vertical map, with a café-specific twist.

Attackers: hard breach, vertical play, flank watch, and a roof contender for the Reading site.

Defenders: anchors for the tight sites (Bakery, Laundry, Bar counter), roamers for the connected floors, and utility that watches the skylight, hatches, and balconies.

The specific meta shifts by season, but the principles don't: Kafe is a vertical map, a clearance map, and an information map.

Common Mistakes on Kafe

Skipping floors. The number one Kafe mistake. Attackers clear the site floor and ignore the rest, then die to the roamer on the floor above or the hatch drop from below. Clear every floor. Every time.

The solo skylight drop. Dropping the Reading Room skylight alone into an uncleared room. It's a highlight when it works and a round loss when it doesn't.

Ignoring the vertical game. Attackers who never open the floor above the site. Defenders who leave every hatch uncontested.

Over-rotating to the skylight. Defenders who pull the whole team to watch the roof while the attackers take the site through the front door. Respect the skylight; don't worship it.

Forgetting the Washrooms. Drone the bathrooms. Every round.

Rushing the basement. Attackers who sprint for the Mining Room without clearing the first floor. The basement is a bunker — treat it like one.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the bombsites on Kafe Dostoyevsky?

The four bombsites are Reading Room / Fireplace Hall (third floor), Bar / Cocktail Lounge (second floor), Bakery / Kitchen Service (first floor), and Mining Room / Laundry (basement). The third-floor Reading/Fireplace site was added in the map's rework.

How did the Kafe rework change the map?

The rework added the third-floor Reading Room / Fireplace Hall bombsite, redesigned the first-floor kitchen into Bakery and Kitchen Service, expanded balcony and rooftop access, and repositioned soft walls and hatches. The core identity — three floors, the skylight, the vertical game — stayed the same.

What's the best way to attack the Reading Room site?

Take the roof. Contest the skylight, clear the Cigar Shop and Pillars, and coordinate the skylight drop with a White Corridor push. The drop alone is a gamble; the drop plus the corridor push is an execute.

How do you defend against the skylight drop?

One player watching the roof approach or utility giving early warning. Don't over-rotate; the skylight is one threat among several.

Which operators are best on Kafe?

The meta shifts, but the archetypes are stable: hard breach for the Bakery wall and basement entries, vertical-play operators for the floors and hatches, flank watch for the corridors and balconies, and anchors who hold Kafe's tight sites. Pick for the map's demands — vertical, clearance, information — not for a tier list.

What's the single biggest mistake attackers make on Kafe?

Skipping floors. An uncleared floor is a loaded gun pointed at your execute — the roamer above, the hatch below, the flank from the Washrooms. The methodical clear feels slow, but it's the fastest way to win rounds here.

The Bottom Line

Kafe Dostoyevsky rewards respect. Respect the floors — clear all of them. Respect the vertical game — contest every hatch and the skylight. Respect the sites — each one demands a different defense and a different attack.

Learn it floor by floor. Start with the general system in our R6 map knowledge guide, then deep-dive each bombsite in custom games until the callouts are reflex. And if you want to see how Kafe's vertical lessons apply to the map that invented vertical play, our Bank map guide is the natural next read — or compare notes with our Clubhouse map guide for another three-floor brawl.

Clear the café. Watch the skylight. Win the vertical game. The rest is execution.

The Alpine Lodge That Rewards Real Teams

Chalet is one of Rainbow Six Siege's most recognizable maps: a snow-covered alpine lodge with warm wooden interiors, a fireplace-lit living room, and four bomb sites spread across three floors. It has been in the competitive rotation for years, received a significant rework that reshaped its basement and first floor, and still teaches the same lesson every match: this map punishes solo play harder than almost any other.

Chalet is big, vertical, and full of angles. Attackers can come from the cliffside, the lakeside, the front door, or straight down through the roof — and defenders have to cover all of it. No single player can hold everything, which is why teams that communicate win Chalet and teams that don't get picked apart room by room. If you're building your fundamentals, our R6 map knowledge guide covers the callout system this guide builds on.

This guide walks through every bomb site, how to attack and defend each one, the vertical play that decides rounds, and the coordination habits that turn Chalet from a confusing maze into your team's best map.

Chalet at a Glance

Chalet is a three-floor map (basement, first floor, second floor) plus a playable roof. The layout is roughly L-shaped, with the garage and basement on one end and the living areas stretching across. Four bomb sites rotate through the rounds:

• B: Snowmobile Garage / Wine Cellar — the basement site
• 1F: Kitchen / Bar — the first-floor site
• 2F: Library / Dining — the second-floor site
• 2F: Master Bedroom / Office — the second-floor site

A quick note on accuracy: Chalet was reworked several seasons ago, and room names and layouts can vary by region and personal callout habits. The callouts in this guide are the widely “used ones — Kitchen, Bar, Library, Dining, Master Bedroom, Office, Snowmobile Garage, Wine Cellar, Trophy Room, Mudroom, Patio, Cliffside, Lakeside — but your stack may have its own names. Agree on callouts before the match starts, not during it.

The Four Bomb Sites

B: Snowmobile Garage / Wine Cellar

The basement site. Snowmobile Garage is a large open room with vehicles for cover and multiple entry points; Wine Cellar is the tighter room behind it, full of racks that create close-quarters angles. Attackers typically push through the garage's exterior entrances or drop down from above, while defenders use the vehicles and the cellar's doorways to create crossfires.

This site is all about the garage. Whoever controls the garage floor controls the round — defenders who lose the garage early usually lose the site, and attackers who rush the wine cellar without clearing the garage walk into crossfires.

1F: Kitchen / Bar

The first-floor site sits in the heart of the lodge. Kitchen is a compact room with a central island; Bar is the adjacent room with the counter and seating. The Trophy Room and Living Room connect nearby, and the fireplace hall runs alongside. This site is flanked by multiple hallways, which makes it a defender's crossfire paradise — and an attacker's rotation nightmare.

Kitchen/Bar is the site where vertical play matters most. Attackers above can open the floor and pressure the site from the ceiling; defenders below in the basement can deny plants from beneath. We'll cover that in the vertical play section.

2F: Library / Dining

The second-floor library and dining rooms form one of the most iconic sites in Siege. Library has the big tables and bookshelves; Dining connects through with its long table. The Gaming Room and Bar areas sit adjacent (note: the upstairs "Bar" area near Gaming is distinct from the 1F Bar site — clarify which one you mean in comms).

This site has long sightlines through the dining room and tight cover in the library. Attackers love to take the roof and rappel the skylight or balcony; defenders love to hold the hallway angles and punish predictable entries.

2F: Master Bedroom / Office

The other second-floor site. Master Bedroom is the large room with the bed; Office is the smaller connected room with desks. The Bathroom connects nearby, and the bedroom hallway runs past both rooms. This site is more compact than Library/Dining, which means faster rounds and more explosive close-range fights.

The balcony and roof access make this site vulnerable from above, and the hallway is the critical rotation path — defenders who lose the hallway usually lose the site within seconds.

Attacking Each Site

Snowmobile Garage / Wine Cellar (B): Clear the garage first. Send drones through the exterior entrances, identify where defenders are playing (behind vehicles, in the wine cellar doorway, or holding from the basement halls), and take the garage floor before committing to the plant. Vertical pressure from the kitchen above can force defenders out of the cellar. Don't plant in the open garage without smokes — the sightlines are long and defenders will be watching.

Kitchen / Bar (1F): This is a vertical site. Get a player above on the second floor to open the ceiling over Kitchen and Bar, then execute with the plant while the vertical pressure pins defenders. Alternatively, take Trophy Room and Living Room to cut off rotations, then push from two directions at once. Solo pushes through the fireplace hall get punished — always clear with drones first.

Library / Dining (2F): Roof control is everything. Take the roof, open the skylight or balcony, and use the vertical and exterior angles to pressure defenders out of the library. Drones through the hallway identify the anchor positions. The dining room's long table is the plant zone — smoke it, plant behind it, and hold the library door and hallway.

Master Bedroom / Office (2F): Speed is your friend here. Take the balcony and roof quickly, drone the bedroom and office, and execute before defenders can set up their hallway crossfire. The bathroom is a common anchor spot — pre-fire it or flash it. If the execute stalls, rotate: the site is small enough that a late rotation to the other side catches defenders off-guard.

Defending Each Site

Snowmobile Garage / Wine Cellar (B): Anchor the garage, don't abandon it. Play behind the vehicles with crossfires into the exterior entrances, and keep one player in or near the wine cellar to punish attackers who push past the garage. Reinforce the garage walls and watch for the vertical pressure from Kitchen above — a defender below or a well-placed denial can stop the plant.

Kitchen / Bar (1F): This site lives and dies on the roamers. Keep players in Trophy Room, Living Room, and the hallways to catch attackers rotating in, and anchor the site itself with crossfires between Kitchen and Bar. Deny the vertical play from above — if attackers open the ceiling freely, the site is lost. Contest the second floor early.

Library / Dining (2F): Hold the hallway and punish the roof take. Defenders who let attackers set up on the roof uncontested give away the round — contest the skylight and balcony with angles from inside. Anchor the library with the bookshelves as cover and keep the dining room's long angles covered. Don't all stack in the site; the roamers in Gaming and the hallway are what stop the execute.

Master Bedroom / Office (2F): Play the hallway. The bedroom hallway is the site's lifeline — defenders who hold it control every rotation. Anchor the bedroom and office with tight crossfires, and keep the bathroom in mind as an attacker entry. This site falls fast when defenders play passively in the site, so stay active: peek the balcony, contest the roof, and don't let attackers set up for free.

The Garage and Exterior

Chalet's exterior is more important than most maps'. The Snowmobile Garage opens to the outside, the cliffside and lakeside give attackers long approaches, and the patio and campfire areas create exterior fights that decide rounds before anyone enters the building.

Attackers: use the exterior to isolate defenders. The cliffside approach gives you angles into the garage and the second floor; the lakeside approach opens the basement and first floor. Don't all funnel through the front door — spread across the exterior and force defenders to split their attention.

Defenders: respect the exterior. Spawnpeeks from the garage or the second-floor windows can punish careless attackers, but don't overcommit — a failed spawnpeek leaves the site short-handed. Keep an eye on the patio and the campfire; attackers who set up there uncontested will dismantle your garage hold.

The mudroom is the unsung hero of Chalet's exterior game. It connects the outside to the first floor and is a constant rotation path — drone it, watch it, and never assume it's clear.

Vertical Play: The Floors Decide Rounds

Chalet is one of Siege's most vertical maps, and the team that understands the floors wins.

Attacking down: The second floor sits above Kitchen/Bar, which means attackers can open the ceiling and pressure the 1F site from above. The roof sits above the 2F sites, giving attackers skylight and balcony angles. Always check: is there a floor above the site I can exploit?

Defending up: Defenders can play below the site and deny plants from beneath — the basement under Kitchen/Bar is a classic denial position. If you're defending a 2F site, consider whether attackers will come from the roof and position accordingly.

The hatches: Chalet's hatches connect the floors at key points. Control the hatches and you control the rotations. Attackers should open hatches to create new angles; defenders should guard them or use them for surprise rotations.

The golden rule of Chalet vertical play: never ignore the floor above or below you. More rounds are lost to "I didn't know they were above me" on Chalet than on almost any other map.

Team Coordination: Why Chalet Punishes Solo Play

Here's the honest truth about Chalet: it's a 5-player map. The sites are spread across three floors, the exterior approaches are wide, and the rotations are long. A solo player — or a team of five solo players — cannot cover enough ground.

What good Chalet teams do:

• Split the map into zones and assign them. One pair takes the exterior/roof, one pair works the interior, one anchors. Everyone knows their zone and their rotation path.
• Drone for each other. Chalet's size means you can't drone everywhere yourself. The player entering the garage should have a teammate on the drone; the player pushing the hallway should have eyes on the flank.
• Call the rotations, not just the kills. "Two pushing garage" is useful; "two pushing garage, rotating to wine cellar in five seconds" wins rounds. Chalet's long rotations mean early calls matter more here.
• Execute together. Chalet sites fall to coordinated executes — smokes, flashes, plant, cover — and survive piecemeal pushes. If your team pushes one at a time, defenders will collect you one at a time.
• Play the refrag. With so many angles, trades are constant. Never take a 1v1 you don't have to; always have a teammate ready to trade the kill.

If you're queuing solo, Chalet is the map where you should be on comms the most. Even basic callouts — "garage clear," "one library," "rotating basement" — multiply your team's effectiveness. For operator ideas that suit team play, our best operators for beginners guide is a good starting point, and the Valkyrie guide shows how intel operators shine on big maps like this.

Operator Picks (General Guidance)

Chalet rewards certain operator archetypes. These are general suggestions, not a fixed meta — the right pick depends on your team and the site.

Attackers: Hard breachers open the garage walls and site reinforcements. Intel operators (drones, cameras) are invaluable on a map this large — information wins Chalet. Vertical-play operators who can open floors and ceilings turn Kitchen/Bar from a fortress into a trap. Smoke and plant-denial operators secure the execute.

Defenders: Intel denial keeps attackers blind on a map where they need information most. Area-denial operators punish the long rotations and chokepoints — the hallways, the garage entrances, the mudroom. Anchors with strong close-range kits hold the compact sites; roamers with mobility punish the spread-out attackers.

The through-line: pick operators that generate or deny information, and operators that control space. Chalet is a map-control map — the team that owns more of the building usually owns the round. Compare notes with our Oregon map guide for how these principles apply on a tighter map.

Common Mistakes on Chalet

Ignoring the exterior. Teams that rush inside without clearing the cliffside, lakeside, or patio get shot in the back. The exterior is part of the map — treat it that way.

Forgetting the floor above or below. The most common Chalet death is vertical. Check the ceilings, check the floors, and never assume the level you're on is the only one that matters.

Solo roaming with no comms. Chalet's size makes silent roamers useless and loud roamers deadly — but only if the team hears the calls. Roam without comms and you're just feeding.

Stacking the site. Five defenders in the site leaves the entire rest of the map to the attackers. They'll take the roof, open the vertical, cut every rotation, and execute into a site that never saw it coming. Spread out, hold zones, and trust the rotations.

Predictable takes. If you attack Library/Dining through the same balcony push every round, defenders will be waiting. Chalet's size is an opportunity — vary your entries, hit different sites, and keep the defense guessing.

Neglecting drones. On a map this big, dry-peeking is suicide. Drone every entry, drone the rotations, and keep a drone watching the flank during the execute.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the bomb sites on Chalet?

Chalet has four bomb sites: Snowmobile Garage / Wine Cellar (basement), Kitchen / Bar (first floor), Library / Dining (second floor), and Master Bedroom / Office (second floor). Note that room names can vary by region and the map was reworked in the past, so confirm callouts with your team.

Is Chalet attacker or defender sided?

Chalet has historically leaned slightly defender-sided because of its size and the number of angles defenders can hold — but coordinated attacking teams with good vertical play and executes do very well. The side balance depends heavily on team coordination, which is the theme of this entire guide.

What's the most important thing to learn on Chalet?

Vertical play. Understanding which floors sit above and below each site — and how to exploit or deny those angles — is the single biggest skill gap on Chalet. After that: exterior awareness and team coordination.

How do I stop getting flanked on Chalet?

Drones and comms. Chalet's long rotations mean flanks are constant; the counter is information. Keep a drone watching your flank during executes, call rotations early, and never assume a cleared area stays clear.

Which site is the hardest to attack on Chalet?

Kitchen/Bar is often considered the toughest because of its central position, the surrounding hallways, and the vertical pressure from both above and below. It demands the most coordination — vertical play from the second floor plus a synchronized execute — which is why disorganized teams struggle with it.

Should I roam or anchor on Chalet?

Both — Chalet needs both. The map is too big to anchor with five players and too angle-dense to roam with five. A typical setup is two anchors on site, two roamers covering the key zones (hallways, garage, exterior), and one flex player who rotates based on the attack. Adjust per site.

The Bottom Line

Chalet is the map that teaches you Siege is a team game. Its three floors, wide exterior, and four spread-out bomb sites make it impossible to win alone — but deeply rewarding to win together. Learn the vertical play, respect the exterior, drone everything, and execute as a unit.

Start with one site. Learn its angles, its rotations, and its vertical relationships. Then add the next. Before long, the alpine lodge stops being a maze and starts being home turf — the map where your team's coordination shines brightest.

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.

Oregon at a Glance: The Map That Defines Siege

If Rainbow Six Siege had a hometown, it would be Oregon. This small-town compound — a farmhouse, a dining hall, two towers, and a basement that has ended more rounds than any room in the game — has been in the ranked rotation since launch and was reworked in Operation Shadow Legacy (2020). The rework modernized the layout: a bigger basement, a reworked attic, and cleaner sightlines, but the soul of the map survived. Oregon is still the map where fundamentals win: drone work, vertical pressure, and disciplined site setups matter more here than anywhere else.

Oregon is compact: three floors, a basement holding Laundry and Supply Room, a ground floor with Kitchen and Dining Hall, a top floor with Meeting Hall and Kids’ Dorms, two towers on the flanks, and White Stairs linking the basement to the ground floor. That is the whole map — and yet teams at every level still lose rounds here to the same handful of mistakes.

This guide breaks Oregon down the way ranked players need it: each site, how to attack and defend it, how the towers and vertical play shape every round, and the mistakes that lose winnable rounds. One caveat: callouts and site combos drift with patches, and regions name things differently. The callouts here are the long-established ones — confirm the current layout in-game, and adapt to your stack’s actual calls.

For the broader system behind learning any map, our R6 map knowledge guide is the companion piece.

The Sites: Where Rounds Are Won and Lost

Oregon’s three sites each demand a different round plan.

Laundry / Supply Room (Basement). Siege’s most iconic site. Attackers come via White Stairs, the Laundry and Supply doors, and hatch drops from above. Defenders hold the stairs and doors with crossfires; attackers open the hatches and rain utility down. The purest test of a team’s vertical coordination.

Kitchen / Dining Hall (Ground floor). The flexible middle site. Kitchen is tight with hatch pressure from above; Dining Hall is open with long sightlines to Garage and Freezer. Defenders split between dining, kitchen, and roamers in the towers and upstairs. Attackers have options from every direction — which means plenty of ways to walk into a crossfire unprepared.

Meeting Hall / Kids’ Dorms (Top floor). The upstairs site, defined by windows. Kids’ windows are the most attacked on the map; Meeting Hall is pressured from the Attic, Big Tower, and Games Room. Defenders play denial — windows, attic drop, tower control — because once attackers hold the roof and Big Tower, the site is very hard to hold.

Attacking Laundry / Supply: The Basement Take

The basement attack is Oregon’s signature round, and it runs on a simple formula: take the floor above, open the hatches, and make the basement uninhabitable.

Step one: clear the roamers. Basement defenders almost always roam upstairs. Sweep the top two floors first — a basement attack that starts with three defenders still roaming upstairs dies in a flank.

Step two: control the hatches. The hatches above Laundry and Supply are the attack’s engine. Open them, play above the site, shoot feet, throw utility, and deny defenders their crossfires. Control the Meeting Hall and Kitchen hatches and the basement defenders have nowhere comfortable to stand.

Step three: pressure White Stairs and the doors. While the vertical players work above, pin the defenders with pressure on White Stairs and the Laundry and Supply doors. The goal isn’t to push through — it’s to hold them in place so the vertical pressure does the killing.

The plant. Once the site is softened, plant in Laundry or Supply behind smoke and vertical pressure. Post-plant, hold the hatches and stairs — the positions the defenders just lost.

The most common failure: attacking the basement without taking the floor above. Dropping hatches onto comfortably set-up defenders is just feeding kills.

Attacking Kitchen / Dining: The Flexible Site

This site is attacked from every direction, so pick one and commit — spread attacks die to crossfires.

The Garage / Freezer approach. The classic take: clear Garage, push into Freezer, and pressure Kitchen from the east with the Kitchen door and Freezer angle together. The most structured attack on the site and the easiest to coordinate.

The Dining windows approach. Rappel the big windows, clear dining, and push in. Faster but riskier — defenders will have the windows watched, and a failed take leaves your team exposed on rappel.

Vertical pressure. Take Meeting and the attic area to pressure Kitchen from above, forcing defenders out of their crossfires. The upstairs control that wins basement rounds wins kitchen rounds too.

The plant. Dining plants go behind the tables and counters; Kitchen plants use the tight corners. Either way, bring smoke cover and a flank watcher — this site has more flank routes than any other on the map.

The most common failure: splitting across three approaches. Commit the whole team to one take and use the others as pressure, not separate attacks.

Attacking Meeting / Kids: The Window Game

The upstairs attack is defined by two things: Kids’ windows and the Attic.

Kids’ windows. The most rehearsed attack on the map: rappel, clear the dorms, push in. Defenders know it’s coming and will watch from Games Room or the dorm hallway — so drone first, clear the angles with utility, then push together. A solo window jump is a donation.

The Attic. Above Meeting Hall and the site’s vertical weak point. Take it via Big Tower or the upstairs hallway, drop the hatch onto Meeting, and disrupt the entire defensive setup. The highest-value single position on this site.

Big Tower. The attack’s staging ground: it controls the attic approach, the window rappel setup, and the flank watch. Lose it and the whole upstairs attack falls apart.

The plant. Meeting plants go behind the meeting table; Kids plants go in the dorm corners. Post-plant, hold the attic, windows, and Big Tower — the retake must come through one of those.

The most common failure: attacking the windows while ignoring the attic. One uncontested attic defender stalls your entire push.

Defending Laundry / Supply: Holding the Basement

Basement defense is about making the attackers’ vertical game as expensive as possible.

The stairs and doors. White Stairs is the most important position on this site — hold it with support and you deny the easiest horizontal entry. Cover the Laundry and Supply doors with crossfires that punish anyone pushing through.

Denying the hatches. You can’t stop hatch opens forever, but you can make them costly: trick the hatches, hold the rooms above with roamers, punish the breachers. Every second spent fighting for hatches is a second not pressuring the site.

The roamers. Basement defenses live or die upstairs. Two roamers in Kitchen, Dining, and the towers delay the vertical setup enormously, and a well-timed flank during the hatch drops wins rounds. But roamers who die early leave the anchors facing a full execute with no information.

The retake. If the plant goes down, retake from White Stairs and the basement corridor with utility — smokes, flashes, C4s from below. Without utility it’s a coin flip; with it, it’s a plan.

Defending Kitchen / Dining: The Split Site

This site’s defense is a balancing act: Kitchen is tight and needs anchors; Dining is open and needs crossfires; and the whole thing needs flank watch.

Kitchen anchors. One or two anchors hold Kitchen’s tight angles and the hatch above. Anchors who survive the first minute deny the plant and force attackers to spend utility clearing a tiny room.

Dining crossfires. Hold Dining Hall with crossfires from Freezer, the dining door, and the garage side — make every entry a trade.

Roamers and flank watch. This site needs active flank watch from every direction. A roamer in Small Tower catches the Garage take from behind; one in the basement punishes overcommitted window pushes. Turn the site’s openness into traps.

Defending Meeting / Kids: The Denial Game

Upstairs defense is about denying the three things attackers want: the windows, the attic, and Big Tower.

Window denial. Watch Kids’ windows from Games Room and the dorm hallway. Don’t try to win every window fight — make the take so expensive the attackers run out of time or utility. An even trade at the windows is a defensive win.

Attic denial. Never give up the attic for free. Contest it — or at minimum watch it with utility and information — or the free hatch drop breaks the site open.

Big Tower. The upstairs roamer’s home: deny the attackers’ staging ground, watch the attic approach, threaten every window rappel. Lose it and the whole upstairs attack is enabled.

The Towers: Big and Small

The towers deserve their own section because they shape every round on Oregon regardless of site.

Big Tower (second floor) is the map’s high ground — it overlooks the upstairs, connects to the attic approach, and stages the Kids’ windows attack. Whoever holds it controls the tempo of every upstairs round. It’s contestable from multiple angles, so hold it with active play, not passive sitting.

Small Tower (ground floor) watches the garage approach, flanks dining takes, and gives roamers a position threatening the attackers’ eastern setup. The flank-watch position that wins Kitchen rounds.

Towers are never neutral. If your team isn’t contesting them, the enemy is using them — and winning the information war.

Vertical Play and Hatches

Oregon is one of Siege’s most vertical maps, and the team that plays the vertical game better usually wins the match.

Above the basement: the Kitchen and Meeting hatches are the keys to Laundry / Supply. Open them, play above, and the basement becomes indefensible. Defenders must contest the rooms above — which is why basement defense always needs upstairs presence.

Above Kitchen: Meeting Hall and the attic pressure Kitchen from above — dismantle the defense without ever pushing the kitchen door.

The attic drop: the most decisive vertical play on the map. It breaks Meeting Hall open — defenders must contest the attic, attackers must prioritize taking it.

The rule: on Oregon, the floor above the site *is* the site. Attack it and defend it accordingly.

Rotations and Map Control

Oregon’s compact size means rotations are fast — which cuts both ways.

For defenders, fast rotations let anchors support each other and roamers collapse quickly — but lost positions cascade fast. Lose White Stairs and the basement is pressured from two directions; lose the attic and the upstairs site breaks. Plan defensive rotations in advance; know your fallbacks before the round starts.

For attackers, fake one site and hit another: drone the basement, make noise at White Stairs, then rotate to the dining windows. Oregon rewards disciplined rotations that manipulate defender positioning — sloppy rotates walk into the roamers you were avoiding.

Map control priorities by site: basement rounds are won upstairs; kitchen rounds are won in the towers and garage; upstairs rounds are won in Big Tower and the attic. Control the right area for the site you’re playing, and the site itself becomes the easy part.

Operator Picks for Oregon

Oregon rewards balanced lineups with strong vertical play and information. These are role recommendations, not a rigid meta — pick what your stack can actually execute.

Hard breachers are close to mandatory — the hatches and site walls need opening. Bring at least one, and consider a second for hatch-heavy basement attacks.

Soft breachers and vertical specialists are Oregon’s signature picks — they turn the basement and kitchen from fortresses into shooting galleries. If your stack has a strong vertical player, build the round around them.

Intel operators punch above their weight on this compact map. Defenders who know where the attack is coming from win; attackers who know where the anchors sit win. Valkyrie’s cameras are famously effective on Oregon’s tight angles — our Valkyrie operator guide covers the setups.

Anchors and roamers: the classic split works — anchors hold White Stairs, Kitchen, and site crossfires; roamers work the towers and upstairs. Roamers trade in delay and information, not heroics; one who survives to the late round is worth more than an early trade.

Operator balance shifts with patches, and the “best” lineup on paper means nothing if your stack can’t play it. Build around your players, not a pro-league VOD.

Common Oregon Mistakes

Attacking the basement without taking the floor above. The hatches are the attack; everything else is support.

Ignoring the attic on upstairs rounds. The attic hatch drop breaks Meeting Hall open. Contest it or lose the site.

Giving up Big Tower for free. It enables the entire upstairs attack — abandoning it donates the round’s most valuable position.

Splitting the Kitchen attack across three approaches. Pick one approach, commit the team to it, and use the others as pressure.

Roaming without a plan. Delay the vertical setup and survive — don’t chase basement kills while attackers open every hatch uncontested.

Forgetting White Stairs. On basement rounds, White Stairs is the round. Whoever controls it controls the basement’s fate.

No late-round discipline. Oregon rounds are decided in the last thirty seconds. The disciplined team wins the rounds that matter.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the main bomb sites on Oregon?

Laundry / Supply Room (basement), Kitchen / Dining Hall (ground floor), and Meeting Hall / Kids’ Dorms (top floor). Combos can shift with patches — confirm in-game — but these three have been standard for years.

Which site is the hardest to attack on Oregon?

The basement (Laundry / Supply) — it demands the full vertical game: clearing upstairs roamers, opening hatches, coordinating the drop. Skip the upstairs setup and the take almost always fails.

What is the most important position on Oregon?

White Stairs (basement), the attic (upstairs), and Big Tower (every upstairs round). Control those and you control the map’s tempo.

How do I learn Oregon callouts?

Start with the famous ones — Laundry, Supply, Kitchen, Dining, Meeting Hall, Kids’ Dorms, Big Tower, Small Tower, White Stairs — then add secondary callouts (Freezer, Garage, Attic, Games Room) one area at a time. Our map knowledge guide covers the learning method.

Is Oregon attacker-sided or defender-sided?

Historically slightly defender-sided — the basement and upstairs window-denial reward prepared defenses. But it’s one of the most balanced maps in the pool, and disciplined vertical attacks win consistently.

What’s the best way to practice Oregon?

Custom games, one site at a time. Practice the attack with your stack, swap sides, practice the defense. Ten focused rounds on one site beat fifty casual quick-match games.

The Bottom Line

Oregon is Siege distilled: small enough to learn, deep enough to master, honest enough that the better-prepared team almost always wins. Take the floor above the site, control the towers, contest the attic and White Stairs, stay disciplined late. Do those four things and Oregon becomes your best map.

Learn it one site at a time, starting with the basement. And when you’re ready for the next map, our Clubhouse map guide applies the same method to Oregon’s claustrophobic cousin.