Metal Gear Solid x Rainbow Six Siege (How To Unlock, Abilities, & Cosmetics

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Solid Snake Rainbow Six Siege operator page

Published Mar 4, 2026, 6:06 AM EST

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Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege X has received a handful of collaborations over its 11-year lifespan, but its latest partnership with Metal Gear Solid is easily one of its most exciting additions yet. Adding not only several cosmetics and references to the iconic stealth franchise, but also an entirely new operator from a new Ubisoft-owned property, the update marks a historic moment for the long-lived FPS game.

While not the first time we've seen a character from another franchise make their way into Rainbow Six as a playable operator, Solid Snake is an excellent fit in the world of Siege. Offering some incredibly powerful abilities worthy of the legendary hero's name, it will take a bit of extra work before you can actually take up his mantle for yourself in Siege.

How To Get Access To The Solid Snake Operator & Cosmetics In Siege

With Metal Gear Solid marking its first 2026 release with the latest update for Rainbow Six Siege, the most important thing to know right off the bat is how to get access to the content itself. While Solid Snake himself is a permanent addition to Siege's operator pool, you'll have to wait until March 17 to purchase him directly with either Renown or R6 credits.

If you want to play as Solid Snake right away, you'll need to purchase the newest Premium Battlepass for Siege's Operation Silent Hunt, which marks the first season of year 11. Given that the battlepass costs 1,200 R6 credits, you'll have to spend $10 USD to get early access to the operator, which will also let you earn the rest of the cosmetics included with the collab.

Rather than purchasing Metal Gear Solid's various themed cosmetics directly, Ubisoft opted to also include them as incentives in this season's limited Battle Pass, meaning you likely won't be able to earn them afterward if you don't fully level them up in time, with the MGS-themed operator rewards being as follows:

Cosmetic	Operator
Psycho Mantis Outfit	Smoke
Psycho Mantis Headgear	Smoke
Psycho Mantis Portrait	Smoke
Legendary Hero Outfit	Solid Snake
Sneaking Equipment Weapon Skin	Solid Snake
Legendary Hero Operator Portrait	Solid Snake
Legendary Hero Headgear	Solid Snake

The collaboration also includes a plethora of additional weapon skins, gadget cosmetics, and other bonuses based on each character that can be unlocked on the way to each of these rewards, which are already a much more thematic step-up in quality compared to Siege's past comedic crossovers.

Purchasing the Battle Pass does offer a 30% increase in earning tokens during the event, which can then be exchanged for its tiered rewards.

The main downside to Rainbow Six Siege's battle pass system is that even if you purchase the points to get early access to Snake, you'll only have a total of 90 days to actually collect all the rewards before they're gone for good, as Operation Silent Hunt ends in three months on June 1.

A few weeks after Snake's introduction, Rainbow Six Siege is also getting a limited event called 'Redacted', which introduces a modified version of Nighthaven Labs, and an infiltration game mode themed after the tactical espionage series, which Ubisoft will provide additional details for at a later date.

In addition to the event, Rainbow Six Siege will receive a second wave of cosmetics in the form of legendary operator bundles, which introduce Revolver Ocelot for Zero, Gray Fox for Jackal, and Meryl for Ash, each based on their outfits from the original game. These bundles will also include weapon skins and animations from the game, bringing their personalities to life even better than past crossovers.

All Of Solid Snake's Abilities In Siege Explained

Aiming to replicate the minimap mechanic from the Metal Gear Solid series, Solid Snake's operator kit grants him access to the Soliton Radar MKIII, which will alert you to the presence of both cameras and enemies, and even their precise locations when fully activated.

In its base state, the radar ability has a duration bar that recharges when not in use, swapping from all clear to caution when an enemy player is using a camera in your range, and alert when an enemy is located within its proximity.

Snake's ability cannot notably differentiate between abilities like Alibi, and is also susceptible to jamming and detection from operators like Solis when using the MKIII.

You can also press the activation button to enable the MKIII's precision mode, which reduces one of its limited uses and decreases its charge faster, but shows you both exact enemy positions and even their field of view upon use. In addition to the MKIII, Snake has access to five secondary gadgets, in addition to the ability to loot gadgets from dead enemies and teammates through the use of 'on-suite procurement'.

Reducing his starting gadgets to only one out of the five as a result, Snake can swap between Frag Grenades, Stun Grenades, Impact EMPs, Smoke Grenades, and Breach Charges, to choose which one to loot from dead bodies. Thankfully, this means you don't have to rely on looting only the gadgets other players are using, but allows you to swap between whichever best suits your situation on the fly.

While Snake's informational and looting abilities are great on their own, they only work when paired with his array of firearms, which includes the fully-automatic F2 and semi-automatic PMR90A2 Assault Rifles, and Metal Gear Solid's own TACTIT.45 Pistol.

The F2 Assault Rifle has also received a buff in Operation Silent Hunt, which allows the use of grip attachments like the Horizontal Grip, Angled Grip, and Vertical Grip.

With an integrated suppressor and red dot sight, the TACTIC pistol is an excellent way to quietly take out enemies detected by its radar, or through melee attacks that prompt unique voice lines recorded by the original voice actor of Solid Snake, David Hayter.