Every game has its own set of terminology, acronyms, shortenings, and abbreviations. This is especially true for more strategy and tactical based games, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is one of the most tactical FPS games out there.
For new players the amount of new words and phrases to learn can be overwhelming. To help you, here is a dictionary of everything you need to know to understand your teammates callouts, strategies, and general chit chat.
What Are The Location Abbreviations?
Site: This refers to the main objective room or rooms, whether it's the bomb sites, hostage room, or main objective. Although getting kills on the opposing team is fun, remember to always protect the objective site!
Default Camera: With all the new gadgets added to siege, default cameras are the cameras in-built into the map that the defenders have access to, until the enemy team destroys them.
Hard Wall: A hard wall or reinforced wall is any wall that has been reinforced by the defending team. This provides extra protection, forcing the attackers to bring appropriate "hard breachers" to break through.
Soft Wall: Much of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege's environment is destructible, and soft walls certainly are. Though they can become a hard wall when reinforced, soft walls can be shot through, destroyed by breaching charges, sledge's hammer, and many other gadgets. Grenades will cause damage, and players can even hit holes into them.
Creating Holes
Hatch: Hatches are small square panels with the same properties of soft walls, found in the ceilings/floors of maps. When destroyed or "opened", they provide vertical manoeuvrability to both your team and the enemy.
Murder Hole: These are small holes created in floors, walls, or any other soft surfaces that give line of sight, allowing players to see and shoot opponents on the other side. They can be as big as a melee hit, or only a few pixels wide bullet hole, created by any weapon.
Rotation Hole: Similarly created by destroying soft surfaces, rotation holes are gaps large enough for a player to crawl, crouch, or run through, allowing them to move around the map more easily during play.
What About Other Objects/ Game Mechanics?
With so many weapons, counter terrorist operatives, and other aspects to the game, it's important to know exactly what everyone is talking about when describing the game.
Whether you're in a casual game or a pro tournament, in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege knowing the game strategy and mechanics is almost as important as good aim!
What Are the Player Types?
Anchor: As the name suggests, Anchors are defenders who stay in and around the objective site after the prep phase. This can refer both to specific players in a match, as well as an operator's playstyle, e.g. Doc and Rook are typically Anchors.
Roamer: The opposite of an Anchor, roamers are defenders who roam the map, looking to catch attacking players unawares, pulling off flanks, getting a cheeky kill, and performing delay tactics in a tournament setting.
Lurker: A roamer on steroids, lurkers stay in the furthest corners of the map until the enemy challenges the objective late in the game (check out our article on how long rounds in Siege are for more info) moving in at the last minute to surprise the attacking team.
Hard Breach/ Hard Breacher: The keynote of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, hard breachers are vital for any attacker victory. They are the only counter terrorist operatives who can destroy a reinforced wall or hatch, and are a necessary part of any team.
The Playstyles
Angle: This refers to the line-of-sight players can hold in Rainbow Six Siege, e.g. holding a "tight" angle on a corridor or room
Dropshot: Present in many games alongside Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, this is the act of shooting while dropping to prone position in order to avoid return fire.
Peek: This is the act of holding an angle or quickly peeking out of cover to shoot or see enemies.
Pixel Peek: This refers to a peek with an angle so tight or small, it is only a few pixels large.
Jiggle Peak/ QE Spam: With the ability to lean a core component of the game, jiggle peeking is where players repeatedly lean left and right while peeking. This reduces the amount of time their hitbox is in view of the other team.
ADS: Short for Aim Down Sight, this is a crucial playstyle in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege where headshots are king.
Callouts and Other Game Terms
There are many terms in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege. Some you will want to know in the pre-game lobby, and others will be crucial for quick reactions and securing a win.
How To Stay Alert: Quick-Time Callouts
Headshot: Though obvious, in no other game are headshots more important than in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege. This is because almost all shots to the head will kill instantly.
Wall Bang: With all the soft walls around, a wall bang is where a player is shot or killed through a wall, and there truly is no better feeling in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege!
One Tap/One shot: Often shouted by teammates when an enemy is simply low on health, one shot is supposed to mean a person is only one shot away from being a dead player.
Lit: This is a quick callout to let you know someone has been shot up. So if you hear "She's lit!" down the mic, now's your opportunity to make that enemy a dead player.
Half: Being a shorthand for "half-health" this is an important callout to listen to, although with no enemy health bars the player you find might easily have more than half their health left...
Down: This refers to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege's DBNO (Down But Not Out) feature, meaning either the enemy or your teammate is down and needs to be killed or revived.
Nade: Shorthand for a grenade, if you hear this down the mic you might want to run before your enemies get an easy kill!
Plant: Referring only to the bomb game mode, "plant" refers to planting the bomb at the bomb site, rather than the foliage on the site.
Prefire: This is the act of firing where you expect an enemy to be, before you actually see them. This can result in a pretty nice shot or two!
Rotate: An important play on every map, rotation or to rotate means a player moving from one room or location to another, often to go on the attack or avoid getting killed.
Runout: Typically done by people desperate for kills at the beginning of the round, these are defenders who "run out" of the building to kill their opponent.
Spawn Peeking: Often regarded as unsportsmanlike, spawn peeking in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is where defenders break windows and doors in the prep phase in order to kill the enemy in/ just out of their spawn.
Trade: Typically referring to kills, "trading" with the enemy is where you both died from each other's shooting.
Other Key Terms
Op: This refers to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege's unique operator system, "op" being short for "operator". These are the characters you choose before you play a round, along with their customisable weapon loadouts.
Frag: Another word for kill, also sometimes referred to as a pick.
Entry Frag: The first frag of the game.
Elo: This is Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege's MMR (MatchMaking Rating) system, with your Elo being the points you have that determine your rank. Find out your average rank here, or discover how the best become Champions in our article.
Communication is Key! Abbreviations While Chatting
Chatting about the game and having a good time is just as important as tactical callouts. If you want to be able to talk smoothly with your teammates, these are the terms you need to know.
Toxic: Something found in almost every game from Fortnite to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, toxic players are people who bring down morale and ruin the game with their bad mood and attitude. If you ever find a teammate too toxic, remember Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege has the kick feature for a reason!
TK: Not a chat you want to see, TK stands for team kill or team killing. Remember, TKing too many times will get you kicked from the game and banned for some time, so best to avoid when possible.
GG: An acronym for "good game", typically typed as a sign of respect after games.
GL: Another acronym, this time meaning "Good luck".
HF: Often combined as "GLHF", "HF" means "Have Fun".
Ace: An awesome achievement and something to be proud of, an Ace is when a player gets 5 kills, wiping out every opponent on the opposing team, especially against real players and not bots. At least, no bots in ranked - check our article on if there are bots in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege.
2k, 3k, & 4k: With each "K" meaning a kill, these are usually signs of boasting or appreciation when someone gets a large number of kills in games, e.g. four kills is a "4k".
Boosting: This is where players, often on a new account, will play with higher ranked players to "boost" their own rank.
Collat: Short for "collateral", hearing this shouted means someone has killed two or more players with just one bullet or grenade.
And that's everything you need to know for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege's terminology - the whole dictionary! Good luck gaming, and make sure to call out those roamers.