Best Loadouts for Thorn in Rainbow Six: Siege | The Ultimate List

Thorn is a Defensive Operator added to the Siege roster in Year 6. Being a fantastic generalist, she can add value to any team composition when in the right hands. You should try her out, especially if you’re a beginner, since she’s an Operator with a high skill floor and a high skill ceiling, meaning her utility is pretty straightforward.

However, if you’re looking to master the Irish-born, you’ll have to make sure you know which loadouts work best with her setups. Below we’ve compiled a list of the possible ways you might want to play this Defensive weapons expert.

Best Thorn Loadouts

Thorn is an Operator that comes with a fair bit of flexibility, so feel free to play her with the loadout of your choice.

Best Thorn Anchor Loadout

Can you handle the pressure of being your team's last line of defense, or feel you can take on the wave of Attackers after they breach the bomb site? If so, this loadout will suit you perfectly.

• M870 with Laser

• C75 Machine pistol

• Barbed Wire

Reddington M870 is hands down one of the most overpowered shotguns in the game right now, especially if you’re playing anchor. Pair its semi-auto firing capability with the intel garnered by your Razorbloom shells, and you’ve got the bomb site on a chokehold. To top it all off, if you place your barbed wire in positions that amplify the potency of your Razonblooms, you can hold back Attackers long enough for reinforcements to start arriving.

Your unique ability is amazing at giving away Attacker locations. As long as you ensure your Razorblooms are placed at effective locations, you can simply camp in a ratty position until one of them goes off and jump out with your shotgun. Boasting an insane fire rate of ~100 RPM, the Reddington M870 is sensationally strong at holding down waves of enemies.

The one caveat with this loadout is that you can’t equip your shotgun until you need to use it, especially since the laser gives away your position. For this reason, you should hold onto your C75 (Which is a respectable weapon in its own right) as it can safely handle mid- to close-range fights.

Best Roamer Loadout

If you’re not the type to wait for action and would instead create the chaos yourself, look no further since we’ve got you covered. Here’s the best loadout for roaming:

• Uzi with Red Dot Sight and a Suppressor along with a Vertical Grip

• C75 Machine pistol with a Suppressor

• Barbed Wire

While this loadout is less than ideal for playing off your utility, you can assign that duty to your site anchor. This gives them more trapping utility to buy time while you roam the map. Alternatively, since Thorn receives a total of three Razorbloom shells, you can leave one or two on the bomb site while you use the rest to gain map control. This way, you can provide your team with intel on where the Attackers aren’t going to come from.

Regarding the choice of weapons, the Uzi is slightly better for unsuspecting gunfights. As a roamer, you won’t get to decide what kind of engagements you’ll get into. Hence you’ll have to stick to the weapon that provides maximum range coverage.

The Uzi is just as competent a weapon as any other gun in its’ weapon class, as it boasts a whopping body-shot TTK of 171ms. You can completely shred opponents with this Submachine gun as long as you hit your shots, which becomes more manageable when equipping the Vertical Grip.

As Thorn, your utility is crucial to your team, so ensure you’re placing it all down during the round before you roam. A good Thorn can gain map control and get crucial picks while providing ample delay with their utility placement.

Best Balanced Thorn Loadout

This one is for when you don’t have a particular game plan in mind or if you’ve just started playing Thorn. With this loadout, you can learn the ropes while providing immense value to your team.

• M870 with Laser

• C75 Machine pistol with a Suppressor

• Deployable Shield

Rather than specializing in specific scenarios, this loadout acts as a jack-of-all-trades. You can switch roles between rounds depending on what playstyle you want to adhere to or fill in the gaps in your team.

While the range restriction on the Reddington M870 may become a hindrance, adept Thorn players will know which weapon to equip depending on your scenario. However, If you end up roaming with this loadout, try to act as a lurker instead of taking one-on-one duels. In most scenarios, you’ll find yourself equipping an inferior weapon to theirs and will most likely lose the gunfight for that reason.

Similarly, if you lean towards acting, ensure your reaction times are on point since you’ll have to switch to your shotgun as soon as Attackers are in close proximity. Having the Deployable Shield in your arsenal helps as you’re able to jiggle peek more corners while behind cover.

Best Thorn Loadout for Firepower

Finally, we've got a loadout for all of you when you're feeling confident with your shots.

• Uzi with Holographic Sight and Compensator along with an Angled Grip

• C75 Machine pistol

• Deployable Shield

Before getting into the intricacies of this loadout, we'd like to give an appropriate disclaimer. With this loadout, you'll be getting into gunfights with attackers who most likely have better-ranged weapons than you. You only want to go for an aggro loadout like this when you feel like your shots are on point. Otherwise, you'll only end up being a hindrance to your team (and get flamed….for the right reasons too).

Now that you've been warned, here's the loadout breakdown. You'll want to go for the Uzi, and we've decked it out with all the right attachments for you. The Compensator helps reduce the recoil, and since the Uzi only has a vertical kick, your spray control becomes much less tedious. Due to the addition of this attachment, we're also given enough freedom to go for the Angled Grip instead of the Vertical one. This way, we minimize our ADS time while maintaining reasonable levels of recoil, giving us an edge during gunfights.

Another factor to keep in mind is the Uzis' damage drop-off range. While you'll be able to outperform Attackers up to mid-range duels, the TTK decreases drastically once the damage falls off. So if you're not hitting headshots at longer ranges, try to keep to close quarters only.

Thorn Tips and Tricks

While all these loadouts are incredibly competent in their respective scenarios, there are a bunch of tips for this agent that are relevant in all scenarios.

1. Always remember to place down all your Razorbloom Shells. Thorn is as good as Recruit when she doesn't use her utility, so make sure you've placed your unique ability charges in the best positions. There are a few scenarios where you may want to use it later in the round, but the worst thing you can do with Thorn is to die while you still have your Razorblooms on you.

2. Combine utility with your teammates. Razorblooms shells are excellent at pinpointing and holding attackers in place. Pairing them with damaging area denial utility like Goyo's Volcan shields and Kapkan EDD traps can lead to lethal combinations.

3. Play off your utility. Your Razorblooms create enough chaos for Attackers to react to everything else, so use that opportunity to get the jump on them.

As long as you make good use of these tips and play to the strengths of your loadout, we can guarantee you you'll become an expert Thorn player.