Nobody wants to be "that guy" in Rainbow Six Extraction. Everyone has to start somewhere, certainly, but it feels awful to be the new guy and suffer through a few matches of being yelled at, shamed, and disparaged for trying to learn the basics.
It turns out the basics aren't so intuitive. Players who have been playing Rainbow Six games for years have yet to play anything like Rainbow Six Extraction. It's rough going for the first several matches and some of these errors can become unfortunate habits. There are some pitfalls to avoid.
10 Going In Hot
Presenting itself as a Left 4 Dead-style alien shooter, it's easy to think, "See an enemy, kill an enemy." And many bad squadmates will encourage this behavior by equipping shotgun and just immediately smoking everything in sight.
The problem is that there is not nearly enough ammunition to do this. Alerted enemies will spawn infinitely from nests. And at least two objectives can be failed outright without being at least partially stealthy. This behavior also leads to needing to heal operators between games.
9 Getting Spotted
The best rule of thumb is "don't be the first one who gets spotted." Of course, not everyone can do this perfectly and there should be some room for mistakes. But there are so many ways to prevent getting seen that players really should push themselves for maximum stealth.
Beginners need to understand that some objectives can't be done with total stealth and be ready to fight. But this is a last resort situation, not something to seek out or welcome. Out of sight is out of the opponent's mind.
8 Ignoring Objectives
Not all operators are created equally. They do, however, have their pros and cons for each kind of objective. When first playing, nobody understands what the objectives mean and, therefore, don't know which operator to choose, so they wind up picking favorites.
Eventually, players need to evolve their favorites to change based on the mission type. Jager is considered one of the best in the game, but his shooting mines aren't really useful for tracking nests and can be a liability on capture and biopsy objectives.
7 Starting With Multiplayer
It's totally fair for players to hop in on multiplayer right away because, my goodness, that quick play button is on the front screen and in the play menu. It's the biggest button and there are even warnings posted when gamers try to take on a mission solo.
Ignore those warnings. Playing alone is a good learning experience that ruins no one else's playthroughs. Plus, reviewers have been quick to notice that the difficulty on multiplayer is far, far higher than the difficulty when playing alone.
6 Ignoring Progression
This is not a plot-driven game. So it's forgivable for gamers to completely ignore the "studies" and everything connected to progression. This is a tragic mistake because progression is required to get ahold of certain items that can be core to winning a battle.
This game might join other FPS games lost to history if more players don't at least try to understand the story. But aside from player entertainment, these "other" objectives have very real rewards that should not be discounted.
5 Pushing For Higher Difficulties
Gamers may or may not consider Rainbow Six Extraction to be one of the best FPS games on Game Pass. Those who think it's one of the worst should consider substantially easing off the difficulty. Keep in mind the "easiest" setting is called "moderate" and that's a fair description. Based on watching streams and community feedback, it takes a Herculean effort to survive even one objective with a squad put together in matchmaking. The extra experience is not worth the risk; an operator can be maxed out in just a few hours on moderate maps.
4 Lacking Loud And Quiet Weapons
Two weapon slots are more than enough, but players might be tempted to use a shotgun and SMG together or a silenced sniper rifle and silenced pistol for a stealthy approach. In a perfect world, this might work. Sadly, Rainbow Six Extraction thrives on throwing wrenches in plans.
It does not matter much whether the primary or secondary weapon is silenced, but all players should head into combat with one weapon capable of handling hoards of enemies and another weapon that masks shooting volume.
3 Trying To "Tank"
Ignore the fact that some operators have body armor and others heal. This is not a traditional "tank, healer, DPS" relationship like in other games. The best-equipped tank with the best healer at their back will die in one-on-one combat with bosses even with the easiest settings.
On this moderate difficulty, a simple Grunt can get through one-hundred points of health with just a few swipes. It's never worth getting off that last shot if it means taking a hit. The hits are too much to absorb. There is no shame in retreating and going around.
2 Eyeing The Timer
The first instinct of any reasonable gamer, when they see a timer, would be to rush things along. After all, what's the timer there for if not to put a sense of pressure on the squad? Just ignore it. Don't look at it or give it any credence.
The timer is more of a method of booting AFK teams than an actual challenge. The slowest possible team will never fail due to the times, only because of what the timer makes them do; namely, rushing along and pushing the action.
1 Letting Enemies Live
If an enemy isn't near the objective and isn't an immediate threat, it's usually a wise instinct to ignore it in most games. Why take on the risk? It turns out that, with the way enemies work, the greater threat is to let them live as one aggravated enemy will alert nearby allies and so on.
Plus, full clears before doing objectives maximize experience and make the hard part of the mission as simple as possible. Knowing that enemies from nearby rooms won't come to the rescue gives players peace of mind.
Rainbow Six Extraction was released on January 20th, 2022, and is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.