Rainbow Six Siege was released way back in 2015, and by today, it’s still considered to be one of the best esports games in the business. It’s a top-tier first-person shooter that promotes a tactical approach and team player over run-and-gun action, and for that reason, it offers something different to the genre. It’s a more skilful game than the likes of Call of Duty for a few reasons, but for those that are perhaps new to the game and learning the ropes, does Rainbow Six Siege have aim assist?

It’s one of the most common – and controversial – features in modern gaming. It’s a function that allows players using a controller to have ‘an edge’, with the game essentially adjusting their aim to make it easier to hit a target. Typically, this is achieved by ‘slowing down’ or partially ‘locking on’ to an enemy’s character when they enter the crosshair of the player using aim assist. With that in mind, does Rainbow Six Siege have aim assist, and if it does, is it even a good idea to have it turned on?

Let’s find out.

Does R6 Siege Have Aim Assist?

It’s not a straight answer – Rainbow Six Siege does have aim assist, but it isn’t turned on by default. So, if you’ve never gone searching through the settings for the function, you’d likely never know that it was turned off from the moment you started playing. It’s seen as taking something away from the more ‘challenging’ aspects of Rainbow Six Siege – but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be enabled.

If you want to turn aim assist on in Rainbow Six Siege, here’s what you’ll need to do:

Navigate to the game’s main menu
Select the ‘Options’ gear icon in the top-right-hand corner of the screen
Access the ‘Controls’ menu
In the section named ‘Aim Assist’, select ‘Enabled‘

At that point, you’ll unlock more settings that you can tweak to further customise your in-game aim assist features.

Why is Aim Assist so Good?

There’s a reason that most of the Rainbow Six pro settings guides won’t include aim assist as a function. It essentially takes away from the challenge in the game, and in many ways, it can present a problem for those that are more experienced in the game. For instance, if you were ‘pixel peeking’, aim assist would attempt to pull your aim in one direction or another – should an enemy appear – which will cause you to miss your shots. It’s also a game that sees players move, pivot, and lean quite quickly, especially when navigating a close-quarters map.

If they were ‘slowed down’ by aim assist while attempting to navigate a close-knit environment, they’d be put off, distracted, or even killed during that brief slowdown.

There are a few elements in Rainbow Six Siege that are paired up with no aim assist to make it a more realistic and challenging experience:

Smaller, tighter ‘hitboxes’ mean that players must be more accurate
Headshots are always a one-hit kill
Movement is king in Rainbow Six Siege, and vaulting, peeking, leaning, and sound control are all important

Typically, aim assist is considered to be ‘good’ in some games because it quite literally locks your weapon onto a target until they’re dead. It’s mostly seen in games like Call of Duty and Apex Legends, where some investigations have revealed that – in the right circumstances – aim assist is quite literally akin to using an ‘aimbot’.

Even the best Call of Duty players will use aim assist – during championship-grade tournaments, too. That isn’t the case in Rainbow Six Siege esports, which are almost always played out on the PC platform.