Rainbow Six Siege Echo Guide

Rainbow Six Siege Echo Guide by ilikesuushi

Echo is an extremely polarizing operator; some people (like me) absolutely love him while others consider him near useless. I’m here to help you understand when and why you should consider picking Echo and how to play him when you do.

Pros:

• Yokai is a menace for the attacking team; especially if you and your team are co-ordinated.
• Two useful defensive gadgets in shield and wire combined with three armour makes him an excellent objective defender.
• Bearing-9 is second only to the smg-11 in terms of SMGs.

Cons:

• He just simply doesn’t work on some map/game mode combinations.
• Needs a good team to utilize his full potential.
• Very difficult to play properly.
• If you lose Yokai your usefulness drops quite substantially.
• Yokai is a little buggy; surfaces it can’t stick to aren’t always obvious and some spots on certain maps makes it glitch out.

Loadout:

Primary:

• Supernova: Probably the worst shotgun in terms of combat (I much prefer the GSG-9’s or even the SAS’s) but pretty good at busting holes in walls. It also doesn’t come with much ammo for whatever reason. In coordinated matches this is the primary of choice due to its utility (breaking walls, opening hatches, making murder holes) but if you’re running solo or just starting off with Echo I wouldn’t recommend it.
• MP5SD: A pretty good primary SMG that can be equipped with an ACOG just like the GIGN’s MP5. It does similar damage to the MP5 despite being silenced. The silencer is nice but it shouldn’t be a selling point.

Secondary:

• P229: An okay pistol; I almost never use it though because it’s alternative is just so much better.
• Bearing-9: Holy moly. This gun. It does the same damage as the smg-11 except it fires a bit slower but has more bullets. As powerful as the Smg-11 is; the bearing is almost as deadly in the right hands.

Deployables:

• Deployable shield: Useful on some maps; not so much in others. I only take this if there’s a specific area I know ahead of time that needs to be blocked off (the fireplace in train museum on Kafe for example).
• Barbed wire: Barbed wire wins games. Take it and put it near entrance points to the objective; sit back and let Yokai do the rest.

My loadout:

Primary: Usually MP5SD with ACOG/Vertical grip but I’ll take the supernova with a laser if I’m playing bomb and none of my teammates have impacts/shotguns.

Secondary: Bearing-9 with holo sight and flash hider.

Deployable: Almost always barbed wire.

Tips/Tricks:

• Use Yokai for more than just objective defense. With good teammates you can use it like a shock drone; follow your roamers, scout out rooms with attackers, and disorient them to give your teammates an easy fight.
• Echo is many times more useful on bomb than hostage or secure. Not only can Yokai stop defuser planting but playing the site retake game is a lot easier when the attackers have to watch you, Yokai, and the defuser all at once.
• You’ll know if you hit someone with the sonic blast if they put their hands up in front of their face. I don’t think this is always reliable though since I’ve seen people affected by it without their hands up. It also doesn’t fully blind them like a stun grenade does so be wary that they can still sort of see.
• You don’t have to aim for the head with the sonic blast anymore; now any part of the body will still disorient the attackers (very useful for those pesky montagnes).
• Keep Yokai on the move. After you sonic blast someone you should almost always move Yokai somewhere else to keep it safe and your enemies guessing.
• Don’t always be on Yokai. This is pretty tricky to balance but it comes with practice. You need to know when it’s better to scout and disorient with Yokai and when you just need to shoot some people.
• Hide well, you’re completely defenseless while you’re on Yokai. One of the biggest problems for you are 3 speed rushers. It can be difficult to tag them with a blast and if they get to you before you react you’ll be dead before you can get off of Yokai. To this end you’ll need to find good cover. Preferably somewhere with only one entry point that’s hard to get to.