Breaching Charge

Lore & Background

In the world of Rainbow Six Siege, reinforced walls are the defender's first and most trusted line of defense. They stop bullets, absorb impact, and deny sightlines. But every sealed room has a weakness, and Thermite is the man who finds it. Trained in structural demolition and close-quarters entry by the Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale, he treats every reinforced panel not as a barrier but as a problem with a precise, calculable solution.

The Breaching Charge itself is a compact, purpose-built device: a shaped explosive head mated to a small digital timer and a high-strength adhesive mount. It is not a sledgehammer or a C4 stick—it is engineered to fracture the composite layers of a reinforced wall in a controlled, repeatable pattern, leaving a clean rectangular gap rather than a jagged crater. That precision matters in a hostage scenario, where collateral shrapnel could be as lethal as the threat inside.

Fans of the franchise often point to Thermite's gadget as the embodiment of Siege's design identity: no superpowers, no magic—just a specialist with a tool, a plan, and the nerve to walk up to the wall and press the button while the whole team holds its breath.

In Their Own Story

The corridor was silent except for the soft click of a magazine seating home. Through the reinforced panel at the end of the hall, she could hear the faint hum of a generator—maybe a server room, maybe a safe house. The defender on the other side had sealed it with the composite plate. Bullets would glance off. A shotgun round would not be enough.

Thermite crouched, peered through the scope of his rifle, and confirmed: no sightline, no gap, no way in without going loud. He pulled the charge from his vest, pressed the adhesive backing flat against the panel, and felt the small click of the timer arming. Three seconds. He counted them in his head, the way he had a hundred times in the training yard back in Paris. One. Two. Three.

The world went white for a fraction of a second, then a clean rectangle of wall simply… wasn't there anymore. Dust cascaded. The team moved through the gap in a tight line, weapons up, and the room beyond was theirs.

Reader's Guide

The Breaching Charge is carried by Thermite (GIGN). It is a placed explosive device that, when detonated on a reinforced wall, creates a rectangular gap through which operators can fire and move.

Tactical problem solved: Reinforced walls are impervious to standard ballistic rounds and cannot be shot through. The Breaching Charge converts that impenetrable surface into a two-way opening, enabling both entry and sustained crossfire without needing a full doorway. It is the primary tool for breaching reinforced structures when a Breaching Round or Demolition Charge is unavailable or tactically unsuitable.

Key interactions: The charge can only be placed on reinforced surfaces; it will not function on standard or destructible walls. Once detonated, the resulting gap persists for the remainder of the round and can be used by any teammate to shoot through or pass. The gap does not destroy the entire wall panel, so adjacent reinforced sections remain intact and can still block line of sight. Because the device must be placed in close proximity, the operator is exposed while arming and detonating, making it vulnerable to defenders who can identify the placement sound or watch for the operator's silhouette near the wall. Coordinating a flash or smoke before the detonation is a common team play to protect the charger during the brief arming window.

Did You Know?

• Thermite was part of the original operator roster when Rainbow Six Siege launched in 2015, making the Breaching Charge one of the very first gadgets players ever encountered.
• The gap left by a Breaching Charge is a fixed rectangular shape, not a random hole, which means defenders can predict exactly where the opening will be and pre-position accordingly.
• Because the charge must be placed in close quarters, a defender with a camera or a well-placed sightline on the wall can spot the operator placing it and call out the threat before the detonation.
• The Breaching Charge is distinct from the Breaching Round (a fired projectile) and the Demolition Charge (a larger, area-destroying device); each serves a different breaching role in the game's toolkit.