Well, Aruni did kick his ass in ‘The Playbook’. But all jokes aside, Thermite, through all these years, is still the best hard breacher in the game. Yes, Ace has three breach charges and he can fire them off from a distance, but most of the time, you’d still have to vault through Ace’s breach to enter, and that one second of vaulting can cause you your death, whereas Thermite’s exothermic charges blasts walls cleanly. Don’t sleep on this operator. Especially when playing ranked. Your teammates will thank you for it.

5. M1014 + M45 Meusoc with Suppressor + Smoke Grenades

Honestly, all those R6 cinematics made shotguns really cool.

When you play as thermite, your team is counting on you a lot. Your first job is to not die, and your second job is to breach walls in strategic places. Especially the ones near the objective area. E.g. The garage in the Consulate. And this objective area is one of the places in Siege where a shotgun will be perfect.

After breaching the garage gate, your safest planting spot is the front of the white van. Pop your smoke grenades, check corners and above. When all is good, proceed with the plant. This is where the shotgun shines the most, because they’d most likely have to come close to you. You can even go for a fake plant, and when a defender comes near you, make him feel that nice strong kick from the M1014.

Excels in:

• Close range

4. 556XI with 2.5x Scope, Compensator, and Angled Grip + M45 Meusoc with Suppressor + Smoke Grenades

That FBI-exclusive handgun is really satisfying to fire, especially with a suppressor. 

With guns like the 556XI which inherently has low recoil, it is a good idea to balance its attachments’ recoil benefits with some speed. And speed is what the angled grip provides. It allows you to go into aim-down-sights (ads) position quicker, and in Siege, going in the ads position as quick as you can may mean the difference between being killed and killing. 

The compensator is your attachment that will provide the recoil benefit. It makes your recoil more compact. With this loadout, you’re going for balance, and balance is great, especially in Siege.

Excels in:

• All ranges

3. 556XI with 2.5x Scope, Suppressor, and Vertical Grip + M45 Meusoc with Muzzle Brake and Laser + Smoke Grenades

Suppressor and laser sight. A proper spec op loadout.

Your main role may be the breacher and smoke grenade thrower. But it doesn’t mean you cannot hang back and provide long range support to your teammates after a successful breach. This loadout is great for players who prefer to strafe enemies from long range. And the suppressor will cause some delay to your enemies to know where you’re shooting them from, because it neutralizes the sound, muzzle flash, and directional threat indicator from your shots. A great attachment really, and even with the damage reduction, it still does 39. That’s still huge.

And since your primary already has a suppressor, you can shoot defender cameras and other gadgets with it while masking your approach. And for this, you’ll have the muzzle brake and laser attached to your handgun so that they can make substantial damage to the enemies when you need to switch to it while reloading.

Excels in:

• Medium to long range
• Stealth

2. 556XI with 2.5x Scope, Compensator, and Vertical Grip + M45 Meusoc with Suppressor + Smoke Grenades

Maximum recoil control means maximum accuracy as well

In most cases, especially in ranked, where teams have to think about each member's roles. There would only be one hard breacher, and that is why I mentioned in item no.5 that your first job is to not die. If you play as thermite and you die before you’re able to breach a wall. Chances are, your remaining teammates won’t be able to breach at all, and it’ll be harder for them to pull off a win because they’d have to go through the choke points inside the map which the defenders will most likely be prepared for.

That is why it is important to prefire common spawn peek spots during the start of the round. And this loadout is the best for that. Because the vertical grip and compensator combined will give you the maximum recoil benefit for the 556XI. And that is very valuable when it comes to firing from long range.

Excels in:

• Medium to long range

1. 556XI with 2.5x Scope, Flash Hider, and Angled Grip + M45 Meusoc with Suppressor + Smoke Grenades

Seriously, don’t trust the in-game description. Trust experience.

The in-game description for the 556XI says that it’s a short range assault rifle. But with the ACOG, oops, it’s 2.5x scope now, you can make good kills from long range, because this gun has really good recoil control. And with the angled grip and flash hider, it is also effective in close range, because you can make those deadly flick shots by going into ads fast. 

That is why this loadout is in #1. Because it can be effective at any range, and the speed is what you’ll need, especially when you play Thermite as an entry fragger. With the 556XI’s inherent low recoil, you can let go of the attachments favoring recoil benefit and focus on dealing quick deaths to your enemies.

Excels in:

• Any range

Attention operator, please be advised. There is a new directive from Six. Read up on these related articles, and prepare for deployment:

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