Rainbow Six Extraction — Archaean enemies guide

Rainbow Six Extraction lets you use the Operators from Siege to fight countless aliens that have evolved from a parasite. The Archaeans are here, and you’ll find deadlier variants as you increase the mission’s difficulty. Here’s our Rainbow Six Extraction guide to help you with the Archaean enemies and their abilities.

Note: We’ll have a Rainbow Six Extraction guides and features hub soon, so stay tuned.

Rainbow Six Extraction guide – Archaean aliens and their abilities

The Sprawl and Nests

Nests are bulbous growths on the ground that emit and spread Sprawl, a black goop that covers an area. You can easily destroy Nests by shooting them or doing a melee takedown. However, these things become more dangerous once an enemy is alerted to your presence as they’ll start spawning additional mobs every few seconds.

As for the Sprawl, the slime will slow you down as you walk over it, while speeding up enemies. There are also a couple of enemies that can use the Sprawl to blend in or burrow (more on them later).

Blinding Spores, Mines, and Sludge

Blinding Spores (yellow-green) and Mines (red) are tiny objects that can be very annoying if they debilitate your character at the worst times. Often found on walls, behind nooks, ceilings, or in the most unexpected places, Blinding Spores will latch onto your character before erupting in a caustic cloud. You’ll lose a bit of HP due to poison and your vision will be temporarily blurred.

Mines work the same way, except they mostly grow on Sprawl or are dropped by Sowers. A Mine explosion is akin to a flashbang — your screen will turn white and even warning icons would be hard to see.

Lastly, the Sludge enemy in Rainbow Six Extraction isn’t really that threatening. It’s just an orange ooze that likes to chase after you. However, it can split up into multiple particles.

Bloaters and Breachers

Think of Bloaters and Breachers as the more mobile versions of Blinding Spores and Mines. Bloaters will run up to you and explode to deal poison damage. They’ll also leave a cloud of toxic gas that lingers for a few seconds after they die. Breachers, though, are more than just a flashbang effect. They will explode like a frag grenade, dealing high damage in an area and destroying walls. However, you can cause a Breacher to explode and perhaps take out a few enemies near it.

Grunts

The most basic type of bipedal Archaean in Rainbow Six Extraction is the Grunt. Once aggro’d, they’ll rush up to you for a quick slash. Don’t let your guard down and make sure you can melee them to push them back. Shoot them in the head quickly, since a single hit from a Grunt tends to drop your HP by a chunk.

Spikers

Similar to Grunts, Spikers can be taken out with clean headshots. The difference is that they’ll attack by firing energy projectiles. Their head will also be covered by their “blaster” arm so they can protect themselves while shooting.

Sower

The Sower Archaean in Rainbow Six Extraction likes to crawl along the goop to make it harder to spot. You might think that a Sower hasn’t spotted you yet since it’s running away. But, to your shock, it’d either call its buddies or ram you with its head. You can take out a Sower quickly by shooting its belly when it’s exposed.

Rooter

Rooters are absolute jerks. They might not seem intimidating, but they’ll claw the ground to cause protrusions that will pin you in place. You won’t be able to move and you’ll take a bit of damage as well. Worse, if you’re surrounded by other foes that can shoot projectiles, you better pray that you can find cover before you get stuck.

Smasher

As the name implies, a Smasher will bulldoze through walls and obstacles, aggressively chasing you down. It takes a lot of bullets to drop it, so it’s better to sneak around and do a takedown when it’s not looking.

Lurker

Lurkers look a bit like the Demogorgon from Stranger Things. It’s got a “flower” for a head that will periodically open up, allowing you to take a quick shot at its weak point. The Lurker’s ability allows it to cloak mobs that are surrounding it. You’ll only see a faint outline, so watch out.

Tormentor

The Tormentor alien is akin to the Sower in that it uses Sprawl to move around. The difference is that it burrows and travels along the ground, reemerging at another spot. Try to stay hidden and hope that it has its back turned whenever it pops back up again so you can do a takedown.

Apex

The Apex likes to hang back while spawning additional low-tier mobs to attack you. It will also fire projectiles that can cause the blinding effect. Think of it as a squad leader that needs to be eliminated as soon as possible.

Protean

This is the big bad. The Protean is a unique Archaean in Rainbow Six Extraction that only shows up in the Gateway mission objective. Basically, it’s a mutated Operator that acts as a boss fight. We discuss this enemy further in our Protean and Gateway guide.

Rainbow Six Extraction is available via the official website, the Epic Games Store, and Xbox Game Pass.