- "The only thing I feel when I pull the trigger is recoil."
— Nøkk
Karina Gaarddhøje, codenamed Nøkk, is an Attacking Operator featured in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, introduced in the Operation Phantom Sight expansion alongside Warden.[1][2]
Biography[]
- "Først til mølle. (First come, first served)"
— Nøkk
Gaarddhøje enlisted at the Army NCO School in Sønderborg, then enrolled at the Royal Danish Military Academy where she graduated at the rank of First Lieutenant. With four deployments under her belt, Gaarddhøje underwent additional special operations training, earning her Jægerkorpset maroon beret with skills in covert ops, combat search and rescue, direct action, special recon, arctic warfare, and advanced breaching. Gaarddhøje served in Afghanistan and Iraq, often alone in deep undercover behind enemy lines. She received commendations for eliminating hostile insurgents in surgical strikes and was responsible for uncovering Erik "Maverick" Thorn's location, forwarding that intel to the Unit.
Gaarddhøje keeps her identity hidden from all but her fellow operators. NATO's O&P division recommended Gaarddhøje for Rainbow as one of its deep cover specialists.[3] She was subsequently recruited into Rainbow in 2019.
In the summer of 2021, Mina "Thunderbird" Sky was recruited into Rainbow from a recommendation by Sanaa “Nomad” El Maktoub. Unconvinced that Thunderbird was up to the task, Gaarddhøje sought to test her. She cut the hydraulic line for the landing gear of one of Rainbow's CC-295s and lodged a necklace she had stolen from Thunderbird into it. She then lured Thunderbird to the hangar by writing a note mentioning the issue and making it appear as if it was from Nomad. After Thunderbird recovered her necklace, Gaarddhøje opened fire and hit her in the leg. As Thunderbird managed to reach cover, she started to taunt her by rehearsing a nursery rhyme. While Gaarddhøje was searching the hangar, however, Thunderbird released smoke and flanked her. Before she could react, Thunderbird struck her in the head and knocked her to the ground.
While trying to recover, Thunderbird told her that she knew something was off as Nomad had terrible handwriting ever since she received frostbite in the Canadian wilderness. Dazed, Gaarddhøje told of how she did not trust Nomad's recruiting intuition. Thunderbird then placed a bandaid on Gaarddhøje's head and helped her up, revealing she held no hard feelings for what had happened. As a result, Gaarddhøje apologized and said that while she trusted Nomad herself, she wanted to know that Thunderbird was capable of handling more than "war games". Thunderbird said she understood but asked Gaarddhøje to leave their aircraft alone the next time she wanted to test her.
Following Nighthaven's defection from Rainbow in early 2022, Six reorganized Rainbow into squads in order to increase its operational effectiveness. Gaarddhøje was placed on Ghosteyes squad. Led by Taina "Caveira" Pereira, it specialized in stealth and infiltration missions. A few months later, Rainbow started investgating Nighthaven as they were suspected to be involved in Masayuki Yahata's assassination. Following the recovery of a Nighthaven employee known as The Architect, Gaarddhøje met him and Néon "Sens" Mutombo at the drop off point outside of Nighthaven's headquarters in Singapore. Donning guard disguises they followed the Architect to the server building but were greeted by Håvard "Ace" Haugland and Jack "Pulse" Estrada who questioned their arrival by saying that work on the next sector would only start in a month's time. The Architect managed to trick Ace, saying Kali ordered him to recalibrate the materials for testing while also mentioning a project proposed by Ace himself: a volleyball area for recreation. Convinced, the two allowed them to pass. As they reached a security door to the servers, they discovered the Architect's biometrics had been revoked after he was captured by the militia. While discussing what to do next, they were noticed by a Nighthaven guard. Gaarddhøje quickly disarmed and knocked out the man. As she was about to execute him, Sens intervened. They reiterated that Nighthaven had not yet been confirmed as their enemy, and that having the man wake up later would be a better outcome than possibly killing someone who might be "innocent". Gaarddhøje agreed and then used the guard's biometrics to unlock the door. She then pointed out that the facility had many guards and that she could not spare them all. With Gaarddhøje's infiltration complete, Sens and The Architect departed the complex and returned to the V-280 Valor.
Once inside, Gaarddhøje managed to download QCR shipping records to a data key. She was discovered however, leading to guards calling for help over the radio as she dispatched them. This later led to a confrontation with Charlie "Grim" Keng Boon. As he entered the server room, Gaarddhøje ambushed and stabbed him in the leg. As she made her escape, Grim shot a canister of his Hive Launcher at her and applied a tourniquet on his leg. Gaarddhøje managed to use her HEL to trick Grim's nanobots from tracking her. He eventually caught up to her and used her knife to slash her face veil, narrowly missing Gaarddhøje's throat. The two then engaged in hand-to-hand combat which ended with Gaarddhøje in a choke hold. Grim threatened to kill her unless she gave up the data key but was interrupted by the detonation of a nearby Nitro Cell. Gaarddhøje stood in the new hole in the wall and mocked him before falling backwards. She was then picked up by Sam "Zero" Fisher and they escaped the area in a RHIB.
A week after the incident at the NIGHTHAVEN facility, Gaarddhøje had returned to her secret home. While caring for her garden, she noticed the house door was open and investigated, finding Grim sitting at her dining room table. In the home, there seems to be portraits of her and an unnamed woman. After offering him tea, Gaarddhøje asked what his name was and how he found her home. As he pulled out a knife to show her, Gaarddhøje splashed his face with tea and attacked him. She took back the knife and lunged at him but was blocked with a butcher knife. Moments later, Gaarddhøje subdued him to the floor and held the knife to his throat. Before she could kill him, Grim told her he was not there to kill her and pulled out an envelope. He revealed that it contained all of her redacted information, including her real identity and the ones she was trying to protect. Grim then proceeded to blackmail her with this information, threatening severe consequences if Rainbow crossed Nighthaven again.
In 2023, Gaarddhøje took a leave that was questioned by many within Rainbow.
Psychological Profile[]
When they looped me in on Nøkk's real identity, I cracked open her secret dossier with schoolboy glee. I love a good mystery and I was not disappointed. Nøkk's real identity has been a prickly issue given the potential scandal should it ever be made public. Frankly, had I not known who Nøkk's father was, I wouldn't have noticed the family resemblance. But it smacks you in the face when you know the truth.
I wondered how Nøkk felt about all this and how it influenced her upbringing. Nøkk tried to dismiss it as one of the realities of the job, but eventually I learned enough to start painting a portrait. Nøkk's mother raised her, and the pair are close to the point of being best friends. It's almost tribal how protective they are of each other. Nøkk knew about her father and his family, but it took a while before the family knew about Nøkk. They tried to give Nøkk a better life, but without bringing her into the fold out of fear of courting a major scandal for the family.
Nøkk is fiercely loyal to her mother, so I found it surprising Nøkk was loyal to her father out of respect for the family name itself. You'd think there'd be some resentment there, but Nøkk is comfortable quietly serving Queen and Country and everything else that falls under the umbrella; her Darwinist outlook isn't rooted in her own safety, but rather the betterment of the soldiers of her unit and her country.
Nøkk's ability to keep a secret and maintain a façade is what makes her a highly capable undercover operative but she is involved in an active mission. Fortunately, Nøkk's cover identity is currently “in jail,” building up credibility while giving us an incredible opportunity to work with someone of Alibi's and Bandit's caliber. I have no doubt Nøkk is a strong fit for Rainbow, and I hope we can use her to the full extent of her stay with us.
-- Dr. Harishva Pandey[3]
Gameplay Description[]
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Gadget
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Ability
HEL Presence Reduction |
Nøkk's unique gadget is the HEL Presence Reduction Device, a gadget that when activated, erases her image from cameras.
- The HEL has infinite uses and runs on charge. The HEL lasts for an infinite amount of time as long as Nøkk doesn't do anything that would cause her to glitch, with the maximum recharge time being 120 seconds. Nøkk can activate the HEL Presence Reduction Device as long as she has 20% of the bar charged.
- The HEL also does not limit Nøkk's choice of weapons.
- With the HEL active, Nøkk becomes invisible to observation tools, similar to Vigil, but she will not show the white static vignette around the screen.
- Nøkk will be visible on any camera as distortion glitches if she sprints, fires weapons, moves through Barbed Wire, takes damage, melee Barricades or performs any actions such as pulling out Lesion's Gu Mine. Nøkk will know when she is glitching as the peripherals of her screen will have a yellow interference.
- Reloading, swapping weapons, walking and crouching will not cause the mosaic glitches.
- Just like Vigil, environmental debris can reveal where Nøkk may be as they move upon being trampled.
- Like Vigil, affected surveillance tools will emit a white light instead of the colour set for the opposing team.
- Nøkk will not trigger the tracking from Alibi's Prismas when she moves through or attacks their volumetric displays.
Counters[]
- Nøkk will trigger Proximity Alarms when she enters the effective radius, regardless of her gadget being active or not.
- Melusi's Banshee will interfere with her gadget and give away her silent approach.
- Pulse's Heartbeat Monitor will detect Nøkk even with her HEL active.
- Kapkan's EDDs will give away Nøkk's position.
- Lesion's Gu Mines give the same effect of the latter.
- Ela's Grzmot Mines can also give away Nøkk's position.
- Solis' SPEC-IO Electro Sensor is able to detect the HEL when active.
- Thorn's Razorbloom Shell, Fenrir's F-NATT Dread Mine and Aruni's Suyra Gate will have the same effect as the other trap operators listed.
- Frost's Welcome Mat, while able to give away Nøkk's position, Nøkk will leave a trail of blood on the floor if she self-revives from a Welcome Mat which can show a defender on a camera where Nøkk currently is.
Playstyle Description[]
Being a Medium Health operator, Nøkk favors a quiet, slow, and methodical flanker who finds obscure ways to get behind the enemy. Granted, this doesn't end up working out on every map, but if the defense is very surveillance heavy (such as having both Valkyrie and Mozzie), Nøkk can help set you up for success, especially with her choice of weapons. The SIX12-SD and the FMG-9 (when suppressed) are both extremely effective at taking out enemies when the time is right, but she has enough health to be able to escape from sticky situations. Just mind your HEL's meter.
Device Description[]
- "Counter-intel that wipes Nøkk's image from observation tools and reduces her noise, with exceptions."
— In-game description
Nøkk's gadget is the ultimate form of stealth technology. The HEL is a glove attachment, which, when activated, reduces her ambient noise output and hides her image from the opponents' observation tools. Drones, Bulletproof Cameras, Evil Eyes and more will thus be unable to register Nøkk's presence as she roams through the map, unseen. Her footsteps will be silenced as she stalks opposing operators, unheard. Roaming will be riskier than ever for Defenders, as Nøkk could be hiding behind every corner or worse, sneaking up right behind them. Keep in mind that the HEL has a limited window of usage, and must otherwise be recharged through a cooldown.[1]
Device Evaluation[]
Since I was involved in coding Specialist Chul Kyung "Vigil" Hwa's ERC-7 device, I was asked to prove Specialist Nøkk with a next-generation version. It was a little outside my domain, but I love a challenge and I was inspired by her abilities as a hunter and stalker.
The ERC-7 scans surrounding devices to wipe the user's image form cameras and drones, but I decided to add a meatspace component using an active noise control unit inspired by our own Specialist Taina "Caveira" Pereira's 'light step' (please don't tell her I said that). The device, codenamed HEL Presence Reduction, uses an antiphase signal at the same time as the ERC-7 to create destructive interference to mask out Specialist Nøkk's footsteps. In other words, it allows her to move relatively silently.
However, like the ERC-7, it does have its limitations. Running or making certain arm motions is going to give the system some trouble as it tries to sanitize the user's image from nearby cameras in real-time. Until I can gather more data from tests in the field, Specialist Nøkk is as close to being a ghost as we can currently get.
- - Specialist Grace "Dokkaebi" Nam
Quotes[]
Nøkk's Quotes |
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Trivia[]
- According to her bio, her personal records are sealed at NATO's confidential security clearance, but her files have been released to Six. The reason being due the potential they could pose to national security and ongoing missions.
- Nøkk is a variation of the Danish word Nøkken, the Danish name of the Neck, which are shape-shifting water spirits in Germanic mythology;
- The HEL Presence Reduction originally had the added effect of making Nøkk's footsteps fully silenced when walking. This effect was lost when sprinting.
- Nøkk was heavily referenced/hinted at around the time of the 2019 Season Invitational:
- In the CGI trailer The Hammer and the Scalpel, a Danish flag can be seen in the background at around 0:44.
- At some point, concept art was leaked showing designs of an operator for supposedly the Frogman Corps.
- On Harry's board (seen in the cinematic as well as released as a high-quality image), there is an intentionally covered picture of an operator with a Danish flag on their chest. A map of Denmark is also present behind.
- A note on this board has Harry describing her as calculative and an "expert in covert reconnaissance and stealth tactics. Ability to blend and adapt into environment."
- He noted to discuss with Vigil a cat & mouse one-on-one hunt with "Dane" (presumably her in-the-works code name). Also, to confabulate with Mira on working on her ability.
- As well as that note from Harry, Mira is seen working on the HEL device in Nøkk's concept art #5, with the quote "Always a pleasure to see another professional at work."
- The HEL Presence Reduction is activated by touching a sensor of some sort on her middle and ring fingers to a corresponding sensor on her palm.
- Nøkk's real name, Karina Gaarddhøje, was first shown in a video on the official Ubisoft Latin America YouTube channel. Her name was confirmed with her inclusion in Tom Clancy's Elite Squad.
- Nøkk has a unique reload for the D-50, which depicts her pulling the slide back instead of hitting the slide release, which is a nice nod to her character.
- In her Tier 100 headgear of the Brutal Swarm battle pass, you can faintly see her face's silhouette.
- Her mouth was revealed in the short "Spec Ops Grim on the Hunt".
- Nøkk's gadget ability is named possibly after the Norse goddess of the dead Hel.
Gallery[]
Gameplay[]
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Patch Changes[]
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