Getting Started With The Division

This guide will help you with some of the basics of getting ahead in the new, super-popular game Tom Clancy’s The

Division.

Click to go directly to any of the following:

How to Level Up Fast

How to Get and Use Dark Zone Keys

How to Unlock Daily Story Missions (and what they are)

How to Earn and Use Phoenix Credits

How to Farm High-End Weapons

Where to Find Every Collectible

A Useful Dark Zone Farming Path

How to Find the Secret Central Park Area

List of High-End Weapon Crafting Talents

How to Save Space in Your Inventory

The Best Talents for Each Player Build

How to Level Up Fast

We’ve put together some helpful tips on how to level up as fast as possible in Tom Clancy’s The Division.

Higher Difficulty Missions

Obviously, the number 1 way to level up in The Division is simply to complete the missions, but there are some

caveats to that. Every major story mission in the game has three tiers of difficulty – Normal, Hard, and

Challenging – but the second two only unlock once the player hits a certain level.

During the harder versions of the missions, players will encounter high-level enemies, many of which will have

stronger weapons and armor. So, it’s imperative that the player goes into the more challenging encounters with

the right gear. It is possible to beat a mission on Hard while at the recommended level for the Normal version,

but we wouldn’t advise it.

Once you do complete a higher difficulty mission the game will offer increased experience, which will go a

long way towards leveling up. But before doing that, we’d recommend considering a few things as well.

Increase Experience Gains

First and foremost, players will want to complete the first Security Wing mission in the game in order to unlock

that section of their Base of Operations. The Security Wing is important because it has two perk that can offer

increased XP gains. The Experienced Agent perk is the one that early players will want, as it grants 10%

increased XP for every action.

This is important to unlock up front because it ensures a quicker ramp to The Division’s level cap of 30. And if

players want to go even deeper down the rabbit hole there is a second perk that offers 25% more XP, but it

requires a fair amount of Security Wing supplies.

Maximize Experience With Skill

Additional important considerations for the power levelers out there are headshots and survivability. At the end

of each encounter, The Division will reward players with a little bonus XP for every enemy they killed with a

headshot and if they didn’t go down or die.

Admittedly, it’s not a lot of XP, but every little bit counts in The Division. Eventually it will become a grind

trying to get to those last few levels, so it’s best to prepare your agent ahead of time and ensure they are earning

as much XP up front as possible.

As we mentioned, the best way to level up in The Division is simply to play the game – most missions offer a solid amount of XP per completion – but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. By following these tips, players will

be at level cap in no time, maybe even faster than 15 hours.

And from there, The Division becomes a whole new ball game, with the Dark Zone repopulating with more

difficult enemies and opportunities for top tier loot. There’s only one way to get those unique weapons in the

game, and that’s to grind and grind. Good luck agents.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How To Get and Use Dark Zone Keys

Tom Clancy’s The Division‘s Dark Zones are areas that hold keys, which unlock chests with

epic and rare loot. Here’s our guide to helping you find and use the Dark Zone Keys.

With Tom Clancy’s The Division beta kicking off this weekend, there are no doubt hundreds of thousands – if

not millions – of gamers anxious to jump in and explore disease-torn New York City. Naturally, one of the most

compelling aspects to The Division is its Dark Zones, the PvP areas which promise intense combat and

competition.

There’s still a lot to be revealed about The Division’s Dark Zones, but thanks to YouTuber Arekkz Gaming,

there’s one aspect to the Dark Zones we now know more about: the Dark Zone Keys. In his video, Arekkz

provides a little information about the keys, as well as how players can acquire and use those keys for their

benefit in the game.

What Are Dark Zone Keys?

First, what are Dark Zone Keys? Very simply, Dark Zone Keys are used to unlock item chests that have been

scattered around the Dark Zones. As one would expect, these chests contain many valuable items that will give

players leverage in both the Dark Zones and main campaign of the game.

When the Dark Zones were first announced, Ubisoft revealed they would be home to some challenging enemies

and impressive weapons and gear. And considering players need to battle against strong AI foes, as well as

fellow players, there’s little doubt the weapons and gear held within these Dark Zone chests will be worth the

effort to claim them.

How to Get Dark Zone Keys

As expected, Dark Zone keys can only be acquired within the Dark Zones. That means players will need to

venture into the Dark Zones – preferably with team mates at their sides – and seek out enemies to gather the

keys.

There are two ways to get a Dark Zone Key. First, taking down high-level enemies. Once again, this will most

easily be done with friends, though it’s currently unknown if AI enemies will drop a key for each player, or a

single key for one person to claim. If it’s the latter, teams will need to communicate who gets what, or may find

themselves fighting each other for the keys.

The other way to get a Dark Zone Key is to kill another player who has one. When a player dies in the Dark

Zone, they lose three things: Dark Zone rank points, Dark Zone money, and Dark Zone Keys. Naturally, this

shows the importance of choosing friends wisely, as anyone can kill anyone else and claim any dropped keys

for themselves.

How to Use Dark Zone Keys

Within the Dark Zones, there are three types of loot chests. The first type can be opened without any Dark Zone

Keys, and can be opened by any Division players once they find the chests. Naturally, most of these chests

won’t contain any ultra rare items as anyone can open them at any time.

Next up are Dark Zone rank chests, which require players be at a high enough Dark Zone rank to open them. If

players don’t yet meet the rank requirement, they’ll need to continue playing through the Dark Zones building

rank until they are high enough to open the chests.

Finally, there are the chests that require Dark Zone Keys to open. These are usually stashed behind high-level

named enemies, since the loot is worth protection on the part of the game’s AI. It’s a safe bet that if players

discover enemies with a yellow health bar, flanked by a couple high-level enemies with purple health bars,

there’s a Dark Zone Key chest located nearby.

Where to Find Dark Zone Chests

In the video above, Arekkz shows players a few locations they can find Dark Zone Keys. Arekkz points players

to the Morgan Library, an abandoned shopping center, and the end of a particular street as Dark Zone Chest

locations.

It’s important to note that this weekend’s beta will only include a small section of the game, so it’s possible the

above-mentioned areas won’t be available to players during the beta. However, the Dark Zone Chests should be

found there once the full game releases in early March. And, of course, there will be many more chests than

these in the final game.

What’s In the Dark Zone Chests

Players will find a variety of loot in the Dark Zone Chests, from weapons to gear to cash. And while many

gamers may be hoping for rare weapons, it’s actually the money that may be of most worth.

As Arekkz points out, players can use the money they earn in the Dark Zones to purchase high-level weapons at

the Dark Zone vendors. Naturally, the best and most powerful weapons will cost the most money and require

higher ranks. That means players will need to spend lots of time venturing through Dark Zones, taking down

enemies and players, and collecting Dark Zone Keys to acquire the needed cash for the game’s best weapons

and gear.

Unsurprisingly, players will likely form teams and begin farming the chests in the Dark Zone. With that in

mind, we highly recommend players work with friends in the Dark Zones, or risk taking on teams of four or

more alone.

Additionally, when one player uses a Dark Zone Key to open a chest, the rest of their team can gather around

the chest and also collect loot. So working with friends will be a far greater benefit than detriment, so long as

said friends don’t turn on each other to steal loot.

Targeted Players

Unsurprisingly, there will be many players in the Dark Zones at the same time, hunting for experience, money,

and Dark Zone Keys. As players move through the Dark Zones, they will gain notoriety based on the number of

enemies and players they kill.

As players gain more notoriety in the Dark Zones, they may find themselves the target of a Manhunt, where

other players gain more money, experience, and Dark Zone Keys for killing marked players. With this in mind,

it’s probably smart to use Dark Zone Keys fairly often, to avoid collecting – and possibly losing – too many at a

time.

Considering how much has gone into The Division’s Dark Zones, it’s likely many players will be spending

most, if not all, of their time in the Dark Zones. It’ll be interesting to see how the Dark Zones play out during

the beta, and if players catch on to helpful strategies to quickly gaining experience, money, and Dark Zone keys

during the beta.

How to Unlock Daily Story Missions & What They Are

While most gamers know by now how different Tom Clancy’s The Division is from a game like Destiny, there

are still many ways in which the two titles are similar. Both use a similar color scheme for loot, both have an

average-based end game leveling system, and both have weekly and daily missions.

Obviously, daily missions are not unique to Destiny, but they were likely many gamers first encounter with

them. However, for The Division, daily missions work a little differently.

The main difference with The Division’s daily missions is that there are three of them available during a given

24-hour period. Players must first reach the soft level cap of 30 in order to unlock them, but once they do the

daily story missions should appear on the game’s map of New York City.

In order to identify a daily story mission, one needs to find the main story missions with white borders around

their icons. It should be easy to spot since the mission markers will also have their color returned (completed

mission markers fade out during the regular progression). But, if all else fails look for the ‘Hard’ version of a

mission and if it says Daily Mission then you know you’re in the right place.

As most can guess, the daily story missions are simply more challenging versions of the main game story

missions. That means stronger enemies (plenty of elites, almost every enemy has armor) and slightly more

aggressive AI behavior. At level 30 it shouldn’t be too hard to contend with the level 30 enemies, but we’d still

recommend taking on the missions with a buddy or two.

Upon completion of the daily story missions, players will earn some Superior or High End loot items as well as

15 Phoenix Credits (per mission for a total of 45 per day). Phoenix Credits, as we have previously detailed, is

the major end game currency in The Division, and a necessity when it comes to purchasing gear from the

Advanced Weapons Vendor or the Dark Zone Advanced Weapons Vendor. But, players will have to grind out a

few days worth of Daily Story missions if they want to unlock anything of real value.

While The Division doesn’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to daily story missions, Ubisoft has been smart

about including three per day. That way, players can invest more time in the game even after they hit the soft

level cap (some hit level cap in 15 hours), and still earn worthwhile loot.

Ultimately, though, completing these daily missions will put players on the path towards the real end game,

which we know now to be called Incursions. These raid-like events will seemingly test the mettle of a 4-player

team and hopefully offer new gameplay opportunities as well.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How to Earn and Use Phoenix Credits

Follow this helpful Tom Clancy’s The Division guide to learn what Phoenix Credits are, where

to spend them, and details on how to earn them while playing.

Ubisoft’s highly anticipated third person shooter, The Division, is finally available after a long development

cycle that really kicked off all the way back in 2013 after a jaw-dropping demo surprised the audience at the

end of Ubisoft’s press conference. With players already hitting the level cap, many have started to look towards

the end game areas like the Dark Zone to continue their experience beyond the story missions.

In order to unlock the best gear that The Division has to offer, players will need to earn and collect a completely

different in-game currency known as Phoenix Credits. Similar to Strange Coins found in Destiny, Phoenix

Credits are end game currency that players use on weapons, mods, accessories, or gear that have both level 30

Agent and level 50 Dark Zone requirements on them.

This gear can be found at the Special Gear Vendor in the Tech Wing of the Base of Operations or the Dark

Zone Special Vendor found in the safe room in the northern part of the DZ06 area. Unlike the beta, superior and

high-end rarity items at these vendors can only be purchased by level 30 characters using Phoenix Credits.

The biggest question that many players have, however, is how to actually acquire this currency. To help answer

that, we’ve put together some tips on how to start collecting Phoenix Credits in Tom Clancy’s The Division.

Complete Daily Activities

Once a player reaches the level cap at 30, daily missions will unlock. Each day, three story based missions will

have a white ring appear around the mission marker when viewing the map letting players know that this

mission has a daily activity associated with it. These activities typically task the player with beating the mission

on a higher difficulty, resulting in higher level enemies that are packing better weapons and armor.

Viewing daily missions from the map will also reveal the rewards that can be earned for completing the

mission. Those include the standard mission rewards as well as additional loot like specialized crafting

materials and Phoenix Credits. Some bosses may also drop a few additional Phoenix Credits as well.

Challenging Difficulty

For players who want an even greater challenge, specific missions in the game have a third difficulty setting

known as Challenging. This difficulty manages to live up to its name as every enemy in the mission is an elite

that is capable of killing players in one or two shots. As of right now, these missions can only be played once in

order to obtain the rewards at the end, though players have begun to speculate that these missions may be

repeatable once per week. This unfortunately can’t be confirmed until next week when The Division enters its

second week as a retail game.

As a reward for the effort required for players to make it through the mission, players will earn a higher payout

of Phoenix Credits, in addition to high-end loot, gear, or materials.

Ubisoft Club

For an easy thirty Phoenix Credits, players simply need to log into Ubisoft Club, a rewards program tied to all

Ubisoft games, from the website or from the in-game menu and head to the rewards section of the site. From

here, players can view and unlock specific Division rewards like Phoenix Credits for only 30 Uplay credits.

Players unlock these credits by simply playing Ubisoft developed games which are then tied to their accounts.

Rewards range from simple wallpapers to in-game items, to other goodies like soundtracks.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How to Farm High-End Weapons

Tom Clancy’s The Division has smashed Ubisoft day one sales records for any of its intellectual properties, and

the virtual streets of New York are seemingly teeming with agents who are attempting to get the pandemic-

stricken social hierarchy of New York City back on its feet. This is task made easier once gamers are able to

secure stronger weapons, and getting high-end equipment in The Division is a surefire way to make things

easier both inside the Dark Zone and out.

With The Division being less than a week old, there’s evidently still some balancing to be done in regards to

each weapon, but we’ve discovered a surefire way for players to keep farming high-end items. To do this,

players will need to repeatedly tackle a late-game mission, so those just starting out will have to put in at least a

day’s worth of work in order to start farming with this method.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the two-step system to farming high-end weapons:

Raise The Difficulty

The first step in triggering better drops is to square off against high level opponents. Each story mission in the

game comes with three tiers of difficulty (Normal, Hard, and Challenging), the last two of which require the

player to be at a minimum level to unlock. Each extra tier of difficulty will bring enemies with better armor and

weapons, but it also means there’s a higher chance that the player will get some solid loot when they managed

to beat the mission. Plus, this will help players level up faster, which will make repeating the mission easier in

the long run.

Play the General Assembly Mission

For those who may not be there yet, the General Assembly mission is part of the end-game content that pits

players against Lieutenant Colonel Charles Bliss of the Last Man Battalion. It’s a firefight-intensive mission

which has players clearing a building full of high level enemies, taking down Bliss himself, and performing a

hostage rescue. Finishing this mission seems to consistently provide players with one high-end weapon drop,

though those playing with others online should be aware that it seems to be dolled out randomly to one lucky

member of the squad’s roster.

This is one of the last missions of the game, and players beating the mission for the first time will receive an

end game content prompt upon its completion.

While it’s possible to find high-end weapons elsewhere, the General Assembly mission consistently produces

them each time the mission is replayed, making it the current go-to method of farming the high-ends.

Alternatively, players can spend some hard-earned money at Dark Zone Vendors, and some other vendors even

sell weapons like the Caduceus Rifle and the Cassidy Shotgun.

We’ve also made some handy guides on how to earn and use Phoenix Credits, how to unlock daily missions,

and we’ve also made a video about leveling up quickly. Since the General Assembly mission involves some of

the game’s toughest battles (players will have to square off against an attack helicopter at one point), we’d

highly recommend ranking up as much as possible before attempting the mission.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Where to Find Every Collectible

While most players are only just scratching the surface of Tom Clancy’s The Division, others are already

thinking about the end game. As we have reported already, it doesn’t take too long to hit The Division’s level

cap of 30, especially if players are smart about how they earn XP.

But even as players grind for high-end gear, there is likely still a lot left for them to do in the game – side

missions that still need completing or more of the story to flesh out.

One of the main items still on our to-do list after reaching end game status in The Division is to find all of the

collectibles in the game. While there is the obvious draw of a Platinum Trophy or 1,000 Gamer Score, the

collectibles are worth seeking out because they add new layers to the game’s story. Some even put new

perspective on the events prior to the viral outbreak.

With this being a Ubisoft game, players should rest assured that the developers at Massive have not skimped out

on the collectibles. There are LOTS of them scattered throughout post-viral outbreak New York City, tucked in

every nook and cranny.

There are cell phone audio logs, ECHOs (holographic “memories” of past events), drone black boxes, survival

guides, missing agent, and incident reports to find. Grand total there are over 200 collectibles in the game,

which means a lot of exploring for the player.

To help with that, the clever folks on the Division wiki have put together an interactive map that shows the

location of each and every collectible in the game. Click on the static image below to access the interactive

version, where you can zoom in and out and find the right item.

For those who may not want to consult a guide for collectibles (yes, they are purists out there), there is still a way to make the task of finding them a little easier. With the Canine Unit upgrade, players will unlock a perk

called ‘Intel Discovery’ that highlights every collectible in a given zone. The one caveat to that is players will

need to complete every side mission within that zone first before the collectibles will appear on the map.

The Canine Unit unlocks as one of the Security Wing upgrades in exchange for 200 Security Wing supplies, but

we’d recommend holding off on it until later. There are more useful upgrades in the Security Wing, like Smart

Cover or the Survivor Link signature skill, so the Canine Unit can wait. Plus, most will want to go after the

collectibles in one big sweep, which is a nice end game activity while waiting for the Incursions to launch.

Collectibles are ultimately a small slice of the larger picture in The Division, but at the very least they have

some tangible connection to the narrative. Sure, those who simply want the Platinum Trophy will breeze from

one to the next as if they are working through a checklist, while others will stop and listen/watch what each has

to offer. Some even make playful nods to pop culture, like the Shaun of the Dead Easter Egg.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Useful Dark Zone Farming Path

The Division has rocketed off to a great start, though many fans are still getting acclimated to the harsh PVP

territories within the game that are called Dark Zones. In The Division, these zones not only present challenging

computer-controlled enemies to the players, but also allow PVP combat so agents can contest loot drops,

allowing them to escape with valuable high-end weaponry.

Aside of the human element, the computer-based boss battles within the Dark Zones can be pretty tough too,

and defeating harder enemies allows players to quickly collect Phoenix Credits, an end-game currency which

can be used to purchase powerful equipment. These credit drops may have been nerfed, but leveling up in the

Dark Zone is still a necessity, and, as it turns out, there’s faster ways of doing it than trotting around the streets

of Manhattan aimlessly.

A Redditor named Sairal has found a great way to quickly rank up in the Dark Zone by following a preset path

and repeatedly tackling the same fights. This method involves DZ01, and Sairal has drafted a quick map which

shows the best route to take, which spans a small 3 block radius. There’s several enemy spawn points and a

contaminated zone within the same looping path, so players should be able to quickly rank up while still

gathering some loot to show for their efforts.

Click the image below to bring up the full scale map provided by Sairal:

Please note that the ‘9’ Sairal wrote is intended to be an ‘8’. He clearly wanted to get this information up and

out there as soon as possible, and made a few typos as well – still, the information itself is solid, and gamers

looking to level up as quickly as possible should certainly give this route a try. It’s worth noting that the two ‘x’

spots on the map are Dark Zone chests which spawn on occasion, so it may be worth straying off the path a

little bit to see if the crates have spawned.

Once players enter Dark Zone 01 and reach the eastern extraction point, they should make way south to the

nearest intersection, and then bear west until they discover an alley across the road that should spawn some

enemies. At the end of this alley, there’s a potential boss fight, although this doesn’t always happen. From there,

players hang a right until they reach the next main road, which spawns a small patrol, and after that they should

take another right and keep on going past another patrol which may appear. Two blocks up is a blockade, which

should feature another boss fight. East of this is an underground contaminated zone which should have some

loot, and then players should make haste with their recently acquired goodies and extract at at the extraction

point they started from.

It’s a pretty efficient route with lots of action packed into the roads, so players should come equipped for a good

fight. Sairal recommends this route for solo players, so those who may not have a squad to watch their back

while exploring the Dark Zone should certainly try this route, though it’s always good to be wary of any other

agents in the Dark Zone – especially during the extraction process.

How to Find the Secret Central Park Area

Ubisoft’s highly anticipated third person shooter The Division has only been available for a week and already

players have started to discover some of the games many secrets and hidden collectables. While players have

come across a number of cool easter eggs within the streets of Manhattan, some even involving the likes of

Batman, there are still many things that have eluded the fan base until now including how to infiltrate Central

Park.

Thanks to a video posted by Chaz, players now have a way to access Central Park, an area of the game which is

currently inaccessible in The Division. Unlike a few of the recently discovered glitches which may disrupt

player balance, Chaz and his squad are able to phase through what should be normal walls using a few harmless

wall tricks, gaining access to some interesting areas marked as out of bounds in the game. While leaving the

map normally would trigger a 10 second respawn warning from the game, players are free to run around inside

of this partly unfinished area of the game.

Those hoping to get a glimpse of Central Park will be somewhat disappointed however as Chaz encourages

everyone to find out for themselves. Players interested in exploring this area of the game should start their

adventure in Hell’s Kitchen at Dante’s Run safe house, then following the waypoints marked inside of the video

and eventually ending up at Dewitt Park. From here, players can access an overpass which will take them to

Central Park.

Interstingly enough, players using these wall hacks have already discovered some interesting areas previously

unknown to the public including a very detailed model of a large warship which many people are calling the

Intrepid. The boat is actually a real life museum in New York so it is not out of the realm of possibility that this

could be a future mission. It’s not known what Massive Entertainment has in store for these hidden areas of the

game, but it’s easy to speculate that they will eventually get patched in either as part of the season pass or as a

free content update.

Destiny, a game that The Division has been compared to quite heavily leading up to release, also had a similar

thing happen to it prior to the release of the House of Wolves DLC content. Players utilized a number of

glitches in order to gain access to seemingly random and hidden areas of the game. Similar to what’s happening

in The Division, these areas were simply placeholders for content that was added later.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

List of High-End Weapon Crafting Talents

Having only launched a week ago, The Division continues to knock down sales records, proving to be a massive

success story for Ubisoft and their Tom Clancy universe. While Ubisoft excels at creating open world games

using franchises like Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, and Watch_Dogs, The Division adds in a heavy RPG element,

which isn’t present in those other titles. As such, statistics and loot play heavy roles within the game, as players

will come across all sorts of different gear and weapons during their play through, each with their own unique

stats and talents applied.

In The Division, weapon talents are essentially passive attributes that provide additional benefits to the player.

Talents do have requirements before they are activated however, with each one having a minimum value in

Firearms, Stamina, or Electronics needed before the bonus will become active. While all weapons are capable

of having talents, the higher quality that the weapon is, the more talents it may have. High-End weapons for

example can have anywhere up to three talents at a time.

Thanks to Reddit user gLockwoRk_no, players now know what to expect to see for talents that can appear on

High-End quality weapons. Here is the complete list:

Accurate: Accuracy is increased by x% Adept: Skill increases your critical hits chance by 3% for y seconds. Balanced: Weapon acquires maximum accuracy faster when shouldered. Brutal: Headshot damage is increased by x% when using this weapon.

Capable: Using a skill improves the handling of your weapon for x seconds. Commanding: Every kill performed while the signature skill is active extends its duration by x%. Competent: Weapon damage is increased by x% for y seconds after using a skill. Coolheaded: Performing a headshot reduces all skill cooldowns by x%. Deadly: Critical hit damage is increased by x%. Destructive: Armor destruction value is increased by x% when using this weapon. Determined: Killing a target reduces skill cooldowns by x%. Dominant: Every kill while your signature skill is active reduces the cooldown of your other skills by x%. Expert: This weapon deals x% more damage when the target is below y% health. Ferocious: Damage against elite and named enemies is increased by x%. Fierce: Critical hit chance is increased by x% when using this weapon. Fordern: Kills by active skills prolong their duration by x%. Harmful: Each hit has a x% chance to apply the ‘bleed’ status effect. Intense: The first bullet of a magazine has a x% chance to apply the ‘on fire’ status effect. Meticulous: Killing a traget has a x% chance to instantly refill the magazine. Prepared: Damage is increased by x%when more than 40 meters from the target. Provident: The last bullet in your magazine deals x% bonus damage. Proficient: The first bullet shot when out of combat has a x% chance to result in a critical hit. Predatory: Killing a target regenerates x% health over y seconds. Restored: Killing a target with this weapon removes all negative status effects. Responsive: Damage is increased by 5% when closer than 10 meters to the target. Stable: Stability is improved by x%. Sustained: Killing a target increases your health by x%. Skilled: Headshot kills with this weapon increase signature skill resources by x%. Swift: Reloading is x% faster. Self-preserved: Critical hits with this weapon heal the user for x% of damage dealt. Talented: Killing a target with this weapon increases skill power by x% for y seconds. Toxic: Headshots with this weapon have a x% chance to apply the ‘blind’ status effect. Trained: Critical hits increase signature skill resources by x%. This talent has been temporarily disabled Unforgiving: Missing health segments increases your damage by x%. Vicious: Critical hit chance is increased by x% while at full health.

As players have seen, sometimes the combination of these talents can lead to unintended negative

consequences. The High-End sub-machine gun known as Midas has recently been a lightning rod of

controversy as the combination of an already high critical hit and fire rate and the three talents Viscous, Self-

preserved, and Trained, made the weapon quite overpowered. With it, players were able to utilize their signature

skills at a significantly higher rate, making them nearly unstoppable against not only the AI but other players in

the Dark Zone as well. Massive Entertainment quickly took action after the initial reports and released a fix

essentially disabling the Trained talent entirely until a later update which will then replace it outright. While the

talent will still appear on weapons, it will no longer provide any bonus.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How to Save Space in Your Inventory

Spring is here, and even The Division can’t stop players from thinking about some Spring Cleaning ideas.

Today, word has spread about a great idea on how The Division agents can maximize their storage space, which

is intended to have a very finite amount of carrying power. Ubisoft’s record-smashing title certainly has no

shortage of weapons to collect in the game, so the question isn’t if gamers want to grab all that they can – it’s

how.

If there’s one thing the protagonists from most games these days suffer from, it’s the fact that they often have to

carry around a ludicrous amount of weapons. Agents in The Division are no different, but now fans have come

to realize that there’s a surefire way to allow the strong-backed warriors to carry even more: equip unused mods

to unused weapons. Each unused modification uses a full inventory slot, but when it gets attached to a weapon

this inventory slot is cleared up. The logic may not be sound, but it effectively means agents can carry around a

lot more than the intended amount of loot.

Aside of saving some immediate backpack space, the idea of adding modifications to weapons to save space

also comes as a kind of weapon insurance: many gamers want some weapons to be ‘locked’, so they won’t

accidentally be scrapped or sold with a single click. When a weapon has modifications attached to it, players get

an extra warning prompt if they go to scrap the item – meaning not only does this idea save space, but it also

helps make sure gamers don’t throw away weapons they don’t mean to. Win-win!

A Redditor named Taux revealed that this tip has saved him about 25 backpack slots and 20 stash slots, which

frees up quite a lot of room to farm some more high-end weaponry. These weapons are the heavy-hitters of The

Division, and another Redditor has helpfully created some tips for the high-end weapon crafting talents

themselves.

Inventory slots aside, it’s also a good idea to hunt down every collectible New York City has to offer, as they

offer additional details on the pandemic that struck down society in the first place. These collectibles don’t take

up inventory slots, so even those who ignore the space-saving tips can hypothetically get them all done in one

long playthrough.

The Best Talents for Each Player Build

By now players of Tom Clancy’s The Division have likely spent enough time with the game to make a decision

about whether or not they enjoy it and want to play more. What may not be so clear at this point, however, is

what player build and role they want to fulfill, as most of that decision making comes in Division’s end game.

While The Division is not an MMO in the traditional sense, the game still carries some of that genre’s spirit. For

example, players can spec in a way that makes them a tank, they can be a healer, or they can focus on DPS.

The beauty of The Division is that each path is viable, but only if players spec in the right direction. Players will

need the right skills and the right talents if they are to succeed in these pre-formed roles. Sure, they can get by in

the Daily Story Mission without much pre-planning, but we don’t expect that to be true for Incursions, which

are to be Division’s analogue for raids.

To better assist with player builds, one Division fan has put together an extensive breakdown of each major role

and what talents they recommend for succeeding in that role. We’ve already covered the solo build (which can

double as the tank) in a previous guide, so this one will focus on the healer, the rusher (DPS), and the skill

build.

The Healer

For the healer, players will want the Combat Medic and Battle Buddy talents, which give them the ability to

heal the group (and increase their self heal) and decrease incoming damage while reviving a teammate. This

comes in handy during The Division’s Challenging missions, where revives are fairly common and it’s easy to

get taken out while trying to bring a teammate back.

For secondary talents (i.e. non essentials), they recommend Strike Back (reduces skill cooldown when under

20% health), Critical Save (increases damage resistance when using a medkit on low health), and Evasive Action (reduces incoming damage when moving between cover).

These talents put the focus on getting the player’s heal abilities back up as soon as possible and reducing

damage any time they need to heal themselves. The tide can turn quickly, so it’s important to think about

staying alive while keeping everyone else alive as well.

Max DPS

The DPS player or the rusher will want to focus on talents that improve their damage while performing specific

actions. For that reason the Tactical Advance talent is a must, granting the player increased damage (2%) for

every meter covered when moving from cover to cover. On the Move also comes in handy, as it gives players

30% damage reduction after killing a target while moving. And finally One is None, which has a chance not to

consume a bullet on a headshot (good for marksman rifles).

For secondary talents, players will want to choose between Evasive Action, which reduces damage when

moving between cover, and Combat Medic, which heals surrounding teammates when using a medkit.

The Skill Build

Then there is the skill build, which is focused on using the player’s unique abilities either to support the team or

dole out damage. For this particular build players will want Strike Back, Chain Reaction for increased AOE

damage with turrets, grenades, and sticky bombs, and Demolition Expert for the extra explosion damage after

getting a kill with an explosion.

After that, Police Up is a good talent to have since it can grant ammo after a skill kill, and killing with skills is

the name of the game here. However, if the player is more about staying close to the team and buffing, then

Combat Medic will work as well.

Obviously these aren’t the only three builds that players can focus on – most, in fact, will probably use some

variations between all three – but understanding how to maximize a role will be important come Incursion time.

That is, if The Division wants to go beyond the basics of an RPG shooter and brush up against MMO flavor.