Tom Clancy's The Division

[Max Peck]

The one mission on Hard I can't seem to pull off solo is the one where at the end you're tasked with defending a certain center point, and the enemies come in waves from virtually 360 degrees of directions (I forget the name; I think it's a little east of the SE corner of the Dark Zone). I think even in a group on the initial difficulty we had a tough time there. I feel like I just can't find a safe spot on that map, so I always end up surrounded eventually. Perhaps the mobile cover might be handy there.

The end battle sounds like the Rooftop Relay. The waves alternate between two spawn locations, so as long as you control their approach to the central platform, you can contain them from there. I use the turret and seeker mine to keep them distracted, and gas grenades might also help with crowd control if necessary. If you can't keep them pinned down or kill them quickly enough, it can get a little hectic when they flank you (especially in the final wave, when you get a boss and tough elite coming across from the adjacent roof).

[coopasonic]

Found out a couple Path of the Nomad set pieces were available from the DZ06 safe house vendor. I died once getting there, but now I have 4 pieces which gives me an automatic heal to full on death once every 10 minutes which is kind of nifty and +20% heal on kill which isn't bad either. I'm still a soloist which means I can't do challenging anything and my gear can't handle L32 enemies and I don't see a path to any significant upgrades without grouping. I may just need to try it once.

[blackjack]

Max Peck - good guess based on my flimsy information. I think I did OK on the one you described, though it was definitely a challenge solo.

I think what I mean is a tunnel one (think it has Tunnel in the name) where it winds and winds. The finale puts you low in the middle of sort of a dump/courtyard full of crates and boxes and stuff. The objective requires you to stay in that vicinity, and enemies come flying in from several different doors, and from several high up locations. Usually I can find some sort of a safe spot, but I've yet to find one in that one. I will eventually jog my memory on this and stop talking in riddles.

Coop - I'd be glad to team on any missions in Challenging though you really Need a 4-person team. I would try the "regular" matchmaking and be patient with it. Sometimes it may take a couple minutes to find a match. You're prompted to press TAB key to join the matchmaked group. I've generally been pleased when trying Challenging cause really by that point all players are L30 and are pretty committed to completing a mission. Just make sure your Gear rating meets the minimum as it really did make a difference in my general survivability. Some sort of Group heal is always good. If you don't like "mouth breathers" on your speakers/headphones, I'd disable VOIP under audio settings. I like to text chat but most PUG players don't seem to.

I'm taking Thursday-Friday off from work. Weather's going to be miserable (rainy) and I need to stay home for an appointment Friday afternoon. So I see some daytime Division play in my near future.

[Max Peck]

Do you mean the Queens Tunnel Camp? The end battle for the arms dump there is a little like you're describing, except that the mobs all come from one direction (albeit from entrances on both the lower and upper level). They're pretty mobile, so if you don't keep them contained it's easy to get flanked. For me, the best defense in that one is a good mobile offense. I position myself on the upper level near the area where the snipers come in. I kill the mobs that spawn on the upper level asap, then reposition around the corner, overlooking the lower courtyard. I keep the mobs down there busy with the turret and seeker mine and fire on them in between clearing the upper deck.

[Blackhawk]

Is there some trick to the scopes in this game? They are consistently useless, with the crosshair being much, much more accurate, whether it is an ACOG or a sniper scope. I have a sniper scope that misses by about six inches at 30 yards.

[coopasonic]

Is there some trick to the scopes in this game? They are consistently useless, with the crosshair being much, much more accurate, whether it is an ACOG or a sniper scope. I have a sniper scope that misses by about six inches at 30 yards.

I'm pretty sure I have thousands of scoped headshots and never saw an accuracy issue (playing on PC with mouse/kb). Are you talking about with a marksman rifle or some other weapon? Scopes are pretty useless on anything other than a sniper rifle.

[ydejin]

Yeah it's funny in these PUG groups because I'll think, "Do I go lemming and follow these guys because they know what they're doing? Or do they NOT know what they're doing?" I think once I've replayed them all enough, it'll be more 2nd nature to me.

And at one point this 4th squad member would just pull back into a corner and seem to do nothing. Maybe he was weeping. I dunno. I'd toss my healing station by him, to see if that would get him out of his shell.

The new spectate on death ability has really provided a fascinating look at what some player do (or don't do). We were having a lot of trouble on the defense of Captain Benitez, with two of us down, one of the others was on comms (and in fact, we ended up friending each other afterwards), but the other one that was still up I discovered was hiding in the corner inside just at the top of the ladder you use to reach the area which a lot of people use to snipe down from. He was doing absolutely nothing for as long as I watched him, no movement, no nothing. I don't know if he had some sort of technical problem, or if he was doing his chores at home, while waiting for the rest of us to carry him.

Another time, again I went down in the final section of Lincoln Tunnel and there was only one squad mate left. Turned out he had fallen through the geometry of an ambulance back in the area where you defend the engineer. We talked him into dropping grenades on himself so we reset to the last checkpoint.

I have the firepower to be effective on Challenging now, but in certain areas can still wipe out quickly if I'm not careful. I have a lot of high end stuff with cool talents but for the most part still haven't all the stats up to snuff to get the talents active.

While a group on Challenging diff missions is fun, I really do enjoy almost all these missions solo on Hard. It feels like almost just right in challenge to be exciting but not constant face palm nor cakewalk.

That's a good place to be in. I can still have a lot of difficulty on Challenge. Last night I think the PUG I was with had repeated wipes and took almost two hours to clear Warrensgate (got back to BoO with no incendiary or explosive bullets and a lot of my specialty grenades expended as well). And another PUG over the weekend took over an hour to get through Russian Consulate.

But at this point, Hard is just a cake walk. I remember Turtle Bay and the LMB areas of the city being a bit tough to move around on right after I hit 30, but I've got my armor maxed out and when I run into stuff in the PvE area now, they barely drop my health at all. I did wipe on Broadway Emporium Hard solo a week or so ago when I got to close to the boss, but I'm not sure if that would even happen now that my GS is 192.

The Incursion still seems mostly out of reach unless I ran into a PUG that knew what they were doing. Tried doing it over the weekend with a friend and two PUGs. One of the PUGs was on comms, but the other one not only didn't have a mic, he didn't listen to what the rest of us were saying. So we'd be like "stay back, we only need two going up with the bomb on the right" and he'd follow along anyway. I suppose it's possible he just didn't speak English, I played through Lincoln with some Japanese folks over the weekend.

Anyway, we were following the "camp in the back-right platform area" strategy and we successfully planted the first bomb, but the next wave had snipers, and we just couldn't get the snipers on the far left down from range. We wiped, and then got to the same point and wiped again. I think we're either going to have to move to the infamous trench or I thought we might be able to just move the whole team somewhere on the left, after wiping out the enemies on the right. Of course traversing with those snipers up there could be a real problem. Maybe use a Security Link power?

I may just come around to getting Season Pass afterall, though I might wait to read some more detailed previews later.

I have high hopes that the first DLC "Underground" will give PvE players something to chew on since it's targeted for coop play for 1-4 players. I'm going to be pissed if it requires that we be well geared from the previous two incursions. I would be surprised if they did that though, but we'll see. Plus as a PS4 player, we'll let the XBox One folks beta test it for a month, so hopefully any glitches or other issues will be exposed and fixed before PS4 and PC players get to play it.

[Blackhawk]

Is there some trick to the scopes in this game? They are consistently useless, with the crosshair being much, much more accurate, whether it is an ACOG or a sniper scope. I have a sniper scope that misses by about six inches at 30 yards.

I'm pretty sure I have thousands of scoped headshots and never saw an accuracy issue (playing on PC with mouse/kb). Are you talking about with a marksman rifle or some other weapon? Scopes are pretty useless on anything other than a sniper rifle.

Nevermind. One of the tweaks I saw recommended early on was to set it to dual monitor mode to offset the claustrophobic feel that comes from not having an FOV slider.

Apparently doing so also offsets your scope image by about a quarter inch.

Gotta love Ubi.

[ydejin]

Found out a couple Path of the Nomad set pieces were available from the DZ06 safe house vendor. I died once getting there, but now I have 4 pieces which gives me an automatic heal to full on death once every 10 minutes which is kind of nifty and +20% heal on kill which isn't bad either.

Awesome. Where did you pick up the other pieces?

I'm still a soloist which means I can't do challenging anything and my gear can't handle L32 enemies and I don't see a path to any significant upgrades without grouping. I may just need to try it once.

I'm generally a solo player by nature. Although I've got a good real-life friend I've been playing a lot of "The Division" with, plus my brother is slowly leveling up (currently at level 15). But I've found pick-up groups surprisingly enjoyable on Challenge Mode missions. It's fascinating watching how great some of them are and how terrible others are. Last night I went from one of the smoothest runs of Lincoln Tunnel I've seen to a complete disaster with a different group at Warrensgate Power Plant. The Lincoln Tunnel guys were amazing, just popping stuff left and right. In the final bit with the boss, they pushed forward wiping everything out and took down the boss.

Warrensgate we had some guy that after the first battle didn't move, we wiped three manning that first indoor area with a catwalk on the right and massive grenade span. We finally dumped the inactive guy, and ended up with a GS 82 guy. Then after a few more wipes, my friend had to leave, and we got another guy. We must have wiped at least a dozen times total, but we finally did finish.

As far as trying Challenge Mode goes, I would say Lincoln Tunnel is clearly the easiest. So it's a good place to start doing Challenge Modes. Lexington Armory is next. I can't decide if Russian Consulate or Warrensgate is harder. I've only run Russian Consulate twice, once went really smoothly but the second time was pretty rough. Warrensgate I've run at least a half-dozen times (partly it was stuck as the daily Challenge for a while). Mostly it goes okay, although there are a few rough spots, but last nights run was just awful. No idea what our problem was. Maybe we needed more crowd control (I usually run seeker gas, someone else was running incendiary seeker, which I discovered can do friendly fire if you're fighting an enemy up close and the seeker goes after the enemy).

So stick with Lincoln Tunnel and Lexington until you're comfortable doing them. Between the boss drops and the Phoenix Credits you should be able to make some real progress gearing up. As far as individual mission recommendations:

Lincoln:

Some groups skip the first group of enemies, and instead hop over the freeway divide on the right and race all the way down to the area just before the tunnel itself. This technique was very popular early on, but seems to have fallen out of favor. I try to watch the other players and if they all run right, I follow them. One of the biggest screwups I've seen on Lincoln is when half of the group does one thing and the other half does something else, and people end up dead to far apart from the rest of the group to get revived.

Once you get past the first two groups of enemies (the initial group, and then a second group supported by two snipers on an overhead walkway) go the right and climb all the way up on the ladder and stay there. Some people go down from there to the top of the tollbooths, but that's a very dangerous position to be in. If you're well geared enough, you might be able to do it, but for beginners, don't do that. If you prioritize anyone that can throw grenades that will help a lot. I think both the grenadiers themselves and the guys with star-and-bar symbol can throw grenades. Also take out any snipers you see. Ignore the regular guys and the heavy weapons guys until grenadiers and snipers are eliminated. Sometimes you'll see teammates stay down with the enemies instead of climbing up to the perch on the right. This generally only goes well for very well geared players, so ignore them and stay up on the perch. I will go down to the toll booth roof to revive teammates, but I would not recommend going all the way to ground level until most of the enemies are dead. Be careful because there are multiple waves and you do not want to get caught down on the ground when a new wave arrives.

For the defense of the engineer in the tunnel, as I mentioned in a previous post, if everyone can hoof it back to the short wall right at the entrance of the tunnel, that works best. Watch out for lots of golf-club wielding rioters who will ruin your day. A lot of teams follow the "don't kill the last bad guy in the wave" technique. If you kill everyone in the wave, it triggers a new wave, so a lot of times the whole team will just hunker down when only one enemy is left and wait for the timer to run down before killing him.

For the defense of Captain Benetiz, the best strategy seems to be to climb all the way up to the roof and defend from there. That's the roof, not the catwalk in the garage. You can get to the roof either by climbing the second ladder on the right (the first goes to the catwalk) or by taking two sets of stairs on the right after passing by Captain Benetiz. Defending from within the garage itself is very, very tough. Sometimes you will have to go back down though and take out any strays that have gotten past you. They don't actually seem to be very aggressive attacking Captain Benetiz himself, so you can probably wait until you've killed the rest of the wave before taking care of them (although I could be wrong on that).

Lexington:

The only advice I can give on Lexington is that fight on the rooftop is very tough. One strategy that works well is if everyone breaks to the far left all together, it's easier fighting from there than the entry point by the elevator (although one cheese strategy I've heard of, but have not tried, is that if things get too hot, you can retreat to the elevator, take it back downstairs and regroup, then when you go back up the enemies will have reset their positions but will still be damaged). Unfortunately the run to the left strategy is a tough strategy to pull off with PUGS, and you want the whole group to be sticking relatively close together. The other advice is focus fire on the heavies. If both heavies push up while you're stuck near the entryway to the rough, you're basically dead. Use incendiary and explosive bullets on them and take them down one at a time and the rest should go down pretty easily. Some folks prioritize grenadiers instead, and I suppose that could work, as the grenade spam here is hellacious, but I've always focused on the heavies, and it's been a long time since I've wiped on Lexington, so the strategy seems to work. The roof is also a good time to pop a super defense or super offense skill. I think it's the hardest fight in Lexington, although the fight in the basement can get a bit dicey as well. The end boss fight is not easy, but it's easier than either the rooftop or the basement IMHO.

[coopasonic]

Found out a couple Path of the Nomad set pieces were available from the DZ06 safe house vendor. I died once getting there, but now I have 4 pieces which gives me an automatic heal to full on death once every 10 minutes which is kind of nifty and +20% heal on kill which isn't bad either.

Awesome. Where did you pick up the other pieces?

The first two (Backpack and Mask) were drops from the boss at the blockade in DZ01.

[blackjack]

Do you mean the Queens Tunnel Camp? The end battle for the arms dump there is a little like you're describing, except that the mobs all come from one direction (albeit from entrances on both the lower and upper level). They're pretty mobile, so if you don't keep them contained it's easy to get flanked. For me, the best defense in that one is a good mobile offense. I position myself on the upper level near the area where the snipers come in. I kill the mobs that spawn on the upper level asap, then reposition around the corner, overlooking the lower courtyard. I keep the mobs down there busy with the turret and seeker mine and fire on them in between clearing the upper deck.

I checked my screenshots on Steam this morning, and I think you're right (Queens Tunnel Camp).

Yeah, I dunno, I guess that finale starts up so fast I don't feel I get a chance to look around the map there and find a safe spot or two. I just get frantic and crazy and they eventually wear me out. I remember having trouble in that one with a full group at the initial difficulty too. I think it's one I'll need to matchmake and find a group for to do on Hard. On this last run through, I did so well up to that finale, then I recognized it and thought, "Oh CRAP, it's THAT one!"

Thanks for the tips/suggestions, will keep in mind next time I try it.

I may ask my mom (she likes to get me one gizmo thing for my bday if I want something) for this cool Corsair wireless PC gaming headset. It might even inspire me to re-enable VOIP in this, though I wish the game was set to "push to talk" by default. I turned VOIP off because of the study stream of mouth-breathing and sometimes crying children in the background on audio. I also wish we could selectively mute people. Not to be petty, just if someone's mouth breathing and won't adjust their audio setting, I'd just like to be able to mute That Guy but still be able to hear other players.

I'd still love to get a 4 player group going with OOers, maybe we can figure out a time range to try that some day soon?

[blackjack]

So Max Peck's advice on Queen's Tunnel Camp worked like a charm, though i did need to respawn once. I got into a run and gun situation on first try, when I shoulda just stayed in place. Second time I just stuck to that deck and cleared from there. Some sniper types did keep spawning in the back corner of that deck but were quickly dispatched. If I had it to do over, I might've dropped mobile cover on the deck to protect my flank from said corner.

View from the Deck


Completed at last.

I do wish I'd get more useful High End drops from Hard missions. I seem to have a half dozen high end gloves now, none really great. And now a stream of mods that are OK.

Think I got the gear rating up to about 159 now.

[coopasonic]

With screenshots I remember which missions that is now. I had a hell of a time with it the first few times too. I also decided that was a good place to hang out. You just have to keep an eye to the left for sniper spawns and shotgunners trying to flank. How can shotguns be so useless for the players but so damn powerful for the NPCs?

[Max Peck]

I have reached the conclusion that the Dark Zone is best experienced at L29. You can pretty much roam the entire Zone, although soloing DZ06 is likely to end badly for you. Other agents are rare, which means that rogues are even rarer and the mobs aren't being hunted to extinction. I've had some epic PvE furballs, especially at the extraction point by the abandoned gas station.

Now if I could just find a good L29 superior Police M4...

[blackjack]

I spent my 2nd day off testing out the Corsair headphones with that Danish gamer pal (he also has a headset) in The Division, on a couple missions and then we hung out in the Dark Zone for a couple hours to help me finish off that weekly mission/quest thing.

He said my mic was extremely clear in the game and wasn't picking up my "mouth breathing" so that's good.

I didn't realize in the Dark Zone when you pass within a certain distance of other players -- whether they're in your group or not, you can converse with them. So when we were prepping for extraction one time another player just chimed in on VOIP that he was just tackling some AI Enemies there. And another time a group of several other players just ran by and we'd heard them talking about "hey let's find another area." So I think that's kinda cool and of course I never noticed cause I was turning VOIP off completely.

Yeah Coopasonic, I tried shotguns early in this game and just never felt comfortable using them. I like using them in many other types of games, just not in The Division.

[blackjack]

Tried the Incursion ("Hard" is only setting but clearly it's more like "Super Duper Mega Challenging") with 4 today. Seems like a jolly ludicrous pain in the ass. I'm sorry but having to dodge ginormous radius explosives and shells everywhere square inch of the map and snipers and group charges and so on so forth, simultaneously, is not really my idea of fun. I probably won't try it again unless they add a mid-mission group checkpoint save.

I know. Raids are a ludicrous pain in the ass by definition. If we could do it with two groups of four, then i think it might approach being reasonable. Otherwise it's a Constant Death/Ground Hog Day Movie Simulator, and we spent about 90 minutes rezzing each other every few minutes, before we all gradually raqe quit - I wasn't first . No WONDER players are resorting to exploits.

It might make a good double header with Edge of Tomorrow. Live. Die. Repeat. Go play something else.

[ydejin]

Tried the Incursion ("Hard" is only setting but clearly it's more like "Super Duper Mega Challenging") with 4 today. Seems like a jolly ludicrous pain in the ass. I'm sorry but having to dodge ginormous radius explosives and shells everywhere square inch of the map and snipers and group charges and so on so forth, simultaneously, is not really my idea of fun. I probably won't try it again unless they add a mid-mission group checkpoint save.

I know. Raids are a ludicrous pain in the ass by definition. If we could do it with two groups of four, then i think it might approach being reasonable. Otherwise it's a Constant Death/Ground Hog Day Movie Simulator, and we spent about 90 minutes rezzing each other every few minutes, before we all gradually raqe quit - I wasn't first . No WONDER players are resorting to exploits.

It might make a good double header with Edge of Tomorrow. Live. Die. Repeat. Go play something else.

It's pretty doable with a group of four players with microphones equipped at the 190 level. The fact that they list it as GS 140 recommended is a complete joke. Even 160 is way, way to low. I've run it twice successfully and one of the runs everyone was 188 on up. The second one there was one guy at mid 170s, everyone else was 190s. One of the runs we had no wipes at all, the second run we had just a single wipe.

I've also tried going through with me at 192 and everyone else around 160, and we just could not bring enemies down fast enough. There's a pretty big difference between a GS 140-160 and a GS 190. My DPS is going through the roof. If I spec for it, I can get my DPS over 200,000 easy with health at 60,000. So a GS190 is going to be doing 30-40% more damage than a GS 160. That's absolutely critical for getting those shotgunners taken out. Plus a GS190 is going to be at or close to the maximum armor mitigation of 65%, whereas a GS160 is generally going to have much less armor, I'm not sure how much lower, but say they have maybe 40-50% mitigation. This means the GS160 takes an extra 15-25% more damage and one top of that probably has less health.

Also I would say, don't go into the incursion unless everyone else has a microphone. It's critical that every team member can call out when they see shotgunners or other enemies suddenly showing up at close range. (Running either with someone who can keep continuous pulse up, or two player chaining pulses back and forth can also be useful.)

Watch some YouTube videos to get an idea of what's coming. There's also some spreadsheets with each wave composition floating around Google Docs. Those are particularly useful to highlight if there are shotgunners incoming and how many shotgunners there are.

There's basically two strategies, the trench strategy and the back-right strategy. The trench strategy is slower, more reliable, and a bit more boring. In the trench strategy the hardest issues is shotgunner rush. Mostly the mortar bomb is not an issue, and you can have someone on the left-side of the trench who's job it is to bait the APC into lobbing bombs at them. For the back-right strategy, you can do the same thing, stick someone up at the forward crate in that back-right platform and everyone else further back behind the generators, and the APC should target the guy up front whose job it is to bait and rollback when targeted. AIUI if you toss a turret forward, the APC will send the bomb at the turret, although I have not tried that strategy.

As a variant, you can also stay up in the upper room (with the blown at window) instead of jumping down into the main room. Some people stay up there for just the first wave. I think some people also stay there until the first wave with a bomb you need to plant. The APC will target the room after a while, at which point you dodge back, then come forward to snipe again. It's not all that different than Lincoln checkpoint where you're sniping away, but need to roll away when someone tosses a grenade on your position.

There is a challenge setting, but it's unlocked after you beat it on hard. I have not tried I on challenge, but all the enemies are yellow elites.

I know this I the PC thread, but I'd be up for running it on Hard mode on the PS4 for anyone with a GS 180 or over.

[Blackhawk]

I haven't had much free time for the last couple of weeks, so I'm still only level 16.

I'm wondering, though - is there any more mission variety? I've done about three missions about ten times each - there is 'carry three items to a container between waves', 'defend a point against waves', and 'clear the room, flip the switch, clear the room'. It is starting to get a little tedious.

[Max Peck]

There are also the bounty missions, but yeah, the lack of variety in the side missions and encounters is disappointing. The side missions can be ignored unless you want to do them for the xp or rewards, but you'll need to do most of the encounters if you want to fully upgrade the base.

[ydejin]

I haven't had much free time for the last couple of weeks, so I'm still only level 16.

I'm wondering, though - is there any more mission variety? I've done about three missions about ten times each - there is 'carry three items to a container between waves', 'defend a point against waves', and 'clear the room, flip the switch, clear the room'. It is starting to get a little tedious.

The game distinguishes between Encounters which earn you Security, Medical, or Technical points and Side Missions which typically earn you blueprints.

Unfortunately the Encounters are all very samey from level 1 to level 30. Many of the Side Missions though are hand crafted and are much more interesting. Some of them are IMO pretty well designed, although certainly nowhere near as complex as the main missions.

[Blackhawk]

You know, I think I'm out. I tried to focus on just the core and side missions and ignore the encounters, but I found the combat and encounters so tedious that I just couldn't wait for each mission to be over. I've developed a rule when it comes to gaming. When I reach a point at which a game is a source of stress instead of fun, I stop. Otherwise I'm just hobbying wrong.

I'm not saying it is a bad game, but it relies heavily on MMO style repetitive activities, and I just think I've hit my limit on such things. I haven't been able to get into an MMO for several years, and this feels like exactly the same thing. It's a shame, because the combat has a lot of potential (although it never really took advantage of it), and the engine is absolutely beautiful.

[coopasonic]

I am around 110 hours played, all but about 40 minutes of it solo. I have two max level characters. Once with a decent gear set, but I just lost momentum last weekend and I think I am done for now. I have the season pass so I may come back to see what happens when they hit. The same-ness doesn't bother me, but the lack of progression does. They are adding another tier to the dark zone in the next release, so the 200+ geared people aren't holding me back, so that might help.

[ydejin]

I am around 110 hours played, all but about 40 minutes of it solo. I have two max level characters. Once with a decent gear set, but I just lost momentum last weekend and I think I am done for now. I have the season pass so I may come back to see what happens when they hit. The same-ness doesn't bother me, but the lack of progression does. They are adding another tier to the dark zone in the next release, so the 200+ geared people aren't holding me back, so that might help.

I'm at 200+ hours with one character at 30 and a second leveling very slowly at level 15 with my brother who only plays occasionally.

I was playing daily until this past weekend. But I'm dropping down to running the weekly incursion with a friend and occasional play at least until Update 1.2 comes out. Sounds like we're both at the point where there just isn't any progression. I'm sure I've run Challenge Mode at least 50-100 times and have not seen a single Gear Set item drop. With the Crafting Nerf, I'm not even getting enough materials to try my luck crafting once every day or two.

Overall all though, I'm pleased with my purchase. I've got a lot of playtime in it and very much enjoyed it. Here's hoping they come up with more interesting stuff down the road. The "Underground" DLC sounds like it could be great fun for PvE players. And 1.2 is supposed to be adding more Challenge Mode missions.

If you haven't already seen the State of the Game TwitchCast comments on 1.2, it's definitely worth at least reading the Reddit Summary.. They've promised that they are greatly increasing the amount of loot.

[Max Peck]

I have two L30s to do dailies, and a third L29 to romp around in the DZ so that I can have fun fighting mobs without worrying so much about being one-shotted by well-geared rogues. I haven't burned out on the game yet (repetition doesn't really bother me if I enjoy what I'm repeating ), but I can see it getting pushed onto the back burner soon once Stellaris and Total War: Warhammer are released.

[coopasonic]

My problem is there is nothing on the horizon pulling me away from this... I started Dying Light again and this time it seems to be pulling me in better so maybe that will help bridge me to the next big thing.

[ydejin]

Just ran the Hard Incursion for weekly reward. With a group of folks all at the GS 190-200 level, it was actually a lot of fun. Very hectic, but I enjoyed the fact that it was very much a group effort. One of our 3 was not on Mic (based on his user name I suspect he was Japanese and may not have even spoken English) but he seemed to know what was going on, and definitely made a good contribution. We did wipe on the 15th wave and had to restart, but our second try was successful.

I have two L30s to do dailies, and a third L29 to romp around in the DZ so that I can have fun fighting mobs without worrying so much about being one-shotted by well-geared rogues. I haven't burned out on the game yet (repetition doesn't really bother me if I enjoy what I'm repeating ), but I can see it getting pushed onto the back burner soon once Stellaris and Total War: Warhammer are released.

I'm very excited for Stellaris. Will probably be picking up Warhammer as well. Between the two of them, they could carry us until the first "The Division" DLC drops.

[blackjack]

I guess I'm on hiatus until the Underground expansion, just didn't seem much point to playing this anymore.

I'm playing a lot of the twin-stick Neon Chrome (from Finland-based Crimsonland dev 10TonLtd).

[Max Peck]

I'll probably keep chipping away at the soloable dailies and banking PCs, but I won't be putting a lot of time into it for now. It's officially a backburner game at the moment, now that Stellaris is out.

[blackjack]

Polygon's update on the upcoming free Conflict update:
http://www.polygon.com/2016/5/17/116917 ... lease-date

Included in the Conflict expansion is a new Incursion, called "Clear Sky," which takes agents uptown to fight off enemies in Columbus Circle. "Clear Sky challenges you to take back a formerly LMB-controlled anti-air missile site, restore safe passage to the skies over Manhattan, and reclaim supply drops stolen by Rikers," according to the Ubisoft Blog.

Also in the update is a new feature called high-value targets. The names of these targets are provided to players inside of their base, where they'll have a single chance and a limited amount of time to take them out. Also changing are extractions: Agents can now "hijack" loot, cutting undefended extracts down off of helicopters and making off with the goods. You can see all of these new features in action above.

Players will also have more gear sets, weapons and loots to find as part of the update.

The 2nd Incursion no doubt is designed to cause group misery and despair. Which will probably lead to players again trying to find ways to exploit to get the Goods without the misery.

I suspect hijacking is to give players some increased motivation to screw each other over in The Dark Zone. Yay?

I did try it (Incursion #1) again Don Quixote-like with my better-player Danish pal (we'd fill out the group as trying it as a duo understandably failed faster). I just think, 15 incoming waves of mass misery? No group I've played with could get further than maybe 8-9 waves there.

I would've preferred content that kept us moving throughout a long map as the missions do; not just trying desperately not to get slaughtered on the closed-in map with the APC thing. I think that's why the later paid updates that add more regular (non-incursion) missions will hopefully be more suited to my mediocrity.

[coopasonic]

You left out the most important part: drops 5/24

Also, they are adding another bracket to the DZ for GS201+ that is a welcome change for me.

I just pre-ordered the new Homefront, so I don't know if I will actually play once this releases, but I haven't uninstalled yet.

[ydejin]

Polygon's update on the upcoming free Conflict update:
http://www.polygon.com/2016/5/17/116917 ... lease-date

There's a lot more info on the Ubisoft blog.

I'm most interested in High-Value Targets which are new bosses which will appear on the PvE part of the map. These will include both weekly and daily bosses, with some setup for solo play and some for group play with a range of Gear Score levels.

They do require that you have cleared off all the Side Missions and Encounters, and I have a lot of those still left on my map, so I have a fair amount of work I need to do to be ready for the update.

[blackjack]

Shucks, Ydejin, you posted exactly what I was going to post. Mind reader! I'll just paste in some of the Q&A below.

While I've not really gotten into the Dark Zone, the sealed caches dropping off of named enemies could be at least enticing.

What are Search and Destroy missions, and how do you get access to them?

PM: You can find the Search and Destroy missions in the safehouses of named zones once all side missions and encounters have been completed. The missions lead you to locations in the open world where groups of enemies are located.

Can you elaborate a bit more on High Value Targets?

PM: High Value Targets are dangerous faction leaders. They are a threat to society and need to be stopped. Complete Search and Destroy missions to be granted enough intel to find the whereabout of these targets. There are both daily and weekly High Value Targets contracts, and some of them require a group effort to complete.

What are Sealed Caches, and where can they be found?

PM: Named enemies will have a chance to drop Sealed Caches in the Dark Zone. The Sealed Caches contain mystery items which include gear, division tech and Dark Zone funds.

Do Sealed Caches need to be extracted?

PM: Yes, Sealed Caches are contaminated and need to be extracted.

When I played with my Danish pal last time, we'd run around Dark Zone trying to find parachuted caches but every single time someone had already gotten them. So at least if named enemies can drop them, we might have some other opportunities.

It's funny -- I thought that as a PvP zone, that part of Dark Zone would turn me off but I've rarely ever encountered any PvP-specific players there. Mostly it's just been groups or solo players doing their own things. It's been more a feeling of "what's the point?" in the Dark Zone that turned me off. Loot itself wasn't really enough motivation for me. I suspect dev's adding this Hijacking component in hopes of getting more actual PvP going.

[Max Peck]

I looks like the 1.2 update landed today. I am most interested in the search-and-destroy and high value target missions (hopefully they provide some worthwhile new end-game PvE activity) and least interested in Dark Zone extraction hijacking (just what I wanted, another way to get screwed over by PvP assholes). And I'm simply not interested in the new incursion. I'll try to get some time in today to check it out, but I suspect that TW:WH will take precedence.

Patch notes:

Spoiler:

NEW FEATURES

New Incursion: Clear Sky

Clear Sky is a new Incursion mission available in Columbus Circle.
You must be level 30.
The encounter is balanced for a team of 4 players outfitted with high level gear.
Hard Mode is available on May 24 when the update is released.
Challenge Mode will be made available the week after update 1.2 launches.
New Gear Sets
Four new gear sets have been added.

Final Measure - Stand your ground by defusing hostile grenades with this powerful defensive set.
2 pieces: +50% Exotic Damage Resilience
3 pieces: +15% Protection from Elites
4 pieces: When throwing a grenade, gain the defuse buff. When in range of a hostile grenade, the buff is consumed and defuses the grenade as well as gives you a grenade.
Hunter's Faith - Duel your enemies at range and come out on top with this survival focused marksman set.
2 pieces: +20% Marksman Rifle Critical Hit Damage
3 pieces: +20% Damage to elites
4 pieces: Hitting an enemy with a bullet grants you temporary armor. The further your shot, the more armor is awarded. The armor disappears after one bullet hits you.
Lone Star - Never reload your weapons again with this game changing utility set.
2 pieces: +100% Ammo capacity
3 pieces: +1000 LMG Damage, +1000 Shotgun Damage
4 pieces: When the weapon is holstered, it regains full ammo.
Predator's Mark - Make your enemies bleed with this powerful offensive set.
2 pieces: +20% Optimal Range
3 pieces: +800 Assault Rifle damage, +700 Pistol Damage
4 pieces: Hit 10 shots without switching target to make the target bleed for 100% of damage already done by those bullets.
High-Value Targets & Search and Destroy missions

At level 30, complete all Encounters and Side Missions in a named area to get access to the “Search and Destroy” missions in the Safe House.
Receive Target Intel as a reward for completing Search and Destroy missions.
Bring Target Intel to HVT officers at the Base of Operations to locate High Value Targets.
Complete daily and weekly High Value Target missions for end game rewards.
Hijack Extractions

When a player attaches a bag to the extraction rope, another player now has the ability to sever the rope.
Severing the rope will cause all extraction bags to fall to the ground, scattering their contents as a public loot drop.
Be careful, hijacking an extraction will instantly mark you as Rogue!
Sealed Cache

Named and Elite enemies in the Dark Zone can now drop Sealed Caches that contain mystery items.
Sealed Caches need to be extracted before they can be opened, just like regular loot drops.
There are four qualities of Sealed Cache:
Specialized
Superior
High End
Gear Set.
Player Stash in Dark Zone Checkpoints

Player stashes are now available in every Dark Zone checkpoint.
Checkpoints stashes eliminate the need for fast travel to your Base of Operations to collect your extracted loot!
ISAC Assignments

The ISAC Assignment is a new assignment type included in the map overview.
The ISAC Assignment will be available to players at level 30.
Every week a new ISAC Assignment will be available to the player.
The ISAC Assignment will reward players with exclusive vanity items.
General

Added new high-end named weapons in the game:
Hungry Hog: M60 Light Machinegun
Centurion: M1911 Pistol
Medved: SAIGA12 Shotgun
Historian: M1A Marksman Rifle
(Showstopper - AA12 Shotgun): Please note that while the Showstopper will be implemented in the game with this update, it will not be acquirable in-game until update 1.3
The Historian high-end marksman rifle is now available.
Added a 201+ Gear Score bracket for highly leveled players.

GAME CHANGES

GAMEPLAY

When a player is at max level, matchmaking for Hard and Challenge mode will now only seek players that are Level 30.
Armor damage mitigation cap has been increased to 75%.
Improved weapon blind fire and overall handling while in cover.
Reduced damages from level 34 NPCs using Shotguns and Sniper rifles.
Gear Score will now only take into account the equipped weapon with the highest Gear Score, and discard the other two. This will prevent players from equipping low quality weapons to voluntarily reduce their Gear Score.
Increased Gear Score requirement of Falcon Lost to better represent its difficulty (note that the difficulty of this Incursion hasn't changed)
Hard Mode: Gear Score 160
Challenge Mode: Gear Score 180
UI

In the Overview of the Inventory, the Health stat above Stamina has been replaced with Toughness. This is a combination of Health and Armor. The player's health pool will still be visible in the Character page and Stamina still increases Health.
The Phoenix credit cap has been increased from 1000 to 2000 credits.
Shooting a player while they are interacting with an object will cause the timer to push back. (such as opening a supply crate or hijacking an extraction)
Players now have a voice chat indicator in the game UI to see if their own VOIP works.
The Special Gear Vendor has been renamed Special Equipment Vendor.
ITEMS

The Sentry's Call 4 pieces talent will now only apply to semi-automatic weapons (pistols, shotguns, and marksman rifles).
The Second bonus on Performance Mods have been significantly improved.
DARK ZONE

The extraction departure timer once the helicopter arrived has been increased to 60 seconds.
LOOT BALANCING
We have made a number of changes to loot drops. Specific activities will now provide the rewards listed below.

Missions

Hard Mode (Boss Drop)
1x 163 High End
Hard Mode (Mission Reward)
1x 163 High End
Challenge Mode (Boss Drop)
2x 182 High End
1x 182 High End or 214 Gear Set
chance for 1x 191 Gear Set
Challenge Mode (Mission Reward)
1x 182 High End
Falcon Lost/Clear Sky

Hard Mode (Boss Drop)
1x 204 End Weapon
1x 214 Gear Set
182/204 High End or 214/240 Gear Set
Hard Mode (Weekly Reward)
1x 204 High End Weapon
1x 214 Gear Set
Challenge Mode (Boss Drop)
1x 204 Weapon
1x 240 Gear Set
1x 204 High End or 240 Gear Set
Challenge Mode (Weekly Reward)
1x 204 High End Weapon
1x 240 Gear Set
Dark Zone

Added Sealed Caches as new source for loot in the Dark Zone. Caches need to be extracted before they can be opened. Caches can come in any quality starting from Specialized and contain:
Equipment (weapons, gear or mods)
Division Tech
Dark Zone Credits
Brackets 0-160 & 161-200
Named bosses will now have a chance to drop a High-End or Gear Set Sealed Caches. If it drops, it will replace the guaranteed High-End item
Elite NPCs now have a chance to drop a Superior Sealed Cache
Named NPC Level 30 (DZ01 and DZ02)
1x 163 High End or 191 Gear Set
Named NPC Level 31 (DZ03 and DZ04)
1x 163/182 High End or 191/214 Gear Set
Named NPC Level 32 (DZ05 and DZ06)
1x 163/182/204 High End or 191/214/240 Gear Set
Added a new Dark Zone bracket for Gear Score 200+. This bracket will contain tougher enemies (level 32 to 34) and provide better rewards
All drops from NPCs will start at Superior quality
All Division Tech drops will be High-End quality
Higher chances to drop Sealed Caches on Elite and Named NPCs
Supply Drops will contain 1 High-End item Gear Score 182 (DZ 01-04), 204 (DZ 05-06) plus a chance at a Gear Set item Gear Score 214 (DZ 01-02), 214 to 240 (DZ 03-04), 240 (DZ 05-06)
Named NPC Level 32 (DZ01 and DZ02)
1x 182/204 High End or 214/240 Gear Set
Named NPC Level 33 (DZ03 and DZ04)
1x 182/204 High End or 214/240 Gear Set
Named NPC Level 34 (DZ05 and DZ06)
1x 204 High End or 240 Gear Set
BUG FIXES

Fixed a bug where the effects of player talents would stack when the talent was repeatedly equipped and unequipped.
Fixed a bug where the Reckless gear talent would increase player damage resistance instead of decreasing it.
Fixed a bug where the Balanced gear talent would remain active indefinitely after the weapon was shouldered.
Fixed a bug with the Brutal gear talent where the damage was multiplicative instead of additive.
Fixed a bug with the One is None character talent where the weapon could jam when the magazine was down to one bullet.
Fixed a bug with the Specialized gear talent where it wouldn't account for subsequent gear changes after the backpack was equipped.
Fixed a bug with the Path of the Nomad talent where the Health on Kill wouldn't work if the kill was done with a melee attack.
Fixed a bug with the Tactician's Authority talent where it wouldn't trigger properly against other Players.
Fixed a bug where talents that are triggered by skills could be activated by just aiming the skill instead of using it.
Fixed a bug where bleed resistance could roll above 100% on some items.
Fixed a bug where players could exit the playable map area by using the mobile cover skill.
Fixed an issue where some doors at the entrance of main missions would not open after restarting the mission.
Fixed a bug where one of the Base of Operation wings would not unlock after completing Subway Morgue or Lincoln Tunnel missions.
Fixed a bug where players would not be able to upgrade their Base of Operation wings correctly.
Fixed a bug where the Small RDS Scope Mod would not roll weapon damage bonus, even though it was stated in the blueprint as a guaranteed stat.
Fixed a bug where the Base of Operations NPC speech was too repetitive.
Fixed an issue where the Base of Operations wing resources would not be displayed correctly if at least one of the wings was not activated (laptop not accessed).
Players will no longer be teleported to an incorrect checkpoint during the “Rescue: Tenderloin Civilians” side mission.
Fixed a bug where using a consumable would not allow the player to aim until the animation finished.
Fixed some visual replication problems when swapping weapons while in the Dark Zone checkpoints.
Player characters will now properly holster their weapons when climbing over high cover.
Improved UI tooltips for trading between players.
Fixed an instance where players would be teleported back to the Safe House during the “Hostage Rescue: Midtown East” medical encounter.
Fixed a bug where players would be teleported to last checkpoint in Hudson Refugee Camp.
Fixed an issue where players could not matchmake for Free Roam from the mega map, while in Brooklyn.
Fixed a bug where the Ballistic Shield visual would become corrupted if the player changed shoulder view while using it.
Fixed a bug where the defense turrets in Falcon Lost would be able to shoot players through covers from a medium-long range.
Fixed some objects in Falcon Lost that would not provide tactical cover.
Fixed a number of tooltips not displaying correctly in Arabic localization.
Fixed some instances where dead civilians would need things from the player.
Fixed a rare case where Rogue status would expire too soon.
Fixed a bug where the player could fall through the map in Brooklyn.
Crafting will now properly update blueprint stats if the player has switched their Firearms values while in the Base of Operations.
Players can no longer phase transfer to a group member's higher Dark Zone bracket while having Rogue status.
Fixed a bug where automatching would return the wrong difficulty for missions when failing to find a match.
Fixed a bug where the player's own character could obstruct aiming while in cover.
And many more!
PC SPECIFIC

Fixed a bug where auto-aim would be automatically triggered on PC.
Min and Max mouse sensitivity values are now exposed in state.cfg file.
Added an option in the game UI that disables all Gamepad input.
Added the option to sort inventory items by Gear Score (PC only).
Added the option to toggle aim mode instead of holding to aim.
Players can now right-click on gear in the Overview screen to get straight to the mod screen.
Players can now rebind the ALT key.
Players can now exit the game from the title screen.
Fixed a bug where the game UI would not center correctly when dual screen is enabled.
Fixed scrolling in Mission Overview in the mega map.
Fixed an issue where scrolling through possible recalibrations was not always possible using the mouse.
Fixed an issue where the wrong recalibration option could be selected at the Recalibration Station.
Fixed a bug where some users could loot items from a distance using the mouse cursor.
Snap to Marker feature is now smoother while using a keyboard.

[coopasonic]

I finished up Homefront 2 this weekend and I am on the last chapter of TWD Season 2 so I am out of games again so I guess I will check out the changes for a while and least and see if it grabs me again (ie I get some damn upgrades).

[Max Peck]

I logged in for a quick look at the S&D (or maybe that should be SaD) and HVT missions.

For S&D, I went to a safe house in a neighbourhood where I'd cleared all the side missions/encounters and picked up the mission at the bulletin board. This gave me 3 spawns to clear, and I got one intel point for each spawn (as well as an occasional additional point as a drop). After completing all 3, I turned the mission in at the bulletin board for an additional 2 intel plus a random L163 piece of gear/weapon. The mobs at the spawn were about the same as you'd see in a south DZ spawn (L30/31 purples/yellows, armoured), with no named bosses. The S&D missions can be repeated, so I ran a couple and ended up with a total of 19 intel. At that point, I went to the bases of operations and took a look at the HVT mission officers. The daily HVT missions offer a variety of difficulty levels (recommended GS values), with higher difficulty costing more intel and paying more PC. None seemed to give gear rewards. The weekly HVT also a range of levels, with the soloable ones giving rewards of PC + a weapon skin and the group ones giving a reward of PC + a gear item (probably set items, judging by the colour-coding). I didn't actually run an HVT, so maybe they're more interesting than just a spawn with a boss that has to be killed before the timer runs out. I'll check that out some other time.

So it looks like overall you can get some basic endgame gear from the S&D missions, more PC than from the old daily missions (which are either gone, or they are still managing to screw up the daily reset -- I don't know which), but only a couple of high-end gear items per week (if you run the group missions). All in all, kind of meh for my money.

I didn't bother running any hard-mode missions, so I don't know if the boss loot drops have been improved.

[Grifman]

Sooo, I've found a good price on this, what's the final verdict. More interested in SP that MP, I hear that is pretty messed up due to cheaters on the PC. Is it fun? How many hours of gameplay can I get. Interested but just not sure on this.

[Brian]

I played it almost entirely solo and enjoyed my time with it enough that I played it through to completion. (Twice) It's also fun to team up with other players and run missions.

You don't really have to worry about running into other players (cheaters/griefers) if you don't go into the dark zone. If you plan on playing solo, then that shouldn't be a problem for you.

The story is serviceable but nothing spectacular so for a decent enough price I think it's worth a playthrough.

[coopasonic]

Pretty much the same including playing primarily single player and doing the story twice. I had fun with it and didn't even find the dark zone that frustrating. At max level the dark zone is bracketed now so you aren't up against the best equipped players when you are still in less than the best gear.

I'd say the story falls a bit shy of serviceable. If you want a story play something else. Hell, you should probably play something else anyway, like more Borderlands 2.

I'll admit it's an odd opinion. I had fun with it and played over 100 hours, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I think the first expansion should be out now or soon, I should check that out.. maybe.

[ydejin]

Sooo, I've found a good price on this, what's the final verdict. More interested in SP that MP, I hear that is pretty messed up due to cheaters on the PC. Is it fun? How many hours of gameplay can I get. Interested but just not sure on this.

I really enjoy it a lot, and in fact, I was just on on Friday running some Search and Destroy missions.

I've got over 250 hours in on it so far. I leveled up a main character and am still doing end game play with him, and then I've got a second character up to level 26 that I'm going through slowly with my brother (who doesn't play very often). I was playing it very regularly (say 5-8 hours a week) until Total War Warhammer came out, and then main coop gaming buddy and I switched from The Division to playing a coop Warhammer campaign. We're expecting to go back to The Division though particularly after the DLC drops on PS4 in August.

You can really think of it as similar to Diablo, although the setting and perspective are different. It's really a loot driven game. So if you enjoy that whole kill evil things and earn loot cycle, then there's a good chance you'll enjoy The Division, particularly if you like the modern setting. Keep in mind that it's an RPG, even though it looks like a shooter, so your level and gear will make a huge difference in your performance, although certainly your twitch abilities make a difference too, but a level 10 player is not going to beat a level 25 player, regardless of twitch abilities.

You can just stay in the PvE areas in which case cheaters shouldn't be an issue.

[gbasden]

Pretty much the same including playing primarily single player and doing the story twice. I had fun with it and didn't even find the dark zone that frustrating. At max level the dark zone is bracketed now so you aren't up against the best equipped players when you are still in less than the best gear.

I'd say the story falls a bit shy of serviceable. If you want a story play something else. Hell, you should probably play something else anyway, like more Borderlands 2.

I'll admit it's an odd opinion. I had fun with it and played over 100 hours, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I think the first expansion should be out now or soon, I should check that out.. maybe.

I'm sort of the opposite - I've played through twice co-op with two different sets of friends and am still having a blast. I'm about 90 hours in and still really enjoying it.