In The Division 1.8, The House is one of the most sought-after weapons. But is it really worth farming for this exotic SMG and hoping for a drop?
With Update 1.8, four new exotics were introduced, with the submachine gun “The House” causing a stir. It is said to be one of the best weapons in the game and essential for strong builds.
A glance at the best weapons in 1.8 shows: Yes, The House is indeed powerful. If you want to play with an SMG, there is no way around The House, as it outshines all other SMGs in both PvE and PvP. Here is a chart about it:
What makes The House special? – Location, Talents
To obtain the exotic submachine gun “The House”, you need a lot of luck. It can only drop randomly from the sources where you can obtain exotics. While many farming methods can be found online, unfortunately, there isn’t a guaranteed way to get The House in the end.
The House has a fire rate of 850 and a magazine size of 30. This gives it a higher fire rate than an AUG or a Vector, for example. Here are the stats:
The House has two random talents and the exotic talent:
- Card Counter: One half of the magazine deals 20% increased damage. The half that deals 20% more damage changes every 15 seconds or when the magazine is empty.
In the game, this talent is always displayed to you with a symbol (two cards) below the grenade indicator. This way, you can always see which half of the magazine currently has increased damage.
This powerful talent is not even considered in the upper graph.
Is The House worth it in PvE and PvP?
The question of whether The House is worth it in practice can be answered with a straightforward “Yes.” The damage output per magazine and the damage the weapon deals over time are outstanding. In short: If you play with The House, you can’t go wrong.
Nonetheless, Division expert MarcoStyle advises against using The House in many builds after extensive testing. Not because The House is bad, but because the M4 assault rifles are better in almost all situations.
There are several reasons for this:
All SMGs like The House are not recommended for longer ranges. Precision is also poor. While The House has tremendous DPS potential, it is only effective at short range (up to about 15 meters).
In PvP, many duels take place at close range, which is why The House excels here. However, the M4 is nearly as good at close range.
Under similar test conditions from about 6 meters, The House only kills a fraction of a second faster than the M4 when only body shots are scored. Keep in mind that there may be slight variations due to crit hits:
When scoring headshots from the same close distance, the M4 performs slightly better since assault rifles have higher bonuses on headshot damage:
In other words, at close range, there is almost no difference in damage output between The House and the M4.
At all other distances, the M4 is clearly superior to the SMG. At over 15 meters, many shots from The House miss their target because of the weapon’s poor precision. With the M4, precise kills are still possible. And in both PvE and PvP, it’s advantageous to deal good damage from a distance before moving into close combat.
Now one might say: “Alright, then I’ll just take the M4 as my primary weapon and The House as my secondary weapon.” However, MarcoStyle advises against this as well. Because: The gloves provide a tremendous boost to a specific weapon damage, such as 12% for assault rifle damage. If you switch from the M4 to The House, you lose that 12%, making The House significantly weaker at close range than the M4. So you might as well just stick with the M4.
If you boost both assault rifle and SMG damage on the gloves, you miss out on other important stat boosts, namely crit damage or crit chance. These two stats can boost the gloves higher than any other items, so you shouldn’t forgo them.
Since the gloves provide such strong boosts in 1.8, it is advisable to equip two weapons of the same type. As a secondary weapon, the Bullfrog is recommended, an exotic assault rifle.
Is The House worth it now? Yes, it is a powerful weapon. But the M4 is better.
Which weapons do you play with in The Division?
