The Division 2 has many secrets and puzzles to offer. Apparently, these were kept secret even from the creators of the game and were designed in secret.

This is what these secrets are about: In the world of The Division 2, several messages with cryptic symbols are scattered. You can find them in various locations. These puzzles reveal, for example, where to find the 12 Hunters and their masks.

In an email interview with Kotaku.com, the Creative Director of The Division 2, Julian Gerighty, explained how the secrets were developed during the game’s creation.

Even the developers didn’t know the solution

This is how these secrets came to be: According to Gerighty, the puzzles were designed by a small group.

The alphabet and the characters of the Hunter puzzles were developed by only 4 people. These puzzles were meant to be challenging.

They were integrated to be strange and required several people to solve. It is possible to solve them alone, but very hard.

Julian Gerighty, Source: Kotaku

No one outside of this small group knew exactly what these puzzles were about.

These puzzles introduce some puzzle elements into the game, which is otherwise mainly a loot shooter.

A detail led to cracking the puzzles

How are the puzzles structured? The strange symbols on the wall were decrypted and translated into a corresponding text.

These texts were then clues to locations and the tasks that must be found and fulfilled to spawn one of the Hunters.

In fact, the puzzles are challenging and were not easy to crack. A specific code is required for this. However, this code was cracked weeks before the release, during the beta of The Division 2.

This is how the code was cracked: In the beta, there were spaces between the characters. This allowed the user Zinfinion to decode one of the locations early on.

Due to the spaces, certain words like “The” or “to” could be determined, as he confirmed to Kotaku.

I suspected that a word with three letters had to be “THE” and one with two letters “TO”. This led to 2 different cases of ?O?TH and ?O?TH, which quickly became SOUTH and NORTH. Then the remaining letters became obvious.

Zinfinion, Kotaku

From this, the developers learned that they should not use spaces to make the encryption harder.

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“We wanted to create something that intrigues the player.”

This is why the puzzles were developed: According to Gerighty, it was important for the creators to bring something into The Division 2 that feels different from the rest of the game. Something that players can investigate and figure out.

The reward was important as it comes in multiple forms.

A puzzle, a riddle to solve, a cool street-art look to admire, gameplay challenges, and ultimately an in-game item [The Masks].

Julian Gerighty

As The Division 2 usually makes it quite clear to the player what to do and where to go, the secrets provide a good balance.

They wanted to give players a reason to “pause, breathe, and look at the places themselves, rather than just following ISAC’s instructions… . By using these large, obvious hints […], we hoped to open their eyes to the hidden treasures and stories in the game world.”

As our user test of The Division 2 shows, it seems to have worked. Because the game world is one of the parts of the game that received the highest ratings.

If one of the puzzles is bugged, it can still be frustrating.

What do you think of the puzzles and secrets of The Division 2? Do you think they are successful?

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The interplay with a random team is not easy in most games. Now, two fans report their experiences in The Division 2 and receive a lot of agreement. How annoying randoms can be.

What is the problem? Two players report in the subreddit of The Division 2 about incidents with random teammates.

While the user GOTPOTENTBUD was kicked from his group by his 3 teammates, Benderanomalous is annoyed by teammates who call for backup but then just stand around absent.

Being kicked from clans? It can happen

This is what GOTPOTENTBUD criticizes: The user reports how he played a stronghold with a random group. The post has now (as of April 2, 16:57) over 1,400 upvotes.

I just spent my time in a daily, challenging stronghold and was kicked just before the end by a “clan” after a vote. Probably to let a friend join. Someone who is not AFK and does a lot of work for the team should NOT be kicked.

Source: Reddit

Additionally, he writes that he apparently had to carry his team and revived them multiple times.

This is how the community reacts: Over 300 fans respond to the post and some share similar experiences.

• The user Nightwing__x writes: “Yes, when I see 3 people in my mission who are in the same clan, I just leave them behind. They are usually so toxic.”
• Many think, however, that clans should not be generalized because of this. The majority of clans probably aren’t as bad as in this case. Generally, it’s worthwhile to play in a clan, even without such actions.
• Some members of clans also stated that they would never do such a thing.
• Moreover, the system also has many advantages, as it allows players who are simply absent to be removed from the group without problems. At least most of the time.

So-called AFK players can still become a problem, as the next case shows.

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Calling for reinforcements despite absence

This is what Benderanomalous criticizes: The next story seems to happen much more frequently and affects more players. The post has (as of April 2, 16:57) over 2500 upvotes.

Stop calling for reinforcements when you’re actually not doing anything. It wastes the time of people who just want to help.

Source: Reddit

Over 700 people reacted to this post and shared their comments, which prompted the user to make a call: “I feel like I’ve hit a nerve. I’m just doing it, people – call for reinforcements when really necessary, turn off the call when you’re done and move on. It’s really not hard and anyone can either play the game alone or try to help.”

This is how the community reacts:

• Many recognize the problem and are also annoyed by it. They agree with Benderanomalous’s demand and would wish that players would use this search function correctly.
• A possible reason for the problem is seen by the user beastking9, who thinks that people call for reinforcements, complete a mission or something similar, then go away from the screen and often leave the call function activated.
• Some players are therefore calling for a timeout of the reinforcement call. Once a mission is completed, the player search should simply be disabled. This would probably avoid many such cases.

In general, you need to be quite unlucky to encounter such situations frequently. Usually, the voting function is more helpful than annoying and the calls for reinforcements are useful for many players.

A little bit of fine-tuning here and there could, however, benefit the system, as players agree.

What do you think about all of this? Have you had similar problems and what would you improve?

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How the Hunt for a Mask in The Division 2 Became My Coolest Experience

von Tarek Zehrer

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In The Division 2 you can get the exotic LMG Pestilence. Where to find it and what the Exotic can do, you can find out here in overview.

What is Pestilence? Since the “Tidal Basin” update it is the first exotic LMG in the game. This one is called Pestilence. The light machine gun specializes in PvP due to its special talents, where it spreads a “plague of the Outcasts”.

Location of Pestilence

How to find Pestilence: Since it is primarily a PvP weapon, you must march into an area that involves PvP to obtain Pestilence. Specifically, into the Dark Zone.

• Pestilence is a random drop in one of the three Dark Zones. Which Dark Zone you go to is up to you.
• Kill named enemies with yellow health bars. You have a chance to obtain the Exotic from them.
• You can quickly find these enemies at (challenging) landmarks.
• Pestilence is an Outcast weapon; however, it should not matter which named boss you kill. It does not have to be an Outcast boss. True Son bosses have also been confirmed as a source by users.
• Pestilence should be able to drop in “normal” and occupied Dark Zones. In occupied Dark Zones, you can get to it more efficiently (occupied Dark Zones have been confirmed more frequently as locations).

• The Pestilence can be a contaminated drop. This means you should exfil it as soon as you get it, so it safely belongs to you. In other words: You can also get to Pestilence by killing other players who have obtained a Pestilence but have not exfiltrated it yet.

The Talents of Pestilence – What the Exotic can do

This is Pestilence: It is an exotic light machine gun with a fire rate of 550 and a magazine size of 100. Pestilence is based on an M249; however, the base damage is quite low. This is compensated by the talents.

The Talents of Pestilence:

• The Plague of the Outcasts: After hitting the same enemy 20 times, they become afflicted with the plague of the Outcasts. When a contaminated enemy is killed, they leave a poison cloud for 10 seconds, adding 200% weapon damage and “Pestilence” to anyone caught within it per second.
• Pestilence: This debuff reduces healing received by 50% for 10 seconds. If an enemy affected by the Pestilence debuff is incapacitated, they die instantly. An enemy can remove Pestilence if they fully restore their armor.

The Pestilence talent is purely a PvP talent. If an enemy goes down, they die instantly – this effect is ineffective against PvE enemies, as they die immediately anyway.

• Outcast Resilience: This is the third talent. As long as the weapon is in the holster, you gain a 20% bonus armor for 5 seconds if you are blinded, on fire, or have a bleeding wound. This talent is practical in both PvP and PvE.

Is the weapon worth it? According to initial user opinions, the weapon is not worth it at all in PvE. The base damage is simply too low and the talents are too focused on PvP.

In PvP, Pestilence is also not recommended. The strong talents require 20 hits to activate at all. With a normal M249, you can easily kill enemies with 20 hits without needing the talents.

If you like to play with LMGs and occasionally hang out in PvP, you can definitely try the weapon. Because there are also user opinions that Pestilence is pretty cool in PvP.

Have you played Pestilence yet? What do you think of it?

Locations and talents of other Exotics:

• This is the Quack Duck – an exotic submachine gun
• This is Sweet Dreams – an exotic shotgun
• This is Merciless – an exotic rifle
• This is Freedom – an exotic pistol

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