Yesterday, on March 24, the very first global event started in The Division 2. Check out how the polarity switch event works and what rewards you can snag.
What kind of event is this? The loot shooter The Division 2 has been focusing on seasons since the major expansion “Warlords of New York“, similar to Destiny. As part of the first season, several events were announced, including the “polarity switch”.
Find out here how the entire event works, how you can participate, and what rewards await you.
First Global Event of The Division 2 – Polarity Switch
How does it work? If you decide to participate, every enemy and division agent has a specific polarity – Orange (Positive) or Blue (Negative).
Be careful to shoot only at enemies that have your displayed polarity. You can see your own polarity on your arm or in the area of active buffs. The enemies’ polarity is displayed above their health bar.
If you hit enemies that correspond to your polarity, you can build a strong damage boost with up to 5 stacks. If you have a strong damage build, the enemies will fall pretty quickly.
However, if you hit enemies with the wrong color, you will get shocked and become immobile and vulnerable for a few seconds, since you cannot take cover either.
Grenades and skills are not affected by the polarities. Here you can attack everything without paying attention to the enemies’ polarity.
How do I switch polarities? However, you do not have the same polarity all the time; it actually switches constantly with the following actions:
- When reloading and switching weapons, your own polarity is reversed
- If you hit an enemy with a melee attack, the enemy’s polarity switches
Here lies the challenge. Since your polarity changes constantly, you must always pay attention to what color you currently have. After reloading, you often need to switch weapons to attack the same enemy again without disadvantage. This costs time and can get you into trouble.
The event is optional and missions run over several days
How do I participate? The event is optional and must be activated manually; otherwise, you won’t participate. In the inventory menu, you will see the seasonal activities on the right. Here you will find the planned and completed activities of the current season, including the global event “Polarity Switch”. Go to the event menu’s selection screen and confirm your participation. You can also deactivate the event at any time when you’re in a safe zone.
How do I get the rewards and what are they? Every day you can earn “Event Stars” with specific projects. These are tasks like “Eliminate 200 enemies with positive polarity” or “Play any main operation at “Hard” difficulty or higher”.
Once you complete one of the tasks, you will receive stars that count towards the reward path. There are a total of 10 rewards to earn, including “Named Containers” and “Exotic Containers” that drop a named or exotic item. For every 5 stars, you will receive one of the containers. As the final reward, there is a backpack charm, which you will need another 10 stars for.
Each day, there are new projects, and you can still complete the ones from the previous day. Currently, four days of the event can be seen in the menu section. On the fourth day, you will have the most open projects and many missions can be completed at the same time.
How long is this event running? The polarity switch event runs until March 30. Whether another reward branch will come after the fourth day or if agents will get the remaining days to complete the tasks is yet to be seen.
Is it worth it? The missions add a bit of excitement and variety. With the stackable damage buff, enemies melt away at the highest level. However, it can also be frustrating if you get shocked by a stray shot and end up going down.
The rewards, unfortunately, are not that strong. A backpack charm as the top reward might not entice many players. Moreover, the containers can also contain inferior items. So there’s a chance that you get little useful from the containers, especially if your gear is already quite good. However, there could also be one of the named items that are currently considered best-in-slot for damage dealers or a decent exotic. The exotic container is probably the best reward here.
If you activate the event, you will immediately receive a patch. You might want to take that with you. If you don’t enjoy this special gameplay element, the rewards are not significant enough that you would miss out on something. Maybe you will prefer one of the next events better, there are rumors of zombies coming.
What do you think about the event and the rewards? Do the seasonal events keep you entertained?
