Changes to the secret Gear Sets in The Division are coming soon. They drop far too rarely.
The secret Gear, known as “Classified Gear,” was introduced with Update 1.7 and has since been highly sought after by agents. These items represent the best armor pieces in the game, as they provide not only additional bonuses but also higher attributes than any other armor pieces.
The most efficient way to obtain secret Gear Sets is through Global Events. During an event, you can specifically farm Global Event Credits and use them to open special containers that may contain secret Gear Sets. If you play a lot during the Global Event week, you’ll collect some of the coveted items.
If you don’t have time during this event week or only manage to get a few set pieces, you can still get them after the event. After that, the sets move into the general loot pool. However: After a Global Event, the chances of obtaining secret Gear Sets are significantly lower.
And here lies a larger problem: Over time, it becomes increasingly difficult to acquire the specific secret armor piece you desire.
0.036% chance for the item you want
The YouTuber and Division expert MarcoStyle has conducted calculations on the drop probabilities of secret armor pieces.
First: The chances of obtaining Classified Gear from containers are at 1% and as a drop from named bosses at 3%. In the following calculations, the 3% chance has been used as the basis.
The first Global Event in August introduced the first three secret Gear Sets: DeadEYE, Final Measure, and Lone Star. Assuming you were still missing the secret “Final Measure” gloves for your build after the event, you had a 0.167% chance that this specific item would drop from a boss kill.
Why is that? There is only a 3% chance that any Classified item drops. After the first Global Event, this could have been DeadEYE, Final Measure, or Lone Star, and from each set, it could be the backpack, mask, knee pads, chest piece, holster, or gloves. So, the chance to obtain the “Final Measure” gloves was already extremely low back then.
However, the second Global Event is now over, which introduced three new secret Gear Sets. These also entered the loot pool with the 3% chance. This means that while there are now more secret Gear Set pieces in the loot pool, the likelihood of obtaining the desired item is significantly lower.
For example: If you still want the “Final Measure” gloves, the current chance is at 0.083% (upon a boss kill).
But that’s not the end. In the future, two more Global Events are scheduled, each of which – according to the current information from the PTS – will bring four new secret Gear Sets directly.
Once all 14 secret Gear Sets are in the game, the chances of getting the “Final Measure” gloves will be 0.036% (upon a boss kill):
In other words: You have to kill an average of 2778 named enemies to obtain the desired item. Or to put that into perspective in terms of performance crates: You need to open an average of 8333 crates to get the desired item.
How are the developers responding to this problem?
These calculations show that it’s currently not worth farming secret Gear Sets from named bosses – and it will be even less worthwhile in the future. Other ways to obtain Classified Gear must come soon when there isn’t a Global Event running.
There have already been announcements from the developers: There will be “Classified Caches” as rewards through the new game modes Skirmish and Resistance. These containers will then guarantee secret items. And if you are in the Dark Zone, you can also earn crates that drop Exotics and Classified items.
It is clear: New ways to obtain secret items are coming. However, this does not change the fact that the chances are so low with the named bosses.
Possible changes could be:
- Increasing the drop chance for bosses. When three secret Gear Sets were in the loot pool, the chance was 3%. If 14 are in the loot pool, the chance should be 14%. However, this could lead to there being too many secret Gear Set pieces.
- A token system could also be possible: You receive tokens from boss drops that you can then exchange for the desired items. However, a look at Destiny 2 shows that players don’t want tokens as loot, but rather items directly. After all, it’s more exciting to extract a perfectly rolled item in the Dark Zone than a token.
- Or: Implement an option that only specific Gear Sets can drop in the game. If you still need the “Final Measure” gloves, you could set it so that only the Gear Sets from Global Event 1 are in the loot pool.
We will see if the developers will respond to these low drop chances. What solution do you propose?
Interesting: The Division: More Explosions! – What Global Event 3 & 4 bring
