With 1.8, The Division is more popular than ever in 2018. Many returnees and new players are drawn to Manhattan. But how do you find your way after completing the main story and reaching level 30? We show you where to start and what to pay attention to.
Up to level 30 in The Division, it’s all about gaining experience. After level 30, the goal changes; now you’re hunting for gear.
Upon reaching level 30, you have various options to upgrade your gear. From now on, the level of your gear is indicated as Gear Score. This shows how high the attributes of your gear are.
Gear Score isn’t everything in The Division
Many players who are new to the endgame are under the misconception that they need to have as high a Gear Score as possible. More important are well-suited sets and weapons. What good is a high GS if you randomly combine parts without benefiting from any set bonuses or weapon talents?
Don’t worry if your GS is low at the start. Your first priority should be to get a functioning set and good weapons with which you can then farm better gear. The Division offers several options.
What should you farm for gear?
At the beginning, there are High-End gear as well as so-called gear sets that you should keep an eye on. The more pieces you wear from a set, the more bonuses are unlocked. The simple sets are structured as follows:
- 2-piece bonus
- 3-piece bonus
- 4-piece bonus
You have several options here. You can either focus on a specific set or combine different sets, ensuring that set bonuses are active. We present a combination with this NinjaBike set.
World Ranks – How to influence difficulty and loot
By reaching the maximum level, you now have the five world ranks available. These are basically difficulty levels for the open world. They influence enemy level and the tier of gear you can receive, and the vendor items are adjusted accordingly.
Your goal is to advance to world rank 5 to access the best gear.
Note: Your inventory and your gear in storage influence the tier of vendor items. If you have a piece of gear whose Gear Score exceeds the maximum of a world rank, the vendor’s offerings automatically adjust.
At the respective ranks, you receive gear with the following Gear Scores:
- Rank 1 = 0 – 181
- Rank 2 = 182 – 203
- Rank 3 = 204 – 228
- Rank 4 = 229 – 255
- Rank 5 = 256 – 286
You can adjust the world rank on the map as you like and thus determine how tough the enemies should be according to your skills. If you feel ready, you can simply increase the difficulty and start farming better gear immediately.
How to take your first steps after level 30
At the beginning, it is advisable to focus on
- Playing missions
- Taking down high-value targets
Missions – For the entry, revisit the story
Missions that you have already completed in the main story remain playable and are a good opportunity, especially on challenging difficulty, for new players to internalize the mechanics of The Division and test new gear.
Additionally: You will receive loot not only from bosses but also from regular enemies.
This may not be the most effective way to farm, but it’s fun in a group, as long as you’re not playing the same mission over and over.
High-value targets – Hunting specific enemies
Once you’ve completed all main and side missions in a district of Manhattan, you can unlock the “Search and Destroy” missions in the safehouses. In these, you only need to take down a few easier enemies. As a reward, you receive a piece of gear and target data.
With the target data, you can unlock the “High-Value” and “High-Risk” targets from the respective NPCs at the terminal (or since 1.8 also in Camp Clinton). These come in daily and weekly variants. The rewards for the weekly targets are more generous.
Here you can earn Phoenix Credits and gear, while the tougher targets guarantee gear sets. The difficulty varies depending on which mission you choose. These can be tricky, but are usually not too difficult, providing a quick way to earn gear and Phoenix Credits.
Open World Bosses – Hey, that one has a name, let’s take him down
Once you have completed all side missions, you unlock named elite bosses in the respective districts. You can kill them every four hours and in the process, earn quite a bit of gear.
Survival – The goal is “Survival”
You can only access Survival if you own the DLC, which you can either get through the season pass or purchase separately.
As the name suggests, Survival mode is about survival. You must, poorly equipped, advance from the outskirts of Manhattan to the center, into the Dark Zone, and extract data.
Cold, hunger, and the virus make life hard for you, and you constantly need to search for food, medicine, and clothing and upgrade your gear to survive.
If you make it to the extraction point, the dangerous Hunters will appear. They can pose problems, but also provide exciting battles.
The better you perform in the end, the greater the reward will be. Here you can find some survival tips.
These are the endgame contents for advanced players
Once you have solid gear and are familiar with the game mechanics, you can transition to the next phase of The Division’s endgame. Here you search for the best gear, take on the strongest enemies, and seek the ultimate thrill in The Division.
Raids – The mini-raids of The Division
Raids are larger missions. In total, there are four: Falcon Lost, Clear Sky, Dragon’s Nest (part of the Underground DLC), and Lost Signal (part of the Last Stand DLC).
The 4 raids are completely different, requiring different play styles and tactics. So prepare yourself well.
As a reward for completing a raid, you can receive so-called exotic containers. These contain an exotic gear piece, Phoenix Credits, Division Tech, and target data. As the name suggests, you can only get the weekly container once per week. Each raid gives you one of these valuable boxes.
Legendary Missions – Now it gets tricky
Currently, there are 3 missions with legendary difficulty in the game: Times Square Relay, Napalm Production Site, and WarrenGate Power Plant.
Enemies are much stronger, behave differently, and thus put more pressure on players. You should have good gear and a functioning team, otherwise frustration is pre-programmed.
Here too, exotic containers await you upon mission completion.
With the upcoming patches 1.8.1 and 1.8.2, more missions will receive the legendary difficulty.
Resistance – Endless waves of enemies
This mode arrived with patch 1.8 and should also be played in a team with friends. You will face endless waves of enemies that get progressively harder. Various events occur, such as boss rounds, contamination waves, and other obstacles.
To go far, you need good coordination and a rough idea of what to expect in the upcoming waves. Advanced gear should ideally be available. In our guide, you can learn more about this.
Dark Zone – Not for justice fanatics, here it’s unfair
The Dark Zone is the hallmark of The Division. It mixes PvE and PvP, creating tension and excitement, but also a lot of frustration, because:
There are numerous landmarks where elite bosses await to be taken down by you. However, all loot is contaminated. You first need to extract it at certain points in the DZ.
Players can farm good gear very quickly, but must always be on guard against rogue players. These hunt other agents either for fun or to steal loot.
Therefore, our tip here is: Find yourself a good group. This way, you are better able to defend yourself against hostile groups.
The Underground – Well-adjustable difficulty
The Underground comes as a DLC into the game. Players must fulfill various mission objectives in randomly generated areas beneath the streets of New York while fighting through hordes of enemies.
With patch 1.8, the Hunters were also integrated into the Underground. They can randomly appear once per phase. They bring variety and exciting battles, and you also have higher chances for better loot.
This is one of the better ways to get gear. The difficulty can be adjusted, making the Underground beginner-friendly. You can also play the Underground alone or with other agents without much difficulty.
Final Stand and Last Stand – Structured PvP
In both PvP modes, you can earn containers by simply playing rounds. For advanced players, the contents of these boxes are usually useless, but with a bit of luck, some agents might get something useful.
Final Stand is also part of a DLC, so it’s not freely available.
The actual goal: The secret gear sets
If you’ve made it this far, you want to have the best gear in The Division.
Secret, or classified gear sets found their way into the game with 1.7. These expand the principle of previous gear sets and offer up to 6 set bonuses. These are very powerful but also rare and a loot that is worth pursuing.
How to identify secret gear
Color-wise, these are indistinguishable from normal sets, only a small white folder marks the better pieces. So be careful when disassembling, as players often report accidentally destroying several pieces.
Note: To unlock 6 bonuses of a set, you also need 6 secret pieces of that set. Normal pieces cannot be combined with them.
