So the Division 2’s Episode 1 update is out for those with a season pass, but everyone else has to wait for it. Well no worries, we’ll tell you what you should do before the update fully releases on July 30th.
The new update brings about some new missions, changes to skills, and balances to Washington D.C. There’s plenty of new missions to partake in, new weapons to see, and Expeditions to go on. For the most part to prepare for these new changes, we recommend that players should simply do what they’re currently doing and that is exploring Washington and doing the miscellaneous side-missions around the city. If you do so, then you can get some cool gear, and some sweet XP to get yourself over to the next world tier. Otherwise level yourself up however you want and we’ll tell you about the new changes you can expect when Episode 1 officially releases.
There are two new Main Missions that continue the Division 2’s storyline along with two shorter Classified missions that will surely give you some interesting rewards. Starting with the first main mission is Manning National Zoo. The story continues the pursuit on the Outcast Leader, Emeline Shaw. After she was defeated by our team on Roosevelt Island, she barricaded herself in the Manning National Zoo, so it’s up to you to end the Outcasts’ terror.
After that is Camp White Park where the Black Tusks’ leader has set up a position deep within the woods. You have to go in there and capture the leader and stop the Black Tusk in their new encampment.
There are also two additional Classified Assignments which are basically short side-missions which gives you some goodies such as backpack trophies and cosmetics. The two missions available for Episode one are Central Aquarium and NS Site B13. Obviously something is up in these areas, so you should take care of them.
Next up are the new Expeditions being introduced with this new update. Expeditions allow players to explore and fight in unexplored areas around Washington D.C. You get to explore these new areas by Zones which will unlock on a week-by-week basis. Not only will you be fighting the usual enemies, you’ll also be exploring this new area to find loot, solve puzzles, and get to the treasure room in the end.
Currently Kenley College is available to Season Pass owners, but it won’t be available to everyone until the 30th of July. So if anything you can expect to see some new bosses and loot if you manage to complete the three separate wings unlocked through the expedition, so be prepared for just about anything. It’s said that the bosses in this area will be more creative than your typical bosses you’ve faced in the campaign.
You will also get a new reward system for accepting backup from a random Division Agents. Since it’s hard to gather a random team through asking for backup through the map, Ubisoft made a new system to encourage helping other players through their missions. If you answer the call for a backup, players who originally asked for help will be able to endorse the player for accepting the call, and will gain some unique rewards through these endorsements.
This is a huge change as it is actually pretty rare to see a player accept the backup call, maybe we’ll see more full squads roaming around the Dark Zones, and maybe people will finish missions easier with the help of some randos through matchmaking. We don’t know what rewards will be given, but we can assume that it’ll be free proficiency packs or even some cool cosmetics.
For some changes to Raids, they’ve added a new Discovery mode for the Operation Dark Hours raid. With Discovery, it will introduce new players to raids by familiarizing themselves with the new mechanics and whatnot. Therefore the raid itself will be made easier in this mode and it’s because of that that the rewards will be less powerful than you’re used to. So you won’t get any cool rare and unique exotics if you play in this mode.
Additionally for a quality of life change, matchmaking will be added to the raid, making it so that connection and joining up with other players will be easier to newcomers. Now people should have an easier time doing the Raids because of the update.
For some changes that you can look forward to are some new exotic weapons and some new balances to the weapons and equipment. First off, exotic weapons now no longer have random range on damage and armor. All exotics are set to the previous highest possible value. This works well as Heroic bosses from around the game world will drop exotics as well and not just from raids. That’s right, if you ever picked up an exotic weapon or crafted an exotic, you have a chance to get it from a boss. This is useful as it allows players to get level 500 weapons without trying to upgrade the weapon, as upgrading exotics for whatever reason lowered damage at times.
Additionally, the exotics this time around are pretty cool. The first one is the Diamondback Exotic rifle that’s all about marking enemies with your shots and having them take critical damage. The other includes the BTSU Exotic gloves. They’re some gloves that give you some crazy status effects when dealing damage and using your skills.
Best of all are the skill changes. Currently the changes are in so you can totally enjoy all of the new skill fixes. Haste has been added to replace Cooldown Reduction. The minimum cooldown cap for all skills is 3 seconds now and cooldown reduction from haste has been buffed to lower the cooldown even more. Also many of the gadgets in the game have been buffed to do more damage and be used more frequently in order to make them feel more useful in fights.
Well these are going to be the main changes for when Episode 1 releases for non-season pass holders. I hope that this guide will prepare you for what’s the come and take down the forces oppressing Washington.
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