The Division 2 is a massive game with many parts that make the whole experience. So, it doesn’t come as a surprise that some things become lost in the game’s many mechanics. Here are some tips and tricks that beginners and advanced players can find useful.
Personalizing The Map and HUD
The Division 2 allows players to modify their HUD. Players have the option to manually change the location of each element on screen as well as their size. To do this, players need to open the settings tab and from there go to the UI settings tab. Here, you can cycle through the elements and change the location and the scale. You may also choose to save the current layout as one of your custom layouts, if you so choose. The map in The Division is very important not only for showing the relative location of items of interest but also shows the direction of where the enemy is attacking from. For someone like myself, I’d like to be one step ahead of the enemy and having a clear indicator is the first step towards countering their advances.
Special Ammo Crates
In between fights during one of the many story missions in the game, the player can stumble upon special crates that hold special rounds for your currently held weapon. When opened, the crates provide 30 rounds of special ammo. Regular rounds do not stack up until all 30 rounds are spent. Some of the ones I’ve found so far are incendiary, shock, and high velocity rounds. Incendiary and shock rounds can cause status effects that buys time for your allies time to kill enemies more quickly. High velocity rounds travel faster and connects on the target more frequently. In almost all cases, round do additional damage.
Hitting Enemy Weak Spots
Enemies have certain weak spots that can be hit for added damage. The head and hands are obvious weak points, and hitting these locations will deal critical damage. But there are others that are not immediately recognizable. Some enemies have grenades or explosive shells hanging on their waist. Technicians have backpacks full of sensitive equipment. Shooting at these will cause an explosion that will not only instantly kill its owner but potentially others around them as well. Heavies wielding light machine guns have their ammo belts sticking out on the side. Destroying the ammo belt will force the Heavy to load in a new belt. If he carries around a grenade launcher, destroying the backpack on his back will force him to use another weapon altogether.
There are also faction specific add-ons that the player may also want to look out for. Specifically, the Hyenas and the Outcasts. Hyena melee combatants have a drug pouch on there on sides. Popping it spreads a drug cloud that makes everyone around it slower and nonreactive. Outcasts carry flammable canisters, and shooting them covers the surrounding area in a sea of flames.
Useful Early Game Perks
The Division 2 does not hold your hand when it comes to its perk system, apart from the tutorial perk that allows the player to carry a second main weapon. Most players often choose to have more grenades or carry more armor kits. But early on in the game, these perks affect very little as locations are close to base and the respawns are forgivable.
Instead, might I suggest that players use their SHD Tech on experience multipliers and the Deconstruction perk. The experience multipliers give an EXP boost when certain conditions are met, such as landing headshots or surviving an encounter. It may seem insignificant in the long run, but it’s one of the more efficient ways of leveling up since all your additional EXP points to add up. The deconstruction perk allows the player to yield more crafting materials when deconstructing an item. The second one allows for a chance for rare materials to appear in the process. Crafting becomes very important in the mid to late game as some of the best items can only be crafted from a crafting table.
Attaching Mods
Just in case there are some really paranoid people out there wondering if mods carry over to other weapons. Yes, mods do not get destroyed nor can they be sold at vendors to higher the selling cost. In fact, you can add those mods to as many guns as you want with reckless abandon. Do keep in mind that mods increase one aspect of the gun’s performance at the cost of another. Every mod comes at cost, you just have to find the ones worth holding on to. Or just go with a machine gun that shoot bullets with near laser-like precision, while taking an eternity to reload. Whatever floats your boat, buddy.
Combat Tips
My first tip comes in the form of basic controls. I know we take going between cover for granted (being well-versed in Uncharted and Horizon and whatnot.) But The Division’s hold X to sprint to cover is more useful than you think. Sprinting towards cover lowers your profile, allowing you to dodge more bullets in transit. Also, manually removing yourself from cover to cover runs the risk of leaving yourself exposed to enemy fire. If you are caught in the open, you will die quickly. Enemies in this game are far more lethal than the previous one. Their flanks are effective and their gadgets are going to force you to be creative in term of engagements.
The second tip is that there is an option to change when you want to go around corners. (In the picture below.) It’s annoying when you want to peek at the enemy from the corner but you accidentally pressed the button long enough to shift positions. It’s gotten me killed on more than one occasion. In addition, if the enemy is really close to you, you can opt to blind fire instead of aiming down sights. Blind firing in close quarters doesn’t leave your character vulnerable to attack like aiming down sights would. But your aim is going to be all over the place.
The third and final tip is actually for the new comers out there. Pressing Triangle once swaps between your primary weapons. Pressing it twice in quick succession brings out your reserve pistol. The pistol readies itself faster than swapping between 2 primaries. It can save your life when you have nothing else left to defend yourself with.
Early Game Brand Sets
From my experience, I find that the Douglas and Harding Brand Set are some of the best gear early game players can have. The set grants +5.0% accuracy, +10.0% Critical hit damage, and +7.0% Critical hit Chance. The perks work well with any kind of weapon arrangement and ensures that you’ll be pumping out that extra dose of pain. If the gear comes with additional attributes, then all the better. The benefits are so good that I sacrificed having more armor from higher level gear for extra stopping power. But if you can’t put a decent Brand Set together, you are better off looking for individual parts that give lots of armor and with supporting by Gear Talents. You can find out more about your current gear by pressing the R2 and looking at your gear stats.
Fast Level Progression
The Division contains plenty of side activities to occupy your time. These range from World timed events to control points that gives the player a new spawn location. From what I can tell about the experience distribution, Main Story Missions give out the most experience. If you are willing, you can breeze through the main story line and head straight towards the end game content. Oh, and if you’re worried that the other side missions will be useless to you. Don’t be. Side missions scale up with you according to your level so you can keep coming back for more loot without feeling like it’s another day on the firing range.The rewards for completing side missions are worth it, by the way. Not only do you get SHD tech, you can also unlock weapon upgrades too.
Safe Houses and Control Points
Speaking of progressing faster, safe houses and control points are a great way to traverse the map simply because they provide a fast travel point. Additional benefits include unlocking new side missions and new bounties. The difference between them is that you can just walk into a Safe House and it will automatically unlock for you. But control points need to be liberated from enemy hands. It’s also worth noting that taking over a control point will reward you with extra boxes.Control points will almost always have a friendly patrol nearby, ready to aid you against opposing factions.
That’s all the tips and tricks I have right now, check back in when we do more Division 2 guides.