The Division 2 – Skill Power and What They Are Used For

So, you’ve been playing The Division 2 for a while now. You know enough of the game that you are familiar with the basics such as control points and enemy activities. Heck, you probably already have a farming loop that you use to optimize your gear. During one of your trips to a side mission, you come across an unknown mod that you’ve never seen before. And that’s when it hits you – this is mod that you can attach to your skills. What you have in your hands is a skill mod – a unique modifier for one of your skills. In your excitement, you open up the inventory and press square on the appropriate skill. You look through the list, and to your surprise, you can’t make use of it. Sorry bud, you don’t have enough skill power to equip that mod.

Skill mods start appearing at around level 10 or 11. You can either craft them from the crafting bench (though higher rarity mods require a specific crafting component to make.) or you can find them during your travels throughout Washington D.C. Your equipment dictates how much skill power you have – indicated by the stats window on the lower left of the inventory screen. Most equipment barely scratches the surface of the requirements. For example, a purple skill mod can require upwards of 400 skill power in order to equip. A full set of gear can barely reach 50 skill power without aid.

So, how do we raise the skill power? It’s simple really, you need to find gear that has attributes that raise skill power. It’s tedious and the associated armor may not be nearly as good as your preferred set, but it’s the only way to effectively have enough skill power to equip skill mods. In most cases, blue pieces of gear may be a good starting point. But most of the time, you’ll require multiple pieces of gear that possess attributes that add to skill power. There’s no clear cut way of doing this… You will just have to keep a sharp lookout for specific gear pieces either on the map, through crafting, or by looking through the vendors’ wares.

Just a couple of things to remember when dealing with mods. Firstly, mods take up inventory space. You can hold up to 60 gear mods at a time. (That includes mods that fit onto clothing.) But considering that most of these mods will be discarded in favor of more powerful ones, that wouldn’t be much of an issue. Secondly, I would like to stress that it’s completely OK to continue playing the game without your skills having mods. My only bit of advice is to just be aware of them. I’m pretty sure that most mods begin paying for themselves once you’ve hit the Endgame. Even at around level 15, you can start to feel like mods make a difference in a fight. But that’s just my opinion.

Alright, that’s all I have right now in terms of skill mods. Check back in when we do more comprehensive guides for the dark zone, multiplayer, and possibly the Endgame.