Capitalizing on the momentum of a successful launch, Ubisoft isn’t wasting any time improving the game and adding new content to The Division 2. Yesterday’s live streamed State of the Game detailed updates coming today and announced that the game’s first content update will release next week. Let’s recap.
Patch 1.7
In an update going out today, Ubisoft will address a number of high priority issues and roll out some performance fixes for those who are experiencing frame drops.
- The patch will address the remaining edge cases where skills will prematurely go on cooldown, following up on a recent patch that tackled the issue more broadly.
- Audio cutouts for users with specific headsets should be fixed.
- Another pass on scaling for co-op play will go out today. A patch addressed most of this issue recently, but there were some remaining issues. The fix should make grouping with a higher level friend feel a lot better.
- Clan nameplate colors are changing. You’ll no longer confuse your clanmate with a yellow enemy!
- Apparel cache duplicates were actually a display issue, but that is now resolved.
- Push-to-Talk will now be enabled by default. So you won’t have to hear your party members arguing with their mom about doing their homework.
- And finally, for you controller users out there, navigate category and mark as junk will no longer be assigned to the same button.
Title Update 2: Tidal Basin
Dropping on April 5th, this is the first major game update to The Division 2 and its main focus will be the addition of the Black Tusk’s main Stronghold, Tidal Basin, and the unlocking of World Tier 5 (GS 450-500).
Tidal Basin will require players to be in World Tier 4 with a Gear Score of 425 to unlock. Ubisoft’s developers noted that the Stronghold will be unique since it’s not tied to a real world location. As a military base and home of the Black Tusk, it will be heavily defended with cutting edge technology and SHD Tech. It was described as being similar to Shadow Moses from the Metal Gear series. In terms of size, Tidal Basin will be similar in size to Roosevelt Island, but with more verticality.
Tidal Basin will also drop True Patriot, one of the three new endgame item sets being added with this update. The folks at GameSpot got an exclusive look at the True Patriot set a couple of weeks ago, but there are no real details available for the remaining two sets at this time aside from their names (Ongoing Directive and Hardwired).
The update will also include weekly rotating invaded missions that aren’t limited to the ones currently available. Completing them for the first time each week will grant you a bonus reward. These missions will include the nastiest boss fights they could come up with. The invaded / normal state can be toggled for these missions, so you won’t be forced to play the invaded version during a rotation.
Heroic difficulty will also become available starting in World Tier 5. These missions will not have checkpoints. The developers described this difficulty as an “act of cruelty” with extremely good rewards for those brave (and tough) enough to successfully complete them. You can get an idea for how difficult Heroic content will be by tackling a level 4 control point in World Tier 4. Leveling up a control point to tier 4 technically brings it up to Heroic right now. There won’t be any gear locked away in Heroic difficulty content, so it’s completely optional.
There are some additional features coming with game update 2, including the game’s first major balance pass, with details to come later next week. Expect some more bug fixing and possibly some changes to weapon mods. PvP changes will not be included in this update, as the team wants to get a fuller picture of the situation with World Tier 5 and Gear Sets, but they are encouraging all the feedback and they note they’re paying close attention to the state of PvP.
What’s your take on all this? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
