PlotsTom Clancy's The Division is an apolitical game wherein you play the role of a super patriot (or crazy-crazy) sleeper agent who is a member of the Strategic Homeland Division (SHD) aka "The Division," called upon by the President of the United States in order to preserve/restore the continuity of the United States government with extreme prejudice, in chilly New York City.
The sequel,
Tom Clancy's The Division 2, is also an apolitical game wherein you play the role of a different super patriot (or crazy-crazy) sleeper agent, called upon by the President of the United States in order to preserve/restore the continuity of the United States government, in Washington D.C. This game takes place several months after the first, so it's really hot and muggy. Also sections of Washington D.C seem to have reverted back to literal swampland, and the rest is just overgrown.
But yeah, there are totally no politics or political messages in either game. You're just a person authorized to restore government control via any means necessary. Really. No politics! Nope.
BackstoryThe story of The Division begins in 2001, with
Operation Dark Winter, a real world simulated of bio-terror attack. It was projected that the US health care system lacked the capacity to support such a massive surge in sickness, and that generally there would be conflicts between the federal and state governments in how to control the outbreak and panic among the people and well, it wasn't good. An excerpt from the sim responses regarding this:
“My fellow governors are not going to permit you to make our states leper colonies. We’ll determine the nature and extent of the isolation of our citizens....You’re going to say that people can’t gather. That’s not your [the federal government’s] function. That’s the function, if it’s the function of anybody, of state and local officials." (Frank Keating, Sim Governor of OK)
“Mr. President, this question got settled at Appomattox. You need to federalize the National Guard.” (George Terwilliger, Sim Attorney General).
“We’re going to have absolute chaos if we start having war between the federal government and the state government." (Sam Nunn, Sim President)
The general idea is that the US government and healthcare infrastructure simply wasn't ready for it. In response to this, in-game the President/federal government secretly creates an organization of sleeper agents that would answer only to the President, with the express goal of restoring and maintaining continuity of government in a crisis. This agency is the Strategic Homeland Division... aka "The Division". Division agents are hand-picked from various fields. With recruitment occurring via word-of-mouth like you'd expect a secret cabal of sleeper agents to work. There are field agents, and also Division agents with no combat capabilities... obviously you're not one of them.
Over a decade later (2015), during Black Friday, a bio-terrorist attack occurs. Known as the "Dollar Flu"/"Green Poison" this smallpox variant was super effective and while the focus of the games are NYC and DC, it spreads the world over. During the outbreak the US government's response was to reorganize the national guard, and all of the police, fire departments, etc. into a single group under CERA (this universe's FEMA), called the Joint Task Force. As the situation grows worse and the JTF begins to falter, the President activates the sleepers.
This doesn't help. Some of the First Wave division agents go rogue, the same faith (or just general crazy) ultimately causing them to turn their backs and strike out on their own, joining the many factions that are all squabbling over controlling what remains. With that wave failing, the second wave is called in, which represents your Agent in the first game, and possibly the sequel too.
Gameplay
Both games are cover based looter-shooter RPGs, with the sequel having more tactical/realistic leaning than the first.
On top of the looting and shooting, the sequel features a simulated faction territory control system. Control points are located in each section of the map, and after you reach a certain level the factions will fight to gain control of them. Resource nodes are also tied to these control points, and the simulation has NPCs gathering from them to keep their base running if you don't do it for them. The factions fight for control of these nodes, and supplies between control points they own.
Progression after max level is tied to a gear score and unlocking world tiers (which you can freely switch between in the first) through completing additional missions and requirements. The sequel will also feature 8-player raid content, though this has not been released as of yet but is coming soon. The first major content update happened last week, featuring the highest tier (WT5).
Clans
The Division 2 has in-game clan support, and there are several PA clans and side-clans for all platforms. In order to join a clan, you should put your name on the following
spreadsheet, ideally prior to requesting an invite. Each clan/platform has different officers that can accept the invitation.
This spreadsheet has information for
both games, so make sure you document in the tab for the appropriate one.
[Officer Names?]Helpful InformationThis is a link to the Division 2 Encylopedia. Here you'll find info on all the weapons, perks and talents and it's fairly regularly maintained.
This is a link to an interactive map of all locations (caches, spawns, you name it) in the current DC map.
If there is any other pertinent information, it can be added. If there is a good video on how to get all the easter egg stuff, that'd be appreciated.
Hunters
Hunters are hidden bosses in the
The Division games whose only known objective is to kill agents and collect their watches. Whether or not this is because you want to kill them and wear their faces remains to be seen. As optional bosses, they can be tough depending on your gear vs World Tier. Some hunters are available at any time, while others can only be fought at night (1900 - 0500) in-game. You can check to see what time it is by going into photo mode. It's in the right side of the UI. If you fail to kill one it may despawn and you will have to wait another 'day'/'night' cycle to trigger it again. Hunters can only be triggered after you first encounter one in a sub-mission... you'll know it when it happens.
These videos were created a reddit user and more info can be found
here, along with step by step directions. If you want to find out how to trigger the hunters on your own, you must find the graffiti cypher puzzles hidden in the game, solve them, then figure out what they want you to do... Otherwise, you can just look at these videos. The numbers correspond to the video that contains how to acquire them.
1
Demon Mask
2
Crimson Mask
3
Ghoul Mask
4
Wraith Mask (Night Required)
5
Ghost (Night Required)
5
Specter Masks (If you miss a window, leave the area and come back.)
6
Midas and Revenant Masks (Night required)
7
Phantom, Death, Cross, and Diamond Phantom Masks (These will not despawn if you don't take them all out, but will chase you... even to just outside safe houses)
edit:
RIP: Animu Division 2 -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO1lmTiTqZY
Posts
pleasepaypreacher.net
We have officers?
pleasepaypreacher.net
"fuck this guy! fuck him! seriously fuck this guy! he injected puppies with green poison and then dropped them off at elementary schools! fuck him! fucking kill him!"
Would "invitation navigators" be a better term? :P
The writing on some of these cards is like straight edgelord or like trying to be funny but really doing poorly. Like its supposed to be written by the bounty guy so it has an opinion, but yeesh the writing here is "IS THIS THE DIVISION?" bad.
pleasepaypreacher.net
The folks that make sure our clan beret looks good in our colors.
Law and Order ≠ Justice
most of the entire codex is kind of bad and poorly written
hell I just discovered there are cinematics and stuff in it
The videos are hard to watch if you haven't seen any before. Like straight out murder porn.
pleasepaypreacher.net
For Pax Arcadia (PS4) it's rndm and squall...
and Pax Arcadia (PC) just has "Beret Color Coordinators?" Got it. :P Is there still a PAX 2 or were you (PC) guys still using the other clan whose name I forgot.
I haven't even bothered with clans yet.
Anyone with Agent rank can also invite people, Lieutenants can edit clan banner and kick people though.
Actually, next time I get a decent shotgun drop I'm going to experiment with "pommel" to see if it's consistent enough to trade out for "premeditated" so I can add "on the ropes." I think it will fall apart with elites though
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
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Its getting real annoying that its basically every 1 in 15-20 items that drop at 500.
We saw it working perfectly fine at 450 with every item being 450 at that point, so this just seems to be some dumb way to make the grind longer for no good reason.
That's the reason though tier 4 wasn't end game, this is and they can't possibly give people full gear. Though you can optimize to top out.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I checked it, it does 1/6 of the damage of my Military M60... 1/6! This is an exotic for christ sakes!
Pestilence - 5.200 damage
Military M60 - 32.700 damage
Honestly most of the exotics are either a holstered perk or situational. Its been more than a little underwhelming going from division 1 where you could build around like a house, or a showstopper. And this not at all. Just like the sets we have are underwhelming?
It's like they are risk averse giving players anything that could be "game breaking" so they give people things that are worse than yellows. One of the youtubers I watched go over tidal basin as an update said it made him curtail his expectation about the raid. Either the exotics there will be game breaking thus forcing everyone to raid and that will go over like a wet fart, or they'll be the same mediocrity we got which means no one will raid.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Perks that say "While Equipped" will apply with any weapon you have readied.
Perks that say "While Holstered" will only apply if the weapon with the perk is holstered.
Other perks function only if the weapon is readied.
I'm not salty about this at all
On The Ropes is actually pretty okay to use skills with, as having charges left in your Chem Launcher doesn't matter so long as it isn't full.
Pulse or Seeker and Chem of your choice is still handy. The yellow slots let me mod in three or four Chem ammo.
I tried out Calculated for a bit, but I couldn't quite cover for my lack of Patience without Unbreakable or the 50 percent chance of a free armor kit.
Having seekers out every 15 seconds or so was pretty cool, though, and I can see some value in pulsing forever or keeping a spotter drone up at all times.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
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It's one of the main things that hampers the hardwired set as well. Since on cooldown means you have to have deployed the skill and it has to be "gone" it is really hard to leverage that component of the set to have any real consistent value.
Also - how is your shotgun build working? Sounds interesting but I would be worried about getting destroyed by being close enough to use one effectively in the higher tier stuff.
still a wip. ended up having to drop pummel since it requires 4+ reds, meaning no compensated. need a new weapon active, and the only real choices are optimist or steady hand. neither of which i have right now. got everything else going but need to find better armour (ended up throwing stuff together to cover what i needed to activate skills, so don't have the brand bonuses i'd like yet). also thinking of trading in my spas 12 for a super 90 because it has slightly better range, faster reload speed, and 3 mod slots instead of 1. just over twice the rate of fire for exactly half the damage (if i can find a good roll) is good now I don't have to worry so much about 1-shotting with body shots.
so far, i've been able to solo anything i've tried. haven't played any heroic, but i did the invaded stronghold on challenging and basin on hard. just chem launcher heal and emp pulse that i spam whenever it's off cd to keep my on the ropes up. +3 cp is not too bad (run them nonstop to collect bps), +4 takes time depending on how open it is.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
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Which is why merciless isn't a marksman thing.... its a demolitionist thing. Your LMGS get buffs from spec, explosion damage gets buffs from spec. And now merciless causes your lmg bullets to randomly explode? explosions everywhere.
Look at the time, it's Jefferson o'clock- I forgot that I'll be farming for that today.
Y'all hitting world tiers, I hope you have tons of fun. Tiers one to five are a sort of endgame tour, where you see the neat missions, meet the new guys on the block, and get used to rushers being really scary. The missions pop up again, rather than being one and done.
When you hit tier 5, you can safely start looking at keeping your drops for a good while and building around them. Gear Score on drops is determined by the highest item in your inventory, on your person, or in your cache, so you don't need to swap stuff out all the time. The difference between 450 and 500 items is primarily in raw armor value. Other stats don't really get higher budgets.
For the moment, lower tier mods tend to be the most applicable when it comes to doing neat things with your skills. Chem ammo +5 might cost 2500 skill power, while +3 might be a mere 1100. A single item can have +650 skill power on it, so it can be easy to make your chem launcher more fun to play around with, for example.
Oh, and there's a social space just outside the Whitehouse spawn which should be open for business at tier one on. I've heard mixed reports of it being active earlier? Anyway- Rallypoint Omaha, on your right after loading in, has a full suite of vendors, matchmaking and crafting stations, as well as access to your clan hall and a travel point for unreleased off-site activities.
welcome to the grindhouse........ im still waiting.....
I got a holster the other day that seems pretty keen for my demo spec, especially considering the adjustment made to how specialized ammo drops. Can't remember its exact name but its an ability that allows you to cook your 'nades before chucking them so it gives enemies less chance to get out of the aoe circle. Feels like something that should be a trait in the demo tree? But hey its on my holster now and every holster forever more.
What a fun game!
To Order. It's pretty fun. The aim line will even show where in the path the grenade will blow up if you cook it long enough to airburst. Oddly, as long as they don't get hit, detonating a grenade right above a group of enemies will not aggro them.
It's pretty dope.
You can stack the debuff and chunk people.
Kind of wish this game had a better in-game explanation of things. Just the other day, I had to look up what those red, yellow, and blue symbols mean so I understood what the requirements on some weapon perks meant.
Clans include a bit of progression system where they unlock a vendor, a weekly goody box, and a leaderboard. You can also join directly on clan mates from the social panel, as you can with friends.
Strong alone, STRONGER TOGETHER!
oh... wait. wrong game.
Law and Order ≠ Justice
I don't know on this. I was in a streamers chat yesterday and someone had taken apart their chatterbox and couldn't then get the pieces back. I would avoid breaking it down.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Ugh, does that leave me with trying to farm the DZ exotic LMG for components?
Law and Order ≠ Justice