Greetings Agents,

We are back with a new Agent Highlights! September was full of lovely creations, and as always, it has been a delight going through what the community has created for this month. So let us head straight to it!

You probably know how it works by now: all featured Agents will receive an in-game gift of 1000 Phoenix Credits.



For the second time in a row we will start with our cosplay section. We have amazing shots that we can't wait to share with you. Straight from EGX, we have our Agents, Dayle Henley, LondonGamer94 and ImaginaryCos, who dominated the show!



This beautiful shot was taken by the talented 2ndlawphotography, check out more of his amazing work here.


Next, we have a front row seat to an inevitable confrontation! Frostie and Skumy6661 are facing each other, Agent to Hunter. We can feel the tension!





Who do you think won this, Agents?


We all like a challenge. Especially when the stakes are high. However, it seems our two heroes, Goose and Kenga, had some hard times with their latest challenge.



We have been monitoring this one since it was merely a sketch. Agent 3.x cosplay by Keelan is finally here, and we get a sneak preview!



Last but not least, we have Nickolas Phoenix with his new loadout, "Capitol Defender" set. Nicely put together Agent.





Agent Mab is known for her unique The Division inspired scenarios, you might remember the Rogue Beer post from last year. Now, she is back with another one!





Next up we have an absolutely mesmerising piece of work. We can't stop admiring it. We love the cosplay, the editing and everything about it.



This collaboration between Area The Fox (cosplay) and Akunohako (photographer) has led to the creation of something beautiful. We can't wait to see more similar collaborations between our community members.


We have another item to share with you in our Fan Creation section. This was created by EveyOnline, and we advise you to view it here.

Finally, we have an update on the #MissingAgents project by Mab, 6Golf3Bravo and Max. We are still looking forward to see what will be coming next!





We will kick off this section with a beautifully executed art piece by Athr94. This one caught our eyes instantly, not only by the amount of details, but because it's in fact drawn on black paper!



We love it, and can't wait to see more from you!


Next we have our superstars, Area The Fox, who are featured in this amazing piece of art. The art itself is the work of MarianaSmano, and inspired by Area The Fox.



We always love seeing this type of art, and great job on getting all those details in black and white.

For our last Fan Art piece, we have got a cool GIF created by Purplewurkz.



We love how the animation progression brings the Agent to life!



For this month's Team Favourite, we went with something different. It did not take us long to realise how much in love we are with this one. We present to you the newest and toughest Division Agent to exist so far! SHD Rabbid!



"Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

We would like to thank Agent Mab for this lovely creation!


And that concludes our Agent Highlights for this month. Remember Agents, if you would like to be featured in next month's Agent Highlights article, don't forget to tweet your creations with the hashtag #AgentHighlights.

ATTENTION: Agents, please follow @TheDivisionGame on Twitter so we can get in touch with you for the rewards.

Thank you from all of us!

Until next time,

The Division Community Team

Agents!

This is the first article in a series of development blogs that we will be releasing up until the launch of The Division 2. In this series, we will be diving into different aspects of game to give you detailed insights and information. In this article we will go through all things weapons, including weapon types, exotics, grenades, talents, and mods.

MAIN WEAPONS AND SIDEARMS

In The Division 2, we have reworked weapon handling from scratch to deliver a more realistic experience and more interesting gameplay. The recoil system is all new and every weapon will feel unique and behave in its own way.

Secondly, we have added another weapon category - Rifles. This means that, in The Division 2, we will have:

• Assault Rifles
  
• Marksman Rifles
  
• Submachine Guns
  
• Shotguns
  
• Light Machine Guns
  
• Pistols
  
• Rifles

Rifles will be an all new category and will include all semi-automatic and burst-fire rifles. There are several reasons that we decided to introduce this category, the main one being the balancing perks.

In The Division, the many different rifles are grouped into two categories - the Assault Rifle or Marksman Rifle category. In The Division 2, we have decided to add a third category for these weapons. This will allow us to create specific and relevant bonuses for semi-auto and burst-fire rifles, as well as all other weapons. Our ambition with these changes is to have a great variety of equally viable weapons in the game, so that you will have a wider range of weapons.

EXOTICS

For The Division 2, we knew we wanted exotic weapons to be even more exciting and we have put a lot of effort into each and every exotic weapon for The Division 2.

From an art perspective, the exotic weapons will stand out a lot more in the sequel. Each weapon will have its own unique look and be clearly distinguishable. Every visual element of the weapons will tell a bit about the story and theme of the weapon - all connected to the lore. Each exotic weapon will have its place in the world.

GRENADES

In The Division, there are six different kinds of grenades available and everyone can use them. For The Division 2 we have decided to go in a different direction regarding grenades.

This time around, your grenades will be connected to your specialization, which aren't unlocked until level 30. During level 1-29, the Concussion grenade, will be the only one available to you.

At level 30, there will be three additional types of grenades, each tied to a specialization:

• Flashbang grenade - Sharpshooter
  
• Incendiary grenade - Demolitionist
  
• Frag grenade - Survivalist

Whenever you switch specialization, you will also switch grenade type. This means that you will never have, for example, a Flashbang and an Incendiary grenade at the same time. However, the Concussion grenade will always be available, no matter what specialization you use.

This makes sure that the grenades can be powerful and useful, without being such a large part of your arsenal, thereby invalidating a lot of other sources of damage. It also means that you will have a much clearer idea of the capabilities of each player in PVP and PVE, depending on how they've chosen their specialization. Not only will it help when facing enemies, it will also add more depth to the assembly of your own squad. Based on what activity you will be engaging with, be it raids, missions, or PVP – different grenade types might be more viable than others.

MODS

In the sequel, mods will be unlocked and not looted. The reason for this change is that some mods were seen as must-have upgrades on all weapons, which lead to the modding experience becoming less interesting. It also made reloading less important due to inflated magazine sizes, and weapon handling less dynamic because of the high handling numbers on the mods. For The Division 2, we will change the mod system so that modding the weapon will be about customizing its feel and use to fit your playstyle, rather than about mandatory upgrades.

Once a mod is unlocked, it will always be unlocked, and it can be used on as many weapons as you want simultaneously. However, not every mod will fit every weapon. Different weapons have different caliber, and of course, the same goes for muzzle attachments and magazines.



Unlike in The Division, mods will have set stats, and they will be the same for everyone. However, in addition to positive stats, there will also be negative ones. For example, an extended magazine will give you more rounds, but it will also give you lower reload speed because it's bigger and heavier. The purpose of this is to be able to have an unlock system where you choose mods based on personal preference, while still keeping it balanced.

Since all the mods have negative effects, you will have to evaluate whether a certain stat is valuable enough to trade off with the negative stat. For example, if you have a weapon that you like but it kicks a bit too much for your taste, perhaps you can sacrifice a little bit of accuracy or range to make the handling more comfortable for you.

In line with the rest of the game, we have pushed the realism of the mod system quite a lot. The positive/negative stats system will bring realism by itself, but other aspects of the mods have been considered as well. For example, instead of getting bigger mags in percentage, you will get the exact number of extra rounds relevant for that weapon type in real life. This means that there won't be any +121% magazines in the sequel. This will make the reload speed and magazine size of a weapon much more relevant, as well as making reloading a more dynamic and common part of the combat rhythm for both PVE and PVP.

WEAPON TALENTS

In The Division 2, the talent system will be completely reworked and you will have all new talents. In the first game, weapon talents have two types of requirements – a minimum amount of main stats and some kind of action to activate the talent. For the sequel, we have reworked the requirements system to make the creation of builds more interesting and creative.

For The Division 2, we want talents to play a bigger role in your builds, and make the assemblage of a build more fun. Therefore, the requirements for a talent will be able to be pretty much anything. For example, having a gear piece with a particular brand, a certain attribute, or having a specific weapon type equipped. The only restriction is that each talent will have a gameplay theme and the weapon's requirements will be connected to that theme. This will give you a greater understanding of how the talent can be used, and whether it fits your playstyle or not.

Another new feature is the augmented reality tracker that will sit on the side of your guns when you scope in. It is a real-time tracker for you weapon's talent that will show different things depending on what talent you have equipped. For example, it can light up when the talent is activated or help you keep count of shots left until the talent activates, etc. The purpose of this is to make it easier for you to understand your talents and use them in the most efficient way.

Even though talents as a feature is confirmed, any talents, bonuses, or stats shown before the game's release are subject to change.

Be sure to join us over on the Official Forumsor on the community Reddit to discuss today's article; we'd love to hear your thoughts!

We will be releasing these articles regularly, so remember to keep an eye out!

/The Division Dev Team

Agents, incoming State of the Game transmission:

During the last State of the Game, Community Developers Petter Mårtensson and Yannick Banchereau discussed the Talon Shield launch and provided a roadmap of Division activities for September.

Petter and Yannick are back this week to talk about our in-game event schedule for October and the first of our development blogs for The Division 2, tackling the topic of weapons.

If you missed the stream, you can check out the Twitch VoD.



Our first entry in our “Intelligence Annex” developer blog series is being released today on our official website. In today’s blog we will be deep-diving into the weapons of The Division 2, tackling subjects such as the main weapons, side arms, exotics, grenades, mods and weapon talents.

In addition, Fredrik Thylander - Lead 3C Designer on The Division 2 will be joining us in next week’s State of the Game stream to talk about the philosophy behind the weapons and changes made in the sequel. If you want to learn more about the work that has gone that aspect of the game, don’t miss it!

Our developer blogs will be releasing on a regular basis leading up to the launch of The Division 2 and there are many more topics to come. Stay tuned!

Finally, we also shared some of our footage from Stockholm Comic Con. If you want to see what the convention was like but missed the stream, you can find it in the Twitch VoD.



As the month of October is almost upon us, we wanted to share a number of important dates coming up for The Division.

• October 5-6th: Dark Zone Weekend
  
• October 11th: Shield: Rebel Release (Get to wave 15 in Resistance.)
  
• October 19th: Double Field Proficiency Cache Event
  
• October 22nd: Global Event: Blackout

We hope that you enjoy the activities planned throughout the month and we will continue to provide monthly roadmaps moving forward to keep you as informed as possible.

As always, be sure to join us over on the Official Forums or on the community Reddit if you’re looking for a place to discuss all things related to The Division.

Until next time!

The Division Dev Team

The fourth Global Event, Ambush, is returning to The Division!

• Start: September 24th, 08:00 AM UTC
  
• End: October 1st, 08:00 AM UTC

The following modifiers will be live during Ambush

• Ambush —Always active. Agents deal increased damage while stationary.
  
• Covert Ambush —Ambush behavior, plus health diminishes while moving.
  
• Strategic Ambush —Covert Ambush behavior, plus health diminishes when close to allies.

Agents will have an opportunity to earn the following Classified gear-sets:

• Classified AlphaBridge
  
• Classified FireCrest
  
• Classified Hunter's Faith
  
• Classfied Tactician's Authority

The event works the same way Ambush has in the past. The Bug, Haze, and Cage masks will be available alongside vanity rewards. Please note if you have already earned Ambush's weapon skins and vanity outfit, leaderboard caches will not yield new rewards.

Agents

This weekend there will be an in-game event where agents will receive twice the normal amount of rewards for High Value Targets.

• Twice the normal reward for High Value Targets.

Starts at: September 21st, 08:00 AM UTC
Ends at: September 24th, 08:00 AM UTC

Enjoy and see you in New York!

/ The Division Team

Agents!

This weekend, Tom Clancy's The Division will be available for FREE on PC.

• Pre-load will be available on Uplay PC starting Wednesday, September 5th at 7 PM CEST.
  
• The event starts on Thursday, September 6th at 7 PM CEST.
  
• The event ends on Sunday, September 9th at 10 PM CEST.

FAQ:

• The event ends on Sunday, September 9th at 10 PM CEST.
  
• Progress made during the Free Weekend will carry over to the full game.
  
• Free weekend users have access to the full base game during the event.
  
• DLC content is not available to free weekend users.

Tell your friends! Bolster the ranks of The Division in order to retake New York for good!

/The Division Team

Agents, incoming State of the Game transmission:

During the last State of the Game,Community Developers Petter Mårtensson and Yannick Banchereau discussed the launch of Update 1.8.3 and provided Gamescom updates.

Petter and Yannick are back this week to discuss the Talon Shield launch and provide a roadmap of Division activities for September! We also have visits from Ubisoft Reflections' Senior Game Designer Tom Chambers and Lead Game Designer Mark Russell as well as Leamington's Senior Game Designer James Norris.

If you missed the stream, you can check out the VOD.



The seventh Shield launches today—Talon! Earn 3,000 Commendation score, and the Shield is yours. Talon unlocks retroactively, and so all Agents sitting on 3,000 Commendation score and above will find the Shield already completed. For everyone else, get Commendation hunting!

With our previous roadmap winding down, we wanted to give the community more visibility on all activities happening in The Division from month to month. Everyone can expect dates for State of the Game livestreams, Shield launches, and special events in advance. Our new monthly calendar will also list all the conventions in which The Division 2 will have a presence. With all that being said, we have a September's calendar of activities to share with everyone today!



There is a Fall Sale happening right now until Wednesday, September 19th. Get up to 50% off on select vanity items!



There is also a sale happening on Uplay for The Division right now! Get up to 70% off The Division and the Season Pass until September 12th.

Lastly, we wanted to shout-out some amazing cosplays we saw at Gamescom! @Area_The_Fox and @cosplay_scp048 represented all you Rogues out there in the Dark Zone. Thank you for sending us your flag!





We are hosting a Free Weekend Event on PC starting today until Sunday, September 9th. Console Agents, do not worry! Next weekend we are hosting the same event on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

As always, be sure to join us over on the Official Forumsor on the community Reddit if you're looking for a place to discuss all things related to The Division.

Until next time!

The Division Dev Team

We hope everyone has been working toward completing those Shields! Today, we are excited to announce the seventh Shield, Talon, live now across all platforms!

Talon requires Agents to reach at least 3,000 overall Commendation score. Good news: Talon is retroactive, and so any Agents already possessing at least 3,000 Commendation score will unlock the Shield!

Commendations are unique challenges that reward players for participating in the many activities throughout The Division. Ranging from flawless Incursion completions to Rogue Agent eliminations in the Dark Zone, there are challenges for everyone. If you would like to view these challenges as well as track overall progress, visit the second tab of the Dossier titled "Commendations."

Best of luck on those scores!

MORE ON SHIELDS
Found in the first tab of the Dossier, Division Shields are a group of unique commendations that reward both long term and new players for completing very specific challenges across The Division. Remember to check back in, since an additional Shield will become available every month for you to unlock.

CURRENT SHIELDS

• New! Talon - Attain a Commendation score of 3,000
  
• Phoenix - Extract 5 items, survive for 5 hours, and kill 5 Hunters in Survival
  
• Sacred - Complete 10 phases, get to level 10 and kill 10 Hunters in the Underground
  
• Shepherd - Unlock the Base of Operations
  
• Avenger - Eliminate 10 Named bosses in Manhattan, 10 in the Dark Zone, and 10 in West Side Piers
  
• Deadeye - Complete all weekly High Value Targets
  
• Hazard - Clear 25 landmarks in the Dark Zone

THE DIVISION REWARDS
With every Shield unlocked, you will receive the following rewards:

• One Audio Log
  
• One Patch with the relevant Shield Icon
  
• One Shield Cache
  
• One Exotic Weapon
  
• Two Classified Gear Set pieces
  
• 2,000 Phoenix Credits
  
• 500 D-Tech
  
• Three Cypher Keys

THE DIVISION 2 REWARDS
As Agents collect Shields, you will be placed in a tiered system. The more Shields earned in The Division, the higher the tier you reach, the more rewards you will receive in The Division 2. A higher tier grants players more rewards:

• Tier 1 - Weapon Skin
  
• Tier 2 - Outfit and Patch
  
• Tier 3 - Emote and Gear Dye
  
• Tier 4 - Taunting Emote and Backpack Trophy

/The Division Dev Team

Greetings Agents,

It is a new month and a new Agent Highlights! We saw plenty of activity during the month of August, and we cannot wait to share the community created content with you.

Shall we Agents?

You probably know how it works by now: all featured Agents will receive an in-game gift of 1000 Phoenix Credits.



Let's kick-off this Agent Highlights with our Cosplayers. As we had Gamescom taking place during August, our cosplayers sure had a strong presence!

We begin with an Agent emote competition from Gamescom 2018, between Toffee Bit, Tweetsofjaz, Aspira_Cosplay, Cosplay_scp048 and Giannipicco.



Who do you think nailed theirs? Click the image for the full video!

Next we have the amazing Area The Fox and Cosplay_scp048, who have brought the Dark Zone to us at Gamescom!



Of course our Oval Office photo booth at Gamescom was swarming with The Division Agents! Lowmex, Mab, Frostie, Damo and AgtMorganCreed, were kind enough to let us in on their secret meeting.


Thank you Agents for securing the area.

Moving away from events, we have the dabbing/sneezing Agent, SHD_Umbra.



We hope this is just for the picture and that you don't actually have a cold!

Last but not least, we got Beebsteen. We are aware that this is still a work in progress, but it caught our attention instantly!



Your cosplay is shaping up nicely, we can't wait to see the final product.



Last month we mentioned how it has been a while since we heard some The Division fan made music. Well this month we got more!

Agent Max has been providing many tunes inspired by The Division. You might have heard some of his work already, and now he is back again with a new piece: "Glitch in Time".

Glitch In Time By Wild Max

As you are enjoying Max's song, we would like to share with you something special. We don't see this very often, and we were amazed by the beauty of it!



Luke Wilson, member of The Division Elites, is creating a full scene from The Division featuring his own Agent. We love it Luke! We are already imagining the final product in our heads, so take your time, but don't leave us hanging.

We have always been big fans of the integration of in-game elements into cosplay work. Wolf Of Cherno has done exactly that! You seem to be running low on ammo, Agent! Locate a nearby ammunition box for resupply!



To end this section we picked up another The Division inspired song by Jerseys Ghost. This might have flown under our radar, but we wanted to share it with you all in this month's Agent Highlights!

Warrior By JerseysGhost



Let us start with this lovely art piece by Ambient Flush. D.C. awaits Agents!



The two side struggle have always been and will always be a price to pay for all Agents. This illustration by DarkZoneThings sums it all up.



Which side are you on?

Next we have an amazing illustration by Myri. The combination of NY winter weather with the US Capitol building in the background is just sublime!



Lastly we have our Hunter master, Helary Mael who has been creating these epic Hunter pieces for a while now, and we have always been captivated by them.





Since the beginning, we have had a soft spot for The Division cosplays. Thus, we want to give you a peak on how our cosplayers prepare their kits.

Yusa Mabushi was kind enough to share his various The Division cosplay kits. You can clearly notice the dedication and effort put in every single item, not to mention the attention to details.



These kits are just mesmerizing!

And with that we have our Agent Highlights for this month. Remember Agents, if you would like to be featured in next month's Agent Highlights article, don't forget to tweet your creations with the hashtag #AgentHighlights.

ATTENTION: Agents, please follow @TheDivisionGame on Twitter so we can get in touch with you for the rewards.

Thank you from all of us!

Until next time,

The Division Community Team

Agents, incoming State of the Game transmission:

During the last State of the Game,Community Developer Petter Mårtensson was joined by Creative Director Terry Spier at Red Storm Entertainment to announce the 1.8.3 Striker changes and balancing tweaks.

This week, Community Developer Yannick Banchereau joins Petter to announce Update 1.8.3 going live and provide Gamescom updates.



We had a maintenance this morning that pushed Update 1.8.3 live across all platforms! The patch includes changes to Classified Striker's Battlegear, Showstopper fixes, and fixes to the "running in place" bug. For more details, check out the Patch Notes.

We ran into a few technical issues with the Survival Free Week, and so we are extending the event to Monday, August 27th at 9:30 CEST!

If you are attending Gamescom, the demo is available to play until Saturday, August 25th! We want to see your pictures at the event, so be sure to email them to ‘stateofthegame@massive.se' or share them using the hashtag #TheDivision2 on Twitter.

For more information on The Division 2 pre-orders and editions announced with Gamescom, check out the VOD.



Global Event Strike is coming next week, beginning on Monday, August 27th. The event will last one week, ending on September 3rd. As a reminder, the following Classified gear sets will be available in Strike Caches:

• Path of the Nomad
  
• D3-FNC
  
• Predator's Mark
  
• Banshee's Shadow

As always, be sure to join us over on the Official Forums or on the community Reddit if you're looking for a place to discuss all things related to The Division.

Until next time!

The Division Dev Team