Yesterday saw the official release of The Division 2's Episode 1 on the Public Test Server, or PTS for The Division 2, and we’ve got all the details for the new stuff as well as the various changes made for Ubisoft’s online multiplayer shooter.
As Ubisoft initially announced in a news posting, the testing for the Public Test Server on PC will be a bit different this time around. To put it plainly, the next update will be a massive one, and so the developer chose to release specific features on the PTS in various phases, hence the episodic naming scheme. Over the next couple of weeks, more and more episodes will be released, so be sure to stay tuned with us as we cover those episodes and their respective patch notes.
As an added note, participating players on the PTS will also receive a survey after each testing phase, in order for Ubisoft to gain the necessary feedback needed by the development team.
Before we get into the nitty gritty of the Episode 1 PTS patch notes, here’s a rough schedule Ubisoft has released for the various phases of the PTS.
- July 1st—PTS is live. Manning National Zoo and Camp White Oak story missions will be available.
- July 3rd—Discovery Mode difficulty for the Washington National Airport raid. Matchmaking will be available for this difficulty. Gear sets as well as the Eagle Bearer Exotic are not included in the loot pool for Discovery Mode.
- July 5th—The first location of an Expedition site will be available. On July 6th, the second location of the same site will open for players. The third location opens on July 7th, completing the full Expedition site. You can return to previous locations as new ones are opened.
- July 8th—This phase will focus on gear balancing, skill build viability, and the introduction of two new exotics: the Diamondback Rifle and BTSU Datagloves.
- July 10th—PTS ends.
Now that that’s all out of the way, here’s the patch notes for the Episode 1 PTS.
Episode 1 PTS Patch Notes
New Main Mission: Manning National Zoo
Emeline Shaw, the leader of the Outcasts, has fallen back from her defeat on Roosevelt Island and barricaded herself deep in the Manning National Zoo. To get to her, you will need to fight through the blockades and the Outcasts who protect her to put an end to her violence.
New Main Mission: Camp White Oak
The Black Tusks and their leader have set up a strategic position close to an estate nestled deep in the woodlands, and your assignment is to take them down and capture him in the new Camp White Oak mission.
New Experience: Expeditions
Expeditions are free events that bring players to unexplored locations around D.C. to discover new narrative and gameplay opportunities. These sites offer unique challenges and lore not found anywhere else: new collectibles, treasure rooms, environmental puzzles, unique boss mechanics, and more await every Agent who embarks on our Expeditions!
New Classified Assignments
- Aquarium
- Datacentre
Shepherd Reward System – Call for Backup
- Added the ability to earn the “Shepherd” title by responding to call for backups and earning endorsements. An agent who received help will be able to endorse the helping agent.
Raid
- Added Story Difficulty to the Washington National Airport raid.
- Added Raid Completion Time to Clan Leaderboards. This leaderboard ranks clans based on how quickly they were able to complete the raid as a clan-only party.
Exotics
- New Exotic: Diamondback Exotic Rifle
- Lever action rifle
- 5 round magazine
- 100 RPM
- "Agonizing Bite"
- Diamondback randomly marks an enemy. Hitting that enemy consumes the mark, guaranteeing a critical hit with +20% total damage. A new random enemy is marked afterwards, and whenever you reload.
- "Deep Fangs"
- After hitting 5 marked enemies, gain +50% reload speed, +20% total damage and all shots fired are guaranteed critical hits for 10s.
- "Shedding Skin"
- While drawn, each time a round is loaded, gain +20% bonus armor for 3s. While holstered, each time you reload or cycle your current weapon, gain +8% bonus armor for 2s
- "Agonizing Bite"
- New Exotic: BTSU Exotic Gloves
- Black Tusk gloves
- "Elemental Gadgetry"
- Skills that apply status effects gain +50% status effect duration and +50% skill haste
- "Energy Infusion"
- Whenever you apply a status effect, your gloves become infused with that for 60s. While infused, you gain +10% skill damage, +10% skill healing and repair and +10% skill duration for each Utility (yellow battery) on your gear.
- "Charged Proxies"
- Whenever you throw a skill, 1.25s after landing, it creates an explosion applying the infused status effect to all enemies within 6m. Enemies affected by the infused status effect take 50% more damage from your skills.
- "Elemental Gadgetry"
- Heroic Bosses now drop Exotics
- Only exotics that the player is qualified for.
- For world drop exotics it requires that the player has the drop previously
- For crafted exotics, it requires that the player has the blueprint
- The purpose of dropping these is to allow a chance to get GS 500 variants without upgrading, or get materials to upgrade other exotics
- These exotics can be team shared to other players.
- Exclusive Exotics, for example the Eagle Bearer from the Washington National Airport, will not be part of the exotic loot pool.
- Only exotics that the player is qualified for.
Weapons
- New Assault Rifle: Carbine 7
- 30 round mag
- 790 RPM
- By default rolls with a new talent:
- "Overflowing"
- Every 3 reloads from empty increases your magazine capacity by 100%
- New Light Machine Gun: Stoner LMG
- 580 RPM
- 200 Mag capacity
- By default rolls with a new talent:
- "Overwhelm"
- Suppressing an enemy, that is not currently suppressed, grants +5% weapon damage for 10 seconds. Max stack is 5.
Weapon Mods
- Added Flashlight attachments for pistols.
Skills
Developer Comments: We took a hard look at the current meta. The builds that are fun, effective and popular. We knew that skill builds, while it being something people want to play with, was nowhere near competitive. We knew there was an explosives damage build that was on the fringe of popularity, but none that actually relied on really good skill mods driven by skill power.
We analyzed the best damage builds and survivability builds out there and looked at their efficiency - how fast they kill, how fast they can clear content, how fast they can take down enemies - and mapped that to our skills. How much more power do skills need to get from 3K skill power (our current maximum requirement on skill power mods) to compensate for all the damage bonuses the player is "giving up" on gear to reach that skill power?
Then we looked at each skill and what it should be good at (burst, sustain, single target damage, survivability etc) and went to work tuning the mods to make a skill build approach the efficiency of a "red" damage build or a "blue" tank build.
To that effect, here are the current changes to skill mods power levels, and in some cases base numbers, on skills.
Skill Haste
Cooldown Reduction has been replaced with skill haste. Skill Haste works equivalent to speed. So, 100% Skill Haste reduces cooldown by 50%, like a car speeding up by 100% getting to its destination in half the time. This means that the player can invest in more than 100% Haste and still get something back. It also means there's a diminishing return to Skill Haste, as opposed to cooldown reduction where each point was actually worth more than the last one. This allows us to have a good amount of Skill Haste possible from gear, but even larger amounts granted by high skill power Skill Mods, granting skill builds more frequent access to their souped up skills.
To that effect, these are the changes to Skill Haste (formerly Cooldown Reduction):
- Hard caps removed.
- All current +Cooldown Reduction on existing gear becomes +Skill Haste, with an increase of 33% to their rolls
- Surge Talent - Increased Skill Haste from 10% to 20%
Specialization skill mods (granted from each spec tree)
- These now require 0 skill power to run.
- Their bonuses are locked to a pretty high roll, making them the best power-to-performance mods in the game.
- There are still higher value mods of these types that can be found in the loot pool, however those do have Skillpower requirements.
Hive
- Extra Payload - Damage increased from +30% to +100%
- Experimental Blend - Changed from flat value increase to percentage based increase of base Healing amount (+50%)
- Nitroglycerin Mixture - Damage increased from +30% to +100%
- +50% Healing variant added
- Cooling Vents - Skill Haste increased from +20% to +100%
- Internal Storage - Charges increased from +30% to +100%
- Swarm Control - Charges increased from +30% to +100%
Turret
- Magnetic Rail - Damage increased from +30% to +150%
- Lubrication Gel - Duration increased from +60% to +100%
- +100% Burn Strength variant added
- Cyclone Magazine (Generic) - Added to loot pool
- +4 Extra Mortar Ammo
- Cyclone Magazine (Demolitionist) - Removed Skill Power Requirement
- +3 Extra Mortar Ammo
- Spare Parts - Skill Haste increased from +20% to +50%
- Organic Circuits - Duration increased from +60% to +100%
- Ammo Box - +50% Mortar Radius variant added
- SHD CPU V.2 (Generic) - Added to loot pool
- Damage increased from +7% to +150%
- SHD CPU V.2 (Demolitionist) - Removed Skill Power Requirement
- Damage increased from +7% to +100%
- Multi-tool - Skill Haste increased from +20% to +50%
Pulse
- Nickel-Chromium Wire - Skill Haste increased from +60% to +100%
- +200% Remote Pulse Skill Haste variant added
- Silicon Carbide Coil - Charging Speed increased from +30% to +50%
- Microwave Amplifier (Gunner) - Removed Skill Power Requirement
- +30% Confuse Duration
- Exploded Blueprint - Skill Haste increased from +60% to +100%
- Heating Mantle - Charging Speed increased from +30% to +50%
- Directional Transmitter (Gunner) - Removed Skill Power Requirement
- 30% Cone Size
Seeker Mine
- Mini Electric Motor - Skill Haste increased from +40% to 100%
- Delivery System Upgrade - +100% Damage variant added
- Ball Bearings - Damage increased from +30% to 100%
- Magnetic Disc (Generic) - Added to loot pool
- +100% Skill Haste
- Magnetic Disc (Survivalist) - Removed Skill Power Requirement
- Skill Haste increased from 9.7% to 80%
- Phosphorus Ingredient - Healing increased from 60% to 100%
- RDX Pellet Payload - Damage increased from +30% to +100%
- +100% Burn Strength variant added
- Larrea Tridenta Infusion (Generic) - Added to loot pool
- +100% Healing
- Larrea Tridenta Infusion (Survivalist) - Removed Skill Power Requirement
- Healing increased from +14.5% to +50%
Chem Launcher
- Piranha Solution - Damage increased from +30% to +100%
- +100% Burn Strength variant added
- Chromatics Training - Radius increased from +30% to +50%
- Slip Fit Tube - Skill Haste increased from +30% to +50%
- Cell Penetrating Peptide - Healing increased from +60% to +100%
- Hydrochloric Infusion - Damage increased from +30% to +100%
- Ultra-Thin Cartridges - Radius increased from +30% to +50%
- Liquid Nitrogen Cooling System - Skill Haste increased from +30% to +50%
- Pharmacokinetic Enhancer - Healing increased from +60% to +100%
Drone
- Graphene Battery (Generic) - Added to loot pool
- +100% Duration
- Graphene Battery (Sharpshooter) - Removed Skill Power Requirement
- Duration increased from +14.5% to +80%
- Electric Soldering Tool - Skill Haste increased from +40% to +100%
- Gimbal Vibration Damping - Health increased from +60% to +100%
- Blitzkrieg Blasting Powder - +200% Striker Damage variant added
- Carbon Fiber Frame (Generic) - Added to loot pool
- +100% Skill Haste
- Carbon Fiber Frame (Sharpshooter) - Removed Skill Power Requirement
- Skill Haste increased from +9.7% to +80%
- Reinforced Rotor Blades - Health increased from +60% to +100%
- Terminal Ballistics - Damage increased from +30% to +200%
- Trauma Analyzer - Healing increased from +30% to +50%
- +50% Deflector Duration variant added
- Gaffer Tape - Duration increased from +60% to +100%
- Hollow-point Bullets - Damage increased from +30% to +200%
- Electropulsing Stimuli - Healing increased from +30% to +50%
- +100% Fixer Skill Haste variant added
Shield
- Titanium Reinforcement - Health increased from +45% to +110%
- Shape-memory Alloy - Deflected Damage increased from +20% to +100%
- Cementitious Material - Holstered Regeneration increased from +60% to +100%
- Weaved Aramid Fiber - Health increased from +45% to +110%
- Supramolecular Networks - Active Regeneration increased from +20% to +50%
- Liquid Metal Microdroplets - Holstered Regeneration increased from +60% to +100%
- Thermoresponsive Polymer - Deflected Damage increased from +20% to +100%
- Smart UHMWPE Lexicon - Active Regeneration increased from +20% to +50%
- +110% Ballistic Shield Health variant added
Firefly
- Alignment Valve - +100% Damage variant added
- Tungsten Compound - +100% Damage variant added
- Propantriol Adhesive - Skill Haste increased from +40% to +100%
- Microfiller Resin - Skill Haste increased from +40% to +100%
Crafting
- The Crafting Bench is now upgradable and will then allow to craft gear up to a Gear Score of 500.
- It will require one gun and one gear piece of 490 GS or higher to build, and after that, the player can craft GS 500 items.
- Deconstructing high end gear pieces now predictably grants brand materials.
- Blueprints that were previously only on projects, control points or weekly vendors are now shared over all 3 sources
- This means if you are looking for a blueprint that used to only be on projects, you can grind alert level 3 or 4 control points.
- Players can now recalibrate crafted gear and weapons, as well as use them as a source for recalibration.
Vendor
- Cassie Now sells GS 500 items. She sells normal gear, some exotics and named weapons.
NPCs
- NPCs no longer double heal their armor.
- Players can now damage NPCs rappelling on ropes with explosives.
- Fixed an error during the calculation of weakpoint kill stats.
- Players can no longer easily pass through Black Tusk Warhounds.
- Control point officers no longer instantly revive players if the player has just used the Chem Launcher.
- Outcasts suicide rushers now blow themselves up closer to their target.
UI
- Improved player feedback when trying to pick up ammo with maximum signature weapon ammo.
- Inspecting a player now allows inspection of weapons, grenades and skills.
3C
- Intercepted projectile by the deflector drone now do a % damage.
- Players will now gain control quicker after dropping down.
- Reduced Depth of Field strength when aiming.
- Improved reload and interaction prioritization. Holding down the interact button will now cancel reloading and start the interaction.
- Improved player replication for situations where players have widely different connection quality. This should reduce inconsistent speedup and freezing of players.
Audio
- Slapback System enabled: The gunshot echo system that was featured briefly in the private beta prior to launch has been re-enabled.
Localization
- Improved Arabic voice-over localization.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck during the “Reach the first hall” objective in the Air & Space museum mission.
- Fixed a loot exploit in the Invaded Capitol Hill stronghold.
- Fixed enemies becoming stuck in their spawn rooms in the “Museum Water Source” side mission.
- Fixed “Neutralize the hostile” objective not updating correctly in the “Agent Edwards Support” side mission.
- Fixed an issue causing older versions of the Tobii Eye Tracker to be unresponsive.
- Fixed an issue causing the “Aim at Gaze” option for the Tobii Eye Tracker to be inaccurate.
- Fixed an issue causing NPC weapon audio to be stuck in a loop under certain circumstances.
- Fixed an issue causing missing weapon audio when firing immediately after having switched from a grenade.
- Fixed an AFK related exploit in the Conflict PvP mode.
- Fixed several locations on Conflict maps where players could ignore damage when behind cover.
- Fixed an issue relating to interacting with ECHO’s when in a group.
- Fixed an issue causing the Chem Launcher cooldown to reset when restocking ammo.
- Fixed Special Field Research objective “Complete 5 Public Executions with Marksman Rifle” not progressing under certain circumstances.
- Fixed the Special Field Research progression circle to be consistent with other progression circles.
- Fixed an issue where players incorrectly could vote kick a member during a boss fight in the Roosevelt Island stronghold on challenging difficulty.
- Fixed an issue where the Turret skill could deploy inside a wall under certain circumstances.
- Fixed an issue causing the Reviver Hive to not revive players when thrown.
- Fixed Skill Mods requirement having an invisible decimal, resulting in incorrect power requirement information.
- Fixed an issue where NPC’s from a Warhound Convoy could spawn in an inaccessible area.
- Fixed an inaccessible bounty location in the Judiciary Square zone.
- Fixed abnormal NPC behaviour when suppressed outside of the players view.
- Fixed an issue where the Black Tusk Medic’s drones would self-destruct in the Dark Zones.
- Fixed the Conflict UI being misaligned when using Dual Monitors and the Offset UI option.
- Fixed performance drops when browsing player inventory on Xbox One.
- Fixed performance drops when opening the Ubisoft Club Challenge tab on PC.
- Fixed a clipping issue with the Gunner Uniform when equipped on a female character.
- Fixed an issue causing loadouts using the same skill to revert all affected loadouts to the same skill mod.
- Fixed the Banshee Pulse Skill Mod description to state that it applies Confusion status effect on affected target.
- Fixed an issue with the Motion Sickness mode causing the player’s FOV to change drastically when enabled.
- Fixed an issue where signature weapon ammo could drop mid-air.
- Fixed several areas where players could leave the playable map.
- Fixed several areas where players could fall through the world.
- Fixed several areas where players could vault into water. Don’t go swimming with all that gear, agents!
- Fixed several areas with missing climb prompts.
- Fixed several areas where the player could become stuck in the open world.
- Fixed several areas where the players could become stuck in missions.
- Fixed several world objects with missing cover prompts.
- Fixed several occurrences of Delta errors when interacting with world objects.
The Division 2 is now available to play on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. The PTS is exclusive to PC players.
