Use different types of bullets
The Division has a big selection of sub menus to keep tabs on, so it's pretty easy to miss that you can actually switch bullets. To use different bullets may be the difference between escaping a dangerous situation with your life intact, especially if your grenades and skills are not thru with their cooldown. Different ammunition types range from everything to explosive bullets and fire bullets. These types of bullets of course deals out more damage, especially on bosses. To put fire on your foes or launch an explosion at their feet will make them paralyzed for a moment which can be very helpful when you are completely surrounded by bad guys and have no easy means of escape.
Just remember that the amount of special ammo that you can carry with you at any one time is limited and runs out quickly so keep your eyes open for boxes or bags that may contain more.
The main missions are the quickest way to level up
It may sound obvious but there are very many missions to complete to keep you busy and they all give different rewards. The main missions, the story, is what you should focus on the first hours of the game. A mission can give you anywhere from 60 to 70% of an entire level in experience points, after about 5-6 missions the experience rewards will wear off a bit but until then you should brute-force your way thru the story. The story also helps to present new enemy types, and how to fight them most efficiently, meaning that you will miss these tips if you haven't completed the story missions required before encountering them in the wild.
Modify your gear
You can modify your weapons as well as your vests, masks and knee pads. By modifying your gear you'll gain perks like a bigger mag to your guns or the ability to add a silencer. When adding a silencer, enemies that are attacked when in a group are more prune to attack your teammates then you, so the additions offer many small details in the survival aspect.
Do not forget to upgrade your Base of Operations
Yes there is base building in The Division and even though it mostly feels like a stopgap, it's the only way for you and your character to learn new skills in one of the three different skill threes, Health, Security and Tech.
If you complete story missions and the game's "Encounters" you'll get the special currency required to one of the three parts of your base. Check thoroughly into each part before choosing any upgrade. The Seeker-grenade will be unlocked in the skill three only after you have built a communications room in the Tech section of your base. If you want your turret to spray fire instead of bullets you must be diligent in reading all the details of how the skills threes are connected to your base.
Crafting, crafting, crafting.
Crafting is one of those things that can also be hidden among all the information you get when starting the game. It's a pretty simple system, once you complete missions you get access to blueprints on new weapons and gear that can then be crafted at your crafting-station in your base. It's a good way to get access to good gear fast. To craft items you need resources and materials like tools, fabric and weapon parts, all with different qualities (blue and green) and remember that if you only find green items you can still make it a blue item with a 3:1 ratio. Therefore you should not shun the items you find, even though they are not blue items.
Don't fear the Dark zone
Sure it can be scary to visit the Dark Zone. Powerful enemies and real players that will betray you any moment, but it's also where you will find the best gear for your level and more often than not it will not require to much of a constraint from your part (relative to the gear you get). The Dark Zone can be a gold mine but at the same time it can also be extremely frustrating. Once you decide to take a peek, do it with a group (preferably 4 players), because the risk is big that you will encounter another group of players that are out hunting solo players to steal their loot (that's the frustrating part).
The enemies are, as noted, more powerful in the Dark Zone, but by carefully choosing your skills, using cover and saving your bullets you'll probably succeed in scraping together some blue loot after an hour or two. It will give you great gear early on in the game. When you manage to kill enemies in the Dark Zone or other players that are rouge (a player that has betrayed and killed another player), you get a chance to gather Dark Zone-currency, which you can also use to buy yourself some nice and useful loot.
Enemies have varying difficulty
And i don't just mean what level your enemys are, but also the color of their health bar tells us something about their strength. Normal enemies has a red bar, these are simple npc's that are easy to kill.
Next comes the veterans, they have a small shield above a purple health bar. The health bar of the enemy will not start to sink before the little shield is broken. Modifications can make extra damage towards those shields, thus your gear also offers different effectiveness against different enemies.
And last but not least we have the elites. Just like veterans, elites have shields, but these can be recognized by their yellow health bars. Elites are harder and smarter than the veterans and has one or two special attacks to surprise you with. There is two things that make the elites stick out from other enemy types - more often than not they have a weak spot that you should aim at for extra damage and they also almost always drop very nice loot.
Enemies have different jobs
Just as they vary in strength, enemies also have different classes that you can see next to their health bars. A lighting symbol means that they are going to attack you head on and hit you when taking cover. A aim means sniper and a grenade means, well, probably that they will bombard you with grenades. If you see a turret, that looks like one of yours in your base, it means that an engineer is nearby, they have a wrench next to their bar. And last but not least we have the doctor who heals his teammates (prioritize these as fast as you see them).
Growing weed is apparently also one of the jobs enemies can have.
Learn all the varying enemy tactics
The Division has 4 different enemy groupings with all different tactics.
Rioters are one you of your standard opponents. They are armed with weird weapons and rarely have shields and don't really do anything special when it comes to tactic.
Then we have the Rikers, escapee prisoners. They are tougher than Rioters but their weapons are of the same standard. They are more likely to sneak up behind you or try to flank you, so keep an eye out.
The next group is Cleaners. They have fire throwers and also some normal weapons. They are a bit slower than other enemies, but if they get close with their lethal fountain of flame, not even cover will probably help you. You need to keep away from the reach of the fire to vanquish these foes.
The last group who calls themselves for Last Man Battalion (LMB) and are just as scary as they sound, and they are the hardest enemy you will encounter. They have weapons of a higher standard than the others and almost everyone of them wear shields. They almost always have snipers and doctors joining them, and will make even the most strategic adept player-grouping fight for their lives. If this was a police report i would classify LMB as armed and extremely lethal.
Don't fear to go rogue
While good loot can be found in the Dark Zone thru killing enemies, the absolutely best loot is found in other players - and the best ways to get it is to kill the player. To go rogue has other perks also, like the longer you are in rouge-mode, the more Dark Zone-currency you receive, as long as you survive until the timer disappears. The reward itself you'll get both from the thrill of surviving the experience mixed with the satisfaction of stealing somebody others loot. But also remember that once you go rogue other players can kill you without themselves going rouge, and if they kill you you'll lose all your currency and your loot.
Sources
- https://tomclancy-thedivision.ubisoft.com/game/en-gb/home/
- https://www.ubisoft.com/en-US/game/the-division
Wonderful post. Thanks for share.
I love The Division. You have some great points here..especially about the changing bullets. I'm a casual gamer due to time constraints and sometimes even forget about those. The only problem I have is that I want to level up so I do the main missions but I insist on doing them with other players, and I often times find myself waiting for matchmaking to actually give me some other people who want to do those missions. It can be a pain. Still love the game though so what can I say really. Thanks for the post.