The Division unleashes its massive new Resistance update from today

It may not have had the staying power of games such as Destiny or Warframe, but The Division still had plenty to offer to anyone who had a passing interest in Ubisoft’s tale of New York City that had fallen victim to the virulent mother of all Black Friday sales. Since it launched way way back in March of last year, Ubisoft’s path forward with their kill or be killed new franchise has been somewhat rocky.

Bleeding out players, the company basically took the game back to the drawing board and massively rejiggered it in the months to come, emphasising gameplay over DLC. This week sees the largest update yet for The Division, in the form of Resistance. Announced several months back, Resistance adds a horde mode that allows you and squadmates to protect a zone and reinforce it, as well as a skirmish mode and a 4v4 deathmatch option that should sate your bloodlust.

That’s not the only addition to The Division, as new guns and gear will also be introduced to the untamed new frontier of the West Side Pier location in New York City. One of the biggest tweakings however, comes to the Division’s brutal backstabbing dark zones where anyone could be an ally or a potential new foe. New rules of engagement for Dark Zone 2.0 include an option that allows you to manually go rogue on your tentative new alliance, while the Underground is also receiving an upgrade.

Underground 2.0 adds checkpoints and a new Hunter type enemy that’ll result in a more challenging fight for survival. It’s a pretty hefty update, that’ll be completely free from today. The Division will also be attemtping to woo players to its servers with a free session of play from December 6-10. Not too shabby, for a game that did provide plenty of fun for the hours that I invested in it.

Is it worth investing more of my time in though? That remains to be seen. In case you need a more technical breakdown, here’s the gist of the patch notes, with many many more minor and major tweaks available through the link:

New feature: West Side Pier

• West Side Pier is a completely new area accessible for all agents where two new game modes take place: ‘Resistance’ and ‘Skirmish’. In the zones, the enemy factions are teaming up to take the fight to the Division agents.
• The West Side Pier map stretches over two named zones: Piers North and Piers South.
• A new safe house will be available named Camp Clinton. Camp Clinton will act as a new social hub, similar to the Terminal, for Update 1.8.
• West Side Pier features a new dynamic spawning system for enemies, new special assignments, and daily assignments.
• West Side Pier Commendations have been added.

New feature: Skirmish

• In Skirmish, two teams of four agents compete against each other to get the highest number of kills before the timer expires. Teams earn points each time a downed enemy agent is eliminated.
• Agents can start a Skirmish session from the Last Stand matchmaking gate in the Base of Operations or Camp Clinton.
• PvP rank (previously called Last Stand rank) cap has been increased from 40 to 99. Last Stand and Skirmish both contribute to this progression.
• New PvP rank rewards have been added, including Classified Caches.
• Skirmish Commendations have been added.

New feature: Rogue 2.0

• The Rogue system in the Dark Zone has been overhauled for Update 1.8.
• To go Rogue, the agent needs to toggle their Rogue status before being able to do any damage to friendly agents. Any member of their group can choose to also go Rogue or to leave the group.
• Manhunt levels and objectives have been added. Agents reaching Manhunt status will now have an objective to interact with, which will reward Manhunt Caches. Non-Rogue agents will see the general area of the Manhunt objective and will be rewarded for stopping the Manhunt agents.

New feature: Optimization Station

• Gear Optimization provides an all new way for agents to invest in their favorite gear and achieve the perfect min-maxed build for their playstyle. Agents can take any of their gear to the new Gear Optimization station and spend Division Tech and Credits to improve the quality of the item’s stats towards their cap.

New feature: Resistance

• The update introduces a new PvE game mode called ‘Resistance’ where factions are teaming up for the first time to fight against Division agents. Enemy NPCs continuously spawn in waves as the agents try to survive for as long as they can.
• This new PvE game mode takes place in three arenas in West Side Pier.
• Agents can start an event from the map or by walking to the arena locations located in West Side Pier and initializing the event from there.
• Resistance Commendations have been added.

New feature: Underground changes

• The old Directives have been removed and replaced by new ones that bring new gameplay options.
  • Electro Tech – New electro-tech gives the player vastly reduced cool-down on skills, however a side effect of this experimental technology causes disruption to other electrical systems while a skill is activate.
  • Adrenal Healing –Agents are granted a constant adrenaline boost, restoring their health, however the extra intake means less frequent use is available for all healing abilities.
  • Kinetic Armor – Experimental new gear that increases Agents armor as they increase their movement speed. Armor protection is significantly reduced when static.
  • Compensator – Experimental tech that gives all weapons extra stability when firing down the sights; however due to weight of this tech Agents have decreased ammo capacity.
  • Shock Ammo – Specially designed magazines allow for permanent shock bullets, but with constant fire this can cause it to be unusable for a short time and potentially shock the Agent.
• The Underground will now have checkpoints.
• Hunters have been added to the Underground as a random spawn. When they show up, there will always be one more Hunter than there are agents present. Slain Hunters have a chance of dropping Exotics and Classified Gear Sets.
• The Rave Room from the End is NY mission has been added to the room rotation.
• New Directives panel added to the Tactical Operations Center.
• New quick launch options in the Tactical Operations Center for Daily and 3 Phase 5 Directive Operations.
• Underground Daily Operations and Weekly Assignment information added to the map.
• The Underground has been given weekly assignments, and will reward a Weekly Cache which contains an Exotic.
• Rewards have been increased overall in the Underground.
• New Underground Commendations have been added.
• New Patches have been added as commendation rewards.
• Added ability to fast travel to Daily Operations.
• Players are now able to match-make for customized operations and for daily operations.

Last Updated: December 5, 2017