The Division 2: Warlords of New York – Big changes are coming to Ubisoft’s loot ‘n shooter

New expansion, new gameplay and New York City! The Division 2 was still a terrific game when it launched last year, but it quickly ran out of steam once you’d experienced everything there was to see within the invisible walls of Washington DC. That’s not to say that there wasn’t a lot to do at any given time, but the endgame could only prop the live service elements for the game for a limited window of opportunity.

New blood was needed, and The Division 2 looks set to have a healthy transfusion of the life-giving plasma come March 03 with Warlords of New York. In case you missed the announcement, here’s the gist of it. Former Division agent Aaron Keener has been a naughty boy, gone rogue and carved out his own kingdom within the streets of New York City.

It’s up to you to hop on down and spank him with bullets, but this won’t just be a new slice of narrative: Warlords of New York is looking to reinvent The Division 2 with sweeping changes across the board. The majority of these changes will hit the game’s user interface, various gear systems, Dark Zones and how you level up within the not so United States of America.

“In The Division 2, we went to a brand new city and we were continuing the story of what was happening to America, following the events of the outbreak in New York,” producer Nick Scurr said in a recent stream via PC Gamer.

But there are a lot of loose narrative threads in The Division 1 that we didn’t wrap up in The Division 2 …This is really about finishing the storyline of Aaron Keener, hopefully—if you succeed—and cleaning up the Division’s mess, really. It’s their responsibility to resolve this issue.

To that end, players will return to the Manhattan of the first Division game, spread across four zones that are each under the control of one of Keener’s fellow rogue agents: Battery Park, Civic Centre, Two Bridges and the Financial District. Here’s a quick list of what’s changing overall for The Division 2:

• Level cap increasing from level 30 to 40
• Newcomers will be able to hop into the action with a Level 30 agent
• Enemies will scale to your level
• Gear score cap increasing from 500 to 515
• Loot and gear score changes will highlight the pros of new kit in a more obvious manner
• Each of Keener’s Lieutenants need to be defeated to acquire powerful new gadgets
• These gadget skills include shock traps, echo-based hologram decoys, explosive sticky bombs and fire-spreading sticky bombs
• Manhattans four sections are described as “very dense” and will have their own selection of main and side missions
• There’ll be eight new control points to establish a foothold in
• A “lot of puzzles to solve” according to creative director Yannick Banchereau
• The Division 2 will also be adopting a more seasonal approach, beginning a week after Warlords launches
• “It’s going to feel quite different from what you’re used to from the base game,” according to Banchereau’s description of these new seasons
• Each season will be three months long, advance the narrative and give new targets to hunt down
• There’ll also be new regular activities, player challenges called Leagues and Global Events will return
• One such example of a Global Event is Polarity Switch which sounds bonkers according to Division developer Trick Dempsey in the recent livestream
• Agents can use punch polarity into an enemy, switch to a weapon and damage them more as an example
• Seasonal activity will be locked and only available to players who grab the Warlords expansion
• For agents looking for a greater challenge, Directives will allow them to play with challenge modifiers
• Expansion players can also tackle all main missions with Heroic difficulty applied
• The second eight-player raid will kick off at an unspecified date within the US spring
• World Tier will still remain capped at level 5
• There will be new in-game brands, brand items and new exotics
• The Dark Zone will also be adjusted, favouring split-second decisions between players as they decide to help or hinder one another

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Come March 03, The Division is pretty much going to be a whole new ballgame with many other minor and major changes to the formula. After being somewhat ignored by Ubisoft in favour of their other big tentpole games, it looks like all eyes are back on the sequel and all development hands are definitely on deck.

The road to Warlords of New York kicks off later today with two new missions on Coney Island for year one pass holders, with that adventure unlocking a week later for everyone else.

Last Updated: February 12, 2020