Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 – Weapons, Skills, and Factions

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, Ubisoft’s upcoming co-operative RPG shooter, was announced earlier this year and then had visible presence at both E3 and Gamescom. And if you’d like to learn a thing or two about the game prior to its planned March 2019 release, you may be interested in checking out the ongoing “Intelligence Annex” series of articles on the game’s website.

The latest one is dedicated to the game’s skills that include drones, mines, turrets, and chem launchers, while the earlier ones cover The Division 2’s weapons and its True Sons faction. Here’s an excerpt from the most recent article:

Agents!

Welcome to the third Intelligence Annex—our series of detailed development blogs covering all aspects of The Division 2. This month, we are covering five different skill categories: the Chem Launcher, Drone, Hive, Seeker Mine, and Turret. Each skill category comes in several variants with very different gameplay and effects. These are just some of the skills you can expect to see on March 15th, so prepare for more options and build customization! If you are new to The Division 2, skills are specialized abilities that change the way you play the game. They provide advantages in combat that directly affect the outcome of your engagements. Whether you want to specialize in offensive abilities or roll full utility, the choice is yours.

CHEM LAUNCHER

First on the list is a new skill that we are introducing in The Division 2—the Chem Launcher. As a grenade launcher inspired weapon, the Chem Launcher fires various ampules of chemicals in an arc that disperse into a cloud on impact and linger to cause unique and devastating effects. When you have the Chem launcher equipped, you can choose between four different chemical charges:

• Firestarter
  • The Firestarter canister sends out flammable, near-invisible gas. These gas clouds can be ignited with any spark—bullet impacts, enemies firing their weapons inside the cloud, explosions or even enemies running into them while on fire. If you combine multiple clouds over a large area, you can create devastating chain reactions.
• Riot Foam
  • This skill fires a canister with riot control foam that disperses on impact. This is the same riot foam as you have seen the True Sons use in the E3 demo. The foam is sticky, heavy, and it expands rapidly. Anyone affected by the foam is stuck in place for a period of time, but the hardened foam can be destroyed to break them free.
• Oxidizer
  • The Oxidizer fires a canister that emits a cloud of corrosive chemicals. The chemical cloud lingers for a long time and efficiently eats away at enemy armor or any enemy mechanical items.
• Reinforcer
  • The Reinforcer fires a projectile that detonates and disperses an armor repairing cloud. If this powder hits you or your teammates, it restores an amount of your armor. Powder that sticks on the ground grants armor restoration over time. You have the ability to heal your friends very fast, or even yourself over time.

DRONE

In The Division 2, we have drones! When deployed, the drones hover around your shoulder and follow you around. Depending on what drone you equip, it can stay passively by your side until assigned an order or it can automatically target your enemies and even friends in some cases. There are five different categories of the drone:

• Striker
  • As suggested by the name, this is an offensive version of the Drone. Built for combat, the Striker possesses a turret that inflicts continuous damage upon its target. This drone can receive remote orders from its controller to attack specific targets.
• Defender
  • The Defender is a defensive drone that protects its owner by utilizing an experimental directed emitter. It deflects incoming bullets with microwave bursts, creating an invisible barrier. However, each bullet deflected greatly drains the battery, and it is incapable of defending itself from enemy fire. It can, however, be ordered to guard friends or other friendly skill items.
• Tactician
  • Built for intel, this utility drone flies to maximum elevation at a location of your choosing and spots all hostiles it can see, effectively highlighting their location. While deployed, it gives you and your party continuous information about the position of the enemies within your area. This is the Specialist skill for the Sharpshooter Specialization.
• Bombardier
  • This drone can perform a bombing run across a long area. The drone flies to an area designated by the player and drops a barrage of explosives as it strafes from one end of the zone to the other.
• Fixer
  • This defensive drone repairs armor over time. You can choose whether you want it to fly next to you and passively repair your armor, or choose a friendly target whose armor needs repairing, including other damaged skills.