As you may already know, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 has gotten its first-ever expansion: Warlords of New York. What accompanies this new expansion is a new place in New York, Downtown Manhattan, a new level cap of 40, a new wave of gear score, new exotic gear pieces and weapons, eight more hunters to hunt down in both New York and Washington D.C., a new gear system titled Gear 2.0, as well as five new bosses to take out and more much more all wrapped up in a nice package.
This expansion is huge in regards to content already, but they managed to add in four key aspects that if done properly, could give Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 near limitless content creation potential. What are those four key aspects? Seasons, Strategic Homeland Division (SHD) Watch, Leagues, and Global Modifiers, which are all unlocked after you hit level 40 and finish the Warlords of New York expansion.
The SHD Watch works similarly to how Paragon levels work in Diablo III. As you play the game, whether in sources, free roam, instances, side missions, playing with friends, etc., you gain experience. Once this experience threshold is maxed your watch will level up, earn a health boost, and earn a SHD point. You can then use your SHD point in one of the five categories, Offensive, Defensive, Utility, Handling, and Scavenging. Each category has four specialized categories such as Offensive, you can put a point into either of the four subcategories, Gun Damage, Headshot Damage, Critical Hit Chance, or Critical Hit Damage, to rank it up. Each subcategory maxes at 50 points.
Once you max out your watch you’ll be a pretty powerful Agent. So get out there and grind, grind, grind, to see what it’s like to be able to handle the harder content, like the new Legendary difficulty added in the game with the expansion. Alongside your leveling of the SHD Watch you will also level up your Season Pass. This follows the same formula as popular games like Fortnite. There are two versions of the Season Pass, the Free Track, which is open to everyone, and the Premium Track which is free to WoNY holders right now, but will in the future cost $10 to unlock.
The Season Pass levels up just like the SHD Watch does, by playing the game. Once you hit the threshold you will earn a predetermined reward which ranges from gear set pieces, named weapons, exotic gear, gear dyes, patches, and caches. The Season Pass, honestly, at the end of its track seems to be a bit lackluster. You only get nothing two cosmetics, a patch, and a tri-color dye.
Then we have Leagues. During the span of the league, players will be able to compete with others in completing various challenges and earn a pretty cool looking backpack key chain. Then we have the unique Global Modifier, Polarity Switch, which has its own rule set to make the game a bit more different as players have to swap or reload their weapons to be able to damage enemies of the same polarity.
Overall, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 expansion has been a blast to play. and if you liked to read a review about it, check it out here. If you’re new to the game and want to read a review on the base game first, check that out here.
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2: Warlords of New York is available now on Xbox One, PS4, Google Stadia, and PC.