Part of the for June 28th planned game update is not only the “Underground” DLC (Xbox One/PC) as part of the Season Pass, but also an independent update of Tom Clancy’s The Division itself, which will be available for everyone and sets the game’s version to 1.3.
Therefore, all players of all platforms (Xbox One, PC and PS4) will receive bug fixes, the rebalancing of weapons, gameplay changes, new weapons and 1 new Gear Set at the end of this month, for free! Update 1.3 is all about weapons, but there is much more to explore like the new difficulty level on Heroic.
Contents
As this article is a summary of the new contents based on the information we got during E3 2016, it most likely doesn’t cover all the new changes and improvements, but gives a glimpse of what is coming!
Furthermore, please don’t rely on the here provided attribute values and damage numbers like the maximum Gear Score increase for Gear Set items from 240 to 268, as they might change upon release!
New Challenge Missions & Heroic Mode
If you think that Challenge Mode kicks ass, don’t read further as the new, especially for “elite players” created difficulty called Heroic Mode with level 35 enemies will be part of this update. According to an official Ubisoft blog post, more missions like Hudson Yard and Queen’s Tunnel will also be playable in Challenge Mode.
The Heroic difficulty will be applied to the Incursions Falcon Lost and Clear Sky, and all missions that have a Challenge Mode equivalent.
3 Tom Clancy Outfits
Due to Ubisoft’s 30 anniversary, the devs are giving away 3 Tom Clancy themed outfits. More information can be found here.
Weapon Archetypes Rebalanced
Finally it’s the time that all weapon archetypes will receive proper bonuses. Marksman Rifles will keep their Headshot Damage Bonus and Submachine Guns’ Critcal Hit Chance will be replaced with Critical Hit Damage while Assault Rifles and Shotguns will receive a PvE oriented bonus. The highlight is the damage bonus for LMGs against all targets out of cover. (Source: Skill Up).
We don’t know at this point whether the bonuses on current weapons will be changed retrospectively too or if they will stay.
- SMGs: Critical Hit Damage
Critical Hit Chance - Assault Rifles: +/-20% Armor Shred To PvE Targets Only
- LMGs: +/-30% more damage to ALL targets out of cover
- Shotguns: +/- 200% Added Stagger To PvE targets only
- Marksman Rifles: Headshot Damage
Maximum Gear Score
With update 1.3 and in addition to aforementioned Gear Set item GS increase from 240 to 268, the developers will also increase the maximum Gear Score of weapons from currently 204 to 229, which means more damage in the end like below’s damage comparison (based on 2581 Firearms) shows (Source: Skill Up):
- 182 Vector – 9368 to 10405
- 204 Vector – 9928 to 11092
- 229 Vector – 10564 to 11873
Does it make sense to craft or buy any new weapons before this patch? Well, a lot of people out there were looking for the M1A and AUG A3P blueprint. Both are now available at the DZ03 Weapons Vendor for 1 week. If you already have got a decent weapon, doesn’t even have to be a 204 GS one, it probably makes more sense to wait for the new ones so that you can spend your crafting materials there.
However, it is not automatically said or guaranteed that once the new weapons are out you will automatically get one with the talents needed. A lower GS weapon with some pretty good Weapon Talents can be better than its higher equivalent with crappy talents. That being said, don’t spend everything, but if you need one now, just craft a few and be happy.
Good luck!
New Weapons
Besides the GS and damage increase, YouTuber Arekkz did it again and was fortunately able to capture some shots of new weapons coming with this update. You can expect to see the following weapons in the game:
- G36 Assault Rifle
- PP-19 SMG
- SVD DMR
- M700 DMR
- AA-12 Shotgun (announced in update 1.2 trailer)
- B.L.I.N.D. System Battle Rifle (seems to synergize with the new B.L.I.N.D. Gear Set and its 4 piece set talent)
New Weapon Talents
It’s worth to mention that we will also get some new Weapon Talents. Please keep in mind that all values shown are still subject to change.
Decisive is one of them, making your next shot with the weapon be an automatic critical hit when a target is killed.
Then there is Focused, which is increasing your weapon damage by x% when no skills are on cooldown.
As part of the B.L.I.N.D. System Battle Rifle, the Weapon Talent Distracted increases your damage by 100% against blind/deaf targets.
