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5 tips for dominating The Division 2’s Warlords of New York
Straight from the devs, here's a handy guide to battling the Big Apple in The Division's shiny new expansion!
Warlords of New York is the name of The Division 2’s latest expansion, and it’s taking you back to the Big Apple. More specifically, the dangerous southern region that’s been decimated by a monstrous hurricane. Set eight months after the first game’s society-shattering pandemic, a whole lot has changed; enemies are tougher, stakes are higher, all the snowmen have melted, and there are brand new weapons and equipment to pilfer.
Taking down the rogue agent who’s set up shop in Lower Manhattan is a tall task, but one you’ll be more than ready for with this mega-useful gameplay guide. To get you off to the best possible start, we went straight to the devs and asked what exactly players are in for. Ubisoft Leamington producer Nick Scurr tells us what skills to use, how to score some powerful loot, and even where to go sightseeing. Let’s get cracking, shall we?
1. Lay your traps right
You don't need to be the Kaiser Chiefs to foresee some civil unrest here
© Ubisoft
Four lethal bits of hardware make their debut in Warlords of New York. First up are shock traps: think elemental tripwires that electrify enemies when stepped on. Cast a wider net by laying several of them together and snaring your prey in an interconnected zone of scorching blue pain.
Try combining shock traps with your second new gadget, the holographic decoy. When thrown, it casts a full-sized projection of your player model, which you can use to attract enemy fire while you get busy working on a flank. Or, if you’re crafty, bait foes right onto your shock trap’s searing electric web.
Then there’s the sticky bomb, which you can affix to surfaces before detonating from afar with the tap of a button. It makes another great pairing with the hologram decoy, and since you’ve got control as to exactly when it explodes, you can wait until several enemies group up near your bomb before going boom.
Finally, there’s the fire-spreading sticky bomb, which is the same as the regular model except it coats enemies in flames. This burns away health over time - effective against unarmoured gangs such as the Rikers, but not so much with the more flame-resistant cleaners.
2. Gather intel on big bosses
A dossier reveals the skills big bosses will use against you
© Ubisoft
Four lieutenants preside over four zones in Warlords of New York, and each one uses a different skill. Defeat them in combat, and you’ll claim that skill for yourself. Digging into these rogue agents’ backstories brings up some juicy clues as to who has what.
As Scurr says, “Within the UI, you can bring up the map, and we have a new tab there that’s the manhunt menu. It shows you how close you are to getting all the information required to get Aaron Keener. There’s a little dossier that goes into each of the rogue agents, and it actually tells you what skill they’ll be using against you. So you can plan for the boss battle before it happens."
Take, for instance, chemical weapons expert Vivian Conley. She presides over the Two Bridges area of Manhattan, along with her band of flamethrower-wielding cleaners. Given her alliance with these homicidal arsonists, it’s likely she’s using the fire-spreading sticky bomb, so make a beeline to her if you want things to start hotting up. Theo Parnell’s dossier drops similar hints about his arsenal. A talented drone engineer, hacker, and all-round master of decoy, you can bet he’ll try to outwit you with the hologram skill. To take it from him, wipe out his Rikers crew from the Civic Centre.
3. Get yourself some top-tier loot
You too could be the owner of a wooden baseball bat
© Ubisoft
The reintroduction of God rolls adds extra excitement to hunting loot. If you’re not familiar with the term, it essentially means that each time you pick up a new weapon or item, there’s a small chance it’ll have max stats in each category. This was an impossibility previously due to a system that enforced a limit on how good a reward could be. Conversely, at any time in Warlords of New York, you might down an enemy and see a glorious column of coloured light emanating from a dropped weapon, indicating its rarefied status. High-end and even exotic items are anywhere and everywhere - if you’ve got luck on your side.
As for where to find the goods, main missions are your best bet. Completing these story chapters provides a reliable source of handsome loot. That said, a change to The Division 2’s map also ups your chances of getting epic gear. “We’re not gating off any of Manhattan based on your level,” says Scurr. “In The Division 2, the main zones were gated off, and it would say ‘this level is 20-30’ and so on.” Here, however, the four zones will scale with your level. For example, if you’re level 30, every enemy on the map is level 30.
“Really,” Scurr continues. “All the new gear and weapons could be anywhere. You just start doing activities in the open world, start tackling the side missions, the main missions, and all the loot that you’re going to get will be something that you’ll want to look at.” In other words, if you’re after top-tier loot, know that you don’t just have to confine your efforts to missions. Exploration can prove lucrative too. Speaking of which…
4. Take yourself sightseeing
Careful, if you take their picture, you have to pay - with your life.
© Ubisoft
With a brand new location comes more opportunities to sightsee. Where the first game was set in Downtown Manhattan, home of Times Square, Rockefeller Centre, and Madison Square Garden, Warlords of New York takes place in a 1:1 recreation of Lower Manhattan. It’s packed with a fair few landmarks of its own.
“Just a few of the landmarks in Lower Manhattan are around Wall Street,” says Scurr, “which you see in a lot of films, and the Rikers are holed up there; there’s the Chinese quarter; there’s the stranded tanker that’s been washed ashore by the hurricane that’s decimated New York City, which players will get to go and explore as well.”
That tanker sits in the muddy shores under the Brooklyn Bridge. Here, the iconic suspension crossing that spans the East River is a little worse for wear, partly destroyed by the freakiest of freak weather. You’ll get a great view of its looming form (or at least the half that’s still standing) during Conley’s mission in Two Bridges. Lower Manhattan also plays host to Chinatown, complete with those classic red lanterns, as well as that most world-famous financial district we know as Wall Street. Expect people there to trade bullets rather than bonds.
5. Play like the producer
Even after a virus outbreak, barbershops are clearly thriving
© Ubisoft
If you want the ultimate strategic advantage in The Division 2’s new expansion, there are few better people to ask than the producer. So, how does Scurr like to play? “I build a damage build, as damage to elites is key at the minute. If you’re playing endgame content, you face a lot of elite enemies, so that’s a thing that most people focus on, especially if they’re playing things like the raid, or the harder versions of missions."
With Warlords of New York introducing a new legendary difficulty, which considerably increases opposition defence and firepower, damage builds are vital. Improvements to the UI, meanwhile, allow you to quickly see at a glance what weapons in your inventory are best before making the decision to keep or dismantle them. This reduces error and gives you greater control over your trajectory.
As for what equipment Scurr recommends? “I use the seeker mine that expands into the smaller seeker mines, and the repair drone...when I’ve been playing the expansion I’ve also been using the flame sticky bomb, as it’s super useful. It was a fan favourite from The Division. When we were going back to New York, we had a look at the skills that we hadn’t included and that was a natural one to include.” Well, you can’t really say no to a bit of fire.
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