When the Dollar Flu hit Washington DC just barely half a year since the New York outbreak, Operatives of the Division once again need to restore power to the nation's capital before all hell breaks loose. Unfortunately, as with Ubisoft's The Division, Washington's Operatives in The Division 2 find themselves outnumbered. After all, many civilian and criminal factions hope to use the outbreak to their current advantage. The Hyenas, one such faction, hopes to destroy their enemies in the most chaotic way possible.
Interestingly, beneath the Hyenas' seemingly lack of organization lies themes of thievery, ruthlessness, and killer instinct. However, it seems the Hyenas hide more than meets the eye aside from their opportunistic and intimidating exterior.
10 A Penchant For Organized Chaos Seems Inspired
The Hyenas have made their presence known due to their organized tactics with a dash of ruthlessness and killer instinct. As a result, these "looters" seem much more organized than they seem - aggressive but sensible attacks with no care for any casualties. However, fans of The Division series might notice that the Hyenas of The Division 2 resemble existing factions in the first game.
Lore enthusiasts might notice that the thievery motif of the Hyenas stems from the Rioters faction. In the first game, these refer to unorganized civilians who opted to go underground and loot in small packs. Meanwhile, the Hyenas' killer instinct and weapons specialization may resemble the Rikers, a group of convicts from Rikers Island who organized into a band. However, similarities end there as the Hyenas seem to have a more structured (yet hidden) inner circle.
9 Lawless Scavengers, Modern Clans
At first glance, the Hyenas as a whole seem to operate as a gang of scavengers leaning towards deprivation. These gangsters are as stereotypically opportunistic as they can get - they exploit vulnerability and weaknesses by resorting to double-dealings, ambushes, pillages, raids, and theft. However, these scavengers do seem to have a shared history.
Apparently, as Washington DC slowly spiraled into lawlessness, depraved civilians started organizing into gangs with "turfs" similar to youth groups. Most of these clans had shifting leaderships, but six larger clans rose to prominence. Back then, the Constitution Avenue became the site of a brutal six-week clan war until their leaders organized a "freedom council," courtesy of fellow clan leader Coyote. Their meeting eventually led to the creation of the Hyenas as a united band against the True Sons.
8 Freedom Within Chaos
Back in the council, the fledgling Hyenas created four major tenets of "Freedoms" to follow. Firstly, a clan should have freedom to conduct "business" within their premises without any kind of interference. Secondly, clans should have freedom allowed to gather resources for their own consumption and for trade. Moreover, clans should have freedom to prevent any non-ally of the council to acquire any territories within their northern regions.
However, perhaps most interesting would be their fourth tenet. Their last tenet is to exercise the freedom to create an organization to call all members of the six clans. While these outlaws belonged to a clan, they now call themselves Hyenas.
7 The Hyena Council
Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of Hyenas would be their leadership structure, despite their appearance as scavengers. After the clan council, the Hyenas formally arrived with their umbrella term and, most importantly, the Hyena Council. This notion effectively cements Hyena leadership structure to be both an autocracy and a federation.
Essentially, despite their united "branding," each clan has independent control over their clan's actions. Each clan's leader represents their group within the council. Unfortunately, this also means clans may potentially split into internal factions that may lead into a civil war. Interestingly, this approach also means each clan has a designated "territory" within the game, which makes Ubisoft's open-world premise for The Division 2 much more appealing.
6 Composed Of Criminals, Outlaws, Outcasts
One of the most interesting elements surrounding the Hyenas lie in their composition. Upon close study of their rather unruly methodologies and approach, it seems most Hyena members are young and inexperienced combatants. It's safe to assume that most Hyena members are young adults and late teenagers with criminal history, gang affilitations, and just citizens who want to take advantage of the ongoing outbreak.
As a result, the Hyenas are perhaps the only faction with the youngest members. Their tendency to overwhelm with numbers and sheer firepower seems to reflect the inexperience of their young age.
5 Post-Apocalyptic Criminal Network
Interestingly, despite their rather young membership, the leadership of the Hyenas as a whole paved the way for an extremely intricate criminal network - as reflected with their resources, weaponry, and other tools. For instance, most Hyena-occupied buildings have drug labs that indicate a penchant for drug trafficking and drug-related trade.
Outside drugs, the Hyenas also seem to have the capacity to acquire and repurpose military weapons, create crude sniper turret, and use explosive remote-controlled cars. Sadly, the deaths of most Hyena Council representatives meant the Hyenas being reduced to a medium-level threat at the most. However, evidence of their once firm grip as one of Washington DC's strongest factions remains.
4 Unique Relationships With Other Factions
Interestingly, Hyenas have unique relationships with regard to various other factions inside the capital. For instance, it's their ongoing conflict with the more militaristic True Sons that prompted the once-separate Hyenas to unite under one faction. Early evidence of this conflict can be seen all around the capital, as corpses from both factions seem present in vital control points.
Meanwhile, the Hyenas also have an odd hostility towards Outcasts, a faction of settlers under quarantine. There's evidence to suggest that a group of Hyenas and Outcasts fighting over a Downtown West building while taking out a True Sons squad. Currently, after the death of their most prominent representatives, the Hyenas found themselves at war with almost every other faction in Washington DC.
3 Unorthodox Approach To Tactics
The rather unruly and aggressive nature of Hyenas also reflect in their combat tactics. In most incursions against Hyenas, they often would try to flank Agents to gain a tactical advantage. Moreover, they rely mostly on overwhelming the enemy with numbers instead of proper tactics. In turn, most Hyenas tend to ignore cover, disregard aiming while shooting, and have a penchant for simply rushing in to kill their foes.
Technicalities-wise, Hyena tactics rely on flushing out Agents into the open by using damage-over-time status effects. Hyena Engineers and Snipers will always try to blind or take out Agents as quickly as possible. Moreover, while their Medics will often revive their teammates, they almost always fight their enemies with no regard to their safety.
2 Organized Archetypes
Interestingly, despite their disorganized approach to battle, Hyenas do have a definitive "classification" of members, at least in terms of combat. Technically-speaking, Hyenas have nine distinctive Archetypes, each with a purpose and role to play in combat. Assault members rely on sustained gunfire and intimidation to compensate for their inexperience. There are other more specialized units, such as the more intellectual Controllers, the turret-reliant sniping Engineers, the healer Medics, and the drug-empowered Rushers.
Meanwhile, Hyenas also have shield-toting Shields, overconfident Snipers, demolitions-reliant Throwers, and the massive firepower from Tanks. Essentially, Hyenas love dominating the battlefield with their impressive diversity of units. In turn, players need to use more advanced tactics to overcome the Hyenas' sheer numbers.
1 Down But Not Out
Throughout the story of The Division 2, the Division has strategically eliminated relevant Hyena Council members in order to bring the group into disarray. However, despite the agency's efforts, it seems the Hyena Council still has two remaining members.
First, there's Mayhem, This 22-year-old Council member with a love for explosives but a huge disregard for decision-making. The other is Zodiac, a 28-year-old Zodiac Hyena Council member with a drug dependency problem. Interestingly, Division believes Zodiac is mostly in charge of chemical manufacturing. Both Council members were absent in critical Division attacks in their area.