Massive announces Tom Clancy's The Division second expansion, Survival, launches November 22nd for PC and Xbox One, and December 22nd for PlayStation 4.

Tom Clancy’s The Division has experienced a roller-coaster ride of support and disdain since it launched in March. After a stellar start setting records for Ubisoft, the game quickly experienced issues that saw a massive number of players desert the game. That changed, however, with last month’s release of Update 1.4, which fixed many of the issues within the game and overhauled the loot system to better serve both solo and group players.

On the heels of Update 1.4, developer Massive announced today that the next update for The Division, Update 1.5, will be available next week for Xbox One and PC, along with the game’s second DLC, Survival. PlayStation 4 players will also receive the 1.5 update next week, though it will likely come a couple days after Xbox One and PC. Survival won’t arrive on PlayStation 4 until just before Christmas due to an exclusivity agreement between Ubisoft and Xbox.

During this morning’s State of the Game livestream, community developer Hamish Bode announced the release dates for the update and DLC, and provided The Division players with a handful of patch notes. Many of the changes, additions, and updates coming have been requested by the community for months. Now that the game is in a stable state thanks to Update 1.4, it looks like Massive is finally able to start addressing some of the biggest community requests players have been making.

Below is a breakdown of the most notable changes and additions coming with both Update 1.5 and the Survival expansion.

The Division Update 1.5

While there are a lot of new features and fixes coming with Update 1.5, there are a few that jump out for most The Division players. First off, Update 1.5 will be adding a new World Tier to the game. Update 1.4 introduced World Tiers to players, and gave them a chance to choose a tier somewhere between World Tier 1 and World Tier 4. Each tier has its own enemy difficulty level and gear score (i.e. Light Level for those Destiny fans out there).

When players reach the in-game level cap of 30, they begin to focus their efforts on increasing their gear score and finding the gear combinations that best suit their play styles. Update 1.5 will add World Tier 5 to The Division, along with level 34 enemies and gear score 256 weapons and armor. New weapons and armor pieces will come with improved stats so players can take on the challenging enemies in the new top World Tier.

Another major addition coming with Patch 1.5 is an increased Stash size. Like most loot-based games, The Division is full of different items for players to acquire and use. To help store all these items, players can make use of a Stash in their Base of Operations and Safe Houses. A few months ago Massive increased the size of the Stash, but many players have continued to request additional space for their items. With Update 1.5, the Stash will be more than doubled from 70 to 150 slots, giving players plenty of room to hold their stuff.

There are dozens of additional changes coming to The Division with Update 1.5, including numerous balances and fixes. Many weapons will see nerfs, while others will experience buffs of some kind. Shotguns, which have been notoriously overpowered in The Divison’s PvP arena, the Dark Zone, will be nerfed heavily to allow better PvP matchups in the game. Additionally, hip fire will be altered to make it more difficult for players to spray their foes down with bullets from long distances with hip fire.

Update 1.5 will also introduce 12 new weapon types into the game, which will all be available in World Tier 5. Many of these weapons were seen during the latest PTS test, and have since been altered slightly due to feedback from the community. There will also be four new high-end named weapons available in the game, each with unique talents and stats that will boost players during gameplay.

Head to Page 2 for full Division Update 1.5 Patch Notes.

Survival Expansion

With Update 1.4 normalizing and balancing The Division back to a playable state for gamers of all experience levels, players have been looking forward to the next DLC for the game. That next DLC, dubbed Survival, was announced a few weeks ago, along with a PTS where PC players had an opportunity to test out the expansion for a week. Thanks to feedback from the community and those PTS players, Massive made a handful of minor adjustments to Survival in preparation for its launch next week.

Survival will introduce an entirely new game mode into The Division, where players will test their ability to survive against harsh environmental elements, the demand for food, water, and medicine, unforgiving enemies, and a new foe called the Hunter, who seeks out and destroys players without remorse. Players who make it to the end of a session will be handsomely rewarded with numerous weapon and gear caches filled with credits and new weapons and armor that can be used in the game.

Survival will feature two server types: PvE and PvP. In PvE servers, players will face off against AI enemies, and can work together to complete their mission. The PvP server will work similarly, except that players will have to deal with each other as well as with AI enemies. If players die in either server type before finishing the mission, they will be rewarded with caches to match their points earned and sent back to the Base of Operations to start over or continue in The Divison’s other activities.

Hopefully the fixes and additions coming to The Division with Update 1.5 and Survival will continue the trend of improving the troubled game, and give The Division fans hope for the future of the title.

What do you think about the upcoming changes and additions with The Division Update 1.5 and the Survival expansion?

Tom Clancy’s The Division Update 1.5 will release November 22, 2016 for PC and Xbox One, and sometime later (Massive estimates “a couple days”) for PlayStation 4. Survival will launch on PC and Xbox One on November 22, 2016 along side Update 1.5, and will be available on PlayStation 4 on December 22, 2016.

Source: Ubisoft

Update 1.5

Game changes

  • Added World Tier 5 bracket (230+ GS)
  • Enemy NPCs are level 34.
  • Maximum Gear Score raised to 256.
  • Heroic Incursions are now available in Tier 5 only.
  • Named Gear items have been implemented in the game. One piece is available for each Gear Slot and each one comes with a unique Talent. Named Gear items can only be acquired in World Tier 5 or in Survival game mode.
  • [Mask] Ferro’s oxygen mask: Players can move and shoot while under burn status effect.
  • [Knee Pads] Shortbow championship pads: Grenades have shortened fuse timer.
  • [Holster] Colonel Bliss’ holster: Powerful improvements for sidearms.
  • [Gloves] Skulls MC gloves: Increased damage when no gear set bonuses are active.
  • [Chestpiece] Barrett’s bulletproof: Powerful bonuses when skills are on cooldown.
  • [Backpack] NinjaBike messenger bag: Less DZ loot and DZ XP lost when dying in the Dark Zone.
  • Enemy Armor Damage now functions in PVP: damage calculation in PvP ignores a percentage of the target’s armor equal to one third of the shooter’s Enemy Armor Damage.
  • Enemy Armor Damage is now a Major bonus instead of a Minor bonus. With enemy Armor Damage now applying to PvP, this will create an interesting situation where players will have to decide between increasing their Armor or Armor Damage.
  • It can now roll on Backpacks, Masks, Kneepads, Holsters and Gear Mods.
  • Roll values have been lowered to compensate for the fact that it can roll on more item types.
  • Rolls on existing Kneepads will be scaled to appropriate values. Note that Enemy Armor Damage will still be considered as a Minor bonus on existing Kneepads.
  • Enemy Armor Damage will be removed from existing Masks and replaced with another minor bonus.
  • Stagger now functions in PvP: high-stagger weapons (Shotguns and Marksman rifles primarily) will now cause the target’s aim to flinch.
  • NPCs now have chances to drop crafting materials. Chances to drop higher quality increases with World Tiers.
  • Season Pass Open World Supply Drops will now scale with World Tier. Opening a supply drop in World Tier 1 will reward with Gear Score 163, 182 in world tier 2, etc.
  • Items in the Scavenger crate in the Base of Operations will now scale with World Tier.
  • Vendors will now scale to player’s Gear Score, independently from the World Tier they’re in. This means that the Gear Score and currency value of goods they sell will adapt to the player’s Gear Score.
  • We have adjusted the Credits and Phoenix Credits rewards for Main Missions, High Value Targets and Incursions to better scale with World Tier. This overall results in an increase starting from World Tier 4 and above.
  • Modified rewards from completing weekly assignments:
  • Moved 30 Phoenix Credits from the weekly assignment reward to put them inside the weekly assignment cache (the total amount is still the same)
  • Added one extra High-End Mod insight the weekly assignment cache
  • Swift: Reload Speed bonus has been increased from 15% to 25%
  • Stash Size has been increased to 150

Weapons

All Weapon types

  • Hip fire now has stronger recoil than aiming down sights. The strength of this effect varies between weapon types. From most impacted to least impacted: Marksman Rifles, LMGs, Assault Rifles, SMGs, Shotguns, Pistols.

SMG

  • Vector 45 ACP & First Wave Vector 45 ACP: base magazine size increased to 25.
  • MP7: base damage increased by 16%.

LMG

  • Damage to targets out of cover bonus has been slightly reduced for all LMGs of Gear Score 256
  • M60: base damage reduced by 3%.
  • M60 & M249 now take longer to reach full accuracy when fired.
  • MG5: Time to max accuracy has been slightly increased. This means that while firing, max accuracy will be reached a little slower than before.
  • Hungry Hog: base damage reduced by 13%, to prevent a scaling overlap with the implementation of World Tier 5.

Shotguns

  • Lowered the strength of aim assist for Shotguns.
  • Lowered the effect of accuracy on Shotguns.
  • Headshot base bonus reduced from 80% to 60%.
  • Showstopper: Accuracy while in cover has been reduced.
  • M870: base damage reduced by 12%.

Added 12 new weapon types. These weapon types can only be dropped in World Tier 5:

  • MG5 Light Machinegun
  • Infantry MG5 Light Machinegun
  • Famas Assault Rifle
  • Model 700 Marksman Rifle
  • M700 Tactical Marksman Rifle
  • M700 Carbon Marksman Rifle
  • Converted USC Submachinegun
  • Police UMP-45 Submachinegun
  • Tactical UMP-45 Submachinegun
  • Snub nosed Rhino Pistol
  • Rhino Pistol
  • Rhino Special Pistol

Added 4 new High-End named weapons (available at various gear scores depending on source):

  • Golden Rhino
  • Urban MDR Assault Rifle
  • Tommy Gun
  • Thompson M1928

Gear Sets

Final Measure

  • 4 pieces: Grenades can now be picked up every 8 seconds instead of 15 seconds.

Hunter’s Faith

  • 3 pieces: Headshot bonus reduced from 20% to 10%.

FrontLine has been added:

  • 2 pieces: +15% Protection from Elites
  • 3 pieces: +30% Ballistic Shield Health
  • 4 pieces: Allows using an SMG if one is equipped when Ballistic Shield is deployed. SMG Crit Chance is reduced to 0%

Skill changes

Pulse

  • All Mods (except Recon Pack): Decreased lifetime by 20% from 25 seconds to 20 seconds.

Recon Pack:

  • Increased lifetime by 14.3% from 17.5 seconds to 20 seconds.
  • Decreased cooldown by 25% from 60 seconds to 45 seconds.

Tactical Scanner:

  • Increased cooldown by 10% from 60 seconds to 66 seconds.

First Aid

Defibrillator:

  • Increased Ally Heal by 10% from 1500 to 1650.

Overdose:

  • Decreased Self Heal by 10% from 1500 to 1350.
  • Increased cooldown by 10% from 60 seconds to 66 seconds.

Support Station

  • All Mods (except Immunizer): Increased Lifetime by 10% from 20 seconds to 22 seconds.

Sticky Bomb

  • Base Skill and Proximity Fuse: Decreased cooldown by 10% from 90 seconds to 81 seconds.

BFB:

  • Decreased cooldown by 4.8% from 105 seconds to 100 seconds.

Seeker Mine

Cluster:

  • Decreased Bleed effect duration by 25% from 8 seconds to 6 seconds (total bleed damage is unchanged).

Ballistic Shield

  • Base Skill and all mods: NPCs will deal 10% more damage to the shield.

Smart Cover

  • All Mods (except Trapper): Decreased Skill Power impact on Damage Resistance, Weapon Stability and Weapon Accuracy buffs by 20% from 150% to 120%.

Tactical Link

  • Increased duration by 8.3% from 12 seconds to 13 seconds.

Survivor Link

  • Increased duration by 8.3% from 12 seconds to 13 seconds.

PC Only

  • [PC Only] Added a radial menu for emotes.
  • [PC Only] Added a new UI rendering setting that will reduce game latency at the cost of framerate.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a bug where players could trap elite NPCs inside a spawn closet during Dragon’s Nest – Eliminate the Collective checkpoint.
  • Fixed a bug where players would not be able to carry the Fuse box object if they were facing a certain angle.
  • Fixed instances where players could obtain High-End items at too low levels.
  • Fixed a bug where the interaction radius around the Crafting Table was too small.
  • Fixed a bug where weapon talents that would buff the player would be purged after switching weapons.
  • Fixed a bug where the Medved and Warlord High-End weapons would drop at 163 Gear Score in Incursions at any World Tier.
  • Fixed a bug where swapping out the 4th piece of a gear set with one of the same type would disable the 4-piece set bonus. This affected Tactician’s Authority, Sentry’s Call and Striker gear sets.
  • Fixed a bug where Wildfire, Shrapnel and Fear Tactics would not apply their effects to nearby enemy targets.
  • Fixed a bug where players would not be able to use Recovery Link signature skill while aiming another skill.
  • Fixed a bug where the Recovery Link would not automatically trigger if the player took fatal damage while aiming down sights.
  • Fixed a bug where weapon talents would not activate if the player had fulfilled exactly the required stat value.
  • Fixed a bug where equipping a weapon directly from dropped loot would replace the players current weapon instead of an empty slot.
  • Fixed a bug where sometimes looted containers and props would still be highlighted as loot-able in the game world.
  • Fixed a bug where recalibrating Enemy Armor Damage stat would not use the correct values at 163 Gear Score.
  • Fixed a replication issue that occurred when the player was performing a two-hand vault over an obstacle in the game world.
  • Fixed instances where the Fuse box objects would not replicate correctly when players would leave the mission instance.
  • Fixed game framerate while inside any inventory that has a large number of items.
  • Fixed a bug where the Signature Skill icon would not disappear when “auto-hide HUD” option was enabled.
  • Fixed a bug where players could not scroll an item description during item compare, in certain conditions.
  • Fixed a bug where the UI would not show the new item notification when a skill mod was unlocked due to a Base of Operation upgrade.
  • Fixed a bug where the Automatch megamap screen inside Underground mode would display activities that were not available for matchmaking.
  • Fixed a bug where the player’s health bar would overlap the Gear Score value while the Stash is open.
  • Fixed a bug where some vendors in the Base of Operations were not displayed on the megamap or the minimap.
  • Fixed a weird door.
  • Fixed a bug where Nimble talent would not work until reequipped if a cover to cover move is interrupted.
  • Fixed a bug where players could become invincible for a few seconds after using Survivor Link.
  • Fixed several instances of client crash.
  • Fixed a bug where Skill Haste would not correctly affect Support Station cooldown.

PC Specific [PC only]

  • Fixed a bug where the first keyboard tap to deploy a skill would not register immediately after the skill was equipped or came off cooldown.
  • Fixed a bug where the player would not be able to shoot for several seconds after having thrown a skill or a grenade.
  • Fixed a bug where players would get unmuted after being killed in the Dark Zone.
  • Fixed a bug where the World Bracket UI was not affected by the HUD eye focus for the Tobii Eye Tracker.
  • Fixed a bug where players could still interact with the crafting table even though they received an “inventory is full” notification.
  • Fixed a bug where window size would not actually change when switching the video settings to windowed mode.