The Division 2 currently drops three seasons per year, each lasting for just over four months, giving its players ample opportunity to complete the Manhunt, the season pass and all the other events that drop throughout. Not to mention, getting their hands on the latest exotics, gear sets and named items.
Year 6 is just beginning, and the first season is slated to be the last before we start to see significant changes and new content. The seasonal model is slated to be updated for Season 2, with the long-awaited Brooklyn DLC coming in Season 3. For now, things are essentially following the current pattern, but the story is continuing to grow and Project Resolve is almost at an end.
Here's what we know, including details on current events happening this season.
The Division 2 Year 6 Season 1: Echo League
The first League of the season is now live as of June 18, and is the Echo League named as always after the most recent Manhunt target. This league has the usual six objectives with 10 tiers, rewarding stars towards the 60 you need to claim all the rewards.
Echo League contains:
- Jefferson Trade Center - Hard difficulty
- Potomac Event Center - Hard difficulty
- Viewpoint Museum - Hard difficulty
- Manning National Zoo - Challenging difficulty
- Hyenas Disrupted
- SHD Skill Kills on Black Tusk
Of the four missions to complete, Manning National Zoo is easily the hardest, though should still be achievable even solo for most players. The target time for 10 stars is 21 minutes, but it is a long mission. If you're struggling, use matchmaking and find a group. That's what I usually do, and it definitely makes it easier to complete.
The two faction-based objectives will take some time to complete, but remember, you don't have to get all 60 stars this week. The second week began on June 25 with a second chance to finish up all the rewards. To apply the Disrupt status you'll want to run either the Jammer pulse, the EMP Sticky Bomb or the EMP grenade. If you pair them with the Eclipse Protocol gear set, status effects will spread on kill, so you'll get greater efficiency.
The final reward as always is an exclusive backpack trophy, so if you're into collecting everything, you'll need to complete the Echo League rewards track before the event ends, as it'll be gone forever.
The Division 2 Year 6 Season 1: Crossroads Apparel Event
Year 6 Season 1's new Apparel Event is live as of June 25 and runs for three weeks. This is a particularly good one for fans of the franchise, as the cosmetics are themed around the Operation: Crossroads companion novels.
Everyone seems to get a cache to start them off, and if you have the premium track of the Season Pass, you'll also get given three more. From there you have two options to acquire the rest. The first, which I don't recommend, is to buy them with Premium Credits.
Better is to acquire them from playing the game. You get a new cache every four levels you increase, and every cache will guarantee to drop an item you don't have yet. It sounds like a lot, but with three weeks to grind, it shouldn't be too tough. If you have the premium Season Pass, you'll need 88 levels. Hit projects, higher difficulty content, random matchmaking, and you'll soon see them tumble.
The reward for completing the Apparel Event is the exclusive Rowan Uniform, which is definitely worth getting.
The Division 2 Year 6 Season 1 start date and length
Year 6 Season 1 began on Tuesday, June 11. Weekly resets in The Division 2 happen every Tuesday morning European time, and in-season events will all go live following this pattern.
The season is scheduled to run all the way into late September.
The Division 2 Year 6 Season 1 First Rogue: Manhunt and Season Pass
Based on the season primer, we're not slowing down in our pursuit of long-time protagonist, Aaron Keener. There aren't many details at this point, having only seen the teaser in the Ubisoft Forward pre-show at the time of writing. Presumably the Manhunt will see us chasing him, after the bombshell in the last Year 5 Season, Vanguard, that saw our ally, Kelso, align with Keener.
This quote from the blog post tells us that this time, he's coming to us.
"Keener is coming to Washington, D.C. and he has sent us an invitation to parley, but first we will need to pass his twisted trials and prove our worth. An alliance with Keener and his Rogues could be the key to stopping Natalya Sokolova and the Black Tusk. But what will the cost be? "
This season's Manhunt is a more traditional fairing, targeting individuals rather than locations, as we saw in Vanguard. We still have to complete similar tasks, control points, bounties, and missions, but this season they're all called Keener's "Trials" leading up to the final showdown with the man himself.
Additionally, a new season has come into play, with new gear, blueprints, exotic items and cosmetics. As always, players won't be required to buy the season pass to get their hands on the best new stuff, with the paid track just offering more goodies to those who spring for it. There will also be the usual sprinkling of Global Events and Apparel Events, as well as the speed run focused leagues to participate in throughout.
There are two new exotic items confirmed for this season. First up are a pair of kneepads, the Acosta's Kneepads. There will also be a new exotic weapon to get your hands on, the Overlord exotic shotgun.
First up, the Overlord's stats.
Talent: Capitulate
- Hitting an enemy will apply a stack of –4% Movement Speed for each pellet hit for 5 seconds. Shooting again will reapply stacks.
Weapon Stats and Mods
- Optics Slot: +15% Critical Hit Damage
- Magazine Slot: +15% Reload Speed
- Underbarrel Slot: +20% Weapon Stability
Then for Acosta's Kneepads, here's how they stack up.
Talent: Escape Plan
- Vaulting, climbing or dropping from top of an object gives +10% Movement Speed for 3 seconds. After not moving for 5 seconds, receive +20% Movement Speed for 5 seconds.
- When affected by a Status Effect, a +10% Movement Speed is granted for 5 seconds.
Max Movement Speed bonus is 20%. The bonuses do not stack with Movement Speed bonuses from other sources. - -50% Movement Impairment penalty from Status Effects.
In addition, there is a new gear set and a new brand set, as well as three new named gear pieces:
- Zwiadowka Sp. z o.o brand set
- Bober named chest piece
- Eagle's Grasp named gloves
- Thorn named shotgun
- Like Glue named shotgun
- Breaking Point gear set
The Division 2 Warlords of New York now available to all players
While it snuck out a little before the start of the reveal stream, Ubisoft has now confirmed that all new players of The Division 2 will now have access to Warlords of New York.
Ubisoft has also revealed now that the endgame for The Division 2 is being unified, and all players will be united at level 40. The gear score and world tiers system from the base game is gone, and instead all players will now play up to level 40. Once there, the endgame content, including the seasonal manhunt and all additional game modes, will be unlocked. Everyone will play together, whether they have the expansion or not.
If you already play and don't have the expansion, you'll be able to play all the game modes previously locked behind it. But you can still upgrade, get WONY, play the campaign and obtain the SHD watch if you wish, which is worth doing since you have 1,000 levels on there to add extra stats to your character.
The Division 2 Year 6 Season 1 First Rogue: New commendations
Five new commendations are being added to the game with Year 6 Season 1 First Rogue, all of which focus on the roguelike Descent mode.
- Descent Loop 6 Award - Reach loop 6 in Descent 3 times.
- Descent Basic Award - Beat the Nemesis in Descent without equipping any exotic talents.
- Descent 50 Award - Complete 50 loops in Descent.
- Descent High Roller - Reroll talents 15 times in Descent.
- Perfect Descent - Defeat the Nemesis with a full squad, without any of the 4 teammates going down during the run.
The start of a big new year for The Division 2
Year 6 is going to be a huge one for The Division 2. Manhunts and Seasons are getting revamped, there's a DLC expansion planned, and a whole lot of story to tell. Season 1 First Rogue will be the last under this current seasonal model, before things change up significantly in Season 2.
Time to Rogue hunting.
