If you’re enjoying everything that Ubisoft’s The Division has to offer, then get ready for even more content today! The game is being updated to Patch 1.5, which will also add the much-anticipated Survival Mode, where you’ll take up camp in the middle of New York, fight off adverse weather, AI enemies, other gamers, even hunger in your bid for survival and success. Think you can go the distance and survive this gruelling adventure? Ubisoft say you could be in a single game for up to two hours, so get comfortable! The mode will run in two modes, one with friendly fire for that added threat, and PvE only mode.
The patch brings sweeping updates too, and to give you the low-down, here’s the full changelog.
Game changes
Added World Tier 5 bracket (224+ 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.
Stagger now functions in PvP: high-stagger weapons (Shotguns and Marksman rifles primarily) will now cause the target’s aim to flinch.
Tactical Advance: This talent will now provide a maximum of 30% damage increase.
Stash size has been increased from 70 to 150 total items.
Loot, rewards & vendors
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 results in an overall 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 inside the weekly assignment cache
Weapons
Talents
Swift: Reload Speed bonus has been increased from 15% to 25%.
Provident: This talent has been removed from World Tier 5 and will not roll or be available in recalibration for Gear Score 256 weapons.
Hurried, Focused and Disciplined are no longer exclusive to PP19, G36 and SVDs.
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 9%.
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.
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 anSMG 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.
Fixed a bug where Judy Walters part 2 to 5 echos couldn’t be picked up correctly.
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.
Read all that? Good! Now check out the release trailer for the new survival mode, enjoy!
Peter Donnell
As a child still in my 30's (but not for long), I spend my day combining my love of music and movies with a life-long passion for gaming, from arcade classics and retro consoles to the latest high-end PC and console games. So it's no wonder I write about tech and test the latest hardware while I enjoy my hobbies!