The biggest addition for fans of The Division‘s endgame is the new areas that will open up in the Dark Zone. The northern stretches of the map, zones 7, 8, and 9, will become available for the first time. Together, the surface area of these zones covers nearly as much ground as the first six zones combined, effectively doubling the Dark Zone’s map size. Ubisoft promises that the unlocked zones are even more dangerous than the others.
Fortunately, while the map will double in size, the number of players allowed on a single Dark Zone session will remain the same. This will spread out the player base, giving users who favor player versus environment combat room to breathe. You will also be able to fast-travel between Dark Zone checkpoints, and new landmarks will insert awarded loot into your inventory automatically.
New contamination events will also be added, including a recurring event every hour featuring elite Cleaners who will threaten your virus level to lethal capacity.
For players who thrive on the competitive nature of the endgame, Ubisoft is finally adding leaderboards to the Dark Zone. Leaderboards will track both player-versus-player and player-versus-environment scenarios. A total score will be calculated and assigned to a rank. Rankings will be divided into tiers on a weekly and monthly basis, with in-game prizes being awarded at the end of each cycle.
Players who want the most trying experience offered in the game will be able to jump up to Legendary difficulty in three missions: Times Square, WarrenGate Power Plant, and Napalm Production Site. Previous enemies will be replaced by foes of greater strength and intelligence to truly test your player build and skills. If you manage to complete these missions on the new difficulty level, you will be awarded exclusive vanity items.
Additionally, named weapons and gear are now dubbed Exotics, and a new gear set called SEEKR will become available. As usual, the new update will balance and tweak existing combat and gear in hopes of addressing lingering inconsistencies.
Ubisoft said that update 1.6 will be rolled out to all players in the “near future.” We also know that it will accompany the third and final expansion, Last Stand.
