The Division 2 Escalation mode explained: Modifiers, rewards, and more

Things are heating up in The Division 2 as the Escalation mode has arrived in the eighth year. Aimed for the veterans, this difficulty level will be a true test of your in-game skills and abilities. That said, with great risks come greater rewards.

Let’s understand what the difficulty means and if it’s worth your time and additional efforts.

How does the Escalation mode work in The Division 2

With Year 8 Season 1, aka Rise Up, now live, we can test out the Escalation mode. It’s purely made for the veterans who have completed the campaign and reached Level 40. At launch, it only includes main missions and strongholds. The chosen missions will be part of a set of five that will rotate weekly on Tuesdays.

To play at this difficulty, you need to head to your Base of Operations. You can then fast travel directly to the mission. Escalation has its own dedicated panel. Choose a tier, check the token cost, view the rewards, and then begin the test.

Every Escalation mission has 10 tiers. Higher tiers offer better rewards, but it also brings more risks. The lowest tier will always be available for free, but anything above that will require tokens to play (the tougher the challenge, the higher the cost).

All Escalation mode mutators in The Division 2

Mutators are special modifiers that will determine how the Escalation mode works. Each tier has its own consistent set of effects.

• Harvester: The enemy will regenerate Armor and Health by a percentage of your maximum Armor when dealing damage.
• Suppressor: Once the enemy takes damage, it will charge an EMP blast and release it after a full charge.
• Aid Specialist: The enemy repairs the Armor of all its nearby allies upon taking heavy damage.
• Anchor: The enemy gains damage resistance, and it also uses incendiary ammo if its allies are still alive.
• Hot Foot: If you stay at one spot, it will build up a charge. If the charge is full, you’ll take shock damage.
• Unyielding: Enemies will be immune to all crowd control effects when heavily damaged.

All Escalation mode rewards in The Division 2

The main aspect of the Escalation mode is to play for Prototype Gear. At higher tiers, you’ll have better chances and stronger rolls that raise the chances in your favor. However, higher tiers also offer better rewards in general. You’ll get increased XP, Season XP, Escalation Tokens and rare Expertise materials.

The post The Division 2 Escalation mode explained: Modifiers, rewards, and more appeared first on Destructoid.

Prototype gears have arrived in The Division 2 with the start of Year 8 Season 1, and they currently sit at the top of all types of weapons/armors. Gears belonging to this item quality sit above High-End, Named, and other set items, making them truly unique.

Let’s find out how you can get these elusive items to improve your arsenal.

How to obtain Prototype gears in The Division 2

To obtain Prototype gears, you’ll need to participate in missions belonging to the Escalation mode. This is a new difficulty to complete missions that you’ve previously completed inside the game. Every week will have a set number of missions to finish.

There are ten different tiers for each mission. The higher the difficulty, the better your chances of getting Prototype gears. However, you can also get more of these items via the route of upgrades.

How to upgrade to Prototype gears in The Division 2

You can upgrade items starting from High-End quality to Prototype gear. To do so, you’ll need a Prototype Core. The cosen item must also be at the maximum Expertise level (30), and the item must be at maximum level (40). The item doesn’t need to be full optimized for the conversion.

Once you change an item to Prototype gear, it can no longer be optimized or recalibrated. Hence, pay full attention to its stats before spending the Prototype Core on it. However, the upgrade is worth it since your gear will improve its stats and also gain augments.

Here’s a list of augments that are currently available.

• Quantum – Provides a small chance to become temporarily immune to damage.
• Echo – Each bullet fired has a chance to deal its damage a second time.
• Atomize – Increases grenade radius and damage.
• Amalgam – Each bullet hit has a chance to apply a random status effect.
• Trapper – Increases the duration of status effects you apply.
• Entropy – Increases your Health based on a percentage of your total Armor.
• Anomaly – Skills restore a portion of the damage they deal as healing.
• Paradox – Provides a chance to refill part of your magazine while firing.
• Synesthesia – Bullet hits have a chance to slightly reduce skill cooldowns.

The post How to get Prototype gear in The Division 2 appeared first on Destructoid.