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The Division patch 1.8.1 brings Xbox One X enhancements, new Global Events and Legendary missions

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News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor
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Following three hours of maintenance, Ubisoft has rolled out patch 1.8.1 for The Division on all platforms.

Patch 1.8.1 launches alongside two new Global Events in The Division. The update size is between 3.5GB and 5GB, depending on your platform and region.

The biggest news is the release of the long-in-development Xbox One X enhancement update, which adds 4K rendering and improves anisotropic filtering, object detail, reflections, and screen-space shadows.

With that said, Onslaught, and Blackout are your two new Global Events. Each event has three different stages that increase in difficulty as you go up a rank. Update 1.8.1 also added over 40 new Commendations you can unlock by playing the new Global Events.

As is custom, you'll also have new legendary missions to look forward to. In this case, Amherst’s Apartment, and Grand Central Station both now support the elite difficulty.

If you're low on Division Tech, you'll be happy to know that daily missions, crafting, Survival, and Dark Zone quests all now reward 25 Division Tech each.

The reward is even higher when finishing a weekly Assignment (100), whether in Underground or in the general open world. For season pass owners, the season pass supply drops now give 100 Division Tech.

For all the patch notes, check out the full log below.

Global Events

Global Event 5 – Blackout

-Blackout

  • Always active: Agents are equipped with Shock Ammo that stuns enemies. Shooting or running builds your Charge meter - the more Charge, the more damage you inflict.

-Extreme Blackout

  • Blackout behaviour, plus you can instantly kill enemies with Overcharged melee attacks, but if you miss you will stun yourself and your allies.

-Total Blackout

  • Extreme Blackout behaviour, plus your Charge meter will cool down faster when close to other group members.

Global Event 6 – Onslaught

-Onslaught

  • Always active; Deal Burn, Bleed, and Gas effects to enemies in addition to normal damage. Reload to change the effect.

-Savage Onslaught

  • Onslaught behaviour, enemies are vulnerable to one effect type and resistant to others. Agents take increased damage from resistant enemies.

-Brutal Onslaught

  • Savage Onslaught behaviour, plus when two or more group members kill a vulnerable enemy within two seconds, each member can reload to gain a damage bonus for a single clip.

New Commendation

  • Over 40 new Commendations unlockable in the new Global Events.

New Legendary Difficulty Missions

  • Amherst’s Apartment.
  • Grand Central Station.

Game changes

Division Tech increases

  • Daily Combat, Crafting, Survival and Dark Zone Quests now reward the player with 25 Div Tech each.
  • Weekly Open World and Weekly Underground Assignments reward the player with 100 Div Tech each.
  • Season Pass Supply Drops now award 100 Division Tech.

Vendor changes

  • Added a Classified Gear cache to the Special Vendor that guarantees 1 Classified Gear piece from the entire pool.

Global Events Vendor

  • Removed the basic cache from the vendor.
  • Each Global Event will now have individual caches per Classified Gear set for that Global Event. This allows the player to purchase, for example, a Fire Crest cache that guarantees one item from that set.
  • Bosses in the Resistance game mode now award 100 Global Event tokens.

Exotic Loot drops

  • Removed Premium Vendor Exotics from Open World loot pool and Exotic Caches
  • All Exotics added to the Open World Bosses.

Classified Gear drop rates

  • Classified Drop Rates chances have been increased in all locations.
  • Legendary Missions now have a 20% chance to give Classified Gear as a reward at the completion of the mission
  • Season Pass Supply Drops now have a 10% chance to drop Classified Gear.
  • Survival Caches now has a roughly 10% chance to drop Classified Gear.

Classified Gear

  • Classified Firecrest 6 piece talent now makes the player immune to the fiery explosion caused by the burning targets.

Bug fixes

Skills

  • Fixed an issue where the Mobile Cover Blast Shield mod explosion had no effect.
  • Fixed an issue where the Sticky Bomb Disruptor mod and the base Seeker Mine would affect neutral players in the Dark Zone.
  • Fixed an issue where the UI indicated that certain Support Station mods were affecting neutral players.

Global Events

  • Players are no longer able to kill Joe Ferro using explosives from the Strike Global Event while he is still in the spawning room.

Dark Zone

  • Fixed an issue where a player dying during the Manhunt Interact caused the sound to loop.
  • The "Group gone Rogue" message no longer appears when a player with Rogue status enters the game while not in a group.
  • Fixed an issue where the UI for the Rogue timers would flash between different times.
  • Fixed various locations in the Dark Zone where the player could get stuck.

Underground

  • Certain Named NPCs tended to disappear from the Underground. We forced them back.
  • Fixed issues related to a confused JTF officer.
  • Fixed a weird door.

Survival

  • Fixed the display of the Survival weekly assignment for players under maximum level.

Missions

  • Fixed an issue where players would only receive one cache instead of three when completing the secret mission.

Commendations

  • "Marathon" Commendation now requires players to access the Camp Clinton safe house in order to unlock.
  • The “Facetime“ Commendation now tracks requirements appropriately.
  • Fixed the activity modifier requirement for some Global Event commendations.
  • "Search and Destroy" Commendation now tracks for missions completed.
  • "Flawless Underground" Commendation has been fixed to be awarded when all conditions are met.
  • "Directive Executive" Commendation now awards when the proper conditions are met.
  • Commendations for the Global Event: Assault will no longer appear if the Global Event is not active.

Gear

  • Fixed an issue where the area of effect of the Firecrest fire was larger than the visuals indicated.

World

  • Fixed an issue where players were getting stuck on a concrete block in West Side Pier.
  • Fixed an instance in West Side Pier where players could get stuck outside playable area.
  • Somehow located and removed an invisible ladder.
  • There was a wall in Pier 93 that didn’t look right. It looks right now. We also fixed a weird ramp in there.
  • There was a corrupted texture outside of the Carrier. It has been rehabilitated.
  • Agents can no longer see outside of the game world in certain locations of Last Stand.
  • Fixed evil trash bin and bags.

Premium store

  • There were tabs in the store that appeared empty. We filled them.
  • Players can no longer see secondary weapons when previewing backpack skins.

Misc

  • Fixed various technical issues that would make the game crash on PC.
  • "Time Played" now appears on the Agent Selection screen instead of "Last Played".

Console-specific

  • Players will now be disconnected from the game servers when logging out of their PlayStation accounts.
  • Fixed an issue where the player would get stuck on the loading screen when accepting a console game invite while on the loading screen.

Xbox One X enhancement

  • 4K rendering
  • Higher anisotropy
  • Improved reflections
  • Improved object detail
  • Improved screen-space shadows

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