The Division: how to get the best Gear Score

News by Matt Martin Former Editor-in-Chief

Published on April 19, 2016

There's plenty of new Gear Sets, but how do you hit the max Gear Score?

The Division: how to get the best Gear Score

The Division changed last week, with the Incursions update adding a new Gear Score for those who have passed level 30 and completed the campaign.

Gear Score is now calculated using your armour and weapons. The higher the score on the armour or weapon, the higher your Gear Score.

Simple, in theory. But let's break down how to get the best gear and the highest Gear Score.

How Gear Score works

Incursions introduced Gear Sets, which give the player unique talents. But it's important to remember that these Gear Set armour necessarily have the highest Gear Score. Wearing a particular item my cause your Gear Score to drop.
Gear Score doesn't directly affect the amount of damage you do. Gear Score allows you to access certain missions to be released at a later date, the Incursion Falcon Lost, and it decides the Dark Zone instance that you'll enter when you go into the PvP area.
The next free Incursion - Broken Circle - will require a Gear Score of 220. So there's reason enough to get your numbers up.

How do you reach Gear Score 220 and 240?

To get over the 200 barrier you need armour with a Gear Score of 214 to begin with, and your ultimate goal is getting armour with a Gear Score of 240.
Completing an Incursion (Falcon Lost) for the first time in a week on Hard Mode guarantees you an item with a Gear Score of 214. That's your first port of call.
Every time you complete the Incursion the boss will drop an armour piece with a Gear Score of 191. You can complete the Incursion multiple times to farm those 191 items.
Complete the Incursion on Challenge mode for the first time in a week and you'll receive a guaranteed armour piece with a Gear Score of 240. This is the only way you'll be able to get items with a Gear Score of 240.
Every time you complete the Incursion on Challenge mode the boss will drop armour with a guaranteed Gear Score of 214. Again, you can farm these multiple times in a week.
So Incursions Challenge mode is the only place for Gear Score 240 armour but it's not the only place for Gear Score 214 items.
Both the Dark Zone 06 safe room and the Base of Operations vendor will sell you blueprints for certain Gear Set items with a Gear Score of 214.
The Dark Zone 06 vendor has the armour for the Path of the Nomad Gear Set. The BoO vendor stocks armour for Tactician's Authority, Sentry's Call and Striker's Battlegear.
There's also a chance that named bosses in the Dark Zone and supply drops will drop Gear Set armour with a Gear Score of 214, but relying on luck isn't really something to recommend.
Some players have reported getting 214 gear Score armour from other Challenge mode bosses too, but again, that's luck.
If you want to be ready for the next Incursions which has a recommended Gear Score of 220, in total you're going to need; 4 armour pieces with a Gear Score of 240, 2 armour pieces with a Gear Score of 214 and 2 weapons with a Gear Score of 204. That will give you a Gear Score of 222.
Good luck!