The Division Incursions April update: everything you need to know

News by Staff Contributor

Published on April 4, 2016

From Falcon Lost to Gear Sets and Loot Drops. Here's how The Division changes from April 12.

The Division Incursions update: everything you need to know

The Division's Incursions update drops April 12 and is the first free content for PC, Xbox One and PS4.

It includes a significant amount of additions and changes to the game, but hopefully won't leave behind players who aren't racing through the content. Let's break down all the content and talk about its impact on the game.

Incursion: Falcon Lost

Falcon Lost is the first Incursion, The Division's raid-style missions for multiple players.
You're going to need to be more organised to complete this compared to a regular Challenge mode. Supposedly, this is where you'll really need to get tactical with other players.
Matchmaking is available, although Massive is recommending you play Falcon Lost with people you know well and who are able to communicate and apply strategies. If you're a solo player looking for a group, we suggest hooking up with like-minded players via this LFG group for The Division.
There are no checkpoints in Falcon Lost so if your team wipes it's back to the start.
New enemy types in Falcon Lost include flying drones and a bullet-proof Armoured Personnel Carrier.
Incursions (as all future raids will be known in The Division) come in Hard and Challenge modes. Gear and weapons will now have a Gear Score which replaces the Gear Level. It's recommended that all players have a Gear Level/Gear Score of 30 to play Falcon Lost on Hard mode.
Challenge mode is different. It has a required Gear Score of 31, meaning if you haven't got the right equipment you won't be able to attempt it.
Completing Falcon Lost rewards the player with new and unique gear and weapons. You'll be awarded something every time you complete Falcon Lost.
As well as regular rewards, there's a weekly reward handed out every seven days. This will be the best reward for playing the Incursion.

New items, weapons and Gear Sets

There are three new named weapons coming your way in update 1.1; Warlord (assault rifle), Valkyria (submachine gun) and the Historian (marksman rifle). The historian won't be available until the game is updated to version 1.2.
As well as individual gear items and weapons, Falcon Lost also introduces Gear Sets. Not all of the items in a Gear Set will be awarded by completing the Incursion. Some will come via blueprints, Challenge mode and other unlocks.
There are four Gear Sets on offer, with each tailored to a specific style of play. Equip four items from the Gear Set and you'll unlock a unique talent or perk exclusive to that set.
The four new Gear Sets are: Sentry's Call (marksman), Tactician's Authority (support), Striker's Battle Gear (tank/assault) and Path of the Nomad (Dark Zone players).
The Path of the Nomad Gear Set will mainly be found in the Dark Zone.
Here's a detailed explanation of all the gear sets and their special talents.
Gear Sets have unique talents or bonuses, but they don't have the the armour talents and bonuses you're used to seeing on individual pieces of gear. This is so they don't make those individual pieces irrelevant. Rather, they're designed for more traditional class play, such as the marksman or support class.
Gear Score will now be displayed once players hit level 30 and will be based on the gear they have in their inventory, not equipped.
You can also expect more Phoenix Credits to be dropped by level 31 and 32 enemies, and recalibrating high-end items will cost normal credits rather than Phoenix Credits. Phew.
There are significant changes coming to crafting too. In short, make sure you dismantle unused gear before the update as you'll be getting less materials for it.

Loot trading and assignments

Loot trading now allows you to drop an item for a friend to pick up should you already have that specific item
Loot trading has a time frame of two hours from initial pick-up, and you can only trade with players in your team.
Items can be dropped anywhere on the regular map, but inside a Dark Zone they can only be dropped in a Safe House/trading point.
Assignments are small jobs that can be done for lesser rewards such as Division Tech or Phoenix Credits. There are daily and weekly assignments, so some can be done within an hour while others must be completed over multiple days.

Dark Zone supply drops

Supply drops will drop in the Dark Zone once every hour.
Each supply drop will have valuable gear, weapons, keys and other goodies, and it's a race for the first group to get there and claim the items.
Supply drops will be heavily guarded by AI, and they're open to everyone on the map to fight for.
Once a group claims the rewards it's theirs for good. The items do not need to be extracted and cannot be stolen once claimed.
Finally, there will be a player cam for downed agents. This means players can pan the environment and give advice to team-mates even when they've bled out.