The Division has received its long-awaited 1.4 update, and it brings some major changes to the game.
The massive update comes in at approximately 5GB, and reading the incredibly long patch notes will make you understand why. Nearly every aspect of the game has been changed in some way.
There are also new systems such as the World Tier system, which separates the world into four different tiers of difficulty after players reach level 30. The higher the difficulty tier that a player is in — they range from level 30 to 33 — the more difficult enemies they will face in the open world. Gear drops will also be scaled appropriately, with better gear in the higher difficulty tiers.
Other changes include things as simple as improving enemy AI, as well as more significant changes such as adding health regeneration outside of combat, removing scavenging altogether, and lowering the time-to-kill. Additionally, all NPCs will now have a chance to drop Gear Set items, skill bonuses has been removed from all gear, armor stats have been changed, and there is a re-balancing for performance mods and weapons and talents.
Additionally, there are several UI improvements, such as a new player reporting interface, the ability to mark mods as junk, and the ability to mark weapons and gear as favorites. Many of these changes make it less time consuming to complete mundane tasks in the game’s menus; now crafting materials can be converted in bulk, you can deconstruct items right from your stash, and the recalibration bench now opens instantly instead of waiting for the watch tapping animation to complete.
Player count for The Division has dropped quite a bit since the game launched, and the sweeping changes in this update are likely a deliberate effort to try to reel players back in.