The Division 2 Update 12 Goes Live Tuesday, Patch Notes Here

The Division 2's next season is almost upon us, and we've got the patch notes that detail the changes that are coming to the game. Season 4 is titled End of Watch, and it will bring a new Manhunt, rewards, and a feature called Optimization Station that's designed to recalibrate the game's progression from the ground up.

Update 12 will come to The Division 2 on Tuesday, with a three-hour downtime scheduled for 3:30 AM ET / 12:30 AM PT. The most notable addition will likely be the Optimization Station, which allows players to exchange resource currencies to wring out a higher gear score from their existing equipment. The materials required for this optimization process will be sourced from all over the game, from deconstructing high-end loot, defeating bosses, and completing multiplayer events like Summit floors.

Speaking of the Summit, the update will also introduce some new changes to that mode, including the ability to activate two challenges at a time, and additional rewards for each challenge completed. The update adds numerous new weapons to the game, including a new Exotic shotgun called Scorpio and new named items, including a marksman rifle called the Scalpel.

The Division 2 Update 12 Patch Notes

A new season is almost upon us! Starting on December 8th, End of Watch offers 12 weeks of in-game activities and unique rewards. Season 4 brings a new Seasonal Manhunt, new Leagues, a new Global event and new unique rewards, as well as two Apparel Events.

• New Manhunt tasking you to take on 5 rogue agents over a 12-week period starting December 8^th. Bring down all five to unlock the new Achilles Pulse skill variant.
  
  • Faye Lau, infamous Rogue Agent is this Season’s prime target.
• New Global Event Golden Bullet.
• New Apparel Events Outguard and Codename: Nightmare
• New Leagues Viper, Kestrel, Magnus & Circe.
• New Rewards
  
  • 2 new Exotics
  • 1 new Gear Set
  • 2 new Named Weapons
  • 2 new Named Gear
  • 1 new Brand Set
• Participating in the activities above will earn players Season experience contributing to their Season level.
• Playing Conflict will contribute XP by gaining Conflict Levels beyond 30.
• Playing in the Dark Zone will contribute XP by gaining DZ Levels beyond 30.

New Feature: Optimization Station

Title Update 12 marks the return of a powerful tool for your endgame builds – the Optimization Station. With it, you’ll be able to wring the full potential out of each piece of gear you use for a price. The Optimization Station will be a new menu accessible via the Recalibration Station and will require newly introduced resource currencies to operate. With it, you can improve gear Attributes beyond their current rolls to their upper limits.

• Upgrade the attributes of any weapon or gear piece in your inventory step-by-step to their maximum values.
• Requires new materials sourced from all over the game.
• Alloys and Weaves - Acquired by deconstructing High-end or better loot.
• Tactical Assessments - Acquired by defeating final bosses in missions, bounties, and the summit. (Greater difficulties yield larger amounts.)
• Field Recon Data - Acquired by completing Control Points in the LZ, Landmarks in the DZ, and some Summit floors. (Greater difficulties yield larger amounts.)
• SHD Calibration - Rewarded for certain daily and weekly projects.
• All materials may be crafted. Crafting blueprints may be rewarded from high-tier control points or from project completion.
• SHD Calibration + Field Recon Data can also be acquired from Summit Caches which are rewarded for completing the new Summit Challenges. They may also be acquired by leveling you SHD watch.

In addition, we made the following changes based on PTS feedback:

• Optimization Material drops for Rogue Agent Encounters:
  
  • Rogue Agents now drop a random stack of weapon or gear optimization materials.
  • The final rogue will drop a random stack of Tactical Assessment materials and a stack each of gear and weapon optimization materials.

New Feature: Global Event Vendor

The way Global Event rewards work will change with Title Update 12. You will now earn stars by completing Global Event Challenges, which can be spent in the Global Event Shop. Here, you will be able to buy Crafting Caches, Season Caches, Exotic Caches, and more.

• 3 Star Caches
  
  • Recalibration Resource Cache
  • Brand Resource Cache
  • Weapon Resource Cache
• 7 Star Caches
  
  • Season Cache
  • Named Item Cache
• 12 Star Caches
  
  • Optimization Cache
• 20 Star Cache
  
  • Exotic Cache

Please bear in mind that any unspent Stars at the end of the Global Event will be lost.

The Summit Improvements

Developer comment: With the TU12 changes to The Summit, we want to round out the experience with a new progression system, commendations and more.

Summit Challenges

• Players can activate two Summit Challenges at a time
  
  • 1 Tactical + 1 Ascent
  • These are specific to each player, but in groups it is likely more advantageous to have the same Challenges activated together
• Each Summit Challenge can be completed only once per 1-100 climb
  
  • All finished Challenges reset once you've finished floor 100
  • In progress ones maintain their state
• Rewards increase per Challenge completed
  
  • Rewards include Targeted Loot items, Summit Challenge Caches (which have Optimization & Recal Materials), XP and more
• New tab on Mega-Map screen to activate these Challenges

Commendations

• Added 15 new commendations for the Summit

Additional Gameplay Improvements

• Adjusted Summit Weekly project to now only require completing 30 floors
• Completing every third floor and every tenth floor now rewards an additional targeted loot item
  
  • This would be on completing floors: 3, 6, 9, 10, 13, ..., 96, 99, 100
• Added a new objective type and a couple new objective variants
• Adjusted the frequency of specific objectives
  
  • This should make encountering multiple drone objectives in a row less frequent
• Adjusted the frequency of Rogue Agent encounters in the Summit
  
  • Reduced cooldown between when you can encounter Rogues a second time

New Exotics

• Exotic Shotgun - Scorpio
  
  • Shotgun based upon the SIX12.
  • Talent - Septic Shock
    
    • Shooting a target applies stacks of venom, which last for 10s. Increasing stacks adds more severe debuffs to the target.
  • PVE:
    
    • 1 - Poison (PVP Bleed)
    • 3 - Disorient (PVP Disrupt)
    • 6 - Shock (PVP Ensnare)
    • 7 - Target takes 20% damage (from all sources)
  • PVP:
    
    • 2 - Bleed
    • 4 - Disrupt
    • 7 - Ensnare
    • 8 - Target takes 20% damage (from all sources)
• Exotic Holster - Waveform
  
  • Talent - Alternating Current
    
    • Generate a stack of 3% Skill Damage on one of your skills every second, capping at 10 stacks. After 10 seconds at the cap the stacks transfer to your other skill. The process then repeats ad-infinitum.
• Exotic - Capacitor
  
  • Assault Rifle based upon the PDR.
  • Rewarded by completing 5 Summit Challenge in a single ascent
  • Talent - Capacitance
    
    • Shooting enemies builds stacks to a cap of 40. Each stack grants 1.5% Skill Damage. After 5 seconds, stacks decay 1 per second.
    • For each utility core gain 7.5% Weapon Damage.

Set bonuses:

New Gear Set

Rigger

• 2+ Piece Bonus
  
  • +15% Skill Haste
• 3+ Piece Bonus
  
  • 15% Skill Duration
• 4+ Piece Bonus
  
  • Tend and Befriend
    
    • Interacting with your deployed skills grants the skill 25% skill damage for 10s. This buff cannot be refreshed.
• Interactions include:
  
  • Using / Deploying the Skill
  • Changing the skills target
  • Healing the skill
• 4+ Chest:
  
  • Increase the damage buff from 25% to 50%
• 4+ Backpack
  
  • Cancelling your skills will reset their cooldown.

New Skill Variant

Achilles Pulse

• Target a single enemy with a pulse which identifies weaknesses, highlights them and causes any damage to those areas to take extra headshot damage. Useful for solo snipers, or as a support skill user painting targets for your teammates.
• Note: This skill will become unlockable in-game when the Prime Target of Season 4 becomes available..

New Named Items

Tactical .308 Marksman Rifle: Scalpel

• Talent - Future Perfection
  
  • Weapon kills grant +1 skill tier for 19s. Stacks up to 3 times.
  • Weapon kills at skill tier 6 grant overcharge for 15s.
  • Overcharge Cooldown: 90s

PDR Assault Rifle: Test Subject

• Talent - Perfectly In Sync
  
  • Hitting an enemy grants +20% skill damage for 5s.
  • Using a skill or damaging an enemy with a skill grants +20% weapon damage for 5s.
  • Damage increases are doubled while both buffs are active at the same time.

Empress International Chest: Caesar's Guard

• Talent - Perfectly Skilled
  
  • Skill kills have a 30% chance to reset skill cooldowns.

Empress International Backpack: Battery Pack

• Talent - Perfectly Calculated
  
  • Kills from cover reduce skill cooldowns by 15%.

New Gear Brand

Empress International

Set bonuses:

• 1: +10% Skill Health
• 2: +10% Skill Damage
• 3: +10% Skill Efficiency

New Weapons

Marksman Rifle: Tactical .308

Assault Rifle: PDR

New Directive

• Ragers
  
  • "Killing an enemy fills the Rage Meter of nearby hostiles. Rage depletes over time. A full Rage Meter makes an enemy "Enraged" (which grants overheal). Killing an Enraged enemy removes all the rage from nearby hostiles. An empty Rage Meter makes an Enraged enemy return to normal."
  • Replaces the Special Ammo directive in Mission and Global Difficulty selection
  • This directive is also available in the Summit (which increases the total selectable directives to 10 for the Summit)

Gameplay Changes

New Functionality: Skill Pickup

• The Turret skill platform can now be picked up after being deployed. The pickup functions in the same way as the Hive pickup, (the player presses and holds the skill button whilst next to the skill). The turret cooldown will be reduced, either based on remaining duration or remaining ammo. The less duration or ammo remaining, the longer the cooldown it will go onto.

New Functionality: ‘Always show mask’ option

• The ability to toggle your mask on/off anywhere will now be available as an option for those who want to fine tune the look of their agents.

Mod Filtering UI Improvements

• Can filter out by type (Defensive, Offensive, Utility)
• Can also filter by specific mod type (Critical Hit Chance, Health, Skill Haste, etc.)

Balance

Exotics

• Bighorn
  
  • Increased magazine size to 40 (from 30)
• Big Game Hunter Talent
  
  • When scoped, switches to semi-automatic fire mode, dealing 450% weapon damage with each shot.
  • Headshots grant +2% headshot damage. Stacks up to 50 times. Once at full stacks, 10 stacks decay every 4 seconds until all stacks have been removed. Headshots delay decaying of stacks.
  • This change to how stacks decay should reward players who are able to continue getting headshots by allowing them to maintain their damage bonus because of their accuracy.

Inventory Space

• Increased the inventory space for each character to 150 (from 100)

Loadout Slots

• Increased the number of loadouts for Inventory and Apparel to 16 (from 12)

Skills

• Repair Trap
  
  • Buffed radius to be 0.75m (from 0.5)
  • Increased base healing amount by 25%
  • Reduced base cooldown to 40 seconds (from 60)
• Reduced PvP damage of the Shrapnel Trap.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the Magnetic Disc skill mod description to match its effects.
• Fixed the Technicians and Demolitionist Specialization Weapons being misaligned on the Future Initiative Radio Carrier backpack.
• Fixed the Firewall Specialization Weapon being misaligned on multiple backpacks.
• Fixed a broken animation on the True Sons tank appearing destroying the ammo pack then switching weapons.
• Fixed the RC Sawblade car not attacking players as intended.
• Fixed mission difficulty changes not persisting when matchmaking.
• Fixed occurrences of players being able to go out of bounds.
• Fixed Morozova’s RPG shot not cancelling after her armor is depleted during phase 2 and 3.
• Fixed destroyed player skills not dropping Memento Trophies when wearing the Memento backpack in a PvP session.
• Fixed incorrect timings for Kenley College in the progression tracker.
• Fixed overlapping threat detection messaging when performing a total discharge on a group of enemies in the SHD Exposed Global Event.
• Fixed Global Settings timer not appearing in the menu under certain circumstances when deactivating/activating a Global Event.
• Fixed the Memento’s long-term buff resuming from its previous number of stacks after expiring when picking up a trophy.
• Fixed an issue where exiting and re-entering matchmaking will incorrectly increase the difficulty.
• Fixed UI issues appearing when both Cool Skills and Scavenged Skills directives are active.
• Fixed players being able to deal unintended amounts of damage with the Firewall specialization weapon in the Conflict PvP mode.
• Fixed a clipping issue present when wearing the Black Tactical Shirt.
• Fixed the Unstoppable Force talent incorrectly activating when killing wildlife.
• Fixed a trophy box becoming unlootable after having used a character boost.
• Fixed an issue with the Operation Iron Horse raid that could cause a boss encounter not to end if a disconnected, downed agent reconnects when the rest of the group is at the pilot.
• Fixed missing textures for the “Langley Reports” category in the collectible’s menu.
• Fixed the Armor Regen stat not working as intended in the shooting range.
• Fixed Ubisoft Connect challenges displaying incorrect values.
• Fixed Ubisoft Connect challenges not rewarding XP as intended.
• Fixed the mortars in the final Operation Iron Horse fight not being able to hit the agents during the carpet bombing.
• Fixed an issue with the Fragile Armor directive where the player would see his own broken armor stacks on other party members UI instead of their actual stacks.
• Fixed chosen directives not applying when in the lobby menu in The Summit.
• Fixed an issue causing players to get teleported back to the lobby of The Summit when starting to matchmake.
• Fixed an issue causing story mode difficulty to incorrectly be available to players in The Summit.
• Fixed an area where NPC’s would get stuck in their spawn closets on a specific The Summit floor.
• Fixed an issue where players could incorrectly matchmake for Washington D.C. missions before completing the Warlords of New York campaign.
• Fixed the “Protect the hostages” objective not updating after all enemy NPC’s were eliminated, blocking completion of the objective.
• Fixed missions on high difficulty at level 30 not dropping gear above 504 gear score.
• Fixed Empress International targeted loot selection not functioning in The Summit.
• Fixed open world loot reward quality on heroic difficulty not scaling properly to the difficulty.
• Fixed players being able to bypass legendary level enemies on Legendary difficulty in The Summit.
• Fixed The Summit challenges not progressing the first time a player enters the game mode.
• Fixed The Summit challenge Skill Demolitions not progressing.
• Fixed The Summit challenge Skill Demolitions not progressing with Shrapnel Trap kills.
• Fixed The Summit challenge Excessive Force not progressing under certain circumstances.
• Fixed The Summit challenge Directives Dabbler not completing.
• Fixed The Summit challenge Exceptional Accuracy not completing.
• Fixed The Summit challenge Oppressive Suppression not progressing with grenade kills.
• Fixed The Summit directive Ragers remaining active if the player switches directives in the lobby.
• Fixed multiple The Summit ascent challenges incorrectly completing despite group members being downed.
• Fixed an issue causing flamethrower kills not always progressing the ‘Crowd Control’ challenge in The Summit.
• Fixed an issue causing loot chests to not spawn loot for all players if some group members were more than 2 floors behind.
• Fixed the Scorpio Exotic debuff UI not refreshing when the player reapplies with subsequent pellets.
• Fixed the Scorpio Exotic poison effect incorrectly affecting turrets.
• Fixed the Scorpio Exotic not refreshing the debuff duration if a second player already applied it to the target.
• Fixed issue where the named Chest and Backpack from Empress International had the wrong core attribute.
• Fixed the Scorpio Exotic incorrectly applying venom stacks to neutral players or group members in the Dark Zone or Conflict.
• Fixed the Tend and Befriend buff only staying active for 4 seconds in the Dark Zone when using the Firestarter or Oxidizer chem launcher skill.
• Fixed the “Symptom Aggravator” talent activating under certain circumstances without the required gear.
• Fixed Achilles Pulse showing incorrect results for Cooldown when Skill Haste mods were attached.
• Fixed the Rigger backpack not being craftable.
• Fixed the Kendra’s Liberty exotic pistol not being craftable.
• Fixed missing muzzle flash VFX for the Capacitor Exotic.
• Fixed placement of the Demolitionist and Technician signature weapons on the Empress International backpacks.
• Fixed placement of the Capacitor Exotic and PDR weapon on the Empress International backpacks.
• Fixed placement of various Chem Launcher variants on the Empress International backpacks.
• Fixed sidearms clipping through the Rigger holster.
• Fixed occurrences of elbow pads appearing twisted when combined with specific apparel items.
• Replaced a number of incorrect voiceover lines in the Japanese localization.
• Fixed a missing voiceover line in the Brazilian Portuguese localization.
• Improved various localizations in multiple languages.
• Fixed the respirator mask remaining on the agents face when switching the gear dye multiple times.
• Fixed the PC Benchmark feature incorrectly skipping to the end screen without providing any information.