There are five different rarities of gear within The Division. These range from Common to Legendary. Each item is denoted by color text, quality, level required to equip, and a colored "orb" drop. When an item drops, you will see a small orb of one of the five colors.
As you approach an item and look at it, you will be presented with what the item is, what level is required to equip as well as if it has any mod slots. If you are in a Dark Zone and acquire a piece of gear, the stats of the item will not be revealed until you successfully extract the item by helicopter.
Mod slots allow you to manipulate a weapon to your specialty. Mod slots that have been revealed so far are scopes, suppressors, extended magazines, recoil pads, and foregrips. However there are many more that have not been revealed yet to the public.
Each item has a varying degree of mod slots from zero to four. These depend heavily on quality and type of item. Regular gear such as backpacks and chest pieces also have mod slots, however what those particular mod slots can hold has yet to be revealed to the public.
As you will see in the image above, some items will also have set affixes attached to them such as "Tactical". Currently, there are four categories of gear that we know of: Tactical, Riot, Expedition and Operative. Each give varying bonus' to not only your skill set but also your Armor Rating (AR).
You will also notice that some gear, such as the backpack, gives a bonus to skill damage as well as max ammo capacity. There are multiple set bonus' for gear. We dont know a total of how many there are currently however.
Contaminated Loot:
Contaminated loot is loot you acquire within the Dark Zone. When you acquire a piece of gear in the Dark Zone, you place it into your contaminated loot inventory which is denoted by a yellow biohazard container strapped to your back as denoted below. This is a double edged sword. Not only does it mean you picked up some sweet gear, but it also means that other people can see you have something worth looting as well.
Loot is personal, or instanced, within The Division such as games like Diablo III, which means that you and only you will see your own drops. However, if you are killed within the Dark Zone there is a possibility that you may drop a piece of gear that you have acquired. If you do happen to drop a piece of gear, all players within the vicinity will be able to see it which in turn makes it free game.
When you find a piece of contaminated loot, stats of the item will not be visible until you find an extraction zone and raise your flare for extraction. Your signal flare can be seen by all players within the field of view from it. In doing so, a timer begins, which is 90 seconds currently, in which you have to defend yourself if you are alone, or your team leader who initated the extraction before the helicopter reaches you.
Calling extraction while in a party basically creates a minigame of VIP / HVT. Enemy players only have to kill your team leader, or whoever initiated the extraction to cancel it. This is where teamwork becomes crucial and betrayal a viable option.
Once the helicopter reaches you, you take your contaminated loot container and strap it to a rope dropped from the helicopter and attach it to a carbiner. You may extract 6 items per extraction with a maximum of 36 items total (as of the demo). If you successfully defend yourself, or your team you will see "Extraction Successful" across the screen. As of this point you may exit the Dark Zone on foot and find your items back at your Base of Operations.
In turn, you may also cancel another player or teams extraction by either forcing them out of bounds, killing them and their party, or letting them successfully extract. The choice is yours.
Rogue Protocol:
In the event that you wish to engage other players in the Dark Zone, or accidentally hit another player in cross fire, you will enter rogue status. Upon impact of friendly fire, your radio will sound of and say, "Rogue Protocol Initiated". Your Smart Watch and player indicator on your backpack will turn from orange (friendly) to red (hostile). A timer will show over your right shoulder counting down. This is a count down from hostile to friendly status again.
In the event that you actually kill someone, the timer will turn into a skull with a ring around it. This labels you as a Rogue agent. Each agent you kill will raise the timer to a maximum of 300 seconds with another segment of the circle filling up. Consider this like a Wanted Level in Grand Theft Auto. If your Rogue status level is continuously five segments, there will be consequences inside and outside of the Dark Zone. One consequence in the Dark Zone is that everyone will be able to see where you are. Outside of the Dark Zone hasnt been revealed yet, however I would expect it to be similar to other MMOs where NPCs wont sell you items or even talk to you, though at this point that is purely speculation.
Loadout:
In your inventory screen you will see ten different categories of items to equip. These range from gear to weapons and accessories. Each item you equip manipulates your Attack, Power and Vitality scores, but more on that later.
From top to bottom:
-Contaminated Inventory - Anything you pick up within the Dark Zone will be placed here until it is successfully extracted.
-Primary - Your current primary weapon.
-Secondary - Your current secondary weapon.
-Sidearm - Your current sidearm weapon.
-Backpack - There are multiple different backpacks, each with their own bonus'.
-Body Armor
-Gloves
-Thighs
-Kneepads
-Face/Head - These range from things such as respirators, hats, beanies, balaclavas, ect.
Each category can be expanded to show other items of that particular category that you might have in your possession. There is also an area for key items and quest items.
Skills:
The Division runs on a classless system which means that you can respec your character at any time. As ive said in my hands on impressions article, you may loot a piece of gear in or outside of the Dark Zone that you feel doesnt benefit you at the time, however it's good to hang on to in case the need arises that you have to change your class based upon the challenge presented.
Skills are accessed by a skill tree, each having upgrades and variations. For instance the sentry turret can be toggled between a turret that shoots ammunition or more of a deterrent that uses a flamethrower which brings up another point of interest, there is elemental damage in The Division as with any other RPG.
Different damage types are denoted by color -- Normal damage is in white, critical damage is in a yellowy orange, and fire is in red. These arent the only types of damage however, more will be revealed at a later date.
For the E3 2015 / Gamescom 2015 demo we were limited to certain skills. Skills shown publicly so far include the Pulse which illuminates targets for a short period of time, First Aid which can be thrown at a distance or used personally, the Sentry Turret which can be thrown or placed, and the Sticky Bomb which can be thrown or remotely detonated. One of the other skills we know about from previous demos is a strobe drone that produces a bright light similar to a tac light to blind enemies, however we dont know if it is in the current build.
Customization:
Customization is a huge part of The Division. Making your Agent completely unique and a representation of who you are or who you would want to be is the key, but customization goes beyond just gear.
Known customization options include the following:
-Gender
-Skin Tone
(Confirmed: Caucasian, Asian, African American, and more.)
-Facial Hair
-Tattoos
-Piercings
-Hair Style
You can also customize your squad name, so you can better find your squad in and outside of the Dark Zone. This will appear infront of anyone in the current squad for instance if our squad is called COLI. My name will show up as COLI_LoS! to players of my squad as well as others. When you abandon your squad, only your player name and is shown.
Once you create your character, you cannot change his or her appearance. However there will be a "Character Slot" selection at the loading screen which will enable you to make multiple characters whether it be male or female.
There is also "Cosmetic" customization within The Division. Each item is separated between a "Stated" or "Cosmetic" item. Stated items effect your character an their stats accordingly. Cosmetic item are just as such, purely cosmetic. There are tens-of-thousands of customization options between color platelets and styles. These range anywhere from beanies to caps, to different style armors and overcoats.
Dynamic Weather System; Lighting; Day-and-Night Cycle:
Weather within The Division is dynamic. As seasons change, so will the weather that you experience within the game. You will experience everything from light rain, to fog and haze, to white out blizzard conditions. During extreme wind or blizzard conditions, auto-aim assistance will be hindered as your weapon will begin to sway more severally as you try to remain on target during zoomed aim.
As the weather changes, so too does the availability of animal wildlife and certain civilians. Civilians and NPCs will seek shelter in time of severe weather which may halt progress on certain missions of events.
The game also offers a dynamic day and night cycle which couples with the weather system to make unique replayability options for missions. Missions will play out differently depending on time-of-day and which weather conditions there are currently.
The team has gone to great lengths to ensure that in-door play is just as fun as outdoor play. With a dynamic lighting and shadow system, buildings and sewer systems come alive as lights dangle projecting shadows on walls an other objects.
