‘The Division’ Beta Update Reveals New Mission, Fixes

The Divisionopen beta is coming next week to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, Ubisoft announced yesterday. An update to the PS4 version of the beta followed in the evening, which reveals the new mission added for the open beta, along with some welcome fixes to the Dark Zone and more since the closed beta.

Reddit user codnavar captured the update on his PS4 to reveal that the “Subway Morgue” will be the second mission added to the open beta. Like the first mission available in The Division beta, this tasks players with rescuing someone vital to the Base of Operations. The person of interest here is an engineer named Paul Rhodes, and his rescue will unlock the Tech Wing of the base.

The new mission will pit players against a new faction called The Cleaners. They and other enemy factions in the game were covered in a new video released by Ubisoft.

The Dark Zone received some welcome changes, as well. As mentioned as one of the five things to improve on from the Division beta, the Dark Zone felt sparse due to a lack of NPCs. The open beta will increase the number of PVE enemies “significantly,” according to the patch notes below, and they are receiving a slight buff, as well.

Another suggested improvement was to deal with agents going unintentionally going Rogue in the Dark Zone, either due to an opposing player baiting them or by another player simply wandering into a field of fire. That is trickier to deal with. Ubisoft’s solution for now is to provide a warning icon to indicate a player has shot another Agent, but has not done enough damage to go Rogue. The Division players will have to wait for the open beta to see how this works out.

The cheating that took place in the PC version of the open beta is also being addressed. Glitches that allowed players to become invisible or invincible have been fixed. Additionally, cheat detection and prevention measures have also been added. This is yet another area where players will have to wait for the open beta to see how the changes perform.

As previously covered, the Division open beta will launch on the Xbox One first on Thursday, February 18. This will be a 24-hour early access opportunity with the PlayStation 4, and PC players joining the following day on Friday, February 19. The beta will run through Sunday, February 21. An exact time was not given, but Ubisoft states “end of the day.” It’s just not clear which time zone that is based on, and there is always the chance that Ubisoft might extend it.

Those that play the Division open beta will also receive an in-game reward. This will be unlocked when the game is launched for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC on March 8.

Here are the full patch notes for The Division open beta/

New Mission Available to play, Subway Morgue:

• Encounter a new faction: The Cleaners
• Explore a Mass Grave while trying to restore power to the city.
• Rescue the missing Engineer, Paul Rhodes

Unlock an additional Wing in the Base of Operations:

• The first upgrade to the Tech Wing is now available
• A new skill can now be unlocked: The deployable turret

Numerous Dark Zone updates and improvements:

• New High End weapons available in the Dark Zone
• Refresh rate on Dark Zone chests has been greatly reduced
• Non-player enemies in the Dark Zone have been significantly increased in number
• Non-player enemies in the Dark Zone have been buffed slightly
• The Manhunt Timer now pauses instead of refreshing while in combat as a level 5 Rogue
• The Reward for surviving as a Rogue Agent has been increased to 1.5x the kill bounty
• The Health Bar for Agents in the Dark Zone now only turns red when they actually become Rogue
• A new warning icon has been added to indicate an Agent who has shot another player but has not done enough damage to go Rogue
• Dark Zone experience leveling curve has been adjusted slightly
• Disabled the option to transfer Dark Zone brackets as a Rogue (This prevents players using Bracket Transfer as a means to escape after becoming Rogue)
• Removed some ropes that allowed players to reach areas that gave them an unfair advantage

Other changes

• New Ubisoft Club Action available for participating in the Open Beta unlocking an exclusive reward in-game
• New and improved Tutorial Video
• Tutorial video is now available to view from t he Character Select Screen
• Fixed two bugs that allowed players to become invisible to other players
• Fixed an exploit with Ballistic Shield Skill that allowed players to become invincible
• Cheat Detection and Prevention additions and updates
• Fixed mismatch of stats that occurred occasionally between Vendor Inventory and Player Inventory when item purchased
• Adjusted player movement speed while running with a grenade in hand
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused other player’s name and health bar to not be visible in the Dark Zone
• Fixed some Weapon Mods that resulted in incorrect stat values when equipped
• Fixed some weapons that didn’t appear as Contaminated when obtained in the Dark Zone
• Fixed a bug with the Reward Claims Vendor that caused stacks of consumables to be decreased under specific circumstances
• Fixed a bug with stats display not updating when browsing Vendor Inventories
• Fixed a bug that caused continuous vibration under very specific conditions
• Fixed a very rare bug that prevented players from being able to fire or switch their weapons
• Added mission Dialogue lines in Missing Persons: Heather Lau Side Mission
• Several environment fixes to prevent falling through world issues in specific places
• Multiple stability fixes (23 unique crashes fixed)
• Server optimizations and improvements (players will receive less connection errors now)
• Multiple localization fixes and improvements
• Additional polish & bug fixes too numerous to mention!

[Image via The Division]