The Division Combat tips will help you maneuver in this tactical open world multiplayer shooter, and encourage you to play in an organized, disciplined manner.
You cannot just be a trigger happy maniac in the game, and need to make astute decisions in order to stay alive, be it playing missions or exploring the Dark Zone.
In order to do so, you’ll need to understand how the enemies in the game work, as well as some basic Combat tips. This guide will tell you about them.
For more help on The Division, read our The Dark Zone Tips, Leveling Guide and Best Skills, Talents and Perks.
The Division Combat Tips and Enemies
As you explore the crisis-struck New York, you’ll come across different types of enemies roaming around the streets for which The Division Combat tips and strategy becomes essential. Enemies are associated with factions, and each faction has its own set of unique attributes and tactics that it follows.
There are the Rioters, the Cleaners, the Rikers, and The Last Man Battalion. It’s up to you to understand the tactics, personnel, and equipment of each faction; how to identify them, and also how to counter their tactics.
Enemy Types
In addition to the Factions and enemy archetypes, there are also different tiers of enemies. Tiers determine the health of the enemy, their level, armor, and also their tactics.
- Normal Enemies – Normal enemies have a single health bar, and are fairly simple to deal with. You won’t need any hardcore tactics to take these folks out.
- Veteran Enemies – Veterans are equipped with body armor that give them added protection in the form of three armor bars above their health bar. You have to destroy their armor before you can do damage to them. Use stats that give you armor-piercing bonus against them, and have at least one partner to help you take them down.
- Elite Enemies – Elite enemies tend to have names, and are the toughest you’ll meet. In addition to special armor, they also have a special skill they can activate if they wish (indicated by an icon next to their health bar). Elite enemies are the hardest type to take down. Use special tactics to lure them into exposed areas and take them out. Every elite has a weak point, so you have to exploit it in order to succeed.
In addition to the above three, you will also find enemies with a Skull icon next to their health bars. The skull is an indication that these enemies are beyond your current capabilities.
Enemies marked by a skull in The Division are 5 (or more) levels above you, making them nearly impossible to take out. Avoid such enemies and turn back if you come across a street with multiple skull-marked ones.
The Division Combat Tips
The first and most basic thing that you need to know about The Division is that it’s a tactical shooter RPG. It’s definitely a sentence that encourages the “You Don’t Say,” meme, but a large amount of basic combat understanding can be gathered by the game’s genre itself.
Tactical combat encourages team work, coordination, and cohesion. Sure, you can play The Division solo, but the best experience is with a team. Even if you are playing singleplayer, it’s not going to be a run-and-gun shooter; you will need to form tactics, use cover intelligently, and be opportunistic in taking out enemies.
The Kill Order
The most basic and intuitive ‘enemy prioritization’ in games usually goes as follows: kill the bigger threat first, then deal with the minnows later.
It works for most MMO games with plenty of adds and mobs, but in The Division enemies work in squads and behave tactically, and each individual unit in a squad has distinct behaviors.
In simple terms: the AI is intelligent, which means ignoring the small enemies and focusing on the big enemies is a big mistake.
We call this the Kill Order. The kill order in The Division should strictly be the opposite of what you are accustomed to doing. This means that it’s of the utmost important that you eliminate the smallest threat first, followed by the second smallest, and continue like that.
Leave the biggest threat for the last. The reason for this is simple: if you focus everything on the biggest threat, the so-called ‘smaller’ enemies have enough intelligence to recognize and take use of this. They will attempt to flank you and overwhelm you.
Certain factions in particular are extremely aggressive and will look to close down space in packs. If you only focus on the biggest threat, the smaller threats will use their numbers and intelligence to take you down.
For this reason, coordinate your fire and establish a kill order of smallest to biggest threat.
Cover
Like many third-person shooters, cover is a big part of The Division. The function of cover is primarily two things: to make it difficult for the enemy to shoot you, and to protect you from critical hits.
However, those aren’t the only two functions of cover in the game. Cover can become an extremely intelligent aggro tactic.
A balanced squad in the game is one that consists of a tank, a medic, and a DPS damager dealer. Your team’s DPS and medic can stay behind cover while your tank exposes him/herself. What this does is trigger selective aggroing.
Enemies will look to shoot uncovered players first, so the majority of the focus will be on your tank. This will allow your DPS to move from cover to cover to flank or deal direct damage, while the medic heals the tank and also deals damage through periodic firing.
This is just one of several ways cover can be used in a tactical manner.
Ammo
Ammunition in The Division is important because it can take a while to kill individual enemies in the game. Many enemies will have armor and protection, and it’s not always possible to land a headshot.
Although your side-arm has infinite ammunition, your primary weapon is the real source of firepower, and for that you’ll need to be well supplied. Use headshots as often as possible, and take your time when in cover and knowing your teammates have your back.
Ammunition is primarily acquired from enemy corpses and ammo-crates that you find all across New York. They are predominantly found at the Base of Operations, mission checkpoints, and Safe Houses. Conserve ammo and don’t go trigger happy; spraying bullets is a bad and inefficient tactic.
Aim for the heads instead, and try to make each magazine count. Consumable ammunition like incendiary ammo and explosive ammo should be reserved for the toughest enemies, such as elites and personnel from The Last Man Battalion.
You can unlock upgrades for the Base of Operations later on in the game that will allow you to resupply on an hourly basis.
The Division Team Tactics
Tactics in The Division form the core of the gameplay. You can’t expect to spray bullets and be successful, and certainly cannot expect a team being successful based on such efforts.
Although there are levels in the game, a player can play with any other of any level. This means that a level 10 player could play with a level 25 player. However, this is quite tricky and extremely difficult when the team enters an area with level 25 enemies.
The crossfire in such scenarios will almost always mean the downfall of the lowest leveled player. Try avoiding playing with players who are more than 5 levels above you, as it will only make the game frustrating for both you and the other players.
Aside from that, playing with higher-leveled players is extremely beneficial; it will put your skills at a real test and allow you to establish better tactics with senior players. It will also be the ideal way to carve your skill, accuracy, and playstyle.
Communication
The Division is best experienced when player with teammates who you can communicate with. If you are in a group, using the built-in VoIP will greatly aid you in improvising tactics on-the-go, and is especially helpful when you begin encountering more powerful factions such as The Rikers and The Last Man Battalion.
If you are playing in the Dark Zone, you have two other ways to communicate with an opposing group you may discover. You can either use in-game Emotes to convey your intentions or use the proximity voice-chat to do so.
The proximity voice-chat however has a very limited range; you’ll see an icon when the players can hear you.
