The wave of Halloween content for games across the board may have died out by now, but it’s made room for the onslaught of Christmas updates. Title Update 6.1 releases for The Division 2 next week on December 10th, and it’s bringing a holiday atmosphere, a new mode, and a holiday event which comes with the chance to shoot foes wearing Santa Hats, and get one of your own.
Situation: Snowball starts on December 10th. The login screen will have a festive redecoration, whilst logging in will get you a Holiday Supplies Care Package including three Standard Apparel Keys, three pieces of equipment, and, of course, a Santa Hat. Ambusher crews have a chance of popping up with Santa Hats, and killing a Hoarder NPC wearing one of those hats will result in a chance for them to drop a new snowball-launching weapon called the Sleigher Tommy Gun (the first Santa-Hat-wearing NPC you manage to take down will definitely drop one). The snowballs launched out of the Sleigher rely on a talent called Hidden Rock, which ensures that headshots can apply confuse every 20 seconds.
There’s also the fifth Apparel Event, Silent Night, which starts on December 10th and runs for the rest of the month until December 31st. Players who login during this time will get one free Apparel Cache key, with Year One Pass holders getting an extra three keys. The keys themselves can be used until January 7th. Ubisoft outline the changes to how you can acquire Apparel Event Keys; namely that a key is guaranteed with every three Field Proficiencies, and with every five Dark Zone Proficiencies. Weekly Apparel Projects will reward three keys, and it’s now possible to gift Apparel Event keys.
Lastly, Ubisoft are implementing a beta of a Hardcore Mode, as a “surprise for players.” In their most recent State of the Game video, there’s a quick flash of a description: “In this mode you only live once. There is no respawn. If you bleed out or die and want to try again, your only option will be to delete that character and try again. Fallen agents will not be revived for any reason.” So, in Hardcore Mode, players will begin with a new Agent, lose all progress and items when they die, and must then start again. Hardcore characters can’t access the Stash, and can play all activities except Conflict. The mode comes with vanity rewards, including a YOLO hat for reaching level 2. The presenters on the video emphasised that on this mode, you’d only encounter other hardcore mode players. Ubisoft are eager to remind everyone that this is just going to be a beta when it releases, and to bear that in mind when playing.
Update 6.1 releases next week, on December 10th.