How to Unlock World Tier 5 & Tidal Basin Mission in The Division 2
Ubisoft has finally dropped its big update for The Division 2, adding in the World Tier 5 difficulty for Stronghold missions and the new Tidal Basin mission for some additional content to grind through. If you’re struggling to figure out how you can access these new features, fear not, we’re here to take you through every step. Here’s how to unlock World Tier 5 difficulty and the Tidal Basin mission in The Division 2.
What It Is
If you’re a bit clueless as to what the big deal about World Tier 5 is, let us explain. Simply put, it’s another difficulty for some missions and Strongholds in the game, the toughest challenges that The Division 2 has to offer. The higher the World Tier, the tougher the challenge, but the better chance you’ll have of getting some sweet loot drops.
Not only this, but World Tier 5 also raises the max gear score in The Division 2 up to 500, with powerful gear drops and even gear sets with special buffs tied to equipping multiple pieces of the same set up for grabs. That does mean there are some requirements for playing through World Tier 5, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
How to Unlock World Tier 5 in Division 2
First and foremost, you’ll need to have reached the end-game content. That means you’ll need to have grinded through the initial 30 levels, and completed the first three Strongholds available in the game – Capitol Building, Roosevelt Island, and District Union Area.
After this, you’ve then got to keep doing it over again, beating Strongholds and special invaded missions in order to move onto World Tier 2, 3, and 4.
Not only this, but you’ll want to be as close to the old 450 gear score cap as you can to make things as easy as possible in World Tier 5. Chances are you’ll be pretty close to this anyway by the time you’ve polished off World Tier 4.
After completing the three Strongholds on World Tier 4, you should see a new side mission appear. Completing this will then enable you to unlock the Tidal Basin Invaded mission. You’ll then need to go ahead and take care of The Tusk in this mission and you’ll then finally unlock World Tier 5.
How to Unlock Tidal Basin Mission
If you’ve read through our section on unlocking World Tier 5, you’ll already be aware that in order to reach that, you’ll need to have unlocked and completed the Tidal Basin mission in The Division 2 anyway.
Simply progress through to World Tier 4, beat all three Strongholds at this difficulty, and then complete the side mission that appears once you’ve got the 1.05 update installed.
Once this mission has been cleared, you’ll then be alerted that the Tidal Basin Invaded mission is available. This sees you taking on the Black Tusk faction in its Stronghold to reclaim what they’ve stolen. If you complete this new mission, not only will you unlock World Tier 5, but a bunch of special gear, and other bits which we’ll get into now.
What Tidal Basin & World Tier 5 Unlocks
Upon completing Tidal Basin, you’ll unlock the following features in The Division 2:
- Gear with Scores up to 500
- Special Gear Sets (Ongoing Directive, Hard Wired, True Patriot)
- Heroic Difficulty
- Weekly Invasions
The first of these unlocks is pretty straightforward. Having reached this new esteemed difficulty level, you’ll now be able to unlock gear and weapons with gear score up to the new 500 cap.
Alongside this, however, are the Ongoing Directive, Hard Wired, and True Patriot Gear Sets. These are made up of six separate pieces, and the more you equip, the better the buff you’re rewarded with. We’ve broken down all of these bonuses down below.
Ongoing Directive
- 2 pieces – Increases armor damage by 10%
- 3 pieces – Reduces damage from Elite enemies by 10%
- 4 pieces – Grants you an additional 10% armor
- 5 pieces – Grants one of three debuffs to enemies – Deal less damage, heal allies, or lower your skill cooldown when hit.
- 6 pieces – Any enemy with all three debuffs will spread damage to surrounding enemies.
Hard Wired
- 2 pieces – Increases Skill health by 20%
- 3 pieces – Increases Shock resistance by 20%
- 4 pieces – Increases Skill power by 20%
- 5 pieces – Grants Shock ability to all skills every 10 seconds.
- 6 pieces – All skills receive reduced cooldown after getting a kill with a skill.
Ongoing Directive
- 2 pieces – Increases weapon handling by 20%
- 3 pieces – Increases Burn damage by 25%
- 4 pieces – Increases Bleed Damage by 25%
- 5 pieces – Automatically picks up any restock items within a 40-meter radius every 30 seconds
- 6 pieces – Every kill grants ammo for alternate weapons
Heroic Difficulty is also unlocked alongside World Tier 5, granting players even more frequent loot drops when playing through missions.
However, if you want to be bathing in loot, things will be a little tougher, as you won’t be able to use checkpoints throughout each mission, and the difficulty is ramped up a smidge. Finally, Weekly Invasions will begin hitting The Division 2, which sees the Black Tusk invade various missions and Strongholds.
Beating these on the Heroic Difficulty will grant you frequent and excellent loot drops, but if you’re not quite ready to take on this challenge just yet, Invaded missions can be played on any difficulty you see fit.
That just about does it for how to unlock World Tier 5 and the Tidal Basin mission in The Division 2. For more tips, tricks, and guides, be sure to check out our ever-expanding Division 2 guide wiki.
