The Division: How to Get into Contamination Zones and Why You Want To

During your time with The Division, you’ll spot areas in red on your map with the bio hazard symbol. These symbols represent contamination zones, and the red area around them shows the entirety of these hazardous locations.

These contamination zones are dotted around the games map and offer a risk/reward kind of situation if you’re not prepared with the right equipment. As you may have guessed by the name of these zones, they’re contaminated. If you head into one unprepared, you’ve got 10 seconds to get out or you’ll be infected with the virus and sent to your nearest respawn point.

All contamination zones have a ranking between one and four. This number directly corresponds to the filter level that you must have in order to survive the contamination zone. For example, all masks will be able to handle a level one area as these are the areas where contamination is weak, however, you’ll need to upgrade your filter level to access the higher level contamination zones.

So what’s the point in going into a zone if you could die, I hear you ask? Well each of these contaminated zones has a chest of gear in it or a mission to complete. The higher the contamination zone level, the better the gear or your objective rewards. These missions may be as simple as activating scanners to upload data about the virus, just don’t expect to be alone in these areas. Now, getting into some of these areas may be a little more difficult than simply walking through a doorway. Some of these zones may require you to use lockpicks on the doors in order to enter. As soon as you’re in, check your mini map and get searching to find the chest or your objectives.

And there you have it. Everything you need to know about the Contamination Zones.