Here’s Why You Went Rogue in The Division’s Dark Zone

The Division allows players to do many things. You can explore Manhattan as you liberate civilians and take down those trying to exploit the situation. You can customize your clothing and loadout as you strive to be the best agent you can be. Heck, you can even do jumping jacks forever if that’s what tickles your fancy.

One of the things you can do is limited to the Dark Zone, and that is going Rogue. Going Rogue makes you a high-valued target and bars you from exiting the Dark Zone by normal means.

In order to go Rogue, you simply have to injure a non-aggressive human player. You’ll be able to pick them out because there is no red on your crosshairs, their name, or their life bar. Simply shoot some unsuspecting poor soul and you’re Rogue.

Now the game is supposed to be aware of a quick mistake, like somebody dashing through your firefight while you’re fighting legitimate enemies, but sometimes you end up doing more damage then you realized. This leads to a red skull icon by your name and a timer. You cannot exit the Dark Zone while this timer is active. You must either wait it out by not killing any more innocents, survive the full encounter against all the people hunting you down, or die.

Surviving provides a nice chunk of XP, as well as some credits. Being killed leads to you being out of the game for a few seconds waiting for a respawn, but at least you’ll come back with a clean slate.

If you don’t want to go Rogue, make sure to keep an eye out for other players that may try to bait you into it. If they cross your line of fire while you’re fighting, you become a target. Also, be careful with explosives while helping other players. If they take damage while you’re saving their lives, you’re screwed.