Ubisoft has revealed the trailer to the first-ever 8-man raid for Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, titled Operation Dark Hours.
The raid will be released on May 16, 2019, and the team that completes it first will be immortalized in-game in the Base of Operations.
Despite CERA’s best efforts to contain the outbreak at the Washington National Airport, the situation quickly became untenable, resulting in the airport being coated in DC-62 and subsequently abandoned. When the Black Tusk arrived in D.C., they set up shop in the now derelict airport. It’s up to you and seven friends to flush them out and you will be challenged on not only your skill but also on your ability to analyze, adapt, and cooperate.
Operation Dark Hours perfectly demonstrates how ambitious and powerful the Black Tusk are. They have access to greater resources than anyone else by far and will stop at nothing in their mission to conquer Washington, D.C. Going through the airport, you will discover how prepared they are: unique bosses, with the most exotic mechanics and technology you’ve ever faced in The Division 2, are waiting for you.
Operation Dark Hours will become available on May 16 at 6PM CEST / 12 PM EST / 1AM KST / 2 AM ACT. To start the raid, players will need to speak with the helicopter pilot at the Base of Operations. This unlocks a new raid tab on the social menu, allowing everyone to start building their raid groups.
REWARDS
Operation Dark Hours will provide loot exclusive to the various bosses found throughout the raid, like new gear sets, an exotic weapon and vanity items. A new set of commendations will also become available with the raid, each rewarding a unique arm patch. There are also exclusive rewards for the players who are the first in the world to beat Operation Dark Hours, and for the players that beat it during the first week of release. You can read more about the Race to World First and the rewards here.
GROUPING
Two sub-groups, each containing traditional four player parties, embody the entire raid team for a total of eight players. The player who creates the raid group from the social menu is the designated raid leader, and as such, is the only player who can begin the raid.
REQUIREMENTS
To participate in Dark Hours, players need to be level 30, have reached World Tier 5 and Gear Score 490. You do not need a full party of eight to begin the raid, but the overall difficulty will not scale according to how many players are present. Dark Hours is always scaled for eight players.
RESET TIMER
The raid is protected by a weekly timer. As a result, boss loot will only drop once a week. You can still participate in the raid after that, but these bosses will not drop additional loot until the timer resets the week after.
The update will also include the first two Classified Assignments:
These narrative missions take you through new and remarkable lore that explores the activities of agents, civilians and enemy factions in the 7-month period between the events of New York and the fall of Washington D.C. They are also full of puzzles and secrets, which all together paint a picture of what happened after Green Poison spread across the country.
You can initiate the first mission upon reaching level 10, and when reaching level 30 you will be notified of the second one. Yet, before you can enter, you will need to find the door…
Classified Assignments can be completed once a week, so if you happen to miss any of their hidden secrets, you still have new opportunities to explore the lore, complete the missions and gather your rewards and collectibles. Classified Assignments are purely narrative experiences, and do not offer any gameplay advantage. The trophies you can collect are unique to Classified Assignments and are a great way to show off your excellent puzzle solving skills; plus, they also look great!
Here’s what you can expect to see in the first 2 Classified Assignments:
- Two new missions where you need to intercept enemy faction’s plans.
- A range of collectibles, unique cosmetics and trophies.
- A deep dive into events with additional lore that uncovers struggles of citizens and Agents in D.C.