The State of the Game livestream rolled on this week with the latest updates coming to The Division 2. This week’s stream covered many topics, including a few highlights:

Episode 1 release date: July 23 for Year 1 Pass holders, July 30 for all players.
Episode 1 contains a host of new free content and loot.
Tons of changes to make Skill builds more viable.

Read on for a deeper recap of the topics discussed this week, or check out the stream below for the full details. State of the Game streams every Wednesday at 8:00AM PDT on Twitch, Mixer, and YouTube. (To find out what was covered in the last episode, make sure to check out the previous State of the Game Recap.)

Title Update 5 – Episode 1 Release Date

Year 1 Pass holders have seven days early access to narrative content for Episode 1 starting on July 23
Early Access Release:
- On July 23 the two new main missions and the first Investigation Area of Kenly College, for the new Expedition will be available to Year 1 Pass owners.
Regular access:
- Starting July 23, all balance changes will be available for all The Division 2 players, with or without the Year One pass.
- On July 30, the two new main missions and the first two Investigation Areas of Kenly College will open up for all The Division 2 players.

Episode 1 Content

The two new main missions not only offer new gameplay and loot, they also wrap up the narrative on two storylines.
- In the National Zoo, you’ll be hunting down Emeline Shaw, the leader of the Outcasts who has now barricaded herself in the Zoo.
- Camp White Oak is a presidential retreat and Andrew Ellis has Black Tusk reinforcements protecting him from the Division. You’ll have to chase him down, dead or alive.
- To access these missions, you will have to be in World Tier 5.
Expeditions
- The first investigation area of the Expedition opens for Year 1 Pass owners on July 23 at Kenly Library.
- On July 30, the library will still be open for investigation while the second investigation area, Kenly Metro Station, will open up.
- Week 3, starting on August 6 all investigation areas will be open, including the third area at Kenly Student Union.
Expedition and Mastery System
- Expeditions will have a weekly cadence for wings to open at first, but the dev team is still investigating how the rotation will work afterwards.
- The Mastery system is still in the works as the dev teams believe the system can add another layer to the expedition experience, but isn’t ready to implement it with TU5.
- Stay tuned for an update on progress and how the system will look.
Operation Dark Hours raid difficulty
- The new Discovery difficulty mode for the Operation Dark Hours raid will be available on July 23 for all players.
- The loot for this new difficulty is still being finalized. Stay tuned!

PTS Updates

Remember to go to the forums and fill out the surveys if you participated in the PTS testing.
Some players couldn’t not join the PTS due to their profiles not loading properly, causing them to receive ECHO-02 errors.
To allow as many players as possible to join, the dev team deleted all player profiles and offered the template agents instead.
Many changes have been made for the second testing phase on the PTS, a full list of Patch Notes can be found on the forums.

Skill Updates

The Skill Cooldown Minimum Hard Cap of 10 seconds has been lowered to three seconds for all skills, except the Chem Launcher which will be at eight seconds.
BTSU Gloves:
- Fixed several bad behaviors and synergies related to the Pulse status effect.
- No longer creates an explosion when quick-deployed or when thrown at close distance.
Grenades:
- Increased the radius of the Gunner’s Riot Foam Grenade from two meters to three meters.
Turret:
- Increased Assault Turret base damage by 22.5%.
- Increased Assault Turret base duration from 120s to 300s.
- Increased Incinerator Turret base duration from 120s to 300s.
- Increased Turret platform base health by 100%.
- Decreased Artillery Turret base ammo from 10 to 4.
- Decreased Sniper Turret base ammo from 15 to 6.
- Decreased Turret Cyclone Magazine Mortar Ammo from +20 to +8.
- Decreased Turret Ammo Box Extra Mortar Ammo from +20 to +8.
- Decreased Turret Ammo Box Extra Sniper Ammo from +30 to +12.
- Cyclone Magazine (Generic) +Extra Sniper Ammo variant added to all loot list quality tiers.
Drone:
- Increased Striker Drone base damage by 7.1%.
- Increased Blitzkrieg Blasting Powder Striker Drone damage from +200% to +600%.
- Increased Striker Drone base duration from 120s to 300s.
- Increased Defender Drone base duration from 20s to 300s.
- Increased Fixer Drone base duration from 180s to 300s.
- Increased Tactician Drone base duration from 180s to 300s.
- Increased Defender Drone base health by 100%.
- Increased Fixer Drone base health by 60%.
- Decreased Striker Drone base health by -20%.
- Decreased Bombardier Drone base health by -46.6%.
- Decreased Tactician Drone base health by -73.3%.
Seeker Mine:
- Explosive Seeker Mine radius now correctly says 5m in the UI.
- Increased Cluster Seeker Mine explosion radius from 3m to 4m.
- UI now shows the correct explosion radius for Explosive and Cluster Seeker Mines before detonating.
- Increased Explosive Seeker Mine base damage by 25%.
- Increased Cluster Seeker Mine base damage by 42.8%.
- Increased Mender Seeker Mine base duration from 120s to 300s.
- Decreased Airburst Seeker Mine base burn duration from 5s to 4s.
Firefly:
- Decreased Blinder Firefly base blind duration from 8s to 6s.
- Increased Burster Firefly base damage by 6.7%.
- Vac Pack and Guiding System Firefly mods now correctly increase Max Targets by the amount listed on the tooltip.
Pulse:
- Lots of backend fixes for consistency/usability.
- Scanner Pulse will now begin its cooldown after a 3 second delay upon activation, rather than at the end of the Pulse effect's duration.
- Reduced Scanner Pulse base radius from 52m to 50m.
- Increased Banshee Pulse base cooldown from 40s to 60s.
- Distributed Architecture and Super Glue Pulse mods no longer affect the radius/range of the Banshee Pulse.
- Reduced Distributed Architecture and Super Glue Pulse +Radius value from 60% to 50%.
- Reduced Unstable Oscillator and Atmosperic Analyzer Pulse +Effect Duration value from 55% to 50%.
Chem Launcher:
- Increased the radius of the Riot Foam Chem Launcher from 1.5m to 3m.
- Decreased Firestarter Chem Launcher base burn duration from 5s to 4s.
Hive:
- Stinger Hive is no longer affected by Explosive Damage modifiers.