‘The Division’ Crafting Nerf Offset By Better Loot Drops, Per Ubisoft

The Division community became incensed after Ubisoft Massive revealed plans to nerf crafting in the upcoming 1.1 update. The developer responded to concerns Thursday in a post on the online shooter’s website to attempt to assuage concerns from PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC owners.

The changes to crafting in The Division are being done to encourage players to obtain High-End (Gold) weapons and gear from loot drops instead of through blueprints. However, Ubisoft acknowledges the current drop rates for High-End items is too low. This has led to the following imbalance between how High-End items are obtained in the end-game.

To correct for this, Ubisoft Massive is changing the loot drops so that all named NPCs will drop High-End items.

“The gear score of said High-End will be determined by the level of the NPC. For example, a level 30 named will guarantee a gear score 163 High-End. With so much more High-End drops, you’ll quickly notice that crafting High-End items, while more expensive, will not necessarily be much more complicated. To make sure that crafting remains a viable alternative, we will also increase drop rates of Division Tech materials to 40% on level 32 named enemies in the Dark Zone.”

Each named NPC will have their own loot table that will grant specific types of High-End items. You can expect The Division players will quickly discover and share which NPCs will drop which items. Ubisoft is banking on this, as it states, “By discovering the specificities of each named NPC, you will quickly learn which ones you should focus on in order to obtain specific items.”

As a reminder, here is how the conversion of crafting materials will be handled going once the Division 1.1 update launches.

• 10 Standard (Green) materials instead of 5 to craft 1 Specialized (Blue) material
• 15 Specialized (Blue) materials instead of 5 to craft 1 High-End (Gold) material
• 10 High-End (Gold) materials instead of 8 to craft 1 lvl 31 High-End (Gold) item

Meanwhile, deconstructing Standard and High-End items will be altered to the following.

• Deconstructing a Standard (Green) item yields 1 Standard material instead of 2
• Deconstructing a High-End (Gold) item yields 1 High-End material instead of 2

Ubisoft hopes these changes will encourage The Division players to use their crafting materials to help them through the early parts of the game instead of hoarding them for the end-game. Additionally, it will give players more of a decision between deconstructing items and selling them for money. The developers would rather see High-End crafting materials come from deconstructing High-End items instead of coming from low-end items. They also want crafting to be an alternative way of building a loadout versus the primary way it currently is in the game.

Another alternative way to get better gear will be through changes to the Dark Zone vendors. The initial requirement to purchase Superior (Purple) items is being dropped to rank 15 from rank 30. High-End (Gold) level 30 items will drop down to Dark Zone rank 25 from 50. Finally, High-End level 31 items can be purchased at rank 40 instead of rank 50.

Ubisoft plans to make additional High-End items available to purchase at higher ranks with this update. Presumably, this will be some of the Gear Set items, such as “Path of the Nomad,” which can only be obtained from the Dark Zone.

Phoenix Credits dropped from named enemies are also being increased. Level 30 enemies will drop 1 to 3 credits, Level 31 enemies will 2 to 3 credits, and Level 32 enemies will drop 3 to 5 credits.

“Balancing an online game is no easy task, and while we believe that these changes are a step in the right direction for the future of the game, we will keep monitoring the situation and address what needs to be modified. But more than that, we will have an eye on all aspects of your experience, and balance things when needed. Sometimes it means making hard decisions that might not be appreciated, and when this happens we will make sure to give you the visibility you need to understand why these decisions are made.”

[Image via The Division]