After releasing last week for Year 1 Pass owners of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, Episode 1 – D.C. Outskirts: Expeditions is now available for all players of the game. It’s completely free, and brings two new main missions. New locations like Manning National Zoo have also been added.

Perhaps the newest activity to check out are the Expeditions. These take place in Kenly College and features new areas and challenges that are available each week. The first two Expeditions in Kenly are now available, and you can complete them to earn new rewards like the Diamond Exotic rifle.

Ubisoft Massive also added other quality of life features to The Division 2 in last week’s patch, like reworking Cooldown Reduction into Skill Haste. Various skills have also been buffed, making skill builds much more viable than before. It’s also possible to matchmake for the Operation Dark Hours raid with the new Discovery difficulty. This allows players to learn the ropes of the event before taking on the tougher difficulty.

The first big new content update for Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 is finally live, introducing new story DLC with Episode 1 – D.C. Outskirts: Expeditions. Available first to Year 1 Pass holders, the DLC adds some new main missions, new locations like Kenly College and Manning National Zoo, and new weapons to earn. However, the free update that buffs skills is live for everyone.

The most important takeaway is that cooldown reduction has been replaced by skill haste, though the latter will offer diminishing returns after 100 percent. Skill haste bonuses on Brand Sets have been increased significantly as well. There also damage increases to skills, like the Assault Turret, which has 22.5 percent increased base damage, longer duration, and reduced cooldown.

Check out some of the patch notes below. Full patch notes can be seen here for more details on the new Exotic Weapons, bug fixes, and so on. Episode 1 – D.C. Outskirts: Expeditions will be available on July 30th for non-Year 1 Pass holders, so stay tuned in the meantime and experiment with the new skills.

Skill Haste

Cooldown Reduction has been replaced with skill haste. Skill haste works equivalent to speed. So 100% skill haste reduces cooldown by 50%, like a car speeding up by 100% getting to it’s destination in half the time. This means that the player can invest in more than 100% Haste and still get something back. It also means there’s a diminishing return to Skill Haste, as opposed to cooldown reduction where each point was actually worth more than the last one. This allows us to have a good amount of Skill Haste possible from gear, but even larger amounts granted by high skill power Skill Mods, granting skill builds more frequent access to their souped up skills.

To that effect, these are the changes to Haste (formerly Cooldown Reduction)

• Removed the 90% Cooldown Reduction hard cap
• Lowered the minimum Cooldown cap for all skills from 10 seconds to 3, except for the Chem Launcher which is now 8
• Renamed all instances of Cooldown Reduction on existing gear to Skill Haste, with a 50% increase to their base values. Eg: +10% Cooldown Reduction will become +15% Skill Haste
• Increased Surge talent Skill Haste bonus from +10% to +20%
• Increased Alps Summit Armament 1-piece Skill Haste bonus from +10% to +20%
• Increased China Light Industries Corporation 3-piece Skill Haste bonus from +10% to +30%
• Increased Petrov Defense Group 3-piece Skill Haste bonus from +10% to +30%
• Increased Tip of the Spear 3-piece Skill Haste bonus from +20% to +40%

Specialization Skill Mods (granted from each spec tree)

• Removed all Skill Power requirements
• Bonuses greatly improved to provide a strong initial boost to the skill platform

Demolitionist

• Cyclone Magazine – Extra Mortar Ammo bonus increased from +1 to +3
• SHD CPU V.2 – Damage increased from +7% to +100%

Survivalist

• Magnetic Disc – Skill Haste increased from +9.7% to +80%
• Larrea Tridenta Infusion – Healing bonus increased from +14.5% to +50%

Sharpshooter

• Graphene Battery – Duration increased from +14.5% to +80%
• Carbon Fiber Frame – Skill Haste increased from +9.7% to +80%

Gunner

• Microwave Amplifier – +30% Banshee Pulse Confuse Duration
• Directional Transmitter – +30% Banshee Pulse Cone Size

Skill Platform Changes

Pulse

Scanner

• Scanner Pulse will now begin its cooldown after a 3 second delay on activation, rather than at the end of the Pulse effect’s duration
• Lowered Scanner Pulse base radius from 52m to 50m
• Lowered Scanner Pulse cooldown from 90s to 40s

Remote

Lowered Remote Pulse cooldown from 120s to 60s

Jammer

Lowered Jammer Pulse cooldown from 120s to 90s

Turret

Assault

• Increased Assault Turret base damage by 22.5%
• Increased Assault Turret base duration from 120s to 300s
• Lowered Assault Turret cooldown 120s to 60s

Incinerator

• Lowered Incinerator Turret base damage by 60%
• Increased Incinerator Turret base burn damage by 60%
• Lowered Incinerator Turret base burn duration from 5s to 4s
• Increased Incinerator Turret base duration from 120s to 300s
• Lowered Incinerator Turret cooldown from 120s to 90s

Sniper

• Increased Sniper Turret base ammo from 5 to 6
• Lowered Sniper Turret cooldown from 240s to 60s

Artillery

• Lowered Artillery Turret cooldown from 240s to 60s
• Increased Turret platform base health by 100%

Hive

Restorer

• Increased Restorer Hive base healing amount by 50%
• Increased Restorer Hive base health by 20%
• Lowered Restorer Hive cooldown from 240s to 90s

Stinger

• Stinger Hive damage is no longer affected by Explosive Damage modifiers
• Increased Stinger Hive base health by 50%
• Lowered Stinger Hive cooldown from 240s to 90s

Booster

• Increased Booster Hive base health by 33.3%
• Lowered Booster Hive cooldown from 240s to 90s

Chem Launcher

Firestarter

• Increased Firestarter Chem Launcher base burn damage by 60%
• Lowered Firestarter Chem Launcher base burn duration from 5s to 4s

Riot Foam

Increased Riot Foam Chem Launcher base radius from 1.5m to 3m

The first major story DLC for Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 will be going live today with Episode 1 – D.C. Outskirts: Expeditions. Currently, servers are down for maintenance, which will last for three hours. During this time, the update will be deployed and patch notes will be shared.

D.C. Outskirts: Expeditions adds more than just two new Main Missions, Classified Assignments, the new Expedition activity and Discovery difficulty for the Operation Dark Hours raid. It also introduces several new locations including Manning National Zoo and Kenly College. Two new Exotics and two new weapons will also be added to the loot pool.

Skill performance has also been heavily reworked to make Skill builds more viable. While the free update and balance changes will be live for all players, D.C. Outskirts: Expeditions will be available for Year 1 Pass players first. Everyone else gets it next week for free. Stay tuned for detailed patch notes as they go live.

Ubisoft Massive has announced that the first free DLC episode for Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, titled D.C. Outskirts: Expeditions, will be out on July 23rd for Year 1 Pass holders. Everyone else can play it on July 30th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Two new main missions will be introduced, taking place in Camp White Oak and Manning National Zoo.

The Expedition is a new feature and takes place in Kenly College. There are three wings to explore, each having their own theme, which will be released separately each week. If you complete all three, then a treasure room full of loot awaits.

Some of the new weapons and gear include the Exotic Diamondback Rifle, BTSU Datagloves, the Stoner LMG and Carbine 7. Two new classified assignments also await in the Central Aquarium and NSA Site B13 but these are also exclusive to Year 1 Pass holders. If that weren’t enough, updates like Discovery Difficulty for Operation Dark Hours along with matchmaking will be added along with crafting up to Gear Score 500 items. Crafted weapons can also be recalibrated.