First and foremost, The Division is a looter shooter. Your character pewpews the bad guys and the bad guys drop new loot. In previous posts I went over how your loot affects your stats and abilities and how your loot creates a class for your character. These two explanation now build on how to look at the shooter side of the game... your weapons.

98% of what is discussed below applies to PVE. This includes clearing landmarks in the DZ, which just happens to be in a PVP area.[^479613] So don't expect to go toe to toe with DZ Fun Police and think you'll walk away.

The weapons in The Division (TD) are similar to the weapon types in Destiny/Destiny 2 (D1).¹ In D1 there are 13 types of weapons, but there are only 6 weapon types in TD. So in TD there are a few weapons that overlap with a different weapon type in D1 or simply doesn't have the equivalent to a D1 weapon.

Destiny Weapon	The Division Weapon
Auto Rifle	Assault Rifle
Hand Cannon	Pistol
Side Arm	Pistol
Fusion Rifle	-
Grenade Launcher	-
Pulse Rifle	Submachine Gun
Rocket Launcher	-
Scout Rifle	-2
Shotgun	Shotgun
Sniper	Marksman Rifle
Sword	-
Submachine Gun	Submachine Gun
Heavy MG	Light Machine Gun

Each weapon has 3 primary stats:

• DPS Stats
• Attribute Stats
• Intrinsic Perks

These are stats that are in the base weapon and have not been modified or altered due to a weapon mod or Gear Set perk.

DPS Stats

The strength of a weapon is primarily defined by the following 3 characteristics,

• DMG: How much is the weapon capable of doing per shot.⁹
• RPM: How fast your weapon fires.
• MAG: How many rounds can be fired before you need to reload.

The DMG stat has a random roll range for each weapon type, but RPM and MAG are fixed by each weapon. RPM and MAG can be adjusted with weapon mods (see below).

Attribute Stats

There are 4 attributes to a weapon that affects how the weapon handles.

• Accuracy: How fast the reticle for this weapon changes size when fired. ³
• Reload Speed: How quickly the weapon can be reloaded.
• Range: Max distance (Optimal Range) before the weapon is no longer effective. ⁴
• Stability: How hard the weapon is to control when firing for a prolonged period.

These are set based on the type of weapon and the weapon model. Again, there are mods, weapon perks and Gear Set perks that can affect each of these weapon stats (see below).

Types of Weapon Damage

Before we get too far into weapon perks and what they mean, there is an important detail to cover:

Critical Hit Damage and Head Shot Damage are two different numbers.

In TD you have a chance to apply damage to your enemy in one of four ways:

• Normal weapon damage: You shoot the toe of an NPC and you'll inflict normal damage
• Critical hit damage: There is an RNG factor that calculates if your bullet can inflict additional damage called critical hit damage.
• Headshot damage: There is a target box on an NPC that will trigger headshot damage.
• Critical hit headshot damage: This is combination of triggering the critical hit damage as well as the headshot damage.

There are perks that can help boost your damage numbers based on weapon type, weapon mods, and Gear Set bonuses.

Side note: One thing to look back on in your gear build is the perk rolls on your Gloves. Gloves can roll with a weapon damage modifier that is multiplicative⁶ to other damage bonuses. So if you normally run with an Assault Rife, either look for Glove with an additional Assault Rifle damage or re-roll/recalibrate your Glove to have an Assault Damage damage bonus.

Intrinsic Weapon Perks

Each TD weapon has built-in perk that affects the type of damage the weapon will inflict. The percentage amount for the perk is an RNG range that is rolled when the weapon was picked up, purchased or crafted.

Weapon Type	Intrinsic Perk	Range Increase
Assault Rifle	Enemy Armor Damage (EAD)	17.5% - 24.0%
SMG	Critical Hit Chance (CHC)	18.0% - 22.5%
LMG	Out of Cover Damage (OOC)	18.0% - 22.0%
Marksman Rifle	Head Shot Damage (HSD)	141% - 172%
Shotgun	Stagger	296% - 362%

• Enemy Armor Damage (EAD): For the PVE events you'd normally run on WT5, every NPC you'll face has armor. Typically Elites have 2x the armor points as they do health points, so getting the armor broken down matters most in PVE.
• Critical Hit Damage (CHD): The boost to normal damage your weapon has if the critical hit damage is triggered.
• Critical Hit Chance (CHC): A multiplier that increases your chance of applying CHD to your target.
• Head Shot Damage (HSD): A multiplier of the base damage your weapon has if headshot damage is triggered.
• Out of Cover (OOC): Damage multiplier when hitting enemies/NPC's not in cover.
• Stagger: How much/how long an enemy will be unresponsive due to getting shot.

For PVE (even for DZ landmarks), EAD is the best damage type to look for. This also means Assault Rifles are typically the strongest type of weapon for PVE encounters.

Weapon Talents

After the stats and intrinsic perks are accounted for, the most visible item a weapon has are its weapon three talents. As previously stated, end game content is on World Tier (WT5), so only High-End and Exotic weapons should be kept and reviewed. Lower tiered weapons will either have lower scaled DPS or few talent perks.

Each weapon will have 3 random talents⁷ that affect how the gun performs.

However, to use certain weapon talents your character may have to have certain stat numbers to unlock a weapon talent. Listed below is each weapon talent and the stat numbers to unlock the talent.

Talent	Effect	Firearm	Stamina	Electronics
Accurate	Accuracy is increased by x%	3832	0	0
Adept	Skill increases your critical hits chance by 3% for y seconds	3832	0	3832
Balanced	Weapon acquires maximum accuracy faster when shouldered	3832	2874	0
Brutal	Headshot damage is increased by x% when using this weapon	4790	0	0
Capable	Using a skill improves the handling of your weapon for x seconds	4790	0	0
Commanding	Every kill performed while the signature skill is active extends its duration by x%	3832	0	3832
Competent	Weapon damage is increased by x% for y seconds after using a skill	2874	0	3832
Coolheaded	Performing a headshot reduces all skill cooldowns by x%	3832	0	3832
Deadly	Critical hit damage is increased by x%	3832	0	0
Destructive	Armor destruction value is increased by x% when using this weapon	3832	3832	0
Determined	Killing a target reduces skill cooldowns by x%	3832	0	4790
Disciplined	Killing a target will make your next shot with the weapon be an automatic critical hit	3832	0	0
Dominant	Every kill while your signature skill is active reduces the cooldown of your other skills by x%	3832	0	3832
Expert	This weapon deals x% more damage when the target is below y% health	0	0	0
Ferocious	Damage against elite and named enemies is increased by x%	3832	3832	3832
Fierce	Critical hit chance is increased by x% when using this weapon	3832	0	3832
Focus	When no skills are on cooldown, your weapon damage is increased by 10%	4790	0	3832
Harmful	Each hit has a x% chance to apply the ‘bleed’ status effect	2874	0	0
Hurried	Critical hits increase reload speed by 10% to a minimum of 1 seconds reload time	3832	0	0
Intense	The first bullet of a magazine has a x% chance to apply the ‘on fire’ status effect	2874	0	4790
Meticulous	Killing a traget has a x% chance to instantly refill the magazine	2874	3832	2874
Predatory	Killing a target regenerates x% health over y seconds	2874	4790	2874
Prepared	Damage is increased by x%when more than 40 meters from the target	4790	0	0
Proficient	The first bullet shot when out of combat has a x% chance to result in a critical hit	4790	0	0
Provident	The last bullet in your magazine deals x% bonus damage	4790	2874	0
Responsive	Damage is increased by 5% when closer than 10 meters to the target	0	2874	3832
Restored	Killing a target with this weapon removes all negative status effects	2874	3832	0
Self-preserved	Critical hits with this weapon heal the user for x% of damage dealt	3832	0	4790
Skilled	Headshot kills with this weapon increase signature skill resources by x%	2874	3832	0
Stable	Stability is improved by x%	2874	3832	0
Sustained	Killing a target increases your health by x%	3832	3832	0
Swift	Reloading is x% faster	2874	0	4790
Talented	Killing a target with this weapon increases skill power by x% for y seconds	3832	0	0
Toxic	Headshots with this weapon have a x% chance to apply the ‘blind’ status effect	0	2874	3832
Trained	Critical hits increase signature skill resources by 0.01%	2874	0	0
Unforgiving	Missing health segments increases your damage by x%	3832	4790	0
Vicious	Critical hit chance is increased by x% while at full health.	3832	4790	0

Here's an image showing all the talents, the stat requirements and talents, even Exotic weapons

Since most of the PVE enemies are Elites (gold bar), the best perks to look for on your weapon would be:

Talent	Effect
Brutal	Headshot damage is increased by x% when using this weapon
Competent *	Weapon damage is increased by x% for y seconds after using a skill
Deadly	Critical hit damage is increased by x%
Destructive *	Armor destruction value is increased by x% when using this weapon
Determined	Killing a target reduces skill cooldowns by x%
Ferocious *	Damage against elite and named enemies is increased by x%
Responsive	Damage is increased by 5% when closer than 10 meters to the target
Talented	Killing a target with this weapon increases skill power by x% for y seconds

• = Preferred

As previously mentioned, each weapon has three talent slots that will randomly be filled from the list above. The third weapon talent slot is called the free talent. This means that no matter what your character stats are the weapon talent in the 3rd slot will always be available. This is something to think about when you get duplicate weapon and want to think about which one to keep.

For example: I have a weapon that drops with Determined, Destructive, and Ferocious.

• If I get a weapon with the talents in that order, Ferocious is in the 3rd slot so I don't need to meet the any stat requirements to unlock the perk.
• If I get a weapon with the talents in order of Ferocious, Destructive, Determined, I don't need to meet the 4790 Electronics requirement to unlock the Determined perk.

This can be a big deal if you're character is focused on Firearms (Striker) or Stamina(Predator) stats for your Gear Set and may not meet the a requirement to unlock a specific weapon perk. For example:

On this Predator build, my focus was to get as much Stamina as possible to trigger a specific Gear Set perk. This required sacrificing my Electronics and not triggering Ferocious perk on this weapon.

Same weapon model, but in this case Ferocious was in the 3rd slot. So even though I don't have enough Electronics to proc the Ferocious talent, because it landed in the 3rd/free slot I'll proc the talent on this weapon.

Weapon Mods

Just like your gear, weapons can modded with attachments to increase damage and handling stats. The 5 normal weapon mods slots available are:

• Weapon skin (cosmetic only)
• Optics
• Magazine
• Muzzle
• Barrel/Grip

Not all weapons have all 5 weapon mod slots. For example, SMG's will typically not have a Barrel/Grip slot.

Weapon mods will modify 7 attributes of a weapon:¹⁰

• DMG (e.g. increase critical hit damage)
• RPM (e.g. magazine will increase rate of fire)
• MAG (e.g. magazine will increase number of rounds)
• Accuracy (e.g. scope will shorten reticle time)
• Reload (e.g. grip will increase reload speed)
• Range (e.g. scope will increase effective range)
• Stability (e.g. muzzle will increase weapon stability)

Possible ranges weapon mod perks and the different types of weapon mods shown below:⁸

You can grab a PDF of the image here: Division 1.8 Weapon Mod List.

Now using the same SMG from before, you can see how the PP-19 is affected by the weapons mod attachments.

By applying 3 mod attachments, the mods modified the weapon with:

• 4.9% RPM increase
• 120% magazine increase
• 7.5% CHC increase
• 2.5% stability increase
• 4% CHD increase

These attribute changes combine to an overall 37.7% DPS increase.

 

Part 4 will cover end game content, Commendations, Global Events, and Gear Scores.