The Division Tips to get the most out of your loot and more

After months of waiting, Tom Clancy’s The Division is finally available for purchase in stores across North America. Naturally, that means there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of gamers looking for the most effective strategies to make their way through the early hours of Ubisoft’s latest shooter.

With that in mind, we’ve rounded up our tips for those new to The Division, or still struggling to find their footing in the new massively-multiplayer shooter. We’re tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible, so you won’t find strategies for any of the game’s early boss encounters or walkthroughs of specific missions. But the tips on this page should be more than enough to get you started down the right path to building one of The Division’s best agents. If nothing else, we should at least be able to help you decide what to do with all that extra loot taking up space in your inventory.

Burst Fire Is Best
There is a wide variety of automatic weapons for players to use in The Division. But there aren’t many scenarios when you should actually be holding the trigger down longer than necessary for a quick burst of fire. With the exception of large machine guns, which actually become more accurate the longer the trigger is held, every class of weapons in The Division becomes less accurate during sustained fire. So fire in short bursts to make sure you’re getting the most out of each clip.

Aim For Weak Spots
Headshots are always good but some enemy units have other weak points that can be used to your advantage. Shooting Cleaners’ gas tanks will eventually ignite the tank. A few seconds after it’s ignited the tank will explode, killing the Cleaner it’s attached to and dealing damage to anyone who happened to be standing nearby. Shooting grenadiers mid-toss will occasionally make them drop a grenade at their own feet and shooting their satchel several times will trigger a deadly explosion. The basic gaming rule applies - if an enemy has a spot that’s red, shoot at it.

Flank Your Enemies
Flanking is vital to your success in The Division. Moving to surround your enemy frequently makes it easier to get close to your opposition, making headshots easier and exposing weaknesses in the enemy formation. If you’re playing alone, we recommend carrying the sentry turret because the cover fire it provides makes flanking your enemies much easier. In a group, suppressing your enemies (or waiting until they’re suppressed) will make it easier for your team to reposition without taking damage.

Don’t Skip Side Missions
In addition to being valuable sources of experience, side missions are the primary means of acquiring new crafting recipes in The Division. For that reason, we recommend taking the time to complete all of the side missions you receive from JTF officers and situation boards in Manhattan. And if hunting down collectibles is your thing, players who unlock the Intel Discovery perk and finish all the side missions and encounters in a named area will have icons for all the phone recordings, survival guides and other collectibles in the neighborhood added to their map.