Retaliation is a permanent endgame open-world Activity that was released in Y7S2: The Pact. It centers around hostile factions retaliating against the Division and their allies through by taking over territories, hostile or friendly. Division agents are tasked to counter-attack this retaliation, and prevent the hostiles from conquering new territories.
Overview[]
IMPORTANT NOTE: The addition of Cleaners and Rikers in Retaliation is mainly for gameplay reasons, since they are not involved in Y7S2's story.
Retaliation takes place in Washington D.C, as well in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn in case a player owns Warlords of New York and Battle for Brooklyn. Each faction the player faces depends on the location, since Cleaners and Rikers can only be fought in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Five hostile factions consisting of Hyenas, True Sons, Outcasts, Rikers, and Hyenas have an agitation meter that is visible from in the new Retaliation tab in the Mega Map.
Lore Premise[]
In the months since the Division's fight to secure Washington D.C, the hostile factions like Hyenas, True Sons, and Outcasts have sustained considerable losses by the agents, even prevented from attempting to make a resurgence, forcing the hostiles to hold their ground and on the defensive.
However, a new power struggle had emerged. Hyenas, True Sons, Outcasts, they were no longer content to hold ground. They're on the offensive, retaliating against their enemies, pressing harder for territory. In this struggle, Division agents are forced to fight for every block and zone, counter-attack.
But this new power struggle is still getting started, with Washington D.C now a frontline of Divide and Conquer.
Initiating[]
To initiate a retaliation from a hostile faction, agents must eliminate enemies, complete activities and missions, and capturing Control Points as they all all add to the agitation meter. There's also a daily project that allows agents to instantly fill the agitation meter to 100% once it's completed.
When the meter is full, the faction will launch a retaliation, and attempt to take over a Named Zone and all of its associated Control Points. There's a 6 hours time limit before the agitated faction takes full control of a Named Zone, so agents can initiate a Retaliation which will put them and their team in an instanced match in that zone with a time limit
If the agent doesn't wish to do a Retaliation, they can simply abandon it, and the agitated faction will subsequently take over the zone.
Counter-Attack[]
The goal is simple, but also demanding. An agent and their team must retake the entire zone before the timer runs out. They deploy from the zone's safehouse to reclaim the Control Points one by one, which extends the timer by 4:30 minutes.
Retaliation Control Points are no slouch either, as agents must face three waves of hostiles led by a Named Enemy. Additionally, the first and second wave led by the Named Enemy have an entire squad of a specific archetype, forcing agents to be more careful during the engagement.
Depending on the player's World Difficulty, retaking the Control Points can be challenging, with higher difficulties giving higher rewards.
If an agent dies during the retaking sequence, the Retaliation will be considered a loss and will be returned to the zone's safehouse. Depending on how the loss went, hostiles can take over all the associated Control Points, or there's a neutral Control Point available to conquer in case an agent dies during the re-take. In situations where an agent dies while running around the zone or eliminating the enemies guarding the Control Point, they will suffer a time penalty. In co-op, if a fellow agent from the team dies, the entire team will suffer a time penalty as well.
As such, extreme caution and playing carefully are very crucial in Retaliation. Rushing into danger and being careless will only make things frustrating
Because Retaliation runs are set in an instance of the Named Zone that must be re-taken, agents must stay in there and not wander off, as there's an out-of-bounds timer that will forcefully put them back in.
Kill Squads[]
Throughout a Retaliation run, agents might get ambushed by Kill Squads. These are dangerous enemies that must be eliminated with extreme prejudice, as they add 3:30 minutes to the timer once they're dealt with. Additionally, eliminating the Kill Squad has a chance of rewarding an Exotic Blueprint tied to a faction.
Kill Squads usually come in either as the Underground faction or the faction tied to the ongoing Retaliation match, so extreme caution must be exercised.
Completion[]
Once the agent and their team retake all the Control Points within the Named Zone, there's a 30-second time limit before the Retaliation run is concluded.
Completion adds bonus rewards, which include an Exotic Cache, a Named Item Cache, 1 Broken SHD Watch, additional Retaliation-specific materials, and a chance of earning an Exotic Blueprint tied to the faction's pool.
Maneuvers[]
Maneuvers are optional challenges that Division agents can undertake. Completing them adds a bonus timer around 30–45 seconds, depending on the Named Zone involved in a Retaliation run.
These tasks are shared with the team, but only completed individually. This can prove crucial, as dying adds a penalty to the timer.
List of Maneuver Challenges[]
- Kill 3 enemies without using armor kits
- Kill 3 enemies without using Skills.
- Kill 3 enemies without leaving cover (cover-to-cover counts as not leaving cover)
- Destroy 2 Armor Plates
- Eliminate a Kill Squad within 30 seconds of their arrival
- Destroy a Hyena's Shield.
Rewards[]
Targeted Exotic Farming[]
Each faction has its own pool of Exotic Blueprints, and there are two ways to work toward them. The first, which involves defeating Kill Squads, gives a chance of rewarding a blueprint from a faction's exclusive pool. Those squads are tied to five factions: Hyenas, True Sons, Outcasts, Cleaners, and Rikers.
The second involves completing the entire Retaliation, which gives a chance of rewarding a blueprint that are only available from three factions: Hyenas, True Sons, and Outcasts.
The higher the difficulty, the higher the chance of getting those blueprints.
Crafting Materials[]
Crafting plays an important role in Retaliation, as the Exotic Blueprints are built using Exotic Components alongside Retaliation-specific materials, as they follow:
- Hyenas: Crystallized Spice
- True Sons: Military Dog Tags
- Outcasts: Biohazardous Canisters
- Cleaners: Burning Ash
- Rikers: Crossed Balaclava
There's also the Automated Defense Parts materials, which seem to be dropped from Black Tusk. However, they aren't part of Retaliation, so the only way to get that material is by converting 5 Broken SHD Watches per bundle.
For flexibility, these materials can be converted into Broken SHD Watches, which can be exchanged for materials from other factions, allowing Division agents to progress towards Exotics outside the faction they're currently facing. They come in blueprints which can be bought from Inaya Al-Khaliq, inside the White House BoO.
For those don't own Warlords of New York or Battle for Brooklyn, they can still get the Riker/Cleaner Exotic Blueprints by crafting an NY Kill Squad Cache per 15 Burning Ash/Crossed Balaclava each.
Reconstructed Caches[]
For those who are not interested in Exotic blueprints, Reconstructed Caches are available to craft for 7 Broken SHD Watches per each. This gives Division agents, who aren't interested in engaging with Descent, a shot at earning Named Item Blueprints from previous seasons.
XP/Targeted Loot[]
With the release of Y7S2.2 update, additional rewards were added in Retaliation. Typically like the standard Control Point activity, retaking Retaliation Control Points rewards both normal and season XP, Field Recon Data, and some crafting materials, and a targeted-loot high-end reward.
Targeted Loot is also added in Retaliation, and just like with Summit/Countdown, agents can choose a targeted loot of their desire that they wish to earn.
Gallery[]
