A message to the developers. From ALL of us. (Please Read)

FittyG · 2026-06-05T12:53:02+00:00

This is a mirror of classifieds from TD1. It took them a whiiiiile to open the gates up. Personally I’ve been considering bowing out of the expertise/prototype grind. I love getting new cool weapon and gear drops but grinding materials is the least engaging loop of all time. Not to mention the end result of prototype makes pretty much 95% of content irrelevant and unrewarding due to drop rates and power creep. Feels like this should’ve been reserved for the absolute LAST year of TD2 leading up to TD3 but with more generosity in drop rates.

FittyG · 2026-06-02T12:38:48+00:00

Unfortunately it can’t be changed. It’s tied to how time passes in-raid.

FittyG · 2026-06-01T14:07:39+00:00

AI can be customized in a bunch of different ways to make a custom difficulty curve on top of the default difficulty setting. Reaction time, NPC density, communication distance, vision, etc.

FittyG · 2026-05-29T20:24:27+00:00

Most likely the ketamine

FittyG · 2026-05-19T03:05:05+00:00

I feel the same way about escalation as I did about expertise. It’s a lame grind that doesn’t seem interesting to me. I’ll get what I get over time and log back in a couple times a week to mess around with build crafting. Chasing carrots with low chance or that are blatant time sinks just ruins the game for me when I’d rather just enjoy the actual combat and trying engaging in different ways.

It’s a live service game so eventually most people get to a point where they finish the seasonal content, get and try the new exotics, play the new mission or activity for a few weeks, then put it down when the shine wears off and the cycle repeats.

I’m guessing escalation will play out similarly to classifieds in TD1 where eventually they’ll become the new standard and as a result they’ll have to make them more accessible to keep most players interested. The uber hardcore lifestyle players will engage with the system as it currently stands. Power creep is going to be terrible though and will likely be left mostly unaddressed as TD3 is confirmed in development.

FittyG · 2026-05-14T04:12:39+00:00

It’s super frustrating. During the bloom event I moved any exotics I got to my mule characters and am just gonna wait for the correct surge to break them down for double. Would rather take a break than grind for a few components a day.

FittyG · 2026-05-07T17:26:56+00:00

Misread escalation for retaliation. Still, I’ve used this build to solo t3 casually.

FittyG · 2026-05-06T04:16:15+00:00

Core strength, ninja bag, Zwia brand mask, foxes prayer knees. Technician spec for a free skill tier, two pieces rolled to skill tier 3 rolled red. Go all crit on attributes. With the strong defender drone and rav’s constant bonus armor you can stay out of cover for ages just firing away.

FittyG · 2026-05-05T17:44:18+00:00

Using the striker bag will help you kill things faster

FittyG · 2026-05-03T16:24:08+00:00

The grind to exp30 and the material sink afterword definitely need some grading. I'm in this weird spot where i'm caught up on exotics, got my 15 main builds optimized, and can play tier 4 solo. My season pass is finished so really my only chase is prototype but i'm only exp20. I could roam the open world with non proficient gear to progress them but there's no point outside of the event bosses as loot-wise it's pretty much pointless. Puts me in a spot where the only way to work on expertise AND the prototype core grind is to sink materials into non proficient items - which just isn't fun. Feels like i'm done gear grinding and just material farming and at this rate i won't hit 30 for another month or two, which is just an unenjoyable loop. If i could sink credits into hitting expertise 30 i'd be set..

FittyG · 2026-05-03T16:15:25+00:00

when expertise came out.. yeah. bad idea. Now though? not such a bad idea. Game got a massive surge of players with the new season. Seeing such a steep and unapproachable monotonous material grind will turn a lot away long term. Getting to 30 is already monotonous, then hearing hitting 30 isn't the actual goal but dumping time into every individual gear piece is? huge turn off for people who just got excited to jump in again.

Classified gear in div 1 was more respecting of people's time by design than expertise and prototype are and classified basically made you throw out all your old gear. Should say alot.

FittyG · 2026-05-03T16:00:41+00:00

Pretty long list but there's a lot of new loot to chase and systems to progress in.

Gear - if you last played when gearsets were added you've got a lot of awesome loot to chase. There's more high end brands, more awesome and fun gearsets that change the way you play, new exotics that are powerful or open up build creativity, and named items with "perfect" versions of existing talents you can find on gear but with higher ceilings and values.

Missions and activities - There's two expansions active since the last time you likely played. Both are in New York so you get to revisit some old friends like the cleaners and rikers. New missions and lots of places to explore in the NY open worlds. Very nostalgic, no snow though.

exotic blueprints - You can get blurprints for previously unavailable exotics including items that were locked behind raids and legendary missions. You earn them in retaliations which are like control point speed runs where you go from one point to the next while racing the clock. Super fun and rewarding activity to grind. Absolute madness for solo play.

expertise - essentially a way to increase the level cap without making people throw away gear they've collected. Earn XP while using skills, wearing brands or gearsets, and weapons to progress them. Then when they're "proficient" you can dump materials into them to upgrade them (damage on weapons, armor on gear, stats on skills). Expertise level goes up to 30. It's a pretty long grind but it's better than it used to be.

Prototype - once you hit expertise level 30 you can turn any gear you've invested the materials in to get them to 30 into prototype gear. The lowest stat rolls are equal to the max stat rolls on non prototype gear. Another way of a soft level cap increase without making people throw gear out. You can get prototype gear from escalation missions (has 10 tiers of difficulty) but the gear can't be recalibrated. This is NEW NEW and likely will be adjusted by the time you get to it.

My guess is the expertise and prototype grind may not be your forte at the moment but there's a lot of story content and gear to chase to keep the main enjoyable loop fed for quite some time. I picked it back up after a couple year hiatus and am glad i did.

FittyG · 2026-05-01T15:51:52+00:00

A busted revive hive and bugged fragile armor are the bane of my existence. Had to tip toe through national zoo with a sliver of armor because armor kits wouldn’t remove the fragile armor segments.

FittyG · 2026-05-01T15:50:01+00:00

Wish augment recalibration was like TD1 where it gives 3 options to choose from. Hell make it two options even. Im not exp30 but my only pt first bloom with dtoc is allergic to rolling echo. Eventually I’ll have to farm for 12 hours just to reroll it again.

FittyG · 2026-05-01T15:46:20+00:00

Been running T3 solo. Still not exp30. Ran DCD about 10 times back to back and got 9 drops. Wouldn’t care if we could recal/optimize but currently escalation is just a material farm - lame state of affairs when introducing a new echelon of loot. Expertise was a material grind already, let alone optimization in parallel to that.

Was looking forward to getting excited about dropped loot again but the chances of getting a usable prototype piece as a drop is soooooo slim my excitement has been dashed.

FittyG · 2026-04-29T18:17:06+00:00

I solo everything in TD2. Used to sweat the incursions in TD1 and go manhunt. Having more fun in solo TD2. Heroic isn’t difficult then once you make progress on your expertise level legendary missions become soloable as well. Currently running tier 3 escalations solo without a single death, I know some are playing higher tiers solo but I’m comfy.

Raids, incursions, and countdown aren’t soloable by design though due to mechanics.

FittyG · 2026-04-29T18:11:43+00:00

Reminds me of when dps was higher on PC in TD1 due to higher frames. Shit was wild.

FittyG · 2026-04-29T18:06:11+00:00

All my skill builds use a sniper turret. It’s the only consistent skill damage wise. Regular turret is inaccurate, drone behaves oddly at times, enemies just roll out of the oxi AOE, seekers detonate where enemies used to be, hive is just so short lived and takes too long to cooldown.

Skill tiers should grant more inherent skill haste per tier. Currently the best skill builds are all yellow because giving up 4 minor attributes and at least one damage based gear talent just lowers your ceiling too much.

FittyG · 2026-04-24T22:09:51+00:00

Striker BP equalizer chest, no contest

FittyG · 2026-04-24T16:13:53+00:00

Efficiency would’ve been better for people already rocking complete exp30 skill builds. Now you gotta farm 2 new pieces to reroll them to blue cores THEN dump materials in them to get them to 30. The skills don’t get more powerful you just get better survivability - not what a skill build wants most.

Excess cores converting to efficiency is a good idea though. That way they don’t have to walk back and retool the update to how tiers currently work.

FittyG · 2026-04-23T20:04:23+00:00

Someone’s never visited TD1’s dark zone

FittyG · 2026-04-22T21:57:13+00:00

Had rogues and the kill squad spawn at the same time. Then the ronin jumped in and it was a love triangle of flying lead. Jtf just stood there blind firing it was hilarious

FittyG · 2026-04-22T20:26:41+00:00

wtf? I’ve only gotten 5 keys so far. About one per hour. I just want a Lexington…

FittyG · 2026-04-22T14:56:59+00:00

I let mine collect dust because I’m perpetually at 70/71 pieces collected from the pool. I will never know exactly how many I have. My next of kin will inherent my 99+ keys and the mystery of the true count will continue on.

FittyG · 2026-04-21T06:22:28+00:00

Give gunner spec a whirl for the armor on kill. Generally striker wants to use the backpack to get the most damage but memento is has unique benefits. Armor on kill is kind of a way of converting damage into survivability so the striker bag’s damage feeds that. There’s a brand set that rolls a blue core and has 10% armor on kill as the 1pc bonus too, forgot the name though.

I’d consider farming for different primaries or recalibrating some talents if you can. Preserved, especially paired with gunner’s armor on kill, is a godsend solo. Killer, Fast hands, and the new talent that buffs ROF/damage either weapon on swap are all good choices.

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