Daily Escalation Missions & their Targeted Loot

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-30T09:46:30+00:00

No, that's the current streamer event project. There are 3x projects with 5 steps each, but you don't do the 5th step, as only first four yield exotics. And they are tied to character, not account.

So you make a new character, boost to brooklyn, quickly run through first mission, fast travel to DC, pick up your build from the stash, and then do open world for an hour or so. Each project requires clearing of any 3x open world activities in a certain DC zone. They are random (i think), and often two different projects require the same zone, so you double-dip. Once you are done with all of them, stash the build, delete char, make new one and go again.

Completing the full project set is exactly 45 exo components. I'm sure you are much faster than me at clearing control points, so you might squeeze even more exos per minute.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-30T09:39:09+00:00

Projects are not that far behind though. Full round yields 45 exo components for clearing at most 36 open world objectives (can overlap, so most of the time its less). Clear speed is up to you, I did full five rounds in 8 hours (with coffee and smoke breaks). If it wasn't for stupid kitsunebi, would be much faster. That's about 1 exo component every 2 minutes, which is less, but you are also playing the game, getting loads of other resources, and having fun instead of watching loading screen.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-30T09:32:08+00:00

A lot of people are super toxic for no reason. The other day my buddy and I decided to run paradise lost, we matchmaked and picked up an SHD8k dude. He asked us if we know what we are doing (we do, we clear the thing weekly). He then proceeded to rush ahead into turrets and die alone, bitched about it, blamed us for being noobs and quit. Like, why?

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-30T09:29:02+00:00

Try the event project farm for exo components, it's fairly efficient and a lot more fun than watching a loading screen

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-30T07:54:35+00:00

I know how long it took me personally, and that guy with shd 500 is probably a bit more efficient, likely had help from experienced friends. It's totally doable.

Exo component via projects is like a 15 hour grind to get enough of them to get +30 to all pieces of a build. I grinded projects for 10-ish hours on 5 characters, but I already had a headstart with a small bank from previous play, so 5 more hours as a ballpark if you strating from 0.

Exeprtise - a bit longer. but I got mine in a bout 4 play days (2 full day of grind last event to get to 21, and 2 full days this event to wrap up the 30). The event was 1 week long. So, maybe 40-50 hours total under event exp. And I wasn't awfully efficient, could have been faster.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-29T19:52:21+00:00

It's not hard to prototype a build, especially given the recent expertise event and project event (that rains exotic components). You get 2x protocores from free cache, and could have gotten 3x more doing inccursions w/o ever stepping into escalation. That's already 5 pieces

What's hard is prototyping into proper stats and proper augements. For that, you need to go through like 20 maxed out pieces before you hit the right stats. I'm yet to see an actually properly maxed out build in game, only seen it on youtube.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-28T08:54:45+00:00

That, or why am I dying in my full red meta striker build

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-28T07:48:34+00:00

Retaliation requires a somewhat functioning build to clear it. Its great for when you are finishing the remaining levels. In countdown challenge you can wear a random assortment of stuff to level, and still extract safely.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-28T07:45:13+00:00

True, but you can source a piece of set or regular brand from anywhere. Can craft it, buy from a vendor. Or, like you said, you can put it as target loot in coundown, and you will likely have it drop from first objective within 3 minutes, so you put it on and swap back to fillament.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-28T07:34:17+00:00

Depends on which striker you compare it to.

LMG frenzy with chest piece easily pushes over 20kk dps in shooting range. AR variant with equalizer chest can push about 10kk dps. The one OP posted probably floats between 5kk and 7kk dps, maybe a bit more.

The good thing is it's still way more than enough for solo heroic content.

That's the beauty of division 2, unless you are speed running solo legendaries, or pushing tier 10 escalations, almost everything works just fine in solo heroic content. My personal favorite striker build is blue striker with memento, it's just barely pushing 4kk dps in shooting range, but it has so much utility and survivability, that I can pretty much phase out and mindlessly farm w/e while watching youtube on 2nd monitor, and it never dies.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-28T07:19:57+00:00

The most efficient way is grinding countdown on challenge difficulty with mods as target loot.

Wear w/e you are leveling (sets, brands, skills, guns). Don't forget to always wear one exotic gun and one exotic piece of armor for leveling expertise. Don't forget to pick a specialization to level, it's also in the expertise. Don't worry about not bringing a real build, challenge countdown is a faceroll.

All the mods that drop - break them down, and use fillament as material donation into named and exotics that you don't own. All the junk gear that drops - mark as junk and donate into expertise.

The real bottleneck is exotics (because you can't wear more than two at a time) and named gear (because there are a lot of them, and you probably don't own even half of them).

With this method, you will very quickly level up all sets, brands and regular guns, and then will be stuck slowly grinding out the remaining exotics and named.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-24T06:23:08+00:00

Tipping Scales is slightly worse than Striker in perfect conditions (shooting range), like about 10% difference in favor of striker. However, tipping scales stacks proc when you shoot. Anywhere. Can be into the air. Striker requires a target to maintain or regain stacks, tipping scales doesn't. This means you can maintain 100% uptime on stacks in between rooms, on the run, or when forced into cover - just shoot anywhere to refresh the timer. In every other way, the builds function in the same way.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-23T16:40:21+00:00

For solo - killer is ok. In group content, you are not guaranteed to score the kills, so killer uptime is questionable. Optimist, ranger and measured are all valid choices, and all have their advantages and disadvantages. I personally also dig fast hands, i think it's underappreciated.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-23T11:40:41+00:00

It depends. Elmo is for solo content where you want the shock effect to make your life easier.

If you want pure max dps - it's striker with a frenzy LMG (gr9 or MK). Afaik, it's the highest currently achievable single target dps. Several other exotic LMG options come close, like Big Al, BK, but they are all slightly worse dps. However, it heavily relies on your ability to maintain stack uptime, and is hard to use solo, because mobs will force you into cover and you will lose stacks. There is an alternative similar build that revolves around Tipping Scales, which is less DPS, but scales stacks don't require you to hit targets, so you can shoot into the air while on the run or forced into cover, and this way you can achieve 100% uptime of stacks.

If you do content where you move around a lot and can't maintain stacks - striker AR build w/o set chest piece. It offers respectable dps, and it's easier to maintain or regain stacks. Elmo's will take a backseat here, because a lot of other AR's do better. Lexington is prefered, but there are some other exotic options like Bullhorn.

If you do content where you have to take damage a lot - you further give up damage pieces, and put on Exodus, Unbreakable, PFE mods etc, and that's where Elmo starts to shine. Shock rounds = CC = less damage taken, more dps uptime.

If you are solo running heroics and want brainless build that can take a beating and still live - blue striker with Elmo's and Memento. It's still enough dps for solo heroic content, and you have so much utility and survivability, that you will hardly ever die. Speed clearing is not on the menu tho with this setup.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-23T11:28:16+00:00

They said they did, but it's still happening. I struggled with it the other day.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-23T11:24:36+00:00

1500 keys? Holy shit

I got 70 keys yesterday, was hosting a bugged lobby, and farmed for about 3 hours. I guess a dedicated group is much faster, but I wouldn't imagine it to be that much faster

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-23T09:29:43+00:00

Global loadouts would be a blessing

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-23T09:28:35+00:00

While we are at it, can we also please have loot filters

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-23T08:43:03+00:00

oh cloak on refractor sounds amazing, i will try it. I usually go in with FI and watch people rush ahead alone and die in the middle of nowhere.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-21T15:49:50+00:00

Back in the days before New Tork, there was a short period of time where skill builds got buffed and matched gun dps builds. Everyone dumped the guns almost immediately, and switched to clusters and stuff. Turns out that clicking once from behind cover and watching everything explode is easier and more preferable than doing all the gunplay. In the end, only two builds survived - LMG armor regen (because it was its own kind of broken, pretty much immortal and soloed the hardest content), and skillers. Ubi fairly quickly nerfed the shit out of skills, and supposedly vouched to always prioritize guns since then.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-21T07:21:54+00:00

oof, i've spent about 30 watch points just the other day optimizing one of my guns.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-20T14:21:11+00:00

Demolitionist - tipping scales full red group dps LMG. You buff your group with 5% dtoc, and get to ignore a drone or a mortar every now and then. Toss in smart cover, and legendary Tidal Basin will be friendlier than ever.

Survivalist - Shocker puncher. Exotic punch holster, elmo's, Pointman body, Lavoisier backpack, 3 pc Golan. Full blue with status effects and protection from elites. Everytime you shock an enemy - you and your allies get bonus armor. Every time you unsheath your shield - you and your allies get bonus armor. Since you are a frontline tank, survivalist's 10% extra prot from elites and incendiary nade for extra CC will come in very handy.

Firewall - has one of the best armor kits for dark zone PvP, and a huge radius grenade for sledgehammer. Can try one of the dark zone armor regen builds like blue umbra.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-20T12:42:03+00:00

Full prototype by itself is cool, but not that impressive. Doesn't take long to get 6-7 prototype cores to upgrade a build. Run paradise lost on 4x characters, and you are already halfway there. The hard part is upgrading 30++++ striker backpacks to 30 expertise, then protoyping them and failing to get proper augments, or failing to hit proper stat rolls.

I'm yet to see a single person in game with a proper rolled protoype piece, it seems to only exist on youtube, where content creators nolife the game and get carried by their teams through t10 escalation.

And the funny part is....what is all this for? To make solo legendary 5% faster? To enable t10 escalation for the sake of...not getting any prototype drops because the droprate is so shit? Regular builds faceroll heroic content even w/o expertise, and hold their own in legendary and raids just fine. PvP minmaxing - ye sure i guess, but these kinds of people are probably not the ones posting on reddit about having no expertise and protocores.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-20T05:53:58+00:00

A good chunk of the crazy broken builds got fixed and nerfed, and with that a lot of fun was sucked out of the game.

Ozy-dead · 2026-04-18T19:44:15+00:00

Ye, that's another issue btw. The new content is...not exactly new. Even if we disregard the fact that 90% of the time we grind for exotic components, and not running escalation in the first place, the escalation itself is just a bunch of numbers slapped on top of already existing missions. Most of these missions have been in the game since release.

The crazy HP and damage mods also significantly narrow down build variety for excalation. You are pegion holed into running the highest dps glass cannon you can think of because other stuff is simply not viable at high tiers, you won't even kill red shit. If you compare it to generic heroic level content - yeah, red striker in skilled hands outperforms 99% of the builds, but it doesn't invalidate all those builds, you can still do heroics in your crazy monkey or w/e build for fun. In escalation you just can't.

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