The Division 2: Warlords of New York introduces an updated endgame leveling system that will see your agent grow in power, even after you reach the level 40 cap. SHD Levels works much like Diablo 3’s Paragon system, and leveling it up is as simple as playing the game.
SHD Levels replace Proficiency Caches at level 40, yet are earned the same way.
Everything you do earns you experience in The Division 2, and Warlords of New York doesn’t change that. Instead of unlocking a Proficiency Cache whenever you fill up your experience bar after hitting the new level cap you will earn a point to invest in the new SHD Levels system. You do need to own Warlords of New York and hit level 40 for the system to unlock.
To earn the experience needed all you have to do is play the game, though there are ways to maximize your earnings. Tackling daily and weekly Projects will net you a solid chunk of experience, as will completing tasks for the Seasonal activities, Global Events, and Leagues. Tackling control points, world events and missions will also net you solid experience, and with the new Directives you can earn bonus experience from missions and the open world (while making the game more difficult, I should note).
Directives will provide the largest boost to experience gains from missions or the whole map if you can manage their game altering modifiers, with a max bonus of 125% to experience gains if you enable all five Directives. These will make the game harder, so if you find yourself dying too often it is best to remove Directives until you find a good balance that allows you to clearing content at a healthy pace.
When you do unlock a SHD Level you can access the tree from your menu, and from there you can place it in one of four categories within one of the disciplines. Every level will rotate between Offensive, Defensive, Utility, Handling, and Scavenging, so you can focus fire all of your points into one category from the start.
Each discipline is capped at 200 points, with each category topping off at 50 points. The “infinite” portion of SHD Levels comes from the Scavenging category, which allows you to grab a stock of resources when you commit a point to it.
SHD Levels are account-wide, meaning all of your characters will benefit from them. There is a single requirement your alts must reach to utilize SHD Levels, however, and that is they must be level 40 if they wish to contribute towards your total SHD Level.
That’s how you earn SHD Levels in The Division 2: Warlords of New York. Now you can grow in power well beyond hitting the level cap.
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