Is Warlords of New York Free? What Does Buying The Division 2 Expansion Unlock

Dropping with The Division 2’s upcoming expansion, Warlords of New York, is Title Update 8, and there has been some confusion over what content is locked behind the expansion and what content is free to everyone who owns the base game. In a handful of State of the Game streams and blogs Massive has clarified what will and will not be available to those who do not purchase Warlords of New York, and below is a breakdown of what you can expect whether you buy The Division 2 expansion or not.

Content from TU8 is free to all, yet activities within New York and the new endgame are not.

Essentially, anything that is part of the Title Update 8 content drop is free – like Gear 2.0 – while content sequestered away in New York or unlocked at the new level cap is exclusive to Warlords of New York owners, which costs $30 USD for the expansion alone. Below is what you should expect to see if you bought The Division 2: Warlords of New York or not:

• Content that is free to everyone that owns The Division 2
  • Heroic Difficulty for all missions
  • New Character Heads (you need to make a new character to access them)
  • The Dark Zones refresh
  • Gear 2.0
  • The revisions to existing Brand Sets
  • The revisions to existing Gear Sets
  • The level 30 version of the first raid, Operation Dark Hours
  • The new Recalibration Library
  • Skill Tiers (replacing Skill Power)
  • The UI rework that is attached to Gear 2.0
• Content unique to players that do not buy Warlords of New York
  • Gear score increase to 515
• Content unique to players that do buy Warlords of New York
  • Ten new exotics (weapon and armor)
  • Nineteen new Named Items
  • Two new Gear Sets (Striker and System Corruption)
  • Two new weapons
  • Four new Brand Sets
  • Full gear dyes (dyes that cover the entirety of your gear)
  • Seasons
  • Upcoming Apparel Events
  • Global Events
  • Leagues
  • Directives (modifiers that grant additional experience)
  • Global Difficulty level (set the whole game to a single difficulty)
  • Legendary Difficulty (for the three existing faction strongholds)
  • Level cap increase to 40
  • Level 31-40 gear (there will be no Gear Score at 40; just level 40 gear of varying power)
  • SHD Levels (post-40 leveling system, akin to Diablo 3’s Paragon system)
  • The new campaign
  • The lower Manhattan map
  • The “new” factions (Rikers, Cleaners, and Black Tusk with Last Man Battalion units)
  • New Skills, including the new Skill Variants that will be a part of the Seasonal Events
  • The level 40 version of Raid 1, Operation Dark Hours
  • Infinite level 30 character boost (can be used as much as you like, but you only get the resource reward once)

To boil that all down: every The Division 2 player will receive the game-wide system updates, but anyone wanting to partake in the updated endgame will need to buy the expansion, even if they don’t want to play the new campaign or map (though, they’ll have to if they wish to unlock the new endgame features). Level 30 and 40 players can still play together, but those without the expansion cannot join in on content exclusive to Warlords of New York.

The Division 2 players who do not purchase the expansion do have the increase to Gear Score that should incentivize playing without the expansion (GS 515 gear will be max-rolled items), but they will miss out on the SHD Levels and Season levels. In the end, there is enough being added to give those who opt out a chance to sample the systemic changes being made, but to experience the complete overhaul coming to The Division 2 players will need to pony-up the cash for the expansion to access the content that is locked there.

For more The Division 2: Warlords of New York guides check out our guide hub.