The Division 2: Everything You Need To Know About Increasing Your Gear Score

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Don’t throw away those high GS items just yet in The Division 2. Like Power Level / Light in Destiny 2, Gear Score is an average score calculated by the ‘power’ of your equipment.

Every item in the endgame of The Division 2 has a GS, or Gear Score. On top of that, you’ll also need to boost your Gear Score to complete Invaded Strongholds — enhanced versions of Strongholds you’ve already completed, with tougher opponents and new bosses.

The endgame of The Division 2 is all about increasing your GS. The developers have put a lot of thought into the Gear Score system, and there are wrinkles you might not know — here, I’m going to explain what you need to know about Gear Score, how to increase it, and how to unlock new tiers of GS items.

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Everything You Need To Know About Increasing Your Gear Score | Endgame Guide

When your agent reaches Level 30 and completes the Capitol Hill stronghold in The Division 2, everything changes. Your items suddenly gain ‘Gear Score’, Specializations are unlocked, and a high-difficulty faction called Black Tusk invades.

Gear Score is an average calculation, giving you an idea of your general power level in this new world. All missions / enemies are set at Level 31. To unlock the ‘Tidal Basin’ Stronghold, you’ll need to increase your GS by a significant amount.

Thankfully, you’ll always be leveling up your GS. Doing it is simple — just equip items with a higher gear score. You start at 250, and every improved item you collect will increase your score. The higher your GS, better items will begin to drop. Here, I’m going to provide a few tips to help you continue to improve your Gear Score, and what you need to know about the system.

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How To Get Better & Better GS Loot

Equipping better items isn’t just key — it is required. But, you don’t have to equip everything to get better GS drops. In Destiny 2, loot would become incrementally better as your Power Level increased. There’s a similar system in The Division 2, but it’s MUCH more forgiving.

The Gear Score of loot will increase based on the average Gear Score of everything in your inventory.

You don’t need to equip high GS items to improve your average. And don’t worry about removing lower GS items — if they’re in your inventory, they don’t hurt your average. Your average inventory GS can only increase.

For example, if you’re GS 289 and find a GS 300 Sniper Rifle, you don’t have to equip it. Just place it in your inventory. Don’t get rid of it, don’t sell it, just hang onto it. You’ll get better GS loot drops, even if you don’t equip it. Next time, you might get GS 301 loot, and so on.

GS Loot Tiers — How World Tiers Work

At a certain point, you’ll stop earning improved GS loot. There are four ‘World Tiers’ — a World Tier is a difficulty level that affects the entire endgame world. World Tier 1 is the easiest, while World Tier 4 is the hardest. GS loot drops will only increase up to a certain point. Once you’ve reached the maximum GS for a World Tier, it’s time to reach the next difficulty level.

How To Increase World Tier:
- To reach new World Tiers, you must complete two ‘Invaded Missions’ in a region.
- This unlocks the ‘Invaded Stronghold’ — completing this stronghold will let you increase the World Tier.

At World Tier 4, you’ll unlock the Black Tusk stronghold at the Tidal Basin. Each Stronghold has a Gear Score requirement, so you’ll need to keep watching your Gear Score to complete each step of the endgame content.

How To Grind For Higher GS Loot

Gear is literally everywhere in the endgame. You’ll be tripping over loot everywhere you go. To get the most loot, all you have to do is play the game — the trouble is, it can be difficult when you’re starting a new World Tier, or if you’re running solo.

One of the easiest ways to boost your Gear Score is by farming Faction Caches. You’ll find a huge supply of easy-to-find Faction Keys in any underground area. Look for the yellow markers to explore the underground, and you’ll find tons of Faction Keys in lock boxes. You can use the keys on caches that randomly spawn in Invaded Missions, or in the open-world.

You can also clear Control Points. You can summon friendly allies to help you in these situations — just having the enemies shooting at someone other than you (if you’re solo) will make clearing Control Points much, much easier. All Control Points will reset, so if an enemy recaptures a Control Point, you can capture it and collect the large loot cache inside to get plenty of awesome items.

IMPORTANT NOTE: As of this posting, farming Alert Level 3 (World Tier 4) Control Points is the best way to farm for loot. You will earn a Blueprint for every completion, and they can be completed solo.

The most dangerous places to get high-level GS loot are in Dark Zones. You can lose your loot, and it’s very, very dangerous if you’re solo. You’ll want to run with a team and fight any interlopers that come for your stuff. If you’re low GS, stay away from DZ West. That area is a total free-for-all. Like the Dark Zones of previous games, it’s a high-risk, high-reward environment. If you don’t mind grinding a little bit and completing events / projects / Invaded Missions, you can still raise your GS more than enough solo.

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