The Division 2 releases today, but certain versions of the game have had early access to Ubisoft’s post-apocalyptic trip to Washington D.C. for the past few days. Those players are already figuring out to get hold of powerful exotic weapons, and it turns out one in particular is relatively easy to get hold of.
As you reach the end of the game’s campaign, you’ll be sent to the stronghold on Capitol Hill, where the game’s final story mission is located. Once you’ve taken down a boss called Captain Kendra Nelson, you’ll be rewarded with an exotic crafting material called ‘Pistol: Trigger & Mechanism.’
At that point, there’s not a lot you can do with the material, but completing three further missions on hard difficulty or above, and you’ll unlock the extra resources you need to craft your first exotic. Taking out Captain Briggs in the American History Museum grants ‘Pistol: Receiver & Paintjob’, Staff Sergeant Carl Wade drops ‘Pistol: Sight & Rail’ in the Viewpoint Museum, and Master Sergeant Steve ‘Junior’ Quiroz drops both ‘Pistol: Grip & Tags’ and ‘Kendra’s Liberty Blueprint’ in the Space Administration HQ.
Once you’ve got all of those parts, you’ll need a pistol to upgrade. In this case, you’ll want the D50 Level 1 high-end pistol – unfortunaely, that’s usually a random drop, but you might be able to find one at the end of the Potomac Event Center’s Invaded mission.
Related: Get started with our The Division 2 beginner’s guide
If you’ve completed all of that, take your pistol and parts to a crafting bench, and you can upgrade your pistol into Liberty. As well as dealing a healthy amount of damage with decent accuracy at close range, it offers a host of other benefits.
You’ll deal double damage to hostile electronics, and weak points on them will be highlighted while aiming down sights. If you destroy those weak spots, your next shot deals 500% damage, and if that shot kills your target, you’ll automatically refill your magazine, and all those magical new bullets will deal 100% bonus damage until you empty your clip. If that weren’t enough, while holstered, Liberty will automatically refill 20% of your current weapon’s magazine whenever you destroy a weak point.
Going it alone? Here’s how to play The Division 2 solo
If you’re getting started with the game this weekend, you can get up to speed with our list of The Division 2 skill mods and our Division 2 brand sets guide, or you can check out our exotic weapons list if you want to make sure you’re as well-kitted-out as possible for the apocalypse.