Don't believe there has been one of these yet. Anything missed please let me know.
The Dark Zone is heralded as one of the End-Game content areas for The Division, there is a lot known about this area now, and it is currently one of the best farming areas for Elite and High end gear. Named enemies are scattered throughout the map at different landmarks, providing not only loot, but also Pheonix Credits, used for a variety of things covered later.
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Stepping into the Dark Zone (DZ) for the first time
So you have just gained your first foothold in Manhattan, at the new base of operations, and you have played the first couple of missions, when should you venture into the DZ?
Well first you need to be Rank 8 before you can step into the DZ and from there the enemies will scale according to your agent’s level. In the early game, however, it is not recommended to spend too much time in the DZ. The gear you obtain will be quickly discarded as your agent level increases, and playing at any agent rank lower than 30 will serve only to increase your DZ rank small amounts.
For the efficient agent, it’s best to dip in and out to try and keep your DZ rank the same as your agent rank, but concentrate mainly on getting your agent rank up to 30 as swiftly as possible before putting any real time and effort into the DZ, either as a lone wolf, or part of a fireteam of up to 4 agents. Levels 14, 19, 24 and 29 are the top of the brackets so it would be best to jump in at these levels to improve your DZ rank.
If you enter a downed state while in the Dark Zone, you can be revived by any players manually. If you die completely, you will drop a portion of your DZ currency and keys along with any loot you had (which can be stolen by other players). You will also lose a percentage of your DZ experience, before respawning at a choice of your nearest Safe Rooms or Checkpoints to restock before heading back out.
Proximity chat (if enabled in your settings) is available to communicate with anyone in the game who is nearby you in the Dark Zone.
DZ Keys - Drop randomly from AI enemies in the DZ, or are available from other live agents if they drop them from their inventory on death. Used to open DZ chest which contain elite loot.
DZ Credits - Drop randomly from AI enemies in the DZ, or are available from other live agents if they drop them from their inventory on death. Used to buy gear and guns from DZ vendors located at safe rooms and checkpoints.
Division Tech - These can be found in small cases scattered throughout the map, and in specific Division Tech stores (marked by an icon of 3 circles) which hold between 1 and 4 cases inside (make sure to look for stairs to a 2nd floor). Used to craft Dark Zone specific crafting materials, varying between low level and high end crafting materials of all types. These can be changed into normal crafting materials at the crafting station.
Phoenix Credits - These are only available from killing named enemies in the DZ, 1-4 credits at a time, or from the Daily hard and challenging missions outside the DZ. Used to purchase high end gear from the DZ06 safe room vendor, the base of operations and for re-calibrating high end gear.
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Checkpoints, Landmarks and Safe Rooms
http://i.imgur.com/VNCZmfH.jpg
The DZ is split into 6 zones, each increasing with difficulty the higher the zone and the further North you go. When you first jump in, they will be split below based on your DZ rank.
DZ01: 10-12
DZ02: 13-15
DZ03: 16-18
DZ04: 22-24
DZ05: 27-29
DZ06: 29-30
Once you reach agent level 30, every zone will be open to you, with increasing AI levels, from level 30 in DZ01 to level 32 in DZ06 where you will find a higher concentration of tough enemies; high risk, high reward. (DZ01/02 lvl 30 enemies - DZ03/04 lvl 31 enemies - DZ05/06 lvl 32 enemies)
Checkpoints (Person in Doorway Icon)
Scattered throughout all of the zones are Checkpoints, these are your entry and exit points to the DZ area. They hold restock points, to rearm medkits and ammunition, and they each have a different DZ vendor who sells guns and gear for DZ credits. (Entrances are 1-way and are also scattered throughout the edges to provide access into the DZ, just not back out).
Safe rooms (Room Icons)
DZ zones 02-06 have their own Safe Rooms, housing another DZ vendor and restock point, similar to the check points. In DZ06, however, the vendor has special High End stock available for purchase solely for Phoenix Credits.
Landmarks (Fist Icon)
These areas are your main locations for finding named, and unnamed, enemies to grind XP and steal their loot. They are also locations for DZ chests, which will give you a guaranteed 2 pieces of Elite gear if you have a DZ Key to open them. The landmarks display on the map in two different colours, Purple if enemies are available to kill, grey if the area has been cleared out.
Extraction points (Arrow Icon)
These are the only locations on the map where you can extract contaminated DZ loot directly to your stash found in Safe Houses and your Base of Operations. Extractions are called in by firing a flare gun which summons a helicopter (after 90 seconds and an assault by NPCs) the Helicopter then waits for 30 seconds before returning to base with or without your gear (there is space for 4 agent’s gear only). Your stash chest has room for a maximum of 30 pieces of contaminated loot before you will need to leave the DZ to clear and sort it. Your DZ inventory has 6 open slots before needing to extract in the DZ, which can be upgraded to a maximum of 9.
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PvP, going rogue and manhunts
PvP is enabled by default, in all areas of the DZ; shooting a non-rogue agent will cause you to turn rogue yourself, marking you to be hunted and killed by all non-rogues.
Turning Rogue
If, or when, you attack another agent (who isn’t marked as Rogue) you are designated as a Rogue agent; you will be marked for all agents to see on the map and given a countdown timer which you have to survive before returning to a non-rogue state.
http://imgur.com/bao4Wac
With each non-rogue agent you kill, your rogue status will increase in tiers which is shown via a dashed circle around the skull. If you are wounded by a non-rogue agent, it will pause your countdown timer until you are no longer taking damage; even a 19 second timer can be a death sentence if you are pursued and unable to find cover.
Tier 1 - Wounding an agent (19 seconds) // killing an agent (90 seconds)
Tiers 2, 3 and 4 - Killing players will increase you through these ranks, increasing your timer with each tier.
Tier 5 (Manhunt) - Once you reach this tier, a server wide notification will be sent out, with a mission to hunt and kill all fireteam members under manhunt status. You will be marked on the map for all to see, and you will have to survive a period of 5 minutes before losing your status entirely.
Returning fire while tier 1-4 will reset your timers to that timers max.
Rewards and drawbacks Obviously, turning rogue presents unique opportunities to steal others DZ loot, currency and keys; you are also rewarded with DZ currency for surviving rogue tiers (which increases depending on the tier survived) however going rogue has it’s downsides.
If killed while rogue, you will currently lose a large percentage of your DZ experience gained; this is a usually in the thousands of XP, costing you hours of grinding, and will take a good few hours to regain through killing AI alone. On the flipside, killing rogue agents rewards you with the XP that they lose, and rogue agents are generally hunted for the high experience gain that comes from killing one.
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Levelling up and staying there
Every kill against an enemy AI will grant you a particular amount of XP, this can be increased by using gear with the ‘Increased Kill XP’ perk. I would suggest stacking any mods, or gear, with this perk as possible when you are looking to increase your DZ rank as fast as possible. The initial DZ ranks will fall away quickly, but can take anything between 30mins-1hr at rank 30 and above to go up 1 level.
Dying will obviously hinder your experience gain, giving you high losses of experience; this includes dying while rogue which will lose you even more experience depending on your rogue tier. Play with your friends, work together to stay alive, and stay safe.
You’ll want to avoid going rogue where possible if you want to ensure you keep your DZ ranks intact; surviving a rogue status will only net you DZ credits, and not XP. However, killing rogue agents will give you a massive XP boost, as you steal XP directly from them generally a few thousand depending on their own DZ rank.
DZ Rank 30 and beyond
So what are the perks of increasing your DZ rank? The vendors sell blueprints, weapons and gear which you can purchase at either level 30 or 50. The vendors inventories reset on a weekly rotation, and each vendor has a different variety of things for sale, it’s worth shopping around.
Level 30
Once you hit this level you will be able to purchase elite (purple) level gear from all the DZ vendors for DZ credits. This is nice to be able to supplement your expanding collection of elite gear, and possibly trade some gear pieces for better ones if you have been unable to acquire any so far.
Level 50
Once you hit level 50, you are able to purchase all of the available DZ vendor gear, including High End (yellow) blueprints, weapons and gear from the DZ06 Phoenix Credit vendor.
Everything offered worth buying at this stage (high end blueprints, etc) are available for roughly 250,000 total DZ credits, the remaining costs a very large amount of Phoenix Credits, which you will find from named enemies/daily missions.
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Final thoughts
The DZ is a fun and rewarding place, accomplishing a lot is easily done with friends in a fireteam of 4; even if that goal is killing every agent around and stealing all their goodies.
SMGs are currently incredible for high-DPS, high stability weapons and a fireteam of SMG wielding agents will destroy most things very quickly. Bolt action sniper rifles are also high damage and long range weapons to pick off high level enemies from a safer distance.
Stock up on consumables, incendiary bullets are particularly useful for stun locking named and high armour enemies, as are flashbang/incendiary grenades. Water also adds 20% extra damage to elite enemies, which in extended firefights can shut down even the toughest of bosses.
Support stations (with the revive mod) are exceptionally good both with a fireteam and solo, as they will revive you if you go down without the need for a teammate to do it for you which will take them out of the firefight.
Make sure to restock whenever possible, and especially if you are starting to get low on medkits. It is also recommended to run 2 different types of weapon in your Primary and Secondary slots, as the same type of weapon pull from the same ammo stash. Make sure to always have a backup weapon with a different ammo type to your primary, so it is always there for you to use in a jam, with ammunition waiting.
Get hunting!
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Useful other threads I have seen
https://redd.it/4a5m2h - /u/Khezekiah - DZ boss map
https://redd.it/4acric - /u/analyticalgaming - DZ Farming map
https://redd.it/4apsmz - /u/NBKResolve - DZ Alternative Farming map
https://redd.it/4afdng - /u/Linkinito - Full DZ XP Table
