Tom Clancy’s The Division, a third-person shooter RPG set in a virus-wracked New York, had a pretty rocky first year — with a slew of gameplay issues, bugs, exploits, and somewhat small paid DLCs. Massive, the game’s developer, has continually patched and updated the game, adding in player-suggested content, features, weapons, and gear.
The Division’s latest patch promises to fix more bugs and exploits, while delivering some new content and equipment. Patch 1.7 also introduces Commendations (previously called Feats), an in-game achievement tracker. Though Commendations are live on The Division’s Player Test Server, not all of them are present; Massive states that there will be over 500 commendations when 1.7 releases on PC and consoles.
So, while some details are sketchy, some information is concrete. Commendations are a series of challenges for players to complete, and award the player with Commendation Score for completing them. Players can see the Commendation Score of other players, so the number itself is somewhat of a bragging right — as “better” (or at least more veteran) players will have a higher Commendation Score. Commendation Score is tied to your account, so even if you create a new character, you’ll retain the same Commendation Score.
Along with Commendations, Massive has added another vanity item slot. This time, the patch on your character’s right arm can be changed, and completing Commendations unlocks new vanity patches for your character. The patches, like all vanity items — jackets, hats, boots, etc. — are purely cosmetic, but they are another way for players to show off their accomplishments within the game.
What Can You Do to Prepare for Commendations?
For some of them, nothing. Massive has said that some of the challenges are unique, and make players adjust their playstyle or complete tasks in certain ways to achieve the Commendation. However, if you’re a completionist, you’ve probably already earned a few.
Judging from pictures released by Massive and videos from various YouTube and Twitch streamers, Commendations are split into at least 10 broad categories:
- Achievements
- General
- Combat
- Mission
- Exploration
- PvP
- Global Events
- Survival
- Underground
- Last Stand
The Achievements category covers things you’ve likely already done if you’ve spent enough time playing: completing certain missions, extracting a contaminated item from the Dark Zone, or discovering all the Safe Houses in Manhattan. Most of these Commendations are also tied to Xbox One Achievements, PlayStation Trophies, or UPlay Actions.
General Commendations
The General category has Commendations like acquiring 10 million credits, attaining level 30, and fully upgrading the Base of Operations. Again, just playing the game normally for enough time will more than likely net you these Commendations.
It also appears that some of these Commendations are actually split into several stages, and achieving each stage awards you with Commendation Score. The final stage on these Commendations awards you with a different patch to wear. For example, the Bank of New York Commendation — acquiring 10 million credits — is split into 6 stages. Each stage awards you with a 10 Commendation Score, and the reward for the final stage is the Star-Spangled Banner patch.
Combat Commendations
The Combat category is exactly what you’d expect: kill a number of enemies with the assault rifle weapon type, heal or buff allies while in a group a certain number of times, or equip 10 different skill mods. This category also includes more esoteric Commendations, like defusing grenades while wearing the Final Measure Gear Set.
Mission Commendations
The Missions category has all the standard mission-oriented Commendations — complete the storyline missions, for example — but also includes completing missions on Hard, Challenging, or a large number of missions with a group. There are also individual Commendations for Legendary difficulty missions, potentially the hardest content in The Division, as well as Commendations for specific actions in each of the game’s Incursions.
Exploration Commendations
The Exploration category includes finding all of the ECHO scenes scattered around the game’s Manhattan map and missions, recovering the black boxes from all the crashed drones, and finding all the scattered cell phone recordings in the world space. This category also includes finding and equipping all of the gear set items. I told you completionists would love Commendations.
PvP Comendations
The PvP category includes everything you’d never want to do (or absolutely love doing) in the Dark Zone: killing Rogue Agents, killing players, extracting items, and cutting ropes on extraction helicopters — thus denying honest players of their gear, you terrible person, you.
Global Event Commendations
Though there are no Commendations listed in the Global Events category, we can guess at what these Commendations will be: complete a number of missions with the Global Event modifier (which adds all sorts of strange modifiers to the game’s missions, like draining your health if enemies get too close, or causing enemy heads to explode and deal extra damage to enemies around them), or collect the new Classified Gear Sets.
Survival Commendations
The Survival category has everything related to the Survival gametype — which, by the way, is a fun diversion from the main game. Commendations include crafting a virus filter and flare gun, extracting 50 items in Survival, and wearing items that protect against cold temperatures.
Underground Commendations
The Underground category contains Commendations related to the Underground DLC, which might actually be a reason to go play that part of the game. Maybe. Commendations include reaching Underground rank 30, recovering all the audio logs, and completing missions with all 5 directives active.
Last Stand Commendations
The Last Stand category has all the Commendations for the dedicated PvP gametype of the same name — including winning Last Stand matches, capturing objectives, or activating perks. Hilariously, winning 5 matches nets you the “Salty” patch, which sports a literal salt shaker.
That’s quite the list of Commendations. Keep in mind that the reference I was using — thanks to P3T3 TT’s YouTube video detailing Commendations on the PTS — contains only 168 of the 500+ Commendations that Massive says will be in the game once 1.7 launches. So, if you want access to some awesome-looking patches and bragging rights, you can get a head start by simply playing the game.
Got some Commendations coming in The Division‘s Patch 1.7 that you’re looking forward to, or some patches you’ve seen that you want to earn? Let us know in the comments!
