A hidden boss in The Division 2 went undiscovered for more than two months

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Manning National Zoo was added to The Division 2 in July as part of the DC Outskirts: Expeditions DLC. And somehow, from then until today, a hidden boss named The Agony went entirely undiscovered by players—and as noted by Kotaku, would probably still be lurking unseen if developer Trick Dempsey hadn't hinted at its presence during today's State of the Game livestream.

Dempsey said that changes to the Manning National Zoo, including the addition of a bunch of new bosses, prompted him to search Google to see if the hidden boss originally included in the map had been discovered. To his surprise, he found that there were no guides to finding the character, or any reference to it at all, for that matter. 

"I felt really strange that we're doing, 'Hey, here's a bunch of new bosses here inside of Manning National Zoo,' when people haven't even found all of the bosses in Manning National Zoo," Dempsey said.

Dempsey and stream host Hamish Bode dropped some vague hints about the boss: There's no "interactable thing" that will reveal the presence of the boss, until you "do some things" in an area that's about "a football field's length in which you are doing nothing." Bode said that with those very thin clues to work with, he expected somebody would have it figured out by next week, but it actually took less than two hours for the solution to appear on Reddit. A YouTube video followed closely behind.

The spoiler: In order to conjure The Agony, as explained by redditor ArcLight079, you'll need to shoot up five beehive displays in the large open area between the crocodile pit and the monorail, located straight ahead from the entrance, near the ocelot exhibit, on the high ground at the wolf exhibit, near the butterfly exhibit, and in maintenance area behind the monorail entrance. Once that's done, go back to the butterfly exhibit and interact with the panel, and then say hello to your new friend.

I'm not completely surprised that The Agony went unnoticed for more than two months, or that he was discovered so quickly: He was very well-hidden in the game, but nothing encourages people to jump into a mystery like the knowledge that it exists. As for why the boss is called The Agony, redditor Ekos640 theorized that it's a nod to The Pain, a member of Cobra Unit in Metal Gear Solid 3 who had the ability to control swarms of insects.

A video demonstrating how to find the boss is down below.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.