The Division's Last Stand expansion is an instanced 8v8 competitive mode with enemy mobs

During their regular State of the Game livestream, Ubisoft detailed The Division's incoming expansion, Last Stand. The details have since been collected in an official blog post for easy reading.

Last Stand brings a new instanced competitive mode to the cover-based looter shooter, where two teams of eight players fight one another on a small chunk of the Dark Zone over control of three terminals. It sounds like a traditional competitive control point mode, where the more points you hold, the quicker you'll transfer "information" to meet a score goal. First to get there, or the highest within the 20 minute match limit, wins.

The catch is that usual PvE enemy mobs are still present, roaming the map like it's just another day in post-virus apocalypse. Killing these mobs awards your team with SHD tech, which your team can use to unlock "tactical boosts and fortifications"—a nice wrinkle for the PvE-minded players out there.

Such fortifications include turrets to guard your spawn point terminal or a pulse that alerts you to enemies approaching your position. And during set milestones during each match, special boost stations are made available, at which your team can spend more SHD to temporarily boost capture speeds or earn more points for killing enemies. However, they're only usable by one team at a time, so expect to fight over those too.

As for rewards, Last Stand has its own ranking system with a cap at level 40. For each rank up, you'll get a cache of items, and during certain milestones you'll earn special items that cannot be obtained anywhere else in the game.

It sounds like good fun for diehard players, but new folks might have a hard time getting started. To play Last Stand, you'll need to be level 30, which feels like an arbitrary fence, but as we play it ourselves the decision might make sense.

Last Stand may not be new area with heaps of narrative and quests and loot, but it's a focused version of the Dark Zone's competitive play without any of the consequences, and some new rewards. For long time players that want to try out their specialized builds in PvP combat, it could be a welcome addition.

Soon, Last Stand will be open to season pass holders on the PTS ahead of release, so we'll be sure to give it a look as soon as possible. That said, it doesn't have a set release date. Last Stand will also be available on its lonesome for $15.

James is stuck in an endless loop, playing the Dark Souls games on repeat until Elden Ring and Silksong set him free. He's a truffle pig for indie horror and weird FPS games too, seeking out games that actively hurt to play. Otherwise he's wandering Austin, identifying mushrooms and doodling grackles.