The Division's second anniversary brings Global Events and Twitch rewards

The Division is rapidly approaching its second anniversary—March 8 is the big day—which isn't bad going for a game we said was doomed to a slow death, but has recently mounted a stirring fightback that made it worth playing again. To celebrate the game's continued existence Ubisoft will hold four Global Events over the course of the month. These introduce modifiers to the game that "spice up your traditional gameplay experience," and offer players rewards including Tokens that can be spent on in-game items and opportunities to pick up coveted Classified Gear. 

The first event, Outbreak, is live now and runs until March 5, with modifiers that affect all enemies, including "Contagious," which drains player health when enemies are too close. After that comes Assault, from March 8-12, followed by Strike on March 15-19, and finally Ambush, which will run from March 22-26. 

Ubisoft will also be dealing out Twitch Drops—in-game items that are randomly awarded to viewers—during livestreams, which will apparently be plentiful throughout the month, and there will be timed rewards for viewers as well: Three Cypher Keys for watching 30 minutes, the Asher vanity outfit for 60 minutes of viewing, three more Cypher Keys at 90 minutes, and five Cypher Key fragments for each 30 minutes watched after that, up to a total of six hours.

It's not cumulative viewing, so you can come and go as you please over the course of the month, but you will need to link your Ubisoft account to your Twitch account, which you can take care of here

Naturally, there is also a huge infographic. 

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.