Demolitionist specialization in Division 2 The Division 2 guide, tips

Last update: 04 April 2019

The Demolitionist is the second specialization available in Tom Clancy's The Division 2. The Demolitionist is a great choice for people playing solo or building a character effective at short and mid ranges, with the help of LMGs or SMGs. In this chapter you will find all the information about this specialization - equipment, characteristics, and unique abilities, as well as useful hints that will allow you to use the specialization to its fullest potential.

• Equipment
• Passive abilities and characteristics
• Abilities worth attention
• Tips

Equipment

The signature weapon of the Demolitionist is the M32A1 Grenade Launcher. It allows the player to launch grenades over quite long distances and deal damage to several enemies at the same time. Additionally, the grenade launcher is characterized by high rate of fire (given the type of weapon), which, in combination with a spacious magazine, allows the player to launch multiple grenades in succession, eliminating a group of enemies almost instantly. Thanks to this the M32A1 Grenade Launcher deals the highest damage of all of the signature weapons in the game, provided that there are several enemies to be hit at once.

The grenade launcher is, however, not free of flaws. First things first, limited range - especially when compared to the Survivalist's crossbow and the sniper rifle of the Sharpshooter. Secondly, grenades do not cause any additional effect - they do not pierce or stun the target, they "only" deal damage. While fighting groups of enemies will be a piece of cake, facing single and powerful enemy might be problematic - both the Survivalist and the Sharpshooter will be more effective in the latter situation. The high rate of fire of the grenade launcher can also be a problem, as it can "tempt" the player to fire a series of grenades, causing him/her to quickly run out of ammo.

The Demolitionist is also equipped with a unique type of grenade - a fragmentation grenade. It deals lower damage than the regular grenade, but causes enemies to bleed, inflicting damage over time. However, when compared with the Survivalist's incendiary or the Sharpshooter's flash grenades - which offer control-impairing effects - fragmentation grenades deal flat damage, and, what is even worse, lower than the regular ones. They can, however, be effective when the player uses a weapon with the Sadist talent, dealing +20% damage against bleeding enemies.

Passive abilities and characteristics

The Survivalist has access to a skill tree with 20 unique abilities to unlock. All of the available abilities were presented in the following table.

Name	Cost to unlock + requirements	Effects
Explosive Ordnance	5 points	+5% increased explosive damage. Affects explosive grenades, skills and effects. The ability has 3 levels.
Incombustible	5 points	Increases burn resistance of the character by 20%.
Fragmentation Grenade	3 points, requires the Explosive Ordnance ability	Unlocks the fragmentation grenade that deals damage and causes targets to bleed.
X-Stat Armor Kit-Supplementary	3 points, requires the Explosive Ordnance ability	Armor kits repair 70% damage and boost weapon handling by 100% for 15 seconds. Afterwards, the remaining 30% of armor is repaired.
Artillery	5 points	Unlocks the unique Turret upgrade that turns the turret into artillery, launching mortar shells at the specified location.
Cyclone Magazine	3 points, requires the Artillery ability	A mod that increases ammunition of the turrets.
SHD CPU V.2	3 points, requires the Artillery ability	A mod that increases damage dealt by turrets.
Demolitionist Uniform	Unlocked by default	Unlocks the unique Demolitionist outfit.
Demolitionist Tactical Link	10 points	Group members gain +5% damage against targets out of cover.
Braced For Impact	5 points, requires the Demolitionist Tactical Link ability	Allows the character to ignore explosions. Can only trigger once every 60 seconds.
Crisis Response	5 points, requires the Demolitionist Tactical Link ability	Once the armor of the character is reduced to 0, the ammo of the main weapon is refilled.
Vital Protection	5 points, requires the Demolitionist Tactical Link ability	Decreases the chance you are critically hit in conflict by 20%.
Diceros Special	10 points	Unlocks the 357 Magnum sidearm.
Gunslinger	5 points, requires the Diceros Special ability	+5% sidearm weapon damage. The ability has 3 levels.
Onslaught	5 points	+5% LMG weapon damage. The ability has 3 levels.
Small Laser Pointer	5 points, requires the Onslaught ability	Unlocks an underbarrel attachment for short and long rails.
Spray and Pray	5 points	+5% Shotgun weapon damage. The ability has 3 levels.
40mm Grenade Acquisition	Unlocked by default	Explosive kills drop signature ammo for 40mm grenade launchers, except when caused by the 40mm grenade launcher itself.
Group Signature Ammo Supply	5 points	Kills with signature weapon grant a Chance to gain signature weapon ammo to all group or raid members.
Signature Weapon Damage	10 points	25% increased signature weapon damage. The ability has 3 levels.

Abilities worth attention

The following abilities are particularly worth noting:

1. Explosive Ordnance - increase the damaged caused by explosions, which greatly increases the effectiveness of this specialization.
2. X-Stat Armor Kit Supplementary - a great special ability that has an impact on the Armor Kits. The armor restoration effect is divided into portions, giving the character a tremendous boost to weapon handling, increasing the overall effectiveness of used weapons. This becomes even more effective when the character is using LMGs.
3. Artillery - if you are using the Turret, you should at least try this upgrade. It allows you to deal area of effect damage and attack enemies behind cover (as the projectiles strike from above). The only flaw of the ability is the fact that you need to order the turret to fire after each shot.
4. Cyclone Magazine and SHD CPU V.2 - two upgrades that offer a significant boost to the effectiveness of turrets. Those two are crucial if you are using this ability.
5. Demolitionist Tactical Link - a powerful passive ability that increases the damage of the party against targets out of cover. The enemies will constantly move between different covers, causing the effect to be often active.
6. Group Signature Ammo Supply - another ability worth unlocking, as it allows your teammates to acquire additional signature ammo.
7. Signature Weapon Damage - a very costly ability, but offering a huge damage boost to the signature weapon. An ability worth your interest, but only after you have unlocked all of the other skills from this list.
8. Onslaught and/or Spray and Pray - depending on the type of weapon you will be using, it is worth to unlock those abilities, as they offer a significant boost to damage.

Tips

To sum up, here is a handful of tips on how to play using this specialization:

1. The Demolitionist specialization is extremely good for solo play. Multiple abilities to enhance the Turret - an ability recommended for solo play, as it diverts the attention of enemies off your character - as well as a weapon capable of eliminating entire groups of enemies at the same time are perfectly suited for solo game.
2. The Demolitionist specialization is also very effective in teams, either as a character dealing damage or a tank, literally flooding the enemies with LMG bullets and/or bombarding them with artillery shells.
3. The Demolitionist should use "normal" weapons (LMGs, SMGs) to eliminate single and/or heavily armored enemies and the grenade launcher to take out multiple foes at the same time. You should not waste ammo against single, armored opponents.
4. The fragmentation grenade is a peculiar weapon. When you look at the flat damage stats, you should not use it, as regular grenades inflict more damage and the bleeding effect does not offer control-impairing effects. You can, however, use it when your character has a weapon with the Sadist talent, increasing damage dealt against bleeding enemies by 20%.
5. Grenades fired by the Demolitionist damage enemies in a radius. This can be used to hit enemies that are hiding behind full cover - by shooting the grenade behind them so that they are caught in the explosion.
6. The Survivalist can use all of the weapons, but it is worth to focus on LMGs and/or SMGs. This specialization has access to abilities that increase damage dealt with the mentioned weapon types.