Weapon parameters | Equipment The Division Guide

The first thing that sticks out to most of the players when it comes to weapons is the "DPS" parameter - damage per second. This is the theoretical amount of damage that you are able to inflict on an enemy in a single second of continuous fire, by using a given weapon - theoretical, because the amount of damage is influenced by many other things, and the DPS stat simply does not match.

This happens because the DPS value is influenced by a large amount of factors that, in reality, have no impact on the damage you deal. Those are, above all else: accuracy, reload speed, the amount of bullets in a magazine, or the weapon stability. On the other hand, things that should give a huge boost to damage (such as, for instance, the chance to critically hit an enemy) will only give a slight increase of the DPS value.

The effectiveness of the weapon depends on a lot more factors than the "damage per second" value. Each weapon is described with a number of parameters, which, for the purpose of this guide, were divided into primary and secondary parameters.

Primary parameters

Primary parameters are only a tip of the iceberg when it comes to weapons.

Each one of your weapons is characterized by the following primary parameters:

• Rounds Per Minute (RPM). The amount of bullets you are able to shoot during a minute of continuous fire. This parameter is important for Light Machine Guns and Shotguns. The only flaw is the fact that the faster you shoot, the quicker you will empty your ammo reservoir.
• MAG, the amount of bullets in a magazine. One of the most important stats, as it allows you to perform more attacks before you are forced to reload your weapon.
• Accuracy. A stat that decides whether your bullet will reach the target or not. A low accuracy value on a weapon may result in a miss, even though your crosshair was directly at the target - as soon as you fire, the reticle will be blown to the sides, and the bullet will fly elsewhere.
• Reload Speed. The amount of time needed to change a magazine - the bigger the value, the quicker the weapon will be reloaded. This is a very important attribute, as each second wasted on reloading your weapon may result in your sudden death at the hands of your enemy.
• Range. The range at which the weapons retains its effectiveness (or to be more specific - the damage). If the range is low (in the case of, for instance, light machine guns, or shotguns), the enemies staying outside of it will receive reduced damage. There's no point in forcefully increasing this attribute at the cost of others - you won't turn a shotgun into a sniper rifle.
• Stability. An attribute that influences the crosshair, the way it behaves during a continuous fire. The higher the value, the easier it will be for you to keep the crosshair at the enemy - the lower it is, the harder it will pull your aim upwards during continuous fire.

Secondary parameters

There are also secondary parameters, given to your weapons by installing various modifications.

Aside from the parameters described above, there are also the ones that can be called "secondary". Those come from various weapon modifications - barrels, magazines, handles, or sights. Those can give the following:

• Optimal Range - increases the range attribute of a weapon by a percentage value.
• Headshot Damage - increases the amount of damage dealt to an enemy while shooting him at the head.
• Critical Chance - a chance that the hit will deal increased damage (150% by default).
• Critical Damage - increases the bonus damage dealt when a critical hit occurs. By increasing the critical damage value by, for instance, 20%, your critical hits will deal 170% of base damage (150% default + 20% bonus).
• Reload Time - a percentage bonus to the "Reload Speed" primary attribute, decreasing the process of reloading a weapon.
• Increased Threat - it influences the way the enemies see you. The bigger the threat you are to them, the higher the chance that they will focus their fire on your character. This is an ideal stat for a character that is built as a tank, someone who wants to attract all the enemy attention.
• Reduced Threat - this is the opposite of the one described above. The bigger the value of reduced threat, the lower the chance that the enemy will even think about attacking you. This is a perfect parameter for those characters that are built as a sniper, or a support character.
• Hip Fire Accuracy - a percentage increase to the accuracy when firing from hip, or to be more specific, without aiming. Additionally, this comes in handy during blind fire.
• Rate of Fire - the parameter that increases the amount of rounds per minute.
• Magazine Size - a percentage increase in the amount of bullets in the magazine (it increases the MAG primary parameter).
• Stability - increases the "Stability" primary parameter by a percentage value, allowing for easier continuous fire.
• Horizontal Stability - a percentage value that decreases the weapon spread to the left and right. This comes in handy during continuous fire with the light machine guns and assault rifles.
• Initial Bullet Stability - decreases the recoil of your first bullet, allowing for easier continuous fire.
• Headshot Kill XP - increases the amount of experience points your character will be given for each kill performed by shooting the enemy in the head. This is useful only during the first few levels, later on it becomes one of the most useless attributes in the game.

What should you focus on?

At the beginning of this chapter it is mentioned that the "DPS" parameter isn't the perfect reflection of the amount of damage you will be able to deal with a given weapon, but, in theory, you can rely on it to some extent - a higher value of this parameter will increase the damage of your character. However, you should also pay attention to the other parameters describing a weapon.

When you find an extremely powerful shotgun, which has only two bullets in a magazine and a very long reload time, the weapon will be completely useless, as you will spent more time reloading it than actually firing it. This is similar when it comes to light machine guns - even if you are able to fire 300 rounds per minute at the enemy, but when most of them will miss thanks to low accuracy and stability, the weapon will be of no use to you.

Selecting your weapon is entirely up to you, of course, but you should keep a number of rules and tips in mind when it comes to choosing them, such as:

• Shotgun - the attribute you are mostly interested here is the amount of damage a single shot is capable of doing (which is the DMG value, not the DPS), magazine size, reload speed and the rate of fire. You can completely ignore the accuracy, range and stability - you won't be using this weapon on a distance other than extremely short.
• Light Machine Guns - the main purpose of this weapon is not to deal the most damage available, but to pin down your enemy with surpassing fire, which will allow your teammates to flank a trapped enemy. However, this does not meant that you shouldn't pay attention to the damage. The most important attributes are the amount of damage, stability, magazine size, and the reload speed (which is extremely long in the case of this weapon type). The amount of bullets shot per minute (RPM) can be ignored.
• Sniper Rifles - this weapon is all about damage and accuracy, and those are the two attributes that you have to look for. As weapon mods to this weapon come, take those which offer boosts to damage, critical chance and critical damage. Don't forget about installing a x12 / x15 optics on your weapon, so you are able to fire from a long distance.
• Assault Rifles and SMGs - the role of this weapons is to deal damage on a short and medium range. You should be interested in the damage, aim and stability attributes - the amount of bullets shot per minute (RPM), as well as the reload speed can be ignored.
• Pistols - the only available sidearm (aside from a two-shot shotgun). This weapon won't be utilized by you very often, which means that you should only pay attention to the damage and accuracy of it.