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It’s been a few hours since The Division has been out in the wild, and while some players are flying through the content as quickly as possible (provided they can connect to the servers),  others are taking their time. But, we’re sure there are some out there who may be looking for a little guidance in their Division playthrough, wondering how best to approach this shooter/RPG hybrid.

To that end, we’ve put together some helpful tips on how to level up as fast as possible in Tom Clancy's The Division.

Higher Difficulty Missions

Obviously, the number 1 way to level up in The Division is simply to complete the missions, but there are some caveats to that. Every major story mission in the game has three tiers of difficulty – Normal, Hard, and Challenging – but the second two only unlock once the player hits a certain level.

During the harder versions of the missions, players will encounter high-level enemies, many of which will have stronger weapons and armor. So, it’s imperative that the player goes into the more challenging encounters with the right gear. It is possible to beat a mission on Hard while at the recommended level for the Normal version, but we wouldn't advise it.

Once you do complete a higher difficulty mission the game will offer increased experience, which will go a long way towards leveling up. But before doing that, we’d recommend considering a few things as well.

Increase Experience Gains

First and foremost, players will want to complete the first Security Wing mission in the game in order to unlock that section of their Base of Operations. The Security Wing is important because it has two perk that can offer increased XP gains. The Experienced Agent perk is the one that early players will want, as it grants 10% increased XP for every action.

This is important to unlock up front because it ensures a quicker ramp to The Division’s level cap of 30. And if players want to go even deeper down the rabbit hole there is a second perk that offers 25% more XP, but it requires a fair amount of Security Wing supplies.

Maximize Experience With Skill

Additional important considerations for the power levelers out there are headshots and survivability. At the end of each encounter, The Division will reward players with a little bonus XP for every enemy they killed with a headshot and if they didn’t go down or die.

Admittedly, it’s not a lot of XP, but every little bit counts in The Division. Eventually it will become a grind trying to get to those last few levels, so it’s best to prepare your agent ahead of time and ensure they are earning as much XP up front as possible.

As we mentioned, the best way to level up in The Division is simply to play the game – most missions offer a solid amount of XP per completion – but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. By following these tips, players will be at level cap in no time, maybe even faster than 15 hours.

And from there, The Division becomes a whole new ball game, with the Dark Zone repopulating with more difficult enemies and opportunities for top tier loot. There’s only one way to get those unique weapons in the game, and that’s to grind and grind. Good luck agents.

Tom Clancy’s The Division is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.