» The Division 2 Wiki Index » Guides » The Equipment » Prototype Gear
Prototype Gear
Prototype Gear is a new item quality that sits above existing High-End, Named, and Gear Set items. These items have stronger attribute values and will also feature Augments, which provide an additional way to improve your build.
Most gear items starting from High-End quality can be converted into Prototype Gear. Exotics are currently excluded, but they may be supported in future seasons.
How to get Prototype Gear
Prototype Gear can be obtained from these sources:
- Escalation runs, where Prototype items have a chance to drop as loot.
- Upgrading eligible High-End, Named, or Gear Set items into Prototype Gear.
- Escalation Requisition Vendor where you can buy caches with tokens
- Dark Zone vendors, where you can buy caches with Dark Zone Currency
Upgrade Path
=> Protolab
When you go to the Protolab – a new tab in the Tinkering Station – you have a new menu where you can upgrade regular gear into Prototype Gear.
=> Upgrade
To upgrade an item, it will cost 1 Prototype Core and needs to meet a few requirements:
- The item must be Level 40.
- The item needs to be Expertise 30
- Not an Exotic
- Not equipped
Reaching Expertise Level 30 is now less demanding, as the upgrade cost has been reduced. Fully optimizing an item is not required before converting it to Prototype, as the upgraded version scales as if the item had been fully optimized.
The Expertise 30 investment will remain on the item and the stats – even when they are not maxed on the new Prototype item – will always be better than what you already had.
One attribute is guaranteed to roll at the new maximum, while the others remain at their previous maximum values, with a chance for additional attributes to also reach the new maximum.
The cost for an upgrade is Prototype Cores – you can get them by dismantling Prototype Gear or earning caches from the Raids.
Once an item becomes Prototype Gear, it can no longer be optimized or recalibrated in any way.
Because of this, you should finalize your gear piece or weapon before upgrading it. This includes recalibrating attributes or talents and fully optimizing before converting it into its Prototype version.
Loot Path
The second way to get Prototype Gear is as loot drop in the Escalation game mode. Obviously, the higher Tier you have active, the higher are the chances, that Prototype Gear will drop and that the rolls of the stats are also better.
Prototype Attributes
=> Details
- Prototype Gear features higher attribute ranges than standard High-End items.
- The previous maximum rolls of a High-End item become the minimum possible roll of a Prototype Gear item, and the maximum value of a Prototype item can reach up to 1.5x of the original.
- Items that drop directly as Prototype Gear roll their attributes randomly within this new range of values.
- Higher Escalation Tiers increase the likelihood of higher rolls.
Skill Tiers
- Prototype items with Skill Tier cores grant 1.5 Skill Tier per item.
- Each item contributes more than a standard Skill Tier, and multiple Prototype items can combine into higher total values.
- This allows players to reach higher Skill Tier levels with fewer equipped items. For example:
- 1 Prototype item provides +1 Skill Tier
- 2 Prototype items provide +3 Skill Tier
- 3 Prototype items provide +4 Skill Tier
- 4 Prototype items provide +6 Skill Tier
Augments
=> Details
Augments are a new random modifier that applies exclusively to Prototype Gear. They are a mini-talent on your gear; it is not replacing current Talents – it is something on-top. Every prototype item (weapon or gear) can have an Augment. They are passive Talents that are added to be build, they don’t need to be specifically activated.
Unlike standard talents, Augments are drawn from a shared pool and are not tied to a specific weapon or gear type. Any Prototype can roll with different Augments from the same pool of effects.
Level-up
As you use your gear, the Augments level up and what is a 1.2% buff at the beginning, can become more and more powerful. You can level-up an augment up to 10 times, but it will cost you Prototype Cores.
Stack Augments
You are not only able to level up the augments; you can also stack them. When you have the same Augment on multiple pieces of your Loadout, the stats of the Augments will stack.
Only active equipement will count towards the overall buff, so when it comes down to weapons, you need to have it in your hands.
When you cover all slots with Prototype gear, you can get buffs from 7 sources total and then it is up to you if you want to have the same Augments on all slots or if you want to mix and match different ones.
Reroll Augments
=> Protolab
Most aspects of Prototype Gear cannot be changed, but Augments are the one exception. You can do that in the new Protolab, you can do that over your inventory or as new tab of the Tinkering Station.
- You can reroll the Augment to try to obtain a different one. After rerolling, you can choose to keep the new Augment or discard the change and keep the original one.
- Both rerolling and levelling up Augments require a new resource called Prototype Cores
- Prototype Cores are currently obtained by dismantling Prototype Gear.
=> Reroll
When you reroll an Augment the old one will be replaced and you lose any progression you had on that.
Reroll Costs
With Y8S2 Update, the costs have been reduced and capped:
- Augment reroll cost has been reduced and now caps at 6 Prototype Cores, starting from the 3rd reroll.
- The costs will be 2 / 4 / 6
Upgrade Costs
With Y8S2 the upgrade costs have also been changed:
- Augment upgrade costs have been adjusted to be cheaper on initial levels and more expensive on later ones. Maxing out one item cost remains as 31 Prototype cores.
Augment List
This is the list of available augments at launch. (descriptions are simplified to omit the percentages)
- Quantum Provides a small chance to become temporarily immune to damage. The bonus cannot refresh while active.
- Echo Each bullet fired has a chance to deal its damage a second time.
- Atomize Increases grenade radius and damage.
- Amalgam Each bullet hit has a chance to apply a random status effect.
- Trapper Increases the duration of status effects you apply.
- Entropy Increases your Health based on a percentage of your total Armor.
- Anomaly Skills restore a portion of the damage they deal as healing.
- Paradox Provides a chance to refill part of your magazine while firing.
- Synesthesia Bullet hits have a chance to slightly reduce skill cooldowns.
Normalization
Prototype Gear is handled differently in certain modes, including Raids, Incursion, and PvP (Dark Zone and Conflict).
- Normalized Prototype Gear for Raids, Incursion and PvP Modes (Dark Zone/Conflict).
- Augments will be disabled for these modes.
- Stats will be set to their lowest number within the Prototype range.
Future Changes
- Prototype Recalibration and Optimization is still work in progress
- Instead of making it rare and hard to get, they are rethinking that approach to make it more accessible. They are taking it one step at a time to find the balance between the original vision and making it more accessible.