Vista previa de Division 2 Red Horizon: Blackout DZ, Cleaners

Red Horizon is the eighth year’s third and final season for The Division 2, scheduled to start on September 1, 2026, and the August 21 PTS patch notes are the first real look at what it brings: a Blackout variant of the Dark Zone, the Cleaners returning to Washington D.C.’s open world with a seasonal elite squad called 95 Company, a new Under Pressure modifier, and a rebalance touching both PvE and PvP gear. This guide breaks down what’s actually confirmed, what’s still test-server-only, and what to do with the week you have left before launch.

Red Horizon is the final season of Year 8 in The Division 2, and it concludes the introduction of new brand sets. From this season onwards, only named items or gear sets will arrive, as the developers recently mentioned in a livestream that the game already features a wide plethora of brand sets. Developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft, it’s the last stop in this year’s roadmap before the studio moves to whatever comes next for the live game, and it leans into a fire-and-status theme across its new modifier, gear, and returning faction.

The Cleaners aren’t confined to a mission or a single district this time. For the duration of the season, Cleaners will appear throughout the open world in Washington, D.C., and they’ll be able to take over Control Points, spawn activities, and initiate Retaliations in Named Zones. That’s a live-world faction push rather than a scripted story beat, so expect their presence to compete with whatever Black Tusk or Hyena activity is already running in a given zone. During Retaliations involving other factions, Cleaners will also passively build up Agitation instead of Black Tusk, which changes how those fights escalate if a Retaliation pulls in multiple factions at once.

95 Company sits on top of that. It’s a new Cleaner Elite Kill Squad that can spawn during Retaliations, similar to BTSU Team 9 and the Knock Knock Gang — meaning it’s a tougher, named encounter rather than a guaranteed spawn, and it’s explicitly tied to this season rather than a permanent roster addition.

The season’s global modifier centers on a pressure gauge, built up through combat performance rather than a fixed timer. Headshots, multi-kills, and skill kills all add pressure, up to specific thresholds that unlock active modifiers and stat bonuses like status effects and armor regen. The catch, per the original PTS build, is that the gauge decays if you’re not actively fighting — sit in cover too long and you lose progress instead of banking it.

That first version drew enough feedback that Ubisoft changed it before the season even ships. A lot of the feedback during the test was about the Pressure Gauge and how quickly it decayed compared to how long it could take to build, and keeping the gauge up could feel harder in group play — so decay has been made less aggressive and will now start later, some pressure-building actions have been buffed, and a new Group Kill action was added where you gain 1% Pressure whenever another player in your group gets a kill. A few specific talents tied to the gauge were also tuned: Achilles’ Heal now reduces Pressure Gauge loss from breaking an armor piece or weak point from 10% to 5%.

Prototype Gear and Weapon drop rates were also adjusted on PTS: normal enemies sit at a 0.2% chance for a mid-roll Prototype drop, elite enemies at 0.5% mid-roll and 0.2% high-roll, and boss enemies at 1% mid-roll and 2% high-roll. Those numbers came out of the August 21 update specifically, not the original August 14 build, which tells you how much can move in a single patch cycle before a season even ships.

After reviewing feedback around the PvP balance pass, Ubisoft made adjustments to Skills, Talents, Gear, and Brand Set bonuses. One flagged example: Tier 6 fire-based Skill builds could become too strong in PvP when combined with the Ember Engine set, so that combo got PvP-specific tuning. On the PvE side, one of the clearer numbers to come out of the August 21 update is a buff to True Patriot’s headshot bonus — its Patriotic Boost backpack talent debuffs were significantly increased in the PTS build, per the August 21 patch notes. Ubisoft also added Ortiz: Reficere, Caduceus, and Nurse’s Kneepads to the special loot pool for PvP Dark Zones.

New gear reportedly leans into the fire theme, including a new exotic shotgun, an exotic chest piece, and the Ember Engine gear set, alongside a couple of named weapons — treat the exact talent rolls on those as unconfirmed until they’re live, since PTS gear can be re-tuned right up to release. For a deeper look at how the current Dark Zone loot loop works before Blackout arrives, the site’s PvE Dark Zone guide covers access and farming for the existing rotation.

If you’re deciding whether to log back in for launch day, the practical prep here is different from finishing out the current season — that’s covered separately in the site’s Red Horizon season checklist, which walks through what to wrap up on Into the Dark before it ends. What’s specific to Red Horizon itself is getting your build ready for a modifier that rewards aggression over passive play, and for a PvP meta that’s actively being retuned around fire and status builds.

Myth: 95 Company is a permanent new enemy type

95 Company is described as a Cleaner Elite Kill Squad similar to BTSU Team 9 and the Knock Knock Gang — those are seasonal, event-tied spawns, not permanent additions to the base enemy roster. Expect it to behave the same way: tied to Retaliations, and tied to this season specifically.

Myth: the PTS patch notes are the release patch notes

They’re not. Ubisoft already posted one round of changes on August 14 and a second, meaningfully different round on August 21 addressing community feedback on the Pressure Gauge’s decay speed and Prototype drop rates. A third round between now and September 1 is entirely possible.

Myth: Blackout Dark Zone replaces the current Dark Zone setup

Nothing in the confirmed notes says the existing Dark Zone rotation goes away — Blackout is being tested as an additional variant, not a full replacement. Treat it as a new mode sitting alongside what’s already there until Ubisoft says otherwise.