How to get the Nemesis exotic rifle in The Division 2

Most exotics are time-consuming to acquire, but none of them come even close to the Nemesis in turns of pure timesink. To get one takes careful planning and at least three weeks of your time, but in return you get a ludicrously powerful—if idiosyncratic—marksman rifle that stands up there with the Chatterbox and Liberty as one of the few worthwhile exotics.

How to get the Nemesis

Because the Nemesis is time-gated, there are various things you need to do each week to ensure you get it by the end. Miss any of these steps, and you’ll have to wait three weeks for the missions to cycle back round before you can try again.

Before you do any of this, ensure you’re at World Tier 5 by unlocking and beating Tidal Basin for the first time.

Week one

In week one, you must beat two invaded missions, one of them twice.

First, complete the prerequisite side missions to unlock the Capitol Hill Invaded stronghold, and then beat that to unlock the Tidal Basin stronghold.

Next, play Tidal Basin up to the location seen below. In the upstairs of the building to the right, there will be a keycard on one of the beds. Make sure you pick that up, as it’ll be needed later on in the mission.

Play through the rest of the mission until you’re inside the aircraft carrier. Near the end of the stronghold, you’ll enter a metal room and would normally pass straight through the exit to the right. Instead, turn left and there should be a locked door that can now be opened thanks to the keycard you found earlier on. Inside, there’s a weapons cache containing a named marksman rifle called the Adrestia SR1.

Ooh, a named weapon, how exciting! Deconstruct it. Rip that worthless hunk of junk apart to get the first component for the Nemesis, the Marksman Rifle Scope—Tally. If you already have the scope from a previous run, or have the Adrestia in your inventory, it won’t drop again, so double check before running through the whole of Tidal Basin.

Next, and this is the bit many people (including myself…) get caught up on, you have to go back to Capitol Hill and clear it again. The final boss of that mission, Prime, won’t drop the next component, the Marksman Rifle Barrel—The Scourge, unless you’ve already deconstructed the Adrestia S1, which makes this second run through of Capitol Hill necessary.

Week Two

This week’s Invaded stronghold should be Roosevelt Island. You don’t need to clear Tidal Basin this week, although if you haven’t started collecting the Nemesis parts until this week, you can still go and do that to get the Adrestia S1 (just don’t expect to get the stuff in week three for another five weeks, as you’ll need the Capitol Hill components to unlock a blueprint. It’s very frustrating).

Instead, clear the prerequisite missions for the invaded Roosevelt Island stronghold. Roosevelt Island’s final boss (only in Invaded mode), Shorty, will drop the next part, the Marksman Rifle: Bolt—The Scales component.

Seeing as there isn’t anything else you need to do this week, now would be a good time to make sure you have all the basic crafting components you need. The blueprint calls for 35 Polycarbonate, 25 Carbon Fiber, 82 Receiver Components and 990 E-Credits, which are all easy to find, and the chances are you already have.

Week three

If you’ve done everything right up to now, you should only require two more pieces: the the Marksman Rifle Stock—The Bridle, and the blueprint.

The Stock is dropped by the invaded Union District Arena stronghold’s final boss, Klutz, so it’s the same process as usual: you’ll first need to clear all of its required invaded missions, then complete the entire Stronghold.

I hope you liked the Grand Washington Hotel invaded mission, as you’re heading straight back there after getting the Stock to grab the blueprint from a named boss early in the mission, Puck. The blueprint won’t drop if you don’t have all the other parts, which is why you have to play this mission twice in the same week—the first time to unlock the Union District Arena stronghold, and the second for the blueprint.

Kill Puck (you don’t need to complete the mission, although don’t be a dweeb and just ditch your teammates so early on), collect the blueprint, and you’re free to head to the White House to finally craft your Nemesis.

It’s a weird weapon that takes some practice, but the Nemesis is one of the exotics that’s considered a must-have. Plus, with incoming balance changes buffing the damage on every single exotic, it’s only going to get better!

The Nemesis' Talents

The Nemesis is all about dealing massive damage in a few carefully considered shots. The big thing you need to remember is the Nemesis fires on the fire button being released, rather than it being pressed. It can feel weird at first, but it allows for the weapon’s unique talents that can make it a proper powerhouse.

Its first talent is Counter-Sniper, which deals up to 100% weapon damage depending on how long the trigger (or, rather, your left mouse button) is held. For each shot you make that hits the enemy, but doesn’t kill them, the time it takes for the Nemesis to charge back up to 100% is reduced. Missing the enemy completely, however, doesn’t do this.

The second talent is Nemesis. Aiming at an enemy will mark them, which allows you to easily track them through walls, wallhack-style. The mark lasts for 15 seconds, and each second they are marked increases the damage they take from the Nemesis by 5%, for up to a 50% bonus. To make the most of this, aim at a distant enemy to mark them with Nemesis, hold the fire button for 10 seconds to ramp up Counter-Sniper and max out Nemesis’ damage received debuff, and then fire for maximum effect.

The final talent is Preparation. While the Nemesis is holstered (not your active weapon), your other weapon will gain a 25% buff to headshot damage while scoped in. This means the Nemesis works well with a second Marksman Rifle or standard Rifle with mods that improve headshot damage, although it’ll work for any gun with a scope, including sidearms.

The Nemesis’ abilities aren’t as all-consuming as, say, the Liberty or the Chatterbox, but it can be devastating when used properly. Plan your shots, charge up the stat changes from Nemesis and Counter-Sniper, ensure you land your shot, and even some named bosses can be taken out in a single hit.