Division Developers Finally Fix Notorious ‘Coward’s Corner’

Players in Ubisoft’s third-person shooter The Division will no longer be able to camp near a certain spawn point and easily shoot down other players. That’s thanks to a new patch that removes the so-called “Coward’s Corner” just over a year after the camping spot began pissing people off.

Getting flanked in the new and improved Coward’s Corner, where you couldn’t get flanked before.

“Significant level design changes have been made to parts of the Dark Zone, like in the infamous ‘Coward’s Corner,’ in order to limit unfair encounters,” the developers noted in a blog post last week, regarding a layout change hitting the game today in patch 1.6.1.

Coward’s Corner — that’s an unofficial name — described an alleyway near one of the spawn points in the game’s PvP Dark Zone area. The corner is a dead end and thus easily defensible, and located right near one of the Dark Zone’s spawn points. Those using the corner to their advantage could rush players just after they spawned in, and then retreat back into the corner and hold off waves of other players.

Back in March of last year, YouTuber Rifle Gaming explained how to use the Coward’s Corner, noting that he only discovered the spot after someone else used it on him. Armed with that tactical knowledge, he then used the Corner on others.

Here’s his tour of the old corner:

The Division‘s creators have patched a ton of things in their game since it launched last year. Earlier patches have improved the game significantly, but it’s taken them well over a year to fix the Corner.

Here’s how they have changed the corner, as captured in the game’s public test server last month by YouTuber UnDieAble:

The fix is logical: Add more ways into the corner and expose the back. Where there was just one ladder to use to get up into the camping spot before,there’s now a staircase and a ladder. And the previously protected flank has been opened up so that players can assault the corner from front and back.

Old corner with one ladder (as seen in the game’s beta last year):

New corner with new ladder and stairs (as seen in the patched version today):

Old corner with protected back wall:

New corner with nowhere to hide:

Over the year that players have ranted about Coward’s Corner, some have said that retreating, camping players could be defeated. You could join a group and rush up the ladder in numbers and maybe push them back. But Ubisoft has clearly seen that there are other ways to deal with this kind of thing. Move the furniture around, knock down the wall, and suddenly a spot that was so cheap may not anger as many players any more.