Amazon’s brand new MMO, New World, has been released and is taking the gaming world by storm.  It’s enjoyed incredible success in viewership on Twitch, holding the top 3 spots in viewership on most days since launch.  Many top creators like Shroud, Asmongold, and CourageJD have jumped into the world of Aeternum to explore the vast new world created by Amazon Games.

This article is designed to be the ultimate beginner’s guide to New World.  MMOs can be a complicated game type with many complex games systems and mechanics to learn.  This guide will help you avoid common mistakes and will give you a competitive advantage when beginning to play New World.  With no further ado, here’s 12 tips for beginning your New World journey.

GATHER AND CRAFT EARLY & OFTEN

New World has a rich and robust gathering and crafting system that differs from previous popular MMOs like World of Warcraft.  In New World, players are able to gather resources and craft basic materials immediately at level 1.  

There are 5 Gathering Trade Skills (Mining, Fishing, Tracking & Skinning, Logging, and Harvesting) and 7 Crafting Trade Skills (Weaponsmithing, Armoring, Engineering, Arcana, Cooking, Jewelcrafting, and Furnishing).  Unlike many other MMOs, New World doesn’t require you to specialize in a Trade Skill so players can and should level up all of the Trade Skills simultaneously.  

With the entirety of the Trade Skills open to all players at all times, the world of Aeternum becomes a rich treasure trove of resources.  Every tree, boulder, pond, and dead animal can be chopped down, mined, fished, and skinned.  It really adds a fun element to the leveling process.

Additionally, being that Town Project Quests are a massive part of the leveling experience in New World, it’s important to gather and craft as much as possible while leveling.  This will ensure you have the necessary materials when required to fulfill particular Town Project Quests as well as guarantee none of your Trade Skills fall behind others as you progress your character level.

WATCH YOUR WEIGHT

When leaving a town to venture out for quest, gathering, and exploration, it’s critical to first look at your encumbrance.  This is the measure of how much weight your character has in their inventory as New World limits a character’s ability to hold more items not by item slots, but by total weight.  This capacity can be increased as you level via additional bags.  

Before leaving a town, empty your inventory of non-essential items.  Salvage useless gear, put items up on the Trade Post marketplace, and store the rest of your materials.  There is no worse feeling than being an 8 minute run away from a town and being unable to pick up additional quest items or gathering materials due to full bags.

MONITOR YOUR DURABILITY

Similar to keeping an eye on your weight, it is important to make sure your item durability can be maintained.  Through normal questing, or via a penalty upon death, your items will take durability loss.  You will have to regularly repair your items to ensure they don’t break.  To do so, you will need repair parts and a small amount of gold.  Earn repair parts via salvaging old gear and make sure to have some in your inventory at all times.

MAKE USE OF BOTH WEAPON SLOTS

New World allows you to equip 2 weapons at all times.  When selecting your equipped loadout, make sure to use weapons that synergize well with one another.  For example, pairing the hatchet with the life staff is a great build for solo questing due to the self-healing and speed boost from the hatchet and the healing from the life staff.  Pairing the fire staff and ice gauntlet is a powerful mage build that allows you to leverage the synergy between Intelligence main stats.  Sword and Shield plus 2 handed weapons will allow you to take full advantage of strength stats.

Additionally, you can switch between weapons mid-fight.  Try pulling mobs with long distance weapons like the musket and bow and switch to your close range melee weapons when the mobs reach you for easier close proximity combat.

Play with a multitude of weapons early on to advance down the weapon trees, unlock the skills in that tree, and discover your own favorite playstyles.  New World doesn’t have classes so your character is free to change between specializations with a quick change of weapons/gear and a talent respec.  

EXPLORE TO UNLOCK FAST TRAVEL

New World is a game of exploration.  The world of Aeternum is a rich landscape that is meant to be traversed.  There are no mounts in New World so  you will have to adventure on foot when questing and gathering.  To be as effective as possible, it is important to venture to all available towns and fast travel nodes.  Once you check in at these locations, you will be able to fast travel to them in the future, making navigating the world that much easier.

Much of New World’s leveling game loop requires you moving between cities and zones, visiting each daily to access Town Project Quests, search non-linked Trade Posts, and pick up items from storage (storage sheds are not linked in New World).  Proper use of fast travel mechanics will reduce your down time running to and from cities to turn in quests and progress your tasks.

USE INN RECALL AND CAMPS PROPERLY

In addition to fast travel, it is important to move your recall Inn regularly.  If you will be doing a lot of questing and gathering in one particular zone, it can be wise to set your recall point to the Inn in that city.  This will allow you to recall on cooldown after completing your quests in the world, reducing run time.  

When approaching a landmark, make sure to set a camp in case you die.  Your camp will become a recall point if you die, reducing the need to run from the closest settlement.  Additionally, you can use your camp to craft consumables or rest before entering the landmark to fight.

PICK YOUR FACTION WISELY

When you reach level 10, you are able to select your faction.  New World has 3 factions; The Marauders, The Syndicate, and The Covenant.  The basis of New World is a 3-way faction battle for territory and control.  

Aside from the general role playing aspect of a faction’s ethos and the aesthetics of the factions gear, there are several things to consider when picking the faction you will join.  This is important as selecting a faction is a semi-permanent choice due to the 120 cooldown on changing factions.  

When selecting a faction to join, take into consideration what factions your friends are in, the access to Companies (New World’s version of a guild), and general performance of existing factions on your server.  If your server is dominated by The Syndicate, you might have to ask yourself if you are the type of player who prefers to play for a “winning team” or if you would rather “join the resistance” and fight against the dominant faction.

PICK UP TOWN PROJECTS AND FACTION QUESTS

In addition to the main story line and the available side quests, each settlement in New World will have a rotating list of available Town Project Quests and Faction Quests.  You should visit each settlement each day to pick up new quests from the town board and your faction representative.  Some quests overlap with others and you can complete multiple quests simultaneously, reducing your time spent questing for the day.

Faction representatives will present you with 3 PVE quests and 3 PVP quests.  You have the option to flag yourself for PVP before leaving the settlement and can quests flagged or unflagged.  You will only be able to complete the PVP Faction Quests if you are flagged for PVP, however this opens you up to attach from players on other factions.  If you are successful, the PVP Faction Quests will award you with greater Faction Standing, XP, and contribute to your faction’s influence in a zone.

LEVEL YOUR TERRITORY STANDING

By completing quests and gathering in a zone, you will increase your territory standing in that zone.  When you reach a new level, you will be able to select from various perks in that zone including gathering speed increases, experience boosts, reductions in trade fees, and reductions in crafting fees.  Select the perks that best reflect your gameplay in each territory and be conscious of your territory perks when choosing to do various activities in a given zone.  Perhaps it pays for you to gather in a territory that has better gathering speed perks unlocked while crafting and trading in another zone that has reduced fees is more beneficial there.

SAVE YOUR GOLD FOR A HOUSE

New World allows players to have player housing.  There are several benefits to player housing that range from vanity, aesthetic perks and roleplaying benefits all the way to additional storage and recall points.  

You can save for housing in each settlement and should purchase a home in your most visited settlement when you have the funds.  This will give you access to an additional recall point so you can place your recall Inn elsewhere.  This will be a much welcomed benefit when traveling through Aeternum during leveling.

LOOT THE FREE RESOURCES IN SETTLEMENTS

If your Faction owns a particular settlement, you can loot the territory supply cart once per day.  These supply carts are located in the heart of the town and vary depending on the zone.  There could be rawhides, ore, or other gathering materials.  Additionally, each town has free honey and water that can be looted once per day and are very helpful for cooking and arcana.  Don’t overlook these free items.

MONITOR YOUR EQUIPPED LOAD

All gear items contribute to a character’s equipped load.  There are 3 equipment loads (light, medium, and heavy) and equipment load dictates how your dodge mechanic operates.  You can view your equipment load via the left side of your inventory screen.

Light equipment loads activate a rolling dodge mechanic.  This is the most effective dodge mechanic.  Additionally, light equipment loads give a 20% increase to damage and healing.

Medium equipment loads change the dodge mechanic to a quick hop.  The damage and healing buff is decreased to 10% but there is also a 10% bonus to crowd control duration.

Heavy equipment loads intuitively have the least effective dodge mechanic.  There is also no increase to damage and healing however there is a 15% increase to block and a 20% increase to crowd control duration.

Selecting your equipment load is an often-overlooked component of your character’s build and should be taken into consideration when selecting your desired role, weapons of choice, and character attribute points.  Synergizing all 3 of these will help you be as powerful and effective as possible in your selected role.

CONCLUSION

We hope these 12 tips for beginning your New World journey will help you reduce common mistakes, improve your leveling speed, and enjoy the world of Aeternum more.  New World is a game with a lot of promise and we wish you the best in your adventures!