Beginner tips for New World

Introduction

New World has been around for a couple of years now, and after a lot of ups and downs, it’s finally starting to settle into being a great, modern, beginner-friendly MMO. This isn’t intended to be a full guide, just a collection of tips you might find useful while playing.

Server

New World uses an old-school multi-server system, with several servers divided across various world regions. So when setting up your first character picking a server is an important choice.

If you have other friends who already play and you want to play with them, then the choice is (usually) easy: find out what server they play on and join that server. However this might get complicated — at the time of writing some popular servers are not accepting new players. So if you want to play with your friends and they are on a full server, they will either have to make a new character on a lower-populated server so you can join them there; or transfer their already existing character to the new server. This is doubly complicated by the fact that some servers (called Fresh Start servers) might allow you to join as a new player, but do not allow existing characters to transfer to them. So you’ll have to do some serious discussion with your friends and figure out the best solution before you take the plunge.

If you don’t have friends you want to play with, just pick the server region closest to you geographically to get the best performance (EU Central, US East, US West etc.) and pick a server in that region that is accepting newbies.

My guild (Hidden Tradition) are currently on the US West — El Dorado server, so if you want to join us, pick that one!

Character

New World does not use character classes — you can make your character be and do whatever you want. If you want to be a healer, just grab a Life Staff and away you go. If you want to be a Ranger type, grab a Bow and a Spear and have fun. So just make your character look whatever way you like.

IMPORTANT: Once you create your character you can never change your appearance again. There is no barber, hairstylist etc in-game. Frankly I think this is astonishing in a modern game, but that’s the way it is. So make sure you’re happy with how you look before you enter the game, otherwise you might find yourself having to wear a full-face helmet all the time…

Questing & Levelling

Quests

To find your quest list, press J for Journal. Quests are divided into different types listed on the left side. If there’s one you really want to do next, click Pin to pin it to the top right of your main screen for easy access. Each quest type has a different kind of pin on the map:

• Gold diamond pin: quest giver
• Gold pin with flames or other extra bits: special quest — make sure you take these!
• Green pin: quest hand-in
• Small blue marker: Town board quest location

Levelling

At the time of writing, New World has 65 levels, and working your way through them is relatively quick and very fun, and doesn’t feel too grindy. Tips on levelling:

1. Levels 1–17: follow the MSQ (Main Story Quest). You can also do some side quests as you come across them if you like, but they aren’t really necessary for levelling. There are about 3 times as many quests as you need for levelling so you’ll never be able to do them all.
2. Skill Progession Quests: there are several special quest lines for Fishing, Housing, Camping etc. listed in your Journal as you find them. Every time you get the option to do one of these, do it! They are great missions and they unlock some really useful functions.
3. Level 17+: Do a Faction quest. There are 3 Factions to choose from, pick the one that fits your character best (see below). Each Faction has an introductory quest in Everfall. Once you finish that introductory Faction quest and choose your Faction, make sure to do 2–3 daily Faction quests every day for best levelling.
4. Level 23+: do your first Expedition (dungeon): The Amrine Excavation
5. Level 33+: do your second Expedition: Starstone Barrows

Follow the story quest as much as you can and don’t get too distracted by side quests, otherwise you will find yourself outleveling the story. Once you find that the main story is getting a bit difficult, then do a few side quests to get up to the right level.

Territory Standing

As you do stuff within each individual region in New World you will gain reputation in that territory, and each time you have gathered enough territory standing to go up a level you will be offered the choice of 3 different boosts. Do not pick XP boost, you will just end up outleveling the quests even faster if you do. In general the best boosts to go for are:

1. Territory Standing Gain
2. Faction Token Gain
3. Gather Speed
4. Storage
5. House Items
6. Property tax
7. Station fee
8. Trading Tax
9. XP Gain

Factions

There are 3 Factions:

1. Syndicate (purple)
2. Covenant (yellow)
3. Marauders (green)

Syndicate are a bunch of intellectual alchemists and occultists, Covenant are holy crusaders, and Marauders are big dumb guys that hit things for fun. Take your pick. Note that each Faction also has its own special themed armor, so bear that in mind if you’re fashion forward in your MMOs.

IMPORTANT: you can only join a Company (guild) that is the same Faction as you. So if you have friends in a Company already, make sure you join the same Faction as them if you want to play together!

The Hidden Tradition Company on the US West — El Dorado server is aligned with the Syndicate, so choose that if you want to join us!

Combat

Weapons

New World has no classes, so your role in a group is basically defined by your weapon choices. Here are a few ideas for how to build a classic and effective role:

• Bruiser: Great Axe plus Warhammer (major attribute: Strength)
• Light Melee Fighter: Sword & Shield plus Hatchet (major attribute: Strength, minor attribute: Dexterity)
• Ranger: Bow plus either Spear or Greatsword (major attribute: Dexterity, minor attribute: Strength)
• Musketeer: Musket plus Rapier (major attribute: Dexterity, minor attribute: Intelligence)
• Mage: Fire Staff, Ice Gauntlet, or Void Gauntlet (major attribute: Intelligence )
• Tank: any combination of Sword & Shield, Flail & Shield, Hatchet, or Greatsword (major attribute: Constitution, minor attribute: Strength)
• Healer: Life Staff plus Void Gauntlet (major attribute: Focus, minor attribute: Intelligence)
• Paladin: Flail & Shield plus Void Gauntlet (major attribute: Focus, minor attributes: Strength & Intelligence)
• Spellsword: Void Gauntlet plus Rapier (major attribute: Intelligence, minor attributes: Dexterity and Focus)

If you’re not sure where to put your character’s Attribute Points, a decent rule of thumb is 2:1:1, where you put 2 points in the major attribute, 1 in the minor attributes, and 1 in Constitution. That should give you a reasonably balanced build.

Damage types

Every type of enemy in Aeternum is weak to one or more different types of damage, so it can be useful to bring different weapons and/or gems depending which one you are facing. See the chart below:

Dodging and Blocking

Regardless of weapon type, there are two abilities that everyone has: Dodge and Block. Dodging a blow means you take no damage from it, and blocking a blow reduces damage taken by 30%, so they are both extremely useful for survival! Learn to use them from the start and you’ll have a much easier time in New World.

Armor

You can wear any type of armor and mix and match between different types. Your overall armor class is set by the total of all the bits you have on. If you are carrying a Light armor load you do more damage and healing, and dodge faster, but take more damage if you get hit. Opposite way around for Heavy armor load.

In general, wear mostly Light armor if you are a Healer or ranged DPS, mainly Medium if you are a melee DPS, and wear all Heavy if you are a Tank.

Threat level

When you are in a group your Threat level decides how much enemies will be attracted to hit you instead of one of your friends. For a Tank you want your Threat level to be high, and for a Healer or DPS, you want it to be low. Some weapons or armor have built-in bonuses to Threat level, but you can also alter this yourself by the use of Carnelian gems:

• Add Carnelians to weapons = increased Threat generation
• Add Carnelians to armor = decreased Threat generation

So Tanks should have Carnelians in their weapons for maximum effectivness. Conversely, Healers and DPS should add Carnelians to their armor to discourage enemies from charging right to them.

Also some weapon skills turn into Taunts when the weapon has a Carnelian attached e.g Sword & Shield Defender skills, Great Sword Defiance skills, Hatchet Berzerk skill, Spear Vault Kick skill, etc.

Troubleshooting

New World is very graphically intensive, especially in some of the main towns when there are hundreds of people around you. If you are having lag or stuttering issues, see this pic for some suggestions on what graphics settings to tweak:

That’s all folks!