Beginner tips for New World

Rodney Orpheus
8 min readOct 17, 2023

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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 is complicated by the fact that some servers (called Fresh Start servers) allow you to join as a new player, but do not allow existing characters to transfer to them. So you’ll have to have a discussion with your friends and figure out the best solution before you take the plunge. In general, only pick a Fresh Start server if you intend to play alone or with other friends who are also starting at the same time as you.

A further complication is that some servers are cross-play compatible and some are Xbox or PlayStation only. Unless you are sure you are going to play the game solo, my advice is to avoid the console servers and play on a cross-play server.

If you don’t have friends you want to play with, be sure to pick the server region closest to you geographically to get the best performance (EU Central, US East, US West etc.).

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

Note that you can pay to move your character to another server if you really want, but only within the same region. So you can’t move a character from US West to US East for example. Yeah, it’s annoying.

Character

New World does not use character classes — you can make your character be and do whatever you want. When you create your character in Aeternum you will be given a choice of character archetypes, so just pick whichever takes your fancy. However your weapons, armor, and role can be changed at any time in the future for very little cost, so don’t worry about picking the wrong thing.

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!
  • Small blue leaf marker: Town board quest location
  • Round blue marker: Faction mission location
  • Green pin: quest hand-in

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.

Attributes

As you level up you’ll be given the option to change your character’s attributes. If you’re not sure where to put your character’s Attribute Points, a decent rule of thumb is 3:1:1, where you put 3 points in the major attribute of the weapons you are using, 1 in the minor attribute, and 1 in Constitution. That should give you a reasonably balanced build. In general “glass cannon” builds will leave you very easy to kill, so I do recommend that everyone puts some points in Constitution, unless you really enjoy being face down in the dirt.

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, in order of importance:

  1. Storage
  2. Territory Standing Gain
  3. Faction Gain (only until you are near max Faction level)
  4. House Items
  5. Gather Speed
  6. Station fee
  7. Trading Tax
  8. Property 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 Faction if you want to join us!

Combat

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

Graphics problems / stuttering

New World is very graphically intensive, especially in some of the main towns when there may be 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:

How to fix “Suspicious software on login” error

9 times out of 10 this is caused by either a faulty Steam install or by corrupted file in your Windows install

  • First Verify your Steam files
  • If the Steam verification says there’s no error, exit out of Steam, right click on the Windows Start icon and choose Terminal (Admin)
  • At the terminal prompt, paste in the command sfc /scannow and press ENTER (note that there’s a space between the c and the /)
  • Let it run. If it finds an error in your Windows install, it will fix it.
  • Enjoy New World again

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Rodney Orpheus
Rodney Orpheus

Written by Rodney Orpheus

I write about music, tech, and, games. All the cool stuff the kids are doing these days.

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