New World Wiki - Complete Guide

Game Overview

New World is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Amazon Games. Initially released on September 28, 2021, the game launched exclusively on PC via Steam and quickly became one of the most-watched and most-played titles on the platform. Set in a fictionalized version of the 17th-century Atlantic Ocean, the game drops players onto the supernatural island of Aeternum. Blending traditional MMORPG tropes with action-combat mechanics and a player-driven economy, New World carves out a unique identity in a crowded genre.

The game shifted from its original buy-to-play model with an optional cosmetic shop to a strict free-to-play model in October 2023. This transition, coupled with the massive "Rise of the Angry Earth" expansion, injected new life into the player base. Unlike many contemporary MMORPGs, New World does not feature a dedicated healer class or a traditional holy trinity system (tank, healer, DPS). Instead, it relies heavily on active dodging, stamina management, and self-sustain, making every encounter feel more like an action game than a traditional hotbar MMO. Regular seasonal updates, known as "Seasons," continually refresh the endgame experience with new artifact weapons, story quests, and progression tracks.

Core Systems

The foundational gameplay loop of New World is built upon a "do anything to gain experience" philosophy, intertwined with a deeply complex crafting and economy system. There are no traditional classes; your character's identity is entirely defined by the gear you wear and the skills you equip.

Progression and leveling

The leveling system in New World is highly unconventional. While you have a standard character level (capped at 65, raised from the original 60 by the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion), progression is heavily tied to your weapons and trade skills. Every weapon has its own independent leveling track (maxing out at level 20). To unlock the full potential of a weapon's skill tree, you must actively use it in combat. Furthermore, your overall character power is dictated by your Expertise and Gear Score. As you reach the level cap, you must participate in specific endgame activities—such as crafting high-tier items, running dungeons, or completing Expeditions—to slowly raise your Expertise for each gear slot, pushing your overall Gear Score from 600 up to the current maximum of 700.

Combat and weaponry

Combat is purely action-oriented. Players must aim their attacks (often referred to as "tab-targeting" being explicitly absent), manage a stamina bar for dodging, blocking, and sprinting, and time their strikes to exploit enemy vulnerabilities. Weapons are categorized into different archetypes: melee (Sword and Shield, Hatchet, Great Axe, War Hammer, Spear), ranged (Bow, Musket, Blunderbuss), and magic (Fire Staff, Ice Gauntlet, Void Gauntlet, Life Staff, Flail). Players can equip two weapons at a time and swap between them seamlessly, allowing for deep build customization, such as pairing the Great Axe for gap-closing with the War Hammer for crowd control.

Economy and crafting

The economy of Aeternum is entirely player-driven. The vast majority of gear, consumables, and furnishings found in the game are crafted by other players, not looted from enemies. There are five major gathering skills (Mining, Logging, Harvesting, Tracking & Skinning, and Fishing) and five major refining and crafting skills (Smelting, Woodworking, Weaving, Stonecutting, Leatherworking, Arcana, Engineering, Cooking, Furnishing, and Weaponsmithing). Leveling these skills is a massive time sink but is highly rewarding, as top-tier crafters are essential for powering up entire guilds. The game uses three different currencies: Gold (standard player-traded currency), Azoth (a magical substance used for fast travel, respawning, and crafting), and Gypsum (an endgame material used specifically to increase Expertise).

Territory control

The world map is divided into distinct territories, each containing a central fort and a main settlement. These settlements are owned by the Companies (guilds) that win them through massive 50-vs-50 PvP wars. Owning a territory grants the controlling Company immense wealth through taxation, as they can set the tax rates on the town's Trading Post, housing, and crafting stations. Upgrading a town's crafting stations is vital for the server's progression, as top-tier gear cannot be crafted without Tier V stations.

Characters / Classes / Factions

Character creation in New World is purely aesthetic, as there are no racial bonuses or locked classes. However, upon reaching level 10, players must make a permanent, server-bound choice that dictates their endgame PvP experience: their Faction.

The Factions

The supernatural island of Aeternum is locked in a three-way ideological war. Players must choose one of three factions to align with:

• The Marauders: A ruthless military force founded on the principles of strength and unyielding order. They believe that Aeternum's resources should be seized by the strong to forge a new, perfect society. Their aesthetic is heavy, industrial, and militaristic.
• The Syndicate: A secretive, shadowy organization of intellectuals, occultists, and cutthroats. They seek to uncover the hidden, arcane truths of Aeternum and hoard its ancient knowledge. Their style is dark, mysterious, and utilitarian.
• The Covenant: A fanatical religious order that views the corruption of Aeternum as a divine trial. They believe it is their sacred duty to cleanse the island of its heresies and evils by any means necessary. Their visual design is inspired by 17th-century Puritanism and the Inquisition.

While faction choice does not lock players out of specific gear, it is mandatory for participating in open-world PvP, faction-specific quests, and the 50v50 Territory Wars. Players can switch factions, but doing so requires a lengthy cooldown and a significant monetary penalty to prevent espionage and rapid manipulation of the server's political landscape.

Companies and Roles

Companies function as the game's guild system. A Company can hold up to 100 members and can declare allegiance to one of the three factions. Within a Company, leadership is divided into specific roles: the Governor (who holds ultimate power and manages the territory's treasury if the Company owns land), Consuls (officers with varying administrative permissions), and standard members. Successful Companies require strict organization, as declaring a Territory War costs immense amounts of gold and requires coordinating 50 players to show up for a scheduled, multi-stage siege battle.

World Building

New World boasts one of the most visually striking and thematically cohesive settings in modern MMORPGs, seamlessly blending alternate history with dark fantasy and cosmic horror.

The Setting: Aeternum

The game is set in the mid-1600s. Players take on the role of explorers and mercenaries who were aboard a massive colonization fleet funded by the British, Spanish, French, and Portuguese crowns. Drawn to the mysterious "Eternal Isle" by legends of immortality and limitless wealth (echoing the myth of El Dorado and the Fountain of Youth), the fleet is shattered by a supernatural storm as it approaches the island. Shipwrecked and cut off from the rest of the world, the survivors must learn to survive in a hostile, ever-changing environment.

Aeternum is sustained by a powerful, ancient magical substance known as Azoth. This raw, crystallized magic permeates the soil, the water, and the air. It is the source of the island's miraculous healing properties, but it is also the source of its greatest horrors. Exposure to concentrated Azoth drives men mad, twisting them into mindless, crystalline zombies known as the Corrupted, or warping them into towering, terrifying monstrosities.

Key Locations

The island is divided into several distinct regions, each representing different biomes, level ranges, and stages of the island's history:

• First Light & Monarch's Bluffs: The starting zones. These regions feature lush greenery, pastoral ruins of early failed colonies, and relatively low-level wildlife and Corrupted camps.
• Everfall & Windsward: The central hubs of player activity. These geographic crossroads are highly contested because their central placement makes them ideal trading hubs and easily defensible territories.
• Brightwood: A beautiful but melancholic forest region dominated by the massive, ancient ruins of the Ancients, serving as a stark reminder of the civilization that existed long before humanity arrived.
• Edengrove: A surreal, fungal swamp where the Azoth has mutated the flora into towering, bioluminescent mushrooms and parasitic growths.
• Reekwater: A drowned, gloomy coastal region defined by sheer cliffs, sunken ships, and the pirate town of Cutlass Keys. It is highly reminiscent of Lovecraftian coastal horror.
• The Brimstone Sands: Added in a massive free update, this expansive desert region is the remnant of the Egyptian-inspired Ansahket civilization. It features jagged canyons, ancient pyramids, and a completely different enemy type: the Withered, mummified guardians bound by ancient oaths.

Lore and Antagonists

Players quickly discover that humanity is not the first to be lured to Aeternum. Thousands of years prior, an advanced precursor race known as the Ancients thrived on the island. They built massive architectural marvels and harnessed Azoth to achieve incredible technological leaps. However, internal conflict and the corrupting nature of the magic led to their catastrophic downfall. Players interact with the spectral echoes of these Ancients, uncovering their tragic history through main story quests.

The primary antagonistic forces include the Corrupted (humans and Ancients driven mad by raw Azoth), the Withered (ancient guardians consumed by a different strain of magical rot), and the Ancients themselves, whose corrupted guardians still fiercely protect their ruined temples. The narrative explores themes of immortality, the hubris of man, the destructive nature of unchecked power, and the psychological toll of living forever in a violent world.

Strategy & Tips

Surviving and thriving in Aeternum requires an understanding of its underlying systems, which often defy standard MMORPG conventions. Here is expert advice to accelerate your progression and avoid common pitfalls.

Early Game Optimization

• Do not ignore your trade skills early on: While it is tempting to rush combat leveling, gathering iron, hemp, and greenwood as you travel costs virtually no time. Stockpiling these base materials allows you to craft your own armor and weapons as you level, saving you immense amounts of gold that would otherwise be spent on the Trading Post.
• Focus on one or two weapons: Weapon mastery experience is entirely based on dealing damage or healing with that specific weapon. If you spread your combat across five different weapons while leveling, you will reach the level cap with weak, under-leveled weapons, making the transition to endgame content brutally difficult. Pick two complementary weapons (e.g., Fire Staff and Ice Gauntlet, or Sword and Hatchet) and stick to them.
• Manage your Azoth strictly: Fast traveling in New World costs Azoth. During the early levels, Azoth is incredibly scarce. Never waste Azoth fast-traveling to a town just to sell low-level junk. Run to the nearest settlement or use the recall ability (which is free but has a long cooldown) to return to your inn. Save your Azoth for high-tier crafting attempts and endgame fast travel.

Endgame Progression

• Understand the Expertise system immediately: Reaching level 65 is just the beginning. Your character's actual power is determined by your Gear Score. You must run endgame activities (Expeditions, Elite Chest runs in open-world zones, and arena PvP) to acquire Gypsum. Gypsum is crafted into Gypsum Casts, which guarantee an Expertise bump for a specific gear slot. Make this your daily priority.
• Don't craft endgame gear blindly: Crafting a piece of 600 Gear Score gear is expensive. If your Expertise for that slot is only 550, the crafted item will downscale to 551 when you equip it. Always ensure your Expertise is at 590 (using Tier 3 Gypsum) before attempting to craft or buy 600 Gear Score items.
• Optimize your attribute points: Every weapon scales off specific attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Focus, Constitution). A "split stat" build (e.g., 300 Dexterity / 200 Intelligence for a Musket user) will usually yield much better overall damage and utility than trying to max out a single stat, due to the way mastery bonuses unlock at specific stat thresholds (like 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300).

Combat and PvP Mastery

• Stamina management is everything: In PvE and PvP, the player who runs out of stamina first usually dies. Dodging consumes a significant chunk of stamina. Learn to read enemy attack animations and use light dodges for repositioning rather than spamming heavy rolls. Keep enough stamina to block a sudden attack or roll away from a crowd-control ability.
• Cap your Resilient perk: If you plan on participating in PvP, the Resilient perk is non-negotiable. It reduces incoming critical hit damage from other players. Every piece of your armor should have this perk. Entering a Territory War without full Resilient gear will result in you being killed in seconds by focus fire.

Resources

Because New World features a complex, shifting meta and frequent balance patches, staying connected to the community and utilizing external tools is highly recommended for long-term success.

Official Channels

• New World Forums: The official Amazon Games forums are the best place to read developer patch notes, submit bug reports, and participate in developer-led feedback threads regarding upcoming features and balance changes.
• New World Official YouTube Channel: Amazon regularly posts "Forged in Aeternum" videos here, which are short documentaries detailing the design philosophy behind specific weapons, dungeons, and systems. They also release cinematic trailers and detailed expansion breakdowns.

Community Tools and Databases

• New World Database (nwdb.info): This is the absolute essential tool for any serious player. It features an interactive map showing the exact spawn locations of every node, chest, lore page, and enemy in the game. It also hosts a complete crafting calculator that lets you plug in your crafting bonuses to see your exact chances of rolling specific perks.
• Mutator Levels and Loot Tables: Because the endgame Expedition system (Mutators) rotates weekly, community-maintained spreadsheets and websites are vital for knowing which dungeons are active, what elemental weaknesses the enemies have that week, and what specific named items drop from which bosses.

Guides and Build Calculators

• MMO-Champion & Reddit (r/newworldgame): The subreddit is incredibly active and serves as a massive hub for player-made guides. Whenever a new patch drops, the front page will be flooded with updated build guides, PvP montages, and economic breakdowns.
• Build Calculators: Several community-made weapon calculators allow players to theorycraft builds outside of the game. These tools display the exact values of passive skills, cooldown reductions, and damage multipliers at every weapon mastery level, allowing players to plan their exact progression path before spending their mastery points in-game.