Amazon Games' New World is a recently released MMO that has proven to be quite popular, but players should know a few things before jumping in. Like any MMO, New World has unique learning curves and activities to partake in. The game's tutorial helps players with the game's opening stages, but experience is the best teacher. New World players with more experienced companions are often privy to more in-game secrets not made apparent during the tutorial or starting levels, occasionally causing new solo players to abandon their adventures early. Thankfully, there are a few tips to ease adventurers' first few hours in New World.
New World occurs in a fictional 17th Century, specifically on an Atlantic Ocean island called Aeternum. Unlike other islands hidden throughout the unexplored world, Aeternum imbues its inhabitants with everlasting life and otherworldly energies. While the game's story mainly consists of quests and dialogue boxes rather than cinematic cutscenes, players can find additional information within hidden texts and lore entries scattered across the map. Additionally, New World employs a social storytelling component similar to EVE Online's, where players' actions dictate in-game history. The timeline for future story content is unknown, but it's unlikely to expect additional story content for some time, given the game's recent release.
Many basics of New World are covered in players' first twelve levels and during the tutorial, but the game's concept can be challenging to handle, especially considering its recent popularity. The game itself is a decent time investment, featuring many grinding quests to level up and unlock endgame content. However, the less time spent doing unnecessary grinding, the more players can work toward other goals. In addition, New World's in-game systems provide many timesaving methods that enhance its overall gameplay experience.
New World Features Random Opening Spawns To Teach The Basics
Similar to Elder Scrolls Online's new opening level, New World doesn't allow players to jump into parties with their friends right away. Instead, New World spawns players on one of four starting beaches in four different territories after completing the tutorial. These locations limit player movement for the first 12 levels; meaning groups need to communicate which New World factions they choose outside of the game's standard communication systems. Additionally, it prevents players from abusing early game systems and boosting one another in weaker stages.
Unfortunately, this means new players shouldn't begin their New World adventure and expect to play with their friends immediately. Instead, a few hours of dedicated gameplay is required before exploring the rest of Aeternum Island. While this may seem like a barrier to entry, learning to play solo can be a rewarding and informative experience, giving players time to master in-game systems instead of goofing around.
Controlled Settlements Are Vital For Resources In New World
New World's factions control territories based on conquered settlements, and while the most powerful faction enjoys some perks, the mechanics connected to settlements are vital to succeeding. Like most MMOs, New World provides players with several collectible resources that assist in crafting items. Crafting is a critical component in New World, but players needn't venture out to collect all their primary resources.
Instead, players should visit each settlement controlled by their faction to collect free resources, like leather. This can reward players who've ed the faction with the most territory and speeds up early New World processes. Additionally, players can store their many resources in a settlement's storage shed to save inventory space. Actions that use resources at various settlements then pull from the storage shed instead of a player's inventory but don't transfer between settlements.
New World: How To Get The Most Money
Mirroring open-world economies and money like in No Man's Sky, New World provides different prices at different locations. Earning money fast in New World can assist in obtaining powerful gear and resources throughout the game's various settlements. Still, trading posts offer a unique method of ensuring players receive the most for their time. Trading posts conquered by the player's New World faction provide an immediate, comprehensive list of prices at other trading posts.
While fast travel to new territories isn't free, sometimes the additional cost or journey across the open-world MMO is preferred to the otherwise dissatisfactory price of harvested resources or unwanted gear. Additionally, this system encourages players to prioritize specific trading posts over others when peddling their wares in New World.
New World's Equip Load Deeply Impacts Combat
Similar to Dark Souls, New World utilizes a mechanic that directly links weight to combat effectiveness. Referred to as an Equip Load, New World calculates armor class by the designation of their currently equipped loadout. While players are under no obligation to keep the same armor class across their entire loadout, the game takes the average percentage and applies appropriate bonuses and effects.
Players can adjust their equip load with armor loadouts, which suits different playstyles and character combat roles. For example, Light Equip Loads receive the ability to use a rolling dodge and a 20% damage bonus. In contrast, Normal Equip Loads only receive a sidestep dodge, 10% damage bonus, and 10% crowd control bonus. Heavy Equip Loads are the most difficult to adjust to, providing a slow sidestep dodge, 20% crowd control bonus, and 15% blocking bonus. Players are encouraged to experiment with these loadouts as they progress throughout Aeternum Island and figure out their preferred fighting style.
New World's Enemies React Differently To Damage Types
Similar to Pokémon's type combinations, New World doesn't (traditionally) scale damage with levels. Instead, players can utilize different damage types and prioritize these attacks over others. New World's damage types correspond to different weapon types in-game and feature nine options: Slash, Thrust, Strike, Fire, Ice, Nature, Void, Lightning, and Arcane. Each of New World's five enemy types is resistant, weak to, or suffers neutral damage to each fighting style, meaning players must adapt different strategies for New World's Ancients, Corrupted, Angry Earth, Beasts, and The Lost.
While some enemies are more common than others, players can gauge the effectiveness of their attacks by watching their damage numbers and evaluating their color. Blue numbers mean the enemy is resisting the current damage type, white numbers indicate there are no modifiers, yellow numbers confirm extra damage, and orange numbers notify players of critical hits.
New World's PvP Can Be Turned Off, But Affects Faction Influence
Early iterations of New World featured exclusive MMO PvP and sandbox gameplay, but focus groups deemed this game far too brutal, especially for new players. The game eventually evolved to include PvE combat but emphasized PvP, which comes into play with New World's faction system. While some players may be inclined to avoid PvP altogether, this drastically hinders players' ability to earn faction influence in Aeternum's territories.
PvP is also required to achieve certain faction quests, meaning it's far more helpful for players to embrace combat against enemy factions. The sooner players get comfortable fighting humans instead of AI, the better off they'll be for the endgame.
New World Is Still Bricking GPUs, So Players Should Be Careful
Unfortunately, there have been many reports about New World bricking GPUs when players attempt to run the game or adjust graphics settings. While developers assured players that the issue was bad soldering in various units, this problem existed before the game's full release and across many models. It has yet to be fixed entirely, meaning players should think carefully about launching this game quite yet. Those willing to explore Aeternum Island should set their graphics settings low and not push their systems to their limits. The exact cause is unknown, as is the timeline for an update to fix this issue. Those worried about damaging their systems should keep to other MMOs for the time being or set their graphics to low.
No matter how players enjoy their time in Amazon Games' New World, these tips can turn even the most mundane quests and activities into less of a chore. Utilizing New World's built-in systems assists with the more grindy aspects of the game, making the overall experience more enjoyable. Though the MMO is relatively new, its emphasis on PvP may encourage some players to as soon as possible. However, developers may make adjustments and precautions to protect weaker players in the future.
