Greetings, Adventurers!
Embark on a new starting experience during the Season of Opportunity, our first season in New World: Aeternum. From repeatable Soul Trials to a free-for-all PvP zone, upleveled endgame rewards, and a 10-player raid, all of our major updates have been driven by player feedback. Here’s a brief overview for you to learn more about the key additions. Check out our full breakdown of the release notes for additional information on all things Season of Opportunity.
Global Server Launch Info
New World: Aeternum downtime will begin for all worlds at 8:30PM PT (3:30AM UTC) on October 14. Each region will open at the following time and require a full game download:
- All European and AP Southeast worlds across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC will open at 12AM PT (7AM UTC) on October 15.
- Pre-order and deluxe edition bonuses will not be available until approximately 4AM PT (11AM UTC) on October 15.
- All other worlds (US West, US East, and SA East) across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC will open at 6AM PT (1PM UTC) on October 15.
- PC players will be able to download the New World: Aeternum game update during the downtime on October 14.
- The New World: Aeternum update will show up in your game’s library page.
- You will need to click the blue Install button to begin the update.
- If you have Automatic Updates enabled on your Steam account, no action is required and the update will be automatic.
Target Lock Changes
Thanks again to everyone that took the time to not only participate in Open Beta, but also leave extremely detailed, constructive feedback. We have made the following changes to target lock. Note that these changes only affect PvP—PvE still behaves as it did before.
Killing a PvP opponent in target lock will no longer automatically switch to another target.
- This led to situations where an ability in progress would instantly target another player when the current target was killed. This maneuver wouldn’t be possible with manual aiming on keyboard and mouse so we removed it.
- Breaking line of sight even briefly will lose the lock, which allows easier evasion and better preserves stealthy gameplay in PvP.
- We’ve slowed the character’s turn speed when using target lock. This results in a slower tracking speed for targets, meaning that homing attacks will miss more often on a moving target.
- We agree with the player feedback that the guaranteed hit just doesn’t feel right. To mitigate this, we temporarily reduced the Blunderbuss's base damage in PvP to compensate for the guaranteed hit. We will continue to investigate long term solutions to be implemented in the near future.
Cross-world Arenas & Improved Matchmaking
Finding matches in 3v3 Arenas will now be much easier thanks to cross-world matchmaking. We’ve also introduced skill-based matchmaking to both Arenas and Outpost Rush. Look forward to higher quality matches against other players of similar skill. Finally, we’ve added role selection to these modes. Similar to Expeditions, we will now split roles better between teams for a more balanced experience.
New PvP Zone: The Cursed Mists
The foggy southwest reaches of Cutlass Keys are a lawless place, where the “Golden Greed” curse of La Esperanza’s treasure drives fortune-hunters to murderous madness. Even the closest of companions are liable to lethally betray one another. Gather Cursed Doubloons and resources, but you’ll have to escape before other looters steal your spoils. Get a better idea of what to expect from our developer deep dive.
New 10-Player Raid: The Hive of the Gorgons
One of the most exciting new features coming is our first-ever 10-player raid, the Hive of Gorgons. After defeating Medusa in New Olympus, players will learn of a new threat. The Gorgons have risen, and they’re raising an army of the Hercyne. To stop them, you’ll have to assemble a team of powerful players, enter the hive, and navigate a gauntlet of challenging puzzles and epic boss battles. Learn more in our developer deep dive.
New Artifacts
Turn your enemy’s Empower against them, improve your survivability, and more. These 8 new Artifacts, each featuring its own quest line for upgrades, will redefine your playstyle. Here’s a preview of what to expect from their unique abilities.
Cowl of Power Light Headwear
- Desperate Energy: If you hit an enemy while your mana is below 50%, gain 25% increased damage for 4s (10s cooldown).
- Survive: If you get hit while below 50% health, you gain 50% stamina, lose all debuffs, and gain a potion surge that instantly refreshes your next used healing potion (120s cooldown).
- Ghostly Embrace: When you hit an Empowered enemy, dispel two of their Empowers and you gain 10% Empower for 10s (4s cooldown).
- Magician’s Boons: While in Medium armor weight, deal 15% more elemental damage.
- Elemental Affinity: When you hit a target with an elemental attack (not Attunement or Damage over Time) gain 4% Empower for 6s. (10s cooldown per elemental damage type, max 1 stack per elemental damage type)
- Consume: Gain 25% Lifesteal against knocked down enemies.
- Offensive Speed: When you enter offensive stance, gain +20% movement speed for 6s.
- Keen Speed: On critical hit, gain 20% Haste for 7s (7s cooldown).
- Heavy Burden: While above 90% health, attacks inflict 20% weaken for 5s (5s cooldown per target)
New Seasonal Reward Track
The Season Pass gives players a variety of ways to earn new cosmetics, Transmog Tokens, Artifacts, and more! Highlights on the Premium Reward Track include: 1 Set of Seasonal Armor Skin (5 pieces), 9 Seasonal Weapon Skins, 3 Mount Attachments, and 2 Seasonal Emotes. The Free Reward Track is available to all players and also contains unique cosmetic Items, while the Premium Reward Track offers the ability to earn extra rewards for 20,000 Marks of Fortune. Check out the full list of rewards in our FAQ article.
Additional Notable Updates
- Repeatable endgame Soul Trials
- Sandwurm (now includes upleveled rewards)
- Hatchery (now includes upleveled rewards)
- Winter Rune Forge Trial (now includes upleveled rewards)
- Swimming
- New cinematic storytelling
- New repeatable Expedition quests
- New Fishing quest
- Fourth maximum character slot
- Cross-platform play
- New starting experience
- Performance optimizations
- New Standard worlds
- Enhanced controller support
- Player Archetypes
- Maximum Gear Score increase to 725
