New World: Aeternum Complete Beginners Guide For Console & PC Players
Sep. 27, 2021New World: Aeternum Complete Beginners Guide For Console & PC Players
In this New World: Aeternum Beginner Guide for console and PC players, I want to give you a ton of information that will help you get off to the best start possible. Having played the game extensively, as well as the Open Beta, and more, I’ve learned quite a few things that aren’t inherently obvious, and if known early on can save you quite a bit of trouble. Let’s get into what these are.
The very first thing you should do is go into your settings and change Bandwidth Mode to high! This will make your game look instantly better. Do it NOW and thank me later! You can also turn off Camera Shake here, which you may want to do, I definitely did.
After completing the brief tutorial in New World you’ll begin on the beach doing some basic quests that’ll give you basic gear and introduce you to very basic mechanics. There are some things you can do here, even this early, to get off to a good start so let’s go through those now.
Make sure that you have some healing food at all times. You likely won’t have to craft much right away, since you can find some from chests as you quest, but you always want to make sure you’ve eaten and that you are regaining health. It’s very difficult to quest in New World without food because you don’t regain health naturally otherwise, and you will eventually die from enemies unless you have Health Potions, which are not so easy to come by right at the beginning. Food lasts about 25 minutes or so, so make sure you refresh it about that often. You can craft more at a campfire if you need to, and there are Boars not too far away you can hunt for meat.
Another good tip is slotting aLife Staffon your second bar so that you can heal yourself when needed. Without many points invested inFocusyour heals won’t be strong, but they can still be enough to keep you going without having to use valuable Potions that should only be used in emergencies. You don’t lose anything by using it either, since you split XP between 2 weapons if they are both used in combat, and if you don’t use it in combat then all the XP will go to your primary Weapon. You can swap your Primary Weapon when you want to try something new, and funnel all XP to it by healing between combat encounters. Make sure you press “ctrl” when casting to target yourself.
One important thing to learn early on in New World is how to recognize what enemies are weak to what damage types. This is a fundamental of New World combat that will make things much much easier for you, and there aren’t so many enemy types that you can’t remember which are which.
Enemiesnear the beginning of New World, specifically “Drowned” are resistant to Piercing Damage, are neutral to Slashing Damage, and are weak to Blunt, Ice and Nature Damage. This means you’ll want to avoid using a Spear, Rapier, Musket or Bow against them if possible. These Weapons are excellent, however, at killing animals, which you will need to do from time to time for Quests, so it’s not a bad idea to take along different Weapons that have different damage types. The Sword is great for questing because its Light Attack, Upheaval, andWhirling Bladeare Slash Damage, but it’s Heavy Attack andLeaping Strikeability are all Thrust Damage. This allows you to change damage types while using the same Weapon simply by doing different attacks.
You can tell if an enemy is resistant to your damage type by the blue numbers and down arrows that appear when attacking them. If the numbers are white then your damage type is neither good nor bad, and if the numbers are yellow with up arrows then they are weak to that damage type. Orange numbers represent a Critical Hit, regardless of whether they are resistant or not to the damage type you are using. Striking enemies in the back will always guarantee a Critical Hit, so try to attack there when possible, especially when opening combat.
As you gain Skill Points for your Weapon I strongly recommend prioritizing Active Abilities over passive ones initially, as this will give youSkillsto use in combat right away. Although there are some excellent Passive Skills, if you select them first you will only have Light and Heavy Attack to use in combat, which can be tedious and boring. Try out different Active Abilities first, find the ones you like and disregard the others. You can Respec for free up until Level 20, so don’t be shy about playing around with them.
Another thing to point out is that Attacks and Abilities can hit any target they touch, though the hit boxes for each are different. Hitting multiple enemies with Attacks, and finding Abilities that can hit many enemies at once is the key to success when outnumbered. Learn the hit boxes of your Attacks and Abilities so you can maximize their performance in combat. Many Abilities can hit far more enemies than it would appear if you position yourself correctly!
Some great Weapons for AoE early on are theGreat Axe, Greatsword,War Hammer, andSword. Use these weapons to mow down as many enemies as you can handle at once, after you’ve grouped them all up, or accidentally pulled more than you wanted to.
Craftingis a huge part of New World, and one that can be a bit overwhelming near the beginning of the game, though it’s a lot of fun. New World handles Crafting really well, but there are some things that you should know.
It’s a good idea to Craft yourself Iron Tools once you’ve made it to the first town and done a few quests. These allow you to harvest materials faster than the Flint Tools you should have from the main quest line. You can craft these at the Workshop if you have enough materials, and this includesIron IngotsandCoarse Leatherswhich were not needed for the Flint Tools. The easiest way to get these is in mountainous areas that have wolf icons on the map, as these have both Iron and Wolfs you can gain the Coarse Leather from Skinning.
You’ll want to continue to upgrade your Tools to Steel as soon as you get high enough level because these increase your gathering Speed even more! This is a huge jump in gathering speed, and it will make gathering go so much faster, saving you tons of time. Keep an eye on theTrading Postto see if there are any Steel Tools you can get for your level.
One thing to note about the resource nodes in New World, these are things likeIron Deposits,Hemp, and even plants likeLifebloom, is that they all respawn in the same locations. This means if you find a good spot to farm these things, then you can use these over and over to gather the desired Materials. Sometimes it’s better to camp out certain nodes than it is to keep exploring for more that you may never find.
Many areas ofMaterialsalso have multiple nodes all close together, varying in sizes with the larger ones yielding more Materials. When you see clumps together, try to harvest the largest first in case another player comes by. You don’t want to be in the middle of harvesting the smallest node, when someone comes and take the large one. That is extremely frustrating!
You want to aim to get yourLogging,Mining,HarvestingandTracking & Skinningup to 50 fairly quickly if you plan to Craft much in New World. This will allow you to collect most nodes you see in the early goings of the game, and it’s important to gather materials as you Quest, otherwise you will get to certain areas of the game and will not have high enough Skill to gather them. This will force you back to earlier areas just to gather Materials, which is inefficient.
Of all the Gathering Skills, Logging will take you by far the longest, and you’ll likely have to spend some time actively trying to increase it compared with other Gathering Skills. Make sure you do, or you won’t be able gather Mature Trees, which are much more prevalent in later zones.
Another tip that can make things a lot easier for you when gathering Materials, and just in general, is increasing your Carry Weight limit. You begin the game with 200, but you can increase this with Bags. Once you hit level 10 you’ll be able to equip your firstBag, and you’ll get one by doing the questline early on. Make sure you equip it!
As you reach certain Levels, you’ll unlock more and more Bag slots, so be sure to equip more and more of these as you go. Not all Bags are created equal, and you can craft or purchase from the Trading Post ones that provide a lot more Carry Weight than others. Try to get the best ones you can!
In order to make one you’ll need Coarse Leather,Linen, Iron Ingots and aMinor Rune of Holding. Linen is found from Hemp plants and then refined at a Loom, while the Minor Rune of Holding can be purchased from your Faction Representative. You’ll need tokens from doing Faction Quests, and 1000 Gold to buy one, which isn’t cheap. I highly advise trying to purchase one off the Trading Post first, if you can, but craft one if none are available.
There are Crafting Quests found on theTown Project Boardthat you can use to spend your Materials on to help you level up, as well as gain XP in things likeWeaponsmithingand Armorsmithing without just mass producing some weapon or armor that are then wasted. Make sure you check the board whenever you’re in town, and absolutely grab theseQuests. Many times you can produce the required item instantly with the Materials you have, which is great.
In New World you can only Fast Travel from Fast Travel Points and Settlements, meaning that you cannot travel to town from anywhere on the open landscape, and you’ll have to run to the nearest Settlement or Fast Travel Point and then Fast Travel to wherever you want to go. Make sure you unlock these Fast Travel Points when you see them on the landscape, because you cannot use them until you do.
Fast Traveling costs youAzoth(a resource required for Fast Travel and someCrafting), and Azoth is hard to come by near the beginning of the game. For this reason it is important that you check into an Inn as quickly as possible. You can Recall to Inn to the town where you checked in once every 15 minutes from anywhere on the landscape, which is quite often.
After purchasing a Home you can also Fast Travel to it from anywhere on the landscape. This will likely be the cheapestHome, because you won’t have much Gold, so you will only be able to use it every 4 hours (more expensive Homes can be recalled to more frequently). However, even the cheapest Home can help you save Azoth and valuable time running long distances. You can also spend Azoth to reset the Fast Travel cooldown to your Home, which is usually a small amount of Azoth, and is almost always worth it.
As you reach higher levels you can purchase 2 more Homes, so make sure you do when you have enough Gold, and make sure they are all in separate towns so you can Fast Travel to a few different places easily. The further you have to Fast Travel, the more Azoth it costs, so don’t put them all in Territories right next to one another, but instead try to spread them out a bit if you can. Note make sure your Inn is not in the same town as any of your Homes for best results.
The last thing to mention here, is that your current Weight affects your Azoth Fast Travel cost, so make sure you store things in Storage first, or Salvage what Weapons and Armor you don’t need to reduce the cost of Fast Travel.
Azoth is primarily obtained by completingQuestsand by fighting off Corruptions on the landscape, but you can also get some from enemies, or purchase some on theTrading Post(though it’s quite expensive). It’s best to plan your activities out and try to keep to one area until you gain a good amount of Azoth to Fast Travel without worrying. Not being able to Fast Travel can be really frustrating, and you don’t want that.
Another great way to gain a steady source of Azoth, as you approach level 20 or so, is to useToolsthat have a chance to reward Azoth when used. Usually this is like a 35% chance, and if you have this on all of your Tools then whenever you chop wood, mine ore, gather herbs, or skin an animal you’ll be gaining Azoth. It’s only 1 Azoth granted, but this adds up over time, by simply doing things you’d normally do anyway. The best way to get Tools with thisPerkon them is the Trading Post, though they will usually have level requirements so you might need to level up a few levels first.
Another tip for Fast Traveling in New World is that you should get in the habit of constructing aCamp(once you unlocked it) before you enter an area you plan to do some Quests in, or you are worried might be too difficult. You cannot construct one in these areas directly, so you’ll have to place your Camp on the edge instead. It doesn’t have to be exactly on the edge, but as close as you can get it for best results. That way if you die, your run back is much shorter.
Once you’ve completed your Quests in the area, the fastest way back to town is to let enemies kill you so that you can respawn at the nearest Settlement, which will usually be exactly where you want to go. This can save you 5 minutes or more of running in a lot of cases, and is easily worth it for the cheap repair cost later on. You used to be able to die directly from the menu, but this has since been patched out.
One final note though: make sure to always keep some Flint handy in your inventory so you can make a Camp easily. Lumber can be found nearly everywhere on the map, so you don’t need to carry it with you. But Flint can take you several minutes to find sometimes, and that adds up over the course of a gaming session. Just keep a few on you, gather up someLumberand make a Camp in seconds.
Once you reach around level 20 ish you’ll be able to join one of New Worlds 3 Factions:Syndicate,Marauders, andCovenant. You don’t have to join one, but if you don’t you will not be able to engage in PvP, nor join a Company, which are the equivalent of Guilds in other MMOs.
Choosing which Faction to join is a big decision, and one that is only changeable once every 120 days, so make sure you are certain before selecting one. Additionally, you can only have one character per server, so you cannot make another character without deleting the one you currently have, which you may not want to do.
The main differences between these Factions are their motivations/themes, and the cosmetic style of their Armor. This is on top of the people you’ll be fighting with and against in PvP, so make sure your friends pick the same one. You can still do Expeditions with players of other Factions, however, so keep that in mind. Note that the Armor bonuses used to be different for each Faction in the Betas, but this has since changed, and now all Factions have the same bonuses.
There are a few different ways to PvP in New World, but as a new player you should really only concern yourself with open world PvP, or PvP that occurs out on the New World map outside of towns. You’ll eventually get into a War or two, but that likely won’t be right away, unless you are lucky.
In order to trigger PvP you’ll need to be in a town and flag up for it, at which point you’ll have a short invulnerability timer that triggers once you get far enough away from town. Once that’s expired you can be damaged and you can attack other flagged PvP players. You cannot attack flagged players unless you yourself are flagged.
Note that you cannot be in the same group with other players who are not PvP flagged, which is important because if you run out to do an Expedition and forget that you are flagged but your friends are not, then you’ll have to run all the way back to town and unflag first, which can be really annoying.
The first thing to understand about PvP is that level isn’t so important at lower levels, however, it can give you an idea if other players have more Weapon Skills than you, and that can be problematic. Weapon Skills matter far more in PvP than actual player level, unless you are way higher than your target, in which case you will take way more damage.
Enemies don’t give you all that much level experience in New World, but they do give you Weapon Skill Points you will need to be more effective in combat. For this reason if you want to have a chance in PvP you should work on killing enemies with the Weapons you intend to use. If you’re going for best results, stick to two weapons and really grind out some Skill Points. If you find you aren’t gaining Weapon Skill fast enough, try grinding higher level enemies for more XP.
As I mentioned earlier, gaining Active Skills first before selecting passive ones is important so that you can burst down opponents and enemies. In PvP, particularly at lower levels you will often fight someone and they will begin to run when they are close to death. This will happen over and over, so gaining a “Gap Closer” Skill is key to being able to catch your prey, OR, get away if you’re the one in trouble.Chargeis a good example of one, and you can use this to get in range, or to chase down a fleeing enemy.
Additionally, locking enemies down even before they can flee is also good. You can do this by using Skills that knock them down, stun them, or even just slow them a lot. This allows you to keep up the pressure, preventing their escape.
Area of Effect attacks are also very very important, especially in mid to larger battles, so make sure you have at least one or two that hit multiple enemies. When you and a teammate or two unleash your AoEs at the same time on a group of enemies you’ll often get many kills, and they are usually easier to land than regular attacks since you don’t have to aim as much.
Remember to swap weapons and use the Skills on both Weapon bars while in PvP, and to use any that come off of cooldown as quickly as you can. This is often the difference between winning and losing, and a difference you will notice a lot at lower levels.
Healing is also a huge factor, so make sure you have a food buff on and have some Potions before engaging in PvP, or better yet get a healer to play with you. Healing is very very strong in New World, and it can allow you to win where you would likely die, especially if you are geared properly.
Figuring out which equipment to use in New World might seem complicated, but it is really pretty straight forward. Once you’ve decided on the Weapons you want to use, then you’ll need to worry about Armor.
You are not restricted to a certain Armor type in New World, and can use any Armor you wish whether it’s Light, Medium or Heavy or a combination of all three. The main thing to understand is how Armor weight affects your damage and your dodges.
When you are Lightweight, you gain +20% damage, +20% healing, and your dodges are more effective. The trade off is that you will take more damage since your Armor is not as strong. Generally in PvE, players either go Light if they are DPSing, or Light in PvP if they want the mobility to escape attacks more easily. If you use any sort of Ranged Weapon, it’s a good idea to consider Light Armor, since you don’t plan on being hit and this will give you the most damage per shot.
Medium weight provides you with a less effective dodge, but more effective than Heavyweight, and increases your damage and healing by +10%. Crowd Control effects also last 10% longer on you. You’ll have better protection than Light Armor, but it comes with these tradeoffs.
Heavyweight provides you with no extra damage bonus and your dodge is really bad, meaning you should not rely on Dodging if you’re wearing Heavy Armor. Additionally, Crowd Control lasts 20% longer on you than Light Armor, but your Block stability is improved by 15%. Generally tanks and melee characters go heavy to minimize the amount of damage they take in both PvE and PvP, as well as to be better at Blocking. If you’re charging into the middle of a group of enemies or players, you better be sure you aren’t going to die if they hit you!
Don’t be afraid to play around with different Armor combinations when you’re just starting out and see which you like the most. Remember that you can mix and match pieces no matter what weight they are, and the thresholds are based on total Armor Weight, not Armor type.
If your Armor (or Weapon) has a gem slot, you can slot one into it for added benefit. You can find these from gathering Ore, and refining the gems you find. You can sometimes get these as drops from enemies as well, or you can purchase them from the Trading Post. Note that you can’t remove Gems from slots, but you can override them later if you don’t like the current Gem you have.
You want to try to match the bonuses on your Armor to your Attribute setup. That is to say if you have a Strength scaling Weapon then you’ll want Strength ideally on your Armor, or maybe Strength and Constitution for some HP.
Look for other passive bonuses for the type of Weapon you are using, or for just generally good bonuses like ones that improve your defense or reduce cooldowns so you can use your Skills more often.
That’s it for our beginner guide, I hope you learned something or a lot of somethings and you’re able to take what you learned and get a really good start to New World. We’ll be playing on the Hades Central EU Server at live release, so come play on the same server as me! I’ll be streaming on Twitch at launch so come drop by, and be sure to bookmark the New World Wiki if you have questions about the game!
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
Is that Dan Bilzerian?
