Find Out What's New and What's Changing in Amazon's MMORPG New World

Fans of the Amazon Games MMORPG, New World, have a lot to look forward to with the upcoming arrival of Season of the Guardian. From improvements to gameplay to the addition of controller support, there are quite a few things to unpack here. 

Let's begin with what's new! The new seasonal trial, Winter Rune Force, is coming! And this means players can join up with up to nine other max-level players and face a gauntlet of increasingly difficult enemies. This time around, they'll need all the teamwork they can muster to overcome Rune puzzles, slay an Icey Construct, and aim to fell the Ancient Ice Guardian to net unique rewards!

Alongside the new trial arrive eight new Artifacts, each with their own key traits that'll help different playstyles. These are:

— Sin - Hatchet

• Corruption: debuffs will last 25% longer, and it'll work on both weapons.
• Defile: for up to 5 stacks, deal 2% more damage per debuff applied on a target.

— Venom - Spear

• Poison Tipped: performing a heavy attack with either weapon will inflict poison, which will deal 20% weapon damage for 5s. 

— Tempest Fury - Great Axe

• Momentum: stacking up to 10 times, successfully landing attacks will give you 3% movement speed for 3s, and it works on both weapons. 

— Nature's Wrath - Medium Chestwear

• Nature's Blessing: deal 20% more damage with Empower at the cost of it expiring 200% faster.

— Gilli's Gravity Gauntlets - Heavy Glove

• Each time you deal damage, and for up to 10 times, gain a charge that will increase the damage of your next attack by 3%.

— Ironheart - Heavy Legwear

• Gain 20% more max health whenever you're not in heavy loadout. 

— Creed Boots - Light Footwear

• Ambush: as long as you've not hit a target for 20s, deal 15% more damage with 25% critical chance.

— Phoenix - Amulet

• Phoenix Revival: avoid death by becoming invulnerable for 2s when receiving lethal damage (180s cooldown).

Aside from the new Artifacts, players can also look forward to getting even more items by diving head-first into the new Season Pass, which brings with it a new Season Journey, new Activity Card, new rewards (including cosmetics and consumables), and new Challenges to overcome.

Even if battle passes aren't your thing, you'll still have new events and mechanics in store. This includes the Seasonal Event, which will see the return of the plague of rabbits, and the Springtide Bloom, which will have players unravelling the mysteries of the ethereal Wispybloom and collecting rewards for it! And for those more interested in fighting others, players can look forward to having mounts in Outpost Rush, the 20v20 PvP game mode for Level 60+ players!

And last but not least for the new arrivals to New World, the game will now offer controller support, with two pre-set layouts to choose from! Alongside this arrive some quality-of-life additions, such as aim assist, target friction, enemy target lock, freeform movement, and more!

Aside from bringing new content and items, Amazon Games has been working to improve the existing mechanics in the game based on player feedback. Starting with changes to trade skills, particularly cooking! Although more information will be shared in a future Deep Dive article from them, players can look forward to ingredients updates, tweaks to the Legendary Fish recipe, revamped Cooking progression, and the removal of split attribute food, among other things!

Another mechanic that has been optimised and changed has been combat! In order to improve the performance in high-traffic areas, such as Wars and OPR, the animations have been improved. Although not much information is offered about the changes in the combat system, the team mentions that they'll be able to tweak it even further and easier, so they encourage even further feedback. 

Due to player feedback, the entire main story quest has been fully updated, and improvements have been made in order to revamp the starting experience. Among the changes, players can expect fresh narratives, more variety in quests, and even a few surprises towards the end of Isabella's campaign of corruption! 

That was quite a bit to wrap up! Make sure you watch the YouTube video to learn more in-depth through their Dev Update.