New World: Preliminary Patch Notes for the major 1.3 update in January

In New World the major update 1.3 is coming in January. This will once again adjust the endgame and bring a new maximum gear score. Here we show you the preliminary patch notes that have already been played on the PTR.

What are the highlights of the update? The January patch brings the so-called dungeon mutators. These resemble Mythic+ from WoW and are designed to introduce new difficulty levels into the expeditions in the game. You can expect a total of 10 new levels for the three endgame dungeons, Dynasty Shipyard, Lazarus Instrumentality, and Garden of Genesis.

Through these mutators, and also through crafting and the Gypsum system, you can earn shadow shards. With these, you can upgrade your gear score from 600 to 625.

Other highlights include:

• Reduction of Azoth costs when traveling
• New perks for your equipment that should specifically help with the mutators
• In the Outpost Rush, there is a balance change. The cost of the Desertling Summoning Stone has been increased from 500 to 750 Azoth Essence
• There are a few balance changes for weapons and the AI in the game.

When will the update be released? Since January 6th at 11:00 PM, you can already try out the patch on the New World test server.

The exact release date of the update is still unknown. However, a release is planned for January.

Preliminary Patch Notes for Update 1.3

Below we have translated the complete patch notes for the PTR into English for you. You can find the complete patch notes in the forum.

World

Mutators for Expeditions

• We are introducing a new endgame feature: Expedition Mutators. Mutators change the familiar by enhancing the “Elites” and “Named Enemies” found in expeditions, changing the way encounters play out and the strategies players should consider before fighting. And just as the battles change, so do the rewards! New tailored items and resources can be found that offer additional ways to increase your power level.
• This system is designed to run a unique combination of expeditions and mutators every week, with 10 difficulty levels per expedition mutation. Players will be challenged to climb the ranks, aiming to ultimately reach the maximum difficulty.
• Please note that the “Recommended Gear Score” for a mutated expedition is important as it directly affects the scaling of enemies – and thus your chances of success.

Entering an Expedition with Mutators

• When the player opens and interacts with the expedition menu, they will see the type of available mutator, the mutation level, the recommended gear for ascent, and finally whether they meet the requirements to participate.
• Mutator orbs are universally applicable. Players can craft 1 per week and purchase additional orbs at the Faction Shop.

Scoring and Progression

• The score is performance-based and is derived from a combination of categories. The score is also a shared value for group members.
• The following categories count towards the group’s total score:
  • Time: The better the time, the better the score. Calculated at the end of a run.
  • AI Kills: A target value for defeating a pre-determined number of enemies during the expedition.
  • Takedowns: A target value for killing “Named Enemies” within the expedition.
  • Team Wipes: Every team wipe during a boss fight significantly reduces the score.
  • Respawns: Every respawn moderately reduces the score.
• Additionally, there are bonus multipliers for run efficiency, minimal respawning/wiping, speed, and eliminating all targets. These are calculated at the end of the expedition run. There are score ranks of Bronze, Silver, and Gold.
• To progress through the individual mutator difficulty levels, one must achieve a certain performance level within the highest previously reached level. The higher the score, the higher the difficulty and the greater the rewards.

Effects of Mutation

• Elemental
  • Elemental mutations grant enemies in the expedition a specific type of elemental damage, increase their resistance to that type of damage, convert a large portion of their damage into that type, and grant them powerful, elemental-based abilities.
  • Hellfire: Hellfire engulfs enemies with fire, allowing them to burn players who resist them.
  • Ever: Ever permeates enemies with Void, granting them abilities that weaken players or enhance their Void-imbued allies.
• Promotions
  • Promotion mutations grant creatures in the expedition powerful new abilities.
  • Wild: Wild AI apply healing reduction and emit harmful rays around them.
  • Unyielding: Unyielding creatures endure damage with life-draining abilities and can summon a phalanx that blocks all incoming player projectiles.
• Curses
  • Cursed mutations exert dangerous effects on players, forcing them to work together to overcome the curse’s power. At the highest difficulty levels, curses become powerful, adding additional tactical challenges.
  • Withered: Withered players are occasionally burned with elemental energy. When the curse is activated, players must cleanse themselves by approaching the burning player.
  • Censored: Censored players will find their abilities turned against them. After the players in the group have used a certain number of activated abilities, explosive silence zones appear for all players. When the curse is activated, players lose their natural mana regeneration and must enter the silence zones to regenerate their mana.

Changes to Expeditions

• With the release of expedition mutators, we have made some balance changes and updates to existing content.
• We have made expeditions more interesting by updating the rewards and drop rates to align them with other endgame activities:
  • The drop rates for “Named Enemies” in expeditions have been significantly increased.
  • T5 gear has been added to the loot tables of the Dynasty Shipyard when playing in the mutated expedition.
• We have adjusted the number of certain enemies:
  • Lazarus Instrumentality: The number of enemies when sealing the old Azoth portals in the Ostium has been reduced.

Fast Travel Costs

• We have heard your frustration regarding the costs of fast travel, and this version includes an update that drastically reduces the distance factor for the amount of Azoth needed for each journey. Accordingly, the faction control point bonus associated with fast travel now reduces the distance factor to zero.

Important Bug Fixes

• The inconsistent spelling of Eridanus has been fixed.
• A problem has been fixed where faction missions in Windcircle displayed inconsistent or incorrect values.
• New code has been added to prevent duplicated items from being rewarded to players.
• Yetis were converted from elite boss to elite after the “Winter Convergence” event.
• Additional enemies have been added to an abandoned campsite in Unstable Coast.
• Longer spawn times have been added for POIs level 35+, extending the time to kill enemies.
• A problem has been fixed where a tree could fly into the sky after being cut down.
• A problem has been fixed where the Harbinger of Chaos only spawned once in Myrkgard.
• Corrections have been made to data that caused longer loading times than expected.
• A problem has been fixed where a fence in Weavermoor was not rendered for all players.
• A problem has been fixed regarding a small patch of invisible water in Everfall, north of Orion, which could slow player movement or cause them to drown.
• A problem has been fixed where an elite chest was cutting through an Orichalcum vein, making looting difficult in Myrkgard.
• Various bug fixes for peaks and vegetation below or within the world collision.
• Various corrections for holes in the world collision.
• A bug has been fixed that prevented the Ancient Bear Paw from being used in crafting.

AI

• Bears
  • The hit amount for bipedal bears has been increased, allowing players to deal more damage to them.
• Skeletons
  • The amount of health at which skeletons are resurrected has been reduced from 70% to 40%.
• Villagers
  • The amount of healing granted by potions for villagers has been reduced from 35% to 20%.
  • The cooldown of potions has been increased.
• Varangian Knights
  • The Varangian Knights celebrated the Winter Convergence by laying down their weapons and painting them to match the color of their armor.
• Vines (Corrupted and Wrathful Earth)
  • The damage of the cleave attack has been reduced by 40%, the frequency of this attack has been reduced, but the reaction to a knockdown has been increased.
  • The damage of the thrust attack has been reduced by 50% and the stagger reaction removed.
  • The damage of the “Hit” attack has been reduced by 40%.
  • The damage from projectile attacks has been reduced by 50% and the stagger reaction removed.

Combat

Mutator Perks Added

• Weapon Perks
  • Flame Affinity – Attacks deal an additional 15% weapon damage as fire (Cooldown 2s)
  • Frost Affinity – Attacks deal an additional 15% weapon damage as ice (Cooldown 2s)
  • Arboreal Affinity – Attacks deal an additional 15% weapon damage as nature (Cooldown 2s)
  • Abyssal Affinity – Attacks deal an additional 15% weapon damage as void (Cooldown 2s)
• Armor Enhancements
  • Flame Conditioning – After taking a hit from fire DMG, you gain 4% fire absorption for 5 seconds. Each piece of armor with this perk increases the strength of the effect.
  • Frost Conditioning – After taking a hit from ice DMG, you gain 4% ice absorption for 5 seconds. Each piece of armor with this ability increases the potency of the effect.
  • Arboreal Conditioning – After taking a hit from nature DMG, you gain 4% nature absorption for 5 seconds. Each piece of armor with this ability increases the potency of the effect.
  • Abyss Conditioning – After taking a hit from void DMG, you gain 4% void absorption for 5 seconds. Each piece of armor with this ability increases the potency of the effect.

Update to PvP Damage Formula

• We have adjusted the way armor mitigation is calculated to use the value of the opponent’s gear instead of the average gear score.
• To compensate for the difference in armor mitigation, we have increased the damage that low-level players deal to high-level players and decreased the damage that high-level players deal to low-level players.

Important Bug Fixes

• A problem has been fixed where light attacks from musket and bow could be activated underwater.
• A problem has been fixed that prevented the bow from being aimed when switching to the musket sniper zoom.
• The tooltips for the rapier ability “Round Image ” and the bow “Arrow Rain” have been updated to now indicate damage per second instead of total damage during the entire effect for damage-over-time effects.
• A problem has been fixed where the player’s movement speed was sometimes increased while a camp was being erected.
• A problem has been fixed where the tooltip for the seal of fine corruption incorrectly indicated lightning damage instead of blunt damage.
• The text that flies out upon triggering “Rapid Rain” has been removed.
• A problem has been fixed where animations stuttered when holding the shift key while aiming down with a bow or musket, or when a player performed a navigation action.
• A problem has been fixed where the player was stuck after interacting with NPCs.
• A problem has been fixed that caused Venom Shot or Piercing Shot to cancel when holding down the right mouse button while activating the ability.

Endgame Update Part 2 and Shadow Shard Upgrade System

Shadow Upgrade System

• Players can upgrade individual pieces of gear from gear score 600 to gear score 625 by spending shadow shards.
• The ability to upgrade items of any type is unlocked when the player reaches 600 proficiency for that item type.
• Players can acquire shadow shards in 3 ways:
  • Expedition mutators are the most efficient way to earn shards. The higher the difficulty and the higher the score achieved, the more shards the player receives
  • Opening gypsum casts once the proficiency for that type reaches at least 600
  • Crafting items with gear score 600 once the proficiency for that type reaches at least 600
• Upgrading an item with shadow shards binds the item to the player

Proficiency System now goes up to 625

• Players increase their proficiency from 590 to 600 through the current means – gypsum casts and random upgrades in the open world
• Proficiency is increased from 600 to 625 through shadow shards.

Scaling Proficiency Gear

• For all items purchased from the trading post or acquired through player trading after the January patch, the effective gear score will be reduced to the average between the player’s proficiency and the item’s gear score when the player’s proficiency is lower than the item’s gear score.

General Improvements & QoL Improvements

• Whenever you craft a GS 600 item and your proficiency for that item type is below 600, a proficiency bump is triggered. This is another great way for crafters to raise their proficiency to 600 (in addition to the already released emerald gypsum from the containers for the crafting skill reward)
• When you receive experience gain through random loot in the open world, the loot ticker now indicates which item provided you with the experience gain
• When you receive experience gain by opening a chest, the opening sequence displays which item provided you with the gain
• You can now craft the Topaz gypsum attunement potion at any Arcana station and any T5 campsite.
• The chance of receiving Topaz gypsum when killing enemies and attuning has been increased.

UX, UI, & Social

Navigation assistance for starting the game has been added

• This system helps visually impaired players enter the world of Aeternum by verbally commenting on some important steps necessary for character creation and the starting beach
• The ability to give gold to people outside the P2P trading system has been removed.

Important Bug Fixes

• A bug has been fixed where only one reward was displayed in the outpost rush reward screen, even if multiple were granted
• A bug has been fixed that caused the UI for area upgrades to remain on the screen when the player began a trade while it was visible
• Many icons of the impending doom gauntlets have been adjusted to match the color of the glove model

Changes to the Outpost Rush

• The Azoth costs for the summoning stone have been increased from 500 Azoth to 750 Azoth.
• Summoning stones now drop on death.
• Summoning stones now have a rarity associated with them. Epic for bear and wraith tokens and legendary for brute tokens. This should clarify to players when they drop from other players.
• The Outpost Rush Alpha Wolf no longer summons minions.
• The collectibles of the Outpost Rush no longer have weight.
• Baroness Hain’s ice mines now slow the player for 3 seconds by 30%, instead of staggering them.
• Water can no longer be collected in Outpost Rush.

Patch Notes Part 2

On January 14, new supplementary patch notes for 1.3 were released. You can find the originals in the forum of New World.

World

• New fast travel shrines have been established
  • At the Amrhein excavation
  • At the Shattered Obelisk
  • At the entrance to the Depths
  • At the entrance to the Garden of Healing
  • Under the amphitheater at the Sirens
  • At the Lazarus Instrumentality

Expedition AI

• The VFX for the Withered Guardian has been adjusted to be more visible for players

World Adjustments on the PTR

• A problem has been fixed where Fester II still allowed the player to heal at 20 stacks.
• A problem has been fixed where some enemies in mutated expeditions were not counted for the scoring.
• A problem has been fixed where a negative mutator score seemed to grant a positive mutator ranking.
• A problem has been fixed where the AI in mutated expeditions did not receive the benefits of enhancement spells.
• A problem has been fixed that allowed players to bypass the starting line of the Dynasty Shipyard.
• A problem has been fixed where damage-over-time effects activated paranoia.
• A crash has been fixed that occurred during the final boss fight of the Dynasty Shipyard.
• A problem has been fixed that allowed players to go AFK in the Outpost Rush without being kicked.
• A problem has been fixed that prevented players from completing the “Great Corrupted Portal” event in the Cliffs of the Monarch.
• A problem has been fixed where Overseer Ducquet did not give localized voice lines while the player approached to interact with him.
• A problem has been fixed where camps were not upgraded when level and/or quest requirements were met.
• A problem has been fixed where players were unable to submit faction missions.

Quest and Mission Bug Fixes

• Problems with Carrionstar Ancients not being present in faction missions in Izar or Crux have been fixed.
• A problem has been fixed where Mourning Bridge RAID faction missions could not be completed.
• A problem has been fixed where Cornil Reynolds, Edengrove Guardian, had no voice and no lip-sync during the quest “Down the Brackwater”.
• Duplicate quest entries in the data have been removed.

Combat Bug Fixes

• A problem has been fixed where various status effect removals caused a buff to be applied indefinitely.
• A problem has been fixed where the bow ultimate “Concussion” was applied to all attacks and not just headshots.
• A problem has been fixed where the Healing Protection did not function properly. To fix the problem, the following changes were made:
• The healing protection has been updated to allow it to be reapplied by any healing from “Orb of Protection”, even from “Blessing of the Protector” restoration.
• To compensate for this, the duration has been shortened and the effect reduced.
• Previously it was 5%-40% for 5s, which only worked on the first application of the ability; now it is 5%-25% for 3s, but this duration can be refreshed with each tick of healing and additional applications of ‘Orb of Protection’.
• A problem has been fixed where the “Great Axe Harvest” ability dealt no damage when both the “Collector” modifier and the “Gravity” passive were unlocked.
• A problem has been fixed that occurred on the PTR where the cooldown reduction of the Void Gauntlet was triggered by DoT ticks.
• A problem has been fixed where players could interrupt the release of an arrow shot with a jump. There is now a delay of 10 frames from the moment an arrow is released before a jump can be triggered.
• Fix for permanent debuff and slow in PvP.
• A bug has been fixed that prevented Ancient Bear Paw from being used in crafting.

Endgame Update Part 2

• General Improvement:
  • We adjusted a bug that caused gypsum updates to only grant +1 bonus when an item with gear score 585 or higher was obtained. Upgrades via gypsum from 585 to 600 should now grant at least +2, unless the proficiency is exactly 599.

Economy/Progression/Rewards

Taxes on Housing

Once this patch goes live, the following conditions will apply: As compensation for players affected by the server clock issues in November 2021, we have reduced the housing tax for all players by 90% based on the tax rate of the companies that own the areas. With this change, we communicated that we would reverse this tax relief in a future update (which is now the case). During the time the tax relief was active, however, it revealed an imbalance in wealth distribution that was detrimental to homeowners, and therefore we have decided to tighten the tax range for houses. We will continue to monitor player reception and data on this issue. We will adjust it in the future to be fairer for homeowners and companies. We are focused on evaluating the overall wealth distribution and the impacts of the area tax system to continuously optimize.

In this patch we have:

• Reversal of the 90% reduction in housing tax (only affects live servers)
• The minimum limit for housing tax has been reduced from 5% to 2.5%.
• The maximum limit for housing tax has been reduced from 20% to 10%.
• Updating the standard housing tax from 10% to 5%.

Aptitude Rewards

With the introduction of the trade skill [Note: Rewards beyond level 200], we have rebalanced the acquisition of Azoth flasks, causing them to be abundant. Since these items can be traded, we want to ensure that they remain rare and special. We will continue to monitor player sentiment and data to see if further adjustments are necessary.

• Azoth flasks have been removed from T1 skill collection chests.
• The number of Azoth flasks in T2 Aptitude collection chests has been reduced from 2-3 to 1-2.
• Azoth flasks from T3 skill collection chests have been reduced from 3-5 to 1-3
• Reduced Azoth flasks from T1 crafting and refining chests from 2-3 to 0-1
• Reduced Azoth flasks from T2 crafting and refining chests to 1-2 instead of 2-3
• Reduced Azoth flasks from T3 crafting and refining chests from 3-5 to 2-3

Rewards

• A bug has been fixed where players below level 60 were receiving Gypsum from portal events. Players must now be level 60 to receive Gypsum from the events
• The Surgeon, Pit Lord Daehi, Baines, and Mordici The Mortician previously did not drop battle trophy materials. This has been fixed so they now drop battle trophy mats.

Crafting

• A problem has been fixed where Timeless Shards were not consumed when crafting.
• A problem has been fixed that caused the Creator’s Axe to incorrectly show as legendary with an additional perk in the crafting menu.
• The graphics for “Energy Giving Lichration” and “Energy Giving Reisration” have been updated to better represent the ingredients used to craft them.
• The recipe “Charred Mandje Mandje with Corn Succotash”, for which a Lava Barb is actually needed, has been corrected. The recipe title now refers to the correct fish.
• A problem has been fixed that prevented players from crafting GS 600 Arcana items with Winter patterns.

Equipment and Loot

• A problem has been fixed where certain items with 600 gear score were increasing proficiency.
• A problem has been fixed where the Lazarus Bow had less dexterity than other bows of its tier and gear rating. It now has equivalent dexterity.
• A problem has been fixed where the “Pedal” earring could not be repaired.
• A problem with the “Wheel of Time” skin has been fixed where it stretched during certain animations.

Progress

• Acceleration of level-ups for mid-game levels 23-45 by 20%. We found that leveling in the mid-game took too long and did not match the pace of the content we had, so we have accelerated progression in the mid-game by 20%.

Orbs for Expeditions

• Materials used to craft expedition orbs: Chisels, Corrupted Fragments, Shards, Crystals, and Lodestones are now tradable.
• Expedition mutator orbs can be crafted once per week and have also been added to Faction Shops, where they can be purchased once per week.
• [Currently Not in PTR] To maintain equality with the expedition mutator orbs, normal expedition orbs for the Dynasty Shipyard, Garden of Creation, and Lazarus Instrumentality have been added to the faction shops and can be purchased once per week.
• To reduce the durability damage of all items in inventory that suffer durability damage upon death, we have made a change so that only bound items suffer durability damage upon death.
• A cooldown was mistakenly applied to the “Piece of Blessed Iron” from the Covenant Faction Shop instead of the “Mutated Expedition Mood Orb”, which has now been corrected.

UX, UI, & Social

• A new tooltip has been added to the loading screen to explain how the “Strong Against / Weak Against” mechanic works.

In-Game Shop

• Decoration packs now show the number of furniture pieces included.
• Shop items can now simultaneously display that they are on sale and that they are only available for a limited time
• Currency symbols are now correctly displayed for all regions

Trading Post

• A problem has been fixed where the “Sort by Time” function of the trading post was not functioning correctly. Sorting is now correctly done by the time since the item was sold, rather than alphanumerically.
• The inventory should no longer scroll up in the trading post after closing the sales window (whether selling or canceling the sale).

Important Bug Fixes

• A problem has been fixed where companies that own more than one territory did not receive a refund for mergers. Companies are now compensated based on the number of territories they own (instead of a flat amount).
• A problem has been fixed that sometimes caused the icons for Corrupted Portals not to appear on the map.
• A problem has been fixed that sometimes caused items not to appear as repaired after a player had repaired all of them
• A bug has been fixed that sometimes caused the wrong items to be traded when trading from a shared stack
• A number of text overlaps in the user interface have been fixed (weighting in inventory categories, gem descriptions, item icons in storage when viewed from the map)
• Some icons for timeless shards were showing the symbol for the wrong weight. This has now been fixed.
• A bug has been fixed that caused the music from the boss of the Eternal Pool Arena to also be heard outside the Eternal Pool Arena.
• A bug has been fixed where sounds in Navarro’s kitchen were not always played.
• The way quest tooltips dock has been adjusted (they now dock to the side of the tiles) to facilitate reading detailed information about quests.
• A sound has been added that plays when players capture points during an Outpost Rush
• A bug has been fixed that prevented players from always hearing “Snaps the Wolf” when they accepted the quest “Snaps Blessing”
• A server crash has been fixed that likely stemmed from areas left by their governors
• Discrepancy between server, client, and system clock on the war declaration screen has been fixed
• A problem has been fixed where the map indicated an upcoming invasion when a war was actually pending.

What do you think of the new changes from the update? And what adjustments would you like to see in the patch notes? Feel free to write it in the comments.