With the grinding aside because I just can’t seem to stop gathering hemp and screaming at anyone who dares take an iron node on my mining route. This has been one of the more successful newer games I’ve partaken in.

Unlike many people, I had enough willpower to stay away from the launch of the game. Joining two days later and things have been running quite smoothly since for the most part. Yes, for the first couple of days there were hours-long queues to get into the game. They seemed to have solved that issue quite quickly by going after those needing to afk but not wanting to wait hours in a line to get back in. That escalated quickly.

Crafting And Gathering

Now back to that iron I was talking about. You are going to need enough to build an entire town. Iron is the bedrock of a lot of lower crafting. It’s used from making weapons to linen bonnets. I’m not quite sure what iron is doing in cloth wear or the many other items in the game.

I prefer it to make sense for a crafting object to have materials that would go into the real product. I guess things like cloth armor is a bit more durable in New World than other games I’ve played.

While the game seems to want to have a heavy focus on a player-crafted economy the markets are quite flooded at the moment. From all the rewards from questing pouring in ensuring that lower-level players will always have weapons and gear long after the majority of the active base of players reach higher levels.

The major issue at this time is the player economy seems to be based on our real-world one. While you do have the option to repair gear and weapons in-game when they become worn down from use and break. Why waste the repair effects. People have been joking in global chat it’s cheaper to just buy brand new than to repair. I have not gotten to that part of the game yet. At least we can salvage our items instead of dumping them all into a giant trash heap.

During the more busy hours in the starting areas, it was not uncommon to see dozens of players all scouting the hillsides for iron. I sometimes would have to beat out a dozen players to a single node. Those were quite hectic hours.

Once you get a particular gathering profession high enough the lower tier materials start appearing on your composes. This makes it quite easy to run around and find something to gather. This also ensures every time a new player unlocks hemp tracking and they see the icon they have to share in global about it. Who could blame them? There are some massive hemp fields to farm and admire.

Overall I’m quite pleased with the gathering. I do wish the lower level crafting did not require so many of the same items between different professions. As long as no one finds my little mining route and lives to tell about it I’ll have enough iron soon enough.

Classes

I have primarily been focusing on using a sword and shield. With a bigger focus on sword mastery instead of a defender. Since I am someone who is looking to gather a lot I do want some protection so I can stay out on long trips till I fill my inventory full. I also don’t want to be slowed down by wearing heavy armor so medium it is having a lesser penalty for using it.

If I had to do it all again I might have picked rapier instead for more damage. The good news is I could go craft myself a rapier or buy one for cheap in the player market. I’m not locked into just going one route.

The only issue I foresee is how much of an impact attributes play into things. Every 50 points you get a bonus that has an impact on a singular gathering profession and weapon damage scaling. At least you do get some from equipment and item buffs as well.

If I wanted to switch over to using a fire staff for example it scales off intelligence. At the moment I’m mostly focused on strength and dexterity for my main and range weapon. While they do have a respec option I don’t dare press it yet. You can respect all you want from what I’ve been told up till level 20. After that, you have to pay for it in the currency of the game.

There also does not appear to be a way to save an attribute layout so wanting to switch a few times a day to fit different roles in a group seems costly and time-consuming. While it’s great they allow people to branch and try a few different weapons and builds. It seems at one point your one character is going to have to focus on just one thing. Which in most MMOs is why people have alts and I’m not quite certain yet their system has resolved such needs.

Optional PvP

During the early couple of hours of gameplay, you need to join a faction. These factions have wars for control over the map and the major cities in them. The winning faction having a bonus from being within their area. Further broken down to a company (clan) ruling over a city and having some governmental roles with it.

Each of the main cities themselves has its tax rates and different tier of crafting stations. Some clans choose to have low taxes on market sales, refining and crafting. While others have the highest fees in the land but are trying to offer the highest crating stations compared to everyone else. Craft station tiers seem to be quite a costly and time-consuming undertaking.

This interesting spin that I as a crafter need towns to level up their crafting stations so I can reach higher tiers of crafting. Right now on the server I’m on I’ve already hit the tier cap for some professions and I’m waiting for different factions to focus on getting towns to higher crafting station tiers. The good news is I’m not restricted from what towns I can craft in.

I can even help being toggled for pvp or not in speeding along with the leveling up of the towns by completing quests. The rewards are slightly smaller if I’m not toggled for pvp and not all of the town missions are available. This seems like a fair balance between those who want nothing to do with pvp and those that want a bonus for doing so.

I have entirely focused on just gathering and crafting for the moment. I have yet to join in on any of the calls from my faction to go out and fight the enemy. It will be something I do at some point. For now, I’m falling behind on levels and rather get my gathering skills high enough to leave the lower starting areas.

Final Thoughts

Bonus points. They don’t charge a monthly subscription so I don’t feel like I’m obligated to play so many hours in a given month to get my money’s worth. While they do have a microtransaction shop it appears from the best I can tell it’s all just cosmetic skins which are more than fine with me.

While there has been one server crash I’d expect such things to happen this close after launch and they were up quite quickly. While there have been some bugs I think the worse I had was not being able to gather/interact with certain options which reclogging fixed or leveling up.

There is more to this game than a couple of select topics I’ve covered. I’m also only in the mid-level ’20s of the game. I expect a lot of things to discover and adventures to partake on.

Other Content

• Gathering Professions In New World | Tips And Tricks Guide
• New World | Taking A Look At Housing
• New World | Taking Advantage Of Market Shortages

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar. Screenshots are from New World.