Free expansion
After much speculation, the Season 10 – “Nighthaven” Announcement confirms that this huge update will be free, as long as you have New World: Aeternum or have updated the base game with the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion. If this isn’t enough for any holdouts to drop their cash on that DLC, I don’t know what is? A new zone, extended main story quest, new Catacombs game mode, new raid, new OPR map, increased max level and new gearing system is more than enough content.
Contents
Release Date
Most importantly, for lucky players who can book time off work, the new season starts on October 13, which is a Monday. We were pretty sure this was the date, with the in-game Season Pass end-date implying it, but it’s nice to have it confirmed.
A new zone to explore
Game theorists will be happy to see the new zone seems to confirm expectations of Vampires and Werewolves, with gothic architecture and alpine forests shrouded in darkness. “Mysterious figures, tall and lithe” ruled by a powerful king, and “monstrous creatures that seem to exhibit the qualities of both man and beast” are the inhabitants of this new land. I’m just super excited to have somewhere new to explore!
New Questline
The Main Story Quest continues into Nighthaven, where we help Morgaine recover the Tear of Gaea. Whether we can start this as a standalone segment of the main story, or need to have completed the Hive of Gorgons is unclear, so you might want to spend the next couple of weeks making sure your Journal is up to date.
Arachnophobes Beware!
Looks like spiders are getting taken to a whole new level! We’re familiar with the deadly, leaping, oversized, eight-legged beasts in the Hive of Gorgon but this image suggests that Nighthaven is their home. Tight web-infested tunnels and hordes of spiders might be enough to give the strongest among us nightmares!
Gear overhaul
The changes to gear in this expansion are huge. Gear score cap is increasing to 800GS. Set bonuses, infixes, removal of attributes from gear, and perk overhaul with interchangeable charm sockets will change the way we look at gear.
Removal of attributes from gear
This is awesome! An item having the wrong attributes has long been an issue in New World, partially solved with Magnify, but not satisfactorily. Removing attributes from gear entirely will mean that we can fully customise our attributes through respeccing.
- Attribute points from gear are added into the native point pool
- You can save your Attributes on Gear Set loadouts
Umbrals upgrade 700GS+
We’ve known Umbrals v2 was coming but didn’t know the details. The article tells us a little bit more:
- You will be able to upgrade 700GS+ – meaning our current gear can be upgraded
- ANY gear can be upgraded, not just named items
- Umbrals will be a currency, like Azoth, not an item – this means we won’t be able to horde it and will need to use it before we get more
- Umbral wallet cap – 1,000
- Weekly rate limit – adds a timegate to how quickly we can upgrade gear so choose wisely
Perk Charms and Sockets
This sounds very interesting. Gear is about to become more flexible, with some perks working like gems. The immediate potential I can see for this is being able to swap skill perks when you change your weapon spec, preventing otherwise awesome gear from becoming redundant for your build. Curious as to which defensive and offensive perks can be socketed, since we currently have a very small pool of those perks we use on armour in PVE – basically Enchanted Ward and Refreshing.
- Defensive, Offensive, and Skill sockets
- Up to 4 sockets
- Charms can be crafted with rare materials – new or existing?
People are speculating that these will be added on top of existing perks, but I think it is more likely that they will replace existing perk slots.
Set Bonuses
Not much information about what the set bonuses will be, but it does tell us where we can get them:
- Isle of Night Raid
- Catacombs
- PVP Track
It’s great to see this new powerful gear not locked behind one game mode. PVP players won’t need to venture into end-game PVE if they don’t want to, and those who can’t get into a 10-player raid will be able to queue for 3-player Catacombs.
Infixes
This is a new word for New World and not much more at this stage. But it sounds like we’ll be able to have more unique artifact-style perks than just the one per armour, weapon, and jewelry, by adding gear with infixes to our sets.
Perk Overhaul
No specifics here, but “eliminate “must have” perks” implies a real shake-up of the Enchanted Ward + Refreshing meta. Other must-have perks include Hearty and Blessed, imagine if Life Staffs and Rings are liberated from their essential perks.
New Instances
As well as the Open World exploration, there are some new instances for us to play in. Catacombs is a whole new game mode, plus two popular modes get a new map – 10-player raid and OPR.
Catacombs
Great to see a new PVE game mode for small groups. This looks like it will be a good way to get the new gear, and you don’t need to organise a huge group to do it.Â
- Up to 3 players
- Mode-specific powerups – interesting
- Increasing difficulty with each boss defeated – provides a challenge for PVE end-game
- Make a safe exit to secure your loot – gamble on whether to continue or leave
Isle of Night
It’s going to be fantastic to have a new raid to learn. We’ve had a lot of fun with the Hive of Gorgons, but I think we’re ready for a new challenge. It sounds like we might need to spend some time improving our gear before we can survive in there, but I’m sure we’ll jump in to take a sneak peak before that.
The Tower Outpost Rush Map
There’s even another map for OPR, this time with a vertical design. This will be available for preview from September 23 to 30.
We're Excited!
There’s a lot to look forward to in this expansion, and still more questions about how everything is going to work. The gear changes sound promising and it’s good to see we’re not revisiting the salvage-fest of Season 3, with 700GS+ being upgradeable. At the same time, there’s new gear to chase, with additional bonuses, so there’s still a reason to go out and get new gear. Catacombs sounds like a promising repeatable game mode and we’ll have a new raid to conquer too. Not to mention Open World POIs in the new Nighthaven zone, that haven’t even been touched on yet. And all this for free!
There are still a lot of questions and I’m sure the devs will answer some of these in their October video, but it’s also worth just enjoying the process of discovery once the changes are live.
Can’t wait for Season 10!Â
