Incoming content you can expect to see
New World is not going down without a fight. While it may have a dwindling player count and several game-breaking bugs, this update will hopefully put the game back on its feet. It promises content and an end to a storyline for one of the characters in the game. Lastly, it will give players new ways to farm New World gold and combat enemies.
The Heart of Madness Update
The most interesting addition in this update is the New World items Blunderbuss weapon. The notes say that it’s the first weapon to scale with Strength and Intelligence. This makes it a good fit for certain builds. It’s a ranged weapon that excels in mid to close combat, being the predecessor of the modern shotgun.
Of course, the Blunderbuss will have new weapon trees for players to explore. It comes with two new ones: Containment and Chaos. Containment focuses more on being up close with the target. That’s the best way to pump enemies with molten lead. Chaos puts players in the perfect distance to bombard enemies with all kinds of AoE skills like a grenade launcher.
Then there’s a new Legendary Weapon Quest series coming. Players who are level 60 and have reached the highest skill level for the Blunderbuss can go to Wang Tang Zhi in Ebonscale Reach. He will give a quest to start the search for this legendary weapon.
Aside from those, there’s going to be a swath of bug fixes, balancing changes, and new encounters in the wild.
The Myrkgard Expedition
The heart of the update is a new expedition for only the strongest players. This will close the story of Isabella, one of the unfortunate travelers who came to Aeternum. Her storyline has been hinted at in various lore bits such as:
- The Captain’s Log
- Frederico’s Letters
- Alvaro’s Notes
- Chronicle of Ruiz Velazquez
- The Journal of Pilot Keyes
She is also the second boss you’ll fight in the Dynasty Shipyard. She escapes in the second phase of the battle, leaving you with her pet tigers. That leaves her free to be fought in the new expedition, Tempest’s Heart.
Aside from closing her story, the expedition might shed some light on the true nature of the Corrupted. The game tosses about jargon from biblical or mythological concepts, but those are just speculation on the characters’ part. They’re creatures that endlessly go through the cycle of death and life. However, the root cause of that cycle has never been explained.
Isabella, being one of those Corrupted, might give players an insight as to what the Corruption is. The new main storyline quest, ‘The Heart of the Tempest’ is related to this as you chase Isabella to the Shattered Mountain.
It’s a chance to earn a motherlode of New World gold as well.
Release Dates and Further Information
There’s no exact release date yet for this update. The PTR for it is up, and players can test out the various additions mentioned here. When this ends, we can expect a release date. It’s only been a week as of writing this article, and that’s not nearly enough time to test out everything that could go wrong (and plenty has already gone wrong).
From the game’s recent history of bugs, they really need a rigorous testing phase. There may be many kinds of bugs, but they seem to get game-breaking ones every so often. One of those came back again and again. While it may be that some enterprising player just stumbles across these bugs, prevention is preferable.
Here’s to hoping this content update satisfies players and revitalizes the game. Well, it’s going to be a process, so this could be a good first step toward a better New World. If this becomes a success, Amazon must seize the opportunity and ride the wave.
