After multiple delay, New World is finally being released this coming week! This guide will go over several tips that will improve your quality of life and (hopefully) your enjoyment of the game.
1. Bind auto-run to a mouse key
For those of you with a mouse that has supplemental mouse keys, make sure to bind one of the easy-to-reach ones to the auto-run function. New World has a huge amount of walking/running involved and having a quick access function for movement helps with managing your key pressing usage. This function also makes your character to jump/climb automatically, which essentially covers most inconvenient movement. Utilizing this function will allow you to focus more on scanning the environment for raw materials and even open the map while running to better direct your travelling.
2. Equip large stacks of consumables to free up inventory space
If you are hauling water or meat then placing them into your consumables bar frees up your inventory space. This helps tremendously for Cooking and Arcana since you require a very high number of raw materials and will reduce the number of gathering trips required. This is also a good tip for early game since those items are also extremely cheap ways to recover health.
3, Craft/buy a leather satchel ASAP
Going from 200 to ~300 inventory space makes a huge difference in quality of life when you are trying to level up your Trade Skills. As soon as that slot opens, grind out 1000 faction points (may change on release – farm as much as you need) and purchase the inventory token. The time you spend on making a satchel will easily be made up by just a couple gathering trips. If you are playing right at the start, it is unlikely that anyone will be selling a satchel on the market for a reasonable price – chances are it is just easier for you to make it yourself.
As you make your way through the game, it is a good idea to have another token on hand for a second satchel. A second bag slot opens up mid-game and will further expand your inventory.
4. Prioritize the “Lucky” perk
Regardless of how far along your Crafting skills are, netting some rare materials will almost always be useful when gathering. Many of these items will give you a chance to choose which stats you want on your items and some will also be required for future crafting. Due to how sought after these are, you can always sell these to the Market for a nice profit as well. Other perks like increased material gain, increased Azoth, and increased XP are great as well, but Luck reduces bottlenecks in progression.
5. Use a minimum of Iron-grade tools
Iron-grade tools give you a great 25% boost in efficiency for very little work. On launch it will take you 10-15 minutes max to grind out the materials needed, and it will make your life much easier due to how much faster it may increase your gathering. If you are reading this guide later on, the iron-grade tools on the market will very likely be dirt cheap and available right away.
If you have access to Steel tools, I would highly recommend purchasing/crafting them as soon as possible as well since your efficiency almost doubles while using them.
6. Craft Town Board quest items before refining anything
Don’t be me and refine before you craft, only to have to go back outside and grind out more materials. At the moment, these items mostly require RAW materials – meaning you need iron ORE not iron ingots. Make it a habit to swing by the Forge prior to refining anything and you will save yourself a ton of pain and time.
7. Set markers on your map to guide your gathering route
Using the map marker function helps you direct where you need to go for your gathering trips. Resources like www.newworld-map.com are a great way to see where your desired resources are. Make quick notes on your map regarding their location and it will help guide your early gathering runs to be more efficient and save you some headache from going back and forth.
If you are travelling between towns, it is also a good idea to make a quick note of what resources are along the way so that you can make the most out of your time. Going off track occasionally helps with reducing the monotonous grinding of quests and adds a little flavour to your journey.
8. Items in town storage can be used for crafting
I typically dump all the materials I gathered into the storage as soon as I enter town. The reason for this is because everything you have in storage can be used for crafting inside of a town. Unfortunately, the crafted items actually end up in your bag rather than the storage. This sets up certain scenarios where you haven’t dumped your existing inventory and end up overweight due to new items using storage materials. Avoid this by routinely dumping materials first.
9. Pin recipes to keep track of required materials
There is currently no better way to keep track of your targeted gathering amounts. Pinning the recipes helps you keep track of which materials you need to target and how many you have on hand. This makes the process much easier compared to manually flipping back and forth between the inventory and Cooking Trade Skill page.
10. Visit the town cow and beehive for milk and honey
Most towns have cows and a beehive available for harvesting. This is basically a free way to get enough raw materials to craft your own supply of food. It takes a few hours to replenish (aka not a reliable mechanism), but is useful regardless especially if you’re only casually cooking. Every day you log in get into the routine of milking the cow and gathering honey and you will almost never run out of basic food items.
11. Self-cast by holding CTRL + ability
This helps with your aiming when you are in a tight spot and just need to hit something near you with your spells. Healers especially need to keep this in mind whenever you are somehow targeted and have to maintain your own health. Instead of having to do the usual placements, a quick CTRL + ability will greatly improve your reaction time.
12. Lock important items and use CTRL+S for quick salvaging
Always, always, always lock your important items. It is very easy to lose the “good” green weapon you have when you have 6 others that look exactly the same on your inventory screen. After you have secured your valuables, using CTRL + S for salvaging will save you a ton of time and headache. Instead of having to confirm that you indeed want to salvage the basic iron sword, you can just spam click on everything you want gone.
I also recommend salvaging essentially everything you don’t need since you do get repair parts and those become important when you need to repair your equipment. Early on you progress through equipment so fast it is unlikely you will need it unless you are hardcore PVP-ing and dying. Mid-game once gear progression slows down you will need this tip more.
13. Prone to avoid players, jump on a ledge to avoid animals
Keep this tip in mind when you are in a difficult position. Prone hides your name tag beyond a certain distance, and when you are prone in bushes/behind cover it makes you all but invisible. This can be a life-saving tip when you see PVP-ers coming your way and you really don’t have the support to fight them.
Likewise, avoid animals by jumping up on a ledge since they typically can’t follow you upwards. This tip especially applies in areas with alligators since they can be extremely tough to kill, but there typically are small boulders for you to jump on.
