This is why New World is enjoyed by the majority of the gaming community, as it has several options for players to grind and rank up, whether you’re a casual or a hardcore grinder, the game caters to both. New World offers three different leveling systems: character attributes, weapon skills, and trade skills. There are various ways to rank each of these skills up, and in this guide, we’ve covered everything you need to know about leveling up in New World.
Character Attributes
There are five base character attributes you can level up by spending attribute points you get for ranking your character up. These character stats affect your character build and the route you’re willing to take. Each attribute offers different benefits and has six thresholds or milestones which you can unlock by reaching a certain attribute level.
You also have the option to respec your attribute points. This will give all your attribute points back, allowing you to reallocate them across five attributes. You can respec your points for free until you reach level 20, but after level 20, it costs gold coins. At level 20, it costs 20 coins to respec, but the cost scales significantly as you increase in level. Refer to the XP table courtesy of NWDB.
The five base character stats include Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Focus, and Constitution.
Strength (STR)
Strength increases the damage of your base melee weapons. Strength also gives some mining perks in the form of threshold bonuses. These weapons include the following:
Great Axe Hatchet Sword Spear War Hammer
Strength has the following threshold bonuses:
50 STR: +15% damage to melee weapon light attacks and +10% mining speed. 100 STR: +20% damage to melee weapon heavy attacks and +20 encumbrance. 150 STR: +50% stamina damage from melee weapon light and heavy attacks and -20% decrease in weight of mined items. 200 STR: +20% damage on stunned, slowed, or rooted enemies and +10% mining speed. 250 STR: Stamina regeneration continues while performing light and heavy attacks with melee weapons and +10% yield increase when mining. 300 STR: Light and heavy attacks with melee weapons gain Grit and 25% chance to fully mine an ore node with a single swing.
Dexterity (DEX)
Dexterity increases the base damage of the ranged-weapons but also gives a small percentage damage increase to lighter melee weapons. The weapons include:
Rapier Bow Musket Spear Hatchet Sword
Dexterity has the following threshold bonuses:
50 DEX: +10% chance to critical hit and +10 skinning speed. 100 DEX: +5% piercing damage and +20% haste for 3 seconds after skinning. 150 DEX: Dodging costs 10 less stamina and -10% decrease in weight of skinned items. 200 DEX: +20% bonus backstab and headshot damage and +10% skinning speed. 250 DEX: +30% bonus critical hit damage on stunned, slowed, or rooted enemies and +10% yield increase when skinning. 300 DEX: Ammo has +15% chance of being returned and guaranteed critical hit after a dodge roll.
Intelligence (INT)
Intelligence increases the damage you deal with your magic and magical weapons. This attribute also applies to magical perks, such as a sword having a flaming perk. Intelligence applies to the following magical weapons (but not limited to):
Fire Staff Ice Gauntlets
Intelligence has the following threshold bonuses:
50 INT: +10% damage to light and heavy magic attacks, and +10% harvest speed. 100 INT: +20% critical hit damage and 5% chance to gain 1 azoth when harvesting. 150 INT: +20% to elemental damage and -10% decrease in weight of harvested items. 200 INT: +10 mana after a dodge and +10% harvest speed. 250 INT: +30% duration to damage of time spells and +10% yield increase when harvesting. 300 INT: +30% damage on first hit on full health target and -10% reduction in Azoth travel cost.
Focus (FOC)
Focus increases the base mana and reduces the recovery time. Focus has the following threshold bonuses:
50 FOC: +10% mana regeneration rate, +10% fishing line tension. 100 FOC: +20 to mana pool, +10% yield increase when salvaging. 150 FOC: +20% healing output, -10% decrease in weight of fishing items. 200 FOC: +20% duration on casted buffs, +10% fishing line tension. 250 FOC: +30 mana on any self or group kill, +10% increase to caught fish size. 300 FOC: When mana hits zero gain 200% mana regen for 10s (60s cooldown), 10% cooldown reduction for Inn fast travel.
Constitution (CON)
Constitution increases your overall base health. It is the only attribute that does not increase the damage of any weapon type. Constitution has the following threshold bonuses:
50 CON: All health consumables +20% stronger, +10% logging speed. 100 CON: Increase max health by 10% of physical armor, 10% reduction on durability loss for tools. 150 CON: 20% reduction to crit damage taken, 10% decrease in weight of logging items. 200 CON: +20% increase to armor, +10% logging speed. 250 CON: 80% damage reduction when full health, +10% yield increase when logging. 300 CON: +30% duration of stun, slow, and root spells, 25% chance to chop down a tree in a single swing.
Weapon Skills
Players can equip up to two weapon sets in New World. There is a skill tree for each weapon in New World where players can allocate up to 10 skill points to unlock a total of six active skills and thirty passive skills for each weapon. These weapons gain bonus damage and other buffs from the above-listed attributes. Note that it is impossible to acquire all the skills within a skill tree of all weapons as you only get to spend 19 skill points across the skill tree. You need to be strategic and allocate points based on the type of character you’re rooting to build (for example, a mage or a warrior). The following are the mastery trees for each category:
One-Handed Weapons
Sword and Shield Mastery Hatchet Mastery Rapier Mastery
Two-Handed Weapons
Spear Mastery War Hammer Mastery Great Axe
Ranged Weapons
Musket Mastery Bow Mastery
Magical Weapons
Life Staff Mastery Fire Staff Mastery Ice Gauntlet Mastery
Trade Skills
There are three types of trade skills that include crafting, refining, and gathering. Crafting and refining skills levels up relatively quicker than gathering skills.
Crafting
Crafting skill levels up as you forge new weapons and armor. It also includes furnishing your house and cooking food. The following are all the activities that contribute to your crafting skill.
Weapon smithing: Making weapons at the forge. Armoring: Making armor at the forge or the outfitting station. Engineering: Crafting any ranged weapons and their ammunition Arcana: Crafting potions and other items such as staves at the arcane repository. Cooking: Cooking any sort of food at the camp or in a kitchen. Furnishing: Crafting furniture and storage for your house in the settlement.
Refining
Refining skills focus on turning gathered raw materials into useful crafting materials. Refining can be increased by carrying out the following activities:
Smelting: By turning ore into ingots that can be later used to craft weapons, armor, and ammunition. It can also be increased by turning wood into charcoal at a smelter. Stonecutting: By turning raw gemstones into cut gemstones or mined minerals into blocks at a stonecutting table. Leatherworking: By turning rawhide into coarse leather at a tannery. Weaving: By turning fiber into linen and other clothing items at a loom. Woodworking: By turning raw wood into processed wood materials at a woodshop to use in engineering recipes and town projects.
Gathering
Gathering, as the name suggests, focuses on material-gathering skills. The material-gathering includes mining, logging, harvesting, fishing, tracking & skinning. These skills can be increased in level by carrying out the following activities:
Mining: Mining ores and oil around Aeternum using a mining pick. Fishing: Catching fish using a fishing pole. This can be done at any pond or river. Logging: Chopping and gathering wood from trees using a logging axe. Harvesting: Gathering any plant-based resources such as bushes and herbs. Tracking & Skinning: By killing and skinning animals using a skinning knife.
General Best Ways to Level Up Fast
There are several ways to rank up in the New World, and there is no one fixed method to level up. It goes without saying, but one of the best ways to level up in New World is completing the main story quest, especially at the early stages of the game. But there are other little things you can incorporate to maximize your character leveling. Here are some of the things you can do to optimize and maximize your character leveling up.
Well Rested XP Bonus
Whenever you’re done playing New World and decide to sign out of the world of Aeternum, make sure you’re in a settlement before doing so. This will give you a well-rested XP bonus when you sign back into the game. You can tell that you’ve got the XP bonus by taking a loot at your XP bar at the bottom of the screen. You will see a grey portion at the end of the yellow-filled portion, which represents the rested XP bonus. You will get extra XP for any activities you perform until that grey bonus portion is filled. It might not be a lot for many, but every little XP counts and adds up over time.
Town Project Board
While it’s true that the quests found on the town project board have been nerfed ever since beta, you can still earn a decent amount of XP by completing the quests outlined on the board. You can accept and activate up to twelve town project missions. The majority of the quests on the board are as simple as cooking food or crafting a particular material but net up to 700 XP per mission. Whenever you get such crafting or cooking missions, you can always go to the trading post and buy some from there to later return and accept your reward from the town project board. If you see multiple players having a constant back and forth between the town board and the trading post, this is probably why.
Interfere in Fights
Here’s a convenient tip that is great, especially if you’re out adventuring in territories with a higher level than your current rank. If you come across players fighting enemies, try to get some hits in on those enemies and back out but stay close until other players have killed the enemies. You will gain some player and weapon XP for the kill. Do not indulge in fights that you cannot handle though!
Don’t Be Afraid of Side-Quests
Besides completing the main storyline quest, make sure you are also completing side-quests. These are available all over the world of Aeternum and should always be accepted. You cannot solely rely on the main storyline quest for XP as a time will come when you will reach a quest with a higher character level requirement than what you have. For that, you will be forced to complete other quests to level up before you can proceed with the storyline.
PvP is Best for Weapon Mastery
If you’re looking to level up your weapons and weapon mastery, then dive into the PvP aspect of the game.
Faction Quests
Faction quests are a great way to earn XP, especially if you’re completing PvP faction quests. This combines the aspect of side-quests and PvP for weapon leveling. Also, note that faction quests scale with your territory and area. So, for instance, if you’re in a higher-level territory, you will gain relatively higher XP.
Pick Up Lore
One of the most underrated tips is to always pick up the lore that you may come across on your adventures around the vast world of Aeternum. Once you pick them up, they are added to your journal and give you some XP for picking them up. These do not give a massive amount of XP but collecting them all goes a long way when you’re doing it over time during your adventures. Every little bit counts. That wraps up our leveling guide for New World. Now that you have the knowledge, go ahead and apply it throughout your New World journey and grind!
