New World is an exciting, open-world massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Amazon Games. The game is full of danger and opportunity where you will carve your destiny on the magical island of Aeternum. It is not just a game to kill time but also a great place to find great new companions and test out your skills of roleplaying and survival.
If you are starting out New World, this simplified guide will help you get familiar with the game's mechanics and gameplay.
Choosing a Server
Like in most MMOs, the first step in starting a new game in New World is selecting a server. You can choose from five server regions based on where you are in the world.
- US West (Western USA)
- US East (Eastern USA)
- SA East (South America)
- EU Central (Europe)
- AP Southeast (Asia Pacific)
The main server, "the world," connects the various regional servers. You can only have two characters per region and one per world. If multiple servers have the same world, you can only use one of those servers. As of right now, New World allows character transfers between servers as long as they are in the same region but not across server regions. If you're playing with friends, be sure to find out beforehand which server they are playing on. Although it is possible to transfer characters between servers in the same region, doing so costs real money.
Creating Your Character and Completing the Tutorial
After selecting a server, you can move on to character creation and name selection. This is self-explanatory, but you should consider that the character's appearance and the name you set here are permanent and cannot be changed later. After you've chosen your character, it's advised that you play the tutorial level, as it explains the game's basic controls and provides an introduction to the main story.

Main Storyline
The main story behind New World revolves around an adventurer who arrives on the island of Aeternum in search of Azoth, a powerful resource that is said to be the key to eternal life. Your adventurer's ship gets caught in a storm and ultimately gets shipwrecked. When you awaken on the coast, you find your captain is dying from injuries sustained in the wreck. Then, shortly after the dead captain is brought back to life with evil powers, he sends your adventurer on a quest to discover Aeternum's secrets and battle the island's hidden evil forces.
First Few Hours
After completing the tutorial, you will be washed ashore in one of the map's four starting areas. The wisest choice is to start following the main questline to get to your first settlement, where you can begin questing, crafting, and trading. Then get all of the quests and town projects from the town project board as soon as you arrive at the first settlement. Town projects are a great way to grind experience points for leveling up both the character and trade skills because they are both widely available and simple to complete. However, for your first playthrough, make sure to stick to the main quest line and enjoy the main story.
You are also free to visit other settlements in starter areas and partake in the New World's economy system by collecting resources and selling them in-game marketplace. And the New World Marketplace is a great hub to buy and trade almost anything you need in the game and keep the flow going. Any item can be exchanged inside the New World marketplace as long as they aren't bound to your player account.
Factions in New World
When you reach your first settlement following the main storyline, you will be asked to join one of three factions in New World: the Syndicate, Marauders, or Covenant. You shouldn't worry too much about which faction to choose unless you're roleplaying because the only differences between these three factions are their aesthetics and backstories. But if you're playing with friends, make sure you join the same faction as your friends, as factions determine which side you're on in PvP content. You are free to switch factions anytime, but doing so will result in losing your faction rank and progression.

Finding a Company
Companies are New World's equivalent of guilds or clans. Companies are directly associated with their respective factions; for example, if you are a member of the syndicate faction, you can only join companies that are also members of the syndicate faction. Companies can have up to 100 members, with the governor having the highest rank and the settler having the lowest.
Company governors can instigate fights for territories with companies from other factions occupying the map's regions. When a war is declared, members of those factions could combat one another to determine who would take control of the conflicted region. You can create a new company or join an existing one, but the ideal choice for a beginner would be to join an existing guild to reap the benefits of an already established company, such as faction bonuses and the assistance of veteran players.

Player Progression
You can play any role using any combination of weapons you like in New World, as it is not a class-based MMORPG. Instead, game progression is entirely dependent on the weapons you use.
There are five attributes: constitution, intelligence, focus, dexterity, and strength. Your player's health is governed by the Constitution, which grants you benefits like increased carry weight. The other 4 attributes scale the damage of their respective weapons and boost the trade skills. You will receive some attribute points each time you level up, which you can use to invest in your build. Each weapon has its advantages and disadvantages and is perfectly balanced.
There are currently 14 weapons that scale, with two of the previously mentioned attributes serving as their primary and secondary attributes, respectively. Each weapon has two skill lines, each with its own subsidiary skill trees filled with active and passive skills. These skill lines utilize your arsenal depending on the role you want to play, whether it is a tank, healer, or DPS. You can equip up to two weapons and three skills for each weapon. Additionally, you can slot New World Gems into your gear to amplify their effects and add bonuses.
To put it more simply, use the respective weapon in combat to level up these weapons and unlock skills for them. And use the New World Gems you earn on your favorite gear to make them even more powerful. The more you use a weapon, the faster it will level up!
You can easily change your build whenever you want by re-speccing the currently unlocked skills and attributes. Re-speccing is free for the first 20 levels, so feel free to test various skill combinations. You can respec even after reaching level 20 for a small amount of in-game currency.
And to add to that, in New World, there are 18 different trade specialties, including alchemy, blacksmithing, and woodworking.Trade skill advancement is very similar to weapon advancement. The more time you spend performing activities related to a trade skill, the faster your trade skills will level up.

In-game Currencies
The New World offers a variety of in-game currencies.The main currency in the New World is gold. New World Gold can be earned in various ways, including by questing, trading, looting, etc. New World Gold is pretty common and can be gained quickly, so you don't have to worry about spending it.
Azoth is a different currency that is only used for certain items, like enchantments and fast travel. Azoth regenerates over time and can be found when looting. Similar to Gold, New World Azoth can also be earned easily, so spend your heart out!
Then there are faction tokens, which can be used to exchange for gear, gems, and other items from faction representatives. Faction tokens can be earned by completing faction quests.
Marks of Fortune, a unique, more premium currency used for microtransactions, can be purchased with real-world money. Marks of Fortune can be used to purchase items from the game's store. New World is a very free-to-play-friendly game, with most microtransactions being cosmetic items. So if you don't want to spend money on microtransactions, you can still participate in all the content the game has to offer.
Let us know how your New World journey is going and we hope this guide will help you kickstart your playthrough for a more pleasant experience.
Play with friends
Don't play solo, play with friends or create your own New World company with GatherIn. Sign up for free using your Discord account