New World: How to get started - 5 beginner tips New World guide, tips

This page of the New World guide contains 5 steps you should follow when starting to play. You will learn here what to do at the beginning of the game.

Last update: 07 October 2021

The vast world in New World can be overwhelming to new players. Starting missions are supposed to familiarize you with the game's main mechanics (crafting and collecting), but exploring and fighting enemies becomes a much bigger challenge over time. On this page of the guide we'll advise on what to do during the early game. We've listed 5 steps that are worth following after finishing the starting missions in the initial hours of the game. The following information elaborates on the starting tips - following all the advice should make your New World experience much easier.

• Complete settlement missions
• Increase your Trade Skills
• Join a faction
• Get better gear
• Choose a specific build before Level 20

Complete settlement missions

Completing main missions in New World is a basic part of the gameplay, but it's worth to know that the game offers other kinds of tasks as well. You'll find a quest board in each settlement. They're simple missions consisting of hunting or the delivering certain items, but completing them lets you develop your character faster and provides you with more income. Additionally, settlement missions increase the given territory's level allowing you to purchase extra bonuses - increased EXP gain, faster resource gain or smaller taxes for crafting in the settlement.

If your character is too weak for the current main quests, settlement quests are a great way to upgrade the hero and develop your stats. You can accept three tasks from a single settlement at once, but they refresh quickly.

Increase your Trade Skills

After starting your adventure with New World it's important to start developing your Trade Skills. First of all, you should focus on Mining, Harvesting, Tracking and Skinning. You upgrade Mining by collecting ores - Iron is especially important in the game's opening hours, as it lets you craft better tools. Upgrading Harvesting (by collecting plants and vegetables) makes it easier to obtain herbs used to craft healing potions. Tracking and Skinning, meanwhile, is useful to obtain resources from animals necessary to upgrade your camp or craft various items.

Join a faction

Joining a faction in New World is not mandatory, but unlocks a lot of additional content. Factions not only provide PvP, wars and territory control, but also new quests. Faction quests work similarly to settlement quests - they're simple tasks that allow you to quickly earn experience and gold. You join a faction during the main quests - at a certain point, you'll need to decide which side of the conflict you want to support.

It's impossible to clearly determine the best faction, as it depends on the situation on the server. It's best to choose the faction with the most territories, as it allows you to obtain bonuses to experience gain or crafting in specific areas - you can check the territory ownership on the game map. Other aspects don't matter too much - factions only really differ in their gear's appearance.

Get better gear

The weapons and armor you find while exploring in New World may eventually turn out to be too weak. It's worthwhile to look for something better. The gold you've earned by completing settlement and faction missions, as well as crafting materials, should come in handy here. Each settlement contains a Trading Post, where you can look up the offers other players made. You should check it from time to time and look for better gear. Other than that, you can also buy equipment from your faction's representative.

Getting better tools - pickaxes, sickles or skinning knives - is equally as important. They're best created by yourself on the settlement's crafting table. If you've developed your Trade Skills as we recommended, you're bound to have the necessary crafting resources.

Choose a specific build before Level 20

Remember -before you reach character level 20, you can reset your attributes and skills for free. It's very important to choose a specific build in New World - distributing points at random can cause you significant trouble in the later stages of the game. It's worth considering which role your character should play. There are many archetypes (character classes) to choose from - tank, healer, DPS.