New World Aeternum Nighthaven Combat and Progression Overview

The New World Aeternum developers have provided further details about how gearing and progression will work in the Season 10 Nighthaven update. The October Dev Update video covered in some detail various changes being made to gear and perks, new systems coming and how old gear and artifacts will interact with these systems.

We will gain further clarity on these changes when the Nighthaven Patch Notes are released (expected no later than Friday 10th October).

UPDATE (8th Oct): This article has been updated with images and info that was posted on the Official NW Discord by the developers.

Before we get into the new stuff in Nighthaven, we will first cover some of the changes being made to existing systems that compliment the changes.

Attribute Changes

• All attribute perks on gear are gone.
• Attributes can only be gained through leveling and consumables.
• Increased attributes gained from levelling.
• Max amount of total attribute points reduced to around ~530 from 700+.

Weapon Scaling Adjustments

• Weapons that only had one attribute they scaled with now have two attributes they scale with.
• Weapon scaling with attributes has been adjusted. Instead of being 90% dexterity and 60% strength for example, the percentage values have been replaced with tiers. For example S tier is 91 -100, B 81- 90 etc.

Perk Pass – Hearty

• Hearty Perk has been removed from the game.
• Functionality of perk has been given to all players. Players will still have 100 Stamina, however number of dodges before exhaustion is now tied to armour weight.
  • Light and Medium – 3 dodges
  • Heavy – 2 dodges

Now it’s time for the meat and potatoes, as Joel would say, of the gearing and progression changes.

Umbrals

Umbrals is NOT a crafting system, it is a currency. It’s a contextual menu, no crafting station required. All you have to do is right click on a gear piece (700 GS or higher) and you can upgrade it. Only Armour, Weapons and Jewellery can be upgraded. Artifacts can also be upgraded.

Umbral Cap and Upgrading Details

• Umbral Cap is no longer 1,000 (as previously stated), it has been increased 4,000 (tentatively, may not be final).
• Their intent is to allow us to upgrade 5 pieces a week from 730 (minimum) to 800 GS fully.
• Exponential ramp for upgrade cost ie. the higher the gear score, the more it costs.
• If you’re experimenting, you can get ten 790 GS gear pieces per week or fifteen 780 GS gear pieces per week.

Old Gear and Umbrals

Any gear at 700 GS or higher will be upgradeable to 800 GS with Umbrals. Their goal with this was to make some old gear, particularly gear with illegal combinations, viable. Some of combinations of older items will be good, but some are traps so you do not necessarily want to upgrade all of your old gear.

Gear Drop Rate Limits Removed

• There is no longer a weekly drop limit across all content(?)
• Every boss in the Isle of Night Raid drops two set items:
  • First Boss (Harlequin)- Jewellery
  • Second Boss – Armour
  • Third Boss – Weapons

Perk Charms

Perk Charms basically allow you to change perks on gear with sockets (empty perk slots) as you see fit. The goal of the Perk Charm system is to give players more flexibility with their builds.

• Perk charms are crafted items but can rarely drop crafted or as set perks on gear.
• High Level Tradeskills needed – Armoring and Weaponsmithing are two of the three Tradeskills needed to craft Perk Charms.
• Materials are collected from a variety of content both existing and new.
• Each recipe will take 3 different materials as well as Chromatic Seals.
  • The cost of Chromatic Seals has been reduced and will no longer have a weekly limit (still a bit of a coin sink).

There are four different types of Perk Charms:

• Gems – there have been balancing changes done to Gems, but they did not give specific details.
• Offensive charms
• Defensive charms
• Ability charms – basically same as current weapon perks.

How Perk Charm Sockets will roll on Gear Pieces

• Most gear in the game will roll/have up to three sockets.
  • Three socket gear pieces will be craftable – 3 empty sockets and two fixed perks
    • Need Matrixes (Weapon, Armour, Jewellery) to craft three socket gear.
  • Not all gear is going to have full sockets, there may still be one or two fixed perks.
• Four socket gear can be obtained only from M3 Expeditions – allows for the most flexibility and customisation.
  • All 4 sockets are random, meaning you could get 4 of the same socket type.
  • Final perk always fixed.
• You can only get one gem slot.
• Sometimes you can multiple of same socket type
• Sometimes the slots on gear will be populated with a Perk Charm already rather than an empty socket.

Set Bonuses

Set Bonuses are basically groups of gear that provide additional bonuses depending on how many pieces of that set (group) you wear. For example, there could be a bonus at three pieces worn and another bonus at five pieces worn (see Enrage Set example below). Set Bonuses are not going to be necessary for every player, it will be heavily build dependent. They will also have some fixed perks and maybe only one or two charm sockets.

Set Bonuses will drop initially from the following content:

• Isle of Night Raid – three different sets
• Catacombs – multiple sets
• PvP Rewards Track – multiple sets

They named three set bonuses in the Dev Video but only provided details for the Enrage Set.

• Enrage
• Overcharge
• Berserk

Some more examples of Set Bonuses posted on the NW Official Discord by NW Joel. The stifling Set is from the PvP Rewards Track, the Focused Set is possibly from Isle of Night.

Infixes

• Infixes are strong perks (that used to be exclusive to Artifacts) that drop from the same places as set bonus gear.
• They will be on set bonus gear or on a normal gear piece with open sockets.
• Infixes can not be crafted, they are only found on dropped gear.
• Specific infixes are only found on specific items eg. only on a Ring.
• Pictured below is an example of an Infix on non-set gear.

Artifacts

• Balance pass on most Artifacts.
• Lesser used Artifacts have had their functionality changed or improved.
• Attribute conversion Infix changed on some artifacts to account for perk changes.
• Existing perks will now be new versions to account for changes to perks.
• Artifacts will have an Infix Perk, two fixed perks (static perks similar to old system) and two charm sockets. Socket type will depend on if weapon is more offensive or defensive.

New Heartrune

The new Heartrune is called Phantom Blades. Inspired by an NPC in the Dynasty Expedition, the Heartrune is basically summoned swords that spin periodically when placed.

The perk options are:

• One that moves the swords forward(?) (described as similar to Firestorm ability).
• One that sticks to you and follows you around, great for melee players.
• Sluggish – prevents a player from dodging unless they are attacking you. Good for chasing players running away from you.

Do you like these gearing and progression changes? Are you looking forward to Nighthaven?