New World Update 5.0.2

Greetings, Adventurers!

New World Update 5.0.2 downtime will begin at 5:00 a.m. PT (12:00 p.m. UTC) on June 4 and last approximately 1.5 hours. Hunt or be hunted in pursuit of new and returning event-specific loot during Rabbit’s Revenge. Explore the full release notes, including the addition of our new server Shard tech, below.

Rabbit’s Revenge

• The furry little killers are back for even more explosive vengeance. Corrupted rabbits will roam the wilds of Aeternum from June 4 through June 18. This rabbit season includes a corrupted Flail, a corrupted armor skin, and an emote that only the most corrupt Adventurers will discover. All rewards except for the emote are guaranteed after a certain number of corrupted rabbits have fallen.

• Check out the full reward breakdown here.

Shards

We’re excited to introduce Shards, a new server technology coming to New World.

What are Shards?

Shards are duplicated segments of the game world designed to better manage player populations. Each region or zone within the game has population limits. By seamlessly duplicating these segments into new instances, we can accommodate more players in the same space without affecting game performance or the user experience. You won’t encounter loading screens when moving in and out of Sharded areas and will typically be unaware that a Shard is present.

Initial Rollout

For the initial release, Shards will be implemented for the starting beaches and settlements of Monarch’s Bluffs and Windsward. This will help us accommodate new players and reduce queue times. Based on technical performance and player feedback, we may expand Shards to other regions of Aeternum in the future.

Impact on Gameplay

We aim for seamless gameplay whether you’re in a Shard or not. Here’s how Shards will work:

Social Connections

• Groups: Prioritized to stay together in the same Shard, as long as there’s capacity.

• Solo Players: Paired with friends or Company members in the same Shard when possible.

• Joining Others: To join someone in a different Shard, be in the same area and select “Join Shard” from the Social Menu.

Social Interactions

• Area Chat: Limited to players within the same Shard, while Global Chat remains unchanged.

• Proximity Actions: Activities like trading, music, and dueling require all participants to be in the same Shard.

Player vs Player

• Dedicated PvP Shard: Each area has a single Shard for PvP to ensure fair play.

• PvP Flagging: Players flagged for PvP in non-PvP Shards can transfer to the PvP Shard.

• Initial Implementation: Sharding will be limited to Monarch’s Bluffs and Windsward initially. Expansion to other zones will depend on feedback and performance.

Camps

• Camp Locations: Camps remain in the Shards where they were placed.

• Recalling to Camp: You can recall to your Camp location without being forced into its Shard.

• Shard Shutdowns: If a Shard with your Camp is shut down, the Camp will be removed, and you’ll be notified.

Stay tuned for more updates on Shards as we refine this feature based on your feedback.

General

• Client-side anti-cheat has been upgraded to the latest version.

• Fixed an issue that caused player storage sheds to occasionally appear empty, forcing impacted players to exit and re-enter the storage shed UI in order to refresh the cached storage state.

• Fixed a rare issue that caused certain items to appear as if they were missing from player inventories.

Combat

General

• Fixed an issue that caused attacks to not buffer during certain animation frames of the dodge action.

• Resolved issues to allow proper break out from jumps to other actions.

• Fixed an issue with sliding around while sprinting by adjusting acceleration for movement.

• Fixed an issue where projectiles would sometimes not fire towards the crosshair location.

• Fixed an issue that prevented movement if an emote was triggered while aiming or blocking.

• Fixed an issue that allowed upper body actions to continue during stuns.

• Fixed an issue that prevented attack buffering during the activation animation of the Primal Fury Heartrune.

• Fixed an issue where Corrupted Portal enemies were spawning underground.

• Fixed an issue where AI enemies going beyond their intended borders while giving chase to players would suddenly stop and die.

• Improved animation blending when cancelling dodges, full body attacks and reactions with a ranged attacks.

• Reduced the maximum “pitch” value for the character’s combat camera while using a controller’s “target lock” function during the Neishatun boss fight. This was done to help keep the fight’s action in view.

• Reverted recent changes to Block Stability for varying Equip Loads to where they were pre-Season 5 (Heavy = -10%, Medium = 0%, & Light = +10%).

• Reverted recent changes to CC Status Effect Duration for varying Equip Loads to where they were pre-Season 5 (Heavy = -20%, Medium = -10%, & Light = 0%).

• Updated the Shirking Empower perk to 7% per stack for 3 stacks from 4% Empower per stack for 4 stacks (total Empower increased from 21% max from 16% max).

Void Gauntlet

• Fixed an issue that prevented Void Blade attacks from triggering while standing in water.

• Fixed an issue where consecutive Void Gauntlet auto attacks would not turn the player in the proper direction if facing the wrong way.

Life Staff

• Adjusted the controller’s target-lock UI element to now stay on-screen for the entire duration of a healing spell when using targeted healing functions for an improved user experience.

• Fixed an issue that caused healing abilities to trigger their Mana cost and cooldown despite the spell cancelling due to the target moving out of range.

Hatchet

• Fixed an issue where Hatchet light attacks were prioritized over aimed-throw after leaving a throw ability while holding down the Aim button.

• The Keen Berserk perk will no longer have a Low Health condition; instead, the Keen Berserk perk now grants a scaling 5% / 13% / 20% bonus to Crit Chance and Crit Damage while Berserk is active.

Fire Staff

• Fixed an issue that prevented players from swapping between Flamethrower, Pillar of Fire, and Meteor Shower abilities.

• Increased heavy damage from 110% to 120% with the Flare passive unlocked.

Musket

• Fixed an issue where a dry-fire Musket shot could be triggered if attempting to shoot after dodging while a reload is pending.

• Fixed an issue that prevented weapon reloads from triggering correctly when firing from the hip.

• Fixed an issue where Powder Burn and Power Shot could trigger multiple instances of damage in a single use.

• Fixed an issue where Powder Burn and Power Shot ability cooldowns were not always activated when used within Shooter’s Stance.

• Removed the Accuracy Penalty when rotating the player camera.

• Increased the pushback for Stopping Power from 3m to 5m.

• Removed the Headshot secondary condition from the Deadeye Ultimate, instead granting a bonus if two or more targets are hit with a single attack (headshot no longer required).

• Updated the Lethal Combo ultimate to apply to all musket debuffs instead of only those within the Trapper tree exclusively.

Ice Gauntlet

• Fixed an issue where the Entomb ability was triggering Refreshing Frost twice per activation.

• Fixed an issue that rendered characters unable to move when teleported during an active Ice Gauntlet’s Entombed ability state.

Bow

• Fixed an issue where the player can attain slightly faster attack speed on Bow when cancelling Rain Of Arrows, Penetrating Shot, or Poison Shot abilities.

• Reduced Rain of Arrows’ Barbed Arrows upgrade DoT damage from 15% to 9% per tick

• Reduced Poison Shot DoT duration from 10s to 7s.

Blunderbuss

• Reduced the reload time of light attacks by 35%, for improved weapon usability.

• Reduced light attack damage slightly to compensate for reload time changes, coming down to 19% from 21% per pellet (114% from 126% for 6 pellets).

• Fixed an issue with the Exhaustive Net Shot perk where the functional values were lower than the displayed values.

• Reduced performance on the Exhaustive Net Shot perk, lowing the max value for weapons from to 41% from 60% and max armor value to 25% from 37%.

Flail

• Adjusted Leader of The Pack passive by increasing damage while no allies are nearby from 10% to 15%, and increased the Empower allies receive when nearby from 5% to 10%.

Rapier

• Some of the planned adjustments to the Deadly Flourish perk will not be taking placed as originally discussed in the Balance of Power video. Upon further testing and feedback, we have decided against adding the bleed status effect to the functionality, and will just have the health condition removed for now.

Spear

• Updated the tooltip for Cyclone Invigorating’s Combo upgrade to include information on a max target limit of 2.

• Updated functionality of the Evasive Maneuvers passive to only apply to the next dodge within 2s, not to all dodges.

• Updated Fortifying Perforate Perk by lowering values to 10% Armor / 18% Weapon Max per Stack, from 10% Armor / 25% Weapon Max per Stack.

• Updated Invigorating Crits passive from a flat Stamina gain to an increased Stamina Regen Rate of 30% for 3s on Crit.

Sword & Shield

• Made a series of changes aimed at improving build diversity:

  • Adjusted the Status Effect and Taunt from Defender’s Resolve to trigger much sooner in the animation. It will now activate on the first frame instead of frame 21 for status effect and 8 for taunt.

  • Reduced Defender’s Resolve – Reduced cooldown to 35s from 45s.

  • Adjusted Defender’s Resolve Restoration upgrade to 30% of base health from 15% of max health.

  • Defender’s Resolve Restoration upgrade – Adjusted from being 15% of max health to 30% of base health.

  • Increased Whirling Blade attack radius to 3m from 2m.

War Hammer

• Increased Mighty Gavel damage to 190% from 170% .

• Increased Mighty Gavel Summary Judgement target health requirement to below 50% from below 30%.

Artifacts

• Added additional functionality to Winged Leather Shoes to increase damage by 10% while Haste is active.

• Reduced Magnetic Gauntlets Crit damage reduction to 30% from 50%.

• Fixed an issue where the Phoenix artifact could ignore special Status Effects that weren’t intended to be bypassed. The item’s effect will continue to trigger for area combat effects, such as Afflictions, but will no longer trigger from special types of environmental damage where death is certain (such as when drowning or entering an out-of-bound area).

Consumables

• Fixed an issue preventing consumables from cancelling melee basic attacks on startup.

• Fixed an issue where player could slide while using Honing Stones or Coating while also using a Flail and Shield.

• Using a consumable item can now cancel a block action.

Game Modes

• Fixed an issue that could allow enemies to fire projectiles through Outpost Rush fort gates.

• Decreased cost of Siege Ammo Kit from the Armory to 20 Battle Tokens from 30 Battle Tokens.

• Fixed an issue that could cause the Winter Rune Forge’s rune puzzle to not appear when conditions were met.

Mounts

• Fixed an issue where the mount did not respond to backwards movement inputs while standing still with the Freeform Movement toggle enabled.

User Interface

• Fixed an issue that allowed The Tower camp skin to be deployable in forts.

• Fixed an issue that prevented players from accessing the In-Game Store after performing certain weapon abilities.

Thanks for your support! We’ll see you in Aeternum.