Whether it’s because you’ve already played the beta or want to wage war in the end-game, you will need to know about the best New World leveling build, the best gear, attributes, and XP farms to help you level up fast.
Amazon Games’ highly anticipated MMO, New World, takes the tropes of titles such as Blizzard’s World of Warcraft or Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV Online and transports them into a 17th Century environment.
An integral part of the MMORPG, though, is grinding through levels. Love it or hate it, in order to become Aeternum’s next champion you’ll have to start from the bottom and work your way to the top.
Whether you can’t be bothered reliving the grind because you’ve already played the beta, or want to skip the leveling process and plunge into that all-out war mode, here’s how to level up fast in New World.
Contents
- New World leveling build: best weapons, armor, attributes
- New World leveling activities: best XP farming methods
New World leveling build: best weapons, armor, attributes
New World Leveling build: Weapons
Every warrior needs the best New World gear. This includes the right armor and attributes, but that will only get you so far. Your Aeternum champion will need raw firepower on their side if they want to dominate the competition.
- Read More: Best New World Sword and Shield build
Players have two weapon slots in-game, so it’s worth trying out a few different combinations. Having one melee and one ranged weapon gives you plenty of variety and will let you pull off combos that will have your enemies’ jaws on the floor (in more ways than one).
The best weapon choices for leveling are:
| Weapon 1 | Why? | Weapon 2 | Why? |
| Hatchet (Berserker) | Berserk’s lifesteal synergizes with the Life Staff’s healing to make you incredibly tanky. | Life Staff (Healer) | Increases survivability and saves you chugging health restorers. |
| Hatchet (Berserker) | Berserk’s movement speed is great for getting in and out quickly. | Bow (Skirmisher) | The Bow’s movement speed passives mean you can run-in with the Hatchet then get out safely. |
| Rapier (Bleed) | The Rapier’s bleed ability is perfect for melting enemy health bars, leaving them vulnerable to that final shot. | Musket (Trapper) | The Salt on the Wound passive grants 10% increased damage on low health targets, perfectly synergizing with the Rapier. |
New World Leveling build: Armor
Armor is split into three different types in New World: Light, medium, and heavy. Each impacts your character’s agility due to the weight change, so it’s important to select the right armor type for your playstyle.
We’ve grouped the best classes for each armor below, but if you feel like you’re getting mauled as a ranged character or your reactions are too slow as a tank, medium armor is always a reliable bet:
| Armor Type | Protection | Mobility | Best classes |
| Light | Poor | High | Ranged DPS, Healers |
| Medium | Medium | Still has dodge potential | Assassin-style classes |
| Heavy | High | Poor | Tanks |
New World leveling build: Attributes
When depositing those all-important attribute points, you’ll need to be aware of what attributes synergize with your class. So, for example, if the Musket is your primary weapon you’ll want to upgrade your Dexterity and Intelligence as these are the Musket’s two main synergies.
- Read More: Which faction to choose in New World
Be sure to focus on maxing out your primary weapon’s associated attributes before moving on to your secondary weapon. While you can easily respec during the first 20 levels, constantly changing your attributes can become costly in the long run.
How to level up fast in New World: best XP farming methods
Now that you’re all geared up with the perfect build, you’re going to want to dive right in and start climbing to the level 60 cap. Luckily, we’ve got a comprehensive list of all the activities you should be completing (and re-visiting to farm) in order to max out your XP gains.
Main Story Quests
One of the most important (and easiest) ways to farm XP is by completing New World’s main story missions. These guided activities reward you with a huge amount of XP, and are a crucial part of the leveling process.
- Read More: New World character creation explained
However, many of these missions are level-gated, so you’ll need to seek out additional sources of XP before knocking them all out. However, once you reach the appropriate level to tackle the next part of the main story, make that your top priority.
Side Quests
In addition to New World’s main story, there are plenty of side missions scattered around the game’s various zones, and these will serve as an important part of your level grind as well.
Each time you visit a settlement, make sure to stop by its quest board to pick up any level-appropriate side missions and knock them out. Not only will these net you a decent bit of XP, but they’re also key to making sure you’re strong enough to tackle the next part of the main quest.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Town Projects
In addition to side quests, there are also a set of projects located in each settlement that you can tackle to boost your XP and gain some levels. These town-specific quests tend to be fairly standard MMO fare: pick up this number of items, hunt this number of animals, kill this number of enemies — you get the point.
Despite their mundane nature, these are another great source of XP, and are one of the quickest and easiest ways to help increase your level. In addition, they are extremely farmable — you can fast travel to different settlements, complete all their projects, then rinse and repeat.
Gathering Resources
As you probably know by now, a huge part of New World’s experience is gathering materials. Whether its mining rocks, chopping down trees, or something else entirely, you’ll find yourself collecting plenty of resources during your time in Aeternum.
Whenever you harvest a resource, not only are you boosting your main level, but you’ll be increasing your individual skills as well. As you adventure throughout the world, make sure you’re not skimping out on your resource gathering — it’ll pay off in the long run.
Dungeon Grinding
As your level grows, you’ll start diving into more dungeons — another crucial part of the New World experience. While these activities are often tied to quests and reward you with new items, they can also be farmed for XP.
Revisiting the appropriate dungeons can land you with some massive XP gains: up to nearly 4,000 XP per completion. This makes farming these activities extremely useful, with the added bonus that you’ll be acquiring new loot and resources along the way.
Corrupted Portals
While it requires a little more coordination, farming Corrupted Portals across Aeternum can be one of the most effective ways to gain XP. Each completion can net you around 3,000 XP, making it comparable to the dungeon farming we mentioned early.
- Read More: How to equip Twitch skins in New World
If you can spearhead a group of friends and fast travel between all of the portals within a certain region, you can farm incredible amounts of XP in a short period of time.
Also, make sure you’re paying attention to your local game chat — if large groups of random players are planning to farm portals, your team can show up at the same location to help get these done even quicker — a win-win for everyone involved.
PVP Missions
New World features quite a heavy emphasis on PVP activities, particularly as you climb higher in your level and approach the endgame. Fortunately, even low-level PVP missions can be a solid way to farm XP.
Completing these missions will net you a decent bit of XP, but the benefits are threefold, as you will actually be racking up weapon experience and leveling your skills all at the same time.
If you aren’t overly PVP-focused, this might not be the route for you, but it’s just another way to squeeze every bit of potential XP out of the game.
So that’s everything you need to know about crafting the best New World leveling build as well as leveling up fast, but are you looking to do more than that? Become the best warrior Aeternum has ever seen with our handy guides:
How to get the Waning Crescent staff | Life Staff mastery tree | Fiber and Linen guide | Great Axe guide | Fishing guide | Where to find sheep | Candied Strawberries | AoE Mage guide
