Leveling Strategy Guide for New World

In New World questing is a different than other MMOs. Normally, when given a quest it is expected that you will go out and complete it and that everyone else will have the same quest. In New World there are Main and Side Quests that follow this structure but there are also Missions which can have a random component to them. Missions advance either your standing with your Faction or the progress on the Town Project Board and are not mandatory. These should be viewed as bonus objectives that you may or may not complete when leaving the Settlement. When you are playing with friends you will be able to run the same Main and Side Quests as them because those are set in stone. While completing these Quests you should attempt to complete any of these optional Missions that are along the way. In this guide we will go into more detail about how these Quests and Missions work and how to min-max your time outside the Settlement whether you are playing in a group or solo.

To start off, it should be noted that New World has a lot of ways to gain experience to level your character. Gathering and crafting can provide significant experience especially as you start to gather or craft higher level items, but in this guide we are going to prioritize questing. If you want a detailed rundown of all of the different ways to obtain experience, then check this breakdown here.

Main Quests are the primary story of the game and have important rewards to further your progression. Several mechanics are locked behind progressing your Main Quests so we will prioritize them. Luckily, Main Quests are also the most rewarding quests in terms of both experience and loot. The Main Quest line will take you throughout Aeternum which will allow you to take advantage of simultaneously completing Side Quests and optional Missions.

Side Quests are quests that are unique to a particular territory. Completing all the Side Quests in a particular Territory typically unlocks additional Side Quests so completing all of them is desirable. These quest lines scale up to the max level of a zone. For example, Monarch’s Bluffs has a quest line that starts in the early teens and goes up to Level 25.

While completing Main and Side Quests, you will also be completing optional Missions that are on the main route you intend to take from the Settlement to your quest objectives. These optional Missions are obtained from your Faction representative in the Settlement and the town project board. It is important to note that these quests are not shareable and if you are running in a group it is unlikely for you to all have the same optional Missions. You will be able to sync up on your Main and Side Quests though, so treat these optiona Missions as bonuses.

It is recommend to take all the Quests and Missions in the Settlement and then plot out a route that takes you through as many of them in a reasonable amount of time while prioritizing the Main and Side Quests. While walking a bit farther for a optional quest is okay you should not go any significant distance to complete these. If playing in a group, communicate about where your quests are — right click on the map to place a marker — and hopefully you will be able to spend most of your time outside of the Settlement killing or collecting things for quests. You should also check your map once you complete the requirements for a Main or Side Quest, as frequently it will add another marker for the next step in the quest.

You should not drop optional Missions that are not on your route, instead go out, run your route and then come back to the Settlement. Once you hand in your quests you should have new Main and Side Quests, along with replacement quests for the optional Missions you completed. Once again you can look at your map and plot out a route, and if there are any original optional Missions that you do not expect to complete you can now drop them by clicking on their quest marker on the map and showing them in the log. You should be able to pick up replacement optional Missions for those you drop and they may be be within your questing route. The Faction Quest Board resets every five minutes and the Town Board resets every 30 minutes; you can track the time until reset in the upper right corner of each board.

You should also keep an eye out for corruption breaches on your route. A small breach is easy to complete by a group of two or more and large breaches are more suitable for a group of five or more. These provide a decent amount of experience and loot and can respawn relatively quickly. If there are a lot of people participating in a breach you only have to do some damage to enemies in the breach or channel your Azoth Staff to get credit for completion.

Eventually your Main Quest will take you to another territory and you can either move on or continue to complete the Side Quest lines in your current territory. Depending on several factors your Main Quest might be in a territory that is too high level for you or you might even have a Main Quest to hit a certain level. If this is the case it is totally fine to continue to Side Quest in a lower territory until you are ready to move up to the next territory. You can see in advance if the next territory is going to have Side Quests for you because the map will show quest markers in or around the Settlement. You should wait until you see at least two quests available before moving over.

Town boards can also be a great way to generate some extra experience while leveling as besides offering quests to find things in the territory, they also allow you to turn in materials or kill a certain type of enemies in any territory. The material turn-ins are great to do if you have been doing any gathering while running around or have some extra gold to spend at the trading post. You can also quickly fast travel to nearby Territories that are controlled by a faction to pick up all the available kill quests, as you can complete quests like Defeat Wolves nearly anywhere and hand them in when you are ready.

One last thing I want to mention is that Expeditions can grant serious experience. The first Expedition, Amrine Excavation, is especially rewarding for its level. Once you reach Level 23 you can receive a repeatable quest directly outside the expedition called Bones For Barkimedes (Expedition) and your faction board in Windsward can begin to offer quests inside the expedition.

While your first clear might take a bit you can continue to go back and run it again for experience as long as someone in your group has a tuning orb to open the expedition. In Open Beta my group of five was able to clear Amrine in 25 minutes at around Level 25 with a balanced group of 3 DPS, 1 tank (with a Sword with a socketed Carnelian gem to activate taunts), and a healer. With a faction quest or two it is good experience and it only gets better the higher level you get since you can clear the expedition faster.

Several quests offer tuning orbs for expeditions and in the case of Amrine Excavation you will receive a tuning orb from the Main Quest line and Side Quests in Everfall and Windsward. Each tuning orb is effectively a one-time-use key that is used to open an expedition for your group. They are bind on pickup and therefor are not able to be traded.