With Season 10: Nighthaven, explore a realm hidden from Aeternum for generations. Uncover the fate of the Tear of Gaea, navigate treacherous alliances, and face threats born from darkness itself. Between a mysterious new zone, evolving endgame systems, and a 10-player raid, this season reshapes how you journey and endure.
The Nighthaven update will release on Monday, October 13 and will be free for all New World: Aeternum owners.
New Zone: Nighthaven
An ancient land rich with history, Nighthaven was largely cut off from the rest of Aeternum for lifetimes under the direction of its powerful king. Those few who did visit the haunting woods and mighty castles tell stories of mysterious figures, tall and lithe, engaged both in the politics of the court and in the dark hallways of the land’s many ruins. These inhabitants can be both charming and welcoming, or vicious and fearsome, depending on how they view those that they interact with. They rule at the behest of their king, carving out pieces of the land that they oversee on his behalf.
There are also stories of monstrous creatures that seem to exhibit the qualities of both man and beast. Although they have largely been known to stalk the dark forests and hills of Nighthaven, they haven recently become bolder, becoming a more ever-present threat.
Nighthaven is a land shrouded in mystery, where the dark holds sway over the light. Power lies deep in the catacombs and ruins of this land to those who are bold and brave enough to venture there. Discover the secrets hidden in the shadows of these ancient halls, and use them to confront the threats endangering not only the people of Nighthaven, but the whole of Aeternum as well.
New Story: The Tear of Gaea
After the events of Elysian Wilds, Morgaine left with the Tear of Gaea to sequester it somewhere safe, away from ambitious intent. However, it seems that her journey was met with ill fortune, and the Tear has gone missing. She is once more turning to the Soulwarden in an attempt to recover the Tear and keep the world safe from whatever nefarious intent may be planned for it.
Travel within the newly discovered land of Nighthaven, and engage the enigmatic and mysterious figures that call it home as you search for the divine artifact. Search through ageless ruins and the facades of opulence as you work to uncover the truth of what is happening in this isolated and reclusive land. But be wary, as trust is a commodity in short supply throughout Nighthaven.
New Game Mode: Catacombs
Catacombs is a new game mode in which up to three players explore the depths of a procedurally generated dungeon, battling a wide variety of enemies and bosses, gaining unique mode-specific powerups, collecting cursed resources and currency, and racing to successfully exit and cleanse their treasures before time runs out.
While the difficulty of Catacombs is moderate at the start of a session, the challenge (and reward) is increased significantly each time a boss is defeated. To counter this, players are able to acquire in-mode power-ups that enhance their stats and abilities. With each boss defeated, players must decide between pushing further into the Catacombs for even greater rewards or safely making their exit before time run out. Failure to make a safe exit results in loss of the vast majority of the treasures collected, but only one player needs to safely exit to avoid this.
New Raid: Isle of Night
Isle of Night is a new 10-person endgame raid. The raid is set in a once magnificent kingdom whose inhabitants have now fallen Lost. Similar in length and format to Hive of Gorgons, this raid features three new bosses and multiple new enemy types, light puzzles, and set piece encounters. This raid will be some of the hardest content in the Season 10, demanding players gear-up and coordinate to succeed.
Overhauled Endgame Progression
Nighthaven brings with it numerous game-wide changes to systems, progression, gearing, and rewards. Our goal with these changes is to form a connective tissue that motivates a variety of play in endgame activities, and enables players to customize their loadouts in ways they never could before to discover unique and powerful combinations of equipment.
Level Cap to 70, Gear Score Max To 800
Along with a level cap increase, gear score is raising from 725 to 800. PvP Modes which currently scale gear to 700, will now scale to 775.
New Gear Modding System - “Perk Charms”
Instead of 1 customizable gem socket, gear can now have up to four empty sockets into which players can install new perk modifiers called "charms." Charm sockets and charms themselves have three types: Defensive, Offensive, and Skill. These charms can be picked up fully refined, but more commonly will need to be crafted with rare materials which drop from endgame content.
Set Bonuses
We are introducing set bonuses into New World: Aeternum for the first time. These ultra rare sets of gear will be earned from pinnacle endgame content: Isle of Night Raid, Catacombs, and the PvP Track. We want to encourage players to mix and match these sets to achieve their desired build type, so they aren’t all-or-nothing.
Set bonuses come in two types: some bonuses activate at two equipped pieces and then get better at four equipped pieces (2/4), and some only activate at three pieces and then get better at five pieces (3/5). This means there are seven possible combinations of set bonus configurations: 2,2,2,2,2; 4,4,2; 5,5; 5,3,2; 4,3,3; 4,2,2,2,2; and 3,3,2,2. It’s up to you to decide the best combination of effects that best suits your unique playstyle.
Umbrals
To round out the long-term chase, we've ushered in a new generation of Umbral Shards. This means that all gear in the new paradigm stays viable, and upgradable with umbrals rather than the clunky system at the gypsum kiln. Any gear with Gear Score of at least 700 can be upgraded with Umbrals. The system now works slightly differently than umbrals in the past, as it is now a currency with a wallet cap of 1,000 and a weekly rate limit to earn. This will keep Umbral's value from deteriorating over time, which was a problem we saw with the previous version of this system.
Infix Perks
There will still be unique gear pieces with powerful and rare perks called "infixes." These will function similarly to how the unique perk on artifacts work.
Attribute Changes
There are no longer any perks, which increase attributes. We felt these perks didn’t really result in a meaningful choice between two good alternatives, so we’ve decided to reclaim that slot for more interesting perks. All of the attribute points that used to come from these perks has been instead added into the native attribute point pool granted by normal leveling—and to make sure this is easier to manage, we’ve made Gear Set Storage loadouts now also save your current Attribute loadout. The attribute perks on existing gear have been replaced with other perks of relatively low power, since players will keep the power the attribute perks used to yield.
Perk Design
We’ve done a complete sweep through our collection of perks and made some structural changes. Our goal is to make perk selection conditional and thoughtful, and to eliminate "must have" perks that simply raise the critical combat numbers like damage, stamina, and cooldown reduction without some kind of meaningful drawback.
New OPR Map: The Tower
"The Tower" rises above the mists, a gothic fortress fusing ancient magic and engineering brilliance atop a mountain peak. Battle across three vertical layers of dark grandeur, from the commanding castle heights to the corrupted depths below. Jump pads and strategic pathways create constant warfare, while three capture points drive the action. Underground passages hide valuable mines and fearsome arenas, providing tactical options and game-changing resources. In this 20v20 battlefield, victory belongs to those who can master both the heights and depths of combat.
Keep on the Lookout
Get a sneak peek at Season 10 with the OPR map preview scheduled Sep 23 - Sep 30
Don’t miss the Developer Video going in depth on Season 10 coming in early October
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