New World Update (January 2022): Mutated Expeditions, Umbral Update System

The January New World update is live, and it improves the end-game experience by adding the highly anticipated mutated expeditions, the Umbral upgrade system for gear upgrades, and more.

After Michael "Schrude" Grzesik hyped the game in December 2021, Amazon Games has finally released the long-awaited January New World update.

Not only is it set to make the end-game experience better by adding Mutated Expeditions and a facility for players to further improve their gear score with Umbral Shards, but it also makes fast travel more accessible.

There are many other bits and pieces including bug fixes, AI and combat improvements, and more.

New World received a massive overhaul in the January update.

Mutated Expeditions

First of all, the patch adds a new endgame feature called Expedition Mutators. Essentially, these items increase the difficulty of enemies found in existing Expeditions, making them much more difficult to complete.

This also means that players will be able to find better rewards for their efforts, including better gear and resources, and more gold.

In order to enter a mutated expedition, you will need to unlock the codex for it by completing a run on normal difficulty. You will also need Mutated Expedition Customization Orbs, which can only be crafted once per week.

To keep things fresh, there will also be ten different difficulty levels and a ladder to see how your progress on any mutated expedition compares to other players. The score is based on duration, kills, wipes, and more.

Mutated expeditions are much more complex than standard ones.

Umbral Upgrade System

New World players will also now be able to upgrade individual pieces of gear that have a gear rating between 590 and 625 by spending Umbral Shards. However, it can only be unlocked when players reach 600 experience for that item type.

Umbral Shards can be found in three ways. Successfully completing a mutated expedition is the easiest way. The higher the difficulty and the better you score, the more Umbral Shards you will earn on the run.

You can also find them by opening plaster casts or crafting an item with a gear score of 600. But again, this only works if you've already reached 600 expert knowledge for that item type. It's also worthless that items upgraded with Umbral Shards cannot be traded.

New World players now have more ways to increase their equipment score.

Reduce the cost of fast travel

It may not be as game-changing as the other two features, but the developers listened to community feedback and decided to significantly reduce the cost of fast travel somewhere on the map.

In order to achieve this, they have reduced the Azoth price influence distance. They have also added several new fast travel shrines in the following locations:

• Excavated shrine added at Amrin's dig
• Temple of the Starstone added to the northeast wall of the Ruined Obelisk Complex
• Shrine of Shiresad has been added outside the entrance to the Depths.
• Shrine of Genesis added in front of Garden of Genesis
• Sanctuary of Melpomene added under Siren's Amphitheater
• Shrine of Lazarus added next to Lazarus' Toolkit

The cost of fast travel across the New World has plummeted.

That's all you need to know about the outstanding features added in New World's January update. However, there is much more.

If you'd like to look at the full list of patch notes in more detail, you can find them all below - courtesy of Amazon Games.

New World January Update - Full Patch Notes

Expedition Modifiers: Mutators

Entrance to the Mutated Expedition

• Players will need a codex to unlock the mutated version of the expedition. Upon completion of a Regular Difficulty Expedition, players will receive a Codex for that Expedition and a one-time reward in the form of a Mutated Expedition Tuning Ball.
  • The note:
  • Players invited to a group that already has a codex and an orb will be rewarded with both items upon completion.
    • The mutated Expedition Tuning Ball will not be rewarded for additional completions of regular difficulty Expeditions.
• By approaching and interacting with the expedition menu, players will be able to see the type of mutator available, mutation level, gear rating recommended to advance, and finally if they meet the entry qualification.
  • Mutator balls are universal. Players can craft 1 per week and will be able to purchase additional Orbs from the Faction Shop.
• Scoring and promotion
  • The score is based on performance, taken from a combination of categories. The score is also a shared value for group members.
  • The following categories count towards the group's total score:
    • Time: The better the time, the better the score. Calculated at the end of the run.
    • AI Kills: The target value for killing a predetermined number of enemies on an expedition.
    • Takedowns: Target value for killing "Named Enemies" on an expedition.
    • Team Wipes: Each team wipe during a boss fight significantly reduces the score.
    • Respawns: Each respawn reduces the score by a moderate amount.
• There are also bonus multipliers for running efficiency, minimum respawn/wipe, speed, and destroying all targets. They are calculated at the end of the expedition. Point ratings: Bronze, Silver and Gold.
• Advancing through each level of Mutator difficulty requires reaching a predetermined skill level within the highest level achieved. Higher scores mean progression to higher difficulties, which in turn leads to greater rewards.
• Mutation effects
  • Spontaneous
    • Elemental Mutations imbue enemies on Expedition with a specific type of elemental damage, increasing their resistance to that type of damage, converting most of their damage to that type, and granting them powerful elemental abilities.
    • Hellfire: Hellfire fills enemies with fire, allowing them to incinerate players who oppose them.
    • Eternal: Eternal infuses enemies with the Void, granting them abilities that weaken players or buff their Void-infused allies.
  • shares
    • Promoting Mutations empowers creatures on the Expedition with powerful new abilities.
    • Savage: Savage AI applies a healing reduction and casts damaging beams around it.
    • Indomitable: Indomitable creatures persist through damage with lifesteal abilities and are capable of summoning a phalanx, blocking all incoming projectiles from the player.
  • Curses
    • Curse mutations inflict dangerous effects on players, forcing them to work together to overcome the power of the curse. On the highest difficulties, Curses become Empowered, creating additional tactical problems.
    • Withered: Withered players sometimes burn with elemental energy. When the curse is empowered, players will need to cleanse themselves by getting close to the burning player.
    • Censored players will find their abilities turned against them. After the players in the group have used a certain number of activated abilities, zones of explosive silence will appear on all players. When the curse is empowered, players will lose their natural mana regeneration and must enter silence zones to restore their mana.

Umbral Upgrade System

• Players can upgrade individual pieces of equipment from GS 590 to GS 625 by spending Umbral Shards. Please note that we have lowered this requirement from GS 600 to GS 590 based on PTR feedback and the desire to require legendary items to participate in the Umbral system.
• The ability to upgrade items of any type is unlocked when players reach 600 experience for that type of item.
• Players can purchase Umbral Shards in three ways:
  • Expeditionary Mutators are the most efficient way to earn shards. The higher the difficulty level and the higher the score rating, the more shards the player will earn.
  • Opening plaster casts once this type of experience reaches at least 600 expert knowledge.
  • Crafting 600 GS items once experience of that type reaches at least 600 Expertise.
• Upgrading any item with Umbral Shards binds the item to the player.

Expert system updates

• Players increase their experience from 590 to 600 with current funds; Plaster casts and random impacts across the open world.
• Experience increases from 600 to 625 with the Umbral system.
• Expertise Scaling Gears
  • Any item purchased from a trading post or purchased via P2P after the January patch will have their effective gear score reduced to the midpoint of players experience and item gear score if their experience is lower than the item's gear score.

General improvements and QOL improvements

• Whenever you craft a GS 600 item, if your experience for that item type is less than 600, it will trigger an expertise hit. This will be another great way for artisans to get their XP up to 600 (in addition to the already released Emerald Gypsum from the Trade Skill Aptitude Reward containers).
• If you get an Expertise hit from a random fall in the open world, the loot ticker will now show which item gave you the Expertise hit.
• If you get an expert hit from opening the reward cache, the opening sequence will highlight which item gave you the hit.
• You can now craft a Topaz Gypsum Attunement Potion at any Arcana station, as well as any Tier 5 camp.
• Increased chances of getting Topaz Gypsum when killing enemies and tweaked.
• We have resolved an issue where plaster casts only provided +1 bonuses when opened above an item's gear rating of 585. Plaster cast upgrades from 585 to 600 should now be at least +2, except when experience is 599.
• In order to give players more access to using Gypsum more freely as they are acquired, we have removed crafting cooldowns on Gypsum Balls.

Expedition Changes

• With the release of Expedition Mutators, we've made some balance changes and updated existing content.
• We've made expeditions more enticing by updating rewards and drop bets to align with other end-game activities:
  • The drop speed for Named Enemies in Expeditions has been significantly increased.
  • T5 gear has been added to the Dynasty Shipyard loot tables when playing Mutated Expedition.
• We have adjusted the number of enemies:
  • Lazarus' Toolkit: Reduced the number of enemies when sealing Ancient Nitrogen Portals in Ostium.
• Expedition Tuning Balls
  • Mission Orbs for Amrin's Dig, Starstone Mounds, Deeps, and Dynasty Shipyards can be purchased from the Faction Shop once a day. Expedition Tuning Orbs for Garden of Genesis and Lazarus Instrumentality can be purchased once per week.
  • To expand access to crafting Expedition Tuning Orbs, we made the following tradable materials that were previously tied to players:
    • late blight seeds
    • Damaged lodstones, crystals, fragments, shards and splinters
    • Chisels
• We have significantly reduced the cost of making expedition keys. Global key changes in crafting:
  • Reduced Starmetal Dosel coin cost to 150 from 200.
  • Reduced Orichalcum Dosel coin cost to 200 from 400.
  • Reduced Asmodeum Chisel coin cost to 250 from 500.
  • Eternal Heart: Reduced all elemental moth costs. Now costs 10 per moth from 30.
  • Elemental Heart: Reduced all elemental mosaic crafting costs. Now costs 10 per moth from 30.
  • Undying Heart: Reduced all costs for the Elemental Quintessence of Crafting. Now costs 2 of each Quintessence, down from 6.
  • Dynasty Tuning Orb: Reduced the amount of Corrupted Crystal required for crafting. Now costs 1 compared to 2.
  • Dynasty Tuning Orb: Reduced the amount of Obsidian Voidstone required to craft. Now costs 8, up from 10.
  • Lazarus Tuning Orb: Reduced the amount of Corrupted Lodestone required for crafting. Now costs 1 compared to 3.
  • Genesis Tuning Orb: Reduced the amount of Corrupted Lodestone required for crafting. Now costs 1 compared to 2.
• Modified tuning ball changes from PTR:
  • Reduced the amount of Runeston required for crafting. Now costs 5 compared to 10.
  • Reduced the amount of Powerful Gem Dust required for crafting. Now costs 5 compared to 10.
  • Reduced the number of required chisels to 1 from 2.

Fast shipping costs

• We've heard your frustration with the cost of Fast Travel, and this release includes an update that greatly reduces the distance factor in the amount of Azoth required for each trip. Accordingly, the Faction Control Point bonus associated with Fast Travel now reduces the distance factor to zero.
• New Fast Travel shrines have been unearthed!
  • Excavated shrine added at Amrin's dig
  • Temple of the Starstone added to the northeast wall of the Ruined Obelisk Complex
  • Shrine of Shiresad has been added right at the entrance to the Depths.
  • Sanctuary of Genesis added in front of the entrance to the Garden of Genesis
  • Sanctuary of Melpomene added under Siren's amphitheater
  • Shrine of Lazarus added near entrance to Lazarus' Instrument

Open world

• Fixed an issue where the following Elite Strongholds would not always apply their respective ailments to players who entered visually affected areas:
  • crippled heights
  • Ambusti Lower/Higher
  • Mykgard
  • Gloat
• Siren's Stand: Revised chest locations of several elite chests to be closer to their associated named enemy.
• Crippled Heights: Slightly moved one elite chest at the Twisted Smallpox Gate.

Notable fixes

• Fixed inconsistent spelling for player encountering Eridanus' name.
• Fixed an issue with Windsward Patrol Faction missions displaying incorrect values.
• Added a fix to prevent duplicate targets for players.
• Yetis have gone from Elite Boss to Elite after the Winter Convergence event.
• Added enemies to the abandoned camp in the Troubled Shore.
• Increased spawn time to level 35+ POI to allow for longer time to kill enemies.
• Fixed a bug found in PTR when a tree flies into the sky after being cut down.
• Fixed an issue where the Apprentice of Disorder would only spawn once in Mirkgard.
• Decreased loading time.
• Fixed a bug due to which the fence was not displayed for all players in Weaver's Fen.
• Removed a small patch of invisible water in Everfall, north of Orion, that could slow the player down or cause the player to drown.
• Fixed an issue with Elite Chest clipping through the Orchicalcum vein, making it difficult to loot in Mirkgard.
• Various fixes for collectable items and vegetation collisions below or inside the world.
• Various hole fixes in world collision.

Combat and AI

General AI

• Bears
  • Increased hit volumes for bipedal bears so players can deal damage more consistently.
• Skeletons
  • Reduced the amount of health Skeletons will regenerate from 70% to 40%.
• People
  • Reduced the amount of healing given by villager potions from 35% to 20%.
  • Increased cooldown on potions.
• Varangian knights
  • The Varangian knights celebrated the Winter Convergence by laying down their weapons and painting them the color of their armor.
• Tendrils (Corrupted and Evil Earth)
  • Decreased damage from sweep attack by 40%, decreased frequency of this attack, but increased reaction to knockdown.
  • Reduced hit attack damage by 50% and removed the stagger reaction.
  • Thrash attack damage reduction by 40%.
  • Reduced projectile attack damage by 50% and removed the stagger reaction.
• Swamp Beast Arena Boss
  • Fixed an issue that prevented Swamp Beast from consuming minions properly.

Expeditionary AI

• Garden of Genesis
  • Fixed an issue that prevented enemies from protecting the sapling.
  • Alluvium Marl - Removed the unintended ability for minions to inflict a debuff against Alluvium Marl upon their death.
  • Blighted Greenskeeper - Redesigned VFX on Blighted Greenskeeper to be more visible.

The battle

Added mutator privileges

• Weapon Benefits
  • Flame Attunement - Attacks deal an additional 15% weapon damage as Fire. (Cooldown 2s)
  • Frost Attunement - Attacks deal an additional 15% weapon damage in the form of Ice. (Cooldown 2s)
  • Woody Attunement - Attacks deal an additional 15% weapon damage, similar to Nature. (Cooldown 2s)
  • Abyssal Attunement - Attacks deal an additional 15% weapon damage as a Void. (Cooldown 2s)
• Armor Perks
  • Flame Conditioning - After being hit by fire damage, gain 4% fire absorption over 5 seconds. Each piece of armor with this perk increases the potency of the effect.
  • Frost Conditioning - After being damaged by ice, gain 4% ice absorption over 5 seconds. Each piece of armor with this perk increases the potency of the effect.
  • Tree Conditioning - After being hit by nature, gain 4% nature absorption over 5 seconds. Each piece of armor with this perk increases the potency of the effect.
  • Abyssal Conditioning - After hitting with Void damage, gain 4% Void absorption over 5 seconds. Each piece of armor with this perk increases the potency of the effect.

PVP damage formula update

• We've tweaked how armor is calculated to use the enemy's Gear Score instead of your average Gear Score.
• To correct for the difference in armor softening, we have increased the damage that low level players deal to higher level players and reduced the damage that higher level players get from lower level players.

Outpost Rush

• Increased the cost of Brute tokens from 500 Azoth to 750 Azoth.
• Summoning Stones are now dropped on death.
• Summoning Stones now have a rarity associated with them. Epic for Bear and Wraith tokens and Legendary for Brute Tokens. This should make it clear to players when they are being thrown by other players.
• Rush Alpha Wolf Outpost will no longer spawn minions.
• Outpost Rush no longer has weight.
• Baroness Hayne's ice mines now slow the player by 30% for 3 seconds instead of stunning the player.
• Water can no longer be collected in Outpost Rush.
• Added two additional gate points to the sides of each team's spawn.
• Increased cooldown at Rush Brute's Corrupted Ball Outpost.
• Outpost Rush Brutes will now be much less likely to use their Corrupted Ball spell when players are inside a fort.

Notable fixes

• Fixed a bug due to which light attacks of the musket and bow were activated underwater.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Bow from entering the scopes while aiming while switching to the Bow in the Musket Sniper Zoom.
• Updated the abilities of the Rapier Tondo and Bow of Spiky Arrows Rain of Arrows to indicate damage per second instead of total damage per damage over time.
• Fixed an issue where the player's movement speed would sometimes increase when placing a camp.
• Fixed tooltip for penalty damaged sigil incorrectly indicating lightning damage instead of strike.
• Removed text that crashes when launching Quick Shower.
• Fixed an exploit where players could combine multiple ammo return benefits and return ammo using attacks that hit multiple times per use. Added an ammo return cooldown so that it can't trigger more than once every 2 seconds per ability/perk/attribute bonus.
• Fixed an issue where if shift was held while aiming down with a bow or musket, or if the player used any navigation action, the animation would stutter.
• Fixed issues with the player getting stuck after interacting with an NPC.
• Fixed an issue that caused you to cancel Poison Shot or Penetrating shot if you held RMB while activating the ability.
• Fixed an issue where various status effect removals caused the buff to apply indefinitely.
• Fixed an issue that caused bow Concussion ultimate to apply to all attacks, not just headshots.
• Fixed an issue where the protection fix was not working as expected. The following changes have been made to resolve this issue:
  • The updated Protection of Correction can be reapplied by any Healing Ball of Protection, even restoration from Blessing of the Protector.
  • To compensate for this, the duration has been shortened and the effect of this has been reduced. It used to be 5%-40% for 5s that only applied the way the ability was originally cast, now it's 5%-25% for 3s. This duration can be updated with each cooldown tick and additional protection Orb applications.
• Fixed an issue where Harvest Axe's Greater Ability would not deal damage when the Collector modifier and Passive Gravity Active were unlocked.
• Fixed an issue that was common in the PTR where void gauntlet cooldown reduction was caused by DoT ticks.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the Ancient Bear Paw from being used in crafting.
• Fixed an issue causing desync when using shield bash while moving.
• Fixed a desync issue that occurred when homing through the Ice Shower ability.
• Fixed an issue that caused Reap to desync when fully upgraded with Passive Blood Lust.
• Fixed an issue where the bleeding reamer damage pincers on the Spear were causing a cooldown reduction.
• Fixed an issue with the Void Gauntlet that caused Baleful Tether's status effect to be nullified when crouching or crouching.

Economy, progress and mining

Housing tax

• The 90% reduction in housing tax has been cancelled.
• Updated minimum housing tax range to 2,5% from 5%.
• Updated maximum housing tax range to 10% from 20%.
• Updated default housing tax to 5% from 10%.

Ability Rewards

• Removed Azoth flasks from T1 Aptitude chests.
• Reduced Nitrogen Vials with T2 Chest Gathering Ability to 1-2 down from 2-3.
• Reduced Vial Nitrogen from T3 Chest Gathering Ability to 1-3 down from 3-5.
• Reduced Azoth ampoules from T1 Aptitude crafting and chest refinement to 0-1 from 2-3.
• Reduced Azoth ampoules from T2 Aptitude crafting and chest refining to 1-2 from 2-3.
• Reduced Azoth bubbles from T3 Aptitude crafting and refine chests to 2-3 from 3-5.

Awards

• Fixed a bug due to which players under level 60 could receive gypsum from darkness events. Players must be level 60 to start earning Gypsum from these events.
• The Surgeon, Pete Lord Daehi, Baines, and Mordici Mortician have not previously dropped battle trophy materials. This has been fixed!

Kraft

• Fixed a bug due to which Timeless shards were not consumed during crafting.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Maker's Mark Hatchet to incorrectly display as legendary with an additional perk in the crafting menu.
• Updated art for the Energizing Light Ration and Energizing Travel Ration to better represent the ingredients used to create them.
• Fixed the Blackened Manje Manje with Corn Succotash recipe requiring a Lava Barb. Recipe name now refers to the correct fish.
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from crafting GS 600 Arcana items with Winter Patterns.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Onyx from being used when crafting earrings with the Timeless Shard.

Equipment and loot

• To boost the economy after the holidays, we've added a limited-time rare drop called Juniper Berries Sack that gives players Coins and Junipers. It can reward between 50 and 150 coins per purchase and you can only find 3 per day.
• Fixed an issue that caused Rotoard's alligators to drop an excessive amount of rawhide.
• Fixed a bug due to which some 600 equipment points increased your experience.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Lazarus bow to have less agility than other bows of its level and loadout. He now has an equivalent amount of agility.
• Fixed an issue where the Pedal Earring could not be repaired.
• Fixed an issue that caused Egwen's Cloak to stretch with certain animations.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Dynasty Shipyard Mutator ring to display the wrong name and description. It now displays its own name and description.
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from inserting gems into Mutator accessories.
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from inserting gems into the Old Ring, Old Earring, and Old Amulet.

Progression

• Boosting for average game levels 23 - 45 has been accelerated by 20%. We saw mid-game leveling take a little long and didn't match the pace of the content we had.

Expedition Tuning Balls

• The materials used to craft Expedition Keys: Chisels and Corrupted Fragments, Shards, Crystals, and Lodstones are now available for trade.
• Expedition Mutator Command Orbs can be crafted once per week, and added to and purchased from Faction Stores once per week.
• To maintain parity with the Mutator Expedition Command Orbs, regular Expedition Setting Orbs for the Dynasty Shipyard, Garden of Genesis, and Lazarus Tool have been added to the Faction Shops, and each can be purchased once per week.
• To reduce the cost of all inventory items that take permanent damage on death, we've made a change so that only related items take permanent damage on death.
• We fixed an issue that resulted in players losing progress when moving back to a faction they were previously a part of. Now, when players switch back to a faction, they retain their faction rank reputation as well as the balance of their faction tokens.

UX, UI and social media

• Help added to the game when entering the game.
  • This system will help visually impaired players enter the world of Aeternum through voice narration about some of the critical steps needed to create a character and get to the starting beach.
• Removed the ability to give gold to individuals outside of the player-to-player trading system.
• Added a new loading screen tooltip to explain how the strong versus/weak versus mechanic works.
• Players must now play the game for at least 2 hours and own the game for at least 72 hours before they can use the chat. This should help eliminate some more of those pesky gold sellers.

In-game store

• Decor packs now display the number of pieces of furniture included in the pack.
• Shop items can now display both on sale and limited time availability at the same time.
• Currency symbols now display correctly in all regions.

trading post

• Fixed a bug due to which the "Sort by Time" function in the Trading Post did not work correctly.
• Inventory should no longer scroll up after closing the sell window (whether you sell or cancel) in the Trade Record.

Notable fixes

• Fixed a bug due to which the group chat could be interrupted after leaving the house.
• Fixed an issue that resulted in companies owning more than one territory not receiving merger refunds. Companies are now compensated based on the amount of territory they own (rather than a fixed amount).
• Fixed an issue where the Outpost Rush reward screen would only display one reward even if multiple rewards were awarded.
• Fixed an issue where sometimes the icons for damaged violations would not appear on the map.
• Fixed an issue that caused the territory Standing Upgrade UI to remain on screen if the player started a trade while it was visible.
• Fixed an issue where sometimes items would not appear restored after the player restores everything.
• Fixed a bug due to which sometimes incorrect items were traded when trading from a split stack.
• Adjusted Void Gauntlet icons to match glove model color.
• Fixed a number of issues with text overlap in the user interface.
• Fixed an issue with sorting by time in Trade Mail.
• We fixed an issue that caused some timeless Shard icons to display the wrong weight.
• Fixed an issue where the Eternal Pool Arena boss music could be heard directly outside of the Eternal Pool Arena.
• Fixed an issue where sounds would not always play in Navarro's kitchen.
• Adjusted the way mission tooltips dock (they now dock on the side of the tiles) to make it easier to read mission details.
• Added sound when players grab points during Outpost Rush.
• Fixed an issue where players could not always hear Snap the Wolf when accepting the Snap's Blessing quest.
• Fixed a server crash that was likely due to territories abandoned by their governors.
• Fixed inconsistency between server, client and system clock synchronization on the declaration of war screen.
• Fixed an issue where the map was reporting that there was an upcoming invasion when in fact there was an upcoming war.

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