29 articlesGear in New World: Aeternum gets a massive change with the release of Nighthaven and Season 10!
Most of the gearing system has been reworked. Perks have been made more customizable with Charms, some old Perks were entirely removed, upgrading Gear Score works differently, etc. There are quite a lot of changes, which we’re sure can be confusing both to new players and veterans alike.
In this guide, we’ll go over the main changes and explain them to help you make the most of them!
Season 10 Gear Guide | New World: Aeternum
New Players – Focus on Story
First things first, we highly recommend that players starting with Season 10 just focus on the main story quests for the time being.
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Season 10 was a huge change, after all, so the community at large is still learning what’s good and what isn’t!
Aside from that, there’s still more changes to gear planned for upcoming patches, particularly relating to crafted gear. These might further affect what you really need to aim for.
All that aside, you’ll also naturally get some worthwhile gear by just playing through the story. So, just focus on it at first if you’re a new player.
Perk Charm System
The biggest new change to gearing in Season 10 is the Perk Charm system.
Every piece of gear you get now can have up to 4 empty Perk Charm sockets. These allow you to slot in Charms, which provide various perks to your gear depending on their type. You can attach Charms by selecting a piece of gear with empty sockets and clicking on Attach Charms.
The Charms themselves are divided into 3 different categories: Offensive, Defensive, and Skill. Certain sockets will only take specific types of Charms. So, finding gear that has the right type of sockets for your needs is important!
You can get Charms through various sources, mainly as a late-game item. You can craft them, get them through drops, or even buy them in-game through trading.
For our recommendation, Soul Trials are an excellent source of Charms. You can get quite a lot of them and the content is tailored for soloing. It’s pretty comfortable to farm, in other words!
Do also note that you can not freely recover Charms that are already socketed into a piece of gear. You can replace them with new ones, but the old Charm will be lost.
Aside from the empty Perk Charm slots, gear can also have Infix Perks. These cannot be changed or modified in any way. They’re a permanent part of the gear they’re on. To compensate, they are generally much stronger, similar to perks from Artifact tier items.
As you might imagine, most of this system is random. The number and type of empty Charm sockets are random, as are the Infix Perks you get!
In summary, pay attention to the empty Perk Charm sockets on the gear you get. Make sure to look out for empty sockets that match the Charms you want to use and customize gear to your liking.
Gem Sockets Are High Priority
Another important thing to keep in mind this season is that Gem sockets are now a bit different. They do not appear on all gear drops and seem to be a bit less common overall. Like Charm Sockets, they’re random.
Gem sockets are represented by an empty circle on your gear, as shown above.
Much like in past seasons, Gems are still a very important source of power for your gear. So, generally speaking, we recommend getting rid of any gear that doesn’t have an empty Gem socket.
The only exceptions to this are when you have nothing better or the Infix Perks are simply too good to pass up!
So, generally, gear without Gem sockets is not worth keeping. Salvaging that gear on sight can greatly reduce inventory clutter, making gear management and progression simpler.
Do Mutated Expeditions and Catacombs
When it comes to getting gear, we highly recommend tackling the weekly Mutated Expeditions as soon as possible. These appear on the map, with a spinning ritual circle marking the Expeditions with mutators.
Ideally, you want to complete the weekly Mutated Expedition at least 5 times. This will guarantee that you get the Artifact tier gear tied to that specific Expedition.
For those who don’t know, Artifact gear is the highest tier of gear in the game. It always comes with 1 special, unique Infix Perk. These perks are generally some of the strongest effects in the game, making Artifacts a must-have for certain builds!
For the Mutated Expeditions, remember that they rotate weekly, as we’ve been mentioning. That means that doing them ASAP is important, otherwise you’ll miss out on that Expedition’s Artifact until whenever it’s back in rotation. Make sure not to miss out.
Aside from those, we also recommend doing the Catacombs activity. It can be a good source of gear, and is generally a more “relaxed” game mode than doing Raids and the like. Don’t ignore it during your gearing process.
Set Bonuses
Another new thing coming to season 10 is that some gear now belongs to sets. Much like in other RPGs, equipping multiple pieces of a single set will provide you with various benefits.
Every single set bonus has varying effects when you equip 2 to 5 pieces of the same set. This allows you some flexibility, such as having many 2-piece bonuses together at once.
However, Set Bonuses are reserved for late and endgame gear. They are only available for equipment you get through Raids, Catacombs, and the PvP Track. Nonetheless, they’re quite powerful and worth seeking out!
Umbrals and Upgrading
Lastly, as of Season 10, you can now also upgrade your equipment’s Gear Score purely by using Umbrals. This replaces the old gypsum kiln system.
To do this, you just need to click on any piece of gear that has a Gear Score of 700 or higher and select Upgrade. You can then choose how much you want to increase its Gear Score, with a higher score obviously requiring more Umbrals.
You can get Umbrals through most endgame content. This includes Raids, Catacombs, Mutated Expeditions, Elite Chests, OPR, 3v3 Arenas, and the PvP Track. However, there’s a weekly rate limit of to how many Umbrals you can earn. For now, it’s 4000 Umbrals.
Additionally, you now also have a “wallet limit” on how many Umbrals you can hold at a time. This limit is, as of this writing, 4000 Umbrals. Keep that in mind!
This simple upgrade system is particularly nice to use if you already have gear that is best-in-slot for you but doesn’t reach 800 Gear Score. You don’t need to seek out a replacement for it, just upgrade with Umbrals!
That’s the end of our guide! You now know everything important you need to know about gear in Season 10 of New World: Aeternum. We hope this helps you get accustomed to all the new systems.
Want to know which weapons are benefiting most from the gearing system changes? Check out our tier list on the top 5 weapons for Season 10.
