Combat | New World Wiki

Combat Overview in New World

New World is a heavy action-based MMORPG. Players get to battle other players as well as enemy NPCs. Positioning and timing attacks matter most in this game. Every weapon is also different that it gives players a unique role in the game. The classless combat system also gives players options for creating unique builds, armor, weapons, perks, weapon mastery, which all affect combat in general.

 

Weapons in New World

There are 13 types of weapons that fall under four categories that players can choose from which provides many different options and approaches to combat, allowing the player to deal damage in different ways:

• One-handed Weapons - Swords and Shields, Rapiers, and Hatchets.
• Two-handed Weapons - War Hammers, Great Axes, and Spears.
• Ranged Weapons - Bows, Muskets, Blunderbusses.
• Magic Weapons - Fire Staves, Life Staves, Ice Gauntlets, and Void Gauntlets.

Each weapon type comes in different versions with different levels of rarity, players will unlock more rare drops as they level up in the game. Visit the Weapons page for more detailed overview on weapons.

 

Damage Types in New World

There are four damage types and these vary depending on the weapon type the player is using:

• Slash
• Thrust
• Strike

Elemental Damage is also a damage type that branches out different types of elemental damage that can be used on certain weapons and perks.

• Elemental
  • Arcane
  • Fire
  • Ice
  • Lightning Nature
  • Void

There are weapons that deal multiple types of damage depending on the abilities and attack the player uses. Take the Sword for example, this weapon can deal Slash and Thrust damage, but other weapons like War Hammers can only deal a single kind of damage. Players can equip two weapons at any given time meaning they can quickly switch between these damage types.

Enemies will be vulnerable to different damage types, allowing players to maximize their combat efficiency by choosing the right weapon depending on the enemy's weakness. A yellow indicator will show up once the player attacks, this means the attack is hitting at full potential. The blue color will show up if it's not doing much damage or if it's weak against the enemy. Orange will show up if the player manages to perform a critical hit, and white if it's a neutral attack.

Grit in New World

Grit is also known as stagger resistance or super armor in New World. It can help players not get interrupted during their attacks. It is indicated with a white glow around the player or opponent when performing an attack. Stagger effects or attacks will render useless when an enemy or player uses a grit attack.

 

Stamina in New World

All weapons in New World makes use of stamina, dodging and blocking also consumes stamina.

Player Stamina:

When players dodge, it consumes their stamina, but gives them a short window of invulnerability or what is known as iframes, meaning attacks will slip past the players. Blocking consumes stamina as well but it depends on the incoming damage. There are specific situations where a player would opt for blocking instead of dodging, like only a Sword and Shield can block projectiles, but players would dodge an incoming attack from heavy attacks as it will most likely break their block, staggering them and leaving them open for a free attack.

Enemy Stamina:

Larger enemies in the game also use stamina and it works similarly to a player's stamina, but it is mostly limited to field bosses. It can occasionally be seen in other enemy types. Once an enemy completely depletes their stamina, they will enter a short state of vulnerability where players can land a free hit or take time to recover as well.

 

Enemy Strengths and Weaknesses in New World

Enemies in New World are divided into five classes and each of them is have their own strengths and weaknesses. Listed below are each enemy type and the different damage types their both weak and strong against:

• Ancients
  • Strong against:
    • Fire
    • Slash
  • Weak against:
    • Lightning
    • Strike
    • Void
• Angry Earth
  • Strong against:
    • Lightning
    • Thrust
  • Weak Against:
    • Fire
    • Slash
• Corrupted
  • Strong against:
    • Ice
    • Strike
  • Weak against:
    • Arcane
    • Nature
    • Thrust
• The Lost
  • Strong against:
    • Thrust
    • Void
  • Weak against:
    • Ice
    • Nature
    • Strike
• Beasts
  • Weak against:
    • Thrust

 

Basic Controls in New World

New World is an action game heavily based on combat, basic and advanced controls will help players understand the combat system of the game. Most of the controls are similarly standard for action-oriented games so players will be familiar with how the combat system works. This game is also only available on PC so controls are on keyboard and mouse on default.

When equipping melee weapons, right-click is used for blocking and left-click for attacking. Tapping left-click will perform a quick attack and holding it will perform a heavy attack. Heavy attacks can break an enemy's block.

Pressing the left shift key will perform a dodge. Players will automatically dodge backwards by simply tapping it, but they can also dodge in any direction as long as they are currently pressing a directional button.

When equipping ranged weapons, right-click is used to zoom in and aim. Left-click is used to shoot or fire.

For more information on other controls, click here.

 

Light and Heavy Attacks in New World

All types of weapons except for ranged weapons have light and heavy attacks incorporated withing their movesets. As mentioned before, a light attack can be performed by simply tapping the left-click, and a heavy attack can be performed by holding the same input. These two types of attacks make up the majority of the combat and damage output, but there are also weapon skills that can be used to modify the weapon's damage output.

Light attacks are faster and deal 100% weapon damage.

Heavy attacks are slower but can deal up to 140% weapon damage depending on the weapon. Heavy attacks can stagger opponents, which will open them up for a free hit or can give players a window to step back and recover.

 

Weapon Skills in New World

As players progress and level a certain weapon in New World, they will gain what is called Mastery Points. These points can be used to obtain different weapon perks and bonuses and unlock certain skills for a weapon. All weapons can have up to three active abilities at one time. Weapons skills can help players change the flow of the battlefield as they provide buffs, enhance attacks, or activate defensive skills.

Abilites also has a set of upgrade tree that can further boost its effects. By default these are bound to Q, R, and F keyboard controls, but players can swap these binds to their preferred controls.

 

Headshots and Backstabs in New World

Headshots are guaranteed critical hits, it simply requires players to hit their target on the head.

Backstabs can be performed if players can position themselves behind their enemy. Just like headshots, these are also guaranteed critical hits.

 

Status Effects in New World

There are also different types of status effects in New World that can help players approach different combat situations and how each effect can be useful and also give an idea on how to incorporate it into their playstyle. Listed below are each status effect and its corresponding descriptions:

• Bleed 
  • Bleed is a DoT effect that can be found on weapons with thrust damage like Bows, Spears and Rapiers. Bleed also deals weapon damage over time and can stack. 
• Burn
  • Burn is a DoT effect that can be found on Fire Staves abilities. It can also be stacked and will apply a small percentage of weapon damage.
• Disease
  • Disease has the effect to reduce incoming healing and health recovery by 30%.
• Empower
  • Empower increases outgoing damage and most weapons have access to this status effect.
• Flatten
  • Flatten is a unique status effect that is exclusive on War Hammers and it behaves similarly to Knockdown. This status effect knocks opponents to the ground for a period of time and can be used as a form of crowd control.
• Exhaust
  • Exhaust is another status effect that is exclusive to War Hammers. This effect reduces the stamina regeneration of the player's target, making the opponent's stamina recovery slower.
• Fortify
  • Fortify is a status effect that reduces incoming damage.
• Frostbite
  • Frostbite is a status effect exclusive to Ice Gauntlets. When players or enemies get afflicted with this effect, they will be unable to sprint or dodge, it also slows down movement speed by 50%.
• Frozen
  • Frozen is also exclusive to Ice Gauntlets, this effect works like a Stun, and can be broken by allied attacks, freeing the one afflicted with it sooner.
• Haste
  • Haste is a status effect that increases movement speed by 10-30%, depending on the weapon.
• Knockdown
  • Knockdown is a status effect currently unique to the Spear's Sweep ability. Similar to Flatten, it knocks down enemies on the ground for a set amount of time. 
• Recovery
  • Recovery is a Healing over Time status effect that can be found on a few skills, mostly found Life Staves abilities. The healing effect will scale with the current weapon damage of the weapon or a percentage of health for other weapons that have the status effect as well.
• Rend
  • Rend is a status effect that reduces an enemy's damage resistance which can range from 5-30% and last about 5-10 seconds depending on the weapon, skill or perk that is used.
• Root
  • Root is a status effect that prevents movement and dodging altogether. It can last for 1-2 seconds, and rarely longer than that. Unlike Stun, players can still perform attacks while afflicted with this status effect, only movement and dodging is rendered useless.
• Slow
  • Slow is a status effect that reduces a target's movement speed for 10-50% for a certain amount of time depending on the weapon or skill being used.
• Stun
  • Stun is a status effect that can halt an opponent's movement for a certain duration. Stun is also the only status effect that can interrupt Grit attacks. This status effect will last for a certain duration or until the opponent is hit.
• Weaken
  • Weaken is a status effect that reduces the damage a target can deal.
• Well Fed
  • Well Fed is a status effect that can buff players when using food items. While the effect is on place, players recover 1% of their health every second.