The joy of the sandbox game is hard to describe in words, and that's because it's about actually doing things as opposed to a storyline or a setting. New World has been compared to games like Runescape in the way that it offers a variety of ways to gather raw materials from the surrounding world and refine them into a variety of items. Crafting and trade skills in New World reward experience points, so a character can reach max level without engaging in combat at all. If a player wants to role-play a Cook, Engineer, or Tailor as their class role as opposed to honing their combat abilities, the Crafting process of New World makes that possible.
There are a total of seven crafting skills in New World, and players level each of them at different crafting stations with varying Tiers. Some settlements in New World are in a more advanced stage of development than others and will have higher level crafting stations than others. Crafting isn't just about the skills themselves, but the best ways to level them.
Crafting in New World
The Crafting Skills
- Arcana. In a game with no classes, a character who uses their high Arcana skill to craft their main weapons and an array of potions and weapon coatings could be an Arcanist, an Alchemist, or a Brewmaster. The various concoctions that can be created by Arcana can help in combat, exploration, or any of the Gathering Skills.
- Armoring. Refined materials needed for the armoring process include metal, leather, cloth, as well as elemental motes or perks, so the materials needed for armoring require the development of several other skills. The crafting station a player uses to level their Armoring skills depends on their own skill level and whether they're crafting light, heavy, or medium armor.
- Cooking. Players can cook at a campfire they build for themselves in the wilderness or they can use the Kitchen in the nearest settlement. The Cooking skill isn't just used to create food to boost ability scores, weapon prowess, and crafting skills, it's also how players can make different dyes to customize their gear and weapons.
- Engineering. It's not just items with moving parts that are made with the Engineering skills, like rifles and bows, but also repair kits and booster potions. Players can start to level their Engineering skills before they even reach their first settlement. Basic weapons and tools like wooden swords and harvesting tools can be crafted using the Engineering skill at a simple campsite.
- Furnishing. This skill becomes more important later in the game when players can afford to buy themselves houses that need chairs, tables, beds, and other creature comforts. It's possible to craft chests of varying sizes to increase a character's overall storage space.
- Jewelcrafting. A mix of skills in Arcana, Mining, Smelting, and Stonecutting is needed to level Jewelcrafting. This crafting skill is heavily depending on the Mining skill, which players can level by gathering ore and stone using a pickax.
- Weaponsmithing. Specifically, this is the skill needed to craft non-magical weapons. That means swords, shields, warhammers, two-handed axes, and rapiers. Ore has to be refined and smelted before it can be used to make weapons. Often other materials like leather, cloth fibers, stain, and wood are also required.
The Crafting Stations and Tier Levels
- The Forge. The Forge is the Crafting Station for both Armorsmithing and Weaponsmithing. At Tier 1, this is a simple stone forge with a fire that can barely make more than a simple camp in the wilderness. At Tier 5, this is an elaborate blacksmithing operation that's capable of making the best endgame armor and weapons.
- Workshop. At level 5, this is a handsome log-cabin-style building with several different stations. The Workshop is the home of the Gunsmith or Archer classes since all of their primary weapons are created here. This is also the crafting area for Furnishing, which requires generous amounts of metal, wood, and cloth.
- Outfitting Station. A mix of several different refined products is needed at this workshop to complete light to medium armor, jewelry, and other useful items like bigger bags. Characters that use cloth or leather armor will do most of their Armorcrafting here. Fittings for jewelry can be crafted here using refined ingots but the gems must be cut at a Stonecutting station first.
- Arcane Repository. This crafting station includes a variety of items that include both reagents and weapons along with a veritable catalog of useful potions. This is also the crafting station used to alter the elemental motes from a variety of plants into reagents that can be used for crafting high-level versions of weapons, armor, and tools. The potions, elixirs, solvents, and oils that can be brewed here have a wide variety of uses for defense, combat, and elemental resistance.
- Kitchen. The higher the Tier level, the less this looks like an elaborate camp setup and more of a permanent, indoor kitchen. A large portion of the materials needed for some of these high-level dishes only requires the Gathering skill, and much of that without a tool if the player doesn't mind visiting a few of the abandoned farms that tend to line the roads near settlements. The meat used from hunting and fishing is used to make rations as well as fish bait by using a Kitchen.
How To Level the Crafting Skills
Sources of Raw Materials
- The Gathering Skills: The process of loading up on the raw materials needed for crafting and refining depends on the five Gathering Skills. These include Harvesting, Fishing, Mining, Logging, and Tracking and Skinning. Most of these require certain crafted tools, and there are perks, mods, and certain types of foods that players can use to improve them.
- Enemy Loot: Enemies occasionally crop certain kinds of raw materials, and more often they drop armor and weapons that can be salvaged for raw materials that can then be upcycled into new items.
- Salvaging: Any kind of attire, including jewelry, along with weapons, can be salvaged to obtain money, repair materials, and occasionally raw materials that can be re-used. That includes items that drop in combat or items the players have crafted themselves, and it's also a way to clear the bags or Storage Shed of old gear.
- Quest Rewards: Some quests related to Crafting will reward the player with related recipes, materials, and other useful items that can be used at some stage in the Crafting process. The quests can be a venue for gathering certain resources if they go to a certain area, and gathering resources means more experience points anyway.
- The Trading Post: Players with extra coin to spend can always purchase raw or refined materials at the auction house. Should the material of choice be unavailable, it's possible to place a buy-order if someone has some extra ore, cloth fibers, or fish filets.
Crafting Boosts
- Potions. Engineers can put together a Pofiency Booster potion to increase their Gathering skills. How strong the boost is will depend on the Tier level of the crafting station as well as the player's Engineering level. Other potions are made using the Arcana skill and can boost a character's Encumbrance threshold so they can carry more raw materials out in the wild.
- Food. Once players reach Tier 3 Cooking ability, they can make food that can boost Gathering and Crafting skills along with restoring their health and mana. Combat-related foods improve ability cores like Dexterity and Strength, but there's also a whole menu of unique dishes that can aid in Crafting or Gathering skills.
- Perks. The random perks that players can get when they add Azoth to an item during the crafting process. This can range from elemental damage for weapons, increased resistance for armor, or increased speed, yield, and improved durability for Harvesting tools.
- Mods. There is a variety of crafting mods that players come across in their travels. They can be looted from chests and enemies, harvested from Mining or Herb nodes, or even included when salvaging uncommon or rare fish. Some of these can be used to refine Harvesting tools to help gather raw materials more efficiently. They can also be used to apply special abilities to weapons and armor during the crafting process.
New World was released on September 28, 2021, and is available on PC.