New World Aeternum Leveling Guide

One of the most important things when it comes to leveling up your character as fast as possible is "flagging" for PvP. By flagging for PvP, you will obtain not only a global luck bonus (giving you a better chance at rarer drops), but also an increased amount of experience in all activities. That means more experience for killing mobs, cutting down trees, completing quests, and more.

Please note: By flagging for PvP, you will be able to get attacked (and attack) other players. This means that there is a certain level of risk when it comes to flagging for PvP, as it has the potential of putting you in dangerous situations where other players might be able to team up against you. When flagging for PvP, it is recommended to be in a group with other players so you can all collectively reap the benefits of flagging, while also having some extra protection by having eachother. In case you do get killed by another player, don't worry - you won't lose any items. You'll just have to respawn to the nearest shrine or main city, and then you can continue to whatever you were just doing.

One of the first things you should with your character is to reach level 25 within the music trade skill. At level 25 music, you will unlock the "All Together Now" song, which grants you (and your group members) with up to a 15% XP boost for up to 60 minutes. This adds up quite a bit over time, so the sooner you can take advantage of this musical buff, the better.

The Main Story Quests (MSQ) contain the primary storyline and lore of the game, which is eventually is required to unlock certain portions of the game, and also rewards you with unique weapons and armor. Long story short - it is worth focusing on the MSQ as you level up your character, and to not ignore it. The MSQ provides a very large amount of experience, and scales very well with your overall progress as your character develops.

Please note: Just because your primary focus is on the MSQ does not mean you should ignore side quests. As you progress through the main story quests, you will come across a range of side quests that are available too. Be sure to accept ALL of these, as many of these are very easy to complete, are not far from where they are accepted, and of course, provides you with even more experience to progress your character.

In New World questing is a different than other MMOs. Normally, when given a quest it is expected that you will go out and complete it and that everyone else will have the same quest. In New World there are Main and Side Quests that follow this structure but there are also Missions which can have a random component to them. Missions advance either your standing with your Faction or the progress on the Town Project Board and are not mandatory. These should be viewed as bonus objectives that you may or may not complete when leaving the Settlement. When you are playing with friends you will be able to run the same Main and Side Quests as them because those are set in stone. While completing these Quests you should attempt to complete any of these optional Missions that are along the way. In this guide we will go into more detail about how these Quests and Missions work and how to min-max your time outside the Settlement whether you are playing in a group or solo.

At level 20, you will be able to unlock your very first mount - which is a horse. By moving faster and more efficiently throughout the map, you'll be able to complete quests and travel to specific points of interest easier, which will have a direct impact on your overall growth in experience.

To learn more about how to unlock mounts in New World: Aeternum, check out the video below.

Once you have a mount, you'll be able to travel much, much faster, giving you the opportunity to reach points of interests throughout the map much faster. Every time you visit a new area on the map, you gain some experience. Plus, there are so many unique fast travel points and shrines throughout the map, that it will be worth unlocking each of them throughout the map to make it easier to teleport from one area to the next.

With a mount, you'll be able to ride throughout Aeternum, view all of the new areas on the map, unlock more teleport shrines (making your life easier towards the end game and traveling to other quests), and ultimately gaining a large amount of experience.

For a large number of expeditions, you will be given the opportunity to accept a repeatable quest before entering the dungeon. In many cases, the NPC that provides this quest is directly outside the entrance of the expedition, making it worthwhile accepting these quests prior to entering these expeditions whenever possible.

For example. at level 23 you will be able to accept the repeatable quest known as Bones For Barkimedes (Expedition), which is located directly outside of the Amrine Expedition. Each time you complete the expedition, you should encounter 5 Ravagers that each drop a bone; loot them all to be awarded 4,920 XP upon completing the quest with Barkimedes. This is a great strategy to quickly boost your character several levels, and this strategy can be utilized for several expeditions within the game.

Similar to how there's repeatable expedition quests, there are also a range of faction missions that can be accepted in each major town by visiting your faction's representative. Some of these faction missions are actually directly associated with certain expeditions, making it worthwhile checking before entering certain expeditions to potentially gain even more experience and rewards per expedition you complete.

Please note: You will receive 5x the rewards for the first three faction missions you complete every day. Make sure you complete at least three every day to take advantage of this huge boost.

You should also keep an eye out for corruption portals that may spawn throughout the map. In many situations, you may see "x portals" in either global or recruitment chat, indicating that players are grouping up to take down large corrupted portals, which provide not only unique rewards (including the chance of obtaining the The Abyss great axe artifcat, but also a good amount of experience. If you are not high enough level to take on the most difficult corrupted portals, it's worth testing your strength at smaller ones with a group of friends to still pick up some easy experience.

Town boards can also be a great way to generate some extra experience while leveling your character, and also picking up some extra territory standing experience. These quests can range from killing certain types of enemies, to searching certain chests, or simply just turning in a certain amount and type of resources. It's worth visitng the town boards before leaving town to see if there's any easy quests that you can complete along the way.

Please note: For those of you returning to the game, this is no longer the primary way to gain experience. There was a patch that reduced the amount of experience gained from completing town board quests, so view these types of quests as a supportive way to pick up extra experience here and there, rather than making it your priority.

One last topic worth mentioning is the importance of your trade skills. As you cut down trees, craft items, cook meals, catch a fish, skin an animal, and everything else, you not only gain trade skill experience towards that specific skill that you're using, but you also gain experience directly to your character's level. With that being said, take advantage of all the opportunities you come accross as you travel throughout Aeternum, and don't ignore the many different trade skills that you can work on along the way.