Winter Rune Season Trial Full Walkthrough and Loot

The Winter Rune Forge 10-man trial is an end-game activity in New World: Aeternum that will challenge you to a whole new level. This trial is very different than the many expeditions you likely already did at this point, as it’s a 10-man battle against a range of different enemies, each having unique battle mechanics and weaknesses. In this guide, we'll cover everything you'll need to know to success in the Winter Rune Forge trial, including build recommendations, team composition, consumables, battle mechanics, rewards, and much, much more.

In order to participate in the Winter Rune Forge trial, you must be have at least 6 members in a raid (it's highly recommended to enter with 10 though). It is also recommended to be level 65 and have a gearscore of at least 650 before entering this trial. If you are a little under than, but have a good group, it's worth still trying and seeing how it goes. Even after just one run, you will likely receive some gear that will help bump you up to above the 650 gearscore recommendation.

Before even entering the Winter Rune Forge trial, you'll need to be a part of a 10-man raid. It's important to ensure you have the right mix of builds between the ten members of your raid, or else you might find yourself in trouble in certain phases of this trial.

Between the ten members of the team, there should be one main tank, one off-tank (which switches to a DPS role in phase 2), six DPS, and two healers.

It is highly recommended that there are multiple Rapier and Spear users included within the DPS roles to maximize overall bleeds, debuffs, and damage-per-second. It is also recommended that the healer(s) use a Void Gauntlet as their secondary weapon to provide more buffs to the rest of the team.

Luckily, almost every enemy in the Winter Rune Forge trial is the same enemy type - Ancient. With that being said, there are certain damage types that deal the most damage, including strike, void, and lightning damage.

Additionally, you will want to try your best to have three Major Ancients Combat Trophy items within your houses, adding up to an additional 15% damage to Ancients.

To learn more about enemy types and their weaknesses, visit our Monster Type guide.

The last thing you'll want to ensure you have before entering the trial are your consumables. Below are a list of consumable items you should ensure are in your inventory prior to starting the Winter Rune Forge trial, as well as a brief description on what each will provide you.

Consumable	Effect
Infused Health Potion	Restores 2,400 health, +7% of your max health.
Infused Regeneration Potion	Restores 240 health, +0.7% of your max health and 3 mana per second for 10s.
Infused Ancient Coating	Gives +15% damage against Ancients.
Infused Ancient Ward Potion	Increases damage absorption from Ancients by 10% for 40 minutes.
Powerful Honing Stone	Increases weapon damage by 7% for 40 minutes.
Attribute-specific Food (ex: Roasted Rabbit with Seasoned Vegetables)	Increases a specific attribute by up to 48 points for 40 minutes.

If you want to be extra prepared, consider bringing some Infused Ice Absorption Potions, which will help make the final boss in this trial less of a hassle.

There are essentially two large phases in the Winter Rune Forge trial, each having a different boss with unique battle mechanics and abilities. Each of these phases are highlighted below.

When starting the Winter Rune Forge trial, you will need to complete a quick, simple puzzle in order to start Phase 1. This is pretty easy and straight-forward, but you will need to pick up the ice chunks off the ground, and then throw them at the rune panels against the back-side of the arena, flipping them to a new shape. Once you match all of the bottom rune shapes with the top, they will begin to glow and Phase 1 will begin.

After completing the mini rune puzzle, the first wave of enemies will start rushing in towards you and your group members. This initial wave is very easy, just group up and take them down as you would any other mob. By taking down this wave, the second (and slightly more difficult) wave will start charging in.

The second wave of enemies will include a handful of named enemies, which have higher health and pack a slightly heavier punch. Regardless, this wave still is nothing to worry about. Your group should be able to easily take care of this wave with no deaths. Just play smart - utilize your abilities and consumables, and play as a team.

Once you take down the first two waves, the real battle begins. The large cage near the outer rim of the arena will then have it's door broken, where the Ophidian Construct boss rushes out from.Just like any other enemy, your group should start focusing on this single enemy and dish off as much damage as possible. Once it reaches around half health, things get interesting.

At half health, the Ophidian Construct boss will split into two, making it more difficult to defeat. Please note: You CANNOT handle this part of the trial like any typical battle with multiple enemies. That is because if the two halves get close to each other, they will actually start self-healing, and it will be almost impossible to defeat them.

This will be very important, because it will then be the job of your off-tank member to pull the agro from one of the halves, and then kite it on the opposite of the arena. As your off-tank is running around and distracting one half, the rest of your team (along with your main tank) is focusing on the other half.

Once that half reaches about half health, it will split again, and the same battle mechanics will take place. It's important to once again create distance between the two halves, and burn down its health as fast as possible.

After defeating these, your group will change their focus back to the other half, and repeat the process. As long as this process is followed, you and your team will have no issues completing phase 1.

At this point, your off-tank should change their build to be another DPS role, adding up to a total of at least 7 DPS members out of your 10-man raid.

After taking down the Ophidian Construct boss, you will be able to continue the path to the next (and final) phase, where you will confront the Ice Guardian.

As you enter the arena where the Ice Guardian is, you will quickly notice more rune puzzles surrounding you. These rune puzzles are important to stay aware of, as they will eventually provide you and your group members a great buff. More info on coming this soon.

As the battle begins, you will start attacking the Ice Guardian like you would any other enemy. The biggest thing you need to stay aware of are the Ice Guardian's attacks, which include the following:

• Frozen Spikes: You will see shadows appear on the ground, indicating where large, frozen spikes will be falling from the celing. Avoid these shadows at all costs.
• Ice Wave: The Ice Guardian will summon a large wave of ice in front of him, dealing massive damage to anyone in front of it. You will see where this ice wave will be directed prior to it being launched, so stay aware of any highlighted shadows on the ground, as that's where the attack will be headed.
• Frost Spin: This is the Ice Guardian's strongest ability. He will essentially summon multiple "Ice Waves", and then start spinning, requiring you and your team members to rotate in a circular motion to not get hit by any of the icy attacks.
• Ice Tomb: Randomly throughout the fight, the Ice Guardian will summon an ability that is similar to the Ice Gauntlet's "Entomb" ability, but on a random member of your team. This entomb doesn't have advantages though - it freezes the player in-place, and will automatically kill them if their team members do not destroy the ice in time.
• Stun Slam: At certain points of the fight, the Ice Guardian will summon a large slam that will stun anyone in its path. In order to avoid this, you can either dodge at the perfect time, or block it.

Please note: During the "Frost Spin" ability listed above, players will see ice chunks appear on the ground. This is where things get complicated - as you and your team members are running in a circular motion, you must pick up these ice chunks, and hit the runes around the arena to match with the shape of the rune near it. This will then make the runes glow in that area, indicating that you succesfully matched them.

After the Ice Guardian stops spinning, the pillars near the runes that were matched will begin to have a fiery glow. Players can then move up to the glowing pillar, interact with it, and then they'll be surrounded by a fiery ring, which provides a buff to the player, and any team members that are within the circle. If you are a player that picks up this buff, be sure to rejoin the battle right in the middle of the arena in order to provide as many team members the buff as possible.

This buff will also cure the "Hypothermia" debuff that players may acquire throughout the fight if they're hit with any of the Ice Guardian's icy abilities. This debuff will deal ice damage to the player every 2 seconds, and can stack up to ten times, making it extremely deadly (and also making these fiery buffs even more sought-after).

As you continue to avoid these icy abilities, activating the fiery buffs, and dishing off as much damage as possible, you will eventually get the Ice Guardian to half health. A little past half health, the Ice Guardian will start teleporting around, and start summoning mobs, including an enemy called the "Guardian's Root", which will spawn in the direct middle of the arena.

As soon as the Guardian's Root spawns, all of the DPS players in the group will need to stop what they're doing, head to the middle of the map, and destroy it as fast as possible. If your team doesn't destroy it in time, it will summon a massive ice ability surrounding the arena, dealing massive damage.

If you continue to stay aware of these abilities, focus on the Guardian's Root once spawned, and capitalize on the fiery buffs as they appear, you and your team will have no problem taking down the Ice Guardian.

Once you defeat the Ice Guardian, you will then be able to receive a plethora of unique rewards. Below is a table that highlights some of the best rewards you can obtain by completing the Winter Rune Forge trial.

Reward	Brief Description
Winter Rune Forge Spoils	Awarded for succesful completion of the Winter Rune Forge, up to 2 times per week.
Tempest Fury	Great Axe artifact that provides a major buff to the Whirlwind ability. Obtainable from the Winter Rune Forge Spoils.
Dark Matter	Utilized for upgrading armor and equipment.
5,000 Faction Tokens	Can be used within the Faction shop.
Sapphire Gypsum	Used to craft a Gypsum Orb.
Frostweaver Coat	Useful light chestpiece that can be used for Healers.
Frostweaver Helmet	Useful light helmet that can be used for Rapier users.

You will also have a chance of a range of other items as rewards by completing the Winter Rune Forge trial, however, the first two attempts per week tend to reap the highest rewards (and potential).