New World is sticking to old formulas in a new year

New World didn't have the best launch or even provide the best post-launch experience, but the title certainly keeps a high spirit. That spirit infuses some necessary flavor into expeditions and injects quality of life into the game.

Sometimes a game needs a tried and tested mechanic, polished up to feel fresh. Expedition Mutators, New World's take on hard mode, is one such mechanic to change the game's PvE landscape for the foreseeable future.

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New Year; newer New World

New World’s journey in 2021 was a shock for audiences. It was the biggest launch of any new MMO in recent history, hitting close to a million players at peak, though it wouldn’t ride the gravy train for long. While Final Fantasy XIV closed shop because it couldn’t host more players, New World lost half of its player base in the first month.

To avoid repeating the disastrous 2021 episode of New World, Amazon Game Studios sat down with team leads and explained their roadmap for the future in a lengthy vlog.

However, before they let anything fly out in the live realm, they wanted players to have a taste and criticize their changes. Thus the PTR was born out of necessity, and it has served the purpose well.

Expeditions are New World's premium PvE experience (Image by Amazon Game Studios)

Now that the world is firmly in 2022, New World is also stepping up its PTR game. Expedition Mutators are the most important among a host of new features. The trick is one of the olden days.

For years, various MMOs like Guild Wars and World of Warcraft have added modifiers to their endgame PvE systems for added difficulty and greater rewards. Mutators follow the same principle but introduce a sense of competitiveness in the form of a scoring system.

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Mutating the world to make life difficult

Mutators will change the way trash mobs and bosses behave in the expeditions. Apart from increasing the difficulty, these modifiers will also change how each encounter functions. As a result, players will have to adapt their rotations, mob pulls, positioning, and even team composition.

To keep a sense of freshness, mutators will be rotated each week, and rewards from the final boss will be significantly better.

Currently, there are six modifiers in PTR.

Hellfire will infuse trash mobs and bosses with fire damage attacks and skills. Likewise, Eternal will result in void damage attacks and skills.

Savage enemies will inflict healing debuffs on any players they hit, as well as firing destructive beams around them to deter rushing.

Invincible, on the other hand, will grant lifesteal to mobs and bosses and summon shields to block projectiles.

Players affected with Desiccated will be periodically struck by elemental attacks unless a fellow player cleanses them.

Censored will turn anyone’s life into hell in a fight. Players affected by this will have their attacks and spells hit them and have their mana regen halted.

If it wasn’t enough, overusing spells will summon silence zones, ironically the only place censored players can regen mana but not cast any spells.

The scoring system will be an additional difficulty modifier that will allow players to challenge ever harder mutated expeditions. Scoring factors include clear speed, enemies killed, boss kills, complete wipes, and respawns.

Scores will be divided into Bronze, Silver, and Gold categories. Each score was saved for that particular week.

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Mutators are only the beginning of New World’s PvE glow up

This entire system is very reminiscent of World of Warcraft’s Mythic system. An upgrade from the Heroic version, Mythic and Mythic+ mode made some much-needed improvement on WoW dated raid encounters. The modifiers are similar to Guild Wars 2’s Mistlock Instabilities, which change entire layouts.

Mutators on PTR are on a 48-hour cycle instead of the weekly cycle once live in-game. Alongside this, players are provided with a generous number of keys to access the Mutated Expeditions. A special sub-forum has been opened for players to provide feedback, report bugs, and discuss with developers directly.

Where's the fifth player, though? (Image by Amazon Game Studios)

Mutators are only up for Expeditions, but players shouldn’t be surprised when the first raid comes to the New World with the mutated mode. Almost every MMO has a so-called "Hard mode" for their raids.

While the players will initially struggle against the Mutated, better gear and better team composition will eventually prevail. In that case, Amazon Game Studios will have to either make more modifiers or create more expeditions or raids to keep interest alive among their hardcore PvE players.

Mutators aren’t the only change coming to the New World this year. The latest PTR patch notes and community letter announced many changes, including gear drops, fast travel, and so much more.

Whatever 2021 may have been, Amazon Game Studios has committed to making 2022 better for its players. For now, they’re on the right track.

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Disclaimer: This article reflects the opinions of the writer.