New World January update adds Mutators and more endgame improvements

The New World test server got Mutators earlier this month, and now the MMO’s January update is making them available to everyone. In addition to those, the update brings more streamlined leveling, quality-of-life improvements, and balance fixes.

Mutators are the biggest additions to the game. They change “the way encounters play out and what strategies players should consider before battle” with regular and named enemies during raids. In other words, a Mutated Expedition will give your foes new attacks, elemental affinities, and curses. There are 10 difficulty levels, each of which has different Mutator effects and greater loot. The less time you spend clearing an Expedition, the more kills you get, and other factors will be calculated toward your total rewards at the end of the session. These will rotate each week, so if you don’t succeed at one Expedition, you can try again when they swap out.

The Umbral upgrade system has also been tweaked with the January update, making the entire process quicker. The price for gear upgrades was between 600 and 625, but that’s now been expanded to 590 to 625. This couples with the new Expertise system to let you raise gear scores marginally faster. Developer Amazon Games says that completing Mutated Expeditions is the fastest way to earn the Umbral Shards you’ll need for these upgrades.

Crafting costs have been reduced, including various chisels, hearts, and tuning orbs. Fast travel also costs less now, and new fast travel points have been added to the map. Couple this with a number of bug fixes, economy tweaks, and UI changes, and you’ve got a long list of improvements with the January update. You can check out the full patch notes on New World’s website if you want every little detail.