New World Alpha Update Adds A New Zone, Expedition, And Bind-On-Equip/Pickup Flags For All Equips
New World gets a new high-level zone in the latest alpha update for the 17th century survival MMORPG. The new Ebonscale Reach zone is recommended for players level 51 and above and features a variety of East Asian-inspired locations, including a majestic pagoda inhabited by a fallen empress and her corrupted soldiers.
“Ebonscale Reach is a fertile territory named for the black fungus that grows in abundance there. The area is home to the remnants of a long-forgotten Dynasty who must contend with the demons of their past in the form of a fallen Empress. Here, amid lush wetlands, majestic waterfalls, and stunning architecture, players will counter the atrocities committed by the Empress’s Corrupted forces and the Dragon Magic she has been cultivating for centuries, ultimately exposing her true plan, which reaches far beyond the shores of Aeternum.”
A new Expedition called the Garden of Genesis has also been introduced which will task players with cleansing a Blight-infected garden that’s home to the protective and hostile natural forces called Angry Earth.
“The Garden of Genesis is an expedition leading into the birthplace of the Angry Earth, where players must face elemental protectors in order to penetrate into the nursery’s primordial heart. Like the rest of Edengrove, the Garden has been infected with a mysterious Blight, and though the Angry Earth will never accept outsiders into their sacred space, only the players have the power to purge the Blight and begin the Garden’s restoration.”
The massive patch also adds the first version of the Outpost Rush, a 20vs20 endgame PvP mode, along with new story quests, new weapon and armor quests, new voice-overs, and Bind-on-Equip/Bind-on-Pickup tags for all equippable items in the game.
“This is a important step to protect our item economy and keep demand for quality items high,” explains the devs. “By ensuring that an item (once equipped) is removed from the economy by being bound to a player and unable to be resold, we create space in the economy for similar items to be sold to other players on the trading post or scrapped for repair parts.”
The total experience points required to reach the level 60 cap has also been reduced and players now get diminishing XP returns when killing lower level mobs.
New World has suffered multiple delays over the past year as the developers continued to polish the game and add more features. The game was initially scheduled to launch in May 2020 but was delayed to August 2020, launch was then pushed back to spring 2021, and finally to August 31, 2021.
The full patch notes can be found on the New World official site.
