New World Now Has A Public Test Realm (And A New Weapon)

With new content in the works in need of playtesting, Amazon Game Studios has officially released a public test realm (PTR) for its MMORPG New World.

As announced in a new blog post, the PTR is available to all players who own New World on Steam, and is installed separately from the main game. Players will be able to instantly level newly created characters to select-level ranges and come equipped with appropriate gear for the purposes of testing out some of the new content coming to the game in the weeks ahead.

One of those major new pieces of content is the introduction of the game's first new weapon, the Void Gauntlet. The first weapon to scale off the Focus and Intelligence stats, it should make for a great secondary weapon for Life Staff and Fire Staff users. One of the Void Gauntlet's skill trees will focus on dealing damage at close range, while the other will fill more of a support role with a projectile that can debuff enemies and heal allies.

Other additions that are currently being tested on the PTR include the introduction of new enemy types, an entirely new enemy faction, more task variety in the game's main story quests, and additional PvP faction missions.

The PTR is also testing the linking of all of New World's trading posts, a welcome change that should make shopping for items much easier. In the current live version of the game, each settlement has its own, separate trading post, meaning players often have to travel to different settlements to find what they are looking for. Having all trading posts linked will cut down on the need to constantly fast travel to find one specific item.

No word yet on when the new additions and changes being tested in the PTR will be coming to the live version of New World just yet, but it will likely be in the next few weeks.

It's been a rocky couple of weeks for New World. A since patched invulnerability bug threw the game's PvP focused endgame into chaos, and a more recent a gold duplication exploit forced Amazon to shut down the game's entire economy for a day. Amazon recently made a commitment to more frequent communication with New World's playerbase and seems to be making good on that promise, recently offering an update on regional server transfers.