The Beginning of Our Journey: Crafting - The Road Less Traveled

 


“It ain’t much, but it’s honest work” are words that speak volumes in terms of MMORPG in-game crafting mechanics. The process can be tedious, time consuming, and flat out unrewarding. Fortunately, New World has developed a balance and set of mechanics that has made crafters essential to both the community and in-game markets as all currency is exchanged between players. Meaning the economy is player driven and gold, the in-game currency, is not obtained from non-player characters. Gold is instead obtained through various means of eliminating humanoid type enemies, completion of quests, or compensation through the in-game market.

 


With that being said, the game breaks down non-combat skills into their own singular group called trade skills. Trade skills are further divided into three main groups by the methods or actions required for developing these skills. They are gathering, refining, and crafting. Gathering is usually the first skill to be used in terms of trade skills as you cannot refine materials without having any and consequently you cannot craft anything without having gathered or refined these materials. I will go into more detail with each sub section of these main groups as there are a grand total of 17 sub-groups and that may be difficult for any player just starting out.

 


Of all the trade skills available, stonecutting is going to be the most essential to any serious adventurer in the New World. This is because of one particular item, Tuning Orbs. These items are the single most significant item because they are used as a sort of key that allows players to enter exploration dungeons. These dungeons are best described as limited, restricted, or instanced dungeons as the only way to enter them is by fulfilling specific criteria. For example, to enter any of the exploration dungeons, a player must have gathered enough experience to obtain a set level. This is the easiest of the three required parameters. The next is to create a party of at least three players as these dungeons do not permit solo or duo groups. And lastly, at least one player must have a Tuning Orb to enter the dungeon.

 


All of this seems simple when explained straightforward, right? The game unfortunately throws another obstacle at players who may have an even harder time joining these dungeons. It is often customary for player to “take turns” providing Tuning Orbs in rotations as to not push the responsibility or cost onto a singular person. However, Tuning Orbs are a bit more troublesome to craft then other items because of a unique issue with one material, Corruption components. These components are only obtainable when participating in Corruption events that spontaneously appear on the world map which conveniently become available to players at the same time that they achieve the lowest level criteria for entering the dungeons.

 


Just when you think you have it all figured out, there is one more thing to worry about. The Tuning Orbs are bound to players once crafted, meaning that the items can only be crafted by each player for their own use and cannot be made for you by another player. Seems like a lot to handle for a single aspect of the game, but a very important reason for players to manage resources and learn the crafting mechanics. Other than all the aforementioned details, there is only one last remark to be made. These Tuning Orbs are a limited craft which means that you cannot mass produce them for a rainy day. Players are limited to making only five per week.


With all the all the reasoning and explanations out of the way, we can now cover the process of obtaining proficiencies in crafting and make a profit at the same time. The first checkpoint needed to be reached is a skill level of 25 in stonecutting as this is the lowest level required to make the first dungeon’s Tuning Orb. In terms of efficiency, it would be best to focus on reaching a stonecutting skill level of at least 50 because of the added benefit of cutting and fusing higher tier gemstones, being able to make the second dungeon’s Tuning Orbs, and also being able to provide your own materials for weaponsmithing later. Gemstones are a great commodity as they can be added to weapons and armor, altering and boosting the equipment’s parameters and making your character stronger in the process.

 


A level of 50 in stonecutting requires a total of 14,065 experience. This can be accomplished by using the gathering sub skill mining. The material required for the beginning levels of stonecutting will be boulders which provide stone. Based on the average number of materials provided by various boulder sizes and the amount of experience obtained, a player will need to mine a total of about 70 boulders. This brings about a pro and a con in reference to the situation. Starting with the unfortunate portion of news, players have a limited carrying capacity because of an implemented weight system. Meaning that two trips will be required to complete the leveling process. The beneficial perk for all this work is that the mining skill will be leveled to roughly 30. This achievement comes with additional bonuses such as now being able to mine iron, silver, and oil as well as tracking iron using an in-game compass.

 


Now you are probably wondering, “What am I supposed to do with all these stone blocks?” You have several options available to you. The simplest option would be to refine the blocks into the next tier material called stone brick which can be used for higher grade crafting materials. A second option would be to submit the materials as either stone blocks or stone bricks to a quest board for currency, experience, and town standing, which we will cover in a later guide. The third option would require leveling weaponsmithing to either 20 or 70, depending on materials, to craft Honing Stones, a temporary boosting item that raises a player’s attack power. The last option would be hoarding the stone blocks or bricks to later craft Tuning Orbs once you have the other required materials.

 


The only issue with the latter two options is that players will need to obtain an additional resource called Elemental Motes which are magical particles associated with various elements in nature. These take on the form of plants and boulders attuned to one of seven specific elements including air, earth, water, fire, life, death, and soul. The problem is in order to gather these materials, a player must have either a gathering skill called harvesting of at least level 30 or a mining skill of at least 50. Since the topic of Motes is an entirely different resource, it will be covered in a future topic as today’s entry is just a precursor for what is to come.

 

Art by user Alexandra on Pinterest[1]

Next time, we will cover the side notes on weaponsmithing as well as jewelcrafting because this guide is intended to be both a learning experience and a practicum on entering the realm of crafting in New World. Look forward to all things prospecting in our next entry!


Comments