New World: Aeternum News

Greetings, Adventurers!

Go behind the scenes for a better look at the massive sandwurm, elite rewards, and roaring audio that comprise Aeternum’s greatest challenge yet. Skill alone is insufficient. Players brave enough to enter the Arena of Shah Neshen must coordinate throughout multiple phases. How will you defeat the Devourer?

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[h2]REWARDS[/h2]
Topple the mighty beast and wear your exclusive Sandwurm hides with pride. There are daily, weekly, and basic rewards:

[h3]WEEKLY REWARDS[/h3]
The Major Sandwurm Spoils Reward Cache can be earned once per week and will contain:

• 1 Named Sandwurm Weapon (625 Gear Score fixed-perk weapon, trinket, or LMH armor piece. Guaranteed expertise bump)
  
• 3 Gypsum Orbs
  
• Heartrune of the Devourer Tier 1
  
• 8000 Umbral Shards
  
• 200 Sandwurm Materia
  

[h3]DAILY REWARDS
[/h3]The Minor Sandwurm Spoils Reward Cache can be earned once per day and will contain:

• 1 Timeless Shard
  
• 2000 Umbral Shards
  
• 1 Gypsum Orb
  
• 200 Sandwurm Materia
  

1 Sandwurm item:

• 50% chance to receive a Named Sandwurm item at 625 Gear Score.
  
• 50% chance to receive a Rolled Sandwurm item at 610 Gear Score.
  

[h3]BASIC REWARDS[/h3]
The following rewards will be earned after each victory:

• 1 Rolled Sandwurm item (scaled by expertise + 10 Gear Score)
  
• 500 Umbral Shards
  

[h3]MATERIA DETAILS[/h3]

• Players can use 1000 Sandwurm Materia to craft a named weapon or accessory from the Sandwurm loot table.
  

[h3]SANDWURM ITEMS
[/h3]Light Armor

• Silken Litham - Headwear
  
• Silken Cocoon - Chestwear
  
• Silken Femora - Legwear
  
• Silken Barbs - Gloves
  
• Silken Cerci - Footwear
  

Medium Armor

• Dune Maxillae - Headwear
  
• Dune Tagma - Chestwear
  
• Dune Podomere - Legwear
  
• Dune Arolium - Gloves
  
• Dune Euplantula - Footwear
  

Heavy Armor

• Sandlion Mandibles - Headwear
  
• Sandlion Carapace - Chestwear
  
• Sandlion Coxa - Legwear
  
• Sandlion Claws - Gloves
  
• Sandlion Tarsus - Footwear
  

Shields

• Round Sclerite Shield - Round Shield
  
• Full Sclerite Shield - Kite Shield
  
• Tall Sclerite Shield - Tower Shield
  

Jewelry

• Ring of Shah Neshen - Ring
  
• Earring of Shah Neshen - Earring
  
• Amulet of Shah Neshen - Amulet
  

Melee Weapons

• Sclerite Maul - War Hammer
  
• Sclerite Hook - Hatchet
  
• Sclerite Stinger - Spear
  
• Sclerite Epee - Rapier
  
• Sclerite Stylet - Sword
  
• Sclerite Tusk - Greatsword
  
• Sclerite Pincer - Great Axe
  

Ranged Weapons

• Sclerite Quarry - Bow
  
• Sclerite Hollow - Blunderbuss
  
• Sclerite Vent - Musket
  

Magic Weapons

• Sclerite Illicium - Life Staff
  
• Sclerite Photocyte - Fire Staff
  
• Sclerite Hajdi - Void Gauntlet
  
• Sclerite Ice Crawler - Ice Gauntlet
  

[h2]AUDIO[/h2]

Sound Designer Kyle Bailey shared insight into the sandwurm’s audio:

“By now, players have likely seen the sandwurm roaming Brimstone Sands and are familiar with the sonic palette we’ve used to establish what it can currently do,” Kyle said. “For the epic trial, we expanded upon that palette to create intentional gameplay cues and evoke a more fearsome creature.”

[h3]ANCIENT VOCALS[/h3]

“At the core of the sandwurm’s vocalizations is the ancient voice. Its tonality can be heard in the fight, layered with elephant vocals to create a base layer. Though, this wasn’t enough. More aggressive textures were needed to make the players feel that this beast was truly dangerous. So, I tapped our audio director Jean-Edouard Miclot to provide a fresh approach. Mixing his vicious creature design with the ancient voice gave us something new, yet terrifying with a hint of familiarity.”

[h3]SIZZLING ACID[/h3]

“The sound effects associated with the various attacks were designed with vocals in mind. I looked for opportunities to highlight one or the other at specific moments so they weren’t fighting for space in the mix. You may have noticed, acid is a major part of the worm’s repertoire. The sizzling we often associate with the burning sensation acid brings can take up a lot of space. I found that leaning into the more liquid textures provided a believable acid sound, without an overbearing amount of hiss and sizzle.”

[h3]PROPANE TANK WORM PELLETS[/h3]

“The worm pellet mechanic was very fun to work on. I took inspiration from the Gleamite meteors and the sounds they make when mined. I recorded a propane tank, as well as a metal bowl with a small layer of water. Filling metal receptacles with water and swishing it around can give you some awesome, tonally pitched sounds.”

[h3]EPIC ENCOUNTER
[/h3]

“We wanted to kick this fight off in epic fashion. Players strike a drum and send ripples across the arid hills of Brimstone. Something shifts beneath the sand — its rhythm striking fear into the hearts of Aeternum’s travelers. Shah Neshen circles the creaky wooden structure, bursts open the gate, and finally destroys the drum. The fight has begun.”

Thanks for your support and good luck in the arena! You’ll need it.

Greetings, Adventurers!

Consume everything when the Devourer Heartrune releases alongside Blood of the Sands on July 6. We caught up with Combat Designer Josh Hurley for a glimpse into the ability’s concept, design, and challenges. The team always wanted to turn the sandwurm into a Heartrune, but burrowed through numerous iterations before landing on the final version.

[h2]CONCEPT[/h2]

“When we were asked to make a Heartrune for this release, we immediately wanted to include the Devourer. We just didn’t know exactly how we to do it. What if your arm turned into a worm and you slapped enemies with it? What if your head turned into a big Devourer mouth and you chomped down on targets? What if you threw a little bitty worm at a target, it bit their head, and then blocked their vision for a few seconds? We eventually landed on the 'summoning' aspect. Now it pops out of the ground."

“During early prototyping we used emotes as animations to set up the ability. There was a point in time where the pose to summon it used the “Wiggle Dance” emote, and although it looked kind of ridiculous, I will always love the concept of doing a little wiggly dance to summon the Devourer.”


“We wanted to add the concept of a backup attack, which we haven’t really used in prior abilities. Following our recent balance changes to separate damage from crowd control, plus the usage of Grit and Uninterruptible to prevent stagger, it creates another layer of interesting gameplay. What better way to add salt to a player’s wounds than with a chomp when they Grit their way through the initial knockback area?”

[h2]DESIGN[/h2]
“The Devourer Heartrune has two parts to it. If a player can somehow avoid the initial knockback as it emerges, the chomp is there as a back up to deal damage. Most of the time targets will get knocked outside of the radius of the follow up attack by the first hit. But those that Grit through that first attack, or avoid it via other mechanisms, will take a bigger chunk of damage.”


“We decided to break from reality with this ability and allow it to trigger on platforms and raised areas where the Devourer cannot actually burrow. One nice moment during an internal War playtest was getting into the defender’s fort and then using the Heartrune to knock ranged defenders off of the walls toward the attackers. It was really gratifying.”

“The Devourer is quite stubborn and doesn’t instantly appear when summoned, so leading a moving target will yield more favorable results.”

[h2]CHALLENGES[/h2]

“The method of chompy deployment was something that we couldn’t nail down initially. We went through a few different methods, including a ranged melee attack where you summon it out from under you, a projectile that would bait out the Devourer, and a simple summon along the ground similar to other spells. Each one had their own individual benefits as well as their shortcomings.”

“I personally favored the projectile. However, knowing our player base, and ourselves, it definitely would have been a development nightmare due to the amount of locations that a projectile could have landed.”

Stay tuned for more Season 2 previews. Thanks for your support! We’ll see you in Aeternum.

Greetings, Adventurers!

Wave 2.2 of the Season 2 PTR introduces bug fixes for the Blood of the Sands seasonal content. Downtime will begin at 11:00AM PT on June 15 and last approximately 90 minutes.

If you encounter a bug, exploit, or have suggestions to improve a feature or piece of content, we’d love to hear your feedback on our Discord (you can also utilize our in-game feedback tool). We will do our best to address as much of your feedback as possible before the content update makes its way to our live servers. Your participation will help us to deliver awesome content and updates in the future!

Check out an in-depth breakdown of the release in our official announcement and stay tuned to our social channels for updates.

[h2]Economy, Progression, and Gear[/h2]

• Replaced the models and icons for Artisan items. They no longer use the glass/transparent models but the new, intended ones instead.
  
• The Artisan line of items now have the proper durability and weight assignments.
  
• The Umbral Shard rewards for the Sandwurm encounter have been increased. You now get 500 per kill (previously 100), 2000 in the daily chest (previously 1000) and 8000 in the weekly chest (previously 2000).
  

[h2]Seasonal Content
[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where a target marker would appear over a player's head but Hadish Azar would instead burnout towards the center of his arena.
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause Hadish Azar's Meteor Shower warning marker to not appear on both players heads.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused Hadish Azar's Flame Waves to not reach the corners of his arena.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the Explosive Sulfur Core to kill players with explosive damage after it was destroyed.
  
• Modified Hadish Azar's Flame Vacuum so that it always pulls the player to him.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the Enraged Devourer Drone to get stuck below ground.
  

The following changes have been made to the Hatchery Trial rewards based on player feedback:

• Corsica Bandit Named Set: replaced Freedom with Human Ward.
  
• Scholarly Jongleur Named Set: replaced Invigorated with Human Ward.
  
• Hordemaster Named Set: replaced Invigorated with Human Ward.
  
• Oasis Graverobber Weapons: first perk bucket guarantees Bane perk, item guaranteed purple rarity or better.
  
• Waterseeker, Wanderer, and Warmonger Armor Sets: first perk bucket guarantees Ward perk, item guaranteed purple rarity or better.
  
• Added 15% chance to get a Golden Scarab from the Bonus Box, and changed the chance of Writ of Adventure to 15%.
  
• Increased amount of procedural gear awarded from a Normal run from 2 to 6.
  

[h2]Raid Groups
[/h2]

• Fixed an issue that caused raid members to appear in multiple groups when moved while offline.
  

[h2]UX/UI[/h2]

• Fixed an issue that caused white boxes to show on raid screens.
  

Trial of the Devourer:

• Replaced Average Gear Score with Recommended Gear Score.
  
• Changed the remaining time to show time until reset.
  

Thanks for your support! We’ll see you in Aeternum.

Greetings, Adventurers!

New World Update 1.9.5 downtime will begin at 11:00PM PT (6:00AM UTC) on June 13 and last approximately 1 hour. Launch Fireworks to celebrate your victory over the Fury of the Spriggan. In addition to various bug fixes, players of all levels can now freely enter Brimstone Sands.

Unfortunately during testing we discovered an issue that prevents all emotes from working on their first use. Our team is working hard to address the issue and deliver a fix as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

[h2]FIREWORKS[/h2]
Light up Aeternum with bursts of color! Fireworks will cost 1,000 Marks of Fortune individually or 10,000 Marks of Fortune for a pack of ten. Pick up your favorite from the in-game Store:

[h3]FLOWER FIREWORK EMOTE[/h3]


“A dazzling blast of color! Allows use of the Flower Rocket Firework emote for 2 hours.“

[h3]DYNASTY FIREWORK EMOTE[/h3]


“Blood red holiday fun! Allows use of the Dynasty Rocket Firework emote for 2 hours.“

[h3]DRYAD FIREWORK EMOTE[/h3]


“An explosion of emerald! Allows use of the Dryad Rocket Firework emote for 2 hours.”

[h3]ANCIENT FIREWORK EMOTE[/h3]


“Purple explosion! Allows use of the Ancient Rocket Firework emote for 2 hours."

[h3]SHOOTING STAR FIREWORK EMOTE[/h3]


“Caution! May emit showers of sparks! Allows use of the Shooting Star Firework emote for 2 hours.”

[h3]FIREWORK SHOW VARIETY PACK
[/h3]
“Wow your friends with a dazzling firework show! Just be sure to keep water on hand to extinguish any potential fires.”

• Includes five each of the Flower, Dynasty, Dryad, Ancient and Shooting Star Firework Permits.
  
• Cost: 25,000 Marks of Fortune
  

[h2]BRIMSTONE SANDS[/h2]

• Brimstone Sands is unlocked for everyone as of Update 1.9.4. Players of all levels can now travel to Brimstone Sands without dying to the sun (scorpions and sandwurms are a different story). We apologize for letting this patch note burrow away from us in the previous article.
  

[h2]NOTABLE FIXES[/h2]

• Fixed an issue that caused Lleyson Reese to not appear in the intended location, preventing MSQ progression.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused Yonas to not appear for players that had not completed The Ritual quest before the Brimstone Sands Release.
  
• Fixed an issue with Yonas' idle animation.
  
• Fixed an issue that triggered the incorrect tool and animation when Gathering.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from salvaging Fury of the Spriggan gear for Coin.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from completing Season Tasks associated with non-repeatable quests.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from previewing the Gryphon Item skins.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused players to no longer see their character when transitioning screens in the main menu.
  

Thanks for your support! We’ll see you in Aeternum.

Greetings, Adventurers!

Before Wave 3 of the Season 2 PTR launches, we will address some Sandwurm and Hatchery bugs for a smoother player experience. Downtime will begin at 10:00AM PT on June 13 and last approximately 90 minutes.

If you encounter a bug, exploit, or have suggestions to improve a feature or piece of content, we’d love to hear your feedback on our Discord (you can also utilize our in-game feedback tool). We will do our best to address as much of your feedback as possible before the content update makes its way to our live servers. Your participation will help us to deliver awesome content and updates in the future!

[h3]World Experience
[/h3]

• Added collision planes around all areas where players could jump off of the ledge into rock chasms during the Legacy of the Sands Soul Trial.
  

[h3]Combat/AI[/h3]

• Fixed a bug that prevented the acid clouds during the submerge phase of the Sandwurm fight from consistently affecting players.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented the Sandwurm's stacking empower, applied at the end of every phase cycle, from affecting its acid based attacks.
  
• Addressed an issue that caused max health to not properly increase with the removal of Hale and Hearty when adding attributes into CON.
  

[h3]Game Modes[/h3]

• Fixed an issue that caused consumables in PvP Arena to appear greyed out, and unusable, even though their cooldown was complete.
  

[h3]Economy, Progression, and Gear
[/h3]

• All items from the Daily Reward Cache should now raise expertise as expected.
  
• The Artisan Hatchet and Spear are now craftable at the Forge instead of the Workshop.
  
• Sandwurm replicas are now craftable at the correct crafting stations.
  

[h3]Seasons[/h3]

• Fixed an issue that caused players to not receive previous Season Pass rewards when logging in.
  
• Fixed a typo in the "Mutation God" title.
  
• Weapon skins on the season pass rewards track now correctly display that they are skins in their tooltips.
  

[h3]Season Trials
[/h3]

• Removed the ability to Stoneform out of the Explosive Sulfur Core.
  
• Increased the damage dealt by Incinerate by 56%.
  
• Incinerate now applies slight knockback on impact.
  

Thanks for your support! We’ll see you in Aeternum.