New World Aeternum Details Season 8 Content

Summary

New World: Aeternum Season 8 begins on May 13 and features new PvP modes, a Barbershop feature, and various limited-time events.
Hardcore Seasonal World debuts in early June with more difficult activities and enemies, but players have access to faster level ups and gear acquisition.
The Season 8 update will introduce a new Season Pass and various quality of life improvements.

Amazon Games revealed new details about New World: Aeternum Season 8 - Season of the Divide, which launches on Tuesday, May 13. Season 8 of New World: Aeternum will introduce a Hardcore Seasonal World, new PvP modes, a new Barbershop, and so much more for players to discover.

Amazon Games-developed MMORPG New World launched in September 2021 as a PC exclusive, and the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions followed up on October 15, 2024, under the new title New World: Aeternum. Like other popular MMORPGs on PC, New World: Aeternum has undergone many changes and received a slew of new content with seasonal updates. New World: Aeternum Season 8 appears to focus on high-risk, high-reward experiences with the introduction of Hardcore worlds, but players of all skill levels can still benefit from and enjoy new content in the new season.

New World Aeternum Announces Third Round of Server Merges

Amazon Games announces that a third round of server merges will be happening in the MMORPG New World: Aeternum, following February’s wave.

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By Jo Craig

New World: Aeternum will introduce the Hardcore Seasonal World in early June, a few weeks after Season 8 - Season of the Divide begins on May 13. New characters in Hardcore will begin in an "unfallen" state, level up and earn gear faster, have access to a streamlined main quest, and gain access to elite rewards if they survive without dying. Hardcore is unforgiving, and players will forfeit the ability to unlock their unfallen rewards if they die once. Fortunately, characters will remain available after their first death, and players still have many other rewards to unlock for their account and primary characters. Amazon Games plans to share more details about Hardcore at a later date, according to the game's Season 8 blog post.

New World: Aeternum Reveals New Season 8 Content

Season 8 begins May 13
Hardcore Seasonal World arrives in early June.
Coral Divide Outpost Rush map
Capture the Flag and Outpost Rush: Barebones PvP modes
New map for 3v3 Arenas
World bosses in Expeditions
Barbershop
New Season Pass
- Free Track
  - 2 Artifacts: Lich Gloves & Vampire Vestments
  - 6 Tool Skins: Sinner’s Set
  - 2 Helm Skins: Oblivion’s Herald & Corruption’s Witness
  - 5 Sets of Dyes
  - Emotes: Brush Off Shoulder, Touch Grass
- Premium Track (20,000 Marks of Fortune)
  - 9 Weapon Skins: Fallen Set
  - 5 Armor Skins: Blackguard Set
  - 5 Additional Dye Sets
Springtide Bloom, Faction Fest: Expeditions, and Fury of the Spriggan seasonal events
New Artifacts and quality of life changes

Various maps and modes will be introduced during Season 8, including the Coral Divide Outpost Rush map, the Outpost Rush: Barebones and limited-time 10v10 Capture the Flag PvP modes, and a new map for 3v3 Arena in New World: Aeternum. Players will also be able to team up and take on powerful level 70 bosses from Expeditions in limited-time open-world events. Defeat bosses like Mammoth Mahantaram, Scarab Boss Khepri, and Fire Naga Ifrit during Season 8 to receive up-leveled loot and gain an edge in endgame content.

The Barbershop will be open at every Stylemancer in Season 8. New World: Aeternum players can earn Barbershop Tokens during gameplay or purchase them from the in-game store to tweak their characters' appearances. All players earn a free token in the Season Pass for New World: Aeternum, which includes a Free Track and Premium Track. The Season Pass Free Track includes new Lich Gloves and Vampire Vestments Artifacts, Sinner's Set tool skins, Oblivion's Herald and Corruption's Witness helm skins, and much more. For 20,000 Marks of Fortune, players get access to the Premium Track, featuring nine Fallen Set weapon skins, five Blackguard Set armor skins, new dye sets, and new Artifacts.

Similarly to New World: Aeternum Season 7, many seasonal events will be held throughout Season 8, and there will also be Weapon and Gathering XP Boost events. Springtide Bloom will bring refreshed rewards and spring-themed cosmetics, and Faction Fest: Expeditions will let players compete in faction-based activities to earn additional rewards. Fury of the Spriggan will also feature updated event rewards. Season 8 will implement a slew of quality of life changes and gameplay adjustments to round out the overall experience in New World: Aeternum as well.

Season 8 Combat and Quality of Life Updates and Changes

PVP Camps - Open world PvP is getting an upgrade! Players flagged for PvP will now be able to place or bind to faction-only destructible camps. Hunt down and destroy enemy faction camps to remove your enemy’s ability to respawn close to the fight, creating a more strategic experience in Influence Races and open world PvP combat.
Ready Up – Start PvP matches faster when enough players opt in.
Spectator Cam – Watch the battle after death in select game modes.
Survival Potions – 5 new potions to choose between to modify different aspects of survivability in combat:
- Burst Regen Potion - A small burst of healing followed by a passive regen for a duration (Combination of Health and Regen potions)
- Health Shot Potion - Similar to a health potion but provides with less healing, but can be used more often
- Shield Potion - Grants damage reduction for 3 hits taken, lasts until timer runs out or until the hits are taken
- Grit Potion - Grants the uninterruptible effect for the duration
- Lifesteal Potion - Increases the power of all lifesteal effects for the duration.
Target Lock Updates - Target lock and aim assist were added primarily to assist controller players to compete with mouse and keyboard aiming, but when combined they made aiming almost completely unnecessary. In retrospect, we feel that removing aiming as a necessity on controller harmed the skilled nature of our combat so we’ve made some changes to target lock to bring back the skill.
- We’ve reduced the amount of aim assist you receive when locked onto enemy players on controller, making it harder to hit moving targets, but have also tuned aim assist to work better with controller outside of target lock. The goal was for target lock to still be useful in certain situations, but players must now manage it more actively since it isn’t as simple as just locking on a target and expecting everything to hit.
- Target lock now breaks when your target moves behind the camera. This was changed to add more counter-play to target lock as you can dodge through someone to break their lock and it’s now more difficult to track a target that is actively trying to disengage your lock.
- Target lock also now breaks when entering aim down sights.
Tech Enhancements
- Improved performance and visuals for Nvidia GPUs.
- DirectX 12 – Enabled by default on Steam for better stability and graphics.