New World: How to Increase Your Gear Score

To enjoy the more hardcore PvP elements available in New World’s endgame, it is important for players to ensure that they are keeping up with their opponents. In order to stay viable in combat, they can’t risk falling too far behind in regard to their stats and abilities. There are many different factors that can affect combat ability, and one of them is a player’s Gear Score.

Gear Score in New World is an average score based on the stats of a player’s weapons and armor, and it is used to give a general idea of how powerful that character is beyond their level. Similar to item level in World of Warcraft, it is used typically to set high-level or max-level characters apart from one another to determine who is most effective in PvP and PvE.

To increase their Gear Score in New World, players will need to acquire better gear. These are a few of the best places to get gear, and ways to improve the odds of picking up high-level loot that will actually improve Gear Score:

• Run Dungeons and Expeditions
• Complete Corrupted Breaches
• Play Outpost Rush
• Kill Level 60+ Elite Mobs
• Loot Elite Supply Chests
• Craft High-Level Gear

Find and Craft Better Gear in New World

World Events

Just like in most other MMOs, dungeons in New World are some of the best places to get high-quality gear. Grinding these out is a great way to both improve gear score and have fun exploring all of the dungeons and expeditions that the game has to offer. To hit a lot of dungeons in New World, tuning orbs will be required. So, players will need a reliable way to acquire tuning orbs or a friend who does.

Corrupted breaches in New World can also drop quality loot and are randomly generated portals throughout Aeternum where Corrupted spawn. When complete, players can find some decent loot. Finally, Outpost Rush in New World is a Domination-style PvP mode specifically for Level 60 players, and there are Outpost Rush Chests rewarded for playing and winning. Each of these World Events can drop weapons, armor, jewels, and crafting materials that can increase gear score. Higher-level loot can be found more often in higher-level events, so players should keep that in mind.

Elite Mobs & Chests

Mobs in Elite zones drop loot based on their level, with higher-level mobs dropping loot with higher gear scores. Here is the general breakdown of what loot to expect from each level of Elite mob:

• Gear Score 500-525: Elite 61+
• Gear Score 525-549: Elite 62+
• Gear Score 549-577: Elite 63+
• Gear Score 577-591: Elite 64+

Elite Supply Chests are chests found near named enemies and other high-level bosses, and they often have quality loot that matches up roughly with the level of difficulty of the enemy they spawn near. This can also include weapons, armor, and crafting materials. Running through bosses with friends can actually go pretty quickly, so that is probably the best way to increase the odds of getting gear that will increase gear score.

Craft High-Level Gear

While this strategy takes the most preparation, crafting high-level gear in New World can be an easy way to increase a character’s gear score. The only downside is the fact that players must level up their crafting skills before they can make improved gear. Skills like Weaponsmithing and Armoring can produce high-level weapons and armor if leveled up properly.

Players should wait to level up skills like Weaponsmithing and Armoring until they hit the level cap, as these can be time-consuming grinds. If players choose to level a New World Crafting skill, and its corresponding Gathering skill (Mining, Woodworking, etc.), the necessary Refining skills should get leveled up incidentally through this process. Alternatively, players can also purchase New World crafting materials at trading posts to make gear with better scores.

New World is available on PC.

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