New World: What You Need To Know About Umbral Shards

Amazon’s New World was released last year, the company's first step into the MMORPG field. While having a few bumps in the road, New World launched with adequate success and retains a high player base. New World takes a lot from classic MMOs in terms of combat, grinding, and crafting while still bringing much to the table in terms of gameplay and progression.

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New World also has an extensive gear system. Instead of being separated by a level wall, all gear is assigned gear scores. It takes a lot of work to get to max gear score in New World, which is 600 (but 625 on the public test server). Umbral Shards are a new addition to New World, and are directly linked to improving player gear and raising it past the level cap in upcoming updates. In this guide, players will learn how to obtain and how to use Umbral Shards in New World.

What Are Umbral Shards?

Umbral Shards are a new in-game material players will need to upgrade their gear scores as they progress through the game. Umbral Shards can upgrade gear with a minimum score of 590 to a maximum score of 625. They also allow players to increase their expertise in a specific gear slot, allowing a raise from 600 to 625. Upgrading a piece of gear also permanently raises the player's expertise with that gear slot.

It's crucial for players to understand that upgrading a piece of gear with Umbral Shards will not turn it into a legendary item, and will not equip it with an additional perk. Upgrading a piece of gear will only raise the scaling of the item to 625 power level.

How To Use Umbral Shards

To utilize an Umbral Shard, the player must first have a piece of gear to upgrade. This piece of gear must be at a score of 590 or higher; in addition, the expertise in that gear slot must also be at 590 or higher. If both these requirements are met, the only thing that remains is to have the correct amount of Umbral Shards needed to upgrade the gear piece to the desired score.

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The amount of Umbral Shards it takes to upgrade a piece of gear varies depending on the gap between scores. Players can refer to the chart below to see how many Umbral Shards they will need for their gear:

How To Obtain Umbral Shards

There are currently three ways for players to obtain Umbral Shards in New World: completing Mutated Expeditions, Crafting High-level gear, and Gypsum Casts.

Mutated Expeditions

Mutated Expeditions were introduced in update 1.3. These are previous Expeditions that have been modified with more challenging modifiers and provide greater rewards, and are best done with a Guild. These new versions of previous content are for players who have reached level 60 and topped out their gear scores.

Players must complete all previous versions of Expeditions to gain access to Mutated versions. It's essential to understand the difficulty of these Expeditions, as players should attempt if they have not achieved the minimum level required and a good understanding of builds and roles. Players must also have solid builds and weapons like the Musket or the Hatchet.

Like all Expeditions, Mutated Expeditions require a tuning orb to unlock. The available Mutated Expeditions are:

• Dynasty Shipyard: This Expedition consists of powerful corrupted enemies that are weak to Thrust, Nature, and Arcane damage types.
  • Recommended level: 55
  • Location: South West of the Ebon Scale territory. The entrance can be found in the Arch at the end of the dock.
  • Bosses: Commander Chen, Isabella, and Zhou Taiying.

• Garden Of Genesis consists of Angry Earth enemies, which are weak against Slash and Fire damage.
  • Recommended level: 60. Players should have an understanding of roles in expeditions.
  • Location: North West of EdenGrove. The entrance to this Expedition can be found in the Arch within the forest.
  • Bosses: Taxodius, Aluvium Marl, and The Blighted Greenskeeper.

• Lazarus Instrumentality Expedition contains mostly Ancient foes. These enemies are strong to Slash and Fire damage, along with being weak to Strike, Lightning, and Void damage.
  • Recommended level: 60. Players should have a thorough understanding of roles in end game Expeditions.
  • Location: Directly North of the settlement Reekwater. The entrance can be found up the temple's stairs inside the Arch.
  • Bosses: Cilla and Chardis.

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Mutated Expeditions are the most efficient way to earn Umbral Shards. The difficulties in these Expeditions are leveled one to ten, ten being the hardest difficulty. Within each level of the mutation, players can either be rewarded Bronze, Silver, or Gold. Depending on the level of the Expedition, the player's performance in the dungeon, a player can receive a varied amount of Umbral Shards, as seen in the following chart:

Crafting Items With A 600 Gear score

When a player succeeds at crafting a piece of gear with a score of 600, that player's expertise in that specific gear slot will be bumped up to 600 as well. From then on, when a player crafts a gear of that level or higher, they will receive a number of Umbral Shards as a reward depending on the level of the gear. The amount of Umbral Shards received is outlined in the chart below.

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Opening A Gypsum Cast

Usually, opening a Gypsum Cast will reward the player with an increase in their Expertise in the specific slot of the item they are opening. Once 600 Expertise is reached in that slot, the player will receive a certain amount of Umbral Shards from that point forward. The chart below breaks down the amount of Umbral Shards rewarded.

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New World is available on PC Via Steam.

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