In this New World Blunderbuss Build 2024 Guide, we’ll focus on the Blunderbuss in both PvE and PvP, a ranged weapon that primarily scales with strength, but also gains some benefits from intelligence, though it favors strength overall. If you’re looking to create a close-range build that keeps you just out of melee range while still dishing out powerful projectiles, the Blunderbuss is a weapon you should definitely consider.

New World Aeternum Blunderbuss Build Information

• Scaling Stats: Strength (90%), Intelligence (65%)
• Damage Type: Thrust
• Standard Attack Damage: 19% per pellet, 114% total of all 6 pellets
• Taunt Gem Compatible: Yes
• Best Strength Weapon Pairings: Great Axe, War Hammer. Sword and Shield
• Best Intelligence Weapon Pairings: Fire Staff, Ice Gauntlet, Void Gauntlet, Rapier

New World Blunderbuss Build 2024 – Overview and Strategy

To start this New World Blunderbuss Build 2024: the Blunderbuss scales primarily with strength (90%) and also benefits from intelligence (65%), making it more suitable for a strength build, though it can still work with intelligence-based weapons like Fire Staff, Ice Gauntlet, Void Gauntlet, or even Rapier or Musket for niche setups. While it shares its thrust damage type with the Musket, there are key differences beyond scaling. The Blunderbuss loads two shots at a time, allowing you to fire twice before reloading. It has a much shorter range than the Musket and fires six projectiles that spread out as they travel, giving it a shotgun-like feel.

This means you’ll want to stay within closer range with a Blunderbuss Build compared to the Musket, maintaining the optimal distance for maximum damage. Like the Musket, the Blunderbuss doesn’t require crafted ammo and also enjoys a base 20% damage bonus. However, while the Musket often relies on free-aiming for headshots, the Blunderbuss benefits greatly from the new lock-on system, allowing you to lock onto a target and fire freely. Unlike the bow, which suffers from reduced damage when hip-firing while locked on, the Blunderbuss retains full damage, making it especially lethal in PvP, where you can stay out of melee range and unload shots quickly.

Though the Blunderbuss can be free-aimed, many players will likely take advantage of its ease of use with lock-on, especially in PvE scenarios. Dodging during a reload interrupts the process, similar to the Musket, but the Blunderbuss reloads much faster, making it less of an issue.

New World Aeternum Blunderbuss Pros:

• Easy to use with fast reload times
• No need to craft ammo
• Easier to use with the lock-on feature
• Pairs well with both strength and intelligence weapons

New World Aeternum Blunderbuss Cons:

• Shorter range compared to other ranged weapons
• All other strength-scaling weapons are melee, making the Blunderbuss feel redundant when switching from melee to point-blank combat.

Containment Skill Tree

The Blunderbuss has two distinct skill trees: Containment and Chaos. The Containment tree emphasizes mobility for the player while restricting the movement of targets, which is good for any New World Blunderbuss Build 2024.

Azoth Shrapnel Blast

The first ability is Azoth Shrapnel Blast, which fires in a tight spread while pushing you back. This ability deals about double the damage of a light attack and only gets better with upgrades—enhancing its range, reducing its cooldown, and adding more shots. It’s a great ability to use on cooldown since it outperforms light attacks and is a staple for single-target focus with the Blunderbuss.

Claw Shot

Next is Claw Shot, which fires a shot that pulls you to the target while rooting them. It does very little damage but excels in PvP, where it helps you close the distance on a fleeing player. Upgrading this ability adds further utility: it regenerates stamina, reduces cooldowns, and reloads an additional round into your Blunderbuss, making it very effective in PvP scenarios. However, it sees limited use in PvE.

Net Shot

The third skill, Net Shot, fires a net that slows enemies, with upgrades reducing its cooldown, increasing the slow effect, and adding a bleed over time. This ability is handy for keeping enemies at bay, especially in PvP when trying to prevent an enemy from escaping. In general PvE or expeditions, it’s not likely to be used as much, but it’s still a good single-target tool.

The capstone ability for the Containment tree is Unload. It enhances your next shot after using a weapon ability, increasing the number of pellets fired from six to eight, boosting damage by around 25%. Since you’re likely alternating between skills and shots during combat, this ability consistently increases your damage by 25% with each ability, resulting in an overall 75% damage increase across a full rotation. This makes Unload more reliable than the capstone from the Chaos tree, although the latter has its own situational advantages.

Overall, the Containment tree is great for PvP due to its mobility and ability to control enemy movement, while still being solid for PvE content where single-target damage is key.

Chaos Skill Tree

The Chaos skill tree for the Blunderbuss focuses on AoE damage and utility, making it a strong option for players who want more flexibility and damage-over-time effects which is also good for a New World Blunderbuss Build 2024.

Splitting Grenade

This ability fires a grenade that splits and then detonates, providing a solid source of AoE damage. However, it can be tricky to use because if you hit a target directly, it may bounce off and detonate away from them. There’s also a delay before it explodes, so hitting charging enemies can be tough. That said, it’s useful for initiating fights or hitting groups of enemies clustered around a tank. Splitting Grenade gives the Blunderbuss a bit more range than a regular shot, making it a good choice for longer-distance engagements. Upgrades to this skill increase damage against healthy targets, grant haste if you hit a target (helping you chase enemies), and apply the burning status effect for damage over time.

Mortar Charge

This ability loads your Blunderbuss with explosive rounds that have greater range than standard shots. It’s ideal for increasing your effective range, especially against targets more than 10 meters away. It’s perfect for situations where you need to hit from a distance, like PvP or when you want to avoid getting too close to enemies. Upgrading Mortar Charge returns stamina with each hit, grants haste to boost your speed, and lets you load an extra round, allowing you to fire four shots before the ability ends.

Blast Shot

Though it doesn’t deal much damage, Blast Shot knocks down all enemies in front of you and is uninterruptible due to its grit. This makes it a great utility skill for knocking down groups of enemies in dungeons or when you’ve pulled a lot of enemies while questing. It’s also valuable in PvP, especially in small-scale or single-player encounters, as the knockdown can buy you precious time to avoid attacks. Upgrades apply rend to enemies hit, reducing their armor, which is useful in both PvP and PvE. It can also boost your allies’ movement speed, which is handy in PvP for chasing down fleeing enemies.

The capstone ability for this skill tree, Double Down reduces the cooldown of one of your abilities by 50 every 30 seconds%. While this is a long cooldown, it can be particularly useful in small-scale PvP, where you may be looking for one-on-one encounters and need your abilities to come back faster. However, it’s situational and might not always be the best choice, especially in larger fights or PvE scenarios where combat is more frequent.

Overall, the Chaos skill tree provides strong AoE damage and utility, giving you more flexibility in how you approach combat with the Blunderbuss, particularly from longer distances or in situations where crowd control and utility are essential.

New World Blunderbuss Builds 2024

Solo & Group PvE Blunderbuss Build – New World Aeternum

Solo PvP Blunderbuss Build – New World Aeternum

Group PvP Blunderbuss Build – New World Aeternum

New World Aeternum Blunderbuss Build – Weapons & Armor

When considering weapon pairings with New World: Aeternum Blunderbuss Builds, you’ll want to think about the weapon’s strength scaling. Naturally, you might lean toward another strength-based weapon. If you’re going down this route, look for something with strong AoE at close range. While the Blunderbuss can handle AoE from a distance, it’s not as reliable, especially if you’re still getting used to it. For close-range situations where multiple enemies are closing in, weapons like the Greatsword or Greataxe are solid choices due to their powerful AoE attacks in melee combat.

On the intelligence side, you’re probably better off pairing the Blunderbuss with a ranged weapon. While you could use a Rapier for its intelligence scaling, it isn’t the strongest match. A better option would be something like the Firestaff or Ice Gauntlet, both of which provide effective ranged damage. You could start fights with these weapons and switch to the Blunderbuss once enemies close in. It may not be as efficient as a pure strength build, but it offers more versatility in terms of range.

As for armor, light or medium armor is your best bet when playing with the Blunderbuss. The key to success with this weapon is staying just outside of melee range while maximizing the damage from your shots. Light armor enhances this strategy by giving you the dodge roll, which creates more distance from enemies while also providing a 15% damage bonus. This is ideal for keeping yourself safe while landing powerful shots. However, if you want a bit more protection, medium armor is still a viable option. You won’t dodge as far and you’ll lose the damage bonus from light armor, but you’ll be able to withstand more hits, which can be useful if you’re caught in close combat.

New World Aeternum Blunderbuss Build – Final Thoughts

That wraps up our New World: Aeternum Blunderbuss build guide! Hope you found it helpful. This weapon is a blast to use, especially with the lock-on system—just lock onto your target and fire away. Most enemies go down in a few shots, making it super effective, especially in PvP. It’s perfect for keeping your distance while consistently dealing damage without needing to aim much, which can be a real game-changer. Keep an eye out for more weapon guides like Sword & Shield, Greatsword, Flail and Shield and Great Axe.

What about you? Planning to use the Blunderbuss at the launch of New World Aeternum? Got another weapon in mind? Let me know what you’re pairing it with in the comments!