New World fans will be receiving a substantial update at the end of March 2022. Titled “Heart of Madness”, this newest patch introduces us to a new weapon, expedition as well as a thrilling conclusion to the main storyline.

New World March Update Heart of Madness Releases Main Storyline Finale, New Blunderbuss Weapon, Tempest’s Heart Expedition and More

The Heart of Madness update for New World was announced as early as the start of March. It was also mentioned briefly in the content roadmap released last week. This major update will introduce the finale to the main storyline, the Blunderbuss Weapon, the Tempest’s Heart Expedition, and more! Players will be able to enjoy the update starting March 29 at 5 AM PT, after a 2-hour downtime.

The New World Finale

The finale to the main storyline will start as the player is chasing Isabella towards the Shattered Mountain. Players will be able to face her in an “epic final showdown” at the Tempest’s Heart Expedition. This dungeon will transport people into a twisted version of reality, warped by Isabella’s corrupted mind.

Tempest’s Heart is an endgame expedition for 5 players. It is recommended that those willing to take the challenge have reached level 60 and have a gearscore between 550 and 570.

The Blunderbuss Weapon

Introducing New World’s newest weapon type, the Blunderbuss. This will allow players an alternative firearm to the Musket, though the Blunderbuss is intended for short to mid-range combat. It offers high mobility with excellent damage that scales with both strength and intelligence. This is the first weapon that offers scaling from these two attributes.

The Blunderbuss will offer players two different playstyle options: Containment and Chaos. Containment mastery allows players to focus on gap closers and massive short-ranged burst damage. Inversely, Chaos specializes in bombing wide areas from a distance. Talk about handy!

Let’s take a look at a few of the abilities available to each mastery.

Containment Abilities

• Net Shot: fires a large net at your target, slowing them for a brief moment. Due to the massive recoil of this ability, players that are stationary or moving backwards will be knocked further back. If they are moving forward or sideways their momentum will not be changed.
• Claw Shot: fires a claw chained to your blunderbuss. Any enemy hit by this claw will be ensnared before the chain retracts and pulls the blunderbuss user towards the target.
• Azoth Shrapnel Blast: fires multiple conal blasts in front of you, knocking the blunderbuss user back.

Chaos Abilities

• Splitting Grenade: shoots grenades that can bounce. These projectiles will detonate after a brief delay. After the initial detonation, the grenades will split into 3 smaller ones which will explode on impact.
• Mortar Charge: changes that normal attacks no longer shoot pellets, but a heavier canister instead. The canister is explosive and deals damage to a wide area. The farther the target is, the more damage it takes.
• Blast Shot: creates a massive shot that knocks down targets in front of you.

Exploration and the Open World

The Heart of Madness update for New World is also bringing in a huge number of changes to the open world, intended to make exploration more rewarding. First up, they are introducing “World Paintings” that will give players paintings of a view of their houses. There will also be more roadside encounters for the Weaver’s Fen and Restless Shores locations, to keep things interesting while travelling.

NPCs and Encounters

New NPCs and enemies are also being added that will roam the world. Rafflebones the Loot Collector stalks Aeternum for any discarded treasures. Players who encounter Rafflebones will have less than a minute to slay him for any treasures that he might have hoarded. Players who do manage to take him down will be given a named weapon. Rafflebones has a chance to spawn in every location, even level 60 ones wherein he will grant even better rewards.

Other NPCs include Stinky the Hunter and The Forgotten Yeti. These enemies will drop various themed items, ranging from level 30 to 45.

New World Open World Quality of Life

One of the biggest changes to the open-world experience is that player to player collision is being removed. This means that you won’t be able to body block other players in the open world, Expeditions and Invasions. What the implications this will bring to PVP are uncertain at this point.

Storage Chests will also have their bonuses doubled across the board, allowing players to hoard even more materials from their trade skills. Durability loss of items will also be changing, as only equipped items will receive damage whenever the player dies.

Combat, AI and Balancing

As with any major patch, there will be tons of balancing involved with the various weapons, combat and enemy AI. One of the biggest changes is to the ammo system. T1 Flint Ammo and Arrows are being removed from the game entirely. Instead, they will be converted to Infinite Ammo and Iron Arrows, respectively. This essentially allows players to use the Musket, Bow and the new Blunderbuss without equipping any ammo.

Other than that, Enemy AI will be modified in the open world so that they do not actively engage with players who aren’t participating in a fight.

New World PTR Nodes

The New World team also outlined some changes to the PTR (Public Test Realm), and some look very exciting. Players will now be able to check out their inventory while they’re on the move. You no longer need to be at a full stop to examine loot or swap gear. However, if you enter combat you won’t be allowed to change your equipment, regardless of whether you’re running or not.

Players will also recover their health and mana when out of combat. This will drastically reduce the downtime between combat, and allow for a smoother gameplay experience. At the moment, players will recover 40 health per second and will gain a +100% bonus to mana regeneration.

Well, that’s an entire truckload of information at the moment! The patch is definitely quite meaty and has more content than we can cover in this post. For the full notes, be sure to check out our Patch Notes page.

For more information on the game, be sure to check out our New World Wiki. For New World Builds, be sure to check out our top builds.

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