Weapon Mastery

Weapon Mastery is used to unlock skill trees for weapons. To access the Weapon Mastery screen, press "K" to go into the Character menu screen, then click on Weapon Mastery. Each character has their own Weapon Mastery progression, it is not shared account-wide.

"In New World, as players use a weapon, they get better with it. This manifests itself in weapon mastery points that players can spend to unlock new abilities and passive upgrades. So as a player uses their Ice gauntlet, they will earn Ice gauntlet XP and at certain thresholds be awarded a point they can use to improve the weapon. Every weapon type has two trees that offer different styles of combat, and players can mix and match or create their own specialization."

For each weapon, players gain Mastery experience by killing enemies with that weapon. You can also gain Mastery experience if a group member kills an enemy, so long as you are nearby and have the weapon equipped. Players earn weapon XP for both equipped weapons including their sheathed weapon. The offhand weapon earns a smaller amount of XP than the main hand.

Players can have up to 20 Weapon Mastery points for each type of weapon. There is no limit to how many different weapon types you can master, it is possible to master all of them.

After weapon level 10, spent Weapon Mastery points can be reset (all points refunded and can be spent again) for a small amount of Azoth. Before weapon level 10, it is free to respec.

Mastery Trees

One-Handed Weapons

• Sword and Shield Mastery
• Hatchet Mastery
• Rapier Mastery
• Flail and Shield Mastery

Two-Handed Weapons

• Spear Mastery
• Great Axe Mastery
• War Hammer Mastery
• Greatsword Mastery

Ranged Weapons

• Bow Mastery
• Musket Mastery
• Blunderbuss Mastery

Magical Weapons

• Fire Staff Mastery
• Life Staff Mastery
• Ice Gauntlet Mastery
• Void Gauntlet Mastery

Popular Ways to Level Weapon Mastery

For most players, weapon mastery with their favored weapons happens naturally through normal questing. However, players often reach maximum level with only these few weapons mastered and want to quickly earn Mastery with the other weapons. This allows you to have all skills unlocked in case you choose to use different weapons in the future. Players gain more weapon experience when killing enemies of high level and difficulty. They also seek out places where one can kill many enemies quickly.

Items

Weapon XP Boosters double a character's weapon experience earned during 2 hours of game time. They are available for purchase in the online store under Consumables. They can also sometimes be earned through Season Track rewards. Once you have a booster, open the Augments menu [F11 on PC] to start using it.

Groups

• Elite Chest Runs involve many players grouping together to kill many high level and difficult enemies. Players can use this to gain weapon experience quickly.
• Lifering (also called Tor To-Riven) is a location in Edengrove just South of the Elysian Shrine. It is suggested players go in a 10-man or more raid group. The area is a circle in which waves of elite Angry Earth enemies spawn along with 3 elite bosses (Entropy, Abiogenesis, Malevolence). Once they are all defeated, there is a 6 minute timer on your screen until the area respawns. During late 2023 and early-to-mid 2024 this area was the most popular option for leveling Weapon Mastery.

Locations

For solo players, the best option for gaining weapon experience is about quantity of enemies killed. Rather than spending a long time facing high level enemies, they find places where they can gather many low-level enemies to kill quickly. These include:

• Hounding the Master, a repeatable event at Battleclast Crossing in Great Cleave.
• Pirate Camps in Restless Shore, Northeast of Shrine of Sisyphos, called Channelview Post and Oceanview Post.