How Combat works in New World - A Beginner's Guide

Guide on how combat works in New World, for both PvE and PvP with a tips and tricks that can help you always make the most of your abilities!

The Guide is up-to-date for Patch 1.9.2

We’ll start with the basics and talk more about the complex things further in. There are no story spoilers of any kind in this guide. The images used are chosen carefully and are primarily from the earlier levels.

Light and Heavy Attacks
Backstabs and Headshots
Weapon Skills
Grit Attacks
How Stamina works
Status Conditions in New World explained

Light and Heavy Attacks

All weapons have access to a Light and Heavy Attack. A Light attack is performed with a simple Left Click, or press of the button you bind for controller players. A Heavy Attack is performed by holding the same input for Light attack, outside of the Bow, which requires you to aim to perform a heavy attack.

Light attacks will deal 100% Weapon damage and are usually much faster attacks. These Light Attacks often have a chain of 2-3 hits before repeating for melee weapons. Many weapons have perks or bonuses that will trigger with certain parts of their Light Attack Chain.

Heavy Attacks typically deal up to 140% Weapon damage, based on Weapon. These are slower attacks that can be chained together and will often stagger some AI enemies. Some weapons have perks and bonuses that can also trigger with Heavy Attacks, though generally only requiring a single hit. Staves in particular are unique in that you can move while charging the attack, and are only stopped briefly when releasing the projectile.

These two types of attacks will often make up the majority of the combat and your damage output. There’s also Weapon Skills that can be used as well, which make up the rest of your damage output.

Backstabs and Headshots

New World fully takes advantage of common elements of both RPG and FPS games here. The important thing to keep note of here is that Backstabs are mostly Melee exclusive with a few exceptions, while Headshots are Ranged Exclusive.

How Combat works in New World - Ranged Headshots effects

While using a melee weapon, you can perform a backstab at any time by positioning yourself behind an enemy. Backstabs are guaranteed Critical Hits. In PvP, this means leveraging statuses like Stuns or Roots to reposition and get this huge burst of damage off. In PvE at least for Expeditions, your Tank should be holding enemy aggro making these free.

Headshots are similar to Backstabs, but simply require hitting your target in the head, regardless of positioning. Much like Backstabs, these are also guaranteed Critical Hits. For PvP, these are much easier when you can apply any crowd control that prevent or limit movement, however Root and Frozen are the best for this, as they prevent all movement and dodging. Melee weapons with ranged throwing skills like Hatchet and Spear can also land headshots, though they may require other passive bonuses to do so.

For PvE content, utilizing these will be the key to maximizing your DPS. They’re still useful for PvP as well, but will typically be harder to land consistently.

Weapon Skills

As you level a Weapon in New World, you’ll gain Mastery Points. These Mastery points can be used to get various weapon perks and bonuses, but also unlock the various skills for a weapon. Every weapon can have three active abilities at one time.

These Weapon skills range from powerful attacks, to helpful buffs, and even some defensive skills. Each ability also has a set of upgrade nodes that can further boost its damage or beneficial effects. These will be fully covered in our In-depth Weapons Guides.

New World default PC abilities keys controls

By default with keyboard controls, these are bound to Q, R and F. It’s highly recommended to swap these binds to something more comfortable or familiar to you. A lot of people seem to enjoy having them bound to mouse buttons, especially in PvP contexts, where you need that quick access without having to move your hand away from the movement keys.

Grit Attacks

Some enemy attacks, as well as some of out own attacks can carry Grit. Grit is New World’s Equivalent of Super Armor, or Stagger Resistance. It helps shrug off interruptions to your attack from Stagger effects as well as Knockdown and Knockback effects, but doesn’t entirely prevent crowd control. Grit attacks are indicated by a White Glow around the entity performing the Grit Attack.

In PvE, Enemy Grit Attacks tend to be powerful hits that you’ll either want to dodge or interrupt. Interrupting a Grit Attack isn’t always possible for larger enemies, in those cases it’s best to dodge. However smaller enemies can be interrupted very easily through hard crowd control effects like Stuns. This also hold true in PvP, making Grit attacks a perfect time to use a Stun or other hard crowd control effect.

In PvP only certain Weapon Skills like Hatchet’s Berserk or Rapier’s Flourish and Finish can carry Grit. However for builds that reach 300 Strength, all Light and Heavy melee attacks will also carry Grit. This can make high Strength builds incredibly potent, as they can shrug off most common interrupts. Though this bonus is much more helpful in PvE, where more attacks can interrupt you.

How Stamina works

Every Weapon in the game makes use of Stamina, though most only use it for dodging. Melee weapons also get access to a Block they can use. Some attacks and skills will also make use of Stamina.

Player Stamina System

Dodging is the primary use for Stamina for most weapons. Dodging grants you a short window of Invulnerability, meaning attacks will do no damage. Currently this window is 17 Frames, so in a lot of cases this ends up being about 0.25 seconds. Stamina keeps dodging from being too spammable or cheesy, but doesn’t keep it from being a good option to create distance.

How Dodge works in New World — Dodge performed by the player

Blocking will cost a varying amount of Stamina, depending on the incoming damage. Only the Sword and Shield can Block projectile attacks however. For lighter hits, Blocking can potentially fully mitigate the incoming damage. Heavier hits however are likely to break your block, staggering you and leaving you vulnerable for a short time while your stamina recovers. Many weapons do have passives that improve that ability to block harder hits, which are worth considering for PvE.

How Blocking works in New World — Block performed by the player

Some weapons, like the Hatchet , have an optional ranged spec. In Hatchet’s case this can replace their block with the ability to throw their hatchet. Each throw while using this will cost Stamina.

Enemy Stamina System

Larger enemies, as well as shield-bearing enemies also use the Stamina System, and it works similar to the one we use. This is mostly limited to field bosses, but can also be seen on Alligators, and a few other mobs.

For Field Bosses and other large mobs you can refer to this as Enemy Stamina. Every attack, be it light or heavy will slowly deplete their stamina. Certain Weapon Skills can also heavily deplete this stamina. Once their stamina is depleted they enter a short state of vulnerability where they cannot attack or move and can take extra damage from all sources until they recover.

For Shielded Enemies, this secondary health bar can be referred to as Block Health. Every enemy that has a shield will have this. It works very similarly to Enemy Stamina, but instead of prevent all action, they’re just unable to block for a set duration. They can still attack by other means but will now take full, unmitigated damage. Some Magic and other Area of Effect Skills can bypass this and deal direct damage, but will still also reduce the Block Health.

Status Conditions in New World explained

New World has a handful of status effects that are beneficial and some that are detrimental. Ranging from modifying incoming or outgoing damage, reducing healing, slowing movement, and preventing movement. Not every weapon has access to many of these, but it’s good to know what they do.

Bleed

Bleed is a Damage over Time effect often found on weapons with Thrust Damage. The Bow Rapier and Spear are the weapons that are able to inflict it often. Bleed deals a portion of Weapon Damage over time, and can stack a few times. Bleeds from different sources will also stack.

Rapier in particular has access to a normal bleed, as well as a special form of bleed from its Tondo ability. These can stack independently from each other. Tondo is a bleed that deals the Rapier’s Weapon Damage in full over 12 seconds, while most regular bleeds are just a bit weaker, dealing a smaller portion of damage every second.

Burn

Burn is a Damage over Time effect almost exclusive to Fire Staff abilities. It may not appear too strong to start with, but Burn can be stacked a number of times. Each Stack deals a small percentage of weapon damage per second and can stack several times for high ramping damage.

Muskets can apply a Burn with the Powder Burn Skill as well, however this burn is stronger as it’s the only one the Musket can inflict. Unlike the Fire Staff’s Burns, this one cannot stack, and will only refresh its duration.

Disease

Disease reduces all incoming healing and health recovery by 30%. It’s stronger to use in PvP, but something to watch out for in PvE as well. A lot of enemies and bosses can inflict disease in PvE, while currently only the Hatchet can inflict it in terms of PvP.

Empower

Empower is a status that increases outgoing damage. Many weapon have access to this passively in amounts up to 30%. This is the Buff counterpart to Weaken.

Flatten

This status is unique to the Hammer and behaves similar to knockdown. Flatten will knock opponents to the ground for a set amount of time. This status is useful in PvE and PvP alike due to it being a form of Hard Crowd Control, similar to a Stun. However unlike a stun, it’s much shorter typically lasting 1 second and isn’t ended early from damage.

Exhaust

This is also a debuff that’s mostly unique to the War Hammer as well. Exhaust reduces your target’s Stamina Regeneration, making their Stamina recover slower. This can be a potent PvP effect, as it reduces the frequency which your opponent can dodge by limited their stamina usage.

Fortify

Fortify reduces incoming damage. There are varying strengths of Fortify running from 15-50%, based on the source skill and any bonuses it has from the Mastery Tree. It’s often stronger and last longer on weapons designed to tank, like Sword and Shield. Many weapons get access to it on the lower end, but often for short durations of three seconds. This is the Buff counterpart to Rend.

Frostbite

Frostbite is a status that is exclusive to the Ice Gauntlet. It’s a lingering Root-like effect. When afflicted with Frostbite, you cannot sprint, dodge and you’re also slowed by 50%. Frostbite also enables the Ice Gauntlet to inflict Frozen.

Frozen

Exclusive to the Ice Gauntlet, Frozen is effectively a Stun, but with ice. It may also be broken by allied attacks, freeing you from it sooner. Most instances of Frozen will require a player to be afflicted with Frostbite first.

Haste

Haste is a status that increases movement speed. Most weapons carry access to this buff, ranging from 10-30% usually. This is the Buff Counterpart to Slow.

Knockdown

This status is currently unique to the Spear’s Sweep ability. The status knocks an enemy down, which takes them a set time to recover from. It’s a potent crowd control effect that useful for both PvE and PvP. Similarly to Flatten, it last a short duration but is not ended early by damage.

Recovery

Recovery is a form of Healing Over Time found on a few skills. While it’s mostly found on the Life Staff Abilities, a few other weapons have the ability to gain it as well. The heal amount scales with Weapon Damage for Life Staff abilities or a percentage of health for other weapons that have access to it.

Rend

Rend is a debuffing status that reduces an enemy’s damage resistance. Most instances of this debuff range from 5-30% and last for 5-10 seconds based on the weapon, skill or perk inflicting it. This is the Debuff counterpart to Fortify.

Root

Root is a status that prevents movement and dodging. It often last for a second or two, and rarely ever longer. Unlike Stuns, attacks can still be made while you’re rooted. However you cannot move or dodge while it persists. In PvP, Root can be a good way to hold back a melee enemy or otherwise create distance.

Slow

Slow does exactly as you’d think it does, reducing a target’s movement speed for a duration. Many weapons can inflict varying strengths of Slow, often times for 10-50% depending on the weapon or skill inflicting it. This helps a ton with keeping your opponents at distance in PvE or PvP alike. This is the Debuff counterpart to Haste.

Stun

In New World, Stuns are a closer equivalent to a Sleep Status in other RPGs. The Stun will last its specified duration OR until an enemy is hit. Stuns can be very powerful in any kind of 1v1 situation, letting you reposition or take aim and get get off a huge chunk of damage. Stuns are the only status known to capable of interrupting a Grit Attack.

Weaken

Weaken is a debuff that reduces the damage a target can deal. It’s not a very common status, but one to look out for. While most weapons that can inflict it only inflict a weak version of it, there are PvE enemies that can inflict stronger versions of it. This is the Debuff counterpart to Empower.

Well Fed

This is a minor buff you gain by using any food item. While the effect lasts, you recover 1% of your health every second. This is provided in addition to any effect the food has otherwise.

This isn’t a particularly powerful or potent buff, but is often helpful when exploring as it will let you recover a bit in between encounters, though the Recovery effect granted by some food will still help more, it falls off in combat where Well Fed does not.

This ends our Beginner’s Guide to Combat in New World. The icons used in this guide are pulled from newworldfans.com and nwdb.info‘s databases. If you’re looking for more beginner friendly content, we recommend checking out our Beginner’s Weapon Guide to get a quick overview of the weapons in New World.

Here at VULKK.com we have a ton of useful New World Guides and more and more are being published regularly. We also have all of the news and updates covered to keep you up-to-date with all things New World!

New World Beginner's Guides

A collection of must-read Beginner Friendly guides for Amazon Games' MMORPG New World. Learn the basics of the game, how to level up quicker and easier, how combat works, which reputation perks to get first, what to do and not do as a new player in Aeternum!