New World Endgame Update Grants Bigger Rewards For Expeditions

thegamer.com:

One of the common complaints with New World is a lack of end-game content--a complaint that Amazon Games seems to be addressing in today’s update. As promised, Expedition Mutations will take regular Expeditions and add challenging new modifiers that will offer greater rewards.

Accessing a Mutated Expedition will require players to have completed the regular Expedition to acquire its codex. The first time players finish an Expedition will also reward them with a Mutated Expedition Tuning Orb, which is required to begin the Mutated Expedition. Players can craft one Mutated Expedition Orb per week, with additional orbs available to purchase from faction shops.

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Mutated Expeditions are on a weekly rotation with 10 difficulty levels per Mutation. Players can climb through the difficulty levels by completing Mutated Expeditions with a high score. The new scoring system tracks enemies killed, completion times, respawns, and team wipes, and then provides the run with a rank of bronze, silver, or gold. Advancement doesn't necessarily require achieving gold on the run, but it probably doesn't hurt.

Mutations fall under three general categories: Elemental, Promotions, and Curses. Elemental Mutations add elemental damage to every enemy in the Expedition and also resistance to that element. Promotions give enemies new abilities, such as being able to shoot damaging beams or reducing the healing of damaged allies. Curses apply debuffs to players, such as the Desiccation Curse which causes players to randomly catch fire.

Enduring all these Mutations and climbing the difficulty ladder will reward players with new Umbral Shards which can be used to upgrade gear from Gear Score 590 to 625.