Heart Of Madness was announced back at the start of March, with promises of concluding New World's storyline. Then it was going to release on Tuesday of this week, but was delayed due to a last minute bug. Then it was going to release on Wednesday of this week, but was delayed due to a last minute bug.
Well, it's here now, Thursday, and it also adds a new Blunderbuss weapon and endless balance changes to the MMO.
Here's a trailer for the update, which is very nice:
The expansion continues New World's storyline with a new Expedition called the Tempest's Heart, in which players pursue Isabella, one-time explorer turned big meanie, into an alternate version of the capital city of Myrkgard. Isabella is the corrupted (possibly Corrupted) boss monster, basically.
The Tempest's Heart is an endgame expedition designed for five players, and you'll need to have reached level 60 and Gearscore 550+ in order to take it on.
While the rest of the update is less dramatic, the new Blunderbuss (seen briefly in the video above) is a new weapon designed for close-to-mid range fights. Its power also scales with player's strength and intelligence stats, "making it a good companion for bruiser or mage builds" says the blog post about the update.
That same post also has a complete list of the balance changes and bug fixes in the update, of which there are many. If you'd like to know what else you can do at New World's endgame, check out our guide to things you can do at level 60.
Read more on rockpapershotgun.com