New World’s First Expansion Adds Mounts, Two Years After Its Massive Steam Launch

Amazon has announced the first expansion for its massively multiplayer online role-playing game New World.

Rise of the Angry Earth launches October 3 priced $29.99 and introduces mounts, new progression, a level cap increase to 65, new gear rarity, new weapons, a transformed zone, and a new end-game expedition. There’s also a new Heartrune ability.

“In Rise of the Angry Earth, the southeastern tip of Aeternum, formerly known as First Light, has fallen. Once a welcoming place for newcomers to Aeternum, the fields have been ravaged by the fury of Artemis and the Angry Earth.

"No one is certain what has become of the people and villages that once populated the area, and a deadly barrier has kept all but the most intrepid from attempting to find out. This abundance of earthly powers has awakened the mighty Beast Lords, a new possible adversary facing the people of Aeternum, but with them also comes a boon — the secret to taming and riding animals.”

Summoned mounts let you travel faster, as you’d expect. You can tame horses, dire wolves, and lions, each with a unique look, dyeable equipment and a name players can set. You can level up the new riding trade skill to upgrade your mount to travel faster, among other things.

Artifacts is the new tier of weapons and armour introduced with the expansion. There’s a new series of quests to unlock Artifacts’ six perks. The new Heartrune ability is Primal Fury, which lets you “unleash your inner beast to deal unarmed light and heavy attacks on enemies”. The new weapon is the Flail, a one-handed weapon with the option for an offhand shield.

Season 3 of New World launches alongside Rise of the Angry Earth, introducing a new Season Journey, Activity Card, Challenges, events, and rewards. The base game and the expansion are bundled together as the $69.99 New World: Elysian Edition.

New World enjoyed a massive launch in 2021, with a peak concurrent player count of 913,634, according to SteamDB. That astonishing figure makes New World the seventh most-popular game in Steam history. Two years later, New World enjoys a relatively stable concurrent player count in the tens of thousands.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.