Sometimes, starting with a clean slate can be a good choice.
New World launched its first Fresh Start Worlds in November, just a few weeks after the 1.7 Brimstone Sands update. A staggered release spanned several days based on Amazon’s rollout plan. All four waves have been released; the final fourth wave arrived on November 4.
New World has been on a roll recently. Player numbers saw a significant boost—from a peak of more than 48,000 players logging in daily to farm New World gold to more than 130,000 active users. This number is still rising today, and with the introduction of the Fresh Start Worlds, Amazon Games hopes to keep this pace.
What Are Fresh Start Worlds?
As the name suggests, Fresh Start Worlds are a way to start “fresh.” You can experience (or re-experience) New World during its launch days. You might think that you’ll come across some issues considering that New World’s initial release didn’t exactly bode well, but you’ll be happy to know that Amazon Games will insert all the improvements that the MMO has undergone for this.
Fresh Start Worlds means that companies will control no territories initially; everyone starts from the ground. That means all the currency, like New World coins and such, created in that world can’t be influenced by transfers. The economy will start from the bottom as well—with everyone being low-level, there’s no doubt that we’ll see some new and exciting ways to make money early game.
Overall, Fresh Start Worlds is meant to be like a relaunch—you can even consider it the “second coming” of New World. The whole world of Aeternum is a blank slate, and everyone will have equal chances to take over the many territories again. Amazon Games is trying to replicate the game’s launch day again, minus the previous queue issues and mishaps.
Will I Miss Out On Content If I Play On Fresh Start Worlds?
No, you absolutely won’t! For the people that think that they might be missing out on future content should they decide to join a Fresh Start Worlds server, Amazon Games has made it a point that any new content released for the MMO will also be available in Fresh Start Worlds. Yep—you won’t lose out on anything by taking that leap of faith.
Fresh Start Worlds Available Per Region
There are 13 New World Fresh Start Worlds servers, varying per region. It’s worth noting that Amazon has stated that there are no additional regions planned for the future due to receiving access to Fresh Start Worlds, so if you don’t find your server here, you’re sadly out of luck. Here’s the list of every world available per region:
| US (East) | US (West) | South America | Central Europe | Australia |
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Return to Aeternum Event
Remember the Battle for New World event during the game’s launch? We’re also getting a similar event for the Fresh Start Servers! But instead of having streamers occupying the openly available servers, they’ll have their own invite-only servers for this ongoing event.
Known as the Return to Aeternum event, Amazon Games commented that it’s designed to help the general world population of New World, as people will no longer flood the servers to play with their favorite streamers.
They would either have to join a different server or receive a private invitation to be eligible to participate. In the event, teams must race to unlock four tiers worth of Twitch Drops by completing at least six of the eight objectives per tier.
Here are the drops you’ll receive should you join in on the fun:
Lone Gladiator Apparel Set
- Lone Gladiator Apparel Skin
- 4 Weapons of Mars (Greatsword, Life Staff, Tower Shield, and Great Axe)
Studded Warrior Apparel Set
- Studded Warrior Apparel Skin
- 4 Weapons of Mars (Sword, Blunderbuss, Void Gauntlet, and Spear)
Desert Traveler’s Set
- 1 Desert Traveler’s Chest
- 4 Weapons of Mars (Ice Gauntlet, Musket, Round Shield, and Rapier)
Baalphazu’s Hideaway Camp Set
- Baalphazu’s Hideaway Camp Skin
- 5 Weapons of Mars (Bow, Fire Staff, Warhammer, Kit Shield, and Hatchet)
The Return to Aeternum event also created four new Fresh Start World servers, all of which will become available on November 18—after the event’s conclusion.
What About Server Transfers and Server Merges?
There are no plans to allow server transfers for existing characters on other servers, including transferring characters between Fresh Start Worlds. That said, server merges are also unavailable, regardless of the server’s population.
The official FAQ post from Amazon Games said that transfers from a New World Fresh Start World to a legacy world might be available in the future, but that’s an entirely different ballpark altogether. However, you get a third character slot if you’d like to get stuck in Fresh Start Worlds but don’t want to be forced to delete your legacy character.
New World is Returning to Top Form
If you’re one of New World’s lapsed players, then you remember that massive success the game had at launch when it high a high of nearly a million players on Steam. But we all know how that high collapsed over time, with New World generating only 15-25k active users afterward.
Fresh Start Worlds hopes to reinvigorate those old New World accounts sitting in the dust. It’s too early to tell if it’s a success, but if Amazon Games keeps up this pace, we might hit a new record for the most concurrent players on Steam.