Upgrade your Bags - During your journeys through Aeternum, you'll quickly notice that Storage Space is extremely important and that there's never enough of it - that applies if you want to make Gold Coins quickly or just store more resources for your own crafting projects. The fact that New World is a sandbox game with a heavy emphasis on crafting and resources means that you're going to get dozens of different useful items; not having enough space to pick them all up is a common issue among new players. To alleviate this problem at the start, you can do one of two things: 

• Buy better bags (Coarse Leather Bags) from a Trading Post, just be aware that they are going to cost you a good portion of your early game earnings. 
• Craft the bags yourself! Resources needed for doing so are not hard to come by and you can easily get them yourself. Moreover, Tier II Bag can be made with Level 0 Armorsmithing, so there's no need for leveling up the skill first. 

Coarse Leather Bags should last you for some time, but you should try to replace them with better ones as soon as possible. It is a good investment - the sooner you do it, the more returns, in the form of more items brought back from adventures, you'll get. 

Join a Company - Company is a New World's version of a player-run guild. Each Company has a faction affiliation and you can only join companies based inside your chosen faction (you also can't join any company if you've not chosen a faction yet). The earliest you can join a company is level 8, as long as you've completed the faction selection - you should do both of these things as soon as possible. You might think that Companies are an end-game thing, but that is not the case - there are a lot of social Companies that are going to welcome you with open hands. They offer a good opportunity to socialize with other players and learn the game in a much more efficient way (playing all by yourself and learning everything through trial and error is much less efficient than taking advantage of the collective knowledge of company members). Moreover, when you're a member of a Company, New World's group content becomes much more accessible (you don't want to primarily run dungeons with strangers, trust us on that). 

Choose your Faction wisely - This is one of the most important choices you'll ever make in New World, and you're encouraged to make it very early in the game when you don't really know what you're doing... Also, you can't change factions for 120 days after picking one, so you are going to be forced to live with your choice for a loooong time. The three New World's factions are: 

• Marauders - A military-focused faction that employs ruthless tactics on its quest of uniting Aeternum under a single banner. Their ultimate aim is the creation of a new nation, where the individual's strength is going to be the most valued trait. 
• Syndicate - A secretive organization that searches for forbidden knowledge. Their ultimate aim is to create a "new age of enlightenment" by making the power of Aeternum available to anyone who seeks it. 
• Covenant - A fanatical organization that seeks to cleanse Aeternum of defilers, heretics, and corruption, so that its true holy nature can flourish. These Zealots won't stop until their version of justice is served to all who oppose them. 

The differences between factions are not only lore-based; there are some important gameplay and even community-based distinctions: 

• Each of the Factions offers different Faction Quests. 
• Each Faction has its own color scheme and Faction-specific gear. 
• Companies are faction-specific, thus each of the Factions has different Companies associated with it. 
• Depending on the popularity and players' gameplay focus, factions might greatly differ in power - it is not uncommon to see one faction dominate two others on a server. 

So, which faction should you choose? If you have friends who already play, then the decision is simple - join the faction they're already in. If you're in it alone, however, the decision gets substantially more difficult. In such a case, we advise you to do some research - check what companies each of the factions can offer, check each faction's population, and take a look at the number of territories each of the factions controls. Armed with the knowledge, ask yourself a simple question - "Do I want to play as an underdog?". If the answer is "no", then pick the strongest faction on paper. If the answer is "yes" and you like 1vsX PvP, consider joining one of the two weaker ones. If your server happens to be well-balanced, you might want to make a choice based on the faction lore. 

Choose your main hub wisely - Every adventurer needs the base of operations. You should make sure that yours was chosen very carefully. Before choosing your main hub, make sure that: 

• It has high-tier crafting stations - without these, you won't be able to do much crafting on the spot which will force you to travel to other areas; very inconvenient and unnecessarily time-consuming. 
• It is highly populated - a high population ensures that the Trading Post is well-supplied and your stuff will actually sell, and that town projects get completed in a timely manner (high tier crafting stations, again). 

If you think about crafting a bit more seriously and you don't want to specialize in one or two skills, you might want to take up residence in two adjacent towns instead of doing everything in just one. Doing so will let you split crafting activities between the chosen hubs and take advantage of more storage space. The downside is, you are going to have to do some extra legwork from time to time. 

Choose weapons optimal for your leveling playstyle - Some players will tell you that you should always pick weapons that offer the best leveling speeds. In our opinion, following such advice is going to quickly lead to burnout and you'll simply quit because of a lack of enjoyment. Our advice is the polar opposite - test out different playstyles and stick to the one that suits you most, even if it's not the best for leveling. 

• If you enjoy healing - play as a healer; you won't be as powerful when playing solo, but finding a group won't ever be a problem and most companies will welcome you with open arms. 
• Do you tend to play as a dedicated Tank in other MMOs? - Stick with it; tanking in New World is very dynamic and tank builds actually offer solid AoE DPS on top of great survivability. Also, there are even fewer tanks than healers. 
• Is being a DPS your thing? - test out the available builds and stick to the one you enjoy the most; there are quite a few to choose from, you'll definitely find one that suits you. 

If you don't like this advice and want to simply pick weapons that are best suited for fast leveling, choose two of the following: Hatchet, Great Axe, Rapier, Bow. 

Take advantage of Town Projects - These are large-scale projects players can work on together to upgrade a Settlement. Each of the projects requires a significant investment and a lot of effort to be completed. Town Projects can be activated by a Settlement's Governor or his Consuls. Once a Project is activated, Town Board Quests related to that project become available to players. These Quests will require you to Forage and Deliver all kinds of goods required to progress the project, but most importantly, they will award you with quite a lot of experience. As their name suggests, these Quests can be accepted through the Town Board. They are no longer the best way to power level your character (they were nerfed after the beta), but they still offer a solid amount of experience. When you're in a settlement, check what Town Board Quests are currently available and pick ones that are easy to complete during your regular playing routine. Doing so will give you a relevant boost to leveling speed and income early on. 

Please be aware that not every Town Project is worth your time. Some of them won't offer enough experience to be worth it, some others are going to require hard to get or expensive materials, and some might even combine the two aforementioned things. Examples of worthwhile quests are: 

• Missions that require you to defeat commonly-occurring animals, like Turkeys or Wolves. 
• Missions that have you open Supply Crates. Because everyone likes Supply Crates (and they are commonly found in areas where main and side missions take place). 
• Missions that require you to craft items that are easy to make and thus won't take you too much time to complete. 

Important Note: Some of the Town Board Quests will have you turn in End-Game resources. Skip these; high-end materials are much better spent on actually crafting stuff and progressing your skills. If you see Wyrdwood, Orichalcum, Lodestone, or other end-game mats as a part of the mission, skip it even if you have them on hand. 

Take advantage of the 5% Experience Boost from activating PvP - Some of you might discard this one on the spot because you simply hate PvP. However, 5% is actually a substantial boost and it can be considered as a "free" experience during the server's low population periods (early mornings and late nights, mostly). Also, remember that the only thing you lose when you die in open-world PvP is a bit of time*, while you get bonus experience and an opportunity to test your skills against other players in return (and open-world PvP kills give you quite a lot of experience as well). If you are a min-maxer or simply like some gameplay variety, activating PvP is a good idea. 

*If your Inn is not far away. If you're far away from home, being flagged for PvP can result in a long trip back. 

Also, if you are flagged for PvP and you meet another player, just assume that they are going to attack you and engage them first. Yes, you will kill some harmless newbies this way, but you'll also die much less. Think of it this way: They did turn on PvP at their own risk, just like you did, right? 

Don't forget to select your Territory Standing upgrades - When you defeat enemies, craft items, and complete quests in a Territory, your Reputation with that Territory increases. Once your Reputation reaches a certain threshold, your Territory Standing will increase (the progress can be seen on the World Map by viewing the Territory in question). Each Territory Standing level offers you three different bonuses to choose from - these are pre-determined and will always show in the same triplets and on the same "steps" of progression. The available Territory Standing Bonuses are: 

• Gathering Speed increase.  
• Housing Items - bonus storage space. 
• Faction Token Gain increase. 
• House Ownership (achieved at rank 10, can't be skipped) - enables you to buy a house in the given territory. 
• Standing Gain - increases your future standing gains. 
• Property Tax Reduction - Reduces the weekly property tax applied to your house in a given settlement. 
• Trade Tax Reduction - reduces Trading Post fees. 
• Station Fee Reduction - reduces crafting fees on Refining and Crafting Stations. 
• Storage Space - Adds extra weight capacity to your storage (it can add up to 1600 in total). 
• Experience Gain increase. 

Which of these bonuses are the best? Well, it largely depends on what you do in the game. For example:

• If you are a crafter, Storage Space, Station Fee Reduction, and Trade Tax Reduction are great. 
• Experience and Reputation Gains are safe choices early on and when you can't decide if other bonuses are worth going for. 
• Gathering Speed is almost mandatory if you want to focus on collecting resources in an area. 
• Trade Tax Reduction is a safe bet if you use Trading Post often. If you want to flip on the Trading Post for profit, this perk will visibly increase your income. 
• Property Tax Reduction is good if you own a house in a territory that has extortionate ownership taxes. 
• Storage Space is always good, basically. 

Campsites are quite useful - You unlock the ability to set up a camp quite early in the main quest line (before even leaving the first settlement). Later on, you can upgrade your camp, but even the most basic one is worth using, because: 

• You can set your spawn point to your camp's location. This will save you a lot of running; trust us there's nothing more annoying than losing a fight and respawning on the other side of the map. This feature is offered by even the most basic campsite. 
• You can regenerate health at the camp. This is especially useful when you run out of food, but you don't want to go back to town yet. All Campsite Tiers will give you Health regen. 
• Higher tier Camps allow you to do some crafting out in the wild, which is very convenient. This feature is restricted to rather basic recipes, but these include Health and Mana potions, which is nice. 
• Logging Out while at the campsite will allow you to accumulate a Rest Experience bonus. 

Make a habit of setting up your campsite in an area before farming/grinding in it. 

END NOTE

Please remember that Fun should always be the most important factor while playing - trying to play "perfectly" and always seeking to optimize everything will quickly kill your interest in the game. Don't let that happen, play for fun! 

We hope that you have found this guide useful and informative. If you liked it and want us to add more guides such as this one, please let us know! Also, we will be happy to receive constructive criticism that will help us improve our future work so leave your suggestions in the comments section below.