Hey folks,
With all the changes to quest structure and flow in the New Starter Experience and in the transition into Brimstone Sands, we’re seeing a lot of questions coming up repeatedly, and so we want to provide a central location to address these questions and provide more clarity on a range of circumstances that may be causing confusion.
Brimstone Sands
The main questions arising here are about the requirements for entry into the zone and the requirements for starting the main story there.
Access to the Zone:
To gain entry into Brimstone Sands, you’ll need to be level 60. Take the “Strider of the Sands” quest and apply the Desert Cerate as part of the quest before you enter the zone. This quest begins at a different location depending on your faction:
- Marauders – Ebonscale Reach
- Syndicate – Shattered Mountain
- Covenant (and Factionless) – Great Cleave
These quests all end in the Wikala al-Waha outpost inside Brimstone Sands, where the main story begins.
Brimstone Sands Main Story:
The Main Story quests in Brimstone kick off from the NPC Ghazi in the Wikala al-Waha Outpost. The quest requires:
- Completing “Strider of the Sands”
- Completing the Main Story Quest “A Selfless Nature” in Edengrove
- *Note – you will also need a Tier 5 Azoth Staff to complete the Brimstone Main Story and to complete the Heartrune Quest, so if you haven’t done so already, you should also complete the two follow-up quests to “A Selfless Nature”: “Shattered Mountain” and “Fortress at the Threshold,” which will reward you with the Tier 5 Azoth Staff.
New Starter Experience
The new Starter Experience has given rise to many questions about where players’ progress has been reset and where it’s been retained for the Main Story Quests, what’s required to move forward, and how this changes the process of joining and switching Factions.
Beach to Brightwood:
We completely removed all Main Story Quests that preceded “Forge Your Azoth Staff,” and almost all the side quests in every zone up to Level 25, Brightwood. If you had these quests active in your journal, they are removed and the new quests are available. Your progress in the Main Story is retained as follows:
- If you completed the Starter Beach Quests and made it to your first Settlement, then you don’t have to redo the Beach quests. Instead, you can choose to start from either of the new Main Story Quest sequences in Windsward and Monarch’s Bluffs. Either quest series will eventually send you to Yonas.
- If you reached Yonas before the update, then you aren’t required to redo the Main Story Quests in Windsward and Monarch’s Bluffs, but you can seek Yonas out at a new location near the border between Windsward and Monarch’s Bluffs, just south of Chason Steep. All the old quests relating to joining the Soulwardens have been revised and moved to Everfall and you will complete all the steps there up through Forging Your Azoth Staff.
- If you completed the quest and forged your Azoth staff before the update, you don’t have to go back and restart the Yonas quests; you will retain your previous progress, but you may need to seek out Yonas to reacquire the Main Story Quest series at a location in Everfall. Following “The Ritual” quest, nothing further in the Main Story quests has been changed (yet).
- If you followed the Main Story into Brightwood and even if you completed the Main Story before the update, you will see the new Main Story Quests available in Monarch’s Bluffs and Windsward – you don’t need to do these quests – they’re just available if you want to do them for fun. If you already did the Yonas quests, these quests will conclude in Monarch’s and Windsward respectively without sending you back to Yonas
- We realize that this puts new, low-level quest pins back on your map and that some players would prefer not to see these map pins. We are discussing map options and/or ways of highlighting quests that are significantly below your level. We’ll let you know when we have a plan to address this.
New Faction Initiation
The process for joining a Faction has been changed dramatically. Rather than having it be a required step in the Main Story, it is now accomplished by a series of “Faction Initiation Quests” in Everfall upon reaching level 17. These quests are not required to progress the Main Story; you aren’t required to join a Faction at all. A few points of clarification:
- Each Faction Initiation quest series consists of 4-5 quests that begin with an NPC near Oxboro in Everfall. The quests will take you to the relevant Faction Enclave and conclude with the option to join the Faction. If you previously selected a Faction at Level 10 before the update, you will stay in your faction. The quests are optional.
- You can complete all the Faction Initiation quests at the same time and you can do the Initiation quests for any faction even if you’ve already joined another one The idea is that these quests are teaching you about the Faction, introducing the major characters, and allowing you to earn their trust.
- In order to switch factions going forward, you will need to have completed the Initiation Quests for the Faction you’re switching to. We realize that you could formerly switch factions without any requirements, but we want you to experience the Faction Stories and get introduced to the Enclaves as we hope to do more with them later. When you switch factions, your reputation and faction tokens are tracked at the faction level, so if you have never been in the new faction before, you will be starting from scratch. Your reputation and tokens from the faction you’ve switched from will be saved however, so if you switch back, you should pick up where you left off (*note: we are investigating a potential bug with this, and will update when we know more. )
Hope this clarifies some of the more common questions and clarifies any confusion. We hope this ultimately adds up to much improved quest and story experience in New World and sets us up for further improvements in the future. As always, we welcome your feedback, and we will try to address any further issues that arise as quickly as possible.