We have received a lot of questions about how Luck works in New World. In addition to our developer updates and blogs, we’d like to share a more detailed overview of the luck system as well as answer some frequently asked questions.
In New World, there are two general types of luck, Global Luck and Gathering Luck:
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Global Luck = When the player finds something in a chest, or gets a drop from a monster, this improves the player’s chance that the item(s) received will be Named (in the case of weapons and armor) or Rare (in the case of items like schematics or storage chests). This applies to all creature kills, opening stockpiles, chest, containers, and elite chests. It increases the potential for low drop-chance items to be earned such as furniture schematics, higher-end storage chests, and Named Weapons and apparel. Increasing your Luck will definitely make this more likely to occur, but each chance to earn something is independent of all others and there is statistically no guarantee a specific item will drop based on number of attempts. This does not apply to inventory caches you earn when completing War, Invasion, Outpost Rush, or Corrupted Breaches.
- Here are some of the low-drop-chance items Global Luck helps you get:
- Unique armor from expedition bosses
- Named Weapons
- Recipes
- Schematics
- Rare resources like perk items and crafting materials
- Trophy Materials
- Trade Skill Armors
- Here are some of the low-drop-chance items Global Luck helps you get:
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Gathering Luck = When player logs/mines/harvests/skins to earn an item, this improves the chance that the player receives additional rare components.
- Gathering Luck, that you receive from a tool perk or a food buff, does not affect the yield of items when gathering. It does; however, increase the chances that different rare items will show up. Gathering Luck is very important to help you uncover rare items when gathering.
- There are rare resources such as Fae Iron, Phase Fiber, Cinnabar, and Wyrdwood Sap (to name a few) which can only be earned when the player has any amount of Gathering Luck.
Luck affects different loot tables in different ways. Gathering Luck has direct effects when getting low-drop-chance gathering resources such as finding Petrified Wood when Logging or finding Cinnabar when mining Orichalcum veins. Global Luck has direct effects on your ability to get low drop-chance and Named items from defeating enemies and opening chests such as finding the Lazarus Bow when defeating Cilla, or getting Timeless Shards from Elite Chests. However, Luck does not affect Crafting and there are other buffs that do impact crafter’s ability to increase yield and quality when crafting which are trade skill specific.
Luck in New World is a complex system that is not as simple as a 0-100% percent of getting a specific item. We don’t use percentages in our data notation; instead, we use integer-based roll ranges to apply probability weights to the chances of a specific thing dropping. Those integers are converted to percentages when communicating in-game luck benefits from items. For example, 1% equals 100 bonus luck to a roll. All of those benefits increase the amount of luck added to a roll, ultimately improving the probability or a low-drop-chance item resulting from a loot roll. The more luck you have the better odds you have of earning a low-drop-chance item because the range of probability becomes smaller.
Luck can be very beneficial when killing Named creatures and bosses because it increases the chances that you will receive low-drop-chance item. Each buff a player has that impacts Luck, like those earned from weapons, tools, consumables and being flagged for PvP, stack on one another and improve a player’s overall Global or Gathering Luck. Shields, if equipped and active with a sword, also add to a players increased Luck when looting mobs or chests.
We used a commonly asked question as an example of how our luck is applied (with simplified percentages).
If you had a sword equipped that provided you a 2% bonus Luck, a ring that added 3% bonus Luck, and a bag with 3% bonus Luck, then your additional Luck would be 8%. This would raise both the floor (shortening the roll possibilities for that roll) and increase your luck ceiling by adding additional luck to your rolls. These provide a better chance for you to earn named items from enemies when an item is dropped. Again, this only improves your odds and is not a guarantee that a rare item will drop.
Luck doesn’t affect the rate at which items are dropped but rather the quality of the item when a drop is triggered. Players who kill 1,000 enemies with max Luck bonuses have the same chance to get a number of item drops as players without Luck bonuses. Luck is not fluid, it doesn’t change unless a player has buffs applied to them from trophies, consumables, or item perks. It also doesn’t change based on the number of attempts or recent successful rolls for a low-drop-chance item. The quality of the item drops player’s with max Luck should be, overall, of a higher quality. Players with less Luck will show a result of overall lower quality items. As always, a player could have a lucky first roll and find an item that a different player may have attempted to earn multiple times.
FAQ
Why is luck valuable when killing mobs? Named/Bosses?
Luck is valuable when killing Named creatures and bosses as it increases the chances that you will receive Named loot as well as any rare materials and jewelry. Our item attributes (STR, CON, INT etc.) and perks (e.g. Keen, Refreshing Ward, Skinning Luck etc.) roll separately from the general chance to drop loot, and therefore, luck is not a factor in determining rarity of a non-named item. Players with high luck stats have a much better chance of earning exclusive rare drops, like Named Weapons and Trophy components.
What is a Named item?
Named items can be weapons, armor, or trinkets. They are low drop chance items that have unique names, with fixed attributes and perks. Not every Named item has a fixed gear score.
Does PVP mode enabled Luck give you better chances to get rare items and artifacts?
PvP provides players with 10% Global Luck to roll a Named item, and 30% Gathering Luck, which helps in earning low-drop chance items. The Luck received in PvP functions the same as any other source of Global or Gathering Luck, so depending on the creature or gatherable, it will increase the chance of finding the rare things from those loot attempts.
The PvP luck bonus only applies in the open world and doesn’t apply during instanced content, like Expeditions, since there is no PvP threat.
How does Luck impact my ability to get Legendary items?
Luck improves your chances of getting Named or rare Legendary items (like Trophy materials) items in the game. Luck does not increase items reliability to roll a non-Named Legendary item. Players must have an Expertise level of 590 or higher to become eligible for Legendary items at gear score 600. As a reminder, this is the first requirement for a legendary drop in rarity. A player with Expertise above 590 and high luck would have better chances for earning a Legendary Named weapon.
How does Luck affect my ability to earn Trophy Materials?
Global Luck bonuses improve your chance at earning low-drop-chance Trophy materials.
Do clothing, weapons, and jewelry with the Luck parameter affect the receipt of rare items and artifacts from Named monsters? Example: the last boss in the Malevolence POI.
Yes, when the player finds something in a chest, or gets a drop from a Named monster, Luck improves the player’s chance that the item(s) received will be Named (in the case of weapons and armor) or Rare (in the case of items like schematics or storage chests). Also, each buff a player has that impacts Luck, stack on one another and improves a player’s overall Global or Gathering Luck
Is the luck stat on shield working as expected when looting chests?
No, it isn’t. We very recently discovered a bug that automatically sheathing your weapon and shield when looting a chest deactivates all bonuses on the shield (Phys/Elem armors, attributes, perks including luck). This functionality is intended to prevent imbalanced stacking of combat centric perks like crit chance.
Actively using Sword and Shield to earn loot drops from combat is currently the only way to benefit from a luck bonus from the shield.
We are prioritizing this issue against others and will aim to address it in a future release. The way it is intended to work is thus: If you have a sword and shield equipped and actively in your hands, and the shield has a luck perk associated with it, that luck should apply when looting chests if the sword and shield are active. If a shield is just equipped but sheathed on your back, the perks would not be active unless it was equipped in-hand with a sword.
Are pearls working as expected?
Pearls and luck perks on items can co-exist and stack. Pearls socketed into items add a bonus luck value socketed items. These do not override luck perks.A pearl would not override a luck perk. Players can socket a pearl onto any item with an existing Luck perk to increase the luck that item provides.
In rare instances there may be a special item we create that would have both a pearl socketed and a luck perk - in which case they would stack.
Does too much luck create luck dead zones?
No, luck increases general probability to roll and does not remove items from eligibility if you exceed a specific threshold. The maximum obtainable amount of luck in the game does not lock players from obtaining any content.
Is there a luck “sweet spot” that is required to acquire certain items?
There is no “sweet spot”, as most low-drop-chance items in the game require a high roll to obtain. The rule of thumb would be to have as much luck as possible to maximize the probability to get a high roll.
There is no required amount of Global Luck needed in order to obtain a loot item from killing mobs or opening containers with one exception, Void Essence. Void Essence, which is found in Elite chests, requires at least 1 point of luck to acquire.
There are rare materials where a certain amount of Gathering Luck is needed to obtain rare materials. There are many of these items at different tiers, but some of the highest tier examples are: Fae Iron, Phase Fiber, Cinnabar, and Wyrdwood Sap.
What does Luck Safe mean?
Almost all global loot (outside of Void Essence) has something called Luck Safe applied to it which makes sure the luck % modifiers attached to a roll scale in a controlled manner. This is to make sure loot percentages for items won’t be modified wildly, making low-drop-chance items trivial to earn. It also ensures any item that is flagged as luck safe is earnable without having any luck modifier (although having a luck modifier improves your chances).
Luck Safe in not applied to gathering loot rolls. This means Gathering Luck is required to obtain rare gathering materials. It also means that the more Gathering Luck is able to be applied to rolls when you gather with luck.
Is there a rest bonus or other type of variable being added to luck rolls based on time between or amount of rolls?
No, each roll is treated as it’s own unique attempt and does not have any context applied to it from previous or potential future attempts. There is no form of rest bonus for luck either.
Is there a known issue with the luck perk losing effectiveness after death?
None that we aware of as of our most recent testing. Death does not affect the total global luck on the character.Does Luck affect how I get gold and azoth from any given kill?
No
Does Luck increase my chance to get a specific item?
Luck does not affect items within loot buckets, but it helps the chances of rolling a specific bucket. If a creature has one named item they are eligible to drop, then yes, luck would help get that specific item. If the creature has 10 named items then it would help you get any of the 10 items at equal odds.
For example, when you defeat the named enemy Marl, you have the same odds of getting the named musket “Infamy,” as you do the Amulet of Seven Seasons, Higher Purpose (Life Staff), Blightbone Battleaxe, Doom’s Chance Earring, and Winter Wish (Ice Gauntlet) which all drop from Marl.
Does Luck affect the gear score of an item?
No, your Expertise is the stat that influences the eligible range of gear score that can roll on an item.
If anything in game is not behaving how it has been described in this article, we would consider that a bug and will move to correct/fix any issues with our luck system or luck applied to items as quickly as possible. Thanks for your questions! See you in Aeternum!