New World leveling guide: Best ways to level up

Leveling up is an important part of any MMO, but it's even more crucial in New World. Whether you want to go on PvE Expedition missions to farm high-tier loot drops or you want to have the edge in a PvP faction war you're planning on participating in, you'll need to level up your character. Leveling up gives you access to important features like higher faction ranks, and it's also a critical part of putting together some of the best New World builds.

Since leveling is so valuable in New World, it's best to try to level up as fast as you can. Thankfully, there are several effective strategies you can use to farm XP quickly. These tips and tricks will help you spend as little time grinding as possible so that you can jump right into the Expeditions and PvP activities that make New World one of the best PC multiplayer games you can play right now. Here's a look at some of the best ways to farm XP in New World.

New World leveling: Quick tips

These quick and simple tips will be applicable throughout your entire New World playthrough.

• Whenever you're done playing, log off in a settlement. You'll get a bonus to XP gains for resting next time you play.
• Every day, the first three faction missions you complete reward double XP. Maximize the effect of this bonus by completing quests that reward the most base XP first.
• Hit mobs other players are attacking for some quick and easy XP. New World gives all players that contribute to an enemy's death its full XP amount, so you don't need to worry about the XP splitting in half.
• Raise your standing in each territory by killing mobs, gathering materials, and completing quests. As you rank your standing up, you'll have chances to improve how much XP you gain in that area.
• Try and take quests that require you to go to the same area or areas that are near each other. This will allow you to complete several quests at the same time, reducing the amount of time you have to spend traveling.
• Fast travel as much as you can to speed up the grind. Fast traveling requires small quantities of Azoth, but you'll hopefully get a good amount of it from quest rewards.
• If you're brave, you can play with PvP enabled. This boosts all XP gains by 5%. Dying in PvP doesn't incur any XP or gear loss, so it's a good idea to turn PvP on if you want to level as fast as possible.

New World leveling: Best leveling strategies

These strategies will help you level up as fast as possible, especially if you use them in conjunction with the quick tips above. Note that some XP farms and activities discussed below won't be available until you level up your character a decent amount.

Prioritize the main story quests

Unlike many other MMOs, doing main story quests is actually one of the best ways to level up in the early game. Each one rewards huge chunks of XP, and most of them are pretty easy, too. We recommend prioritizing your main quests until you finish them all, though you'll need to do some other quests on the side too in order to stay on par with their level requirements.

Complete town project board quests

Both during and after your progression through the main questline, it's also a good idea to pick up town project board quests in each territory settlement. These quests reward you with lots of XP, and you'll also get a good amount of territory standing which you can then use to improve your XP gains in that area. Focus on quests that are relatively easy to do, such as exploration or assassination quests. Quests that require you to hunt down specific animals and deliver specific items often require you to do a lot of searching or crafting, which isn't very efficient.

Don't forget about faction missions

After joining one of the three New World factions at level 10, you should also start incorporating faction quests into your routine. You can pick them up from your faction's representative in each settlement. The PvE quests are slightly less rewarding than town board quests in terms of XP, but they'll help you rank up in your faction and will also reward you with faction tokens you can use to buy useful gear. PvP faction quests reward a substantial amount of XP, but are riskier since they'll fail if you die to other players before finishing them.

Destroy Corrupted zones

Once you get your Azoth Staff from the main questline, you'll be able to destroy the Corrupted zones that appear throughout New World's map. These zones have tons of level 25 enemies and are near-impossible to solo, but if you find a group of players farming them, join in. You can get massive amounts of XP by helping the group destroy the zones, and you'll often get a nice piece of gear as well.

Farm Expedition quests

The best way for level 25+ characters to grind XP is to farm quests that are tied to the Expedition dungeon missions that you unlock at level 25. For example, Barkimedes in Windsward has repeatable quests that require you to bring him bones from the enemies in the Amirine Excavation Expedition. These quests reward a crazy amount of XP, and with a full group of good players, it's possible to get around 30,000 XP per hour with this farm.