Season 10: Nighthaven - Release Notes

New World: Aeternum - Season 10: Nighthaven downtime will begin at 5:00 a.m. PT (12:00 p.m. UTC) on October 13 and last approximately 2 hours. Explore a realm hidden from Aeternum for generations.

Uncover the fate of the Tear of Gaea, navigate treacherous alliances, and face threats born from darkness itself. Between a mysterious new zone, evolving endgame systems, and a 10-player raid, this season reshapes how you journey and endure. The Nighthaven update will release on Monday, October 13 and will be free for all New World: Aeternum owners.

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New Zone: Nighthaven

An ancient land rich with history, Nighthaven was largely cut off from the rest of Aeternum for lifetimes under the direction of its powerful king. Those few who did visit the haunting woods and mighty castles tell stories of mysterious figures, tall and lithe, engaged both in the politics of the court and in the dark hallways of the land’s many ruins. These inhabitants can be both charming and welcoming, or vicious and fearsome, depending on how they view those that they interact with. They rule at the behest of their king, carving out pieces of the land that they oversee on his behalf.

There are also stories of monstrous creatures that seem to exhibit the qualities of both man and beast. Although they have largely been known to stalk the dark forests and hills of Nighthaven, they have recently become bolder, becoming a more ever-present threat.

Nighthaven is a land shrouded in mystery, where the dark holds sway over the light. Power lies deep in the catacombs and ruins of this land for those who are bold and brave enough to venture there. Discover the secrets hidden in the shadows of these ancient halls, and use them to confront the threats endangering not only the people of Nighthaven, but the whole of Aeternum as well.

To get the most out of Nighthaven, you’ll need to do a little more exploration than in previous zones. Your journey will take you through uncharted underworld catacombs and complex castles and vertical structures. The quest tracker won’t always tell you exactly where to go or what to do, and the best rewards will only come to those who explore.

New Story: The Tear of Gaea

After the events of Elysian Wilds, Morgaine left with the Tear of Gaea to sequester it somewhere safe, away from ambitious intent. However, it seems that her journey was met with ill fortune, and the Tear has gone missing. She is once more turning to the Soulwarden in an attempt to recover the Tear and keep the world safe from whatever nefarious intent may be planned for it!

Travel within the newly discovered land of Nighthaven, and engage the enigmatic and mysterious figures that call it home as you search for the divine artifact. Search through ageless ruins and the facades of opulence as you work to uncover the truth of what is happening in this isolated and reclusive land. But be wary, as trust is a commodity in short supply throughout Nighthaven.

New Game Mode: Catacombs

Catacombs is a new game mode in which up to three players explore the depths of a procedurally generated dungeon, battling a wide variety of enemies and bosses, gaining unique mode-specific powerups, collecting cursed resources and currency, and racing to successfully exit and cleanse their treasures before time runs out.

While the difficulty of Catacombs is moderate at the start of a session, the challenge (and reward) is increased significantly each time a boss is defeated. To counter this, players are able to acquire in-mode power-ups that enhance their stats and abilities. With each boss defeated, players must decide between pushing further into the Catacombs for even greater rewards or safely making their exit before time run out. Failure to make a safe exit results in loss of the vast majority of the treasures collected, but only one player needs to safely exit to avoid this.

The procedurally generated nature of the mode makes every run different. Each session presents the players with a uniquely generated Catacomb constructed from a tile based algorithm. The layout of the Catacomb is revealed room by room as players explore. Enemies, encounters, bosses, and hazards are different in every run. Each time you delve into the Catacombs, you’ll need to explore and chart the map, and decide how to spend your limited time. Will you press forward, or backtrack to get more powerups before advancing? And will you have enough time to extract with your spoils?

In a successful Catacombs run you’ll earn two new currencies, Sterlings and Crowns. Sterlings are earned all over the dungeon, but Crowns only come from bosses (only the second one and beyond). To trade these currencies for Catacombs-specific rewards, you’ll need to bring them to the Catacombs Delver near the Inn in Nighthaven’s settlement, Tularest Abbey.

You can access Catacombs from the Activity Finder.

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New Raid: Isle of Night

Isle of Night is a new 10-person end game raid. The raid is set in a once magnificent kingdom whose inhabitants have now fallen Lost. Similar in length and format to Hive of Gorgons, this raid features three new bosses and multiple new enemy types, light puzzles, and set piece encounters. This raid will be some of the hardest content in the Season 10, demanding players gear-up and coordinate to succeed.

Overhauled Endgame Progression

Nighthaven brings with it numerous game-wide changes to systems, progression, gearing, and rewards. Our goal with these changes is to form a connective tissue that motivates a variety of play in endgame activities, and enables players to customize their loadouts in ways they never could before to discover unique and powerful combinations of equipment.

Level Cap to 70, Gear Score Max To 800

Along with a level cap increase, gear score is raising from 725 to 800. PvP modes that currently scale gear to 700 will now scale to 775.

New Gear Modding System - “Perk Charms”

Instead of one customizable gem socket, gear can now have up to four empty sockets, into which players can install new perk modifiers called "charms." Charm sockets and charms themselves have 4 types: Gem, Defensive, Offensive, and Skill. The new charms can be picked up fully refined, but more commonly will need to be crafted with rare materials which drop from endgame content.

Set Bonuses

We are introducing set bonusev for the first time. These ultra rare sets of gear will be earned from pinnacle endgame content: Isle of Night Raid, Catacombs, and the PVP Track. We want to encourage players to mix and match these sets to achieve their desired build type, so they aren’t all-or-nothing.

Set bonuses come in two types: some bonuses activate at two equipped pieces and then get better at four equipped pieces (2/4), and some only activate at three pieces and then get better at five pieces (3/5). This means there are seven possible combinations of set bonus configurations: 2,2,2,2,2; 4,4,2; 5,5; 5,3,2; 4,3,3; 4,2,2,2,2; and 3,3,2,2. It’s up to you to decide the best combination of effects that best suits your unique playstyle.

Umbrals

To round out the long-term chase, we've ushered in a new generation of Umbral Shards. This means that all gear in the new paradigm stays viable and upgradable with umbrals rather than the clunky system at the gypsum kiln. Any gear with GS of at least 700 can be upgraded with umbrals. The system now works slightly differently than umbrals in the past, as it is now a currency with a wallet cap of 1,000 and a weekly rate limit to earn. This will keep umbral's value from deteriorating over time, which was a problem we saw with the previous version of this system.

Infix Perks

There will still be unique gear pieces with powerful and rare perks called "infixes." These will function similarly to how the unique perk on artifacts work.

Attribute Changes

There are no longer any perks that increase attributes. We felt these perks didn’t really result in a meaningful choice between two good alternatives, so we’ve decided to reclaim that slot for more interesting perks. All of the attribute points that used to come from these perks have been instead added into the native attribute point pool granted by normal leveling—and to make sure this is easier to manage, we’ve made Gear Set Storage loadouts now also save your current attribute loadout. The attribute perks on existing gear have been replaced with other perks of relatively low power, since players will keep the power the attribute perks used to yield.

Perk Design

We’ve done a complete sweep through our collection of perks and made some structural changes. Our goal is to make perk selection conditional and thoughtful, and to eliminate "must have" perks that simply raise the critical combat numbers like damage, stamina, and cooldown reduction without some kind of meaningful drawback. On that note, the hearty perk has been retired and we’ve reduced the cost of dodges, effectively giving the hearty perk functionality without the perk.

New OPR Map: The Tower Of Calomel

The Tower rises above the mists, a gothic fortress fusing ancient magic and engineering brilliance atop a mountain peak. Battle across three vertical layers of dark grandeur, from the commanding castle heights to the corrupted depths below. Jump pads and strategic pathways create constant warfare, while three capture points drive the action. Underground passages hide valuable mines and fearsome arenas, providing tactical options and game-changing resources. In this 20v20 battlefield, victory belongs to those who can master both the heights and depths of combat. As always, we have taken feedback and bug reports from the S9 preview event and made many improvements to the map thanks to your early playthroughs. Thanks again to our players for being so eager to play our new content early and report issues!

Customizable HUD

You now have full control over your gameplay HUD elements. Reposition, scale, even rotate any individual element on the HUD to your taste. Works for PC players and console players.

CTF Neutral Flag Event

Duration: October 24 - October 27

Join us for a weekend event featuring a game mode rules change for Capture the Flag!

• During this period, a neutral flag will spawn in the center of the map a few minutes into the match.
• Once the neutral flag is in play, it can be taken by either team and returned to their base to score points.
• Flag point values will also differ during this event with team flag captures scoring more points than neutral flag captures.
• Please participate and let us know what you think!

PvP Healer Role Balancing

Healer role balancing has been added to PvP mode matchmaking for Arenas, CTF, and OPR! Previously we formed matches based on a minimum and maximum number of healers per team, which could lead to longer queue times and could still result in lopsided matches. With role balancing, we now compare the difference in healers per team and can form matches either with no healers at all or a guaranteed healer on each team (in the case of Arenas), or in the case of OPR and CTF, we will allow for a minimum of one healer per team with a max allowed difference of one healer between teams. These are the values we'll start with, but we'll be monitoring matches and may make changes based on what we are seeing in queue times and win rates.

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Combat/AI

Combat/Perks

New Features / Modified Systems

• New perk system

• We have created a new perks system where new items have different breakdowns of perks on them than what we previously had. Attributes have been removed from items and are now applied mainly through leveling and foods.
• The attribute perk slot has either been swapped out for a standard perk or replaced by a unique Infix perk (perk that is tied to that item, and is similar to the unique perks on artifacts).

Set Bonuses

• Set bonuses are a new type of perk that are activated when you have equipped the required number of items to activate the tier of the set bonus.

• Most Set bonuses have benefits that are activated when 2 or 3 for the first tier, or 4 or 5 for the second tier number of items equipped from that set.
• These combinations of set bonus tiers will allow for some creative exploration where players can equip two 5 tier sets at once, or two 4 sets and the first 2 item tier of another set, or three 3-tier sets, etc. We are excited to see the combinations that players can come up with.

Weapon Scaling

• All weapons now have dual scaling but at varying amounts, with slight adjustments to scaling values for balance.
• Scaling percent values are now represented by letter tiers (S,A,B,C,D,E,F) and the tier correlates to the power of scaling. For example, “S” tier scaling is from 91% and higher, “A” tier scaling is from 81% and higher, and so on. The default scaling for each tier is the middle point in them, so all “S” tier weapons will start out with their scaling at 95%. This will allow us to scale the weapon a bit within the range of that tier without having the tier change.
• Healing from (Life staff, flail, and void gauntlet) will still only scale on focus.

Attributes

• Currently, each attribute has diminishing returns on them making it so the more points you put into an attribute, the less powerful each point is. We have flattened this curve so that each point provides more power than before.
• We have reduced the total amount of attributes players can obtain to make attributes matter a bit more, but have also increased the power of each attribute. This was done so that if you want to go all in on a damaging attribute, you will have to sacrifice some constitution to do so.
• Attribute Threshold Bonuses have been updated to not be quite as powerful as they were before, we want the actual attribute points to matter, not just the nodes in each attribute.
• Removed the 300 CON Attribute Bonus from attributes and pivoted over into being an infix perk on rings.
• The 300 CON grit on basic attacks attribute bonus has been moved to be an infix perk on rings with a slight damage trade off added for balance. This ATB was arguably the most valuable attribute node but having it as an attribute node eliminated some of the choice in attributes.

New Heartrune - “Phantom Blades”

• A new heartrune, Phantom Blades, is now available in the faction shop! This comes pre-upgraded with 3 options to choose from.
• Cast forth a set of swirling blades that spin in a circle dealing ticks of 100% weapon damage to all targets within 4m of the blades. Lasts 7 seconds.
• Perks:

• Merciless Incision - Phantom Blades deal 20% increased damage to targets inflicted with a CC status effect (Stun, Root, Slow, Sluggish).
• Achilles' Heel - Phantom Blades now slowly moves forward and inflicts Sluggish, preventing them from dodging for 2s or until they hit a target.
• Freeing Blades - Each hit of Blades will reduce the duration of all limited duration CC status effects on you by 10%
• Mobile Destruction - Phantom Blades are now attached to you. However, the radius is reduced to 1.5m and the damage is reduced to 70%.

Perks

• Added the Hearty Ring perk functionality to all players. Players still have 100 Max Stamina, but dodge costs have been adjusted to allow the same amount of dodges as when the hearty perk was equipped. Reworked hearty on all existing items to be "Gambled Energy", which grants 2.5%-5% damage while stamina is not full.
• Added new slottable variants of item perks and also adjusted some values and functionality for them.

• All new slottable (offensive, defensive, and skill) and fixed perks will have the suffix of II at the end of it, to differentiate them from the older perks

Reworked the new version of weapon mastery II perks that had general cooldown reduction and pivoted the functionality to be something else. Also adjusted some of the functionality of a variety of other mastery perks to lean into more preferred functionality.

• For weapon mastery older versions of the weapon mastery perks that had cooldown reduction, we have reduced their values to incentivize using the new slottable weapon mastery perks on new gear.

Performed a “stat squash” and reduced a lot of the values in the old perk system to reel in some of their values to allow for greater expansion of values via the new perks and allow for more creative and unique functionality and power to be added to the new infix perks and and set bonuses.

Gems

• Adjusted conversion gems to no longer convert attributes but just convert damage types. We want to lean into utilizing attributes more strategically now and make special unique items in the future with strategic scaling in order to allow for more creative builds and better tuning options on builds.
• Updated Runeglass gems to use the higher tier of the base gem the functionality is based off of and not the 2nd highest like they used to use.
• Adjusted the value of the absorption gems as a part of a larger tuning pass where we are reeling in some of the more extreme values that can be stacked across a variety of areas.

Artifacts

• Adjusted all the perks that are on all artifacts to fit into the new system. Pivoted artifacts to have the new version of perks to either be slottable or a fixed perk that can not be swapped out.
• Removed the attribute portion of artifact perks. Outside of the +X to all attributes functionality on Attuned Leather Pants and Old Crown, that is still present to keep those artifacts unique.

Trinkets

• Added base stats to trinkets similar to how weapons and armor have base stats on the items.

• All amulets will have up to +5% max HP based on gear score
• All rings will have up to +10% base damage based on gear score
• All earrings will have up to 5% flat cooldown reduction based on gear score.

Balance Note

• A lot of values tied to balance have been adjusted and with changes to so many systems there are far too many to note, so please re-examine the values across the board. Our intent with these changes is to create wider build variety, more interesting play between different builds, and overall create a more interesting meta.

New Fixed and Slottable Perks / Set Bonuses / Infixes

Set Bonuses

Enraged Set

• Set Bonuses

• 1 Equipped - Hitting a target within 13m grants self stacks of Enrage, increasing outgoing damage by 1% and increase attacker base damage by 0.5% per stack. (Max 10 stacks)

• NOTE: Some slower weapon can generate rage at 2 perk hit due to slower attack rate.

3 Equipped - Increases max Enrage stacks to 15, Heavy attacks generate an additional stack of Enrage. While Enraged and above 70% health, lose 5% of your max HP every half second.

5 Equipped - Increases max Enrage stacks to 25, and increase the duration of Enrage by 50%. While Enraged, all attacks deal an additional 8% damage while below 70% health.

Infixes

• Enraged Leech - While Enraged, All attacks gain 20% lifesteal while below 70% health.
• Trenchant Enrage - While Enraged, Heavy attacks now consume 3 stacks to deal 20% more damage.
• Enraged Hunt - When exiting a dodge with more than 20 stamina and Enraged, consume 4 stacks to trigger a 3.5m radius AOE that will pull in nearby enemies.
• Enraged Refresh - Hitting a target with a light or heavy attack while at or above 15 stacks of Enrage will consumes 3 stacks to reduce the cooldown of all active weapon abilities by 5%. (1s cooldown)
• Enraged Acceleration - While at or above 15 stacks of Enrage, gain 8% Haste.

Second Wind Set

• Set Bonuses

• 2 Equipped - While exhausted, you do 20% more base damage against enemies within 5m. Hitting an enemy within 5m will remove the slow from becoming exhausted by dodging.
• 4 Equipped - While exhausted, attacks that hit enemies within 5m have 10% life steal and grant 3% empower stacks that last for 5s when exiting the exhausted state. (Max 5 stacks)

Infixes

• Relentless Second Wind - While exhausted, gain uninterruptible.
• Enervated Accuracy - While under 50% stamina, gain 15% crit chance.
• Cleansing Second Wind - Cleanse slows and roots on yourself if you become exhausted by dodging.
• Speedy Recovery - Gain a 10% haste for 4s after exiting the exhausted state.

Protector’s Blessing Set

• Set Bonuses

• 2 Equipped - When applying a heal to a target above 50% health, gain a stack of a Protector’s Blessing (cooldown 2s, 5 stacks max). While at max stacks, you are inflicted with 7% Rend, and healing an ally that has more than 50% health will add 15% fortify for 5s (10s cooldown).
• 4 Equipped - Gain 3% base damage bonus per stack. While at max stacks (5), if you heal a target that is below 50% health, the stacks are consumed and they heal for 10% weapon damage every second for 5s.

Overcharged Set

• Set Bonuses

• 3 Equipped - Hitting an enemy within 5m or killing an enemy grants an overcharge stack. (5s cooldown) Each stack increase your base damage by 5% and affliction resistance by 10%. You are also inflicted with 4% rend per stack. Getting hit removes all stacks. (Max 3 stacks)
• 5 Equipped - Max overcharge stacks increased to 5. Overcharge stacks now also increase stamina regen rate by 5%.

Elementally Charged Set

• Set Bonuses

• 2 Equipped - Magical weapon abilities do 7% less base damage but they store a charge of that weapon's element for 20s. Activating an ability of a non-magical weapon will consume the charge and add 10% base damage of that element to that weapon's attacks for 10s (3s Cooldown).
• 4 Equipped - You can now store up to 2 charges of each element. while at 2 charges, gain 10% resistance to damage of that element.

Infixes

• Elemental Hunger - While you have no elemental charges, you take 5% less elemental damage.
• Elemental Mana Battery - For each stored elemental charge, gain 20% mana regen rate.
• Elementally Energized - When consuming an elemental charge by using a non-magic weapon ability, gain 20% stamina regen rate for 10s.
• Elemental Rush - When consuming an elemental charge by using a non-magic weapon ability, gain 10% haste for 5s. This also consumes 30 stamina.

Stifling Set

• Set Bonuses

• 2 Equipped - Hitting an enemy with an attack while all of your active weapon abilities are on cooldown silences your target for 2 seconds and yourself for 1 seconds, can occur only once per 5 seconds.
• 4 Equipped - While silenced do 10% more base damage with basic attacks and hitting a target will reduce ability cooldowns by 5s.

Infixes

• Stifling Resolve - Gain 10% damage absorb while silenced.
• Stifling Danger - Damage is increased 5% when hitting a silenced target.
• Stifling Evasion - Exiting a dodge while silenced will trigger an AOE that damages nearby targets.
• Stifling Energy - Gain 50% increased stamina regen rate while silenced.

Tenacity Set

• Set Bonuses

• 2 Equipped - Get Grit for 2s after getting staggered. However take 5% more damage while grit is active.
• 4 Equipped - Successful light attacks apply Grit for 3s, 6s cooldown. While grit is active gain 5% lifesteal.

Infixes

• Tenacity Penetration - Armor penetration is increased 10% when hitting a targets with Grit.
• Tenacity Critical - Critical chance is increased 10% while Grit is active.
• Tenacity Rebound - Enemies receive 5% damage when they hit you with a melee attack while Grit is active.
• Tenacity Recovery - Incoming heals increased 10% while Grit is active.

Focused Set

• Set Bonuses

• 2 Equipped - 15% increased healing on targets outside of Sacred Ground or Beacon.
• 4 Equipped - Healing increased 15% and cooldown reduced 5% on heal after holding a weapon for 10 seconds.

Infixes

• Focused Cleanse - Self Casting Light’s Embrace will cleanse player and make them immune to debuff for 2s. Requires 300 Focus. 15s cooldown.
• Focused Determination - Immune to crowd control debuffs for 1s, 3s with 300 focus, after a healing cast is interrupted. 10s cooldown.
• Focused Fortify - Healing targets under 50% health with burst heals will receive a 100% Fortify for 5s. 15s cooldown.
• Focused Speed - Healing a target outside of Sacred Ground or Beacon grants 10% haste for 4s. 8s cooldown.

Standalone infixes