New World January update: Mutated Expeditions, Umbral Upgrade System

New World’s January update is live, and it improves the end-game experience by adding the highly anticipated Mutated Expeditions, the Umbral Upgrade system to upgrade gear, and more.

After being hyped up by Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek back in December 2021, Amazon Games has finally released New World’s much-anticipated January update.

Not only is it set to make the end-game experience better by adding Mutated Expeditions and a means for players to further upgrade their gear score using Umbral Shards, but it also makes fast travel more affordable.

There’s plenty of other bits and pieces too, including bug fixes, A.I and combat improvements, and more.

Mutated Expeditions

First and foremost, the patch is adding a new endgame feature called Expedition Mutators. Essentially, these items increase the difficulty of enemies found within existing expeditions, making them much harder to complete.

It also means that players will be able to find better rewards for their efforts, including better gear and resources and more gold.

In order to enter a Mutated Expedition, you’ll need to unlock the codex for it by completing a run on regular difficulty. You’ll also need Mutated Expedition Tuning Orbs, which can only be crafted once per week.

To keep things fresh, there will also be ten different difficulty levels and a ladder to see how your progress in any given Mutated Expedition compares to other players. The score is based on duration, kills, wipes, and more.

Umbral Upgrade System

New World players will also now be able to upgrade individual gear pieces that have a gear score of 590 to 625 by spending Umbral Shards. However, it can only be unlocked when players hit 600 Expertise for that item type.

Umbral Shards can be found in three ways. Successfully finishing a Mutated Expedition is the easiest way. The higher the difficulty and the better you score, the more Umbral Shards you’ll earn from the run.

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You can also find them by opening Gypsum Casts or by crafting an item with a gear score of 600. But again, it only works if you’ve already hit 600 Expertise for that item type. It’s also worth nothing that items upgrading with Umbral Shards cannot be sold.

Decreased Fast Travel Costs

It might not be as much of a gamechanger as the other two features, but the developers have listened to community feedback and decided to dramatically reduce how much it costs to fast travel somewhere on the map.

To achieve this, they’ve lowered the impact distance has on the Azoth price. They also added several new fast travel shrines at the following locations:

• Excavated Shrine added at Amrine Excavation
• Starstone Shrine added to North-East wall of Shattered Obelisk Complex
• Shiresad Shrine added outside entrance to The Depths.
• Genesis Shrine added in front of Garden of Genesis
• Melpomene’s Shrine added below Siren’s Amphitheatre
• Lazarus Shrine added next to Lazarus Instrumentality

That’s everything you need to know about the standout features added in the New World January update. However, there is much more included, too.

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If you’d like to look at the full list of patch notes in more detail, you can find them all below – courtesy of Amazon Games.

New World January update – full patch notes