Amazon’sNew Worldwas released last year, the company’s first step into the MMORPG field. While having a few bumps in the road,New Worldlaunched with adequate success and retains a high player base.New Worldtakes a lot from classic MMOs in terms of combat, grinding, and crafting while still bringing much to the table in terms of gameplay and progression.

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New World also has an extensive gear system. Instead of being separated by a level wall, all gear is assignedgear scores.It takes a lot of work to get to max gear score inNew World, which is 600 (but 625 on the public test server). Umbral Shards are a new addition toNew World, and are directly linked to improving player gear and raising it past the level cap in upcoming updates. In this guide, players will learn how to obtain and how to use Umbral Shards in New World.

What Are Umbral Shards?

Umbral Shards are a new in-game material players will need to upgrade their gear scoresas they progress through the game.Umbral Shards can upgrade gear with a minimum score of 590 to a maximum score of 625. They also allow players to increase their expertise in a specific gear slot, allowing a raise from 600 to 625. Upgrading a piece of gear also permanently raises the player’s expertise with that gear slot.

It’s crucial for players to understand thatupgrading a piece of gear with Umbral Shards will not turn it into a legendary item, and will not equip it with an additional perk. Upgrading a piece of gear will only raise the scaling of the item to 625 power level.

How To Use Umbral Shards

To utilize an Umbral Shard, the player must first have a piece of gear to upgrade. This piece of gear must beat a score of 590 or higher; in addition, the expertise in that gear slot must also be at 590 or higher.If both these requirements are met, the only thing that remains is to have the correct amount of Umbral Shards needed to upgrade the gear piece to the desired score.

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The amount of Umbral Shards it takes to upgrade a piece of gear varies depending on the gap between scores. Players can refer to the chart below to see how many Umbral Shards they will need for their gear:

of Shards Needed

600-601

1

601-602

2

602-603

3

603-604

4

604-605

5

605-606

6

606-607

8

607-608

10

608-609

15

609-610

20

610-611

25

611-612

35

612-613

50

613-614

65

614-615

90

615-616

125

616-617

175

617-618

250

618-619

325

619-620

450

620-621

700

621-622

1000

622-623

1400

623-624

1900

624-625

2500

How To Obtain Umbral Shards

There are currently three ways for players to obtain Umbral Shards in New World: completing Mutated Expeditions, Crafting High-level gear, and Gypsum Casts.

Mutated Expeditions

Mutated Expeditions were introduced in update 1.3. These are previous Expeditions that have been modified with more challenging modifiers and provide greater rewards, and arebest done with a Guild. These new versions of previous content are for players who have reached level 60 and topped out their gear scores.

Players must complete all previous versions of Expeditions to gain access to Mutated versions. It’s essential to understand thedifficulty of these Expeditions, as players should attempt if they have not achieved the minimum level required and a good understanding of builds and roles. Players must also have solid builds andweapons like the Musketor theHatchet.

Like all Expeditions, Mutated Expeditions require a tuning orb to unlock. The available Mutated Expeditions are:

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Mutated Expeditions are the most efficient way to earn Umbral Shards.The difficulties in these Expeditions are leveled one to ten, ten being the hardest difficulty. Within each level of the mutation, players can either be rewarded Bronze, Silver, or Gold. Depending on the level of the Expedition, the player’s performance in the dungeon, a player can receive a varied amount of Umbral Shards, as seen in the following chart:

of Shards Rewarded

27

33

40

60

53

67

80

100

120

133

167

200

533

667

800

7

1250

1500

1333

1667

2000

9

2667

3333

4000

5000

6000

Crafting Items With A 600 Gear score

When a player succeeds at crafting a piece of gear with a score of 600, that player’s expertise in that specific gear slot will be bumped up to 600 as well. From then on,when a player crafts a gear of that level or higher, they will receive a number of Umbral Shards as a rewarddepending on the level of the gear. The amount of Umbral Shards received is outlined in the chart below.

600

601

602

603

604

605

606

607

608

609

610

611

11

612

12

613

13

614

14

615

616

16

617

17

618

619

620

30

621

622

623

624

70

625

85

Opening A Gypsum Cast

Usually, opening a Gypsum Cast will reward the player with an increase in their Expertise in the specific slot of the item they are opening.Once 600 Expertise is reached in that slot, the player will receive a certain amount of Umbral Shards from that point forward. The chart below breaks down the amount of Umbral Shards rewarded.

19

22

32

39

47

56

96

116

139