Armor Guide In The Game New World

The gear system in New World is based on different tiers and gear scores. However, all gear including armor, has a specific level requirement as well. The level requirement for a specific piece of gear is based on it’s gear score. 

Tier 2 - Level 1-19

Tier 3 - Level 20-39

Tier 4 - Level 40-59

Tier 5 - Level 60

Also worth noting is that higher rarity gear has a lower level requirement than lower rarity gear with the same gear score, which makes rarity of gear even more valuable. 

Amor in New World is composed of 2 different types of resistances, Physical and Elemental. Physical resistance helps mitigate all physical damage types, such as melee, ranged musket, ranged bow, axe throws, etc.

Elemental resistance helps mitigate all magic damage types, such as fire, void, lightning etc.

Physical and elemental armor rating both scale consistently across armor classes. So, heavy armor has the highest armor ratings for both physical and elemental while light armor has the highest for both. There are however other advantages to light and medium armor that are noted below under the “Armor Weight” heading. 

The amount of physical and elemental resistances you receive from each piece of armor is determined by a “prefix” system. See the Prefix and Suffix Section below.

All armor in New World has a specific name, and the name will have a prefix and a possible suffix within it. The prefix and suffix will tell you a lot about the armor, including the type of mitigations you are going to get from that armor, and the type of attribute point bonuses you’re going to receive. You can see the full list of all prefix and suffix bonuses by checking out our  prefix and suffix guide.

For example, let’s look at the Steel Heavy Boots of the Barbarian.

The Heavy Affix on a heavy piece of armor tells us that the primary resistance on the boots will be physical and the secondary will be elemental. Meaning this piece of armor has more physical resistance than other boots and less elemental resitance.

The suffix of Barbarian tells us that this piece of armor is going to give you a primary attribute bonus of strength and a secondary attribute bonus of constitution. If an item has a suffix, and all items do not, then you are guaranteed to receive the primary attribute bonus and in most cases will receive the secondary attribute bonus as well. 

There are 2 different types of bonuses that can be applied to armor in New World. There are perks and gem slots. 

Perks will give your armor specific buffs, such as, lighting ward that gives that piece of armor lightning damage absorption. There are also crafting and gathering perks that can be added to your armor that will enhance your gathering and crafting. You can find a full list of the perks in the game by visiting our database

Gem slots are slots in armor that can be equipped with a cut gem that will give you additional enhancements to your gear. For example, a cut brilliant onyx will you 2.5% physical damage absorption.

All equippable items are either Bind-on-Equip or Bind-on-Pickup. This is a feature put into the game in order to protect the item economy and keep demand for quality items high. By ensuring that an item (once equipped) is removed from the economy by being bound to a player and unable to be resold, a space is then created in the economy for similar items to be sold to other players on the trading post or scrapped for repair parts.