A patch for New World: Aeternum goes live today. It adds Steam achievements and tweaks several activities so smaller groups can finish them — a few more nudges from the devs as the game winds down toward its January closure.

Maintenance starts at 19:00 and will last approx. 2 hrs. When the servers come back, 10 Steam achievements will be available.

A chunk of the changes targets group content:

  • Hive of Gorgons
  • Trial of the Devourer
  • The Hatchery
  • Winter Rune Forge
  • Isle of Night

These will now require five players. The 3v3 arena is being reworked into a 1v1 duel by default; if you can still field enough people, the old 3v3 play remains possible. FYI, the UI will continue to show "3v3 Arena" — only the underlying functionality flips after the patch.

A few other tweaks landed too. Territory and Shadow item drop rates have been tripled. On Devaloka and Delos (SA and APAC servers), the rotation between Outpost Rush and Capture the Flag has been disabled — so, if you play there, take note.