'New World' Devs Tease 'Brimstone Sands' Expansion Content

Amazon's "New World" is set to receive a major content drop that will expand the war-stricken land of Aeternum even more.

The "Brimstone Sands" update will add an Egyptian-themed region to "New World" that comes with mystic pyramids, undead legions, sulfur pits and new monsters to hunt in the open. The eponymous Brimstone Sands region is heavily inspired by classical Alexandrian architecture.

Apart from the new zone, there will be a new weapon type in the game once the update goes live: the Greatsword.

The Greatsword scales equally off of Strength and Dexterity. According to the developers, it will have two stances that cater to offensive and defensive playstyles.

The Onslaught stance sacrifices survivability and stamina preservation for faster and harder-hitting attacks. Meanwhile, the Defiance stance offers a tank-oriented playstyle with plenty of counter-attacks, AoE smashes, blocking and taunts to keep enemy aggro off teammates.

"Brimstone Sands" will also have a new expedition set inside a giant pyramid that will explore the lore behind the zone and its previous denizens.

Outside of the new area, the base game is also getting updated. First, players can expect more variation in AI behavior, zone design and questing when exploring the first 25 levels' worth of content in the game. Amazon Games plans on overhauling the entire questing experience to provide more flavor for players.

Second, territories are getting reworked to address glaring issues like the war priorities over Windsward and Everfall and the economic benefits of owning both cities exclusively. The devs plan on resolving this by making other territories more valuable.

Additionally, a cooldown period will be implemented for players who hop between companies to join territory sieges. Amazon Games said this is to address the problem of "shell companies" that essentially allow large guilds to constantly maintain pressure against other factions.

The changes will be added to the Public Test Realm in staggered releases. The new starting experience and the Greatsword will be the first to arrive in the PTR, followed by the other changes to the base game. Afterward, the Brimstone Sands region will be added until it gets implemented in the live servers this October.