'New World' Ranged Hatchet Gameplay Guide And Builds

The one-handed hatchet in “New World” is a versatile weapon that’s deadly up close and surprisingly lethal from a distance. Players can use their hatchets as dedicated throwing weapons and with the right build, they can take their enemies down without even having to get close.

Hatchets as throwing weapons offer a playstyle that’s completely different from the weapon’s melee version. It’s important to know the difference between the two styles in order to be the most effective with this weapon type, as blindly rushing in with either can result in very ineffective or downright detrimental results.

Here are a few tips on how to use ranged hatchets and an overview of some of the weapon type’s most important skills.

Ranged Hatchet Playstyle

Unlike its melee counterpart, the ranged hatchet variant focuses on applying debuffs while dealing chip damage from close to medium range. All of the throwing hatchet active skills can apply some sort of debuff to enemies, while most of the passive nodes provide bonuses to the damage dealt to enemies who have active debuffs.

The ranged skill tree also has the Aimed Throw node, which replaces the hatchet’s ability to block with an aim mode that lets users freely throw axes at targets.

Recommended Skills

All of the throwing hatchets skills are recommended for purely ranged builds. Rending Throw decreases a target’s resistance, Social Distancing applies a Slow effect to targets hit and Infected Throw inflicts Disease, weakening a target’s damage output and the amount of healing they receive.

When paired with passive nodes like Aimed Throw, Exploitation and Persistent Hinderance, players can effectively keep enemies debuffed while dealing increased damage to them with their thrown hatchets.

Alternatively, players can replace Rending Throw with the Berserk skill for added melee pressure and extra thrown hatchet damage. Combine this with Critical Throw and it’s related passives to deal very high DPS to single targets.

Stat Distribution

The hatchet scales mostly with Strength, so players should spec their points into this as much as possible. However, investing enough points into Dexterity is also a wise decision, as the first major perk grants increased Critical Hit chance while also boosting overall hatchet damage due to secondary stat scaling.