Can you play the MMO New World Solo?
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MMO is played with thousands of players at any given time and it can be intimidating for someone not familiar with the genre. Some will be coming in without a group of friends to play with and will be wondering - can you play New World solo most of the time?
Can you play New World Solo?
Short answer? Yes.
I’ve been spending an unhealthy amount of game time in New World since it launched and most of the time I’m alone doing my own thing. Crafting, questing, gathering resources to sell in the trading post; most of the activities found in New World can be played solo. You can even do PVP quests alone but that’s not recommended unless you find the thrill of fighting multiple players alone.
The only time the game will require you to group up is to participate in Expeditions, a 5-player instance/dungeon that requires a tank, a healer, and a few characters focused on dealing the most damage possible. The first Expedition will be available at level 25 and is required as it’s part of the main quest. This is the only type of struggle solo players will experience but spending just a few minutes outside the entrance of the Expedition or talking to people in the Looking for Group chat room and you’ll get a group going in no time. After that, leave the group and go to your next adventure, lone wolf.
Aside from Expeditions, you can just ignore the rest of the community and do your own thing. Last Sunday, I was online with a few friends but never had the need to group up as I was just out working on my mining, preparing materials to improve my crafting in Engineering (I want to sell/provide Starmetal tools)
With how combat is designed, you can get yourself to a point that you can deal with multiple enemies in the world by yourself, even the tougher enemies that could be considered a boss to some. If you’re lucky, there might be a few players just in the area that could help thin out the number of enemies, but it can also be an issue as some quests require you to kill specific enemies, so you might be around that area longer than usual due to how crowded it is.
I’m over 80 hours so far and 90% of it is mostly spent solo. This isn’t by choice either as I'm naturally having fun with the activities I’m focusing on, which is crafting and doing quests. I like the fact that I’m not forced to do PVP or participate in War as I would like to take that part of the game on my own time in the future.
What about Corrupted Portals?
Another activity is Corrupted Portals which gets unlocked at level 25. These are activities that randomly spawn in the world and usually consists of players going through a series of enemies until ultimately closing the portal in the area to “cleanse” the location of the corruption. Some of these portals can be done alone, while some recommend a group of 5 to complete as it’s considered harder. You don’t necessarily need to do a grouped one and can just work with the minor ones that can be done by one player.
So, if anyone is concerned that this game cannot be appreciated alone, don’t be. You’ll soon find out that New World is friendly to those that prefer to play solo with little to no pressure to join groups or interact with other players.
I’m enjoying my time with New World despite its many issues. Crafting and gathering are weirdly satisfying and will talk about it more in a future post. But from what I’ve played so far, Amazon Games Studios has a strong foundation that could grow into something competitive against the heavy hitters that dominate the MMO space.
For more on New World, check out our detailed guides and my future impressions of the game as I progress further.
