Mutations | Player vs New World

Every Tuesday, 2 Expeditions become Mutated for the week.

You can see which expeditions are mutated by checking the icons on the in-game map - when an entrance icon glows with a red rune circle, that expedition is mutated for that week.

Currently, there are four main mutation types. These mutations will add extra challenges to the expedition. In Hellfire mutations, for example, certain enemies will have the Explosive affix just below their health bar. This means that upon death they will explode, dealing large amounts of fire damage to anyone nearby, as well as knocking them down.

Each mutation will heavily feature one type of elemental damage. As a result of this, it is advised to increase your elemental resistances against the damage type the mutation features. It is also a good idea to increase your damage dealt against the expeditions main mob types.

The best way to increase your resistance to a particular element type is through your Amulet and your Gem sockets.

Amulets can have a Protection perk on them, which reduces the damage you take from one damage type, and gems, when socketed into your armor or jewelry, can offer damage reduction to specific damage types or elements as well.

Collecting an amulet for each protection perk, and socketing them with the corresponding gem type, is strongly recommended for those looking to advance into Mutation Difficulty 3 territory, as equipping one of these amulets would provide a whopping 21% damage reduction to the Mutations damage type you’re going in to!

Each expedition in New World contains one or two specific types of enemy.

For example, Lazarus Instrumentality is filled with Ancient enemies, and Barnacles and Black Powder contains the Lost, with an Angry Earth final boss. By using specific trophies, coatings and ward potions, you can increase your damage and survivability in each expedition.

Boss enemies in New World expeditions do their own specific damage, regardless of what mutation types are active.

As a result of this, it is often advised to switch your amulet to a specific protection type and associated gem socketed to reduce the damage you take from each boss. This does mean you may sometimes be bringing up to 3 extra amulets to each Mutated expedition, which requires a lot of crafting and/or gold expenditure, so since the need for boss-specific wards won't become fully apparent until M2 onwards, it's OK to just focus on acquiring amulets for the 4 main Mutation types for M1.

When it comes to M2 and M3, feel free to run them with Mutation amulets only, as not every lobby leader will require you to bring Boss amulets, but once you run an M3 with and without them, you'll see why they're so highly recommended!