New World Update Patch Notes & Servers Down Today (February 28)

A brand new update for New World will be deployed later today (February 28), with a huge list of bug fixes and improvements to the popular MMORPG.

Similar to previous New World patches, today’s update will see the game’s servers taken offline for an extended period of time. So, whilst you wait for the servers to come back up, here’s everything you need to know about the latest update, including the official patch notes and server maintenance schedule.

• READ MORE: Elden Ring Stuttering on Steam Deck Will Be Solved in a Week

New World Server Maintenance Schedule Today

Unfortunately, in order to deploy the February 28 New World update, all servers will be taken down for an extended period of time. During this time, players will be unable to log into New World.

Server maintenance will begin on Monday, February 28th at 5AM PT / 8AM ET / 1PM GMT. Downtime is expected to last for 2 hours, but may be extended or shortened if necessary.

Patch notes and further details for the February 28 New World update can be found further down this article.

• READ MORE: Lost Ark Tortoyk Seaswept Woods, Turtle Island & Revelry Row Location

New World February Update Patch Notes

Below you will find the vital details from today’s patch notes for the February 28 New World update, which includes the following fixes and changes:

WORLD EXPERIENCE

NOTABLE BUG FIXES

• Expeditions
  • Fixed an issue where Taxodius mini boss can be killed and looted twice in a single instance.
  • Addressed missing collision that allowed players to leave the intended playable space in the Depths.
  • Fixed an issue in Starstone Barrows with the Ancient Guardian’s animation intro.
  • Fixed an issue where player has the option to join ongoing expedition from another Expedition entrance.
• World
  • Fixed an issue where players could build camps off of each other to reach high locations using environmental features.
  • Fixed an issue where Ancient AI are too numerous and difficult for solo players at Syleio Seko in Reekwater.
  • Removed extra tendrils in Sha Makogai and Sunken Aspect POIs and toned down the enemy count in Sunken Aspect for solo play.
  • Fixed an issue where players could climb over a wall to enter the Siren Queen Arena.
  • Adjusted loot chest at Adamant Mine in Monarch’s Bluffs to increase the challenge.
  • Fixed an issue where players pop up and down when interacting with the Giant Elite POI Orichalcum Veins.
  • Added more lights in Lower Slag Mine.
  • Fixed an issue with a pile of floating stones found in Elafry Pyrgo POI.
  • Fixed an issue where half of a large rock is missing in Mrykgard.
  • Various fixes to floating assets and bad collision across the world.
  • Fixed an issue where the players face may look visually incorrect while on low graphics settings.

GENERAL AI

• Introduced a new Player-vs-AI physics collision system that will significantly reduce the amount of pushback from colliding with characters.
  • This update applies to bipedal and simple shaped creatures (Withered, Ancient Guardians, Corrupted, Lost Pirates, Brutes, Tendrils, etc.).
  • Future updates will look to improve collision vs quadruped and long creatures (cats, elk, wolves, alligators, etc.).
• Improved the AI target evaluation algorithm to fix some instances of AI attacking locations the player has already moved away from.
• Reduced the pushback on block from most enemy creature attacks to 0.
• Corrupted Ogre
  • Fixed an issue causing the Ball spell’s damage area to not properly match its visuals.
• Dryad Soldier
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the Soldier to repeatedly spam his Empower ability if shot from more than 30 meters away or when the player was unreachable.
• Elemental Bears
  • Reduced the rate at which Elemental Bears regenerate stamina.
• Swamp Dryad Soldier
  • Fixed an issue causing the Swamp Dryad Soldier’s downward slam to sometimes spawn a damaging area of effect. This has been removed.
• Swamp Dryad Beast
  • Fixed an issue with the Pull ability that caused players to be pulled higher in the air based on their distance from the Beast.
• Undead Navigator
  • The Undead Navigator’s self-buff will now properly show up as a status effect on the character’s nameplate.
• Siren Arena Boss
  • Fixed an issue preventing the Siren from attacking players at the edge of the arena.
• Big Cats
  • Updated knockdown animations to be more distinct from standard reactions.

EXPEDITION AI

• Garden of Genesis
  • Blighted Greenskeeper
    • Increased the size of the Blighted Greenskeeper’s headshot hit volume.
  • Genesis Shaman
    • Fixed Mist Attack VFX to be in sync with damage.
  • Angry Earth Naga
    • Improved visibility on attack VFX.
• Lazarus Instrumentality
  • Chardis
    • Increased length of Chardis’s stun phase by 5s.
    • Increased the time before the final laser during phase 3 from 75s after phase start to 90s after phase start.
    • Reduced the downtime between lasers during Phases 1 and 2 from 60s to 30s.
    • Increased damage of the base laser during Phases 1 and 2.
    • Increased Chardis’s damage by 25% across the board.
    • Reworked Chardis’s final laser to now deal 15% of health as damage per second.
    • Fixed issues with the swipe animations creating safe spots on the back walls.
    • Fixed an issue causing Chardis to not take bonus damage from Ancient related perks and coatings.
    • Fixed an issue causing Chardis to not have proper Strengths and Weaknesses against certain damage types.
    • Fixed an issue that could cause Chardis’s laser to persist after his death.
    • Increased the size of Chardis’s headshot hit volume.

MUTATORS

• Reduced the Desiccated timer from 60s to 45s.
• Normalized curse damage to ensure that curses are always a threat to players of any health pool size.
  • Censored damage normalized to 65% base health.
  • Desiccated damage normalized to 50% base health.

COMBAT

GENERAL

• Weapon Swapping
  • You can now swap weapons during hit-reactions, dodges, traversal and while using consumables (except weapon coatings).
    • This will not interrupt those actions. There’s a 1 second swap cooldown in these cases.
  • Weapon swap buffers will no longer be canceled if you are staggered before the swap can occur.
  • Weapon swaps and attacks can now be queued simultaneously (e.g. if you press swap during an attack’s recovery, then immediately press an ability key, the weapon will swap at the first swap cancel frame, then immediately perform the desired ability). Note that actions still have buffer and cancel windows. This change just makes them easier to use and more reliable.
• Dodging & Blocking
  • We have shortened the recovery time for all of our dodges. Transitioning to movement after a dodge should feel more fluid for all players now.
  • Basic attack startups (melee & ranged) can now be dodge and block canceled up to 2 frames before the first active frame. For melee attacks the first active frame is the first frame the weapon can deal damage and for ranged attacks this is the first frame that the projectile is spawned.
  • When performing light attacks with a melee weapon, block and dodge inputs will now take priority over the next light attack in the chain. This change is aimed at preventing accidental attack queues that leave the player vulnerable when they intended to defend.
• Jumping
  • Jumping off lower height objects will no longer trigger a fully committed land animation, this will allow you to keep your momentum as you move through Aeternum.
• Attributes
  • 300 Focus Attribute Bonus: The mana regeneration from this attribute bonus will now trigger when the caster drops to 15 mana or less.
• Equip Load
  • Equip Load descriptions have been updated to include the amount of stamina consumed when dodging.
  • Fixed an issue where the strafe movement speed would vary based on equip load.
• Bugfixes
  • Fixed attack cancels not working in shallow water (e.g. canceling one ability into another).
  • Fixed an issue that could cause some attack animations to play incorrectly when used while running.
  • Fixed an issue where players could get stuck while resting at a camp if they were encumbered.
  • Fixed an issue where players were able to clip through outcropping collision by using certain abilities while prone.
  • Fixed an issue what could allow players to avoid some damage from AoE attacks while in the prone position.

BOW

• Rain of Arrows:
  • Fixed an issue where Rain of Arrows could trigger backstabs.
  • Fixed an issue where the Rain of Arrows bleed duration was not able to be extended by perks and passives that extend Bow/Bleed effect durations.
• Evade Shot:
  • Energizing Evade Shot (Item Perk): Fixed an issue where this perk was not triggering if any upgrades were unlocked for Evade Shot.
• Fixed an issue that allowed Rain of Arrows, Penetrating Shot and Poison Shot to be used while encumbered or in deep water.
• Fixed an issue that allowed bow light attacks to be activated underwater.
• Fixed an issue with bow hipfiring that made the canceling windows different than when firing down sights. This fix normalizes the firing rate between hipfiring and firing down sights.

FIRE STAFF

• Fireball
  • Increased Fireball projectile radius from 0.01 to 0.33 to make it easier to hit with.
  • Fireball can now critical hit.
• Reheat
  • Fixed an issue where Reheat could persist through weapon swaps and ability usage.
  • Updated Flamethrower and Meteor Shower to trigger Reheat’s 4s timer when the ability exits.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the flyout icon for Reheat to incorrectly show as “Empower”.
• Pillar of Fire
  • Reduced the delay between Pillar of Fire’s activation and the spawning of its damage AoE. The fire pillar now spawns when the player finishes extending their staff forward.
  • Reduced Pillar of Fire recovery by roughly .5 seconds.
• Flamethrower
  • Increased Flamethrower’s base movement speed so that haste buffs have a more notable effect. The new move speed is approximately 2x faster than the previous speed.
  • Accelerating Flamethrower (Item Perk): Fixed an issue where the haste effect from the Accelerating Flamethrower perk was only triggering off of exactly 3 stacks and not 3 or more stacks.
• Let it Burn: Fixed an issue where the burn status effects from Fireball, Burnout, and some passive abilities were not triggering the Let It Burn passive.
• Fixed visual issues with some Fire Staffs.

GREAT AXE

• Swapped the placement of the Frustration passive and the Keen Edge passives. Ability points spent on Great Axe ability trees will be refunded and require a respec after this update.
• Gravity Well:
  • Updated damage area to match Vortex visuals.
  • Reduced Vortex pull force to allow players a chance to escape.
  • Pulling force ends just before Vortex damage occurs to allow players a chance to escape by dodging.
  • Removed unintended damage from the initial pull and area effect of the Vortex.
  • Updated and clarified the description of this ability.
• Maelstrom:
  • No Reprieve: Fixed an issue where the cancel window was set too early this upgrade, resulting in the ability being cancelled out prior to the 2nd spin on the attack.
• Enduring Strike:
  • Reduced the damage reduction provided by this passive from 20% to 12%.
  • Updated the tooltip to clarify that the damage reduction occurs while any grit is active and not just the grit provided by heavy attacks.

HATCHET

• Fixed an issue where the Accumulated Power and On Fire passives were not consistently triggering with hatchets that had perks with alternative damage sources (DoTs, Chain Elemental, etc).

ICE GAUNTLET

• Ice Spikes
  • Spiky Reach: Adjusted the projectiles fired from this upgrade to reduce the chance that a single target is hit with all 4 parts of the attack.
• Ice Storm
  • Fixed an issue where if two different players had different amounts of modifiers and perks for the Ice Storm ability they could stack the damage from it instead of it just being a single instance of damage.
  • Punishing Storm: Added clarification on the tooltip to state that it will only increase Ice Storm’s damage.
• Ice Shower:
  • Fixed a desync issue that could occur when players dodged through Ice Shower.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause Ice Shower’s root to fail when players dodged through it.
  • Fixed an issue where Ice Shower would not start its cooldown immediately when the first ice patch appeared.
• Ice Pylon:
  • Pylon Burst (Item Perk): Increased AoE to 3m radius from 1m. Added new burst VFX to show this new radius.

LIFE STAFF

• Beacon
  • Speed of Light:
    • Fixed an issue where the Speed of Light haste was not applying to the caster if their weapon was sheathed.
    • Haste applied by Speed of Light will now apply to all targets within the AoE, not just allies who are healed. The tooltip has been updated to reflect this new functionality.

MUSKET

• Sticky Bomb:
  • Fixed an issue where Sticky Bomb’s crit damage was not increased when the crit damage numbers would appear. Crits will now deal ~273% weapon damage.
  • Reduced Sticky Bomb base damage from 235% weapon damage to 210% weapon damage.
  • Fixed an issue where Sticky Bomb had broken and inconsistent transitions upon exiting the throw depending on the actions performed after the throw. This could cause the player to be locked out of other abilities until they moved or switched weapons.
• Shooter’s Stance:
  • Fixed an issue where firing too quickly after entering Shooter’s Stance would not consume a shot, allowing players to bypass the 5 shot limit.
  • Fixed an issue where exiting Shooter’s Stance would reset stacks of the Heightened Precision passive.
  • Fixed an issue which could allow players to bypass the animation for Shooter’s Stance and fire from a standing position.
• Stopping Power:
  • This ability has been reworked and no longer empowers your next shot, but instead fires a special bullet after a short warmup time that knocks back your target if it hits.
  • Stopping Power can be fired from aim down sights or hip fired.
  • Stopping Power’s hit-reaction animation changed to better match the timing that the target is staggered.
  • Ability description updated to reflect new functionality.
  • Cooldown increased from 15 seconds to 20 seconds.
• Powder Burn and Power Shot:
  • Loaded shots can now be overwritten. Activating one of these abilities to load a shot while the other is already loaded will replace the previously loaded shot with the new shot.
  • Fixed an issue where loaded shots from these abilities were not counting towards the Heightened Precision passive stacking.
• Hustle: Fixed an issue where the this passive had a shorter duration than intended while the Back it Up passive was also active.
• Players can now use consumables while reloading. Using consumables will interrupt reloading.
• Fixed an issue that allowed musket basic attacks to be activated underwater.

RAPIER

• Flurry: Updated ability description to clarify that Flurry can be canceled by other abilities as well as by dodging.
• Evade: Fixed an issue where sheathing the rapier after triggering Evade would result in the player getting a persistent movement speed buff.

SPEAR

• Sweep:
  • Refreshing Reach: Fixed an issue where Refreshing Reach would not trigger correctly with Coup De Grâce.
• Javelin: Fixed an issue where swapping weapons while using Javelin could result in a bad animation state.

SWORD AND SHIELD

• Shield Rush: The hitbox of this ability has been moved closer to the player to prevent situations where the the ability could hit targets that appeared to be out of range. The distance traveled by the rush has been increased to compensate for this loss of range.
  • Reverse Stab:
    • Tactician: This upgrade will no longer reduce the cooldown of Reverse Stab. It will still reduce the cooldown of other sword abilities when triggered.
  • Leaping Strike:
    • The leaping and attacking portions of this ability now have separate properties for their homing and movement in order to improve the overall accuracy based on distance.
    • Adjusted homing for better translation against distant targets.
    • Adjusted homing for more accurate and consistent tracking against closer targets.

VOID GAUNTLET

• Mending Evasion: Fixed an issue where this passive would reset your lowest active cooldown in addition to its listed effects.

WAR HAMMER

• Armor Breaker: Fixed an issue where players could not buffer attack inputs from any of the war hammer abilities into the Armor Breaker ability.
• Hardened Steel:
  • Reduced the damage reduction provided by this passive from 20% to 12%.
  • Updated the tooltip to clarify that the damage reduction occurs while any grit is active and not just the grit provided by heavy attacks.
• Empowering Armor Breaker (Item Perk): Fixed an issue where the this perk was applying to all hits for 5 seconds, and not just the initial hit.

PERKS

• Weapon Ability Perks: Updates to perks for specific weapon abilities can be found in that weapon’s update notes section.
• Chain Perks
  • Fixed an issue where Chain perks could hit targets through obstacles.
  • Fixed an issue where Chain perks could appear on weapons they were not intended to appear on (such as shields).
• Fixed an issue that caused the flyout icon for the Evasive perk to incorrectly show as “Discrete”.
• Plentiful Shells/Plentiful Arrows:
  • Fixed an issue where the Plentiful Shells/Plentiful Arrows bag perk was not properly scaling its refund chance based on gear score.
  • Fixed an issue where the refund chance would not stack properly if you had multiple bags with the same perk.
• Shirking Energy: Fixed an issue which caused this perk to incorrectly activate in equip loads other than light.
• Gathering Recovery: Fixed an inconsistency with this perk being incorrectly referred to as “Gathering Restoration” in some tooltips.
• Keenly Jagged: Fixed issue where the tooltip for the Keenly Jagged perk was showing the incorrect bleed duration.
• Aversion: Fixed an issue where the Elemental and Physical Aversion perks were not stacking properly.
• Slotted Gems: Fixed an issue which could cause gem perks to show debug strings instead of their actual values.
• Fixed an issue where the “Harbinger Life Staff of the Sage” and “Harbinger Fire Staff of the Scholar” staves had a perks for the opposite weapon on them.

For further details on the February 28 New World update, visit the game’s official website.