How to Farm Umbral Shards in New World (Updated)
The latest New World update brought with it Expedition Mutators to up the difficulty of end-game dungeons and to help players meet the added challenge, a new Umbral Shards system, allowing you to upgrade equipment beyond the previous maximum Gear Score, up to 625.
In what follows, we explain how to farm Umbral Shards, starting with the most efficient way.
Umbral Shards Farm
- Expedition Mutations – Fastest Way to Farm Umbral Shards
- Gypsum Casts (Updated to reflect February Update changes)
- Crafting 600 Gear Score Equipment (Updated to reflect February Update changes)
Expedition Mutations – Fastest Way to Farm Umbral Shards
The fastest way to farm Umbral Shards is through Mutated Expeditions. Every week, the game picks “a unique combination of Expeditions” to mutate. The pool of expeditions that mutations cycle through, at the time of writing, includes the Lazarus Instrumentality, Garden of Genesis, and Dynasty Shipyard. The currently mutated expedition is marked on the map with an animated icon. Hover over this icon and you’ll also be able to see the mutations that have been assigned to the expedition along with the time it will remain mutated.
The great thing about mutations is that there is no limit to how many you can run in a day, apart from the time it’ll take you to complete them, of course. The Mutated Expedition Tuning Orbs needed to gain access, however, aren’t as readily available. You can only acquire two per week on your own – one through crafting and the other from the Faction Shop.
How to Get Mutated Expedition Tuning Orbs
Provided your Stonecutting skill is at level 200, Mutator Orbs can be crafted at a Stoneutting Table in exchange for one Asmodeum Chisel, one Corrupted Lodestone, five Runestones five Energy Cores, and 10 Powerful Gem Dust. At the Faction Shop, it costs 1,000 Gold and 10,000 Faction Tokens.
Umral Shards per Difficulty, Score Rank
Each Mutated Expedition offers 10 levels of difficulty to go through, each with an incrementally higher bounty of Umbral Shards. This bounty is determined by your performance through the expedition, given a Bronze, Silver, or Gold rating or “score rank” on completion, based on points earned.
The Umbral Shard rewards for each difficulty and score rank range from 27 for a Bronze rank on the first level of difficulty to a whopping 6000 if you score a Gold on level 10. The biggest jumps in rewards come after difficulty 5, as can be seen in the table below.
| Difficulty | Bronze | Silver | Gold |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27 | 33 | 40 |
| 2 | 40 | 50 | 60 |
| 3 | 53 | 67 | 80 |
| 4 | 80 | 100 | 120 |
| 5 | 133 | 167 | 200 |
| 6 | 533 | 667 | 800 |
| 7 | 1,000 | 1,250 | 1,500 |
| 8 | 1,333 | 1,667 | 2,000 |
| 9 | 2,677 | 3,333 | 4,000 |
| 10 | 4,000 | 5,000 | 6,000 |
How Score Rank is Determined
Your team’s score rank is calculated based on the following factors.
- Completion time
- Normal enemies killed
- Named enemies killed
- The number of times any team member respawns
- Team wipes during boss fights
Your score is updated continually through the course of a Mutated Expedition and can be viewed at the top of the screen. The rank is displayed on the completion screen that pops up after you beat the final boss.
Here are the points you need for each of the three ranks.
| Rank | Bronze | Silver | Gold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points | Less than 20,000 | 20,000 – 39,999 | 40,000 or more |
Gypsum Casts (Updated for February Patch)
Once your Expertise for a type of gear is 600 or higher, any Gypsum Casts that you open for that equipment will yield a random item of the same type with up to 600 Gear Score and a fixed amount of Umbral Shards based on the Expertise. The higher the Expertise, the more Umbral Shards you get.
| Gear Score | Umbral Shards Rewarded |
|---|---|
| 600 | 100 |
| 601 | 112 |
| 602 | 124 |
| 603 | 136 |
| 604 | 148 |
| 605 | 160 |
| 606 | 172 |
| 607 | 184 |
| 608 | 196 |
| 609 | 208 |
| 610 | 220 |
| 611 | 232 |
| 612 | 244 |
| 613 | 256 |
| 614 | 268 |
| 615 | 280 |
| 616 | 292 |
| 617 | 304 |
| 618 | 316 |
| 619 | 328 |
| 620 | 340 |
| 621 | 352 |
| 622 | 364 |
| 623 | 376 |
| 624 | 388 |
| 625 | 400 |
Note that you don’t get Expertise bumps for opening Gypsum Casts for gear with 600 or higher Gear Score. As mentioned earlier, past 600 GS, Umbral Shards are the only way to get Expertise bumps.
We’d advise upgrading the gear in all of your slots equally, at least for the first few levels, instead of using up all of your Umbral Shards to max out one item first. The bumps in Umbral Shard rewards per Expertise level aren’t as high as the amount you’d have to spend on each consecutive upgrade. Having multiple slots upgraded will allow you to use more of your Gypsum on casts and ultimately net you more Umbral per day.
As upgrades get more expensive, however, you may want to hold your Umbral Shards for both weapons followed by chest gear, and then the rest of your equipment (excluding shields, as they seem to have no effect on GS). Weapons have the highest weightage in your overall Gear Score, nearly twice as much as chestwear, while chest gear is nearly twice as important as any other armor piece or jewelry.
Crafting 600 Gear Score Equipment (Updated for February Patch)
Each time you craft equipment with a Gear Score of 600, you’ll get a bump in Expertise for that type of gear, up to 600. When you craft a 600 GS item for a slot that already has 600 or higher Expertise, you are rewarded with Umbral Shards, with the amount being proportional to the level of Expertise.
| Expertise Level | Umbral Shards Rewarded |
|---|---|
| 600 | 25 |
| 601 | 28 |
| 602 | 31 |
| 603 | 34 |
| 604 | 37 |
| 605 | 40 |
| 606 | 43 |
| 607 | 46 |
| 608 | 49 |
| 609 | 52 |
| 610 | 55 |
| 611 | 58 |
| 612 | 61 |
| 613 | 64 |
| 614 | 67 |
| 615 | 70 |
| 616 | 73 |
| 617 | 76 |
| 618 | 79 |
| 619 | 82 |
| 620 | 85 |
| 621 | 88 |
| 622 | 91 |
| 623 | 94 |
| 624 | 97 |
| 625 | 100 |
