If you're a veteran New World player with at least two years of experience, you'll undoubtedly be familiar with Umbral Shards as you explore the new content released in Season 10 in 2025. They were actually removed from the game in 2023.
Also known as Umbral Crystals, these items were used to further increase your gear score. However, because of poor mechanics, they became redundant in the late game and were ultimately removed.
The return of these items in Season 10 suggests this issue has been resolved, or at least the positive impact far outweighs the negative impact. Therefore, obtaining sufficient Umbral Shards in Season 10 is essential.
Next, we'll explain how to farm these items based on Season 10 gameplay and modes.
Umbral Shards In Season 10
The main purpose of this item remains unchanged in Season 10: it aims to increase your gear score from 700 to a maximum of 800. Please note that to address previous issues, you can now only earn a maximum of 4,000 Umbral Shards per week.
Therefore, after completing your weekly Umbral Crystal farming, you'll need to plan your use to maximize their value.
Why Should You Farm Umbral Shards?
Umbral Shards increase your gear score, significantly increasing your gear's base damage and perk effectiveness. This will grant your character more combat bonuses and unlock more endgame content to earn rewards.
It's important to note that while your gear score can currently reach 800, it's best not to exceed 785 unless you're truly devoted to a particular piece of gear, as its effectiveness diminishes with increasing levels after 785.
Farming By Playing PvP Modes
While PvP modes haven't changed significantly in Season 10, most gameplay modes offer Umbral Shards as rewards.
Capture The Flag
This mode officially launched in New World in Season 9. Each round consists of two teams of 10 players, each lasting ten minutes. Your goal is to capture the opposing team's flag. In addition to Umbral Shards, you also earn PvP XP.
It's important to note that compared to other PvP modes, CTF is more fast-paced, requiring you to be quick and agile in both flag-grabbing and combat. Therefore, it's important to consume New World coins for gear with these bonuses to increase efficiency.
Outpost Rush
This PvP mode actually has some PvE aspects. After reaching level 60, you can join any 20-player team and compete with another team for control of three outposts to earn points. The first team to reach 1,000 points wins.
3v3 Arena
This is the smallest PvP mode currently in the game. It pits two teams against each other in a best-of-five 3v3 format on a random map to determine the winner. It's worth noting that Ancient Guardian Arena is a PvE mode.
Farming By Playing PvE Modes
Season 10 introduces several new PvE gameplay modes to New World Aeternum, including the new Catacombs mode and the new Isle of Night raid. However, not all of them drop Umbral Shards, and the farming value varies.
Catacombs
As the main new gameplay mode in Season 10, Catacombs is truly remarkable in terms of playability. Not only is it challenging, but each dungeon you enter is a new one, and as long as someone in your party successfully leaves, you'll receive a large amount of loot.
Unfortunately, the drop rate of Catacombs for Umbral Shard farming is quite low, making it unsuitable as a mainstream PvE farming method. It should only be used as a supplement to other materials you're looking to earn.
Mutations
Mutations are essentially mutated versions of standard Expeditions, enhancing the enemies and bosses in standard Expeditions. Therefore, they are essentially endgame content. Three Expeditions will mutate weekly, each with three difficulty levels.
Undoubtedly, farming the most difficult Mutation will yield the most Umbral Shards, but given its high difficulty, it's difficult to unlock them quickly, especially since Season 10 has only been online for a week.
As for the first two difficulty levels, the current problem is that the challenge isn't proportional to Umbral Shard drop rate, making them unworthy of your full effort.
Elite Chest Runs
This event takes place throughout the day in New World Aeternum. Simply send a message in the world channel to invite other players to join you in clearing Elite zones or Strongholds to obtain chests and unlock the desired rewards.
Currently available zones include:
- Imperial Palace
- Attalus's Foundry
- Mangled Heights
- Scorched Mines
- Myrkgard known
- Malevolence known
- Eternal Pool
- Forecastle Drift
- Cayo De La Muerte
Compared to the previous two PvE modes, Elite Chest Runs are easier to complete and yield approximately 150 Umbral Crystals per 10 minutes of play, a very good drop rate!
Optimal Farming Strategy
Based on the above methods, we recommend completing various PvP modes and clearing Elite zones as your primary method of farming Umbral Shards in the early stages of Season 10. If you're lucky, you might also find unexpected gains in Catacombs!
Regardless of which farming method you use, you ultimately need to fight to achieve your goal. To ensure you can successfully defeat your enemies, be sure to stockpile enough coins in advance so you can exchange them for more powerful gear.
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