As the interminable wait until October stretches on, New World players and New World bloggers alike search for ways to fill the time. One great option for that is housing, one of New World‘s most underrated features. Decorating houses can be a great way to fill downtime as a player, and it gives me something to talk about while the game remains in stasis ahead of Aeternum‘s launch.
Specifically I thought it would be fun to rank all New World‘s settlements on the basis of their housing, going from worst to best.
Brightwood
Despite its name, Brightwood is a very bleak, gloomy zone full of muted colours, and you might think that’s why I’m putting it last, but you’d be wrong. I often find beauty in bleakness, and a spooky cabin in some haunted woods is just about my ideal MMO player housing.
But that’s not what you get in Brightwood. One of my biggest pet peeves with New World‘s houses is how they often feel very disconnected from the zones they’re in. They’re packed into cramped settlements surrounded by ugly palisade walls, rarely having any kind of view or any other integration with the surrounding landscape.
Brightwood is arguably the worst offender in this regard. Its town is very cramped, with generic Western European architecture, and few if any of the houses offer a view of anything but each other and the walls around them.
It’s also not a very practical zone for much of anything, unless you want to farm low-tier wood, and you can do that most anywhere.
Edengrove
Edengrove’s housing is a disappointment. It was the second new housing neighbourhood added post-launch, and the first in Brimstone Sands was a big upgrade over the housing of launch zones, so I expected Edengrove to raise the bar again. It’s also one of the most beautiful zones in game; who wouldn’t want to live there?
But in practice the housing felt very undercooked. The houses are all mostly the same, a single (large) room surrounded by tiny, empty yards. You can’t even see out the windows very well, so the beautiful vistas of the zone are cut off while you’re in your home. They’re also all priced as tier four homes, but they don’t feel big or elaborate enough to justify that high a price tag.
Mourningdale
Mourningdale is one of my favourite zones aesthetically, so I’d like to rate it higher, but it’s another zone whose housing doesn’t capitalize on its beauty. It’s not quite as claustrophobic as Brightwood’s settlement, but it’s still hard to find a good view of the surrounding landscape.
Mourningdale is also one of those awkward mid-level zones that’s too high-level to be effortlessly farmed as you can the newbie zones, but still too low-level to really be relevant as endgame content. There’s little practical reason to want a house here.
Weaver’s Fen
The best and worst thing about Weaver’s Fen’s settlement are one and the same: It’s a collection of rundown hovels in the middle of a swamp.
Obviously this is going to turn a lot of people off, but if you want to role-play a spooky witch or a rough-and-tumble pirate, this is one of the best places for it. It’s also one of the only towns without a wall around it, so it’s fairly easy to get a view of the surrounding zone. And yes, it’s a view of a swamp, but I do find the lighting at sunrise and sunset can make for some surprisingly beautiful vistas.
There aren’t a lot of practical arguments for living in Weaver’s Fen, but it is the best zone to farm oil, which can be useful for certain types of crafting.
Monarch’s Bluffs
Monarch’s Bluffs is one of the more unique and visually dramatic towns. It’s literally an Arthurian castle. The homes have a nice cozy medieval manor feel that provides an interesting contrast to the tropical scenery.
Unfortunately, it is another town where high walls cut off what would otherwise be some spectacular views of the surrounding landscape.
Restless Shore
Restless Shore’s houses are nothing special architecturally, but it does have a pretty unique town layout. The buildings are arranged around a deep bay that’s home to a massive pirate ship. A constant subtle drizzle adds an interesting visual tone to the area.
On the downside, it’s another one of those awkward mid-level zones, and you’re probably never going to stop wishing you could use the pirate ship as a house.
Windsward
In the early days of the game, players settled on Windsward and Everfall as de facto capitals. While improvements to fast travel, storage transfers, and the trading post have made gathering in a central location largely unnecessary, old habits die hard; these zones remain among the most well-populated, and you can count on the crafting stations always being maxed out.
Aside from the social and practical benefits, Windsward’s settlement is a pretty town. The architecture is not unique, and it does have another of those damn palisades, but a hill in town gives some houses a decent view, and it has a nice homey feel.
Everfall
Like Windsward, Everfall continues to benefit from its legacy of being one of the player-appointed capitols. The leveling revamp changed Everfall’s town from generic architecture seen in other towns to a unique Victorian brick style. Unfortunately said update also expanded the town’s walls and cut off what had been some of the best views in the game.
It is, however, still an attractive town in what is arguably the game’s prettiest zone, and there’s still one house with a good view. A large tier four manor near the eastern gate features a large balcony overlooking the town.
Reekwater
Yes, it’s technically another swamp, but Reekwater is the prettiest swamp you’ll ever see, full of lush plantlife and towering trees. Those trees make up much of the settlement, and most of its houses are treehouses, making it one of the few settlements where it’s easy to get a house with a view. The architecture is a bit rustic, which may not be for everyone, but like Weaver’s Fen it’s a great place for witchy or roguish characters.
Reekwater is also the easiest level 60 zone, making it a great place for farming things like faction missions without too much stress. Its only real downside is the town layout, which features two levels and a complicated system of bridges. There’s not a straight path to anything.
Ebonscale Reach
Ebonscale’s settlement is built onto the side of one of its towering spires and is home to one of the most beautiful houses in the game, a three-story tier four with a two-level balcony. Whereas most houses in New World have no view to speak of, this balcony grants a spectacular unobstructed vista of the town, the waterfalls running through it, and the surrounding zone.
I relegate Ebonscale to second place mainly because most of its other houses tend to be much less impressive, though they do feature a unique Chinese-inspired architectural style that’s quite appealing.
Brimstone Sands
Even with my usual antipathy towards Desert Zones, I have to admit that nothing beats Brimstone for housing. The houses are just straight up bigger and better than most other zones. Tier three homes in Brimstone often seem as big and beautiful as many tier four homes in other zones, and Brimstone’s T4s feel second to none.
Most houses have at least some kind of a view, as well, with balconies being plentiful. There’s no over-sized wall around the settlement to obstruct your line of sight, either. You might not think the desert would have much worth seeing, but things are aligned such that you’ll be granted views of the massive magitech pyramid of the Ennead or the beautiful Roman architecture of the town itself.
While the addition of Elysian Wilds means Brimstone is no longer the highest level zone in the game, it’s still very much relevant content for endgame players, making it one of the more practical places to set up shop, as well. No matter what you want from housing, Brimstone’s about as good as it gets.
New World’s Aeternum is a land of many secrets. In MassivelyOP’s Vitae Aeternum, our writers delve those secrets to provide you with in-depth coverage of all things New World through launch and beyond.
