One of the headline features of New World’s latest season is the hard-to-say-10-times-fast Winter Rune Forge raid, which Amazon is toasting this week with both a Q&A and some of the studio’s infamous heatmaps.
In her Q&A, Amazon senior producer Katy Kaszynski explains that the Winter Rune Forge ties into the overall winter theme of the season, with multiple new boss mechanics and puzzles that require players to work together. “Communication and coordination within the team are essential when fighting the Ophidian Construct,” she says. “Players need to put some thought into group composition. The Ancient Ice Guardian requires really watching your debuffs, as they stack up and rapidly take players down.”
So have players achieved that goal so far? Actually, yes. The dev blog makes clear that trial completion rates are over 90% now as players up their farming game. However, the two bosses Kaszynski mentioned are indeed kicking player butt.
“The Ice Guardian accounts for about 74% of deaths between all of its hazards, while the Ophidian Construct accounts for 24.5% across all phases,” level designer Zach Holm quips. “Shout out to the players exploring the cavern with .1% falling to their death.”
Here’s to hoping Amazon’s big New World announcement next month can perk up the playerbase, which has sunk to its smallest ever.
