New World: Best Armor Sets, Ranked

If there’s anything people love about MMORPGs, it’s the ways players can customize their characters. Naturally, players are already planning out their New World: Aeternum armor sets. There are several gear sets to choose from, and the game has plenty of crafting options available for impressive, high-level gear along with clothing for gathering resources.

The concept of building characters and classes from the ground up, including finding the perfect armor set for every unique build, continues to be one of the best features of New World. The Trading Post and various crafting stations present various opportunities for collecting and crafting along with the armor sets available from each faction according to the player’s rank, level, what Expeditions they’ve visited, and the faction they’ve chosen.

Updated on December 6, 2024, by Kristy Ambrose: Each piece of armor in New World is assigned a rank instead of a level, and players can equip any gear as long as their character’s level is within range. There have been some changes to the character creation process since the upgrades to New World: Aeternum, including the DLC Rise of the Angry Earth. Making a character in New World now includes a very basic version of classes and proficiencies, but characters are still free to wield any weapon or armor regardless of these choices, so every armor set is available to virtually everyone.

15 The Fisherman’s Set

A Reward For Low-Level Fishing Quests; Can Also Be Purchased Or Crafted

• Rarity Level: Common. These are probably some of the first quality armor set items that a character will pick up in New World. It’s not the most mind-blowing set, but very useful at lower levels and for role-playing purposes.
• Tier Pieces: Five, consisting of a hat, trousers, gloves, boots, and a smock. There are higher-level fishing sets of different qualities, but the earliest quests reward players with this one.
• Perks: Constitution, Strength, Focus, and Dexterity bonuses.

14 The Covenant Adjudicator Set

Purchase From The Covenant Faction

• Rarity Level: Epic. Players will probably wear this gear at Tier IV or V.
• Tier Pieces: What’s really nice about this set is that it’s available in light, medium, and heavy varieties, allowing the player can mix and match as they please. That offers some nice customization options with no less than 12 pieces: a breastplate, jacket, coat, gauntlets, shoes, boots, leg guards, pants, and three different kinds of headwear.
• Perks: The light and medium versions of this set give a healthy Resilience buff and boost health and mana regeneration. The heavy armor version provides a better damage absorption ability.

The Covenant is one of the three factions vying for control of Aeterneum. The player must be a member of the Faction and have the required rank of Adjudicator.

13 The Lumberjack Set

Craft or Trade

• Rarity Level: Uncommon. This is one of many New World armor sets in the game connected to gathering a resource.
• Tier Pieces: Four in total, consisting of a hat, shoes, pants, and a shirt. There are higher-level versions of this set, all the way up to Epic quality. It depends on how seriously the player takes their lumberjacking.
• Perks: Constitution, plus an increased chance of finding rare items while logging.

The game has a survivalist angle,
so gathering resources
like wood is central to building and construction, and players will be rewarded for their efforts. Like the Fisherman’s Set, it’s intended for resource gathering as opposed to question, combat, or PvP.

12 Blackguard Set

Drops in the Tempest’s Heart Expedition

• Rarity Level: Legendary
• Tier Pieces: Weapons only, which is still decent for New World, in which all players can carry two weapons even if they don’t plan on using both of them. There’s a chance that any kind of Blackguard weapon will drop, so this is a set for any character of even the most creative build.
• Perks: Every Blackguard weapon has a socket for a gem and a generous buff for whatever the primary Attribute is for that weapon.

Acquiring this set is part of the Heart of Madness storyline and is connected to Isabella, an NPC that players are pursuing throughout Aeternum. She’s evolved from a final boss to one of the game’s main antagonists. Pieces of the Blackguard Set are also craftable items and the recipe drops in the same locations.

11 The Deepmist Set

Craft or Find As A Drop

• Rarity Level: Common. This is the armor of a Deepmist Spy, and thus more useful to some classes and builds than others. Most stealthy classes can acquire this initial set fairly easily.
• Tier Pieces: Three, consisting of a hat, gloves, and a shirt.
• Perks: None other than the armor class for most Tier II items if it’s dropped. If the player makes it, they can add buffs or perks according to their crafting level.

10 Duelist Set

Craft or Find As A Drop

• Rarity Level: Limited only by level and crafting ability. The quality level ranges from Tier II to Tier V.
• Tier Pieces: Five pieces at every tier, consisting of a hat, gloves, shirt, trousers, and shoes.
• Perks: Defense against Elemental Damage and the lightest burden on the character possible. This makes it great for casters and fighting classes who want to avoid rather than absorb damage and hits.

9 The Sporelight Set

Drops In The Elysian Wilds

• Rarity Level: Tier V, Legendary
• Tier Pieces: Five pieces: boots, pants, shoes, a shirt, and a mask. That’s not including the various other Sporelight items that include weapons and jewelry.
• Perks: The Sporelight set is one of the best things about the Rise of the Angry Earth DLC . This light to medium armor is designed for spellcasters and melee fighters. Each piece improves the number of hit points and reduces damage from physical attacks.

This set is acquired in a zone that is only available if the player has the DLC
Rise of the Angry Earth
. They also have to complete a quest line to make the area accessible.

8 Admiral’s Set

Drops In The Barnacles & Black Powder Expedition

• Rarity Level: The musket is Rare or Epic, and the armor pieces for this New World set are Legendary.
• Tier Pieces: The weapons are Tier IV, and the clothing is Tier V. There are only two weapons, and each is a musket. The only difference between the two is the quality. The rare musket has a chance to drop from the Cache of the Depths Armaments and the epic one drops from Swogglesmear, a boss in the dungeon. The Legendary clothing set, which includes a petticoat, pantaloons, a tricorn hat, gloves, and even a peg leg all drop from Admiral Blackpowder, the final boss.
• Perks: Every piece of gear in this set reduces damage taken, has a handy gem slot, and increases damage done against Lost, which makes up the enemies in this dungeon.

7 Sage Set

Usually Crafted, Sometimes Looted

• Rarity Level: Limited only by level and crafting ability. Ranges from Tier III to Tier V depending on the player’s skill level.
• Tier Pieces: Five pieces at each tier, which consist of a hat, shirt, gloves, trousers, and shoes.
• Perks: Light Armor makes it the least cumbersome choice. In addition, this armor set comes with added protection against Elemental damage.

6 Explorer’s Set

Crafted, Dropped, Or Obtained As A Quest Reward

• Rarity Level: Limited only by level and crafting ability. Ranges from Tier II to Tier V.
• Tier Pieces: Five pieces at each tier, which consist of a hat, coat, gloves, pants, and boots.
• Perks: The leather construction is lightweight but durable, ideal for traveling adventurers. New World is a vast open-world sandbox-style game, and this is a standard PvE set.

5 Soldier Set

Craft or Trade

• Rarity Level: Limited only by level and crafting ability. Ranges from Tier II to Tier V.
• Tier Pieces: Five pieces at each tier, which consist of a helm, vambraces, breastplate, greaves, and boots.
• Perks: Bonus to Strength along with the better protection offered by a heavy armor set. This inhibits mobility, but any New World heavy armor build has that drawback.

4 Heavy Set

Craft Or Trade

• Rarity Level: Limited only by level and crafting ability. Ranges from Tier III to Tier V.
• Tier Pieces: Five pieces at each tier, which consist of a helm, gauntlets, breastplate, greaves, and boots. This New World armor set is slightly better than Soldier when it comes to protection and defense, but less accessible at lower levels.
• Perks: Better protection is offered by heavy armor, but the set does put some limits on mobility and dodge ability.

3 Syndicate Plague Doctor

Purchase From The Syndicate Faction Quartermaster

• Rarity Level: Limited by Faction choice and character level: Adept, Scrivener, Chronicler, or Alchemist. All of the items in this set are of Epic quality.
• Tier Pieces: There are four, consisting of robes, pants, boots, and a hat.
• Perks: Improvement to Strength and Constitution. This set is medium armor, which is not heavy but still provides some protection. It also includes extra resistance to Corruption damage.

A character must choose the shadowy Syndicate as their faction at level 10 to be able to obtain and equip this armor set.

2 Trapper’s Set

Crafted

• Rarity Level: Common, but attributes and buffs can be added during the crafting process to improve the quality depending on the player’s armor level.
• Tier Pieces: There are five, and players can choose medium or heavy for most pieces. These include a hat, a coat, gloves, pants, and boots.
• Perks: This is primarily a PvE New World set for players who have decided to retreat into the woods with little more than a rifle and their bulbous backpack.

In a big sandbox game like
New World,
gathering resources is a high priority; not to mention this is a great way to level skills that also improve the campsite, like Cooking, Woodworking, and Skinning. Most of the sets that focus on wilderness survival are intended for lower-level players, but the Trapper’s Set is one of the few for Tier IV or V.

1 Marauder Commander of the Barbarian Set

Purchase From The Marauders Faction Quartermaster

• Rarity Level: Limited by Faction choice and character level (Adept, Scrivener, Chronicler, Alchemist). All are of Epic quality.
• Tier Pieces: There are four in this New World faction armor set, consisting of headwear, gloves, footwear, and leggings.
• Perks: Bonuses to Strength and Constitution as with every Barbarian set, extra Resilience, and lower cooldown times on other abilities.

The player must have chosen the militant Marauders as their Faction to be able to obtain and equip this armor set.