New World was released on September 28 and has already become one of the most popular titles on Steam. The player count is just nuts right now and it seems the game dropped at just the right time considering the overwhelming need for some new blood in the MMORPG genre. Part of what makes the game so addicting thus far is the depth that it has and part of that depth is the faction system. It’s a bit of a commitment picking one of these, so it’s good to know what you’re getting into. Here’s how to change factions in New World.
What Are the Factions in New World?
There are three different factions you can join in New World and while neither is designed to have particular advantages of the others, each one brings a distinct type of flavor to the game especially when it comes to cosmetics. Here are the three you can choose from.
Covenant
Think of the Covenant as the religious zealots of New World. They have a distinct look with their buildings resembling churches and an orange color scheme to their gear.
Marauders
The Marauders are your basic brutes in New World and they are all about the conquest and fighting for their land. They believe only the strong survive and they are distinguished with a green color scheme as well as some very cool outfits resembling Spanish Conquistadors.
Syndicate
The Syndicate is the most mysterious of the bunch and they are sophisticated scholars and purveyors of the unknown in New World. They have a very unique gear set with a lot resembling plague doctors and they are distinguished by wearing purple.
What Do New World Factions Do?
So, if they aren’t all that different from one another, then what’s the point of choosing one vs. another? Well, if you like cosmetic gear, then each faction has very specific outfits that only that faction can access. They also have faction quests that differ between the three that can net some cool rewards.
In addition, you can also turn on PvP mode to fight other factions in the open world. This makes the game much tougher, but ultimately more fun as a fight is likely always around the corner. If you manage to have your faction conquer a zone, you will get faction wide buffs.
The conquest happens after your faction prepares an invasion which initiates an insane 50v50 war for the fate of the zone. You can also help develop your settlement too, and this is done at the town board. This leads to upgrades like defense and Trade Skill Stations for any in the faction to use.
How to Change Factions in New World
In order to change factions, load up your character and press K. A menu will pop up and when it does, click on the Bio tab. The current faction you are in will be displayed on the left side of this menu. On the bottom left of the screen, there will be a Change Faction button. Click it, and you will see the other factions in the game. The restriction here is that you cannot join a faction that owns most of the territory. If you want to join that one, you need your current faction to get more land.
Once you change factions, you are then banned from joining another faction for 120 days. Along with this, you lose your faction rank and all faction badges acquired through faction quests. This might sound a bit extreme, but this is how Amazon Games has decided to play it and this way, one faction will never dominate servers right off the bat.
New World is available now on PC.
