Exploring the vast world of New World Aeternum in Season 9: Season of the Banner can be overwhelming for both new and veteran players. With new seasonal challenges and shifting priorities, efficient travel, resource management, and profession progression are more important than ever. Long travel times, gear swapping, and trade skill grinding often slow down progression—but with the right strategies, you can drastically improve efficiency this season.

This guide covers essential tips for faster travel, smarter use of mounts and housing, quick gear switching, profession leveling tricks, and must-know chat commands. By mastering these mechanics in Season of the Banner, you’ll save countless hours, maximize your New World gold, and stay ahead of the curve whether you’re questing, gathering, or battling across Aeternum.

1. Mastering Mounts & Riding

At level 20, you unlock the quest “My Kingdom for a Horse”, which rewards your first mount. Getting this early is highly recommended, as mounts drastically reduce travel time and make questing much more efficient.

Training Activities:

• Rallies – Timed runs with checkpoints in sequence; great for practicing control and building consistency.
• Circuits – Single-destination races with flexible routes; ideal for learning shortcuts and efficient pathing.

Completing these activities raises your riding skill up to 91, improving both speed and stamina.

Feeding Mounts:
Feeding special foods can enhance mount stats over time. While slower than training, it complements progression. However, purchasing ingredients can quickly drain your New World currency, so farm or craft them when possible.

Tips:

• Prioritize Rallies early for faster skill leveling.
• Use Circuits to memorize quest hub routes.
• Farm ingredients instead of buying to save coins.
• Combine training and feeding for the best long-term growth.

2. Power-Leveling Trade Skills

New World Aeternum features 19 trade skills, divided as follows:

• Gathering (5): Mining, Skinning, Logging, Harvesting, Fishing
• Refining (5): Smelting, Tanning, Stonecutting, Weaving, Woodworking
• Crafting (7): Armoring, Weaponsmithing, Jewelcrafting, Engineering, Alchemy, Cooking, Furnishing
• Temporary (2): Riding, Music

While some players overlook them, trade skills are vital for both progression and the in-game economy. The Bonus XP system makes leveling far faster.

How It Works:
Submit items gained from trade skills to receive extra XP. This method grants significantly more progress than pure grinding. For example, smelting ore into ingots and submitting them yields better XP than mining alone.

Shortcut Strategy:
If you have enough coins, buy trade skill items directly from the marketplace and submit them. With this approach, you can max out skills without extensive gathering.

3. Mastering Chat Commands

Learn essential shortcuts for communication, trading, and problem-solving on the fly.

4. Optimizing Housing & Inns

At level 15, you gain access to housing, but only if you’ve earned enough territory reputation in the region. Early reputation grinding is crucial if you want a home base.

Why Inns & Houses Matter:

• Fast Travel: Bind to an inn or house to teleport for free every 15 minutes.
• Storage & Rest: Houses double as extra storage for materials, gear, and consumables.

Economic Advantage: If your guild controls the settlement, housing costs are reduced—saving significant amounts of New World Aeternum coins.

First House Tips:

• Choose Central Hubs: Everfall and Windsward are prime spots thanks to trade and quest routes.
• Plan Travel Efficiency: Place homes in farming/quest regions to maximize teleport value.
• Balance Cost vs. Utility: Small houses are cheaper but still grant teleport benefits—don’t overspend early.
• Leverage Guild Power: Always buy in guild-controlled settlements for discounts.

5. Boosting Travel Speed

The world of Aeternum is vast and full of obstacles. While the shortest route is a straight line, terrain rarely makes that possible.

To move efficiently, stick to roads and paths, which grant a 15% movement speed bonus (on foot or mounted). This buff disappears shortly after leaving the path, entering combat, or using abilities. Plan your routes along roads whenever possible to save time.

6. Switching Gear Faster

Different trade skills and combat encounters demand different gear sets. Manually swapping slows you down—especially when gathering or mid-fight.

The solution is equipment hotkeys, which let you swap instantly:

• Quickly equip gathering gear when spotting resources.
• Switch to resistance gear in combat for a defensive edge.

Note: This feature only works with keyboard and mouse, not controllers.