The Group Finder has been released again today, coinciding with the Year of the Dragon event in New World Season 4. So I am going to provide a concise summary to help you know eveything about this system.

How It Works

The system primarily aims to facilitate group formation for low level mutations, tailored to new players. It offers greater flexibility compared to the OPR system. While M3 isn't included due to gear and gem requirements, the goal is to attract more players to M3 by simplifying group finding.

Although the old Lobby Finders system, their lack of Cross World functionality poses a significant drawback. A more balanced approach integrating Cross World features into the existing system would have been preferable.

Fuctions

Trading is disabled while you are in Cross World, so you can’t just influence other servers’ economies by trading through the Group Finder. And let’s dive a little bit more into what the Devs had to show us.

So, first of all, you have the activity finder system, where you can see all of the options, all of the activities, for the modes tab, there are the new screen which gathers all of any world’s instant content in one place for easy access, similar to Outpost Rush.

Any player from any world within the same region can be matched together to form a new instance. This means significantly less time spent finding groups and more time running Expeditions.

You also no longer need to build your own group by hand. These new activity screens finally allow you to view any Expedition entrance screen and Lobby Finder from a single list instead of the map, also very convenient.

Cross World Expeditions

You can also just random queue on the side here or select specific Expeditions. And what you also notice on the right side here is the allow in-progress joining, so participating in an Expedition that has already started.

They do also mention us that you can still build your own Expedition group and Expeditions manually and use the Lobby-based Group Finder if you prefer.

The next point here is how to play Cross World Expeditions. If you’re playing solo or in a group of 4 or less adventurers, you can enter the Cross World Expedition Group Finder in one of 2 ways: either you click random to enter a queue for every Expedition you can currently access, this is the quickest way to find a group and grants a bonus up in completion twice daily, or use the checkboxes on the left of each Expedition to make specific Expedition lists and then click the queue button.

There’s no daily bonus for this option, but you will have more control over the selected Expedition. This is what that selection would, for example, look like. Before you can enter the Expedition queue, you need to choose a role.

Expeditions Mechanics

We introduced group roles along with our Lobby-based Group Finder, but they were optional. Now, they are mandatory since Expeditions are designed around the classic Trinity of DPS, Tank, and Healer, and there is no group leader to enforce this balance in the new system.

This means that each Expedition must consist of 3 DPS, 1 Tank, and 1 Healer. Any player who signs up as a Tank, go Healer will receive an additional role bonus when finishing the Expedition. In order to sign up as a Tank, go Healer, you must pass a requirement check. These vary depending on the Expedition.

When entering a group, all players must choose a role. The role selection screen will display each player’s selection. They have the DPS with any weapon, you have the tank with any weapon with a Corleone gem, and then you have the healer with a Level 9 Life Staff and 220 Focus. This varies depending on the Expedition.

Rewards

In normal Expeditions, players receive Expedition bonus cash twice daily. Below Level 65, they obtain 50% XP of their current level upon completion, along with 3 ASO. At Level 65, they earn 125 gold and 2,500 Faction Tokens. Additionally, there's a roll bonus of 50 gold and 500 Faction Tokens, also available twice daily.

Mutated Expeditions offer more lucrative rewards: a daily mutator bonus of 150 gold and 10,000 Faction Tokens, a mutator roll bonus of 100 gold and 1,000 Faction Tokens, and a mutator carry bonus of 100 gold. Considering the potential rewards, especially the 350 gold and 11,000 Faction Tokens from a mutator run, it may be worthwhile depending on the speed and level of mutation.

As for improvements, adding M3 Cross World functionality to the old Group Finder system seems crucial. While the developers hinted at possible Cross World integration for different modes, like Arenas, the feasibility of such changes, particularly for modes like Wars, remains uncertain.