The summer PTR for New World got a new update recently that enabled mutators for the new Barnacles and Black Powder expedition. In Patch 2, players interested in taking on this new endgame content will be happy to know that newly-created characters now have a gear score of 625 instead of 600. This is to help playtest the new dungeon mutators for the said expedition. It is worth noting that this only applies to the public test realm (PTR).

To make it easier for players to get into groups and test the Barnacles and Black Powder expedition, the Group Finder feature is re-enabled.

Aside from the things just mentioned, Patch 2 has updated the Explosive Arrow ability as well. This bow ability is improved in a couple of ways. One, the startup of the attack is reduced to 14 frames, meaning that the animation is much faster than before. Two, players can now walk while using the ability - a major quality-of-life change for those who mainly use bows in New World.

Here are the other things implemented in this update:

New World Summer PTR Patch 2 is available on PC.