New World: Blunderbuss Builds Guide

Image: Amazon Games via HGG / Joel Stadler

Human Made

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Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

New World is an MMO with a wide variety of weapons to choose from. Aside from the standard array of fantasy weapons, it also incorporates firearms into the mix. One of those firearms is the Blunderbuss, perfect for the player who likes everything about ranged weapons except the long range. In this New World Blunderbuss Guide we’ll go over everything you need to know about builds, using it, and more.

Let’s get started!

New World Blunderbuss Guide: Ready, Aim, Fire

The Blunderbuss is a fairly unique weapon in several respects. It is a ranged weapon, but it still wants you to get pretty up close and personal. Instead of a block button, you have an aim button, letting you get off more deadly shots.

As far as builds go, the blunderbuss isn’t as cut and dry as most New World weapon builds. The two options we’ll be recommending here use a healthy mix of skills from both trees. Before we get into the specifics, though, we’re going to take a closer look at the skills themselves.

Skill Trees: Containment VS Chaos

The Containment skill tree focuses more on mobility (both increasing yours and decreasing your opponent’s), whereas the Chaos skill tree likes to blow things up. Aptly named on both counts!

It’s worth keeping in mind that all your blunderbuss skills on both trees use up ammunition (just like regular attacks), so keep an eye on your resources so you don’t run out when you need them most.

Containment Skills

First up in the blunderbuss guide, we’re taking a look at Containment Skills.

1. Net Shot

New World Blunderbuss Guide Net Shot — Image: Amazon Games via HGG / Joel Stadler

Net Shot is the first first row active skill in the Containment skill tree. It’s good for slowing down your enemies, as it does does 70% weapons damage and slows enemies hit by 40% for 3s. The attack will knock you back if you’re not running to the side while using it (which could be a good or bad thing). This comes at a 19.6s cooldown.

Net Shot is a solid debuff, and the upgrade for bleed damage is fairly nice. The knockback can be annoying if you don’t want to keep your distance from the enemy. Overall, it’s a solid ability for a more shoot-on-the-run/kiting approach.

2. Claw Shot

Do you want a grappling hook? Well, now you have a grappling hook. Grappling hook!

Claw Shot fires up to 14m and cannot pull you vertically more than 3m. It deals 40% weapon damage and roots the target for 1s before pulling you towards them. It also has the Taunt Gem Compatible ability. This comes at a 19.6s Cooldown.

Claw Shot is useful if you want to quickly close the distance between you and your enemy. The final upgrade is also quite nice, helping cut down on your pesky reload animations. It is a bit situational, however, and is a pretty hefty investment of skill points to fully upgrade. It could still be useful in a specific build, though.

3. Azoth Shrapnel Blast

Image: Amazon Games via HGG / Joel Stadler

Azoth Shrapnel Blast is the second first row active skill in the Containment skill tree. Do you want to fire a lot of shots? Look no further. Azoth Shrapnel Blast fires a fan of five shots, each dealing 50% weapon damage and each successive hit on the same target does 15% less damage. This comes at a 13.7s cooldown.

The range of the AOE is fairly solid, but I honestly found this ability to be rather meh. I was hoping the upgrades would make it more spammable than it actually was. Despite the cool name, it’s not all that thrilling.

Chaos Skills

Now in our blunderbuss guide, we’re looking at the Chaos skills.

1. Splitting Grenade

Splitting Grenade is the first row active skill in the Chaos skill tree. It does pretty much what it says on the tin — you fire a grenade that splits into three after 1.5s. If you press the skill’s button a second time, you can split the grenade early. When split, the three mini grenades will detonate 1s later and each deals 80% weapon damage over a 3m area when they do, though successive hits on the same target deal 40% less damage. This comes at a whopping 29.5s cooldown.

Splitting Grenade can do some serious damage (especially with the first and third upgrade), and if you aim it right, you can hit multiple enemies. The cooldown time can be a bit rough, though there are plenty of passive skills to help mitigate that. Also, if the grenades hit an enemy, they can trigger the enemy to charge you. If you mistime them, the grenades might not hit your target.

Overall, Splitting Grenade is a high damage AOE that is quite solid, but can take a bit practice to get the timing right on enemies.

2. Mortar Charge

Mortar Charge is the second row active skill for the Chaos skill tree. This skill changes your next three (or four, if fully upgraded) normal attacks with the blunderbuss to be special high damage rounds. The effect last for 15s or three shots, whichever happens sooner. The shots do 100% weapon damage in a tall explosion that covers a 3m area. If the target is 10m away or further, they take an additional 35% damage. This comes with a 17.7s cooldown.

The damage is pretty solid, and if fully upgraded, you can fire four shots before the ability ends. Unfortunately, activating the skill triggers an animation of you overcharging the blunderbuss. If you’re hit when the animation is playing, you get interrupted and have to activate the skill again. This can make it hard to use with multiple enemies on you.

Overall, Mortar Charge can do some good damage, but is potentially awkward to use. Still worth the investment, though.

3. Blast Shot

Blast Shot Blunderbuss Guide — Image: Amazon Games via HGG / Joel Stadler

Blast Shot is the third row active skill in the Chaos skill tree. This move really blows the competition away. It deals 50% weapon damage and knocks back any enemy directly in front of you. This comes at a whopping 29.5s cooldown.

The knockback on Blast Shot is solid if you don’t want enemies getting too close. The downside is that the cooldown is fairly long, as is the animation to activate the ability. It’s solid in a specific build (which we’ll discuss later), but otherwise, it’s fairly average.

New World Blunderbuss Guide: Builds

1. The AOE/Tank Build

Now that we looked at the main skills for each skill tree, the first build we’ll cover is a more up-close, AOE/tank build.

The Attributes

The blunderbuss primarily scales off of Strength, so prioritize that. I recommend Constitution second to buff HP.

The Equipment

For this build, I recommend going full heavy armor, though if you want to play the non-tank variant, you can wear lighter armor if you wish.

The Skills

This build is a bit variable when it comes to the active skills. The main one you want is Splitting Grenade. This will be where your primary source of damage comes from outside of basic attacks. Claw Shot is great for the tank variant of this build because it lets you equip a Carnelian gem for the taunt ability, but that’s largely it. You can run the Blast Shot skill, but that’s more of a personal choice, as the knockback on enemies can either help or hinder your more up-close playstyle.

The passive skills are actually where this build begins to shine. Future Planning and Bite Back are passive skills that both reduce your ability cooldowns. This is necessary since your best skill (Splitting Grenade) has a 29.5s cooldown which will be punishing otherwise. On a Roll and Last Chance are two skills that boost your tanky-ness, so solid picks as well. Fortifying Aggression from the Containment skill tree is also a solid pick, but it requires a lot of investment to pick up since it’s a fifth row skill.

The Capstone

Double Down is definitely the pick. Again, cooldown reduction is vital to make the most of this build.

2. The Run and Gun Build

This second build focuses more on mobility than blasting (though it does its fair share of that, too).

The Attributes

This build also wants to focus on Strength primarily, but the secondary attribute can be either Intelligence or Constitution. Both are solid choices.

The Equipment

This build prefers light armor to get a better dodge.

The Skills

Net Shot is a great choice for this build as it helps to keeps enemies in check. Splitting Grenade is just a very solid source of damage, so I recommend using that as well. It also combos nicely with the slow effect from the Net Shot. Finally, Blast Shot works well to blow enemies away when they get too close. Variations on this build might want to replace Blast Shot with Mortar Charge, since that skill is better at a distance.

As far as passive skills go, I again recommend getting ones that lower your cooldowns on abilities to maximize Splitting Grenade. The choice is largely up to you, as they are all pretty viable picks.

The Capstone

Both can be solid, but again, I find it hard to say no to Double Down’s cooldown reduction ability.

Join the High Ground

There you have it! Whether you want to get up close and personal or shoot on the run, the choice is yours with the blunderbuss. If you enjoyed our New World Blunderbuss Guide, or have questions for the team leave a comment below! And be sure to join our newsletter for the latest on HGG.

Happy shooting, explorer!

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