Hatchet is primarily a melee weapon in New World, but it can also be thrown to provide ranged attacks and get an edge in combat. It primarily scales with Strength and secondarily with Dexterity attributes. It boasts strong buff and debuff skills under the two, Berserker and Throwing, skill trees making it one of the most formidable weapons in the game.
The Hatchet, being such a versatile weapon, can be paired with any other weapon in the game to create an intimidating build.
“Great Axe-Hatchet,” “Heal Thrower,” and “Hatchet-Bow” are the best Hatchet builds in the New World. These builds provide an arsenal of different close and ranged attacks for the maximum output in PvE or PvP scenarios.
The Great Axe-Hatchet Build
The Great Axe-Hatchet build puts the player in a Tank role. The primary aim of the Tank is to absorb significant damage and finish off its enemies with few strong blows. Having Hatchet as a secondary weapon with medium armor allows for swift movements and quick attacks.
This build is suited for both PvE and PvP combats. Allocate your attribute points mainly to Strength, aim for 300 points and distribute the rest between Dexterity and Constitution for excellent results.
I. Primary Weapon: Great Axe
Great Axe is a strength-based two-handed weapon in New World, perfect for dealing with hordes of enemies with its massive sweep attacks. A Great Axe has two skill trees: Reaper and Mauler.
i. Active Skills
| Skill | Description |
| Charge (Reaper) | Charge 10 meters dealing 120% weapon damage when you reach a target or press LMB. |
| Reap (Reaper): | Extend your axe 5 meters, pulling foes towards you and dealing 110% weapon damage. |
| Gravity Well (Mauler): | Throw your axe to create a vortex that pulls foes towards its center for 3 seconds. It ends with a damaging Burst 125% weapon damage. |
ii. Passive Skills
| Skill | Description |
| Blood Lust (Reaper) | You move 30% faster and deal 15% more damage when looking at a foe within 15 meters. |
| Feed (Reaper): | Great Axe attacks against enemies below 30% health will heal you for 10% of the damage done. |
| Critical Condition (Reaper): | Great Axe attacks against foes below 30% health will give critical 15% more often. |
| Crowded Protection (Mauler): | While holding a Great Axe, gain 10% damage absorption when 3 or more foes are within 4m. |
| Center Of Attention (Mauler): | While holding a Great Axe, gain 10% damage when 3 or more opponents are within 4m. |
II. Secondary Weapon: Hatchet
For this build, use all the Active and Passive skills available in the Berserker skill tree. These skills will provide you with better movement and regeneration for agile attacks. For a more PvP suited build, replace the Raging Torrent skill mentioned below with Social Distancing (Throwing).
i. Active Skills
| Skills | Description |
| Feral Rush (Berserker) | A sprinting melee attack that causes the player to leap forward, hitting twice. The first hit deals 115% weapon damage, and the second deals 130% weapon damage. |
| Berserk (Berserker) | Triggers a Berserk Mode that increases all attack damage by 20% while active. |
| Raging Torrent (Berserker) | Perform four fast attacks, each dealing 90% weapon damage. |
ii. Passive Skills
| Skills | Description |
| Defy Death (Berserker): | When you receive lethal damage: Avoid death, reduce to 50 HP and gain immortality for 3 seconds. |
| Fortifying Strikes (Berserker): | Hitting the same target with 3 light attacks grants Fortify, increasing damage absorption by 15% for 3 second |
| Frenzied Purge (Berserker): | When hitting an enemy while your health is below 30%: Removes all Bleed, Burn, and Poison DoT effects from the player. Cooldown- 60 seconds |
| Against All Odds (Berserker): | Increase base damage by 10% for every enemy within 5 meters of the player |
The Heal Thrower
“The Heal Thrower” is the ultimate Healer/Support PvE build in New World as it uses a Hatchet as a secondary weapon with several debuffs a player can add to their enemies like slow, infected, etc. With this build, you can heal as well as weaken the enemy drastically for your allies to get the job done quickly.
Make sure to spend as much attribution point on Focus as you can. Aim for a total of 300 Focus.
I. Primary Weapon: Life Staff
Life staff is always the primary weapon in all the support builds as it is the only weapon that employs healing and protective magic effects under its Healing and Protector skill trees.
i. Active Skills
| Skills | Description |
| Sacred Ground (Healing) | Creates an area on the ground that lasts for 12s and heals 10% weapon damage every second. |
| Orb of Protection (Protector) | Shoots out a light projectile that grants 15% Fortify for 20s, heals an ally for 10% of weapon damage, and deals 95% weapon damage when it hits an enemy. |
| Beacon (Protector) | Shoots out a light projectile that deals 95% weapon damage to enemies, attaches to its target, and heals all nearby allies for 20% weapon damage each second for 10s. |
ii. Passive Skills
| Skills | Description |
| Desperate Speed (Healing) | Reduces Life Staff cooldowns after healing an ally with less than 50% health. |
| Sacred Protection (Healing) | Increases the base health of the group members while holding a Life Staff. |
| Protector’s Strength (Protector) | Increases your healing if you have a buff. |
| Glowing Focus (Protector) | Increases your buffs’ duration. |
Ii. Secondary Weapon: Hatchet
Master the skills of the Throwing tree for the Hatchet as the main focus of this build is to support your team from afar by healing and to create openings for them.
i. Active Skills
| Skills | Description |
| Rending Throw (Throwing) | Allows players to throw an axe dealing 110% weapon damage and apply Rend, reducing the target’s damage absorption. |
| Social Distancing (Throwing) | Allows players to throw an axe forward and dodge backward, dealing damage and slowing enemies. |
| Infected Throw (Throwing) | Allows players to throw an axe dealing damage and triggering Disease and Weaken on enemies. |
ii. Passive Skills
| Skills | Description |
| Rejuvenating Crits (Throwing) | It can regenerate stamina when hitting Critical Hits with Light Attacks or Aimed Throws. |
| Refreshing Throws (Throwing) | Throwing hatchets at targets with an active debuff reduces all cooldowns by 5%. Always good to have a reduced cooldown on your skills for speedy attacks |
| Adrenaline Rush (Throwing): | Reduces Stamina consumption when dodging within 2 seconds of triggering an ability. |
The Hatchet And Bow Build
The Hatchet generally goes well along with the Great Axe or the Warhammer for strong and tank-like plays but pairing it up with a Bow will give the players an efficient combo of quick long, and close-range attacks.
Spend most of your attribute points on Strength and Dexterity as both Hatchet and Bow scale with them, and use medium armor.
I. Primary Weapon: Hatchet
Use all the skills of the Berserker tree for Hatchet, just like the Great Axe build, as the Bow will take care of all the ranged attacks.
II. Secondary Weapon: Bow
Bows are dependable long-ranged weapons in New World. They scale up with Dexterity and cause high amounts of damage in a short time frame. The bow offers several movement buffs and poison debuffs to the player under its Skirmisher and Hunter skill trees.
i. Active Skills
| Skills | Description |
| Evade Shot (Skirmisher) | Leap back 5m and shoot an arrow dealing 125% weapon damage. Efficient movement buff for dodging attacks and distancing yourself from the enemies. |
| Poison Shot (Skirmisher) | Shoot a poison arrow that on the hit or the land creates a cloud of poison 3m wide that lasts 6 seconds. Foes entering the cloud are poisoned, dealing 10% weapon damage per second for 20 seconds. |
| Penetrating Shot (Hunter): | Shoot an arrow dealing 150% weapon damage that passes through targets and continues for 100 meters. |
ii. Passive Skills
| Skills | Description |
| Archer’s Speed (Skirmisher): | Gain 10% Haste for 5s when you swap to your bow. |
| Knee Shot (Skirmisher) | Leg shots cause 10% Slow for 2s. (Slow causes target to move slower) |
| Mark(Skirmisher) | Deal 10% more damage to foes suffering from a debuff. |
| Surprise Attack (Hunter) | If you haven’t damaged an enemy in the last 10s: Deal 20% extra damage. |
About New World
New World is an upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Amazon Games set to be released on August 31, 2021. The game was previously scheduled to release in May 2020 but was delayed to its current date.
Set in the mid-1600s, players colonize a fictional land known as Aeternum Island, modeled after North and South Americas in the Atlantic Ocean. The game will be using a buy-to-play business model, meaning there will be no monthly subscription fee.
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