Blunderbuss Weapon Guide and Builds

Blunderbuss Overview

Welcome to our New World’s Blunderbuss weapon guide! You are about to find out everything you need to know regarding this new weapon, including its active and passive skills, attributes, perks, gems, and what weapons to accompany it with for the best PvE and PvP builds in the game.

What is the Blunderbuss?

The Blunderbuss is a shotgun type-of weapon that provides massive damage in close to mid-range combat fights. It's the first weapon in New World to scale off Strength and Intelligence, so it can be paired with various weapon types (such as hatchet, war hammer, fire staff, void gauntlet, etc.), making it the perfect choice for many end-game PvE and PvP builds. So can we aim for the best build in the game and use the Blunderbuss as a primary weapon? Absolutely!

In my opinion, the Blunderbuss is one of the strongest weapons in the game, especially if you pair it with a strength-scaling weapon, such as a Warhammer or a Hatchet. Though I have to admit, when I first tested it, it did feel a bit weird that it was designed without a heavy attack function, as you can only use the Blunderbuss for normal, light attacks. If you combine it with the right weapon, your character benefits from substantial burst damage, crowd control, self-healing, and immunity – the key to success in any fight!

Table of Contents

Here is a little breakdown of our guide for the Blunderbuss Weapon and the Best Builds that come with it:

• Blunderbuss Attributes, Skills, and Passives
• Best Blunderbuss Perks and Gems
• Fastest Blunderbuss Leveling Method
• Blunderbuss Strengths and Weaknesses
• Best Blunderbuss PvE and PvP Builds
• Final thoughts

Now let's check out the weapon's particularities and some of the best PvE and PvP builds for the Blunderbuss in New World. Let's get started!

Blunderbuss Attributes, Skills, and Passives

Weapon Attribute Scaling

The Blunderbuss is a Strength and Intelligence weapon, but it also blends very well with Constitution, especially when you combine it with a hatchet, war hammer, or a great axe. Very important! The Blunderbuss scales primarily with Strength, so this is where you should dump most of your attribute points. We highly recommend reaching the 300 strength breakpoint before investing any attribute points into constitution/intelligence!

Blunderbuss Skill Trees

Like the rest of the weapons in New World, Blunderbuss comes with two mastery trees that support distinct playstyles, the Containment Tree and the Chaos Tree.

The three active abilities in the Containment Tree are Net Shot, Claw Shot, and Azoth Shrapnel Shot. This mastery tree is the perfect choice for close combat playstyles, placing your character in front of your enemies and dealing massive damage. The Chaos tree focuses on mid-ranged combat playstyles, keeping your character at a safe distance while dealing lots of AoE damage. The three active abilities for this mastery tree are Splitting Grenade, Mortar Charge, and Blast Shot.

Best Blunderbuss Active & Passive Abilities

In my opinion, the best active abilities for any Blunderbuss DPS build are Azoth Shrapnel Blast, Mortar Charge, and Blast Shot. As for passive skills, your best options will be: Future Endeavors, Run and Gun, Ramp, Deep Load, Fortifying Aggression, Future Planning, Bite Back, Extended Chamber, and finally, Unload.

Here is an example of a Blunder buss skill tree for a DPS build:

If you aim for a Blunderbuss Tank build, you should opt for Net Shot, Claw Shot, and Blast Shot as your three active abilities. Furthermore, you should take the following passive abilities: Fortifying Aggression, Future Planning, On A Roll, Bite Back, Buck Shot, Artillery, Last Chance, Extended Chamber, and Double Down as your ultimate skill.

For a Blunder buss Tank Build, we recommend using the following skill tree:

Best Blunderbuss Perks and Gems

Like any other weapon in the game, Blunderbuss comes with specific perks that enhance the weapon's abilities. Depending on the type of build the player goes for, it can also be socketed with various cut gemstones. So let's dive in a bit deeper and see what perks and gems you should aim for while using your Blunderbuss.

What are the best Perks for Blunderbuss?

In New World, there are two ways to get weapon-class perks on your items: you can obtain them randomly from drops, which involves a lot of RNG, or you can craft gear with the desired perk on it, which usually is pretty expensive. In the table below, you can find a list of the best Blunderbuss perks to use and their corresponding mods needed for crafting:

What are the best Gems to use with Blunderbuss?

Now that we know the best Blunderbuss perks to use for our builds, let's see what gems we should use to maximize the damage output of this weapon. Always aim for the highest tier of gems your character affords, and once you reach level 60, use only Tier V Cut Pristine Gems! The type of gem you use directly depends on the type of build you are going for, whether it is a DPS build, tank build, support build, PvP build, etc.

Here are some of the best gems to use for your Blunderbuss end-game builds:

What is the fastest way to level up the Blunderbuss?

How does the weapon leveling work?

To work on a weapon's mastery, players earn weapon mastery points by defeating enemies with that particular weapon type. In this case, as you want to work on your Blunderbuss weapon mastery, you will have to use it in combat and kill the mobs with it.

The amount of experience required per weapon mastery level increases as you progress towards level 20, so you will have to kill more or higher level mobs to get to the following levels for the desired weapon type. The fastest way to level up your weapons in New World is to efficiently farm groups of enemies with a short respawn cooldown. There are some lower-level areas with high mob density that make this process a lot easier. You must aim for zones that have a maximum 90 seconds mob respawn time.

What are the best locations for weapon leveling in New World?

The best farming spots to level up the Blunderbuss are:

• Defiler Excavation (Great Cleave)
• Misty Borough (Great Cleave)
• Slumbering Echoes (Great Cleave)
• Channelview Post (Restless Shore)
• Oceanview Post (Restless Shore)
• Brightwood Isle (Brightwood)

When working on your Blunderbuss weapon leveling, it's highly recommended to be level 60. That way, you have all the farming areas unlocked, and your character's gear and stats should be strong enough to keep you alive and efficiently clear the mob packs. While it's best to aim for enemies level 40+, you can also go for lower-level enemies, level 25-35, but only as long they are elite enemies.

Note: If you haven't reached level 60 yet, you can check our New World Power Leveling Guide, which covers all the tips and tricks that will get you to max level in no time!

Blunderbuss leveling build. Skills order for fast weapon leveling

If you are looking for the fastest way to get your Blunderbuss weapon mastery to max level (20), then this is how you should prioritize your skill points:

Blunderbuss Strengths and Weaknesses

In New World, monsters fall under five categories: Ancients, Corrupted, Angry Earth, Beasts, and Lost. Each monster class has damage types that they are strong and weak against. When it comes to the Blunderbuss, it is a weapon that deals Thrust damage, so:

• It is strong against Corrupted and Beasts mob types (because they take 20% more damage from Thrust)
• It is weak against Angry Earth and Lost mob types (because they take 15% less damage from Thrust)

Note: If you are interested in other weapon types, this great article from New World Fans points out the best and worst damage types vs. each enemy category.

Best weapon pairings for the Blunderbuss

We aim to create the best Blunderbuss build for our character, which strongly revolves around getting the right gear for it: the armor, the jewels, the gems, and the weapon we accompany it with. We already know that the Blunderbuss scales primarily off Strength and secondarily off Intelligence. So it's an easy guess that the best weapons to pair it with are those weapons that share the same attributes. Some of the best Blunderbuss accompanying weapons are:

Best Blunderbuss PvE and PvP Builds

Now that we've gone through all the weapon's particularities, let's get into the end-game stuff and check out some of the best builds for the Blunderbuss in New World. It's worth mentioning that these builds might be subject to change, as the game is constantly getting updated.

As a general rule, always aim for perks that enhance your active skills and keep an eye on the character's armor weight as well, depending on the build and the difficulty of the content you are using it for. For example, you can use light-medium weight for PvP and medium-heavy for Mutated Expeditions on the highest levels. Totally up to you.

The best Blunderbuss builds in New World are:

• Blunderbuss Greatsword Build
• Blunderbuss War Hammer Build
• Blunderbuss Hatchet Build
• Blunderbuss Great Axe Build
• Blunderbuss Fire Staff Build
• Blunderbuss Ice Gauntlet Build
• Blunderbuss Void Gauntlet Build
• Blunderbuss Sword & Shield Build

Note: Please keep in mind that the builds are very personal, and they represent what worked for me and what I had the most fun with while testing out this weapon. You can swap any skills or weapons anytime and change these builds to fit your playstyle!

Now let's talk about each of them and see what would be the best Blunder buss build for your character.

1. Blunderbuss Greatsword Build

• Build Type: PvE & PvP
• Weapons used: Greatsword and Blunderbuss
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Strength, then Constitution/Intelligence
• Greatsword Active Skills: Relentless Rush, Steadfast Strike, Calamity Counter
• Blunderbuss Active Skills: Azoth Shrapnel Blast, Claw Shot, Blast Shot

Recommended skills to use for the Blunderbuss Greatsword Build:

2. Blunderbuss War Hammer Build

• Build Type: PvP & PvE
• Weapons used: War Hammer and Blunderbuss
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Strength, then Constitution
• Warhammer Active Skills: Wrecking Ball, Shockwave, Path of Destiny
• Blunderbuss Active Skills: Azoth Shrapnel Blast, Claw Shot, Splitting Grenade

Recommended skills to use for the Warhammer Blunderbuss Build:

3. Blunderbuss Hatchet Build

• Build Type: Best Build for PvE
• Weapons used: Blunderbuss and Hatchet
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Strength, then Constitution
• Blunderbuss Active Skills: Azoth Shrapnel Blast, Mortar Charge, Blast Shot
• Hatchet Active Skills: Berserk, Feral Rush, Raging Torrent

Recommended skills to use for the Hatchet Blunderbuss Build:

4. Blunderbuss Great Axe Build

• Build Type: PvE, PvP
• Weapons used: Great Axe and Blunderbuss
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Strength, then Constitution
• Great Axe Active Skills: Gravity Well, Charge, Reap
• Blunderbuss Active Skills: Claw Shot, Azoth Shrapnel Blast, Blast Shot

Recommended skills to use for the Great Axe Blunderbuss Build:

5. Blunderbuss Fire Staff Build

• Build Type: PvE & PvP
• Weapons used: Blunderbuss and Fire Staff
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Intelligence, then Strength/Constitution
• Blunderbuss Active Skills: Azoth Shrapnel Blast, Mortar Charge, Blast Shot
• Fire Staff Active Skills: Meteor Shower, Fireball, Incinerate

Recommended skills to use for the Fire staff Blunderbuss Build:

6. Blunderbuss Ice Gauntlet Build

• Build Type: Best for PvP
• Weapons used: Ice Gauntlet and Blunderbuss
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Intelligence, then Strength/Constitution
• Ice Gauntlet Active Skills: Ice Shower, Entomb, Ice Storm
• Blunderbuss Active Skills: Claw Shot, Azoth Shrapnel Blast, Blast Shot

Recommended skills to use for the Ice Gauntlet Blunderbuss Build:

7. Blunderbuss Void Gauntlet Build

• Build Type: Best Build for PvP, decent for PvE
• Weapons used: Void Gauntlet and Blunderbuss
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Intelligence, then Strength/Constitution
• Void Gauntlet Active Skills: Petrifying Scream, Oblivion, Orb of Decay
• Blunderbuss Active Skills: Net Shot, Azoth Shrapnel Blast, Blast Shot

Recommended skills to use for the Void Gauntlet Blunderbuss Build:

8. Blunderbuss Sword & Shield Build

• Build Type: PvE (Tank role)
• Weapons used: Blunderbuss, Sword & Shield
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Constitution, then Strength
• Sword Active Skills: Reverse Stab, Shield Bash, Defiant Stance
• Blunderbuss Active Skills: Net Shot, Claw Shot, Splitting Grenade

Recommended skills to use for the Blunderbuss Sword & Shield Build:

These would be the best PvE and PvP Blunderbuss builds from everything I've tested. As you can see, there are many options you can choose from, depending on the secondary weapon and preferred playstyle. In my opinion, out of all, the ones that stand out are the Blunderbuss Great Axe Build as the best build for PvE content and the Blunderbuss Void Gauntlet as the best PvP build that uses this weapon.

Final thoughts

This is the end of our in-depth guide for the Blunderbuss in New World. We hope that you have learned everything you need to know about the weapon, its usage, skills, perks, and the best builds to use it for. The Blunderbuss is one of the most powerful weapons that can be used in many end-game builds. In conclusion, it's definitely worth giving it a shot!

Related Guides

If it feels like this weapon isn't the perfect match for you, we have also covered other weapons available in the game. Below you can find other updated, detailed guides for New World:

• New World Flail: Builds & Overview
• New World Greatsword: Builds & Overview
• New World Gold Farming Guide
• New World Power Leveling Guide

We update our articles with each and every update in the game, so keep an eye out on our guides.

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