Glacial Tarn Expedition Guide for New World Aeternum
Welcome to the ultimate guide for the Glacial Tarn expedition in New World: Aeternum. This expedition challenges players to navigate the intense ice caves and snow-covered mountains of Aeternum, all while battling extremly high-level mobs and bosses. Whether you're looking for strategies on how to take down each of these bosses, how to get through some of the puzzles you'll encounter, or learning more about some tips and tricks to make this expedition a little bit easier, this is the guide for you.
Location and General Information
The Glacial Tarn expedition is located in Great Cleave, and it considered one of the most challenging expeditions in New World: Aeternum. Before entering this expedition, it is recommended that you ensure you and your group members are not only level 65, but also equipped with powerful gear and consumables.
Important note: Before entering this expedition, be sure that every DPS member in your group has at least one powerful ranged weapon. This will be needed for the final boss (more info on this below).
Mob Types
The Glacial Tarn expedition is filled with primarily Human and Ancient type mobs, making it a bit of a unique situation when it comes to which builds are most effective.
Human mobs are more vulnerable to Slash damage, making builds that utilize the Great Axe, Hatchet, and Greatsword very effective. However, when it comes to Ancient mobs, they are more vulnerable to Strike, Lightning, and Void damage, making it beneficial to have at least one War Hammer user in the group, and having your Healer use a Void Gauntlet as their secondary weapon.
Please note: To be most effective in this expedition, it's recommended to bring both Human and Ancient coatings and ward potions to ensure you're prepared for any and every mob you'll encounter. Examples of these consumables would be Infused Human Coatings and Infused Ancient Ward Potions.
Repeatable Quests
It's important to note that there is a repeatable quest associated with this Expedition called The Ice of Life (Expedition). This quest can be accepted by speaking to the NPC that is located directly outside of the Glacial Tarn expedition entrance (his name is Ao Wei). In order to complete the request, you'll have to collect samples of ice formations while inside the Expedition (which is pretty easy to do). Every time you complete this quest, you will be awarded 7,500 experience, some gold, and some Dark Matter.
Be sure to accept this quest every time you can before entering the Glacial Tarn expedition to maximize the rewards you get from each run.
Expedition Layout
This expedition will not be as long as some others, and is not too complicated when it comes to overall puzzles, strategies, and routes. There are multiple situations (including right when you enter the expedition), where you will need to be aware of the environment around you.
Below is an image of a map that will help you get a better idea of the layout of the Glacial Tarn expedition.
Walkthrough and Puzzles
Your First Few Steps
As mentioned in the previous section, you will need to be aware of your surroundings in this expedition, even after your first few steps. When you enter the Glacial Tarn expedition, you and your group members will need to physically jump off an icy ledge, which will result in some fall damage.
It's worth waiting a few seconds to regain your health after the fall, then continuing moving forward, where you will encounter a combination of Ancient mobs (that can knock you down), and ice spikes that will fall from the ceiling (which you'll see shadows of on the ground, allowing you to dodge them before they make impact). Stay aware of your surroundings and work with your group, and you won't have any issues here.
Named Enemies, Buffs, and Strategies
Keep moving forward and you will encounter the first named enemy, the Protector of the Ancient Spring. Have your team focus on landing heavy attacks on this enemy to kill its stamina bar, allowing you to then dish off a lot of damage and easily take him down.
Continue moving forward and you will see a smokey-looking platform towards your left. Whenever you see this platform, you will want to make sure you and your team stand above it, where you'll be provided a unique buff that will greatly increase your damage, and also allow you to take down the frozen wall towards your right.
This expedition is not too complicated - you will continue to gain the buff from these platforms whenever you see one, then work with your team to take down the mobs to get deeper and deeper into the cave. Continue this process, and you will eventually come across a named enemy called Ancient Spring Attendant. This fight is pretty straight-forward, have your tank take the hits, and your DPS stand behind the enemy to dish off maximum damage. After taking him down, you will then be able to attack the frozen sphere that's covered in ice next to him - this will allow you to activate the orb, granting you access to a bridge.
Once you start walking down the bridge, you and your team can actually ignore all of the mobs, and run directly past them. By running forward, you will reach the next room, where you'll encounter the first boss, Snorok Ice Fist.
Details on strategies on taking him down can be found below. After taking down this first boss, you will continue to come across a handful of mobs, and eventually come across an ice river. Be sure to not fall or touch this water, as it will deal damage, and could be a bit painful if you're in there for too long. You will also come across more ice spikes falling from the ceiling, so be prepared to dodge when needed.
Continue moving forward, where you will encounter another named enemy, Ancient Sanctifier, and a few straight-forward puzzles where you'll need to activate frozen spheres like you did before. Towards the end of the Expedition, you will come across a river made of lava. Be sure to not interact with this lava river, as it will hurt (just like the ice river from before). After this area, you will encounter a sphere that will teleport you to the final boss, Ser Loth.
Bosses
This expedition has two large bosses, Snorok Ice Fist and Ser Loth. In Expeditions, you can only be picked up from being downed once before you are forced to respawn, and most boss rooms seal off the entrance once the boss is engaged. This effectively gives you two lives in a boss fight, assuming that your teammates can pick you up when you get knocked down.
Snorok Ice Fist
This boss is an oversized ice troll that is very, very angry. There are several abilities that Snorok has that's worth noting, including the following:
- Roar: Snorok will get on his hands and knees and roar, releasing a cone-shaped area that will take damage. During this roar, ice spikes will begin popping up from the ground. Move out of the cone-shaped area to avoid receiving damage.
- Ice Storm: Snorok will summon a massive storm of ice surrounding him. Don't get stuck inside of the storm, or you'll get damaged.
- Ice Spikes: Snorok will summon ice spikes from the ceiling, covering the full arena. Just like how you experienced these in the expedition, you will see the shadows of the spikes and be able to quickly dodge them when needed.
- Charge: Snorok will charge towards a certain player in a straight line, dealing a massive amount of damage to anyone in his path. Be aware of the charge, as you will need to ensure you perfectly time your dodge to avoid taking any damage.
- Shockwave: At certain points of the battle, Snorok will stand up, lean back, and roar. This roar leads to a massive shockwave surrounding him. You can dodge through this ability, and even block it if needed.
Overall, this battle is pretty easy. It's worth reaching the descriptions to each of his attacks above, which indicates how you need to react to each of them. In between each of his attacks, you and your team will have the chance to take down his health. In mutated versions of this expedition, it might be worth having your DPS users utilize ranged weapons, as his abilities could potentially one-shot certain builds based on how much health they have.
Ser Loth
The final boss of the expedition is Ser Loth, which is a large monster made of ice. It's very important that all of your DPS members swap their weapons to have at least one ranged weapon before your team enters this battle.
Once you begin the battle, you can start dishing off damage to Ser Loth just like any other enemy. After dealing a bit of damage, mages will begin to spawn around the map. These mages will have a shield around them at first, so it's best to just ignore them until they're naturally removed. As soon as you see the shield removed, have your DPS members focus on them and take them down as fast as possible. Defeating each mage will lead to a short stun on Ser Loth, preventing it from doing any attacks, and giving you the opportunity to deal a large amount of damage on him.
throughout this battle, you will see different platforms and ice bridges around the arena. Whenever Ser Loth crosses his arms, it means he is about to target a specific platform. Make sure you and your group members move quickly to a different platform, or you could get wiped. Ser Loth can actually destroy these bridges. If a bridge is destroyed, make sure one of your group members stand next to it, and click the "Repair" button, allowing you to rebuild and use the bridge. If you don't rebuild these bridges, you might find yourself stuck on a platform, forcing you to get wiped by Ser Loth's abilities.
The last thing worth noting is that you will eventually see orbs appearing in the air around Ser Loth. As soon as these spawn, your DPS members should utilize their ranged weapon to destory each of them. If you don't destroy these orbs fast enough, it could result in your full team getting wiped.
If you follow this strategy, you will have no issues taking down this boss.
Loot Drops
Below is a list of some of the most sought-after loot that drops within the Glacial Tarn expedition.
- Glacial Heart
- Heart of Cold
- Hailley's Comet
- Forlorn Hope
- Aurora's Blessing
- Snowplow
- Stress Fracture
- Ice Breaker
- The Mountaineer
- Frostburn
- Prick of Death
- Avalanche
- Hail to the King
- North Star
- Cold Cuts
Mutated Drops
Some items can only drop on certain difficulty levels of the mutated version within some expeditions. Below is a list of some of the most sought-after items that you can obtain from this mutated expedition.
Please note: The Frigid Dawn set and the Cold Hearted set are both very great sets with sought-after perks. Consider keeping these items in your storage if you get them, as they could be a perfect fit for certain builds.
- Powerful Empowered Talisman
- Great Helm of the Frigid Dawn
- Pauldron of the Frigid Dawn
- Gauntlets of the Frigid Dawn
- Cuisses of the Frigid Dawn
- Sabatons of the Frigid Dawn
- Cold Hearted Mask of the Scholar
- Cold Hearted Cowl of the Scholar
- Cold Hearted Sleeves of the Scholar
- Cold Hearted Leggings of the Scholar
- Cold Hearted Boots of the Scholar
- Verglas Hatchet of the Soldier
- Verglas War Hammer of the Ranger
- Verglas Great Axe of the Soldier
- Verglas Life Staff of the Sage
- Verglas Rapier of the Scholar
- Verglas Bow of the Ranger
- Verglas Musket of the Ranger
Artifacts
Once your character reaches max level, you will be given the opportunity to retake this Expedition at a more difficult level. When taking down the first boss, Snorok Ice Fist, in at least an M1 level of this expedition, you will have a chance of obtaining a rare Ice Gauntlet artifact known as Deep Freeze. This Ice Gauntlet has a unique perk known as "Chilling End", which allows players to deal and additional 15% damage to enemies that are frozen, rooted, or chilled, making it a great addition to any Ice Gauntlet build.
Changelog
- 11 Sep. 2024: Guide created.
Savvvo is a New World Aeternum content creator with over 5,000 hours of gameplay. He specializes in developing leveling and gold-making guides, PvP builds, and discovering fun, new ways to enhance your New World experience. If you can not find him in Aeternum, he is probably somewhere on YouTube.
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