New World Umbral Shards Guide

Umbral Shards are the method to progress your gear and expertise past level 600 in New World. We will walk you through how to earn Umbral Shards and how to use them to upgrade yourself and more.

To quickly find a recommended upgrade order you can also use the Umbral Shard calculator.

What are Umbral Shards in New World

Umbral Shards are a resource that enable you to take an item with a minimum Gear Score of 590 up to a maximum Gear Score of 625. Umbral Shards also allow you to bump your expertise for a specific gear slot from 600 to 625.  (In order to get from Gear Score 500 to 600 see our expertise guide). It’s important to point out that you must be Expertise level 600 for that particular gear slot to utilize umbral shards, even on a 590 gear score item.

Upgrading from 590 to Legendary

Increasing the gear score of a named item, such as Infamy, Doom’s Chance Earring, Will of the Ancients, etc (must be GS 590 and above to utilize umbral shards) will unlock the final perk and make the item Legendary. 

However, increasing the gear score of any other item (crafted items, randomly rolled dropped items, etc) from 590 to 600 via umbral shards does not make that item legendary and will not give you an additional perk on the item. It will however increase the power scaling of the item up to 625 item level. 

There are some exceptions to this rule. The following items can be upgraded to receive a random 3rd perk:

• Outpost Rush Gear (also includes arena gear)
• War Cache Gear
• Corrupted Breach Gear
• Invasion Gear

How to Obtain Umbral Shards in New World

Umbral shards can be obtained in several different ways:

• Completing Mutated Expeditions will reward you with Umbral Shards. The higher the difficulty level and the higher the Score Rank achieved the more shards you will earn. Completing mutated Expeditions at a high level is the most efficient way to earn Umbral Shards. 
• Crafting an item with a gear score of 600 will reward you with Umbral Shards if you also have the expertise of 600 or higher for that specific item slot. 
• Opening a Gypsum cast will provide you with Umbral Shards if your expertise for that item slot is 600 or above. 
• Completing an Outpost Rush match (must obtain a minimum score of 501 to get the rewards).
• Killing Rafflebones in Shattered Mountains or Reekwater will award 500 Umbral Shards.
• Competing an Arena
• Completing the Tempest Heart Repeatable Quest (Rise of Captain Isabella or the Tempest’s Soul)
• You can purchase Umbral Shards from the PvP reward track with Salt.
• You can obtain Umbral Shards from a perfect salvage.
• Various quests in late game zones will reward you with umbral shards.
• You have a chance to loot them from elite chests.
• Completing the Elite Trial of Shah Neshen

How to Use Umbral Shards in New World

In order to use an Umbral Shard, you must first have a piece of equipment that is a gear score of 590 or above, and your Expertise for that item slot must also at 600 or above. If both of these requirements are met and you have the required number of Umbral Shards to complete the upgrade (more on that below) then you can right-click on the item you wish to upgrade and select the “Upgrade” option. 

Once the upgrade is complete then the gear score on your item will be upgraded, and the Expertise for that particular item slot will be upgraded as well. 

For example, if you upgrade a legendary hatchet from gear score 600 to gear score 602 using Umbral Shards then that hatchet will become more powerful and will be a 602 gear score item. Along with the new item upgrade, you also have 602 in that Expertise slot. 

So, if you unequip your 602 hatchet and equip a gear score of 600 hatchet your Expertise still remains at 602. Please note that just because your Expertise is at 602 does not mean that a gear score 600 item would be automatically upgraded to 602. ONLY the hatchet you upgraded to 602 would be at that power level. 

It’s also important to note that upgrading ANY item with an Umbral Shard will bind that item to the player. So, you can not upgrade a Bind on Equip 600 legendary from a dungeon up to 603 and sell that item. Once you upgrade via Umbral it’s bound to you.

Number of Umbral Shards Needed Per Gear Score Upgrade

Each Gear Score / Expertise level upgrade from 590 up to 600 requires an increasing amount of Umbral Shards.

Umbral Shards needed to upgrade Gear score from 590 to 625 in New World

Gear Score	Umbral Shards Needed
590 – 591	20
591 – 592	20
592 – 593	20
593 – 594	20
594 – 595	20
595 – 596	60
596 – 597	60
597 – 598	60
598 – 599	60
599 – 600	60
600 – 601	140
601 – 602	140
602 – 603	140
603 – 604	140
604 – 605	140
605 – 606	220
606 – 607	220
607 – 608	220
608 – 609	220
609 – 610	220
610 – 611	330
611 – 612	330
612 – 613	330
613 – 614	330
614 – 615	330
615 – 616	460
616 – 617	460
617 – 618	460
618 – 619	460
619 – 620	460
620 – 621	620
621 – 622	620
622 – 623	620
623 – 624	620
624 – 625	620
Total	9,250

Number of Umbral Shards Rewarded for Dungeon Mutations

The Dungeon mutations are broken up into different levels. Level 1 is the easiest and level 10 is the hardest. Within each level of the mutation, you can either be rewarded Bronze, Silver, or Gold rewards. This is based upon your performance in the dungeon. The below chart outlines how many shards you will receive based on the difficulty level of the mutation and your group’s performance within. 

Mutations Level	Bronze	Silver	Gold
1	200	400	600
2	400	600	800
3	600	800	1000
4	800	1100	1400
5	1200	1500	1800
6	1600	2000	2400
7	2000	2600	3000
8	2600	3200	3800
9	3200	4000	4800
10	4000	5000	6000

Number of Umbral Shards Rewarded for Gypsum Casts

Once you have reached 600 expertise, Gypsum Casts will no longer reward you with expertise bumps. However, they will reward you with Umbral Shards. The casts will reward you with Umbral Shards based on the expertise level of the item that you are opening. The following chart outlines how many Umbral Shards you are rewarded per cast based on your expertise score for that particular item:

Expertise Level	Umbral Shards Rewarded
600	100
601	112
602	124
603	136
604	148
605	160
606	172
607	188
608	196
609	208
610	220
611	232
612	244
613	256
614	268
615	280
616	292
617	304
618	316
619	328
620	340
621	352
622	364
623	376
624	388
625	400

Number of Umbral Shards Rewarded from 600 Gear Score Crafting

Upon crafting a 600 gear score item you will receive an expertise bump for that particular item slot up to 600 Expertise. Upon reaching 600 expertise for a particular item slot you will then begin receiving Umbral Shards each time you craft a gear score 600 items. The amount of Shards rewarded is based upon that slot’s expertise level. The following chart outlines how many Umbral Shards you would be rewarded for crafting a gear score of 600 items when that item slot is at a specific Expertise level.

Expertise Level	Umbral Shards Rewarded
600	25
601	28
602	31
603	34
604	37
605	40
606	43
607	46
608	49
609	52
610	55
611	58
612	61
613	64
614	67
615	70
616	73
617	76
618	79
619	82
620	85
621	88
622	91
623	94
624	97
625	100

New World Umbral Shards Guide Conclusion

This concludes our New World Umbral Shard Guides. If you have more questions on Expertise and how it works, check out our New World Expertise Guide.