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New World Aeternum's latest Nighthaven update introduced the Catacombs activity, which is effectively a procedural Dungeon-crawler with boss rush, tailored for a group of 3 players. Although the game is now effectively in a fugue state until servers turn down in 2026, Catacombs is still available to players, and players should really give it a good try before they say goodbye to Aeternum.Catacombs is the newest and final endgame system introduced in New World Aeternum, thematically aligned with the Season of Nighthaven. You’re thrown into a dungeon full of horrors, traps, and bosses. Killing the bosses gives you various boons and empowering effects, but also powers up any of the remaining bosses in the dungeon. And last but not least, you’re also dealing with a timer, and the rewards are only finalized if you extract before the clock counts down to zero. It’s fun, fast-paced, tactical, and you only have a year left to play it, so best get on with it.New World Aeternum: How to beat the Catacombs effectivelyIt's a boss rush with a twist (Image via Amazon Game Studios//@caniix)The Catacombs throws you into a procedurally generated maze of hallways and rooms. Every section of the map has some form of encounter to keep players on their toes, from jumping puzzles to falling hazards and flamespouting gargoyle heads, to corrupted portals and trials. To make a long story short, rectangular rooms are almost always a radiant encounter room that contains a squad of vampiric lost enemies or a corrupted portal.The circular rooms are the real challenge, as they can contain either a boss, a miniboss squad, an ascension challenge, or a trial. Each of these encounters is critical to the overall progression, as every enemy killed in the Catacombs awards players with a currency called Splintered Soul. These can be spent at the Ascension Statue, which boosts your health and damage by a certain amount. As for the challenges, the minibosses can belong to any faction, whereas there are only two types of trials I have encountered, and both can be easily completed by dodging.Aspect Statues can offer really useful boons for the rest of the run (Image via Amazon Game Studios//@caniix)Furthermore, clearing a circular room can occasionally spawn Aspect Statues, which offer unique boons to each player present. Choosing one locks it out for the rest of the run, so if you have multiple players, spread out these boons amongst yourselves and get the most out of your build. It should be noted that players should ideally have two distinct builds that they can swap in and out of, depending on the encounter, the boss, and the Aspect boon they’ve acquired.Progression heavily relies on player power, and specifically the builds they’re running. If you’re a relatively new player with a few damage perks, it’s better to run the entire Catacomb with the group. However, if your build is min-maxed, it is better to run rooms solo and split up from the group to cover more of the map and discover boss rooms. The ideal rotation is to have every player rocking a fully functional DPS build for the first two bosses, then eventually introduce one healer for the third boss, and a tank in the fourth and subsequent bosses.Splintered Souls is granted to everyone in the party, regardless of who gets the killing blow (Image via Amazon Game Studios//@caniix)To bring it all back to square one, here’s a rundown of an ideal Catacomb session:Load inHave 3 DPS cover as many of the different rooms until you discover 4 bossesTry to remember where the Ascension and Aspect Statues are spawningOnce 4 bosses are discovered, start taking them out one by one, preferably the one near an Ascension StatueAlways level up at an Ascension Statue. It’s free damage and HP scalingTry to take Aspect Statues if there’s one availableBefore we wrap up all of the mechanics, there’s also a secondary resource management in the form of managing the Erosion debuff. Erosion is a Catacomb exclusive debuff that increases damage taken by 5% for 30 seconds. Erosion has a buildup phase when hit by enemies, especially from taking boss hits. Players can find Erosion Tonics scattered around in chests, which can be consumed to reduce the buildup. Killing a boss spawns an Erosion Statue that removes all buildup. It’s a relatively minor mechanic that can be completely negated by dodging. So if you’re a Heavy Tank, stock up on those tonics.What rewards can you expect from Catacombs in New World Aeternum?Rikkar is a bit creepy, but he doesn't bite (Image via Amazon Game Studios)You’re not going to get any direct rewards from the Catacombs, except for two main currencies, namely Cursed Crowns and Cursed Sterlings. Cursed Sterlings are the more common currency and offer a more generic reward from the Catacombs vendor. Your main objective is to gather as many Cursed Crowns as possible, which reward the real meat and potatoes of Nighthaven’s gearing system: the Set items.Players can obtain the Overcharged and Elementally Charged Set from Cursed Crowns, both of which are massive DPS multipliers if properly incorporated into your builds. All these Set item boxes and the generic gear boxes can be obtained from Rikkar at Tularest Abbey Inn, who is the Catacombs Vendor and will happily trade items for Sterlings and Crowns. Each of the Set item boxes requires 10 Cursed Crowns; therefore, players should always target at least 4 boss kills per run to have an efficient progression.Look out for the secret rooms (Image via Amazon Game Studios//@caniix)The other way to get rewards from Catacombs is a little niche, but it can be extremely profitable if done with a set group and efficiently. The strategy is to kill three bosses as quickly as possible and then search for secret chambers in the rectangular rooms, which can be accessed by interacting with flame torches in the room. These secret chambers usually contain a large cache of Cursed Sterlings, but after killing three bosses, they spawn with an additional chest which drops normal Legendary loot and 500 Gold each. A well-oiled group can easily stack up at least 4000 Gold, kill the fourth boss, and extract.That wraps up our guide to New World Aeternum’s Catacombs activity. Now, I know the game is on borrowed time, but Catacombs is a solid endgame activity to run with friends. So try it at least once before the servers go down after 2026.New World Aeternum's Season of Nighthaven is currently live on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5.Check out our other New World Aeternum guides and articles:How to increase your character’s carry capacity in New World AeternumNew World Aeternum: 8 beginner tips to get you started
