New World-to-player trading has been re-enabled after the team investigated a potential New World Gold cheating bug. Shorter downtime for player trading means that the impact on players is kept to a minimum, which is a good thing, and the January patch is currently in beta.

The January PTR was updated with changes to make it easier to test new features, such as providing a lot of extra stock space and reducing the weight of the gearbox. The patch also adds new Fast Travel shrines in multiple New World locations. A big part of Amazon's update is the focus on the mid-game upgrade experience. They updated progress between levels 23 and 45 by 20%, as data and community feedback clearly showed that mid-game progress was slowing down.

This patch also includes some housing and economic updates to help better balance the game against previous difficulties, bugs, and New World Gold exploits. One of the big changes includes returning the 90% housing tax deduction to normal after this patch goes live. In an economic update, the team noted that since the tax cut went into effect, it revealed an imbalance in the wealth gap, which is a penalty for homeowners, so they decided to tighten housing taxes.

These changes will be tracked to see if they contribute to imbalances and gaps in the player experience. Other economic changes in the PTR patch include removing or reducing Azoth vials to keep them special. Changes to the ability to trade skills make too many of them usable, hurting their value. Meanwhile, players who want to Buy New World Coins can head to IGGM.