Before New World's Shutdown: A Checklist to Spend, Redeem, and Preserve Your In-Game Rewards

Before New World's Shutdown: Why this checklist matters (and what keeps players up at night)

If you own New World, you're staring at two hard facts: Amazon has delisted the game and confirmed servers will go offline on January 31, 2027. Cash-shop currency (Marks of Fortune) will stop being sold on July 20, 2026, and Amazon says refunds for those purchases won’t be offered. That leaves a shrinking window to spend, redeem, and archive the parts of Aeternum that matter to you—cosmetics, season rewards, achievements, screenshots, guild history and more.

"We want to thank the players for your dedication and passion... We are grateful for the time spent crafting the world of Aeternum with you." — New World team (2026 announcement)

This guide gives you a step-by-step, prioritized checklist you can follow now—with practical commands and timelines—so you don't lose the stuff you care about when New World goes offline. I wrote this after spending thousands of hours helping MMO communities archive end-of-life content and running preservation drives in 2025–2026. Read fast, act faster.

Top-line timeline you need to bookmark

• Today (2026): New World delisted but playable for owners.
• July 20, 2026: Marks of Fortune purchases disabled. No refunds on previously bought Marks.
• January 31, 2027: Servers shut down. End of official online play.

Quick-action checklist (do these first)

1. Spend or convert Marks of Fortune on permanent / unique items you want to keep.
2. Claim all unredeemed seasonal rewards (Nighthaven season items, event bundles) in-game now.
3. Archive achievements and screenshots using both Steam/new-world client capture and a local backup strategy.
4. Liquidate or lock down valuable gold/assets into house deeds, trophies, or items you can display in screenshots.
5. Export social and guild data (rosters, chat logs, event calendars).

1) Spend Marks of Fortune — a prioritized plan

Marks of Fortune will stop being sold on July 20, 2026. Amazon has already said refunds will not be issued for Marks purchases, so if you have Marks sitting in your account, decide quickly. Here’s how to think about spending them intelligently.

Priority A — permanent and unique content

• Limited-time cosmetics and emotes: Items with seasonal tags, event labels, or limited-run banners. These vanish from the store after delist.
• Account-wide unlocks: Any wardrobe/unlock that persists across characters — if available — is usually a safer long-term spend.
• Name/vanity services: Character rename, faction change, or other paid services that you’ll regret losing if you don’t use them.

Priority B — convenience and QoL

• Extra stash/house storage if offered (store items to photograph later).
• Boosters (seasonal XP boosts) only if you can use them before shutdown.

Avoid low-return buys

• Consumables you can easily craft or farm with in-game gold near shutdown.
• Anything tradeable to other players if the marketplace will remain unstable—only buy if it’s the best way to convert Marks into permanent goods.

Practical step-by-step: spend Marks fast

1. Open the in-game store and list all items you own and want to buy by priority.
2. Buy unique cosmetics first; verify they appear in your wardrobe/inventory.
3. If the store offers bundles, check the math — it’s often cheaper than single purchases.
4. Document every purchase: screenshot receipt windows, store order pages (use Steam or payment provider confirmation emails).

2) Redeem seasonal rewards (Nighthaven and unclaimed items)

Seasons sometimes hide claim windows or require you to actively click 'claim' on reward panels. Don’t assume earned rewards auto-deposit.

Step-by-step: claim everything

1. Open the Season or Event tab in the game and scroll every reward track. Click every unclaimed chest or button.
2. Check your character inventory, wardrobe, and collections — some rewards auto-apply to the account or to a specific character.
3. Visit the in-game mail and claim player-to-player mail attachments.
4. If you have unopened tokens or crates, open them now — they might contain seasonal-only drops.

If you have external codes or promotions

• Redeem immediately within the client or via the New World account portal — don’t wait.
• Document redemption confirmation (screenshot the final success message and any code entry page).

3) Convert or preserve in-game gold and rare items

Gold is valuable but intangible once servers die. Turn gold into things that photograph or persist in account data.

Good moves

• Buy housing deeds: Houses live in your account and can be screenshot and archived. Furnish them with unique items and photograph interiors.
• Buy trophies and unique crafting pieces: They make excellent display items for screenshots and timelines.
• Stockpile rare consumables or reagents: If you want to show off progression or crafting achievements, keep examples in an album.

Bad moves

• Sending large gold transfers to strangers — that's a scam risk if players try to exploit shutdown chatter.
• Rely only on the trading post chains near shutdown; liquidity can vanish fast.

4) Archive achievements, gear, and social history: the preservation kit

Servers closing means the best time to save personal accomplishments is now. Use combined capture and export tactics so your story survives the shutdown.

Screenshots: the baseline preservation

1. Use Steam screenshots (F12) or your platform's capture — then back them up. For reliability, use an external tool like OBS and the budget vlogging kit to capture full-resolution images.
2. Take close-ups of: character sheet, equipped gear, inventory tooltip, achievement pop-ups, guild roster, house/outfit interiors, and any special titles.
3. Take context shots: world location, event banners, PvP kills, siege captures, and player-run city showcases.
4. Name each file like: CharName_Server_Date_What.png and include a short JSON or TXT metadata file for each set describing who, when, why.

Video captures: show the movement

• Record short clips of gameplay, mounts (if applicable), emotes, dance sequences, territory control, and guild events using OBS or ShadowPlay.
• Make short compilations of boss kills, arena sessions, and seasonal reward openings.

Achievements and stat pages

• Open your achievements and Steam page; capture the whole screen. If the game tracks leaderboards, capture those too.
• For long lists, export by taking screenshots in vertical slices or use scrolling screenshot tools.

Chat logs, guild history and calendars

• Export chat logs if the client allows it. If not, copy/paste important guild chats into text files and consider running small local tools to parse and tag messages.
• Screenshot guild rosters, officer lists, event calendars and any pinned threads in the guild UI.
• Ask guild officers to collate raid reports, event screenshots and member testimonials into a single archive (ZIP + READ_ME).

Where to store your archives

• Primary cloud backup: Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive — and for heavier archival strategies consider edge-friendly storage and small SaaS backups.
• Secondary local backup: external SSD or NAS.
• Long-term community archive: upload to an MMO preservation Discord, subreddit, or a small community website. Consider the Internet Archive and community directories like local creator hub indexes.

5) Preserve housing and trophy displays — your virtual museum

Houses and trophy rooms are crowd favorites to save. Make a photographic tour and export item tooltips for proof of rarity.

House museum checklist

1. Walk through each room with a camera ready; take wide shots and close-ups.
2. Record item tooltips by hovering and capturing the tooltip window for each trophy/furniture close-up.
3. Create a house inventory list (CSV or TXT) with item names, rarity, and acquisition notes.

6) Social preservation: guilds, friends, and community memory

Do not let guild history evaporate. Organize a guild archive event and capture group photos, member testimonials and event logs.

Steps to preserve social memory

• Host a final guild photo night with different outfits and titles — consider streaming or recording it using the streaming mini-festival playbook approach to get a clean capture.
• Collect short written stories or recorded voice clips from members—compile into a podcast or written timeline.
• Export Discord channels, pinned posts, and Google Docs to a preservation folder.

7) Refunds, chargebacks, and consumer rights — what to expect

Amazon has said refunds will not be offered for Marks of Fortune purchased before the cutoff. That limits options. Still, here are steps if you think you have a claim:

• Check purchase records: Save receipts, payment confirmations, and the in-game transaction screenshots.
• Contact support quickly: Open a ticket with Amazon Games explaining your request and attach proof of purchase.
• Payment provider policies: Credit card disputes and chargebacks are a last resort and often fail for accepted digital purchases, but you can research your card issuer’s policy.
• Consumer law varies: In some regions a digital product failure can trigger a refund, but this is rare and time-sensitive.

8) Safety and scams during shutdown season

Expect scams as opportunistic actors flood chats and forums promising refunds, conversion services, or “save your account” offers. Protect yourself.

• Do not give account credentials to anyone, even guildmates.
• Avoid third-party sellers promising to convert Marks or buy your in-game items for cash unless they are trusted and verifiable.
• Use MFA on every account and change passwords if you sold items or shared credentials in the past.

9) Community-driven preservation & what to expect in 2026–2027

By late 2025 and into 2026 we saw a growing trend: communities mobilizing to preserve shut-down MMOs rather than letting memories disappear. Expect more of this in 2026–2027.

Trends and predictions

• Community archives grow: Discord preservation servers and Reddit AMAs by devs become primary sources of memory and data dumps; coordinate via local event listings and micro-event roundups to recruit volunteers.
• Legal/ethical debates intensify: Fan servers vs IP rights will be a hot topic; many preservation projects will operate in a gray area.
• Tooling improves: Open-source capture tools and standardized preservation checklists and small on-device workflows will make it easier for players to archive rich media and data.

If you want to participate: organize a community archive drive—coordinate screenshot recipes, store item lists, and centralize uploads to a shared drive or a community GitHub/Archive.

Final detailed shutdown checklist (printable)

1. Within 24–72 hours:
   • Spend Marks on top-priority permanent items.
   • Claim all seasonal rewards and event chests.
   • Take immediate screenshots of character, gear, achievements, and inventory.
2. Within 1–3 weeks:
   • Complete house tours and inventory exports.
   • Record video comps and guild events.
   • Back up everything to cloud + local drive (consider edge storage options).
3. By July 20, 2026:
   • Make final decisions about buying Marks (last sale day).
4. Before January 31, 2027:
   • Re-run the checklist, host final community events, and publish preservation packages to public archives or community hubs (see local hub directories).

Closing notes — what to save and why it matters

MMOs are social living history. When servers go offline, it's not just pixels that vanish; it's a record of friendships, strategy, and culture. Use the checklist above to protect what you invested time and money into. Capture the final raids, the last siege, the banners of your guild—those memories are the real reward.

Call to action

Ready to lock this down? Start with the quick-action checklist: spend Marks of Fortune on permanent items now, claim all season rewards, and begin archiving screenshots today. Join our preservation Discord to swap archive templates, upload community galleries, and get real-time alerts on shutdown updates and last-minute redemption windows. Click the link, start a backup, and keep Aeternum alive in story and media—long after the servers go dark.

Related Reading

• Edge Storage for Small SaaS in 2026: Choosing CDNs, Local Testbeds & Privacy-Friendly Analytics
• Audit-Ready Text Pipelines: Provenance, Normalization and LLM Workflows for 2026
• Hands-On Roundup: Best Affordable OCR Tools for Extracting Receipts and Text
• Curating Local Creator Hubs in 2026: Directory Strategies, Revenue Paths, and Platform Tools
• Why We Love Lovable Losers: The Design of Baby Steps’ Pathetic Protagonist
• Costume Shopping Landing Page: 'Build Your Festival Bundle' — Props, Warmers, and Lighting
• Grab-and-Go Steak: What Convenience Stores Are Getting Right (and Wrong) for Quality Ready Meals
• Amazon’s Micro Speaker vs Bose: Value Analysis for Creators on the Go
• Rural Ride-Hailing and Souvenir Discovery: How Transport Changes What Tourists Buy