There are a lot of dangerous things in New World, and you can get taken down by any one of them. And it’s not just players you have to watch out for, the environment can be dangerous too. There’s a limitless number of ways you can be taken out. One of the more insidious ones seems to be growing. Yes, you can drown in this game. Anytime you come across a river or lake and want to get across, you would need to swim. But players have a question, can you actually do that? So what’s the deal, can you swim in New World?
The simple fact of the matter is that, as it stands, you cannot swim in New World. Any time water goes over your character’s head, they can drown. Amazon Game Studios has made a conscious choice to make a game that engages with the open-world MMO aesthetic and gameplay pretty fully Everything can kill you in this world of horrors and secrets.
You will have to find another way around that deep water. So far, the developers have not revealed plans to change this either. If it is a bug, as some have suggested, it’s not currently fixed.
Being a realistic-ish open world MMO, that may not ever change. Whether this is a bug is unknown. Currently, the game allows players to go into deep water, but there’s no buoyancy. You even get a breath meter appear on your HUD and everything, but it seems adventurers can’t swim right now. So if you do come across a bit of deep water, it’s best to find a way around.