New World: Aeternum Tracking and Skinning Guide

May-20-2026 PST

Tracking and Skinning is one of the most rewarding gathering professions in New World: Aeternum, allowing players to hunt creatures across Aeternum and harvest valuable hides, furs, meats, and rare crafting materials. Whether you want to craft high-end armor, make gold on the trading post, or simply level efficiently while exploring the world, mastering this trade skill is essential. For players looking to accelerate their progress, you can buy New World Coins to save time and enhance your gameplay experience. In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about Tracking and Skinning, including leveling tips, the best perks, how luck works, and where to find the rarest materials.

Overview of Tracking and Skinning

Tracking and Skinning allows players to harvest resources from defeated animals and beasts throughout Aeternum. These resources are primarily used in:

· Leatherworking

· Cooking

· Furnishing

· Crafting armor and bags

· Trading Post gold farming

As you level the profession, you’ll unlock the ability to track stronger creatures and skin higher-level enemies for better rewards.

Common materials gathered include:

· Rawhide

· Thick Hide

· Iron Hide

· Dark Hide

· Scarhide

· Smolderhide

· Animal meat and cooking ingredients

· Rare creature parts

Tracking and Skinning is considered one of the easiest gathering professions to level because you gain experience naturally while questing and farming enemies.

Starting Your Tracking and Skinning Journey

Before you can skin creatures, you’ll need a Skinning Knife. At the start of the game, craft a Flint Skinning Knife at any campfire or workshop using:

· Flint

· Green Wood

This basic tool is easy to craft and will allow you to begin gathering hides immediately.

As you progress, upgrade your knife whenever possible to improve:

· Gathering speed

· Yield

· Luck

· Experience gain

Higher-tier tools dramatically improve efficiency.

Dexterity Bonuses for Skinning

Tracking and Skinning scales directly with Dexterity, making Dexterity-focused builds particularly strong for gathering. If you want maximum efficiency, aim for at least 250 Dexterity.

Dexterity Milestones

Dexterity

Bonus

25

+10% skinning speed

50

+20% haste for 3 seconds after skinning

100

+50 encumbrance

150

-10% weight of skinned items

200

+20% skinning speed

250

+10% skinning yield

350

+10% chance to find rare items while skinning

Even non-Dexterity builds can level Skinning effectively, but gathering will be noticeably slower.

Luck and Rare Materials

Luck is one of the most important stats for serious skinners. Increasing your Skinning Luck improves your chances of obtaining rare materials used for high-end crafting and valuable Trading Post sales.

Ways to Increase Skinning Luck

· Skinning Luck perk on your knife

· Skinner armor set

· Jewelry perks

· Food buffs

· Trophies

· Town buffs

· Dexterity milestones

Rare Skinning Materials

Material

Source

Bizarre Bone

Level 59+ creatures

Scarhide

Level 50+ creatures

Smolderhide

Level 50+ creatures

Pristine Bear Claw

Bears

Pristine Boar Tusk

Boars

Scarhide and Smolderhide are especially valuable because they are used in high-tier leatherworking recipes.

Tracking and Skinning Trophies

Housing trophies provide one of the biggest boosts to Skinning Luck. You can own up to three houses in the game, and each house can contain a Tracking and Skinning Trophy. These bonuses stack globally.

Trophy Bonuses

Trophy

Luck Bonus

Minor Tracking & Skinning Trophy

+500 Luck

Basic Tracking & Skinning Trophy

+1,000 Luck

Major Tracking & Skinning Trophy

+1,500 Luck

Trophies can be upgraded using:

· Notes on Aeternum Fauna

· Tracker’s Seal

These are crafted through the Furnishing profession.

Best Perks for Your Skinning Knife

Your Skinning Knife is the most important part of optimizing your gathering efficiency.

Recommended Perks

Tanner’s Discipline

Increases skinning experience gained and helps level the profession faster.

Skinning Luck

Improves rare material drop rates.

Skinning Yield

Increases the number of resources gathered.

Azoth Extraction

Provides a chance to gain Azoth while skinning.

Gathering Alacrity

Boosts movement speed after gathering. A perfect endgame Skinning Knife usually combines Luck, Yield, and Gathering Alacrity.

Skinning Gear

Dedicated Skinner gear pieces increase your gathering effectiveness and luck.

Skinner Armor Set

Armor Piece

Source

Skinner Hat

Open World

Skinner Shirt

Open World

Skinner Gloves

Open World

Skinner Pants

Open World

Skinner Shoes

Open World

These items can drop randomly from world content and are highly valuable for dedicated gatherers.

Best Bag Perks for Skinning

Inventory management becomes extremely important during long farming sessions.

Recommended Bag Perks

Tanner’s Burden

Reduces the weight of:

· Rawhide

· Leather

· Skinning Knives

Extra Pockets

Increases total inventory capacity. Combining these perks allows much longer farming routes before returning to town.

Increasing Your Skinning Yield

If you want maximum profit per hour, increasing yield is essential.

Best Ways to Boost Yield

250 Dexterity Bonus

Provides +10% gathering yield.

Powerful Proficiency Boost

A consumable crafted through Arcana that increases gathering yield by up to 15%.

Skinning Yield Perk

Available on Skinning Knives. Stacking all three bonuses can massively increase your farming profits.

Best Way to Level Tracking and Skinning

Leveling Tracking and Skinning is straightforward:

1. Kill beasts while questing

2. Skin every eligible creature

3. Upgrade your knife regularly

4. Focus on higher-level animals whenever possible

Generally, higher-level creatures provide more experience. Because animals are found throughout nearly every zone, you can level this profession naturally alongside questing and exploration.

Good Farming Targets

· Wolves

· Boars

· Elk

· Bison

· Bears

· Lynxes

· Alligators

Dense animal spawn areas are ideal for rapid leveling and hide farming.

Tracking System Explained

The compass at the top of your screen allows you to track nearby prey and predators. As your Tracking and Skinning level increases, additional creature types become visible on your compass.

Tracking Unlock Levels

Tracking Type

Unlock Level

Small Prey

15

Medium Prey

40

Large Prey

65

Small Predator

100

Large Predator

125

This tracking system makes farming significantly more efficient because you can quickly locate creatures without wandering aimlessly.

Final Tips for Efficient Skinning

· Always skin creatures while leveling

· Use luck gear whenever farming rare materials

· Upgrade your Skinning Knife frequently

· Carry proficiency potions for long farming sessions

· Invest in trophies if you farm regularly

· Farm high-level beasts for the best profits

· Combine Skinning with Leatherworking for maximum value

Tracking and Skinning remains one of the best gathering professions in New World: Aeternum for both casual players and dedicated gold farmers. With the right setup, you can gather massive amounts of valuable resources while leveling efficiently throughout Aeternum. If you want to speed up your progress even further, you can buy cheap New World Gold from MMOEXP, a trusted platform for fast and reliable currency.