Have you not ever dreamed of your own empire, your own city? New Era is a survival strategy game, where your goals are to overcome natural death causes such as hunger, thirst, and cold. Build a fire to keep you warm, build a house for your villagers, kill animals for meat, protect yourself from other players/AI, and kill them for meat. Create alliances with other players and form a town. Do whatever it takes to survive. Protect your city at all costs!

The objective of New Era is to survive in the wilderness using gathered or stolen materials. Players must successfully manage their hunger, thirst, health, and troops or risk dying. Despite the looming threat of bears, wolves, and deserted soldiers the primary menace is other players due to the game being solely multiplayer. Combat is accomplished through primitive weapons, such as bows. In addition, AI-Controlled patrols will occasionally roam, These can be defeated with persistence. New Era features crafting, though initially limited until the discovery of specific items in the game's open world. To stay protected, players must build bases or join clans to improve their chance of survival. Raiding is a major aspect of New Era.