Anthem Starting Tips Anthem Guide and Walkthrough

Last update: 22 February 2019

This section of the Anthem guide contains various starting tips that should help you during the initial hours of the game. The tips involve combat, exploration, or character growth.

• Choose normal difficulty level
• Play with other people
• Help knocked-down allies
• Watch the temperature of your javelin
• Avoid opponents once you've lost your armor
• Pay attention to ability recharge bars
• Perform combinations
• Search for opportunities to complete Feats and Challenges
• Don't forget about picking up found loot
• Salvage leftover items
• Don't spend all your coins on cosmetic upgrades
• You don't have to meet every NPC in the game

Choose normal difficulty level

You can choose the difficulty level before each expedition, so you don't need to worry about the difficulty level being too high or too easy.

In our opinion, normal difficulty level is the best setting, offering immersion and a complete experience. While playing on a normal difficulty level, you should be able to engage in standard gameplay without dying, except Stronghold missions or those in which you fight with elite opponents. During such missions, you need to be wary, as a hit character can quickly be on the verge of dying.

Play with other people

Anthem allows you to play through story missions and side quests alone by setting your session as private. You can encounter other players during Freeplay and Stronghold missions.

We recommend playing with other players, except in case you want to play through story missions without skipping interesting conversations (e.g. some players may want to complete the mission as fast as possible). Cooperation has a lot of advantages - team battles are much easier, as the players can join their attacks into combinations, and you'll receive more experience points. You can also resurrect one another.

Help knocked-down allies

This is especially important during Stronghold missions or when you're playing on a higher difficulty level. Losing even a single teammate will make completing the task much more difficult. Unfortunately, the game does not inform you directly that someone needs help - the only information you have is the icon above the head of the injured team member.

Approach knocked-down allies and heal them, provided they are away from opponents. Anthem does not contain a counter determining how fast you need to save the knocked-down character before he dies. Sometimes, it is better to clear the area and reach the ally when it's safe.

Watch the temperature of your javelin

In Anthem, you cannot fly at will, as the javelin engines quickly heat up and can overheat. Overheated engine is not a pleasant situation, as the hero is grounded for at least a few seconds. Engines that have overheated require much more time to cool up.

The engine temperature bar appears at the bottom of the screen (screenshot above). Plan the flight so that it ends before the bar is completely filled and changes its color from white to red. Now is a good time to see the page How to extend the flight time? in our guide. As a reminder - you can cool down your engines by free falling, flying on low altitude above water, landing into water, or flying through waterfalls.

Avoid opponents once you've lost your armor

Your javelin has two bars - blue armor bar and green health bar. After depleting the armor bar, the health bar will start to deplete. Losing all your health will end up with your javelin being knocked down. Once that happens, you're left with two options - respawn (if the given region allows it - during boss encounters, the respawn may be blocked) or wait to be revived by another player.

The armor bar will be refilled automatically, but you cannot be attacked when that happens. The best approach is to retreat or at least change your position to avoid your opponents and wait for regeneration. If you can, reach the red objects left by the enemy - they will enable you to regenerate faster.

Pay attention to ability recharge bars

In Anthem, active skills play an immensely important role, as they enable you to deal huge damage to opponents or place various negative statuses on them (e.g. freeze or set them on fire). The abilities do not use any resources, but they need time to recharge. You should look at the bottom right corner of the screen and activate the abilities as soon as they are recharged. Sometimes, you can wait until two abilities are ready if they work well with each other (e.g. stopping the enemy in place to electrocute him).

When it comes to the ultimate ability, you should act a little different. It has the longest recharge time. If you think that you're nearby the end of the mission and there is an incoming boss encounter, avoid activating the ability and use it on the boss.

Perform combinations

You can effectively deal damage to your opponents by utilizing combinations. To learn more, visit How to perform a combo? in our guide.

In a nutshell - you need to perform the first attack which opens up the opponent, and then follow it with a second attack that will allow you to begin a combination. A successful combo can deal much more damage than standard attacks, and it can weaken other nearby opponents. If you successfully performed a combo, you'll see it on your screen (shown in the screenshot above)

Search for opportunities to complete Feats and Challenges

The list of available Feats and Challenges can be viewed in your journal, and were described in detail in other sections of this guide. Aside from standard battles, you can engage in actions known as Feats and Challenges, and receive rewards for completing them.

1. Feats allow you to receive additional experience points during an expedition. It should be mentioned that they are renewed after you return to the Fort. Once you begin a new expedition, you can complete new Feats that will appear in your journal.
2. Challenges are rewarded with coins or unique rewards e.g. as plans allowing you to craft better items. Each challenge can only be completed once, but they are more time-consuming than Feats and may have a few steps.

Time-based challenges are a separate category. They are divided into dailies, weeklies, and monthlies. These are also a source of rewards and it's recommended to complete them.

Don't forget about picking up found loot

In Anthem, loot is displayed as colored objects that can appear e.g. once you kill an opponent, or when you find and open a treasure chest. You need to approach the item for it to be added to your backpack. Moreover, loot is awarded only after completing the expedition, at the expedition summary screen. Only then you can learn what items did you find. Even if you've found a weapon during the mission, you cannot use it until the expedition ends and you visit the Forge. Leftover loot disappears, except for legendary and masterwork items.

Salvage leftover items

During each expedition, you'll receive from a few to up to a few dozen items. During the initial hours of the game, you won't find high quality items, as the rarity of the items depends on your current experience level. As a result, it is recommended to salvage most of the items. You'll receive crafting resources and free up slots in the bank, which by default offers up to 250 slots.

Salvaging items becomes more complicated in the later parts of the game, when:

1. You'll start to find Legendary and Masterwork items. These are characteristic for their unique look, as well as unique statistics.
2. You'll start playing on higher difficulty levels and start to create Loadouts for various types of expeditions.

Don't spend all your coins on cosmetic upgrades

After starting the game, you may want to spend all your starting coins on cosmetic upgrades. Avoid doing so - the money will be better spent on crafting materials. Depending on the uniqueness of the resource, a single item can cost from a few hundred to a few thousand coins. It is recommended to gather coins from the beginning of the game, so that once you advance to the further stage of the campaign, be able to produce better items faster.

You don't have to meet every NPC in the game

Every time you'll return to Fort Tarsis, you may encounter many icons enabling you to conduct a conversation with a non-player character. Most of the time, conversations with NPCs do not yield any benefits. Choosing certain dialogue option won't lead you to unlocking a unique reward or enforce a penalty. As a result, you don't need to hurry to speak to a character or treat it like an mandatory activity.

Don't ignore separate icons symbolizing the characters connected to main or side quests. In that case, it is recommended to conduct every conversation to receive a new mission or advance further in the current quest.