Anthem Beginners Guide – Everything You Need To Know For Early Success

In this guide we will run through some important tips for new players! Ensure you get the most from the early game in Anthem with this useful guide.

Anthem, the new looter-shooter game from Bioware, can be a bit intimidating when you first start. Like many other large, open world games, there is a lot of information you need to process. In this guide, we’ll help you get the most from your first few hours and set you up for success in the endgame.

Anthem Beginners Guide

Everything Is Better With Friends

Anthem is designed to be played as a co-op experience. Combat, exploring, world events, missions and Strongholds will all be more fun with your friends. While the game does have matchmaking for all missions, Strongholds, and Freeplay, it is just far more enjoyable to take to the skies with your friends. This is partially because the games lacks a couple of features that enable good communication between strangers. As such, if you want to get the most enjoyment from your time in Anthem, then team up with your buddies. Playing in a well organized group also means you can push up the difficulty levels a bit, and earn some extra loot!

Pick Your First Javelin Carefully

One of the most well executed aspects of Anthem is that all the Javelins feel unique, and all have their own playstyle. If you normally like caster characters, the Storm is for you. Traditional tankers will get the most from the Colossus, and people who really like to be agile and chop things up will enjoy the Interceptor. The Ranger is more of a jack of all trades, mixing damage output and some mild tanking ability. You will be using your first Javelin for a while, so pick a style that suits you. Don’t worry though, you will eventually have access to all four.

Ignore Crafting Until Later

While Anthem does have plenty of crafting options, this is not something you need to worry about too early in the game. Just doing missions and activities will bring you plenty of weapons and gear, and should see your Power level climb steadily while you play. Saving your crafting materials until later in the game will pay off. You can build up a good stockpile, then have plenty of them when you need to start building higher tier equipment.

Play Missions On Hard

The Normal difficulty level is, dare I say it, a little bit easy. Most missions will just be quick, stompy fights. Dialing it up to Hard will give you more of a challenge, and reward you with better loot. This is a great way to speed up the rate at which your Javelins get more powerful.

Play Strongholds On Normal

Strongholds are a bit of a step up from missions. These are a long sequence of events that will see you take on multiple mobs, epic and legendary enemies, finishing with a final boss fight. They can be a tough test when you first get access to them, so playing them on Normal difficult is advised. Once you up your Power level, you can then switch up the difficulty to suit you and your party.

Water Cools Your Engines

The flying in Anthem is a lot of fun, but it will build up heat in your engines. Once they overheat, you fall to earth and have to wait for them to cool. While diving sharply will cool them a bit, water will cool them completely. If you see a deep pool, river or lake, you can dunk yourself and fully cool your engines, greatly extending your flight time. You can also use the spray from waterfalls to cool yourself. Small detours to cool your engines can result in much longer flight times.

Learn About Combos

Combos are what set the combat in Anthem apart from similar games. Learning how they work will greatly increase your damage output and clear times. The system is a bit too complex to get into here, but we do have a full guide on everything you need to know to take advantage of them in the game.

The Vault Lets You Salvage In Bulk

As you play more and more missions, you will rapidly leave your old weapons and gear behind. While you can salvage things you don’t want after an Expedition, or from the Forge, the Vault comes with a special feature. If you go to the Vault, just beside where your Javelin is in Tarsis, you can take advantage of the option of marking gear you don’t want, then salvaging all of it in one go.

If You Don’t Know What To Do, Check Your Cortex

Sometimes you might be a little lost about what to do next. If this happens, open up your Cortex, then go to Journal and Objectives. Here you will see a list of available missions that you have already accepted. If you don’t currently have missions, visit Yarrow or Brin, and check the Notice boards as well.

This should all be enough to set you up nicely for a fun and productive time in Anthem. If you need help with other parts of the game, we have guides on how to get Treasure Chests, Embers, a guide to explain the microtransations, and a full flight and swim controls guide.