ANTHEM Beginners Guide: Tips for New Players (2024)

Starting a new game is always exciting, but for some it is also trouble. If you don’t have the time to invest into researching the game’s mechanics and features on your own or simply want to have a smooth and easy start and learn the basics fast(er), this guide might be just the thing for you. Getting to know how things work, what to do to get a head-start early on and what not to do to avoid wasting time and efforts, this Anthem Beginners Guide will help you out!

If you are new to Anthem or returning veteran you might want to check out the most recent update or you might need to freshen up on some of the basics.

Below I have a nice collection of tips and tricks to help you get a smooth start or an easy return! I hope you enjoy the read! Feed free to add your own suggestions or tips based on personal experience in the comments!

Why you should change the difficulty frequently

Anthem offers Easy, Normal and Hard difficulties when you start. At level 30 three additional Grandmaster tiers are unlocked.

The mechanics for enemies and boss fights are identical in each tier. At lower levels you may struggle to find groups for the Hard Difficulty, though.

The difference comes in gear requirements and how much an enemy soldier or creature can take on before it is defeated. Also how much they can hurt you by just… staring at you. Rewards are also better in higher difficulties.

Switch to Hard if you feel no challenge after gaining a few levels and getting yourself familiar with the game. You can change the difficulty for each mission before you start it from Fort Tarsis.

While leveling up it may be pointless to always strive to do things on Hard difficulty. If you manage to get a group with balanced level and power javelins, it could be a lot of fun, but if you are matched with a higher level or over-geared javelin, the mission(s) would still not be as tough and you will either get carried through the content or be one-shoted and revived often.

Playing on Normal at least for the first 10ish levels may be the better choice for you, because the bonus loot drops you earn from higher difficulty modes is not worth the time and effort, especially if you play solo.

When you reach the EndGame in Anthem, keep in mind, though, the Grandmaster 2 and 3 tiers is no joke and I highly recommend you follow at least loosely the suggested gear for each tier. If you have a group of friends that you play together, you can up the difficulty earlier than recommended.

Solo vs Group play while leveling, which is better

There’s an interesting proportion between Strongholds and Missions. Strongholds are tougher than missions, provide more and better loot (it’s all still RNG based, remember). Missions are a lot shorter and reward you with more XP and Alliance XP. The Alliance System is an additional means for you to earn Coin.

BioWare is known for their storytelling. Play Anthem’s story solo. The so-called “Crit Path” in Anthem is the main storyline and it is far from the studio’s best work compared to the classics from Baldur’s Gate through the Mass Effect series and the gem of the space epics – Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and its follow-up Star Wars: The Old Republic.

The story of Anthem has a lot of good moments and most of the characters are very charismatic and well-crafted. I personally liked it and enjoyed it.

If you want to get the most out of this game’s story, you definitely have to play it alone. For this, I also suggest you take my first advice from a couple of paragraphs up to minimize the struggle of having to defeat waves of strong enemies from time to time.

How the NPC chat in Fort Tarsis helps you immerse yourself

Talk to NPCs in Fort Tarsis. This tip is invaluable for fans of Anthem’s lore. If you don’t feel the connection to the game’s story and are not excited to learn more, you can freely skip any conversation that is marked with a “chat bubble icon”.

The mandatory conversations are related to the Crit Path and faction reputation missions. The first are marked with two gold arrows, pointing down. The second are marked with an “open scroll icon”.

The world of Anthem and its lore are absolutely fantastic and deep. Not all is told via quests. Some are discovered by simply exploring.

How Freeplay helps you learn your Javelin

Learn how to fly in Freeplay. This is actually two tips in one. Knowing how each one of the javelin classes behaves in the air, is vital to mastering it later on. There is a huge difference between the extremely light and agile Interceptor and the heavily armored Colossus.

Explore the open world of Bastion and complete various world events and challenges. It is better to know how to navigate your javelin before you start doing more challenging group content (such as Strongholds or the Cataclysm) and find yourself constantly bumping into walls or other obstacles and constantly having to chase your teammates.

Related to flying is to know how to extend the flight time. Cool off your jets to extend flight time. This is done by diving under water or passing through falling water (waterfalls, for example). When it rains or when you fly close to a water surface, your flight bar turns blue and your javelin’s fly time is extended. Try not to overheat, because then you will have to wait a lot longer before you can fly again.

While in Freeplay, Tweak Anthem’s controls settings. If you are on PC, take a few minutes (or more) and play around with the sliders for flight and swim mode. This is valid for consoles too, but to a lesser extend.

Adjust the speed with which you turn based on how much you move your mouse. If you play with a controller, the flying part is relatively easy, but fast reactions and maneuvering in tight spaces, jumping and dodging attacks and blasts from enemies is a lot harder compared to doing the same on a keyboard and mouse.

Spend enough time editing controls and behavior of your peripherals until you are comfortable. You can thank me later when you ramp up the difficulty and find yourself having to press keys and/or move joysticks at a much higher pace.

What is the difference between Gear and Outfits

Don’t confuse or mix the terms gear with outfits. In Anthem you have two separate tabs in the Forge (in Fort Tarsis – the main hub, where all the vendors and mission givers are) for changing Appearance and Loadouts. In the Loadouts tab you can work to create the perfect build for your javelin and your own preferred gameplay style based on the gear items you loot as you play the game. In the Appearance tab you can change the looks and design of your exosuit.

There are three main currencies in Anthem – Coin, Crystals and Shards. Don’t rush to spend your Coin early on. BioWare is updating the Vanity Store in the game often with items, which can be purchased with either Coin (earned through gameplay) or Shards (primarily purchased with real money).

Not all javelins are equally easy to pilot. BioWare changed the way you unlock the exosuits shortly before the game’s release, based on players feedback. Each suit was supposed to be unlocked at a certain level and as you complete missions for each one of the factions in Anthem.

Currently you can unlock a new exosuit at level 2, which is right after you complete the introductory mission, serving also as a tutorial. If you are on your second pilot and playthrough, all suits are automatically unlocked for you from the beginning.

You can choose any, but the Ranger is designed to be a perfect choice for a beginner player. This doesn’t mean you must pick it first. Not at all. If this is the very first time you are playing a game like Anthem and you have never even touched the Mass Effect series, some elements of the gameplay – such as combos, might be completely new to you. The Ranger offers you a great set of tools.

Learn what each Javelin can do and make your choice wisely. I have an in-depth guide for all four exosuits. The exosuits play very differently to each other and not all will fit your playstyle and preferences for sure. Read and learn at least a bit about them before you make your choice. If you end up not enjoying the suit you have unlocked, this may result in you getting bored and uninspired to continue. That’s how strong effect the javelin can have on some players.

What are the Damage Types and Status Effects in Anthem

There are two main types of damage in Anthem – Physical and Elemental. The physical can be split into Impact (usually guns and the diamond-icon-marked abilities and Acid). The Elemental damages are Electrical, Fire and Ice.

Each one of them performs better against different types of opponents, but this is a topic for a more experienced and advanced player. Take a look at the Anthem Loadouds and Gear Guide for an in-depth look at the damage types and how they apply to your builds.

Here is a list of the most popular icons used to mark buffs (positive effects on your or your target), debuffs (negative effects on yourself or the target) and other combat-performance affecting things in Anthem.

On Fire

The target with this debuff has been placed on fire and is receiving damage over time burn effect from this debuff. Fire heats your thrusters very fast and drops you on the ground almost immediately.

Frozen

When Frozen, you will stop and literally freeze into one spot until the effect expires. You can speed up the defrost process by spamming the Space button on PC or the corresponding one on controller. Freeze attacks are generally not too hard to avoid during combat and you should try to do that.

Electrified

When placed on a target, this deals small damage over time to the main target and anybody else nearby. Electricity also tends to overheat your javelin and ground you. Unlike with Freezing, here you can keep moving, but you also have no way of removing the debuff quicker by spamming Space.

Acid

Acid deals a lot of damage and is very dangerous if placed on you. It eats through shields and can quickly defeat you if you do not avoid its source. When placed on a target, it does damage over time and weakens the enemy’s defenses. Very useful for offensive tool.

Web Effect

This effect happens most often in the Tyrant Mine Stronghold (but not only). When the spiders, scorpions and other creatures web you down, you overheat immediately, though for a shorter period of time. When Webbed, you can spam Space on PC (or corresponding button on controller) to get out of it quicker.

Overheated

Things like being on fire, frozen or webbed can overheat your javelin’s thrusters. When that happens and this icon appears, your thrusters will be red (literally) and you will not be able to fly until you cool them off completely.

Cooled

This is a positive status effect, removing the overheat of your javelin thrusters. It is placed on you when you fly through a waterfall or jump in and out of water. To extend your javelin’s fly time always fly through waterfals nearby or fly low over rivers. Rain helps slow down overheating as well, though that is more of a random effect and not something you can plan and rely on consistently.

How Anthem’s Combo System works

Now that you have taken a deeper look into the javelin classes, let’s talk about Combos in Anthem! Combos are, as the word suggest, a combination of two abilities. One is used as a Primer, the second one is used as a Detonator.

Each javelin has a set of abilities that can be either a Primer or a Detonator. Furthermore the Primers all have an element status attached to them:

• Fire puts a burning DoT on the target and increases the damage you deal to Armored enemies
• Acid lowers their defenses
• Ice freezes the enemy completely for a short moment and increases your damage against Shielded enemies, but lowers your damage to Armored enemies.
• Electricity spreads from one target to another. Allows you to deal increased damage to Shielded enemies.

The Detonators can be separated into Blast and Impact detonations. Where you use them and how, is up to you. Each combination is more useful against one type of enemy and less useful against another.

Once a Primed target has been Detonated, the status effect may remain for a few seconds until it expires naturally, but you will have to Prime it again before you can use another Combo Detonator on it a second time.

Early on Anthem does not do a good job helping you understand what the many icons it uses in relation to your build and stats mean. Learn what each icon means in Anthem.

Primer and Detonator

When you open up to see the detailed stats of a wepon or gear for your Javelin and see this icon next to the item’s name, this means that this is a Primer.

Primers place a special buff on the target to prime it for a combo. Another ability used by you or another member of your team can trigger the Combo with a Detonator ability.

Each Javelin can prime and combo on their own. However the Combo effect from each one is very different in terms of what it triggers and how it affects the target.

• Ranger’s Combo Impact Combo deals large amount of damage to the Primed Target. Ranger’s Combo is the highest damage dealing one of all javelins, but is locked onto a single target.
• Colossus’ Combo Blast deals considerably less damage to the target, but the explosive effect means the combo can damage multiple targets at once.
• Storm’s Chain Effect deals much less damage than the first two, but it spreads the elemental effect from the target to everything else nearby. Storm’s Combo spreading effect means that the other targets receive the debuff from the specific element, but they do not get primed for another combo.
• Interceptor’s Combo Aura allows the javelin to gain a damaging Aura with the same elemental effect as the Primer on the target. The damage bonus is just about as weak as the combo of the Storm.

Javelin Icon and Gear Icon in Inscriptions

On the Inscriptions you can have a Javelin icon – meaning the perk applies to the whole javelin exosuit or a Gear icon – meaning this one applies to the item it belongs to.

Why you should modify your build often

Balance your build based on what you are doing next. If you go solo, build your javelin for self-sustainability. Always have a Primer and Detonator abilities, so you can do Combos on your own. When in a group with friends, you can coordinate who picks up what abilities before you start an expedition to make sure you get the maximum out of the group’s composition.

There are quite a few different types of mobs you will be fighting against in Anthem. Find the Weak Spots of each enemy type and always focus on them. For example, a Titan‘s weak spots at first are only revealed when he is attacking you. When you see a part of the body of our target that flashes or glows, that’s the weak spot. They can be anywhere – front, back or on the side of the creature.

Some times they are quite small. It’s important to find the weakest of the weak spots. Once again I will give you an example with the Titan- its weakest spots are on their chest and back, which open only when the Titan does one of its many special attacks.

Updating your build doesn’t mean “changing it”. You have enough free slots for each javelin to create different and unique builds for totally different situations.

If you, say, enjoy the Ranger Combo Build (like I do), you may want to find how to best tweak it a little bit for each different encounter and balance it for the pre-made group you will be playing the next mission with.

Is it worth to replay Anthem’s story

If you wonder what this or that mission would be like if you had chosen a different javelin for it, you can always create a new pilot in Anthem. This is like a new save slot.

Doing so will allow you to keep all of your currently unlocked javelins, all the vanity items you have earned or purchased and more. This is kind of like a New Game Plus (NG+) for Anthem.

Shortly after release BioWare added various Legendary Missions. In them you will get to replay certain missions from the Crit Path of the game, but they will be tuned to a much higher difficulty and you will face a whole set of new challenges completing them. The Legendary Missions are designed for end-game players.

Is Crafting useful in Anthem

If you are tired of bad RNG with your loot, you can always rely on Crafting your own weapons and gear. There is an always-present issue with grindy loot-based games and Anthem has not been able to escape this, unfortunately.

By the time you unlock new Crafting Blueprints, you will likely have populated these slots with far better and higher tier items. The best things you can and must craft and use regularly (on Grandmaster at least) are Consumables.

Check my Anthem Crafting Guide for more details on how to earn and unlock the various blueprints and upgrade their tiers. In general, don’t bother with crafting on the earliest levels.

Anthem is a looter shooter. As such, the game offers a complex system of different rarity tiers for each item. The order item tiers is as follows: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Masterwork and Legendary. The last two are almost identical, but the Legendary items have better inscriptions and slightly higher power level. I suggest you read my Loadouts guide to get a complete understanding of tiers and rarity.

No matter what you do, it’s important to look cool while doing it! Check out the Complete Anthem Armor Sets Catalog here on VULKK.com and pick the best pack for your javelin’s style!

As much as I want to write more and more, I realize that an article such as this one can, but should not span forever. I have done my best to collect here just the most basic tips and tricks that a new Anthem player would find useful without confusing you with too many advanced details and information. For more, you can browse the Anthem Guides category. Stay in the loop with the latest Anthem News, subscribe to receive new posts notifications!