Even More Answers about Anthem from Mark Darrah

Mark Darrah, Executive Producer on Anthem™ and superhuman answerer of questions, is back at it. Taking to Twitch, he and Game Director Jonathan Warner showed off footage from the full gameplay recap and took live questions from the community. And now we’re here to round those answers up for you – with a little extra explanation to go with each!

But first, a check-in on those damage floaties that a few people have asked about:

It’s happening! Yes, it looks as though we’ll be able to modify the opacity and size of our damage floaties, or just turn them off. But does the arrow on the right of “Damage Floaty Size” being active mean that we can make the floaties BIGGER!?

All right, let’s get some answers.

“We’re not talking about the Storm or Interceptor now”

There was one thing Mark wouldn’t spill the beans on, but he was answering questions about if swords or cloaking would be in the game. So start your hasty speculations now.

“We do have emotes!”

Emotes are a big part of the game and customizable as well. The flare functionality on the exosuit is actually mapped to an emote, so you can use it to signal points of interest. Mark mentioned the possibility of more combat animations, but just as something they’re looking into. Oh, and there’s no dabbing. Yet.

“You can not drive the Strider.”

Unfortunately, you will not be able to experience the thrill of plodding along at a snail’s pace in a walking, 5-story transport vehicle. You need a license for that, and only Haluk has one.

“We’ll have four Javelins at launch.”

The four Javelins you’ve already seen (Ranger, Interceptor, Storm, and Colossus) are the only ones that will be playable at launch. And to those of you who say “okay, but what about after--“ we’re not talking about it!

“What are those activities on the map?”

Your map is full of icons that will lead you to all sorts of vicious monsters and beautiful loot. These include missions and strongholds, along with fast travel locations and special landmarks.

“We will balance the game – somewhat – to your party size. But most of our balance is assuming a party of four.”

The old saying is true. The more people in your party, the merrier you’ll be when your team doesn’t get bulldozed by a boss.

“You have a Freelancer who has a skill tree that applies to all Javelins.”

As your pilot goes on missions and gains experience, they’ll get better at operating Javelins and get additional efficiency out of them in the form of your pilot skill tree. Your Javelins will each have their own separate skill tree that also progresses as each Javelin gains experience.

“We have nodes that you’ll harvest for crafting, including plants.”

Yes, you budding botanists, there will be time to stop and smell the flowers and then rip those flowers out and put them in your pockets. Where are the pockets on a Javelin, you ask? That sounds like a great question to tweet at @BioMarkDarrah.

“There aren’t any domesticated animals in Anthem.”

If you were hoping to befriend a Swarm Tyrant and start your own giant spider farm, we regret to inform you this will not be possible.

“At the moment you do not lose any loot when you die.”

The respawn penalties are still in flux, according to Mark and Jonathan. Everyone please be nice to them so they don’t make it worse.

“We’ll be talking about social mechanics more later.”

Guilds are a big part of Anthem, but we’d like to be able to show off some of those great social pieces in-depth. So we’re not going into it right this second, but trust that it will arrive soon and it will be awesome.

“You are a human. Not an earthling, but a human. And that is that.”

There are no elves or dwarves in Anthem, just humans. But Anthem does not take place on Earth.

“Yes, you can combo if you’re solo.”

Depending on how you configure your Javelin, you can set up your own combos without the need for a bunch of extra teammates getting in the way and ruining it.

“Cross-play of any kind is not currently in the plan. We are looking into it.”

This is one of those big questions that involves so many moving parts that all any of us can say is “We’ll see.”

And, we’ll hope to see even more great questions on Mark’s twitter feed, where he’s been marathoning queries from the community at a preternatural pace since EA Play. Check it out and submit your own questions, like “Can you turn off those floating damage numbers?”

Pre-order now and get the Founder’s in-game banner.*

Keep your eyes open for more as we’re ramping up to Anthem’s release. Make sure to not miss any of it by signing up for the Anthem newsletter for all the latest Anthem news, updates, behind-the-scenes content, offers, and more (including other EA news, products, events, and promotions) by email.

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Anthem launches February 22, 2019 for Xbox One, PlayStation® 4, and PC. Early Access begins on February 15 for Origin Access and EA Access members.**

*CONDITIONS AND RESTRICTIONS APPLY. SEE https://www.ea.com/games/anthem/pre-order-disclaimer FOR DETAILS.

**CONDITIONS, LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS APPLY.  SEE ea.com/ea-access/terms  AND origin.com/store/origin-access/terms  FOR DETAILS.