During our livestream on November 15, Associate Producer Leah Shinkewski and Character Director Francis Lacuna joined Lead Producer Ben Irving to show how the Forge works and what you can create within it. They answered plenty of great questions from the community. If you didn’t get a chance to watch them work in real-time, check out the video above, and read on for the most critical pieces of information they carved out.

NOTE: As the game is still in development, all game features may be subject to change and there will be more to share. We’ll update as necessary.

The Forge and Cosmetics

A location within Fort Tarsis, the Forge stores a massive amount of cosmetic options for every piece of your javelin.

Each javelin has cosmetic parts you can personalize. The Ranger, for example, has eight cosmetic parts: helmet, arms, chest, legs, paint, wear state, vinyls, and animations. The first seven change the way your suit looks, and you can use them to create tons of different combinations.

“We’ve got elements that can change the silhouette of your suit, and then elements that are going to be able to change how they look,” Leah explained during the stream. Helmet, chest, arm, and leg cosmetics affect the silhouette of each suit – changing the shape of your javelin’s head, for instance. “And then, of course, your paint, your vinyls, and your wear state will all adjust the physical appearance of the suit,” says Leah.

While not all cosmetic options will be available at the beginning of the game, many can be retrieved during expeditions out in the world. As you gain experience as a lancer, you can update the look of your javelins to reflect how far you’ve come.

Materials and Paints

While changing the color of your equipment is a familiar concept to many players, Anthem takes things a step further by dividing your paint job into two parts: paint and materials.

Materials are broken up into six categories. Each changes the texture of part of your javelin, letting you give it a metallic sheen, a solid leather look, or tons of other options. They collectively cover every inch of a suit, so one part of your chest piece can have a plaid pattern while another looks shiny and smooth.

Once you’ve picked out your materials, you can choose your suit’s colour combo. You can assign a different color to each material category, either from a list of presets or from a colour wheel that gives you an entire rainbow to work with. Looking for some lime-green cloth paired with fiery red canvas print? You can make that happen. Plus, all your work can be saved and updated later. “You can store loadouts for all your different javelins and edit them, change them if you like,” says Leah.

Vinyls

Vinyls – big, bright decals that take up a chunk of the visible space on your suit – fall under their own category in the Forge. “While you can customize your javelin…sometimes you just want a little more punch, maybe a little reward for doing things in the game,” says Francis. “That’s what these vinyls are for.”

When you find a new vinyl, you’ll be able to apply it to all your javelins. While there isn’t an option to create custom vinyls, there will be plenty of options to let you fly your colors and show off your allegiances in a bold way. The N7 vinyl from Mass Effect, for instance, was a fan favorite during the stream.

Wear State

The finishing touch on your javelin, wear state lets you decide what battle scars you want your suit to bear. “Players can choose how they want their exosuit to look,” explains Francis. “Do they want it to look all beat up? Do we want it to look dirty? Do we want it to have chipped paint? Players can go ahead and do that.”

Your javelin’s wear and tear can also look very different depending on the kinds of materials you’ve chosen for it. “Since it is all material-based, if you have cloth and you put stains on it, it’ll stain a bit more like cloth, versus if you had an all-metal suit the wear would make the metal duller.”

Animations

The look of your javelin isn’t the only thing you can personalize: you can also select five different character animations to add to your loadout, including an arrival animation, a victory pose, and three emotes.

“At the end of all our missions you get this really cool, fun, celebratory wrap-up with your friends, so you can set anything you want there,” says Leah, explaining the victory pose. “Your arrival animation is [used] any time you enter the game, at the start of missions, or [when] you’re helping other people and you make a grand entrance.” Lastly, you can select your emotes manually during an expedition to communicate with your teammates. Whether you like to rock out on the air guitar or prefer a more subdued celebration like finger guns, you can choose the animations that suit you best.