Anthem Advanced Combat Guide

Arekkz gives you an overview of the more advanced aspects of combat in Anthem.

Using Combos

Before you’re ready to take on the more challenging experiences Anthem has to offer, you’ll want to have a very firm understanding of your javelin’s capabilities. While there’s no wrong way to use a javelin, learning how your moves can complement one another can definitely give you the edge in battle. The right combination of moves can lead to devastating combos, capable of quickly, and reliably taking down some of the more challenging enemies that stand in your way.

There are the key elements to understand about performing combos:

• First, you’ll need a primer (typically elemental moves that inflict some sort of status on the enemy – fire, ice, electric, or acid)
• Second, comes the detonator (the triggering mechanism for releasing a combo). Note that the first player to land the detonator will trigger that combo.
• Third, once a combo has been triggered you’ll need to prime the enemies again before you can perform another combo.

Lower level enemies can be primed pretty easily while higher level, shielded ones will take longer and require more elemental damage.

Once an enemy is primed, and the elemental debuff is applied, a detonator ability will trigger the combo. The resulting effect will vary depending on the Javelin that you use:

• Ranger – extra bonus damage to a single target on top of your ability
• Colossus – extra bonus damage to all targets in proximity
• Storm – spread the elemental debuff to all targets in proximity
• Interceptor – inherit an aura based on the status applied to the enemy.

Teamwork is Key

Strongholds on the highest difficulty are some of the most challenging content in the game, and brute force alone won’t be enough to conquer them. Whether it’s communicating with your squad to line up the perfect combo, covering teammates under fire, or using key abilities to create openings, you’ll need to work together to get the job done.

For example, a Colossus can use Battle Cry to draw enemy fire and open up flanking opportunities. The Storm primes a group of enemies, and suddenly the Interceptor sees a chance to dive in with their double-bladed daggers, triggering a combo.

Planning out your encounters to play to your squad’s strengths is one of the pillars of advanced play.

Gear and Loadouts

Once you hit the level cap, your attention will turn to Strongholds and Legendary Contracts. You’ll also unlock the remaining difficulties: Grandmaster 1, 2, and 3. These higher difficulty levels offer you an opportunity at rarer gear – essential to building loadouts that will boost your power level and offer you the perfect bonuses.

Gear comes in six rarities:

• Common
• Uncommon
• Rare
• Epic
• Masterwork
• Legendary

Naturally, each rarity tier offers you greater power. And rarer gear also comes with inscriptions, randomly rolled stat boosts and bonuses that can further enhance your build. Rarer tier gear can have up to four inscriptions total.

Masterwork and Legendary items may also have added ability bonuses (these show up as orange text in their description).

The search for the perfect gear will take up a good deal of your time at this point, but it’s important to note that there is no single build that will serve all of your needs. Saving multiple loadouts at the Forge will give you the opportunity to swap them out quickly as needed. Maintaining a deep bench of loadouts for specific situations can come in very handy, so save a variety of them and experiment with your abilities to find new ways to conquer even the toughest enemies.

Crafting

Not every weapon or piece of gear you find will exactly meet your needs. You can keep searching for that perfect piece, or you can turn to crafting. You can dismantle gear you no longer want or need or explore the world to find nodes that can be harvested for crafting materials.

Once you have the appropriate materials, you can craft the item of your choosing. Completing challenges will help you unlock blueprints, and you can track these challenges in the menu, allowing you to focus your efforts. Unlocking higher rarity versions as you near endgame will help you craft the gear that can mean the difference between victory and defeat.

Please see Crafting in Anthem for more details on how to get the gear and weapons you want.

Find out more about combat. Looking for more Anthem Tips and Tricks? Find them here!