5 tips for starting out in Avowed
- Release date: February 18
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Windows
- Xbox Game Pass tier: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
There’s a lot to get to grips with when it comes to The Living Lands and Avowed’s RPG mechanics. Hopefully these five starting tips help out a little as you follow your emperor’s orders to investigate the Dreamscourge (or ignore that mission to dive into exploration, bounties, and treasure hunts).
Watch for difficult opponents, as enemies don’t scale with you
You’re given a great deal of freedom when unleashed into The Living Lands, but it’s worth remembering that while Dawnshore might be the first area you’re exploring, the enemies you meet will still vary in difficulty.
Depending which way you run after the first few story quests, the enemies you come across might be unexpectedly challenging. It’s important to remember that, just like gear, enemies have their own quality tiers.
We’ve covered upgrades in more detail in our Avowed guide to upgrading armor, weapons, and unique items, but as for enemies, what you need to remember is that you’ll see a skull icon near their health bar if they’re a higher tier than you. The number of these depicts just how much higher, so if you see multiple skulls, prepare yourself for a tough fight.
I went charging out of a side gate in Paradis and stumbled into a band of outlaws which I definitely wasn’t prepared for with the gear I had at the time. The fun thing about Avowed is that you might still triumph depending on how you fight (and if you make judicious use of Divine Thorn and other abilities) but keeping an eye on enemy icons is a good idea for surviving The Living Lands.
So, check enemy icons for skulls, upgrade your gear, and get some meals ready before you go charging after bounties. Which brings me to…
Head to the bounty hunter in Paradis
Again, depending on how much you shot straight towards the main mission, you might already have completed a bounty or two by the time you get into Paradis. Either way, it’s worth heading straight to the bounty hunter in Southern Paradis to collect a list of available targets.
Bounty master Aldrich will be waiting by a bounty board between the Aedyran Embassy and the Eastern Paradis Gate Beacon, and can give a little extra info about each of the bounties you choose.
Aside from the enjoyable challenge of finding and defeating these, bounty targets often have unique items which you can nab to improve your chances against the next target. Even if their loot doesn’t suit your playstyle, you’ll also get a nice chunk of spending money after you hand your bounty trophy back to Aldrich, to spend on any gear you fancy at the merchants.
Don’t forget to cook at your party camp
You’ll often find health and essence potions in Avowed, as well as plenty of consumables like berries or vegetables. However, you can get a lot more out of these last if, instead of eating them for a little bit of health regeneration, for instance, you save them as ingredients for cooking.
Cooking can be done at the bonfire in your party camp (where Kai’s always hanging about). Meals can prove more useful in that they can often restore both essence and health, instead of just one or the other (like potions), and that they also offer useful buffs such as boosts to resolve, stamina, or movement speed.
An extra plus is that rotten food can actually be useful in Avowed! This is a really nice change, and means you can actually get something worthwhile from all those spoiled fruits and veggies you usually find in fantasy games, rather than just food poisoning. So, if you see some moldering apples or stinky cabbages, just shove it all in your backpack and get cooking.
Don’t forget fast travel
In my Avowed review, I talked about how this game is so wonderful to explore that I usually prefer to stomp about on foot. However, one big perk of Avowed’s fast travel system is that you can travel straight to a party camp, and then exit back to your last location.
Party camps are static locations constructed around Adra pillars. There are plenty of these points scattered around the map, but say you’re a ways off and want to quickly upgrade a piece of equipment and then get right back to the area you’re in: you can fast travel to the party camp, and instead of exiting at the camp’s actual location the next morning, you can “exit to previous location” to get back into the action.
You can reset character attributes and abilities
There are a lot of choices between the ranger, wizard, and fighter skill trees alone, not to mention the decisions about where to spend your attribute points when you level up.
Since there’s quite a variety in fighting styles and weapons, it can take a while to figure out what you want to focus on. I know I like spells and grimoires, but in the early game I couldn’t decide whether to prioritize attributes that boosted essence levels or to go for an even spread of attributes — especially since attributes also play a part in your dialogue options. If you haven’t spent three points in Might, for instance, you Might miss the chance to try intimidating your way out of a situation.
In the ability and attributes menus, you have the option to spend some of your hard-earned money to reset your points and make your selection again. This takes the pressure off a little in choosing where to spend those level up points.
