Obsidian’s latest RPG epic has landed and as fun as it is, it’s not always plain sailing.

Life as a Godlike Envoy certainly isn’t easy. Fortunately, we’ve spent lots of time in The Living Lands and have got some pointers to help get started on your journey.

Don’t forget to upgrade and enchant

Avowed is full of unique weapons and equipment and you can, theoretically, carry the same weapon through the game if you upgrade it correctly. In order to do that, you’ll need to find the right materials both scattered through the lands, hidden in chests and even breaking down weapons and equipment in your inventory by holding down X.

Once you have a stack of materials, head to any Party Camp set up around the world and visit the Workbench where you can upgrade your items. Everything from Common Swords to unique shields can be upgraded and their quality increased through to Legendary. Each element of the item can be upgraded and the better quality item, the more impressive an item it can break down into.

Have a favourite weapon? Look at what you need and then experiment with crafting and get the resources you need to max out its potential. And don’t forget to enchant them either to give weapons new possibilities.

Identify the weak points

Combat is the main highlight of Avowed and battles can be pretty ferocious, especially with hordes of enemies at your heel. You’ll need to master all the tricks, learning when to dodge at the right moment by pressing a and moving the left stick to the side or at your back. You should also use your Action Radial in key moments which will pause the battle and give you access to throwables, consumables and abilities.

Some other things to think about – your armor type affects how quickly you regenerate stamina and build up reaction times. At range, you can also uncover the enemy weak points with a bow, aiming at them. Or peppering them with wand blasts, making sure to gather essence dropped by enemies so you don’t run out.

Keep blocking, use strong attacks to break through and keep your cool, you’re going to need to keep your wits about you.

Find Totems and make use of your Party Shrine

Each region in the game has a piece of a totem and it’s up to you to rebuild it with revelations pieces and rebuild the base. Once you do that, the totems can be setup in the Party Camp and boost various abilities for you and your companions. These can help massively in battles to come and they help in various different ways. Seek them out and check out what each one does…

Sympathy for the Damned – Critical hits deal high fire accumulation

The Power of Command – Activating a companion ability increases your attack power for 5 seconds.

Swift Orders – Reduce Companion ability cooldown by 15%

Noblesse Oblige – Reviving a companion grants rapid health and essence regeneration

Flames of Resurrection – Second Wind casts Ring of Fire

The Queen’s Burden – +2 Intellect, +2 Resolve

Learn to conjure Ice

Something I found while spelunking in dungeons and trying to cross open waters, it’s tricky to find footing and get enough leverage to grab ledges and climb up rock faces. Especially when trying to stand on water.

You can help yourself by casting the likes of chill blades and blizzard at the water to create a temporary platform of frozen ice you can hop on and climb seemingly hard to reach areas. You’ll find it surprisingly helpful in a myriad of situations.

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Check out our thoughts on Avowed right here