Your character in Avowed doesn’t exactly have a smooth start when arriving in the Living Lands. After a rough landing, things only get more difficult as you take on quests, fight monsters, and get into heated conversations. Leveling up and unlocking new abilities will help, but anyone who knows RPGs could tell you that. Despite Avowed looking like a sequel to Skyrim, it has a lot of differences that require a different approach from the player. Before you get lost in the lore and drama of saving the Living Lands from the Dreamscourge, make sure you prepare with these essential tips and tricks.
Don’t focus on just one weapon
In almost any other RPG, you would only be limiting yourself if you tried to use multiple weapon types — if the game even allowed for it. In Avowed, not only can you use any and all weapons you want, but it is essential. Avowed doesn’t force you into any specific class that limits what your character can equip. You will still invest your points that make your character better in certain aspects, but you will never find a weapon or armor you can’t use if you want to.
You will also always have access to two weapon loadouts, which you should always keep filled with complimentary weapons. Even if you want to focus heavily on guns or maces, keep a backup option in your spare loadout. There will be plenty of times when an enemy gets in your face and an axe is more useful than a wand, or times when a bow or a gun would be much easier to deal with a perched sniper. You should also experiment with dual-wielding unusual combinations, like a pistol and a spellbook. Avowed wants you to express yourself in combat so don’t fall into old habits and only use one weapon type.
Swap to third-person
By default, Avowed will set your perspective as first-person. This is generally best for combat, but because you will spend much of the game exploring and even doing some platforming, switching to third-person is a more comfortable way to play much of the game. You can easily do this by holding R3 at any time or changing it in the menu.
Plus, if you spend a good amount of time designing your character then it would be a waste to never see them outside of a few cutscenes or dialogue moments.
Don’t forget your throwables
You will be introduced to throwables during the tutorial as additional tools in your kit, but are almost never reminded of them after the fact. You will pick up a ton of these that each have different properties, like explosive grenades and various elemental pods. You may find some cracked walls that prompt you to toss a grenade, but you are limiting yourself if you don’t use these in combat.
If you’re not wielding magic, the elemental throwables are especially important. Hitting a boss with fire to get some damage over time going, or freezing them for a few moments to get free hits in, can turn a loss into a victory. Yes, there’s a lot to keep in mind between your abilities, loadouts, and companion skills, but don’t let throwables slip.
Along with that, always be stocked up on at least a couple of each type. They all serve a purpose in exploration and puzzle solving so they are great to have on hand.
Go to camp often
Camps serve a few purposes in Avowed. They are secondary fast travel points, let you fully recover your HP and MP, craft and upgrade your gear, and chat with your party members to get their opinions on events and learn more about them. After any quest or side quest, you will have at least one reason to visit camp and there’s no reason not to. Even if you’re in the middle of something else, you can fast travel to a camp, get your chores done, and then choose to get spat out back where you were instead of where the camp is located.
Sleeping also has a good chance of prompting scenes between you and the mysterious Voice that you don’t want to miss.
Follow your ears
Inside the city and out in the wilds, you will find yourself hearing a subtling jingling tone while roaming around. This indicates that treasure is afoot and you would be wise to take a detour to find its source. The sound gets louder as you get closer to the source, which could be as large as a treasure chest or as small as a lock box or backpack. Chests have different goodies in each, but typically have some money, crafting materials, and new equipment.
Also, if you overhear a conversation between NPCs that seems interesting, go check it out. Many small interactions are not marked as quests but are still little stories and events you can participate in that flesh out the world and can even influence future events in small ways.
Always carry lockpicks
Speaking of chests, there are some special treasures and doors that are locked and require one or more lockpicks to crack open. Unlike other games with lockpicks, there’s no minigame associated with cracking these locks. As long as you have the required number of lock picks, you can open them.
Lock picks aren’t exactly rare or expensive, but you will almost never find them as loot out in the world. Any time you’re in a city, check the merchants and buy their entire stock of lockpicks so you always have a surplus. There’s nothing worse than finding a massive treasure chest in a dungeon, realizing you can’t open it, and knowing you will probably never remember to go get the picks and find your way back to it.
