Yes, it's a shame... the gameplay in Anthem is so amazing in this game. Haven't played anything like it since. I have spent quite some time with other titles and did a few videos, but never uploaded anything as I never felt they contributed anything special for each title I have played since Anthem.

Personally I love the whole atmosphere in The Sunken Cell the most out of all the Strongholds and that roar just adds to the already dark vibe of that dungeon. The overall sound design in this game is awesome. I especially like how each Javelin "feels" unique not just by its individual gameplay mechanics and movement but by the whole sound design as well.

The development of "Anthem 2.0" or "Anthem Next" which was supposed to overhaul the game was stopped. And no more new content is being released. Still, I played the same things over and over because I really enjoy the gameplay very much. But at some point the servers started acting up constantly and I got errors all the time. It was a pain in the ass to even get one mission going. I had long discussions with EA support about it and tried a bunch of things but nothing worked. So eventually I moved on to play other games and haven't tried playing Anthem again since then. Actually, I haven't played and EA game since they forced their horrible desktop app on PC players and restricted us from sticking with Origin (which wasn't good either but not as bad as that new app).

@@XCPTNL I'm playing on Playstation, and I think it's unlikely that old players will come back to play Anthem. All daily rewards have been reduced. There's no motivation for old players anymore.

Yes, it's really sad they cancelled the overhaul. Could have been great if done properly but we'll probably never know...

Yes, the Elemental Ops component applies acid on a 5-hit streak.

It's a mix of parts from different three armor sets. Three out of the four parts are from sets that were only obtainable as rewards during seasonal events in 2019 and unfortunately you can't get them anymore now.

@@XCPTNL okay, thank you annyway 👋👍

Since you can't set Strongholds to private I usually had to try a couple of times. It's annoying because it always takes a while to end matchmaking and start you off solo. Sometimes people would join midgame via quickplay and I put a lot of them on my blocklist to increase chances of staying solo throughout the whole level. I also usually recorded at odd hours, like in the morning local time which usually had less players online overall.

We got an anthem group with the top players 70+ rn so send gamer tags for invite

Glad you liked the videos. Hopefully your return to Anthem goes smoothly. Personally, I haven't played Anthem in quite a long time now ever since the servers started acting up for me regularly. I also had a few problems with the EA App and at some point it wasn't so easily possible to skip it and keep Origin instead. I've played some other games extensively since Anthem but so far have never gotten into making videos for them...

@@XCPTNLThanks! I hope so too 🙏😂 What other games have you been playing?

Since Anthem the (loot/coop) games I spent the most time with were Outriders, Remnant: From The Ashes as well as Remnant II and most recently Helldivers 2. And in terms of singleplayer games my favorite one of recent years is Returnal.

@@XCPTNL Ooo good choices! I'm hoping to get a PS5 soon, I'd love to give Helldivers a try. I've never heard of Returnal before, I'll check it out. Hope you have fun and enjoy them 🤟

Helldivers 2 is just crazy fun. Contrary to Anthem I played coop with friends probably 90% or more of the time in all those other games I mentioned and spent only a small amount of time playing solo. And yes, go check Returnal out. If you end up getting a PS5 maybe it's a game that interests you. It was a PS5 exclusive early on I think and got a PC port 2 years later that came out last year.

The game was in much worse shape when it launched and did a lot of important things wrong, mainly a messed system how loot works as well as a lack of endgame content. Thhey fixed quite a fe bugs, expanded the game a bit but ultimately it was not enough. Many people agree there was a lot of potential and the foundation was solid in many areas. So it came quite as a surprise when the rework "Anthem Next" was eventually cancelled and it's still unclear why exactly.

I gave them a chance to not fight me, but they kept on coming 🤪

I can't remember the details after such a long time. I know the white is a bit lighter than the default that you can choose from the color palette. The same with the black. I somehow managed to get them lighter/darker with some materials and then kept on always using these versions from the options of recently used colors.

@@XCPTNL Ah ok well thanks, do you still play the game? because I love your videos and tried to attain your builds but I’m stuck on gm1 for strongholds so I don’t get many legendary drops and the tombs give me copies of stuff I have

No, I haven't played in a long time. The servers were acting up so much at some point it was really annoying to even get a single mission started and EA support couldn't really help me. Everything was fine in other games so eventually I just stopped playing Anthem completely unfortunately.

I was playing at 3440x1440 resolution (so not quite 4k but ultrawide 1440p aka UWQHD) with a RTX 2080 GPU. I haven't played Anthem for quite a long time now, mainly for 2 reasons: at first the server started acting up more and more and I had frequent troubles within the game. On top of that EA replaced their Origin client with the EA app which is complete garbage and causes all kinds of trouble. In the beginning you could still use Origin but they have aggressively moved against various ways to keep Origin and force people to use the EA app instead. I don't even have it installed anymore and don't play any EA games because of it. And while I usually would recommend playing on PC in general I can't in this case because of their messed up app. Best weapon in the game is Ralner's Blaze with high damage rolls to increase the fire DoT. The secondary is usually just a stat stick that provides armor, gear recharge, jav-wide damage or something like that. Most weapons suck on GM3 purely as weapons unfortunately but a few can be useful for certain things like proccing a buff. In terms of actually being used as a weapon to deal damage I also like Vassa's Surprise which I have been using on my Rangers.

There is always room for improvement but with the RNG being this bad in this game I don't see a way to actually have everything set up in a perfect way. I once created my optimal builds on paper a long time ago. I haven't played the game in quite a while now since I always ran into server issues with pilot data errors at some point and support couldn't fix the problem. At this point I don't even have the EA app installed anymore because it's such a piece of crap :(

@@XCPTNL yeah I bought it a while back on sale. I wanted to beat the game an farm weapons but I heard the RNG really really bad.

Unfortunately the RNG in this game is really horrible. Strongholds usually have the highest chance of dropping legendary items but level 80 gear only drops in GM3 and I imagine it can be quite difficult these days to find a team to breeze through them. Your best bet (after reaching pilot level 30) is to (a) buy specific items you need in the Regulator Store when they show up with coins you receive for completing daily and weekly challenges as well as to (b) craft legendary items with tokens (also rewarded for certain challenges) in the tombs but there is way more RNG involved. Make sure to join freeplay in GM3 if you are going to the tombs. And (c) farm crystals in seasonal strongholds and save them for when universal components are available at the Seasonal Store.

@@XCPTNL thank you, you really do care :) i will try !

Yes. Featured Store is on a 13-week rotation, changing tuesdays and fridays (armor sets on friday). Unfortunately not everything that was once released is still available, quite a few things are missing. Regulator Store and Seasonal Store rotate weekly on tuesdays.

OK thank you

I haven't played the game for some time now. Armor parts are: The Ambassador's Hood, The Ambassador's Torso, Asari Arms, Asari Legs

​@@XCPTNL OK thank you

A lot of playtime and extensively farming the Tomb of Yvenia and Seasonal Store for universal components as well as spending coins at the Regulator Store for a few specific items. But the 35/25 godrolled combo damage components are really standing out, I agree with that.

@@XCPTNL love grinding this game tbh

Of course this is GM3. Check the damage numbers, the gear and compare it to other videos. Several buffs and debuffs active, turrets are armor so especially vulnerable with the triple combo setup. Just try it yourself if you have somewhat equally strong gear. This video is also pretty old, I have made newer ones with improved gear. In the seasonal stronghold videos you should also be able to see the GM3 icon if for some reason you care about that.

His Interceptor's Power Level is literally 960. Plus his combos are very well timed and aimed. It is GM3, numbers alone prove it. Also, watch his other videos, he does an even faster run on Ranger Javelin.

Glad you liked it 😎

Thanks. I like this stronghold the most 😎

Yes, it's a pity they gave up on this. There's a solid base and with the right people this would have been a success I think. But it is what it is unfortunately. My favorite is Interceptor, which is also the one I started out with and have the most hours of playtime with.

@@XCPTNL Thank you for responding. I really enjoy your gameplay. Have a good one brother.

As someone who started playing it late 2023 I completely agree. Such a shame that this game is dead with no hopes for a comeback..

It's a wild mix of gear that dropped ingame, stuff I got from buying a lot of the same items in the Regulator Store when they were in rotation and spending millions of crystals in the Seasonal Store on universal components as well as crafting them in the tomb whenever I have tokens.

Indeed there is lots of good stuff there. Too bad they messed too many things up and EA apparently didn't believe it could be saved with a makeover.

Did you maybe miss a time limit? Especially the last area is tricky with the timer because it already starts way before the boss arena.

@@XCPTNL no, it was the puzzle at the bottom we forgot. We pulling 15x on average now.

So one more is missing. Maybe a golden orb somwhere since they can spawn in various spots. If you can't find what's missing from my videos you could take a look at the written guides I should have linked in the video description. There is a bit more info in them about various spawn locations for orbs and the grabbit items and such.

Glad if some of the stuff helps you out. Enjoy the game!

For every stronghold I finished solo there are probably 20-30 runs that were interrupted by other people joining via quickplay. Unfortunately you can't do much about it. What worked best for me was usually playing at odd hours for my region and having an ignore list that is basically always at its limit. Whenever I was recording and someone joined, I ususally put them on the ignore list and restarted. It's a pain in the ass that we can't just set this game mode to private or even "friends only" or something.

@@XCPTNL That totally makes sense. I tried to emulate some solo runs to give myself a test and it just seemed to never work, so I just stopped, but it's not a big deal🤷🏿‍♂️. I was just curious.

Smashing frozen enemies is just so much fun...

@@XCPTNL It really is. Now I just need to get the right setup.

It's my favorite mission in the game so I picked it for a video with the javelin I almost never play to make it more enjoyable 😆

Thanks... we recently got there!

Ranger can be a lot of fun, especially for single target combo damage 😎

@@XCPTNL yes ranger fo high damage dingle target but i prefer colossus for less struggle also for crowd control combo damage so sarisfying lol

I haven't played in quite a long time now because of constant errors with pilot data related stuff to which support has no solution. I was thinking about optimizing routes and such in the past but since it is so frustrating that certain game modes can't be set to private and people often join via quickplay in the middle of a run I stopped thinking about such challenges unfortunately.

@@XCPTNL I understand you. That's why I often delete random players to do solo speedruns. If Stronghold had a private function, it would be able to test more free competition and ability. All solo speedrunners will agree.

Very hard to say since it's very subjective and comes down to personal preference. Colossus is great for soloing for example but personally I don't get along with it very well. That's my personal style though since I always pick fast movement over heavy armor in any game and rather suck at playing heavy/slow characters in other games as well. I'd probably argue for Interceptor being the most versatile but I'm biased because I play Interceptor since day one and the speed and agility suit me very well. Other players may struggle much more with it though, especially when it comes to survivability in solo play when all enemies are targeting just one player. Of course everything is very dependent on the gear and inscriptions available to each player. In general Colossus and Storm are more focused on AoE damage and crowd control while Ranger and Interceptor deal more single target damage towards elites and bosses. When playing solo it's usually wise to balance the loadout a bit and not use "extreme" builds that mainly focus on just one thing (which can be great in group play).

Never too late to start having some fun with this game 😎

By playing the game an absurd amount of hours since launch - farming a lot of gear and ressources like crystals, coins and tokens for crafting items in the tombs and buying stuff in the stores in Fort Tarsis.

@@XCPTNL Thank you

@@palloblas i played for 4 months n lvl 960 colossus u get legendary in Gm3 strongholds mostly also if u new learn to combo damage things= (prime / detonator)

@@Gamerhopper ty 👍😉😀

Thank you. I still love Anthem but I haven't played in quite a while and have no more videos coming right now unfortunately.

@@XCPTNL That’s very understandable. Thank you for making so much for this game!

I'd like to play the game again from time to time and maybe do some videos but 90% of the time I try to play I get all kinds of live service and pilot data errors. I tried to solve the problems with EA support in the past but nothing changed and it's a very annoying problem.

There is none in my opinion. Each has its own pros and cons. Storm and Colossus can be amazing at clearing groups fast but might struggle with high single target damage in a short amount of time like a Ranger or Interceptor can dish out. In the end it's also up to the pilots and how comfortable they are playing each. And in the end a lot also depends on the RNG luck and what builds a player is able to make.

Unfortunately that's rather unlikely nowadays since I currently don't have a lot of time to play any games and I haven't been playing Anthem in quite a while as well. If I find the time for gaming I'm usually playing coop (in a different game) with a close friend.

Thanks, glad you liked it and maybe found it helpful.

I don't have a clip but as far as I can remember I have used the "high" preset for graphics settings which is one step down from the maximum which seemed to cause some problems for me and others I was playing with in the beginning. Not much else going on... I have set all FOV sliders to the max and I'm running the game in borderless windowed mode at 3440x1440 resolution on a 34" ultrawide 21:9 monitor.

@@XCPTNL Thanks for the info! Am doing a fresh install now, going to reset everything to default and just use the high presets then.

The problem with speedruns is the inability to set anything other than contracts and legendary contracts to private mode. And these feature an amount of random events. Doing it for strongholds would be great but it's hard as it is to get any run completed without the game throwing some other player in via quickplay. We did runs for build guides up until after the titan in HoR and even that was often not that easy to get done without being interrupted.

@@XCPTNL That used to be true. But, nowadays, it is a lot easier to do solo speedruns if you're okay to add random players to ignore list or block them. But, I do understand the frustration associated with having a random player join during the run.

Haha yes, my ignore list is full most of the time and I've had to delete older entries regularly when I was playing a lot. But I haven't played in a while now - mostly because I have been running into server issues since last winter. Sometimes it works just fine but at other times I constantly get pilot data errors and other stuff and can barely do anything related to inventory and such without getting yet another disconnect, throwback to the title screen and another error message. All while other online games work just fine of course. I might play again sonn after a minor upgrade to my current PC before I eventually build an entire new one. So maybe I'll do more runs and see about optimizing them to be more efficient. Most of the time though I enjoy watching speedruns of some other games more than actually engaging in speedrunning myself since I usually just want to have fun when gaming. I think Legendary Missions might be worth a look at in terms of speedrunning them. Usually other players can only join in the beginning and if you can manage to stay solo it remains that way until the end. Of course the problem with these is the rotation - so you can only practice and run the same one over and over and then it will be unavailable until it rotates back in on a particular day.

You can't get them anymore unfortunately

I love it as well despite its flaws...

Unfortunately there aren't that many builds that are GM3 viable. At least not in an effective way while being safe when playing solo. A bit more variety if you are playing in a group or even just one other player I guess. But then you still need to have the proper gear with useful inscriptions on it to make that build happen. Even then... even if a build may work out (maybe even solo) you may just end up not liking the way it plays. Most of the time I end up experimenting with variations on existing builds rather than making new ones. I'd like to test this Storm with a shotgun as a secondary and Acid Slugs but I need both a good shotgun and the Acid Slugs component with fitting inscriptions before I can really test that setup.

@@XCPTNL I use black ice and eternal squall combo a lot. Black ice primes targets in an area and Eternal squall detonates and primes, then you can detonate again

Rainmaker. Unfortunately it's not as useful anymore as it used to be at launch before it was nerfed but I wanted to see if I could make some use of it in the fights that are annoying for fire damage based builds.

@@XCPTNL it did some crazy damage, do u have certain components for it or is it just the weapon perks

There are some sigils for the "new" weapons that weren't in the game at launch but I'm not using any of them since I need these slots for fire damage and gear recharge speed. I think I might have been using an ultimate damage sigil in this run as well - but nothing specifically for the weapon. The javelin-wide damage helps with weapon damage though.

Interceptor

I found these recordings from earlier this year and decided to upload them. Not quite sure where to go from here though 😆