While BioWare hasn’t exactly been pumping out one content drop after another for Anthem, fans do have the Cataclysm event to look forward to. Now, for those playing on PC, the event is available on the PTS (Public Test Server) where a lot of planned changes are being tested by players. If you’re looking forward to some Anthem Cataclysm PTS info, you’ve come to the right place!

First off, Reddit user InfinityEagle1 posted a three-minute gameplay clip of Anthem Cataclysm PTS gameplay, and it does look better than what we’re used to.

If that’s not enough, Anthem subreddit member xJVIayhem posted a ton of Anthem Cataclysm PTS info regarding look, new items andlots more.

GM1 Comparisons

This comparison I will admit is going to make Live seem better, but there’s also a grain of salt to be remembered in this. I have not run GM1 Cataclysms since they fixed the bug that had Cataclysms being treated as Freeplay early on. From Dev statements, it should be similar to live. Again it is not here, because This is when Cataclysms were still in an early stage, so it’s closer to GM1 Freeplay (worse than Strongholds).

Here’s the data I have from live (1.1.1, last time I tested).

Across 13 runs at 90% Luck on GM1 HOR I got the following:

• 7 Legendaries
  • Gotten over 3 Hours, or 2.3 legendaries per hour.
  • 0.538 per run on average
  • 2.05% of all drops
• 41 Masterworks
  • Gotten over 3 hours, or 13.67 per hour
  • 3.154 per run on average
  • 12.02% of all drops.

As for PTS, Across 12 GM1 Cataclysms:

• 2 Legendaries
  • Gotten over 3 hours, or 0.67 per hour.
  • 0.167 per run on average
  • 1.24% of all drops
• 15 Masterworks
  • Over 3 hours, 5 per hour
  • 1.25 per run on average
  • 9.32% of all drops

Again, devs have stated this should be roughly the same as 90% luck on Live. So this isn’t really any cause for concern.

GM2 Data

GM2 is where it get interesting. Unfortunately on Live I had a hell of a time getting groups for GM2 anything. Nothing to compare against fairly, so this will just strictly be data, make what you will of it. I will say a lot of the Cataclysms I did in GM2 were score runs, so a lot of them are ~1.5 times longer (~20-25mins vs ~30-40mins). There are some that are also shorter, from the first week or so where only 3/7 events were active. Just things to keep in mind.

This however is where I’ve spent the majority of my time on PTS, outside of the occasional GM3 score run. GM2 feels very soloable atm, rough but soloable. There’s a handful of Strongholds here too, but no too many.

I got the following for the higher tier drops:

• 28 Legendaries
  • Over 16 hours, or 1.75 per hour. (skewed slightly down from score runs)
  • 0.757 per run on average
  • 2.72% of all drops
• 149 Masterworks
  • Over 16 hours, 9.3125 per hour
  • 4.027 per run on average
  • 14.49% of all drops

Now for the sake of fairness, I’ll also cover the same as above, but only for runs after the fixes toward Cataclysm Loot.

• 12 Legendaries
  • over 7.25 hours, 1.65 per hour
  • 1 per run on average
  • 2.23% of all drops
• 79 Masterworks
  • over 7.25 hours, 10.9 per hour
  • 6.583 per run on average
  • 14.68% of all drops

From personal experience, this felt great. I was getting decent loot, while also still building up score to get crystals for better loot in War Chests (more on those later). It felt much better than spamming GM1 HoR praying for a Legendary, In fact I start to expect one per run minimum. If you didn’t care about score, you can knock about an hour off that time spent for the extra 10 minutes spent visiting secrets for more score in about 6 runs.

GM3 Comparisions

Okay, so this might be slightly unbalanced, but it’s the best I have to go on for now. Live GM3 Freeplay (as of 1.1.1 at least), vs PTS GM3 Freeplay, Cataclysms and Strongholds. I visted each part a little bit here, but unfortunately, I am unable to solo the new Conjunction Events in Freeplay, which probably had a negative impact on my Freeplay loot.

Worth noting, that while collecting data in Freeplay, I’m not going for Raw MW/Legendaries per hour, rather how many I can get before i fill my inventory. So these numbers may not seem the absolute best or indicative of what you might see with a different playstyle or collection method.

90% Luck GM3 Freeplay (1.1.1):

• 8 Legendaries
  • over 3.25 hours, ~2.46 per hour
  • 2 per run on Average
  • 3.81% of all drops
• 20 Masterworks
  • over 3.25 hours, ~6.1 per hour.
  • 5 per run on average
  • 9.52% of all drops

PTS GM3 Content:

• 17 legendaries
  • over 10 hours, 1.7 per hour
  • 1 per run on average
  • 2.88% of all drops
• 128 Masterworks
  • over 10 hours, 12.8 per hour
  • 7.529 per run on average
  • 21.66% of all drops

Again, I also want to just highlight my run in GM3 Cataclysms from after the changes, despite this being only handful of runs. Across those runs it’s actually been pretty consistent for me.

• 6 legendaries
  • over 2.5 hours, 2.4 Legendaries per hour
  • 1.5 per run on average
  • 2.83% of all drops.
• 44 Masterworks
  • over 2.5 hours, 17.6 per hour
  • 11 per run on average
  • 20.75% of all drops.

Now it’s hard to honestly say if it’s worth it. personally i think it is. Running a Cataclysm for 25-30 minutes (about how long completion would take, running through all events) vs spamming strongholds on GM1 for an hour. I’d rather take the more challenging and rewarding content honestly!

Crystals, War Chests and New Items

Now regarding loot, there’s one key thing to keep in mind here. Cataclysms also reward you with Crystals which can get you a selection of things from the new Seasonal Store. For reference, a High score run, which takes ~35-40m regardless of difficulty rewards varying amount of crystals, depending on difficulty.

I’ll talk more about the events and scoring later, the important thing to know are what are currently the potential maximum scores, with all the events active (supposedly they won’t be right from the start). This ends up being around 8 million score in Gm2 and close to 12 million in GM3. You get 1 Minor Crystal per 1,000 score, so this equate to ~8k and 12k minor Crystals Specifically.

War Chests Grant you an Item that is either Masterwork (Power 66) or Legendary (Power 80). Each of these War Chests costs 1100 Minor Crystal, or 1 Major (costs 1k minor, can also get from dailies/weekly) and 100 Minor. So far from all of my pulls, the legendary chance has been bouncing between 10-15%. So I’ll just say 12.5% average for the sake of the maths coming up.

With a cost of 1,100 minor Crystal, this means you get ~7 Pulls from Gm2 Score runs, and ~11 from Gm3. With those War Chests, This means you have the potential to get another Legendary item from those runs. ~61% for a GM2 run and ~77% for a GM3 run to get a legendary from the given rolls. This does not account for any crystal from Dailies (which every clear due to a repeatable daily grants enough for an extra pull) or other means of crystal.

According to the poster, players shouldn’t expect to get the items they want in War Chests. These things are categorized, however, which makes farming for specific classes easier. Currently there are three boxes that are available, which are for Support, Melee and Weapon Slots. Each box will have eight, eight, and six items respectively, and they contain only new items.

While we have to wait to see the new weapons, check out some of the melee examples below.

As for melee here’s some images and for those that can’t view the images, the details are also included!

Colossus Melee

Type A: Seismic Glove (Current melee) Name: Earthshaker Type/Combo: Physical, Detonator MW Perk: Sends out a shockwave that damages enemies in front of you.

Type B: Inferno Glove (New!) Name: Meteor Smash Type/Combo: Fire, Primer MW Perk: Cracks the earth, igniting flames around your feet that burn nearby enemies. (creates a Fire DoT on the ground) This is the melee you may have seen earlier in this post about the new Cataclysm weather effects.

Interceptor Melee

Type A: Twin Blades (Current) Name: Blades of Warding Type/Combo: Physical, Detonator MW Perk: Hitting an enemy grants 10% increased damage resistance for 10 seconds. Stacks to 5.

Type B: Venomous Blades Name: Deathstalker Blades Type/Combo: Acid, Primer MW Perk: Deals Additional damage against enemies below 50% health

Ranger Melee

Type A: Shock Mace (Current) Name: Transmuting Volt Type/Combo: Electric, Primer MW Perk: Hitting an Enemy adds 3 Ultimate Charge.

Type B: Seismic Mace Name: Rampager Type/Combo: Physical, Detonator MW Perk: Hitting an enemy grants 10% increased damage for 10 seconds. Stacks to 5.

Storm Melee

Type A: Explosive Strike (Current) Name: Searing Blast Type/Combo: Fire, Detonator MW Perk: Sends out a fireball that seeks Enemies (Discount Living Flame, basically. Does not Prime/Detonate currently, just extra damage)

Type B: Shocking Strike Name: Lightning Surge Type/Combo: Electric, Primer MW Perk: Hitting an Enemy restores 40% shields.

Finally, it’s time to dive into the Cataclysm event itself. Note that if you play Anthem and absolutely do not want anything spoiled, don’t read any further.

The Cataclysm

Now it’s time to talk about the main course, if you will. The Cataclysm itself. It’s been stated the Cataclysm will start a 3 events and the boss, and work it’s way up to the full 7 with boss adding 1 event per week. (this is subject to possible change though).

The Cataclysm functions as an open-ended Stronghold, more or less. Each area has a different task or puzzle to complete. Some are just kill events, others are simple puzzles, some use Echoes for a bit of complexity. Each event you complete within the Cataclysm rewards you with Extra time in the Cataclysm, extra time your javelin can be in the Cataclysm safely without use of a protective area and most importantly, loot.

The area itself is littered in secrets and bonus points. So exploration is very worthwhile, especially if you want more crystals to open more War Chests.

As you may have seen earlier, there have also been massive visual improvements to the Cataclysm. Overall, it’s looking fantastic now compared to the early build on the devstream.

I have a Complete Text guide for the Entirely of the Cataclysm and it’s events/secrets over on AHQ Boards. Worth checking out if you want a better idea. Currently in progress of adding images to the guide and updating the map with a newer look with the release of the July 3rd update adding the probably final map.

The Story

Along side this even are a few new Story quests that lead into the events of the Cataclysm. I won’t say much on them to avoid spoiling them, but they were pretty good imo. They feature a couple cinematics, and explain the general story behind the cataclysm, how it starts, how you get there and why you want to stop it. One of the quests actually has you fighting quite a few Apex monsters (you might want to run that one on the highest difficulty you can).

It was decently enjoyable and a good intro to the Cataclysm itself.

The Mechanics

Once you leave the initial starting bubble, you get ~30 seconds of protection from the Cataclysm. After this, you start taking about 10% of your Armor as damage every second. There are a few way to migrate this damage though. Obviously you can still heal via components and repair packs. You can also recover your protection in one of two ways, Anthem Energy (which drops from killed enemies), and the Bubbles you can shoot which cover the whole event arena. These will also recover your Stability in addition to protecting you, but you get less score for kills while in these bubbles.

As far as scoring, you get 10 point per normal enemy, 100 per Elite and 1000 per Legendary/Named enemy. There are also several tiers of Anthem Energy which also reward score when picked up. Green (exclusive to kills) gives 10 points, blue is 200, Purple 300, and Orange (exclusive to secrets) 500.

These base point values are then multiplied by your current score multiplier, which starts at 1x, and increases by 1 for each event completed. This multiplier is doubled while in the storm (not in a protective bubble). The highest Multiplier you can achieve is 16x, one all events are completed.

Once you Kill Vara, your Score is doubled, then multiplied by a given difficulty modifier. Currently in GM2 this is ~5x, Gm3 is ~7.5x. The final score you get as a result of this is divided by 1,000 and given to you as Minor Crystals.

So the goal is to complete as many events as you can, then kill Vara for maximum score.

Finally, there will be freeplay events set to be rolled out whenever Cataclysm is released as well. There’s what the user calls a “mini-horde” mode that are timed, which lasts roughly 15 minutes. Once you complete a horde, you’re given time to rest and regoup before another one starts somewhere else on the map.

Well, there you have it. This is the most detailed info we have of the Cataclysm and what’s coming with it so far. Will this be enough to bring back Anthem? For BioWare’s sake, let’s hope this is a good start.

In other Anthem news, go check out some of the upcoming armor sets and skins found in the game files.