Just a few weeks ago, we reported that Anthem will have three Stronghold missions available at launch. For those not familiar with it, Stronghold missions are some of the game’s endgame activities, and will require a four-man team to coordinate with each other to complete. Think of them as a shorter version of Destiny’s Raids, though it’s definitely longer and meatier than Destiny’s Strike missions.

If you find that three Anthem Stronghold missions out of the gate is a tad too few, don’t worry too much as BioWare has confirmed that they want to add more Anthem Strongholds “as soon as possible,” and mentions that if they indeed add ’em, these missions will be free! This was revealed by Anthem Producer Ben Irving during a Discord chat with fans.

Ben Irving: We want to add more strongholds as soon as possible and then continue to do so.

Oh and when we add them they’ll be free.

In the same chat, Irving confirmed that BioWare will revamp the stat screen after every end of mission, and mentions how the UI “needs some love.”

Ben Irving: We we know the UI needs some love, the first phase of that will be in at launch, however I don’t think that’ll address the issue you outlined but we want to make that better after launch. Being a very loot based game we need to be much better at getting you the information in the easiest way.

Regarding an Anthem horde mode, Irving says that it has been discussed though they’ve got some other stuff to do before it gets implemented — if at all.

Ben Irving: It’s been discussed. I think we’ve got some other things to check off first though.

Lastly, Irving has also confirmed that BioWare has looked into endless dungeons or something of the sort, and adds that they are “SUPER difficult.”

Ben Irving: Yes and it is SUPER difficult.

That’s very welcome news regarding Strongholds, right? Let’s hope BioWare can churn these out soon-ish since you just know how some players will be gunning to finish e’m ASAP.

In other Anthem news, BioWare has cleared the air regarding microtransactions in the game, and also confirmed that guilds won’t be available at launch.

Source: Reddit

If you’ve played the Anthem demo and completed a mission, chances are you might have seen an Alliance bonus when it comes to XP. Now if you’re not familiar to what it is, and what constituted the bonus, here’s the official explanation.

BioWare Producer Ben Irving posted a message on Reddit announcing that Anthem guilds won’t be available at launch, and what the Anthem Alliance system is, and how it works.

The Alliance System – “What is That & How Does it Work?”

The Alliance system is a way for you and your friends to be rewarded for playing the game. Anytime you complete an expedition (Mission, Contract, Freeplay, Stronghold) you earn experience. That experience also goes into the Alliance system. Even better, the experience from the OTHER people in your group also goes into the alliance system. Even better STILL, players on your friends list who play without you – THEIR experience also goes into the Alliance System.

At the end of every week, you are awarded Coin (our in-game earned currency, used to purchase various items throughout the game) based on how much experience was contributed to the Alliance System. There are several tiers you can work through each week as well as a weekly cap. We want to encourage players to form friendships and play together and we’ve created the Alliance System to do just that!

Guilds – “What About Those?”

The short answer is, Guilds will not be available at launch. While we believe the Alliance System is a great way to encourage social interaction with Anthem, we also understand Guilds play a critical role in helping players form organized groups with people of similar interests and play styles. Our goal is to release guilds as soon after launch as we can. Details on timing will come as soon as we have our plan locked in. We want this to be awesome.

In other Anthem news, make sure to check out how combos work in the game via this handy cheat sheet graphic. BioWare has also cleared the air when it comes to Anthem microtransactions, which you should read about here.

If you’re playing Anthem on PC and find the flight controls, and even the UI (user interface) a tad harder than it needs to be, you’re not alone. Thankfully, BioWare has already modified how the Anthem PC controls for flight work, as well as the UI.

Over on Reddit, Producer Ben Irving posted the changes BioWare has made to the game’s PC controls and UI at launch. Yes, unfortunately, these changes won’t be felt in the demo that’s on-going now.

Anthem PC Controls – Aiming and Flight Changes:

Aiming

• Raw Mouse Input Fixed
  • We found and fixed a bug that caused the symptom of negative acceleration

Flight and Swimming

• Increase Available Range for Mouse Sensitivity Options
  • Flight and swim sensitivity sliders now allow for more than double the range it offered before. This allows different mouse DPI settings (specifically extremely high or low) to better fit into our in-game swim/flight sensitivity settings.
• PC Flight Box is now a Circle
  • PC Flight Cursor is now constrained by a circle boundary instead of a box. This allows better turn/speed management as the distance away from center dot (which dictates the speed of your turn) is always the same maximum amount in any direction.
• Added Auto-Centering for PC Flight
  • Added auto-centering behavior on swimming and flying by default for PC.
  • When mouse input stops (after a delay) the crosshair will automatically return to center.
• Resolved bug with Sprint/Fly on Button Press
  • We’ve resolve a jittering/FX spam issue bug that players would receive when playing with hold-to-fly(rather than toggle) option for flight.
• Raw Mouse Input is now achievable in PC Flight
  • By setting Flight/Swim Response and Precision settings sliders to 0% you can now achieve raw mouse input.
• Default Flight and Swim Sensitivity Settings Updated
  • All default PC flight and swim sensitivity settings are now tuned to 1200 DPI instead of 1800 DPI.
  • Default flight and swim sensitivity changed from 50% and 35% respectively, to both being 40%.
    • This is the same as having both set to 100% with our previous sensitivity tuning, and since swimming was lower sensitivity than flight it’s seen an even bigger boost in responsiveness at default settings.
• Tuned Flight/Swim Response and Precision Default Settings and Curves
  • The defaults are now much closer to raw mouse input.
  • Adjusted defaults for Precision / Response:
    • 25% for flight and swim precision down to 15%
    • 50% for flight and swim response down to 30%
  • Tweaked flight and swim response to ease into the slowing down behavior close to center in a less steep way than before.

Anthem UI PC Changes:

Summary

We have made numerous updates to menu and Forge navigation with mouse and keyboard on PC since the Demo build. In Early Access (15th Feb), you will see improvements like using Q and E to navigate tabs and being able to drill into menus by clicking the visible options on the right side (except Social menus which are coming for the Worldwide Launch 22nd Feb). In the Forge you will notice that rotating and zooming your character are more responsive.

We are also working on improving our graphics options on PC. For Worldwide Launch (22nd Feb) the issues with Motion Blur will be addressed along with adding an option to toggle HDR on or off. We are adding the ability to adjust camera shake with a slider to help alleviate any issues with motion sickness for Worldwide launch (Feb 22). We are also actively investigating adding an FOV slider to the game. We understand the importance of this option for a large numbers of players. In addition we are investigating adding options for FPS Limit and HDR Brightness in future patches. More information on that when we have it.

List of Changes for Launch (15th Feb / 22nd Feb)

• UI Clicking on visible options in menus fixed for 15th Feb (except social which is 22nd Feb)
• Navigating Menu tabs with Q and E instead of old keybindings fixed for 15th Feb
• Forge rotation speed with mouse improved – 15th Feb
• Scrolling with mouse wheel wont zoom your javelin AND scroll the menu (will be contextual based on where your mouse is) – 15th Feb
• D-Pad will show as keyboard bindings – 15th Feb
• Turning off Motion Blur in settings now works (decoupled from post processing) – 22nd Feb
• HDR toggle available – 22nd Feb
• Camera Shake slider added – 22nd Feb

In other Anthem news, go check out how the primers and detonators work in the game in this handy cheat sheet. Also of note, if you’re worried about microtransactions in Anthem, let BioWare put a dash on that with their confirmation on how it works.

Source: Reddit (1, 2)

While Anthem might seem like your typical third-person shooter at first glance, the game’s combat system is a lot more nuanced than simply pointing a gun, and shooting at a target. Sure, that’ll work, but if you want to inflict massive damage on the game’s enemies, you’ll want to learn how to properly do Anthem combos.

In Anthem, abilities are categorized into two paths, and they are “primers” and “detonators.” Each character has a specialty in terms of gear and whether they’re good at priming enemies, and/or detonating ’em. If you’re unfamiliar with how it works, or need a quick guide, you’re in luck! Thanks to Twitter user/YouTuber FireDragon04 has designed a quick and handy graphic that explains Anthem combos, and how to tell if an ability is a primer or detonator! Check the image below (thanks to Matt Needler for giving us permission to use it!).

What’s awesome here is, the graphic above can be used in the demo set to start later today, and in the final game! Handy, right?

In other Anthem news, you can check out details regarding the demo right here. We also posted our hands-on impressions if you’re interested, and even wrote up a feature on what we think the game needs to improve on based on the demo.

More Anthem Reading on MP1st:

• BioWare Clears Air Regarding Anthem Microtransactions, Confirms Players Won’t Be Able to Buy Crafting Materials With Real Money
• Anthem Post Launch Plans to Include New Enemies, New Area, Different Weather States and More
• BioWare Gives Second Vinyl as Anthem VIP Demo Reward, Unlocks All 4 Javelins

With Anthem set to be playable by everyone later today as it’s open demo starts, some players might be wondering what features the game has that BioWare isn’t making available in the demo. We know that the social hub called the Launch Bay is one, and how the Anthem microtransactions stuff is another.

BioWare has already confirmed before that Anthem microtransactions will involve cosmetics and cosmetics only. While we’ve seen how some items will be priced, BioWare has also confirmed that any in-game price of cosmetics aren’t set in stone, and will be changing almost daily.

Just to clear the air once and for all, BioWare General Manager Casey Hudson has gone on Twitter to address the Anthem microtransactions for those who might be worried.

Sounds good, right? Mind, I’m expecting some badass Anthem cosmetic stuff to make their way that will only be available via real world money, but at least it’s nothing game-breaking, right?

On a related note, if you’re wondering if BioWare will allow crafting materials in Anthem to be purchased using real world money, the answer is a big “NO.” This was answered by Executive Producer Mark Darrah who gave a curt, and straight to the point, “no” when asked.

This is good news, right? At least this way, “whales” and those who spend real world money won’t be able to one-up people who actually play the game and are, y’know, actually good at at.

In other Anthem news, don’t forget, the Anthem demo is set to start later today! Here’s a link explaining everything you need to know along with the download links.

More Anthem Reading on MP1st:

• Top 5 Anthem Improvements We Want to See Based on the Demo
• Anthem Post Launch Plans to Include New Enemies, New Area, Different Weather States and More
• Anthem Demo Early Impressions – Rage Against the Machine