Taking on board some Avowed tips before you set off across the Living Lands will help stand you in good stead, as life isn't easy when you're a Godlike and there are plenty of stern challenges ahead of you. As with other RPGs, Avowed has its own set of systems and mechanics to learn, which can feel a little overwhelming at first when you try to take it all in. To get you started on the right foot, we've put together these essential Avowed tips we wish we'd known from the beginning ourselves – whether it's avoiding unwinnable fights, gathering extra resources, or discovering the lore of the world around us.
1. Pay attention to the skull icons next to quests and enemies
In Avowed, enemies don't scale according to your level and instead have a fixed power that you have to meet or exceed for a fair fight. If you see skulls next to a quest in your journal or an enemy's health bar, that means you might face a bit of challenge. The more skulls you see, the harder the challenge, with two skulls being very dangerous and three skulls meaning it's not even worth trying. But, as you upgrade your gear, you'll notice that the number of skulls for a quest or enemy should lower or vanish entirely, which means that quest or enemy is now a much more appropriate challenge to take on.
2. Early on, focus on using just a handful of weapons and stick to one skill tree
Avowed has a ton of options when it comes to builds, but I recommend keeping your focus simple and narrow for your first several hours of playing. I started my Avowed playthrough dabbling mainly in Wizard and a bit of Fighter, using a sword and grimoire and it was quite a challenge since I didn't have good gear that synergized well and lacked reliable skills.
I recommend sticking to following just one of the three skill trees up until about level 10. Furthermore, the game throws a lot of different weapon types at you, and I think it's best to stick to just one loadout that suits whichever skill tree you purse so that you aren't wasting upgrade materials on weapons you aren't using. Once you've got some solid skills and have some bolstered weapons, you can think about branching out and coming up with a more unique build if you feel like it.
3. Use stealth attacks where possible for massive damage
You can make things easier for yourself in combat by getting the drop on an enemy with a stealth attack, which harnesses your Godlike powers to deal a huge amount of damage in a single powerful Divine Thorn strike. While crouching in Cover Grass can help you to avoid being spotted, you can still perform stealth attacks out in the open as long as you're crouched and get up behind an enemy undetected then follow the prompt. If you're facing a group of enemies then be aware that your first stealth attack is likely to reveal your position to the others, so try to target the biggest opponent if possible to get the maximum benefit of the increased damage.
4. Assign your best abilities to the D-Pad
The quick slots bound to the D-Pad allow you to quickly use a skill, companion ability, or health or essence potion without having to open the Action Radial menu (LB). Being able to quickly deploy your best abilities in an emergency is a huge help in maintaining the flow of combat, so you want to assign your abilities wisely. Limited quick slots means you'll be using the Action Radial a lot anyway, but I recommend assigning health potions for rapid recovery and some of your own abilities or your companions' abilities that are most useful in combat – Kai's leap and Marius' vines are good options!
5. Dodging in combat is the best way to avoid taking damage
During combat, you can hold down the Block button (LT on an Xbox controller) to deflect incoming attacks, but only if your Off Hand is empty or you're holding a shield – meaning blocking will be ineffective for certain loadouts. Even if this option is available to you, certain enemies will have unblockable attacks represented by a red circle just before they strike, so you should practice dodging as this is the best way to guarantee avoiding taking damage. To do this, press A (Xbox controller) while moving sideways or backwards to dodge in that direction, which often has the added bonus of leaving your opponent briefly vulnerable after evading their attack so you can get a blow of your own in.
6. Smash all of the breakable crates you see to find loot
Keep an eye out for breakable crates as you explore, which are highlighted by an icon of a vase with a crack in it when you look at them. Hit them with a melee weapon to smash them open, as some will contain loot including currency, food, and more. Not all crates contain items and those that do are generally low value, but it costs nothing to do this and your finds adds up over time.
7. Collect every weapon you find and break them down
When looking at weapons and armor in your inventory, you can hold X (Xbox controller) to break down gear into a couple of upgrade materials, and you should be doing this for any item you aren't using regularly. You need to be getting upgrade materials all the time to improve your gear and boost your combat power, and loose weapons are a great option for this. However, you should sell boots and gloves you don't need to merchants to get money, which you can also spend on upgrade materials from those same merchants.
8. Forage for food and eat it to save your potions
Health and essence potions are fairly rare, especially in the early part of your adventure, so you should ensure that you're always foraging for food and gathering up the various edible items you find on your journey. These will give you a boost to health, essence, or both, so check their descriptions to see what they will do for you. Consuming food during combat will cause its effect to be applied more slowly than when you're just walking around, so be prepared to run for cover or use your companion as a distraction while you gradually heal – if you've run out of potions then this may be the only option available to you.
9. Send items from your inventory directly to your camp stash to avoid encumbrance
If you've been following the standard RPG approach of hoovering up every single weapon and item you see, then it's likely you're going to be hindered by encumbrance at some point when the overall weight of that loot exceeds your carry capacity. However, this can easily be resolved by opening your Inventory and hovering over any items you don't currently need then following the 'Stash in Camp' prompt (X on Xbox controller) in the corner of the screen to magically teleport it off to the Stash in your Avowed Party Camp for later retrieval.
10. Visit your Party Camps often to upgrade and recuperate
One you start establishing Party Camps around the map, you can easily access them at almost any point by using Avowed fast travel. You should visit them regularly as there are lots of useful functions you can perform at your camp, with the most importantly probably being to upgrade items in Avowed and improve your weapons and armor, along with resting to fully recover your health and essence without consuming any resources. You should also make sure you regularly check in with your companions at camp, as they will sometimes offer a training session to improve your skills, as well as dialogue that will further your potential Avowed romance.
11. Use Dialogue History & Lore to better understand conversations
You're going to be doing a lot of talking with plenty of different characters in Avowed, and while you're learning the lay of the Living Lands it can be quite confusing keeping track of the various factions involved and all of the new terms you've never heard before. To help with this, follow the 'Dialogue History & Lore' prompt in the bottom right corner of the screen, which will pop up a menu where you can check the definition and get further details on any of the terms highlighted in your conversations – useful if you don't know your Deadfire from your Dreamscourge!
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