Gaming
Anthem has been available to play on various platforms for a few weeks now, so a lot of you are already in or heading towards the endgame, which you'll enter after around 20 to 25 hours of shooting and swooping through the campaign. Higher difficulties will open up, enemies will become much, much tougher to kill, and your Javelin will suddenly feel remarkably squishy.
The only way to survive at this stage is to begin optimising your build. Whether you favour the lightning-fast Interceptor, the sturdy Colossus, the everyman Ranger or the destructive Storm, BioWare have created a comprehensive yet complex system of min-maxing your stats using gear Inscriptions – but what are they? Figuring it out for yourself may be part of the fun, but Anthem isn't big on hand-holding at this stage. Luckily, we've got your back with this handy guide to getting the most out of Inscriptions.
What are Inscriptions?
Inscriptions are essentially buffs (and occasional debuffs for the sake of balancing) to pretty much every facet of Anthem's gameplay. Apart from Common items (that is, loot that drops as white diamonds) every piece of loot you pick up will have a certain number of Inscriptions etched upon it. The number depends on the rarity, as below:
Common (white) = 0
Uncommon (green) = 1
Rare (blue) = 2
Epic (purple) = 3
Masterwork (orange) = 4
Legendary (gold) = 4
You'll find Inscriptions on everything you can equip, from weapons and Components, to Gear and Consumables, which means a Javelin fully kitted out in Epic to Legendary ordnance will have a huge advantage over one equipped with Uncommon and Rare, and will stand a much better chance of making it through the granite-hard endgame activities.
Think of them as modifiers that can apply to any element of your Javelin that crunches numbers behind the scenes. They can affect damage output, defence, cooldown rate, elemental damage, even the speed at which your thrusters cool. By the time you find yourself approaching level 30, they will have become utterly essential to your survival and combat effectiveness.
What do they actually do?
Inscriptions employ a plus/minus percentage system and are the main reason Anthem has the build diversity it has. Throughout the campaign, you don't need to pay much attention to Inscriptions, but once you're in the endgame you ignore them at your own peril.
They can assist you in a multitude of areas, most of which are fairly self-explanatory. For example, improved aim or reload speeds are pretty par for the course. However, Anthem doesn't waste much time explaining its more obtuse terminology. Below, we've listed the more obscure terms and what they actually mean:
Impact: This is a measure of damage dealt against a solitary target, and covers all types of damage including weapons and Gear.
Blast: As above, but this time concerning area of effect (AoE) damage, splash damage and blast radius.
Force: Your ability to stagger and knock down targets. Often this works well in tandem with Impact damage, especially against flying units.
Effect: Usually this is preceded by an element (fire, ice, electricity or acid) and affects damage dealt by, and resistance to, a specific element.
Combo: This stat affects how quickly an enemy can be Primed for a combo. The higher this stat, the faster you can set-up combos on groups of enemies. During endgame activities, combos are an absolute priority.
Support Speed: This affects how quickly your Support ability cools down (rather than how quickly it activates), which can be particularly useful for Rangers whose bubble can be used for cover when reviving downed allies.
Gear Charge / Speed: Most Gear is single use, and must then cool down for a few seconds. If you increase the Charge or Speed, you will either add extra shots or improve its cooldown rate, respectively.
Thruster Speed / Life: Again, Speed affects cool down, but this time the focus is on your thrusters. If you favour aerial assaults (perhaps you main Storm, for instance) this and Thruster Life (which extends the length of time before you overheat) are the perfect compliment to your build.
There are many, many more Inscriptions to play around with, such as pick-up radius, maximum ammo for specific weapons or across all weapons, increased harvest rate, and improved drop rates for health packs. We'd encourage you to experiment to find as many useful and interesting combinations as possible.
What do the icons mean?
A circle beside an ability or Gear slot means it's a Primer, and a higher combo percentage will make setting up a combo on the target much easier. The star-shaped symbol denotes a Detonator, which will trigger the combo effect on the Primed target.
But you'll also notice that Inscriptions have symbols too. A gear icon (or a cog, if you're old-fashioned) means the associated effect will only apply to ordnance equipped in your Gear slots, such as the Ranger's Assault Launcher. A little Javelin symbol means the effect applies to everything you have equipped in all slots.
You'll also see that some Inscriptions have a button icon beside them, which lets you know that it affects whatever you map to that specific button, regardless of the damage or cooldown on it (so it doesn't matter if it's a Pulse Laser or Venom Darts).
How do you use them in a build?
Well, that's really up to you, but ideally you should aim to fill a specific role in combat. If everyone goes in with a generalised build, you may struggle in the tougher encounters.
We tend to find that the Ranger is the closest thing Anthem has to a field medic. Equipping Inscriptions that increase Support cooldown means you can use your shield dome more often to revive other players, while a buff to shield strength and recharge rate will keep you alive longer to act as a kind of squad custodian. Or you could instead focus on reducing your Ultimate cooldown and increasing Blast damage, which allows you to clear out or weaken larger groups of enemies around an objective or downed ally.
For Interceptors there are Inscriptions that boost melee and impact damage, and increase your evasion distance, while Storm can pile on the elemental modifiers and rain colourful destruction down on the enemy. The Colossus on the other hand can become a true tank, combining damage mitigation with the Battle Cry ability to keep the enemy focus off the weaker Javelins.
But what about Luck?
One modifier that features more prominently on Masterwork and Legendary loot is Luck. Although theory crafters are still doing the math on what it actually does, it appears to have a couple of primary effects.
The first is the ability to avoid critical hits from enemies, meaning you'll be one-shotted by a Titan's energy balls less often. But the second effect is more interesting to loot hunters, because a higher Luck stat may well affect how often you're likely to see Masterwork weapons and crafting materials drop from enemies, chests and harvest points. Whether you choose higher Luck over, say, increased overall defence is up to you, but a high Luck build may be worth sacrificing a loadout slot for Freeplay excursions.