Avowed is a sweeping fantasy adventure that takes place in a rich, layered world of magic and monsters. While there’s plenty familiar about the game, it also strives for new twists on the RPG genre, backed by quirky characters, hard-hitting combat, and a real focus on narrative storytelling.
There’s so much to see and do in this adventure. So many quests to complete. So many weapons to find. So many new friends to make. It can be overwhelming to try to see and do everything, to make time for your companions, and to stay appropriately levelled, all while uncovering the mysteries at the heart of the game’s plot. To that end, we have plenty of advice to share, and plenty of tips that may just come in handy. For those looking to survive and thrive in Avowed, read on.
Here’s our top 10 tips for tackling Avowed.
Table of Contents
1. Save your money from beginning to end
It’s tempting to spend big in Avowed, particularly as you discover your first shop, sell all your spare items, and cash comes flooding in. But lean not into temptation. The reality is Avowed gives you everything you need as you explore, and you shouldn’t need to fork out for expensive weapons or armour in the early stages of the game unless you’re really, really struggling with combat.
Instead of spending all your money, it’s best to save and save, amassing more riches than you could ever dream about. Eventually, this will pay off – as there are moments in the later game where you may actually need to consider purchasing new armour or weapons, and you’ll need cash in the 10,000s to nab them.
2. Always take Giatta with you
I will be honest – my favourite companion is Kai. But the longer you travel in Avowed, the more you’ll have to consider leaving him behind, because every other companion simply has better, more impactful abilities. Take Giatta. She’s the group healer – and you pretty much have to travel with her as you enter the later stages of the game. While you will have access to your own healing abilities, having a secondary healing skill on a separate cooldown timer is essential.
To make sure you survive, bring Giatta with you. It’s as simple as that.
3. Collect everything you see, visit camp often to upgrade
It’s best to collect everything you see in Avowed – and the game’s weight limit allows you to do so. While you can’t run around collecting every weapon willy-nilly (they’re heavy), you can get away with collecting all sorts of herbs and ingredients that lie in your path – and you should.
These items all contribute to weapon upgrades, which can be made at camp. Make sure you stock up whenever you can, noting which ingredients your weapons need for upgrades. Once you’ve got them, visit a campsite. Sit down, have a natter with your companions, then upgrade your gear. Your path will be much easier this way.
4. Target Priest-types first in combat
If I have one piece of advice for entering group combat: always, always, always target the Priest-type enemies first. If you don’t, you’ll make near zero progress. See, these Priest-types (whether Xaurip, Skeleton, or otherwise) have the ability to heal their comrades – and nearly instantly, they’ll heal any damage you can dish out.
Before you find the leader of the pack, you must take out the Priest, and any other creature attempting healing spells. That way, when you start whaling on your opponents, their health bar will go in the right direction (down).
5. Make time for side quests in each area
There’s dozens and dozens of side quests in Avowed, and while they’re all optional, it’s best to make time to tackle a few as you continue through the main quest. Level gating isn’t particularly strict in Avowed, but if you ignore all the side quests and attempt to barrel your way to victory, you’ll likely find combat is much tougher than it should be, and you’ll struggling to survive.
I’d recommend keeping your level at least two paces ahead of the main plot if you’re keen to have a good time, and that means exploring some of the other story branches in the game.
6. Experiment with weapon types often
In your journey through Avowed, you’ll come across a range of weapons, each with their own unique combat styles. Axes are hard-hitting club-like weapons that can be paired with a shield. Wands allow you to shoot high-powered blasts of energy. Swords and bows also come in handy.
You’ll need to experiment and master them all if you hope to succeed.
Read: How Avowed builds on Obsidian Entertainment’s legacy – Interview
The reason is that as you travel, you’ll usually find tougher and tougher enemies – and you won’t always be able to find (or afford) a high-powered weapon of your preferred type, to take them down. Sometimes, you might need to put aside your favourite axe or sword, and pick up a new, better weapon of a different style. Keep yourself open to the possibilities, and you’ll find it much easier to advance.
7. Keep frost and flame weapons on you at all times
Frost and flame weapons are great in combat, adding stats to your enemies to burn or freeze them. But they’re also essential tools for traversal. Early on in the game, you’ll likely find the frost axe, Drawn in Winter. This isn’t only a powerful weapon, but it also allows you to cross rivers and jump up unreachable water-bound ledges. While it’s tempting to sell this weapon, you should keep it – you never know when you’ll need to reach a high-up ledge above water.
Likewise, if you come across a flame weapon, like Last Light of Day, keep it in your inventory. This can burn particular trees, clearing a path forward, or helping you discover valuable treasure. If you don’t have a flame weapon, you can also bring along Kai – but either way, flames (as well as icicles) are very useful.
8. Focus on levelling up Might and Constitution
You can choose how you level up your character in Avowed, but you should probably focus on building Might and Constitution first. These two statistics frequently pop up as dialogue checks, and also – most importantly – improve your skill in combat.
Might gives you additional damage in combat, as well as more carrying capacity. Constitution gives you additional Maximum Health, as well as resistance to Poison and Bleed effects. When you’re facing off against hordes of spiders or Xaurips, you’ll want to be strong, agile, and healthy, and improving these stats will help you get there.
9. Make use of jank in your exploration
Like Skyrim before it, there’s a lovely amount of jank in Avowed. Fun jank, to be clear. The kind that lets you traverse great mountains and across areas by illicit means – jumping up ridges you probably should’ve run all the way around, saving yourself time in the process. It’s totally fine to indulge in jank when exploring, using the game’s rigid geometry to cheat your way up mountains, into new areas.
For example: if you’re needing to get to a certain archive filled with rare books, and you can’t figure out exactly where the “legal” entry up the mountain is, it’s perfectly alright to jump across lava, risking death, to find a jaggy, odd path that gets you there, relatively intact.
10. Listen, listen, listen
Finally – as you explore in Avowed, you’ll come across an array of complex situations. Folks quarrel about the strangest of things. Mysterious voices whisper in your ear. While there’s a lot of exposition to absorb, you must take the time to listen and understand. Without doing so, you’ll very likely tread into dangerous territory, or make wrong decisions that’ll impact you in the later stages of the game.
Take your time with Avowed. Hear out everyone involved in each quest line. Then make judgement calls. You’ll need to decide for yourself what the truth in each matter is, but it’s imperative to listen first, before you hand down your final decision.
This guide was prepared with a review code for Avowed provided by the publisher.
