It’s time to celebrate a full year of adventure, combat, and exploration in the beautiful but dangerous world of Anthem. We’d like to thank all the brave Freelancers who dared to journey beyond the walls and face a myriad of dangers, from the Monitor to the Grabbit King. You’ve suited up and joined the fight, selflessly protecting the people of Bastion.

Courage like yours deserves a reward. That’s why, from now through March 24, 2020, you’ll be able to claim four exclusive “Empowered” vinyls – one for each javelin type. In addition, we’re including a brand-new material: “Painted Metallic Flake.” All five are yours starting today; no unlocks necessary!

What Do I Have to Do?

Log in to Anthem between February 25, 12:00 pm UTC and March 24, 2020, 12:00 pm UTC*.

H...

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New Features

With Patch 1.7.0, we are kicking off our recurring schedule. The primary focus of this schedule is to deliver a regular rotation of challenges, store offerings, content and game modes, coin and currency awards, gameplay inversions, and mini-holiday seasons throughout the year.

(Note: The below is subject to changes as we explore content and listen to our community feedback.)

• Challenges:
  • Six concurrent, active Daily Challenges that rotate regularly through these categories:
    • Contracts / Legendary Contracts
    • World Events
    • Time Trials
    • Strongholds
    • Creature Kills
    • Gameplay Style
  • Rotating Weekly Meta Challenges:
    • Factions
    • Contracts / Legendary Contracts
    • Stronghold
  • Rotating Monthly Meta Challenges:
    • Bronze
    • Silver
    • Gold
  • Festive challenges while mini-holidays are active.
• Store Offerings:
  • A regular rotation of armor sets, wraps, graphics, decals, and materials previously available in the Featured Store.
• Content & Game Modes:
  • Seasonal gameplay modes and features have bee...

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The Cypher’s Kiss is an interactive choice-based romance. At the bottom of each section, you’ll find two options, choose one to continue. If you’d like to begin again at any time, just return to the “Prelude."

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It isn't unusual for a Freelancer pilot and their cypher to fall in love, but you know that it’s forbidden.

The reasons are important and entirely practical. Emotion and conflict are a clear path to javelin lockup and, once locked, a pilot might be in extreme danger, even tumbling out of the sky to their death. It had happened.

You know that. The Freelancer code is very clear... and yet… and yet.

Your morning alarm has only just gone off and already you're staring at the ceiling thinking about Ammien. Your cypher. Daydreams of their eyes, their voice, their touch, but even more, the wonderful feeling of the cypher connection. The electricity of being completely connected to someone that you love.

If it is...

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New Features

• Icetide Season (Freeplay events, Weekly Strongholds, Challenges, Seasons Store) has been extended to run through February.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Reduced the wait time to start Time Trial races from 60 seconds to 20 seconds.
• Tyrant Mine should now be available in the seasonal Icetide challenge rotation.
  • This was supposed to be in with Icetide, however there was an issue that emerged in testing. We didn’t feel comfortable releasing Tyrant Mine until we could fully resolve this issue.
• Fixed an issue where seasonal wreaths were playing their collection sound effect when they spawned into the world incorrectly.
• Weekly Stronghold challenge completion credit is now correctly tracking based on completed strongholds and not how many players are in the session at the time of completion.
• The “Soldier’s Reward” inversion is now correctly using its own icon as intended.
• Fixed an issue that was preventing the electric orbs from correctly spawning in the arachnid defense an...

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Kiir adjusted the magnification on her visor and peered at the almond-shaped karrid leaf. Its jade-green shine was marred by a dusting of white frost — the gift of an early Icetide.

The frost didn’t concern her. Instead, she peered at the lightning bolt of pinkish, luminescent crystals that struck diagonally across the leaf’s surface. Where the strange accumulation met the green flesh, odd aberrations swirled. Veins knotted into geometric patterns. Cell structures exploded.

Ember bloom. Chimeric mutations.

Kiir dropped the leaf and looked up at the karrid tree. Two parallel slashes of pink ember had crosscut its rugged bark. These crystals were much bigger, as large as her hand, and had formed into the typical square-based pyramid with the points shaved off. But the light within was rosy. Simmering with power.

Unlike any ember known.

Excitement surged in her. Triggering the jets in her suit, she leapt into the air and surveyed ...

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Freelancer Rythe dove out of the gray sky just as a dozen outlaws with heavy weapons pushed through the trees and snowdrifts to renew their assault on the ancient tomb. They hadn't noticed her yet. Neither had the Arcanist researchers, who cowered within, waiting to be overrun. The annual plunge in temperature brought cold winds, ice, and a sharp increase in predators looking for easy prey.

These predators, however, were about to learn Rythe was fond of explosions.

The blue ready-light appeared inside her helmet. She often said she loved all her weapon indicator lights equally, but really, this was her favorite.

"Tough love time!" she yelled and pressed the trigger adorned with a tiny pink heart. Her shoulder-mounted missile launcher swung into position and released a heaping round of the toughest love that modern munitions could deliver.

A spectacular series of eruptions flung dirt and outlaws into the air.

"Boom!" said Rythe....

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The ice flowers are oozing, snow blows in your ear;

Now javelins are racing—look! Icetide is here!

The time for Frost Fellow to bring gifts draws near.

So it’s time to assess: have you been good this year?

Now, don’t try to fudge it, for as you all know

Frost Fellow has got a small army in tow;

A veritable herd of small korox in boxes,

Observing from mantles and peeking through locks-es.

“Why korox? Why boxes?” you’ve come here to ask;

this story is here to accomplish that task.

The tale, it begins several Icetides ago,

when a small anrisaur took a fall in the snow…

Young Kogin the korox sat next to her friend

the also-young Ardek, in bed, on the mend.

“My leg hurts. I’m frightened and feeling so blue,”

the anrisaur said. “And now what will I do?”

“My leg is all broken and I cannot walk

to go see Frost Fellow and have a good talk

about Icetide presents. I’ve been good all year!

But now I won’t get that toy javelin, I fear.”...

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Faye hung weightless, bodiless, observing the distant tangled lights of minds awake across Bastion. Cyphers just like her listened for incoming messages, crunched numbers, and organized data into archives. Maybe they were linked to Freelancers or Sentinels in javelin suits, flying at high speeds through the cold night air. A feeling of familiarity nagged at her. She knew she’d done this before she’d gone to the Cenotaph, but couldn’t think why, nor what she’d been looking for in the darkness. As if those actions belonged to someone else.

Faye turned away from the lights and listened to the Gateway, the susurration of Shaper instruments doing their strange and unknowable work, and the distant background thrum of the Anthem of Creation behind everything. Somewhere, in the quietest part of the darkness, she knew she could find them. Impressions, like footprints in drying mud, of her own thoughts left in this space. Her own mind. H...

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A strange but welcome chill in the air heralds the coming of one of the most anticipated seasons in the world of Anthem, Icetide. It’s a time of joyous celebration, friendly competition, and harvest – but it also has its dangers. While some enemies avoid the cold, others flourish in the frigid temperatures and will test you to your limits. Better bundle up, Freelancer, it’s time to take on Icetide!

Your Guide to Icetide

Icetide is a themed, season-long event that offers unique rewards and challenges for its duration – similar to the Season of Skulls. The normally steamy jungles undergo a fantastic transformation as Bastion becomes a winter wonderland, for a time. The people of Fort Tarsis celebrate by hanging colorful lights and delicate glass ornaments in every public space.

How to Begin

There are no level requirements for the Icetide content, anyone at any level is welcome to enter. If you’d like to participate in the Seasona...

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New Features

Welcome to Icetide - Shaper devices have brought localized ice storms into Bastion, bringing excitement with every glittering snowflake across the region. Ice is rare here, but when it arrives, people know that Icetide celebrations will soon follow. Holiday lights shine throughout Fort Tarsis, their bright colors sparkling on blankets of snow 

Seasonal Themed Strongholds - Each week a different featured seasonal Stronghold will unlock for players—now including score leaderboards. If you're up to the challenge, compete with other Freelancers for the highest score. Visit the Seasonal Store to exchange your Crystal  for War Chests.

Freeplay Time Trials - Have you ever wanted to put your javelin flight and navigation skills to the test? Join Freeplay, and race through eight time trials that can be found in Bastion. Try to beat our Gold times!

New Legendary World Event: Icetide Coolant Harvesting - Help the Arcanist harvest precious coolant resources while fighting off th...

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Once upon a time, there were two mean-faced girls. Everyone who encountered these girls remarked upon their fiendish demeanors, and all who spoke to them knew that they were no good.

Indeed, they were more than just mean-faced: they were spiteful, ill-behaved, insolent, loathsome children, profoundly averse to any useful labors and famous for playing the nastiest sorts of tricks on the town’s rule-abiding citizens. It was thought that these unpleasant girls had become so because they were abandoned as infants in the alleys of the town, with no parents to teach them right from wrong.

Yet despite the unfortunate circumstances of their upbringing, only the most charitable of souls took pity on children with manners as ill as these.

Such were the times.

One day, the two mean-faced girls worked a medley of malign pranks, which, in whispers to one another, they called “joys.”

They sprinkled vesnid powder on the fishmonger’s wares, an...

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The javelin’s faceplate crashed to the ground, cracking cleanly in half.

“Bollocks!” Zoe grumbled, snatching back the elbow that had bumped the mask off the cluttered kitchen table. Reaching for the fallen pieces, she glanced at the clock. She was running out of time to finish this before she had to head in to work at the Forge.

“Language, Mum,” reminded the light of Zoe’s life. “If I can’t say that at school, you can’t say it, either.”

“Bollocks to that in my own house, and it’s barely a swear, at that,” Zoe sighed, tossing the pieces onto the equally crowded counter. “How is it I’m doing this when you’re the one who wants a new Colossus mask?”

“‘Cause you’re a javelin mechanic,” Anden replied with a 12-year-old’s confident authority.

“Gluing bits of random stuff together is harder than building a real one.” Zoe stretched, her knuckles brushing the pitted wall of the apartment’s small dining area as she breathed in the aromas ...

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There’s a welcome chill in the air that foretells the coming of an event celebrated by the people of Bastion – Icetide. It’s a time when even the steamy jungles are covered by a blanket of snow, lakes freeze, and ice is harvested for the warmer days ahead. While a joyous season with many festivities, it’s not – as with all things in the world of Anthem – without its dangers.  If you own the game on PC or are a current Origin Access subscriber, you can get an early look at this blustery time-limited event with the new Public Test Server* – available today.

What Is the Public Test Server?

It’s a way for Anthem PC players to share their feedback about upcoming content before it’s available to everyone. Currently, the Public Test Server (PTS) is only available on PC (and in English), to anyone who owns Anthem on PC or is an active Origin Access subscriber.

What Will I Experience in the Icetide PTS?

During the Icetide ...

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Tendrils of fog crept in past the curtains on the bar door. There was no keeping the stuff out when the season came. Max found it worse than the oppressive darkness or the skorpions, which at least had the good sense to stay out of her bar. It was a bad time to be doing business, and a lot of wiser heads wouldn’t try with so many bad omens about, but in Max’s experience deals wouldn’t wait. You seized opportunity when it appeared, no matter how grim things around it might be.

She watched the men across from her as they studied their cards. It was never a good idea to take your eyes off Regulators for too long. Especially if you were a Regulator yourself. Cheating fellow Regulators was almost a sign of respect. Almost. This deal was taking too long, Max felt, there were too many risks. Not least of which was that her wife Lena would get tired of waiting for her to come home and send someone to collect her.

“I’ll raise you twent...

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He was afraid to open his eyes. His mind clung to the welcoming darkness.

A sharp memory of ripping metal, fires, and screaming woke him, shocking his heart into furious motion. His lungs dragged for air like flint across rusty iron. He coughed. Tears ran down his face. He blinked. Everything was blurry and uncertain. Something clung to his skin. He swiped at it with a clumsy hand, leaving a warm smear across his cheek. His vision sharpened. Across from him, stabbing light shone through long, diagonal gashes. He was looking at what should be a floor but was now a wall. He realized the world was on its side.

The gray and black shapes near him were a tangle of broken furniture, boxes and twisted metal. Sparking wires and torn canvas straps hung as thick as vines. Something was close, pressing against him. He pushed. A crate fell back. His crate, he remembered. He brought his goods to a textile merchant in Fort Tarsis. The deal f...

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For Pirndel Blatch, the Season of Skulls presented a different kind of horror. From the random bones scattered about, to the ill-attended bonfires, to the green mist of unknown composition that obscured the many tripping hazards, it seemed that everywhere in Tarsis there was an accident waiting to happen. As Fort Custodian, Pirndel was a stickler for safety—obsessed even.

He was the middle child of fifteen, all alive. People said it was miraculous, but the Blatch family knew better. “The world was too dangerous not to be careful,” his parents said, and it was only through unrelenting attention to safety that they had all survived.

There was a knock on the door. Startled awake, Pirndel rolled over abruptly in his tiny cot, and would have smashed his face against the stone wall had he not already covered it with plush fabric. Anticipating disaster was his chief expertise.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Sentinel Brin. There’s been an acciden...

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The Cataclysm may have been silenced, but the world of Anthem is still rife with dangers and horrors unknown. As a thick and ominous fog gathers among the trees and strange sounds echo in the distance, the people of Bastion gather together to rise up against the darkness with determination, defiance, and celebration. Fort Tarsis stands proud with towering bonfires, colorful banners, and the bones of its vanquished foes – a bastion of security amid the chaos. The Season of Skulls marks a change from the grim necessity of survival to the celebration of life and courage in the face of darkness. Are you ready to face your fears, Freelancer?

Your Guide to the Season of Skulls

The Season of Skulls is a themed, season-long event that offers unique rewards and challenges for its duration – similar to the Cataclysm. In addition, a strange fog creeps over the land, luring deadly enemies out of the shadows. 

How to Begin

T...

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New Features

• The Cataclysm is back with updates for the Season of Skulls. The higher your score, the more seasonal currency you’ll be awarded to spend at the seasonal store.
• New Season of Skulls Freeplay events. Successfully finish three of these events in one Freeplay session to spawn a boss encounter.
• Learn more about Season of Skulls lore through a scavenger hunt and new data archives.
• Mass Salvage is now available on all inventory management screens.
• The chance to obtain a legendary item from a war chest has increased by 250%
• A Legendary-Only War Chest has been added to the Seasonal Store

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Fixed various crashes for stabilization.
• Auto-loot now works for all high-rarity loot drops in a game session.
• When flying into obstacles, javelins now automatically go into hover mode instead of crashing to the ground
• General Cataclysm Changes/Fixes:
  • All challenges that awarded major crystals now reward 500 minor crystals instead.
  • Turrets w...

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Hello Freelancers,

We’re nearing the end of the Cataclysm, so I wanted to talk about what’s coming for Anthem.

First, I’m proud of our team for creating a fun new experience for our players. It represents the largest post-launch update that we’ve delivered so far. We were humbly excited by the increase in player engagement we’ve seen with the Cataclysm. The team and I appreciate the response and support — it is what keeps us motivated to continue to improve Anthem.

Those of you in our player community that played on our Public Test Server gave us valuable feedback from your play that we used to influence our changes to the game. PTS is an invaluable tool we will leverage for future updates with Anthem. Some of the changes made to the Cataclysm based on your input were:

• Combat balancing improvements
• Adjustments for minor-to-major crystal economy
• Additional types of reward crates, providing more player choice
• UX tips in load screens to better explain Cataclysm mechanics
• F...

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The themed, season-long Cataclysm event will be ending soon, but there’s still time for Freelancers to suit up and take on its fury. If you’re an Origin Access Basic or EA Access* subscriber, you too can join the adventure – the Anthem Standard Edition is now in The Vault and yours to play as much as you want!

What You Need to Know About Anthem

If you’re an EA Access or Origin Access subscriber all you need to do is start your download and soon you’ll be able to soar through the air and unleash your power in the Ranger, Interceptor, Colossus, or Storm javelins. These incredible armored suits, your skills, and your raw courage are all that stand between humanity and the many dangers of the beautiful but deadly world of Anthem. 

New players should definitely spend a little time with our quick start guide for information on the world, controls, and more. Another great set of resources are our Tips and Tricks tutorial...

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