Anthem’s latest patch is live, adding Legendary Missions and Elysian Caches to the game as well as making changes to loot.
Legendary Missions will allow you to “replay critical path missions again with a much higher difficulty level”. Each day, one mission will be available to complete an unlimited number of times, which apparently offers players a “new challenge” and will drop better gear than normal missions. BioWare is describing the missions as “brutal”, and they recommend you reach max level and gear up a bit before trying to take them on:
“We recommend that you be at maximum level and have at least a few Masterworks or Legendaries before taking on a Legendary Mission at higher difficulty settings, or expect to die repeatedly. You’ll need to coordinate with your teammates to focus your fire and take down enemies quickly. And just in case you weren’t feeling challenged by these missions, we’ve changed up the enemies you’ll face – so be ready for anything.
The gear drops you’ll find will be improved to match the increased challenges you’ll overcome. These will also be affected by the Difficulty Level you choose to play your Legendary Mission on, but don’t get overconfident. Legendary Missions on Grandmaster 3 will be a meat-grinder.”
There are six missions currently in rotation as Legendary Missions. Those missions are as follows:
- Lost Arcanist
- Incursion
- Finding Old Friends
- Tomb of General Tarsis
- Fortress of Dawn
- Freelancer Down
While BioWare are promoting these Legendary Missions as “a new challenge” I have never been a fan of the approach of asking players to play the same content with increased difficulty and making out like it’s new content. I can’t help but just see it as false content.
The second new addition in the patch are Elysian Caches, which can be opened with Elysian Keys that are earned by completing daily challenges. Elysian Caches will appear at the end of each Stronghold when you defeat the boss, and they’ll contain vanity items and crafting materials for each member of your party. BioWare says that there are 67 unique items to unlock, including vinyls, victory poses, emotes, and arrivals, and you’ll never get a duplicate item.
BioWare are also looking to make loot easier to come by in this patch, with chests now having a chance to drop more items in Strongholds, Freeplay, and Missions. The same can be said for Apex creatures, as killing Ursix, Titans, Furies, and Escari/Luminaries will also give you a chance at gaining some extra loot. Playing Strongholds on GM1 difficulty or higher will also give you an additional chance at gaining Masterwork or Legendary items from boss drops.
There are also a number of gameplay tweaks and bug fixes in the patch, and you can read the full patch notes here. The patch is now live on all platforms.
We weren’t big fans of Anthem, citing long loading times, boring missions, and uninspiring loot as our main criticisms in our review.
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