Avowed tips for beginners in the Living Lands

Avowed screenshot depicting combat with a corrupted plague bear, the protagonist wielding a sword and a magical spellbook — (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Having these Avowed tips to hand will give you a head start on your journey, by explaining some of the important game systems and giving you pointers for the challenges you're likely to face. As is standard for open-world RPGs, there are lots of mechanics to understand in Avowed and a large amount of choice for how you can develop your character, which can feel somewhat overwhelming if you try to take all of it in at once. So, to smooth things out I've assembled these essential Avowed tips that will help you master combat, gather resources, and explore the world.

1. Pay attention to the skull icons on quests and enemies

Avowed tips - skull difficulty icons — (Image credit: Obsidian)

In Avowed, enemies don't scale with your level and instead have a fixed power that you have to meet or exceed to stand a chance. If you see skulls next to a quest in your journal, or an enemy's health bar, that you're out levelled and will struggle if not outright get stomped. The more skulls, the harder the challenge, with two skulls being very dangerous and three skulls meaning it's not even worth trying (trust me). But, as you improve your gear in Avowed, 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 more appropriate challenge.

2. Early on, focus on using just a handful of weapons and stick to one skill tree

Avowed tips - focus on one skill tree — (Image credit: Obsidian)

There are tons of options when it comes to Avowed builds, but I recommend keeping your focus simple and narrow for your first few hours. I started my Avowed playthrough dabbling mainly in Wizard and a bit of Fighter, using a sword and grimoire and it was a challenge because I didn't have good gear that synergized well, and lacked reliable skills.

I recommend sticking to following just one of the three Avowed 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 pursue 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

Avowed tips - use stealth attacks — (Image credit: Obsidian)

You can make things easier in combat with stealth attacks. These harnesses your Godlike Divine Thorn power to deal a huge amount of damage in a single strike. While hiding in grass can help you get close, you can still perform stealth attacks in more open areas as long as you're crouched and get behind an enemy undetected. If you've done it right a prompt will then let you pull off a stealth move. With a group of enemies your first stealth attack is likely to reveal your position, so try to target the biggest opponent where you can to get the maximum benefit of the increased damage. Additionally, using the Ranger Shadowing Beyond ability lets you go invisible and use stealth attacks to greater effect.

4. Assign your best abilities to the D-Pad

Avowed tips - bind your best abilities to quick slots — (Image credit: Obsidian)

The quick slots bound to the D-Pad allow you to quickly use a skill, companion ability, or potion without opening the Radial menu on LB. Being able to quickly deploy best abilities in an emergency is a huge help in maintaining the flow of combat, so you want to assign abilities wisely. Limited quick slots means 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

Avowed tips - dodge in combat to avoid taking damage — (Image credit: Obsidian)

During combat, you can hold down the Block button to deflect incoming attacks, but only if your Off Hand is empty or you're holding a shield – meaning blocking is ineffective for certain loadouts. Certain enemies will have unblockable attacks, represented by a red circle just before they strike, so you should practice dodging as the best way to guarantee avoiding taking damage. To do this, press the jump button 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

Avowed tips - smash breakable crates for loot — (Image credit: Obsidian)

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 and all adds up over time.

7. Collect every weapon you find and break them down

You can break down gear in your inventory get a few upgrade materials, and you should be doing this for any item you aren't using. You need to be getting these materials all the time to afford weapon upgrades in Avowed and boost your combat power. 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

Avowed tips - forage for food — (Image credit: Obsidian)

Health and essence potions are fairly rare, especially in the early part of your adventure, so ensure you're always foraging for food and gathering up the 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. Consuming food during combat will cause its restorative effects 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.

Many food items, particularly those you can cook at the party camp's cauldron, provide temporary benefits and buffs as well as or instead of healing, such as attribute increases, better damage reduction, and increased maximum Essence. Drinking water also increases your movement speed by 25%, which is great for exploration too!

9. Send items to your camp stash to avoid encumbrance

Avowed tips - send items to Stash in Camp — (Image credit: Obsidian)

If you've been following the standard RPG approach of hoovering up every single weapon and item you see, you're going to be hindered by encumbrance at some point. 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 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

Avowed tips - visit Party Camps often — (Image credit: Obsidian)

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 here, with the most importantly probably being upgrading weapons and armor using the workbench. There's also a cauldron over the main campfire you can use to cook buffing meals with the ingredients you've gathered. You can also rest to fully recover your health and essence without consuming any resources, and assemble and activate totems for massive buffs, such as the Avowed Totem of Rightful Rulership or Totem of Defiance.

You should make sure you regularly check in with your companions at camp as well, as they will sometimes offer training to improve your skills, as well as dialogue that will further certain potential Avowed romance options.

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!