Anthem patch 1.04 is planned to be released next week and EA and Biowave have shared some of the improvements and changes that it will bring to the table.
The upcoming changes were shared during an Anthem developer livestream yesterday and summarized on the Anthem subreddit. The most important changes include improvements to Forge and Bioware’s plans for the Elysian Stronghold Chests feature. In addition, FOV sliders will be added to the PC version of the game alongside the promised DLSS support. Bioware mentioned that the team is still looking into SLI support.
The summarized changes have been included below. Interesting to note is that the full patch notes are said to be quite extensive – roughly 13 pages.
• Elysian caches are available at the end of Strongholds when the boss has been killed
• They can contain vanity items and crafting embers
• You get a key for the cache by completing a select daily challenge
• Everyone in the squad receives the rewards, so if all 4 players have keys, you will get 4 rewards
• The number of keys is listed in Fort Tarsis next to how much coin you have
Forge improvements
• There is now no loading screen to get into the Forge
• It can be accessed anywhere from Fort Tarsis
• All equipped components are now listed under the weapons and gear
• These improvements are an incremental step to Forge improvements
• A stat screen is still being investigated. No news to share yet.
Loot
• Stronghold bosses still guarantee one Masterwork on GM difficulty, but now the remaining loot can be rolled for Masterworks/Legendaries
• Strongholds and freeplay chests will see improved drop rates for rarer gear
Legendary missions
• Legendary missions will be added to the game. These are more difficult, replayable critical path missions.
• There will be 6 missions on release, with one playable each day.
• There will be an apex creature at the end of each mission - these can be either an Ursix, Titan, Luminary or Fury
• You do not need to start conversations with NPCs to initiate these missions - they will always be on the map
FOV Options
FOV sliders have been added to the PC version of the game. The options include:
• Ground FOV
• Zoomed FOV
• Pilot FOV
• Flight FOV
• Swim FOV
Miscellaneous changes, improvements and fixes
• NVIDIA DLSS support has been added. SLI support is still being looked into.
• There is the usual performance optimisations included. This is described as being an ongoing project that is never finished.
• Salvaging in the vault should be near instant now.
• Lots of fog walls have been removed, especially in Strongholds.
• More improvements have been made to bugged quickplay missions. If a missions has surpassed a 15 minute timer, you can no longer be matchmade into it.
• You can also no longer be matchmade into a Stronghold after two minutes have elapsed (quickplay is not included in this).
• The bug where you respawn timer would reset if your revive was cancelled has been fixed.
• The bug where you could no longer interact with the environment or revive teammates has been fixed.
• Javelin thrusters have been improved by 20% across the board. Overheat time has similarly been reduced by 20%.
• You now hold the melee button to melee with Interceptor, instead of repeatedly mashing it. This change has not been made for the ultimate ability, however.
• More universal components have been added. One example is Acid Slugs, which improves Shotgun damage and applies the acid effect if 7 pellets hit the enemy.
• There have been various fixes and buffs to Masterwork components.
• The inconsistent armour bug should have been addressed, but please feed back if you are still experiencing issues.
• The bug where Strongholds/missions/contracts go missing from your map has been fixed.
• Masterwork ember drop rates have been increased.
• Improvements have been made to address the "Pilot data error" issue.
• Consumables can now be sorted by name/rarity.
• When diving into deep water, the transition is now smoother.
Still being looked into/investigated
• Javelins receiving Legendary/Masterwork components that fit in the wrong Javelin
• Power scaling issues
• New enemies and new story additions
• Better in-game communication systems
• A stats screen
• Achievements not popping
• Support gear Masterworks
• SLI support
• Increased inventory space
Anthem is available now for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. We’ll update once we learn more about next week’s 1.04 update.