devtrackers.gg
Sure bro! Welcome to the sub!
First of, the games name is Anthem, as I'm sure you know by now.
Anthem is a game set on a planet that was left half-finished by the "gods" creating the world. Their tools and relics litter the world of Anthem, creating this incredibly hostile place to live, because at any moment, any one of these tools might activate and instigate natural disasters, create horrible monsters, or otherwise dangerous things might happen. Because of this, the inhabitants of the planets live in the few places they've found that are relatively safe (like Fort Tarsis, where YOU live), but to venture outside into the world, you need to be somewhat of a superhuman.
Enter the Javelin, a handcrafted exoskeleton suit with incredible weaponry. Javelins are what allows people to venture out into the world and explore, find treasure or resources, or help people in need. The suits are very rare, and require special care to maintain, usually by a team who offers support to the wearer of the suit. You are one of the Freelancers, a group of people who use their Javelins to go out into the world of Anthem and do all of the things I mentioned above :). The Freelancers have hit upon some hard times, with the people of Tarsis growing to dislike the Freelancers for various reasons.This is sort of where the story begins. As one of the Freelancers, you want to change this public opinion. There's also the Dominion, but we don't really know much about their motivations yet, I think.
As far as Javelins and their abilities, there are 2 write-ups that I found very good at laying down abilities and overall Javelin function, made by @airatome1 and @cursedsnacks. Both these write-ups can be found below:
Or you can visit EA's website and read about them here:
This is, as you've aptly stated, a loot-based game. From what we've been told, loot is held in loot-tables, and the higher the difficulty you play on, the higher the chance for higher-tier gear.
Tiers are as follow (correct me if I'm wrong people!):
Common
Uncommon
Rare
Epic
Masterwork**
Legendary
Each piece of gear carries one or more (depending on tier) "inscription" on it. Inscriptions are modifiers, that will increase your power if you play according to the inscription.So for example, something like: "Returns shields on a x3 multikill" would give you some shields if you kill 3 enemies in one explosion. From what we've seen, builds can get VERY deep with Masterwork and Legendary gear, which carries their own unique perks, on top of 2-4* inscriptions. Essentially it's a system that's quite similar to some Diablo power-creeps, and grinding for that "god-roll" seems to be where the game is heading. :)
Of course there's a ton more information out there, and you're free to hunt some of it down, this is just a small summary.I might have made some mistakes myself, so yeah feel free to correct me, etc.
Resources for learning more:
/r/AnthemTheGame Subreddit AND DISCORD! The discord notifies you when there's news, tweets from the devs, or new threads on the subreddit, highly recommend this one! :)
Ben Irving / Mark Darrah twitters! They answer questions almost ALL THE TIME about the game, check 'em out!
The previous streams are good sources of info too, well worth the watch, as you get to see the game in action. :)
//Paizerus
*Edit 1: Higher tier armor carries 4 inscriptions.
*Edit 2: Masterwork is higher tier than legendary.
*Edit 3: Apparently, Legendary gear IS above Masterwork, as I had written originally, changed this back. :)
*Edit 4: Added airatome1's write-up about Javelins, as I found it excellent, and hadn't read it before.
Thank you for being so helpful :)