Below are the Frequently Asked Questions when it comes to Anthem the game and all products and media related to it.
0. Can Anthem still be played?
Yes. The servers are still up and will remain online. There are no plans to shut the servers down as it is explicitly mentioned that the live service will be kept running, as it has been since update 1.7.0.
1. Do I need Internet connection to play Anthem?
Yes. Anthem is a fully online game. Anthem can be played as a single player game by selecting Private expedition mode while launching expeditions. By default the privacy is set to Public, and other players may be match-made with you.
For consoles, Playstation Plus and Xbox Live Gold subscriptions are required to play Anthem.
You also need a stable internet connection, as Anthem can sometimes be finicky and quick to disconnect. Wired connection is preferable. Although loading screen time has been significantly reduced, it is still recommended to use a Solid State Drive instead of a Hard Disk Drive. To resolve any connection issues, please contact EA Help.
2. Where can I purchase Anthem?
The following are the official sources listed on the Anthem website:
The game constantly goes on a sale around the time of real world holidays with reduced prices. Legitimate copies are also available on various e-commerce sites for a lower price than the full price.
3. How is the matchmaking in Anthem?
Matchmaking will not take more than 90 seconds, beyond which if there is no one trying to play the specific game mode you have chosen, you will be put in the server by yourself. There may be players who will join you through Quickplay (for missions) or Quickplay Stronghold while you are in the middle of an expedition. Anyone can join Freeplay sessions if there is a spot available .
It is easier to find more people playing in the Grandmaster difficulties than the lower difficulties. Newer players are usually found playing in Hard Difficulty until pilot level 30 is reached. Also, since all servers have been made global (i.e., Anthem doesn’t have region specific servers), it is quicker to find teammates to play, however, it is not guaranteed.
An easy way to find people to play with is by joining Guilds. There are several active and dormant guilds which can be joined using the Anthem App (downloadable for Google Play and for Apple iOS).
4. How can I best enjoy Anthem?
Anthem currently has at least 30 to 40 hours of fresh content. Beyond that the game can still be played, at the moment, without new story content. There are other activities including exploration and collecting cortex entries to learn more about the world, apart from end game loop.
To best enjoy the story, lore, and exploration, it is possible to play the game in private mode, because when playing in teams, it is easy to miss dialogs and details like text annotations that pop up around certain items. This option is available when launching an expedition in the Expedition Menu. All non-legendary type Missions can be played on private servers. Every other game mode is only available in public servers.
To best enjoy the gameplay, you should play in a team, preferably of four.
Check out the Recommended Expedition Order for the best way to experience Anthem's story, both in private and public servers.
The game still has rotating stores: Featured Rotation, Seasonal Rotation and Crafting Rotation that provide Combat Equipment and Cosmetics for the player’s javelin, using in-game or premium currencies.
5. Is Anthem’s story good?
Anthem has one of the richest and most enticing lore among Bioware games/franchises. It is a world where anything can happen and is also said to be the grander universe in which other Bioware franchises could exist theoretically. The current story takes place in a very small part (Northern Bastion) of a massive world. Anthem’s story is designed in such a way that it can be best experienced by going through all the additional content that comes within the game through lore snippets and exploration, and in the form of tie-in media, outside the game.
The main story of Anthem is slightly shorter when compared to several Bioware games. But the side stories are very well done and add a lot more to do and enjoy expanding the game significantly. In fact, some side story missions only take place after the final mission of the main storyline ends! There are also a myriad of World Events, World Encounters, Freeplay activities, enemies fighting each other, exploration, challenges, and much more, that add to the dynamism. 4 different seasons and seasonal map changes can be experienced during different times of the year in the real world, adding more to the replayability of the story.
At the end of the day, the answer to this question is always going to be subjective. However, Anthem is also a game that graciously rewards observant players with additional details, so there is always more to it than meets the eye.
We have several guides, walkthroughs, and Interactive Maps to help veteran and new freelancers while they explore the game, so that they can enjoy it in the best possible way!
6. Where can I read about the lore of Anthem?
- The individual Cortex Entries can be read here.
- Collection of similar Cortex Entries grouped appropriately can be read in Cortex Archives.
- All lore of Anthem can be found in Lore.
- For convenience short stories are listed in the wiki here. But it is recommended to visit the official website to read them so that the writers and developers are supported.
- The Art of Anthem and Anthem’s Prima Guide also have background and lore of Coda.
- There was an alternate reality game of a Category:Cypher Network on Twitter.
- Certain aspects of the past story can be found from the prequel Comics and live action trailer Conviction.
7. Can I play Anthem on PS5 and Xbox Series S/X?
As a matter of fact, you can. The newer consoles allow you to play the game through backward compatibility.
8. Did Anthem brick or destroy consoles?
Anthem never bricked or destroyed any consoles and it still doesn’t! The rumor was started by users on reddit which spread like wildfire, especially given the criticisms the game was facing, and the gaming journalism websites, without doing research or getting reports from official sources, were quick to add fuel to the fire.
The real issue was it caused some database corruption on some PS4. But the affected consoles could be easily fixed with no permanent damage to the PS4. The issue was quickly resolved by Bioware and Sony closely working together.
9. Is the game still receiving updates?
Anthem stopped receiving updates on its first anniversary with update 1.7.0 in favor of the Anthem Next rework. The rework itself was unfortunately stopped on its second anniversary.
10. What happens to the new content that was being developed for Anthem Next?
Bioware hasn’t publicly revealed any information about what would happen to the content that was being worked on or already developed for Anthem Next. To see what was being developed, go to Anthem (New Game Build).
11. Did Anthem receive any new content or updates after its release?
Anthem received a considerable amount of playable content, quality of life changes and stability updates after release. Some of the content additions are summarized below:
- Following the release, a handful of limited time live events were released.
- Elysian Caches gave Crafting Resources and new Cosmetics.
- A fourth stronghold called The Sunken Cell was added.
- Echoes of Reality, the first cataclysm was released with a new game mode, new missions, new conjunctions, unique combat equipment: Weapons, Gear, and Sigils, additional seasonal challenges, cosmetics, and expanded Anthem’s lore and story.
- Season of Skulls added new world events and conjunctions, lore and additional seasonal challenges and cosmetics.
- Icetide added new lore and additional challenges, a new world event, seasonal expeditions, cosmetics and increased the power level of all legendary combat equipment except the pre-order bonuses.
- Holidays were added in update 1.7.0 which added new Festive Challenges.
- Special limited time cosmetic were rewarded for logging in around the first anniversary.
12. Does Anthem have any content that cannot be accessed by players?
Unfortunately, anthem does have hidden content in it, which were previously accessible.
The Elysian Caches, challenge-related content of Echoes of Reality, challenge-related content from the full seasonal run of Season of Skulls and Season of Icetide are hidden from new players. There are armor packs and parts, vinyls, materials, animations and 31 pieces of Cortex entries that cannot be unlocked or obtained without their relevant challenges being re-enabled by any players. They are only available for anyone who unlocked them during the original run of these full cataclysm and seasonal events.
The Cataclysm Critical story related missions, non-comjunction Freeplay World Events and full version of Echoes of Reality (Game Mode) isn't playable any longer. Originally released Live Events in the Freeplay aren't available either.
Certain challenges and their relevant rewards were re-enabled for a short while to commemorate the First Anniversary of the release of Echoes of Reality while the game was being reworked. However, since the rework was stopped, no past challenges except the already running Festive challenges have made a return.
These content are still available within the game files, but they are hidden from the players and can only be enabled by Bioware.
Only the folowing content is available for all players, currently:
- All the content released on the launch date is available to every player.
- All 1200+ cortex entries (excpt the above mentioned 31 entries) can be unlocked. Some of these may need a second pilot and different conversational choice to unlock.
- The Sunken Cell Stronghold.
- Seasonal Expeditions (On regular rotation).
- Conjunctions (Original Cataclysm and Skulls Version on regular rotation)
- Limited 3-Event version of Echoes of Reality (Game Mode) (Original Cataclysm and Skulls Version on regular rotation)
- Regular Festive challenges show up coinciding around the time of real world holidays.
- Limited time World Events related to the Season of Skulls festival (around the time of Halloween) and Icetide festival (around the time of Christmas) show up when their festive holidays take place.
13. Does Anthem have any tie-in media or products?
Yes. And so many of them! Anthem has the highest number of tie-in media released for a Bioware franchise during its debut year, apart from the standard trailers:
- A Live action trailer called Conviction, which takes place several years before the present day in the game.
- 3 issues of a prequel comic that takes place over a course of 10 years before the present day in the game.
- Alternate Reality Game (set in the same continuity as the present time) involving conversations between cyphers of Bastion on twitter.
- 9 unique short stories to expand the lore: 5 during the Season of Skulls (Festival) and 4 during Icetide.
- 1 Choice based story, experienced entirely in the second person, which currently marks the last journey of the Freelancer (unless new conten is added some day).
- Before release, Bioware also made special marketing ventures by making a Ranger Javelin in a Corn Field in 2017 and creating life sized javelins for showcase in 2018!
- The Art of Anthem (Standard and Limited editions), a collection of beautiful artworks and behind the scenes during the development of Anthem. This contains additional lore information.
- The last Prima Guide to be ever physically released: Anthem Collector's Edition Guide, which also include information on how real life-sized Javelins were made by partnering with Henchmen Studios. This contains additional lore information.
- Several merchandises on the Bioware Gear Store and Sanshee’s store.
- An adorable plushie modeled after grabbits and other a scaled Ranger model.
14. Will Anthem ever receive an update or a sequel?
Currently Bioware is working on its other titles. It is quite possible that they may choose to return to Anthem sooner rather than later, especially after one of their current projects are released.
15. How many javelins can I play in one playthrough?
Unlike other games where your player character is bound to one type of class, there is no restriction to the number of javelins used by a single pilot. This is because javelins are exo-suits and not characters.
All 4 javelins are available to a single pilot, and javelins are unlocked account wide. This means, once a javelin is unlocked at pilot levels 2, 8, 16, and 26, on any available or new pilot they are permanently unlocked for all the pilots.
All unlockable items are shared. This includes cosmetics, blueprints, challenges, currencies, crafting resources, Alliance Bonuses and javelins.
Only combat equipment not shared between pilots and must be obtained as loot drops, Guardians' Gifts, treasure, crafted or purchased through appropriate stores. Non-javelin Pilot Level specific unlocks, and Experience Bonuses are also pilot specific.
17. What are the best builds for my Javelin?
Anthem Wiki’s rules prevent anyone from adding javelin builds in the wiki. Currently, the best and most functional website that provides all the necessary details regarding javelin builds is Anthem Enclave.
18. Can I mod Anthem?
Although Anthem can be theoretically modified like all games, it is best not to do so. Anthem is a fully live game, so making any changes to the game files will result in breaking the Terms of Service, and potentially, a (permanent) ban to the account caught in the act.
19. How can I support Anthem the game and the franchise?
Play the game, talk about it on the wiki or other forums, purchase official merchandizes and books, support the developers, encourage the artists and writers, read the short stories, visit the official website to see if there is any news, and provide constructive feedback where and when possible.
On social media sites, you can use the following hashtags for Anthem related content:
#StrongAloneStrongerTogether
#StrongerTogether
#AnthemGame
#IBelieveinAnthem
The Official Anthem social media sites are:
- Official Website: www.anthemthegame.com
- Twitter: @anthemgame
- Instagram: anthemgame
- Facebook: @AnthemGame
Everyone loves creativity! All safe for work artwork of any form of media can be posted in the discussion section of the Anthem Wiki. This includes fashion posts, video clips, art work, articles, or any Anthem the Game related content. Please go through the Wiki Guidelines to see what is an isn't allowed.
21. Is the Anthem Wiki kept updated?
Believe it or not, but Anthem still has a decent playerbase. And because the game constantly goes on a sale, new players keep joining in to fly around in Javelins. We also get lots of visitors every day in the wiki, so it is indeed kept updated for veteran Freelancers who like to reminisce the fun they had and the new Greenlancers who have recently joined the cause!
The Anthem Wiki has received many quality-of-life updates, whose summaries can be seen here. There are several pages that still need reconstruction and improvement. So, the wiki will be kept updated until all the information about the game and the Anthem universe can be found at a whim with the best possible quality.
If you want to help, feel free to make any valid corrections or improvements on any pages. Make sure to read the guidelines on how to do them. Contact any administrator for more information.
#StrongerTogether