Avowed Beginner's Guide

Obsidian Entertainment is well known within the realm of RPGs, and Avowed, an action role-playing title under the banner of Xbox Game Studios, is their most recent ambitious project. Stepping into the game can be really overwhelming; this is pretty much the case for every RPG game, but understanding the fundamental systems can help you get a great start. 

This guide covers character creation, skill trees, attributes, gear, and tips to help you in your journey.

Character Creation

Decisions made during character creation are permanent, so it's important to select wisely. Your appearance and background can't be changed after the setup phase.

The six main attributes influence different aspects of gameplay:

• Might: Increases damage from all sources and improves carrying capacity.
• Constitution: Boosts maximum health and resistance to poison and bleeding.
• Dexterity: Affects attack speed, ability usage, and animation speeds for actions like potion drinking and weapon swapping.
• Perception: Increases base critical hit chance and extends effective weapon range.
• Intelligence: Raises maximum Essence for spells and increases resistance to elemental status effects.
• Resolve: Enhances stamina, used for attacks and blocking, and strengthens the Second Wind ability, which revives the character upon first death.

Attributes can be reset later, and it isn't expensive to do so, allowing you to experiment around to see what best fits you. For a balanced start, I would suggest focusing on Might and Constitution. Intelligence is useful for magic builds, while Resolve benefits stamina-focused playstyles. Dexterity and Perception are situational, but they can be effective later in the game.

Skill Trees and Abilities

Each level grants an ability point that you can invest into one of three main skill trees. Unlike some RPGs, abilities can be freely mixed between these trees; this allows you to form hybrid builds.

Fighter Tree: Focuses on close-range combat, two-handed weapons, and blocking.

Ranger Tree: Emphasizes agility, ranged weapons, parries, and evasive abilities.

Wizard Tree: Specializes in spells, elemental damage, wands, and Essence-based abilities. Unlocking Grimoire Mastery is necessary to access higher-tier magic.

A fourth skill tree, the Godlike Tree, unlocks as the story progresses. Abilities here change based on story choices and can also be discovered through exploration.

Certain abilities are universally beneficial. Constant Recovery from the Fighter tree gives you a passive health regeneration, reducing reliance on the potions. Passive damage boosts for specific weapon types are something I would recommend prioritizing. Parry from the Ranger tree is highly effective. This negates damage and opens enemies for counterattacks; plus, with an upgrade, you'll be able to deflect projectiles.

Gear and Equipment

The character has six gear slots, with each serving a specific purpose:

• Armor: Comes in light, medium, and heavy variants, with heavier armor providing more protection but less stamina and Essence reserves. Lighter armor leaves the wearer vulnerable to follow-up attacks while balancing medium armor.
• Gloves and Boots: These do not provide direct defense but grant useful passive bonuses such as increased stamina, health, or dodge distance.
• Accessories: One trinket/amulet slot and two ring slots permit unique passive abilities. Thus, more options for customization.

Weapons are highly diversified, with 13 different types to choose from:

• Swords: These are faster but do lower damage.
• Axes & Maces: These do damage but are slow.
• Daggers: Very light, very fast, and the possibility of a critical hit, but with low base damage.
• Spears: The longest melee reach.
• Pistols & Arquebuses: Powerful shots but reload time and can alert enemies.
• Bows: Stealthily but requires arrow drop compensations.
• Wands & Grimoires: Wands offer homing attacks, while Grimoires allow spellcasting.

There are Powerful, Unique Weapons, and each one will have its lore-based passive effects. These can all be found across the game world and can greatly improve a particular build.

Camp and Upgrades

Avowed has a camp system that works as a centralized hub for upgrades and inventory management. Interactions with the glowing Adra Crystals on the map unlock fast travel locations and grant access to various utilities:

• Workbench: Upgrade Gear Quality. The enemies' scale is based on the item level, not the character level; therefore, this is very relevant.
• Stash: It contains useless items from the inventory. Items can be stored at the camp stash anytime and do not hinder movements.
• Enchant: Changes weapon for better or different effects.
• Cauldron: Consumables are produced, such as healing or buff foods.
• Totems: found across the world will grant you passive bonuses on activation at camp.
• Companion Interactions: Conversation is likely turned up by party members, which leads to permanent buffs.

Additional Tips

• Prioritize Exploration: Advancing too quickly may result in you having under-level gear, making combat much more difficult. Side quests and treasure hunts provide valuable rewards, plus you wouldn't want to miss out on exploring the world.
• Carry a Grimoire: Even non-magic users should keep a basic Grimoire in their inventory, as certain obstacles require elemental damage to bypass.
• Use Regeneration Food: Consuming regen food before taking damage stores the effect as a buff, allowing it to activate automatically when health or Essence drops.
• Stockpile Lockpicks: Some chests require multiple lockpicks; you should always have a decent supply so that you don't miss out on good loot.
• Check Merchant Inventory: Shops restock non-unique items every three in-game days. Resting at camp three times allows you to get your hands on new stuff.

Hopefully, these tips will give you a good understanding of the game's fundamentals and help you on your journey.

Also, check out our Avowed Review, and other guides below:

• Avowed Beginner's Guide
• Avowed Guide | Free Ilora or Leave Her in Cell Choice
• Avowed Guide | Woedica's Inheritance Treasure Map
• Avowed Guide | 5 Best Weapons To Get Early