Nyheter
Diving into Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora: 10 tips before you start
D
Diego Nicolás Argüello
Featuring a new story that carries major influence from its movie counterparts, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has you sprinting, swimming, and flying across a huge map filled with activities to take part in. The main story has you returning to civilization after a fifteen-year slumber, slowly regaining touch with your heritage as you meet—and gradually help—other clans to fight against the colonization and pollution by the RDA organization.
There's plenty to cover, as Frontiers of Pandora offers different playstyles depending on the weapons you prefer, multiple RPG-lite mechanics to make your Na'vi stronger and more agile, as well as complex elements such as gathering and cooking. Here are 10 tips you should know before your trip to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
Try these settings after the initial launch
When you open the game for the first time, you'll be greeted with a plethora of settings to choose from. This is great for accessibility, as you can almost immediately turn on settings like the menu narrator. That being said, the list is but a short sample of all the available options in the game. As such, I recommend you to take a quick detour to the settings menu before you get started with the story.
The options you choose will vary greatly depending on your preference and needs. A few recommendations are field-of-view change when sprinting, which is a fairly uncommon setting in games, but one that can be especially helpful for PC users that prefer to play with varying degrees of FOV. If you get motion sickness with rapid-pace movements such as sprinting, this is a tweak worth exploring. (You can also turn off motion blur, which can help with that as well.)
Then there's gathering difficulty. Gathering is an action that you'll be doing quite often in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. In short, this minigame has you drag an item out in the wild toward a specific direction, which will make it so the condition of it is in "fine" or "pristine" conditions. If you spend a lot of time forcing the item, you'll damage said condition.
This option is there so you can make this easier in case you're finding it more difficult than it should be. I also recommend using a controller to best follow the feedback of the movement with its vibration, as opposed to trial and error with the canned animations if you're using mouse and keyboard.
It takes a while to unlock co-op
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora allows you to explore the Western Frontier alongside another player. If you're excited about the prospect, you should know that it actually takes a considerable time to unlock it.
In order to access co-op, you need to progress through the main story until you've wrapped up the quest called "The Aranahe Clan," which introduces you to the Hometree. This will become a base of operations of sorts, while also unlocking co-op mode. Both you and the other player you want to play with need to complete this mission first.
From there, you can access the option in the main menu. To recap, only two people (you and another user) can play together. In terms of progress, this is shared as long as you two are on the same main mission. But of course, it is possible to just jump into a session with somebody even if you're ahead of them (or vice versa) to help them or just explore Pandora together.
You can scan the environment for crates
Your scan ability—by now a staple of many games—has multiple purposes. Aside from its obvious use during missions where you need to examine the environment around you to progress, you can also spot crates out in the wild.
Considering how vast and visually busy Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora can be, it's always worth doing a quick scan of your surroundings when you're infiltrating a base or a facility that you come across. There's a big chance of a crate or two being somewhat hidden in a corner or corridor that you forgot to check. Some might have ammunition, but others hold useful weapon and armor mods. As such, the earlier you get used to doing a quick scan before moving to the next mission, the better.
Finding objective markers can be less tricky than it is
As you progress through missions, especially the ones that belong to the main story, you'll quickly notice that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora takes a more free-roam approach in terms of displaying objectives. In the quest descriptions, you're usually given general directions which require you to double-check the map and probably open it a few more times as you get closer to grasp what the right path is.
Opening the map will always give you a top-down view of the quest marker, but there are a few ways to distinguish the actual objective once you're near the area. First, make sure to double-check the top half of your screen, where you'll usually see a short bit of text indicating that you're searching inside the quest area. Then, your best bet is to use your scan, which will almost always pinpoint the direction of your objective.
There were times when I couldn't find the objective marker during a scan. If you find yourself in a similar position, the trick that worked for me is to try to move away from the area. It seems that putting some distance between you and the objective makes it so the marker appears again for guidance. It might seem like a small detail, but considering there aren't that many obvious visual cues in the environment, it's fairly easy to get lost.
Be mindful of spare parts
At the beginning of the game, spare parts are mostly used to purchase items from NPCs like Rajinder at the Resistance HQ. This rings true for multiple outposts you find in your adventures, with spare parts serving as a common currency for weapons, armor, and all sorts of supplies.
In a similar vein to games like Metro 2033, it's also possible to craft specific types of ammunition using spare parts as well. While this is worth doing for some tough fights, I found that it's best to use other weapons or different ammunition types and keep the spare parts for other things.
If you're happy with your current loadout and don't see the need to save up on the currency, that's fine—after all, some of the HQs, like the Hometree, base their trading on your reputation with the clan as you help them with side quests. But it's worth keeping this in mind as spare parts aren't a common sight.
Grab stun grenades from the HQ whenever you're around
If you're short on stun grenades—arguably one of the most useful tools in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora—the resistance HQ has a seemingly unlimited supply of them. Before you exit through one of its doors, look for ammunition lockers around as well as grenades close to the doors themselves, usually on a table nearby. Remember that you can use fast travel to jump in and out to return to the area you were previously in.
Keep an eye out for NPCs in the wild
Random encounters vary in terms of significance, but it's always worth keeping an eye on NPCs around the map, especially the ones in groups. Sometimes they'll ask for help with wildlife that's been affected by RDA, giving you items as rewards, while others will just hand over supplies or give you pointers. Not only is this good practice to not miss out on any potential side quests, but you'll also increase your reputation with their corresponding clan, so it's a win-win scenario.
Exploration quests are evergreen
There are many different types of quests, and one of the categories involves exploration. This is a catch-all term for evergreen objectives that don't have a specific priority or sometimes even a location. Such is the case in "Clearing the Air," which tasks you with decreasing the pollution across Pandora by taking down RDA outposts.
If you select one of these quests and can't find a specific quest marker on the map, make sure to double-check the description to see if it involves a long-term task instead. You'll likely make progress on these missions the more time you spend with the main mission. But if you need some pointers, exploration quests can guide you to visit different corners of the map while cashing in some worthwhile rewards in the process.
You can rest at campfires to pass time for gathering purposes
The act of gathering supplies involves two primary factors: How you actually pick up the item, which we've already covered, and the item's preference in terms of weather conditions. For example, sometimes this involves the time of day, while others need rain. For the former, you can force a different time by resting in campfires. You can usually find them in HQs such as the Hometree—you might need to walk around a bit to locate them, but once you do, you just have to interact with them and wait for a few seconds.
Here are some tips to best infiltrate RDA outposts
The first few RDA outposts that you infiltrate are fairly simple and mostly serve as a playing ground to practice your combat skills. But once you inevitably cross paths with larger extraction sites, you'll need to do some careful planning beforehand.
Your experience will vary wildly depending on your playstyle, but here are some quick tips to keep in mind:
- Always make a general scan of the environment to locate the main directions that you want to go, from closing down a valve to pulling down a lever. It's best to approach them individually as opposed to making a run for it across all of them, as you'll attract the attention of all enemies on-site.
- Pollution around the site usually means that you won't be able to grab healing items from the wild, but there are lockers with health supplies. You can locate them with your scan, too.
- Remember to prioritize the mech-type enemies first—follow their routes and wait until they've turned their back on you so you can quickly shoot an arrow to the weak spot on their back. This won't alert other enemies unless they spot you, which is great to start making ground.
- Did you know there's usually a rocket launcher in large RDA outposts? Look for an open weapon case to find it. It usually comes with just a few rockets, and the weapon will be discarded after you use it. But it can be the make-or-break tool to survive an attack, especially if reinforcements are inbound.