Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora - 14 Things I Wish I Knew Before Playing

Avatar frontiers of Pandora is a new open World entry in ubisoft's portfolio while many of its mechanics will feel familiar to players of the publishes other titles the game also tries some new and surprising ideas a number of which can take some time to get good at while playing after spending time with the game over the last week here are 14 things we wish we knew before jumping into Avatar frontiers of [Applause] Pandora the Western frontier of Pandora is a massive open world and while it's extremely fun to explore on foot marveling at its breath taking sights it can be equally as enjoyable to Traverse on your Ion the full scope of the moon's luscious landscape laid before you as you saw through the skies flying also makes getting around a lot faster but you won't bond with your Mountain Banshee until a couple of hours into playing the game as such we recommend focusing on main story missions at least until reaching the Nar beat where you bond with your ikron you will probably rack up a number of side quests on your journey to this point but you'll still be around the same level as them after unlocking your Mount once you've bonded with your icron you'll be able to unlock ancestor skills much more easily ancestor skills unlike your basic skills that you obtain with traditional skill points require you to connect with AWA the navi's deity at specific locations on the game map each of them offers a key gameplay mechanic that you're absolutely going to want such as the ability to rip RDA soldiers from from the amp suits or the ability to reduce damage from a fall by immediately kicking into a slide the first ancestor skill a double jump is unlocked as part of a very early story beat but once the full western frontier opens up to you after that you are free to unlock more at any time and we recommend unlocking them as soon as possible to find them on the map you simply need to click on the ancestor skill button within the skills tab highlight the skill you wish to unlock with the cursor and hit the find on map button this will show you exactly where you need to go in the the game starting area the king Law Forest there are four additional ancestor skills that can be unlocked with the rest becoming available once you reach the game's additional biomes the upper Plains and clouded Forest which open up at specific narrative beats ancestor skills also provides two skill points for each one you unlock so they're a great way to upgrade your navi's basic skills quickly as well speaking of your basic skills frontiers of Pandora skill tree is divided into five different sections that focus on health offense stealth crafting and mounts that last one you unlock once you bond with your icron another reason to get to that moment as quickly as possible as you upgrade more of the skill trees additional skills require more points to unlock and once you fully completed a skill tree you can unlock a Mastery skill in that category there are skills further into each of the trees that are absolutely more useful more frequently than some of the earlier ones so as such don't feel compelled to unlock all the onepoint skills before moving onto the two-point skills then three Etc as mentioned before for if you want to upgrade your na'vi as quickly as possible the best way to do so is to unlock all the ancestor skills you can the na'vi are 10ft tall catleg humanoids and just like in the movies are incredibly agile and dextrous and just like in the movies the world is extremely versatile and varied it's not like Assassin's Creed where structures are built specifically to accommodate the player character and provide precise points to latch onto and jump off from that being said you are far more capable than you might think a Cliffside laid before you that initi looks insurmountable is usually pretty traversible you'll get the hang of it as you play and will get better at judging what you can and can't use to get around but definitely go for it rather than playing it safe the world of Pandora is alive at all times with much of the floor around you altering gameplay as you move through its biomes Mist blooms when run through will grant the player a speed boost a white vignette forming around the screen to indicate the temporary momentum increase giant roots that cut through the landscape are usually littered with these plants allowing for quick access to your next destination these roots are also dotted with plants that provide natural zip lines up to them so if you pass by one but are nowhere near its beginning or end there should be a way to get up to it nearby to keep your momentum going you can also begin to press the grab Vine button before the game has even prompted you allowing you to flow from a dead Sprint right into a zipline up and back into a Sprint again keep an eye out for large fungi as well they can either Propel you into the air or provide a damage negating cushion from a fall and yes just like ntii demonstrates in the first Avatar movie plants with extremely large leaves can also be used to help break your fall if you jump from a great height and if you end up in water know that you can't jump out of it you have to find a spot that you can clamber out from na'vi are not only fast but strong and can very quickly take down not only enemy soldiers but powerful amp suits as well now being said what a na'vi has an offense it lacks in defense and being out in the open in the middle of a firefight even for a few seconds can quickly end your journey as such you want to be stealthy when you can and if you alert an RDA base make sure to always be moving trying to pick off a few enemies at a time weapons exist on a radial menu but you can switch between your current and previous Weapon by tapping either triangle or Y on your controller holding that button can then also holster your weapon you can heal mid battle by eating Dappa Fett pods which you can find on plants growing their sources of water all throughout the Western frontier you can initially only stock two Pods at a time that number increasing with specific skills you can unlock what makes this a little more difficult is that when engaging with RDA bases the surrounding area is polluted and therefore Dappa Fett pods are unobtainable nearby until the RDA base is taken down so always make sure to stock up when you have the opportunity if you stumble upon an RDA base under without any Dapper fet Parts however there will be a few first aid kits located at the base which you can use to restock your health satel as well you can also heal by eating food which we'll get to further in detail shortly it's not as quick as healing by dipping into your health Satchel as you need to navigate a radial menu compared to Simply pressing on the d-pad but in a pinch don't be afraid to dip into your food reserves you will always have more than enough resources to cook more considering all this we recommend investing early in the memory of the Survivor skill tree aka the health skill tree to increase your base health and the size of your health Satchel another way to increase your base health is with bellspring plants which can be found all around Pandora along with other key interactable items and time you near one of these important features a white splotch will appear on the screen as you move around this white splotch will change position pointing in the direction you need to face in order to find what it's highlighting the white splotch will then begin to spread into a circle as your orientation corrects once you have formed the circle you can then use your na'vi vision to try and precisely pinpoint the fixture's location the white of the circle pooling in a specific spot if you overshoot in any direction this specific notification will appear for Bell Springs which upgrade your base health tasu saplings which provide you skill points and a myriad of different interactable world elements just know that if that white splotch appears you're going to want to track down what it's directing you toward of course these are not the only things you can interact with in the Western frontier as there are a ton of plant and animal parts to loot however things work a little differently in Pandora the quality of what you harvest depends on a couple of factors the time of day and weather conditions for Flora and how clean of a kill for FAA Flora can also be deemed pristine or not depending on how you remove it from the environment when playing with a controller interacting with a plant will ask you to hold down the right trigger slightly you'll then feel Rumble and you can point the angle with which you plan to remove the item with the left thumb stick when you don't feel any more Rumble you are able to remove the plant cleanly by fully depressing on the right trigger and continuing to hold the left thumb stick in the correct direction this will offer a pristine item increasing its quality and in turn improving whatever you end up crafting or cooking with it while the game explains all this to you what what it doesn't explain is that the pull direction will be the same for every piece of similar Flora for example all night Leaf branches pull to the left and all lion Berry fibers pulled downward if you want you can change how specific you need to be with your inputs in order to remove the plant and you can turn it off Al together in the settings making the process automatic but you then remove the ability to get a performance bonus if you go this route lastly don't feel compelled to loot everything you see in the game as a na'vi you have a great respect for the world and you're incentivized to not take something simply because you can not only is this done by limiting how much you can carry at once but acquiring a certain quality of loot under optimal conditions will be required at points to craft specific items or cook a specific meal items in your inventory that are necessary for a specific purpose will have a leaf-like icon next to them while you can increase your inventory space through skill tree upgrades the increases are minimal so only take something if you truly think you need it instead of Simply dropping any unnecessary items in order to make space you're better off donating them to one of the various Clans as providing them with resources you don't have a need for will increase your clan reputation and if you need to wait for weather conditions or the time of day to be different before acquiring an item you can pass the time by Waiting by any campfire as previously mentioned reputation with the Clans is an important part of the game as some of the best items and resources can be accessed via Clan vendors without the need for foraging crafting or cooking there are numerous ways to earn rep reputation with the Clans that you will learn of as you play the game but what the game doesn't explain is that Clan reputation are not actually levels you achieve but a currency you spend as you increase your reputation the clan reputation indicator will fill up unlocking new items from the different na'vi vendors as it does however when you choose an item from those vendors it reduces your reputation by whatever amount those items cost so much like looting be selective when using Clan reputation those vendors however will often have gifts to offer you or designs and recipes for use in crafting and cooking so make sure to frequently check in with them even if you don't plan on spending any Clan reputation one situation you should feel free to scavenge as much as possible is when you're at a na'vi base camp or resistance HQ at these locations there are storage containers and baskets littered throughout that frequently restock up on items such as stun grenades and ammunition so every time you return to one of these locations make sure to do some light pillaging to prepare for your next venture into the Wilds while out in the wild you will often come across other na'vi either at camps or just doing their thing in the middle of the Jungle if the game prompts you to speak to them do so if the prompt has a leaf icon it'll be a side quest but even if it doesn't the navi you speak to is likely to either gift you some resources or inform you of something nearby adding its location to the map both side quests and Main quests will be assigned a combat rank indicating whether you are equipped to handle it or not your combat rank is displayed in the menus and will increase based on the number of skill points you've Acquired and the gear you have equipped If an item has an exclamation point under it in your inventory it'll lower your combat Rank and if every item in a category has an exclamation point you'll know that's a piece of gear you'll want to focus on Crafting or acquiring a better version of if you pre-ordered the game or picked up its digital or ultimate editions you'll have some items all ready to equip your na'vi and ikron with however those items are not automatically in your inventory when you jump into the game to acquire those items you need to check your mail you can find that by going to the character tab in the menu selecting the pouch and then highlighting the very bottom option which is mail all the items are in there waiting for you to receive them one of the unique elements that frontiers of Pandora brings to the games in comparison to the movies is a hacking tool allowing you to interface with enemy amp suit computers locked crates and even RDA bases themselves if you want to approach a situation with the utmost stealth you'll want to store your hacks rather than executing them immediately if you hack a piece of RDA Machinery it'll notify the base that something is a miss and the RDA will begin searching for you if you can get to each piece of Machinery you need to hack and store them before executing them all at once RDA at the base won't know something's wrong before it's too late the hacking tool also has a useful indicator that can help you spot things that you can hack that might be hidden with the hacking tool equipped a long rectangular reticle will appear on the screen as you begin to point the tool in the right direction this reticle will slowly morph into a circle fully doing so when you are close to and directly pointed at what you need to hack numerous missions in frontiers of Pandora will require you to do a bit of detective work connecting one element in an area to another in order to piece together what's happened before you arrived sometimes look locating the clues can be frustrating and you can sometimes find yourself wandering around in circles trying to find them keep an eye out for the inside Quest area marker at the top of the screen if that disappears you'll know you won't find what you're looking for where you're currently searching and that's everything we wish we knew before playing Avatar frontiers of Pandora we hope these tips help you navigate the dangerous and beautiful western frontier for more on the game including our review check it out right here on Gamespot [Music]

Channel: GameSpot

Views: 111,513

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Id: qll5qXVik_I

Length: 13min 35sec (815 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 06 2023