Avowed: 7 things I wish I knew before I started playing

Avowed is Obsidian Entertainment's latest and potentially greatest RPG to date (Sorry, New Vegas fans). Travel the Living Lands to uncover the mystery behind a deadly plague. With heart-pounding combat, open-world areas to explore, and dashing heroics to perform, you should go prepared.

I picked up quite a few things throughout my adventures. Things I wish I had known hours before. So, to help other players avoid these issues, here's a list of the top 7 things I wish I knew before starting Avowed.

Buy lockpicks (and grenades)

You're going to find a bunch of locked chests in your playthrough of Avowed. For that, you'll need lockpicks. Other than discovering them haphazardly out in the open world, players can also buy up the stock at local shops.

Trust me when I say this: purchase every single one. They're more rare than they seem and can't be crafted. So, make sure to check every vendor's merchandise for the occasional lockpick. You'll thank me later.

The best way to earn XP is through quests

You can go about exploring for loot and whatnot, and you definitely shouldn't stop doing that. However, if your main prerogative is gaining experience, don't bother grinding combat. It's the slowest way to progress.

The fastest method is through main and side quests. Bounties follow suit, as completing them will net both combat and quest completion experience. If you're looking to grind, walk through the main areas and cities, you'll find a ton of NPCs striking up random conversations. Starting a dialogue with these people commonly leads to a side quest you can complete for painless experience points.

Pick everything up, I mean everything

This one came to me somewhat quickly because I'm a hoarder, but I know plenty of folks micromanage their inventory down to the potion. You don't need to worry about any of that. If you ever become encumbered, or even before, you can ship everything off to your camp.

No, seriously. You can instantly transfer loot to your camp, which can then be reaccessed once you've returned to a campsite. Stop worrying about picking up your seventeenth spear! Gotta collect 'em all!

Items can be broken down, including upgraded ones

I was a few hours into my playthrough before I realized I could even break down items. Every bow, pistol, or other common item I found that I wasn't using was tossed off to the nearest merchant. I didn't discover I could break them down for more upgrade materials.

I was also afraid to waste materials on upgrades early, as I wasn't sure what to spend it on. Later, I learned I earned half of the basic material back and all of the secondary components, like Paradisan Ladder, when breaking down an upgraded item. So, don't be afraid to upgrade. You can get back a lot of materials you use if you end up hating what you boosted.

Parkour! Jump around the map!

Jump around the map. Climb cliffs and buildings, or whatever you can clamber! It may just lead to an unexpected surprise. More often than not, I end up finding some new path, item, or chest to open as a result of my exploratory adventuring.

This goes for cities and towns; anywhere you see a surface. Even some odd-looking rock surfaces can be ascended, which is precisely how I found myself in the Yellowband Camp to the East of Paradis. It nearly killed me. Maybe be a bit more careful than I was, but don't let that stop you from the parkour!

Camping is free and grants full health and essence

There are a lot of folks who will be playing Avowed who played Baldur's Gate 3. Those same people probably only camped when they had to. You can stop that, and in fact, I urge you to.

Instead, camp as often as you need to. Abuse it like you can manipulate waiting in Skyrim or Witcher 3. What's even better is that fast transport to camp and exiting gives you the option to return wherever you were last standing. So even if you're held up just outside an enemy camp, do a quick fast travel to top off your meters.

Listen for chests

Lockboxes and chests give off a faint humming sound when nearby. A careful ear will pick up on this with relative ease. Who would have thought that paying attention could pay off?

Many times, I left an area without seeing certain jump-ups or drop-offs. Backtracking after talking to some of my colleagues led me to discover some missed armor sets and items. Had I just been paying attention to the audio, I'd have caught on to the fact that an interesting object was waiting to be discovered.

Elements do more than the obvious

There's a lot that elements can do. Like frost for gates, fire for webs, electricity for essence generators, etc.

Many of these are super obvious, but one caught me by surprise, even though I'm sure it was explained to me.

Frost can create landmass on water, making traversal incredibly easy. For some reason, I never noticed this until I found an impossible place to reach. I couldn't drop to it, jump to it, or swim up.

I was at a total loss until I tried casting an ice spell on the ground. Lo and behold, it's a thing. I'm sure someone else, like myself, missed this, and that's why I'm leaving this note. For you!

Enemies also have elemental weaknesses. Skeletons are weak to frost, and many flesh-based enemies like spiders and bears are weak to fire. Remember this when battling to gain the upper hand, no matter your build. There are plenty of elemental-based ranged and melee weapons to wreak havoc throughout enemy lines.

Avowed launches on Feb. 18, 2025 across Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC via Steam, the Xbox App, and Battle.net. As an Xbox first-party game, the standard edition is included day one in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Anyone preordering the Premium Edition of the game can start playing early on February 13. For more details, consult our Avowed preorder guide.