'Avowed' has plenty of quirks, and this guide should help you navigate them.Obsidian EntertainmentAfter an exhaustive, 60-hour Xbox playthrough of Avowed, Im nearly done. Along the way, Ive learned a lot about how the Living Lands work often too late. Ahead of my console review, and its arrival on Game Pass on February 18, it seemed like a great opportunity to pass on some helpful, spoiler-free Avowed tips.Whichever class you choose, whatever weapons you favor, and however you spend your character and ability points, there are a few things worth knowing before you explore the many mini-worlds of the Living Lands. These pointers should save you from making a few mistakes especially in the early stages of Avowed but also let you enjoy the story at your own pace and with your own preferred approach.1) Exploration is nearly always rewardedAvoweds Living Lands are absolutely bursting with treasure, to the point that nine times out of ten, a ledge, breakable barrier, or dead end will offer a chest, lockbox, skeletal remains, or something unique and immensely valuable. Nearly every camp of enemies or accessible building has goodies waiting to be found.Try not to leave any route unchecked, especially as theres no such thing as stealing. It never gets old when you rock up at an important persons house, ignore their request for a chat, and then ransack their home of all of their worldly possessions as they silently watch on.MFW a godlike runs into my house and robs all my stuffObsidian EntertainmentMORE FOR YOU2) Hoard until youre boredOne of Avoweds more forgiving quirks is that it only adds carry weight to armor and weapons. Even gloves, footwear, and crafting materials are effectively ethereal. Fallout this is not: youll never wonder why youre so bloated, only to realize youve got 72 Jets, 68 packs of Mentats, and a dozen Psychos taking up space.Youll make the games experience easier by picking up everything. Its especially important for food, which proves a much more reliable health resource than standard potions. Your wheel of abilities (LB) offers you access to your consumables, and Avowed cleverly prioritizes the amount you need at any given time. If you only need 20 to 30 health points, itll automatically feed you smaller items, including those that simultaneously refill your essence; you wont waste a 150hp-restoring cooked rabbit if you dont need to.The hoarding approach is also a good exercise in cleanliness. After battles, Xs on your minimap highlight corpses with loot. Take everything they have; leaving a potato on a xaurip might seem like the right idea, but theres every chance youll accidentally revisit that corpse once or twice, thinking its something youve missed.3) Embrace a breakdownEven though they can weigh a ton, make sure you pick up weapons, especially in the early stages of the game, and even though youll never use them. When youre bordering on over-encumbered status, break them down into parts.The party camp is vital for success.Obsidian EntertainmentAvowed uses a simple, tiered resource structure that ties ever-better resources to each world sequentially. Its easy to fall behind on the items you need to upgrade your weapons, to the point your companions endlessly remind you that your guns crap or your armors essentially crepe paper. Even simpler resources are useful you can combine four at a time at the crafting table to upgrade them to the next tier.4) but at what cost?As you reach the midpoint of the game, its also important to weigh up if its better to sell weapons rather than scrap them. Adra, a leveling-up resource that is also tiered, becomes increasingly hard to find, but a lot of people sell it and it aint cheap.Sure, you might get a few scraps of tanned hide or living iron by taking a piece of armor apart, but theres every chance you could buy these for a fraction of the pieces overall sell value.5) Know your natureWhile were talking about crafting, Avowed offers two types of green collectibles across its worlds, which appear on the map: consumables that restore health and essence, alongside much-needed, world-specific upgrade materials.Early on, you might assume these share the same icon, but they dont: the two-leafed symbol denotes food, while fern-like signs highlight essential resources.6) Theres often another routeAvoweds loot stashes are often found behind a crack in a wall or a window, but the game recognizes different playstyles, regularly giving you more than one way to access the areas. Make sure you check your options before, say, wasting lockpicks or grenades sometimes, it might just need a small, parkour-based detour.If you can keep climbing, keep climbing.Obsidian Entertainment7) Keep hold of ol faithfulsThroughout Avowed, you come across barriers that can be overcome by the elements: vines that can be burned, cage bars that turn brittle with ice, and metal boxes that run on electricity. Consider keeping hold of weapons that can do the job, especially if theyre one-handed, as theyre lightweight.For instance, one of my ever-equipped items is an electrified handgun, perfect for switches, especially over longer distances. Still, I keep hold of two other one-handed weapons a fire sword and ice axe to get through other blockers. You dont even need to upgrade them. Most importantly, these will also save you from wasting elemental throwables that are usually much more useful in battles.8) Its good to talkOne of the more frustrating elements of Avowed is how the HUD permanently reminds you when your companions want to talk to you something you can only do at a Party Camp, the area that acts as your base of operations.Keep chatting to your campmates, even if it's just to get those pesky icons off your HUD.Obsidian EntertainmentWell, theres a good reason for that. While you might just want to keep exploring, and even though some conversations can drag on, make sure you do catch up with them it turns out that occasionally, theyll give you a very important lesson or two that will improve your fortunes immensely. As a bonus, its also where Avoweds dialog, storytelling, and voice acting shine the brightest.9) Theres no shame in running awayThroughout the game, but especially early on, you happen upon camps with double- or even triple-hard bastards, as denoted by the skulls by their name, or the higher class of armor or weaponry they have, highlighted by the Roman numeral by their name. If they spot you, theres no harm in running away.Many of these are bounty missions you might accidentally discover before you get the task, or blockers that effectively force you to work through the story more. Luckily, Avowed gives them an odd territorial quirk once you step out of a predefined area, these enemies stop coming for you. Theres always the temptation to cheese battles like this keep just out of range, and pick away at them but if you want to respect the spirit of the game, just remember you can flee, avoiding a fight that will likely rinse your consumables inventory.10) Pick your battles wiselyThe element of surprise is massive in Avowed, especially when you can see enemies on the minimap. However, its important to take a breath and survey your prey. You might want to get the jump on the toughest thing there, but its often a bad idea.It's not always great to attack the toughest enemy first.Obsidian EntertainmentPriests, in particular, act as medics. You can wear a baddie down to a tenth of their life, but these cowardly, dancing idiots will undo your work in a matter of seconds. Similarly, summoner-style enemies and wraiths can create copies of themselves or other monsters to fight for them killing them also destroys their apparitions. As such, its regularly best to focus on these specialist, lower-level minions before taking on those aforementioned double-hard bastards.11) Dont forget your totemsLast but not least, one of the lesser-explained things in Avowed is the totem system. Each main world has a totem base, and you find lists of cryptic clues as to the locations of the six inset items that go in it and these give it (and you) more buffs.You can only have one active at a time, and you need to place them on a stump in your Party Camp. For hours, I assumed you could only use them once they were fully assembled I most likely skipped a tutorial, and I couldnt be arsed to read the endless notes in the menu (even if theyre very thorough and helpful) but youll be surprised just how much of an edge they can give you.Do things your wayWith these tricks at your disposal, youll get the most out of Avowed, especially as its very good at supporting a vast variety of play styles. The rest is up to you go with your gut in character building and storyline choices. Things change regularly and put you on the back foot, but stay true to yourself (or your chosen godlike) and youll make the most of the Living Lands.