Mechanics Overview

Anthem has a number of mechanics which are not directly revealed by the game. These include everything from damage types, to inscription effects and modifiers. Knowledge of these mechanics can mean the difference between survival and death in the savage world of Bastion.

On the first page of this guide, we will introduce you to the various systems you can expect to master. Some of these are still being researched as we speak, so there will be places where information is not available, even in this guide. We will endeavor to never include incorrect or unverified information.

Damage Types

Anthem has five main damage types, divided into three elemental damage types and two physical damage types. The elemental damage types are Fire, Ice, and Shock. The physical damage types are Impact and Acid.

One common misconception perpetuated by the game's tooltips is that Blast is a damage type. Blast is instead a modifier, so some forms of damage can be affected by Blast damage modifiers as well as modifiers to the damage type itself.

More about damage types can be found in the Damage Types guide.

Calculating Damage

The main formula for damage dealt in Anthem has been derived. You can check out the formula here or the original study under Experiments.

Inscriptions

Each item has up to four inscription slots, each with different possible inscriptions.