BioWare released another patch to the Anthem Public Test Server on July 10. It fixes a few bugs, adds Daily Cataclysm Challenges with Crystals as rewards. Community Manager Jesse Anderson also posted on Twitter a few words on a possible release date for the final build of the Cataclysm update!
The most interesting change from this update, in my opinion, is the inclusion of the Cataclysm-specific Daily Challenges. They are now available and functional and also reward Crystals, among other things. As a matter of fact Minor Crystals drop from a wide variety of sources, including from loot chests.
You may not see what reward you get from a Challenge due to a bug in the current build, but at the end of the expedition screen you can tell if and what item you have received by checking the item rating – the new Masterwork items are level 66 and the new Legendaries are 80. If you see one in your inventory, you have completed a Challenge, most likely. This will probably be fixed well before official release.
The new “Exotic Weapons”, as BioWare calls them, can now be salvaged in the Forge. The Elemental damage now displays correctly in the Forge for all nine new weapons.
The Seasonal store currently offers several items, but they are all hidden behind placeholder icons. Best news is that among these items you will find the most requested feature since launch – vanity items! Armor Packs, Vinyls, Decals and more are now available for direct trade at the Seasonal Store for Major and Minor Crystals. The War Chests are still there as well. The only one available at the moment is for Weapons.
As BioWare announced earlier, the War Chests contain a random Masterwork of Legendary item, but it is random. The chests will be sorted in categories with only the Weapons one being available.
If you open a War Chest before hitting Level 30 with your Pilot, you will get a +5 Gear Score bonus, but no 66 Masterwork or 80 Legendary.
The Update was about 5GB in size for me. It might be different for you, based on whichever build you are updating from. I had the most recent one from last week. Below I have for you the full patch notes, as posted by Anthem community manager Darokaz (Jesse Anderson).
Anthem PTS July 10 Patch Notes
- Echoes of Reality Tutorials now appear in the tutorial section of the Cortex
- Fixed an issue where challenge scores were not matching the score in their description
- Fixed the beams that were turning the fields on and off in the Crucible of Astrid arena in the Cataclysm
- Fixed an issue where the strategic objective was not displaying while in the Cataclysm
- New Exotic Weapons can now be salvaged in the Forge
- Elemental damage now displays correctly in the forge for new exotic weapons (All Volt Casters + Gravedigger + Shard Storm)
- Exotic weapons now show up in vault
- Fixed an issue with crystal rewards not being correctly awarding by the final score
- Daily Challenges are now functional with rewards
Known Issues after this update
- Javelin Specific Challenges – Currently these show no rewards under the challenge, but you will be awarded with a warchest upon completion.
- Challenge Rewards – Upon completing a challenge, you won’t always immediately see the item you’re rewarded. At the end of expedition screen, the way to tell if you’ve gotten a challenge reward is by looking at the item level. A reward from a challenge will be either 66 for Masterwork, or 80 for Legendary.
- Seasonal Store Icons – The seasonal store currently has placeholder icons for many of the items you can purchase with crystals. Players will need to hover over each one to see what the contents are before acquiring.
Jesse took it to Twitter yesterday to make a small fake-announcement (for the lack of a better description of his message). He made an attempt to respond to the many requests from the community for a release date or at least a target frame for the Cataclysm Update.
I know many of you are wanting to know when the cataclysm is going to fully release (on both console and PC). No date to share just yet, but we're not making as many big changes on the PTS so we're getting closer to the final build.
— Jesse Anderson (@Darokaz) July 11, 2019
While there is nothing official yet, I personally expect that the Cataclysm will be ready for full live launch no sooner than the end of the month. In the previous build we already saw the nine new weapons. The Melee weapons have been a part of PTS since the very beginning.
The Cataclysm event and its Freeplay version have been expanded, upgraded and fixed several times already. Currently all events inside the instance are available and working. The final boss Vara is also present with her mechanics and abilities. Even the Cataclysm map was recently updated to what seems to be its final edition.
The Cataclysm event will be split into a couple of weeks of pre-event also known as the set-up stage. During this time you will be able to play three new story missions, setting up the narrative for the Cataclysm. After that in the span of six weeks the actual event will take place. It is rumored that only three arenas and the boss will be accessible for the first week. The rest will be unlocked in the coming weeks.
BioWare said they are not going to ditch the Cataclysm after the eight weeks have passed. We don’t know what will come after, but it wont just disappear.
Have you tried the Cataclysm? How do you like it? If you have been following its development over on PTS, you know how much it has changed. But is that enough for you? I personally like what I am seeing. It’s not visually on the same level as the infamous E3 gameplay trailer, but it’s far better than what we saw in the dev live stream on the first build. In terms of gameplay, the removal of luck and addition of new melee slots and new special weapons is more than enough to keep me around until the next major update.
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