Andrew Johnson, one of the game’s community managers, announced via a forum post that certain elements from the Cataclysm event will remain in Anthem until the next content patch is ready. Some bugs currently prevent you from fully accessing these elements, like the Seasonal Store, but they will be fixed very soon
The situation in Anthem right now is almost the same as it was seven weeks ago. The Cataclysm event was a big hit. It was always known that it will end after the planned six weeks. We got one extra, because of a nasty bug that appeared after Update 1.4.0 and was fixed a week later with Update 1.4.1.Despite the many bugs, server crashes, unintended mechanics and surprising patches, the event was a great experience for almost everyone, who bothered to take a closer look at it and learn some of the objectives and secrets the new map offered.
Yesterday the Cataclysm even officially ended. But it did not disappear. The Crystal-themed events are gone. The Seasonal Store is missing too, the event is not directly accessible via the Summary screen.
However, BioWare surprised us with semi-good news announcing that “the Echoes of Reality portion of the Cataclysm will remain open for you to enjoy”. You can still earn Crystals as well.
To access the Cataclysm, open the Summary Menu and choose it as a mission from the map. Select the event from its starting point far to the north on the map of Bastion. Then you will see the all-familiar screen of the Cataclysm prep window, where you can pick difficulties, select your Consumables and invite friends.
How can you still access the Cataclysm and what exactly you can do inside? The Cataclysm is currently reset to its very first phase, unfortunately. This means that only the first three events – Magnus, Britaheim and Casja’s Forge are available. Vara is also there. All the secrets are still in place and functioning. Elementals roam the areas, where all the other events are supposed to be, but aren’t. In a few words – it’s all the same as it was in Week 1 of the event.
The Seasonal Store is missing, though. Why? It turns out this is a bug. Some other UI similar issues are also present and “the team is working to resolve these” as Andrew’s post assures us. The Store is coming back up later this week. You will still be able to spend Crystals and earn new ones from the remaining elements of the Cataclysm.
Andrew made a very important announcement regarding Crystals – these will not carry over to the next seasonal event. It would be wise if you spend all you have while the Seasonal Store and its contents are still available.
The competitive portion of the event is gone now. The Leaderboards will remain available in the game as a tab, but will be empty and not get populated and updated with players’ score until the next seasonal event launches.
All of the Cataclysm-related Daily Challenges, Story Missions and Freeplay events are removed as well. This is intended. If you were serious enough about the event, you have long completed all of these. If you joined near the end and did not manage to farm out all of your Challenges and customization rewards, you are going to have to accept the fact that you have missed your chance.
UPDATE: The September 25 Hotfix
Jesse Anderson, community manager for Anthem, posted a tweet to announce an incoming hotfix, which you do not need to download. This patch was applied on the server-side. Your client should still be on 1.4.1 for the time being.
We just pushed a hotfix in #AnthemGame that turned on the following:
*The seasonal store is back
*Echoes of Reality will now display at the Start of Expedition
screen*Inversions are active with ‘Air Support’ and ‘From the Skies’
*All arenas are active in the Cataclysm
— Jesse Anderson (@Darokaz) September 25, 2019
The Start of Expedition Screen (aka Summary menu) is showing the Cataclysm and Freeplay with Cataclysm events options, as it did last week and all other weeks during the event. The Freeplay, however, offers no Cataclysm-related events. The Conjunctions are gone too. Even all the Elementals are gone and the Grabbits have returned… or at least a few. You can once again see how many Crystals you have right next to your health bar in Fort Tarsis.
The Cataclysm event should now be available in full length with all of its objectives. The Storm is still there too, so all of the mechanics are still present and available. The return of the Seasonal store might give you a reason to continue farming Crystals for the new weapons, gear and customizations if you still need any of those.
The Inversions are back and the window no longer displays empty. You are stuck with the following two until further notice:
- Air Support – Defeating an enemy while hovering grants increased damage while on the ground for a short time; stacks up to 5 times.
- From the Skies – Heat build-up while hovering is decreased.
Original story continues
The next event is not ready yet. As per BioWare’s comments and announcements we know that there will be no more Acts with content, like the original post-release schedule had it planned.
BioWare will instead focus, for now, on fixing the game’s core issues and in the meantime we will continue getting Seasonal Updates. The Cataclysm was a success for them and for the game and it is more than likely that the next content will support competitive environment and unique currency for new customizations and gear.
As per the studio’s statement, they were very happy with the feedback they received from the Public Test Server (PTS) while testing the Cataclysm in June and July earlier this year. In his letter to the community about Anthem’s Future, Chad Robertson, head of live service, promised that the next content will also be delivered via PTS for testing before it is released full.
I expect the new Level 66 and Level 80 Components to be part of the rewards from the next seasonal event and content update. Whether the Crystals will still be the currency we will be using, this is unknown, but as I said earlier – be sure to spend all of your current piles of the currency before BioWare introduces the next event, because they will not count.
That’s all I had for you for now. How do you feel about Anthem in this very moment? Do you plan to continue playing and farming the remains of the Cataclysm and the Strongholds or will you take a break until the next event arrives? How about other games? I am very eager for SWTOR’s Onslaught expansion and let’s not forget the (hopefully!) big hit of the Fall-Winter season – Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order comes in November!
