ANTHEM Releases Update 1.6.2. Extends Icetide Event

BioWare released today the next patch to Anthem. Game Update 1.6.2 fixes a number of bugs and fixes. With today’s announcement the developers of the game also revealed that the winter event will be extended through February. This includes all of the Freeplay activities, the themed Strongholds, challenges, the Seasonal Store and more!

This week BioWare finally added the Tyrant Mine stronghold to the Icetide rotation. The specially-themed stronghold was kept off since the beginning of the event, because aparrently a nasty issue was discovered within it and the devs decided to not make it available for the players until this is resolved.

Previously BioWare announced that the Icetide Tyrant Mine edition and the long-awaited winter-themed armor packs will be released along with a new patch.

That patch is live now. The Stronghold came up yesterday and you can see the complete guide to all of its secrets here on VULKK.com, as usual. On Friday the new armors are also arriving to the Featured Store. Expect full review shortly after the refresh, again – as usual.

There is one new armor for each javelin. According to latest Community Cortex, on Friday BioWare is bringing the Sleet Flurry and Ice Crush packs. The other two are expected most likely next Friday or perhaps even on Tuesday. Get your Coins (or wallets) ready if you want them now, because there is no confirmation if and when they will return to the store again. For good or evil this is BioWare’s policy regarding the Featured Store’s items rotations.

Each Javelin will get a unique winter-themed armor pack during the Icetide event. You can preview them all if you wish to.

As for today’s Update 1.6.2, its patch notes are available below. Check them out! Source: EA.

New Features

Icetide Season (Freeplay events, Weekly Strongholds, Challenges, Seasons Store) has been extended to run through February.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

Reduced the wait time to start Time Trial races from 60 seconds to 20 seconds.
Tyrant Mine should now be available in the seasonal Icetide challenge rotation.
- This was supposed to be in with Icetide, however there was an issue that emerged in testing. We didn’t feel comfortable releasing Tyrant Mine until we could fully resolve this issue.
Fixed an issue where seasonal wreaths were playing their collection sound effect when they spawned into the world incorrectly.
Weekly Stronghold challenge completion credit is now correctly tracking based on completed strongholds and not how many players are in the session at the time of completion.
The “Soldier’s Reward” inversion is now correctly using its own icon as intended.
Fixed an issue that was preventing the electric orbs from correctly spawning in the arachnid defense annex in the Tyrant Mine.
Resolved a problem with the Daily: Contracts challenge where the amount of minor crystal rewarded was incorrect. Challenge will now correctly grant 500 crystals.
We’ve raised the First Fog wall in the Heart of Rage to prevent gaining score multiplier earlier than intended.
Resolved issues with the Frost Master challenge not properly displaying whether or not Left Out In The Cold had been completed.
Resolved issues with Collection: Left Out In The Cold being blocked by an issue with some wreaths. For those who are unable to interact with any more wreaths but the challenge has not been completed, entering freeplay will automatically complete the challenge.
Resolved an issue with the Time Trials not tracking progress towards challenges.
Resolved issue where players were unable to access the Seasonal Store from the Launch Bay.

Icetide will last for a few more weeks. If you have not yet completed your challenges, now would be a good time. I imagine the interest for the Freeplay event and the themed strongholds will dwindle in the coming weeks. The same happened with The Cataclysm last Summer, remember?

Every single one of the Icetide-themed Strongholds has a guide here on VULKK.com, written by RubyJavelin. If you ever struggle with a challenge, completion or simply want to discover the last remaining secret(s) that has been escaping you in your last few runs, check them out!

I personally was hoping to hear news about Anthem 2.0 or whatever that rumored major overhaul/update is around the game’s anniversary. With Icetide getting extended, this tells me that my expectations could get a happy ending after all.

Anthem Javelin Climbing - Early Concept Art — According to The Art of Anthem in early versions of Anthem your javelins were not able to fly, but would instead climb through Bastion. Imagine how much bigger this would would seem if you could not fly over everything :)

If such an announcement is coming in February indeed, it makes sense for them to extend the current event instead of adding a new one. Once news for Anthem 2.0 drop (if!), I imagine the active end-game community will take a break while waiting. Even if a new event is added, I doubt many will want to go through it knowing a giant change is coming soon.

Any way, let’s not get too hung up on speculations and expectations. Happy new patch, Freelancers and don’t take it all on the Grabbits!