Anthem does a pretty terrible job of telling you the important stuff, and there’s few things more important in the game than crafting and the value it brings to your Javelin and progression. While the crafting system in the game is simple, it’s difficult to know what to do and how to go about maximizing its value. This guide provides an overview of crafting, materials, and their use in helping you create weapons and abilities.

Why Craft?

Strictly speaking, you could play Anthem without ever crafting a single weapon or ability. However, you’d then be at the mercy of the Gods as to whether or not you got exactly what you want from drops. While crafting in Anthem works differently to other games, its ability to empower you and your kit is paramount to improving your Javelin level. Simply put, crafting weapons and abilities provides you with the opportunity to choose their rarity and inscriptions, offering you some control over their power, instead of relying on drops from enemies or missions.

Crafting Materials and Obtaining Them

As is customary, crafting materials are fundamental in creating new weapons and abilities. Without the right materials, you won’t be able to make either. Fortunately, materials are fairly easy to obtain thanks to harvesting, and salvaging. When you have a blueprint, selecting on it in the Forge will reveal what components you need to craft it. It’s then simply a case of obtaining them, and holding the craft button.

Anthem has three different standard crafting materials: Chimeric Alloy, Chimeric Compound, and Weapon Parts. There are also four Ember crafting materials: Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Masterwork. Finally, there are also unique crafting parts for each Javelin which are fundamental in creating Javelin specific abilities.

Methods for obtaining crafting materials include:

Harvesting: Scattered around the game world, whether running missions or in freeplay, are a variety of nodes. They’re indicated on your HUD when flying, and you simply need to harvest them [F] or destroy them with an attack. Each node is unique, and provides a unique component (usually one or two).

Salvaging: As your main source of materials, salvaging existing weapons and abilities provides a great deal of resources. The higher the rarity of the weapon or ability you salvage, the greater the components you obtain. In addition, you can only obtain Javelin based components when salvaging unique Javelin abilities.

Store/Shop: In Fort Tarsis there’s a shop (next to the Forge) as well as a vanity store (just down from your Javelin on the right hand side) which sell crafting items. All the items available cost gold or shards, and provide a means of gaining something specific salvaging alone can’t guarantee you.

Crafting Blueprints and Drops

Unlike other games where you start with multiple blueprints, Anthem provides none. Instead, you can only craft things such as weapons or abilities which you have already obtained. In addition, higher rarities for materials can only be obtained by:

• Ammo/Armour Component: Gaining loyalty with the Freelancer faction.
• Ability Components Gaining loyalty with the Sentinel faction.
• Weapons: Completing weapon-specific challenges (each has its own challenge)
• Sigils: Gaining loyalty with the Arcanists faction.
• Abilities: Completing challenges that require you to have an ability equipped for a certain number of missions.

What all this means is that you can’t craft anything without first obtaining it it as a drop, and you can’t craft greater rarities of weapons or abilities, without prolonged play with them. Fundamentally, the idea behind this is to not only see you use a weapon or ability for an extended period of time, but to also be rewarded for utilising a specific build. While you’ll still obtain better weapons and abilities as drops as you level, refinement of your kit - through crafting - will see you become dedicated to just a couple of weapons and abilities at end game.

Finally, it’s also worth noting that you can only ever craft weapons and abilities up to Epic rarity. Masterwork and higher have to be obtained through drops.