After a mysterious countdown timer emerged, it appears Anthem's pre-Cataclysm challenges are finally live.

Over the weekend, BioWare's loot shooter Anthem received a new set of Challenges called "The Oncoming Storm." Leading up to the new event are some new pre-event challenges which are live right now. 

"The Oncoming Storm" consists of three parts, all of which take place in the game's freeplay mode. The first revolves around destroying a new set of crystals that have started appearing around the world. The second requires you to complete three separate "Crystal World Events," activities that randomly pop up and reward you with a crystal once finished. And to complete the third, you just need to kill crystallized enemies, which are effectively Scar fighters with crystals on their backs. Getting all of this done rewards you with Coin, one of Anthem’s standard in-game currencies that can be spent on armor and materials, as well as some new decals specific to the activity to customize your Javelin with.

The new freeplay challenges will see players collecting crystals out in the game environments, completing new world events, or killing crystalized enemies.

Some general information on Cataclysm:

Loot

• 9 new masterwork/Legendary guns (3 Base, 9 variations)
• 8 new Masterwork/Legendary variations of existing gear
• 8 new melee gear variations + Masterwork/Legendary versions (2 for each class)
• 8 Masterwork/Legendary variations of support gear

Gameplay

• Cataclysm
• Cataclysm Inversions (Changes to gameplay in cataclysm. IE: Abilities on faster Cooldowns)
• 1 new cataclysm freeplay event
• New story missions
• GM2/GM3 Balance Changes

Cataclysm Event

• 2 weeks pre-event, 6 weeks of cataclysm event
• Cataclysm will start after pre-event then get more objectives over the six weeks
• Inversions for cataclysm change weekly
• Gain new currency to unlock warchests
• Warchests contain a masterwork loot with a chance of a legendary version of new gear.
• Limited time cosmetic rewards

Other Changes

• Luck removed & loot drop rate increased
• Melee removed from gear score scaling. Melee damage connected to melee gear

Relevant Threads

• Overview of everything in Cataclysm patch
• Roundup of all the new gear and weapons.
• All new weapons with demo clips
• Short weather clip with colossus melee

Cataclysm is an upcoming game from Anthem that features new maps, new game mechanics, and rewards players with higher power points, including leaderboards.

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