Anthem loot tiers explained

Anthem
Anthem (Image credit: EA)

There's plenty of loot to pick up as you play through the many missions, raids, and Strongholds in Anthem. You'll get better loot as you play and level up, but how does it all work? When will you start seeing uncommon or even Legendary weapons and javelin components?

We've broken down the six loot tiers that currently exist in Anthem and how you get access to each. In most cases, it's a matter of just leveling up, but with others, you'll have to try the most difficult missions.

So what are the loot tiers?

Anthem has six loot tiers. Similar to other online games, they're color-coded to facilitate identification. Also similarly to other games, the colors might be familiar to you.

The likelihood of finding rarer loot scales with the difficulty of the missions, Strongholds, and Freeplay. So if you go on the hardest difficulty or do the Grandmaster missions (more on this later), you can get access to better weapons and components.

Below is the basic rundown for each of the loot tiers. We'll be sure to update as more information becomes available or if anything changes.

Common

Common items are the ones you'll start off with in early levels. They're marked by the color white and you'll probably be finding them everywhere. You'll also probably be swapping out for better gear as you level up and salvaging them for parts.

These are also the easiest items to craft since most materials you find will be white. However, once you hit higher levels, common loot will more difficult to find, although you won't be needing it anyway since there's way better loot to find.

Uncommon

Starting at pilot level 7, you'll be able to farm for uncommon, or green items. These are often similar to common items, but with a little more power or some unusual abilities.

You can get find these items in chests after you complete certain missions. You can also craft uncommon loot with uncommon embers, crafting materials you can find scattered out in the world.

You'll also gain the ability to craft universal, sigil, and iconic uncommon components once you rank up your loyalties with the freelancers, arcanists, and sentinels respectively.

Anthem complete weapons list (so far)

Rare

Rare, or blue items will appear once you hit level 10. They're still relatively hard to find, even when you reach that level, but you can find rare guns or components in chests out in the world.

Like with uncommon items, you can craft rare components using rare embers. You can also access rare blueprints by getting to loyalty rank 2 with the groups in Fort Tarsis.

Epic

You'll be able to get epic, or purple, weapons and components starting at around level 20. You can access them by completing raids on the highest difficulty. It's also around this point when common loot drops start disappearing. Once you start doing Grandmaster play, epic loot will basically become the new common loot.

If you get to the highest loyalty rank — level 3 — with each of the groups, you'll get access to epic blueprints.

Masterwork

This is where things get tricky. Masterwork, or orange, loot is available after you reach level 30. Only then can you access Grandmaster difficulty missions. There are three Grandmaster tiers and for each, your chance of finding a Masterwork item greatly increases.

You can also get Masterwork loot by completing Legendary Contracts and Strongholds, which you can get through NPCs in Fort Tarsis.

Best ways to earn Masterwork and Legendary items in Anthem

Legendary

This is the final loot tier in Anthem, and the toughest to achieve. These items and components appear in the world as yellow and can only be found if you complete missions in the highest Grandmaster difficulty tier.

Your thoughts

What do you think about the loot tier levels? Do you think it's balanced? Do you have any tips you want to share about how to best get Legendary or Masterwork items? Sound off in the comments below.

Anthem is expected to release fully on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on Feb. 22 for $60. If you have an EA/Origin Access or Origin Access Premiere subscription, you can play it early right now on Xbox One and PC.

Carli Velocci
Gaming Lead, Copy Chief

Carli is the Gaming Editor and Copy Chief across Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore. Her last name also will remind you of a dinosaur. Follow her on Twitter or email her at carli.velocci@futurenet.com.