Avowed offers players an expansive set of character customization tools, allowing them to play different ways. The following guide focuses on constructing strong early-game builds, with some suggestions for background, attributes, weapons, abilities, and companions to help beginners get through the early stages of their journey. While flexibility is in the core nature of Avowed’s design, these suggestions aim to provide beginners with a decent foundation, aiming for survivability, damage, and utility in balance. Whether you’re playing defensively or even more aggressively, this guide shall be helpful for you to make the correct choice and achieve your full potential as a player within the game Avowed.
Best Early Builds
The War Hero background is a great choice for beginners in Avowed since it grants you a melee weapon right from the start as an elite spearman. You can choose from five different backgrounds, each influencing your dialogue options and determining your starting weapon.
However, this doesn’t lock you into a specific playstyle – you’re free to use any weapons and abilities throughout the game. While backgrounds also set your initial attribute points, these can be adjusted to fit your build. Since backgrounds cannot be changed later, it’s best to choose one based on your preferred role-playing experience rather than pure performance.
Best Early Attributes
For a beginner build in Avowed, Might and Constitution are the best attributes to focus on, as they boost both damage and survivability. While attributes can be reset anytime with gold, these two have an immediate impact on gameplay. You can also enhance attributes permanently through companions or temporarily with food and consumables.
For example, consuming intelligence-boosting food before speaking with NPCs can help pass skill checks. Perception is also useful for increasing critical hit chances, but since multiple skills enhance crits, it’s not essential early on. A well-balanced beginner build should prioritize Might and Constitution, keeping Intelligence lower and using consumables when needed.
Best Early Weapons
For new players of Avowed, Sword and Shield and Bows are the way to go for weapon selection, providing defense as well as ranged flexibility. One-handed sword and shield provide a defensive playstyle, where you can easily time blocks, knock back enemies, and stun with ease. This combination may have less damage but gives great early-game survivability and access to special weapons.
A Bow serves as an excellent secondary weapon, especially for stealth attacks, allowing you to take down enemies from cover with well-placed headshots before switching to melee when threats close in. As you progress, consider transitioning to a Two-Handed weapon around level 20 for higher AOE damage, especially when combined with the Bear skill at level 18 for tanking. Ultimately, don’t be afraid to experiment with different weapons to find what best suits your playstyle.
Best Early Skill
In Avowed, you unlock new skills at each level, starting at level 2, with one skill point per level to invest in three different skill trees. You have the flexibility to mix and match skills, but the Fighter and Ranger trees work exceptionally well together. Additionally, you can reset your skills anytime using gold, though the cost increases as you level up, making early choices more forgiving but requiring careful planning later.
For beginners, the best skills to prioritize are Clear Out, Bear Ally, and Shadowing Beyond. Clear Out is a powerful area-of-effect skill that not only deals massive damage but also knocks down enemies, making it excellent for crowd control.
Bear Ally summons a bear companion that serves as both a tank and a distraction, absorbing enemy attacks and reducing pressure on you. Shadowing Beyond is a stealth skill that allows you to trigger the Divine Thorn godlike ability, one-shotting enemies from stealth. It also provides the ability to stealth-resurrect allies or retreat when overwhelmed.
Other essential beginner-friendly skills include Charge, Constant Recovery, and Survivalist. Charge is a powerful gap-closing attack that stuns enemies and deals great damage, though it should be used strategically to avoid excessive Essence consumption.
Constant Recovery is a crucial passive that regenerates health after taking damage, reducing reliance on potions when paired with food-based healing. Survivalist may seem minor at first, but at rank 2, it enables crafting of powerful consumables that can replace potions, significantly boosting survivability.
Finally, Clear Out remains one of the best area-based melee skills in the game, becoming even more potent with upgrades that add multiple attack rotations and knockdown effects. Meanwhile, Bear Ally, when enhanced, lasts longer and further reduces the need for tanking. With the right mix of offensive, defensive, and utility skills, beginners can create a strong, well-balanced build that can handle any combat scenario in Avowed.
Best Early Companions
Giatta and Marius are the best companions for a beginner Avowed build because they provide a strong balance of support and offense. Giatta excels at healing and damage reduction, keeping both you and your allies alive in tough fights. Marius, on the other hand, offers the best single-target burst damage in the game, striking enemies from a distance while also helping you uncover hidden treasures—an invaluable skill for exploration.
As you level up, you’ll get more companions, but when you hit Bear Ally Rank 2 at level 18, you can substitute Kai with the Bear as your main tank. This configuration lets Giatta do the healing and Marius get the most out of his attack potential, so fights become easier and more convenient. With this trio, you have durability, great damage output, and treasure-finding capabilities, so traveling through Avowed becomes a breeze.
Her abilities such as Purification and Reconstruction aid in the purification and healing while maintaining the life of the party throughout difficult fights. Barrier and Greater Barrier give strong defensive barrier functions, and Acceleration increases movement speed for speedy repositioning.
Furthermore, Essence Shielding also takes damage, Evade Attacks enhances survivability, and Overcharge raises her performance so that she is an all-around healer and guardian. Marius, meanwhile, is a killing machine when it comes to offensive combat, dishing out massive single-target damage while dominating the battlefield. His Binding Roots and Thorny Roots paralyze targets, keeping them from closing in, and Heart Seeker and Quick Draw enable accurate, lethal attacks.
Shadow Step provides mobility, letting him reposition quickly, and Wounding Shots ensures consistent ranged damage. For even greater lethality, Devastating Blow and Exposing Shots weaken enemies and amplify damage output, making Marius an ideal choice for players who need a powerful ranged attacker to complement their build.
