Strongholds are special instanced expeditions in Anthem, said to be among the most challenging and rewarding content. A scoring system is used in the competitive version of the strongholds.

Features

Strongholds are aspirational content and are meant for a challenging experience.

• Strongholds are four-player missions that emphasize coordination and strategy. Matchmaking is available for solo players to join a team.
• These expeditions are considered part of Anthem's endgame, offering some of the most difficult encounters in the game.
• Each Stronghold involves progressing through waves of enemies, completing objectives, and facing a powerful boss at the end.

Progression

• Unlocking: Players unlock Strongholds by progressing through the main story.
  • The first stronghold becomes available only after finishing Finding Old Friends mission and at Pilot Level 7. Both conditions must be satisfied.
  • All other strongholds become available after completing Return to the Heart of Rage.
• A matchmaking system is employed to team up with other players to do a stronghold mission. It will take a maximum of 90 seconds to matchmake, beyond that the player will be put in the server by oneself.
• Strongholds are very tough expeditions even in the lower difficulty settings. Unless properly geared and having a javelin of an acceptable Power level, it will take a significantly long time to complete them. They are designed for team play expected to be completed in 35-40 minutes at the most.
• Although solo play is possible if there aren’t any players in the server. Strongholds are best experienced with effective teamwork, including sharing ability usage and timing Combos and Ultimate Abilities, is essential for success, especially on higher difficulties.

Rewards

Strongholds are among the best sources of loot in Anthem, with some exclusive items only available through these expeditions.

• There are two Treasure Chests at the end of 2 specific checkpoints
• Some enemies in certain strongholds will drop guaranteed loot.
• Bosses will drop at most 15 items in the highest difficulty.

List of Strongholds

There are 4 released strongholds in Anthem:

• Tyrant Mine
• The Temple of Scar
• The Heart of Rage
• The Sunken Cell

There is one unreleased stronghold which was supposed to be a future release content.

• Longfall Ruins (Unreleased)

Story

Each stronghold is a unique story of its own. The way it works is that a team of Freelancers performed an incredibly tough expedition on the request of Corvus. That is why it is necessary to speak with Sev immediately before and after completing the Stronghold for the very first time. The First time dialogue of each stronghold is unique and adds depth to its story.

• Only Tyrant Mine and the temple of Scar are linked to each other in terms of Story.
• The Heart of Rage is the tougher version of the final Critical Objective of the Legend of the Heart of Rage storyline
• The Sunken Cell is the prelude to the Echoes of Reality Cataclysm
• Datamined files indicate that the Longfalls Ruins takes place after Echoes of Reality, but as a consequence of the cataclysm itself.

Trivia

• Strongholds will provide Stronghold Complete Feat after successfully defeating the Final Boss.
• Strongholds are among the worst sources of gaining XP, just ahead of Freeplay.
• The difficulties of all strongholds were toned down several months after releasing Anthem.
• At release, all Bosses dropped exactly two loot after their defeat. After receiving player feedback, this was corrected to a maximum of 15 items in the combination of loot and ember.
• Since Update 1.7.0, the maximum power level of Combat Equipment was raised to 80. But due to the focus on the now canceled Anthem's rework, the game was not balanced, resulting in reducing the toughness of Strongholds.