2019 has not been the year BioWare and EA likely envisioned following the launch of Anthem, its newest IP and at one point, a highly anticipated third person shooter. Since launch, the game has been rife with bugs, gameplay issues, controversies, and backlash from the community. Making matters worse, planned post-launch content and updates have continued to miss target dates or get canceled outright which has seemingly acted as the final straw for many players holding out hope for the game's future. With the remaining playerbase still on edge and after months of delays, rumors, and accidental leaks, the big cataclysm event has finally arrived in Anthem.

This past weekend in Anthem, players received a set of new challenges called The Oncoming Storm. The three tasks are immediately available inside of the game's Freeplay mode and require 20 crystals to be destroyed, complete 8 crystal world events, and take out 60 crystallized enemies. For finishing the objectives, players earn 2,000 coins and the Arcanist's Monument graphic.

While the challenges themselves likely won't take players too long to finish, there's not much else to do until the actual event begins in full. Unfortunately, BioWare has not specified an exact date, leaving fans to speculate and guess as to when that could be.

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Outside of the newly added challenges, the game's world of Bastion has started to evolve from what players experienced at launch. In addition to a raging storm appearing off in the distance, players have been starting to see new elemental style enemies inside of Freeplay. As hinted at by the challenges, silver crystals have also begun populating the landscape including smaller ones that can be broken and harvested, as well as larger ones involving new public event scenarios. Fort Tarsis also has a new vendor stall, though the merchant hasn't actually opened up shop just yet.

anthem demo storm event

In terms of what the big Cataclysm event will entail, details are still a bit fuzzy. BioWare has previously confirmed that this won't be a permanent change, only lasting eight weeks with new story missions and legendary loot including weapons, skins, and more. In addition to a raging storm, gameplay will have new modifiers such as faster cooldown times that change weekly and the loot drop rate will also be increased. Whether or not all this new content entices players back to the game is anyone's guess.

Anthem is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

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