Five tips for getting started in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

Massive Entertainment’s anticipated take on the world of James Cameron’s Avatar has made its debut. This no doubt means that many of you are already exploring the alien moon and beginning to find your way around the beautiful but hostile world. If you have yet to embark on that adventure but are looking for a few tips and tricks to get you started, we have just the thing for you.

Stick to the beaten path…. at least for a while

When you finally arrive in Pandora, you just want to head out into the wilderness to explore and see what secrets the world holds. Don’t… Not for a while. Pandora is huge and was designed with a huge amount of verticality in mind. Although the Na’Vi are very athletic, they are not the most efficient when it comes to climbing mountains and running marathons. They can do it, but if you decide to stay on foot, it takes a long time to get anywhere. So stay on the beaten path, complete the main mission lines presented to you and keep doing this until you at least bond with your Ikran. Once you can ride freely on your aerial, exploration becomes infinitely easier and less time-consuming. Moreover, you are much less likely to be crushed or eaten by wildlife as you float through the air.

Using Guided Exploration Mode

Speaking of exploration, at the beginning of the game (or at any time when visiting the settings) you are asked to choose between two exploration modes. One guides you, which essentially means you can see markers or where your next mission location is. The other tries to make the game as immersive as possible by asking you to find scavenger hunts and locations presented exclusively with very broad clues from the game. You are not from Pandora, and this alien world is not the easiest to get around, especially when your feet are on the ground and your view is obstructed by towering trees and vines and floating mountains. Keep guided mode on, at least until you find your footing, otherwise navigation and finding mission markers and subsequent story beats will become frustrating.

Know your limits

It may look similar to Far Cry at first glance, but Frontiers of Pandora differs from that action series in one big way. The world is not your playground. Pandora is a living body and everything and everyone, including RDA, has the potential to kill you. So if the game tells you that a base or mission is beyond your skill or strength level, take the hint and come back when you’re ready, otherwise you’ll wake up rudely when the RDA mechs and Pandora beasts teach you the meaning of pain.

Stealth is your best friend

In the same vein as knowing your limits, it’s worth being aware that although Frontiers of Pandora has all the familiar attributes of a Far Cry game, it plays very differently. You are not a walking talking force of nature that can shoot and blast through any opposition in front of you. If you try to complete each mission as violently and loudly as possible, the RDA mechs and armored soldiers will quickly prove that their equipment and weapons are far superior to yours. So stay in the shadows, stay high and stay as quiet as night. Eliminate enemies with your traditional and silent Na’Vi weapons, avoiding combat until absolutely necessary. Stick to this and RDA will have a nightmare to stop your efforts.

Hacking, hacking, hacking

The Na’Vi are not technical wizards, but your warrior is gifted very early on with a tool called SID that is primarily used to hack doors and computer terminals. However, SID is also a brilliant weapon for dealing with RDA mechs because you can hack their systems and then paralyze them for a short period of time, allowing you to sneak past them without worrying about being detected or creating an excellent opportunity to strike and immediately neutralize the threat they pose. A word of warning with this more violent method: if a mech is armored, you can’t take them out immediately, and if you try to do so, you’ll probably only infuriate them and attract a lot of unwanted attention.

These are just a few key tricks for conquering Pandora. If you think of more useful tips, share them in the comments below to help fellow readers tackle Massive’s action-adventure game.