Avowed: How to deal Elemental and Explosive damage

Wondering how to deal Fire, Frost, Shock, and Explosive damage in Avowed? It only takes a few minutes into Avowed, Obsidian's latest RPG, for you to start encountering different damage types. Shortly after washing ashore on the Living Lands, you'll run into a bunch of thorny brambles blocking your progress, and you'll need to unleash some Fire damage to burn them out of your way. The more you progress in the game, the more you'll run into these barriers, and they all require Elemental damage to surmount. Run into a river you can't jump across? Freeze the water and create platforms. See a grate blocking your way or a mechanical essence generator that needs to be activated? use Frost or Shock damage. You'll also come across walls that must be blown up with Explosive damage, which technically doesn't fall under the Elemental category.

Encountering a secret route that's impassable if you aren't capable of dealing the right damage can feel annoying, especially in Avowed's early game. In this guide, we'll break down exactly what to do in order to deal Elemental and Explosive damage in Avowed, whether you have magic at your disposal or need to rely on items.

Avowed: How to deal Elemental and Explosive damage

You can deal Elemental and Explosive damage by using spells or class abilities, throwing grenades, using unique weapons, or relying on your companions' abilities. We've outlined all of these methods below.

• Cast spells and use class abilities
• Throw grenades
• Use unique weapons
• Rely on companions

Cast spells and use class abilities

Spells are by far the easiest way to deal Elemental damage, which is why we recommend investing in the magic route in our Avowed Beginner's Guide. Even if you aren't a full-fledged magic-user, keeping a Grimoire of Elements in your inventory simply for the moments when you come across an elemental barrier is highly recommended.

The following are handy Level 1 Wizard spells that are accessible from the start of the game, either via the Wizard's skill tree or by a Common Grimoire of Elements:

• Chill Blades: (25 Essence, 10 second cooldown, Frost damage) Summons an array of blades that shoot forward. Great for breaking open grates and creating frost platforms across bodies of water, which you can then traverse upon.
• Fan of Flames: (25 Essence, 10 second cooldown, Fire damage) Shoots out fire in a fan-like arc. Nice for burning down brambles.
• Jolting Touch: (25 Essence, 10 second cooldown, Shock damage) Blasts out a beam of electricity that jumps from target to target. Ideal for activating mechanical essence generators.

To deal Explosive damage, the easiest method is to dip into the Fighter skill tree and take the following ability:

• Charge: (20 Essence, 10 second cooldown) Run forward and smash into anything in your way, including walls that require Explosive damage to break. Using this ability if you're squishy is a little risky.

It is also possible to deal Explosive damage via magic, but this takes more effort. Grimoires containing Explosive damage spells aren't terribly common, but if you wait until Level 5, you can unlock the following abilities on the Wizard's skill tree:

• Blast: (Passive) You'll need to do a Power Attack with a wand to activate this ability, which deals Explosive damage on a hit.
• Grimoire Snap: (35 Essence, 20 second cooldown) You snap your Grimoire shut, creating a large shockwave of Explosive damage.

Throw grenades

If you have no magic nor abilities at your disposal, it's still possible to deal Elemental and Explosive damage with grenades, which are found scattered throughout the Living Lands. The following grenades are the ones you'll want to stockpile:

• Magran's Fury: (Fire damage) A sac of flammable liquid. Can often be found in dungeons underground or in the depths of the wilds.
• Eye of Rymrgand: (Frost damage) A glacial spore shard that releases a cold mist when broken. Frequently attached to walls underground.
• Electric Lily Seed: (Shock damage) A seed pod that releases electrical energy. Looks like an unusual blue flower.
• Grenade: (Explosive damage) Technically everything on this list is classified as a grenade, but there's only one true grenade here. It makes a big boom - self explanatory!

Use unique weapons

Certain weapons can make your job easier when it comes to breaking down barriers. Imagine your standard fiery swords and the like - Avowed has plenty of those, especially if you trod off the beaten path for sidequests. As of yet, I haven't located a weapon that deals Explosive damage, but the following unique weapons are very useful for Elemental damage. Slight spoilers await, so click to see the full text.

• Last Light of Day: (One-handed sword, hits deal 10% bonus Fire damage) Found after looting Sagaris' body if you kill him or convince him to transfer his soul during the Dawntreader side quest.
• Drawn in Winter: (One-handed axe, hits deal 10% bonus Frost damage) Found in Watcher's Mirror in Dawnshore; complete the Ancient Memory and choose any answer aside from telling the Voice to go away.
• Caeroc's Pride: (One-handed Pistol, hits deal 10% bonus Shock damage) Kill the Bounty Target Tempestous Luandi on the island south of the Ondra's Reach Beacon.

Rely on companions

Finally, if you don't want to deal damage yourself, your companions can assist you. Kai, for instance, can shoot incendiary ammo that burns away obstacles with his Firestarter ability, while Giatta has Spectral Jolt, which deals Shock damage and is perfect for activating mechanical essence generators. Yatzli, meanwhile, has two abilities - Essence Explosion and Blast that both deal Explosive damage.

By far and large, though, it's better to focus on giving your Envoy a diverse damage output - companions are great, but they're limited in what they can do. Since you can only have two travelling with you at one time, you don't want to be left at the mercy of whoever's in your party.

Now you should be all set on causing Elemental and Explosive damage in Avowed - go break those walls down! For more quality of life features and newbie tips, check out our Avowed Beginner's Guide on navigating the trials of the Living Lands. And if you're more interested on making yourself look pretty, our guide on how to transmogrify gear will surely help.