Avowed features five expansive maps, and they only fill in as you explore them, prompting you to head for the furthest reaches to fully see the game in all its glory. Hitting the mainline quests exclusively is only going to leave you with a few linear streaks across mostly barren territory, which is no way to play Avowed.
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Avowed: All Unique Weapons And How To Get Them
Once you get past the starting area of Avowed, you’ll be getting a ton of unique weapons and likely using them for most of your gameplay.
Here, we look at the locations that either house side quests you might have missed, or perhaps aren’t even part of those and are just worth seeing for the view. Avowed is the sort of game where you get out what you put in, and if you want to soak up the Living Lands, you’ll have to do it on foot.
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Waterfall Cave – Emerald Stair
This hidden lair behind the waterfall by the Rootbound Godless Ruins near Fior mes Iverno is not only an interesting location, but a narratively crucial one. It’s in here that you find the Steel Garotte hiding out in the Emerald Stair, and you need to take them out (likely as part of the Steel Resolve quest) in order to save Fior mes Iverno from burning.
Heading here and taking out the forces alters the story of Avowed like no other action in the game, and therefore is something you need to experience on at least one playthrough.
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Magran’s Assay – Dawnshore
This soldier’s tower is great for a few reasons – in Dawnshore, you see a lot of folks on edge as Avowed establishes the delicate (and crumbling) political system, so it’s cool to see soldiers relaxing as well as training. It feels lived in more than just a military base. Most importantly though, you can fight.
If you speak to the leader Cosmina, she’ll mistake you for a recruit and offer to fight you and will give you a weapon when you win. These will just be Common variants of the hammer, arquebus, spear, and wand, but still, it’s something, right?
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Grakohr’s Cave – Galawain’s Tusks
In the southern parts of the Sallow Steppe, there is an ogre’s cave. However, unlike other ogre caves, the resident ogre (Grakohr) won’t attack on site. Instead, a peaceful resolution can be reached once you realise he is in pain and in need of medication, which is part of the A Cure for Rage quest.
Grakohr is keeping a merchant captive here, but will not harm her so long as you gather his resources. Once you do, he will thank you for showing his kind some grace. Though there’s unfortunately much further development, it’s still an interesting interaction that helps build Avowed’s world.
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Lake Lacuna – Emerald Stair
Tucked away in the north of the Wildwoods, this small lake offers a peaceful reprieve from the warring tribes of the forest. However, as well as a nice opportunity to go for a swim, in the quest Memory of the Deep you’ll be diving into this lake to retrieve a meteorite fragment.
Between this and the starmetal, these are hints we are not alone in the Avowed (or Pillars of Eternity) universe. Thought the game doesn’t build on it, it remains an intriguing narrative quirk.
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Ekidan Workshop – Galawain’s Tusks
Technically, all of the Slumbering Fields in Galawain’s Tusks could be on here, as the lush green land is a total contrast to the rest of the setting, and visiting is not required as part of the main quest. But, if such a region is too big to reasonably go on a list like this, then consider the Ekidan Workshop deep in the grassy area itself.
These ruins allow you to interact with a broken statue in a way that doesn’t relate to the Ancient Memories per se, but does offer a deeper glimpse into the world around you – both spiritually and geographically.
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Seaside Cavern – Dawnshore
To the far west of the Overgrown Frontier, you can drop down the cliffs near the Xaurip Camp and burn away cobwebs to enter the Seaside Cavern. Here, you’ll find bodies wrapped up in the spiders’ webs, reminding you how dangerous these beasties can be. You’ll also get that reminder if you loot the chest in the middle, causing the spiders to attack.
While the loot is just your standard crafting resources, it’s cool to see a spider’s nest with active victims. Though it’s a pity you can’t save them or explore this story, seeing them this way reminds you the world is far bigger than you.
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Tago’s Tower – Shatterscarp
This ruined tower full of traps is one of the best platforming challenges in Avowed (along with the Sand Sea Ruins, also in Shatterscarp) and lets you scramble your way to the top, before things get really messy as you discover what you’ve stumbled into.
However, the high point of this adventure (literally and metaphorically, because we love a bit of word play at TheGamer) is that at the end of it you get to jump from the very top into a small pool of water and walk away unscathed like you’ve been trained by Ezio Auditore himself.
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Fortified Xaurip Camp – Emerald Stair
We see a few Xaurip camps around the maps, but this location at the extreme north of Emerald Stair is the best chance to see how the other half really live. Though you’ll need to fight them off when you arrive, we get to see them living in the swamp here, and some of their religious carvings.
It’s an important part of Avowed’s lore that the xaurips are struggling to form a real society, so having their living quarters to explore helps us feel that struggle. You know, after we kill them all.
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Broken Aqueduct – The Garden
The final Ancient Memory in Avowed is found in The Garden by the Broken Aqueduct. Thouugh you will be in a rush to race to the story’s conclusion, you should head further south after the vision of Giatta’s parents, ignoring the cliffside you’re meant to scramble up. Here you’ll see some gates that lead to the final memory.
This will grant you the Rememberance of Sapadal, which causes you to regenerate health whenever you drop below 50 percent. There’s not much game left, but still – this is very useful for the fights still to come.
1
Sand Sea Oasis – Shatterscarp
The Sand Sea Oasis is a required location for the side quest One Last Drink, and has a lake which hides part of the Totem of Revelations. It’s also near the Twin Offerings Outlook, which is the destination for a bounty and an Ancient Memory, so it’s kind of a big deal.
However, it still fits the bill here as it’s so far out of the way to the south east of the map that you’d never visit unless specifically doing these quests, and the lush clear waters are a wonderful sight in the dry and dusty desert.
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Avowed: Mapping The Living Lands Walkthrough
Sanza’s four cartographers have gone missing in Dawnshore, Emerald Stair, Shatterscarp, and Galawain’s Tusks.