Actually getting Masterwork and Legendary-tier weapons and gear however is… not easy. In most cases you’ll need to grind your way to the endgame and then, once you get there, you’ll need to grind some more. It’s worth it though, with Legendaries and Masterworks being the best weapons and gear in Anthem, and so with that in mind on this page we detail all you need to know about them, from a Masterwork and Legendary weapons list and a Masterwork and Legendary gear list for each specific class, to an explanation of the importance of Inscriptions and how they work, the difference between Masterworks and Legendaries, and of course how to get Masterwork and Legendary gear once you know what you’re looking for, too. On this page:
Common - White Uncommon - Green Rare - Blue Epic - Purple Masterwork - Orange Legendary - Yellow
The four lower tiers - Common, Uncommon, Rare and Epic - will appear in stages as you progress through the Levels up to the cap of 30, and are essentially just the same weapons and gear but with a higher number attached (we explain this more in our Anthem gear and loot system explainer). Once you reach Masterwork-tier loot however, things become a little different. Masterwork gear and weapons explained Masterworks are like any other type of gear, but they come with a unique name, and a unique perk attached. The Deadye Sniper Rifle, for instance, is called Wyvern Blitz, and it has a unique perk whereby hovering while firing increases weapon weak point damage by 40%. This perk is in addition to the four inscriptions that each weapon or piece of gear has, and as the perks are always benefitial, and fixed (no matter how many Wyvern Blitzes you find, they’ll always increase weapon damage by 40% when hovering), it makes them extremely useful. Masterworks also have a cap of 45 Power when you’re at Level 30, and all weapons and gear have a Masterwork equivalent, barring Universal Components (the ones usable on all classes), and Support gear, which is inexplicably capped are Epic (purple) rarity. Legendary gear and weapons explained - what’s the difference between Masterworks and Legendaries? Legendary gear is effectively just a slightly more powerful version of Masterwork gear. They still have the same names, for instance - so you can have a Masterwork, Wyern Blitz or a Legendary Wyvern Blitz - but the Legendary gear can go up to a cap of 47 Power when you’re at level 30, instead of just 45. That means that the base stats of the item that are affected by level - damage per round fired on weapons, for instance - are two levels higher than on their Masterwork equivalent. The unique perks, however, stay at the same value - so a Masterwork Cariff’s Talon restores 35% health after defeating an enemy, and a Legendary Cariff’s Talon restores 35% health too. There’s also no guarantee that the four randomly-decided Inscriptions are better than those you got on a Masterwork. Inscriptions are ‘rolled’ - or randomly generated - from a set list when you find a piece of gear. The upside to that is that the possible Inscriptions have a higher level of quality attached to them, so a Masterwork Inscription might cap out at 100% damage increased from a weapon, but a Legendary might cap at 200% damage increased. We explain that systems in further detail down at the bottom of this page but essentially that means that a huge amount of chance comes into deciding whether a piece of Masterwork or Legendary gear is actually useful, and likewise it means a Masterwork could actually be more useful than a Legendary: you might get a masterwork that deals 300 damage per round fired but has a load of damage-boosting Inscriptions on it, and a Legendary version that does some more damage per round but a load of ineffective Inscriptions instead, making it less viable overall. Masterwork and Legendary Sniper Rifles list and perks Masterwork and Legendary Marksman Rifles list and perks Masterwork and Legendary Assault Rifles list and perks Masterwork and Legendary LMGs list and perks Masterwork and Legendary Shotguns list and perks Masterwork and Legendary Machine Pistols list and perks Masterwork and Legendary Heavy Pistols list and perks Masterwork and Legendary Autocannons list and perks Masterwork and Legendary Grenade Launchers list and perks Looking for more Anthem explainers like this? Our Anthem tips page is a great place to start, or our Anthem guide and walkthrough mission list hub, which has all our Anthem pages in one place, including in-depth looks at Anthem Javelin classes, how to unlock Javelins and some Colossus, Storm, Interceptor and Ranger builds, another in-depth look at Combos, Primers and Detonators and Elemental Effects and debuffs explained, or specific advice on how to Deactivate the Barrier for the Triple Threat puzzle solution. Here’s where to find Anthem Collectibles, Anthem Ember Pieces and Anthem Treasure Chests, and how to get your Anthem Legion of Dawn armour and other pre-order bonuses, how the Anthem Alliance system works too. Finally, for levelling and grinding, here’s an explainer of Anthem Pilot Level, XP and how to level fast, Anthem loot, gear, and the loot system explained and finally a deep-dive on Anthem Masterwork and Legendary gear explained, a Masterwork list and how to farm them. Storm Masterwork and Legendary Gear and Components list Interceptor Masterwork and Legendary Gear and Components list Colossus Masterwork and Legendary Gear and Components list Ranger Masterwork and Legendary Gear and Components list The importance of Inscriptions One of the things that sets Masterwork and Legendary gear aside from the rest is their access to the very best quality Inscriptions. In brief, when you’re looking for Masterwork and Legendary gear you should actually be looking for more than just that lovely orange or yellow hue: you want them with the best ‘rolls’ - the best randomly-generated outcomes - on that item’s Inscriptions. Inscriptions also have ’tiers’ of quality themselves, which BioWare refers to as Major, Minor or Epic, from the lowest quality of Inscription (say, +1% weapon damage) to the highest (say, +200% weapon damage). Andrew Johnson, the studio’s community lead, shared the following infographic on reddit to help visualise the differences in what’s available on what rarity of loot: You can read up on Inscriptions in far more detail - and view a full list of all of them and what they do - on Johnson’s reddit post, but the key takeaway here is this: the more rare the tier of loot, the better the possible Inscriptions. Legendaries in particular stand out; they can’t have the bottom tier of Inscription quality, but Masterworks can - and that Masterworks can’t have the very top tiers, but Legendaries can. With that in mind, you need to think about two things when hunting this kind of loot down: how to get it in the first place, and then how to get those items multiple times as quickly as possible, to grind out the best possible Inscription rolls on them. How to get Masterwork and Legendary gear - the best weapons and gear in Anthem Here are the key things to bear in mind when Masterwork and Legendary hunting:
Most Masterwork and Legendary items are gated by difficulty - aside from those in the tables above marked as “All”, Masterworks and Legendaries are only available on the Grandmaster difficulites (Grandmaster 1, 2 and 3). Those marked “All” can be found on the other lower difficulties, if you’re very lucky, but only at level 30. Masterwork and Legendary items are available in all the ususal places - random drops from all enemies, inside chests, rewards for killing Titans and Ursix or end-of-mission bosses on Contracts, and so on. Legendary Contracts on Grandmaster 1 give a guaranteed Masterwork - these will always be Masterwork or Legendary Components, specific to your current Javelin. (Thanks DogfishHeadBeer on reddit). Strongholds on Grandmaster 1 give a guaranteed masterwork - this will always be Masterworks or Legendaries for your abilities (the ones mapped to Q and E on PC or LB/RB and L1/R1 on Xbox and PS4 - again thanks to DogfishHeadBeer on reddit for confirming this). Masterwork and Legendary weapons, specifically, will seemingly only drop from random enemies and Stronghold chests on Grandmaster 1 and above. Masterworks can be crafted - once you have a Masterwork, you can begin your progress towards the challenges involved in unlocking its Blueprint. Once you have the Blueprint, you can craft it from Masterwork Embers (we explain how to get Embers specifically in our guide to those, but note that Masterwork Embers are also the rewards for your Weekly and Monthly Path to Glory Challenges, so those are worth doing!). Remember that there aren’t any Masterwork or Legendary tier Support Abilities - the best you can do for those right now is Epic!
Stack ‘Luck’ Inscriptions - you’ll notice some gear has the “Support Luck” Inscription on it. Keep an eye on everything you loot during the game for this, and save it for the endgame grind. Equip all the Luck-inscribed gear you can get away with whilst still surviving on Grandmaster difficulties, when you’re specifically trying to farm good gear. Luck increases both the rarity of the gear that drops and the likelihood that it drops at random, too. Complete your daily Legendary Contracts - it seems that you can only pick up three Legendary Contracts per day (one from each Contract-giver in Fort Tarsis). These give you three guaranteed Masterwork Components for your Javelin. Note that you can do far more than three per day if you play in a squad: if you’ve all already picked up the contract then completing it will remove it from all of your journals, but if one of you picks it up you can all do it, then the next in your squad can pick theirs up, you all do it, and so on. Farm the Tyrant Mine Stronghold - the guaranteed Masterwork rewards are equal for all three, but this is seen as the fastest and easiest Stronghold to complete, although some enjoy the Temple of Scar one too. Avoid the Heart of Rage one as it’s by far the longest and toughest to complete, for the same rewards. Complete your Weekly and Monthly Path to Glory Challenges - you’ll get the Masterwork Embers as soon as you complete a tier of those challenges, and you can then use those to craft Masterworks for those you’ve unlocked the Blueprints for so far, in order to ’re-roll’ them in the hope of getting better Inscriptions. Harvest Plants, Minerals and Chests on Grandmaster 1 for Masterwork Embers - over time you’ll find some routes that have a large amount of harvestable plants and minerals along the way. Head into freeplay, blast along those routes harvesting everyhthing in sight, then load out of freeplay and back in again to reset it. Remember to stack as much Luck as possible for this, even at the expense of offence and defence, as you won’t be doing much if any combat along the way anyway. With enough luck, this is by far the fastest way to reroll Masterworks for the best stats. If you’re struggling for weapons, play Hard difficulty at Level 30 - You have a decent chance of one of those non-Grandmaster exlusive weapons, marked in the tables above as “All”, dropping for you at random. Some of these are great options, with the Papa Pump shotgun for instance being a fan-favourite. You can always grind out Blueprints for them and craft more for re-rolls of the Inscriptions of course, too.
