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hendratds · 4 years

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Wings of Fire: The Iceborn Chapter 1 Rewrite

So I decided to rewrite the first chapter of my Wings of Fire fanfiction: The Iceborn. I most likely won’t re-write the entire story, but it was fun seeing the difference between my old style that stuck with the Wings of Fire themed writing and my personal writing style, as you can read here. You can read the original book on her Wattpad here: https://www.wattpad.com/story/84033461-wing-of-fire-the-iceborn-fanfiction

Chapter 1

The blazing, scorching sun of the vast desert was, in contrast to her kind, a welcoming anguish on her scales. The heat weighed on every fiber of her being and yet, despite the furnace, Blizzard found it to be something she would pick over her homeland.

It tempered down the uncontrollable cold trapped within her very scales, making her feel somewhat akin to normal. Was this how normal dragons felt, day by day? She would not know, but she figured this would be the closest she would get to such a feeling.

Days in the sun made Blizzard wonder, briefly, if this was how ice felt when it was melting in the sunlight. But alas, she was an entity not made of solidified water and was, instead, a living, breathing dragon. An IceWing in the desert would almost be a good start to a joke, Blizzard thought, if it were not for the fact she was running for her life.

The light of the sun woke her up from her daze as it filtered in through the cracks of the rocky, riverside den she had erected for herself. The den was crude and unstable in the shifting sand, fashioned from slabs of river rocks and parched logs from long dead trees.

Emerging into the daylight, Blizzard yawned and stretched out her too big wings, blinking her unnatural blood red eyes to clear them from the drowsy spell of slumber. But not too soon after she shook her body, rattling her strange singular line of silvery spines, did the sound of a collapsing den jolt her to attention.

“Oh, you moon-forsaken bitch,” Blizzard hissed at the now collapsed den.

Approaching it to assess the damage, she pinpointed the culprit almost instantly. Line of jagged frost and ice, growing up the dead logs and feeding off of the humidity from the nearby river. Upon the arrival of the sun, the ice melted, leaving gaping holes and leaving the supports weakened.

“Well, there goes that den,” Blizzard paced to the river, her heart aflame with irritation that dripped on her every word. “Moons are telling me to keep moving, I guess,”

But her rumbling stomach said otherwise, warning Blizzard of the dangers of flying on an empty stomach. Especially when that stomach has had no real food to eat in days. Following the instinct of appetite, the IceWing crouched next to the river’s edge, her snout almost skimming the surface as she waited for a fish, fresh and unsuspecting, to swim close enough for her to snap up.

However, her eyes focused on her own reflection more than the wriggling shapes below the surface. Her diamond shaped snout, her horns that looked to be made out of pure ice, and the sunken cheeks of someone struggling to survive.

Oh, how weak you are. Said her father’s voice in her head. She swore she could see him walk up behind her in her reflection, sneering down at her with those eyes of malice. What IceWing can’t survive on their own? We should have fed you to the leopard seals long ago.

Blizzard sniffed and attempted to ignore it to the best of her ability, but the voice of another demon echoed in her head. The darkened face of her mother loomed by her father. Maybe if you weren’t iceborn, you could be a normal IceWing. She said. Something other than a beast. Your betrayal was only a matter of time.

With a roar of spite, Blizzard slashed at the water to shatter the illusion. To make it stop, anything, to get their voices to silence themselves. In her fury, she felt something sticky latch onto her talon, snapping her out of her frenzy. A silvery fish, twitching in pain and fading in death as frostbite and ice spread across its body, was snagged on her serrated, icy claws.

Blizzard proceeded to yank the fish off and lay it on an exposed rock in the sun, allowing the ice to thaw. Watching the fish slowly gasp for air as its blackened gills hung limp was a rather disturbing, but welcome distraction from Blizzard’s inner demons. With a snap of her head and a quick swallow, the fish was gulped down and sent to become nourishment.

With her stomach settling for now, Blizzard turned to the sky and watched the clouds for any figures that may be flying towards her. Figures of white, she would either run from or dispose of. Any other color, she would plead for guidance.

With no other dragon in sight, Blizzard launched into the sky and began following the river downstream. Just as she had been doing for days. The land to her right was a vast and seemingly unending desert, with harsh dunes rolling across the landscape and wisps of sand and dust snaking their way around with the breezes that did grace the land. The lone cactus cluster added spots of green and shriveled shrubbery added texture to the smooth yet gritty terrain.

To her left, jagged peaks colored like rust rose from the land and created a maze that Blizzard dared not venture into. The mountainous badlands would grow and morph into the mountains of the Sky Kingdom, a place that would do well to hide Blizzard given how vast it was.

But the Sky Kingdom, as vast as it was, was not a place for her. Not with the tensions rising with the Council of Destiny after the murder of that undocumented SeaWing animus. SkyWings had always been rather oppressive towards those with powers beyond normal dragon attributes, despite Queen Garnet being rather neutral towards them. It was a shame she could not say no to her own subjects.

Options for safety were limited in modern day Pyrrhia, Blizzard kept reminding herself. It was a slap in the face with a reinforced IceWing tail each time she recalled it. The SkyWings would most likely join the IceWings on their hunt for her with gusto, though the two are on differing sides in the growing argument between the dragon nations.

The SandWings would be the first to hear about her once Queen Hoarfrost’s scouts made it to Queen Sidewinder’s Stronghold, meaning any sanctuary she would be granted would be short lived.

Farther east, the domain of Queen Braken of the MudWings would pose as viable. If it were not for the siege of forced “diplomatic” interactions the SkyWings were pushing for in the animus argument. The SkyWings had strong presence in the swamps, and Blizzard could not risk that.

The Sea Kingdom was one of the biggest territories. Surely, she thought as she glided on the drafts of wind that blew south, she could find a singular island to call her own. Maybe set up camp in the eastern most reaches of the territory. Gather resources, pledge total allegiance in return for Queen Tsunami, an animus herself, to enchant Blizzard’s frostscales away. But the SeaWings, her mind cursed her with, were ones to always follow law. Once they heard of Blizzard’s deed, they would turn her in no matter their thoughts on her.

The Rainforest was expansive, something she could hide in. Fugitives from all over Pyrrhia always flocked to the jungle to hide there. Despite the rainforest holding the mixed kingdom of Night and Rain, co-led by Queen Extravagant and Queen Dreamcatcher, they barely turned anyone in. Blizzard concluded that it was her best shot until that tiny voice in her head, the one she could never ignore, told her of a scenario of which the frost and frozen foliage would lead a curious dragon to her, leading her to be turned in to one of the Kingdoms and, subsequently, turned in to the IceWings.

No place was safe for her. Not even the ruins of the ancient NightWing kingdom, which had long became a research center for dragon history.

If only she had not killed Frigid.

Blizzard flexed her claws as she remembered her damned deed that landed her in her situation. An act of impulse she both regretted yet felt no remorse for. The feeling of time slowing down as her gaze landed upon the sight of Frigid, a dragonet in the First Circle, dunking the head of Blizzard’s stunted twin brother Permafrost into the pools from the Gift of Sustenance.

Blizzard recalled the pained gasps for air Permafrost kept yelping out, his feeble body unable to fight against the relentless tirade of attacks from Frigid as Frigid spouted nonsense about teaching Permafrost how to properly catch a seal.

Her body had moved on its own, racing forward and breaking away from the group she was accompanying. The group that consisted of her mother, her father, the Queen, and a few other First Circle officials. It was a blur as Blizzard grabbed Frigid by the neck, yanking the dragonet off her brother, pinning her by the back, and shoving Frigid’s own snout into the water. As Permafrost fled, Blizzard stayed, Frigid’s neck and spine turning black with frostbite as she struggled for her life. But it was in vain, as the mix of Blizzard’s biting scales and the lack of air brought Frigid to a slow and relentless death.

The audience that was once Blizzard’s family all cried betrayal. The IceWings rushed to apprehend her, her mother being the first in line, but Blizzard’s scales carved a path of escape for her. But her brother could not follow, wherever her had run off to.

Blizzard briefly wondered if her mother ever recovered from the frostbite on her chest and arms.

Shaking her head to free herself from the past, Blizzard focused on the flight ahead of her. The reality of her life was heavy. But if she had learned anything from the IceWings, it was to never falter. Lest you fall victim to the woes of life itself.

“Think, Blizzard,” Blizzard said out loud, speaking in her raspy voice as she dived down to the river to drink on the fly. She gulped down a few mouthfuls to keep herself hydrated. “Pyrrhia is a big continent. You have so many places you can go. Places you can hide,” She a blink and a pause, she sighed. “And I’m talking to myself again…”

Blizzard spiraled down and landed under a palm tree to gather her rampaging thoughts. Runaway feelings of anguish, regret, and all those akin to them made her heart feel like it was inside out and pulsing in every wrong way. Scenarios of everything going wrong, of everything falling apart no matter where she went, caused her to roar and tear into the bark of the palm tree in a frenzy. It was the only way to keep her claws from her own flesh.

“Stop thinking about it!” she growled at herself, dragging her head back and forth across the rough palm trunk. Anything to get the sensation of splintering ice out of her head. “Survival! Survival and finding a place to live a new life!”

Tearing her claws out of the tree, leaving splinters in her fingers, she began pacing. “So, what if you left your brother for dead in a society where imperfection is punishable by death? It’s not like you could have done anything, right? Right. Very logical Blizzard,” she paused. “Again with the talking to myself…”

The fluttering of an uneven wind broke Blizzard out of her thoughts, her keen IceWing trained senses picking up on an irregularity in the air. Whipping around, she spotted two shapes flying down the river. They flickered like white stars in the day turned sky, revealing themselves to be IceWings.

“Shit,” Blizzard cursed, shuffling under the leaves of the palm tree and searching, frantically, for a hiding spot. There were no rocks, no alcoves, nothing big enough for a dragon of her size. Her first thought was to hide in the sand, but a cold spot in the desert would raise suspicions. In her panic she turned and dived into the river, swimming to the very edge pressing her body as flat as she could manage on the bank’s wall.

The sounds of the world became distorted, louder yet synchronized, in the water as she held her breath and froze in place. The sound of the two dragons landing made her heart clench, but neither of the IceWings peeked into the river, meaning they had not seen her jump in. Tilting her head, she saw an open spot between the rocks the lined the bank, allowing her to see the two as they landed.

“You saw a dragon?” asked one of them in the voice of one of the IceWing generals, a First Circle military figure named Subzero. He wore the shining, decorative armor that military officials used in place of political garb, his moon white scales and tinted pink claws and horns flickering light into Blizzard’s eye. “You’re sure?”

“I saw them!” roared the unmistakable form of her father, Iceberg. His hulking figure of silvery grey with eyes of blue aflame with rage. He marched up to the palm tree and slammed a talon onto the trunk. “Look at these claw marks! A dragon was here. It could be the iceborn,”

“Well, I don’t see a dragon here now, Iceberg,” Subzero rolled his eyes, shaking his wings out. “Plus, there’s no ice on that tree. It would’ve left frost on it,”

“The heat of the sun would melt it fairly quickly,” Iceberg shot back. “Maybe it’s hiding in the sand!”

Iceberg took a leap into the sand, sending up a cloud of dust and grain. Subzero hissed as he flapped his wings to keep the dust cloud away from him.

“Compose yourself!” Subzero barked, yanking on Iceberg’s tail. “Look at you, acting out on impulse. I wonder where the iceborn got its own impulsivity from,”

“Shut your trap,” Iceberg growled before he stood straight and breathed in deeply. “But you are right. No IceWing should have acted like I just did. How disgraceful,”

“At least you are self-aware,” Subzero said. “Now if you are done playing in the sand like a SandWing, I am rather unacquainted with the desert. Probably because I, and in turn we, belong in the snowy tundra. Like normal IceWings. Let’s not waste time and get to the stronghold so we can warn Queen Sidewinder,”

“Yes. Of course,” Iceberg said. Subzero lifted into the air and out of Blizzard’s line of sight. Iceberg hesitated, casting one last scan of the area before he followed suit. Blizzard allowed herself to lift her head out of the water just the tiniest bit, allowing her nostrils to break the surface so she could gasp in a much-needed breath of arid, barren air.

Once the wingbeats had faded, Blizzard climbed out of the river and onto the sand once more, the water on her scales crystallizing and turning her into a walking ice sculpture. Shard of ice fell in wake of her movements, littering the riverbank with quickly melting shards.

“Well…” Blizzard heaved a breath, a plume of sparkling mist seeping from her nostrils and from between her gritting teeth. “That gives me the time limit of no,”

Scouts had been sent out. And they were fast, meaning they had already been sent to the Sky Kingdom and beyond. Given the distance, the likelihood of Queen Garnet having already been notified of Blizzard’s existence was high.

“I need to figure something out now,” Blizzard hissed to no one in particular. But she wondered, what could she do? She had barely scratched the surface of the Kingdom of Sand and the alert was already underway. The possibility of her survival was-

“Wait,” Blizzard realized with a jolt. “Possibility. That’s along this river!”

With a heaving flap and the scattering of the last of the ice that was on her body, Blizzard took to the sky and began flying towards the city she now viewed as her last hope. The flight took until the sun began to lower itself in the sky, meaning Blizzard caught sight of the city’s perimeter in mid-afternoon.

The city was tall, expansive, and bustling. Towers of SkyWing architecture reached high into the sky while SandWing labyrinthian strongholds snaked around the ground. Archways framed the streets and the river that cut through the middle of the city, bridges connected the two sides of the city and even some buildings. From the distance it was easy to imagine Possibility as the biggest city in Pyrrhia, but history and geography lessons told Blizzard that that title was gifted to the Pyrrhian Capital.

For a moment, Blizzard froze. She hovered in the air as she watched hundreds of dragons flutter about like a swarm of butterflies on a field of flowers. In the crowded streets, how safe was she? How long would she last before the screams of frostbitten victims of her curse gave her away?

There were vendors and smaller markets that spotted the outskirts of the city, framing the river’s edge. Landing on the streets would end with her standing in the middle of a pile of freezing dragons. Flying would leave a trail of them dropping from the sky behind her if she ran into any of them.

Looking down to the river, she concluded her best course of action would be to swim. She dove down into the river, using her trained arctic diving techniques to keep up the speed from flight. SeaWings, MudWings, and subsequent hybrids were her current obstacles. But they all seemed rather content to either stay near the edge of the river or to be few and far between when it came to the inner parts of the river.

Swimming into the city, Blizzard’s annoying little blip of curiosity made her gaze around. The city was busy as it could be. Hanging lanterns, unlit for the day, hung between each building along with drapes and unused wire lines. Shops and businesses seemed to be finishing up their last rounds as the day began to end. The smell of cooking food filled the air and made Blizzard’s malnourished stomach rumble.

I need to start asking around. Blizzard remined herself. She swam up to a bridge and called up, catching the attention of a passing SkyWing.

“Can I help you?” the SkyWing asked. “Not every day you find an IceWing in the water,”

“I… was raised by SeaWings,” Blizzard scrambled for an excuse. The SkyWing nodded slowly, resting their arms on the edge of the bridge. “Would you happen to know of any animus dragons in the city? Or anyone who may know of one?”

“Whatcha doing looking for an animus?” the SkyWing inquired, a haze of suspicion gracing their features.

“It is merely a personal problem. My body… isn’t right,” Blizzard tried to explain as vaguely as she could manage. “No doctor has been able to fix it, so I’m getting desperate,”

“Well, I don’t know of nay animus dragons,” the SkyWing answered with a shake of their wings. “Can’t say I’m disappointed in that, though. Ask some SeaWings, you know they love animus dragons soooo much,”

“Yes…” Blizzard drew out. “Thank you for your time,”

“Good luck!” the SkyWing called, unaware of the truth as to his interaction. Blizzard continued to swim, quickly finding a SeaWing group and approaching.

“Excuse me,” she called, gaining their attention. “May I ask a question?”

“I don’t know, IceWing,” said the closest SeaWing, who was a deep green in color with hints of lime-yellow on their wing membranes and webbed claws. “What business you got?”

“I just wish to know if you know where I can find an animus in the city, if you know of one,” Blizzard asked them.

The SeaWings turned to each other, shaking their heads or shrugging with bemused expressions that made Blizzard want to scream in frustration. The green SeaWing shook their head.

“We got nothin, kid,” they said.

“Thanks anyway,” Blizzard turned and swam away, meeting with each SeaWing group she found that dotted the river. Each story was the same or similar to the last, with confusion and lack of answers. It bled Blizzard of the rest of her time, and soon the afternoon turned to dusk. The sky was a deep amber, and dragons were turning in for the night and becoming few and far between.

The sky was unobstructed and less crowded as the sun set and the moons rose, opting for Blizzard to take to the air for better view of the city streets. The few dragons she did encounter were easily dodged, her elite training in flight allowing her to make quick turns and pivots. But even so, from the other dragons she spoke to, she was met with nothing.

Exhaustion was beginning to settle into her bones and muscles. Every beat of her wings was getting harder and harder to do, so Blizzard flew up to the roof of a building and landed, resting with her legs tucked under her chest and her wings folded tightly to her sides. Frost and ice spread over the surface of the sandstone bricks, the unforgiving sun weakened by the late dusk and allowing its presence to remind Blizzard of her hexed existence.

Her options were beginning to become limited, she realized. With the lack of an animus to take away her scales and the ever growing threat of being discovered looming ever larger, Blizzard’s hopes began to dwindle down to nothing.

So, she did what she found was something she apparently did best. She talked to herself.

“I’ll need to flee the city one way or another…” Blizzard told herself. “I just need to figure out where to go. Maybe I could try the capital next? They would definitely have powerful dragons there. Plus, there is the IceWing Animus Seminar. Argh, no, that place would be a death wish… The SeaWings? They have animus dragons. Queen Tsunami is one. But they’ll most likely know about me before I get there… That’s out,”

To occupy her gaze, Blizzard scanned the streets and city around her as she spoke. She fiddled with a shard of ice that she formed with her talons as she watched the dragons come and go. Following a particularly colorful RainWing, Blizzard saw a night market a couple blocks away, the lanterns for the night lighting the way.

The chance of an animus touch object was slim, but the chance of a disguise, food, and survival tools were high. Blizzard recalled a time when stealing would be something she would scoff at, but now she saw it as salvation. She took to the sky and stayed in the sky, hovering above the market as she watched vendors market and sell goods.

“Get your roasted scorpions here! Freshly caught and ready for your stomach!”

“All the jewels you could want! We got an assortment!”

“The one… the only…! SandWing Sceptor! It could be yours for only…”

Blizzard rolled her eyes at the blatant scheme, her attention diverted for a split second. And said split second was just enough time for Blizzard to slip.

The feeling of a body, smaller than hers, smashing into her snapped Blizzard’s mind into a whirlwind. Her first instinct was to jerk away, but their wings quickly got tangled and the two plummeted to the ground behind some vendor stalls. Blizzard shut her eyes taught, preparing to hear the blood curdling screams of pain from the dragon that ran into her. But the screams… they never came.

Upon impact with the ground, Blizzard rolled off the dragon and focused her attention to the stranger in question. It was a SkyWing, a young dragonet in age, with ruby red scales and charcoal horns and claws. He had shades of tawny and rust highlighting his wings and underbelly. And when he opened his own eyes, they were a set of deep mahogany.

“Oh, moons! I’m so sorry!” the SkyWing gasped, scrambling to his talons and grabbing Blizzard’s own to help her stand up. The help she needed, less from the fall and more from the shock as the lack of frostbite and ice that should have been spreading from the young SkyWing’s claws.

“How-“ Blizzard started, but the SkyWing kept going as he let go of Blizzard’s talons.

“I should’ve been looking where I was going,” he said. “But you know, I just heard that one dragon talking about the Sanding Scepter. I didn’t think it was legit, but I had to look, you know? Not that I would buy an artifact like that,”

“You-!” Blizzard choked on her own words as her brain scrambled to find a way to articulate her thoughts.

“Let me make it up to you,” the SkyWing continued on, fiddling with the gold jewelry he had on. “We can find my dad Sandstorm and go get you something from the market! Anything you want! Er, within reason, of course,”

“Will you shut up?” Blizzard hissed out. The SkyWing flinched and froze in place, looking back and forth as if he were searching for an escape route. Blizzard shook her head and continued. “I- Look, how are you… alive? Like this?”

“Uh…” the SkyWing drawled out, looking rather awkward. “I mean, I would hope I’m alive? I’m not too sure what you mean?”

“Your scales!” Blizzard barked. “Er, I mean my scales! No- Or- ugh, look!”

Blizzard grabbed a nearby object, a glass orb, and shoved it into the SkyWing’s direction. Frost slowly began spreading across the surface of the orb. The SkyWing’s eyes widened as he watched. His gaze flicked from the orb to Blizzard’s talons, then to her chest. He squinted his eyes as his face contorted into one of uncertainty.

“Huh, weird,” he said as he scrutinized Blizzard up and down. Blizzard withdrew the orb and dropped it back where she found it, hoping the vendor didn’t mind a frozen piece in their collection.

“Weird? Weird?!” Blizzard stamped a talon into the ground with a gasp of exasperation. “That’s all you can say to this scenario?”

“Hey, what else am I supposed to say in this situation?” the SkyWing shot back. “So… You have frostscales?”

“Yes, if that wasn’t obvious,” Blizzard rolled her eyes. “Wait… You haven’t heard of me?”

“Am I supposed to know you?” the SkyWing suddenly tensed.

“My hatching was a big deal,” Blizzard tilted her head in her own scrutinization. “The iceborn IceWing? First in over a couple centuries? Blizzard the IceWing?”

The SkyWing pursed his snout and looked away, his wings tucking in at his sides and under his arms. Blizzard’s jaw drew open as she stared at him.

“What rock have you been living under?” she asked him.

“A rather… obscure one?” He more asked than stated. “So… your name is Blizzard? I’m Cloud,”

Cloud have a respectful bow in greeting, allowing Blizzard to catch sight of the flame shaped marking on his forehead.

“I would say likewise, but I’m rather more curious as to how you’re immune to my scales,” Blizzard took a step forward, a glimmer of hope flaring up and filling her being. “Was it an animus? Something else? Tell me!”

“Uh, unfortunately I am obligated to say it’s classified!” Cloud said quickly, waving his talons. “Hey, would you look at the time! Look at those moons, I better get going. It was nice meeting you!” Cloud quickly turned and ran out into the street from between the vendor stalls.

“Hey!” Blizzard barked, launching forward to give chase. The smaller SkyWing was nimble on his talons, slithering around the spread-out crowd like a viper while Blizzard lost time and distance as she dodged every dragon she came across.

Cloud zipped around a corner and disappeared from Blizzard’s sight. The IceWing turned that same corner long after and spied Cloud a few blocks away, standing next to and conversing with a large SandWing the color of brass and onyx eyes, black diamond markings flitting down the sides of his neck and flank as brown freckle markings decorated his wings. As Blizzard approached, the SandWing sported the same fire marking as Cloud did.

Blizzard attempted to follow them catching their conversation as she approached.

“There you are, Cloud,” the SandWing greeted as Cloud reached him. “Where did you run off to?”

“I wanted to see some SandWing vendors,” Cloud responded, his voice heavy with his panting. “But I flew into an iceborn IceWing, and she… wasn’t the nicest of dragons,”

“An iceborn, here?” the SandWing chuckled. “You’d expect them to be in the IceWing Kingdom, not in this city,”

“I thought that, too!” Cloud beamed.

“Cloud!” Blizzard barked, pushing through the crowd and gaining the fire marked dragons’ attention. “I said wait!”

Cloud and the SandWing turned as just Blizzard charged passed a MudWing, whose scream cut through the air in the next second. Blizzard’s common sense kicked back into gear. She jumped away from the MudWing as soon as she could, assessing the damage. A brush of angry ice along the shoulder of the MudWing was spreading quickly.

“Oh moons, no no no!” Blizzard chanted as dragons turned to see what was happening. The SandWing rushed forward, pushing through the few dragons that tried to step forward.

“Move it! Expert coming through!” the SandWing barked as he rushed to the MudWing’s side.

“I didn’t know you could do that!” Cloud exclaimed as he shifted his gaze from the MudWing to Blizzard and back, back and forth.

“I’m a walking IceWing death breath! I told you I was iceborn!” Blizzard hissed as the SandWing enveloped both him and the MudWing with his wings to shield them from view.

“Don’t squirm,” the SandWing said. “This will… tingle, and maybe sting. Just hold still,”

“What are you-?” The MudWing’s voice trailed off. After a few moments of tense silence, the SandWing closed his wings and took a couple steps back. The first thing Blizzard noticed was the faint glow his flame marking seemed to be giving off, as faint as a firefly’s light but still noticeable. The second thing Blizzard’s eyes rested upon was the MudWing’s shoulder, which was completely free of frost and was only missing a few scales that the SandWing dropped onto the ground, unable to salvage them.

Blizzard looked up at the SandWing with wide eyes, along with many other dragons in the gathered crowd.

“Who are you?” Blizzard asked the moment she found her words again.

“Sandstorm,” the SandWing answered, turning his full attention to Blizzard with eyes that were boring down onto her very soul. “And who are you?”

Blizzard stood tall, though she felt anything but. “I am Blizzard,” she told Sandstorm, her voice echoing over the crowd. “I’m the damned iceborn monster that the IceWings love to boast about,”

“What are you doing here? In Possibility?” Sandstorm asked, approaching Blizzard and tilting his head down to meet her level of height.

You. She thought. You are my salvation.

“I’m looking for an animus,” she told him, watching as his eyes widened as she continued. “So, I can be free of this curse. I’m looking for someone to take these moon-forsaken frostscales away,”

Sandstorm stared into Blizzard’s eyes for the longest time, enough time for the crowd to start whispering. Blizzard cursed her own mouth for revealing who she was. Any IceWings in the city would find her in no time. But Sandstorm reached out a talon to Blizzard as Cloud stood by his side.

“Come with us,” Sandstorm told her. “I think I know how to help you,”

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technologyasyouwish-blog · 8 years

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Ten Things I Wish I Knew When I Started 'Mass Effect: Andromeda'

This week has been interesting. This is probably the most hours per day I have ever put into a game in order to hit an embargo in such a short time span. I woke up every day at 6 AM, started up Mass Effect: Andromeda, and played for 10 or 11 hours straight. 60 hours of the campaign later, plus some multiplayer, and here I am.

My official scored review went up yesterday, which is 3,400 words of detailed thoughts and opinions about the game. I suggest you go and read that if you want my full analysis, as today, launch day, I have a different task: To impart some practical wisdom from all that time spent with the game.

This is a game where you’re going to want to know a few things up front to help with your experience, so hopefully my advice will be useful. Here are ten things I wish I knew before I started Mass Effect: Andromeda. No story spoilers follow.

1. Don't Use Default Sarah Ryder

All anyone can talk about in the run-up to the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda has been the often awkward animations with human characters. While this is something of an issue, and I do wish more improvement had been made in the last five years, it does not define the experience. One thing I would recommend, however, is not using the game’s default Sarah Ryder model.

While Scott Ryder is a perfectly normal pre-rendered face, something is just off about Sarah Ryder’s visage. It’s based on a real-life model, but something got lost in translation, and it just does not look right in the game. A lot of the early game footage you’ve seen has her talking and it just looks uncomfortable. If you want to play female Ryder (as I did), I would definitely design your own rather than using Sarah. I spent a decent amount of time making my Ryder look acceptable, and lo and behold, that does translate into the game itself. While there are animation issues elsewhere in the game, I found that my custom Ryder never looked as strange as Sarah Ryder has in all these previews. Not to say whoever you make has to be some supermodel, but Sarah is not the ideal face for this game purely from an animation perspective, so I would suggest forging your own path in that regard.

2. Don't Quit After The First Two Planets

I said this in both my early preview and my review, but Andromeda does a very poor job introducing players to the new open world concept because of how bad the first two planets are. Eos is a radioactive wasteland that throws up invisible walls in the form of a toxic environment when you stray too far. Havarl is a confusing mess of a jungle planet where you cannot even use your car, and fighting enemies you can’t even see through overgrown shrubbery is a nightmare.

I’m here to say it gets better. Without getting into specifics, you’re able to make Eos a lot more friendly to exploration as the zone expands dramatically in size with its toxic barriers lifted. And the last three planets you find, Voeld, Kadara and Eladeen, are without a doubt the game’s strongest environments, both in terms of their visuals, and how fun they are to navigate. There’s also a bonus planet you’ll find later that’s the most fun to drive around by far, but I’ll leave that one a surprise. My point is that even if you think Andromeda has made a serious mistake going open world judging by the first two planets (which is exactly what I thought), power through and get to the other environments, which are way better.

3. Turn The Nomad Into The Mako As Soon As Possible

Part of how much you’re going to enjoy the open world is how much you enjoy driving around your Nomad, and for reasons that remain unclear to me, the vehicle is designed to make you hate it when you first start using it. It’s slow, sluggish and can barely navigate even the most basic of terrain like mild slopes.

You have the power to change this, and upgrade the Nomad into something more accurately resembling the Mako from the original Mass Effect. In order, the upgrades you should research in implement are six-wheel drive, which lets you climb slopes faster, a longer boost capability, better top speed, and a longer hover capability. Combine those together and you can race up pretty much every cliff in the game and get hang time over sand dunes and mountains alike. These upgrades were the key to enjoying navigating these planets, so get them as soon as you can. They’ll be in your R&D station, and new ones are added as time goes on or you find/buy more.

4. Invest In The Cache Finding Upgrade

As you play, you will get points to invest in the Nexus, unlocking different “cryo pods” that give you passive bonuses in the game, rather than specific bonuses to your character like the R&D system. A few of these are useful, like getting materials and such delivered to you regularly, but I would only deem one upgrade absolutely essential: the cache finder.

This upgrade will put a smattering of treasure chests across any planet you explore. These chests are in such remote locations most of the time, you would usually never find them without this upgrade, and they often contain very valuable gear that would have been much harder to find, craft or purchase otherwise. These caches will scale to your level, so don’t hunt them down all at once, and spread them out over the course of the game.

5. Here's How The Ridiculously Confusing Crafting System Works

I really, really hate the crafting system in this game, but by the end I mostly have it figured out. It’s convoluted and awful, but it can be used to make the best items in the game. Here’s what you need to know.

The Research half of crafting uses three types of tech, Milky Way, Kett and Remnant. You get points in this tech for scanning objects in the wild. Everywhere you go, always check with your scanner to see if there’s something to add. If so, it will glow. Scan every type of enemy you come across as well, living or dead. Your controller will rumble if you’re by something very valuable to scan, but ABS – always be scanning. You have to research each level of an item, and there are 10 levels of every item, not just five the way it initially appears. The problem with this system is that even if you have a lot of scanning currency, you will use up almost all of it on just a few items per class if you’re researching upgraded versions of items. Pick your favorites, and stick with them. Do not bother researching N7 armor. It will obviously be attractive, but eventually you unlock a Nexus perk for vendors who will sell more “special gear,” and guess what? A full N7 set is part of the product line. I wasted probably 1,200 Milky Way research credits on this. You can add mods to weapons and armor as you craft them, which will give you innate bonuses. But when you upgrade to the next level of an item, those bonuses are gone, right? No. The game does not explain this at all, but you can dismantle your old crafted item and get all those mods back for future use. You only get a fraction of the minerals and materials, but all the mods should come back. It is crazy this isn’t made clear.

That should get you started. I hate this system but focusing on a few specific weapons, I did manage to craft some pretty great stuff by the end of the game.

6. Squadmates You Don't Like At Hour Three You May Love By Hour Thirty

I’m going to take a guess and say that many of the characters, particularly the crew members, you meet in Mass Effect: Andromeda you won’t take to right away. I felt this way about the initial two squadmates the game gave me, Liam and Cora, and then I thought that the hyper Asari Peebee was going to annoy me all game. That was true at first, but you have to give them a chance.

Having conversations with everyone, taking them on missions, and doing their loyalty quests will make you bond with them. Liam and Cora became two of my best buds on the ship, and Peebee uh, well let’s just say we became more than friends, even though my original intention was to romance my science officer Suvi. I just spent so much time with Peebee that I liked her, and it seemed like the right path. These kinds of relationships take dozens of hours to develop, so don’t expect to love everyone right away.

Also, side note. At a certain point, your romantic “choice” seems to be permanent. While I could flirt with everyone for a long time, once Peebee and I declared we wanted to be “exclusive,” I no longer even had the option to flirt with anyone else in conversation. So if you’re presented with that sort of ultimatum by whoever you’re romancing, know that’s what it probably means. But yes, I know there is a way to have a three-way in this game, but you can find that on your own.

7. Loot Containers Are Very Easy To Miss

One thing I don’t really get about Andromeda is its desire to hide loot containers from players. Many games will highlight them either on a minimap or in the environment, but Andromeda does neither so they are incredibly easy to overlook.

One problem is that pretty much any shape in the environment can be a loot container, so you have to wander around pretty close to almost everything to see if you get a prompt to open it. Some containers have a light blue shading that highlights them a bit but many don’t and it’s often hard to see. Scanning does not reveal containers either.

Nearly all landmarks will have at least one “big” chest with more stuff in it, so don’t leave until you find it. Cleared landmarks with no more stuff to get in them will turn blue on your map, but I swear sometimes I couldn’t figure out what I was missing. Also, at the end of story missions during boss fights, look around for a big loot container that will usually have a hefty prize in it. I am positive I missed quite a few of these during my first few missions before I figured this out.

8. You Can Save Preset Skill/Specialty Loadouts

Combat is a lot of fun in Mass Effect: Andromeda, and it’s made even more fun by its flexibility. It took me a while to figure this out, but you can actually save up to four preset power/class loadouts for your character in the skills screen. This will save the three powers you’re using and their assigned buttons, but also your class. Unlike past ME games, you can actually switch classes on the fly, based on how many points you’ve sunk into Combat, Tech or Biotics. For example, I had a hybrid Biotic/Combat build which let me pick between Soldier, Adept or Vanguard classes that I could flip between. Pick your skills and your class and even in the middle of combat you can totally change your play style.

9. Shotguns Are Stupidly Overpowered

I would rarely call for something to be nerfed in a PvE game like Andromeda, but by the end, the damage imbalance between my shotguns and everything else I was using was absolutely crazy. If you have even a halfway decent sustain build (like mine, which focused on shields), you can shred pretty much every single enemy in the game with nonstop shotgun blasts. At first, shotguns are limited by their small ammo pool, but upgrades and skills fix that, and it got to the point where if I felt like if I was using anything else, I was just being inefficient. If you don’t know where to sink combat points, you really cannot go wrong with shotguns.

10. You Can Keep Playing Normally After The Story Ends

I am certainly not going to get into ending spoilers here, but in a game like Mass Effect, players are going to want to know if there’s a hard or soft ending -- meaning if they beat the game, if they can keep playing and do the stuff they missed. The answer is definitely yes.

The ending of Andromeda is structured that you can not only keep playing the game and doing missions you missed with no penalty, but it’s not even one of those situations where you’re playing in the final save point before being told to go to the last mission. No, the main storyline can end and you are free to keep doing stuff.

With that said, if you want to be safe, you may want to consider doing at least your crew’s loyalty missions and the main planetary story missions before the last few missions. I do not actually know if there’s a downside to not doing that, but that’s been the case in past games, so it’s possible you might be risking something here. But since I did them, I can’t say for sure what happens if you don’t. But yeah, the point is don’t worry about finishing every little thing before the end, which is what I did. It isn’t necessary.

Alright, that’s all the advice I have for now. I may be back with more, but that should be enough to get you started. Happy exploring, and enjoy.

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