It simply isn't an RPG if you aren't doing the good old gear shuffle every few hours, but some of the unique gear in makes the old song and dance a lot easier. Equipping unique weapons and armor and then upgrading them is pretty much always going to be a better call than blowing your cash on a higher quality non-unique piece, from what we've found while playing.
You really don't need to hang onto your loser starting gear for too long because there are quite a few unique weapons and armor that are easy to grab early on in Avowed if you know where to look. Does it sometimes involve cheesing your way into a place and running away with loot instead of staying to finish a fight? Yes. Are we too proud to do that? No we are not.
How do unique items work in Avowed?
Unique gear, both weapons and armor, are named items usually with some special effects. Some grant bonus skills or have elemental effects like the sick fire sword Last Light of Day. One important thing to know is that uniques scale in quality to your current gear tier.
That means that unique items you pick up later will be of comparable rarity tier with your late-game gear but also means that grabbing the unique items below early on in the game will make them generate at "common" quality. That just means you'll have to commit to , but that's pretty much the backbone of Avowed's progression so you're going to do a lot of that regardless.
The best uniques to grab early
Beothel's Grimoire
Find it: At the magical merchant in Paradis near the bounty board in the merchant district.
The spells in Beothel's Grimoire have a great self-sustaining loop that pairs well either with a pistol or a one-handed melee weapon. Arcane Veil grants damage reduction and uninterruptible casting while Blizzard gives you an offensive elemental spell that can double as crowd control. Corrosive Siphon lets you recoup health by poisoning an enemy and Parasitic Staff will recoup [[link]] your Essence every time you whack an enemy with it—and that spectral staff does a weirdly good amount of actual damage too.
This unique grimoire is surprisingly cheap and easy to acquire really early on in Avowed. Snag it for just 450 from the magical items merchant right in the middle of Paradis. You'll earn more than that from one of the early game bounties and it's also much cheaper than the "fine" quality weapons you can (but shouldn't) shell out for in the early game—because upgrading your gear is the better strategy.
Drawn in Winter
Find it: In a block of ice at Watcher’s Mirror in the northeast of Dawnshore
Drawn in Winter is a one-handed axe that, without any tinkering, causes a massive area-of-effect ice blast whenever you use a power attack. This chilling explosion deals damage to surrounding enemies and spreads frost like a plaque. Sounds pretty strong, right? It is, and it can be yours for free with just a little exploring at Watcher's Mirror in Dawnshore.
Picking up Drawn in Winter immediately spawns a pack of very strong skeletons, which you’ll be unable to beat right off the bat. However, I just ran away–axe in hand–and got one of the best weapons in Avowed barely a few hours in.
If you pair Drawn [[link]] in Winter with the various Ranger and Warrior perks focusing on melee combat and specifically one-handed axes, its damage will skyrocket. Plus, you could even wear gear like the Death Knight Gloves which increase frost damage.
Stelgaer’s Pride
Find it: The reward for completing the in Dawnshore
Staying alive in the early hours is much easier said than done, thanks in large part to your crap armor. This is especially problematic for Rangers and Warriors, who need to get up close and personal, only to be sent running scared moments later. This is where Stelgaer’s Pride can help, a medium armor set that is versatile enough early on. In fact, I’m still wearing it (albeit heavily upgraded and using various skills to improve [[link]] medium armor) over 40 hours later.
As medium armor, Stelgaer’s Pride has moderate damage reduction overall but it’s better than anything else you’ve got right now thanks to its unique perks. With this armor, you’ll get +5% stamina regeneration rate, which is useful for all builds (including gunslingers and mages) but particularly important if you’re dodging or blocking lots as this devours your stamina. Stelgaer’s Pride also has the handy perk of automatically casting Barbaric Shout when you take damage over 30% of your maximum health in a single hit. This mainly triggers during boss fights but the added stun application during Barbaric Shout comes in clutch.
Steel Garrote Gauntlets
Find it: In a small nook covered by webs in Ondra’s Reach, just southeast of Paradis
Using a shield early on is quite literally a lifesaver, as blocking without one will still chip away at your health. The only issue is that you won’t have the stamina to keep it up for long, meaning it’s hard to get more than one or two hits in after a block before having to take a breather.
The Steel Garrote Gauntlets are specially designed with shield enjoyers in mind, giving you +10% parry efficiency (so parries drain less stamina) as well as a hefty 20 additional stamina. The classic sword and board playstyle is much more sustainable and forgiving using these gloves, especially since you won’t have heaps of attribute points to dump into Resolve.
Last Light of Day
: On the Oracle during the Dawntreader quest in Dawnshore
I'm so in love with this weapon I already wrote a whole article recommending you grab the flaming sword, so I'll try and keep it brief here. There's something so classically iconic about a flaming sword, and Last Light of Day's got the raw power to back up its flashy looks too. It starts with bonus fire damage and a heal-on-kill, though I've since swapped that latter enchantment for a big bonus to stun when parrying, which makes it a blast with a good shield.
I'm well into the game's second area now—about 20 hours in—and it's still one of my main weapons. Given how often you fight plant monsters in this game, there are a lot of enemies weak to fire damage, which keeps it relevant, and for my warrior-mage build it just feels right, y'know?
Not bad for a unique you can get within the first few hours of the game.
Caeroc's Pride
Find it: Tempestuous Luandi's bounty in Dawnshore
This lightning pistol has been my faithful companion throughout my entire playthrough, 45 hours and counting. It looks cool, feels fantastic, does solid bonus lightning damage, and has enchantment effects that have been competitive with every other ranged weapon I've found.
One of them is boring but consistent: AOE lightning "accumulation" on every hit, which fills a meter before debuffing enemies with a damage over time effect. I much prefer the other option: A 25% chance to fire off a super-damaging chain lightning bolt on every kill. It always seems to proc just when I need it most, and has this incredibly satisfying feel as it pingpongs between enemies.
The Disappointer
: The shady merchant in the northwest corner of the Paradis Hightown.
My offhand weapon with Caeroc, I wish I'd ignored its negging item description and just bought it the second I found it, instead of coming back later to give it a shot. The Disappointer is a reprisal of a , but while you had to jump through some hoops to make its original incarnation worth using, Avowed's much more streamlined enchantment system means you can just immediately turn this flintlock into a contender.
The Disappointer starts with -10% damage but +10% bleed damage, making it a net neutral compared to a generic pistol. Its upgrade to AOE debuff enemy damage didn't light my fire, but its other option flips the -10% damage to +10%, making for a net +20% over a run of the mill handgun. Not so disappointing after all, eh?