Second Major Story DLC for Frontiers of Pandora Released

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has released its Secrets of the Spires DLC, exclusively for Season Pass holders. This new addition invites players with brand-new achievements, a fresh map, an engaging story campaign, and more. With this latest drop, we’ve reached the limit of what we know about the post-launch content for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. It’ll be fascinating to see if this new material helps it climb the ranks among the best open-world games on Xbox.

Today marks the launch of the Secrets of the Spires, following a brief delay, and serves as the second story pack available for those with the Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Season Pass. This DLC introduces five new Xbox achievements and will require about 17.5GB of space on the Xbox Series X|S. The most significant features include a new map area, Spires of the Clouded Forest, fresh skills, gear, and a newly-expanded story campaign. While continuing the main storyline, players can also dive directly into Secrets of the Spires, bypassing the main plot if they choose.

According to Ubisoft, the Spires of the Clouded Forest offers epic aerial battles in this stunning new mountainous terrain within Pandora’s Western Frontier. Players get to explore and navigate an open world designed to enhance the excitement of flying on your ikran. There’s plenty to discover: challenge yourself with RDA aerial convoys using new ikran skills and confront new threats alongside a remote Na’vi clan.

Let’s delve into what Secrets of the Spires has brought, as highlighted in the patch notes:

The new map area, Spires of the Clouded Forest, now invites players to an all-new story campaign, side quests, and engaging activities. Navigate through unique biomes like the Tangled Peaks and Splintered Arches. Enhance your bond with your ikran, learning fresh skills and upgrading your equipment. Encounter new aerial threats as you master the skills needed to overcome them. Interact with unique flora and fauna, discovering new methods of gathering resources and navigating the landscape.

For game progression, exciting updates allow you to use skill points to unlock and upgrade new skills for your ikran, including Ikran Smash and Launch. On the PlayStation 5 Pro, enjoy gameplay at 60 FPS with enhanced resolution and the integration of the new machine-learning-based temporal upscaler, PSSR, for superior quality and performance.

A few known issues persist, such as temporary fixes for players on Windows 11 experiencing performance issues and a menu narration glitch on PS5. Across all platforms, there are a few quirks like slow-loading map icons and overlay issues. Ubisoft’s addressing these known bugs is a priority.

Now, what lies ahead for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora remains a mystery. Ubisoft has had a mixed success rate with its recent releases, and Star Wars Outlaws is busy rolling out patches to shore up its gameplay. The previous story expansion, The Sky Breaker, took about six to eight hours to complete, so it will be interesting to see how much time Secrets of the Spires demands.

Personally, I’m quite eager to re-experience the ikran dynamics in the game, though I am curious about Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’s long-term appeal. For fans of the Avatar universe, exploring Pandora offers a unique allure. However, it will be interesting to see how it holds its ground in the gaming landscape over time.

The game could undoubtedly do with more ikran-centric content since the joy of flying around Pandora was a highlight in our review of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Initially, the aerial combat mechanics felt a bit clunky, so let’s hope this new story DLC enhances our ikran experiences even further.