Community Highlight #3 – Know Your Enemy

In Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – From the Ashes, the Kinglor Forest is changed – fire now ravages the previously lush landscape, and the Western Frontier’s Na’vi clans are scattered. The RDA has returned, strengthened by the aggressive Ash clan warband. By exerting their influence on the world, the RDA & Ash clan are making it more hostile & deadly. It’s time to look the enemy in the eyes and stand your ground.

The RDA Returns In Force

In their hunt for the members of the Resistance, the RDA’s troops return to lay waste to the Kinglor Forest. You’ll experience a more dangerous world, whether you’re riding your ikran or traversing on foot.

Because the RDA’s mission is to exterminate the Resistance presence, they’re bringing in even stronger units. In From the Ashes, So’lek will have to face Skel Suits for the first time – soldiers whose exosuits allow them to stand as tall as a Na’vi.

Joining the Skel Suit units are the powerful Hellhounds, dog-like robots developed by the RDA to hunt down and eliminate Na’vi. These units usually fight in packs and use shocking electric melee attacks – with some units even self-detonating – to stun and eliminate their target.

There are also new, Ash-influenced AMP units joining the RDA’s arsenal. Some, like the Breacher, are made to close the distance and carry shotguns with incendiary rounds. Others carry RPGs or even Sniper Rifles, providing significant threats at all ranges, from all angles. The Ash Na’vi’s influence led to changes in the design of the AMPs – the more decorated an AMP is, the stronger they are in combat.

Stand Against Your Own

In both From the Ashes and Avatar: Fire & Ash, the newest threat is represented by other Na’vi, in the form of the Mangkwan clan. These Na’vi are ruthless, their brutality and their rebellion towards Eywa sets them apart from the other clans. In our expansion, So’lek will need to face members of the Ash clan and learn to face the difficult reality of having to fight his own kind to protect his new family – the Sarentu.

Leading the Mangkwan are several terrifying and highly specialized warriors. Encountering them makes for diverse encounters and cinematic set pieces, challenging So’lek in different and unexpected ways.

Their leader is Wukula, a fanatic who has unfinished business with So’lek. He seeks to personally defeat So’lek and bring his head back to Varang.

Rakx is an Ash Na’vi who takes great pleasure in causing pain to Pandora’s animals. She bonds ikran and pushes them relentlessly, putting them in harm’s way. She does not mourn their deaths, instead feeling only frustration at what she views as weakness. Her repeated bonding pushes her to enact greater and greater acts of cruelty.

Zari is a highly dangerous Ash Na’vi whose expertise with a sniper rifle impressed Miles Quaritch, and who seeks to prove her usefulness to Varang. Having been hurt in a previous attack on a Wind Trader gondola, she has found a new calling in the power and potential of the rifle.

Ka’sem is one of the more battle-scarred Mangkwan. He enacts violence effectively, but worries that his age weakens him. Venturing into the Kinglor Forest is about proving to himself that he can still carry orders out with unabashed efficiency.

Joining the main Mangkwan antagonists in the hunt for So’lek and the remaining Sarentu are a warband of Mangkwan Raiders – toughened warriors with increased agility whose sole purpose is to destroy the Resistance and its members.

There’s a lot more in store when From the Ashes releases on December 19th. Over the past few weeks, we’ve shown you only a small chunk of what we have in store. However, the reveals don’t end here. Stay tuned!