The Anthem Colossus Javelin (say that five times fast) is the game’s big, bad tank class. The Colossus suit is built to withstand a bunch of damage — both for yourself and your teammates. It also has a wide variety of powerful weaponry to help clear out large numbers of enemies.
- Anthem Interceptor Class Guide: Abilities, Grenades, Strengths
- Anthem Ranger Class Guide: Abilities, Grenades, Strengths
- Anthem Class Guide: Which Javelin is Right for You?
Melee Ability
Heavy Smash: The Colossus is unique when it comes to melee abilities. Its basic attack is a ground smash, which damages enemies in a circle around the Javelin. It can use this attack from the ground or while airborne for bonus damage.
Things change significantly when the Colossus whips out its shield. The AoE smash is replaced by a Shield Bash. This attack is slow and only hits a single target, but does heavy damage. You can also sprint with the Colossus shield raised. Charging through enemies this way will Shield Bash them in a straight line (and outright kill most weaker enemies on normal difficulty).
Heavy Assault Launcher Abilities
The Colossus has wrist-mounted weaponry that can serve as a compliment to the shoulder-mounted weapons, which replace its grenade abilities. As with every ability in Anthem, these come in the form of item drops with random bonus stats. You can swap them out at the Forge!
Heavy Cannon: Fire a basic rocket to deal a large amount of damage.
Flame Thrower: Shoot flames onto nearby enemies, leaving the environment ablaze.
Flak Cannon: Like a beefier shotgun that’s ready to deal close-range damage to the tougher enemies in Anthem. Comes with multiple charges and is great for destroying shields at close-range.
Railgun: Fire a high velocity projectile, dealing massive damage to a single target.
Acid Spitter: Shoots a single acid projectile which explodes, leaving a pool of acid and applying damage over time to enemies caught within.
Support Abilities
As the Anthem tank class, the Colossus’ support abilities both draw attention (or “aggro) and help give nearby allies more damage resistance.
Taunt: Force all enemies in a front-facing cone to attack the Colossus. This also marks affected foes, making them easier to see.
Deflector Pulse: Release a pulse which boosts nearby allies’ damage resistance.
Ordnance Abilities
While the Ranger only has varying types of grenades, the Colossus has much more powerful options. Note that the mortars indicate their area of effect — unlike grenades. They even highlight which enemies would be affected at the given moment.
High Explosive Mortar: This mortar deals more damage than the Heavy Cannon and does so over a slightly larger area.
Burst Mortar: Rather than firing a single mortar shell, the Burst Mortar launches a volley of smaller projectiles, which explode over the area. This is a good option for those looking to deal with lots of basic enemies. Although you can’t move while firing the shells.
Firewall Mortar: The Firewall Mortar creates a wall of flame which damages any enemies that try to pass through it. It’s great for burning enemies with raised shields, too.
Lightning Coil: This damaging attack will strike a random target with a burst of electricity. The lightning will prioritize targets with status effects, triggering combos, so make sure to coordinate with your teammates to weaken the enemies you really want to damage.
Shock Coil: If you want to deal a bunch of damage to one target, choose Lightning Coil. If you want to take out lots of enemies, go for Shock Coil. This one sends out wave after wave of electricity from the Colossus.
Ultimate Ability
Siege Cannon: The Siege Cannon is the Colossus’ ultimate ability. It arms the Javelin with a very powerful… well, cannon that shoots up to three massive rounds. The shots are so strong it leaves a mushroom cloud in its wake. BioWare recommends it for both clearing out smaller enemies and burning down powerful bosses.
Colossus Tips
- The Colossus can double-jump. You can hold Space on either jump to increase air time. Quickly tapping Space twice triggers a quick-boost to help you reach maximum altitude faster.
- Can jump further by sprinting and jumping.
- When landing from high altitudes, nearby enemies take damage — even if you don’t hit the melee button.
- The Colossus air melee attack stacks with this extra falling damage.
- Has a shield that can be used on the ground and in the air. This replaces your normal dodge.
- Sprinting or flying into smaller enemies with your shield raised does impressive melee damage.
- The shield protects against damage in a 180-degree arc in front of the Colossus. You will still take damage from behind.
- A melee with the shield out performs a shield slam attack.
- The least agile Javelin.
- Takes less damage than all other Javelins.
- Has far and away more armor than all other Javelins. However, the Colossus does not have a normal, recharging energy shield. You need to rely on its physical shield to mitigate serious damage.
- The Colossus shield easily blocks Titan shockwave attacks, so you don’t have to dodge them.
That’s all there is to know about the Colossus Javelin! Head on over to our Interceptor guide to see what the next Anthem class has to offer.
