Avowed: How to defeat the Yellowbands

Paradis is the first major city in Avowed, and it offers several bounties to claim, including the Yellowbands. They are a group of outlaws (wearing yellow armbands) who hide out in some ruins beyond the walls of Paradis. Though a relatively large group of enemies, it’s nothing the Envoy can’t take care of. In our experience, they were Tier 2, two-skull enemies; but that may change, depending on when you decide to take care of them.

If you’re trying to make some extra money to buy potions and lockpicks, defeating the Yellowbands in Avowed is certainly a good idea. This isn’t a group of enemies you can talk your way past — violence is the only answer. If you’re stumped on finding/defeating them in Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming ARPG, here’s what you need to know.

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Where to find the Yellowbands in Avowed

After picking up the bounty quest in Paradis, you will see the location of the Yellowbands in Avowed. If you want to save yourself the trouble and just go fight them immediately, the image below has the location. They’re just northeast of Usher’s Hand, in a little enclosed series of ruins.

You might stumble into these outlaws just exploring the map (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

The fastest way to get there would likely be to head north from the Southern Embrace Party Camp. If you look to the north of your camp after leaving, you’ll see some ruins up on a hill. That’s where you’re heading to.

You have two options to get into this place. The first is to walk around the ruins to the right and open the door at the back of this area. It puts you in the Yellowbands camp in Avowed, right near some tall grass to stealth in. Conversely, you can take a secret passageway to get in.

I prefer to Metal Gear my way into the enemy camp instead of going in the door (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

If you go left instead, you can climb up the rocks. Beyond the trees, there’s a wooden platform you can climb, as seen in the image above. Climb it, crawl through the passage, and climb up the wooden platforms; this will also put you inside the base, but on the other side. While you have less utilizable cover here, there are also fewer enemies right in front of you.

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How to beat the Yellowbands in Avowed

When you arrive in camp, you can potentially stealth kill one or two of the enemies, or at least harm them. However, if you don’t kill them with one blow in Avowed, the rest of the Yellowbands will be alerted. I learned this the hard way, by trying to one-shot the Axe wielder.

It's all about prioritizing your targets (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

In total, you need to defeat eight enemies — six of them humanoids, and two bears. This is a fight where we wouldn’t blame you for lowering the difficulty. It’s quite the swarm of foes. Thankfully, you have Kai to help take some of the aggro. Below is the complete list of enemies you have to fight here.

• Young Brown Bear
• Young Brown Bear
• Brown Bear
• Yellowband Outlaw (Bow)
• Yellowband Outlaw (Bow)
• Yellowband Outlaw (Mace)
• Yellowband Outlaw (Sword and Shield)
• Yellowband Outlaw (Wand)
• Yellowband Outlaw (Axe)

Personally, I leave the Sword and Shield guy for last if possible. They’re just annoying to deal with, and don’t hit hard. The primary targets for me are the Bow users, and then the bears. Bears constantly leap, lunge, and swipe at you — you’ve surely fought bears before in the game by now.

Thankfully, Kai does actively help you fight (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

The two Bow users are quite weak, but will annoy you with ranged hits. That’s why I target them first if I can get to them. Another important target is the Wand user. With these ranged combatants out of the way in the Yellowbands camp in Avowed, you can kite and slow down enemies with Frost Magic (Blizzard) or any of your throwable items.

Use buildings and higher areas for cover to slow down aggressive enemies. However, don’t spam attacks, as you need stamina to dodge as well. Keep an eye on Kai’s health — you may have to revive him in this fight, maybe more than once. Take out the ranged enemies, and slow down/defeat the bears if they get too aggressive.

Thankfully, because I kept Kai alive, he defeated all of the melee Yellowbands for me. That left me free to focus on the bears and the ranged users. Your experience may vary, though. Bring plenty of health potions and essence potions. I also made sure Kai had his tanking ability to increase his defense — this kept him up and kicking longer.

There are some amazing treasures in this camp (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

Fortunately, you only need to defeat the Yellowband Outlaws and the bears — there are a few Highwaymen at the far sides of this camp, but you can avoid them if you’d like. The camp also has some treasures for you to loot. Near the campfire, you’ll find a locked treasure chest — it takes 3 lockpicks to open.

The chest contains 8 Gold Scellings, Agate, 2 Paradisan Ladders, Primal Flame, 5 Pelts, a Softwood Branch, and an Iron Chunk. You’ll also find a few bandits inside one of the nearby buildings; you can loot them, but the big reward is a treasure chest that contains the unique Arcanist’s Gambeson +2 and a piece of Adra. This is a great Unique for spellcasters in Avowed, so it's worth looting.

Make sure to get all the Armbands, or it doesn't count! (Image via Obsidian Entertainment)

One piece of advice I can give you is to keep an eye on where you killed the Yellowbands. You need to loot all of their armbands from the corpses/piles of ashes. Once you’ve picked them all up, the game will inform you that you can turn in the bounty in Paradis. It actually took me a while to find them all, because some of them died in tall grass, and I just overlooked them.

When you’re ready, return to the Eastern Paradis Gate Beacon in Avowed's city of Paradis, run west to the Bounty Master, and turn the bounty in for 500 coins. It’s pretty easy money, all things considered. You just have to defeat a bandit gang.

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Avowed launches on February 18, 2025, on PC and Xbox Series X|S. Those who purchase the Premium Edition can access the game a few days early, on February 13, 2025.