Progression in Anthem is primarily based on gear score, the higher the number the more damage a gun or skill does. At least that's the idea. In a new post over on the Anthem subreddit a player noticed a peculiar and startling issue. Turns out that damage numbers are mostly meaningless with the Level 1 version of a rifle doing as much damage as a high-level version. Which, yeah, completely breaks the game.
And plays into the idea that Anthem's loot doesn't feel rewarding or powerful enough - when tackling high-level content. Since the post went viral, BioWare has responded to advise that this is a bug and not meant to happen or be the way of things. Nor is it how the level-scaling system, which lets low-level players play with higher level ones, is meant to work.
Except that it seems to have been there since day one, essentially meaning that gun damage based on level and stats is currently mostly an illusion. Which for an experience based on loot, needs to be looked into and formerly addressed as soon as possible. The following gif by player Brenon Holmes showcases the Level 1 weapon that actually does more damage, even when the on-screen numbers are lower. Here it's clear that the same enemy dies in fewer hits, even though the Legendary gun is supposedly doing more damage.
via GIPHY
And here's another, slower example of the effect.
via Gfycat
From these examples it looks like enemy health and shield damage scales according to the gun being used - bringing them in-line damage wise. And again, with damage numbers and values having no real effect.
Source.