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"8. 88 8888888888888888888 `Y888 88 88 `Y888 `Y8888 88 8888888888888888888 I N S A N I T Y M O D E : 1 0 0 % C O M P L E T I O N Authored By: X-Metaphysics v1.1 \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ UPDATES LEGALITIES INTRO TO INSANITY ------------------------------[101] '- Video Walkthrough CHAPTER 1: THE NEW CREW ------------------------[CH1] |- 1.01 - Freedom's Progress |- 1.02 - Dossier: The Professor |- 1.03 - Kasumi: Stolen Memory |- 1.04 - Dossier: Archangel |- 1.05 - Zaeed: The Price of Revenge |- 1.06 - Dossier: The Warlord |- 1.07 - Dossier: The Convict '- 1.08 - Horizon CHAPTER 2: THE NEW THREAT ----------------------[CH2] |- 2.01 - Dossier: Tali |- 2.02 - Dossier: The Assassin |- 2.03 - Dossier: The Justicar |- 2.04 - Grunt: Rite of Passage |- 2.05 - N7: Anomalous Weather Detected '- 2.06 - Collector Ship CHAPTER 3: THE BEST TEAM IN THE GALAXY ---------[CH3] |- 3.01 - Jacob: The Gift of Greatness |- 3.02 - Miranda: The Prodigal |- 3.03 - Jack: Subject Zero |- 3.04 - Mordin: Old Blood |- 3.05 - Thane: Sins of the Father |- 3.06 - Garrus: Eye for an Eye |- 3.07 - Tali: Treason |- 3.08 - Samara: The Ardat-Yakshi |- 3.09 - The Reaper IFF '- 3.10 - Legion: A House Divided CHAPTER 4: THE 'SUICIDE' MISSION ---------------[CH4] |- The Debris Field |- Infiltrate the Base |- Biotic Field Battle '- The FINAL Encounter APPENDICES:. SIDE MISSIONS --------------------------------[SMS] |- City Quests '- N7 Missions |- 0.01 - N7: Lost Operative |- 0.02 - N7: Eclipse Smuggling Depot |- 0.03 - N7: MSV Estevanico |- 0.04 - N7: Wrecked Merchant Freighter |- 0.05 - N7: Abandoned Research Station |- 0.06 - N7: Hahne-Kedar Facility |- 0.07 - N7: Anomalous Weather Detected |- 0.08 - N7: Imminent Ship Crash |- 0.09 - N7: Archaelogical Dig Site |- 0.10 - N7: MSV Strontium Mule |- 0.11 - N7: Blue Suns Base |- 0.12 - N7: Javelin Missiles Launched |- 0.13 - N7: Captured Mining Facility |- 0.14 - N7: Blood Pack Communications Relay |- 0.15 - N7: Blood Pack Base |- 0.16 - N7: Abandoned Mine |- 0.17 - N7: Quarian Crash Site |- 0.18 - N7: Mining the Canyon '- 0.19 - N7: Endangered Research Station UPGRADES LIST --------------------------------[UGR] |- Weapon Upgrades |- Armor Upgrades |- Prototype Upgrades '- Shepard's Armor Pieces SQUAD MEMBERS --------------------------------[SQA] POWERS LIST ----------------------------------[PWR] |- Combat Powers |- Ammo Powers |- Biotic Powers |- Tech Powers '- Class Powers PC FIXES -------------------------------------[PCF] |- Mouse Sensitivity '- Load Times THANKS CONTACT INFO !Useful tip: use ctrl+f and the three-character codes to jump to a section, or use the three digit decimal numbers to jump to a specific mission. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( About this Guide ) `````````````````````` SPOILER WARNING: This guide may contain spoilers! Read at your own risk. This guide is aimed at players who have beaten the game at least once on any difficulty. I will avoid describing in detail story elements, navigation, small collectibles, and dialogues; instead I will focus upon the enemy groups, the strategies for each mission's encounters, the ordering of missions, and the collection of upgrades. The goal of this guide is to reach the end of the game with all members alive and loyal, all possible upgrades, and all missions done, all while the difficulty is set to Insanity. I recommend having the bonuses associated with importing a save from the first Mass Effect and also having already completed Mass Effect 2. Though, I will NOT be importing a previous Mass Effect 2 save to start at a high level with all weapons and upgrades. That's cheating :D \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > U P D A T E S < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ Version 1.1 --------------------------------- Minor revisions / additions. Videos finally uploaded and linked. Version 0.9 --------------------------------- Guide is almost entirely finished! Unfortunately, I haven't the time to add content to this guide. Thank you to everyone who sent their support! \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > L E G A L I T I E S < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ This guide was originally written for GameFAQs - http://www.gamefaqs.com/ First and foremost, I'd like to outline how this guide is to be used. This document was written for personal and private use only; do not redistribute this guide for personal gain or profit, and do not use this guide on your website without my permission first. I'd be glad to give permission as long as this guide is not edited or altered in any way. If you decide to include my guide on your site, it will be your sole responsibility to keep it up to date; the latest version will always be found on GameFAQs. Do not, in any way, use information or copy any content from this guide without contacting me and giving me proper credit. Again, I will gladly give anyone the permission to use my information if you just ask politely. For information on how to contact me, see the Contact Information section. \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > I N T R O T O I N S A N I T Y < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ [101] Insanity mode is the greatest challenge this game can offer. To overcome the deadly slew of enemies, our Shepard must be committed to perfection. Our team must be strong. Our equipment must be top notch. The battlefield is our home, and we must be comfortable with the controls and familiar with our squad. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( You Will Not Survive ) `````````````````````````` Every enemy in Insanity mode is capable of killing Shepard and company. Cover must be utilized fully to our advantage. All abilities must be used effectively or they are wasted. Our weapons must be chosen carefully; each situation must be met with experience. Without it, you will not survive. Enemy Defenses ----------------------------- All enemies will have atleast one layer of defenses. Be it Armor, Barrier, or Shield, you must be prepared to deal with all of them. This means powers and weapons arsenal; weigh your Shepard's abilities and bring along squad mates that fill in the gaps. Armor: Use Warp, Incinerate, Heavy Pistols, Sniper Rifles, and Incendiary Ammo Shields: Use Overload, Assault Rifles, SMGs, Shotguns, and Disruptor Ammo Barriers: Use Warp, Concussive Shot, Assault Rifles, SMGs, and Shotguns Enemy Control ----------------------------- Once defenses are down, enemies must be destroyed or disabled swiftly. On Insanity, all enemies have a much larger health pool, especially tough ones like Krogan. Disabling enemies via biotics (Pull/Throw/Shockwave), Cryo-Blast, Concussive Shot, or similar effects will take the heat off you and additionally cause them to take extra damage, saving you precious thermal clips. Incendiary Ammo is also great against organic enemies; undefended enemies will be stunned and set in a panic, bringing them slightly out of cover and allowing you to pummel them dead. Shepard's Class ----------------------------- Class choice is the smallest of our concerns. Play what you are most familiar with, or the class that offers your preferred playstyle. Some are less optimal, such as the Vanguard, whose playstyle makes Insanity much more difficult than all other classes. Still, if you think you got what it takes, feel free. Advanced Training ----------------------------- Advanced Training will allow Shepard an extra skill, chosen from the loyalties gained in past play-throughs. I recommend one of: Barrier, Fortification, Geth Shield Boost. I play the Soldier class, and I can't count how many times Geth Shield Boost saved my ass while playing through Insanity. Depending on your class, pick a skill that suits you best; only your own experience can decide here. Paragon/Renegade ----------------------------- Last but not least, alignment. In order to make sure all our squad members are loyal, we will have to focus our Shepard either 100% Renegade or Paragon. The way this works is explained by Kim Stolz on the Bioware forums: "Since so many people want the explanation of how this works I'll tell you... There are potential paragon and renegade points throughout the game. When the user arrives in an area (ie: Omega) the game registers every single paragon or renegade decision that can be made and increases the difficulty of the persuade system based on these potential points. If the user collects all of these points (either paragon OR renegade) they break even they can almost never get ahead of the system, you can only keep apace. If the user misses these oppotunities to collect all of the points the game still keeps these points you missed so the player will actually fall behind. If the player falls behind it is very difficult and almost impossible to catch back up because everywhere you go more potential points are being mounted against you and making the persuasions more difficult" What this means is you have to pick one and stick with it the whole game. Every dialogue option you choose must be Renegade if you choose Renegade; you must do all the Renegade persuasion options and all the Renegade interrupts to get the most potential points you can. Everytime you fail to choose an option in your alignment, you are hurting your chances towards the end of the game. If, like me, you don't like going all Paragon or Renegade, but a fair mix, then you're screwed. Unless of course you get a ME2 Save Game Editor to max out both bars, leaving you free to be as your Shepard was born to be! --- Additionally, Stolz said, "What I think a lot of people aren't realizing is that when you import an ME1 save you get a pretty major bonus to the paragon or renegade scale which makes the persuades incredibly easy. then you start an ME2 newgame + and you are working from a clean slate." So, we can conclude that using a ME2 newgame+ is actually harmful in this way! You can view the whole post by Kim Stolz here: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/107/index/1197668/3 ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( On Mission Ordering ) ````````````````````````` I've ordered my walkthrough in a way that allows us to obtain the best upgrades as early as possible. Of course, this is subjective to which class you choose, but there are two important things to keep in mind for Chapters 1 and 2: The Horizon mission will trigger once Mordin, Garrus, Grunt, and Jack have been recruited. If we recruit 3, then wait to recruit the last one until we have completed all available side missions and DLC content, we will stand a much better chance. The Collector Ship mission will trigger after any 5 missions have been done after Horizon. This includes all side missions, recruitments, and loyalties. Basically, any mission that ends with the "Mission Completed" status screen. And of course, the Reaper IFF mission we are able to do anytime after it becomes available, but once completed, we are on limited time if we want to save the Normandy's crew; logically, we should complete all available missions before doing the Reaper IFF mission. With all this in mind, feel free to change up the mission order a bit if you're sure the upgrades obtained will benefit your class and squad setup more. Upgrades and Minerals ----------------------------- After obtaining upgrades from missions, immediately gather the resources to research them. After buying upgrades from shops, check your research terminal to see if any new upgrades have been unlocked (very useful upgrades become available after reaching 2/5 and 3/5 upgrades in almost every case). You could stock up on minerals before hand; if that's the case, these are the maximum amount of resources needed for all upgrades: Element Zero - 35,000 (more if you do Advanced Research/Retrain Powers) Iridium - 220,000 Platinum - 225,000 (+50,000 for Med-bay Upgrade) Palladium - 195,000 Credits - 1,250,000 (with discounts) *information courtesy of http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Upgrade_guide ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Starting Bonuses ) `````````````````````` There are some bonuses that are pretty important for an Insanity run. They are bonuses, of course, so they aren't necessary, but here's what I'm starting off with: Mass Effect 1 Import Bonuses: +2000 Experience +30,000 Credits +5,000 Resources +190 Paragon / +34 Renegade Rich ME1 Character: +100,000 Credits Long Service Bonus: +25% Earned Experience +200,000 Credits +50,000 Resources As you can see, the Long Service bonuses are very substantial, and much more important than the ME1 import bonuses. Having these bonuses will help us get geared up more quickly at the start of the game, and the +25% experience will allow us to reach a higher level. --- The PC version of this game has a few faults to it that should be taken care of before starting our challenge. See the PC Fixes section if you're not working at optimal capacity. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Video Walkthrough ) ``````````````````````` As I wrote this guide, I played through and recorded every encounter. Visit my playlist on Youtube for a full list, found here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F70990B4589F2D30 If you're observant, you might notice a lack of in-game music. Feel free to listen to any of your choice while you watch! Or just kick back to the dulcid tones of dying mercenaries and Collectors. \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > C H A P T E R 1 < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ [CH1] It goes without saying, but play until our Shepard regains consciousness in the first part of the prologue. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 1.00 - Prologue: Awakening - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ : - M-3a Heavy Predator Pistol : \ - M-100 Grenade Launcher | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: : : LOKI Mech / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` This part of the game is straight-forward and is pretty much impossible to screw up. Also, this is the ONLY part of the game on Insanity where there are enemies with no Armor/Shield/Barrier defenses. Don't get used to it :) As for all parts of the game, be sure to search for all objects that may contain credits (wallsafes, datapads, terminals, dead bodies, etc.), since we are gonna need as many credits as possible in order to purchase upgrades. Don't forget to allocate any squad points you may start out with. It's your job to know your class and which skills you should be focusing on first. For me, I'll be playing the Soldier class, and first thing I must max out is Adrenaline Rush to get the Hardened version for supreme survivability. Next I'll focus on my combat training and also put some points in Incendiary Ammo for extra damage and knockback on unarmored foes. As for your squad, it's wise to pump the skill you'll be utilizing most. I'll be needing Miranda's Warp, and Garrus' Overload, so those are two examples of squad skills I'll be maxing out early on. I prefer to give my squad the larger area of effect evolutions, except for Warp, where the extra damage is mighty nice (also I don't usually find myself combining biotic powers for detonations, I use Mordin's Incineration Blast for stripping armor). After maxing one skill, I'll start maxing their training to get their bonuses up, which usually boosts their survivability by a lot. See the Squad & Abilities section for more information on this. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 1.01 - Freedom's Progress - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ : - Full Weapons Arsenal : \ - Heavy Weapon Ammo | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : [ LOKI Mech ] [ FENRIS Mech ] < Assault Drone > : | < Rocket Drone > < [ YMIR Mech ] >* / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` *Enemy name in [] denotes Armor. <> denotes Shield. () denotes Barrier. "Hey Commander! Just like old times, huh?" -Jeff 'Joker' Moreau Now the game gets challenging. Enemies will have defenses. Their weapons will shred you. Always take cover and instruct your squadmates to do the same; if you don't specifically tell your squad to get behind cover, they may or may not handle the encounter well. The mechs in this level will quickly approach Shepard, instead of fighting from cover. You'll have to use whatever powers you have available to disable and destroy them before they get too close. Sorry, no videos for this mission. It should be easy enough without 'em though. ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 2 LOKI Mechs Group 2: - 3 LOKI Mechs - 2 FENRIS Mechs Two LOKI Mechs will attack from the far balcony. Take cover behind the barricade directly in front of you, making sure to be protected by the boxes to the right as well. As soon as you finish off these LOKIs, two more will appear behind the barricade up the stairs to the right, and 2 FENRIS Mechs will charge out of the door. Use Warp to strip armor off a FENRIS and Pull to disable it while you focus on the LOKIs. A third LOKI will also appear on the balcony at this time. Finish off the approaching mechs before you deal with this one. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- 1 LOKI Mech 1 FENRIS Mech Just don't let the FENRIS get too close. Warp + Pull will do. The single LOKI after talking to Tali is handled easily as well. ENCOUNTER 3 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 2 Assault Drones - 1 Rocket Drone Group 2: - 2 Assault Drones - 1 Rocket Drone Take cover immediately to the left after exiting the door, in the corner. Use Overload and your SMG/AR to take out the Rocket Drone quickly. If you have Disruptor Ammo, the M-3 Predator Heavy Pistol will do nicely as well. 3 more drones will fly in. One will land immediately to your left, and if you aren't up against the left wall, it'll have a clear shot at you. A rocket drone will land above the door to the right, and will have an easy shot at your squad. Take these two out quickly as possible. If you have a shotgun, it will decimate the drone to the left. ENCOUNTER 4 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 2 Assault Drones - 1 Rocket Drone Group 2: - 2 Assault Drones - 1 Rocket Drone Take cover behind the box at the bottom of the stairs, on the left side. 3 drones will be positioned on the ledge, but when attacked, will change position to your right. 3 more drones will replace them as they fall, following the same pattern. Focus on the rocket drones first. FINAL ENCOUNTER ----------------------------- YMIR Mech You should immediately head for the building on the left. Here you can easily line up a shot while keeping the Mech's firing arm hitting the wall, since the YMIR is such a large target. Have Miranda use Overload when it's up, and Warp once its shield is gone. Use your own powers and weapons effectively; SMG and Assault Rifle on the shields, Heavy Pistol/Sniper Rifle on its armor. You shouldn't need to use the Grenade Launcher. Don't forget to grab the Heavy Weapon Ammo before heading into the next room to finish up the mission. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( The Normandy SR2 ) `````````````````````` While on the Normandy, don't forget to pickup Normandy: Serrice Ice Brandy, Normandy: Special Ingredients, and Normandy: FBA Couplings from the crew. Now let's head to The Citadel to take care of some business. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( The Citadel ) ````````````````` Things to do: ----------------------------- - Recruit Kasumi (if you have the DLC) - Citadel: Captain Bailey - Citadel: The Council - Citadel: Krogan Sushi - Citadel: Crime in Progress - Buy Brandy from Darkstar Lounge - Buy High-Grade Provisions from Zakera Cafe Available Upgrades ----------------------------- Sirta Foundation: - Medi-Gel Capacity - Life-Support Webbing Saronis Applications: - Damage Protection - Tech Damage Rodam Expeditions: - Sniper Rifle Damage - Heavy Pistol Damage - Submachine Gun Damage - Off-Hand Ammo Pack - Aegis Vest Remember to use Charm/Intimidate at each store to get a discount of 16.67%! Buy the upgrades you think you'll need most. Tech Damage is expensive, and I usually wait on that one, being a Soldier and having no tech squad members yet. Once our business is done, we can return to the Normandy. Turn in the Brandy and Ingredients quests before docking at Omega. ,,,,,,,,,,, ( Omega ) ``````````` Things to do: ----------------------------- - Recruit Zaeed (if you have the DLC) - Omega: Batarian Bartender - Omega: Struggling Quarian - Buy FBA Couplings from Kenn's Salvage - Talk to Aria about Mordin and Archangel - Talk to Merc Recruiter Available Upgrades ----------------------------- Omega Market: - Sniper Rifle Damage - Stimulator Conduits Kenn's Salvage: - Shotgun Damage - Heavy Weapon Ammo - Heavy Skin Weave Harrot's Emporium: - Visor - Capacitor Chestplate - Hack Module (Waste of creds if you ask me) Once we're all set, we can finally begin to build our team. Head over to the quarantine zone to begin the next mission. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 1.02 - Dossier: The Professor - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ | - Assault Rifle Damage : : - Medi-Gel Capacity | \ - M-6a Carniflex Handcannon | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : < Blue Suns Trooper > < Blue Suns Legionnaire > [ Blood Pack Trooper ] | | [ Blood Pack Pyro ] [ Blood Pack Warrior ] [ Varren ] : | [ Vorcha Heavy ] [ Blood Pack Boom-Squad ] / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` *CHK* "I've had enough of this..." -Commander Shepard My Squad: Miranda / Zaeed Briefing: This mission's main baddies are mercenaries. Most mercs throughout the game have shields, except for the Blood Pack. Most of the fighting will be against these armored foes, and much is done at longer ranges in this mission. As for my squad, I've chosen Miranda and Zaeed. Zaeed's sniper rifle specialty is perfect for taking on the Blood Pack, especially at longer ranges, and Miranda is just a great squad member, bringing defense-stripping abilities and boosting your entire squad. Gather credits and such while skirmishing with a couple troopers, then you come to an area with tables, a barricade, and 3 Blue Suns mercs visible on the other side. Here's our first battle. ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 1 Blue Suns Legionaire 7 Blue Suns Trooper (4 Shotgun, 3 Assault) Open up on the exposed mercs. Disable/kill them fast and have your team focus on the Legionnaire. While your squad keeps them busy, move across the room quickly to flank them, otherwise the shotgunners will come out to flank you. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- 2 Blue Suns Troopers 10 Blood Pack Troopers 2 Blood Pack Pyros 2 Blood Pack Warriors 2 Varren Enter the next area to see two Blue Suns mercs against a whole mess of Blood Pack Vorcha; leave these two alone. Turn around and go up the stairs on the left. Up here is the perfect sniper vantage. Post your squad next to you and start picking off the vorcha; they regenerate health, so hit 'em with headshots and Warp. The poor Blue Suns mercs will make a nice distraction for a bit. A couple Varren will make their way up the stairs on the right side, keep an eye out so you know when they're coming. Two Krogan will also try to close in. Like the Vorcha, they also regenerate in addition to their huge health pool; knock them down or lift them so your weapons do extra damage. Two Pyros are hiding behind cover in the center of the room; don't get close until you take them out. It can be tricky to target them sometimes, but focus on the other enemies first. The pyros are only a threat up close, and they usually just sit there behind cover. --- Continue onward to the Clinic. Inside, grab all the goodies, including the Medi-Gel upgrade, then talk to Mordin. Leave the Clinic with our nice new M-6a Carniflex Handcannon, perfect for headshotting Vorcha, and we're back in the fray... ENCOUNTER 3 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 5 Blood Pack Troopers - 1 Blood Pack Pyro - 1 Blood Pack Warrior Group 2: - 5 Blood Pack Troopers - 1 Blood Pack Warrior Group 3: - 2 Blood Pack Troopers - 1 Blood Pack Pyro - 1 Blood Pack Warrior This battle is a little more close-quarters than the previous two, exception on the third Group of guys who come down the western stairwell. Take out the Pyro up front as soon as you can; those guys are very dangerous. The Carniflex and Mantis sniper work wonders on the Vorcha; apply to cranium for maximum effectiveness. The Krogan should be handled as before; strip their armor and knock them down. A second group of Vorcha will come out of the back door, along with a second Krogan; I like to take cover behind the little wall where the stairs on the right side are located. A few more Blood Pack will come down the western stairs as you approach, including another Krogan and a pyro; clear out the enemies before heading that way. --- At the top of the stairs, don't miss the door on the left; here you will find Mordin's missing assistant being held hostage by a couple Batarians. Continue on, taking out the handful of Blood Pack Troopers across the way; they have no backup, but around the corner... ENCOUNTER 4* ----------------------------- 4 Vorcha Heavies 8 Blood Pack Troopers Blood Pack Troopers will pour out of the door at the far end of the room, but they're below you and won't attempt to flank. The real threat is the four RPG- toting Vorcha Heavies on the high balconies. Take them out first, then use your height advantage to kill off the Troopers. *I remember in past play-throughs fighting a Krogan or two at this part, but as you can see in my video, there are none. Perhaps I just cleared the room more quickly than before. Just keep in mind that you might run into a couple Blood Pack Warriors here. --- In the next hallway, you'll fight two more Blood Pack Troopers along with a Warrior. They shouldn't give you much trouble. Finish them off, then continue onward to the final area, and... FINAL ENCOUNTER ----------------------------- Part 1 - Insert the Cure: - Group 1 - 1 Blood Pack Boom-Squad - 1 Vorcha Heavy - 1 Blood Pack Pyro - 1 Blood Pack Trooper - Group 2 - 2 Blood Pack Troopers - 2 Blood Pack Boom-Squad Part 2 - Activate Western Fan: - Group 1 - 2 Blood Pack Troopers - 3 Blood Pack Pyros - Group 2 - 6 Blood Pack Troopers Part 3 - Activate Eastern Fan: - Group 1 - 1 Blood Pack Warrior - 1 Blood Pack Pyro - 5 Vorcha Heavies (or Boom-Squad, never got close enough to tell) - Group 2 - 4 Blood Pack Troopers - 1 Blood Pack Warrior - 1 Blood Pack Pyro This is more of the same stuff we've seen all mission. Heavies from afar, Pyros and Warriors approaching, and some Troopers mixed in. When you're coming from the first fan, don't be so quick to run back up to the main area. Wait on the stairs for a Warrior and a Pyro to approach; when you walk into the main area, 5 missile-launching Vorcha will attack from the upper ledge. Use all ye've learned to take on this mission's final challenge. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - Back on the Normandy... turn in FBA Couplings to the Engineers. And, now that we have a lead scientist, we can research all those upgrades we've collected! Woo! It's time to explore the universe and gather minerals, as well as search for planetary anomalies; there are six N7 mission available. Check 'em out: (See Side Missions section for full mission details). Available N7 Missions ----------------------------- N7: Lost Operative - Omega Nebula > Fathar System > Planet Lorek N7: Eclipse Smuggling Depot - Hourglass Nebula > Faryar System > Planet Daratar N7: MSV Estevanico - Hourglass Nebula > Ploitari System > Planet Zanethu N7: Wrecked Merchant Freighter - Eagle Nebula > Amun System > Planet Neith N7: Abandoned Research Station - Eagle Nebula > Strabo System > Jarrahe Station N7: Hahne-Kedar Facility - Titan Nebula > Haskins System > Planet Capek If you have the Firewalker DLC pack, do that string of quests for a boost to your credits, resources, and experience, and additionally finding a Biotic Damage upgrade during Project Firewalker: Prothean Ruins. The Normandy Crash Site DLC is also easy experience. Both of these DLCs are very easy and self- explanatory. Once all these are done, we can continue on with some meat. Kasumi's loyalty mission is fun, and it doesn't matter what squad members we have, since you can only bring her. Let's head over to the Serpent Nebula and get started (if you don't have this DLC, skip on down to the next mission)... ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 1.03 - Kasumi: Stolen Memory - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ : - M-12a Locust SMG : \ - Tech Damage | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : < Eclipse Trooper > < [ YMIR Mech ] > < [ Chief Roe ] > | | ( Eclipse Vanguard ) [ LOKI Mech ] < [ Donovan Hock ] > : | < Eclipse Heavy > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` Shepard: "It's clean." Kasumi: "It's a plant..." Shepard: "Aha!" Kasumi: "Found something?" Shepard: "A credit chit!" Briefing: Eclipse Mercenaries, mechs, and a gunship. Oh fun. Add to that Kasumi's crappy AI on this level in particular and we have a fun time ahead of us. I basically solo'd half of this thanks to Kasumi's bad habit of dying. The Arc Projector is an amazing weapon for this level; I'd get the DLC if you don't have it. Side note: In-game the mission is called "Kasumi: Stealing Memory". I like the official DLC name better, so that's what I'm callin' it :) The first half of this mission is a party where Shepard's got to do some espionage work. Just take Kasumi's directions and eventually you'll find your way into the vault. Now the real fun begins... ENCOUNTER 1 - The Vault ----------------------------- Chief Roe 7 Eclipse Troopers Stay behind cover and watch out for Roe's Combat Drone. Pick off the exposed Troopers one by one. If you have disabling powers, great; I don't. Kasumi's Shadow Strike does impressive damage, but often times it fails on this level for some reason. Target enemies near the back; when the others turn around to fire on her, give her some cover fire. Once all the Troopers are dead, dispose of Chief Roe. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- 4 Eclipse Troopers 1 Eclipse Vanguard YMIR Mech Take out the two Troopers up close, then an YMIR Mech will attack. Focus on it; the few guys behind him are not much of a threat at this range. Once the mech is toast, close in on the remaining mercs. The Troopers here will start using a new skill: Flashbang Grenade. It won't do much to you unless one explodes right up in your face; if one lands nearby, put some cover between you and it. ENCOUNTER 3 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 5 Eclipse Troopers - 1 Eclipse Heavy Group 2: - 2 Eclipse Troopers - 2 LOKI Mechs As you enter the next area, three Troopers will pop up in the back of the truck bed; just after engaging them, a couple more will enter through the back along with a Heavy. Focus on the Heavy if you can; otherwise if there's some Troopers in your face, destroy them. As you approach the back area, four more enemies will enter the room. ENCOUNTER 4 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 4 Eclipse Troopers - YMIR Mech - 1 Eclipse Heavy Group 2: - 2 Eclipse Troopers - 1 Eclipse Vanguard - 1 Eclipse Heavy This encounter is much like the second, except this time a Heavy joins in on the fun. Take care of the closer two Troopers as fast as you can, and move on to the Heavy and YMIR. If you can, snipe or disable the Heavy before you try and take out the mech; it will make this fight easier. As you continue down the hall, a truck will pull up carrying four more mercs. ENCOUNTER 5 ----------------------------- 6 Eclipse Troopers 1 Eclipse Vanguard 1 Eclipse Heavy This area seems to be some kind of parking garage for the trucks. There are varying levels of cover around here, and the enemies will come from the right side and the back. A Heavy will shoot rockets from the far back; take this one out ASAP, and a Vanguard will try to close in as well. The rest is cake. FINAL ENCOUNTER - The Hock ----------------------------- Donovan Hock (In random groups of 4:) Eclipse Trooper Eclipse Heavy LOKI Mech Donovan Hock is in a gunship; he'll fire streams of bullets and also some rockets at you. I suggest taking cover behind the box near the closest cargo lift and shifting behind the truck on your left depending on where the enemies are coming from. Start off by taking out as much of Hock's shield as possible. Normal enemies will come in waves of four, on one of 3 cargo elevators; they seem to be random picks from what we've encountered so far. Most of the time, Kasumi will say something like "Coming up on our right!" That's your cue to whip out the Arc Projector and hit the four enemies as they appear; this will remove all their defenses, allowing you and Kasumi to clean up much more easily and have more time to work on Donovan's shields. Once Donovan's shields are sufficiently damaged, he'll dissappear from sight. When he returns, his shields will be full; don't bother attacking him yet. After clearing out some enemies, a cutscene will take place; Donovan's shields will be gone, allowing you to do some serious damage to the armor component. Keep up the same strategy and Donovan will soon be nothing but bits and pieces. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - Let's head back to Omega and get us another crew mate. ,,,,,,,,,,, ( Omega ) ``````````` There's not much to do here, though if you talk to Grizz in Afterlife, you'll get the quest Omega: The Patriarch. After taking care of a little business, let's go talk to the Blue Suns Driver at the Transport Hub to begin the next mission... ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 1.04 - Dossier: Archangel - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ | - Submachine Gun Damage : : - Tech Damage | \ - M-15a Vindicator Battle Rifle | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : < [ Jaroth ] > ( [ Garm ] ) < [ Jentha ] > | | < Eclipse Trooper > [ Blood Pack Trooper ] < Blue Suns Trooper > | | < Eclipse Heavy > [ Blood Pack Pyro ] < Blue Suns Heavy > | | < Eclipse Engineer > [ Blood Pack Warrior ] < Blue Suns Legionnaire > | | ( Eclipse Vangaurd ) [ Varren ] < Blue Suns Centurion > | | < [ YMIR Mech ] > < Freelancer > [ Tarak ] : | [ LOKI Mech ] / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` Merc Recruiter: "You three look like you could do some damage. Lookin' for a good fight?" Shepard: "You could say that..." My Squad: Miranda / Zaeed (You guessed it!) Briefing: This mission is similar to the ones we've done so far. Mercs. Mercs. Mercs. We'll be seeing armor, shields, and barriers, so bring a well balanced squad. There's a few things we can do before we get to the fighting... Enter the room with Jaroth and pickup the datapad to receive a side-quest. In a side room, you'll be able to re-program the YMIR Mech they're planning to send in to fight Archangel. In another side room, you'll find, among other stuff, Submachine Gun Damage. Finally, talk to Cathka and begin the fighting. ENCOUNTER 1 - The Freelancers ----------------------------- 5 Freelancers Just follow the two guys in front of you until they near the third guy who is working on a bomb. Shoot the bomb, then finish them off. Then take care of the two guys at the top of the stairs, grabbing the Tech Damage before going up. ENCOUNTER 2 - The Eclipse ----------------------------- LOKI Mechs Eclipse Troopers Eclipse Heavies Eclipse Vanguards Eclipse Engineers YMIR Mech Jaroth The hardest part about this encounter is the sheer number of enemies. They just keep coming at you, and if they get across the bridge, they'll flank you. If some happen to get across, I'd shift positions to look over the lower room. Once the first batch is dispatched, the YMIR Mech will be sent out; if you re-programmed it, just sit back and watch the fun. Zaeed does some mean damage with his sniper in this encounter. Just do what you do best; take out any Heavies you see, and don't let the Vanguards flank you. Don't worry about ammo; there's plenty in this room, and it re-appears. Also, don't forget to grab the Vindicator Battle Rifle on the couch. --- Now for a change of scenery. We've got to go downstairs to stop the Blood Pack. If you're feeling generous, you can leave a squad member with Garrus, but I always have an easier time if I just bring both along. ENCOUNTER 3 - The Blood Pack ----------------------------- Blood Pack Troopers Blood Pack Warriors Blood Pack Pyros Varren Here our objective is to close three shutters before tons of Blood Pack overrun the base. The first one is dead ahead; run up and hit the button, and no enemy should make it through. Enter the next shutter is located in the parking garage; it's a large room and you'll fight more guys. As far as I know, they will continue to enter until you close the shutter, so work quickly and care- fully over to the shutter control. The final shutter is behind a bunch of hurdles in the utility door. Beware the Pyro that lurks around the corner; sometimes he's not there, but usually he's waiting to ambush you. In my video, you can see me handling the Pyro; he almost killed me, and I was expecting to die once I was caught in his flame. Luckily, I survived, and was able to work the corner to kill that annoying Vorcha. ENCOUNTER 4 - Garm ----------------------------- 2 Blood Pack Troopers 1 Varren 1 Blood Pack Warrior Garm Now we are returned to Garrus' room, and Garm and his fiends have entered the base. Garm and a Krogan will run up the stairs to fight Garrus; our job is to clean up the Troopers and Varren that attack immediately. Once they're gone, head upstairs and take out the single Krogan. Now Garm is all that remains; he's got a Barrier and Armor, so use weapons and powers to get 'em down. Once he's defenseless, knock him on his ass and blast him. Easy enough, right? ENCOUNTER 5 - The Blue Suns ----------------------------- Group 1: - Jentha - 3 Blue Suns Troopers - 1 Blue Suns Legionnaire Group 2: - 4 Blue Suns Troopers - 2 Blue Suns Heavies - 1 Blue Suns Legionnaire - 1 Blue Suns Centurion The final mercenary group will attack, entering the windows. Order squad mates to take cover on either side of the room and have them pick off enemies while you focus on Jentha or keep her pinned down with a singularity or drone or something. Me, I just take it to 'em hard. Once this group is done, some more will charge from the lower level and head up the stairs. It's not easy keeping them from reaching the second level, and when they do, I recommend shifting positions to the hallway. Watch out for the Legionnaire and the shotgun toting Centurion, both deadly in close quarters. FINAL ENCOUNTER - Tarak ----------------------------- Tarak (In random groups of 3:) Blue Suns Trooper Blue Suns Heavy Blue Suns Legionnaire Blue Suns Centurion This deal is the same as the first Blue Suns encounter, but instead of Jentha we've got to fight Tarak in his gunship. Tarak will begin by attacking from the North window, then he will move to the East window and mercenaries will storm inside. Compared to the Hock fight, this is a piece of cake. Keep your head down and shift positions accordingly to deal with the waves of mercs; expect any type out of what we've faced so far. Be swift in killing the mercs, as Tarak will return to the North side to attack regardless of whether or not you've finished off the mercs; if you happen to get flanked, I suggest taking position behind the pillar to shield you from the gunship while clearing out remaining hostiles. As you can see from the video, it is possible to kill Tarak without any mercs spawning. But only if you're quick like me :) - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - I always forget to do this, but we can turn in Omega: Archangel: Datapad Recovered at Aria; go ahead and do this now, also pickup any remaining upgrades from Omega's shops while your there, we won't be making anymore pit stops. Next up, we've got an arrangement with Zaeed that we need to take care of. Now is the best time, so let's head over to the Ismar Frontier and land on Zorya. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 1.05 - Zaeed: The Price of Revenge - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ : - Assault Rifle Damage (OR) Heavy Weapon Ammo : \ - M-451 Firestorm | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : < Blue Suns Trooper > < Blue Suns Heavy > < Blue Suns Pyro > : | [ FENRIS Mech ] < [ YMIR Mech ] > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "A stubborn enough person can survive just about anything. Rage is a hell of an anesthetic." -Zaeed Massani My Squad: Zaeed / Garrus Briefing: Blue. Suns. Mercs. Lots of them. We've been dealing with mercs for most of the game so far; this time it's the Blue Suns here, and they all have shields. My team has Area Overload (Garrus), Squad Disruptor Ammo from Zaeed, and this nifty new Vindicator Battle Rifle. Mmm. Time to spill a little merc blood. ENCOUNTER 1 - Outside ----------------------------- Group 1: - 3 Blue Suns Troopers - 1 Blue Suns Heavy Group 2: - 1 Blue Suns Pyro - 1 Blue Suns Trooper - 1 Blue Suns Heavy - 1 FENRIS Mech Station yourself behind the nearest cover while you take out the Troopers; as you approach the structure on the right, a Heavy will attack from above. A second group of enemies including a FENRIS Mech and a Pyro will charge as you near the truck; take these guys out before rounding the corner, where another Heavy lies in wait. --- After Zaeed destroys the refinery, you'll fight two shotgun troopers and then have the choice to save the workers or go after Vido. If you go after Vido, you'll fight two more groups of mercenaries; if you save the workers, you just have to activate some consoles. Either way, you can get Zaeed's loyalty, but each way has a different upgrade; you'll find Assault Rifle damage for choosing Vido, and Heavy Weapon Ammo for choosing the workers. ENCOUNTER 2 - Chasing Vido ----------------------------- Group 1: - 3 Blue Suns Troopers Group 2: - 1 Blue Suns Pyro - 2 Blue Suns Troopers Entering the area, you're facing 3 grouped Troopers. Area Overload easily removes their shields and makes them fodder. As you continue, a dude will come at you from across the bridge; an explosion takes him out without need for any wasted shots. Heading towards the door on the right, another group enters the area, including a Pyro. ENCOUNTER 3 - Chasing Vido ----------------------------- 7 Blue Suns Troopers 1 Blue Suns Pyro 1 Blue Suns Heavy Entering the next area, there's plenty of cover, and a couple enemies in the open. Take out the Pyro first; more enemies will enter through the door on the right and then from the back. Take out the Heavy when she appears on the upper ledge in the back. The rest are just Troopers. --- Both paths come together at the same spot. You'll pickup the M-451 Firestorm, fight two shotgun troopers, and have a chance to re-arm at a weapons locker. After that, we enter the final area. FINAL ENCOUNTER ----------------------------- 15-18 Blue Suns Troopers 3 Blue Suns Pyros YMIR Mech There are three good spots for you and your squad to take cover here: directly ahead after entering, behind the pipes on the left, and behind the ledge just left of those pipes. Enemies will funnel in through doors on either side of the room; take defensive positions and kill them as they approach. Be especially watchful for Pyros; they enter on the right side. Soon, the huge fuel tanks will start moving and spraying flames; shoot them down when they're above the enemies. A good strategy is to place squad members watching the middle and left side of the room, then move back and forth to help them both out. Once the mercs stop coming, approach the middle of the room to engage with an YMIR Mech. You should know the drill with these guys by now, especially without any distractions. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - Onward we trudge! Let us gather our next two team members: Grunt and Jack. If you'd like to bring Jack to Grunt's mission or vice versa, it matters not what order you do them in. I'll be doing Grunt's mission first to pick up the Sniper Rifle Damage upgrade, which will prove very useful (unlocking Sniper Headshot Damage) for Jack's mission, which can be rather difficult. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 1.06 - Dossier: The Warlord - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ : - Sniper Rifle Damage : \ - Krogan Vitality | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : < Blue Suns Trooper > < Blue Suns Heavy > [ Krogan Berserker ] | | < Blue Suns Centurion > < Blue Suns Legionnaire> : | < [ Jedore ] > < [ YMIR Mech ] > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "If you start limping now, you might find a shady spot before you bleed out." -Commander Shepard My Squad: Garrus / Zaeed Briefing: More Blue Suns Mercs! Gosh, these guys really have it out for Shepard and Co. There's a lot of long range encounters, and LOTS of Heavies. There is one segment where you face multiple Krogan Berserkers, but they shouldn't be much trouble with heavy-hitting weapons like Snipers as long as you knock them down. The first four encounters are back to back, and the videos are consolidated: ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 3 Blue Suns Troopers Nothing to this one. Just do your thing. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 2 Blue Suns Troopers Group 2: - 2 Blue Suns Troopers Group 3: - 2 Blue Suns Troopers The challenge here is the enemies' position on high ledges, with good cover. ENCOUNTER 3 ----------------------------- 4 Blue Suns Troopers 2 Blue Suns Heavies These guys are split apart, and you'll be taking fire from the right and far left side of the ledge. Your squad can easily fall from the Heavies, so focus on them first. ENCOUNTER 4 ----------------------------- 4 Blue Suns Troopers Same kind of thing we've faced so far: Troopers on the high ledge. You may want to position yourself on the right side of the room for a better shot. ENCOUNTER 5 ----------------------------- 2 Blue Suns Troopers 6 Krogan Berserkers As you move down the slope, 2 Troopers will come at you and you'll have no cover whatsoever, so you've got to act fast to bring down their shields and disable them. The Berserkers are tough, but once you bring down their armor, knock them down and a few headshots will make quick work of them. Keep moving across the room; since they carry shotguns, they're only a threat up close. --- You'll find a Sniper Rifle Damage upgrade along with some other items before going through a door into the next battle. ENCOUNTER 6 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 2 Blue Suns Troopers - 2 Blue Suns Heavies Group 2: - 5 Blue Suns Troopers - 2 Blue Suns Heavies - 1 Blue Suns Centurion This part is difficult because you have to deal with Heavies in the far back while also having Troopers in your face. Staying out of cover too long will most likely result badly, and the same goes for your squad. Try to disable the close enemies and take out the Heavies in the back quickly. This will be a recurring theme through the rest of this mission. ENCOUNTER 7 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 2 Blue Suns Troopers - 2 Blue Suns Heavies - 2 Blue Suns Legionnaires Group 2: - 2 Blue Suns Centurions - 2 Blue Suns Troopers The first group starts small and quickly builds to overwhelm. Take out the initial Troopers, then switch focus to the Heavies as soon as they enter your screen. Heavies make life hard for Shepard and crew. Move into the area and 4 more baddies will come around the corner. These guys are easy without their rocket launching buddies to back them up. ENCOUNTER 8 ----------------------------- 4 Blue Suns Troopers 2 Blue Suns Legionnaires 2 Blue Suns Heavies A long pathway with cover way in the back... yep more Heavies. Troopers and will try to bum rush you while the Heavies fire away from their far position. I suggest taking cover in the back with your squad at your side, to avoid having those Troopers get too close. When the Heavies appear, snipe them if you can, otherwise you'll have to go through the Legionnaires to get to them. ENCOUNTER 9 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 4 Blue Suns Troopers Group 2: - 2 Blue Suns Legionnaires - 1 Blue Suns Heavy - 2 Blue Suns Troopers Group 3: - 2 Blue Suns Troopers - 2 Blue Suns Heavies - 2 Blue Suns Centurions Group 4: - 2 Blue Suns Troopers - 1 Blue Suns Centurion - 1 Blue Suns Heavy Group 1 is easily dealt with, and I recommend going back and around the long way to have better access to cover for Group 2. You'll be under heavy fire and have to deal with that tough Heavy in the back too. Area attacks are effective here. Move up and deal with the 2 Troopers on the high ledge, just like the beginning of the mission; take up their position up high to have a better shot at the Heavies and Centurions on the other side; up here, the Centurions can't do jack, leaving you with an easy time killing off the Heavies before shifting to them. Move up again to fight the last group, and yup, there's another tough Heavy and some more Centurion action. --- Finally we reach the lab! In Okeer's room, you'll be able to find the first Krogan Vitality upgrade. Grab that before heading down to the last fight. FINAL ENCOUNTER ----------------------------- Jedore YMIR Mech Krogan Berserkers The best strategy is to charge in and immediately focus on taking out Jedore. If you don't have a sniper, this is much more difficult. Watch out for the approaching Krogan; have your squad attack him when he's in range. Once Jedore is dead, there won't be any more Krogan to fight besides the first one, leaving you to deal with the YMIR Mech alone. MUCH easier than having to deal with Krogan after Krogan while dodging Jedore's missiles and hiding from the Mech. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - There's nothing left to do now but recruit Jack. Let's go! Wait, first make sure to research all available upgrades! You should be doing this after every mission. Why wait to get upgraded? Anyway, on to Purgatory. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 1.07 - Dossier: The Convict - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ : - Damage Protection : \ - Shotgun Damage | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : < Blue Suns Trooper > [ FENRIS Mech ] < [ YMIR Mech ] > | | < Blue Suns Legionnaire > < Technician > < [ Blue Suns Commander ] > : | < Blue Suns Centurion > < Human Prisoner > < [ Warden Kuril ] > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "I hear the screaming in my head. It's nice. Yeah." -Prisoner 403 My Squad: Garrus / Zaeed Briefing: Blue Suns. Honestly, these guys should know not to mess with us by now, but I guess they never learn. This level has a lot of fighting in large areas with the danger of being flanked, and twice you'll have to take on an YMIR Mech while also fending off large amounts of mercenaries. ENCOUNTER 1 - Outprocessing ----------------------------- Group 1: - 7 Blue Suns Troopers - 1 Blue Suns Centurion - 1 Blue Suns Legionnaire - 6 FENRIS Mechs Group 2: - 3 Blue Suns Troopers - 1 Blue Suns Legionnaire - 1 Technician This part isn't difficult; all the enemies come in from the same direction and are at a fairly close range. In the first room, you'll have to take cover using the desks on either side of the room. After clearing out the enemies, more will enter as you approach the exit, including many FENRIS Mechs. Once you turn down the hallway towards the Super-Max Wing, about four more mercs will attack. Oh, and there's a puny Technician through the next door. --- After releasing Jack, be sure to grab the Damage Protection upgrade from the YMIR Mech Corpse. ENCOUNTER 2 - Prison Brawl ----------------------------- YMIR Mech Blue Suns Troopers Human Prisoners This battle is really easy; everyone is focused on each other, leaving you free to target anyone you like. While the Troopers and Prisoners duke it out, focus all your power on that YMIR Mech. Once it's dead, clean up what's left, grab the Shotgun Damage, and move on to the next room. ENCOUNTER 3 - Super-Max ----------------------------- Group 1: - 3 Blue Suns Troopers - 1 Blue Suns Legionnaire Group 2: - 4 Blue Suns Troopers - 1 Blue Suns Legionnaire Group 3: - 8 Blue Suns Troopers - 3 Blue Suns Centurion - YMIR Mech The first couple of groups aren't much of a challenge; shotgun Troopers will close in, and in Group 2 one will attempt to flank from the right. Group 3 is probably the most difficult encounter we've faced yet; there's 3 possible ways for enemies to approach you, and limited cover available; add on to that the YMIR Mech's relentless barrage of bullets, and we've got some trouble. First off, do not go on the upper pathway; you'll take too much fire from too many enemies from too many different locations. Your squad should take cover immediately after Group 2; a good place is on either side under the bridge. My strategy is to move ahead a bit on the middle path, and lure the enemies, including the YMIR, into the open middle area. Picking off a few, I backtrack as soon as the YMIR is in the middle, then move to the right side, which should be empty, so I can focus on the Mech without being bothered by all the others. Remember that your squad doesn't require line of sight to use powers; if you have a clear shot, you can have your squad blast anything your sights are on. Once the Mech is down, life gets a lot easier here. The trick is luring the Mech and repositioning yourself to block all the Troopers' fire while allowing you to get a clear shot. Don't rush, stay cool, and pick off enemies safely. Moving ahead too soon could cause you to get flanked and killed. FINAL ENCOUNTER - The Warden ----------------------------- Warden Kuril Group 1: - 2 Blue Suns Troopers - 1 Blue Suns Legionnaire Group 2: - Blue Suns Commander - 2 Blue Suns Centurions - 2 Blue Suns Troopers The objective here is to destroy all 3 Shield Generators before you can attack Warden Kuril. I prefer to advance using the left pathway, as there is a lot more cover. I'm almost positive that the Blue Suns Commander group will spawn infinitely until you destroy all the generators; as you can see in the video, I kill him a lot, and if you mess around too much you'll get flanked like me. Once I destroyed the last generator, they stopped coming, and Kuril is cake from there. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - Once back on the Normandy, the Illusive Man will want a word with Shepard. This will automatically launch us into Horizon, our next mission. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 1.08 - Horizon - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ | - Heavy Skin Weave : : - Collector Particle Beam | \ - Biotic Damage | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : ( Collector Drone ) ( Collector Guardian ) ( Collector Assassin ) : | ( [ Harbinger ] ) [ Husk ] [ Scion ] ( [ Praetorian ] ) / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "If I have to tear you apart, Shepard, I will." -Harbinger My Squad: Miranda / Grunt Briefing: Big change of pace here. We'll be fighting Collectors, which are all defended by barriers, as well as groups of armored Husks and Scions. This will be our first encounter with Harbinger, and the monstrous Praetorian. I'll be bringing Miranda for Warp, and Grunt for Concussive Shot; he can also deal with Husks pretty well too. ENCOUNTER 1 - First Contact ----------------------------- 2 Collector Drones 2 Collector Guardians 1 Collector Assassin Our first fight with the Collectors! Drones are the soldiers, the weak Troopers of the Collector forces; they've got the smallest health pool and should be targeted first. Guardians are much tougher, but have the same threat level as the Drones. Assassins use a particle beam, and are more dangerous; treat Assassins like merc Heavies; target them first unless there's easy-to-pick-off Drones nearby. ENCOUNTER 2 - Husks ----------------------------- 3 Husks 3 Collector Drones 1 Collector Guardian 1 Collector Assassin Husks! These guys are best dealt with using a shotgun or heavy pistol. For this battle, I usually stay back near the stairs, taking out any Collector who moves into line of sight; then when the Husks come, clear them out. That leaves easy pickin's for the remaining enemies. --- Pick up the Heavy Skin Weave from the Dead Collector before moving on to the next area. ENCOUNTER 3 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 3 Collector Drones - 1 Collector Guardian - 1 Collector Assassin Group 2: - 3 Collector Drones Take cover and wail on that Assassin; oh, and don't forget the Drone on the left side like I did; I came real close to death right there. As you approach the far end of the area, three more Drones will attack; use the explosive containers for some fun times. --- Just ahead is the Collector Particle Beam, another heavy weapon; this one I'm not too fond of. I find that single shot weapons are safer, as they leave you exposed for less amount of time. ENCOUNTER 4 - Harbinger! ----------------------------- Harbinger 4 Collector Drones 2 Collector Guardians 1 Collector Assassin It's Harbinger! Be quick after the cutscene: tell your squad to take cover behind the little wall (otherwise they will likely be killed fast) and then storm to the little opening on the left side. Harbinger is a nasty foe, but if you focus on him first, he'll just possess another Collector. On the left side, we're safe from his wrath, so let's take out any Collectors that happen to be back here; then we can circle around and flank whatever is firing upon your squad. A few more Collectors will show up after the first wave, but they're not so tough without Assassins and Harbinger backing them up. ENCOUNTER 5 ----------------------------- Harbinger 2 Collector Drones 1 Collector Guardian 1 Collector Assassin 3 Husks 1 Scion As you enter, a Drone and Guardian will be unawares towards the right of the open area; Harbinger will possess one of them after engaging in battle, so I recommend quickly downing the Drone. Husks, an Assassin, and another Drone will join the fray; moving into the building on the left will provide great cover from all these foes. From here you can safely take out the incoming Husks, kill the Assassin and Drone, finish off Harbinger, then focus on that Scion. Yeah, Scions are tough as nails, and should be saved for last since they are also really slow. --- Search this area for a Biotic Damage upgrade, and also Power Cells to resupply your ammo reserves. ENCOUNTER 6 - The Transmitter Tower ----------------------------- 2 Scions 10 Husks This part is the bane of many who have tried Insanity. Two Scions will send waves of death at you and your squad while many Husks make it difficult to stay behind cover. It's all in your team make-up. Husks should be dealth with using a shotgun, heavy pistol, and powers that use physical force (Concussive Shot, Pull, Throw, Shockwave) once their armor is down for easy kills. The Scions move very slowly; use this to your advantage and storm across the battlefield to take out the groups of Husks. If you run perpendicular to the Scions' waves of doom, you should be able to avoid getting hit. FINAL ENCOUNTER - Tower Defense ----------------------------- Group 1: - Harbinger - 3 Collector Drones - 2 Collector Guardians - 1 Collector Assassin - 2 Husks Group 2: - Harbinger - 2 Collector Drones - 1 Collector Guardian - 2 Collector Assassins - 4 Husks Finally: - Praetorian For the first wave, I find the best defensive position to be the small balcony with two stairways on the north side. From here, you can see all incoming enemies, whereas if you stayed to fight near the truck, you'd be surrounded and have a much harder time keeping the heat off. From here, you can wait for clear shots at the Husks and the Assassin, and clean up when the last few Drones drop in. For the second wave, I usually run across the field and take cover behind the Southwest platform. If you set your squad behind cover near the middle tower, you'll have them surrounded; from behind the platform, you've got a clear shot at both Assassins as soon as they land as well as a couple Drones, and killing them off before they can get to cover makes this wave easy. Once they're gone, you've got a little bit of time to grab some ammo and the pack of Power Cells; you're gonna need the clips... Last but not least, the husk dreadnought: Praetorian. Immediately have your squad take cover on the Western side, facing towards the central tower. This guy's main health is Armor, but will frequently replenish a Barrier. At first, he has no barrier, so unload on it with your pistol/sniper/warp/incinerate. Everytime he lands, he'll send out a deadly shockwave that will wipe out your team, even if they're behind cover. The Praetorian will follow you, so your mission is to circle around the central tower; your squad will have a good shot at him. Stay behind cover, and come out to shoot when his eye beams go down. It's possible to work a corner in such a way where his beams hit on object while you shoot at his exposed edges. Play it safe, and make sure he doesn't get too close to your squad. Storm from cover to cover and hit him hard when his armor is exposed. - - - - - - ------CHAPTER COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - If you made it this far, give yourself a pat on the back! Even though it was only the first section of the game, it's still very challenging! \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > C H A P T E R 2 < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ [CH2] There's a couple new things available on Omega now: Strength Boost Pads and another side quest, Omega: Packages for Ish. This requires a trip to The Citadel and Illium; it'll be less work to just pick it up now. We can also grab any upgrades from Omega and The Citadel that we didn't before. A new hub planet has opened up, and that means more shops, more side quests, and more upgrades! Let's head to Illium to check it out. ,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Illium ) ```````````` Questing ----------------------------- Illium: Liara T'soni Illium: Gianna Parasini Illium: A Troublemaker Illium: Liara: System Hacking Illium: Liara: The Observer Illium: Blue Rose of Illium Illium: Medical Scans Shopping ----------------------------- Serrice Technology: - Biotic Damage - Medi-Gel Capacity - Bypass Module (Waste of creds again) Gateway Personal Defense: - Assault Rifle Damage - Submachine Gun Damage - Heavy Skin Weave - Amplifier Plates Baria Frontiers: -Star Chart: Hades Nexus -Star Chart: Minos Wasteland -Star Chart: Pylos Nebula -Star Chart: The Shrike Abyssal Once all our business is done here, we can return to Omega to turn in the data to Ish. Then we can start the next mission. Now, we have to pick 5 out of all available missions before inevitably triggering the Collector Ship mission. Of course, we'll recruit our next three team mates, and find a new weapon on each mission in doing so. It matters not what order you do these in. The most important thing to keep in mind is this: if you come across any anomalies while scanning planets, DO NOT LAND! This will count as one of our 5 missions, which means we will be less equipped when we get to the Collector Ship. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 2.01 - Dossier: Tali - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ | - Heavy Pistol Damage : | - Tempest Submachine Gun | : - Assault Rifle Damage | \ - Geth Pulse Rifle | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : < Geth Trooper > < Geth Hunter > < Geth Rocket Trooper > | | < Geth Destroyer > < [ Geth Prime ] > < Geth Recon Drone > : | < [ Geth Colossus ] > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "Shepard?! I'm not complaining, but you show up at the strangest times!" -Tali'Zorah My Squad: Garrus / Zaeed Briefing: Whoa, Geth! It's been a while. These guys are shielded and are synthetics, so my team's combo of Area Overload and Squad Disruptor will wreak some havoc on their systems. The sunlight on this planet will damage you while you stand in it; as we are advised by EDI upon landing, stay shaded. ENCOUNTER 1 - Geth! ----------------------------- Group 1: - 6 Geth Troopers Group 2: - 6 Geth Troopers - 2 Geth Rocket Troopers Group 2: - 3 Geth Troopers Take out the Geth Troopers as they arrive via dropship. Just like old times! Once you deal with the initial group, head down the ramp and across the area towards the shady alcove to find a Heavy Pistol Damage upgrade at the bottom of another ramp; as you start ascending, a Trooper will pop out at the top. There are a couple good cover spots up top; take a breather in the shade and wait for a large pack of Troopers to approach from the North. This second group includes a couple Rocket Troopers. Target them first if you can; moving forward, you can pick off the last few Geth from the shady spot on the balcony. Moving ahead, kill the last few Troopers and round up the credits and the new Tempest Submachine Gun. ENCOUNTER 2 - Demolition Charges ----------------------------- Group 1: - 12 Geth Troopers - 2 Geth Hunters Group 2: - 4 Geth Troopers - 1 Geth Prime Group 3: - 6 Geth Troopers - 1 Geth Destroyer Group 4: - 6 Geth Troopers - 3 Geth Rocket Troopers - 1 Geth Destroyer Starting the next area, there will be a few Geth. Approach the room on the left side, there will be some Geth in there too; don't be so quick to approach. If you wait behind cover, they'll just keep swarming out (how many could possibly fit in there?). Well, once they're all dead head inside to pick up all the stuff including the first demolition charge. Before heading back out, put your squad behind cover... As you approach the exit, two Troopers and a Geth Prime will land to block you! Immediately get behind cover, like the stack of boxes. Take out the Troopers quickly, so you can focus all offense on the Geth Prime; he will try to charge inside and make short work of your team in close quarters. 2 more Troopers will be approaching from the North. As you round the corner, another group of Geth will be approaching from across the large stripe of hot hot sun. A Geth version of a Pyro, a Geth Destroyer, will also start to charge in. If you take the ramp on the left, storm down the catwalk into the room, you can open the shutters and shoot at these guys much more easily. If you haven't yet killed the Destroyer, he will have followed you up the ramp; your position here makes him threatless while he's on the catwalk. Go now and get the second one of the demolition charges. When you exit, the last group of Geth will attack. This battle is tough if you fight down here, what with the Rocket Troopers up on the catwalk, the Destroyer closing in, and also all the other Troopers. The easiest route is to backtrack up to the fortified room; here we can flank the Rocket Troopers, and divert all incoming Geth to the opposite end of the path. They'll just funnel up into your fire, making it easy pickins, but it is hard to see with that sun right in your face. When the way is clear, storm to the other side of the catwalk; here you can kill the rest of the Troopers and the Destroyer from the top of the ramp. Then it's just over yonder to blow up that pillar. --- Through the door, you'll find an Assault Rifle Damage upgrade! Yay! ENCOUNTER 3 - Geth Prime Time ----------------------------- - 10 Geth Recon Drones - 2 Geth Prime Here you'll face two groups, each one consisting of a swarm of Drones and a Geth Prime. The immediate path ahead of you is no good, the Geth Prime will go behind cover to repair itself, and you've got no way of getting to it; instead, head one path to the right. Use area abilities to take out the swarm of Drones, then concentrate of the Geth Prime. As you move ahead to where the Prime stood, go another path to the right. Another Geth Prime will step out with his Drone buddies; use the same tactics and you'll be home free. Cover is your friend, take your time; the Primes won't try to close distance this in this battle. FINAL ENCOUNTER - Geth Overwhelming! ----------------------------- Geth Colossus 20 Geth Troopers 2 Geth Destroyers They're coming from all sides! As soon as you gain control, move out of your cover spot and tell your squad to take up positions on both sides of our location (it's harder when you occupy one of the spots); then when they're situated, you can grab cover next to one of them. Sit tight, watch out for the Colossus' big energy balls, and take out the Troopers one by one as they all come in for some action. Once the radar is clear, head to the bridge on the left side; you'll be covered from the Colossus' attacks, and can hold this position while more Geth stream across the bridge. Stay here until the radar is clear again; when there's no visible red dots, move up the path to the final room! Have you squad take cover behind the available boxes, while you take position against the wall on the right. Lots of Geth will be coming down on the far side of the room, and of course there's the huge Colossus right there. Hopefully, your team has the killing power to not be swarmed at this point. If you can't kill the enemies effectively from this position, try the sniper vantage on the opposite side of the area (the high path). --- Don't miss the Geth Pulse Rifle on the floor when you enter the room with Tali. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - Back on the Normandy, one of the crew will have a loyalty availabled; this time it was Jack. But we'll deal with that next chapter... for now, let's do the next two recruitments, which are both on Illium. So, let's go! ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 2.02 - Dossier: The Assassin - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ : - Viper Sniper Rifle : \ - Submachine Gun Damage | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : < Eclipse Trooper > < Eclipse Engineer > [ LOKI Mech ] | | ( Eclipse Vanguard ) < [ Bounty Hunter ] > [ FENRIS Mech ] : | ( [ Eclipse Commando ] ) < Rocket Drone > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` Nassana Dantius: "Shepard?! But, you're dead!" Shepard: "I got better." My Squad: Garrus / Mordin Briefing: Eclipse mercenaries, oh how splendid! These guys like to hang with mechs, so we'll be needing someone who can take care of armor; that's why I've brought along Mordin for his Incineration Blast. Garrus is just OG. ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 2 FENRIS Mechs 2 LOKI Mechs These guys won't attack until you break the pane of glass. Use this to your advantage and have your team take cover before attacking. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 2 Eclipse Troopers - 4 LOKI Mechs - 2 FENRIS Mechs Group 2: - 2 Eclipse Troopers - 1 Eclipse Vanguard - 2 LOKI Mechs - 1 FENRIS Mech Group 3: - 3 Eclipse Troopers - 1 Eclipse Vanguard - 4 LOKI Mechs - 2 FENRIS Mechs Groups 1 and 2 provide easy cover for you and your squad; just sit tight and take out those FENRIS Mechs before they get close. Group 3 gives you some more options: you can take positions facing the long hallway, or go through the smaller room on the right side. I prefer to set my squad behind cover facing the long hallway; all the enemies will walk right into scope. ENCOUNTER 3 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 11 Eclipse Troopers - 2 Eclipse Vanguards - 7 LOKI Mechs Group 2: - 5 Eclipse Troopers - 1 Eclipse Vanguard - 4 LOKI Mechs Group 1 is from the corner of building materials all the way down the long hall. This part is easy if you set up your team behind cover and wait for the enemies; move up when the radar is clear of nearby red things. I learned here that high caliber sniper rifle bullets won't penetrate a pane of glass. When the door to the cargo lift is in view, you'll have to move in to trigger the next wave of guys; take cover in the small side room or behind the barricade of building materials. You might have a better shot behind the barricade, if any enemies take cover on the far right, but the small room worked for me, and gave me a great shot at all approaching enemies. --- Before opening the large door to the cargo elevator, take this opportunity to look around for a Viper Sniper Rifle, some items, and a locked door with some workers inside. Then open the carge elevator door and take cover quickly; it's got a surprise onboard. ENCOUNTER 4 ----------------------------- Bounty Hunter 2 Eclipse Engineers Use your area abilities to take out the Engineers quickly, then focus on that powerful Krogan. If your squad has good killing power, these guys are toast. --- After going up the elevator and having a fun scene with an unfortunate merc, grab the datapad on the floor to receive the quest Illium: The Assassin: Salarian Family Data. ENCOUNTER 5 ----------------------------- 2 Eclipse Troopers 1 Eclipse Vanguard 2 LOKI Mechs 2 FENRIS Mech As you enter the big room, the mechs here aren't activated, and the enemies aren't yet aware of your presence; use the element of surprise to your advantage and take cover, then take out the nearest mechs (they are higher priority targets). --- After the dust settles, there's another locked door with more workers inside. If you helped the previous workers, you'll get a free +50 experience. ENCOUNTER 6 ----------------------------- 3 Eclipse Vanguards 2 LOKI Mechs This battle is easy; there's even a convient stack of building materials to squat behind. The two LOKI Mechs will be closing in fast; target them first. ENCOUNTER 7 ----------------------------- 2 Eclipse Troopers 1 Eclipse Vanguard 1 Eclipse Commando 2 LOKI Mechs As you come around the corner, there'll be two Troopers working on a big ole box of explosive, exposed on a truck bed. Shoot it! Don't bother with Overload; I tried it and the box isn't targetable with it. One LOKI Mech will be between the wall and the first truck, preventing you from taking cover there; take it out fast so you can use the truck for cover. FINAL ENCOUNTER - The Bridge ----------------------------- 3 LOKI Mechs 7 Eclipse Troopers 4 Eclipse Vanguards 2 Rocket Drones Eclipse Commando There's plenty of cover to utilize as you make your way down the bridge. Order your squad to take positions on either side, moving up when the way is clear. As you near the middle of the bridge, two Rocket Drones will rain fire from high ledges; use sniper rifles to take them out if you can, otherwise you might have to move in a little closer. The last group of enemies will be well behind cover, and little more than their heads will be exposed. It might be a good idea to move up the stairs and clear them out up close; the Commando guarding the door will be very reluctant to leave her post. Just dance around the corner and wear her down. On a side note, the wind on the bridge will mess with your aim; combined with the long range aspects of this encounter, this is where most of the difficulty comes from. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - Another loyalty, this time its Mordin. Hey, now we can go to Tuchanka, the last of the hub planets, to pick up available goods from the shops! But... there's not really a point right now, since all the good stuff is not available at a discount yet. Ah well, let's head back to Illium and do the last recruitment mission for now; before beginning, we can turn in the Salarian Family Data quest on our way to Officer Dara. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 2.03 - Dossier: The Justicar - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ : - Scimitar Assault Shotgun : \ - Biotic Damage | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : < Eclipse Trooper > < Eclipse Engineer > [ LOKI Mech ] | | ( Eclipse Vanguard ) < [ Bounty Hunter ] > [ FENRIS Mech ] : | ( [ Eclipse Commando ] ) < Rocket Drone > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "You chose your side, Elnora, and you lost." -Commander Shepard My Squad: Thane / Garrus Briefing: Eclipse mercs, this time it's mostly gals with barriers and some mechs. I chose to bring along Thane; he's got warp, and is also deadly with snipers and SMGs. Garrus loves killing mercs, so I gotta bring him too ;) The battles here are pretty straight-forward. On a side note, this mission is littered with Toxic Canisters which, when shot, explode with a dark lingering gas; standing in the gas increases your biotics, but you'll build up toxic levels that become dangerous. It also reduces your visibility, which can be a little annoying. ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 1 Eclipse Vanguard 1 Sisterhood Initiate 3 LOKI Mechs As you approach the crime scene, you'll overhear some Eclipse Asaris conversing about the Justicar. You've got the drop on them, so use the advantage to make a quick surprise offensive, then finish off the rest. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- 3 Eclipse Vanguards 4 Sisterhood Initiates 2 LOKI Mechs Take out the first Vanguard, then look right and dispose of the two LOKI Mechs before they start their charge; two more Vanguards will take up cover down the way with an Initiate. Once they're gone, move to their position and three final Initiates will come in through the door. --- In the next area, you'll find the Scimitar Assault Shotgun, and in a side room, you'll meet Elnora. After dealing with her, check around to also find another Biotic Damage upgrade. ENCOUNTER 3 ----------------------------- 2 Eclipse Vanguards 5 Sisterhood Initiates 2 LOKI Mechs There's three bunches of three. First two Initiates and a LOKI; then, a LOKI, Initiate, and a Vanguard; then finally two Initiates and a Vanguard. The strangest thing happened to me on the final trio; in the video you can clearly see the two Initiates, but after I kill the Vanguard, they dissappear entirely. ENCOUNTER 4 ----------------------------- 1 Eclipse Vanguard 1 Eclipse Heavy 1 Sisterhood Initiate 3 LOKI Mechs There's a LOKI up close and two Eclipse sisters coming in for some action; meanwhile we get the special greetings from a Heavy sittin' in back! Take out the closest enemies, then it's easy to move in and kill the Heavy. Two more LOKI Mechs are way in back, but they won't even engage you until you get about where the Heavy is. ENCOUNTER 5 - Whoa, Gunship? ----------------------------- 4 Eclipse Vanguards 3 Eclipse Heavies 2 Sisterhood Initiates 1 LOKI Mechs Moar Heavies! They're all decently spread apart though, makin' fairly easy targets. There's a well-placed Fragile Crate that looks like good cover near the end of this area, past the Gunship, but these Vanguards will tear through it, and you don't want to be in the open up close to them. Speaking of that Gunship, we'll fight that thing later, so you can just ignore it for now. ENCOUNTER 6 - The Gunship! ----------------------------- 3 LOKI Mechs 2 FENRIS Mechs Gunship As you enter, three LOKIs will attack. Past that, the Gunship will rise into view as you cross the bridge. Get your squad into cover behind the railing. It will fly far away, out of range; then it'll make a pass, shooting rockets; as it flies over the other side of the area, it'll drop of some FENRIS Mechs. FINAL ENCOUNTER - Wasea ----------------------------- Captain Wasea 1 Eclipse Heavy 4 Sisterhood Initiates Wasea doesn't have much backup here; she'll be alone at the start, giving you time to deal some heavy damage to her. There's plenty of cover for this fight, but Wasea likes to toss around those Toxic Canister, causing big blind spots in your line of sight; you may have to relocate to be able to see your targets. Take out any Heavies that appear; we know how troublesome they are. Then, kill off Wasea and clean up the Initiates. Yum. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - Back on the Normandy... Grunt needs help! Yeah, this is what we've been waitin' for! Let's head to Tuchanka. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Tuchanka ) `````````````` New Quests ----------------------------- Tuchanka: Killing Pyjaks Tuchanka: Combustion Manifold New Upgrades ----------------------------- Ratch's Wares: - Heavy Weapon Ammo - Heavy Damping Gauntlets - Death Mask Fortack's Database: - Assault Rifle Damage - Biotic Damage - Heavy Pistol Damage - Shotgun Damage We can do a little minigame quest from Ratch to get a discount at his humble shop; the last batch of buyable upgrades comes from Fortack's Database. Unfortunately, we can't get a discount at Fortack's right now; for that, we have to do Grunt: Rite of Passage. And that's exactly why we're here... ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 2.04 - Grunt: Rite of Passage - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ : - Shotgun Damage : \ - Fortack's Database Discount | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : [ Varren ] [ Klixen ] [ Thresher Maw ] : | [ Gatatog Warrior ] ( [ Gatatog Uvenk ] ) / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "If I know Grunt, your answer's coming at muzzle velocity." -Commander Shepard My Squad: Grunt / Thane Briefing: This mission is quite unique; it's more like an arena where you battle a lot of beasts. There's only a couple encounters with melee enemies, then the massive Thresher Maw. And of course, we gotta kill some Krogans at the end. I brought Thane for his Warp/sniper advantage against armor. ENCOUNTER 1 - Varren ----------------------------- Lots of Varren Varren will start pouring into the area from two places, the ledges in the eastern corners. You can sit back near the keystone and watch both stairways, or move up to the farthest spot on the higher ground towards the east side; there you can shoot the Varren as the head for the stairs. ENCOUNTER 2 - Crawlers ----------------------------- Lots of Klixen These guys are real tough. They'll come in groups of two, usually alternating sides. Hopefully you've got some high damage output either from your weapons or powers. Abilities like Concussive Shot will help stop them momentarily, giving you precious seconds to fire. ENCOUNTER 3 - The Thresher Maw ----------------------------- Thresher Maw Here's the big one. I find the best way to take him out is first, get your squad behind cover. The best spots for this are 1) behind the pillar just right of the northern stairs, and 2) on the eastern side, behind the angled wall to the left of the pillars. If you have snipers, this will be easy. If not, you gotta work it good with your powers/heavy pistol. Keep a solid pillar between you and the Maw; pop out and hit him with your hardest between his blasts. Hopefully you've saved the Power Cells in the area for quick ammo refills. FINAL ENCOUNTER - Gatatog Uvenk ----------------------------- Gatatog Uvenk 4 Gatatog Warriors Take out the closer couple of Krogan first. The others won't move to engage until you move up some. They will, however, fire Carnage ala Mass Effect 1 at you. Once Uvenk closes in, you may want to retreat to your initial position. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - You'll get a Shotgun Damage upgrade as a reward for completing the mission. If you talk to Fortack, he'll give you a discount at his store as well; you likely don't have enough credits for everything he's got, so just buy what you can and let's get offa this rock. Now we've got to choose which mission to do before the Collector Ship; here's our choices and the upgrades they have: Jacob's Loyalty - Heavy Pistol Damage Miranda's Loyalty - SMG Damage and Medi-gel capacity Mordin's Loyalty - Krogan Vitality, Heavy Weapon Ammo Jack's Loyalty - Biotic Damage Garrus' Loyalty - Sniper Rifle Damage N7: Anomalous - Damage Protection Weather Detected Hmmm... decisions decisions... Jacob and Mordin's missions don't give us anything we really need; sniper classes have absolutely no trouble dealing damage, and on the Collector Ship we get to pick up the dreaded Widow. I guess Biotic Damage would come in handy, if you're an Adept or Sentinel; SMG Damage is beneficial for a lot of classes and squad members. Damage Protection 3/5 would allow us to research Hard Shields, giving Shepard a 20% boost to his defenses; that's very useful to all classes. Well, I'm going with the N7 mission. Yup. It's located in the Pylos Nebula, Dirada System, Planet Canalus. You'll need the star chart from Baria Frontiers on Illium to gain access. Before you go, make sure you have at least 30,000 Palladium to research both Damage Protection and Hard Shields! You won't have the ability to probe planets after this one, since Mr. Illusive Man won't let you waste his time. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 2.05 - N7: Anomalous Weather Detected - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Pylos Nebula : : - Dirada System | \ - Planet Canalus | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: : : < Geth Trooper > < Geth Hunter > < Geth Destroyer > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` Rewards: Damage Protection upgrade My Squad: Garrus / Zaeed Briefing: We gotta fight some Geth on a planet with very low visibility. Hmm, I'll bring my robo-killers for sure. Visibility is really low on this planet; you won't be able to see Geth until they're in medium range, and then all you can distinguish is their lamp-heads glowing in the fog. Move ahead slowly, and when you reach some Geth, take cover and wait for them to get closer. ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 10 Geth Troopers 1 Geth Hunter Moving towards the light beacon thing, Geth Troopers will attack from the mist! Take cover and move up only when the radar is clear and you can get to the next rock. A Geth Hunter will be visible only by it's glowing face. Just be careful, and don't get reckless. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- 5 Geth Troopers 1 Geth Destroyer Same thing as last encounter, except now there's a flamethrower and you really want to be careful. When you see the Geth barricade structure, the only cover that's not rocks, don't approach it; the Geth Destroyer is right behind it, and he'll torch your ass if you get too close. --- Use the Geth terminal thing to end the mission and receive your rewards. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 2.06 - Collector Ship - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ | - Advanced Weapons Training : : - Damage Protection | \ - Tech Damage | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : ( Collector Drone ) ( Collector Guardian ) ( Collector Assassin ) | | ( [ Harbinger ] ) [ Husk ] [ Scion ] [ Abomination ] : | ( [ Praetorian ] ) / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "I always work at optimal capacity." -EDI My Squad: Grunt / Thane Briefing: Collectors! Grab yer barrier smashers and let's get in there. Thane is a mean green sniper with Heavy Warp and his weapon mastery, and Grunt is just tankage. ENCOUNTER 1 - It's a trap! ----------------------------- Group 1 - Right Platform: - Harbinger - 2 Collector Drones - 1 Collector Guardian - 1 Scion Group 2 - Center Platform: - Harbinger - 3 Collector Drones - 1 Scion Group 3: - Harbinger - 1 Collector Drone - 1 Collector Assassin - 1 Collector Guardian Immediately get your squad members behind the blocks in front of you and get next to the gap closer to where the enemy platform is coming in. Let loose on the Drones once they're in your sights; you can kill the two weak Drones, forcing Harbinger to take over the remaining Guardian. If you're good, you might be able to kill all three before Harbinger shows up, but I recommend against it (I'll explain in a sec). Don't worry about the Scion too much for now; you need to focus on the next group. The next platform lands to the left of the first one, this time carrying three Drones. Harbinger can and will make an appearance here, and he loves to make life hard for our Shepard. If you let Harbinger take over the Guardian from the last group, you will have ample time to take out these Drones. If you thought you were good and killed off the first group fast enough where Harbinger didn't show up, well now here he is, kickin' before the plaform is even in place. Hence, I recommend allowing Harbinger to pop up in the first group. Anyways, another Scion platform will come in behind this trio of Drones; if you are lucky, your team is dealing with the first one effectively (AI luck factor greatly influences your success for this fight). If not, you'll have time now to focus on that first Scion before the last platform comes in. The last platform lands on the far left, this time Harbinger brings it early, accompanied by a Drone, Assassin, and Guardian. Pop that onto the Scion in the back, and we've got trouble. Your options are to hold position on the starting platform and hope to not be overwhelmed, or move up to where the trio of Drones were for a better shot; either way, you've got to deal with a Guardian, an Assassin, and Harbinger, all while under fire from the Scion. Once they're all gone, you can take a deep breath and finish off the last Scion at your leisure. This is no doubt one of the most frustrating of all encounters, and luck plays a large role in how well your team performs. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- Group 1: - Harbinger - 4 Collector Drones Group 2: - Harbinger - 3 Collector Drones - 1 Collector Guardian The Rest: - Harbinger - 6 Collector Drones - 2 Collector Assassins - 2 Abominations Continuing through the door EDI opened, four Drones will land, and Harbinger is incoming. You know the drill here. Take 'em out and head down the slope, into a large passage with lots of cover. There's a lot of ways this battle can play out, since the enemies' patterns vary depending on which way you go. You can go down the center, taking cover near the ramp leading to the upper level; you can also go right, flanking the first group in this area, while getting close to the Drone on the ledge for a clearer shot. Past group 2, it's all hard to say exactly what happens. Assassins and Drones can flank you from the upper level if you're near the ramp, or they can come down the far central way if your not. If you play it smart, you can use the radar to see where the enemies are headed, then try to get behind them. If they catch on and start bearing down on your position, you can retreat and circle around to their backside. Also, be wary of a new fiend: Abominations. They are flaming Husks that explode; there are two here, and you should take care to take them down before they take your squad out. If you're having trouble here, try changing up your initial cover positions and your path. The environment here can work for you or against you; if something isn't going your way, try approaching the situation differently. ENCOUNTER 3 - Praetorian... again ----------------------------- Praetorian 3 Husks 2 Collector Drones First off, don't enter the main area of the room! Take cover on the slanted ramp, giving you a shot overlooking the far door. Here you can pick off the two Husks, then begin initial assault on the un-barrier'd Praetorian. Two Drones arrive shortly; take them out quickly so they won't be in the way. As the Praetorian makes its way to the bottom of the ramp, gather your squad and begin descending into the room on the right side; be wary of the third Husk, and make sure you only move when the Praetorian is well enough up the ramp so that he won't turn around and head you off. Get your team to cover on the outer edges of the area, sufficiently out of any Praetorian blast zone that may occur while you take him up the ramp and down the ramp over and over again, just like the last time we fought this guy. It's a bit trickier here, since we don't have as much room, but the ramp's structure provides a lot of cover between you and the eye beams of death. ENCOUNTER 4 ----------------------------- Group 1: - Harbinger - 2 Collector Drones - 1 Collector Assassin - 3 Abominations Group 2: - 1 Collector Drone - 1 Collector Guardian Group 3: - Harbinger - 2 Collector Drones - 1 Scion This is another fight where the difficulty depends on which path you take. Luckily, it was much easier to decipher the easiest way to go. Take cover behind the low rock wall, and watch for Abominations. One of them will likely come from the right quite soon, and the next couple should head down the middle. With luck, Harbinger will replace the Assassin, leaving some easy fodder for his company. When they are dispatched, move up the middle and to the right, where a Drone and Guardian will come down from the upper path. Take them out and move towards where they fell. Up here, Harbinger and a Drone should fly down to engage. Take them out, then move up and take out the Drone next to the Scion below; if you wait, Harbinger will come back again. Scion is alone again, he must be sad. ENCOUNTER 5 - Husk Swarm ----------------------------- 20 Husks That's a lot of husks! Well, area abilities will surely help out, but I had none. The most efficient way to deal with Husks is to shoot off their armor, then use powers with physical force effects to one-shot them. Anything out of these should work great: Concussive Shot, Throw, Pull, Slam, Shockwave, etc. Heavy pistols and shotguns work well here, as does lots of back-pedaling. Don't get yourself surrounded and you'll be fine. Alternatively, if you're low on ammo, you could test your luck and try running right past them all; if you make it to the shuttle, you're good to go. - - - - - - ------CHAPTER COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - Illusive Man is really showing his true colors... but so is Shepard. If you've made it this far, there's not much stopping you from this point. \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > C H A P T E R 3 < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ [CH3] Since we've been gone, a couple more loyalty missions have become available, and also some stores have stocked a few new goodies. During this chapter we get to finish the rest of the loyalty and N7 missions, as well as the Reaper IFF. If you find some anomalies while scannin' planets, go ahead and do those. The descriptions for these missions are in the Side Missions section. What's New in Shopping? ----------------------------- Serrice Technology - Tech Damage Gateway Personal Defense - Damage Protection Harrot's Emporium - Ordnance Packs Omega Market - Stabilization Gauntlets Ratch's Wares - Shield Harness - Asymmetrical Defense Layer For those who can't remember which store is which, that's Illium, Omega, and Tuchanka. Nothing on the Citadel so don't waste a trip there. Gather up what you need from these stores with the credits we've got now, and let's begin our campaign of loyalty. Let's do these in the order we got them, just because... ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 3.01 - Jacob: The Gift of Greatness - :===========================================================================. : NOTABLE ITEMS: \ \ - Heavy Pistol Damage : ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : < Feral Hunter > [ LOKI Mech ] : | < Brainwashed Guard > < [ YMIR Mech ] > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "His life isn't worth pulling the damn trigger." - Jacob Taylor My Squad: Jacob / Garrus Briefing: We'll be fighting mechs and lightly shielded ground troops. They aren't tough, but their strength is in numbers, so area attacks are very helpful here. ENCOUNTER 1 - Neural Decay? ----------------------------- 8 Feral Hunters Damn there's a lot of them! Use your area powers quickly to disable them; Jacob's Pull Field works well with Area Overload. There may be a lot, but they are fairly easy to take down. Still, don't underestimate their firepower. --- After investigating the village, three LOKI Mechs will attack as you approach the far side. Take 'em out and continue on. ENCOUNTER 2 - Send in the Mechs! ----------------------------- 16 LOKI Mechs Lots of LOKIs. There's a group of two, then three, then two, then two again. Then the rest of them come pouring out of the exit to this area; you can just pick them off as they saunter up into your sights, and if you've got a shotgun, this is the perfect setup to use it. FINAL ENCOUNTER - Enough with the Toys ----------------------------- 7 LOKI Mechs 4 Brainwashed Guards YMIR Mech There's hardly any cover with a clear shot in this area, only some awkward blocks on the right side, and that still leaves you vulnerable to the drone and the YMIR Mech that wants to come and play. If you or your squad goes out into the area, you'll be toast, so order your team to stay back. Until the YMIR shows up, play around the large barrier and see if you can hit anyone. When the YMIR starts approaching, stay behind the barrier and pummel it. It may be stuck behind it, or it could walk around; it just depends on which side it came from. None of the guards will even move position, so you can safely take the YMIR out from safely behind the wall. Fall back if you have to, there's more cover the way we came in. Once it's gone, and the two LOKIs too, you can then press on and kill the remaining guards. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - Let's head to Illium for the next mission. On the way there, we'll run into a Slave Broker in Eternity for another easy side quest. Once that's done... ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 3.02 - Miranda: The Prodigal - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ : - Submachine Gun Damage : \ - Medi-Gel Capacity | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : < Eclipse Trooper > < Eclipse Engineer > [ LOKI Mech ] | | ( Eclipse Vanguard ) < [ Eclipse Operative ] > : | ( [ Enyala ] ) / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "I hadn't planned on Eclipse, but they never planned on you." - Miranda Lawson My Squad: Miranda / Garrus Briefing: You know Eclipse likes to roll with mechs, but this time there's only a handful of LOKIs. Aside from a couple Heavies, what we're gonna see this time is a lot of Engineers. Get ready to dodge Incinerates and punch some Drones! ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 2 Eclipse Engineers 4 Eclipse Troopers 1 Eclipse Heavy Engineers will be plentiful, and their abilities include stronger shields, incinerate, and combat drones. While they are threatening, it's hard to target them with a bunch of Troopers and a Heavy or two, so choose your targets with care. Pick enemies that aren't in cover first. In the cutscene preceding this battle, you can do a renegade interrupt which kills off a few mercs, so I assume skipping that will mean you'll fight more enemies here. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- 2 Eclipse Engineers 6 Eclipse Troopers This fight can go one of two ways: 1) Take cover behind the cargo line and have a shoot-out. Safer, and you can use the many explosive containers to your advantage. 2) Kamikaze rush the other side and take the fight to their faces. A dangerous approach, but just might work if you're a tougher class with some firepower. --- Continue on, and don't miss the Submachine Gun Damage in the next passage. ENCOUNTER 3 ----------------------------- 4 LOKI Mechs 2 Eclipse Engineers 6 Eclipse Troopers 2 Eclipse Heavies Four LOKI Mechs block your path, then there's another conveyor line shoot-out on the right. This time you can hop onto the back of the truck for a height advantage. A couple of Heavies will join the fight soon after engaging, and sadly there's not many exploding containers this time. --- There's a dead merc around here with the final Medi-Gel Capacity upgrade. ENCOUNTER 4 ----------------------------- 1 LOKI Mech 5 Eclipse Engineers 6 Eclipse Troopers 1 Eclipse Heavy Entering the next area, a LOKI and two Troopers will block your path. Work 'em, then run to the next conveyor line shoot-out. There's another truck, but I suggest staying low this time, since a Heavy and lots of friends will fire upon you if you climb up now. Take out the enemies dead ahead first, then climb up to get a better view; this Heavy likes to play games, but make sure its game over for him. A group of three Engineers will come in from the left side, eager to launch their flames at you. ENCOUNTER 5 ----------------------------- 2 Eclipse Engineers 2 Eclipse Troopers 1 Eclipse Vanguard 1 Eclipse Heavy A final group of enemies will block your entrance to the elevator. This time they brought a Vanguard! Oh how nice. Anyway, there aren't many enemies to contend with here, so you'll easily find your way to the next battle... FINAL ENCOUNTER - Captain Enyala ----------------------------- Enyala Eclipse Operative 4 Eclipse Troopers 1 Eclipse Vanguard Wow, this is an intimidating battle! There's three pathways to cover and a slew of Eclipse, including a commando and an elite engineer. My preferred way to go about this fight is to move immediately towards the left path and start firing upon Enyala. Keep an eye on the radar for incoming enemies on your right flank, and help out your team mates too. It's a lot of multi-tasking here, but you should be alright if you're holding them off on the left side. Luckily, there are no Heavies, just one Vanguard, and no Engineers aside from the Operative. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - Next on the list... Jack! ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 3.03 - Jack: Subject Zero - :===========================================================================. : NOTABLE ITEMS: \ \ - Biotic Damage : ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : [ Varren] [ Blood Pack Trooper ] [ Blood Pack Pyro ] : | [ Blood Pack Warrior ] ( [ Kureck ] ) / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "Fuck that." -Jack My Squad: Jack / Thane Briefing: There's not a whole lot of fighting here. We run into some Blood Pack mercs, a few Varren, and that's it. Mordin's recruitment mission makes this look like a walk in the park. Seriously, this mission is way easy. ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 4 Varren Not much to say here. Just backpedal, right? ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- 6 Blood Pack Troopers 1 Blood Pack Pyro 1 Blood Pack Warrior You know the drill. Kill the Krogan, and the Pyro if he approaches. Three more Troopers will ambush you from the windows, but they're heads are easy targets. ENCOUNTER 3 ----------------------------- 2 Blood Pack Troopers 3 Varren Two Vorcha will come out on the ledge opposite your position. When you go down the stairs, three Varren will come out of the cells. Really... that's it. FINAL ENCOUNTER - That's It? ----------------------------- Kureck 2 Blood Pack Warriors 1 Blood Pack Trooper 1 Blood Pack Pyro That's it... really. Like, the first mission of the game is harder than this, and by a large margin! And I don't mean saving Joker. Like, an actual mission after the prologue. Anyways, teach this bumpkin Kureck what Shepard is all about. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - Back on the Normandy... oh noes! Cat fight! If you've been thorough with your morality choices, you should be able to use Charm/Intimidate to keep your squad members loyal. If not, you might try using the Power Retraining option to get the fourth evolution class power that gives the highest Paragon/Renegade bonus. If that doesn't work either, you're screwed! Seriously, if you fall behind, there's no catching back up; you'll have to hope one of them doesn't die or restart the whole game if you want 100%! 0_o Anyway, on to the next mission! ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 3.04 - Mordin: Old Blood - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ : - Krogan Vitality : \ - Heavy Weapon Ammo | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : [ Blood Pack Trooper ] [ Blood Pack Boom-Squad ] [ Varren ] | | [ Blood Pack Pyro ] [ Blood Pack Warrior ] [ Klixen ] : | [ Weyrloc Clanguard ] ( [ Chief Weyrloc Guld ] ) / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "Have killed many, Shepard. Many methods. Gunfire, knives, drugs, tech attacks, once with farming equipment. But not with medicine." -Mordin Solus My Squad: Mordin / Thane Briefing: Blood Pack mercs, and this time they're bringin' their game! I've always wanted to barbecue a Krogan, and now we've got the chance. ENCOUNTER 1 - To the Lab ----------------------------- Group 1: - 3 Klixen - 2 Varren - 2 Blood Pack Boom-Squad Group 2: - 4 Blood Pack Troopers - 2 Blood Pack Warriors - 2 Varren Group 3: - 2 Blood Pack Pyros - 5 Blood Pack Troopers The first part of this mission is littered with small groups of enemies as you fight your way to the Blood Pack Lab. First you'll encounter a few Klixen and Varren, then some Vorcha. There's a Krogan or two on the way, but mostly just small groups of Vorcha. --- Before you enter the Lab, grab the Combustion Manifold from the overturned truck after battling the last group of Troopers. ENCOUNTER 2 - Clan Weyrloc ----------------------------- 3 Weyrloc Clanguards 4 Blood Pack Troopers Enemies will occupy the high ledge on the left and make their way down the far end of the room. Usually all but one Vorcha will fire on you from straight ahead; the one exception tends to stick on the high left and pester your best cover spot. Make him hurt and he'll come around. Cryo works wonders on the Krogan once you wear down their armor. --- Inside the lab, you'll find a Sick Krogan, the missing Urdnot Scout. Talk to him and convince him to return to camp. You'll also find the second Krogan Vitality upgrade around here too. FINAL ENCOUNTER - Chief Weyrloc Guld ----------------------------- Group 1: - 2 Blood Pack Troopers - 3 Blood Pack Warriors Group 2: - 3 Varren - 1 Blood Pack Warrior Group 3: - 4 Blood Pack Warriors - 2 Varren - Chief Weyrloc Guld Here you'll fight lots of Krogan. They all have shotguns, like usual, and will try to close distance with your team. Take down their armor and use Cryo Blast or whatever you have to take them out fast. Varren are thrown in to cause more problems for you, so kill them as soon as you hear that tell-tale growl. When you descend the ramp to the lower level, get your squad in cover by the ramp, as far back as you can. Two pairs of Krogan will come, the second will be accompanied by two Varren. Back-track if they get too close, then the Chief will be all alone and easy prey. --- Before confronting Maelon, don't miss the Research Terminal containing another Heavy Weapon Ammo upgrade. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - Next on our list... Garrus needs some help! Let's go to the Citadel. Actually, Thane needs help at the same location, but his mission is non-combat, so let's change up and do his mission first. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 3.05 - Thane: Sins of the Father - :===========================================================================. : NOTABLE ITEMS: \ \ - Heavy Pistol Damage : '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "That may go down in history as the shortest interrogation ever." - Thane Krios Briefing: This is a non-combat mission, and as such, all we have to do is follow Thane's lead and not mess up. GATHERING INTEL ----------------------------- First off, to start the mission, we need to gather intel on Kolyat's target. Talking to Bailey brings us to Mouse, who knows the name of the person who hired Thane's son. To get the info, we can: -Renegade Interrupt -Charm/Intimidate -Pay him 3,000 credits This leads to an interrogation with Elias Kelham, the man who hired the hit. There are many ways to get Kelham to talk, but the easiest requires being reinstated as a Spectre and being of the Renegade morality. There are other Charm/Intimidate options, but the second easiest way to get him talking is to use the Renegade Interrupts to beat him three times. Whatever method you choose to use, Joram Talid is the name given for Kolyat's target. With that, we head off to some district deep in the wards. FINDING KOLYAT ----------------------------- The plan is to follow Talid and keep Thane informed. First, grab the Heavy Pistol Damage from the nearby Datapad, then update Thane on Talid's location. Keep your eyes glued to Talid, if you lose him, the mission is failed and Thane will not be loyal. Follow Talid by moving along the catwalk on the outside of the rooms. After the second update, they'll move through a hallway where your visibility is limited. Just head straight through the doors and you'll see him on the other side. On the fourth update, you'll see his Krogan bodyguard shaking down a store while Talid stands outside. When they're finished, they'll quickly run down the hall opposite the store and into a nightclub on the left. Inside, update Thane, go through more doors, then update Thane one last time when he's meeting more mercenaries. Then go through the door for a cutscene with some person; use the interrupt or Charm/Intimidate to get him out of your way. In the next passage, you should see Talid through the window; he won't move, and the next door will take you to the final cutscenes. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - Now back to Garrus. It's time to find Fade... ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 3.06 - Garrus: Eye for an Eye - :===========================================================================. : NOTABLE ITEMS: \ \ - Sniper Rifle Damage : ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : < Blue Suns Trooper > < [ Blue Suns Commander ] > | | [ LOKI Mech ] < [ YMIR Mech ] > : | < Blue Suns Legionnaire > < Blue Suns Heavy > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "You know what else is bad for business... a broken neck!" -Garrus Vakarian My Squad: Garrus / Mordin Briefing: Blue Suns and Garrus go together like Krogans and Cryo Blast. But this time they're working for Harkin, and he's got lots of Mechs. It's awfully useful to have some Incineration Blast handy. The mission begins with Harkin running off leaving two lonely Troopers to say hello to your squad. ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 10 LOKI Mechs 3 Blue Suns Troopers A large container opens to reveal two LOKIs. Then around the corner, two more LOKIs will approach from behind the boxes. The last section has three Troopers and a whole load of LOKI mechs. These guys are dangerous in such numbers! Stay low and take out the Troopers before approaching any further to avoid having the LOKI Mechs activate until you're done with the Troopers. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 2 Blue Suns Troopers - 4 LOKI Mechs Group 2: - 3 Blue Suns Troopers - 2 Blue Suns Legionnaires - 2 LOKI Mechs Entering the next long corridor, filled with boxes, you'll find two Troopers, but soon enough a cargo container will be thrust in from the right side with more LOKI Mechs. Moving up, you'll battle some more of the same and a couple Legionnaires, but there's quite enough cover around for nothing tricky. ENCOUNTER 3 ----------------------------- Group 1: - Blue Suns Commander - 5 Blue Suns Troopers Group 2: - YMIR Mech - 2 Blue Suns Troopers Moving across the bridge, when you come to the small truck, do not pass! Take cover here and kill the Troopers and the Commander. If you move up now, you'll trigger the YMIR Mech to arrive, and you'll have to deal with all of them! Wait until you've cleared the area, then move up to fight the YMIR Mech and perhaps a couple more Troopers that were hiding or something. --- There's a small room ahead with some goodies inside, including a Sniper Rifle Damage upgrade in the adjacent room. Also, pickup the Forged IDs for another side quest. ENCOUNTER 4 ----------------------------- Blue Suns Commander 1 Blue Suns Heavy 1 Blue Suns Trooper 6 LOKI Mechs Here you'll be fighting in the huge warehouse lookin' room with stuff flying overhead and lots of different levels. A Commander, a Heavy, and a Trooper will have their scope on you from 10, 12, and 2 o'clock positions up high. Also, the flying things will drop trios of LOKIs on ground level to the left every now and then. You definitely want to take out the Heavy and Trooper ASAP, but you also need to take out those LOKIs. Luckily, you can can move out of the Blue Suns Commander's line of sight while this is going on; the LOKIs will stop coming once those three mercs are dead. FINAL ENCOUNTER ----------------------------- Group 1: - 2 YMIR Mechs Group 2: - 2 LOKI Mechs Before you approach the final area under Harkin's window, climb to the highest level and get your squad behind those two boxes. Now go forth and call down the two big bad mechs. Target the closer one and just unleash all hell on it; they are both likely targeting you, so you should probably keep your head low while your team wails on it. Hopefully you can take out the first YMIR before they get too close, then you can play hide and seek around the crates while your mates continue to pummel the last YMIR. As you climb up to Harkin's room, he desperately sends two LOKI mechs at you, and after that last battle? Haha. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 3.07 - Tali: Treason - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ : - Geth Shield Strength : \ - Tech Damage | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: : : < Geth Trooper > < Geth Hunter > < [ Geth Prime ] > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "I came to help, and I'm good at killing geth." -Commander Shepard My Squad: Tali / Zaeed Briefing: It's them geth! Squad disruptor combined with Tali's Drone and AI Hacking is sure to give us an edge. ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 8 Geth Troopers 2 Geth Hunters Damn, there's a lot of 'em. Just use your awesome skills to take them down. No tricks here, just good ol' skill. Of course, the Hunters will close in to blast your face off, so be sure to prevent that. --- In the next corridor, one of the side rooms contains a Geth Shield Strength, quite an amazing upgrade. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- 9 Geth Troopers 4 Geth Hunters Sheesh, now there's even more... at least one of the Hunters comes down the stairs alone to see what's goin' on. Employ the same tactics as last battle, but be aware that it's a little tighter range in here and there will be geth coming in from both the left and right doors. ENCOUNTER 3 ----------------------------- 10 Geth Troopers 3 Geth Hunters More of the same, but this time we've got a good height advantage, and you can blast any geth trying to come up the ramp easily. FINAL ENCOUNTER ----------------------------- Geth Prime 1 Geth Hunter 2 Geth Troopers Hmm, you rarely get to see a Geth Prime this close and live to tell the tale! It's a good thing there's a large wall in the middle of this room. I'm quite sure that the Prime won't move in until you've killed off his buddies, so post your squad up behind the wall and lure those guys into the kill zone. Once the big boy moves in, gather your team, use Tali's Drone, and get creative with the wall to kill this guy. --- Back at the hearing, the only way to get both the Tech Damage upgrade and still keep Tali's loyalty is to use Charm/Intimidate. If you haven't been keeping up with your morality points, you've been slackin' and now it's gonna show. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - There's one last loyalty now, and it's non-combat. If you've been 100% on your Paragon/Renegade, you could certainly do this earlier. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 3.08 - Samara: The Ardat-Yakshi - :===========================================================================. : NOTABLE ITEMS: \ \ - Assault Rifle Damage : '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "You compare us, but you're nowhere near my league." -Commander Shepard Briefing: You get to go clubbing, fun! When you first arrive on Omega, you need to talk to Aria and then visit the Apartments area to gather information. Make sure you are thorough in searching the girl's room, as it affects your dialogue options with Morinth. When you get in the club, you can look around and find some interesting things to do with the different folk. After a few interactions, Morinth will approach. In order to score the most points with Morinth, you'll have to answer several dialogue options using the interests you've learned. I think all the bottom- left dialogue options for each subject will earn you the most points; if you answer any other way, you may have a chance to not lose-out with a persuasion option, but sometimes not. Just pick the bottom-left option whenever possible and you'll be golden. Once you're in her apartment, wander around and examine all the stuff. Hey, what's that on her mantle? An assault rifle? I'll take it. So just go around, and when you've looked at everything, talk to Morinth. You'll have some more chat, then comes the moment of truth. Your persuasion option appears, then Samara comes in, then you get to choose one of the blue ladies. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 3.09 - Reaper IFF - :===========================================================================. | NOTABLE ITEMS: \ | - Sniper Rifle Damage : : - Heavy Skin Weave | \ - Shotgun Damage | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: : : [ Husk ] [ Abomination ] [ Scion ] Reaper Core / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "Uhhhhhhhnnnnnnhhh..." -Husk My Squad: Mordin / Jack Briefing: Remember the swarm of Husks at the end of the Collector Ship mission? Yeah, well take that, add some Abominations and Scions in, and multiply by 10. That is what we've got this mission... so get nimble because we're gonna have to do some dancing around. Remember, the easiest way to take out Husks is to strip their armor and use biotics to insta-kill them; Incineration Blast+Improved Shockwave let's me do this to packs of Husks at a time, but the problem is they aren't always grouped up so well. It's a little more difficult to describe this mission the same way as all the ones up until this point. Husks and Abominations will continually climb up onto the platform from a couple different points each encounter, and there's so many of them it's hard to get a sure count; some encounters you'll fight around 5 at once, some double that. Unless you know what you're doing, the best strategy is to carefully walk ahead until you hear the tell-tale moaning of the Husks, then backtrack to a choke-point and blast them as they come through. Oh, and shall I remind you to target the Abominations first? ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 8 Husks - 1 Abomination Group 2: - 15 Husks - 3 Abominations Walking down this large passage, on a tiny catwalk, as soon as the path opens up, our friends will climb up the sides. Move back to the narrow part of the catwalk and use area powers as they approach. The first group is small. Moving ahead to where the path gets wider and slopes down, the lower level is the area where group 2 will climb on up in several waves. The explosive crates around here can help you take them out more easily, but they can also hurt you if they go off and you're standing closeby. --- Continue on to find a Sniper Rifle Damage upgrade, some power cells, and ammo. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 7 Husks - 1 Abomination Group 2: - 1 Scion - 8 Husks - 1 Abomination Group 1 is easy, and will only climb up in pairs from one spot on the right side, just before the big open area with all the explosives. Sit tight and wait until they're done before moving onwards. Ok, now, inch forward, then when you see the next group, which includes a Scion, appear, RUN! Turn around and run back to the point with the Sniper Rifle Damage upgrade! Here you can easily kill the Husks as they come up the stairs, and the Scion is so slow, he'll be out of range for a while. If you stay and fight in the wide open area, the Scion's shockwaves will most likely kill your team, if not, the swarm of Husks will; I'm also positive that if you stay, a second gigantic group of Husks/Abominations will join the fray and double your trouble. --- At the far side of the open area is a terminal containing the last Heavy Skin Weave upgrade. ENCOUNTER 3 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 10 Husks - 1 Abomination Group 2: - 1 Scion - 18 Husks - 2 Abominations Here we're in the main area of the mission, and it's got plenty of enemies for us to deal with. This first part is easy, just a few Husks climbing up on the left and right. When we descend the stairs dead ahead, a Scion and a whole mess of Husks will swarm us; now is when it gets tricky. You can backtrack to the entrance and take cover from the Scion, waiting for the Husks to show up, but there's not a whole lot of room to manuever. Having your squad behind cover is a good idea, otherwise they might get owned by the Scion, plus you can use their powers regardless of their line of sight. ENCOUNTER 4 ----------------------------- 10 Husks 1 Abomination Moving up the stairs, another group of Husks will attack; luckily, this is much easier than the last fight we had, thanks to the long and straight pathway with no flanking points. ENCOUNTER 5 ----------------------------- 1 Scion 20 Husks This is very similar to Encounter 1, Group 2, with a different stairway setup. Backtracking up to the last pathway, the straight one, may help if you're having trouble here, and it'll definitely help pull the Husks away from that Scion. Around the time the Scion reaches the stairs, another group of Husks may arise behind it. --- At the bottom of these stairs you'll find the final Shotgun Damage upgrade. ENCOUNTER 6 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 2 Scions - 4 Husks Group 2: - 10 Husks Down the ramp, two branching pathways in the distance, this is where two Scions will attack in sync. I prefer to put by squad behind that big canister on the right, then head down to trigger the attack. Take out those initial Husks, then focus fire on one of the Scions. I found that backing down the stairs that lead up to this high platform cause the shockwaves to go over me and miss. After the Scions are disposed, more Husks attack. ENCOUNTER 7 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 2 Scions - 4 Husks Group 2: - 18 Husks There's a handful of Husks on the next platform, but 2 Scions are right behind them. You don't have as much distance as last fight, but you can backtrack if needed. Once the Scions are dead, you'll face another wave of Husks, but it's not so bad compared to the hell we just fought through. FINAL ENCOUNTER ----------------------------- Reaper Core Husks Abominations This room is a circle, and the Husks will come from all corners; it's simply not possible to keep them from getting behind you. The best you can do is to run around and try to group them up, hoping they don't gang up and beat your squad to death too early. As soon as the Reaper Core is vulnerable, unload on it regardless of whether the Husks are all dead. The longer this battle goes on, it seems like there's more and more Husks. As soon as the Reaper Core is destroyed, all the Husks will vanish and you're mission is done, so maybe the M-290 Cain might be helpful to bring along, though certainly not a necessity. - - - - - - ------MISSION COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - Back on the Normandy... hey we has a Geth! Hopefully you didn't turn him in to Cerberus for a bounty; no awesome squad member is worth any amount of credits! Anyway, talk to Legion, research your upgrades, and let's get on with the last mission of the chapter... ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 3.10 - Legion: A House Divided - :===========================================================================. : NOTABLE ITEMS: \ \ - Geth Shield Strength : ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : < Geth Trooper > < Geth Hunter > < [ Geth Prime ] > : | < Geth Rocket Trooper > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` "Windows are structural weaknesses. Geth do not use them." -Legion My Squad: Legion / Zaeed Briefing: Geth! Oh what a relief. This is like vacation compared to the IFF mission. I decided to bring Zaeed along, he's awesome. ENCOUNTER 1 - Hub Room 1 ----------------------------- 1 Geth Hunter 2 Geth Troopers Here's the first alarm room, and it's simple. There's a single Geth Hub with the robomen blissfully unawares standing around it. As long as you don't break the green datastreams, you can take all the time you need to setup and start unloading. Shooting the Hub will cause a minor explosion that does some damage. Though there is a small amount of enemies in these rooms, the difficulty comes from the very limited space and those tough Geth Hunters. Careful use of AI Hacking, Drones, and whatever other skills you got will be your saving grace. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- 1 Geth Hunter 2 Geth Troopers This hallway is basically an introduction to the override turrets you'll come across. You can activate them from any distance and Legion will hack them to attack your enemies; here you basically sit back and let the turrets do all the work, then clean up. ENCOUNTER 3 - Hub Room 2 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 2 Geth Hunters - 4 Geth Troopers Group 2: - 2 Geth Troopers Group 3: - 2 Geth Troopers This is like the first alarm room, but this time there's two hubs and two sets of Geth. The best way I came up with to handle this fight is to stick back in the hallway and start attacking the first batch of Geth; the second set will very quickly be all over you, so be prepared to deal with another Hunter. Their AI isn't the greatest, though. The next couple hallways have a pair of Troopers each, but that's nothing. ENCOUNTER 4 ----------------------------- 2 Geth Hunters 2 Geth Troopers This is a pretty large room with two turrets in it for you to assume control. There's only a couple Hunters and Troopers, and there's so much space this part is incredibly easy compared to the second Hub Room. ENCOUNTER 5 ----------------------------- 1 Geth Hunter 2 Geth Troopers Not much in this room. One turret, one Hunter, two Troopers, and Geth Shield Strength in that Geth Terminal! ENCOUNTER 6 - Hub Room 3 ----------------------------- 3 Geth Hunters 3 Geth Troopers Ok so this room is challenging; there's three Hunters, and they're split to both the left and right sides of the room, no windows, and if you stay in the room you will definitely get ganged up on. Line up your shot and unload your powers, then quickly retreat up the ramp before the other group moves in. Now it's much easier to take them out from one side. ENCOUNTER 7 - Activating Defenses ----------------------------- Group 1: - 6 Geth Troopers Group 2: - 4 Geth Troopers - 2 Geth Rocket Troopers Group 3: - 4 Geth Troopers - 2 Geth Hunters Group 4: - 6 Geth Troopers - 2 Geth Rocket Troopers - 1 Geth Hunter This is a huge room, and we have to defend the upper level from Geth attackers coming through the maze on the lower level, and up the two ramps on either side of our position. We get a lot of turrets to override, but I suggest saving them for the more difficult waves. Each wave gets a little harder and adds some more enemy types in, the last wave being the most difficult. Also, don't forget you have two turrets behind you to help blast any Geth that make it up the ramps; I found them very useful for the last wave, group 4. ENCOUNTER 8 - Escape! ----------------------------- Group 1: - 6 Geth Troopers Group 2: - 2 Geth Troopers - 1 Geth Prime Let's get outta here! Six Troopers will fight you in the hallway, and as you round the next corner, a Prime and two of his friends will block your exit. The Prime won't move in, but just kind of stonewall you; take out his friends then focus on him. His drone might be a nuisance, but usually gets stuck if you're behind the middle boxes. - - - - - - ------CHAPTER COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - Back on the Normandy, there's another scene with Tali and Legion that requires your persuasion expertise. Again, if you can't choose the Charm/Intimidates, try using Retrain Powers to give yourself the 100% bonus from the rank 4 class training evolution; if that doesn't work, you're outta luck. The moment of truth is upon us. If you haven't yet, make sure you get all the Normandy ship upgrades before you proceed, as well as research any others that you haven't yet. \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > C H A P T E R 4 < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ [CH4] It's all come down to this, the final mission. It's time to go through the Omega-4 Relay! This chapter is dedicated to the suicide mission. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( The Debris Field ) `````````````````````` On the other side, you'll witness the epicness of the Normandy's approach to the Collector Base. An enemy robo-eye thing will launch itself into the cargo hold, and Shepard takes some mans down to kick its arse. THE OCULUS ----------------------------- My Team: Garrus / Thane Bring some heavy firepower, cuz this thing is tough! You fight it twice, the first time I don't think it really matters how much damage you do to it. The second time it enters the hold, use everything you've got; even though your team urges you to use heavy weapons, it's not necessary, especially if you've got the Mantis sniper. Fighting it, you want to stay in cover as much as you possibly can; the Oculus has a laser beam much like the Praetorian, but this thing has nothing more than that. After that epicness is over, you'll crash land on the base and have a nice meeting with your crew. You have to choose two squad mates for special jobs; if you choose the wrong people, you'll have casualties. Tech Specialist: Tali / Legion / Kasumi Fire Team Leader: Miranda / Jacob / Garrus And with that, there's a lovely speech, and we're off to the base! ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Infiltrate the Base ) ````````````````````````` My Team: Miranda / Thane Here the object is to activate all 8 of the Heat Exchangers, which are big, green, and hexagonal, to unblock your Tech Specialist's path. After the first one, you'll be on limited time to get to the next one; if you're not quick enough, someone may die even if you have full loyalty and picked the right specialists. ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 6 Collector Drones Simply a warm-up. > OPEN VALVE 1 < ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- Harbinger 3 Collector Drones Valve 2 is right there on the left, but you should stay behind cover until you've killed off these bugs. > OPEN VALVE 2 < ENCOUNTER 3 ----------------------------- Harbinger 2 Collector Drones Valve 3 is just up ahead, but another small group flies in to stop you. Haha, Harbinger's squad is nothing compared to Shepard's. > OPEN VALVE 3 < > OPEN VALVE 4 < ENCOUNTER 4 ----------------------------- Group 1: - Harbinger - 5 Collector Drones Group 2: - Harbinger - 2 Collector Drones Well, now he's finally got some numbers with him, but they're still just feeble Drones. After the first group, stick to the left side and move up to the cover near the next valve; from here you can easily take out the next two Drones and Harbinger, then hop over to hit the next green button. > OPEN VALVE 5 < > OPEN VALVE 6 < ENCOUNTER 5 ----------------------------- 3 Collector Drones 1 Collector Assassin Just around the corner from valve number 6... three Drones are standing right there! An Assassin is also around the next bend as well. Move up to the next Heat Exchanger, activate it, and battle the last group... > OPEN VALVE 7 < ENCOUNTER 6 ----------------------------- Harbinger 4 Collector Drones If you're running low on time for this one, you can ignore these guys and just run up to the valve, if you can survive the sprint... I didn't find it to be particularly pressing. > OPEN VALVE 8 < --- The next scene, you save your crew! Then you get to pick some more specialists. For the escort, Mordin should be picked, unless you plan on taking him with you to the very final encounter. Biotic Specialist: Samara / Morinth / Jack Fire Team Leader: Garrus / Miranda / Jacob Crew Escort: Mordin / Anyone (you won't get to use them anymore) ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Biotic Field Battle ) ````````````````````````` This section of fighting is very constrictive since you have to stay inside the bubble or you'll die from the seeker swarms. You'll face some Reaper IFF-esque Husk battles, so bring your zombie pounders. My Team: Jack / Grunt ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- Harbinger 3 Collector Drones The problem here is it's hard to see the Drones and the distance is further than medium range. By the time your bubble is close enough to the ramp, our pal Harbinger is already nearing the top, making him your first targeting priority. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 2 Husks - 2 Abominations Group 2: - Harbinger - 2 Collector Drones - 2 Collector Guardians The first group is just a few zombie pals climbing up the edge, but nothing compared to the Reaper IFF mission; finish them off quick, though, as group 2 will fly into combat soon enough. Again, Harbinger is approaching quickly, making him a preferred target; do try to take out the Drones fast, forcing him to take over one of the tougher Guardians. ENCOUNTER 3 ----------------------------- 1 Scion 10 Husks 5 Abominations This is it. This is tough! This is like a Reaper IFF battle, but your so damn constrained in the bubble, backpedaling is impossible. Use your weapons and powers as best you can to strip the defenses of those Husks and Abominations, then blow them away with Shockwave/whatever. If you survive them, the Scion is likely right in your face at this point, so work with the cover you have in the bubble to stay alive. --- After that insanity, there's just a few lonely Husks, easily dispatched, then the doorway to the next area. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( The FINAL Encounter ) ````````````````````````` This is the final series of battles. First, there's some platform engagements, nothing too fancy. If you leave Zaeed and Grunt, I think that alone is enough to protect everyone else that's holding the line, but there's more like Garrus, Legion, Samara, and Thane that add to the success. My Team: Garrus / Thane Ammo is scarce here up until the final battle; make every shot count. ENCOUNTER 1 - Platform Fun ----------------------------- Group 1: - 3 Collector Drones Group 2: - 2 Collector Drones - 1 Collector Guardian Group 3: - Harbinger - 2 Collector Drones Group 4: - Harbinger - 2 Collector Guardians - 1 Collector Assassin Group 5: - 2 Scions - 3 Abominations A good warm up for the next round. If you handled everything okay so far, this shouldn't be a problem. If it is, you might want to re-think your team. The final group should be obvious: take out the 3 flaming men first, then focus on one of the Scions, then the other. If you want to use heavy weapons here, go ahead, but some like to save it for the next part. ENCOUNTER 2 - Omg... a Reaper? ----------------------------- Group 1: - Harbinger - 3 Collector Drones Group 2: - 2 Collector Drones - 2 Collector Guardians Group 3: - Harbinger - 1 Collector Guardian - 1 Collector Assassin Group 4: - 2 Collector Drones This fight goes like this: fight some Collectors, shoot a tube, repeat. You might be able to take out two tubes in one go, and it may help if you can pull it off. Take time to gather up the thermal clips left behind from each group; you probably need them. Moving around to different platforms can give you a much better angle on each group; for example, the higher platform on the right gives a good line on the first group. Also, using powers like Concussive Shot or Throw to blast Collectors off the platforms is an easy kill (despite that they can fly). When all four tubes are shattered, the Reaper is toast... Next you get to pick whether or not to hand the Collector Base over to the Illusive Man... then, suddenly... ENCOUNTER 2 - OMG A REAPER! ----------------------------- Reaper-Human Larva Collectors The weak point is the eyes and the glowing orb on its chest. I suggest using the Mantis/Widow sniper or the Carniflex Handcannon. If you want to try using some heavy weapons, go for it, there's no point in saving ammo now. You'll be attacked intermittently by Harbinger and his Collector cronies. Every time you kill Harbinger now, he'll drop a big ass thermal clip that's actually heavy weapon ammo and fills up the rest of your guns with ammo too, like power cells. A little while into the fight, the big boy will start using his 'tail' to smash the outer platforms. I presume that if you take too long, you'll be reduced to the one single platform, or even have that one smashed, but I never took that long to take this thing down. Congrats on finishing Insanity! Enjoy the ending, you've earned it! - - - - - - ------INSANITY COMPLETE!------ - - - - - - \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > S I D E M I S S I O N S < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ [SMS] Side missions are not required, but they all offer experience. In addition, they may reward credits, resources, or even a nice upgrade. A Shepard serious about Insanity should complete all possible side missions to be the best. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Normandy ) `````````````` Normandy: Serrice Ice Brandy ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to Dr. Chakwas on Deck 3 Available: After Freedom's Progress. Rewards: +50 Experience / Medi-Gel Capacity 2/5 Go either to Afterlife on Omega or Darkstar Lounge on The Citadel and purchase the Brandy. Bring it back to Dr. Chakwas. Normandy: Special Ingredients ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to Mess Sergeant Gardner on Deck 3 Available: After Freedom's Progress. Rewards: +50 Experience Go to Zakera Cafe on The Citadel and purchase High-Grade Provisions. Deliver them back to Mess Sergeant Gardner for an easy experience boost. Normandy: FBA Couplings ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to the Engineers on Deck 4 Available: After Freedom's Progress. Rewards: +50 Experience Go to Kenn's Salvage on Omega and purchase the T-6 FBA Couplings. Deliver them back to the Engineers. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( The Citadel ) ````````````````` Citadel: The Council ----------------------------- Obtained: Read the letter from Anderson on your Private Terminal Available: After Freedom's Progress Rewards: None Go to the Presidium and have a chat with your pal Anderson. Citadel: Captain Bailey ----------------------------- Obtained: When you enter The Citadel Available: After Freedom's Progress Rewards: None Just talk to Captain Bailey after entering The Citadel. Citadel: Krogan Sushi ----------------------------- Obtained: Overheard two Krogans talking outside Bailey's Office Available: After Freedom's Progress Rewards: +50 Experience Go to Darkstar Lounge and ask the Groundskeeper about fish on the Presidium. You can now tell the Krogan that there are no fish, or buy a fish from the Souvenir Shop and sell it to him. Citadel: Crime in Progess ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to the C-Sec Officer, Volus, and Quarian on Level 26 Available: After Freedom's Progress Rewards: +50 Experience / 1,000 Credits Go to Saronis Applications and ask about the credit chit. Return to the Volus with the information. ,,,,,,,,,,, ( Omega ) ``````````` Omega: Batarian Bartender ----------------------------- Obtained: Order a drink from Forvan in Lower Afterlife Available: After Freedom's Progress Rewards: +50 Experience Return to Forvan and use Charm/Intimidate options. Omega: Struggling Quarian ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to Kenn about his deal with Harrot Available: After Freedom's Progress Rewards: +50 Experience / Discount at Harrot's Emporium Either pay Kenn's way, or talk to Harrot and use Charm/Intimidate. Omega: The Professor: Missing Assistant ----------------------------- Obtained: From Mordin in the Clinic Available: During Dossier: The Professor Rewards: None Enter the left door before the final area of Dossier: The Professor and save Daniel from the Batarians (or not). Omega: Archangel: Datapad Recovered ----------------------------- Obtained: Pick up the datapad during Dossier: Archangel Available: During Dossier: Archangel Rewards: +50 Experience Talk to Aria after getting the datapad. Omega: The Patriarch ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to Grizz in Upper Afterlife Available: After Recruiting either Mordin or Garrus Rewards: 3,000 Credits Talk to The Patriarch in the room in Lower Afterlife; use Charm/Intimidate to help The Patriarch, then return to Aria. Omega: Packages for Ish ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to Ish on Omega, outside Afterlife Available: After Horizon Rewards: +50 Experience / 4,500 Credits Go to Saronis Applications on The Citadel and Eternity on Illium, pick up the Datapads, then return to Ish. ,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Illium ) ```````````` Illium: Gianna Parasini ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to Gianna Parasini Available: After Horizon Rewards: +50 Experience Talk to the nearby Asari Merchant and get her to talk about schematics. Or you could tip her off... Use Charm/Intimidate to get a discount at the store before you run off the merchant though. Illium: A Troublemaker ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to the Asari outside Eternity Available: After Horizon Rewards: +50 Experience / Discount at Gateway Personal Defense Talk to Conrad Verner, then talk to the Weapons Merchant on the other side of Illium and use the Charm/Intimidate options. Return to Conrad. Illium: Liara: System Hacking ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to Liara about helping her Available: After Horizon Rewards: 2,000 Credits Look around Illium for Secure Stations to hack. Once hacked, use the distance meter to find the Vulnerable System. Do this three times and return to Liara. Illium: Liara: The Observer ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to Liara about helping her Available: After System Hacking Rewards: +50 Experience / 5,000 Credits Look around Illium for Datapoints to hack. Once you got all 5, use a Datapoint to call Liara and tell her that none of the suspects fit. Return to Liara. Illium: Blue Rose of Illium ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to the Asari near the Memories of Illium shop Available: After Horizon Rewards: +50 Experience / Discount at Memories of Illium Use Charm/Intimidate options while talking to the Asari to convince her. Illium: Medical Scans ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to the Shiala outside Baria Frontiers Available: After Horizon Rewards: +50 Experience Use Charm/Intimidate options while talking to Erinya, then return to Shiala. Illium: The Assassin: Salarian Family Data ----------------------------- Obtained: Pick up the datapad after the elevator Available: During Dossier: The Assassin Rewards: +50 Experience / 1,500 Credits Talk to the Salarian near the shipping dock on Illium after picking up the datapad. Illium: The Justicar: Stolen Goods Found ----------------------------- Obtained: Upload data from the Shipping Details at the start of the mission Available: During Dossier: The Justicar Rewards: +50 Experience / 1,500 Credits Return to Illium and the quest will automatically complete. Illium: The Justicar: Smuggling Evidence ----------------------------- Obtained: Read the Shipping Manifest after fighting the Gunship Available: During Dossier: The Justicar Rewards: +50 Experience / 9,000 Credits (Pitne For) / 4,200 Credits (Anaya) Talk to Pitne For or Detective Anaya for a reward. Illium: Indentured Service ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to the Slave Broker in Eternity Available: After Collector Ship Rewards: +50 Experience / 2,000 Credits Use Charm/Intimidate on the Synthetic Insights Rep, then return to the Slave Broker. Illium: The Prodigal: Lost Locket found ----------------------------- Obtained: Grab the Trinket at the end of Miranda: The Prodigal Available: During Miranda: The Prodigal Rewards: +50 Experience / 500 Credits Talk to the Asari near the entrance of Illium. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Tuchanka ) `````````````` Tuchanka: Killing Pyjaks ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to Ratch Available: After acquiring Mordin: Old Blood Rewards: +50 Experience / Discount at Ratch's Wares Use the Defense Gun Controls to play a minigame and kill Pyjaks. Defeat all three waves of Pyjaks to complete Ratch's Quest. Tuchanka: Combustion Manifold ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to the Mechanic Available: After acquiring Mordin: Old Blood Rewards: +50 Experience After fighting your way to the lab, grab the Combustion Manifold from the overturned truck. Give it to the Mechanic once you're back from the mission. Tuchanka: Old Blood: Missing Scout ----------------------------- Obtained: Talk to the Chief Scout Available: After acquiring Mordin: Old Blood Rewards: +50 Experience After entering the labs, talk to the Sick Krogan and use Charm/Intimidate to convince him to return to camp. Return to the Chief Scout to finish. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( N7: Anomalies ) ``````````````````` These side-quests are actual missions, with a summary screen and everything. They count against you between Horizon and the Collector Ship, and after the Reaper IFF mission, so you should keep this in mind as you come across them. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.01 - N7: Lost Operative - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Omega Nebula : : - Fathar System | \ - Lorek | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: : : < Eclipse Trooper > ( Eclipse Vanguard ) < [ Morl ] > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` Available: After Freedom's Progress My Squad: Miranda / Zaeed ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 6 Eclipse Troopers 2 Eclipse Vanguards They will just pour out of the corridor after you enter the building. Take cover and keep an eye on the Vanguards, they enjoy flanking along the path on the right side. Perhaps Shepard could do the same? The second group of enemies will attack after you bypass the Holding Cell Access, next to the Securiy Console. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- 5 Eclipse Troopers 1 Eclipse Vanguard Morl This is easy. 5 Troopers will come out, deal with them by shooting their exposed heads. Morl will appear with a Vanguard; there's plenty of cover, and it's a short range; all classes should be able to handle this as long as you brought along squad mates that can handle Shield and Barrier. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.02 - N7: Eclipse Smuggling Depot - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Hourglass Nebula : : - Faryar System | \ - Daratar | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: : : < [ YMIR Mech ] > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` Available: After Freedom's Progress My Squad: Miranda / Zaeed You need to kill the 3 YMIR Mechs before they destroy all 20 crates. Easy enough if you stay behind cover and take them on one at a time. Each one won't attack you until you fire upon it, so it's easy to do them one at a time. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.03 - N7: MSV Estevanico - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Hourglass Nebula : : - Ploitari System | \ - Zanethu | '---------------------------------------------------------------------------' Available: After Freedom's Progress This one you just run to the Mainframe at the end. You have to shoot the loose tiles to make a bridge at one point. It's not difficult to find your way there. After you reach the terminal, you'll automatically leave and the ship falls. Just in time! ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.04 - N7: Wrecked Merchant Freighter - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Eagle Nebula : : - Amun System | \ - Neith | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: : : [ LOKI Mech ] < [ YMIR Mech ] > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` Available: After Freedom's Progress My Squad: Miranda / Zaeed Make your way to the far end of the crash site to disable the transmitter. You will then be attacked by an onslaught of LOKI Mechs. Don't take them lightly. Fight your way carefully back to the shuttle. I recommend going down the right side; it seems to be shorter and with less mechs. On the way, one YMIR Mech will pop out to play. Deal with it and keep moving. I do believe the LOKI Mechs will keep on coming if you don't move forward, but do be careful about it. Leads to the next mission... ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.05 - N7: Abandoned Research Station - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Eagle Nebula : : - Strabo System | \ - Jarrahe Station | '---------------------------------------------------------------------------' Available: After N7: Wrecked Merchant Freighter My Squad: Mordin / Kasumi (Doesn't matter... :D) This is a Half-Life-esque puzzle mission. Not a whole lot to say here. Living Quarters: Five Doors -Activate right console. "One door enabled" -Activate left console. "Five doors enabled" Engineering: Plasma Venting in Progress -Don't run through the steam; wait for it to subside. Research Lab: Reflective Armor Prototypes -Console 1, hit it once. -Console 2, hit it twice. -Console 3, hit it once. -Console 4, hit it thrice. Once all the power is restored you can access the central area and finish. Leads to the next mission... ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.06 - N7: Hahne-Kedar Facility - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Titan Nebula : : - Haskins System | \ - Capek | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: : : [ LOKI Mech ] [ FENRIS Mech ] / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` Available: After N7: Abandoned Research Facility My Squad: Jacob / Zaeed Here you just fight your way through a gauntlet of LOKI Mechs. There's a few FENRIS Mechs that attack you outside and near the entrance inside, but mostly it's just LOKI afer LOKI. You'll be switching weapons and using powers a lot as you find yourself running short on ammo for your guns. Just keep at them and press onward (carefully, now...) until you reach the end. I chose Jacob for Pull, and Zaeed for Concussive Shot, which are both good at disabling enemies here; you'll constantly be fighting these LOKIs, so stay behind cover and use powers as soon as you can. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.07 - N7: Anomalous Weather Detected - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Pylos Nebula : : - Dirada System | \ - Canalus | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: : : < Geth Trooper > < Geth Hunter > < Geth Destroyer > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` Rewards: Damage Protection upgrade Avaliable: After Horizon (buy star chart from Illium) My Squad: Garrus / Zaeed Briefing: We gotta fight some Geth on a planet with very low visibility. Hmm, I'll bring my robo-killers for sure. Visibility is really low on this planet; you won't be able to see Geth until they're in medium range, and then all you can distinguish is their lamp-heads glowing in the fog. Move ahead slowly, and when you reach some Geth, take cover and wait for them to get closer. ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 10 Geth Troopers 1 Geth Hunter Moving towards the light beacon thing, Geth Troopers will attack from the mist! Take cover and move up only when the radar is clear and you can get to the next rock. A Geth Hunter will be visible only by it's glowing face. Just be careful, and don't get reckless. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- 5 Geth Troopers 1 Geth Destroyer Same thing as last encounter, except now there's a flamethrower and you really want to be careful. When you see the Geth barricade structure, the only cover that's not rocks, don't approach it; the Geth Destroyer is right behind it, and he'll torch your ass if you get too close. --- Use the Geth terminal thing to end the mission and receive your rewards. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.08 - N7: Imminent Ship Crash - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Pylos Nebula : : - Nariph System | \ - MSV Broken Arrow | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: : : < Geth Trooper > < Geth Rocket Trooper > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` Available: After Horizon My Squad: Garrus / Zaeed Briefing: We've got to fight our way through some Geth and stop the ship from crashing before time runs out! ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 3 Geth Troopers Take out three Geth in the next room and activate the console. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- (In groups of 4-6) Geth Troopers Geth Rocket Troopers Here our objective is to activate two power couplings; they are on the lower level, on either side of the large machine in the middle. Geth Troopers and Rocket Troopers will attack in infinite waves from the two high ledges that overlook these power couplings. Each power coupling takes time to activate, and being shot will interrupt the process. You have to run to the first power coupling, take cover, and kill all the Geth. When the radar is clear, activate the first coupling, then run to the second. Now more Geth should be attacking; take cover again and do the same thing. You should have enough time between waves to activate a power coupling. Once both are activated, you can head up the ramp and restart the engine without fear of being shot. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.09 - N7: Archeological Dig Site - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Rosetta Nebula : : - Enoch System | \ - Joab | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : < Blue Suns Trooper > < Blue Suns Legionnaire > : | < Blue Suns Commander > < Lieutenant Locke > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` My Squad: Garrus / Kasumi Briefing: We've got plenty of experience with Blue Suns mercenaries, so this small band of blue brothers shouldn't be a problem. There's plenty of cover, and they like to group up, so area powers will be devastating. ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 1 Blue Suns Legionnaire 5 Blue Suns Troopers Use the plentiful cover available and area powers to clean up the mob of Troopers that come out of the only door. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- 12 Blue Suns Troopers There's three in the main area, then 6 come from the side door. Three more will appear at the top of the large ramp. ENCOUNTER 3 ----------------------------- Blue Suns Commander Lieutenant Locke 3 Blue Suns Troopers This is a strange room to fight in, but there's not many enemies here. There's a couple Troopers on the left side, and a Commander closing in down the middle path. Take them out, then head to the other side to find Lietenant Locke and another Trooper. --- Pickup the datapad around here to unlock the next one... ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.10 - N7: MSV Strontium Mule - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Omega Nebula : : - Arinlarkan System | \ - MSV Strontium Mule | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : < Blue Suns Trooper > < [ Sgt. Boortis ] > < Captain Vorhess > | | < Blue Suns Heavy > < [ Senior Engineer ] > [ FENRIS Mech ] : | < Blue Suns Legionnaire > < [ Command Bodyguard ] > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` Items: Heavy Skin Weave Available: After N7: Archeological Dig Site My Squad: Garrus / Kasumi Briefing: Blue Suns mercenaries have captured the freighter, and we've got to take it back! There's three main battles, and between them you'll find a few Troopers desperately trying to stop you. ENCOUNTER 1 - Cargo Hold ----------------------------- 1 Blue Suns Legionnaire 3 Blue Suns Troopers 1 Blue Suns Heavy Take cover and use your area powers to blast the mercs as they come through the door to greet you. Area Overload + Improved Flashbang Grenade = muahaha. --- Use the console at the top of the stairs to bypass security and unlock the three doors. The door in the middle goes to the engine room, which is optional and only has some power cells in it. The other two doors lead to the upper level, where two side rooms and the Bridge are. One of the side rooms is locked and the other contains a couple shotgun Troopers. ENCOUNTER 2 - Engine Room ----------------------------- Senior Engineer 2 Blue Suns Troopers There's some mercs on the upper level, so spring over to the ramp on the other side and wait for them to come down. It's only a couple Troopers and a special shotgun guy, but the only thing special about him is his name. --- You'll find some power cells and a note about Sgt. Booris' scheming on the upper level. Feel free to skip this room altogether, but I enjoy being thorough in my merc extermination. ENCOUNTER 2 - The Bridge ----------------------------- Group 1: - Captain Vorhess - Command Bodyguard - 3 Blue Suns Troopers Group 2: - 4 FENRIS Mechs - Sgt. Boortis - 2 Blue Suns Troopers - 2 Blue Suns Heavies Open the door to the Bridge, but don't go inside. Use the cover of the doorway to pick off the Troopers and Vorhess. Command Bodyguard is a bullet soaker, and takes a lot of hits to go down, so save him for last. When the room is clear, ambush! Some FENRIS Mechs will run up from the hallway. Divert your attention and take them out. Read the console information here to get the coordinates for the next mission. As you exit the Bridge, Sgt. Boortis enacts his scheme and attacks from the previous area. Use the cover of the hallway to take out the couple Troopers, then move in to battle him and a couple of Heavies. --- The side room that was previously locked is now open. Go in to find a Heavy Skin Weave upgrade and the canister payload to end the mission. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.11 - N7: Blue Suns Base - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Sigurd's Cradle : : - Decoris System | \ - Sanctum | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : < Blue Suns Trooper > < [ Blue Suns Commander ] > < [ YMIR Mech ] > : | < Blue Suns Heavy > < [ Captain Narom ] > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` Available: After N7: MSV Strontium Mule My Squad: Garrus / Kasumi Briefing: It's a Blue Suns Base! And this time they're prepared to give us a good fight, so bring your game face. ENCOUNTER 1 - Welcoming Party ----------------------------- 6 Blue Suns Troopers 4 Blue Suns Heavies This is a familiar scenario... kill mercs as they come out of a door? Yep. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- Blue Suns Commander 8 Blue Suns Troopers Entering the base, a swarm of Troopers and their Commander will greet you at the bottom of the ramps. You've got the height advantage up here, so use your powers to strip their shields and pick off the approaching shotgunners. Move in to clean up. ENCOUNTER 3 - Heavy Resistance ----------------------------- Group 1: - 2 YMIR Mechs Group 2: - Captain Narom - 5 Blue Suns Troopers Now this is a challenge! First you'll fight two YMIR Mechs at the same time, then a bunch of mercs will enter immediately. Post your squad by the entrance to keep them out of danger, then move up to the pillar after exploding the dangerous crate; this way the mechs won't target your friends. Focus fire on the closest one, and try to finish it off with a headshot; the resulting explosion should deal great damage to the other mech. Captain Narom and his crew like to rush up close, so be ready in a defensive position. His team is just a bunch of lowly Troopers, so clean them up then finish off the captain. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.12 - N7: Javelin Missiles Launched - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Sigurd's Cradle : : - Skepsis System | \ - Franklin | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: : : < Batarian Trooper > < Batarian Commander > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` My Squad: Garrus / Kasumi Briefing: Batarian radicals have launched javelin missiles at the colony on Franklin! They're all shielded, there's no heavies, but there's a lot of Batarians. ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 4 Batarian Troopers Entering the facility, you'll be welcomed by a group of Troopers on the left side, all bunched up and asking for some Area Overload action. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- Batarian Commander 10 Batarian Troopers Continuing through the door you bypass, the main Batarian force will ask for a shoot-out across this room. They'll soon be pouring out of the door on the opposite side, and you don't want them to be entering the right area. Gain a tactical advantage by heading to the right side of the room and taking cover behind the crate overlooking the door that they'll enter from. --- Continue through a second locked door to find a lone Commander guarding the killswitch console. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.13 - N7: Captured Mining Facility - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Crescent Nebula : : - Zelene System | \ - Helyme | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : [ Klixen ] [ Blood Pack Trooper ] [ Blood Pack Boom-Squad ] : | ( [ Salamul ] ) / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` My Squad: Garrus / Mordin Briefing: Eclipse Mercenaries have captured the mining facility, and there's quite a few of them to wipe out. ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 3 Eclipse Troopers 2 Eclipse Vanguards This is a weird hallway to fight in, but the cover is sufficient, so you shouldn't have problems. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- Group 1: - 3 Eclipse Troopers - 2 Eclipse Vanguards - 1 Eclipse Heavy Group 2: - 4 Eclipse Troopers You might be thinking, "Hey let's go around the left side and flank them." But the bridge control is on the other side and we're forced to go face to face with these guys, and there's a Heavy way in back. As you approach the main computer on the far side, four more Troopers will come out of nowhere. FINAL ENCOUNTER ----------------------------- Group 1: - 2 Eclipse Troopers - 1 Eclipse Vanguard Group 2: - 3 Eclipse Troopers - 1 Eclipse Vanguard Group 3: - Captain Vorleon - 3 Eclipse Troopers - 1 Eclipse Vanguard Once you activate the terminal, you have to defend yourself against three waves of Eclipse. Gather your team and head to the right side; activate the bridge console. I know, it seems dumb, but doing this pretty much guarantees that they will attack you head on trying to cross this bridge. Just defend that room with the console and you should be fine. They won't even try to go around and flank. If, on the other hand, you try to battle on the other side, they'll still come up onto that platform, shoot-out style across the gap, and also approach on the low side. Then, somehow, the second or third groups will still spawn in the console room, and being surrounded is no fun. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.14 - N7: Blood Pack Communications Relay - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Crescent Nebula : : - Lusarn System | \ - Tarith | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : [ Klixen ] [ Blood Pack Trooper ] [ Blood Pack Boom-Squad ] : | ( [ Salamul ] ) / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` My Squad: Mordin / Thane Briefing: It's another misty low-visibility planet, and there's a series of laser beacons that lead to the end. Mostly we'll just be fighting Klixen in ones or twos. Wandering off the path may result in finding some resources, and more Klixen, and even a couple Vorcha. When you get to the end, the big tower in the center, you'll fight a battle with a Blood Pack Krogan. FINAL ENCOUNTER ----------------------------- Salamul 2 Blood Pack Troopers 1 Blood Pack Boom-Squad Rounding the top of the hill into the final area, Salamul is already in your face and his Vorcha buddies are way in back. The best idea is to go back down the hill so you can take out Salamul without those Vorcha bothering you. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.15 - N7: Blood Pack Base - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - The Shrike Abyssal : : - Xe Cha System | \ - Zada Ban | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: | : [ Blood Pack Trooper ] [ Blood Pack Pyro ] [ Blood Pack Boom-Squad ] : | < [ Kalusk ] > / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` Reward: Heavy Weapon Ammo My Squad: Garrus / Mordin Briefing: Here we fight a bunch of Vorcha and their Krogan leader. There will be multi- level attacks, a pyro, a couple heavies, and it's not so bad. ENCOUNTER 1 ----------------------------- 7 Blood Pack Troopers 1 Blood Pack Boom-Squad There will be some Vorcha across the gap, and also some underneath you. Once you take care of those on this level, use the ramp on the right to say hi to the ones below. ENCOUNTER 2 ----------------------------- 5 Blood Pack Troopers 1 Blood Pack Boom-Squad 1 Blood Pack Pyro Just after the last battle, crossing the stone bridge and you'll be engaged by some more Vorcha. A Trooper and a Boom-Squad will appear on the high ledge a little to the right, and a Pyro will try to make his way across the bridge. I suggest defensive positions behind the boxes on the bridge. FINAL ENCOUNTER ----------------------------- Kalusk 2 Blood Pack Troopers 1 Blood Pack Boom-Squad Continue on down to the final area where you'll find Kalusk and a few Vorcha. This should be easy. Once they're dead, blow up the containment cells and get outta there. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.16 - N7: Abandoned Mine - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Minos Wasteland : : - Fortis System | \ - Aequitas | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: : : [ Husk ] [ Abomination ] / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` My Squad: Grunt / Mordin Briefing: Lots of husks. There's not much to this mission, just husks and the occasional abomination. Fight your way into the mine; sometimes you'll find an explosive container or two to help you clear a path. Once you reach the part where EDI comments on the source of the husks, that's your cue to rush in to the room with the alien device and shoot the two bombs to end the mission. There's just a ton of infinite husks coming. Just try and run past them all. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.17 - N7: Quarian Crash Site - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Hades Nexus : : - Sheol System | \ - Gei Hinnom | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: : : [ Varren ] / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` My Squad: Mordin / Garrus All there is to do here is collect stuff, move up until you find the injured Quarian, then defend her from the Varren until your shuttle arrives. ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.18 - N7: Mining the Canyon - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Calestron Rift : : - Talava System | \ - Taitus | ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------| / ENEMIES: : : [ Varren ] / '---------------------------------------------------------------------------` Reward: 5,000 Platinum This is a short one.Aall you have to do is bypass the mech, feed it some power cells, and watch it go. And watch out for the two Varren, OMG! ,---------------. | M I S S I O N | 0.19 - N7: Endangered Research Station - :===========================================================================. | LOCATION: \ | - Calestron Rift : : - Solveig System | \ - Sinmara | '---------------------------------------------------------------------------' All you have to do here is reactivate the shields. First you bypass a terminal, then use the central Control Switch to shift the yellow glowy pipes to the Cooling Unit. Activate the Cooling Unit, switch the yellow pipes to the Shield Generator, then activate that. Finally, switch the yellow pipes to the Shield Control, then bypass it and you're done. \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > U P G R A D E S L I S T < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ [UGR] ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Weapon Upgrades ) ````````````````````` Heavy Pistol Damage ----------------------------- 1/5 - The Citadel Buy from Rodam Expeditions. 2/5 - Tuchanka Buy from Fortack's Database. 3/5 - Dossier: Tali Scan the Custom Heavy Pistol at the bottom of the stairs during Encounter 1. 4/5 - Jacob: The Gift of Greatness Scan the Heavy Pistol in the area filled with LOKI Mechs after the camp. 5/5 - Thane: Sins of the Father Access the Datapad when you first get on the catwalk. AP Pistol ----------------------------- +50% Pistol damage against armor. Unlocked at 2/5 Heavy Pistol Damage Heavy Pistol Critical ----------------------------- Pistols sometimes deal double damage. Unlocked at 3/5 Heavy Pistol Damage Submachine Gun Damage ----------------------------- 1/5 - The Citadel Buy from Rodam Expeditions. 2/5 - Dossier: Archangel Scan the Blue Suns Weapon Shipment in a side room before Cathka. 3/5 - Illium Buy from Gateway Personal Defense. 4/5 - Dossier: The Assassin Scan the Submachine Gun near the dead merc just before the bridge. 5/5 - Miranda: The Prodigal Scan the Submachine Gun after the first conveyor line (Encounter 2). SMG Shield Piercing ----------------------------- +50% SMG damage against shields and barriers. Unlocked at 2/5 Submachine Gun Damage SMG Extra Rounds ----------------------------- +50% Extra SMG ammunition. Unlocked at 3/5 Submachine Gun Damage Shotgun Damage ----------------------------- 1/5 - Omega Buy from Kenn's Salvage. 2/5 - Dossier: The Convict Scan the Shotgun by the dead guard after fighting the the first YMIR Mech. 3/5 - Tuchanka Buy from Fortack's Database. 4/5 - Grunt: Rite of Passage Received for completing mission. 5/5 - Derelict Reaper: IFF Scan the Cerberus Shotgun just before fighting two Scions at once. Shotgun Shield Piercing ----------------------------- +50% Shotgun damage against shields and barriers. Unlocked at 2/5 Shotgun Damage Shotgun Extra Rounds ----------------------------- +50% Extra shotgun ammunition. Unlocked at 3/5 Shotgun Damage Sniper Rifle Damage ----------------------------- 1/5 - The Citadel Buy from Rodam Expeditions. 2/5 - Omega Buy from Omega Market. 3/5 - Dossier: The Warlord Scan the Sniper Rifle after fighting the Krogan Berserkers. 4/5 - Garrus: Eye for an Eye Hack the Terminal in a small room adjacent to the one with the window console. 5/5 - Derelict Reaper: IFF Scan the Cerberus Rifle after the first encounter with Husks. AP Sniper Rifle ----------------------------- +50% Sniper rifle damage against armor. Unlocked at 2/5 Sniper Rifle Damage Sniper Headshot Damage ----------------------------- +50% Headshot damage with sniper rifles. Unlocked at 3/5 Sniper Rifle Damage Assault Rifle Damage ----------------------------- 1/5 - Dossier: The Professor Examine the Modified Assault Rifle after Encounter 1. 2/5 - Illium Buy from Gateway Personal Defense. 3/5 - Dossier: Tali Scan the Disassembled Geth Rifle after clearing the fallen pillar. 4/5 - Tuchanka Buy from Fortack's Database. 5/5 - Samara: The Ardat-Yakshi Found in Morinth's apartment on the wall. 6/6 - Zaeed: The Price of Revenge Access the Research Terminal after choosing to go after Vido. Assault Rifle Penetration ----------------------------- +25% Assault Rifle damage against armor, shields, and barriers. Unlocked at 2/5 Assault Rifle Damage Assault Rifle Accuracy ----------------------------- Assault rifles are more accurate. Unlocked at 3/5 Assault Rifle Damage ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Armor Upgrades ) ```````````````````` Medi-Gel Capacity ----------------------------- 1/5 - The Citadel Buy from Sirta Foundation. 2/5 - Normandy: Serrice Ice Brandy Reward for finishing the quest. 3/5 - Dossier: The Professor Download from the Research Station in the Clinic. 4/5 - Illium Buy from Serrice Technology. 5/5 - Miranda: The Prodigal Scan the dead Eclipse Merc after the second conveyor fight (Encounter 3). Trauma Module ----------------------------- Unity heals squad to full health Unlocked at 2/5 Medi-Gel Capacity Emergency Shielding ----------------------------- Unity restores squad's shields to full Unlocked at 3/5 Medi-Gel Capacity Damage Protection ----------------------------- 1/5 - The Citadel Buy from Saronis Applications. 2/5 - Dossier: The Convict Scan the YMIR Mech Corpse after releasing Jack. 3/5 - N7: Anomalous Weather Detected Rewarded upon completion. 4/5 - Collector Ship Access the Control Terminal shortly after receiving advanced weapons training. 5/5 - Illium (After Collector Ship) Buy from Gateway Personal Defense. Redundant Field Generator ----------------------------- Occasionally restores Shepard's shields to full Unlocked at 2/5 Damage Protection Hard Shields ----------------------------- +20% Shield strength (Shepard) Unlocked at 3/5 Damage Protection Tech Damage ----------------------------- 1/5 - The Citadel Buy from Saronis Applications. 2/5 - Dossier: Archangel Scan the Omni-Tool Power Boost X-Mods before heading up to Archangel's room. 3/5 - Collector Ship Access the Control Terminal after fighting the Praetorian. 4/5 - Illium (After Collector Ship) Buy from Serrice Technology. 5/5 - Tali: Treason Receive after using Charm/Intimidate option during the final trial hearing. 6/6 - Kasumi: Stolen Memory Found on dead Eclipse Merc after Encounter 4. Tech Duration ----------------------------- +20% Tech power duration. Unlocked at 2/5 Tech Damage Tech Cooldowns ----------------------------- +20% Faster tech cooldowns. Unlocked at 3/5 Tech Damage Biotic Damage ----------------------------- 1/5 - Horizon Examine the Dead Collector after fighting a Scion and Harbinger. 2/5 - Illium Buy from Serrice Technology. 3/5 - Dossier: The Justicar Found in the same room as Elnora. 4/5 - Tuchanka Buy from Fortack's Database. 5/5 - Jack: Subject Zero Hack the Research Terminal after the two-way mirror part. 6/6 - Project Firewalker: Prothean Ruins Examine the Research Terminal once inside the ruins. Biotic Duration ----------------------------- +20% Biotic power duration. Unlocked at 2/5 Biotic Damage Biotic Cooldown ----------------------------- +20% Faster biotic cooldowns. Unlocked at 3/5 Biotic Damage ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Prototype Upgrades ) ```````````````````````` Heavy Weapon Ammo ----------------------------- 1/5 - Freedom's Progress Scan the Damaged YMIR Mech before the room with Veetor. 2/5 - Omega Buy from Kenn's Salvage. 3/5 - Tuchanka Buy from Ratch's Wares. 4/5 - Mordin: Old Blood Hack the Research Terminal after defeating Chief Weyrloc Guld. 5/5 - N7: Blood Pack Base Rewarded for completion. 6/6 - Zaeed: The Price of Revenge Access the Research Terminal after choosing to save the refinery workers. M-77 Missile Launcher ----------------------------- Heavy Weapon Unlocked at 1/5 Heavy Weapon Ammo M-622 Avalanche ----------------------------- Heavy Weapon Unlocked at 2/5 Heavy Weapon Ammo M-920 Cain ----------------------------- Heavy Weapon Unlocked at 3/5 Heavy Weapon Ammo Heavy Skin Weave ----------------------------- 1/5 - Omega Buy from Kenn's Salvage. 2/5 - Horizon Examine the Dead Collector after the first fight with Husks. 3/5 - Illium Buy from Gateway Personal Defense. 4/5 - Derelict Reaper: IFF Hack the Terminal after the first encounter with a Scion. 5/5 - N7: MSV Strontium Mule Hack the Research Docket in the final room of N7: MSV Strontium Mule. Heavy Bone Weave ----------------------------- -50% Melee damage taken (Shepard) Unlocked at 2/5 Heavy Skin Weave Heavy Muscle Weave ----------------------------- +25% Melee damage (Shepard) Unlocked at 3/5 Heavy Skin Weave Krogan Vitality ----------------------------- 1/2 - Dossier: The Warlord Bypass the Lab Terminal in Okeer's Lab. 2/2 - Mordin: Old Blood Hack the Research Terminal in the Krogan lab. Geth Shield Strength ----------------------------- 1/2 - Tali: Treason Hack the Monitor after the first encounter aboard the Alarei. 2/2 - Legion: A House Divided Bypass the Geth Terminal ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Shepard's Armor Pieces ) ```````````````````````````` Helmet ----------------------------- N7 Helmet - Default +5% Health N7 Breather Helmet - Default +5% Health Visor - Omega Buy from Harrot's Emporium. +10% Headshot Damage Death Mask - Tuchanka Buy from Ratch's Wares. +10% Negotiation Bonus Chest ----------------------------- N7 Chestplate - Default +3% Power Damage Capacitor Chestplate - Omega Buy from Harrot's Emporium. -10% Shield Regeneration Delay Aegis Vest - The Citadel Buy from Rodam Expeditions. +5% Health Shield Harness - Tuchanka (After Collector Ship) Buy from Ratch's Wares. +5% Shield Strength Shoulders ----------------------------- N7 Shoulder Guards - Default +3% Weapon Damage Amplifier Plates - Illium Buy from Gateway Personal Defense. +5% Power Damage Asymmetric Defense Layer - Tuchanka (After Collector Ship) Buy from Ratch's Wares. +5% Health Strength Boost Pads - Omega (After Horizon) Buy from Omega Market. +25% Melee Damage Arms ----------------------------- N7 Gauntlets - Default +3% Health Off-Hand Ammo Pack - The Citadel Buy from Rodam Expeditions. +10% Ammo Capacity Heavy Damping Gauntlets - Tuchanka Buy from Ratch's Wares. +5% Shield Strength Stabilization Gauntlets - Omega (After Collector Ship) Buy from Omega Market. +5% Weapon Damage Legs ----------------------------- N7 Greaves - Default +3% Sheild Strength Stimulator Conduits - Omega Buy from Omega Market. +10% Storm Speed Life Support Webbing - The Citadel Buy from Sirta Foundation. +10% Health Ordnance Packs - Omega (After Collector Ship) Buy from Harrot's Emporium. +10% Heavy Weapon Ammo \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > S Q U A D M E M B E R S < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ [SQA] MIRANDA LAWSON ----------------------------- Cerberus Officer Abilities: Weapons: - Warp - Submachine Gun - Overload - Heavy Pistol - Slam (Loyalty) Rank 4 Training: - Cerberus Leader - Cerberus Tactician +20% Health +20% Health +25% Weapon Damage +25% Weapon Damage +7.5% Squad Health +15% Squad Health +15% Squad Weapon Damage +7.5% Squad Weapon Damage Summary: What a great squad member! Warp AND Overload for destroying enemy defense, and also boosts health and damage of entire squad! Preference: I obtain Heavy Warp first, then get Cerberus Tactician for the great squad bonuses. Squad damage is not scaled as well as Shepard's, but the boosts to squad health and Miranda's defense are very nice. I've never used Slam, but I guess it's nice if you already have Warp or Overload taken care of. JACOB TAYLOR ----------------------------- Cerberus Operative Abilities: Weapons: - Pull - Shotgun - Incendiary Ammo - Heavy Pistol - Barrier (Loyalty) Rank 4 Training: - Cerberus Veteran - Cerberus Specialist +40% Health +30% Health +18% Weapon Damage +25% Weapon Damage Summary: Despite being overshadowed by just about every other squad member, Jacob is a solid tank character who can disable enemies fairly easily with Pull. Barrier makes him even tougher, along with his health bonus specialty. Preference: Area Pull is great for disabling groups of enemies, and is especially effective if your team has Area Overload and Incineration Blast. I find Cerberus Veteran is more bang for your buck since the extra health makes Jacob that much better of a tank. MORDIN SOLUS ----------------------------- Salarian Scientist Abilities: Weapons: - Incinerate - Submachine Gun - Cryo Blast - Heavy Pistol - Neural Shock (Loyalty) Rank 4 Training: - Salarian Genius - Salarian Savant +25% Health +25% Health +18% Weapon Damage +25% Weapon Damage +25% Shields +18% Shields Summary: Mordin's bag of tricks is just what the doctor ordered... Cryo Blast has a very short cooldown, disables enemies, and makes them take massive damage. Neural Shock is the best single-target disable in the game, and with some points it permanently damages the target's accuracy. Preference: Incineration Blast is amazing for stripping off the defenses of Husk groups and other pesky armored foes. Salarian Genius really boosts Mordin's shields, making him much less squishy. GARRUS VAKARIAN ----------------------------- Turian Rebel Abilities: Weapons: - Concussive Shot - Assault Rifle - Overload - Sniper Rifle - Armor Piercing Ammo (Loyalty) Rank 4 Training: - Turian Renegade - Turian Survivor +15% Health +20% Health +20% Weapon Damage +18% Weapon Damage +25% Power Damage +25% Power Damage Summary: Garrus is a well rounded team mate. Overload is great for dealing with mercs, and Concussive Shot disables and also deals damage to barriers. His loyalty skill is also quite good for adding on extra damage. Preference: Area Overload is super great for the tons of merc groups we fight. Turian Renegade is my choice here; Garrus doesn't have much trouble surviving anyhow, and he's more of a long-range weapon-based damage dealer. GRUNT ----------------------------- Krogan Berserker Abilities: Weapons: - Concussive Shot - Assault Rifle - Incendiary Ammo - Shotgun - Fortification (Loyalty) Rank 4 Training: - Krogan Pureblood - Krogan Warlord +50% Health +50% Health +15% Weapon Damage +25% Weapon Damage +55 HP/s Regen +40 HP/s Regen Summary: Grunt is the ultimate tank. He upgrades to an advanced shotgun, gets increased health and regeneration, Fortification, and the dreaded Krogan charge. Preference: I usually start off with a few points in Incendiary Ammo, then go straight for Krogan Warlord. The health bonus is the same for each training evolution, and Pureblood only gets an exra 15 points of healh regeneration, while Warlord gets 10% extra weapon damage. I find Warlord to be more worth it, as Grunt is tough enough without the extra regen. JACK ----------------------------- Subject Zero Abilities: Weapons: - Shockwave - Shotgun - Pull - Heavy Pistol - Warp Ammo (Loyalty) Rank 4 Training: - Primal Adept - Primal Vanguard +20% Health +20% Health +18% Weapon Damage +25% Weapon Damage -25% Power Recharge Time -18% Power Recharge Time Summary: Jack can rip it up on Normal and Veteran, but on Insanity, she doesn't really make the cut. All her abilities are useless against enemy defenses, though if you can cover that, she can be a disabling expert. I will say, though, that nothing beats Shockwave when it comes to swarms of Husks, but be sure to pair it with Incineration Blast. Preference: No doubt get Improved Shockwave and Primal Adept. Why would you want anything else? I never found Warp Ammo to really be significant extra damage; I'd rather have Incendiary for the awesome disabling factor on organics. If I wanted some- one with Pull and Shotguns, I'd bring Jacob, and he has Incendiary and Barrier. SAMARA ----------------------------- Asari Justicar Abilities: Weapons: - Throw - Assault Rifle - Pull - Submachine Gun - Reave (Loyalty) Rank 4 Training: - Sapiens Justicar - Caedo Justicar +20% Health +20% Health +18% Weapon Damage +25% Weapon Damage -25% Power Recharge Time -18% Power Recharge Time Summary: Samara is a redundant character. She possesses both Assault Rifles and SMGs, which is kinda redundant, and Throw and Pull, which is also redundant. Reave is good, but its damage is dealt over time, and on Insanity, we don't have time to mess around. Preference: I don't use Samara, but if you play a class that can handle stripping most any enemy defenses, she could be excellent at dealing damage and disabling enemies. In that case, get Throw Field and Heavy Pull, or vice versa, for versatility. THANE KRIOS ----------------------------- Drell Assassin Abilities: Weapons: - Throw - Assault Rifle - Warp - Submachine Gun - Shredder Ammo (Loyalty) Rank 4 Training: - Drell Marksman - Drell Veteran +15% Health +20% Health +50% Weapon Damage +37.50% Weapon Damage Summary: Thane is a great character for damage dealing. His sniper skills are top notch, Warp is ever-so handy, and Throw keeps close range baddies at bay. Shredder Ammo, while not the best, can add some deadliness to his damage. Preference: Heavy Warp, you know me. And, like other sniper mates, Thane's weapon damage training in Drell Marksman makes him very deadly. Throw Field can work wonders against Husk swarms if you've got Incineration Blast as well. TALI'ZORAH ----------------------------- Quarian Machinist Abilities: Weapons: - Combat Drone - Shotgun - AI Hacking - Heavy Pistol - Energy Drain (Loyalty) Rank 4 Training: - Quarian Engineer - Quarian Mechanic +20% Health +20% Health +18% Weapon Damage +25% Weapon Damage +25% Power Duration +18% Power Duration Summary: Tali is a strange character, with great distraction abilities and equipped with a shotgun. Energy Drain is like an Overload that also charges shields, so that gives her both an offensive and a defensive edge once she's loyal. Preference: I've never really used Tali, but I think her Drone would be the more useful of her abilities, seeing as how AI Hacking is largely situational based on what type of enemies you're fighting. LEGION ----------------------------- Geth Infiltrator Abilities: Weapons: - Combat Drone - Sniper Rifle - AI Hacking - Submachine Gun - Geth Shield Boost (Loyalty) Rank 4 Training: - Geth Assassin - Geth Trooper +15% Health +20% Health +25% Weapon Damage +18% Weapon Damage -25% Power Recharge Time -25% Power Recharge Time Summary: Legion is just like Tali except he's geared toward long range with his sniper; Legion gets the Widow, which has amazing offense, and Geth Shield Boost gives him both exra survivability and extra damage if you choose to get the Improved version. It's too bad you can't get Legion until so late in the game... Preference: Same as Tali, I max out his Drone and loyalty skill for extra flexibility. AI Hacking is ok. I give Legion the weapon damage, since he rocks the M98a-Widow. ZAEED MASSANI ----------------------------- Mercenary Veteran Abilities: Weapons: - Concussive Shot - Assault Rifle - Disruptor Ammo - Sniper Rifle - Inferno Grenade (Loyalty) Rank 4 Training: - Mercenary Warlord - Mercenary Commando +15% Health +20% Health +50% Weapon Damage +37.50% Weapon Damage Summary: Zaeed is an excellent squad member, especially in the early game. His rifle skills are lethal, and his abilities are very well rounded. Inferno Grenade should be used to stun groups of undefended enemies. Preference: Squad Disruptor is my main aim; it's nice against mercs and shreds synthetics. Mercenary Warlord puts Zaeed's rifle damage at maximum awesome. KASUMI GOTO ----------------------------- Master Thief Abilities: Weapons: - Shadow Strike - Submachine Gun - Overload - Heavy Pistol - Flashbang Grenade (Loyalty) Rank 4 Training: - Master Infiltrator - Master Saboteur +20% Health +20% Health +18% Weapon Damage +25% Weapon Damage -25% Power Recharge Time -18% Power Recharge Time Summary: Kasumi is an interesting character. Her abilities are balanced between heavy damage dealing, defense stripping, and disabling. With the right setup, she can be an excellent addition to your squad. Preference: Shadow Strike is tricky to use, and can easily put Kasumi in grave danger, but it also deals insane damage. Deadly only adds 100 damage while Rapid allows her cooldown to be extremely short, given that she gets a killing blow, and that's the tricky part. Overload is a good skill, but we already have two characters with it, so why not max Flashbang? It's the most impressive disabling skill in the game. \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > P O W E R S L I S T < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ [PWR] A comprehensive list of all powers and their evolutions, and a few words on the usefulness of each power. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Combat Powers ) ``````````````````` ADRENALINE RUSH ----------------------------- Hyper-accelerates your reflexes, giving you time to line up the perfect shot. Duration: 5.00 s Heightened Adrenaline Rush Hardened Adrenaline Rush |- Recharge Time: 3.00 s |- Recharge Time: 3.00 s |- Time Dilation: +70% |- Time Dilation: +50% '- Weapon Damage: +140% |- Weapon Damage: +100% '- Health Damage Taken: -50% The bread and butter of Soldier Shepard. Maxing this out quick means you get to use it more often. Both evolutions are great. Heightened allows you to aim with the greatest of precision and deadliness, while Hardened makes Soldier Shepard the toughest mo' around. CONCUSSIVE SHOT ----------------------------- A massive blast that propels enemies with bone-crushing force. Shepard Recharge Time: 6.00 s Squad Recharge Time: 12.00 s Heavy Concussive Shot Concussive Blast |- Force: 600 N |- Force: 450 N '- Damage: 100 |- Damage: 75 '- Impact Radius: 3.00 m Concussive Shot is under-estimated by some people. It does good damage against barriers, and also knocks undefended foes off their feet, causing them to take extra damage. It's usually not quite worth fully investing into, though. FORTIFICATION ----------------------------- A brief but massive boost to your armor. Recharge Time: 12.00 s Improved Fortification Heavy Fortification |- Duration: 180.00 s |- Duration: 60.00 s '- Armor Bonus: 75% '- Armor Bonus: 100% Fortification is just like Barrier or Geth Shield Boost in terms of use; it's an "oh $%@#!" button when you're under heavy fire. It makes Grunt the toughest squad member ever, but I'd recommend Barrier or Geth Shield Boost for Shepard, since this one is not affected by any biotic/tech upgrades. INFERNO GRENADE ----------------------------- Launches a volatile grenade that explodes on impact, sending searing waves of flame in all directions. Shepard Recharge Time: 6.00 s Zaeed Recharge Time: 9.00 s Heavy Inferno Grenade Inferno Blast Grenade |- Impact Radius: 3.50 m |- Impact Radius: 4.50 m |- Damage: 100 over 4.00 s |- Damage: 70 over 4.00 s '- Fragments: 5 '- Fragments: 6 Inferno Grenade isn't great on the damage part, but it disables unshielded enemies really well; it's like instant area Incendiary. I've always felt that there are better places to invest points than this skill; one point and it works great. FLASHBANG GRENADE ----------------------------- A disorienting concussive charge is thrown that inflicts minor damage and incapacitates all nearby targets. Shepard Recharge Time: 6.00 s Kasumi Recharge Time: 9.00 s Frag Grenade Improved Flashbang Grenade |- Impact Radius: 7.00 m |- Impact Radius: 9.00 m |- Damage: 120 |- Damage: 75 '- Incapacitate Duratiom: 4.00 s '- Incapacitate Duratiom: 6.00 s Damn! Inferno Grenade was good at disabling enemies, but this is excellent! I'd pump this up to Improved, break down enemy defenses with Area Overloard and Incineration Blast, then let this puppy fly! It's much harder to use as an extra power on Shepard, since you actually have to toss a grenade and wait for it to explode. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Ammo Powers ) ````````````````` All ammo powers have a 1.50 s recharge time and last until overwritten by any other ammo power. INCENDIARY AMMO ----------------------------- Burns through armor, sets enemies on fire, and damages health. Inferno Ammo Squad Incendiary Ammo |- Fire Damage: 60% weapon damage |- Fire Damage: 40% weapon damage | over 3.00 s | over 3.00 s '- 3.00 m Blast radius '- All squad members benefit Incendiary Ammo is excellent for panicking organics; it stops them in their tracks, ceasing fire and bring them out of cover. It also adds extra damage. I never liked Inferno Ammo; it doesn't seem to panic enemies as frequently. If you don't have Incendiary on your class, bringing a team member with Squad Incendiary might be a good option. On my Soldier, I bring it up to Rank 3 for the +40% damage and leave it at that. DISRUPTOR AMMO ----------------------------- Rips through shields and shreds synthetic targets. Heavy Disruptor Ammo Squad Disruptor Ammo |- +60% Weapon Damage against |- +40% Weapon Damage against | shields and synthetics | shields and synthetics |- Disables Synthetics |- Disables Synthetics for 3.00 seconds | for 3.00 seconds |- Overheats Weapons for 6.00 seconds '- Overheats Weapons '- All squad members benefit for 6.00 seconds Disruptor is great when fighting mercenaries, and even better when fighting mechs and Geth. Zaeed's specialty, as I prefer, is Squad Disruptor; when he tags along, Geth get worked. Heavy just isn't worth it, and on my Soldier, I have better places to invest points past the initial two to unlock Incendiary. CRYO AMMO ----------------------------- Freezes enemies, allowing you to shatter them with gunfire or biotics. Improved Cryo Ammo Squad Cryo Ammo '- Freeze Duration: 7.00 s |- Freeze Duration: 5.00 s '- All squad members benefit Only really worth it if you go for Squad Cryo for the extra passive disabling. On my Soldier, I love Squad Cryo for just that. It's excellent for my team members who have no innate ammo powers of their own. I activate Squad Cryo for my team mates, then put some Incendiary on my own gun. Other than Squad Cryo, I don't recommend investing points in this skill. ARMOR PIERCING AMMO ----------------------------- Increases damage to armor and health. Tungsten Ammo Squad Armor Piercing Ammo '- +70% Weapon Damage against |- +50% Weapon Damage against health and armor | health and armor '- All squad members benefit An excellent damage buff for you and your party. This baby packs a huge punch, but it doesn't have the stopping power of Incendiary Ammo. Garrus wrecks with this, but I prefer Incendiary myself. WARP AMMO ----------------------------- Transforms absorbed biotic energy into heavier damage against health, armor, and biotic barriers. Heavy Warp Ammo Squad Warp Ammo '- +50% Weapon Damage |- +35% Weapon Damage '- All squad members benefit This is a basic damage buff against all enemies. It's not very potent, and it has no special effects to it, so it's pretty lack-luster. A lot of folks swear by this, but I for one don't think it makes the cut. The Squad version isn't powerful enough to warrant the points either, since squad damage is nerfed as it is, and an extra +35% isn't going to add much. According to masseffect.wikia.com the damage bonus is doubled against enemies under biotic effects, but if enemies are under biotic effects, they're disabled anyway, meaning they take extra damage anyway... SHREDDER AMMO ----------------------------- Increases damage to health of organic targets. Improved Shredder Ammo Squad Shredder Ammo '- +80% Weapon Damage against |- +60% Weapon Damage against organic health | organic health '- All squad members benefit This is a very situational ammo power, but it provides a massive damage boost. I never felt like acquiring the Squad version on myself or Thane, but giving Thane the Improved version means he'll take Collectors down like cake once their barriers are down. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Biotic Powers ) ``````````````````` SINGULARITY ----------------------------- A dark energy sphere dangles your enemies helplessly, leaving them wide open to attack. Recharge Time: 4.50 s Heavy Singularity Wide Singularity |- Duration: 45.00 s |- Duration: 30.00 s |- Impact Radius: 1.75 m |- Impact Radius: 3.00 m |- Hold Duration: 9.00 s |- Hold Duration: 7.00 s '- Max Targets: 6 '- Max Targets: 4 This miniature blackhole holds enemies in place; if they have no defense, they'll be thrown into the air, similar to a Pull effect. Perfect for setting up Warp detonations and keeping fearsome attackers at range. CHARGE ----------------------------- Using a damaging shockwave, ram into the enemy with incredible force. Range: 40.00 m Recharge Time: 6.00 s Shield Duration: 4.00 s Heavy Charge Area Charge |- Impact Force: 1000 N |- Impact Force: 750 N |- Shield Strength: 100% |- Shield Strength: 75% '- Time Dilation Effect '- Impact Radius: 3.00 m The Vanguard's specialty, this move covers the 'closing in' step of battle. Higher ranks will allow it to boost your shields and hit harder. Heavy Shield is the preferred version by most Vanguard players for the strongest shields and the time dilation effect it gives. WARP ----------------------------- Rips enemies apart at the molecular level and stops health regeneration. Effective against armor and biotic barriers. Shepard Recharge Time: 6.00 s Squad Recharge Time: 12.00 s Heavy Warp Unstable Warp |- Damage: 200 |- Damage: 160 |- Detonation Radius: 5.00 m |- Detonation Radius: 7.00 m '- Detonation Force: 700 N '- Detonation Force: 700 N Warp is the biotic's main gun. For Shepard, Unstable warp is great, since it's much easier to get biotic effects out and detonate with a Warp. I prefer to have the Heavy version for my squad mates, though, since it's on a longer cooldown and the extra damage is handy for those tough targets. PULL ----------------------------- Levitates enemies, rendering them helpless while they drift towards you. Shepard Recharge Time: 3.00 s Squad Recharge Time: 9.00 s Heavy Pull Pull Field '- Duration: 12.00 s |- Duration: 9.00 s '- Impact Radius: 3.00 m Pull is a simple disabling power, good for setting up Warp detonations. Heavy Pull should be chosen for disabling tough enemies for a long period of time; Pull Field is great for disabling many enemies at once. THROW ----------------------------- Hurls enemies through the air using a powerful biotic field. Shepard Recharge Time: 3.00 s Squad Recharge Time: 9.00 s Heavy Throw Throw Field '- Force: 1200 N |- Force: 900 N '- Impact Radius: 3.00 m Throw is much like Pull, except enemies aren't disabled for as long, and they aren't as open to fire either, but Throw can get those nasty buggers out of your face. SHOCKWAVE ----------------------------- Biotic shockwaves topple enemies in your path. Shepard Recharge Time: 6.00 s Squad Recharge Time: 12.00 s Heavy Shockwave Improved Shockwave |- Shockwaves: 12 |- Shockwaves: 12 |- Impact Radius: 2.50 m |- Impact Radius: 3.50 m '- Impact Force: 700 N '- Impact Force: 500 N Shockwave is biotic chaos at its best. This move tears through swarms of enemies, given that they're undefended. I'd go for the extra impact radius over the force anyday. BARRIER ----------------------------- Creates a shield that soaks huge amounts of damage. Recharge Time: 12.00 s Heavy Barrier Improved Barrier |- Duration: 60.00 s |- Duration: 180.00 s '- Barrier Strength: 100% '- Barrier Strength: 75% This is exactly like Fortification, except with a different graphic, and this power is affected by the Biotic Cooldown upgrade, making it recharge faster. REAVE ----------------------------- Damages target's nervous or synthetic systems to prevent healing. Restores health and gives a temporary health bonus when the power is used against organics. Reave also does double damage to armor and barriers. Shepard Recharge Time: 6.00 s Samara Recharge Time: 12.00 s Heavy Reave Area Reave '- Damage: 40 per second |- Damage: 40 per second for 4.00 seconds for 5.50 seconds '- Impact Radius: 3.00 m Reave is an interesting ability, leeching healh over time and shortly toppling over organic targets. Area Reave has more potential damage than Heavy Reave. SLAM ----------------------------- A biotic body-slam that inflicts massive damage. Shepard Recharge Time: 3.00 s Miranda Recharge Time: 9.00 s Heavy Slam Crippling Slam |- Lift Duration: 1.50 s |- Lift Duration: 1.30 s '- Slam Force: 800 N |- Slam Force: 600 N '- Cripple Duration: 8.00 s Slam is a single-target only biotic power that I never found to do much damage, contrary to its description. It is good at disabling enemies temporarily, but there are more efficient powers for that anyway. DOMINATE ----------------------------- Brainwash an organic enemy, forcing him to attack his allies. Recharge Time: 6.00 s Enhanced Dominate Group Dominate |- Duration: 12.00 s |- Duration: 9.00 s '- Barrier Strength: 500 |- Barrier Strength: 350 '- Impact Radius: 3.00 This is the biotic/organic version of AI Hacking. It makes enemies fight for you, which can really help you out during intense battles, but requires the target to have no defenses. Higher ranks give the target a temporary barrier. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Tech Powers ) ````````````````` TECH ARMOR ----------------------------- Energy-charged armor that boosts your shields and detonates a damaging energy wave when destroyed. Recharge Time: 12.00 s Lasts until destroyed Assault Armor Power Armor |- Shield Strength: 75% |- Shield Strength: 100% |- Pulse Radius: 18.00 m |- Pulse Radius: 12.50 m |- Pulse Damage: 100 |- Pulse Damage: 50 |- Pulse Force: 240 N |- Pulse Force: 160 N '- Pulse Shield Boost: 50% '- Power Damage Bonus: 15% This is without a doubt the best defensive skill in the game. It lasts forever, and when it's destroyed, it sends out an energy pulse that hits all enemies in a large radius, and both evolutions are quite powerful. TACTICAL CLOAK ----------------------------- To your enemies, you're invisible. Recharge Time: 6.00 s Enhanced Cloak Assassination Cloak |- Damage Bonus: 40% |- Damage Bonus: 75% '- Duration: 8.00 s '- Duration: 6.00 s Who doesn't love to go invisible? This power stops the regeneration of health and shields, but allows you to get to a safe spot. It can also be used for offense, providing a damage bonus and the opportunity to get to a perfect spot for ambush. OVERLOAD ----------------------------- Massive energy blasts overpower shields and synthetic enemies. Shepard Recharge Time: 6.00 s Squad Recharge Time: 12.00 s Heavy Overload Area Overload |- Impact Radius: 1.20 m |- Impact Radius: 3.00 m |- Damage: 200 to shields |- Damage: 120 to shields and synthetics | and synthetics |- Disables Synthetics for 3.00 seconds |- Disables Synthetics '- Overheats Weapons for 6.00 seconds | for 3.00 seconds '- Overheats Weapons for 6.00 seconds Overload is an excellent ability, always useful in de-shielding mercenaries and other enemies. It also deals damage to mechs and Geth. Area Overload is great, as shielded enemies are always in packs. INCINERATE ----------------------------- Exploding flame damages the health and armor of anyone nearby. Shepard Recharge Time: 6.00 s Squad Recharge Time: 12.00 s Heavy Incinerate Incineration Blast |- Impact Radius: 1.20 m |- Impact Radius: 3.00 m '- Damage: 210 over 3.00 s '- Damage: 170 over 3.00 s Take Overload and make it fire. You have Incinerate. It's specialty is burning off enemy armor or setting them on fire if they have none. Excellent! CRYO BLAST ----------------------------- Snap-freezes your targets. Recharge Time: 4.50 s !!! Deep Cryo Blast Full Cryo Blast |- Impact Radius: 1.20 m |- Impact Radius: 3.00 m '- Freeze Duration: 7.00 s '- Freeze Duration: 5.00 s While it may do zero damage, Cryo turns the toughest Krogan into a helpless ice block, waiting to be shattered. It also has the shortest cooldown of any squad power! COMBAT DRONE ----------------------------- Command your very own battle drone. Shepard Recharge Time: 3.00 s Squad Recharge Time: 30.00 s Attack Drone Explosive Drone '- Drone Damage: 40% |- Pulse Damage: 100 '- Pulse Radius: 6.00 m Ranking this up increases the duration the Drone lasts, as well as reducing the cooldown of its attack. Rank 4 adds damage to your Drone, either on its attack or making it explode when it's destroyed. AI HACKING ----------------------------- Turns synthetic enemies against their own allies. Shepard Recharge Time: 6.00 s Squad Recharge Time: 12.00 s Improved AI Hacking Area AI Hacking |- Duration: 12.00 s |- Duration: 9.00 s '- Shield Strength: 500 |- Shield Strength: 350 '- Impact Radius: 3.00 m Allows you to turn the tide of battle against synthetics. Very useful for those tough Geth Hunters; this allows you to take the heat off your team and give you some time to take down targets or get to cover. GETH SHIELD BOOST ----------------------------- Co-opt geth shield technology to deflect damage. Duration: 60.00 s Recharge Time: 12.00 s Heavy Geth Shield Boost Improved Geth Shield Boost '- Shield Strength: 100% |- Shield Strength: 75% '- Weapon Damage: +10% This is like Barrier, but the Improved version actually boosts your weapon damage, making this skill more preferable to combat oriented classes. ENERGY DRAIN ----------------------------- Drains enemies' kinetic barrier power to boost your shields. Shepard Recharge Time: 6.00 s Tali Recharge Time: 12.00 s Heavy Energy Drain Area Drain |- Drain: 200 |- Drain: 160 '- Impact Radius: 1.20 m '- Impact Radius: 3.00 m This is basically an Overload that uses the amount of shield damage dealt to restore your own shields. Very nice if you pick this up as an advanced power. NEURAL SHOCK ----------------------------- Cripple an organic enemy with pain. Shepard Recharge Time: 3.00 s Mordin Recharge Time: 9.00 s Heavy Neural Shock Neural Shockwave '- Duration: 12.00 s |- Duration: 9.00 s '- Impact Radius: 3.00 m This is the best single-target disabling skill in the game, without contest. It takes out organics for some time, leaving them useless, and with some points invested, it permanently damages their accuracy, lowering their threat rating. SHADOW STRIKE ----------------------------- Cloak and sneak behind an enemy to deliver a devastating blow. Recharge Time: 9.00 s Deadly Shadow Strike Rapid Shadow Strike |- Damage: 550 |- Damage: 450 '- Incapacitate: 7.00 s |- Incapacitate: 7.00 s '- Lowers cooldown by 80% if killing blow Shadow Strike is a very unique skill; Kasumi cloaks, appears behind the target, and strikes them in the back. This skill is considered only part tech, meaning that the Tech Cooldown upgrade will give its bonus, but not the Tech Damage upgrades. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Class Powers ) `````````````````` Each class power gives Shepard plentiful bonuses for his class, and this skill should always be maxed out on any playthrough. COMBAT MASTERY - Soldier ----------------------------- Makes you tougher, stronger, faster, and more charismatic. Commando Shock Trooper |- Health: +30% |- Health: +40% |- Weapon Damage: +15% |- Weapon Damage: +9% |- Storm Speed: +50% |- Storm Speed: +40% |- Power Damage: +15% |- Power Duration: +15% '- Paragon/Renegade: +70% '- Paragon/Renegade: +100% ASSAULT MASTERY - Vanguard ----------------------------- Be faster, fiercer, and more powerful on the battlefield. Destroyer Champion |- Health: +15% |- Health: +20% |- Weapon Damage: +15% |- Weapon Damage: +9% |- Power Recharge: -9% |- Power Recharge: -15% |- Power Damage: +15% |- Power Duration: +15% '- Paragon/Renegade: +70% '- Paragon/Renegade: +100% BIOTIC MASTERY - Adept ----------------------------- Unleashes your biotic power faster, quicker, and with more intensity. Bastion Nemesis |- Health: +20% |- Health: +15% |- Power Recharge: -20% |- Power Recharge: -20% |- Power Duration: +15% |- Power Damage: +15% '- Paragon/Renegade: +100% '- Paragon/Renegade: +70% TECH MASTERY - Engineer ----------------------------- Makes your creative powers faster, flashier, and more frequent. Mechanic Demolisher |- Health: +20% |- Health: +15% |- Power Recharge: -20% |- Power Recharge: -20% |- Power Duration: +15% |- Power Damage: +15% |- Research Project Cost: -25% |- Research Project Cost: -25% '- Paragon/Renegade: +100% '- Paragon/Renegade: +70% OPERATIVE - Infiltrator ----------------------------- Your weapon damage is more punishing and frequent, and targeting enemies is easier. Assassin Agent |- Health: +15% |- Health: +20% |- Weapon Damage: +15% |- Weapon Damage: +9% |- Power Recharge: -9% |- Power Recharge: -15% |- Power Damage: +15% |- Power Duration: +15% |- Sniper Time Dilation: 60% |- Sniper Time Dilation: 50% |- Time Dilation Duration: 2.25 s |- Time Dilation Duration: 2.00 s '- Paragon/Renegade: +70% '- Paragon/Renegade: +100% DEFENDER - Sentinel ----------------------------- Fine-tunes your brain, making your powers more potent and efficient. Guardian Raider |- Health: +20% |- Health: +15% |- Power Recharge: -30% |- Power Recharge: -20% '- Paragon/Renegade: +100% |- Power Damage: +15% '- Paragon/Renegade: +70% \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > E N E M I E S L I S T < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ [NME] This section is coming soon! \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > W E A P O N S L I S T < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ [WPN] This section is coming soon! \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > P C F I X E S < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ [PCF] The PC version of Mass Effect 2 comes with a few frustrations for us computer gamers. Don't fret though, there's a fix for us! ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Mouse Sensitivity ) ``````````````````````` The biggest killer to a shooter is having no adjustment for the mouse input! Yeah, Bioware messed up with this one! If you're experiencing trouble aiming, it's no surprise. In order to fix this, we've got to edit the .ini settings file. Of course, we require a third party program... Google "Mass Effect 2 Coalesced Compiler". Once installed, open the folder and go into the 'Configs' folder; open BIOInput.ini with Notepad. There are two settings we need to change. Use the 'find' function: MouseSensitivity=1.0 bUseMouseDampening=true Change mouse dampening to false. For mouse sensitivity, I use 0.2. My mouse is 1000 dpi and I find this setting to be perfect. Once you've made your changes, run ME2CC.exe and click "Compile Coalesced.ini" That's it! Sometimes after I installed new DLCs, my settings reverted. All I had to do in this situation was run ME2CC.exe and hit compile again. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ( Load Times ) ```````````````` For some reason, there's a bug that makes load times excruciatingly long for users with a multi-core CPU. Fortunately, this is easily remedied, though the fix must be used each time Mass Effect 2 is ran. Once the game is running, use Ctrl+Alt+Del to open the task manager. Under the processes tab, right-click on Mass Effect 2.exe and select "Set Affinity". Uncheck one of the boxes and hit OK. Now go back and re-check the box that you unchecked. Hit OK and close the task manager. Done! That will fix those nasty load times. Remember, you must do this each time you boot up Mass Effect 2. \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > T H A N K S < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ I'd like to thank BioWare for such a great game. Thanks to Shepard for being so awesome. Thanks to all you PC guys who found the fixes; you made it playable! And most of all, thanks to you! Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed reading my guide as much as I enjoyed writing it. \`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````/ > C O N T A C T I N F O < /,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,\ Got any suggestions? Comments? Anything I left out? Neat tips or tricks? Let me know, and I will consider using it in my guide, giving credit to you, of course. Just read my policy first, please. E-Mail Policy: If you find something wrong or erroneous within my guide, be it spelling errors or something incorrect in the information, I'd gladly accept anyone to point it out. If you have some remaining questions for me, where the answer is not found anywhere in this guide, and you have searched for it, and have looked in other places, and have determined your question to be relevant to everything else here, go ahead and send it to me. I won't take any action to answer any questions that are already answered or have nothing to do with this. Lastly, please do NOT send me any junk! Junk being insults and all related things which have no bearing on this guide. Now that you're serious about contacting me, here's my e-mail: Xmetaphysics@gmail.com I may or may not send a response to your message, so don't fret if I don't. Maybe I just didn't like your message. Nah, just kidding. I get a lot of e-mails, and sometimes I can't answer all of it. Not much else to say now... hmm. How about: Thanks for reading my guide, I hope you enjoyed it. ^_^ ~X-Metaphysics ----- Copyright (c) 2010 Ryan Vasquez _,.~*'`\---------------------/`'*~.,_ < S H E P A R D > `'~;.,_/---------------------\_,.;~'`