MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA (Here be Spoilers)

[J.T.]

So I did some meta yesterday.  I respecced myself, put some points into Trip Mine, Charge, and a few more powers, and then landed back on Eos to knock out the Vanguard Surprise and Rough Landing rare achievements. Then I reverted back to a Manual Save that I took back on the Tempest to recover the creds I spent on the respec.

It took a couple of tries to unlock Vanguard Surprise because Jaal kept one shotting my potential targets while I was in mid-Charge.

I figured that when I do my Adept Prodigy Sara Ryder playthrough some time in 2025 and hopefully before I die, I can knock out Trapshooter, Fast Ball, and Sucker Punch since you can do all of those as a True Biotic and not bother to mess with your powers or your profile..

So I am finally on Kadara.  Sloane Kelly's faction sure does have a lot of assholes in it.  Kadara Port is like Mos Eisley only with more neon.  My kinda place.  No nightclub like the one on Omega, though.  Pity.

I met Evfra's spy who is probably Gay Ryder Suitor #2 and then went to see what was for sale at the market.  I parked Ryder in front of the Mod Merchant before crashing for the night and will go chat with Sloane this afternoon when I get home from work. 

I imagine it will go south pretty quickly, because Sloane honoring my request or me leaving this planet without getting into a gun fight is too much like right. The game will eventually force me to choose between Sloane and The Charlatan to run this hive of scum and villainy..  

Too bad I can't just blow all of these traitorous dbags to bits, install Kesh as a regional governor, and let the Krogan be in charge.  At least that way I would be on track to get back on Clan Nakmor's good side.

There is a glitched Silver APEX mission in my queue today.  I did the Bronze and Silver APEX missions this morning, but the Silver mission did not expire upon completion and I cannot assign to any of my Strike Teams without getting a Network Error Failure message.

I retired another Strike Team this morning (they got the Negative Trait associated with Bribe Attempt and I can't have corrupt peeps under my command), recruited a replacement, and I also splurged on Black Widows for my Level 20 Salarian STG Kett Specialist Strike Team, so I am down to a little under 400 Mission Funds. 

Hopefully today's new Item Store stuff won't be that expensive.  I also wonder how crazy the new Weekend APEX mission will be?  At least it will Silver difficulty rather than Gold.

[RIPPA]

39 minutes ago, J.T. said:

I figured that when I do my Adept Prodigy Sara Ryder playthrough some time in 2025 and hopefully before I die, I can knock out Trapshooter, Fast Ball, and Sucker Punch since you can do all of those as a True Biotic and not bother to mess with your powers or your profile..

They take literally 5 minutes to do. It is way easier to do that then wait for a 2nd playthrough that you will never do.

In fact - you not having Sucker Punch already says to me that you aren't using Peebee in your squad.

(FYI - don't use the sword. For some reason (unless it was patched) sword kills don't count as "melee" at least for the achievement)

[J.T.]

2 hours ago, RIPPA said:

They take literally 5 minutes to do. It is way easier to do that then wait for a 2nd playthrough that you will never do.

In fact - you not having Sucker Punch already says to me that you aren't using Peebee in your squad.

I use Peebee quite a bit, but my muscle memory has me using Energy Drain to detonate her Pulls rather than bashing her floaties with melee attacks...

It is probably easier to get Sucker Punch done by using your own Pulls rather than rely on Peebee (I've gotten pretty good at punching floating enemies in MP) and honestly, playing Sara as a change of pace may inspire me to not mess around and beat the game faster during a second go around.

It'd also be nice to unlock the Romance achievement without having to play as Scott again, just in case my dalliances with Keri and Avela do not count towards the Romance achievment and word gets to Cora that I am a man whore...

Thanks for telling me about the sword deal.  First thing on my Adept Sara playthrough agenda was to use my Gold Loot Boxes from MP to equip her with an Asari Sword.

In my current game with Scott, I have him barshing things with a Kett Carfalon.

[Robert C]

12 hours ago, jstout said:

Yeah, I noticed you were on, but I wound up hashing out some bullshit on Facebook and not playing. I did fail the One Life to Live silver mission when I found I had somehow used all five of my band-aids without knowing I had used one. Probably should pay more attention to what I'm doing.

Losing power yesterday meant I didn't get to try that Apex mission till y'all had dropped off.  It was an absolute shitshow.

First run went fairly smooth at first.  Nobody died till round 5.  Somebody went down right at the start of round 6, which was when I knew we were in trouble.  Second guy went down about the time we got the first target.  I wound up having to use an RPG on the Anointed that was the second target, just because there was so much shit around, and my remaining teammate was nowhere to be seen.  Third target was an Ascendant, who brought along a Fiend and about a dozen assorted Anointeds, Destineds, etc for company.  Two more rockets didn't get the job done, and one of the random Kett finally got me.  Realized then that I'd been the only one alive.  Dunno when the third guy even died.   At least I got my Operator to 20 from that, so I can ignore him from now on.

Second run was an even bigger mess.  Joined 3 relatively high level guys.  One had a higher Apex than me, and another was close.  Somebody died on round 2, but we had it under control till we got hit with a host drop.  When it finally restarted, there were only 2 of us, and the second guy had not yet loaded into the mission.  Ran to the back spot where everybody camps on that map and just tried to hold the fort.  Had to use one health pack to stay alive.  Second guy finally got in about halfway through the round.  2 others joined at the end of the round.  Rounds 3-5 had multiple deaths in each round.  We also lost both of the latecomers, who were replaced with equally shitty players.  I think at least one of the replacements dropped as well.  Round 6 was a nightmare again.  2 guys died early, and it was down to me again before the last target.  Managed to get him this time, and then just camped at extraction till I got the remaining Kett.  Had to use all 4 remaining health packs bagging the last 2 targets solo.  Both of the guys that died early dropped during the round, and we picked up 2 more.  Round 7 was a mess as well.  Again we had 2 early deaths again, leaving me and the original round 2 guy.  By the time I got to extraction my teammate was nowhere to be seen.  Worse, I was getting mauled by Anointed, had no health packs, and was watching an extra special extended episode of the Andy Griffith Show.  Thought for sure I was dead, but lucked out and managed to get my invisibility back at just the right time.  The second guy just barely made it in as time expired.  One of the two dead guys had dropped before we extracted, so we finished with 3, one of whom was dead.  I think we had 7-8 drops total after the big round 2 host drop/room dump.

[J.T.]

I ran the glitched Silver APEX mission (Firebase Aqua) two times this morning and it had the One Life To Live stip.  Both Extraction Waves were comedies of errors.

I ran my Human Female Infiltrator the first time and I was the only one to make it to the shuttle.  I was an asshole and cloaked with eight seconds to go while my Asari Adept friend died under a hail of Soned bullets from a pair of Anointed while being mauled by Wraiths.  That dude was a fucking kill stealing dick anyway.

I ran my Human Female Sentinel the second time and once again I was ultimo chica..  I tried to hold the high ground on the far side of the Aqua map, but my squaddies were newbies and immediately bailed for the LZ.  Things went south pretty quickly from that point on as every Kett in play zerged the evac coordinates..  I went in for support, but the squad started dropping like flies one by one.   One player managed to take out the Ascendant and the Fiend with Cobras before getting taken out in turn.  I burned two Ammo Packs to keep myself with enough Power Cells to constantly make Barricades and I spent 14 long seconds generating Tech Combos and electrocuting the enemies that charged my Barricade.

I drove to work today feeling an enormous amount of Survivor's Guilt.

[RUkered]

14 hours ago, jstout said:

Yeah, I noticed you were on, but I wound up hashing out some bullshit on Facebook and not playing. I did fail the One Life to Live silver mission when I found I had somehow used all five of my band-aids without knowing I had used one. Probably should pay more attention to what I'm doing.

I saw you on too and was planning to shoot you a message after I finished the mission I was playing, but I ended up having shut it down and do actual crap (thanks for messing up my walls, you old damned water heater.)

I have been doing mostly golds so I can rack up points for box shopping. One of them had a level 9 guy in it. I was about to back out, but I decided to see how it played out. That sumbitch outshined every one of us, and the rest of us were 18 or higher. He actually finished in the top spot - how, I do not know. I figured he was one of those y'all talk about who hasn't seen actual sunshine in three years, but his Apex rating wasn't that much higher than mine.

I noticed that I keep running out of health packs, but never anything else. Turns out I must use them like a crackhead. I'm pulling the numbers out of my ass because I don't remember exactly, but it was something like:

Cobra RPG: 145 - Revive packs: 89 - Ammo packs: 345 - Health packs: 4

So now I am trying to not rely on them so much, because I HATE having to spend money on jumbo arsenal packs or whatever they're called.

Quick question for you guys because I haven't played enough singleplayer to know - what do I have to do to redeem the packs you get from strike teams? I keep getting messages that I'm maxed out, but I have no idea what to do in singleplayer to redeem them.

[Robert C]

8 minutes ago, RUkered said:

I saw you on too and was planning to shoot you a message after I finished the mission I was playing, but I ended up having shut it down and do actual crap (thanks for messing up my walls, you old damned water heater.)

I have been doing mostly golds so I can rack up points for box shopping. One of them had a level 9 guy in it. I was about to back out, but I decided to see how it played out. That sumbitch outshined every one of us, and the rest of us were 18 or higher. He actually finished in the top spot - how, I do not know. I figured he was one of those y'all talk about who hasn't seen actual sunshine in three years, but his Apex rating wasn't that much higher than mine.

I noticed that I keep running out of health packs, but never anything else. Turns out I must use them like a crackhead. I'm pulling the numbers out of my ass because I don't remember exactly, but it was something like:

Cobra RPG: 145 - Revive packs: 89 - Ammo packs: 345 - Health packs: 4

So now I am trying to not rely on them so much, because I HATE having to spend money on jumbo arsenal packs or whatever they're called.

Quick question for you guys because I haven't played enough singleplayer to know - what do I have to do to redeem the packs you get from strike teams? I keep getting messages that I'm maxed out, but I have no idea what to do in singleplayer to redeem them.

Have you made it to the ship yet?  If so, there's an Apex terminal in the center of the main deck of that.

Apparently there's one on the Nexus as well.  Dunno where though - probably in the pathfinder HQ.

[RIPPA]

Yeah - the APEX Terminal on the Nexus is right next to where Kandros stands in Ops

[J.T.]

There is also an Additional Task associated with the APEX terminal.  The mission serves as a tutorial for how to use Strike Teams.

Some of the easiest EXP you will earn in the game.

[RIPPA]

Problem for Burke might be that he has to play the Single Player to that point...

[RIPPA]

Stores Updated

Hydraulic Joints - +25 Melee Damage

Omni-Capacitors - +20 Tech Power Damage, +15 All Power Recharge Speeds

[J.T.]

I will buy but never use the Hydraulic Joints since I already have mods like the Martial Biotic mod and the Juggie Shield that buff Melee in addition to something else.

The Omni-Capacitors will replace the Engineering Package mod I have on most of my Tech peeps.

[jstout]

I'm going to buy Hydraulic Joints, but I'm not sure about using it. Robert has me interested in the one that gives you three more power cells capacity, but that 20 percent shield boost on the juggernaut shield is hard to give up.

[RUkered]

Thanks everyone for the info. Pretty safe bet I haven't made it far enough in singleplayer. I have played about 20-30 minutes' worth and it has been so long that I don't remember where I left off.

[J.T.]

The APEX Mission Of The Weekend, Roadside Assistance, was pretty mundane for a special Silver deal, or maybe I was a bit overpowered for it running a Level 16 Human Male Sentinel XIV with a Sandstorm V.

It was challenging but it did not feel nearly as rough as the Bronze last week.

It is also glitched like the Silver APEX mission in yesterday's queue.  You can run it as many times as you like and it will not drop out of your queue, but if you try to hand it over to a Strike Team, your game will crash.

I met with Sloane Kelly, talked about the prisoner, went to chat with him in his cell.... and suddenly had the horrible feeling that I should've told Kelly to fuck off and let Reyes do his thing..

I also talked to the Charlatan's rep at the bar.  Decided I didn't like the sound of that faction either.

Good thing I kept my Mission save when I first landed on Kadara.  I have no idea why these choices still bother me since I know there will be no DLC to hold my feet to the fire.

[RIPPA]

22 minutes ago, J.T. said:

The APEX Mission Of The Weekend, Roadside Assistance, was pretty mundane for a special Silver deal, or maybe I was a bit overpowered for it running a Level 16 Human Male Sentinel XIV with a Sandstorm V.

It was challenging but it did not feel nearly as rough as the Bronze last week..

I had more problem with this one than the other one but that was because I got dropped in on Wave 2 and there was only one other dude. And of course - the poor fella was trying to do Assassinations by himself with a Batarian Vanguard that he clearly just got and didn't put any points in yet. So it took a little time to regain our footing. We also had a full crew by then end of Wave 3 and then we were fine.

I was a little pissed as I needed 10 more waves to get the Bronze Waves Challenge. I literally had 20 seconds left so I just slammed myself into a Bronze match... and got dropped in on extraction. And then I looked and the challenges had reset 

[J.T.]

Omni-Capacitors are definitely the way to go for your Tech Power folks unless you're playing Pistol Skirmish where you should probably be using the Expert Package with your Tech folks and the Commando Package with your Biotic folks.

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

I was a little pissed as I needed 10 more waves to get the Bronze Waves Challenge. I literally had 20 seconds left so I just slammed myself into a Bronze match... and got dropped in on extraction. And then I looked and the challenges had reset 

This is why I try to knock out the DCs around the 8PM change over time. 

I only have time enough in the mornings after breakfast to deal with the Bronze APEX mission and if I haven't done the DCs by then, I don't usually get to the crib with enough time to finish up DCs since I am doing my best to get through Campaign Mode.

Playing during the weekend can be rough since I have man shit to get done and I like to spend time with my woman on Saturdays since I am away all week.

[Casey]

I just started this last night. Completed the Eos mission, got to the next world... and now I'm left wondering why Mass Effect is crossing over with Avatar.

[jstout]

Because all the blue ones are wildcats in the sack?

[AxB]

5 hours ago, Casey said:

I just started this last night. Completed the Eos mission, got to the next world... and now I'm left wondering why Mass Effect is crossing over with Avatar.

PS4 or XBone, and are you going to do multiplayer?

[RUkered]

Did a gold with randoms earlier, and shit was it tough - damn Berserker party.

I had saved myself enough cobras, a couple health packs, and a couple revives for wave 7 because I knew it would take moving heaven and Earth to finish that thing.

I'm on the complete opposite side of the map when I'm suddenly surrounded by two Berserkers and I'm getting my arm chewed off by Rin Tin Tin. I yanked loose and fired a Cobra in the middle of all of them when I heard the countdown beep. 13 seconds to get to the LZ, clear on the other side of the map.

Spammed the B button like my life depended on it and dove in the LZ to find more Berserkers. Fired my last Cobra and threw out Singularity, and a teammate goes down with 4 seconds left.

Somehow, one of the others got his ass revived just as the clock hit zero and we got a full extraction.

I had to turn it off after that. I have been in fights in real life that weren't that intense.

[Casey]

5 hours ago, AxB said:

PS4 or XBone, and are you going to do multiplayer?

Xbox One, and eventually I'll do multiplayer probably. I'm more of a campaign oriented player, but if the online crew here is active enough on the weekends I could be talked into joining.

[jstout]

Yeah, there's several of us still playing on the XBox One side, three or four with some regularity. My gamertag is jstout423.

A correction: Screwed up my post about the ammo boxes from a while back.

There's four power cells in ammo boxes for whatever you need them for.

My Angara Avenger uses power cells for sticky grenades and cloaking. Her capacity is four each. So let's say I use all four stickies and all four cloaks before going to an ammo box. When I go, both will be refilled to four, but that box is empty for the rest of the wave.

Let's say I use no grenades (four left) and I use all of my cloaks. If I go to an ammo box, I'll get no grenades (I'm full up on those) and four cloaks (filling my supply), and that ammo box is empty for the rest of the wave because I got four power cells for cloaks.

Let's say I use three grenades (one left) and two cloaks. If I go to a box, I'll get filled up to four apiece, but since it gave me three grenades, there's only one cell left in the box. So let's say I use two grenades and two cloaks and go back to the same box. I'll only get one of each and the box will be dead for the rest of the wave.

And Robert, this is more of a tip for you because you're the only other one I know playing the Avenger, but in a sequence where you melee someone and then cloak to prevent damage from other nearby enemies, try jumping in the air and cloaking in mid-air. I read about this, but didn't really see it in action until tonight. The enemies shoot at the last place they saw you. If it's mid-air, they'll be shooting in the air while you're on the ground. I got in the habit of doing that early.

I also know that my enthusiasm for this game has about been ground into dust by the constant variants of guns I'll never use. I have the Venom Bulwark up to VIII, but the Venom's a sub-par shotgun. I have tons of these things up to VI and VII, but they're all guns I'll never use. I'm using a Scattershot Siphon V right now. According to some of my online reading, apparently the Siphon models are the way to go unless you're really disciplined and all about staying together as a team, which would make the Bulwark your best bet.

EDIT:  Me out loud to teammates who couldn't hear me during a game Sunday afternoon: "Do I finally get to kill something now, or am I just gonna run around reviving you assholes for the rest of the wave?"

[Gonzo]

I finally went to the Archon's ship and got the map of Meridian! Hooray, me!

Have a few other things to do. Didn't do the vault on Elaaden before I went to the Archon's ship. So I should probably get that knocked out. Got a couple of other things to take care of here and there, too.

But progress is being made. Ridiculously slow progress.