Mass Effect

[Stark]

Those were certainly some of the most consistently fun missions. Interesting, well done, amusing but not camp (many many quests crossed THAT line in O). But I hear F3 will suck because the armour is different.

DP, you went Soldier on your second run too, yeah?

[Vendetta]

Why is everyone doing second run as a soldier? ARs suck, heavy armour doesn't give you any achievement-able skills, and if you did what everyone seems to do and go Infiltrator first time surely you want biotics? Madness.

Late game ARs aren't that bad. Garrus was certainly ripping people to bits with his in my last party. I think all the weapons are a bit piddly early on, snipers are wobbalicious, ARs are hampered by piss poor accuracy, shotguns fire slowly and heat up quickly, and pistols do puny damage.

Late on though they all turn godly.

[Stark]

I guess that's true: I've got my Infiltrator running around with an unskilled AR hosing people just fine at level 48. But still, playing soldier = one achievement that you can get elsewhere! Be more an achievement whore!

[DPDarkPrimus]

Those were certainly some of the most consistently fun missions. Interesting, well done, amusing but not camp (many many quests crossed THAT line in O). But I hear F3 will suck because the armour is different.

DP, you went Soldier on your second run too, yeah?

Infiltrator, then Soldier, now an Adept.

I'm considering re-doing my Infiltrator so that he can have Lift, but I don't know if I can recreate his face. I suppose I can try.

[Vendetta]

I'm going for five this time. Renegade, AR Spec, First Aid spec (big dumb soldier with lots of HP = lots of healing), and Wrex and Tali exclusive NPCs. (My last party settled too late into being Me, Garrus, and Liara to get the achievements, you pretty much have to only use those characters from the second you recruit them).

[Stark]

Ah I see. I'm doing adept second, for two new NPCs, all the bio skills and renegade. I didn't realise neural shock was medicine not first aid until recently, so I'll have to do it a third time I guess. I'm confident I can beat the game in less than 10 hours, since Citadel only takes 1.5h even starting anew on hardcore and dying a bit.

Oh, and hardcore. I need to level Anton up to 50 too, although I doubt I'll have the patience to get him up to 60.

Since a lot of stuff carries over, does anyone know if I have to play the whole game with Anton's original team again, or if I just have to use it long enough to pick up the mission milestones I missed the first time? By the time I finished Feros I had decided on a team, but I brough the Asari to Noveria.

[Vendetta]

Checking the achieve360 forums, it's all about sidequests.

Garus & Tali - I had completed 15main story quests and 44 assignments when I got these

Kaiden - I had completed 15 main story quests and 33 assignments when I got his

Liara - I had completed 17 main story quests and 39 assignments when I got hers. She is the last character you acquire in the main story, and thus misses out on the first few main story quests. Her achievement popped up after I finished Virmire and went back to the citadel. I completed the Drug Addict and The Fan quests at the citadel before I went to the council, and voila her achievement popped up.

Ashley - I had completed 15 main story quests and 28 assignments, got hers on Feros

Wrex - I had completed 16 main story and 33 assignments, got his after Feros from a random assignment before heading to Virmire, remember if you're gonna go to Virmire before finishing Wrex's achievement, you need enough Charm or Intimidate to keep him alive during the "impossible situation"

So if you churn through all the available sidequests with one particular party, missing out the long shit like scav hunts, it should come up. The achievements pop as soon as you meet the criteria.

[Stark]

Hmm. Since the Codex carries over, I guess the mission tallys do too. Hopefully I just have to redo Noveria (since it's like 6-7 main missions one after the other) and that'll do it.

[Rightous Fist Of Heaven]

Get one million bucks for the 'rich' achievement.

Vendors have a 'buyback' pane, where you can get your shit back for the value they paid you not retail. So go to a vendor, sell everything to get over a million, get the achievement, then buy everything you want back.

In all seriousness, how far through are you? That's about the time it took me to finish the game. Where do you think the extra time comes from? I even did all the stupid scavenger hunts.

EDIT - also, with Rich only a few vendors (like C-Sec and Normandy shops) sell the Spectre weapons. Oh and you should also be high level, so let me know if you hit level 50 on first play through.

Hmm, I've gone through Noveria and picked up T'Soni from the main storyline. Seriously, I've been going through it veeery slowly. Scouring through every planet I can land on to find every mineral deposit there is and visiting Citadel rather often. Im level 35 now, and still have quite a few side-quests and stuff to go. I think I can get 50 on the first playthrough

Thanks for the tip on how to get the Spectre weapons. Im actually missing a whopping 20k from 1 mil, and I still have the habit of saving a whole bunch of old crap I figure I just might need at some point. A fuckton of exoskeleton, medical, combat scanner etc. upgrades of level IV and above.

[Havok]

Fun little hint: Frictionless Materials IX/X x2 = NEVER Overheat your weapons.

[Stark]

Hmm, I've gone through Noveria and picked up T'Soni from the main storyline. Seriously, I've been going through it veeery slowly. Scouring through every planet I can land on to find every mineral deposit there is and visiting Citadel rather often. Im level 35 now, and still have quite a few side-quests and stuff to go. I think I can get 50 on the first playthrough

I did all that too. I finished all the scavenger hunts. I blame the levelling for my loss of xp: I spent most of my playtime sub level25 doing planet trawling, and you don't get much xp. If I'd been facing quality 500xp-a-kill guys I'd have made 50 for sure.

Thanks for the tip on how to get the Spectre weapons. Im actually missing a whopping 20k from 1 mil, and I still have the habit of saving a whole bunch of old crap I figure I just might need at some point. A fuckton of exoskeleton, medical, combat scanner etc. upgrades of level IV and above.

I kept running into the 150 item limit, so I gelled and sold absolutely everything I didn't need. A few hours later I hit the 150 item limit again.

Due to the stupid interface I've missed some really cool drops because of that hilariously stupid limit.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

Well, I finished the game and was pretty disappointed by the linearity of the story. As many mentioned before, your choices hardly impact the consequences of the storyline except at a few key points and in the end. I played a male character so I didn't exactly get that woman on woman action. However, it amused me when I found out that they named the nightclub "Flux". The homosexual agenda strikes again!

[SylasGaunt]

I found a new mission I missed on my first play through, that has a dumb fucking ending when you choose the blue option... the chick on the Citadel that wants you to KILL here competitors in the gang she is in... so you do it go meet her and choose your good guy option and she gives up her life of crime and disbands the gang... huh? Yeah right.
I suppose though that if you choose the red option you can blow hell out of the whole gang, but still,, just fucking dumb.

Well having a spectre the person in front of you who just killed the competition telling you to shut down.. might be wise to do the same.

And no the red option intimidates her out. It's the middle options I believe that kicks off the firefight.

Fun little hint: Frictionless Materials IX/X x2 = NEVER Overheat your weapons.

Hell high frictionless materials in just one slot will make the spectre weapons damn near never overheat.. though now I'm gonna try this combo and see how it goes in combination with High Ex rounds.. mmm AR HE.

[Havok]

Fun little hint: Frictionless Materials IX/X x2 = NEVER Overheat your weapons.

Hell high frictionless materials in just one slot will make the spectre weapons damn near never overheat.. though now I'm gonna try this combo and see how it goes in combination with High Ex rounds.. mmm AR HE.

You still have to be cool, but it adds challenge back into the game as you can't just endlessly pour rounds out.

[Stark]

Double biojedi cheese on Saren = hilariously easy, even on Hardcore. He was warped, shut down and lifted/singularitied/thrown the entire battle and never did anything except die.

[Peptuck]

Running through my fifth playthrough now as an Adept on Hardcore, which is a hefty challenge. I'm basically walking tissue paper.

But I'm a walking piece of tissue paper that's maxed out all ranks in Lift, Throw, Singularity, and Assault Rifles, and I keep Ashley or Wrex nearby to serve as ablative meat shields.

[Stark]

Pfft nah. Adepts suck lowend (ie, pre-decent armour) but once you hit level 20 you'll never, ever die ever and nobody will ever do anything because they're too busy flying. Singularity (with the prestige class to boost it's duration) lasts longer than and tech disable and disables EVERYTHING simultaneously over a huge area: whole battles can be won in seconds as all the krogan get sucked into the sky where they can't use their CHEESY AS ALL SHIT SELF-RESPAWN. Fuckers.

With stimulants, class levels and companion bonuses your cooldowns are amazingly low, too. Like I posted above, I killed Saren on Hardcore in 15 seconds and he never got a single shot off. What a fucking pussy.

The biggest advantage for adpets early game is that throw is a great 'oh shit' ass-saver. They're a bit rubbish until they get the better powers, and eventually I even found a use for stasis (which I consider largely useless). I had to fire it 75 times for the achievement, you see.

But FIVE TIMES? WTF? I'm about to start the third runthough, but my epeen-radar means I have to use a technician with Tali and Kaidan... ie THE WORST TEAM EVER OF PUSSIES on insanity. At least I got shotgun and AR achievements without having to play as a boring-ass Soldier.

[Peptuck]

I like Throw because its a fun way to knock someone off a ledge. Properly-placed Singularities can also drag enemies off ledges too. Lift is also hilarious when used on rushing Krogan.

[Stark]

Yeah, the death by map geometry is hilarious. If you lift someone too high (or better yet lift a charging krogan) they'll fly outside the level and instantly die. With high enough levels of lift you can lift guys right off the citadel tower straight up. They never come back down.

[Ford Prefect]

I remember facing the first Asari clone on Ferros. I was ready to fuck her over with my new assault rifle, when Wrex beat me to the punch by knocking her into the pit in the opening two seconds. It was like she had teleported.

[Havok]

Has anyone played through on Insanity? Is it INSANE?!?!

[Stark]

I'm still levelling Anton to 60 before I start since I figure it gives another XP bonus. Ask one of the freaks who've already played through like half a dozen times.

[Peptuck]

Has anyone played through on Insanity? Is it INSANE?!?!

I'm having a hard time just playing it on Hardcore. Fucking snipers. Its like Halo 2 all over again....

[SylasGaunt]

Agreed. Most of the time it's not too bad, you've got teh whole warning beam thing but sometimes you just spin around a corner and die instantly. Bastards.

[Stark]

Early on it doesn't seem that hard, no harder than Hardcore was already (being one-shot by snipers = normal). From the description, it sounds like it just STAYS hard longer: after level 20 Hardcore isn't really that hard (with superguns and superarmour and mods out the ass etc).