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== The Absolute Minimum ==
==General Advice==


* The "Rich" achievement requires 1 million credits in your account, and unlocks Spectre weapons. Other gear isn't really worth buying, you'll find enough as you go as long as you don't try to keep everyone even.
* Check the options before starting the game, there are some useful settings such as allowing your allies to automatically use all their abilities as opposed to only defensive ones.


* Regularly sweep your inventory to make a reserve of omnigel, then sell anything that's not bolted down.
* Save often as game-stopping bugs are not super uncommon. The Quicksave function on the PC version is very useful, but be mindful that '''trying to Quicksave while sprinting can cause the game to crash'''.


* The classes aren't quite balanced. Full-fight or any of the fight-hybrids are the easiest, full biotic is arguably the most powerful. Biotic/tech is the hardest by a fair margin.
* You find more loot than you'll know what to do with, so the only things really worth buying from stores are permanent Grenade/Medi-gel upgrades, better armor, and the powerful Spectre gear which first becomes available once you have 1 million credits on your person. Sell or make omnigel out of your extra items regularly to avoid getting completely swamped in junk.


* Try to make sure your party always has at least some of all three types, but otherwise bring who you want. Characters have different inter-party banter based on who they're with, if that affects your decision.
* Talk to your squadmates on the Normandy regularly for their personal quests, character development and potential romances.


* Don't neglect Electronics and Decryption. Either max them out yourself, or keep someone on hand who's got them maxed out.
* Between the three main destinations you have available after leaving the Citadel, it's generally recommended to head for Liara's Dig Site first to unlock your last party member.


* Talk to all your squadmates after every single mission. Especially after every big mission. <i>Especially</i> if you think they're cool characters and you want to unlock more character development. <b><i>Especially</i></b> if you want to romance them, and they're either human or blue.
* Generic explorable planets usually have more things to be found than your map lets on, though most are just collectable minerals. Exploring planets can get monotonous (and frustrating in the case of particularly mountainous ones) so don't feel obligated to comb through everything. Even if you're the completionist type, looking up maps will save a great deal of time.


* Go either all Paragon or all Renegade. Like most Bioware games, ME1 punishes you for sitting the fence.
* Some planetary systems on the Galaxy Map have visible asteroid belts in them which sometimes contain one or two scannable asteroids, detectable by their glinting or by hovering over them.


* Do Noveria last, the boss at the end is significantly harder than the other two.
* Make sure to at least do Wrex's family armor sidequest. It'll help later.


* It's fun to just run stuff over with the Mako, but enemies killed while you're inside it are worth half XP (and even less than half on higher difficulties!), even if the Mako isn't actually what killed them. Feel free to weaken a tough enemy with the Mako's guns, but make sure you're on foot when the enemy dies. This is especially important considering that there's a finite amount of XP in the game (unless you're cheating, then go hogwild).
==Character Creation & Abilities==


* Save often, the game's a tiny bit buggy.
* Any class can beat the game quite easily. Adepts have the most powerful abilities, Soldiers have the best weapon variety, Infiltrators are very flexible snipers, and Vanguards have a strong mix of both close-range firepower and biotic skill. Sentinels and Engineers lean more on the support side of things, somewhat less effective in direct combat but still perfectly viable.


== Miscellaneous but Good to Know ==
* You can switch classes between games when importing a character, so you won't be locked to your choice for the entire trilogy.


* The Biotic power Singularity will kill a whole room in hilariously short order. If you want to breeze through the mid/late game, make sure at least one party member (you or the blue one) can cast this. Also use Lift/Throw to paralyze strong fighters. If you throw them off the map, you win.
* Both Electronics and Decryption are used to unlock objects, so you'll generally want to have each on someone in your party.


* If you accidentally or intentionally tie the romance counter, and you don't pick one side in the dialog that happens, the game defaults you to the blue one.
* The Medi-Gel healing bonus provided by the First Aid skill is cumulative between all your party members who have points in it.


* To get ally achievements, you have to have them with you for pretty much the entire gam - that INCLUDES the sidequests before you get your ship, so you have to skip those and come back later. Pick your partners and keep them with you throughout the entire game. Its best to hold off on any quests at all until you have the members you want.
* Higher Paragon or Renegade scores unlock more Charm or Intimidate skills respectively, meaning you'll want to focus on one or the other if you want to have access to as many dialogue choices as possible.


* Especially Liara, don't do any side quests before you pick her up. And never let her leave the party.
* Aim for the various milestones when allocating Talent points, such as new skill unlocks and higher ranks of your abilities. The first point in each talent tends to give a fairly potent boost as well.


* 99% of the things you can buy in stores are useless. You get so many items just by exploring that you will never need to buy normal things. The exceptions are (1) the permanent upgrades to your healing item and grenade capacity; and (2) "Spectre" class weapons, which you can begin buying once you've amassed one million credits.
* Once you reach level 20 and travel to any star system, you'll unlock an assignment in the Local Cluster called "UNC: Rogue VI". Completing this assignment unlocks a Specialization which provides unique bonuses for your chosen class.


* Complete Wrex's armor quest before going to Virmire. You will not regret it.
== Combat ==


* If you plan on playing a non-combat character, you'll benefit strongly from some Achievement synergy. First create a soldier, get some weapon achievements to unlock weapon abilities with the Assault Rifle and Pistol, and restart.
* Biotic abilities are very strong in ME1. Even the toughest of fights are often easily cleared with good use of Singularity, Lift and Throw.


* If you're worried about the morality wheel and missing important choices, there is an infinite-repeating dialog that you can use to 100%  both sides of the wheel. Those options are also gated, so you can miss them if you're not expecting it. Guide it if you care. The end of the game requires your persuasion skill be maxed with like 80% morality to pass the final gates, which is pretty steep for your first time playing. You have been warned.
* Your allies are not very smart in combat, especially when it comes to line of sight, but they can generally handle themselves and micromanaging them is rarely necessary. Just make sure to use everyone's abilities if they're needed and not on cooldown.


* There is a New Game +, which you might not use if you're playing through the trilogy, but you can use NG+ to max out both sides of the morality wheel to see all the "best" dialog in the game, without resorting to fancy tricks.
* If you're not sure which ammo to use, Anti-Personnel/Shredder Rounds and Armor Piercing/Tungsten rounds which deal extra damage to organics and synthetics respectively are always very effective. Mind that they stop dropping at high levels so don't sell your VII versions. Incendiary/Inferno Rounds are never a bad choice either as they provide steady damage and also disable health regeneration.


* If you plan on playing through your game multiple times, say three or more times, then don't invest any points in either Persuade or Intimidate. You can gain up to 4 points in each skill per playthrough, reaching the max 12 on your third time through.
* Enemies killed while driving the Mako vehicle yield 50% of their normal experience points. If you want to game the system a bit, it's possible to first weaken powerful enemies like Thresher Maws with the Mako and finish them off on foot.


* Your party members don't all work with the same class structure as PCs either. Wrex is a "Krogan Battlemaster" and Liara is an "Asari Scientist" (or something like that) which allows them different bonuses / skill combinations.
* Speaking of Thresher Maws, the best way to deal with one is to try and get into medium range where it won't either instagib you in melee nor submerge since you're too far away. Then just drive back and fort avoiding the slow acid spits while firing at it. If it does submerge, '''hold still''' to avoid being rammed when it resurfaces.


* Grind some sidequests in between those planets, by the way. Even if you do some medium-level grinding, that's enough XP for you to plow over the rest of the game. I completed a handful of side-quests on my play-through and I really just steamrolled over the rest of the bosses in the game. Mass Effect is kinda easy like that.
== Achievements ==


* All achievements like "use skill X 75 times" or "kill 150 enemies with X weapon" have to be done by Shepard.
* Certain achievements award permanent bonuses for all created characters. For example killing 150 enemies with a given weapon type allows new characters to start with skill in that weapon, even if their class couldn't normally train in it.


* Have targets in mind when you allocate skill points. Your targets should always be ranks that unlock new skills or improve the skill's active ability.
* The "Ally" achievements require completing 45-50 Assignments (sidequests) with each given party member. Many of these are available very early in the Citadel, so if you're an achievement hunter you'll want to make sure not to do too many of them without the appropriate people in your party.


* When you're on an uncharted planet, there are always more things to be found than your map lets on. Explore areas of the map that are far away from the marked location TEMPORARY-DASH-CHARACTER ou'll find hidden stuff. This is critical for completing a few annoying item collection sidequests.
* All achievements like "use skill X 75 times" or "kill 150 enemies with X weapon" have to be done by Shepard.
 
* Let your allies do whatever they want, they're either generally smart enough to do what you want them to do anyway, or too dumb to not immediately die no matter what you tell them. Use your cooldowns basically whenever they're up, there's no downside to using them other than that you won't be able to use that one for the next 45 seconds or whatever and they make things much easier.
 
* The options menu lets you choose how you want your squad to use their powers. You can tell them to not use anything unless you say so, or to go nuts and use everything they've got. It's usually better to just let them use their powers on their own unless you like crazy micromanagement.


* There's one power, stasis, that squad members won't use unless you tell them to. It's theoretically really useful but since I either forget about it or don't care to micromanage that much it doesn't give me any value.
* The achievements that require finishing the game on Hardcore and Insanity allow you to change difficulty freely up until the end of Eden Prime.


[[Category:Games]]
[[Category:Games]]

Latest revision as of 15:41, 9 December 2022

General Advice

  • Check the options before starting the game, there are some useful settings such as allowing your allies to automatically use all their abilities as opposed to only defensive ones.
  • Save often as game-stopping bugs are not super uncommon. The Quicksave function on the PC version is very useful, but be mindful that trying to Quicksave while sprinting can cause the game to crash.
  • You find more loot than you'll know what to do with, so the only things really worth buying from stores are permanent Grenade/Medi-gel upgrades, better armor, and the powerful Spectre gear which first becomes available once you have 1 million credits on your person. Sell or make omnigel out of your extra items regularly to avoid getting completely swamped in junk.
  • Talk to your squadmates on the Normandy regularly for their personal quests, character development and potential romances.
  • Between the three main destinations you have available after leaving the Citadel, it's generally recommended to head for Liara's Dig Site first to unlock your last party member.
  • Generic explorable planets usually have more things to be found than your map lets on, though most are just collectable minerals. Exploring planets can get monotonous (and frustrating in the case of particularly mountainous ones) so don't feel obligated to comb through everything. Even if you're the completionist type, looking up maps will save a great deal of time.
  • Some planetary systems on the Galaxy Map have visible asteroid belts in them which sometimes contain one or two scannable asteroids, detectable by their glinting or by hovering over them.
  • Make sure to at least do Wrex's family armor sidequest. It'll help later.

Character Creation & Abilities

  • Any class can beat the game quite easily. Adepts have the most powerful abilities, Soldiers have the best weapon variety, Infiltrators are very flexible snipers, and Vanguards have a strong mix of both close-range firepower and biotic skill. Sentinels and Engineers lean more on the support side of things, somewhat less effective in direct combat but still perfectly viable.
  • You can switch classes between games when importing a character, so you won't be locked to your choice for the entire trilogy.
  • Both Electronics and Decryption are used to unlock objects, so you'll generally want to have each on someone in your party.
  • The Medi-Gel healing bonus provided by the First Aid skill is cumulative between all your party members who have points in it.
  • Higher Paragon or Renegade scores unlock more Charm or Intimidate skills respectively, meaning you'll want to focus on one or the other if you want to have access to as many dialogue choices as possible.
  • Aim for the various milestones when allocating Talent points, such as new skill unlocks and higher ranks of your abilities. The first point in each talent tends to give a fairly potent boost as well.
  • Once you reach level 20 and travel to any star system, you'll unlock an assignment in the Local Cluster called "UNC: Rogue VI". Completing this assignment unlocks a Specialization which provides unique bonuses for your chosen class.

Combat

  • Biotic abilities are very strong in ME1. Even the toughest of fights are often easily cleared with good use of Singularity, Lift and Throw.
  • Your allies are not very smart in combat, especially when it comes to line of sight, but they can generally handle themselves and micromanaging them is rarely necessary. Just make sure to use everyone's abilities if they're needed and not on cooldown.
  • If you're not sure which ammo to use, Anti-Personnel/Shredder Rounds and Armor Piercing/Tungsten rounds which deal extra damage to organics and synthetics respectively are always very effective. Mind that they stop dropping at high levels so don't sell your VII versions. Incendiary/Inferno Rounds are never a bad choice either as they provide steady damage and also disable health regeneration.
  • Enemies killed while driving the Mako vehicle yield 50% of their normal experience points. If you want to game the system a bit, it's possible to first weaken powerful enemies like Thresher Maws with the Mako and finish them off on foot.
  • Speaking of Thresher Maws, the best way to deal with one is to try and get into medium range where it won't either instagib you in melee nor submerge since you're too far away. Then just drive back and fort avoiding the slow acid spits while firing at it. If it does submerge, hold still to avoid being rammed when it resurfaces.

Achievements

  • Certain achievements award permanent bonuses for all created characters. For example killing 150 enemies with a given weapon type allows new characters to start with skill in that weapon, even if their class couldn't normally train in it.
  • The "Ally" achievements require completing 45-50 Assignments (sidequests) with each given party member. Many of these are available very early in the Citadel, so if you're an achievement hunter you'll want to make sure not to do too many of them without the appropriate people in your party.
  • All achievements like "use skill X 75 times" or "kill 150 enemies with X weapon" have to be done by Shepard.
  • The achievements that require finishing the game on Hardcore and Insanity allow you to change difficulty freely up until the end of Eden Prime.
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