Mass Effect: Andromeda

• If you’re familiar with Dragon Age 3 then you’re familiar with this game. The world design, mission structure, most of the crafting, party interactions, and endless treadmill of nonsense are the same. There’s even a meta-score that lets you unlock stuff the same way.

• Speaking of that, unlock the secret drop points perk. You get tons of great stuff that way.

• Classes as they existed in ME1-3 are out so all the skills are available to mix and match. Some are gated behind needing a certain amount of points in either Combat, Tech, or Biotic skills.

• Instead of classes you have Profiles which unlock/upgrade as you dump more points into the three skill categories. Profiles give a bunch of passive buffs and a unique skill or two depending on which you pick. For instance: the “Infiltrator” Profile requires Combat and Tech investment and, when active, outlines enemies through the scope and gives you extra headshot damage and sniper and pistol damage and whatever.

• You can switch between three pre-saved loadouts of 1 profile and 3 skills at any time.

• Establishing the forward outposts is vital because they heal you and reload everything you’re carrying. They also serve as fast travel points which is valuable when you find yourself trucking around the same square mile of wasteland for hours with people’s laundry.

• Another thing to prioritize are the big ol’ robo pillars which lets you into the robo vault. Not only will the vault have valuable stuff, but will improve conditions on the planet and let you set up an actual base.

• If you want everyone to survive in the end, make sure you have located/recruited all the Pathfinders.

• The last tier of your squaddies skills are unlocked when you do their loyalty mission. You will have more than enough points to get there, but you still need to do them.

• If you deign to do a bunch of Tasks (the lowest tier, errand missions), then you will have more than enough skill points too.

• Don’t do all of the tasks. Don’t even do most of the tasks unless you like them. They suck all the fun out of the game and after dozens of hours of them all you will end up with is being over-leveled.

• You can mostly ignore the Apex Missions unless you want to get into multiplayer (which is pretty similar to ME3’s). You can also set them and forget them for minor rewards that will add up later. They’re save file-agnostic so you can unlock the high tier rewards with a newbie character for a nice treat.