Greetings fellow Amadronians :D

[DaveMcDamage]

Hi all,

 

Got home from work and a shiny copy of Mass Effect Andromeda was waiting on the hall floor for me. Booted it up and popped the Apex trophy to get it out of the way. I picked soldier class as after trying the demo it felt like having the concussion shot was a much needed safety item when playing on insanity mode. I then levelled up and it took me a while to figure out what the hell was going on when I couldn't manually switch between my concussion shot and my new upgrade grenade. I then realised you have to go back into the menu and can only have one special move type thing at a time. Kinda sucks that they reinvented the wheel so to speak, but its not the end of the world. 

 

So now I am at the Nexus and made a save. In the demo I did a side mission where you check security panels for the Indian guy, but I'm gonna save as much gameplay for my upcoming week off work. 

 

I may even try the online mode at greater length, but I doubt it. I hated the one single mode for Mass Effect 3 online other than the fact that you can actually be different species. I dunno, we'll see.

 

So I noticed that trophy for using the strike teams type thing 25 times and it suggest to do them asap. I sent one out straight away whilst I was in the online menus, was the correct one or do strike teams play a part in the single player game and thats when you start them?

 

Really glad I held on the game for so long, as I feel that the Legendary Edition collection has made me appreciate it more. 

[bigrake1]

@DaveMcDamage Strike teams play a role in the single player game in that, if the missions are successful, you will earn materials, cash, and faction reputation to purchase/unlock gun and gear upgrades. Different tiers of loot boxes (bronze, silver, and gold) unlock different ranges of materials that you can use to create weaponry and gear. I send strike teams out all the time. Once all 6 are upgraded, you can have a steady stream of mats pouring in. Make sure your 25th successful strike team is credited in game and not on the app, or there may be trophy issues. The APEX units they earn can also unlock upgrades for your character in the multiplayer. You can send them out on the app, in PvE, or the PVP menus.

 

Edited November 19, 2021 by bigrake1

[DaveMcDamage]

2 hours ago, bigrake1 said:

@DaveMcDamage Strike teams play a role in the single player game in that, if the missions are successful, you will earn materials, cash, and faction reputation to purchase/unlock gun and gear upgrades. Different tiers of loot boxes (bronze, silver, and gold) unlock different ranges of materials that you can use to create weaponry and gear. I send strike teams out all the time. Once all 6 are upgraded, you can have a steady stream of mats pouring in. Make sure your 25th successful strike team is credited in game and not on the app, or there may be trophy issues. The APEX units they earn can also unlock upgrades for your character in the multiplayer. You can send them out on the app, in PvE, or the PVP menus.

 

Cheers man. But was I correct in that the only place you launch strike teams in from the online menu and not at some point in the single player story?

 

Really looking forward to getting into this more and more. 

[bigrake1]

You can launch strike teams from your ship’s console and from a station in the main star base. So, if I understand your question correctly, they can be sent immersively as part of the PvE narrative experience. There is actually an early quest that introduces strikes as part of the story experience. You’ll be redeeming the strike loot crates from your ship’s console, most likely. 
 

A successful strike’s APEX units can be remeemed from the multiplayer’s store menu or from the app for characters, guns, mods, and other consumables. 
 

Edited November 20, 2021 by bigrake1

[DaveMcDamage]

9 hours ago, bigrake1 said:

You can launch strike teams from your ship’s console and from a station in the main star base. So, if I understand your question correctly, they can be sent immersively as part of the PvE narrative experience. There is actually an early quest that introduces strikes as part of the story experience. You’ll be redeeming the strike loot crates from your ship’s console, most likely. 
 

A successful strike’s APEX units can be remeemed from the multiplayer’s store menu or from the app for characters, guns, mods, and other consumables. 
 

Cheers man,

 

Yeah now that I am on the Nexus I met the Turian who gives you access to the strike teams map. But it seems if you activate them from the online menu, then the same assignments appear on the story computer. Do they continue operate whilst you leave the game as last night I activated one from the online menu which had a 4 hour time limit but when I went on this morning I didn't see a message saying it had been completed or anything. 

 

I then did an hour time limit assignment from the story computer but like and idiot I saved and switched off before finishing the hour so not sure if both of them got cancelled out. 

[da-Noob123]

1 hour ago, DaveMcDamage said:

Cheers man,

 

Yeah now that I am on the Nexus I met the Turian who gives you access to the strike teams map. But it seems if you activate them from the online menu, then the same assignments appear on the story computer. Do they continue operate whilst you leave the game as last night I activated one from the online menu which had a 4 hour time limit but when I went on this morning I didn't see a message saying it had been completed or anything. 

 

I then did an hour time limit assignment from the story computer but like and idiot I saved and switched off before finishing the hour so not sure if both of them got cancelled out. 

I used the mobile app a lot for the strike teams and they worked off of real world time not in game time. As stated above though, if you use the app, be sure that any action that will unlock a related trophy be done in game and not in the app. I.e. make sure the 25th successfully completed mission is handled in game not the app, the 24 before that can be done purely through the app.

Edited November 20, 2021 by da-Noob123

[bigrake1]

Yes, strikes run real-time off the Andromeda server. This is one of the trophies/game features that would be toast when the servers are deactivated some day in the future. 
 

Edited November 20, 2021 by bigrake1

[DaveMcDamage]

Thanks again guys.

 

I don't have one of those fancy phones that has net access, so it will be just done in-game for me. I think I have now completed 2 but only 1 was successful as I got some bronze stuff. I know the trophy for 25 strike teams says 25 'successful' completions so that could take a lot of send outs to do, but I am in no real rush and if worse comes to the worst I may try the multiplayer method, I hope it doesn't have to come to that though. 

 

Just saved at the very start of Eos after scouting around the Nexus and stuff for any available side missions. I have to say the planet scanning is a massive improvement over both ME2 and ME3. I also love how it travels to each planet. 

 

I also unlocked my second strike team which cost 40 points or something. The next costs 80 so I need some successes. But I am actually really glad it runs off real time rather than having to sit around in game and wait for the timer to run out. 

 

Looking forward to exploring Eos tomorrow and finally get some proper game time in. Cheers for all the info so far gents.

[ShingledClown]

If you want to potentially skip an Insanity playthrough, completing 5 Gold extractions online isn't too difficult. If you check every so often, you can get in a game where the other players will just carry you through it and all you have to do is survive and extract. I don't think platinum difficulty missions count and the host COULD kick you, but I only had that happen once, every other time I just helped how I could, such as going invisible to revive people/complete objectives.

The APEX app really helps with levelling up your strike teams but as others said, just be careful when it's coming to the 25th extraction, and maybe the level 20 one as well.

I had a lot of fun with the game in the end, definitely my least favourite of the series and the online was a bit annoying to do, but some parts were just as good as the original trilogy imo.

[DaveMcDamage]

After few hours on the game now I can definitely see some downsides. Obviously I will continue as the downsides are more towards mechanics than anything. 

 

1: The rover thing or whatever its called. I don't know if its because the maps are quite smaller (or feel smaller) than the open maps of the first Mass Effect game planets, but this feels very crap to control. The idea to switch between 4-6 wheel drive is cool on paper, but I think they messed it up. I never really had gripes with the Mako like a lot did, but this feels yukky. Sort of like they wanted to make a racing machine but then put rocks on the track. Not a fan but maybe the upgrades make it better. 

 

2: Even though I am soldier class (as per) I decided to unlock overload to hep with shield enemies rather than waste ammo. I didn't decide to do this until I got enough points when reaching the remnant vault in the first mission. I used the overload on multiple remnant enemies but it does nothing to them even though they appear to be robots. Maybe I need a few more upgrades or something before its of any use against synthetics.

 

3: The poor save opportunities during priority missions. Noticed this a couple of times at the start of the game but then noted the explanation. But after looking about in the first vault and eventually running into an unexpected ambush and getting wrecked in a couple of shots on insanity mode, having to restart the damn thing even after one attempt got tiring. Had to switch off after that and will have another crack later. 

 

4: The game needed a black emporium type thing. Like most Bioware games, there create player tool is beyond shite. So whilst you get that decent render as you create them, you then find out the aftermath of it during the game. Already sick of the look of the face I created as he has more wrinkles than an 80 year olds nutsack. 

 

But I'm loving the new codex entries and stuff. Shame they never got the guy from the original trilogy to narrate them though. 

[DaveMcDamage]

So after a few more hours gameplay I eventually made it to that Aya place and now have Jaal. Feels just like Javik but with a few more emotions. 

 

Anyway turns out you can recreate your character so got to ignore Google for Andromeda info as it seems the majority of info for the game doesn't go past 2017. I'm also now used to the Nomad so thats good. I still don't like it, but I am used to it. 

 

I feel I need to invest more into the research but in all honesty I dunno. I started the research for the Pathfinder level 2 costume, then find out it goes to  level 5, meaning you waste resources for nothing. Anyway even though I have Jaal I decided to go back to Eos and finish up as much as I could. I noticed they really destroyed your teams involvement in combat. You can no longer decide when they should use powers or attacks, and they also seem to favour melee over gun combat and even the heavies like Draks gets wiped out right at the start of battles. 

 

Insanity mode on this game is probably the most difficult its been throughout the entire Mass Effect saga, and like ME3 they turn enemy AI into CoD WaW grenade spammers. Then I came across my first remnant boss when doing the water hammer mission and in about 6 attempts I don't think I lasted longer than a minute. So just from the retries alone its going to take me a long time to get through it. Need to start checking the trophy requirements though as it feels like the game could take near the 100 hour mark and I don't want to be replaying it all again. 

 

If I were to sum the trilogy up against Andromeda, I would say the trilogy is a Marvel franchise. It has the cool story and some very heartfelt moments and covered in so much glorious action. Where as Andromeda is more like a sci-fi tv show which then gets its own spin-off. The characters are okay, the story is kind of interesting in a okay sort of way, but actual dialog writing and consequences seem to have been written by a tool in the dark. 

 

I can relate to both the love and hate for the game so far.

[da-Noob123]

2 hours ago, DaveMcDamage said:

So after a few more hours gameplay I eventually made it to that Aya place and now have Jaal. Feels just like Javik but with a few more emotions. 

 

Anyway turns out you can recreate your character so got to ignore Google for Andromeda info as it seems the majority of info for the game doesn't go past 2017. I'm also now used to the Nomad so thats good. I still don't like it, but I am used to it. 

 

I feel I need to invest more into the research but in all honesty I dunno. I started the research for the Pathfinder level 2 costume, then find out it goes to  level 5, meaning you waste resources for nothing. Anyway even though I have Jaal I decided to go back to Eos and finish up as much as I could. I noticed they really destroyed your teams involvement in combat. You can no longer decide when they should use powers or attacks, and they also seem to favour melee over gun combat and even the heavies like Draks gets wiped out right at the start of battles. 

 

Insanity mode on this game is probably the most difficult its been throughout the entire Mass Effect saga, and like ME3 they turn enemy AI into CoD WaW grenade spammers. Then I came across my first remnant boss when doing the water hammer mission and in about 6 attempts I don't think I lasted longer than a minute. So just from the retries alone its going to take me a long time to get through it. Need to start checking the trophy requirements though as it feels like the game could take near the 100 hour mark and I don't want to be replaying it all again. 

 

 

If I were to sum the trilogy up against Andromeda, I would say the trilogy is a Marvel franchise. It has the cool story and some very heartfelt moments and covered in so much glorious action. Where as Andromeda is more like a sci-fi tv show which then gets its own spin-off. The characters are okay, the story is kind of interesting in a okay sort of way, but actual dialog writing and consequences seem to have been written by a tool in the dark. 

 

I can relate to both the love and hate for the game so far.

Now you begin to understand why people say it is a good game but not a good Mass Effect game. 

 

In regards to research, make sure you are scanning everything to get as many points you can and then wisely invest into specifi weapons and armors. I'd look up a guide for your class on Insanity that tells you what to use for equipment so you don't waste your research points. Also, keep in mind, there are several trophies for ability kills that once you get them you can re-spec your points for skills you actually want or need.

 

My 100% playthrough took around 80 hours IIRC whereas my NG+ Insanity was 8-10. There are some very challenging side missions I would not relish doing on Insanity.

[DaveMcDamage]

On 11/23/2021 at 0:23 AM, da-Noob123 said:

Now you begin to understand why people say it is a good game but not a good Mass Effect game. 

 

In regards to research, make sure you are scanning everything to get as many points you can and then wisely invest into specifi weapons and armors. I'd look up a guide for your class on Insanity that tells you what to use for equipment so you don't waste your research points. Also, keep in mind, there are several trophies for ability kills that once you get them you can re-spec your points for skills you actually want or need.

 

My 100% playthrough took around 80 hours IIRC whereas my NG+ Insanity was 8-10. There are some very challenging side missions I would not relish doing on Insanity.

I've been making progress-ish. I unlocked a rifle called sandstorm or something and when I was on the Haval world it really helped a lot. I also use incinerate with either concussion shot or overload and it deals a hefty combo damage output. 

 

Not sure who best to do the trophy with for the team mate to set up a primer for to be detonated, will have to look into that.

 

The defeat the Kett mission where you have to wreck there base on Eos took me a damn few tries but I smashed it in the end. I still don't last a second against the water hammer boss though. I think I need new weapons now though as after Haval I started to notice they're getting weaker. Or it may be that the sandstorm works great against the remnant enemies and not so much the Kett. 

 

The levelling up seems really slow though, to the point where I was even looking for an xp exploit but it seems they concentrated more on fixing the exploits and forgot about actual content for the game lol. 

 

As for the striker team missions. I think I now have about 17 wins or something. I was gonna invest in the teams to hopefully up there chances but I think I'm better off just using those points to work towards the 6 teams trophy. I currently have 3.

 

Also, On Eos I have those remnant symbols on the map, some are blue which I think indicates they're done but some are white and don't to have anything to do there. Is there something I should be doing or are they just there?

Edited November 24, 2021 by DaveMcDamage

[da-Noob123]

3 hours ago, DaveMcDamage said:

I've been making progress-ish. I unlocked a rifle called sandstorm or something and when I was on the Haval world it really helped a lot. I also use incinerate with either concussion shot or overload and it deals a hefty combo damage output. 

 

Not sure who best to do the trophy with for the team mate to set up a primer for to be detonated, will have to look into that.

 

The defeat the Kett mission where you have to wreck there base on Eos took me a damn few tries but I smashed it in the end. I still don't last a second against the water hammer boss though. I think I need new weapons now though as after Haval I started to notice they're getting weaker. Or it may be that the sandstorm works great against the remnant enemies and not so much the Kett. 

 

The levelling up seems really slow though, to the point where I was even looking for an xp exploit but it seems they concentrated more on fixing the exploits and forgot about actual content for the game lol. 

 

As for the striker team missions. I think I now have about 17 wins or something. I was gonna invest in the teams to hopefully up there chances but I think I'm better off just using those points to work towards the 6 teams trophy. I currently have 3.

 

Also, On Eos I have those remnant symbols on the map, some are blue which I think indicates they're done but some are white and don't to have anything to do there. Is there something I should be doing or are they just there?

I remember using a Kett shotgun that had one bullet per clip but it was a part of the Biotic build I followed for Insanity. The Asari sword was an excellent melee weapon. But that was NG+ so all I can really suggest is to find weapons that feel comfortable and upgrade them. Some of the attachments can be OP, think I had one on a rifle that made it the rounds explosive. As I recall, rapid fire works better on the Remnant and slower fire on the Kett.

 

It's disappointing that they cancelled the DLC, I read 2 of 3 Andromeda books (skipped Cora's prequel novel) and am disappointed I won't be getting several plot threads resolved. Who knows, they might have redeemed the game. 

 

It will take a while to get 6 strike teams as the price dramatically increases for each subsequent team. Might want to invest in the teams you have already so that they can do Silver and then Gold missions for better rewards, just don't get ahead of yourself or they will fail missions and earn negative traits. Then the Bronze missions will be the training grounds for the next team.

 

I can't remember if the icons change color when you "complete" them or not, the map in Andromeda was not my favorite to say the least.

[DaveMcDamage]

Well I decided to progress with the game and got to the Voeld mission where you try to free the prisoners. I got to one of those archon bosses who have that spinning orb thing. Tried getting rid of the Kett first but your team AI are so fucking useless that they get wiped out in seconds, meaning all those invisible grenade spamming enemies come straight for you. After a number of attempts I called it a day. 

 

I learned to save right before going to planets from the original Mass effect, and the save system is this game is both incredible and horrible at the same time. I want to go back and upgrade and maybe level up stuff, but not even sure if there is anything I can do at this point back on Eos. I think the game is now starting to wear thin for me. 

[DaveMcDamage]

Okay so by the amount of times I edited this post it probably would have caused the website to lag. So I'll just start fresh. 

 

Voeld or whatever its called was giving me serious problems, from the vault with the missable glyph, to the standard map missions for Voeld, namely the in the heart mission where you have to destroy the 3 security terminals. At that point I really seen my arse and rage quit due to the crappy autosave. Anyway I went back and decided to try again and guess what? The door to the heart mission wouldn't open, tried manual and auto saves but the game broke on me. 

 

So I had no choice but to load the save at the very start of that mission but by that point I was disheartened to try it again. Got back on the ship and did some team mate side requests. I then decided to look up weapons for solider class and its also where I learned what a mess I had been making when crafting. When it gives the option to add augments I thought it was just the ones in my standard weapon setup so I ignored it. I had no idea about the actual stats increase they do and how different they are to the normal mods. 

 

So I made some new Kunnt armour as well as that Arganon or whatever that race is called, who has a top sniper rifle. The damage after stat buffs is at 1040 damage or something. It makes the blackwidow look like a pea shooter anyway. Only downside is I used a bio convertor on it so it rips my health to pieces in seconds. Suppose it would be a total cheat weapon if it didn't though as it doesn't need to reload. 

 

So I went back to that Remnant vault to the missable glyph with the 2 standard remnants and then the huge mech. I even respec'd my soldier though at level 26 I still don't have much. I got close to killing the mech though, blew off both its arms and got its health right down but then my team mate nudges me out of cover and I get riddled. Rage quit as now not only are the team shit at fighting, but there AI is set to coward mode. 

 

Also as I tried many missions now I now see the format of every single mission in the game. Its just the horde mode. This is why I hate online gamers as they destroy every other game out there and devs won't mind because its easy to just whip up a shit map and throw in loads of enemies for each fight. 

 

I think I am now at the point where the cons far outweigh the pros for this game. Like Odyssey, Origins and Valhalla had still kept the Assassin's Creed game purely for franchise history and sales, they're still  great games to play. Andromeda seems to have tried this and massively failed. 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2021 by DaveMcDamage

[DaveMcDamage]

EDIT

 

@da-Noob123 

 

Managed to snag the insanity trophy last night. Also got almost all apart from the combat type trophies unlocked. I don't want to be starting a new game+ so hoping I can just mop up areas and get those trophies done and finally get the 100% completion. Game time is currently 91 hours lol. 

Edited December 12, 2021 by DaveMcDamage

[da-Noob123]

On 11/29/2021 at 1:04 PM, DaveMcDamage said:

EDIT

 

@da-Noob123 

 

Managed to snag the insanity trophy last night. Also got almost all apart from the combat type trophies unlocked. I don't want to be starting a new game+ so hoping I can just mop up areas and get those trophies done and finally get the 100% completion. Game time is currently 91 hours lol. 

Congratulations man, I admire your perseverance! Since you got the Insanity trophy you can drop the difficulty down for the remainder of the trophies and make it a breeze.

[DaveMcDamage]

18 hours ago, da-Noob123 said:

Congratulations man, I admire your perseverance! Since you got the Insanity trophy you can drop the difficulty down for the remainder of the trophies and make it a breeze.

Yea\h I did that mate, especially for the air melee stuff. Got the 100% done. Cheers. 

[Guardian_owl]

Insanity difficulty is very front loaded in Andromeda, it is very overwhelming in the beginning, but you get stronger as you level since you can equip better gear. The enemies don't get much tougher since a lot of the worlds can be done in any order so by the middle and end of the game things will generally get easier.

 

edit: The thing you can do to make things easier in early game is to dip into chest armor crafting as soon as possible. I made the mistake of using found gear for quite awhile and just made it harder on myself. Chest armor allow you to add kinetic coil augments (common and purchasable from the vendors at the docks) to the blueprint to increase damage resistance. If you put kinetic coils in all 4 slots, you will reduce all incoming damage by about 17% (1/6th). As soon as you are eligible for the upgrade of the next level of the armor, deconstruct it to get all your augments (kinetic coils) and some crafting material back, then craft the next version. I like Maverick armor as you don't have to do anything special to get better versions of the blueprints, it just becomes available as you level up. It also increases overall damage, damage to weak points, and gives you extra carrying ammo.

Edited January 25, 2022 by Guardian_owl