Andromeda: it’s a whole new galaxy. And whether you’re a veteran player of the original Mass Effect trilogy or this is your first foray into BioWare’s galactic RPG, there are things you might not know when starting out. For sure, Mass Effect: Andromeda is all about the journey, but there’s no reason you shouldn’t make that journey a little easier and more enjoyable by following these seven tips.
1) Play the field
Many people will be hoping to find love in Andromeda, and to those I say: try the tasting menu. Aware that for many of their fans the ability to have romantic relationships with other characters is one of the primary selling points, BioWare has included plenty of NPCs for you to fancy, flirt with, and other f words … unless you play as a male Ryder who only likes other men, in which case you’re unfortunately and inexplicably limited to just two who are both human.
A typical romantic relationship in Andromeda progresses something like this: flirt a few times by choosing conversation options marked with a big heart (not to be confused with the more common “emotional” responses), unlock a scene with some kissing or casual sex, and then further down the line you might have the option to confess love or commit to a more serious relationship.
Fortunately, the future is full of people who don’t make assumptions, so you can actually flirt and fool around with multiple people without an expectation that you’ll commit. In at least one scene you can even flirt with two characters at the same time, which seems a reasonable response to walking in on two shirtless men who you know both have an interest in you. If you want to make the most of this world of opportunities, I recommend pursuing as many characters as take your fancy up until their personal point of no return before you decide which one gets your heart.
2) Adapt your aesthetic
To some players this will be obvious, but there will be others, like me, who fail to realise it even after 50+ hours of play: you can change the colour of your clothes. In Ryder’s ridiculously expansive room aboard the Tempest is a wall-mounted display with a picture of a top on it. There are basically only two casual outfits but you can also customise your armour, using a colour wheel to make your Ryder pretty in pink or a bright yellow beacon of hope or some other combination the likes of which Andromeda has never seen.
You can also give the Nomad (your space buggy) a paint job, though it’ll cost you. A handful of paint jobs – including a krogan-inspired deep red called “Blood Pack” – are purchasable on the Nexus, for those who’d like their space car to be something other than white.
3) Call forth the forward stations
When you are driving around in the Nomad, be sure to check the map every once in a while for any nearby “forward station” locations. When you get close enough to one of these, a forward station will fall from the sky, at which you can refill your ammo, change your loadout (of weapons, armour, and even squad mates), and summon your Nomad. Crucially, these forward stations also become fast travel points, useful for when you’d rather not drive across the planet being shot at by Kett and listening to Sam (Simulated Adaptive Matrix) report on the weather conditions.
Don’t do what I did and spend several long minutes climbing a structure only to forget to activate the forward station that would’ve let you skip all that on your inevitable return.
4) Make viability your top priority
When you start to explore the various planets Andromeda has to offer the sheer number of quests can be overwhelming, and it can be tempting – if only because it fits the level of peril the narrative is trying to push – to focus on the main quest to the exclusion of all else (except maybe the many potential flings on offer). But the Kett will wait, and it’s more narratively and mechanically satisfying to focus first on increasing the viability of these planets. Get the remnant vaults out of the way (and keep a notebook handy so you can substitute the symbols used in the alien sudoku puzzles for something that’s easier to parse), and help out the locals.
Reaching the viability level necessary to set up an outpost feels great, though it does also add more quests to your list – but increasing viability also gives you AVP (Andromeda Viability Points), which in turn lead to Cryo Pod Points. It might be incredibly annoying to have your AI, Sam, constantly remind you that “you have AVP outstanding, Pathfinder”, but spending these points via the terminal on the Tempest unlocks some great rewards that will make your life easier the earlier you collect.
The idea behind Cryo Pod Points is that the more viable Andromeda becomes, the more colonists you can free from their cryo pods. Apparently these colonists come in only three flavours: science, military and commerce (the space-faring future doesn’t look bright for journalists). Unlock science perk Lab Technicians and you’ll receive a regular delivery of research points, which can be used to unlock blueprints for crafting weapons, armour and upgrades for the Nomad. Military perk Advanced Training wins you 10% more XP for encounters. Commerce perk Trade Capacity is a great one because it increases your inventory, meaning you can collect more loot before you have to think about selling or scrapping stuff.
5) Lighten your load
Thankfully, you don’t have to visit the Nexus or a planet to sell off the spares clogging up your inventory. A laptop on the Tempest lets you exchange goods for credits from the comfort of your own spaceship. You could deconstruct your unwanted weapons for crafting ingredients, but if you don’t want to bother with that whole system (and there’s really no need to, given how many weapons you’ll find lying around) then just sell them all. You can’t sell weapon mods, but those can be deconstructed. Don’t worry about augmentations (used in crafting to boost an item’s stats), ammo, or materials; they don’t take up any inventory space.
Also, thank the goddess for the “sell all salvage” button that lets you offload all your useless junk in one go.
6) Diversify your skillset
One reason to limit the amount of weapons you carry around is that the more you equip, especially if the kit is heavy, the slower your powers – biotic or tech – will recharge. This might make it seem like players have to choose between guns and magic/science, but Andromeda offers more choice than its predecessors. When you level up and get your points to spend on unlocking new skills, don’t limit yourself to just combat, biotic, or tech; pick and choose from all three.
Even if you want to maximise your tech prowess so that you can do things like overload your enemies’ shields, drain their energy to restore your own and temporarily become invisible, you might want to also ensure you have a baseline in some of the combat skills, focusing on a particular weapon type or maximising your health. You can only have three skills assigned (to L1, R1, and L1+R1 if you’re playing on PS4), but you can set up different combinations as “favourites” to be summoned from a quick menu when in combat.
If you can’t be bothered with choosing skills for yourself, there’s an option in the settings to automatically select skills for Ryder when you level up. And even those of us who care about Ryder’s skill set may be more than happy to let the game automatically level up her squad mates.
7) Helmets on
With any game it’s worth checking the settings for ways to improve your experience. In notoriously buggy Mass Effect: Andromeda, we’d recommend making sure subtitles are enabled so that you don’t miss out on any conversations for which the audio is quiet or missing. There’s also a setting that removes the markers from conversation options, so you’ll have to guess whether you’re being casual or logical or even flirting. And if you really can’t stand those much criticised facial animations, go ahead and make sure that Ryder and her squad mates are wearing their helmets whenever possible.