Mass Effect Andromeda Beginners Guide to give you a head-start by knowing a few useful things in advance and being prepared for an easy start
Basics
Being 4th game in a series is never easy when it comes to attracting new players. That’s why Bioware’s developers decided to make a fresh start. A reboot, if you like.
Game Overview
The new game will give you a fresh chance to start some 600 years after the original events of Mass Effect 2 with brand new characters and stories to explore. Some mechanics and systems have been removed, others have been implemented in their place, while the core is still a pure Mass Effect experience. A perfect match for every fan.
Mass Effect Andromeda is an open world 3rd Person Action-RPG with heavy emphasis on free-form exploration and story.
Despite the first negative reviews and some fans raging about the ugly and weird characters animations and lack of lip-syncing, the game’s innovative for the Mass Effect series gameplay and free form exploration are a huge hit in the right spot and can surely keep you glued to the screen for hours and days.
The game is powered by the popular Frostbite game engine, but is quite demanding still on hardware resources. It’s available for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox.
Gameplay Innovations and New Features
Even if you are an experienced Mass Effect veteran, some new features and innovations may surprise you. Let’s take a look.
Worlds in Andromeda
One of the biggest differences to the original Trilogy is that here all planets and worlds are much bigger and wider (vertically too). They allow for deep and extensive exploration.
A lot of them will unlock special additional areas/zones to explore after you have completed certain amount of missions or have triggered a special conversation.
Main missions will only lead you through a small part of the total number of available quests, places, experiences. The rest is up to you to discover. Go above and beyond.
Don’t leave a stone unturned. Interesting rewards and situations await on each step you make that doesn’t follow the main path. Side quests, minerals rich areas, deadly beasts and tons of other surprises await your appearance. Be brave! Explore!
The Jump-Jet
I don’t know about you, but I’ve kind of missed the ability to jump in the previous Mass Effect titles. Now this is possible and not just that, but it’s an important part of the game as well. Pretty much everything can be jumped onto or over.
The vertical aspect in Andromeda is very real and well implemented. The Jump Jet isn’t a special ability. You get it from the very beginning of the game. It has practically no cooldown. I highly advise you to use it often and a lot.
Jumping and holding the right mouse button will allow Ryder to hover in the air for a few seconds. Dodging (scroll-click) while in the air will extend your jump time and distance.
Auto-Cover Mechanic
There is no need to press a special button if you want to go into cover. The ability to crouch is now also automatic.
The game recognizes objects that can serve as cover automatically and as soon as you approach them with your weapon out (not holstered!), Ryder will automatically go into cover and even crouch, if the cover is low and closer to the ground.
Supply Crates and Ammo
There is no ammo to be loot from corpses in Andromeda. Instead spread in strategic locations you will find Supply Crates. When you approach them, all your ammo and abilities will automatically be refilled.
Crates can have different contents. For example some will also be able to heal you up too. There’s no self-healing in Andromeda.
Scanning
Ryder has a scanner tool that he can use to scan new technology and interesting objects. Some times the main story requires the usage of this tool.
For the most part, though, it is entirely up to you as a Pathfinder to show your curiosity and eagerness to learn more about the technology you come across.
Depending on the objects’ origins, you will receive Research Data points as you scan objects during your adventures. These points are used for Researching new schematics of weapons, armors, mods, augments.
Multiplayer
The Multiplayer component to Andromeda isn’t tied to the solo game. You are free to start participating in cooperative matches with friends and players from all over the world.
The biggest and most important advice I can give to a beginner regarding Multiplayer in Andromeda is – DO NOT PARTICIPATE in it for a while.
Seriously, get into the story and learn the basics the way the game intended it for you to do it. There are several major spoilers in terms of lore and even story that may ruin some of your fun discovering them through the solo game.
There is a relation between the solo game and Multiplayer still. It’s not about the story and achieving/unlocking certain aspects and outcomes. No. The link is called Apex missions.
The Apex Strike Squad you build while playing the solo game, can serve you in so called Apex Missions. These provide extra rewards and can be completed either manually by playing them with friends or random players online or sending your available squad(s) to do the objective(s).
You start with one team that can go on one mission at a time, but you can recruit more. When sending your AI squad to complete a mission, you have a chance of success or failure. The duration of each mission is 1-2 hours usually.
If you wish to farm more efficient (even while at work or in school :P), download the official Mass Effect Apex HQ app.
There is also a training multiplayer mission, which you complete solo in a matter of minutes. It is perfect to introduce you to the typical mechanics and objectives involved in a multiplayer match.
Abilities and Profiles
Check out my Beginners Video Guide specifically dedicated to Andromeda Skills, Combos, Profiles and Favorites.
Mass effect Andromeda has no classes. Instead you have 6 available training professions available during character creation: Security, Biotic, Technician, Leader, Scrapper, Opperative; and 7 Profiles, which can be unlocked early in the game.
Each training will give you one starting power ability and 2 unlocked skills. Profiles enhance your abilities by boosting their performance.
There are no traditional standard classes in Andromeda. Every player can use every gun and spec into whatever powers and skills they wish to.
Training
The starting bonuses based on your training matter only in the beginning of the game. Later on you will have more than enough skill points to allocate and spec into whatever you wish.
What I mean by this is that if you decide to start as a Technicial, nothing will stop you from going deep into Biotics later in the game.
The benefit of your training is that you will get that one power for free from the very first moment as well as 2 skills unlocked without having to pay skill points for them.
Should you need to, you can always respec. The game will show and tell you how this is done (on board of the Tempest). First respec(s) are very cheap and you can experiment a lot.
Profiles
Profiles is the Andromeda’s class replacement system. Profiles are meant to enhance your current abilities and give you extra boosts to your preferred and favorite gameplay style. They can be swapped (even in combat) and aren’t a permanent choice.
Very early in the story on board of the Tempest you will be prompted to learn your first Profile. Unlocking profiles is based on number of skill points spent in each one of the 3 base categories for skills (6 points at least): Combat, Biotics and Tech (more on these below).
Unlocking the profiles is just the beginning. Spend more points into various abilities to upgrade the Profile(s) attached to it to higher tiers.
Unlike traditional classes in MMO games, Profiles in Andromeda enhance your already existing abilities instead of giving you a set of new ones to learn and play with.
The 7 profiles available in Andromeda are:
- Soldier – the most basic profile, suitable for new to Mass Effect players boosts weapons usage
- Engineer – boosts the health of your tech (like turrets), as well as their defenses and damage output
- Adept – focused entirely on Biotics improvements and boosts
- Sentinel – combines boosts between tech and biotics, a hybrid profile
- Vanguard – a hybrid profile boosting biotics and combat
- Infiltrator – combination of combat and tech improvements and boosts
- Explorer – unlocks when you spend points in all 3 skill trees, this is the ultimate hybrid profile
Abilities and Skill Points
Abilities in Andromeda are learned with Skill Points, similarly to how the system worked in the old 3 games. They require skill points, which are granted upon leveling up and also by doing the main missions. The abilities are divided into 3 categories:
- Combat – the most straigth forward skill tree, based on weapons gameplay and most suitable for Mass Effect beginner players
- Biotics – special abilities that are similar to “magic” in classic MMO and RPG titles
- Tech – similar to biotics, the tech abilities are heavily dependent on cooldowns
Each one offers a wide set of abilities to use and doesn’t limit your choice at all. You can make a mix of any 3 abilities. You are free to put any amount of points into any ability from any category at any time.
The only limitation is how well certain powers and bonuses work together to prime and detonate combos (read more on combos below). What’s even better, you can benefit from 4 Favorite builds to swap between at any time.
Favorites
You are allowed to create up to 4 Favorite builds. Each one has 3 slots for active powers/abilities and an active Profile to boost the build. Remember, you can swap between those, again, at any time. Even during combat.
However, there will be a brief cooldown of your 3 active powers/abilities after a swap. The default keybinds are F1 through F4 for each one of the favorites.
Ability Combos
In the Skills window you will notice that some abilities and powers can produce a combo for a greater effect. This is not new to Mass Effect. Ability Combos were part of the series before.
What a combo means is that you can use one ability to trigger the combo and another one to finish it, thus receiving special bonus effects like significantly more damage dealt, causing the target to burn or freeze and more.
Crafting
Check out my Beginners Video Guide specifically dedicated to Research and Development (Crafting) in Mass Effect Andromeda.
What kind of an explorer will you dare call yourself if you don’t contribute to researching and developing new technologies. This is the crafting system in Andromeda. To be able to craft a new weapon, armor piece or a mod, you need to first research its schematics.
Crafting in Andromeda looks quite a bit more complicated than it actually is. Once you start your journey, you will realize that there are far too many options for you to choose from, but you do not need to craft everything, just because you have to.
Pick your favorite arsenal, choose which augments and mods will be more beneficial to you and your team and just keep upgrading them.
Once you have advanced enough into the game and have plenty of resources, then you can experiment with various new technology that you discover or research.
Research Data
Schematics can be found during your exploration of new worlds or by researching them yourself at a Research Console. To craft items you need:
- Research Data – earned through scanning. It is used to research (learn) a new schematic.
- Crafting Materials – found during exploration of new worlds or via probing. They are used to develop the item after its schematic has been found or researched.
There are 3 main categories that you can spend your time and resources to research. Using your scanner on valuable objects during your adventures will grant you Research Data points divided into:
- Milky Way Technology – conventional weapons
- Heleus Technooogy – more advanced technology with different mechanics of using and firing
- Unknown Alien Technology – unknown technology from an alien race
With these Research Data points you can get new schematics for weapons, armor, mods.
Development
Once you have the schematic and enough crafting materials, you are ready to move to Development. Again, here you have the same 3 main categories to choose from.
What types of weapons you will be using, depends only on your preferences and personal build. Items can be deconstructed too, which will grant you crafting materials.
Mods and Augments
Mods, unlike in other games, aren’t permanent here. They can be inserted in weapons or armor to boost it in a very specific way. Augments can be used during Development to enhance the capabilities and statistics of an item.
Let me remind you – the game allows and even encourages you to experiment with stuff. Heavily! Don’t miss doing so. It’s not just fun, but very useful too and reveals interesting opportunities before you as you progress into levels and story.
Mining Minerals
The materials, required for crafting, can be obtained in 6 major ways: Space exploration, Ground mining via the Nomad, looting nodes on the planets, deconstructing items, purchasing from merchants or spending cryo pods points to grant yourself regular income of various crafting materials. I have a special video dedicated to this part of the game. Take a look below.
Maps and Navigation
As you make your progress through Andromeda, new worlds and destinations will be revealed before you. Many of them will be deadly and unfriendly, so be prepared, pick your loadout before you land on a new planet. Use every hint and suggestion given during mission cutscenes or via Lore Updates in the Codex.
In higher difficulties being prepared is often the difference between a succesfull mission and a complete failure.
Galaxy Map
The space exploration is done in a familiar enough way to the Mass Effect 3 system. You can travel from one place to another, explore planets or find and probe various objects in space, such as damaged ships and asteroid fields in hopes to find crafting materials.
The well known probing from the previous Mass Effect games is available here too. Scan the space and send probes for a chance to discover crafting materials and more interesting hidden things. Unlike in Mass Effect 2, probing is free here. The fuel has also been eliminated as a resource.
Planetary maps
The planetary maps have a set of number icons to help you recognize different obejects – main missions, side quests, places of interest, forward bases. Ah, yes.
Spread in predefined places on each planet you will be able to deploy a forward base, which will allow you to quick travel (teleport) directly to it from any place on the planet.
Many planets and regions are hazardous and fast traveling back to a secure camp is very handy – allows you to replenish your live support systems.
Most of the exploration is done driving the Nomad. Unlike the driving in the old trilogy, here I have insane amount of fun time doing it.
The vehicle has 2 modes – one for fast movement on plain terrain and one for climbing steep slopes at a much slower speed. Be sure to use them both wisely. The Nomad can, of course, also be upgraded and improved.
The maps are quite big and there are often valuable things to discover or mineral fields to mine in the far reaches of the map. Don’t be afraid to explore. Just be careful – some areas aren’t supposed to be visited or are plainly unreachable until you do a certain mission or number of missions on the said planet.
Tips and Suggestions for New Players
Here are a few more tips and suggestions that I just thought you would like to hear and have handy for your first steps into Andromeda:
- In terms of experience gain, the bigger portion comes from completing missions, not from killing aliens and monsters.
- Learn Barricare if you plan to skip most of the side quests and bonus missions.
- Get Singularity regardless if you play Biotics. This ability has great combo potential with almost everything.
- If you are truly a beginner and have never played any Mass Effect games before, put your Companions to AutoLevel Up as this will save you time and efforts of learning a huge amount of new abilities very early in the game.
- Don’t save your special ammo types. Extra amounts of special ammo can be purchased for cheap prices from Vendors and also replenished from a Supply Carte down on the planet’s surface.
- My last, but also very important advice not just for this section of the guide, bug in general for your whole Mass Effect Andromeda experience is – TALK TO EVERYBODY! GO EVERYWHERE!
I hope you find this guide useful and interesting. Now I leave you to begin your own Pathfinding adventure.
If you learn and understand things better while watching instead of reading, here is a version of this guide in video format with visual demonstrations. In the video you will learn essencial tips and suggestions for Mass Effect Andromeda Beginners and completely new to the franchise players.
Get a headstart by learning the basics of training, profiles, skills and combos, game mechanics, exploration, leveling and more.
