So I want to make a good Mass Effect soldier

[Prime]

I'm going to be starting my first play through of Mass Effect, and I'd like my Shepherd to be a soldier. Just looking for some tips and advice about what to avoid or focus on. Good skills, bad skills, etc. Thanks!

[Mav]

Happy New Year Prime-ski, I don't really remember much about Mass Effect, but if you're going Soldier, you'll probably want to get Liara on your team for her biotic abilities, and blue skin.

[igyman]

Well, I guess it depends on your style of gameplay. I personally always make sure my persuasion and intimidate skills are high enough, regardless of character class. As for weapons, can't be of much help there, since the classes I played with mostly relied on the pistol and/or shotgun. Weapon and armor upgrades are another matter - the Medical Exoskeleton armor upgrade is a must and it never hurts to have a weapon with armor piercing bullets (will make the Geth go down much easier).

[Jeff]

Happy New Year Prime-ski, I don't really remember much about Mass Effect, but if you're going Soldier, you'll probably want to get Liara on your team for her biotic abilities, and blue skin.

Wrex and Garrus 4 lyfe.

 

As for creating your character, I would usually put points in intimidate/persuade whatever it's called, assault rifle for weapon, and as soon as you unlock spectre status I put a lot of my points in the spectre training stat. I used the starting armor the entire game since all the others are terrible (ugly) so I also would put points into armor so I wasn't constantly dying.

[Bob Lion54]

Happy New Year Prime-ski, ... you'll probably want to get Liara on your team for her... blue skin.

 

QFT! I loves me some Liara and her blue skin!

 

......

 

I found that most of my skills were either maxed, or close to it, by the time I got to the later parts of the game. Soldier is the most straightforward. Just take the skills that up your survivability and damage and you'll be alright.

 

Also, as igyman said, persuasion/intimidate are very nice to have. Though you only need to get one of them up. If you can intimidate an NPC you can persuade them and vice-versa. The only real difference is how high the skill needs to be in relation to that NPC. You can use both on everyone, but a seasoned soldier might require a high Intimidate skill, but a relatively lower Persuasion skill; while a cunning merchant might be tough to persuade, but easy to intimidate. I advise to pick one and focus on it first, then if you have extra points to spend, go with the other one. Really though, if you get one to max, you don't need the other.

[Jae Onasi]

Just a heads up--the game is on special on Steam for $5 today.

[mimartin]

Wrex and Garrus 4 lyfe.

No doubt Prime is smart enough not to listen to Jeff when it comes to game play.

 

Tali and Liara rule. That is Dr. T'soni and Ms. Rayya to you Jeff.

 

 

 

My suggestion to you prime is just have fun. As a soldier the game is pretty easy even a lower levels, so just play the game without thinking too much. I would use either Tali or Garrus for Electronics and Decryption skills and it is also nice to have a biotic NPC in your party. IMO Wrex is the most fun, but Liara has the skills. Kaiden guards the ship.

[Prime]

My suggestion to you prime is just have fun.

Thanks for the hints everyone. The above is what I typically do. I'm not really a power gaming min/maxer. I usually play RPGs as a character and not as a means to get the most loot. But it is nice to avoid starting a character and realizing you selected a bunch of skills that were crap.

[swphreak]

You'll have a lot of points when you get to lvl 50. And even more at lvl 60.

 

What I do is focus on a single primary weapon (soldiers can equip all 4 types). I usually go assault rifle or shotgun, and then put a little bit into sniper rifle. The rest go into everything else except First Aid. I usually have a companion handle the first aid.

 

You'll also want to decide if you're going to be a white knight or a-hole, and choose the corresponding persuasion skill (Charm / Intimidate).

 

 

When I finished my last Mass Effect game, my Shepard had a lot of green rows. You don't really have to worry about getting the perfect character build.

[True_Avery]

As an opposing opinion to StarWarsPhreak, I'd make your main Shepard character the First Aid lacky. Put your every so often extra points into First Aid. Why? Because this then frees every other character under your control from needing to put too many points into First Aid, which gives you better support since you can put those points into Decryption or Electronics instead. This will allow your team mates to have high shields, which leaves you less First Aid requirements.

 

Everytime the option shows, put points into Charm or Intimidate. Everything else put into Armor and a single weapon first. Once those 2 are full, put the points anywhere else. I'd recommend Spectre Training next (you'll unlock it once you become a Sprectre), then throw some into Soldier (until you get the Commando Class upgrade by doing the Side Quest on Luna), and then sparkle them into Assault Training until you get Fitness, then dump into Fitness as its probably the best Talent in the game for survivability.

[DrPhil2501]

And heres a little added bonus - once you finish the game first time round, you can play it a second time with the same Shepard you made - all his/her weapons, armor, experience and current level will remain intact; supposedly giving you a more "completionistic" feel to the game.

 

Otherwise, you could make a whole new Shepard during your second playthrough. Depending on your actions during the previous run (how many medpacks, grenades, biotic attacks, etc... you used), you will be granted an extra ability when selecting your class. In this case, if you pick the Soldier class again; you will be given the Biotic Throw ability

 

Goodluck NOOBY

[Prime]

Next question. How much do people end up micromanaging their NPCs, specifically biotic powers? Largely I seem to do OK with just controlling Shepard, but I'm wondering if I'm missing something.

 

Also, the decryption minigame is a pain. Is that just because I have a fairly weak tech party?

[swphreak]

No, the entirety of the hacking is simon says. I usually breakdown everything I don't use to omni gel so I don't have to bother.

 

I hardly mess with my NPCs.

[Star Admiral]

I usually break down only the lower tier items into omnigel, since the amount of omnigel you receive per item is the same regardless of the item's level. For high level items, say 7-10, selling them for credits and using the credits to buy items you want usually works better.

 

And as StarWarsPhreak mentioned, you don't need to mess with your NPCs; they do their job well enough. I only control the NPCs when I need a specific ability. Say an enemy Krogan activates Immunity. I would then tell Liara or Wrex to use Warp on them to nullify the benefits of Immunity.

 

- Star Admiral

[mimartin]

About the only thing I do with my NPC is make sure they are using a weapon they are trained for. Sometimes they have a tendency to attempt the use a weapon they are not trained for.

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

No doubt Prime is smart enough not to listen to Jeff when it comes to game play.

 

Tali and Liara rule. That is Dr. T'soni and Ms. Rayya to you Jeff.

 

 

 

My suggestion to you prime is just have fun. As a soldier the game is pretty easy even a lower levels, so just play the game without thinking too much. I would use either Tali or Garrus for Electronics and Decryption skills and it is also nice to have a biotic NPC in your party. IMO Wrex is the most fun, but Liara has the skills. Kaiden guards the ship.

 

wrex does biotics and garrus does tech plus they can both hold their own, wrex/garrus crew 4 lyfe

[Mav]

I usually break down only the lower tier items into omnigel, since the amount of omnigel you receive per item is the same regardless of the item's level. For high level items, say 7-10, selling them for credits and using the credits to buy items you want usually works better.

Except you'll eventually get to the point where your credit's are maxed anyway.

[Star Admiral]

Except you'll eventually get to the point where your credit's are maxed anyway.

 

True enough, unless you modified the BioParty.ini file to allow up to 99,999,999 credits.

 

But you're right. Nobody needs that many credits.

 

- Star Admiral

[Mav]

^^

hmm, never thought of that, I'm just working my way to maxing my Omni-gel now, XD

[DarthParametric]

There's no "good" or "bad" soldier. You pick soldier as your class, press start, win game. Simple as that. Soldier in ME1 is basically the cheat mode.

[JesusIsGonnaOwnSatan]

Everytime the option shows, put points into Charm or Intimidate.

This.

 

Also, regarding charm: You've probably already past it, but when you land on the citadel for the first time, do the main quest first and become a spectre before doing any side quests. It unlocks more Charm points and IIRC gives you some free Intimidation to boot.

Having the persuasion skill of your choice up will help you on the side quests.

 

Omni Gel: I usually break down everything so that i have one or two of the highest level each of item.

 

Party: I turn off squad power usage. I always found that the party members used their powers stupidly and to no effect. Having their powers ready when you want them is great, and allows better tactical combat.

[Mav]

^^

Actually depending on how many play-throughs you are planning with a character, you shouldn't put points into Charm or Intimidate at all, you can get up to 4 free Charm or Intimidate points per play-through. So after 3 play-throughs you can max Charm or Intimidate without spending a single point in it, meaning that's 12 points you can spend elsewhere.

[JesusIsGonnaOwnSatan]

you can get up to 4 free Charm or Intimidate points per play-through.

You get free points? huh... ive never replayed a character cause i though i'd have to do everything again (no talents etc).

 

@Prime: Also, save up a million credits (not hard). You'll unlock the Master Spectre Weaopns , which are afaik the most powerfuls weps in the game. They're like, the only items worth bothering with from merchants. Also keep an eye out for Colossus armors. Im pretty sure theyre the best ones.

 

Is it just me, or is ME's inventory/store system the most retarded ever? There are absolutely no sorting or organizing options! You can't group select items, so omni-gelling is a real pain, and selling at a store is an absolute nightmare! I've *got* to be missing something here... perhaps some big "SORT" button right in front of my face? Because this cant be right... (PC 1.02 version here)

[stoffe]

Is it just ME, or is ME's inventory/store system the most retarded ever?

 

The second ME. It is quite horrible yes, and a huge step back from the inventory management of previous Bioware games. I almost get the suspicion that they are sponsored by some mouse manufacturer to make people wear out their mouse buttons while playing the game (also known as the Diablo Syndrome).

[igyman]

Yeah, the inventory system definitely could have been better, but overall it doesn't bother too much. Still, I hope they improved it for ME2.