MASS EFFECT: Tip Sheet #3 -- Thresher Maws

One of the most annoying enemies you will come across while exploring planets in Mass Effect is the Thresher Maw. These sandworm-like creatures have an acid attack that ignores your shields and a one-shot attack that will kill your party instantly, no matter how healthy your Mako is. When you first meet up with them, you will probably find yourself using up lots of OmniGel to restore your Mako -- or, even worse, getting killed and losing whatever progress you've made in the level.

I've learned a few things about these evil creatures that you might find useful. I can now survive most Thresher attacks without using any OmniGel. So here are my tips for "Defeating a Thresher Maw for fun and XP."

• When you first meet a Maw, leave the area and save your game. You don't want to lose any progress you've made on the planet so far! Get in your vehicle, if you aren't in it already and head out of the battle area. (The battle area of a Maw is limited to the flat, somewhat circular area you find her in.) Try to get out of it's line of sight, because it can still use it's acid attack on you if it can see you.
  
  
• If you get hit with acid, leave the area and use your OmniGels. It only takes two or three acid hits to destroy your Mako, so repair as soon as you can.
  
  
• Stay in your vehicle. The Maw moves too quickly for you to even think about attempting to take her down on foot. Check you Codex entry on Thresher Maws for more information.
  
  
• The basic plan of attack is to move around the outer edge of the flat area and shoot at the Maw whenever she shows herself. If the Maw is facing away from you, stop your Mako, zoom in with the left trigger and take a few shots. As soon as she starts to move her head and sink back into the ground, move to a new position along the periphery.
  
  
• If the Maw is facing you, do not stop, or at least be ready to move and play some chicken with a blob of acid. When you will see her rear her head back, move! She will be shooting acid your way. Move laterally (across, not toward or away) and the acid should miss you.
  
  
• When the Maw is underground, you should be moving. Period. As I said earlier, try to stay along the periphery of the battle area, but still on the flat part. As long as you are on the flat portion, she will continue to appear and fight. I tend to pick a direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise) and stick with it for the entire battle.
  
  
• Never move toward her last position -- always drive away from her. Driving toward her is about the same as staying in one place -- she'll kill you in one shot with her attack from below.
  
  
• Never move toward the Maw when she is exposed. This is basically suicide. If you are close enough for her to perform a melee attack, you will die in one or two hits. This thing has no respect for shields.
  
  
• Toward the end of the battle it will seem as if you aren't doing any damage. Somehow, these creatures' skins get tougher as their health gets weaker. Just keep plugging plasma bolts into her and running away. You'll eventually bring her down.

That's it. The main thing is to save first, keep moving, keep shooting, gel in a safe place if you need to, and never move toward her.

Good luck on your next big kill!

MASS EFFECT: Tip Sheet #2 -- Exploration

Once you've left the Citadel, which can take up to 15 hours or more if you are thorough, you have the choice of following the main quest tasks, resolving your Additional Assignments, or just exploring. As it turns out, all of these involve exploration to some degree.

The game has two different exploration experiences: System Exploration and Terrestrial Exploration. We'll take a look at both today.

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SYSTEM EXPLORATION

System exploration involves exploring a solar system to discover resources, vehicles (plot/combat areas) and other hidden objects.

You should engage in the System Exploration task every time you enter a new solar system, regardless of how you got there. (Main story line, Additional Assignments or random system hopping.) To find everything a system has to offer, follow these steps:

1. EXAMINE UNEXPLORABLE PLANETS
   
   Move your cursor over every planet or moon on the map and select "Travel" with the [A] button. If the planet has "Scan" as an option, do it. You will find some form of resource or artifact, which will work toward completion of your resource/artifact tasks. If the planet has a "Land" option, take note of it and move on for now -- it's easier to keep track of things if you complete all of your System Exploration tasks before taking on a planetary exploration.
   
   
   
2. LOOK FOR HIDDEN OBJECTS
   
   Many systems have one or more hidden features, such as ships or mineral-laden asteroids. These objects will give themselves away with a quick flash of light every few seconds. (The rotational speeds of these objects are fairly slow, so the flash can take five seconds or more to repeat.) Slowly move your cursor over the whole system looking for the flash. If you see it, move the cursor over to the flash and you should get the prompt "Unknown Object". Select "Scan" from the menu to find out what it is. If it is an asteroid, you can scan it again to obtain the resource or artifact that it contains. If it is a ship, you will probably be presented with the "Board" option. Take note of the object and move on until you've finished looking for hidden objects.
   
   You can shortcut this process a little bit by being proactive: many of the asteroid belts in the game contain hidden objects. Rather than waiting for the glint of light, you can run your cursor over the entire belt looking for the "Unknown Object" prompt. Note that not all asteroid belts have hidden objects and not all hidden objects are in asteroid belts -- so you still need to be patient and look for flashes, but it's kind of fun zipping around the belts trying to see if you can find something interesting.
   
   
   
3. BOARD ANY VEHICLES
   
   Vehicles will be highlighted with a cluster of four diamonds on the map. (Note that some vehicles are visible when you enter the map, others are hidden and need to be discovered as described in step 2.) Boarding a vehicle will play out like entering a building on a planet or moon. There are usually plot points associated with them. Note that if you are just randomly exploring, you may be opening up task plotlines that you have not yet been given. This isn't a big deal in terms of completing the game, since your log will clue you in on what to do next, but you do miss out on any conversations that would have normally initiated the mission.
   
   
   
4. LAND ON ANY EXPLORABLE PLANETS
   
   Landing on a planet (using the "Land" option on the wheel menu) will initiate one of two scenarios: You will either end up in a main plotline area like a city or settlement or you will land on the surface in your rover, the Mako. Plotline areas will play out like the Citadel, only with a lot more shooting. :) If you land on the surface, then you are now prepared to do Terrestrial Exploration.
   

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TERRESTRIAL EXPLORATION

Terrestrial Exploration involves moving around the mission area of a planet or moon, investigating marked objects, discovering hidden objects, fighting off Thresher Maws and exploring buildings.

While your first inclination will be to race the Mako to each of the points on the map, I'm going to suggest that you take a more organized approach to exploration. This more measured approach will help you finish your Additional Assignments more quickly, avoid backtracking and earn you beaux coups credits.

There are hidden points of interest on every planet/moon that you can land on. Most of these are mineral deposits. Not only do you gain experience from surveying these deposits, but you also earn credits on an escalating scale. Every new deposit you find will pay you more money than the previous one.

I've also found hidden anomlies, bases and downed probes. So you can't assume that the map shows everything.

The only way to find these hidden items easily is by using the Mako's RADAR. So let's look at how you go about doing this:

The first thing to notice when you land on a planet is that the mission area is always the same size -- and it turns out that it is only slightly larger than twice the area covered by the Mako RADAR. This means that you can conduct a full planetary survey by running around the inner perimeter of the mission area and then running to the center of the map.

So here's what you do:

As soon as you land, go to the map screen. For now, ignore anything already marked on the map. Use the map marker and mark a position that is a quarter of the way in from the nearest corner. For your first time, just guess, or even mark the corner itself.

Now leave the map screen and head for the marker in the Mako, watching the RADAR more than the landscape. As you approach the edges of the mission area you will see parts of the radar go reddish-orange. Move away from that boundary until it shows up as a thin line on either the right or left side of your RADAR. Now, continue moving toward the marker, keeping the boundary you found as the tiniest of marks on one side of the RADAR until you come upon another boundary at the top of your RADAR. (You may need to re-orient the RADAR/viewport using the right stick.) When you get situated so that you have two VERY thin red lines on two sides of the RADAR, go to your map and note the Mako position. This is the correct distance to set your marker from any corner while conducting survey.

1. From the map screen, set a new marker to an adjacent corner of the map.
   
   
2. From the Mako, travel toward the marker keeping the left or right boundary as the thinnest of lines on your RADAR. As you drive watch the RADAR for any objects that might show up. Anything that shows up THAT IS NOT ALREADY SHOWING ON THE MAP needs to be surveyed/investigated. When your investigation is complete, return to where you left the original imaginary path and continue toward the marker. (Always keeping the border as a thin line on your left or right side.)
   
   
3. When you reach the marker, head straight for the corner of the map until the corner shows up on the RADAR. This will catch any items hidden in corners -- and there are a few.
   
   
4. Head back to the marker position.
   
   

Repeat the above steps until you have surveyed all four sides of the map and all four corners.

Most maps have two or three hidden items. Most of them will be mineral deposits that you will need to survey before they show up on the map. Luna (Earth's moon) is an exception -- all of it's hidden features are enemy bases.

Once you've completed your surveys, you can investigate the other items that were originally marked on your map.

• ANOMOLIES (question mark icon)
  
  These can be alien structures, crashed ships or bodies. Anomolies provide equipment or artifiacts that you can collect.
  
  Note that some anomolies are near enemy outposts or Thresher Maws. Be prepared!
  
  
• DEBRIS (stacked brick icon)
  
  These are usually probes that have fallen out of orbit or crashed ships.
  These will always yield equipment if you have high enough electronics skills.
  
  Debris will sometimes be guarded by enemy agents or Thresher Maws.
  
  
• PLOT POINT (exclamation point icon)
  
  So far, these have always been enemy outposts or distress beacons.
  
  Outposts will be buildings that are usually heavily guarded with a combination of soldiers and rocket artillery or soldiers and snipers in towers -- I haven't yet seen an installation with rockets and sniper towers.
  
  Your strategy will vary with the type of protection. If the installation has rockets, then stay in the Mako and find a position where you are exposed to only one rocket launcher at a time, if possible. You can easily identify these on the Mako RADAR as the rocket emplacements are marked by red diamonds.
  
  This is where the Mako shields come into play. Be bold. Drive up to the launcher such that you can get it's on-screen health assessment in your sensors and start firing, but don't get too close or the Mako's gun won't be effective. You can usually fire on the installation and play chicken with the rockets if you are far enough away. Pay CLOSE ATTENTION to your shields. As soon as the Mako shields get down to one or two bars, high-tail it out of there and find a place to recover. Note that the rocket launcher will be restoring it's shields and may perform repairs, so don't wait too long. If there aren't any ground troops, you can usually take out a rocket without losing much shield at all. Just be bold, use the left trigger sight, and hammer away with SHORT BURSTS to avoid overheating your weapon. Once youve eliminated the rockets, you can take out the ground troops with the Mako, or get out of the Mako ([B] button) and pick them off with your team, which is typically more effective.
  
  If you have to deal with sniper towers, it is better to make a ground offensive, especially if you have trained snipers on your team. Take out the snipers first, get in the Mako to get close, and then mop up any remaining resistance.

MASS EFFECT: Tip Sheet #1 -- Miscellaneous Beginner Stuff

Here are some tips I've discovered to help along your Mass Effect Experience.

• ALWAYS HAVE A CHARACTER WITH ENGINEER SKILLS IN YOUR PARTY
  
  The engineering skill has two talents that are vital to exploring the Milky Way: Electronics and Decryption. The electronics talent is used to unlock most containers, including probes that have fallen to the ground. The Decryption talent is used for unlocking containers that use encrypted data locks, such as computer terminals and secure containers. If you want to have lots of cash and omnigel, you are going to need to be able to open any container you come across and these two skill enable that.
  
  
• MAX OUT YOUR ENGINEERS' ELECTRONICS AND DECRYPTION TALENTS BEFORE ALL OTHERS
  
  This is related to the first tip -- once you start jumping off the main questline and begin exploring, you will immediately come upon probes and secured containers that require high talent levels in either electronics or decryption. Not having a high enough skill means that you cannot open the container (even with OmniGel) until you have raised the required talent level and returned to the container location. Even then, the original failed attempt will require that you use some of your valuable OmniGel to open the container. There are no second chances at the button mashing minigame.
  
  
• MAX OUT YOUR MAIN CHARACTER'S CHARM OR TAUNT TALENTS WHENEVER POSSIBLE
  
  There are dialog options fairly early in the game that require the maximum charm/taunt points to be applied for the options to be available. If you see a darkened charm/taunt in the dialog ring, it means you don't have ennough points applied to that talent -- and you won't be able to choose those options. So always level up your conversation skill of choice, ignoring all other skills, whenever there is a free space available. If not, you could miss key opportunities to increase your Paragon or Renegade status.
  
  
• IN THE EARLY STAGES OF THE GAME, TURN UNWANTED GEAR INTO OMNIGEL -- DON'T SELL IT.
  
  You are going to need OmniGel when you go exploring to fix your rover. You are also going to need it to open containers whenever you bungle the button-mashing mini-game. You can carry up to 999 OmniGels, so don't be afraid to gel everything you can get your hands on. (When driving the rover, it will look like you can only carry 99 OmniGels, but the Equipment screen will show you the actual number you are carrying.) My rule of thumb is to convert any equipment with a Mark I, II or III value and sell anything with a Mark IV rating or higher.
  
  
• DECIDE ON TWO COMPANION CHARACTERS EARLY IN THE GAME AND STICK WITH THEM
  
  Not only will this get you two achievements at the end of the main quest (using XXX character 85% of the time) but it also simplifies your decisions about what equipment to gel or sell. For example, my A-team is Ashley and Tali -- a Human and a Quarian. That means that I can sell or gel all Asari, Krogan and Turian armor that I find without begin too concerned. (I do occasionally re-outfit my other characters when I'm in the ship's bay, but I'm not overly concerned about it -- they are rarely needed except for specific missions.)
  
  Also, my Shepard has no biotic abilities. Since Tali and Ashley also do not use biotics, I am able to gel/sell biotic pumps without regret.
  
  What this leads to is that you can quickly re-outfit your main team from the equipment screen when you are planetside and immediately gel any unused, low-level equipment from the same screen. Unused high-level equipment (Mark IV and higher) should be sold -- unless you REALLY need the gel.
  
  One other benefit: between your missions and the sales value of all the HQ equipment you aren't hoarding, you should find yourself earning the Rich achievement (over 1,000,000 credits in your account) in 20-25 hours of gameplay.One other note: you can only have 150 items in your possession at one time. That includes upgrades and ammo. So keeping your larder lean will also keep you from being forced to gel any equipment you scavenge.

CONVERSATION POINTERS:

• Conversation options on the right side of the wheel usually lead to a conclusion/termination of the conversation. Options on the left tend to expand the conversation.
  
  
• If you want the full experience, always select and thoroughly explore the "Investigate" option when it appears.
  
  
• Slightly charming answers usually appear at the 1:30 position of the wheel. (Unless an Investigate option has opened up too many follow-up options.)
  
  
• Slightly taunting answers usually appear at the 4:30 position of the wheel.
  
  
• Very charming answers will appear in blue text at the 10:30 position when available. This is the best path to Paragon points and a non-violent resolution to a situation. If the option is grayed-out, you have insufficient Charm talent to exercise that option.
  
  
• Highly taunting answers appear in red text at the 7:30 position when available. This leads to high Renegade points and potentially will start a firefight. If the option is grayed-out, you have insufficient Taunt talent to exercise that option.

MASS EFFECT: A Game with Two Minds

Those of you who know me know that I've been waiting on this game more than any other for two years now. I mean, it's a BioWare game that allows you to travel thoughout a sparsely-populated Milky Way Galaxy.

Well, it's been worth the wait. The game has some rare framerate issues that will bring the game to a temporary halt, but that is the only real complaint I can find with it.

The story is solid. The voice acting is superb. And the dialog ring interface is a quantum leap for adventure-style gaming.

As long as you stay on the main quest, the game has the deep, immersive feel of any other BioWare title. You go into a city or facility; talk to LOTS of people; solve puzzles; make moral decisions and engage in battles. This part of the game is extremely well-crafted. If the tasks seem trivial at times, the dialog associated with the task makes up for it.

Off the main quest, though, things are different -- which may put BioWare fans off at first until they understand that the exploration side-missions are meant to provide more of a sandbox experience. You can freely explore any planet in the system that allows you to land on it. There you will find a number of points of interest that you can drive your rover to and others that you can discover by just driving around and watching your radar. This is much more of an action experience. You engage in numerous battles, collect items and push portions of the story further, but there is very little exposition or dialog.

This let's you play Mass Effect according to your mood: when you are looking for the full-blown RPG experience, you play the main story line, where each city can have you engaged for 2-6 hours. When you just want to get into some action, you can either investigate a secondary mission or just pick a solar system at random and start exploring.

One caution that all adventure games should know, but still applies here in spades: SAVE YOUR GAME BEFORE AND AFTER EVERY BATTLE OR MAJOR MORAL DECISION. The game does auto-save, but it's rare, and usually means replaying over an hour of the story when you've bungled it. Going into a structure will usually provide an autosave, but an hour of wandering a landscape only to be gobbled up by a Maw will send you back in time to where you first landed on the planet if you haven't saved your game.

This is definitely a five-star title. The framerate problems are annoying but rare, and can almost be dropped from consideration.Be aware, though, I've seen the screen go still for up to five seconds and recover. So don't assume you have a lockup whenever the framerate goes to a standstill. I've put over 20 hours into this game and have not had it lock up on me yet.

Buy, buy, buy. This is the kind of title that requires you vote with your pocketbook so that publishers will keep coming out with this kind of expansive, high-quality title.

Assassin's Creed -- Achievement Tips

EAGLE'S FLIGHT (20G)

This achievement requires that you stay in battle for at least 10 minutes. There are three fairly simple ways to do this:

1. THE CHEATER'S WAY
   
   Go into the Kingdom and run to your nearest lookout point (any of the towers where you synchronize your area memory will do.) Simply pick a fight with a guard to attract his attention (don't kill him) and then quickly climb up the tower, avoiding any rocks that might get thrown at you. Once you are at the top of the tower, you will be safe, but the guard and his nearby buddies will continue to search for you indefinitely. Just take a bathroom break and grab a sandwich. 10 minutes later, voila! You have the achievement. You can now do a leap of faith from the tower and dispel all of the guards' pent-up rage as you slip away quietly.
   
   
2. THE COWARD'S WAY
   
   Okay, so it's not as cowardly as #1, but it's still pretty cowardly. Again, go into the Kingdom and grab a horse. Get the guard's attention and then get on the horse. The trick here is to avoid the guards without getting too far away from them -- if you do, your suspicion level will go to zero and you'll have to restart the process. Try to stay in a fairly confined area that doesn't have any archers. (The entrance from Masayaf is perfect.) After ten minutes of displaying your fine horsemanship, you should have this one in the bag.
   
   
3. THE HERO'S WAY
   
   If you have decent fighting skills and are fully in sync with Altaïr (all 20 bars in the DNA sync meter) you can get this achievement at the same time you complete the Eagle's Challenge achievement. (See below.) Killing 25 guards in a sane manner will take about ten minutes, so you can do both of these at the same time.

EAGLE'S CHALLENGE (20G)

While you can certainly try to Rambo this achievement, I've found that a more conservative approach, invloving a lot of running, works well here.

I recommend doing this in the Kingdom, starting in the cluster of villages in the North-central area. There are PLENTY of guards around, which you will need to accomplish this.

First off, realize that you can't kill every guard around you or you will end the fight, so always leave somebody alive and start running when the battle gets down to one or two guards.

Secondly, don't bite off more than you can chew. If you are surrounded by more than six guards -- RUN! You will eventually lose most of them.

Thirdly, be an opportunist: if you have a good lead on the pack and see a new guard who doesn't see you, switch to your hidden blade and jump him! You can then decide whether or not to switch back to your short blade or keep running.

So, with the above in mind, the plan is to pick a fight, get noticed, fight when the odds are in your favor (5 or fewer guards) and run when they aren't or when your synchronization (health) is low. If things get too crazy, find a tower and heal -- just don't do the leap of faith into a hay bale or you'll end the fight prematurely.

Also, Templars can be your ally here if you are gettin glow on synchronization. Killing a Templar will always refill your sync bar! And most guards will back off and watch a Templar fight. (Note that I said "most", not "all".) So if you are low on health and you have an uncaptured Templar nearby, take him on! I did just that after taking out 15 guards during my attempt at this achievement and it worked great.

Remember, when you are down to one or two guards, run away and try to attract the attention of more guards. This will also give you a chance to regain some sync.

Happy Hunting!