A Beginners Guide To Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer [Part 1/2]

- Introduction

I've been playing Mass Effect 3 multiplayer for a little over half a year now and as with any game where there is an MP that I enjoy playing, I've spent many an hour on the title. Until ME3 I wasn't really aware of what the Mass Effect franchise was about nor did I have any reason to learn more about it, that however all changed when a friend of mine (who I played a crap ton of Uncharted 3 Co-Op with), recommended the game to me. I started off by downloading the demo and if I'm being honest, my first impressions were more or less "meh, can't see what all the fuss is about" but I decided to stick at it and play around with the various classes, while also testing out the different powers. It took a pretty long time for me to get to grips with the demo and when I eventually bought the retail version, I realised that this was merely the tip of the iceberg, despite this I decided to forgo the single player and dive straight into MP (in hindsight, even I think this was a crazy move!). 

Being an absolute noob to the whole ME franchise there was soo much that I had to wrap my head around, never before did I have to build entire character kits via skills points as well as selecting and modding weapons. These weapons would then create an additional "cooldown" time for my powers and could be further enhanced via equipment. Don't even get me started on all the classes, I mean what the heck is an "Adept"? "Vanguards" can do what now? The powers themselves had alternative evolutions and each one had odd names (what is "Reave"?!) and provided equally bizarre benefits ("Weaken Armour"?!), I mean my mind was literally reeling from the data overload (speaking of which, "Effective against barriers"?!).

I began playing ME3 MP in mid summer of 2012 and at that point there was already loads of stuff in MP but since then, there have been even more additions to the game, ranging from new weapons and character kits to fresh enemy units and powers. I have since played the single player of both Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 (btw I started on Veteran and it was soo easy because I was already comfortable with Gold in MP :P) and looking back now, I'm still in awe of how much there is to master, especially for players who've never touched an ME game before, I mean even now I'm still learning new things. I have therefore decided to create this brief guide to the world of ME3 MP, in order to help those new players who are either coming to the franchise completely fresh or those wanting a bit more information before jumping online from single player. The guide is split into two parts and you can find out what appears where in the contents list below:


- Contents

---------------------------------- [ In Part 1 ] ----------------------------------
+ Learn To Walk Before Attempting To Run
+ What Is Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer?
+ Credits, Multiplayer Store, XP and N7 Rank
+ Challenges
+ Character Kits 
+ Investing Skill Points Into Powers
+ Weapons and Mods
+ Equipment and Consumables

---------------------------------- [ In Part 2 ] ----------------------------------
+ Don't Treat MP Like SP, They Are Different Beasts
+ Wave Budgets (Enemy Re-Spawn Logic)
+ Time To Complete Matches and Potential Credits Earned
+ Multiplayer Etiquette
+ Bugs, Glitches and EA Servers
+ Weekly Balance Changes [Read: Weekly Nerfs] 
+ Useful Online Resources For Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer
+ Links To Follow Up Articles 

- Learn To Walk Before Attempting To Run

The first thing that I highly recommend is that you play the single player campaign, I'm not saying you have to complete it but take it from me when I say, it's worth spending a couple hours learning the basics from the relative ease of SP rather than diving blindly into the chaos that is MP. If you're coming to ME from any other third person cover shooter, you'll already have a head start on how to play the game but for those that might not have played one before, there are a few basic things you'll want to work on first. Knowing how to effectively traverse terrain is very important, as you'll often be running towards objectives and quite often retreating from hordes of blood thirsty enemies, so make sure you're familiar with running, rolling, climbing and dodging (there is no jumping). The next vital lesson that you should master, is how to use the cover system, not only will it protect you from incoming fire but any damage you take while in cover is automatically reduced, compared to if you were similarly hit outside of it. 

Once you're able to get from A to B reliably and without getting dead, the next lesson is combat skills, that is to say being able to use your weapons and powers efficiently. Melee is available in the game but as a beginner, I'd strongly advise against using this as your main form of attack, at least not until you understand more about it's damage values. For the most part, weapons and powers operate the same way in MP as they do in the SP and you'll be taught the essentials of how to use both in the tutorial at the start of the campaign. Some pointers on weapons: firing from cover will decrease your bullet spread, fire full-auto weapons in controlled bursts for tighter bullet groupings and head shots will always do a significant amount more damage to the enemy than body shots. A couple pointers on powers: the powers in MP are assigned to buttons by default and can't be re-mapped like in SP (they're displayed on your HUD though, so you won't need to memorise all the kits) and some powers can curve around obstacles to hit an enemy if you adjust your targeting accordingly.


- What Is Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer?

OK, so that's the bare basics of what you need to be familiar with in order to have a fighting chance of survival online, now for a breakdown of what it is that MP is all about.  Mass Effect 3's multiplayer is all co-operative gameplay (i.e. there is no player verses player), you can team up with three other human players (max team size is four, minimum size is one) to take on waves of AI controlled enemies. There are currently four enemy factions that you can come up against; Reapers, Cerberus, Geth and Collectors, most of the units are exactly the same as the ones you face in SP but some are taken from previous ME games and others are only found in MP. Learning about the enemy units and the best ways to deal with them is something that will take time, playing SP helps with this aspect but I don't think it teaches you everything you need to know for MP. You will play on a variety of maps, ranging from big and outdoors to small and indoors, you might recognise some (if not most) of the locations from SP, which is another good reason to play it before jumping online. The maps aren't too hard navigate, you'll probably have the general layout memorised in a match or two and then the short cuts and ladders a few games after that. There are four difficulty levels that you can attempt: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum, enemies will do more damage and have increased health/shields the higher up you go but the rewards are adjusted respectively. 

Each multiplayer match is comprised of eleven waves, the goal of waves 1,2,4,5,7,8 and 9 is to kill all the enemy units, while there is no time limit for you to complete these waves, there's no reason to drag them out. Waves 3, 6 and 10 are called 'Objective Waves' and as the name suggests, the team has to complete a particular task during these waves, as of writing this article the objectives are: Assassination, Escort, Hack, Dis-Arm and Recover [**Link to be added**]. All objective waves have a time limit for completion, if the team fails to complete the set task for that wave before the time runs out, it's game over. If the team successfully completes the objective/'s within the time limit, everyone will earn a certain amount of credits [more on credits in the next section]. Wave 11 is called the 'Extraction Wave' and again it does what it says on the tin, at the start of the wave a countdown timer of two minutes will begin and all you have to do is survive until your pick up ship arrives at the designated landing zone. As long as one member of the team survives the countdown time, the match is a considered a win and if you as an individual successfully extract, you will earn an additional +10% of the credits you achieved in that match (regardless of everyone else's status). Similar to they way XP amounts earned vary with difficulty, the credits you earn also increase if you completed objective waves on a higher difficulty setting. I should also mention that there are bonus credits to be earned if you complete objectives in a timely fashion but this isn't exactly a princely sum on the lower difficulties, though every little helps.


- Credits, Multiplayer Store, XP and N7 Rank

Just like in SP, credits are the in game currency for MP and once they're earned through successful completion of objectives and extractions, you can spend them at the "Store". The MP store sells a selection of "Packs" and each one contains a selection of random items, you'll eventually learn the frustrating side of this randomness but as a beginner you will probably lap everything up with content. As of writing this article there are seven packs that you can choose from; Recruit, Veteran, Spectre, Premium Spectre, Jumbo Equipment, Arsenal and Reserves. You can find the price and descriptions for each of these packs in the store. The items in the packs are categorised into Characters, Weapons, Weapon Mods, Power Reset Cards, Equipment (i.e. ammo bonuses and weapon amplifiers), Consumables [more on these later] and Consumables Carrying Limit Upgrades, each should be self explanatory. These items are then further sorted into a rarity status, a system that you might have experienced as a child with sticker and card collecting fads, I'm sure you know the ones I'm talking about. There are five tiers that the items come under: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Ultra-Rare and Promotional Ultra-Rare, apart from the Ultra-Rare items (these are not guaranteed in any purchasable packs), everything else can be obtained reliably from the packs. Promotional Ultra-Rares can only be obtained via Commendation packs, these are not stocked by the store but are instead earned by successfully completing a weekend challenge [more on challenges later].

Again like in SP, XP is required to rank up your character, the higher your character rank the more points you can invest into their powers [more on characters and investing skill points later on]. Killing enemies will earn you XP, the amount you earn depends on the difficulty of the match and the type of enemy you kill i.e. bosses will yield more XP than a basic soldier. You can gain additional XP by earning one of the numerous match medals but generally this'll happen naturally rather than you purposely going for them. The max rank for any character in MP is level 20, once at this stage all the XP you earn is more or less useless. Ranking up characters can take a long time when you're first starting out (assuming you're mainly playing Bronze, which you should be), so it's quite good that you only need to hit level 20 with one character for the whole class to be maxed i.e. even those you haven't played with will also be at level 20. If you think you can deal with any faction on any map, it's worth playing unknown map/unknown enemy/your chosen difficulty, this will allow you to earn additional XP (you can see how much when you go to search for matches) but like I said, only if you're comfortable with doing this. Another good tip for earning XP is to try and get as many kills as you can during the Extraction wave, enemies killed during wave 11 will always re-spawn and so if you're competent enough to do so [or have spare rockets for spawn sites], now is the time to go to town on them. But it's important that you don't get side tracked or over zealous with killing enemies, the goal of this wave is ultimately for everyone to survive and get extracted, which in itself will reward you with a medal. A key thing to note when waiting out the timer is that you only need to be in the extraction zone for when the clock hits zero, it's therefore generally best practice to find another place to hole up (like the other side of the map) until there's about 30 seconds to go, at which point you leg it to the EZ.

When you begin playing ME3 MP, you'll notice that everyone in the lobby has an N7 Rank, let me make this absolutely clear, this number means nothing at all. Well, once you've hit N7 Rank 120, then it'll mean diddly squat. Not many people realise what it represents when they start playing and foolishly assume that a high N7 Rank indicates greater skill or that a lower one represents poor skill. The only thing it tells you about a player is how many times they've levelled up and promoted a class, that is it, nothing else. If you're still not quite sure what I'm saying, let me give you an example, let's say you hit level 20 with all six of your classes, this would make you N7 Rank 120 because it's 20*6 = 120. Everytime you promote a class, you get an additional +10 to your N7 Rank and then you can earn another +20 when you've maxed out that class again, it's really that simple and that stupid. Unfortunately there are too many players out there who will judge your ability to play at higher difficulties via a glance at this number and if they deem it too low, you will get kicked from the lobby, believe me I've been there. Do yourself a favour, make sure you're at N7 Rank of at least 120 before upping the difficulty, it won't always stop you from being kicked but it will increase your chances of staying. 

I actually felt so aggrieved about constantly being kicked that I started a thread on the ME3 forum, asking for detailed tracking of player statistics to be implemented and displayed in match lobbies. My reasoning being that it should make it easier to see if a player is capable of handling the difficulty they've selected to play and thus might reduce the number of unjust kickings. If you think my idea is a decent proposal, then be sure to check out the link and add your voice:

> Thread Asking For Better Stat Tracking [Because The N7 Rank Is Useless] <


- Challenges

The other thing you'll notice when you start playing MP is that there is a section in the menus called 'Challenges', these were introduced with the Retaliation DLC in 2012. There are plenty of these challenges that you can complete should you wish, though you'll probably end up completing some by just playing naturally. Completing single challenges awards you a set number of points (not to be confused with XP), all the points you earn are then totalled and form your 'Challenge Points Score', this is the golden number that you will see cycled in between your N7 Rank when you're in a match lobby. If you complete all the challenges within a particular category i.e. Biotic Mastery, you'll unlock that title banner which can then be set and will be displayed under your name when you're in a match lobby. It is not mandatory to complete these challenges and there are no rewards for working on your challenge points score or for unlocking all the banners, except for the fact you get to show off what you've earnt. Unfortunately just like the N7 Rank number, the challenge score represents very little about a players skill, having a high score doesn't mean the player is the world's best and having a low one doesn't mean they're a noob. The only thing it really tells you is how much they've played the game post Retaliation DLC, though I suppose one could argue that playing a lot since then represents some degree of experience in the new enemy units (i.e. the Collectors). I'm not saying you should work on easy challenges to boost your score but like the N7 Rank, having a low one might make life a tiny bit difficult for when you transition to a higher difficulty.

Speaking of challenges, post Retaliation DLC Bioware have been setting challenges every weekend, these are adequately named as 'Weekend Challenges' and are only available for a limited amount of time (roughly three days between Friday and Monday). Usually they're pretty simple to complete and won't require too much effort, just some of your time. Past events have been things like earn X amount of XP with a certain power or earn Y amount of XP by killing a certain faction and extract Z times with a certain character. Unlike the normal challenges, completing these weekend ones will actually reward you with something useful, so I strongly advise you do try and achieve them. If you successfully complete the weekend challenge, you will earn a free 'Commendation Pack', these packs contain three random items with one guaranteed to be a weapon of Promotional Ultra-Rare status (the only way to obtain these is through Commendation packs). Every other month or so, there is usually a special weekend challenge that has an additional 'Allied Goal', as well as the individual task these will also include a challenge that is cumulative across the entire ME3 MP community. Past goals have been to kill a certain number of bosses and extract from a particular map however many times, the figures across all platforms (PC/Xbox/PS3) are then tallied and if the target number was met, everyone is awarded with a 'Victory Pack'. You don't have to do your bit to get a Victory Pack but it's usually within everyone's interests if the goal is met, so if you're playing ME3 MP anyway, why not incorporate the goal into your plans? 

 
- Character Kits

Characters are split across the six different classes: Adept, Soldier, Engineer, Sentinel, Infiltrator and Vanguard (just like in SP). There are literally dozens of character kits to chose from, that is once you've unlocked them, so it's best to try them all out to see which ones really float your boat. The characters that you can play in MP include more than just Humans, which is something different to SP but apart from the standard Human Male and Female kits in each class, you'll have to unlock the rest via purchasing packs from the store. Once you unlock a character for the first time, you'll immediately have access all their powers but they still need to be ranked up before you can invest max points (obviously). Each character has a set of appearances that can be modified to your liking but you will need to unlock them by getting additional cards for the character in question. When you've unlocked all the appearance settings for a certain character, you should technically never again get that character from the packs you purchase. The exception to this rule are the two default Human characters for each class, once you've maxed out all the characters and their appearances, these two can still appear in your packs (though I doubt this'll be a concern for you anytime soon lol). 

As I said earlier, most powers appear in MP and will operate just like they do in SP, some powers are exclusive to certain characters and races, so it might be a frustrating wait before you can get your hands on them. The cooldown times for power recharge in MP work like they do in SP i.e. heavy weapons will generate larger numbers and vice versa for lighter weapons. The last thing I want to say about unlocking character cards is that everytime you get one, it will add a chunky amount of XP to the class that the kit belongs to, so for example if you unlock the Asari Adept you'll get some free XP for the Adept class. This helps you rank up the classes that bit faster and makes it somewhat less annoying when you're getting nothing but appearance unlocks for characters that you simply can't stand to use. I actually maxed out a couple of the classes with nothing but character card XP, so when I did get around to playing the kits in those classes they were already at level 20, which was nice and handy.


- Investing Skill Points Into Powers

Assigning points to powers also works like it does in SP but I should inform you that out of the five powers you have, you can only max out four of them but that isn't to say you have to max out four and leave the fifth entirely empty. How you spread the points across a characters powers is entirely up to you but choose wisely, once they're invested they're stuck like that until you do one of two things. Like in SP, powers can be reset but instead of directly spending credits to get it done, you'll need to use a Power Reset Card, which are obtained randomly via packs and last for one use. However, when you're first starting up you won't have a stack of these available, thus leaving your only option being to promote the entire class, which will reset all the powers of all the character kits you have in that class (including the default pre-placed single point). What I did when I first started playing was to wait until I'd unlocked all the kits in a particular class then I'd play around with each of them and invest the powers into what I thought looked good (having not played SP, I was none the wiser lol). Then once I'd got a general idea of what sucked and what I liked, I promoted the class and then re-invested the points where I thought they would be better spent, I eventually did this will all the classes and learnt quite a lot in the process. A couple weeks after I started playing MP I discovered a resource that helped me out a great deal, especially when it came to building my character kits and assigning points to powers. I have since been using Narida's ME3 MP Class Builder regularly and I really can't recommend it highly enough to anyone and everyone that plays ME3 MP, whether you're a beginner or a seasoned veteran. If you've never heard of and/or used the class builder before, I'll take my 'Thanks' in the comment section below ;) But seriously though, trust me when I say once you've started using it, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it in the first place ^_^


- Weapons and Mods

Most of the weapons that feature in MP have been taken from SP, so you should know how they work from the get go (but I didn't lol), though there are a few new ones that were added with various DLC. It's worth mentioning that not all the weapons taken from SP operate the same way in MP, as quite a few of them have been altered in one way or another and a sizeable handful have been nerfed (i.e. their lethality reduced), so approach with caution and assume nothing. I'll discuss more about the topic of nerfs later on but for now let's just say that even though ME3 MP is all about Co-Op gaming, the community has a lot of whinging cry babies, that love to kick up a fuss when the AI enemies get beat down too hard (-_-). Like characters, the same weapons can be obtained more than once from the packs you buy, except instead of a cosmetic addition, each time you get the item again will add another level to your weapon. Again if you played SP first, you'll know that all weapons can be levelled up from 1 to 10 (or rather I to X) and once you've maxed it out, you shouldn't see it appear in your packs again. Just like in SP, each levelling of your weapon increases it's damage per shot, marginally reduces it's weight and slightly increases the amount of reserve ammo you can carry. Ultra-Rare weapons are a real pain in the backside to level up as they're completely random in their appearance of packs and as a result will almost certainly be the last ones that you max out (from the packs that you can actually purchase), assuming you happen to be playing for that long. Promotional Ultra-Rare's are, if you can believe it, even more annoying to max out because you can only ever unlock one per weekend challenge (assuming you successfully completed it) and even then there is no guarantee you'll get what you want. 

The weapons you use in MP can be pimped out with mods (much like in SP) and these will provide some sort of benefit for when you're using said weapon, for example adding a scope will allow you to place your shots more accurately and adding the piercing mod will allow you to shoot through some cover etc etc. Weapon mods can also be ranked up and each iteration will again provide greater bonuses, this can happen up to five times. You can only ever have two mods on any weapon and for the most part you can have any combination that takes your fancy but there are a couple of mods that can't be used at the same time and the game will inform you when this is the case. Some of the latest DLC brought new mods that provide greater benefits than some of the existing ones but with the drawback of putting additional weight on to the weapon. This increased weight will add to your cooldown time and as such it's upto you to decide whether it's worth the trade off. Conversely there are also mods that reduce the weight of weapons, however they only exist for two categories; SMGs and Heavy Pistols. These mods only have one function and that is to reduce a weapon's weight, there are no other benefits but they still count as having used a mod slot. Reducing weapon weight is particularly useful for classes that rely more on their powers than their weapons and by using these light weight mods, players can quite often get the best cooldown time possible (especially if the mod is at level V). Additionally it's fairly common for players to bring along a back up weapon, which is normally an SMG or a Heavy Pistol and so the light weight mods ensure they have a spare weapon at hand, without having to compromise their cooldown times too much (if at all).

 
- Equipment and Consumables

Moving onto Equipment, now this is something that you won't have experienced in SP, at least not in the same format. Before you carry out a search for a match to play or when you're in a lobby, you will notice that on the screen where you can view your weapon loadout and those of your fellow players, there are four empty boxes underneath. You can access these boxes by selecting the 'Equipment' option from the menu list, this will then take you to the screen where you can select items for those boxes. The box in the lower right corner is titled 'Bonus Equipment', the items listed in this box work similarly to characters and weapons, in that they can be levelled (max five times). Each levelling increases it's potential and provides better benefits, from increased weapon/power damage to granting a more lethal melee and even larger shield values. There are dozens of 'Bonus Equipment' items and you'll eventually find that there is more or less a piece of equipment to suit every situation you can think of but unlocking them enough times to make them really useful is not easily achieved. The other three boxes grant similar bonuses with their items but in contrast to 'Bonus Equipment', these are a one use deal, that is to say they are active for the next match you play and will be used up when the mission ends (whether you succeed, fail or drop connection). Like the 'Bonus Equipment', all one use equipment items come in different levels and the higher the Roman numerals next to it's title, the greater the benefits it will provide. You don't need to equip anything when you're playing but obviously the bonuses are nice to have and will ultimately make the match go that bit easier for you. You can add Equipment before you search for a match or after you get dropped into a lobby but remember that you might get put into an ongoing match, so it's always a good idea to select at least your Bonus Equipment and anything else you definitely don't want to play without, before carrying out a search.

When you're on the equipment screen you'll also notice that there is a small image representing your directional-pad and around each of the points of the D-Pad, you'll see four images, these represent the 'Consumable' items that everyone carries into a match with them. To the North is a rocket, these are called Cobra Missiles and you might recognise them from SP though they don't have a charge up time in MP. Just like in SP they do a massive amount of damage to a fairly large area and are capable of wiping out entire groups of enemies, so you'll want to save these for the later rounds when you might be struggling to deal with groups of hardened bosses. To the East is a shield with a cross in the centre, these are your Ops Survival Packs and when activated should restore all your health and shields, as well as giving you a split second or two of immunity to all incoming enemy fire. You'll learn quickly enough that these packs are notoriously unreliable and are affected really really really badly by lag, most of the time they don't work when you want them to and at other times you'll hear them activate after you've gone down, not helping you out but still counted as a use (*smh*). To the South is a cross with an up arrow in it, this is your Medi-Gel and is to be used when you need to revive yourself (unlike in SP, it does nothing for your teammates), typically when you've gone down in an awkward location that your teammates can't rescue you from or if you're about to get executed before they arrive. To the West is a square with bullets in the centre, these are your emergency Thermal Clip packs, activating one will fully replenish your ammo supply including grenades, providing your character is supposed to have any of course. These days I never use ammo packs because I make a habit of visiting the ammo boxes whenever I get a free moment and purposely plan ammo stops when I'm traversing the map (something you should definitely try and make the norm too). By default you can carry two of each of these consumables into a match but there are upgrades available, which will increase the amount you can carry, currently the limits are a max of six Ops Packs/Gels and five Thermal Clips/Missiles. 


> Part 2 of the Guide <