Mass Effect: Andromeda guide: ‘Architect on Elaaden’ Heleus assignment mission

Across the Heleus Cluster, there are four remnant machines called Architects that you’ll encounter in your quest to make the Andromeda Galaxy livable. They’re huge, mysterious (they don’t even show up in your Codex) and just generally mean-spirited. But even at a low level with weak weapons, you can take them on. The encounters usually take place near a forward station or someplace well-stocked with ammo and health crates — and there’s always plenty of cover. You’re going to unload a lot of bullets, but if you’re patient and careful, you’ll be able to take these machines down.

Missions

There are four Architect missions in Mass Effect: Andromeda — “Making an Impression” on Eos, “Missing Science Crew” on Voeld, “Old Skinner” on Kadara and the creatively-named “Architect on Elaaden” on Elaaden. The missions are usually just a couple of waypoints you need to hit before you find the Architect and the fight begins.

General advice

No fight against an Architect is easy, but there are some things you can do to help you survive.

• Keep moving. An Architect’s weapons are deadly, but the attacks are both telegraphed and avoidable. Just keep moving and you’ll be okay. This is the most important part of a fight against an Architect — especially at lower levels.
• Avoid using biotics. They’re just not generally useful against constructs and they’re not going to be great here.

• Use your special ammo. Just keep activating incendiary or disruptor ammo during the fight — you want that extra damage active throughout.
• Stay near cover. The Architects have some devastating weapons that you’re going to spend a lot of time dodging. You’re going to want as much cover as you can get.
• Don’t attack from beneath. The Architects generate a field under their legs that hurts a lot. Just stay out from underneath — which is easy because you’ll want to be back behind cover anyway.
• Keep moving. This was our first piece of advice, and it’s important enough to repeat here. You won’t survive many direct hits from an Architect no matter what level you are, but you can avoid almost every attack just by strafing (with the ocassional dodge thrown in).
• Don’t be a hero. Yes, like we said, you can avoid a lot of damage just by strafing, but don’t be foolish. It’s a giant robot with lots of lasers — you’re never going to survive a frontal assault. Shoot around cover, strafe, dodge and hide. Be smart.
• Be patient. You’re going to fire off an outrageous number of bullets during one of these fights. The Architects will absorb a huge amount of damage and these fights take a lot of time. Don’t rush it.

The phases of a fight

Every Architect encounter follows the same formula — shoot the legs, shoot the head, destroy the remnant, shoot some more. That’s pretty much it, really.

The reality is a lot more intense. The Architects are well armed and take a whole lot of bullets to knock down. But the structured and predictable phases to the fights make it entirely doable.

• Shoot the legs. The first phase is to shoot the glowing, pink conduits in the legs. (This phase is easy to identify because someone in your squad will likely be shouting at you about shooting the legs.) Just unload into the glowing pink targets. This part is timed — you have about 30 seconds to deal enough damage to a leg to get the head exposed before the Architect spawns some other remnant bots to make your life difficult.

• Clear out the remnant. If and when the Architect spawns remnant bots, turn your attention to them. Stay out of the Architect’s line of fire and destroy the bots. Use your squad to help you by directing them to attack with the d-pad.
• Go back to the legs. If you haven’t gotten the head open yet, after you clear the remnant bots, you have to go back to shooting the leg conduits. You’re on the clock again, so just keep shooting.

• Shoot the head. After you’ve dealt enough damage to the Architect’s legs, its head will open, revealing a new, spherical power conduit inside. Once again, your job is to shoot the glowing, pink bit.
• Watch for ammo crates. These fights either take place near a forward station or someplace where there are ammo crates around. It’ll be too frenetic to hit them during the firefight, but there are a few breaks in the action — like when the weaker remnant bots are spawned or when the Architect is moving to a new location. Use these breaks to resupply and heal up.

• Reposition. When you destroy one of the legs, the Architect will move. It won’t go far, but you’ll have to find new cover and ammo crates. Take a break, recover as much as you can, reload, hit an ammo crate to resupply and then watch for where the Architect lands. When it does, find yourself a new hiding place and resume your attack.

• Interface. When the fight is over and the Architect collapses, run around to the head to interface with it. This sends it into orbit where … it just kind of hangs out. You’ll see it the next time you’re in orbit around the planet. It leaves behind a nice crate of goodies, though.

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Mass Effect: Andromeda guide and walkthrough