Mass Effect 2, N7: Blue Suns Base Tips for Insanity Difficulty

This is the last post in my series of tips for Mass Effect 2 on Insanity Difficulty. Today, I'm going to talk about the N7: Blue Suns Base mission. On Insanity, I play this mission way after I've completed the Suicide or Endgame mission because I've built up my abilities. As with other posts, I'm going to go over only the hardest parts of this mission. And on this mission, it's the last part where you will face two YMIR mechs followed by Capetian Narom and his Blue Suns mercenaries. Don't forget to review my general tips for the Insanity difficulty setting. If you need a walkthrough for this mission, here's one from Mass Effect Wikipedia.

1. Know Your Enemy. Blue Suns troopers with shields. Blue Suns Heavy with a rocket launcher and shields. Blue Sun Commander with shields, armor and health. Captain Narom with shields, armor and health. Two YMIR Mechs with shields armor and health. Oh, the YMIR Mechs are armed with machine guns and rocket launchers.

2. Your Squad. On Normal, I can get by with any combination of squad members. On Insanity, you have to take into consideration the two YMIR Mechs at the end of this mission. They will be harder to bring down and dish out more damage.

So, taking that into consideration, I take one tech expert who can help me out with the YMIR Mechs. I choose Legion. His combat drones can be used on shielded and armored YMIR Mechs. He also has an assault rifle and sniper rifle which can dish out damage at long range. My second squad member is Miranda. She can overload shields and warp armor of any of the enemies.

3. Weapons, armor and powers. I'm a solider so my primary weapons is the Revenant machine gun. My heavy weapon is the M-77 Missile Launcher. My armor is Kestrel. My bonus power is Slam. Remember you can use Slam against YMIR Mechs once their shields and armor is gone. It freezes them and damages them.

4. General Tips.

a. Keep your distance from your enemies.

b. Take cover.

c. Don't forget to use squadmates' powers.

d. When you enter the base, stay on the high ground. Okay, you've finished off the soldiers on the outside. Time to go inside. Once you enter the Blue Suns base, you find yourself on top of some ramps. You get jumped by a Blue Suns Commander and his cronies. Position a member of your squad on the left and on the right. Make sure they have cover. Okay, now stay on top of the situation and take cover. I stay on the highest part of he ramps.

Nail the Commander first. You will find that with this set-up, you've got a nice crossfire happening. If you have to, use your sniper rifle. Eventually you wipe out this first group. Now, go down and enter the room to the right. Scavenge. Now proceed to the mess hall.

As you move forward, more mercenaries jump you. Take cover and take them out. Okay advance into the cavern or mine. Scavenge the area. Save your game before you enter the garage or transportation hub.

e. The YMIR Mechs. Once you enter the room and move down a ramp, you are treated to a cutscene where you see two YMIR Mechs being activated. After the cutscene finishes, bring up your squad wheel. This pauses the action and will locate the YMIR Mechs. Then postion the squad members under cover. Put one behind a crate and one behind a pillar.

The Two Million Dollar Tip. After you've positioned your squad, RUN to the left. There will be two cool looking vehicles separated by a short ramp. At the top of the ramp is a destructible crate, head for it. Destroy the crate and turn right. There should be a Medi-gel and a vehicle. But more importantly, you're on a platform with crates. Crates that you can use for cover. So get under cover, dummy. From here you can rain fire down on the mechs and direct the battle.

Use Miranda's Overload power to rip down the YMIR Mechs shields. Use her Warp power to attack their armor. Here's the beauty of having Legion. Even when a YMIR Mech has shields and armor, you can use the combat drone. The drone cause a YMIR Mech to focus on it. While a YMIR Mech is focusing on the combat drone, you should attack it. You can also AI hack one if it loses its shields and armor. But frankly, once a YMIR Mech loses its shields and armor, it becomes susceptible to your all the gunfire from the team. And all this crossfire from your squad and you confuses the YMIR Mechs. They don't move a whole lot because of the combination of combat drones and fire keeps them at bay. Eventually, you bring them down.

Once you bring down the YMIR Mechs, Captain Narom makes his appearance. At your position, troopers will be able to fire on you but it's still a good place to stay. You'll just have to move around the platform to stay under cover. If a trooper gives you a hard time, nail him first. Just keep track of Narom since he's got shields, armor, health and a Revenant machine gun. Of course, don't forget to use your and your squad's powers.

Okay, you will kill all the bad guys. Hooray. Scavenge the transportation hub by first taking the Medi-gel. Then go to the rooms that surround the center room with the transmitter. Scavenge them. The room on the left has a wall safe. Get into the center room. Overload the transmitter. Cutscene shows you escaping as the the transmitter blows up. Mission over.

Thanks to the Average Gatsby for showing the spot where to take cover. He doesn't use my squad combination which I believe would make the mission easier.