Mass Effect 3: Priority: Earth Tips for Insanity

With this first article, I'm going to give tips for the Insanity difficulty setting of Mass Effect 3. Now, I'm not going to go over every mission and every part of a mission. I'm going to go over the hardest parts.

I'm going to start with the hardest and last mission of Mass Effect 3 on Insanity. It's Priority: Earth. This is the mission where you fight on the streets of London, England. Before we begin, you should check out my general tips for playing the game on the Insanity difficulty level.

Before you deploy.

Your squad. I chose Garrus. I arm him with the M-37 Falccon and the Black Widow sniper rifle. I also add Tali. She gets the Graal Spike Thrower and Scorpion pistol. Remember that she has the combat drone power. That's like adding another squad member.

Your class. I hope you've taken my advice and are an Engineer. Your combat drone will add another squad member. You have a gun turret power. And you also have Cryo Blast.

Your weapons. I bring the M-99 Saber. I also equip a sniper rifle, the M-97 Viper because it's light. You might want to use a more powerful sniper rifle. Just remember the greater the weight, the longer it takes to recharge your powers.

Part One.

a. The Beach.

As the shuttle doors open to deploy you on the beach, you are under fire. Immediately, deploy combat drones from the shuttle. Hit the beach. Now look to your right. There's a fallen concrete beam. Look to your left, there's another. Seek these for cover.

You'll notice a stairway which leads to a plaza. You can't go up the stairs yet. Too many bad guys. But notice on the stairs to the left that there is a gap in the wall of the stairs. Head there.

Get to the gap and hunker down. You got a flanking position on the Reaper forces. Use the gap to deploy combat drones, and a gun turret. Take shots at them. If a grenade comes your way, move down to the beach and cover.

Patience. Keep deploying combat drones and turrets when they get destroyed. Ammo is sparce at this section so keep using your tech powers to reduce the enemy strength. Cryo blast is also helpful. Eventually, you get the enemy forces down so you can move up to the plaza.

b. The Plaza.

Once you're on the plaza, you come under attack. There are Marauders and Cannibals up here. Get under cover. Take out your sniper rifle and reach out and kill somebody. Okay. You get a warning that there are Brutes. Take these guys out first. Use combat drones and your other powers to help bring them down. Fall back if you have to.

Eventually you clear the plaza. Restock on ammo lying around. There's some in open room next to the ramp. Save your game. Move up the ramp to the shuttle crash site.

c. The Crash Site.

This upper level plaza is a maze of rubble of what's left of a building. When you get up here, you're under attack from Cannibals and there's a Ravager to the right. Get into cover behind some broken walls. Use combat drones to help you clean up the area. Now take out your sniper rifle and from cover, kill the Ravager.

Jump over a gap to reach the crashed shuttle. Remember this gap. There are two
M-920 Cains. Use one to destroy the Hades Cannon. Get the other Cain. Position your squad behind you. The Cain can kill your people too. Get ready for the Banshee.

The Banshee. When the Banshee appears, kill her with the Cain. Now it's quite possible to miss her. She's skinny from all the dieting and not a fat target. ;-) Now what? Launch combat drones on her. And unleash your Saber on her. Now this upper plaza is small. It doesn't take long for her to walk on top of you. Avoid her Biotic blasts too.

Remember the gap. You can fall back by jumping over it. That will give you more room to fight her. I actually fell back all the way to the top of the ramp from the plaza below. That's when I finally brought her down.

Now take out the Cannibals who have congregated by the downed shuttle. Okay. Move back over to the area where you found the Cains. Take cover. Cannibals are advancing from the same area where the Banshee came from. Move if you have to. Watch out for grenades. Keep deploying combat drones and gun turrets. Once the escape shuttle arrives, run for it. Don't worry about killing every enemy in sight. Once you enter the shuttle, this portion of the mission is over.

Part Two.

I'm going to give general advice for No Man's Land. Since this first section of Part Two is doable.

a. No Man's Land.

After you say your goodbyes and give your "command the room" speech, you head out for the Reaper Destroyer and Citadel transport beam. Generally, get into cover right when you spot the enemy. Don't rush into rooms. Use your combat drones and gun turrets to kill and flush out bad guys.

The bosses you face in No Man's Land are Brutes, a Ravager, a Harvester, and a Banshee. As for Brutes, keep your distance and move aside when they charge. Kill the Ravager from a distance. Ditto for the Harvester. Stay under cover when doing so. The Banshee appears after you kill or force the Harvester to retreat. Unleash combat drone on her and move back if you have to. And if Reaper infantry gives you hard time take them out quickly after the Harvester goes down.

b. The Missile Battery.

You've reached the missile batteries. This is the toughest part of the mission. This area of London is a cross shaped intersection of streets. The stem or what I call Main Street has the two batteries. I'll say going north is toward the Reaper Destroyer. The stems of the cross is divided into a left street which is left flank or what I will call West Street and the other street on the right which I will call East Street. At the southern corner of Main and West is shop that has ammo, medi-Gel and a Hydra Missile launcher. At the opposite side of Main is another shop with ammo.

i. The First Wave. When you arrive, you must clear out the enemy forces. Stay in cover and be careful. Use all your powers to defeat the Reapers. Activate the missile controls.

ii. The Second Wave. These Reaper infantry come from the north on Main Street. Stay in cover and take down as many as you can. Because another group arrives from West Street. Keep moving to cover. Use your combat drones and other powers to destroy them.

iii. The Third Wave or the This Sucks Wave. You get word that your left flank is going to be overrun. Okay run to the beginning of West Street. There should be a fallen concrete column that your squad can use for cover. I place Tali in the West Street shop. I keep Garrus with me at the column. I rip out my sniper rifle. Facing west or the left flank, I watch Cannibals and Marauders come down off the wall. At the top of the wall, in the distance, I see the first Banshee. Unleash sniper fire on her even if you don't get her barrier and armor level signal. When you do, you will find out that she has been damaged by your shots.

The Banshee hits the ground on West Street. She'll probably head for Tali. Switch Tali to the shotgun. While she's heading toward Tali, launch combat drones at her. In the meantime, watch out for the infantry firing on you. Anyway, you should switch to the Saber. Let her have it. If she makes a biotic dash to your position, MOVE. Okay, now here's the hard part. Another Banshee joins the fray.

If you're in trouble, move to East Street. There's a sink hole where you can take cover. Deploy a gun turret in the center of the intersection to give you some covering fire. Continue to attack the weakest Banshee. If anybody dies, use your Medi-Gel, you should have at least twelve due to the third play through.

If you get breached on East Street, run north to towards the Destroyer. It's not interested in you at the moment. This is a good position because you've got a good, narrow kill zone. Continue to deploy combat drones if any of the previous ones are destroyed or out of place. Eventually, with your running about, you bring down the Banshees. Be careful and finish off the rest of the infantry. Whew.

Go fire the first missile. Of course it misses. And you are told more enemy troops are headed your way. EDI needs time to target the last battery. And the Destroyer must be moved closer so now it can fire its big laser at you. What?!

iv. The Fourth Wave. First, you face about three Brutes. You know what to do. Launch combat drones to hurt and distract them. Fire your Saber. Keep moving. Keep moving. Run and gun. Stay in the south part of the area. After you take down about two of the Brutes, a Harvester appears.

Run to the West Shop. Grab the Hydra. And blast the Harvester. Even if you miss, which I did, you can still bring down the Harvester with conventional weapons and powers. Once it's down, the music changes. And now the Reapers unleash Banshees on you. And they throw in Marauders.

Here's what you have to do. Survive. Keep moving. Don't stay in the open. Stay away from North Main Street because the Destroyer's laser will kill you. Keep launching combat drones. Once EDI says you can fire the missile, run like hell to it. Activate. Congratulations. You've just finished ninety five percent of the combat for this mission.

Part Three.

If you've played this before, you know what happens. You make a mad dash for the transport beam. You get blasted and are injured. You wake up, about close to death. You have a pistol. You get up and walk to the beam.

This is where I almost threw my controller at the TV. Three husks rush you. And on Insanity, they are stronger. Body shots knock them down. If you can land a head shot, you get treated to a head exploding. If you survive, you move forward. You fall down. You know what is next.

It's that Marauder with shields. Only on Insanity, he's stronger too. On Normal difficulty, he's hard to bring down. That's because you have trouble aiming and have very little health. I've read you should try to aim for his body. Knock him down and then continue firing until he's dead.

Or you could do it the easy way. Yangineer 29 posted this on YouTube. Go to the far right and hug the overturned vehicle. Then when the Marauder fires at you, you can go behind the broken wall and use that for cover. The Marauder has trouble targeting you. You kill him easily.

Congratulations. You are now done with the combat portion of this mission. Now go up to the Citadel and end the Reapers' extermination.