In Mass Effect 3...How would you destroy the Reapers?

[clint945]

The only logical solution to the reaper issue is clearly to contact masterchief, last time a large armada of alien spacecraft were bearing down on Earth he seemed to handle it pretty well.

Failing this, just send a protagonist and his team on 3 small sub-missions that slowly build up the team with random people before sending him on a final larger ending mission that will defeat an unusually easily defended (and highly overly dramatic) bad guy.
It works for all other Bioware games.

 

[Zaik]

Seeing how they're machines I'd just carpetbomb them with EMP weapons. Sure the digital infrastructure would be messed up but it'd be worse off if the reapers were allowed to run their course.

I think the ME universe is far enough advanced and dangerous enough for EMP shielding to be commercially available and in use on anything important.

As for how we'll destroy the Reapers, technology will have had 3+ years to advance beyond the Reaper cutoff period(giving the events of ME2 a generous year to play out properly). In two years the Normandy jumped from being cannon fodder to wiping out a collector vessel while recieving minimal damage. Given an appropriate time gap, it's not unrealistic to expect top of the line ships to be able to deal significant damage to Reapers.

You'd have to keep in mind that the Reapers reproduce through liquefying massive numbers of organics, so they would probably wait until the latest possible moment technologically to act. The more time that is bought after the initial deadline where Soverign attacked, the more dangerous we are to them.

 

[Quazimofo]

Slap them with a rubber chicken.

where? its kinda hard to tell exactly where their faces are. and can we fill the chicken with pixie dust? perhaps it will make them have a change of.... well they dont have a heart so what? basic runtimes? or if that fails short out their circuts with orphan tears. should be pretty easy to come by and they have such a myriad of uses! (yes im aware that last one was terrible but my ocd prevented me from not saying it. im sorry, DONT JUDGE ME!!!!)

 

[Athol]

Highjack one Reaper, turn its weapons on the rest of the armada. Once they're all dead set it to self destruct, and run like hell!

 

[mrdude2010]

OR OR OR!

Having the Geth fleet, Migrant Fleet, Alliance, Council, Rachni and Batarian (why not?) all converge on the Citadel for a Galalactic scale Zerg Rush.

There's only what, 1500 Reapers? Sovereign managed a kill ratio of about fifteen to one with back up. I'm sure the whole galaxy can manage 22'500 warships.

better idea. take all the batarians and vorcha, strap explosives to them, and throw them out of spaceships and hope they hit the reapers. once the reapers are defeated, we should continue this policy just to make everything even

 

[Solid Reece]

Blow up an uninhabited solar system, Stargate-style.

Remember when Dc. MCay blow up 3/4 of a solar system.

 

[Venereus]

We beat them with the help of the Queen of Blades!

Oh, wrong game...

 

[Quazimofo]

I'm seeing Shepard's unique power against the Reapers being that the cybernetics he's using were developed outside of their mass-effect based technology (which would explain the massive amounts of money spent resurrecting him).

Of course, in the Overlord DLC he gets directly interfaced by the rouge A.I, but that's human technology interfacing with human-made cybernetics.

Anyway... there's probably weapons from the various races the Reapers wiped out during each Extinction cycle that individually could take out a reaper, but if all were recovered, could be used to barrage the Reapers.
Though, the example encountered in ME2 took out the planet used as a firing base via kinetic recoil... so I imagine they'll be a bit dodgy.

put em on asteroids? that would mostly solve the collateral problem right there. they will probably make some new weapon off of the dead reaper you found in ME2 or some other kinda Deus Ex Machina.

 

[WorldCritic]

Have Shepard challenge Harbinger to a one on one fight in which Harbinger "assumes direct control" of anyone he wants to. If Shepard loses, then all of the humans and other species will surrender without a fight. If Harbinger loses, all of the reapers have to fly into a sun.

Come on, you know it would be cool.

 

[Quazimofo]

So, how do we blow them up? I believe we should just train Shepard to be a ninja and leave it at that.

Reverse engineer the Mass Relays into giant Rail Guns. Shoot the Reapers with empty Space Ships travelling at X-million times the speed of light. Bonus point if they can use Vigil's control program to make the Citadel do the same with Asteroids.

Or maybe use planet/asteroid/citadel/heavy cruiser/destiny Ascension mounted versions of the Thanix cannon, fired en masse.

Or letting EDI into their network to overrun them.

Basically anything that involves using their own tech against them for violent purposes. No Deus Ex Machina allowed.

i would prefer this yes. but do you really have to reverse engineer the mass relays? just point them at the reapers, they already fire stuff at a bazallion kph. and the speed is a bit limited because shit turns to energy at 9 trillion times the speed of light (in kph), but that probably isnt a problem. and they can probably manufacture some bigass bullets with engines in a month or so, so why bother using space ships?

and they probably will just build a thousand thanix turrets on mars and say some witty one liner before raping the shit out of them with lazers. maybe something like "here's a shooting star for you MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!" (because you cant build guns on the sun, solar wind will wreck your shit before you even get close, not to mention the heat.)
anyone else got some witty 1 liner ideas? "say hello to my little friends!!", "a gun in hand is worth 1000 on mars" etc.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

I think it's suggested somewhere that conventional weapons, even WMDs, are effectively useless against a large ship's kinetic barriers (the guns on ships have the kinetic energy of several nuclear weapons all concetrated into a single slug to punch through the barrier).

I don't think we know of an in-universe way to physically destroy them yet. Normal Mass Effect weapons are pretty much useless and a large chunk of the main fleet that could barely survive an encounter with a single Reaper is gone now.

I also really doubt EMPs would do much of anything. If you're a super-intelligent race of machines, you take steps to prepare against such an obvious weakness. And who's to say that they even function in such a way that an EMP would do anything anyway. We know they're "machines", but I'd say it's pretty likely that they don't have RAM modules or circuits printed on silicon. The game even suggests that the Reapers are at least part biological.

I think the best options involve a lot of people working together: the geth have computational power and an understanding of machine sentience, the quarians have technical skills, the salarians have experience with biological weapons and covert operations (any fight with the Reapers will have to be indirect to avoid immediate destruction), the turians have experience weaponizing things and might potentially provide any troops necessary, and the asari might be able to get everyone to play nice together. As for their part, the humans have you.

 

[Zaik]

Forget all that other crap, I just came up with a better plan.

We grab the Grey Warden, play as him impregnating a million Asari, then in the final battle when the Reapers go possessing the collector drones, when they die their souls will jump to the unborn Asari instead of back to the ship and everyone lives happily ever after with absolutely no negative consequences.

 

[thelonewolf266]

Just transmit Rebecca black's Friday video on every possible frequency trust me they will go as far away as possible and never return...ever.

 

[Bek359]

Blow up an uninhabited solar system, Stargate-style.

I don't understand how that would destroy the reapers on earth?

Oh. Forgot about that...

 

[silver wolf009]

Summon a massive Bleeding Death to destroy the entirity of the solar system.

For the COIL!!

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

Call in parallel-universe assistance; let the Navy of the Imperium of Man take out the fuckers (for those not in the know, this is the same navy that allowed Men to dominate the vast majority of the Galaxy; the ships it can muster number near the millions and any capital ship is capable of single handedly wiping all life from a planet.)

I was thinking call in the Tau navy, but your idea works too.

OT: I want EDI to reverse-engineer Reaper technology and adapt their systems into whatever she uses and make a computer virus that gets converted back to Reaper software. This virus makes Reapers kill other Reapers. Hilarity ensues.

That or have something about waking Cthulhu.

 

[Waaghpowa]

Simple. Bring more Dakka than they do.

Dat not be da anzur need moar Choppa' YA GIT! (to quote an orc that is!)

An da Waaagh!

 

[DefunctTheory]

I was thinking call in the Tau navy, but your idea works too.

The tau have already been brain washed once. No need to expose them to giant, brain washing cyborg ships.