The Mass Effect 2 Insanity difficulty thread

[Crimsane]

Adepts feel pretty gimped on Insanity after having played through with Infiltrator and Soldier. Your strength is in your powers, which is to say, your strength is nonexistent 'til you've whittled down their barriers/shields far enough to actually use your powers. Given that you start with the two worst weapon types, that's a bit of a chore at least until you learn to use a third.

That said, Shockwave spam is incredibly fun versus husks and anything else that tends to bunch up. But you can do that and still generally be more effective on a Vanguard, which essentially makes Adept the redheaded stepchild of the bunch.

Whenever possible, try to set up corridors of death - things like doorways and other cramped spaces the enemy must pass through to reach you, with yourself and an ally on either side of the doorway, able to spray death at them as they approach and return to cover when necessary. Much easier than having to deal with enemies coming at you from all sides.

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

That's great news. Right now I'm at the stage of the game where you have to decide which teammates to pick up first- Tali, Thane, or Samara. Which would you recommend I go after first? Last time I picked up the controller I was just running around on the Citadel and Omega gaining Renegade points, buying stuff, and doing sidequests, so it's not like I've committed myself to anything right at the moment.

Tali if you have access to the Cain, Thane or Samara if you don't.

Okay, the Cain's not a requirement to beat Tali's recruitment but it's a good way of easy-moding the Colossus.

I'll try and go after Tali, then. I hear you also get some kind of Geth Pulse Rifle if you're doing her mission on Insanity/Hardcore; will I be able to use it at that point in the game, by any chance, if I'm an Infiltrator?

And as for the Widow- how exactly do you get to wield that weapon personally again? I thought it was only for Legion or something, but my memory isn't perfect.

If you have the Sniper Rifle skill to begin with (only Soldiers and Infiltrators as memory serves) you can choose it as your weapon upgrade on the Collector Ship.

Note: You don't get to pick an extra/new one on repeated playthroughs, so if you chose Shotguns or Assault Rifles as an Infiltrator instead of the Widow...well, you're a fool.

Although you can modify the Coalesced.ini if you're on the PC.

Well, lucky for me, this isn't a repeated playthrough. My current Infiltrator was an imported ME 1 character that got the import benefits and the repeated playthrough benefits, and started out at level 5, so I should be able to choose the Widow.

 

[BirdBot]

I'm trying Insanity as an adept, and haven't had much trouble yet. But I also haven't gotten to Horizon yet, so we'll see how that goes...

I had a little trouble at first with the boss fight on Grunt's recruitment mission, just couldn't take out all the charging Krogan fast enough. But then I realized I could snipe Jadore, and killing her means no more charging Krogen. Then the fight is just against one Mech. Easy mode!

 

[MiracleOfSound]

By far the hardest fight in the game. I found the first part of the fight the hardest on hardcore. I first tried to hunker down by the entrance but died a lot doing that. So finally I decided I would burn all my teams abilities killing husks while sprinting past everything. It put a lot of room between me and everything else and could kill everything pretty easily.

Yeah, what I did was run around Benny Hill style shooting husks, and whenever I heard the Scions ground pound attack I would break into a sprint and hope for the best.

That's great news. Right now I'm at the stage of the game where you have to decide which teammates to pick up first- Tali, Thane, or Samara. Which would you recommend I go after first? Last time I picked up the controller I was just running around on the Citadel and Omega gaining Renegade points, buying stuff, and doing side-quests, so it's not like I've committed myself to anything right at the moment.

I would do Tali's one first, as it's the most annoying and you'll be glad it's out of the way. Make sure to bring Miranda for extra Overload.

I recommend bringing the Cain for the colossus, that asshole is tough

 

[Baconmonster723]

OK, a few basic tips form stuff I've been finding:

1. Turn off squad power usage.

Believe me, you're better at the game than the AI, so control their powers yourself.

Too many times I caught Miranda using Warp on a half dead Vorcha when there was a fully armoured Krogan charging us down...


2. Use powers in the right way

For example, using Overload on a Blood Pack Pyro is an explosive one hit kill after his shields are down, and it can be used to explode canisters without having to pop out and aim.

3. Backtrack

If a room is getting crowded with enemies rushing you, run back to the previous area if possible, this way you can pick them off one at a time. Easy peasy, I learned this one from playing Gears of War.

4. Run away!

If you're feeling really cheap, you can run past certain checkpoints and the enemies will unspawn, and your team will spawn alive next to you.

This worked for me in the large red room on Mordin's recruitment mission, I got rid of the ground troops and ran past the missile firing Vorcha on the high platfrom... hey presto my dead team are back and I hit a checkpoint.

All very good points. I have to agree with them. I don't do 4. but that's pretty much the only one I don't use.

 

[hazabaza1]

Just started as a Sentinel. God, that tech armour is useful. Haven't actually died once, I think, and I just got the SR2. I might post here frequently to share my happenings.

EDIT: Also, forgot to ask, but what's a handy extra weapon for a Sentinel to have? I'm unsure about what to train myself in.

 

[Internet Kraken]

OK, a few basic tips form stuff I've been finding:

1. Turn off squad power usage.

Believe me, you're better at the game than the AI, so control their powers yourself.

Too many times I caught Miranda using Warp on a half dead Vorcha when there was a fully armoured Krogan charging us down...


2. Use powers in the right way

For example, using Overload on a Blood Pack Pyro is an explosive one hit kill after his shields are down, and it can be used to explode canisters without having to pop out and aim.

3. Backtrack

If a room is getting crowded with enemies rushing you, run back to the previous area if possible, this way you can pick them off one at a time. Easy peasy, I learned this one from playing Gears of War.

4. Run away!

If you're feeling really cheap, you can run past certain checkpoints and the enemies will unspawn, and your team will spawn alive next to you.

This worked for me in the large red room on Mordin's recruitment mission, I got rid of the ground troops and ran past the missile firing Vorcha on the high platfrom... hey presto my dead team are back and I hit a checkpoint.

Listen to this man. Also, you need to manually position your squad mates in cover later in the game using Q and E. Otherwise, they will constantly get themselves killed.

Engineers always seem to be the least popular class, but amusingly I had no trouble with many of the parts you guys are complaining about because I was an Engineer. Tali's recruitment mission was easy. AI hack a Geth Destroyer=dead Geth. That one skill makes that mission a walk in the park. The Geth Colossus was easy as well. All you have to do is go to the right instead of the left.

The ambush on the Collector ship was hard enough just because of the level design and Harbinger's biotic spam. If I wasn't able to lock down that Scion with a combat drone, I would have probably gone insane. How do other classes deal with it?

 

[Amnestic]

I'll try and go after Tali, then. I hear you also get some kind of Geth Pulse Rifle if you're doing her mission on Insanity/Hardcore; will I be able to use it at that point in the game, by any chance, if I'm an Infiltrator?

Geth Pulse Rifle is an AR, so you have to A) Modify Coalesced.ini to give you Assault Rifles as a base skill or B) Choose it as a bonus skill on the Collector Ship (DO NOT RECOMMEND). It's...a moderately decent assault rifle. Best reload animation. So you won't be able to use it as an Infiltrator but your allies can.

You do get the Tempest on Tali's recruitment mission as well as I recall, which is a decent upgrade over the Shuriken.

EDIT: Also, forgot to ask, but what's a handy extra weapon for a Sentinel to have? I'm unsure about what to train myself in.

I'd go with the Assault Rifle to grab the Vindicator Battle Rifle, but the sniper rifle isn't bad either.

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

I'll try and go after Tali, then. I hear you also get some kind of Geth Pulse Rifle if you're doing her mission on Insanity/Hardcore; will I be able to use it at that point in the game, by any chance, if I'm an Infiltrator?

Geth Pulse Rifle is an AR, so you have to A) Modify Coalesced.ini to give you Assault Rifles as a base skill or B) Choose it as a bonus skill on the Collector Ship (DO NOT RECOMMEND). It's...a moderately decent assault rifle. Best reload animation. So you won't be able to use it as an Infiltrator but your allies can.

You do get the Tempest on Tali's recruitment mission as well as I recall, which is a decent upgrade over the Shuriken.

Hm. Well, I'm playing on the 360, so modifying the Coalesced.ini file's not an option, but I'll give it some thought as to whether I should pick the Geth Pulse Rifle or Widow Sniper Rifle once on the Collector ship. For now I guess I'll just focus on getting Tali. Will post again if anything new happens- and thanks for the help.

 

[Amnestic]

I'll try and go after Tali, then. I hear you also get some kind of Geth Pulse Rifle if you're doing her mission on Insanity/Hardcore; will I be able to use it at that point in the game, by any chance, if I'm an Infiltrator?

Geth Pulse Rifle is an AR, so you have to A) Modify Coalesced.ini to give you Assault Rifles as a base skill or B) Choose it as a bonus skill on the Collector Ship (DO NOT RECOMMEND). It's...a moderately decent assault rifle. Best reload animation. So you won't be able to use it as an Infiltrator but your allies can.

You do get the Tempest on Tali's recruitment mission as well as I recall, which is a decent upgrade over the Shuriken.

Hm. Well, I'm playing on the 360, so modifying the Coalesced.ini file's not an option, but I'll give it some thought as to whether I should pick the Geth Pulse Rifle or Widow Sniper Rifle once on the Collector ship. For now I guess I'll just focus on getting Tali. Will post again if anything new happens- and thanks for the help.

You should get the Widow.

There's no question. It's the best choice for an Infiltrator.

 

[Avatar Roku]

For now I'm just taking a break from Insanity difficulty, but I'll dive back in sometime. I've gotten this far, so I might as well keep it up.

From what I hear you're past the hardest bit. That was the toughest part for me on hardcore for sure.

No, I got through that part easily on Hardcore with the Cain. The hardest part was the first fight in the Collector ship. God, that was brutal.

 

[The Heik]

I'm about to begin the game on Insanity difficulty, having done hardcore.

I'll probably pick a sentinel, and will be sharing any tips I can on this thread for those who also want to give it a try.

If anyone else has done it/is doing it, feel free to share tips or strategies you found worked during your playthrough, particularly on the very hard bits like Horizon and the

Spoiler

Collector Ship

.

Share what class you found worked, and which squad-mates you found the most helpful.

And feel free to vent about the bits that drove you nuts (Geth Colossus, anyone?)

Generally I feel that the Infiltrator class works best. Grab the AP ammo ability, get Thane and a tech or combat expert (I go with Grunt). Keep in cover, use the Viper sniper rifle with AP ammo(great against Scions), keep in cover, and go invisible as soon as your health goes low. That's about my only advice on the subject

 

[Tarkand]

I'm playing a Sentinel on Insanity atm.

Few things I've noticed:

Throw and Cryo Freeze are redundant, both are short cooldown power used to quickly dispatch an unprotected foe... you really don't need both. Which one you decide to pick is up to you of course, throw is nice because it allow you to well... 'throw' people off ledges and stuff, but Crio tend to tally up to more damage.

For my money, take Reave as your 'extra' power and totally ignore Throw/Warp, focusing on everything else (Reave 4, Overloard 4, Sentinel 4, Tech Armor 4 and whatever you can in Cryo). Reaves tears up Barrier/Armor, Overload tears up shields and once stuff is exposed, you free them and finish them off.


On Horizon:

The stage is a bit of a trap, because while everything has 'Barrier' and you'd think 'I need people with warp!' it isn't quite true... the real challenge in this stage are the Husk/Scion and the Preatorian at the end... and what make them hard is their armor. I mean, Miranda is actually a pretty poor choice for this.

So you need stuff that kills armor. Big time. And honestly, Warp simply doesn't cut it.

I went in there with (a loyal) Zaaed, Concussive Shot destroy barrier and Incendiary grenade deal great damage to armor. TBH, Zaaed maybe a very boring character, but those two ability make him one of the best choice on any collector level.

My second choice was Mordin with 4/4 in Incindiary (and his +20% damage upgrade). While that ability isn't much use on Barrier, it will pretty much one-shot kill any unprotected collector (which your warp/reave and Zaad's concussive shot will deal with) and it deal insane damage on Scion and the Praetorian's armor.

 

[JayDub147]

How is the soldier class on insanity? I remember the only way I beat insanity in ME1 was with a second-playthrough adept (I'll admit I felt a little cheap). However, upon trying out the adept in ME2, it feels like they've been gimped as they're powers only affect enemies once they essentially become non-threats anyway. Plus, I beat ME2 before with a soldier before, and it did not seem overly difficult.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

This thread really makes me want to try the game on Insanity. It sounds like a real challenge. I'm thinking of going back and finishing the first game with me level 60 Shepard so that I can get as big a benefit from an imported character as possible. Any advice on what class I should use? And what bonus power should I take?

 

[Amnestic]

How is the soldier class on insanity? I remember the only way I beat insanity in ME1 was with a second-playthrough adept (I'll admit I felt a little cheap). However, upon trying out the adept in ME2, it feels like they've been gimped as they're powers only affect enemies once they essentially become non-threats anyway. Plus, I beat ME2 before with a soldier before, and it did not seem overly difficult.

Adrenaline Rush makes Soldiers stupidly overpowered in ME2. It's something like a 100 or 140% bonus damage while active? Plus you can chain it making yourself even more powerful.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

[
Listen to this man. Also, you need to manually position your squad mates in cover later in the game using Q and E. Otherwise, they will constantly get themselves killed.

Engineers always seem to be the least popular class, but amusingly I had no trouble with many of the parts you guys are complaining about because I was an Engineer. Tali's recruitment mission was easy. AI hack a Geth Destroyer=dead Geth. That one skill makes that mission a walk in the park. The Geth Colossus was easy as well. All you have to do is go to the right instead of the left.

The ambush on the Collector ship was hard enough just because of the level design and Harbinger's biotic spam. If I wasn't able to lock down that Scion with a combat drone, I would have probably gone insane. How do other classes deal with it?

Ah yes... I forgot to mention that. Always place your idiot squad-mates in cover so they don't go charging into crossfires like Dom Santiago on speed.

So far I've had no problems with my Sentinel, I've done Mordin and Grunt's recruitment missions and nothing was too nasty, Jadore was tricky but you easily cheap her by running back through the door and one by one-ing her Krogans.

 

[GloatingSwine]

As for my bonus talent, right now it's Barrier to keep me alive. I'm an Infiltrator, like I said, and I put 3 bars' worth of points into Disruptor Ammo too. Barrier helps keep me from dying and Disruptor Ammo helps take out enemies.

Disruptor Ammo is only really useful against shields and Geth. AP ammo is an extra 70% damage to Health and Armour, and pretty much everything that's really hard to kill will have those. Use your cloak to keep you from dying and to get even more damage bonus.

 

[wrecker77]

I need a break from insanity for a while. I picked infiltraiter and followed all the guides to a T. Horizon.... is so freaking hard... I really want to punch whoever had the stroke of stupid to give husks armor and make the mission un postponable. For whatever reason, sometimes my health just doesnt regenerate at all sometimes so it may be a glitch for me. I just love how I did the okeer/ grunt mission without dieng once and cant handle a few zombie's. If anyone has any tips at all for an infiltrator, please tell me.

Hell you know what, I am willing to start the game over on another class if it helps. Just not engineer or biotic because I have already been them. Is the sentinal really the end all be all of classes?

 

[Kikosemmek]

To say it was frustrating was a hilarious understatement.

I know. ************ recharges his barrier every 5 seconds, too. For the Praetorians, I always bring a Cain, because I think they're my least favourite enemy in the game. Keep your nuke-mini on your person till the end of the mission, then when the Praetorian starts floating at you, brun it to hell with the Cain. Praetorians are slow, large targets. Aiming at them shouldn't be a problem.

In general, I find that playing as an infiltrator is much easier than other classes for insnae. You have to make those headshots count. I maxed out infiltration (get assassin in the end), cloak (assassination cloak), disruptor ammo (heavy), and anti-armor ammo (tungsten), from Garrus. This makes you a hell of a sniper, especially after you max out the upgrades and get the visor. You can take down most enemies with headshots if you keep using the Mantis with the appropriate ammo type. Incinerate comes in handy too. I put all my extra points into that. It's a great heavy-hitter, and does wonders on Krogan.

When you get to the Collector ship, pick up an assault rifle, not the new sniper rifle. Your Mantis should still handle pretty much everything that comes at you (ammo is a *****, so save your snipes for the best guys). The assault rifle gives you a whole lot more stuff to shoot at your enemy, ammo-wise, and is a great compliment to your sniper rifle. You can fire at lesser enemies with your assault rifle from long range, and when the armoured guys come to play, nail them in the head with your Mantis.

Be in cover and put as much distance between you and your enemies as possible, and you'll do fine. This is mainly why I don't use the Viper, because it's not a 1-shot-1-kill sniper rifle, meaning that to down somebody, you have to be out of cover for a longer time than you would with the Mantis. Insane mode is not forgiving, and they will tear your shields apart in 2 seconds. Don't risk it.

As for teammates, I like to have other snipers on board with me. Since I like to keep my distance, I want teammates that can stay near me and be effective at long range. I usually prefer Thane and Garrus. Thane should get heavy warp to help you out with armored enemies, and Garrus should max out concussive shot to buy you time every now and then. Have them take cover manually, and they'll drop people from safety.