The Mass Effect 2 Insanity difficulty thread

[Spygon]

Im too bothered about the Horizon battle as last time i just set up behind a wall on the outside and then the enemies just funnel toward making them not too hard to deal with.

The problem i having is the archangel recruitment mission as i have done all the shutters.But then when you get cut off by the main group while the red pack leader takes on garrus i either get killed or garrus gets killed to be honest he hasnt much life left.

So any tips on getting this bit done would be helpful

 

[Souplex]

If you are playing on insanity when doing Tali's recruitment mission you can get a Geth assault rifle. Why you would be playing as a soldier is beyond me though.

I wondered about that... Is it the only new weapon?

1: It is not a new weapon, you could get them in 1.
2: If you are referring to in that mission you can also get a new SMG regardless of difficulty.
3: SMGs are new. As are the collector ship specialization weapons.

 

[Axeli]

Im too bothered about the Horizon battle as last time i just set up behind a wall on the outside and then the enemies just funnel toward making them not too hard to deal with.

The problem i having is the archangel recruitment mission as i have done all the shutters.But then when you get cut off by the main group while the red pack leader takes on garrus i either get killed or garrus gets killed to be honest he hasnt much life left.

So any tips on getting this bit done would be helpful

Which class?

The shutter on the right (with big open space and one Varren initially) was darn difficult with Infiltrator. Mostly because they keep getting reinforcements from the direction you are supposed to go. And the reinforcements include Krogan. You don't approach a Krogan on Insanity.
There's no way you kill all the Vorcha before the reinforcements reach the shutter either (unless you use Cain, I guess). The enemies come faster than you can kill them out of your way.

What I did was use Tactical Cloak, run and hide, use it again, run to the shutter control and close it. You are of course in total cross fire for a moment there, with little cover, and a Varren biting you balls off... But the fun thing is that the time I managed to pull it off, a Krogan also made it through before the shutter close (and I was hiding right next to that shutter).

I was so proud I survived that, having a both Varren and Krogan a few feet away from me and a bunch of Vorcha shooting at me from another direction. I used Tactical Cloak a lot... To think I considered it useless on Normal.

 

[Axeli]

If you are playing on insanity when doing Tali's recruitment mission you can get a Geth assault rifle. Why you would be playing as a soldier is beyond me though.

I wondered about that... Is it the only new weapon?

1: It is not a new weapon, you could get them in 1.
2: If you are referring to in that mission you can also get a new SMG regardless of difficulty.
3: SMGs are new. As are the collector ship specialization weapons.

1? As in ME1? And no, what I'm asking is if it's the only extra weapon you get for playing on Insanity, obviously.

 

[Crimsane]

what I'm asking is if it's the only extra weapon you get for playing on Insanity, obviously.

There are no weapons you couldn't get on Hardcore that you can get on Insanity that I'm aware of. So yeah, that rifle's it, and you could've gotten it on Hardcore.

 

[Axeli]

what I'm asking is if it's the only extra weapon you get for playing on Insanity, obviously.

There are no weapons you couldn't get on Hardcore that you can get on Insanity that I'm aware of. So yeah, that rifle's it, and you could've gotten it on Hardcore.

Yes, yes, but I'm talking about the jump from Normal to Insanity. Didn't bother with Hardcore. Why would the Geth rifle be new to me in the first place if I had..?

 

[Crimsane]

what I'm asking is if it's the only extra weapon you get for playing on Insanity, obviously.

There are no weapons you couldn't get on Hardcore that you can get on Insanity that I'm aware of. So yeah, that rifle's it, and you could've gotten it on Hardcore.

Yes, yes, but I'm talking about the jump from Normal to Insanity. Didn't bother with Hardcore. Why would the Geth rifle be new to me in the first place if I had..?

Bit prickly today? Regardless, answered your question. Rifle's the only difficulty-based reward.

 

[Axeli]

what I'm asking is if it's the only extra weapon you get for playing on Insanity, obviously.

There are no weapons you couldn't get on Hardcore that you can get on Insanity that I'm aware of. So yeah, that rifle's it, and you could've gotten it on Hardcore.

Yes, yes, but I'm talking about the jump from Normal to Insanity. Didn't bother with Hardcore. Why would the Geth rifle be new to me in the first place if I had..?

Bit prickly today? Regardless, answered your question. Rifle's the only difficulty-based reward.

I just wasn't completely sure if you thought you were talking to someone else from this thread or something, since you assumed I played the game on Hardcore first.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Tip for Jadore:

Run back out the door and let the Krogan come to you one by one. Then in you go, take her out first with powers or snipe her, then the mech is easy on his own.

 

[Steampunk Viking]

The following sections/enemies keep popping up, so anyone who has beaten them it would be great if you could share your tactics for them:

The Two Scions and husks on horizon

The Paetorian battle on the Collector ship

Geth Colossus

I've done all these bits on Insanity and, to be honest, I found the two Scions and the husks the hardest of all of them. I was an Infiltrator on both playthroughs (Well, I'm approaching the end on Insanity run but you get the point). Here's what I did for each one:

Horizon
I hated this battle. I had Miranda and Mordin for this. The problem mostly lays with the Husks as they just keep coming. I found running in circles around the Scions to work most of the time. After a few times dying here you'll work out where the Husks are popping up from. Try and head for the back and make sure you have some medi-gel, you'll need it. If your squad members can take some of the heat off you, you can pick the husks off little by little. Take the Scions out last, but keep running where possible or their shockwave attacks will nail you.

Collector Ship
Oddly enough, I found this easier on Insanity than Veteran. Take the Collector Particle Beam and save the ammo for this battle. I had Miranda (for Warp) and Thane for this mission. Get Miranda to warp it's biotic barrier as much as possible and just blast the Praetorian from the highest point (right by the entrance) with the Particle Beam until it dies. In my game, Thane more or less held off the incoming Collectors and Husks, but keep an eye out from time to time.

Colossus
This battle was a bastard too. I had Grunt and Samara for this mission. Take this battle one section at a time, clear one area, move. Clear the next, move. Also, take the sniper route, it's easier. More Geth will spawn as you go up the ramp, when you near the end of the crate run (cover next to the walkway wall, it'll protect you from the Geth, the Colossus and the sun) and as you hit the end of the walkway, although remember the last spawn point they will attack from behind you, so stay alert and kill them before moving on. After that, it's just a case of pummeling the Colossus until it's dead. Cover, shoot, cover, shoot. Incinerate and disruption ammo are useful here too.

Hope this helps.

 

[Alarien]

I don't understand the problems with the Colussus. In all 3 playthroughs, including insanity, I've never actually had an issue. When presented with "low ground, no man's land, or high ground" why would you ever not take the high ground? Clear any geth near Reegor and your starting position, take out the roving geth trooper sniping from the high platform on the right and then storm up the platform and move up a few cover points, then go to town on the geth on the platform until it's clear to the covered perch. Once up there, clear any other immediate geth and move back until you're facing the Colussus from on high. Duck from attacks, shoot until it dies.

So far, the hardest fight as a Soldier/Insanity with LMG, Squad Incendiary, Squad Disruptor, Adrenaline Rush 1 or 2, and Geth Sheild Boost 3 at the time was the ambush on the Collector Ship. The next closest for me was actually the Blue Suns base where you have to take on 2 Ymir Heavy Mechs and then a swarm of Blue Suns while in an area with extremely limited cover. Horizon was mostly about constantly moving to different cover points to set up the best field of fire and cover.

I also really like Geth Shield Boost for a Soldier, moreso than all of the other abilities. Soldiers already have two more than sufficient ammo types and having tried Warp and AP, they don't make up for losing a "get out of jail, my shields are down, I don't want to reload" skill like having insta-shields. It was sort of like having a poor man's Tactical Cloak, without the aggro and damage bonuses.

I keep Miranda with me at all times for her damage bonuses as well as Heavy Warp and Heavy Overload. Given the choice, I also take Jack as crowd control. Even though Jack's abilities don't work through shields/armor, shockwave is a godsend when you are dealing with charging enemies like Varren, Husks, Loki Mechs, vanguards, and even Krogan. Most of their shields/armor burn down very quickly, so if you coordinate fire, you can actually tell Jack to use shockwave on them before their shields ar down and use adrenaline rush and incendiary fire to take down their defenses before the shockwave reaches.

 

[Uszi]

Soldier, Sentinel or Engineer are probably your best bet. Vanguard requires you to learn a new playstyle which will make the beginning bits more difficult than perhaps they should be. ... Infiltrator is good, no doubt, and having a Widow makes it all the easier - but Soldiers with Adrenaline Rush are superior for pure efficiency.

Not that I prefer Soldiers mind. I'm an Infiltrator through and through, but AR is just broken.

He Vangaurd sucks totally in Insanity. I played my Vangaurd through Hardcore, and on my second play through attempted it on Insanity. I wound up quitting after dying a bunch of times on the boss battle on Purgatory--infinitely spawning blue suns commanders? No thanks.

I would up changing the difficulty down to normal and laughing through the rest of the play through.

I'm trying it again as a soldier. Once I'm done beating this Vangaurd play through.

BTW, does anyone else feel the Vangaurd is totally broken in Hardcore/Insanity? If you charge more than one or two enemies, you're going to die, but charging one enemy is pointless because you could just as quickly mop them up 3vs1 without charging.

IMHO, The Geth Colossus should always be one Mini-Nuke away from completion. I've beaten it once where I nuked it, once where I didn't, and I don't see the point in saving power cells for other enemies.

 

[ChipSandwich]

Doing a second insanity playthrough as an Adept, choosing the shotgun specialization. I also did the Collector ship mission using mostly the default SMG, it was pretty fun , probably because I had Grunt and Thane to back me up. Grunt had Incendiary Ammo and concussive blast, Thane has shredders, a sniper and warp and I had AP ammo, so the collectors actually went down pretty easily. Sniper characters are VERY handy. Use them.

In all seriousness though, Adepts and Vanguards get the short end of the stick at the start of the game, and, hell, their powers are pretty terrible on Insanity due to 100% of enemies having damage protection. The Shuriken is bad until you learn how to rapid fire. Press the trigger at the end of each burst instead of just holding it, and you can effectively fire full auto and get about twice as much DPS. The Tempest is still a little better in terms of accuracy and sustainibility though, so get it ASAP. As for vanguards, the Katana is meh, and the DLC Eviscerator is only slightly better. I like the Scimitar, and I've never tried the Claymore. For powers, I just use Pull followed by some other power, it's really only "for the lulz" as they say.

Will probably try it as a soldier next, if only because I want to try the Revenant.

 

[DeadRow]

Playing through on insane now. Reclassed as a soldier and boy do i regret it. I might have to respec so distribute my points to make it a bit more specialised but Im doing jack's recruitment with Miranda and Garius and its just annoying more than hard. Can't look out of cover for more than a second with my shields dropping and then you get the ones that run at you with a shotgun aimed at your genitals. My Incinrate(sp?) does jack all to Heavy Mech's armour so basically have to spray my limited ammo heavy pistol at it and hope Miranda's Warp recharges soon.

I like challenges, but there are challenges and pisstakes, i think this is the latter tbh. I'll go back to it at some point but for now I got DA:O to complete before the expansion and an ass load of Uni work

 

[MiracleOfSound]

The following sections/enemies keep popping up, so anyone who has beaten them it would be great if you could share your tactics for them:

The Two Scions and husks on horizon

The Paetorian battle on the Collector ship

Geth Colossus

I've done all these bits on Insanity and, to be honest, I found the two Scions and the husks the hardest of all of them. I was an Infiltrator on both playthroughs (Well, I'm approaching the end on Insanity run but you get the point). Here's what I did for each one:

Horizon
I hated this battle. I had Miranda and Mordin for this. The problem mostly lays with the Husks as they just keep coming. I found running in circles around the Scions to work most of the time. After a few times dying here you'll work out where the Husks are popping up from. Try and head for the back and make sure you have some medi-gel, you'll need it. If your squad members can take some of the heat off you, you can pick the husks off little by little. Take the Scions out last, but keep running where possible or their shockwave attacks will nail you.

Collector Ship
Oddly enough, I found this easier on Insanity than Veteran. Take the Collector Particle Beam and save the ammo for this battle. I had Miranda (for Warp) and Thane for this mission. Get Miranda to warp it's biotic barrier as much as possible and just blast the Praetorian from the highest point (right by the entrance) with the Particle Beam until it dies. In my game, Thane more or less held off the incoming Collectors and Husks, but keep an eye out from time to time.

Colossus
This battle was a bastard too. I had Grunt and Samara for this mission. Take this battle one section at a time, clear one area, move. Clear the next, move. Also, take the sniper route, it's easier. More Geth will spawn as you go up the ramp, when you near the end of the crate run (cover next to the walkway wall, it'll protect you from the Geth, the Colossus and the sun) and as you hit the end of the walkway, although remember the last spawn point they will attack from behind you, so stay alert and kill them before moving on. After that, it's just a case of pummeling the Colossus until it's dead. Cover, shoot, cover, shoot. Incinerate and disruption ammo are useful here too.

Hope this helps.

Nice tactics. Must try these. I found runnning in circles the only effective tactic on Horizon too.

How do you stay in that spot and shoot the Preatorian without it's lazer beam getting to you?

 

[Steampunk Viking]

Nice tactics. Must try these. I found runnning in circles the only effective tactic on Horizon too.

How do you stay in that spot and shoot the Preatorian without it's lazer beam getting to you?

The only way I found was to duck whilst it's shooting the lasers, then when it stops bob up and let loose. If it doesn't stop, warp it with Miranda/Thane (if they're in your squad) or concussive shot (if Zaeed, Grunt or Garrus are in your squad). If you don't have any of those people in your squad... uhhhh... improvise, lol.

Also remember if it circles your cover, move round where possible.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Nice tactics. Must try these. I found runnning in circles the only effective tactic on Horizon too.

How do you stay in that spot and shoot the Preatorian without it's lazer beam getting to you?

The only way I found was to duck whilst it's shooting the lasers, then when it stops bob up and let loose. If it doesn't stop, warp it with Miranda/Thane (if they're in your squad) or concussive shot (if Zaeed, Grunt or Garrus are in your squad). If you don't have any of those people in your squad... uhhhh... improvise, lol.

Also remember if it circles your cover, move round where possible.

Ok, so I guess you were circling the walls to stop it gaining on you?

 

[Amnestic]

Would advise against bringing Grunt along for missions with a Praetorian. He has a tendency to Krogan Charge it, provoking its Barrier groundstomp.

 

[SageRuffin]

I'm rolling as a Sentinel for my Insanity run, since they're actually worth a damn in this game. But I just got out the R&D facility, so it's gonna be a while before my Erika turns herself into a female, telekinetic War Machine.

By the way, Warp + Pull = fun for all ages.

 

[Spygon]

Im too bothered about the Horizon battle as last time i just set up behind a wall on the outside and then the enemies just funnel toward making them not too hard to deal with.

The problem i having is the archangel recruitment mission as i have done all the shutters.But then when you get cut off by the main group while the red pack leader takes on garrus i either get killed or garrus gets killed to be honest he hasnt much life left.

So any tips on getting this bit done would be helpful

Which class?

The shutter on the right (with big open space and one Varren initially) was darn difficult with Infiltrator. Mostly because they keep getting reinforcements from the direction you are supposed to go. And the reinforcements include Krogan. You don't approach a Krogan on Insanity.
There's no way you kill all the Vorcha before the reinforcements reach the shutter either (unless you use Cain, I guess). The enemies come faster than you can kill them out of your way.

What I did was use Tactical Cloak, run and hide, use it again, run to the shutter control and close it. You are of course in total cross fire for a moment there, with little cover, and a Varren biting you balls off... But the fun thing is that the time I managed to pull it off, a Krogan also made it through before the shutter close (and I was hiding right next to that shutter).

I was so proud I survived that, having a both Varren and Krogan a few feet away from me and a bunch of Vorcha shooting at me from another direction. I used Tactical Cloak a lot... To think I considered it useless on Normal.

I am an Infiltrator so far at the moment i pop out kill the varren as they are evil and cloak up stairs.Then lure out the normal krogan battlemaster then cloak past him.Then start shooting and hiding around glen (the boss krogan) while the other one slowly comes back.I carried on this and thought i was doing rather well as both krogans were trying to get me while garrus kept shooting glen.But then garrus took a few shotgun blasts and eventually died.