Mass Effect: Andromeda character builds (2023)

Mass Effect: AndromedaIt might not be BioWare's best game overall, but there's one area where it excels, and that's combat. Gunfights are hard-hitting and packed with cool abilities - and these are the abilities and powers we're going to focus on in this guide.

Unlike Commander Shepard from the original Mass Effect trilogy, Ryder isn't locked into a core character class that you choose at the start of the game. Instead, you can tailor Ryder's playstyle to your liking by picking and choosing abilities from three different categories.

Below are some Mass Effect: Andromeda character builds worth playing around with. But let's break down the basics first.

The Basics: Skill Categories

The three skill categories are:

combat skills

The combat category focuses primarily on weapons with abilities that benefit gunplay. These abilities might not be the most exciting or interesting, but they are reliable, and they can easily benefit non-combat character builds.

Biotic Abilities

Biotics is basically space magic that allows Ryder to create mass effect fields. Skills in the Biotics category offer a lot of variety; They can be used to control the battlefield or deal devastating damage - some can even be used defensively.

technical skills

The Tech category features skills that leverage gadgets and technology. Like Biotics abilities, Tech abilities can be highly customizable depending on playstyle. Some deal damage while others are effective against specific enemy types.

The Basics: Profiles

In addition to these three skill categories, we have the profile system. Profiles essentially reflect Ryder's overall growth. Profiles are unlocked by spending a certain number of skill points in each skill category - and you can unlock higher ranks of each profile as you spend more points. For example, pumping loads of points into the combat skill category will gradually unlock higher ranks of the soldier profile. Each profile offers its own unique perks in the form of passive buffs, along with unique abilities.

There are seven profiles to choose from:

Soldier

The Soldier Profile is all about getting the most out of combat skills. Numerous passive weapon proficiency bonuses make this profile a safe bet for those who just want to shoot things. His special ability is Marksman's Focus, which allows you to deal increasing amounts of damage to any enemy you kill in a short amount of time. Spending skill points into combat skills unlocks higher ranks of soldier profile.

technician

The engineer profile benefits those who focus on technical skills. It offers passive bonuses to things like tech skill damage, recharge times, and overall effectiveness. His special ability is Combat Drone, which greatly improves the recharge rate of your tech skills, allowing you to use them more often. The drone also explodes when enemies get close to Ryder. Spending skill points into Tech abilities unlocks higher ranks of the Engineer profile.

Sent

The Adept profile is best for players who focus on biotic skills. It adds passive buffs to all aspects of biotic abilities, from damage to area of ​​effect. His first special ability is Biotic Echoes, which lets you chain biotic combo blasts to nearby enemies. His second signature ability is Biotic Jump & Evades, which basically just replaces your jump jets with cool looking biotic animations. Spending skill points into biotic skills unlocks higher ranks of the adept profile.

Guardian

The Sentinel profile is intended for players who specialize in both biotic and tech skills. It grants various bonuses to charging speeds and combo damage. His special ability is Tech Armor, which gives Ryder an extra layer of defense against incoming attacks. Putting skill points into Biotic and Tech skills unlocks higher ranks of the Sentinel profile.

vanguard

The Vanguard profile is best suited for those who like to be in the front line and dish out damage with combat and biotic abilities. There are bonuses to things like melee damage and maximum shields. His special ability is Siphoning Strike, which allows you to restore your shields by hitting enemies with melee attacks. It also gets Biotic Jump & Evades. Spending skill points into combat and biotic abilities unlocks higher ranks of the Vanguard profile.

intruder

The Infiltrator profile best benefits players who rely on both combat and tech skills. It improves things like weapon proficiency and tech skill recharge time. His first special ability is Battlefield Awareness, which allows you to see enemies through walls when aiming a scoped weapon. His second signature ability is Cloak Evades, which adds a moment of invisibility to your dodge boosts. Spending skill points into combat and tech abilities unlocks higher ranks of the Infiltrator profile.

researcher

The Explorer profile includes all three skill categories. It offers a number of different bonuses, including increased weapon damage and faster recharge times for your powers. His special ability is Biotic Blink, which allows you to go through some cover with your dodge boosts. Spending skill points in combat, biotic, and tech skills unlocks higher ranks of the explorer profile.

Mass Effect: Andromeda character builds

In this character creation guide, we'll take a look at the skills that best suit specific playstyles. Ryder can have three different abilities equipped at any one time, not counting passive abilities. As such, each of the builds we detail below focuses on three key abilities that work well together. We also list passive skills that might be of interest for each build, as well as the profile that best complements the selected skills.

Also remember that Ryder can switch between different skills at any time via the Favorites menu. This mechanic allows you to hop from one character build to another in the heat of battle, so you don't feel like you have to pick one build and stick with it throughout your Andromeda play.

Without further ado, here's a selection of Mass Effect Andromeda builds that we've found to be quite effective:

Commando

Description:The Commando build relies entirely on combat skills while ensuring your weapons hit hard. It's a simple build, but a reliable one.

Preferred profile:Soldier

Key Skills:

• Omni-Granet (Kampf)
  Omni Grenade comes in handy as a powerful last resort or a fantastic way to deal with multiple enemies that are massing together. It's also this build's best ability for taking down armored enemies.
• Concussive Shot (Combat)
  Concussive Shot is the be-all and end-all of this build. Quick and easy to use, it's a skill that can temporarily take weaker targets out of combat. It can also spark combos started by your squadmates. So when Peebee has an enemy lifted in the air, let go of one of these things and watch them explode.
• Turbo Charge (Combat)
  With Turbo Charge active, this build's weapon damage is maximized, allowing you to break through weaker enemies and deal increased damage to anything that can take more than a few shots to the head. An obvious choice.

Passive Key Abilities:

• Pistols/Assault Rifles/Shotguns/Sniper Rifles (Combat)
  This build obviously relies primarily on its weapons, so it's a good idea to max out one or two of these passive weapon skill trees, depending on which weapon types you like best.
• Martial Fitness (Fight)
  While this build isn't specifically intended as a tank, Combat Fitness allows you to carry and equip more weapons, meaning you have more options on the battlefield.

walking tank

Description:As the name suggests, the Walking Tank build is all about survivability. It focuses on abilities that make you incredibly difficult to kill no matter what your enemy throws at you.

Preferred profile:Guardian

Key Skills:

• barricade (combat)
  Barricade can be incredibly useful when attacking targets in an environment that lacks immediate cover. If your shields are down and you need to charge them up, just deploy this and stay calm until they recover.
• game (biotics)
  Backlash allows you to deflect incoming damage even while moving. It can keep you alive in some pretty dire situations if used properly, especially when you need to retreat from combat and seek cover.
• Energy withdrawal (Tech)
  Energy Drain restores your shields on impact, making it an obvious choice for this build. Stay alive while putting the pressure on the enemy.

Passive Key Abilities:

• Martial Fitness (Fight)
  More health and shields can't be bad for a defense-focused build.
• Barriere (Biotics)
  Barrier further increases your shields and shield regeneration.

Tech Assistant

Description:The Tech Wizard is an offensive build that destroys enemies with tech powers and combo damage. With three different elemental skills, you should get going as often as possible.

Preferred profile:Guardian

Key Skills:

• Overload (Tech)
  Overload shreds enemy shields and stuns weaker enemies. However, for this build it will mostly be used as a combo detonator.
• Incinerate (Tech)
  Incinerate acts as this build's main combo primer, so hit unshielded targets with it before unleashing Overload. It's also great for dealing big damage to armored enemies.
• Cryo Beam (Tech)
  Like Incinerate, Cryo Beam prepares targets for Overload's detonation. It's also great for stopping enemies due to its freezing abilities.

Passive Key Abilities:

• Offensive Tech (Tech)
  Offensive Tech is an obvious choice, increasing Tech ability damage, recharge speed, and detonation damage.
• Auxiliary Systems (Tech)
  Great for further increasing the effectiveness of your three key skills.

hacker attacker

Description:The Hack Attacker build is all about manipulating the battlefield with tech abilities. It's fairly strategic, but provides an effective support role when used well.

Preferred profile:technician

Key Skills:

• Attack Tower (Tech)
  The Assault Turret acts as your little sidekick. It helps you deal extra damage to targets, and you can use it to distract enemies while you find cover or a better vantage point.
• Energy withdrawal (Tech)
  Energy Drain works well in conjunction with skills like Assault Turret. While your enemies are busy, you can use it to restore your shields and stay in the fight.
• invasion (technology)
  Invasion weakens enemies, making them easier to knock down. It also spreads to nearby enemies, allowing you to potentially cripple entire groups of attackers.

Passive Key Abilities:

• Offensive Tech (Tech)
  Decreased recharge time for your key skills.
• Auxiliary Systems (Tech)
  Auxiliary systems make your storm tower so much more effective.

Lancer

Description:The Lancer build specializes in readying enemies for biotic detonations. You have to time your attacks right, but the damage can be devastating.

Preferred profile:Sent

Key Skills:

• Draw (Biotic)
  Lift your target into the air and prepare them for the destruction to come.
• Singularity (Biotic)
  Use a well-placed singularity to knock out multiple enemies and set them up as helpless combo targets.
• Lance (Biotics)
  For Lance, the fun starts with this build. As your enemies hover helplessly in the air, start hurling biotic lances at them before sitting back and watching the fireworks.

Passive Key Abilities:

• Offensive Biotics (Biotics)
  The more power you can apply to your key competencies, the better.
• Containment (Biotics)
  Containment makes both Singularity and Pull more effective at keeping your enemies in place.

Berserker

Description:The Berserker build is at home on the front lines of battle, taking the fight to the enemy without fear. It focuses on being as deadly as possible at close range.

Preferred profile:vanguard

Key Skills:

• Ladung (Biotic)
  Charge will be your main means of getting close to your enemies. It also keeps your shields healthy on impact, so use it as often as you can.
• Nova (Biotic)
  Nova deals heavy damage to nearby enemies, making it a perfect option if you've used Charge to invade a group of enemies.
• Annihilation (Biotic)
  Like Nova, Annihilation affects nearby enemies, meaning it's another solid choice for a melee skill. It has the added bonus of readying targets for combos - combos that Charge can explode.

Passive Key Abilities:

• Shotguns (Combat)
  No weapon type is more effective at close range than a shotgun.
• Offensive Biotics (Biotics)
  More damage and better loading speed certainly can't hurt.

assassin

Description:The Assassin build specializes in dealing big damage to unsuspecting opponents. It requires quick thinking and precision, but it's suitably deadly.

Preferred profile:intruder

Key Skills:

• Omni-Granet (Kampf)
  Omni Grenade isn't exactly what you'd call a stealthy skill, but a well-placed blast can take out multiple enemies at once, reducing numbers so you can focus on the most important targets.
• Overload (Tech)
  This build primarily uses Overload to remove shields, allowing your shots to penetrate targets unhindered. Overload can also temporarily stun your chosen opponent, making them an easier target.
• Tactical Cloak (Tech)
  The basis of this build, Tactical Cloak, allows you to find advantageous spots on the battlefield before combat even begins. Additionally, the damage boost it provides when deactivated makes it the perfect ability for snipers looking to deal maximum damage with every shot.

Passive Key Abilities:

• Sniper Rifles (Combat)
  Sniper rifles are your best option when it comes to dealing raw damage at long range, so boosting their effectiveness is a must.
• Offensive Tech (Tech)
  Offensive Tech ensures Overload operates at maximum capacity.

Master of Power

Description:The Force Master build is all about crushing your enemies with brute force biotics. Can lead to hilarious ragdoll physics.

Preferred profile:Sent

Key Skills:

• Draw (Biotic)
  Pulling will almost always be your starting point, especially against unarmored or unshielded enemies, to prepare them for a possible detonation or to temporarily take them out of combat.
• Throw (Biotic)
  In conjunction with Pull, Throw throws your helpless target where you aim. It can also be used to detonate combos set up by Pull.
  
• Stoßwelle (Biotics)
  If you don't have time for a more technical approach, Shockwave will smash enemies aside and deal solid damage. Like Throw, it can detonate a combo detonation.

Passive Key Abilities:

• Offensive Biotics (Biotics)
  An obvious choice for such an offensive build.
• Containment (Biotics)
  Containment increases the effectiveness of Pull.

all-rounder

Description:If you can't quite commit to a specialized combat style, the jack-of-all-trades build is a simple but solid place to start. His key abilities don't necessarily complement each other, but this build is ready for any situation.

Preferred profile:researcher

Key Skills:

• Turbo Charge (Combat)
  Crack Turbocharge when you need that extra damage boost. Great for taking out waves of smaller enemies, and a good choice when it comes to destroying a stronger enemy's health.
• game (biotics)
  Extremely useful when forced into a corner. Backlash deflects enemy fire and can even be used to deflect incoming melee attacks if timed just right.
• Attack Tower (Tech)
  Your little mechanical sidekick adds some tactical depth to this build, allowing you to better support your team and add extra fire when you're outnumbered.

Passive Key Abilities:

• Martial Fitness (Fight)
  More health and an increased weapon weight capacity expand the scope of this build even further.
• Team Support (Technical)
  Team Support offers both you and your team numerous bonuses.

Do you want to know what relationships you can build? Check out oursMass Effect: Andromeda Love Guide. We'll show you tooHow to reset skill points in Mass Effect: Andromedaandhow to change weapons and armor in mass effect: andromeda. Finally, if you are struggling with the game, check out oursMass Effect: Andromeda tips and tricks.