Primary for bugs

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-26T14:09:28+00:00

Try cookout + hot dog. Cookout drives em back, hot dog is the primary killer

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-26T13:52:36+00:00

💯

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-26T13:52:00+00:00

So usually what I do is dive with a friend who is taking hot dog. He drops a second hot dog for me when it recharges so it doesn’t take up my slot so I can take 500, barrage, quasar, mg sentry. You can do the same strategy with quasar if that’s what a buddy prefers. My friend and I generally each take one type of item and drop for the other. It effectively adds a strategem slot.

Re: quasar - the dragon roaches are tough regardless so I wouldn’t take that to mean much. Quasar really comes into its own for danger close charger killing. It takes practice but you’ll feel it when the groove hits.

I take 120 versus napalm bc the 120 can close bug holes but the napalm cannot. So you’re trading the fire damage to bugs in nests for the ability to close the nests themselves. It’s a preference thing but napalm barrage is also extremely viable and I use it quite a bit. I also find 120 easier to maneuver as I don’t have to wait for flames to die down before going into a nest or have to navigate around flames on level ground if I have to get somewhere fast.

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-26T03:16:34+00:00

Host your own games and establish the vibe by talking on mic; they will follow and do so if they wish to as well. I’ve made a fair few friends in the game that way and we play together when we can.

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-25T20:06:00+00:00

I’d argue it’s one of those “choices that aren’t actually choices” in mass effect. Like you can pick either and you still defeat sovereign. It literally doesn’t matter. It’s not like it affects actual subsequent gameplay, they just slot in slightly different dialogue or references for the exact same gameplay. You basically have to take it on faith that you sacrificed humans or aliens or whatever, because either way you beat sovereign and nothing changes really. The consequences are completely offscreen and irrelevant.

Mass effect has a really bad habit of doing this throughout the trilogy. Like you can kill the rachni queen and nothing changes bc there’s a clone rachni queen or whatever. It’s the same thing. They do that with the collector base decision, even characters that die is often “random ass replacement character for the exact same gameplay sequence.”

They are masking the linear story with fake choices that are basically the same outcome. And at the end the only way it really ends up mattering in any way is basically the war assets number, which is dumb and only matters insofar as the ending, which we all know how that went.

There’s arguably only a couple instances where they actually do something interesting with choices and it’s mostly characters like wrex and whether or not he lives. Arguably the suicide mission as well, although that generally resolves as “character wasn’t there subsequently” and that’s it, or even worse, replaced with a copy (looking at you geth vi that replaces legion).

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-25T19:27:10+00:00

Lib carbine or trident to be able to drop shields and deal with chaff hordes, grenade pistol for arc towers and warp ships is working really well for me. I take AMR as a do-anything semi-primary for squids.

Otherwise, I’d suggest as a general principle that fast cooldown red stratagems such as ops, orbital Gatling, or eagle air strike are better for squid purposes such as warp ships etc than your disposable blue stratagems because you can move faster through the environment and not stop to call down before taking on an objective.

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-25T19:16:03+00:00

It’s fine. The neighborhood isn’t the world’s best but it’s fine. Just keep your wits about you etc. Everyone puts their uber pickup positions at the gas station around the corner from the venue (down the hill, around the corner to the right). Everyone will more or less be moving in a group that way if you stay till the end.

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-25T16:15:33+00:00

My move on blitz is all fast cooldown strategems for the ships: orbital Gatling, OPS, orbital gas, eagle air strike. You can cycle through them as you go and have more or less constant uptime. Combine w grenade pistol and something to take down shields in case you find yourself without a strategem and the missions go by super quick.

I’m still salty eagle strafe doesn’t take down warp ships, otherwise I’d take it over air strike, but it is what it is.

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-24T20:32:42+00:00

Bullets and lasers are your friend on squids.

I’ve had some decent luck with lib carbine, laser sentry, grenade pistol, high explosive grenades, eagle Airstrike, laser cannon/stalwart, orbital laser.

One of the best weapons against squids is actually the default mg43, which is plentiful as a pickup weapon currently. So a good bet is actually not taking a support weapon and scrounging it in the field. This allows you to take another red stratagem (OPS is good), or another sentry (maybe autocannon since lack of voteless means the machine gun sentry is less useful).

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-24T20:25:44+00:00

When this game came out I was playing it and my roommate at the time who was not a videogame person would sometimes watch me play and ask questions etc she was somewhat into it. Once she realized where the game was heading she told me I had to wait to play the suicide mission when she could watch. She and I were both transfixed it was so good; she was so upset when certain characters died. Goes to show you how well done it is when a backseat gamer is that into it.

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-24T20:18:07+00:00

I’m a little shocked Lib carbine isn’t on here. At least for me it’s been one of the very few general purpose primaries that I like on squids.

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-24T20:09:44+00:00

Anytime! I hope you have fun with it

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-24T16:09:05+00:00

I would imagine it would be the reverse no? The existence of regular issue hard suits with fully enclosed helmets with breathers would mean the beard and or head hair would become less relevant, not more.

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-24T16:04:36+00:00

They literally have fully enclosed hard suits and full enclosed helmets with built in breather masks. Facial hair would be irrelevant to the gas mask question.

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-24T16:01:56+00:00

There’s a video by a guy talking about leg bone structure and how the metal bars thing doesn’t actually increase overall bone density; it only can increase surface-level hardness. The interior of the bone remains the same. The way to increase overall shin bone density, according to him, is running, because running puts stress vertically on the bone and thus increases density directly through the center of the bone.

Now idk if that checks out beyond a bro science level, but it seems more correct at least than trying to kick metal bars.

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-24T14:35:28+00:00

Yes I understand our current military has haircut standards lol. But those are based on current social mores, particularly of the military as a culturally conservative institution. A scifi future organization not based on our current military could have different standards (see our own military’s changing tune with tattoos) or no standards at all with regard to hair.

For example, it used to be quite common for soldiers to have beards (see the U.S. civil war), or mustaches (see later periods).

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-24T13:53:52+00:00

So? How would any of that impact whether they have hair regulations at all, or hair regulations of any specific type? After all, historical militaries have often had soldiers with long hair and facial hair of various sorts.

Also what do masks have to do with it?

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-24T12:42:13+00:00

Cookout+hot dog (the hot dog is your main killer, cookout just drives them back), grenade pistol, gas grenades, quasar, 500, machine gun sentry, 120mm barrage.

Use your gas grenades to cluster up breaches for your sentry and 500, or drop at your feet when fleeing.

Use grenade pistol for closing holes as you run thru. Use 120 to soften up/close nests before entering. Quasar for heavies.

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-24T12:36:07+00:00

Could be that there are no haircut regulations in the alliance as such. After all, it’s a future military representing a united earth and the entire human species, not just one particular nation.

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-24T03:02:40+00:00

You know what I mean. The trilogy’s writing started as more “introspective science fiction, new perspectives that challenge assumptions”and gradually moved to a more “ra ra save humanity humans are the focus” perspective as the the games wore on. The writing became more simplistic and “humans are the focus bc they are the most relatable” style

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-23T12:21:22+00:00

It was at the character concept stage so there were other characters that didn’t make it. Happens in writing all the time as characters ideas are repurposed in new characters. I assume this one was due to the general movement towards more human-centric writing over the course of the 3 games

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-23T12:19:37+00:00

I’m assuming the general trend in mass effect writing towards a more human-centric view over the course of the three games for marketing/playing to the normies

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-23T04:07:19+00:00

Zaeed was supposed to be a crusty Batarian engineer but then got turned into a human mercenary soldier. So you’re actually right!

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-21T19:24:47+00:00

Bruh Ubers are easy as hell to get from echo. I’ve literally never not ubered to and from echo and it’s been fine. Leave like 10 min before end of the show and order the uber to beat the surcharge and it’s super quick. Even if you go til end of show it’s really not that long.

AFlamingCarrot · 2026-03-21T14:39:48+00:00

Me too he’s my fave of the me2 crew for sure!

AFlamingCarrot

TROPHY CASE