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Mass Effect Hints

What specialization should I choose?

  • 1 of 7: This is basically your character class (as fantasy RPGs usually call it), and it will determine what talents you have.
  • 2 of 7: See the Talents section of the game manual for a list of all the talents that are available in the three categories of combat, tech, and biotic.
  • 3 of 7: The game offers six military specializations, three of which are "pure" classes, and three of which are "mixed" classes.
  • 4 of 7: Soldiers get all of the combat talents, engineers get all of the tech talents, and adepts get all of the biotic talents. It's pretty much a mutually exclusive setup, though everyone gets the Pistol talent and some armor talent, both soldiers and engineers get the First Aid talent, and everyone gets the Charm and Intimidate talents (and the special Spectre Training talent later on).
  • 5 of 7: The three mixed specializations are equivalent to multiclassed characters in fantasy RPGs. Infiltrators are soldier/engineers, sentinels are engineer/adepts, and vanguards are soldier/adepts. They each have some, but not all, of the talents of the two "pure" classes they're combining.
  • 6 of 7: NOTE: If you've already finished playing through Mass Effect at least once, you may get to choose a bonus talent. Whether you do, and what bonus talents are available, will depend on what talent-related achievements you got on you your first playthru. (For instance, if you killed at least 150 enemies with assault rifles, you can start a new infiltrator character with Assault Rifles as a bonus talent.)
  • 7 of 7: You should choose the soldier class if none of the others particularly appeal to you, or if you're wanting to make the game's combats as easy to survive as possible using only basic combat tactics.