History VideoGame / MassEffectAndromeda

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!''Mass Effect: Andromeda'' contains examples of:

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* ZeroPercentApprovalRating:
** The number of people who actually ''like'' Director Tann is all but non-existent.
** Aside from the odd scientist fascinated with their skills in genetics and biology in general, there's not a single soul in the entire Heleus cluster that has something positive to say about the kett.
* AbnormalAmmo: [[KillItWithIce Cryo Ammo]], [[ShockAndAwe Disruptor Ammo]] and [[KillItWithFire Incendiary Ammo]] make a return from the original trilogy, each with their own useful properties and capable of setting up powerful combo detonations. Contrary to their previous portrayal, they're now consumables with a finite number of uses (three clips per unit) instead of permanently active powers.
* AbsoluteXenophobe: The Roekaar, a faction of the angara, hate everything non-angaran with a passion. Considering what the kett have done to their people, it's not that hard to blame them, but sadly they continue to hate your guts even after you've proven the Initiative's worth and peaceful intentions dozens of times over. [[spoiler: If you spare their leader at the end of a quest, a bunch of them walk away, implying they've changed their mind both about him, and the Milky Way arrivals.]]
* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: The current level cap is 135. Most players will be at or around lvl 65-70 by the time they finish the game. Only in a NG+ can you reach the cap.
* AbsurdlyLowLevelCap:
** The AVP bonuses max out at level 20, which you'll achieve long before reaching the end of the game unless you really rush things.
** A relative example, but party members max out their skills at level 53. They'll continue to level after that, pointlessly gaining more skill points that can't be spent.
* TheAce: Each species on each Ark has one representative who is the exemplar of that race called "The Pathfinder".
* ActionBomb: If a Remnant Breacher comes close enough to engage Ryder in melee, one of two things will happen: ButtonMashing to throw it off, or it simply blows itself up then and there for considerable damage and a powerful knockback effect.
* ActionGirl:
** Sara Ryder, naturally. Of note is the fact that she exists in the game even if the player chooses to play as Scott, existing as his sister and still playing an important role in the story.
** The asari squadmate AdventureArchaeologist Peebee, turian LoveableRogue squadmate Vetra and human ConsummateProfessional squadmate Cora.
* AdultFear:
** [[spoiler:Knight, the leader of an anti-A.I. group who attack SAM, nearly lost her son to Project: Overlord, which left him crippled and reliant on machines to control certain bodily functions. If Ryder screws up that mission and has to kill the rest of them, she'll angrily declare she has no idea where her son's gotten to before being shot.]]
** Searching the asari Ark reveals [[spoiler:there were little children on-board and awake during the kett attacks.]]
** The first person to get pregnant in Andromeda is on the run and under attack by kett and the Roekkar when you find them. [[spoiler:And in labour.]]
* TheAdventureContinues: In the epilogue, Ryder and their crew can all voice the desire to get back to the Tempest and go out exploring.
* AlcubierreDrive: The codex states that the kett deal with long-distance FTL travel by using their element zero cores (which are designed differently from either Milky Way or angara ships) to produce an Alcubierre effect. This is noted to be inefficient compared to the mass relays back in the Milky Way.
* AlienBlood: Angara have bright-blue blood. Kett bleed a sickly-greenish liquid instead. Strangely, the exiles all bleed the same red despite of being comprised of humans, turians, salarians, krogan and asari, all of which have differently colored blood.
* AlienGeometries: The Remnant Vaults have a lot of this going on in their designs and architecture. From a physical point of view, a lot of these buildings shouldn't be able to support their own weight.
* AliensOfLondon: Kett all speak with a British accent once you can communicate with them, which practically makes them [[EvilBrit Evil Brits]] [[RecycledInSpace In Space]]. Several angarans also have British accents, though they actually have a wide variety of accents due to their fractured culture, including British, African, South African, Australian, and Kiwi. This is justified in-universe as a result of angarans being divided by the Scourge for centuries. Jaal is described as having a Havarl accent while Evfra is a native of Voeld. The universal translator simply turn their accents into AFormYouAreComfortableWith.
* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Averted with regards to Andromeda races. The kett are unable to communicate with Ryder during their first encounter due to the language barrier, averting this trope. The angara also have their own spoken language that is initially what the player hears upon being introduced to them, until the cast's TranslatorMicrobes adapt within a couple of scenes.
* TheAllSeeingAI: When you snipe a squad of enemies and they become alerted, they'll pinpoint your precise location in an instant and hide so effectively you won't be able to spot anyone anymore.
* AllThereInTheManual: The Codex helps explain a few things the game doesn't, like where the Hydra mechs came from (they were built by people mixing whatever tech they could get together after arriving in Andromeda).
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The kett view themselves not only as the Andromeda galaxy's master race, but apparently as the only sentient race at all. Everything else is referred to as "[[ItIsDehumanizing it]]" or "specimen", and subject to no end of PlayingWithSyringes, ColdBloodedTorture and BodyHorror both ForScience and ForTheEvulz. They round up [=POWs=] as often as they kill them on the spot, segregate them based on their [[spoiler:genes]] and work everyone "unworthy" to death in labor camps. Their society is even more militarized than the Turian Hierarchy - they literally can't [[spoiler:procreate]] without waging wars of extinction on all fronts. Their leader - at least the one in Heleus - is a megalomaniacal OmnicidalManiac with a CultOfPersonality full of fanatically loyal followers centered on him and him alone, and just like a certain [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler historical figure]], he surrounds himself with "perfect" specimens of his species while being nowhere near as capable in combat as them himself, judging by how he actually turns out to be [[spoiler:TheUnfought]] in the end, though the circumstances are somewhat different.
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: [[spoiler: When the Archon takes over Ark ''Hyperion'', the player will take control of the other Ryder sibling to try and stop him.]]
* AnimalTesting: An angaran scientist hires a group of outlaws to hunt the Voeld equivalent of whales so she can study them. Even worse, a datapad found by one of the hunting sites mentions the outcasts tried killing a calf. Once found, Jaal is ''very'' pissed at the scientist.
* AntiFrustrationFeature:
** Falling into a BottomlessPit for whatever reason just warps Ryder back to where they fell with a minor loss in health instead of incurring a critical mission failure.
** Remnant Decryption Keys are ultra-rare items that can be used to bypass almost any Remnant decryption puzzle. They were extremely rare and prohibitively expensive in the game's release version but have since been made a lot cheaper and more readily available from merchants. Just keep in mind that any puzzle solved by using a key doesn't count for the achievement that requires you to solve 20 puzzles in a single game, and there's only so many of them.
** Cobra missiles might be considered one as well. They're rare and expensive but kill every type of enemy in one shot, allowing you to bypass the majority of bosses and all those annoyingly resilient critters with the press of a button - if you dedicated one of Ryder's consumables slots to them, that is.
** The Nomad is completely invulnerable while you aren't driving it to allow players to use it as mobile cover without having to worry about losing their ride if they take too long. Unlike the Mako, it also can't be damaged by crashing or falling into stuff, only by enemy fire and environmental hazards like the acid lakes on Kadara.
** While driving the Nomad, there's an "Evacuate" button that allows for a quick return to the ''Tempest'' at any time, from anywhere on the map (as long as you're not locked in combat or on a mission, naturally).
** Everyone's powers including Ryder's can always be reset in the ''Tempest's'' med-bay for a nominal fee in credits to correct wrong skill choices or to experiment with new combinations and profiles.
** Deconstructing crafted equipment returns all augmentations that previously went into its construction - particularly helpful in case of augments that need to be researched and can't be purchased, only found as random loot. Installed mods are also automatically returned to Ryder's inventory. Last but not least, you get 20% of the resources required to craft it back, but that's true for deconstructing any piece of gear and is usually a lot less important than the augments.
** The game gives you audio-visual clues to fire up Ryder's scanner when you're in proximity to something worth scanning, which usually means the various factions' tech nodes that give 100+ research points apiece. The same happens in the vicinity of quest-relevant objects that require scanning.
** When a mission objective requires Ryder to search an area, an additional radar-like HUD element pops up that grows brighter and louder the closer you are to your target. It works pretty well most of the time but can get confusing on occasion when the thing you're looking for is inside a multi-story building because the system doesn't account for verticality.
* AntiVillain: The anti-A.I. group in the Knight subquest aren't really evil, just severely misguided, and have sympathetic reasons for their dislike of A.I., [[spoiler:like Knight's son having been used in Project: Overlord, or Valeria's sisters having been husked by the geth. When Ryder eventually uncovers their next move, they learn that Knight already discarded the "anti" altogether and prepares to bomb the Nexus' computer systems with [=EMPs=]. If Ryder takes the time to heal Knight's son, Knight actually does take out part of hydroponics, but can be convinced to stand down.]]
* ApocalypticLog: Alec Ryder's private files include transmissions from [[spoiler: during the Reaper war, including a turian alert that gets interrupted by the iconic foghorn, a distress call from Earth's defense fleet, and a message sent by Liara T'soni from the Normandy SR-2 during the events of [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 Mass Effect 3]].]]
** As per usual in a Mass Effect game, you'll encounter several of them from unlucky colonists and explorers on planets and out in space.
* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: Played very straight, as you can only have two squadmates accompany Ryder at a time, no matter how dangerous the situation. [[spoiler:This is averted during the final battle. Like in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', your benched party members will show up as uncontrollable [=NPCs=] during the final fight with the Archon.]]
* ArbitraryMaximumRange: Not in space, but even the game's infantry weapons have an unbelievably short range of less than 100 meters. You can see enemies much farther away than that if your console or rig is powerful enough to render such distances, but when you shoot at them, nothing will happen. There's also an even shorter effective range beyond which a shot will hit, but for severely reduced damage. If you want to use your guns to maximum effect, don't fight at distances beyond 50-60 meters ([[ShortRangeShotgun shotguns]] are an entirely different matter again, naturally).
* ArcWords: For the Ryder family, a quote Alec used to say in his days as an N7; "When your back's against the wall, if you can't run from it, ''use'' it." Also doubles as a ChekhovsGun of sorts.
* ArchaeologicalArmsRace: Both the Archon's forces and Ryder's team are racing to find and unlock the Remnant Vaults scattered across Heleus. For the Initiative, their goal is to use the Remnant's technology to terraform worlds to settle on, and hopefully undo the damage caused by the Scourge. For the Archon, it's to [[spoiler: force the populations of Heleus to submit to the kett, or die when their worlds are destroyed with the same technology.]] By the later stages of the storyline, it turns into a literal race to be the first to reach the [[spoiler:central control hub for the Remnant network, an artificial planet called Meridian.]]
* ArtEvolution: Many visual aspects of the franchise were overhauled or expanded between the original trilogy and ''ME:A''.
** Whereas the Milky Way species were all more or less the same height in the trilogy, now they exhibit significant differences. Humans are actually the shortest, followed by the krogan (armor notwithstanding) while salarians and especially turians tower over everyone else.
** Krogan females make their first real appearance, being slightly shorter than the males and with a smoother, less ridged head plate.
** Various returning weapons underwent minor redesigns and/or size adjustments.
** Primary omni-tools (the ones worn on the left arm) look notably different from the ones used in the Milky Way. For some reason, the one on Ryder's right arm that they use for hacking resembles the original design much more closely.
* ArtificialBrilliance: The AI acts remarkably smart most of the time.
** Hostiles make good use of available cover, support each other in combined arms warfare, and will mercilessly flank you if you aren't careful and aware of your surroundings.
** If you try to snipe a group of them and fail to kill each target in one hit, [[TheAllSeeingAI the others will immediately bolt out of sight]] so effectively you won't be able to hit anyone anymore.
** Everyone's also very adept at using their jump-jets to outmaneuver you or attack from unexpected angles.
** Squad mates are surprisingly reliable when it comes to detonating power combos. Often you actually need to hurry if you want to unleash something specific, for when you wait too long, one of your companions will seize the opportunity instead.
* ArtificialStupidity: There are, of course, still situations when the AI makes your life easier by doing something stupid.
** For all their talent at using cover, there's always someone's head peeking out somewhere...
** Soldiers under sniper fire will often run between various cover pieces despite having been safe where they were, offering you ample opportunity to put a bullet in their head. Alternatively, if you stay out of their detection range and drop every target with one shot, they'll just stare slack-jawed without giving a damn about their buddies' heads exploding left and right.
** Many enemies (particularly the human and angaran ones for some reason) are really bad at using grenades.
* AscendedMeme:
** Much like how the Volus Adept and Vanguard Classes in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'''s multiplayer made reference to Niftu Cal, the "Biotic God" from ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', the Annihilation skill in the Biotics tree pays tribute to his legacy with an upgrade branch listed as "Biotic Wind."
** Ryder can occasionally loot [[MassEffect2 turian calibration coils]].
** A kett datapad describes the [[MassEffect2 turians' reach and flexibility]].
** At one point, Ryder can be told that a group of Outlaws are doing business near one of the outposts. One response choice is: "[[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/its-more-likely-than-you-think Outlaws?]] On ''my'' outpost?!"
* AssholeVictim:
** Too many to list here. For starters, every single named kett character most definitely counts. Then there's Kadara, a WretchedHive positively littered with them. If you kill someone there, chances are very good they deserved it. Further examples abound on the Nexus, at most other locations, as well as on loyalty missions, spread out across both the native and the newcomer species.
** Basically every antagonist and antagonist faction in the original trilogy, such as the Batarian Hegemony and most vorcha, since most of them didn't get an ark to Andromeda. A possible ending is that every one of them got wiped out by the Reapers, which is a horrible fate for ''anyone''.
* AsteroidThicket: A shockingly large number of star systems has at least one, many of which are implied to be [[EarthShatteringKaboom the remains of moons or whole planets]] destroyed by [[NegativeSpaceWedgie the Scourge]]. The mission to H-047c takes the ''Tempest'' right into one by making a huge asteroid your op zone for the duration of Ryder's investigation.
* ATasteOfPower: At the end of the prologue mission, you fight alongside Alec Ryder, who switches between each of the various profiles while using his extremely powerful skills to wipe the floor with the kett.
* AttackItsWeakpoint: When fighting an Architect, Ryder's squad mates will frequently call attention to its current weak points.
--> '''Cora''': Forget the armor, target the legs!
--> '''Peebee''': Time for some [[BoomHeadshot headshots]]!
* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: Remnant Architects are gigantic robotic constructs and by far the largest enemies in the game. Nothing else Ryder can kill comes even close to their size, and every single one of them puts up an epic fight. ''Everyone'' including Ryder has a massive OhCrap moment the first time they're jumped by one, which will include ''you'' if it's your first run through the game; even more so if your first Architect happens to be [[DynamicEntry the one on Eos]].
* AwesomeButImpractical:
** The Raiders from Liam's loyalty mission took a derelict Kett ship for themselves. Its so damaged however that they spend more time trying to keep it running then they do raiding.
** Virtually all of the researchable, ultra-rare gun projectile augmentations fall under this category. Plasma charge system? Basically turns your gun into a semi-auto, parabolic grenade launcher with abysmal range using the base damage rating of the gun (and that's not mentioned anywhere in the description). If you installed that on a low damage, high ROF assault rifle without knowing better, you're more or less screwed the next time you go on a mission. Beam emitter? Sure, your gun now shoots FrickinLaserBeams instead of bullets. Hope you don't mind that its damage output got reduced by about 75% in the process, and since kinetic weapons are nearly hitscan anyway, you don't even gain anything like improved handling from it. Most other mods suffer similarly severe but unmentioned damage penalties. It's currently unknown whether this is a bug or a feature, but either way it makes these augments a waste of resources at best, a lethal liability at worst.
** Depending on what gun you install it in, the Vintage Heat Sink can count as well. You pay for unlimited ammo with a painful 50% reduction in clip size, and since the cooldown time of an overheated gun can be significantly longer than its basic reload, a sharp drop in effective DPS will often be the consequence. Clip extension mods alleviate this issue to some extent, but a Black Widow sniper rifle for instance holds a lot of spare ammo and is much more effective with up to eight shots per thermal clip than with a VHS's three. That being said, the VHS is still extremely powerful when used in high-capacity automatic weapons like the M-76 Revenant machine gun, because those eat through ammo at an alarming rate and ''will'' eventually leave you high and dry in prolonged firefights.
** "Power Cell" abilities, like grenades or Trip Mines in Singleplayer, especially at higher difficulties. Enemies move ''fast'' in this game--much faster than any other game in the series except the original. Tossing grenades or leaving mines can do plausible damage if you're facing slow-moving enemies like Nullifiers or Destroyers, or see a lot of them grouped together behind cover. But those are VERY specific situations and very difficult to implement on a chaotic, open battlefield and missing enemies with power cell abilities means you've wasted ammo. An Achievement hints at the ability to use biotic powers like Pull to position enemies over Mines and explosives, but that's a lot of work and setup just to kill ''one'' enemy...''and'' it requires you to stay out of cover (using your power) the entire time. In the same amount of time, you could have tossed a Singularity, Invasion, or other ability with homing features at the same enemy/crowd and detonated it.
** Cobra missiles. Sure, it's basically a "go away" button for whatever you're aiming at, but they're rare to find and prohibitively expensive. By the time you can afford to buy them in quantities high enough to use regularly, your skills and standard weapons should have become powerful enough that it's really just something you're tossing out because you're not in the mood to deal with whatever you're shooting, not because you're going to get your ass kicked if you don't.
** One of the researchable upgrades for the Nomad lets it project a shield dome for some seconds every time you exit the vehicle. While that's useful on occasion to ward off incoming fire until Ryder has taken cover behind the Nomad, it blocks your own attacks just as well, giving melee-focused enemies plenty of time to advance on you with impunity. It's frustrating how often this apparently useful upgrade turns out to be an annoying liability instead.
** On a similar note: the shield dome [[spoiler:the Moshae]] projects at the climax of her mission. It's supposed to shield Ryder and their squad from the kett, and contrary to the Nomad's you can shoot through it, but it creates such heavy visual distortion that you're barely able to see the enemy, let alone aim at them accurately as long as you're inside.
** Barricade trades the usual problems with power cell abilities for entirely ''new'' and even worse problems. Barricade uses up one cell to produce a portable waist-high cover which provides buffs for weapons or other powers for any characters behind it. However, it lasts a laughably short period of time, meaning it's not feasible for any of engagement--enemies can defeat your Barricade just by ''hiding behind cover''. Granted, this can make it marginally useful as a last-resort defensive ability (especially if upgraded to stun nearby foes or instantly restore shields) but there are plenty of other powers or weapons that do the same job but better. At best, Barricade so extremely niche that a player has to mold their entire build/combat style around ''it'', instead of the other way around.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Suvi, at the climax, manages to work out [[spoiler:where Meridian could have gotten to by using a combination of all the star-charts the Initiative has.]]
* BadassCrew: The game introduces a new team of adventurers exploring, and fighting, their way through an uncharted galaxy.
* BadassFamily: The Ryder family. Players will choose between twins Scott and Sarah as their PlayerCharacter, with the other twin still playing an important role in the story. Their dad, Alec, was one of the first humans to travel through a mass relay on Jon Grissom's exploration team, [[TrainingFromHell enlisted]] as an [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous N7]], and later became the Pathfinder (a mixture of soldier, diplomat, and explorer meant to lead the colonists once they arrive). According to the trailer, one of the twins has to take his place after something happens to him.
* BarBrawl: After Drack's loyalty mission, Ryder meets him for a drink at Kralla's Song in Kadara Port. It turns into an epic bar fight with Ryder and Drack being the last ones standing amid all the bodies (unless you flub the interrupt prompt, in which case Ryder misses Drack mopping the floor with everyone by himself).
* BareYourMidriff: Peebee has this.
* BeamSpam: Remnant Observers attack with a continuous, blazing-red EyeBeam. Get a bunch of them together in one place and you have this trope. The kett's rapid-fire plasma weapons can also invoke this feeling in large enough numbers, particularly the [[EliteMooks Anointed]]'s [[MoreDakka heavy weaponry]].
* BeehiveBarrier: If you look closely, you'll notice that many windows are in fact kinetic barriers comprised of countless hexagons. Outpost buildings have a lot of them, as does the Tempest. The latter example might be a subversion by not being actual windows but huge holo-screens instead, judging by how the Tempest doesn't appear to even have windows when viewed from the outside. [[MythologyGag Structural weaknesses?]]
* BehemothBattle:
** You can chance upon a secondary Remnant Vault that's under... investigation by a gang of exile scavengers, and they're already engaged in a pitched battle against the Remnant bots inside when you arrive. At some point you can witness a [[MiniMecha Hydra Assault Armor]] squaring off against a [[SpiderTank Remnant Destroyer]] in a large room while dozens of scavengers around them are busy duking it out with scores of smaller bots. You can massacre them all, or you can [[PassThePopcorn just hunker down somewhere and enjoy the show.]]
** During the fight for control of the [[spoiler:Remnant Space Station, the kett will sic one of their Fiends on another Remnant Destroyer, while kett troops and Remnant bots go at it around them.]]
** There's actually a boss with the name "Behemoth" you have to battle, though sadly it doesn't really count since neither him nor Ryder are particularly huge.
* TheBerserker:
** Anointed are the kett's heavy weapons experts, wield a plasma Gatling of sorts and should therefore specialize in mid-range combat, but disturbingly many of them prefer to charge your position instead. It's a frighteningly effective tactic because those buggers are as fast as they're huge, can take a lot of damage and dish out a world of pain when their guns' inaccuracy doesn't matter anymore all of a sudden. It's strange when a supposedly lumbering heavy gunner competes for a spot on the LightningBruiser team.
** Played even straighter by the aptly named [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Berserkers]], heavily armored krogan warriors who fight for the Nexus Exiles.
* {{BFG}}: A lot of them, as is customary for the franchise, but one example in particular sticks out: the Widow line of sniper rifles. Most other weapons collapse into a very compact form when holstered; even the otherwise huge Revenant LMG becomes tiny on Ryder's back. Widows, however, remain a massive tube longer than Ryder's arm even in their packed-up state, jutting over their shoulder and extending down to their butt while carried on the back.
* BigBad: The Archon, the one in charge of the kett invasion force in Heleus.
* BigBadassBattleSequence:
** The entire final mission, more or less, beginning with [[spoiler:Ryder sending all their allies plus a fleet of hacked Remnant warships against the Archon's remaining armada in a pitched space battle, which then moves on to a frantic ground war in a race to Meridian's control systems.]]
** On a smaller scale: every time you assault a kett stronghold, like their bases on Voeld and Eos - just you and two brothers/sisters-in-arms against an entire planetary garrison force. The individual battles usually aren't that much bigger than what you encounter elsewhere, too, but the huge enemy bases plus the entire premise make those missions feel suitably epic.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Kaerkyn, spitbugs and co. are all over the place, ranging in size from a cat to a very large dog.
* BiggerOnTheInside: The Tempest. Natch. Unlike previous Mass Effect games, the ship actually lands on the planets you visit, allowing you to walk on the roof of your own ship if you want [[FunnyMoments to the annoyance of Kallo.]] If you do this, you'll notice how the ship you can walk on the roof of outside, is ''significantly'' smaller than the interior ship you walk on the inside. The cockpit for example, is 20 paces wide from Suvi's seat, to Kallo's, but only 5 steps wide when walking along the roof of the same cockpit.
* BigNo: Hilariously parodied during the movie night. Twice. Once by a [[ProudWarriorRace turian]] [[ItMakesSenseInContext actor of all people]].
* BitchInSheepsClothing:
** While investigating a krogan murder case on Kadara, Ryder meets with the turian owner of the flophouse next door, who's surprisingly cordial for someone on [[WretchedHive Kadara]]. In a later quest, he turns out to be responsible for murdering a town of angarans who lived to the north, [[spoiler:and when asked about what happened becomes hostile, telling Ryder to "fuck off". If they keep investigating, he has his goons try to murder them.]]
** Also on Kadara, there's a quest wherein a doctor asks you to steal back the formula for a medicinal plant he found and was turned, against his will, into a drug. Going to his old lab will reveal his partner, an asari doctor, who claims that the doctor ''knew'' it was a drug the whole time and only wants the formula back because he wants a bigger cut. If asked, he'll claim she's not a doctor. [[spoiler:Both of them are lying. The doctor ''did'' know it was a drug, and his former partner is indeed a doctor herself. ''But'', the doctor had a change of heart and severely wants to get the drug off the streets. Even though he lies to you about his role in things, he is sincere about his motivations. The real BitchInSheepsClothing is the asari.]]
* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: The other trope applying to Remnant Vaults. These buildings would be impossible to replicate in real life. Both inside and outside, and make very little sense from a structural point.
* BizarreAlienBiology: Angara, although bipedal and roughly humanoid, have a very alien body structure that's best seen when Jaal takes to running around naked aboard the Tempest. The kett may be even worse, considering the bone-colored protrusions everywhere on their outer body actually ''are'' bones that serve as natural armor. And let's not even get into how kett are [[BodyHorror "born"]]...
* BlackAndGreyMorality: The kett are solid, darkest black all over, but the angara aren't exactly innocent either anymore after the endless war made some of them commit a lot of very questionable acts including ColdBloodedTorture.
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Averted - the sole RedShirt to die in the prologue mission is not the black guy.
* BlatantLies:
** While searching for the dumped bodies of crime victims on Kadara, Ryder can come across two Outlaws working over the body of yet another dead guy. Upon spotting Ryder they have a brief OhCrap moment but then quickly assure them that their "buddy" is completely fine. He's just taking a nap.
** The Movie Night quest has Vetra telling Ryder about how she heard there's some popcorn going on Kadara. But popcorn's contraband, so Ryder will have to ''tragically'' be forced to seize and destroy it, with added salt (to hide the evidence, obviously).
* BlingOfWar: Among the various pre-order bonuses is a special paint job for the Nomad called Midas Touch. It gives most of the vehicle's outer armor a solid gold plating. You know, for those Pathfinders among us who aren't really into that thing called subtlety.
* BlownAcrossTheRoom: Guns have a force effect that causes stagger proportional to their individual shot damage. This force effect is amplified if the shot kills the target. High damage guns like the Black Widow will blow their targets across the room and will even cause enemies who somehow survive being shot to be blown off their feet.
* BodyHorror: [[spoiler: The Kett are revealed to be a parasitic life form that infects other species with part of the DNA of the Archon, and mutating them with grotesque bone protrusions on their head, torso, arms and legs, until they barely resemble what they used to be prior to the mutation. And that's just the stuff on the outside. Indeed all kett troops are simply mutated forms of either Angara, or native animals of the Heleus Cluster. Whether or not the Archon is the one True Kett, or merely another infected life form from outside the Heleus Cluster, remains to be seen.]]
* BoldExplorer: Everyone in the Initiative, to some degree or another. Even the most common, low-level colonist is a brave pioneer, journeying millions of light-years from the Milky Way to start a new life in the Andromeda galaxy. Special note goes to the "first wave" and "second wave" personnel, though. The first wave are Pathfinders, leaders, researchers and scientists who do the difficult work of charting the unknown and making things safe for everyone else. The second wave are the engineers, workers, and planners who use the foundation of the first wave to build sustainable living in the galaxy.
* BonusBoss:
** Architects, massive snake-like remnants that hit hard and take a lot of damage. [[spoiler:There's a mandatory Architect fight as part of the final battle, but it's far less complex and strong than the optional ones, as you're fighting dozens of lesser Remnant at the same time.]]
** Many large Remnant installations have side rooms or crannies off the main path where valuable loot or bonus skill points can be found after the high-level enemy lurking there has been defeated. Of particular note is one room in the Vault on Voeld where you have to kill two Assemblers and one [[BossInMookClothing Destroyer]] before they or the lethal Level 2 Cold Hazard kill Ryder.
* BookEnds:
** [[spoiler:Ryder's first line and last line before the credits is "we made it." The first conveys Ryder's relief that the ''Hyperion'' made it to Andromeda. The second conveys Ryder's relief that the ''Hyperion'' has found a safe home for humanity in Meridian.]]
** If a relationship with Peebee is pursued, it begins the same way they first met: [[spoiler:Peebee rushing into Ryder and knocking them to the floor.]]
* BoringButPractical:
** The basic weapons that automatically unlock at certain player levels are often just as good as - if not sometimes even better than - the stuff you need to research. The good ol' M-8 Avenger assault rifle for instance has more or less the same damage output as the M-76 Revenant light machine gun, but is lighter and much more accurate. Slap on a Vintage Heat Sink and you have a reliable weapon that can get you through the whole game for a minimal price in resources.
** There's a ton of augmentations for weapons and armor, but most of their bonuses are miniscule and highly situational. The most useful ones aren't the fancy biotic boosters or tech combo enhancers. It's arguably the Double Mod Extension that gives any gun two addition mod slots; the Vintage Heat Sink that solves all your ammo worries; and the Kinetic Coil due to either increasing overall weapon damage or giving a nice boost to damage resistance, depending on where it's installed.
** Weapons in general. Most active abilities are ''a lot'' weaker than a good gun if not used as part of a combo detonation, so it's often easier to just shoot your way through Andromeda instead of bothering with the much weaker tech or biotic abilities with their lengthy cooldowns. The gap eventually closes to some degree, but it takes a lot of levelling for an ability-heavy Ryder to even come close to the damage output of a dedicated gunslinger.
** The "Throw" biotic power. Not very flashy, not very destructive, but it can send any non-armoured enemy flying (and as a bonus deals impact damage), which can be very useful in a hectic firefight.
* BossBattle: Quite a few of them, either against [[BossInMookClothing fairly common but very dangerous enemies like Fiends]] or against actual bosses which are denoted by a special skull symbol below their health bar. The latter tend to be beefed-up version of regular enemy types with a lot more health and shielding, but they behave no different from the basic counterparts and therefore (usually) require no special tactics to defeat.
* BossInMookClothing:
** [[SmashMook Fiends]] are huge creatures the kett deploy as line breakers. They're very heavily armored, can move deceptively fast and hit like a truckload of bricks if they get into melee range. It usually takes about a minute of frantic fire from the entire squad to bring even one of them down, and they almost never come alone. Several missions use them for minor boss fights, but they can also be encountered in numbers everywhere on Kadara and Elaaden.
** Remnants have the [[SpiderTank Destroyer]], a huge quadrupedal weapons platform with extremely strong shielding and three very powerful weapons systems. It's the only enemy in the game susceptible to SubSystemDamage - its two secondary cannons can be shot off to reduce its deadly firepower. Unfortunately, that's about the worst thing you can do if there's nothing else in the room to draw its attention.
** Fighting Nexus exiles of all stripes often includes facing [[MiniMecha Hydras]]. They're heavily armed and armored and have a nasty tendency to show up in pairs, but are relatively harmless when compared to the other examples mentioned above because they're extremely slow and their attacks are both the weakest and easily dodged.
* BottomlessPit: Every larger location has them to keep you on your toes while you're platforming with Ryder's jump-jet. [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist Falling into one warps you back to where you fell with a minor loss in health]].
* BreastPlate: A mix of played straight and averted. Cora and Peebee wear formfitting armor or clothing in combat, while Sara has, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin an armor plate covering her breasts]]. Technically so does Vetra, but her suits are just standard turian armors, which have always looked pretty much the same.
* BrickJoke:
** Ryder's first conversation with Jaal aboard the ''Tempest'' ends with her/him trying to part with a handshake. Jaal understands the concept but prefers to show Ryder how the angara say farewell, which doesn't go what one would call smoothly. Near the end of the game, another opportunity arises, and this time they pull it off like they never did it any other way.
--> '''Jaal''': You have been practicing.
** Remember the all-elcor production of ''Hamlet''? It's part of the Nexus' cultural database. Jaal watches it, and finds it "enhances" the work.
* BrokenPedestal:
** A pedestal breaks big time during Cora's LoyaltyMission to [[spoiler: rescue the asari ark ship. On it, Cora meets Sirissa a legendary asari commando, who literally wrote the book on how to be the ideal asari huntress. Sirissa is now the asari pathfinder, having succeeded Matriarch Ishaar the original pathfinder. Cora had memorized that manual thoroughly, especially the portion on being a good ''Tianma'' or bodyguard to TheCaptain. After restoring power to the ark's drive core, the asari pathfinder succession log is revealed, in which Cora learns that Sirissa [[SlidingScaleOfUnavoidableVersusUnforgivable intentionally abandoned Ishaar to die at the hands of the Kett, in order to obtain a map of safe routes through the Scourge, that the Kett used to get around]]. Due to being in possession of that data, the ark became a priority target for Kett raiding teams, endangering everyone. And on top of that, [[{{Hypocrite}} Sirissa refuses to take responsibility for contradicting a central tenet of her own treatise, claiming that the image of her being the ideal huntress must persist to give people hope]]. This is hard to take for Cora.]]
** A minor example is the angaran astronomer you meet on Aya and sends you to find out what happened to a number of satellites. At first, he's very excited to speak with you and sees a lot of potential in the Nexus races...until your search turns up that the missing satellites were stolen and dismantled by former Nexus outlaws. If you tell him the truth, he will reverse his position on aliens, say that you're no better than the kett, and refuse to talk to anyone from the Milky Way ever again.
* BrokenRecord:
** [[spoiler:If Ryder turns the ex-Cerberus scientists' experiment back on them, they'll start repeating lines from Literature/TheDivineComedy over and over.]]
** SAM apparently believes it prudent to notify Ryder of almost every single change in environmental conditions. Many locations (like kett outposts on Voeld) have lots of safe and hazardous zones in close proximity to each other, which means you'll be hearing SAM's warnings over and over again as long as you're on site. He does the same almost every time you enter a mining zone, even when it's the same one you were already exploring five seconds ago and left only because their borders aren't marked anywhere.
* BroughtDownToNormal: In a sense. Near the end of the story, [[spoiler:you briefly lose control of your chosen Ryder sibling and instead switch to the other twin who's just barely out of a prolonged coma. Unsurprisingly, they have none of their twin's fancy weapons, armor or abilities, which means you suddenly go from controlling a badass OneManArmy to a completely normal guy wielding nothing but a weak pistol and a single grenade.]]
* BuffySpeak: If Jaal is present on Kadara, he may complain about how much he dislikes it for being so "pointy".
* ButNotTooGay: The game received a metric ton of flak for its lackluster portrayal of gay and other "non-standard" romance options even before its release, and it only got worse afterwards. Unlike the straight human or [[DiscountLesbians asari]] romance scenes which are fairly explicit by videogame standards, romancing Suvi (lesbian) or Gil (gay) ends in a FadeToBlack without even a hint of intimacy. Reyes Vidal (the sole bisexual human man in the game) doesn't even get an actual romance scene at all. Also of note is that none of the human LGBT romance options are part of the squad; two are crew members of the ''Tempest'', the third is a shady supporting character Ryder encounters halfway into the game. Due to this, they receive a lot less CharacterDevelopment and depth than the rest. Gil's extremely poorly handled [[spoiler:baby subplot]] only had the LGBT community further up in arms. Bioware has promised to improve upon the contentious content in upcoming updates.
* ButtMonkey: Danny Harris is an eager colonist Ryder can talk to after things at Prodromos have settled in. He'll ask Ryder for advice on what to do with all his new-found, post-cryo freedom. No matter what you suggest (researching flora and bugs, patrolling the perimeter or studying the Remnant), he'll end up cornered by huge bugs, cornered by angry kett ''and'' cornered by Remnant bots, one after the other. After he's been saved for the third time, he's so sick of Eos that he leaves the planet for something he believes to be greener pastures: [[WretchedHive Kadara]]. Ryder promptly hangs a lampshade on it.
--> '''Ryder''': That is not going to end well.
* ButtonMashing:
** Remnant Breachers try to murderize you in melee if they get too close, forcing you to mash the interact button to break Ryder out of their grip.
** The dog-like Adhi will do this too, latching on to Ryder's arm and trying to drag them to the ground.
* TheCameo: Liara T'Soni - or at least her voice - makes repeated appearances in Alec Ryder's audio logs aboard the Hyperion. Apparently, she was aware of the Initiative and provided Alec with intel and advice on how to deal with unknown alien technology. Sara also knows her by reputation due to her previous work in protecting Prothean researchers on field trips.
* CallBack: The entirety of the final battle on Meridian feels like a CallBack to the [[Videogame/MassEffect original game]]. It starts out with the Nomad being deployed directly from the ''Tempest'' (just like the Mako on Ilos), a giant flagship that's under assault in need of rescue and (potentially) get saved by the cavalry, waves of minions and flunkies being sent against the protagonist to kill or delay them, and a villain who's attempting to access an ancient and advanced superstructure that, if not stopped quickly, will begin a galactic extinction within minutes. There's still differences, of course, but it's comparatively urgent and epic in scale.
* CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker:
** During the side mission "Dissension in the Ranks", they find canned orders sowing discontentment and treason through the ranks of the kett. Ryder tries to track down the source of the signal, only to find that they were intentionally led to a bunker with a communications system set up by the Primus, the kett's [[DragonWithAnAgenda second-in-command]]. The Primus wants to help Ryder take down the Archon (for her own benefit) and will attempt to strike a deal.
** During Jaal's LoyaltyMission, Jaal's former fellow-student-turned-AbsoluteXenophobe, Akksul, has anti-alien propaganda blaring over speakers through his base. Ryder's team lampshades how annoying the repeated message is and that, knowing the type of person Akksul is, there's probably no way of turning it off.
* CarFu: This is the only way to kill enemies with the Nomad, since unlike the [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 Mako]] or [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 Hammerhead]] it lacks guns. It oddly only works if you hit your intended target with one of the wheels.
--> '''Ryder''' ''[cheerfully]'': Speed bump!
* TheCavalry:
** Ryder and team will find themselves on the receiving end of this more often than anyone could care to count due to the kett's habit of sending in reinforcements via dropship whenever a major base of theirs is under attack. It's a safe bet that if you can spot half a dozen hostiles while scouting the place, they'll be joined by one or two dozen more as soon as you move in.
** During the final mission, Ryder receives backup from [[spoiler:just about every major supporting character plus their friends, and their benched squad mates will also join the fight one after the other]].
** Ryder gets to be the cavalry on some occasions, such as rescuing some scientists on Eos who got in over their heads dealing with the Remnant, and several Resistance fighters on Voeld who Ryder can come across mid-fight and back up against the kett.
* CentralTheme: There are many, but one of the most-repeated themes in ''Andromeda'' is the struggle between a completely fresh start versus acknowledging history. Many people came to Andromeda looking to start over and create a better society, but either found old baggage too hard to let go or found the unknown too scary or difficult to accept. And, more negatively, some people looking for a fresh start are doing so to get away with terrible things they did in the Milky Way. Even among angara, the theme is prominent; they are torn between accepting the new aliens among them and starting over or heeding the harsh lessons learned from the kett. Other missions have angara struggling between preserving old traditions or heritage or adapting to survive. On smaller scales, this theme is also the focus of Gil and Kallo's disagreement, Lexi's change of occupation, as well as several {{Loyalty Mission}}s. There's also a minor conversation in which Ryder can say that Milky Way history is irrelevant, or that it's important no matter how far they are from home.
* CharacterCustomization: You can choose to play as a male or female Ryder and customize your features, as in previous ''Mass Effect'' games, though as with those, only humans can be chosen. ''Unlike'' previous Mass Effect games both the male and female Ryders exist in the game regardless of who you choose, because they're siblings. You can also customize the Ryder twins' appearance individually and their father will resemble them to an extent. Another new addition is the ability to mix and match classes (now known as profiles) and abilities on the fly. You can also choose the type of training Ryder received back at the Milky Way at the beginning of the game. The training doesn't lock Ryder into classes like Shepard was in the original trilogy, it just gives Ryder a boost in certain skills. The types of training are Security (Soldier), Biotic (Adept), Technician (Engineer), Leader (Sentinel), Scrapper (Vanguard), and Operative (Infiltrator).
* ChargedAttack:
** Certain powers can be charged before firing for more damage and/or additional effects. The Overload power for instance will only hit one target when shot from the wrist. Charging it beforehand adds a decent chunk of damage, stuns the target, primes it for combos and enables the power's ever-popular ChainLightning effect.
** Kett weapons have a common theme in which they can be charged up to deal more damage or produce burst fire. You can even charge while moving or in cover, making it practical for periods where you need to recover or find a lull in the battle.
* ChekhovsGun:
** [[spoiler:SAM's connection to Ryder, and his control over their vital functions. Useful for getting out of the Archon's trap. Not so great when the Archon severs Ryder's connection to SAM, and Ryder starts dying.]]
** Additionally, [[spoiler:the Archon injects Ryder with something while he has them captive, which isn't mentioned again afterward. That turns out to be a big mistake.]]
** Alec Ryder's combat mantra - "When your back's against the wall, if you can't run from it, ''use'' it" - becomes one for his kid near the end of the game.
* ColdBloodedTorture:
** This is one of the kett's many asshole hobbies, showcased by scores of datapads, audio logs and cutscenes throughout the game. For instance, the first and only thing the Invictor asks a terrified captured turian just fresh out of cryo is if she knows the exact amount of force necessary to pry her dermal plates off her body. Nothing indicates he didn't find out on his own after the poor girl understandably didn't know the answer, if she even understood it in the situation she was in.
** The Angaran Resistance explicitly forbids using torture for any reason, even on kett. Of course, though, not all angara are not excempt. One sidequest on Voeld in particular shows how far one angara is willing to go if there's even the hint of a chance she might learn something important from torturing captured kett. The Roekkar, as a group, are driven by a hatred of the kett and other aliens more than the desire to be free. A quest on Kadara has a group of Roekkar who don't just kill aliens, but make sure to do so in the most painful way possible, such as peeling off a krogan's headplate.
* ColonyShip: Four "Arks" make the journey from the Milky Way to the Andromeda Galaxy, accompanied by the Nexus hub station. Each Council species has its own Ark ship; the human Ark ''Hyperion'', the asari Ark ''Leusinia'', the turian Ark ''Natanus'' and the salarian ark ''Paarchero''. There is said to be another Ark primarily helmed by quarians, which was also to have hanar, elcor and drell aboard. However, they were delayed and have not yet arrived in Andromeda. [[spoiler: An endgame interaction with an Initiative engineer reveals that the fifth ark, the ''Keelah'Siyah'' made it to Andromeda. A garbled message was received from an unknown location, but it's not an SOS, it's a warning to ''stay away'' from them.]]
* CombatTentacles: Remnant Architects have at least one tentacle on their head that mounts a powerful rapid-fire energy cannon. They have lots of other tentacles as well, though those aren't used in direct combat (might still be capable of it under specific circumstances, however). Observers also have a whole bunch of tentacles at their disposal, but like the Architects' big ones they're never used for combat, so they don't count.
* ContinueYourMissionDammit: Try helping Captain Dunn and the crew of the ''Hyperion'' while [[spoiler:playing as the other Ryder]], and Dunn will keep yelling at you to leave.
* ContinuityNod:
** You can find ex-Cerberus scientists on Kadara who are still performing strange and highly unethical experiments. Their reason for leaving was the inordinate resources and credits the Illusive Man and Miranda Lawson had thrown at a project to bring a dead person back to life - which just happened to be Project Lazarus. For added irony, they dismiss Lazarus as "pure voodoo".
** Conrad Verner's sister Cassandra is an Exile on Kadara who happens to share his [[ItRunsInTheFamily hero-worshipping fanboy ways.]]
** An anti-AI terrorist group's founder is motivated by [[spoiler:trying to prevent another Project Overlord type disaster.]]
** An NPC states that he is an orphan from Mindoir. Mindoir is the colony hit by batarian raiders, where Colonist Shepard is from.
** Nakmor Kesh mentions the krogan adaptation to the genophage. Mordin mentioned this adaptation in [=ME2=] and had taken steps to counter it.
** There's a sidequest to recover genophage cure research performed by one Doctor Okeer, which turns out to be Okeer's research into creating a krogan super soldier, aka Grunt.
** The first baby born in Andromeda is named David Edward Kennedy, after an old friend of his mother's. Presumably, this old friend was David Edward Anderson.
** On Eos, you can meet a bounty hunter killing Kett who goes by the name of Bain Massani, strongly implied to be Zaeed's son.
** Speaking of Zaeed, Drack will mention "some crazy one-eyed mercenary" tried to pry the plate of his head with a knife. A tactic Zaeed mentioned he enjoyed using in Mass Effect 2.
** Alec Ryder's last memory is him confirming information about [[spoiler: the Reapers and Shepard's findings with Castis Vakarian, Garrus's father. Garrus mentioned telling his father everything, who in turn took action during Mass Effect 3.]]
** Suvi's codex entry mentions that she was headhunted by a black ops group for a certain biomedical experiment, though she turned them down. It is heavily implied that Cerberus wanted Suvi's expertise in molecular biology for Project Lazarus.
** Drack occasionally name drops some of the historical krogan warlords that formed Grunt's genetic material, even claiming descent from one of them, making him and Grunt genetic relatives if he's telling the truth.
** SAM was the product of AI research that almost got humanity kicked off the Citadel during the era of Ambassador Goyle. This project was central to the plot of ''Literature/MassEffectRevelation'', and was part of the mission that had David Anderson lose his Spectre candidacy, as mentioned in the first game.
** The Andromeda Initiative managed to scout out Andromeda thanks to a captured intergalactic observatory taken from the geth, who were using it to map dark space for reasons no-one could figure out (read: the breakaway geth looking for the Reapers).
** Jaal will mention to Peebee that he talked to an asari on the Nexus who worked as a dancer at Afterlife, the bar from Omega (though he mistakes her wording for ''the'' afterlife). Peebee, meanwhile, doesn't hold the place in high regard.
** Tiran Kandros has a cousin who's a mercenary on Omega: Nyreen Kandros, from the third game's ''Omega'' DLC.
** Ellen Ryder's codex entry mentions that she was the chief developer of the L2 and L3 biotic implants that were in use at the start of the original trilogy.
** Liam will occasionally mention some run-ins with a merc group led by a "scarred-up turian vigilante" (granted, that'd have to be ''before'' Garrus got his scars...)
** Liara's log has her mentioning how there ''could'' be a single prothean out there somewhere, somehow... [[DramaticIrony but the odds of that happening are statistically impossible]].
** In conversation with Peebee, Drack mentions that while he's not quite old enough to remember the Rachni Wars, he is able to remember the aftermath.
* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: Applies to Ryder, the Tempest Crew and some of the NPCs. Also overlaps somewhat with CompositeCharacter.
** Ryder to Shepard: Whereas Commander Shepard was an experienced and decorated officer at the beginning of the first game, Ryder is described as being much more inexperienced and untested.
** Peebee to Liara: While Liara was extremely serious and often dour, Peebee has an extremely bubbly personality. Liara was the only character in the first game to lack weapons training, while Peebee is a gunslinger. Peebee is also a lone wolf, while Liara was an ardent believer in cooperation and diplomacy.
** Cora to Kaidan: Kaidan was a normal biotic who was used as a guinea pig towards how biotics worked and has an upgraded implant that caused issues in exchange for power rivaling an asari. Cora was a naturally powerful biotic for a human who couldn't control herself and received help from asari commandos to control her abilities. Cora's optimistic admiration of the asari due to her very positive experience with them lies in stark contrast to Kaidan's more balanced view of aliens born from his very negative experience with turians.
** Cora to Jack: Jack and Cora are both supremely powerful human biotics. Jack was a bitter person driven by hatred and fury after horrific experiments during her childhood, antagonistic toward rules and regulations, and definitely not a joiner unless inspired by Shepard. Cora is an inwardly peaceful woman who embraced esoteric quasi-religious philosophies and emails you her favorite quotes from those texts. She got there by being trained by the asari to harness her aggression.
** Liam to Ashley: Ashley was very cynical and hot headed towards cooperation and believes that other species will be naturally distrustful towards each other. Liam is very optimistic towards working together regarding the Andromeda Initiative and the future. Also, Ashley purely uses weapons while Liam compliments his abilities with some tech stuff. Liam also has a bit of Garrus in him with regards to being former law enforcement.
** Drack to Wrex and Grunt: Wrex was quiet (for a krogan) and was depressed about the state of his people. Drack, on the other hand, is loud, trigger happy and optimistic-ish for the krogan colonists. Drack's also very old with a living granddaughter, while Grunt was young and was becoming a full adult.
** Vetra and Garrus: Garrus first tried working with the system until his frustration regarding regulations caused him to try and fight crime on his own in a lawless system. Vetra is an ex-smuggler who is now using her shady gifts to work with the Initiative. And while Garrus's sister thinks he doesn't take enough responsibility with their family, Vetra has raised her sister for years.
** Jaal to Tali: Tali is a young and slender woman who has little experience with the outside world until her pilgrimage and has some difficulty explaining her feelings. Jaal is a big, burly guy who already has experience fighting prior to joining Ryder and is the only one of the squad who has some experience traveling around Andromeda and often speaks his mind.
** Jaal to Javik as well. Both spent their entire lives fighting against horrific enemies bent on their species' destruction. Javik is angry, bitter, and emotionally closed off; it's pretty clear that he was that way even before he woke up thousands of years into the future. Jaal on the other hand, while at first a little reserved around the human crew, is friendly, passionate, extremely open with his emotions, and sees these aliens as equals.
** Tann to Udina: Both are politicians who like being in authority and feel self-important, though Tann is more reasonable and polite than Udina. Tann's status being a YouAreInCommandNow situation because everyone who outranked him is dead is also reminiscent of Primarch Victus.
** SAM to EDI: Both are AI's installed on a ship that manifest as a blue hologram and [[spoiler: havee classified information that gets revealed as you progress through the game]]. However EDI doesn't interface with anyone's body directly apart from downloading herself into the Cerberus robot Eva Core and she has more emotions and free will than SAM. SAM is more subservient to Ryder and doesn't have a sense of humor that's as developed as EDI's.
** The ''Tempest'' to the ''Normandy'': the ''Normandy'' was a military vessel with minimal comforts built to house multiple shifts of crew. The ''Tempest'' is an exploration vessel built to run with only a handful of people in quite a bit of comfort, with large windows, a very open interior, and a lack of any sort of offensive or defensive capability. However, the ''Tempest'' and ''Normandy'' also share features such as the stealth drive.
* ContrivedCoincidence: For some unexplained reason, artificial gravity can be disabled in the ''Tempest's'' escape pods, and one of them just happens to be Peebee's digs when she yearns for zero-G conditions for relaxation purposes.
* ControllableHelplessness: [[spoiler:When the Archon severs Ryder's connection to SAM, all you can do is stagger your dying PlayerCharacter towards the exit until their health bar runs out and they collapse.]]
* ConvectionSchmonvection: [[spoiler:Peebee's loyalty mission]] takes place in an active volcano, yet neither her nor Ryder nor the third team member bother to wear helmets, let alone worry about the heat. Oftentimes they'll pass by lava streams close enough to touch them, or proceed across Remnant pillars they just raised from their submersion in molten rock for who knows how long without a care in the world. All of that is particularly noticeable because the game has a fully integrated environmental hazard mechanic that could have been used with little dissent.
* CoolCar: The Nomad is a six-wheeled all-terrain truck similar to the Mako from ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', though unlike previous ''ME'' vehicles it lacks weapons other than CarFu. Ryder can customize it with various paint jobs and researchable upgrades.
* CoolButInefficient: The helmets worn by the Pathfinder teams. Unlike the helmets from previous ''Mass Effect'' games which only had clear material over the eye/face area, the Pathfinder helmets have a dome that extends from nose height all the way to the top rear of their head. Unsurprisingly, the initial mission [[spoiler: sees Ryder get a crack in the dome while he/she is on a planet without a breathable atmosphere and toward the end of the mission, the dome is shattered beyond the point of repair, causing Alec to make a HeroicSacrifice to save his child]].
* CoolStarship: The ''Tempest'', which resembles a smaller and slimmer version of the Normandy.
* CoolSword:
** The asari biotic sword is one option available to players for their choice of melee weapon. Using it performs a short-ranged biotic FlashStep with no cooldown, allowing it to hit enemies beyond immediate melee range.
** The kett carfalon is another sword option that replaces the asari sword's FlashStep with a SpinAttack, combined with a LifeDrain ability.
* CoolVersusAwesome: During the final battle [[spoiler:on Meridian]], the player can watch a kett Fiend battle a Remnant Destroyer. If the player clears out all the other kett and Remnant enemies in the area, they can just sit down and PassThePopcorn until one of the two wins and then clean up whatever's left of the victor. [[OhCrap Unless they were too close when those bad boys spawn]]. In that case, have fun being on the receiving end of a GangUpOnTheHuman situation.
* CreateYourOwnVillain: Potentially. During a side-quest Ryder infiltrates an anti-AI group to get close to the leader who goes by the codename Knight. One way of getting information from the group is by giving Knight's son an implant to fix his biological impairments. After the mission is over and if Knight is killed (the conflict can be resolved peacefully), Ryder gets an e-mail from the son who swearing vengeance on Ryder and adopts the codename Paladin.
* CrewOfOne: Well, Crew Of Four actually, but the ''Tempest'' is run by an unrealistically small number of people - a pilot, a science officer, a medical officer and an engineer, plus Ryder as a CO who's ashore more often than they're aboard. That's it. Some of Ryder's squad mates appear to assume certain officer roles, like Cora effectively being Ryder's XO, but they're just as likely to be away on missions than Ryder is and are very rarely seen doing anything that's explicitly related to the ship. Compare all of that to the ''Normandy SR-2'' which was roughly the same size and had a crew of about 30 souls.
* CruelMercy:
** If Ryder opts to free Vehn Terev from Kadara and return him to the Resistance for judgement, the Moshae will suggest community service in Aya's gardens. Vehn regards the sentence as this [[spoiler: because everyone knows he betrayed the Moshae, so now he has to live with that while the Moshae looks benevolent for sparing him.]]
** Ryder can cause the same situation for [[spoiler: Nilken Rensus]] if they suggest community service instead of exile [[spoiler: for only ''attempting'' murder instead of actually committing it. It ends with Nilken requesting to go back into cryo rather than face up to everyone's scorn.]]
* CutscenePowerToTheMax: Nowhere else will you witness an asari and a human biotic team up to erect a huge barrier dome to not only deflect, but reflect the [[MacrossMissileMassacre missile barrage]] of a freaking ''kett cruiser''.
* DamageSpongeBoss: Every boss is one. Most of them are just beefed-up versions of regular enemy types with several times more health, shields and/or armor but no notable buff in damage output or tactics, so boss battles are usually little more than exercises in patience and evasion while you slowly whittle down their defenses.
** The Architect however takes the cake for being the spongiest of them all. Taking it down requires as much time as it took to defeat the Human Reaper larva in VideoGame/MassEffect2.
*** The Reaper larva - that game's FinalBoss - could be killed in under a minute on any difficulty with the right tactic. You'll need many times longer to defeat any Architect, which should tell you everything you need to know about their resilience.
* DarkestHour:
** The game ''starts'' with the characters at their lowest point. When Liam tries to cheer everyone up by saying it could be worse, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Ryder snaps]].
-->'''Ryder:''' "''How?!'' Habitat 7's a bust, we might've started a war with the first aliens we met, and our Pathfinder's dead. This better be ''rock bottom''."
** The climax of the game has another one. [[spoiler:The Archon has tricked the Pathfinder into leading him to Meridian, has severed the Pathfinder's connection to SAM (causing them to die slowly), and has attacked Ark ''Hyperion'' to take their sibling and SAM. The only hope left is the sibling, who can reset the Pathfinder's connection at the cost of revealing their location.]]
-->'''Ryder:''' "[The Archon]'s talking as if he's won." \\
'''Suvi:''' "Pathfinder...it kinda feels as if he has."
* DeadGuyOnDisplay: Kadara Port has a kett head on a spike by the landing area, neatly telling you all you need to know about Sloane's leadership style, and her attitude towards kett.
* DeathFromAbove: Ryder can use their jump-jet to hover at a height of roughly five meters for a short time in order to attack from an elevated position. Performing a melee strike while hovering results in a GroundPound that inflicts considerable damage and unlocks an achievement if it kills a frozen enemy. Various augmentations and skills are tailored to making this technique even more lethal. The whole mechanic is very useful for engaging entrenched enemies by shooting over their cover, but keep in mind that it exposes Ryder to enemy fire just the same.
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: If that death was caused by falling into a BottomlessPit. Doing so just warps you back to where you fell with a minor loss in health. Averted for all other types of untimely demise on Ryder's part, though.
* DeathWorld: Every Golden World initially surveyed by the Initiative turned into this during their journey between galaxies, due to malfunctioning Remnant terraforming tech.
** Habitat 7, the first world, has random lightning strikes, floating rocks, and a toxic atmosphere. The ground is too broken up to make construction easy, and anything outside for five minutes will be hit by lightning at least three times.
** Eos is a desert world with a highly irradiated atmosphere, which has contaminated the surface water and killed off all but the hardiest flora and fauna. Outside the shielded Initiative outpost sites, the ambient radiation ranges in strength from "will eat through your hardsuit's life support in fifteen minutes" to "will eat through your vehicle's life support in fifteen seconds."
** Voeld was once a temperate world with a thriving angaran colony, until it's Vault altered its orbit and plunged it into an ice age. Now it's a frozen wasteland where -30 degrees Celsius is considered to be "warm".
** Havarl, the angara's ancestral homeworld, is one of the few planets in the cluster that can still sustain most forms of life. Unfortunately, its vault hyper-accelerated the evolution of its ecology, resulting in fast-growing, poisonous plant life and powerful, aggressive animals. According to the angara scientists studying the phenomenon, if left unchecked, the planet's whole ecosystem will eventually collapse, rendering it lifeless.
** The vault on Kadara drastically increased its volcanic activity, poisoning most of its surface water with lethal levels of sulfur. The short supply of potable water has allowed criminal elements (primarily the exiles from the Nexus mutiny) to effectively seize control of the planet's only sizable settlement, turning it into a pirate kingdom where ordinary people either bankrupt themselves paying protection fees to live in town, or get kicked out into the badlands to die of thirst (or worse).
** Elaaden is a desert planet where temperatures ranged from 52-99 Celsius (125-210 Fahrenheit) and there's precious little ground water. However, it proves perfect for a race like the krogan, to the point their colony on the planet is called New Tuchanka.
** What takes the cake is H-047c, the planet singled out to become the new turian homeworld. When the Initiative arrives, the whole planet has been shattered by the Scourge and is now little more than a vast asteroid field. The big chunk you can land on is subject to such lethal radiation levels that you can't even exit the Nomad outside of some heavily shielded habitat domes set up by scavengers.
** Finally, the Scourge is a [[spoiler: NegativeSpaceWedgie that looks like tendrils of fiber, and it rips apart ships that are approaching their destination. Even worse, it has proven to be capable of destroying entire planets.]]
* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: [[spoiler:Early on, Alec Ryder sacrifices himself in order to save his son/daughter and makes them the new Pathfinder in his final moments]]. The Ryder twins's mother, Ellen, is also stated to have died from eezo poisoning. [[spoiler:A log from SAM, however, suggests this might not be the case, as Alec put her in cryo as well under a false name.]]
* DefeatEqualsFriendship: Defeating an Architect allows Ryder to reprogram it to help restore the planet's environment.
* DegradedBoss:
** For most of the game, kett Ascendants are only fought at the end of story missions or kett strongholds. However, during the last couple of main quest missions, they show up as regular enemies.
** Strangely, that happens [[spoiler:in the FinalBattle of all things]]. [[BonusBoss Remnant Architects]] are far and away the largest enemies in the game and put up an epic fight every time they make an appearance, but the one encountered here is considerably less dangerous than any of those that came before.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: A kett scientific report on captured krogan found on Voeld notes that krogan are "large" twice.
* DevelopersForesight: Ryder can wear N7-brand armor despite not being an N7 themselves. Bradley will comment on this, and note that some Alliance soldiers might disapprove.
* DidntSeeThatComing: The Initiative chose the Heleus Cluster to travel to in Andromeda due to the surprisingly large abundance of "Golden Worlds" there which would be hospitable to life. They were in for a rude awakening when they arrived, however, because said worlds were all the products of artificial terraforming by a powerful, unknown alien race...which had been turned off for ''centuries'' by the time they arrived there. Furthermore, [[spoiler:the aforementioned aliens had enemies that left behind a nasty surprise called The Scourge.]]
* DiscOneNuke:
** Pathfinder weapons and armor, by design. Available straight away with [[BribingYourWayToVictory the more expensive editions of the game]], Pathfinder weapons and armor are among the strongest in the early game until the player gets access to alien weapons or can craft their own. The Space Explorer armor remains one of the best armors throughout the entire game because it grants a whopping 25% increase to encounter XP, allowing a player to level up their Ryder ridiculously fast...although it lacks in the offensive and defensive departments.
** You can get the N-7 Valkyrie assault rifle, M-7 Falcon grenade rifle and the Widow sniper rifle after spending some time on Eos. The Valkyrie is the best burst fire rifle with its damage exceeding most if not all rifles. The Falcon is a lightweight grenade launcher, while the Widow is still a beast of a one shot one kill sniper rifle.
* DisproportionateRetribution: A handful of Remnant installations have heavily encrypted containers full of high-level loot you can't open until you've tracked down the required glyphs throughout the building. Fail to solve the puzzle and not only will the chest lock down forever; it'll also sic more Remnant bots on Ryder than most primary Vaults throw at them.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The kett exaltation facility, with it's overhead conveyor belts occupied by [[spoiler:pods filled with captive angara ready to be exalted]], looks a lot like a slaughterhouse.
* DownerBeginning: The game starts out pretty bleak: [[spoiler:you quickly learn that Habitat 7, the would be New Earth, has been reduced to a stormy, toxic wasteland completely unfit for habitation, the first sapient race you find attacks without provocation, your father dies, the founder of the Initiative died and her replacement is unqualified for his job. The Nexus is a few months away from starvation and has exiled a good portion of its awake crew for participating in an armed mutiny, none of the Ark ships other than the human are accounted for, and none of the Golden Worlds are fit for colonization.]]
* DropShip: The kett practically spam the damn things with reckless abandon, dropping reinforcements into battles you're already engaged in or at strategic locations on every world they have a presence on. When you're driving around in the Nomad on Eos or Voeld, barely a minute goes by without seeing or hearing at least one kett dropship howl past.
* DropTheHammer: Another available melee weapon is a krogan-designed war hammer (albeit one significantly smaller than ones krogan have been [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 previously spotted using]]). Squadmate Nakmor Drack wields the same type of hammer as his default melee weapon. Its special trait is an in-built GroundPunch that covers a significant area and often staggers its victim(s).
* DungeonBypass: There's a specific Remnant ruin on Voeld that, upon closer investigation, traps the Nomad in a minefield out of nowhere, forcing Ryder to proceed on foot and clear a path through the very powerful mines by tracking them down with their scanner, then shooting them. Unless you approached the location over the nearby ridge, in which case you can simply drive the Nomad back to where you came from without giving a damn about the mines at all.
* DysonSphere: [[spoiler: The true form of Meridian is one of these.]]
* EarlyGameHell: Overall, Ryder starts the game comparatively weaker than an early-game Commander Shepard. Cooldowns and damage are overall underpowered in the early game. This is because Ryder will eventually gain a ''lot'' more freedom in abilities, weapons, customization, and movement than Shepard ever did, but the player has to ''work'' for it.
* EatenAlive: Ryder may have this happen to him/her if killed by a Fiend.
* EarthShatteringKaboom: What happened to [[spoiler:H-047c - meant to become the turian homeworld in Heleus -]] long before the Initiative arrived, courtesy of the Scourge. All that's left now is a huge, lethally irradiated asteroid belt.
* EliteMooks: All factions have them in one form or the other. Some even have more types of elite troops than basic goons.
** Kett Anointed are bigger than their Chosen brethren, considerably tougher due to their strong shields, and they wield the kett equivalent of Gatling guns. After them come the Destined who have powerful shotguns and can turn themselves and any kett near them invisible. Both are implied to be field commanders roughly comparable to human [=NCOs=].
** The Roekaar deploy shielded snipers and armored Saboteurs, the latter of which can sap Ryder's shields from afar to bolster their own.
** Aside from shielded snipers like the Roekaar's, Milky Way hostiles field Anarchists (armored turians who spam incendiary grenades), Operatives (armored salarians who can turn invisible), Pariahs (armored asari surrounded by a biotic shield who like to get up close and personal) and Berserkers (ludicrously heavily armored krogan).
** For the Remnant, Observers and Nullifiers largely fill the role of elite troops, though Nullifiers stray pretty close to BossInMookClothing territory already.
* EmptyRoomUntilTheTrap:
** A mission on Voeld has Ryder tracking kett data to a remote facility, which looks abandoned until Ryder's inside, at which point a kett dropship shows up.
** Also on Voeld is a small, completely unremarkable Remnant ruin in the middle of nowhere whose only distinguishing feature is a strange signal SAM picks up when the Nomad approaches it. Upon investigating the source of the signal, an angaran sniper radios Ryder to inform them about the huge minefield they just blundered into - a minefield that simply isn't there before that revelation. The rest of the event is either an exercise in patience while you clear a path through the mines, or a textbook example of DungeonBypass if you were lucky and approached the location from the right direction.
** Played painfully straight with [[spoiler:the Archon's personal quarters aboard his flagship]]. It even is an actual trap instead of some goons jumping out of wall panels or drop ships.
* EnergyWeapons: Weapons from the Andromeda galaxy are usually this (either FrickinLaserBeams or plasma weapons), [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter in contrast to the weapons from the Milky Way]].
* EpicFail:
** One particularly unlucky krogan managed to get himself struck by lightning while courting, due to holding a boombox over his head. On Elaaden, which it should be noted didn't have thunderstorms or rainclouds, or weather of any kind beyond "unbearably hot" until Ryder showed up.
** Let's face it: the entire Andromeda Initiative is one until the ''Hyperion'' rejoins the Nexus and Ryder has chalked up some wins.
* EternalEngine: The Remnant vaults contain futuristic versions of these in their hearts. The one on Eos is probably the best example, with massive underground structures stretching off for miles.
* EverybodyLives: In the finale, provided you take the time to befriend the other Pathfinders, absolutely no named characters die besides the Archon.
* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Havarl, Kadara and Elaaden all have very dinosaur-esque creatures running around, looking to snack on the tasty bipeds they keep finding.
* EvilTowerOfOminousness: All major kett bases are built around a sinister-looking one that houses their central command structure, landing/refueling platforms for their airforce and other facilities like research labs or exaltation temples.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin:
** The whole reasoning behind the names given to the various Remnant robot models is that Peebee classified them based on what they do. Assemblers assemble other bots, Observers observe, Nullifiers have powerful self-repair protocols that nullify most incoming damage, and Destroyers, well, when SAM asks her about that one, she just rolls her eyes in exasperation.
** Spitbugs are, well, bugs that spit stuff at you. Who'd have thougt.
* ExactWords: [[spoiler:If Sloane is removed from Kadara, Jaal will say the planet's beginning to grow on him. And then immediately clarifies "like a festering wound".]]
* ExplainingYourPowersToTheEnemy: The Cardinal - apparently [[WakeUpCallBoss the first kett Ascendant]] you're supposed to fight - spends much of the first phase of her BossBattle bragging about her impenetrable shield, how it works, why she has it and so on, all the while she's spamming energy balls at Ryder. Her lecture would be useful if she wasn't so unlikely to actually ''[[SequenceBreaking be]]'' the first Ascendant you meet. Unless you're really rushing through the main story, it's highly probable you already defeated the Prefect on Voeld and perhaps even the Invictor on Eos by the time you encounter her, and thus figured out how to get past their shields on your own hours ago.
* EyeBeam: What Remnant Observers use to maintain their structures when they're undisturbed. Piss them off and they use it to make your life miserable instead. Fortunately, it's one of the less dangerous Remnant weapons.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: F - K]]
* FaceHeelTurn: Sloane Kelly was the Nexus's chief of security and a decorated Alliance soldier. By the time Ryder catches up to her, Kelly has become an outlaw and a ruthless mob boss.
* TheFaceless:
** Ryder's father in the initial trailer, whose face is obscured behind the helmet of his N7 armor. Averted in the game proper.
** Cora and Liam were also shown in promotional materials wearing face-concealing helmets, until the second cinematic trailer.
* FailedASpotCheck: One secondary task on the Nexus has Ryder searching for the reason behind numerous electrical systems failures. All of these system are in plain sight of scores of people. The culprit eventually turns out to be [[spoiler:an alien creature that looks like a tick large enough to come level with Ryder's hip]]. How that thing managed to chew through the Nexus tech without being spotted and causing a panic is anyone's guess.
* FakeDifficulty: Minor example in the large animal species. There's no conceivable reason why those beasts utterly disintegrate upon death, aside from making one of your sidequests (scan X life-forms) more difficult by forcing you to approach the dangerous critters unarmed.
* FallDamage: Largely absent thanks to Ryder's JumpJetPack. You need to free-fall a ''long'' distance (roughly 60 meters) to incur any damage at all, and doing so usually just warps you back to the point where you fell with a minor loss in health.
* FantasticNuke: [[spoiler:As it turns out, the Scourge was one. Someone cooked it up and unleashed it on the Remnant's creators.]]
* FantasticRacism: All over the place. There's allot of animosity between the Initiative and the krogan (especially on the part of salarian Director Tann) because of recent events and their history back in the Milky Way. The angarans are very hostile to other alien races, because of their ''very'' bad experiences with the kett. And the kett themselves see all other species as potential slaves, or as [[spoiler:a source of [[AssimilationPlot new potential kett]] or walking gene banks.]]
* FetchQuest: Oh boy... It's even worse than the original ''Mass Effect'' due to tons of so-called "tasks" requiring you to track down unmarked stuff all over the cluster, often for miniscule rewards. What makes matters ten times worse is the fact that most of them don't even tell you how many samples you need, let alone give you map markers on where to find them. Have fun scouring every corner of the huge maps for oftentimes tiny objects half-hidden among lots of other stuff.
* FirstContact: Since the Andromeda Initiative will encounter the native inhabitants of Andromeda, the Initiative stress the importance of [[IComeInPeace peaceful first contact]] [[PoorCommunicationKills in order to avoid any serious misunderstandings]]. Unless said aliens are hostile, like the kett. It's zig-zagged with the angara, though. No one on the Nexus had ever encountered an angaran before Ryder does, but the Exiles had been living amongst them for months. Further zig-zagged because the anagara are a loose federation of independent worlds and settlements centralized at Aya; Ryder may not have been the first person to contact an angaran, but s/he was the first to meet their civilization as a whole.
* FlashStep: A biotic Ryder can do this in place of a jet thrust. A tech Ryder can give the illusion of one with cloaking. Any Ryder wielding an asari sword will perform one every time they use a melee attack. An upgraded Cora can do one too, as do the dangerous kett Ascendant.
* FlockOfWolves: It's mentioned that many of the mutineers-turned-outlaws were criminals or other shady elements who joined up with the Initiative to either get away with crimes they'd done in the Milky Way or to take advantage of the relative lawlessness of Andromeda to start new illegitimate enterprises. When the mutiny happened, many of them were exiled or left with the Exiles to continue in this regard.
* FlunkyBoss: All of them. Bosses never come alone, and even the one that does at first - the Behemoth - is quickly joined by waves of lesser kett soldiers as the battle progresses. Considering how all bosses are basically powerful field commanders of their respective faction, it's totally justified that they take to the field alongside their forces in order to make Ryder's life as miserable as possible.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** A datapad found while Ryder's heading to the shuttlebay with Cora at the very beginning mentions the sensors detecting an error that went unresolved four hundred years before. [[spoiler:It was the Scourge going off.]]
** The first time Ryder scans a kett Chosen, they'll mention the DNA readings are "all over the place". [[spoiler:Given the kett's method of reproduction, they would be.]]
** The name of the basic kett goon, the Chosen, is a big hint as to their true nature. [[spoiler:They were ''chosen'' to be exalted into kett.]]
** As you progress through the kett stronghold on Voeld, it's possible to find hints in side-rooms about TheReveal a few minutes early.
** Also on Voeld, after helping an angara sniper track down a cloaked wraith during the "Cold Sniper" sidequest, he can be asked if there're lots of Remnant about. He answers in the negative but mentions that he heard about a big one he never found being out there somewhere, hinting at [[spoiler:the very first Architect]] players will probably encounter after activating the Vault.
** After SAM is transferred to Ryder, Ryder suggest giving the Pathfinder position to Cora instead. Lexi states that Ryder is fused to SAM in a way they don't understand and trying to sever that connection could wind up killing Ryder. [[spoiler:This foreshadows both SAM's true abilities and what the Archon tries later.]]
** The Knight side-quest has the anti-A.I. group [[spoiler:trying to sever SAM's connection to Ryder. Much later on, the Archon does the same thing, only he's more successful.]]
** When Ryder and Liam first find Remnant structures on Habitat 7, Liam questions what could have built it and Ryder joking replies "alien gods". [[spoiler:Then, later, we learn about the Jardaan and what capabilities they had.]]
** In Ryder's first conversation with Avela Kjar, the angara historian, she mentions that when the Scourge first appeared, it directly targeted angaran ships and technology. [[spoiler:We also learn that it targets Remnant technology. Turns out, they're one and the same. The Jardaan created what we now the Remnant, as well as the angara.]]
** Tons of foreshadowing about the angara's origins is mentioned on Havarl. [[spoiler:We're told that the angara had their technology uplifted by Remnant artifacts, with one scientist stating that it was found dismantled, as if someone had left it as instructions. In addition, some angara have the ability to use Remnant technology without knowing how they know. The Havarl vault has the ability to rapidly speed up the evolution of the planet's lifeforms and ecosystem. After leaving Havarl, Ryder asks Jaal how angaran biology evolved and he says he doesn't know. Furthermore, the fact that they need the vault to be functioning for Havarl, their homeworld, to be habitable hints that the Angaran are related to the Remnant and didn't naturally evolve on the planet.]]
* ForeverWar: Although the war between the angara and the kett broke out "just" eighty years ago, it's been going on for so long that only a handful of angara are old enough to still remember FirstContact with their nemesis. The vast majority of their people has never known peace and fights the kett tooth and nail without even knowing how this war started or what the kett actually want.
* FragileSpeedster: The ''Tempest'' doesn't have heavy armor or powerful weapons, in fact it has no weapons of any kind, but it is so fast that most enemy ships can't hit it.
* FreezeFrameBonus:
** The announcement trailer contained a very brief shot that included a dog tag with the name Ryder, which was the first hint as to the protagonist's name, though apparently the dog tag does ''not'' [[https://twitter.com/macwalterslives/status/743676002363006976 belong to the protagonist]], but a ''different'' Ryder (now confirmed to be Ryder's father).
** Also, in the same trailer, [[http://masseffectuniverse.fr/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/mass-effect-andromeda-trailer-n7-day-2.jpg a photograph]] could be spotted opposite of the dog tags showing a man with two children, foreshadowing the existence of the Ryder family (with the man being the N7 father, and the two children being the two playable characters).
* FrickinLaserBeams: Remnant weapons are these, using an overheat mechanic instead of limited ammunition, like Javik's particle rifle from the third game and all weapons from the first game. Remnant research also provides the Beam Emitter augmentation that converts any gun's bullet type to laser beams when it is installed during the crafting process.
* FunWithAcronyms: Peebee's pet project is a salvaged Remnant Observer she tinkers on in her spare time. Its name is Poc, which may appear strange until you learn that it's just an acronym for "proof of concept".
* GameBreakingBug:
** A major one can happen early in the "Firefighters" mission when you must interact with three consoles in SAM Node aboard the ''Hyperion''. Sometimes the mission won't proceed after you've done so or hit the consoles in the wrong order, leaving you stuck in a locked room and unable to continue the game.
** A minor one with a quest added in the 1.05 patch. Completing it requires talking to an angara on the Nexus, but the game may not register Ryder talking to him, and label the quest unfinished. Making it worse, it won't allow the player to talk to him again.
** Charge, one of the game's most powerful abilities, is majorly bugged. On occasion, the game code will declare a random enemy an "Invalid Target" and not allow you to Charge at them at all. This is a huge problem for a close-quarters-heavy Ryder, because Charge is their main method of closing distance ''and'' recharging their shields. Being stuck out in the open without the ability to Charge means any minor enemy can shred Ryder's health in seconds.
*** Even worse, using Charge on an Architect sometimes makes the Architect freeze entirely, much like Eiroch and Fiends. Unlike those enemies, though, Architects have scripted events which must occur to finish the battle, and they can't happen while it's frozen. This means that if a player built their Ryder entirely focused on close quarters, it will be nigh-impossible to defeat the Architects until they've gotten enough levels to fight another way.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
** Despite the whole point about the Scourge being that going near it is a death sentence, often times during transitions between star systems, the ''Tempest'' will apparently fly straight through it, with no harm done. The same is true for the Scourge sprouts planetside - they'll ''sometimes'' inflict minor damage when touched, but most of the time you can pass through or even stand in them without suffering any ill effects.
** The environmental hazards don't make a lot of sense when you pay attention to the details. A zone is classified as a Level 1 Heat Hazard if the ambient temperature exceeds 40°C, which is hot but nowhere near hot enough to kill a human clad in PoweredArmor in about five minutes of exposure. At 50+°C, the area is already a Level 2 hazard that gives you less than ''one'' minute out in the open before Ryder collapses. The same mechanic applies to Cold Hazards (Level 1: below -40°C; Level 2: below -50°C), which makes even less sense since it's much easier to keep a body warm than to keep it cool. A third example is the rare Radiation Hazard, a condition that is to be commended for using the correct unit of measurement, but it still screws up the potentially lethal dosage levels by a massive margin. The fact that there even ''are'' environmental hazards that can harm Ryder in the first place stands out, since [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 the last time they showed up]] in the series, Shepard could find and equip hostile-environment armor that gave them either significantly extended EVA time or even ''complete immunity''. It's really odd that the Andromeda Initiative didn't bring any of that gear on a trip into the unknown.
** After a few hours running around on Aya, Havarl and Voeld, Ryder is informed by Suvi and Kallo about how well Eos and Padromos are doing, and that they should go take a look (hint hint). All well and good... except you have the option of returning and exploring a radiation-free Eos immediately after you left the first time, and may have already gone and done most of what there is to do there anyway.
** The allegiance of starship wrecks on the galaxy map and the items you can salvage from them often don't match up, like looting Milky Way-aligned stuff from a Remnant vessel that got wrecked by the Scourge centuries before the Initiative came anywhere near the Heleus cluster.
** Taking out a planet's kett command center and the resident Ascendant within allegedly throws their forces into disarray and weakens the kett presence significantly. Do so and you'll notice quickly that nothing changes ''at all'' - the kett will still be all over the map everytime you return to that world, they will still occupy all of their checkpoints, and their drop ships will still buzz around like nothing ever happened.
* GangUpOnTheHuman: Refreshingly averted most of the time. Kadara and Elaaden in particular have scores of remote outposts or Remnant ruins where kett, scavenger gangs, the planet's aggressive wildlife, Remnant bots or any combination thereof are engaged in wild shootouts when Ryder arrives. As long as you keep your distance, you can just sit back and let them whittle each other down before moving in to mop up the survivors. Sometimes it's even possible to lure some particular nasty critters like Fiends or Eiroch to a nearby hostile checkpoint, run away and watch the unfolding carnage from afar, although that doesn't always works because those beasts tend to chase the first target in sight relentlessly.
* TheGhost:
** Considering the Andromeda galaxy is over six centuries worth of space travel from the Milky Way, and there's a "Shepard's gender" option in character customization, Commander Shepard may be this in the game. [[spoiler:They aren't.]]
** [[spoiler:The jaardan, who created the Remnant and the angara. We don't even get a hint to their actual appearance, save that going by the size of their tech, they were probably human-sized. Also, their only identified authority figure is a "Director".]]
** A sidequest on Voeld revolves around tracking down some poachers who hunt an aquatic species that's positively revered by the angara. Everyone including Jaal gushes an awful lot about the creatures and their beautiful songs during the quest, yet they're never seen or heard at all.
* GiantFlyer: Habitat 7 (the first world you set foot on) as well as the jungle world Havarl have Mantas - large, bizarre creatures resembling heavy [[Franchise/StarCraft Zerg]] flyers flapping their way across the sky. They're part of the scenery and do not interact with anyone in any way.
** Most Remnant Architects when you first encounter them.
* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: The Prefect, most likely the first kett Ascendant you'll encounter. Contrary to the Invictor and the Cardinal, there isn't ''even the slightest hint'' as to his mere existence - no audio logs, no datapads, no CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker. You fight your way to the top of his base, complete mission objectives while fending off an infinite ZergRush of {{Mooks}}, and when you finally hit the last switch and stop to catch your breath, this guy shows up out of nowhere and forces you to rapidly adopt new tactics on pain of getting your ass kicked.
* GondorCallsForAid: During the final mission, [[spoiler:Ryder, looking for an edge in the final battle against the Archon, asks the ''Tempest'' crew to invite their contacts to come along. Depending on your choices, your allies can include the other Pathfinders, the Resistance, Moshae Sjefa, Kandros, Reyes, the survivors of Alec's Pathfinder team, Drack's scouts, Vorn, and Kalinda.]]
* GravityScrew:
** Most biotic abilities are this by design.
** Every larger Remnant installation has at least one so-called gravity well that facilitates access to the underground levels by floating the user up or down a deep vertical shaft. Some even work horizontally. SAM [[LampshadeHanging points out]] that [[YouKeepUsingThatWord this is not in line with what the physical term "gravity well" actually means]].
** What's left of H-047c when Ryder visits it has significantly lower gravity than any other world they can explore, reducing traction but allowing for ''long'' jumps with the Nomad. Suvi warns the ground team to be extra careful due to how easy it would be to accidentally hit escape velocity. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Strangely]], gravity inside the rad-shielded domes on the surface as well as in the Remnant Vault is the standard 1G regardless.
** Ryder and Peebee can have lot of fun with this trope aboard the ''Tempest'' by first screwing with the artificial gravity, then [[ZeroGSpot screwing without it]].
** Kett Ascendants always [[PowerFloats hover]] some distance above ground when they're fought.
** One of the first signs something's up with Habitat 7 is that there are floating clumps of rock, despite the gravity being essentially earth-like.
* GreaterScopeParagon: [[IncrediblyLamePun Heh]]. But in all seriousness, [[spoiler:had Shepard not learnt about the Reapers and tried warning people, the Andromeda Initiative would never have gotten off the ground.]]
* GreaterScopeVillain: The Scourge, [[NegativeSpaceWedgie a dark energy storm]], and the greatest threat to life in the Heleus Cluster. [[spoiler: The true villains are the unknown race that created the Scourge as a weapon to fight the jardaan.]]
** In a sense, [[EldritchAbomination the Reapers]] from the original trilogy. This is because, [[spoiler: while the Andromeda Initiative was going to happen anyway, Alec Ryder's logs reveal that most of the people leading the Initiative believed Shepard's warning about the Reapers. The reason the Andromeda Initiative left the Milky Way during the events of ME2 was because the fear of the Reapers made Alec, Jien and the Mysterious Benefactor (who may or may not be the Illusive Man) move the schedule forward drastically to get them out of the Milky Way quicker]].
** Also from the original trilogy, Cerberus. While not physically present their actions have caused numerous problems in Heleus, including ex-scientist experimenting on other species, and an extremist group looking to eradicate AI like the [=SAMs=] because they were victims of Project Overlord.
** The government of the Kett empire. They ordered the Archon to the Heleus Cluster in the first place, and they have other agents causing similar trouble elsewhere in Andromeda.
* GrenadeSpam:
** One of the Architect's many attacks is a massive grenade volley it'll often launch straight over Ryder's cover thanks to its enormous size. The explosions aren't particularly damaging but have a powerful knockback effect that tends to expose Ryder to more incoming fire.
** Most humanoid enemies avert this trope by tossing grenades sparingly and so inaccurately they'll rarely hit anything with the blast. Kett Destined, however, play it completely straight - their energy grenades almost always hit, have a huge area of effect, deal considerable damage over time, and they make liberal use of them to flush Ryder out of cover.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: What most of the conflicts between the angara, the Milky Way newcomers and the Nexus-Exiles clash boil down to. No side is innocent, everyone committed acts of questionable morality in one way or another, but the majority also had/have good reasons for why they act(ed) like the do/did. Ryder themselves must face a lot of [[SadisticChoice tough decisions]] where neither option can honestly be called the right one and choosing the lesser evil is often the only thing they can do.
* GrievousHarmWithABody: By combining the Pull and Throw biotic powers, Ryder can pull in unprotected enemies and - [[SarcasmMode big surprise]] - throw them at other hostiles for potentially lethal results. Might not be the most efficient method of dealing with someone shooting at you, but the sheer hilarity of bowling over baddies with their buddies makes it a worthwhile pastime. There's even an achievement for doing this 20 times, plus another one for launching an enemy onto a trip mine this way.
* GroinAttack: Remnant Nullifiers are heavily armored battle robots with two stubby legs carrying a plump central body. They're the second-most dangerous non-BonusBoss Remnant constructs in the game, yet it's somewhat difficult to take them seriously once you realize that their big glowing [[AttackItsWeakpoint weak point]] sits squarely in their crotch.
* GroundPunch:
** One of the new abilities combines this with the omni-blade melee weapon and JumpJetPack to clear away groups of enemies at once.
** This is the krogan hammer's special trait - it's smashed into the ground in front of Ryder, hitting everything in a considerable area.
* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Hostile entities have a fairly limited aggro range (roughly 40 meters in the open world, or the entrance door when inside a building). Stay beyond that and you can pick off mooks with a sniper rifle without their buddies giving a damn about it, as long as you kill each target in one hit and no other baddy is standing within arm's reach of the target. It's even worse than the infamous ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' guards - those at least went to investigate that dead fellow soldier lying next to them.
* GuideDangIt:
** Most FetchQuest tasks 1. don't have map markers, 2. don't tell you how many samples of whatever you're supposed to find are required to finish the quest, and 3. many don't even reveal the planet they're taking place on. When you've finally figured out points 2 and 3, it still leaves you with point 1 as the biggest problem, and unless you have a guide handy, you'll be spending a lot of time scouring every nook and cranny for that last missing sample.
** One achievement requires you to solve twenty Remnant decryption puzzles in a single game. The mandatory ones you need to solve during the story do ''not'' add up to the amount you need - you must search for all the optional consoles and containers in Remnant installations all over the Heleus cluster, most of which are hidden away in dark corners and very easily overlooked. Again, there's no counter to tell you how many you've found, so good luck finding them all on your first run without a guide. Oh, and don't even think about using the decryption keys you can find or purchase; puzzles you "solve" this way don't count towards the achievement.
* HandWave:
** The reason information on the region was current as of the time the Initiative left instead of millions of years out of date is data stolen from a geth observatory that used technology nobody but them understands.
** When the Nomad gets stuck in the desert in the north of Elaaden, [[spoiler:courtesy of an EMP]], Ryder will call the ''Tempest'' for pick up, only they can't, because Gil may have sort of been tinkering with the ship ''again'', and they're grounded. Doesn't explain why they can't call in a favour from the nearby Initiative outpost or the krogan, though...
** The fact that the Heleus cluster's fauna appears to comprise only about a dozen species living on nearly every habitable world in the region is handwaved by [[spoiler:the jaardan having created them just as they did the angara and, more or less, all of Heleus as it is today]].
* HangingJudge: Director Tann has ruled that any outlaw who returns to the Nexus, regardless of whether they're trying to reform or not, is to be executed.
* HellbentForLeather: Several [=NPCs=] - Foster Addison being the most prominent example - wear full-body uniforms made of leather or a similar-looking material. Some of them look like they actually planned on going on a motorbike cruise instead of travelling to another galaxy.
* HellIsThatNoise:
** Most everything related to the kett - their base alarms, the sounds their drop ships make, the animalistic roar that announces a Fiend's entry into the fight...
** Base alarms in general. As long as they're howling, you know the next shuttle with hostile reinforcements is mere seconds away from dropping them right onto your head.
** The sounds of a Vault purification field will make you sweat, especially when it's only a few steps behind you and closing in fast.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: A scavenger on Elaaden asks for Ryder's help securing a compound so he can eke out a better living. As it turns out, the compound has a small stash of weapons, which they can get a hold of. If talked to afterwards, he still maintains his cheerful attitude, but he's also decided to bring peace to the wastelands by force. Ryder can point out he's therefore becoming no better than the scavengers, to which the scavenger responds by politely but firmly asking Ryder to go.
* HoistByTheirOwnPetard:
** You can kill kett with kett weapons, angara with angaran weapons and your fellow Milky Way travellers with mass drivers.
** Be careful where you toss your grenades; they can and will damage Ryder just like any other target, and they ''hurt''. Similar caution is recommended for cooking them - overdo it and the grenade will literally blow up in your face. The grenade power's menu description explicitly warns about this.
** Players might want to avoid Biotic Charging into Fiends or Ascendants. Both have instant-death moves that can kill them at close range, and can use it before Ryder recovers from his/her own Charge. Charging them essentially hands them the means to kill you for free.
** Fiends are kettified Eiroch and usually fight alongside their creators, but when encountered in the wilds, they're just as likely to aggro on kett troops as they are to attack Ryder.
* HoldTheLine: Several missions require Ryder to defend a certain area against waves of hostiles until something running in the background is finished (usually SAM hacking stuff). Moving out of the defined area either slows or entirely disrupts the progress bar - something any ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' multiplayer enthusiast will be familiar with.
* HopelessWar: With most of their worlds lost to the Scourge and the kett's endless numbers slowly but surely grinding them down, this was what we're told the angara's situation was until Evfra took command. Apparently, the angara have been slowly driving the kett back due to his effective leadership, but [[spoiler:this is also because the Archon got tired of waiting for a conventional victory and started devoting more and more resources to capturing and studying Remnant technology, so that he can use it as an InstantWinCondition. Also, despite major victories which defend or reclaim their territory, the Resistance has completely failed to take any kett stronghold.]]
* HotterAndSexier: All Mass Effect games include the option for a sex scene late in the narrative with your RomanceSidequest. In general, prior games were pretty tame with implied nudity (at most) and simply embracing each other. In this game, while not excessive there is some overt nudity and sexual movement. The number of potential romantic options is also much higher, though the actual sex scenes are no more than normal.
* HumanPopsicle: About 20,000 cryo-frozen specimen aboard the ''[[SleeperShip Hyperion]]'' during the voyage to Heleus, plus a couple more on the Nexus. If you extend the definition to humanoid alien species, the number goes up to more than 100,000.
* HumansAreSpecial: ZigZaggedTrope.
** Like the original trilogy, TheHero is always human. Said human eventually turns the cluster's messed-up worlds into paradises once again and ends a century-long genocidal war in the process. This is {{Justified|Trope}} in-universe in two ways. One, humanity got ''extremely'' lucky by being the last council race Ark to arrive in Heleus--with them and their Pathfinder avoiding some of the terrible fates that befell the other Arks. And two, the [=SAMs=] that Pathfinders use were invented by the human Pathfinder, and he took advantage of that fact to customize it, which means humanity's SAM is the most powerful.
** Eventually, humanity settles down on [[spoiler:Meridian]] as their new homeworld, which just happens to be [[spoiler:a Remnant-forged DysonSphere (the only one in the whole cluster) instead of a normal planet ''and'' the control hub for the Vault network, giving humans an unimaginable advantage over the other races. Again, {{Justified|Trope}} in-universe because the Archon specifically chose human's more advanced SAM to exploit and brought the entire human Ark to Meridian with him to hold as hostages. He later attempts to destroy the Ark, forcing it to crash land on Meridian, which locks Meridian as the human homeworld.]]
** The most powerful upgrade you can purchase for your APEX teams is Exceptional Human Intelligence, even when the team you buy it for consists of battle-hardened krogan warriors or asari commandos with presumably centuries of combat experience.
* HumongousMecha:
** The Architect is a really ginormous worm shaped mech. It is encountered on [[spoiler: Eos, Voeld, Kadara and Elaaden]]. The devs have stated that [[BeefGate only a high level Ryder has any chance of surviving against it]]. In-game, however, they're not nearly as dangerous as that, so anyone with a basic grasp of tactics and using cover can take them on without too much problems.
** Elaaden has the Remnant Abyss, a robotic construct many, many times larger than the Architects mentioned above. Fortunately, it doesn't give a shit about anyone on the planet and simply plows through the desert like a gigantic metal SandWorm, serving as a deadly but not particularly dangerous environmental hazard. The krogan of New Tuchanka are busy trying to figure out how to make use of it for their Rites of Passage.
* HyperspaceArsenal: With the return of an inventory system, this trope was bound to come into effect once more. Weapons, armor pieces and mods count against Ryder's carrying capacity. Each piece weighs in at one unit (base capacity: 100 units as of the 1.05 patch) regardless of size or weight, so you can potentially lug around a platoon's worth of gear that's stored... somewhere. Of particular note are melee weapons, the only weapon class to occupy a dedicated equipment slot without being shown on Ryder's body. While that's fine for omni-blades whose flash-forged nature is well-established in the lore, swords and hammers are pulled out of nowhere every time you use a melee attack. Why Bioware didn't just stick them to, say, Ryder's back in between the guns where there's lots of space available is anyone's guess.
* HyperspaceMallet: Comedic effect aside, you can play this trope surprisingly straight by equipping Ryder with a krogan hammer. As stated above, melee weapons don't show on Ryder's body, so every time you use a melee attack, they produce a huge hammer out of thin air, smash something unfortunate to paste with a cathartic scream, and put the hammer back into whatever hidden dimension they pulled it out of in the first place.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** In a recording, the Archon dismisses the asari calling melding "embracing eternity" as "poetry". [[spoiler:This is one of the kett speaking, who referring to violently turning members of other species into their own in religious terms.]]
** Many angara will make excuses for their species' criminals even while they're asking Ryder for help dealing with them, but will fly completely off the handle in response to criminal behavior from members of the Milky Way species and judge the entire Andromeda Initiative over it.
** During a run in with some looters working over a dead body in the Kadara slums, Ryder can give them a 'respect the dead' speech. In spite of the fact that, by that point in the game, the player has probably looted hundreds of dead bodies.
* HypocriticalHumour: It's possible to briefly meet Conrad Verner's sister Cassandra in Kadara's slums. She claims her brother's hero-worship was so irritating she had to leave the galaxy... and then reveals she's every bit as obsessed with Sloane Kelley as her brother was with Shepard.
* IAmAHumanitarian: Some of the exiles on Kadara have taken to cannibalism, either in a desperate attempt to sustain themselves on a world that's sorely lacking in edible food, or because they like it.
* ICallItVera: The game's crafting system allows players to rename their newly made weapon into ''anything'' they want.
* IHaveToGoIronMyDog: At the end of Peebee's loyalty mission, she asks the rest of the crew to help her clean out her quarters. They all have other things to do (Vetra's in particular takes the cake: Helping Liam make ice).
* IllGirl: The Ryder you didn't opt to play as, becomes this. The energy cloud that left Ark ''Hyperion'' adrift, also caused a cryopod malfunction that left NPC Ryder unable to thaw and wake up. The doctors had to medically induce a coma to keep him/her alive. [[spoiler:They wake up later, and you can speak to them. And just before the climax, they're briefly playable.]]
* IncompatibleOrientation: Ryder can flirt with people who aren't attracted to Ryder's gender, which can lead to some minor awkwardness.
* InsaneTrollLogic: [[spoiler:An angara who tries to kill Ryder on Elaaden if she's pissed off will claim the Initiative ruins worlds, despite Ryder having made Elaaden more liveable than it was before they got there.]]
* InSpaceEveryoneCanSeeYourFace: Zigzagged. Many of the human armors play this trope completely straight. Angaran, kett and Remnant helmets on the other hand either have small, opague eye lenses, or not even that.
* InstantAIJustAddWater:
** Averted with SAM. It took Alec Ryder years of research and difficulty to get SAM up and running.
** Given a nod with Peebee, if she acquires the right Remnant tech. She figures eventually she'll be able to bring her modified drones to "life", as it were.
* InterfaceSpoiler: The different "layers" one can access on the world map have a habit of spoiling story elements long before they become relevant, like the fact [[spoiler:there's a big-ass kett base to assault on Eos]] for instance.
* InvisibilityCloak: Aside from the Tactical Cloak power available to Ryder and Jaal's Avenger Strike power, several enemies make use of optical camouflage as well. The kett in particular have a fondness for it, with one war beast, one mid-tier infantry unit and one end-game boss trying to sneak up on you while invisible.
* {{Irony}}: The kett commander on Eos calls himself Invictor, which translates to something like "the undefeated" or "the undefeatable". Wanna guess how his meeting with Ryder [[CurbstompBattle turns out for him]]?
* ItemCrafting: You can use a Research Station on the Nexus, the Tempest, outposts and world hubs to research and craft upgrades and augmentations to your armor, weapons, Nomad, settlement outposts etc, from minerals you have obtained.
* ItIsDehumanizing: The kett don't view [[FantasticRacism "lesser species"]] like the angara or the Milky Way descendants as sentient creatures; only as [[spoiler:a source of genetic material for their AssimilationPlot]]. The only words they use to describe humans, turians and anything else are "it" and [[NightmareFuel "specimen"]].
* ItsAllUpstairsFromHere: Part of the world arc on Havarl involves climbing a massive Remnant tower to speak with the angara hermit sages living on its peak.
* JumpJetPack: You can use one to traverse vertical distances and aid in exploration. Biotic characters put away the jet packs and just use their biotics.
* JumpScare:
** The Remnant Vault on Eos has a fairly dark side room full of inactive robots lining the walls, spooky enough to give even the hardened Cora the creeps. When you've looted the chest there and are on your way out, one of the bots drops to the floor with a resounding clang, scaring the living shit out of both your squad mates. [[FunnyMoments Ryder isn't fazed at all and pokes fun at them for being so jumpy]].
** Kett Wraiths have very effective optical camouflage and are quite adept at setting up ambushes. You can be forgiven for needing a [[BringMyBrownPants change of pants]] when one of those things appears out of thin air in a dark hallway right in front of Ryder and tries to gnaw their face off.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Whoever it was that murdered Jien Garson gets away with it, assuming they weren't killed in the uprising.]]
* KarmaMeter: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. The Paragon and Renegade system do not make a return, instead being replaced with a tone-based dialogue system similar to the one present in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition''.
* KickTheSonOfABitch:
** Ryder can shoot the Cardinal dead. With the right timing, it can even be done right after they finish speaking, for added effect.
** [[spoiler:Ryder has a choice between allowing Sloane Kelley to be shot by Reyes, or saving her.]]
** At one point offscreen, Kesh decided that Spender's interference with Engineering went too far and gave him a LiteralAssKicking, to the delight of everyone who witnessed it.
* KilledMidSentence:
** Ryder can shut up [[spoiler:the Cardinal]] with a bullet mid-speech if the interrupt prompt is taken.
** This can potentially happen to Ryder under specific circumstances because the game doesn't fully pause the exterior action during certain cutscenes. A good example is the Roekaar hunt on Eos where at one point you need to interact with a comm console in their FOB, triggering a prolonged dialogue scene during which you can't do anything but choose how to answer. Problem is, there's a Remnant ruin with constantly respawning Creepers only a few steps away, and there's a good chance one or more of them will wander near enough to aggro on Ryder and start attacking them while you can't defend yourself. Your squad mates won't intervene either, so this segment can become a tad frustrating if you're really unlucky.
* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: The weapons brought from the Milky Way are these. They lack the unlimited ammunition of the Remnants and the gimmicks of the Helius, but make up for it by being deadly against unshielded targets. Install a Vintage Heat Sink and even your ammo worries are solved, although that slightly reduces the gun's clip size.
* {{Knockback}}: The Throw biotic power will do this to any regular sized enemy, provided their shields are down. This includes some of the creatures too. Detonating any type of combo will also reliably stagger or even knock back even the largest of enemies.
* KnowWhenToFoldThem:
** When Ryder finally catches up to [[spoiler:the Moshae during her rescue mission]], the Cardinal levels her hand at them and prepares one of her energy ball attacks in an attempt to stop them from escaping. She quickly reconsiders when one of Ryder's squad members promptly points a big gun at her face at nearly point-blank range.
** A scavenger out in the north of Elaaden has set up an EMP generator which he uses to fry any vehicle he likes the look of, before attacking and killing the owners so he can grab their stuff. He tries it on Ryder, and then promptly realises there's no way in Hell he'd actually win that fight, and kindly offers to fix the damage and let Ryder and co. go on their merry way. Of course, Ryder might not be feeling so benevolent...
[[/folder]]

[[folder: L - P]]
* LampshadeHanging:
** If the Moshae [[spoiler:is made ambassador to Meridian]], Ryder will ask her how the angara will react to this. She'll point out that they're naturally going to have widely varied opinions, and she can't possibly guess them all. Not all species [[PlanetOfHats share the exact same thoughts and opinions on things]].
** Poking around the emails at Podromos, one can be found with an afterword from Vetra telling Ryder she ''knows'' they're reading it, and to stop poking through other people's e-mail already.
%% ** Ryder and their team do this all the time, with varying degrees of subtlety.
* LaResistance: The Resistance, in which Jaal belongs to, is a group of angara resisting kett occupation.
* LaserGuidedKarma: One of the options for dealing with the ex-Cerebus scientists experimenting on outlaws is to turn their technology back on them (with Ryder telling SAM to "make it ''hurt''").
* LaserSight: Lots of enemies use them - snipers have the basic red one, Hydra mechs have three in their head, Remnant Nullifiers have large bluish ones, and so on. They all serve as clear warning to get to cover ASAP - with the exception of Nullifiers, [[OhCrap which can shoot through cover]].
* LastEpisodeNewCharacter: Four human characters only appear after the credits have rolled [[spoiler:as part of the second-wave colonists being brought out of cryo-freeze on Meridian to help manage the colony]].
* LastLousyPoint: "Tasks" are menial sidequests which usually don't advance the plot in a significant way, and will send players on extensive {{Fetch Quest}}s across the cluster. Losing track of which objectives they've already found will require that Ryder land on a planet, check the map to see if it's there, then go back to the Tempest, sort through the Galaxy Map, disembark to that world, and do the same thing over and over again until they find which planet has the objective they missed. And each change in setting is compounded by LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading.
** And that's just the tasks whose targets are actually marked on the map. Many others give you no clue whatsoever as to where to go, which usually means you're forced to investigate every single enemy presence you come across, and even that's not a sure-fire way to find everything you need. If you end up with something around 98% completion, those tasks are most likely the ones you haven't finished.
* LastOfTheirKind:
** Thanks to the MultipleEndings of ''Videogame/MassEffect3'', this is possibly true for the Milky Way species. If Shepard failed to stop the Reapers or accidentally killed everyone with low EMS, everyone in the Initative are the last of their species. In fact, Alec Ryder learned of the Reapers' threat before leaving and deliberately hastened the project to escape before the invasion occurred.
** The ''Tempest'' is the only ship of its class to survive the trip to Andromeda intact, the other scout ships were damaged or destroyed on arrival.
* LateToTheTragedy:
** The ''Hyperion'', humanity's Ark, is revealed to have arrived in Andromeda 14 months after the Nexus. In the meantime, things have gone extremely poorly for the Initiative: a massive accident with the Scourge upon arrival resulted in the deaths of numerous people [[spoiler: including founder Jien Garson]], the other Arks are missing, and the lack of resources and hostility of the planets they were supposed to colonize resulted in a revolt that was only stopped by assistance from the krogan, who were promptly double-crossed and went off on their own as a result.
** Smaller example abound throughout the whole game, usually in the form of an ApocalypticLog and the corresponding body nearby, dead since long before Ryder came across it.
* LeParkour: Using the JumpJetPack, Ryder engages in this as s/he [[spoiler: navigates the Remnant vault they find on Eos.]]
* LighterAndSofter: [[http://www.cinemablend.com/games/1584500/one-major-change-that-mass-effect-andromeda-will-make-to-the-series The developers have indicated]] that they want ''Andromeda'' to have a lighter tone so that the player doesn't feel like they're leaving the galaxy to burn when they engage in exploration and sidequests. The game is also rated 16 on PEGI as opposed to 18 like previous entries.
* LikeADuckTakesToWater: The krogan, of all the Milky Way races, are not only surviving the best in the Heleus Cluster, they're practically thriving. At the beginning of the game, they're the only ones who've set up anything approaching a functional society.
* LiteralMetaphor: [[spoiler: The human Golden World turns out to be... a Golden World.]]
* LiterallyShatteredLives: Cryo attacks once again freeze unprotected enemies solid, and once that is accomplished, they can be killed instantly by shattering them into pieces by any means convenient. There's even an achievement for shattering a frozen enemy with a jump melee attack.
* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Averted and, in some ways, inverted. Powers are extremely underwhelming in this game, starting out barely worth it in the early game and getting moderately better in the late game. Powers are more useful for utility (such as floating enemies, weakening defenses, restoring shields or causing stun/freezing/burning) than damage. Weapons, on the other hand, become obscenely powerful late in the game and the player can obtain consumables, mods or passives to give them comparable utility to powers while being able to remove major threats with big damage.
* LovedINotHonorMore:
** Avela Kjar, the angaran historian that a male Ryder can romance on Aya, can fall in love with him but refuses to distract him from his important work saving the galaxy. Her only request is that, no matter how far he ventures or for how long, he always comes back for her when he can.
** Keri T'Vessa, the asari reporter on the Nexus, can be romanced by a Ryder of any sex. Even if Ryder is dating or flirting someone else, Keri says she doesn't mind sharing him/her, and knows that what Ryder is up to in space (both [[BoldExplorer professionally]] and [[BoldlyComing personally]]) is important to them. She promises Ryder, though, that whenever they come back to the Nexus, they can always belong with her.
* LoyaltyMission: As per the franchise norm, every squad mate has one. Some like Liam's or Vetra's are fairly short and straightforward while others like Cora's or Peebee's are extensive multi-stage quest chains that take Ryder across the entire cluster and can't be finished until fairly late into the story. Finishing them to the respective companion's satisfaction unlocks the option to complete their romance arc and gives access to their tier 6 power evolutions.
* LudicrousGibs: Insectoid critters detonate in a huge burst of shell shards and innards upon death no matter how they died. Even stranger are the large (armored) animal species, all of which completely disintegrate in moments a few seconds after they're killed.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: Kett warships are fond of deploying these, usually as an AlphaStrike before they switch to their ginormous direct-fire artillery.
* MadeOfIron: Just about everyone and everything is a lot more durable than their counterparts in the original trilogy. Even a comparatively fragile Ryder build can soak up much more damage than Shepard ever could, and their squad mates are stupidly resilient. In fact, all of them have about 50% more health and shields than their boss at the very least, making them very hard to kill. Unfortunately, this also extends to their enemies. Even the most basic {{Mook}} can tank half an assault rifle clip to the face without going down on Normal difficulty, shielded infantry usually takes a full (upgraded) clip to kill, and neutralizing the higher-level enemies requires enough firepower to wipe out a platoon. Well, and then [[ThisIsGonnaSuck there's the bosses]]...
** Special mention must go to kett Wraiths, reptilian war beasts that keep on fighting even after you've blown their ''goddamn brains out''. Also crosses into BodyHorror due to how [[{{Squick}} squicky]] it looks and sounds.
* MadScientist: [[spoiler:A pair of ex-Cerberus scientists can be found on Kadara, experimenting with creating a HiveMind on unwilling and unwitting test subjects, not noticing or caring that their experiment is destroying their subjects' minds. Tragically, by Cerberus standards, this probably makes them an unqualified success, since the experiment doesn't get them killed.]]
* MassOhCrap: [[spoiler:When the Archon's fleet forces the ''Tempest'' out of FTL on the way to Aya.]]
* MeaningfulName: The developers have [[https://twitter.com/macwalterslives/status/742584330543763456?lang=en confirmed]] that the name Ryder has plenty of meaning behind it, not the least of which is Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, as a successor to Commander Shepard's surname which comes from Alan Shepard, the first American man in space. More so for the female Ryder, whose default name Sara is a derivative of "Sarah" just like "Sally" is.
** Also meaningful, as Ryder spends a majority of the game "riding" around on the Nomad and exploring. Nomad is also a suitable MeaningfulName for the buggy.
** "Jaardan" sounds like "garden" and [[spoiler: the jaardan are responsible for creating the vaults and the terraforming network that can turn uninhabitable planets into garden worlds suitable for life.]]
** Peebee decides to name her first modified Observer "Poc", for Proof Of Concept.
** The designations of the Exiles' various EliteMooks are pretty spot-on: [[BombThrowingAnarchists Anarchists]], [[BarrierWarrior Pariahs]], [[InvisibilityCloak Operatives]] and [[TheBerserker Berserkers]].
* MechaMooks: The [[StarfishRobots Remnant]] are a vast army of non-sentient robots left behind by their creators to guard and maintain their technological legacy. They're mostly docile unless you get too close, attack them or do something else they don't like, which usually includes messing with their Vaults.
* MightyWhitey: The sci-fi version of the trope, not tied to a specific ethnicity. The protagonist arrives to a strange land inhabited by technologically less advanced natives who are struggling against an overwhelming foe. He or she then immediately masters the local technology that the natives have been unable to utilise properly for centuries, gives them their first meaningful victories over their enemy and makes staggering discoveries that they had never been able to put together on their own.
* MileLongShip: Remnant spaceships are the size of small cities. The one on Elaaden is more than halfway buried under sand, and it ''still'' looms over just about damn near everything.
* TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay: Averted; as the title indicates, the game takes place in the Andromeda galaxy, which Ryder and the other characters reach via SleeperStarship.
* MiniMecha: Hydra Assault Armors, high level enemies which start showing up halfway into the game and take a lot of firepower to put down, are towering war machines piloted by a single individual inside. It's heavily implied that they were precursors to ME 3's more advanced Atlas mechs.
* MoneyForNothing: There's a lot of ways to make money, but precious little to spend it on. Weapons and armor can be bought but are way better when crafted by Ryder, and all types of consumables can be obtained en masse by other means. Only a handful of (useful) items are exclusive to merchants, and those will usually be the only thing you'll ever fork over cash for. To top it off, they aren't even particularly expensive, so you'll quickly end up with five to six digit values of credits on your account.
* MoodDissonance: Avina the VI retains her chipper speech when first met on the Nexus, even though the lights are off and it looks like nobody's home. She also retains it after she's hacked by Knight and starts spouting anti-A.I. rhetoric.
* MookMaker: The Remnant really like this trope. For starters, almost every ''structure'' of theirs is one and can spawn waves of angry robots literally out of thin air. Their most basic unit - aptly called Assemblers - can throw a grenade-like something that rapidly morphs a Breacher bot in your face. Somewhere in between lies the Architect, a recurring BonusBoss with the ability to spawn half a dozen lesser bots as one of its attack cycles (although "lesser" is relative in this context; the later Architect encounters include generous amounts of Nullifiers in every wave, plus some less dangerous backup).
* MooksButNoBosses: [[spoiler:The final battle in a nutshell, which is somewhat jarring after all the frantic boss battles you've fought to get to this point. All you have to do is annihilate waves of Remnant bots (the worst of them being Nullifiers) while simultaneously dodging occasional fire from the Architect in the middle of the arena, interrupted by some running to hit a switch every now and then. Sounds simple enough, and frankly speaking, it really is.]]
* MoralMyopia: On Elaanden, an angaran is hoarding a massive reservoir of water. [[spoiler:If Ryder decides to reveal its existence to everyone so it can be shared, she'll send a group of raiders to kill Ryder, claiming they ruined her life if confronted.]]
* MoreDakka: Most kett troops use fast-firing automatic plasma weapons, but their [[EliteMooks Anointed]] take it UpToEleven by deploying some sort of plasma Gatling gun. If you see one of those things rise from cover and brace themselves, you better haul ass to the nearest cover yourself if you're at medium to close range.
* MortonsFork: Occurs in a conversation Ryder can have with an angry woman on the ''Hyperion'' after settling Eos, who blames Alec Ryder for everything that's gone wrong. Ryder can respond in two ways - point out their dad just died, or declare their attempts to fix it. Both have the woman brush them off and tell them to "go to hell".
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Happens to Jaal's sister during his loyalty mission. When their brother tells Jaal of the extremists' plans she shoots him in the back for betraying their cause. Luckily he lives and they make up.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
** ''The Scourge''
** Remnant Nullifiers and Destroyers are nothing to mess with if you value your health. Peebee sure chose those names well.
** Elaaden's Remnant Abyss doesn't sound particularly cuddly, too. It's a humongous robotic SandWorm hundreds of meters in length.
** Kett Fiends. And later, the kett Behemoth.
* NegativeSpaceWedgie: The Scourge. It messes up ships that come into contact with it, it disrupts the orbits and weather of planets it comes near ("near" in this case being within a few [=AUs=]), it kills anything that touches it, it reacts to any Remnant tech that comes near it. Worst of all, it [[EarthShatteringKaboom completely destroyed]] what was to become the new turian homeworld, leaving our favorite dextro species with no place to settle. It's spread across the entire Heleus cluster with no obvious spawn point and no means of getting rid of it (not that anyone seems to be trying), screws up basic physics, and is just generally bad news. [[spoiler:It's a weapon released and aimed at the jaardan for some reason.]]
* NeverLiveItDown: Invoked, in-universe, by one of the turians found on Havarl, who says that while they do want to be rescued, they just don't want their rescuers to be human, because "those arrogant bastards would never let us forget it".
* NewGamePlus: Players can carry over their level, unlocked abilities, and any items, armor and weapons in their inventory into a new campaign. All the maps you explored stay explored as well (minus stuff like forward stations), and both your squad mates' and your APEX teams' level, abilities and upgrades carry over, too. As a bonus, you can even change Ryder's gender, appearance, and training while retaining all of the above.
* NGOSuperpower: The Andromeda Initiative is a civilian, privately-funded project founded by the mysterious Jien Garson, with no ties to the Alliance or the Council, making their monumental journey to Andromeda all the more impressive. [[spoiler:It later turns out some of their funding was from less than upright personas with massive bank accounts.]]
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:The salarian fire-team manage to disable the massive battery of guns on the Archon's ship, thereby saving their Ark... but the EMP covers the whole ship, including the systems keeping the Behemoth contained. It promptly gets out and goes straight for Ryder.]]
* NoCutsceneInventoryInertia: If the script calls for Ryder to draw a weapon in a cutscene, s/he will pull out an M-8 Avenger assault rifle or M-6 Carnifex pistol regardless of whether s/he possesses one, although that only happens if Ryder holstered their weapon before the cutscene started. If they had an appropriate gun in hands at that moment, chances are good they'll be wielding that one during the following scenes.
** Even worse: they'll often use an unnamed, slick-looking assault rifle that can't be obtained anywhere in the game. The forums are full of gamers demanding access to this particular gun no matter who does or doesn't use it in cutscenes.
* NoFlowInCGI: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. Finally, for the first time in the series, [[https://twitter.com/GambleMike/status/742198429607186432 the hair will move.]]
* NoSell: Kett Ascendants are surrounded by an energy shield that makes them completely invincible as long as it is active. You need to destroy the drone projecting it before you can attack the Ascendant himself, which is much easier said than done due to the thing's small size and the fact that it's constantly orbiting its master, thus hiding behind his damn shield itself half of the time.
* NotQuiteTheRightThing: Some questlines or side missions have a morally ambiguous or complicated situation that seems like a classic MortonsFork, where every decision can have equally-devastating consequences. But, more often than not, these choices end up with one solution ''clearly'' better than the other.
** Not giving krogan overlord Morda the Remnant Drive Core [[spoiler:will result in no outpost being founded on Elaaden, removing the opportunity to fight the local Architect, pissing off Drack and Kesh, and making certain achievements impossible. The alternative reward (credits and Remnant research data) is lackluster in comparison.]]
** Solving the "First Murderer" quest by exiling Nilken will satisfy both the Nexus leadership and, later, you'll learn that he and his wife are living a harsh but happy life on Kadara. On the other hand, sparing him results in him becoming very unhappy and hated on the Nexus, to the point that his wife divorces him and he goes back into cryo. It's a SuddenDownerEnding to a player trying to help Nilken and not remotely an obvious choice for one that wants to punish him.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat:
** Director Tann and Colonial Supervisor Addison come across as this.
** William Spender, one of Foster Addison's subordinates who has a knack for making things even more difficult aboard the station than they need to be. [[spoiler: Investigating him for Drack reveals that he deliberately engineered the mutiny, the betrayal of the krogan, and has been covertly aiding the exiles as part of a power play to gain more influence on the Nexus.]]
* ObviousRulePatch: In addition to fixing graphical issues, story complaints and other problems, Patch 1.05 (released two weeks after the game's debut) corrected several {{Game Breaking Bug}}s, as well as balance issues in both Singleplayer and Multiplayer.
* OneHitKill:
** The purpose of the Cobra RPG consumable. Expensive as hell, but kills just about anything in one shot. Yes, that includes DemonicSpiders like Fiends and kett Ascendants (once their shield is down of course).
** Speaking of Ascendants - let them enter melee range with Ryder and they'll kill them instantly.
** If a Fiend gets too close, they'll pick up Ryder, chomp and shake them around, then throw them to the floor. It's probably the most graphic death sequence in the game.
* OneSteveLimit: Enforced; the submachinegun known as the Tempest in Mass Effect 2 and 3 is renamed the "Charger" in Andromeda due to the player's scout ship taking on the name.
* OnlyOneFemaleMold: Averted in both single and multiplayer- female characters have a much greater variation in height and build, from tall AmazonianBeauty to short and androgynous.
* OnlySixFaces: With the exception of Peebee, [[https://i.reddituploads.com/c015793f960f4a3b996db2e9e821a050?fit=max&h=1536&w=1536&s=856f1f10cccf11df830010ec56e6f2e1 all asari]] have the same face with different colors and markings. Similarly, the salarians are mostly just recolors of Tann with the exception of Raeka.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: ''Everyone'' goes out of character when Ryder drives the Nomad over a cliff at high speed - [[TheStoic Cora]] yells a panicked warning, [[BloodKnight Drack]] roars a pants-soilingly terrified "SHIIIIIIT!", [[HiredGuns Vetra]] starts laughing in excitement like a child at Christmas... Just try it out by yourself. It's utterly hilarious.
* OpeningTheSandbox: Though most storyline missions open more of the Heleus Cluster, rescuing the Moshae is the point where the game really kicks into full swing. In addition to more worlds to colonize, the player can completely most loyalty missions and rescue the other Arks.
* OrganicTechnology: The kett, the main antagonists, have a rock-like body that melds into a similarly rock-like armor/carapace. [[spoiler: it turns out the kett's bone-like armor is part of their body and not any sort of clothing, as the Kett are "born" naked and already fully armored.]]
* OutrunTheFireball: Resetting any Remnant vault has two consequences: the planet it's on becomes much more viable for colonisation, and a deadly energy cloud spawns at the center that kills every organic thing it touches and quickly expands throughout the vault. It's therefore not a bad idea to make yourself familiar with the vault layout before you hit that button and are forced to make a mad dash for the exit. For everyone looking for an additional challenge, most vaults have treasure rooms that are inaccessible until the vault is reset, so if you're really greedy, you can even [[ViolationOfCommonSense try to nick some more goodies while there's a killer cloud hot on your heels]].
* PassingTheTorch: In game, this happens when [[spoiler: Alec passes the title of Pathfinder on to you as he dies]].
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0Et481TNgE second teaser]] of the game is a symbolic torch passing - a voiceover from Commander Shepard telling (presumably) Ryder that it's time to become TheHero and find new worlds for humanity.
--> '''Shepard:''' Know that wherever you go, we will be with you. This is Commander Shepard, signing off.
* ThePlace: Unsurprisingly, ''Mass Effect: Andromeda'' takes place in the neighboring Andromeda galaxy.
* PlaceOfProtection: Aya is a paradise compared to the rest of the cluster, especially for the angara--anywhere else, they can't say goodbye to friends and family leaving for work or school without wondering if they'll ever see them again. The place is so heavenly that they hold regular lotteries determining who next will have the luxury of living there for a limited time. When the Nexus opens an embassy on Aya, several angara recognize the hope this brings to their species and ''willingly give up their spots'' so that Milky Way guests can stay. We're told that at least one angaran died from a kett attack after giving up their spot, and the Nexus ambassador is horrified to hear about it. Ryder can recommend a number of methods of dealing with the problem [[VideogameCrueltyPotential (including nothing)]], but the most benevolent option is to [[VideogameCaringPotential grant any lottery winners who give up their spot on Aya a chance to live on the Nexus instead.]]
* {{Planetville}}: Zigzagged, but usually averted. Havarl is probably the closest to being played straight. In this instance, though, there are other cities on the planet, it's just the one Ryder visits happens to be the one where the Vault is (because the angara built the city around the monoliths). Jaal's loyalty mission does take Ryder to another part of the planet.
* PlasmaCannon: Weapons made by the races currently living in the Helius Cluster are these; their projectiles move comparatively slowly, but can usually home in on targets, be charged for more powerful blasts, or etc.
* PlotArmor:
** [=NPCs=] occasionally meet up with Ryder in the wilds to get something done there, which means they may accidentally cross paths with the planet's vicious wildlife if some critter strays too close. No need to worry, though - no matter what beast they run into, they can't be wounded, let alone killed by it.
** The Nomad has this as long as you're not in it, so don't worry about it being destroyed by enemy fire if you take cover behind it.
* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: The main gag of the Cultural Exchange section of the Nexus. Every race presents themselves in the most flattering possible light and one display has the quad to call the Milky Way in general a harmonious collective of peace-loving races.
* {{Polyamory}}: PlayedWith. While Ryder can have sex with a multitude of potential partners, the game basically divides relationships into {{Official Couple}} and FriendsWithBenefits. Characters like Suvi or Cora will lock out any other full romance option, while characters like Keri or Avela are closer to temporary flings and Peebee can be either. However, there's no option to set up a [[ThreeWaySex Menage A Trois]] (or greater) situation, or an open relationship with two or more committed partners, who are all on the same page. To drive the point home, the usual "complete a romance" Achievement in most Bioware games is instead complete ''three'' romances--which can be done in a single game if the player chooses.
* PosthumousCharacter: [[spoiler:Jien Garson, the Initiative's founder and leader,]] died when the Nexus collided with the Scourge on arrival in Andromeda. You 'encounter' her on the Nexus via recordings and holograms she recorded before the expedition's departure. [[spoiler:You also discover that her death actually occurred long after the Nexus' arrival under suspicious circumstances.]]
* PowerFloats:
** The Remnant Architects can usually be found hovering over an area of the map (except the one on Eos, which bursts out of the ground).
** Kett Ascendants are recurring boss-level enemies that never touch the ground as long as they're alive.
* PowerUpLetDown:
** A great many of the AVP cryo-pod perks are rather... underwhelming, if not downright useless. At best, a player may get something useful every once in a while, but far more often they'll receive a better quantity and/or quality of rewards by adventuring normally.
** The overwhelming majority of Ryder's powers definitely fall under this category, with the exception of a specific, Charge-centered Vanguard setup. Max out every offensive tech and biotic power there is, equip as many power damage booster mods as you can and spam combo detonations like there's no tomorrow - you still won't come even remotely close to the sheer damage output a tier 6 Soldier or Infiltrator with one or two good guns can unleash on the battlefield.
* PrecisionFStrike: A lot of characters will throw in the occasional swear word when the situation is fittingly grim or they're sufficiently pissed. Ryder is no slouch in that department either; a primarily [[DeadpanSnarker sarcastic protagonist]] will even drift into SirSwearsALot territory.
* {{Precursors}}: [[spoiler:The jaardan]], the creators of what is now known as the Remnant and the huge, impossibly advanced structures associated with them. Gets even more impressive when Ryder uncovers that [[spoiler:the jaardan ''created the angara''. Like, from scratch.]] Everyone except Jaal and his people is suitably impressed. Or terrified. Or both. No-one really knows what happened to them or if they're still out there somewhere, but [[spoiler:the Scourge is eventually revealed to be a weapon someone deployed against the jaardan in a devastating war that forced them to flee the Heleus Cluster. One NPC also mentions that a handful of the Remnant warships Ryder sent against the Archon's fleet briefly linked up to Meridian after the battle and then left for parts unknown, implying the jaardan's present-day location might yet be uncovered in a DLC or sequel]].
* ProductPlacement:
** [[http://www.polygon.com/2017/3/15/14937586/mass-effect-andromeda-spacex-model Oddly enough to SpaceX]], the private aerospace company currently working on creating reusable space launch systems. According to the codex, Space[==]X was vital to the efforts that eventually led humanity to discovering the Mars Prothean Archives that gave them mass effect technology.
** A model of the SpaceX rocket is one of the first model ships the player may collect. The only one ahead of SpaceX? The Normandy SR 2 of Mass Effect 2 and 3, of course.
* ProperlyParanoid: PlayedWith. During the task "Messages to the Nexus", Ryder is required to go to message terminals on Aya to collect personal messages from the angaras to the Nexus. [[spoiler: One angara asked them what drove them to cross darkspace and that angara believes they fled from something terrible and it might follow them here. He's definitely right about the first part, considering the Initiative leaders knew about the Reapers at that point.]].
* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Kallo is ''not'' happy to witness Sara Ryder's awkward attempt at flirting with Suvi. Even the subtitles get in on it.
--> '''Kallo''': Kill. Me. Now.
* ThePurge: If the Charlatan takes control of Kadara Port, near all the non-angara inhabitants vanish from the place. If Sloane Kelley remains in charge, it's the other way around, [[spoiler:Reyes' attempt on her life prompting her to beef up security.]]
* PurpleIsPowerful: There're two indicators that let you know you're fighting a boss: skull symbols below their health bar, and their name written fat in purple instead of the usual white. A bunch of Ryder's squad mates also have a marked preference for wearing purple.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Q - U]]
* RagnarokProofing: Remnant structures and constructs appear extremely resistant to wear and tear, showing little signs of damage even after centuries of exposure to the harshest of environmental conditions. Scanning defeated Architects reveals various minor damages related to their former habitat, but none of that prevented them from putting up one hell of a fight against Ryder's team, and they're still very active after the beating they just suffered at Ryder's hands. Most impressively, even the asteroid belt that used to be H-047c (the planned turian homeworld in Heleus) harbors fully functional Remnant Vaults despite not even being on a planet anymore.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Ryder's team, as per ''Mass Effect'' franchise norm. Let's see - we have a rather involuntary hero who inherited their position from their father under the worst possible circumstances, a slightly anti-social rogue asari academic who's the leading expert on Remnant technology, a failed cop turned crisis response officer, an insanely powerful human biotic who's somewhat detached from her own species after she was trained by asari because nobody else could handle her, a truly ancient krogan warrior and ex-pirate who's fought in just about every war and conflict that went down in the past fourteen centuries, a shady turian smuggler and mercenary with a heart of gold, and a native alien resistance fighter with a stated interest in those curious newcomers to the neighborhood. Together they save the day on countless occasions, and - to quote Cora - they do it in style.
* ReadingsAreOffTheScale: Crops up every now and then, most often in connection to the Scourge or Remnant technology. Peebee is among the first characters to use this phrase almost verbatim to let us know that yes, reactivating a Remnant Vault is indeed SeriousBusiness.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld:
** In chronological terms at least, Scott and Sara's father Alec Ryder counts as this. Being among the oldest of the twenty thousand humans - barring noncombatants such as scientists who could plausibly be older - on the Hyperion Ark when they set off (56 years old, born in 2129), Alec is revived upon arrival in the Andromeda galaxy at the "age" of ''690''. Of course, that doesn't even take into consideration any of the asari and krogan who made the trip; both species with life expectancies at, around or ''exceeding'' a millennium.
** Drack is the oldest krogan shown in the series at around 1400 years old at the start of the Andromeda project. Counting time spent in stasis he's now over 2000 years old, making him one of the oldest beings encountered in the games.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Most of the Initiative, despite most of them not appearing to be at first.
** Kandros and Kesh are the most level-headed Initiative leaders, always being polite, friendly, and reasonable towards Ryder.
** Director Addison is the most hostile member of Initiative leadership at the start. She tells you that she never even cared for pleasantries with Ryder Sr., and she now she cares for them even less. As she says, the work of the Initiative is never finished, and they're always one major disaster away from total collapse. Despite this, she helps Ryder as much as she can, and genuinely congratulates Ryder for his/her successes.
** Director Tann zig-zags it. [[spoiler:After the mission to the Remnant space station, he admits that his ordering you to stay away from it was wrong]], and pledges the Initiative's full support. Tann largely has two failings: aggressively enforcing his own propaganda, such as having Keri T'Vessa arrested if her documentary series doesn't fit the narrative, and demonstrating FantasticRacism on multiple occasions toward the krogan and, despite his efforts to hide it, towards the angara as well.
* RedShirt: No prologue mission would be complete without a minor character biting the dust to show off how serious the situation is. Here it's [[spoiler:Kirkland]], one of the guys on your squad who got shot dead by kett soldiers before you even find him after the crash.
* RegeneratingShieldStaticHealth: While the game's shield regeneration mechanic is identical to those of its predecessors, ''Andromeda'' hits a middle ground between ME 2 and ME 3 as far as health regeneration is concerned. It shares ME 2's one-piece health bar instead of ME 3's segmented one, but Ryder's health only regenerates to a maximum of 50% on its own. How long that takes depends on various skills and equipment bonuses. Full healing can only be achieved by picking up medkits, visiting a forward station, or evolving Cora's Shield Boost power for health regen.
* RelationshipValues: Unlike in previous ''Mass Effect'' games, the game tracks Ryder's relationship with the crew members and there's a menu tab where you can review Ryder's relationship statuses.
* RequiredPartyMember: As in previous games, each teammate has their own loyalty mission where they cannot be swapped out. Jaal is also mandatory for the mission where you rescue the Moshae.
* {{Retcon}}:
** Obviously, the Andromeda Initiative has never been mentioned in the original trilogy, despite getting launched roughly at the time of the second game. Especially noteworthy in the third game, where after Thessia the asari councilwoman states that they will have to make plans for the continuation of their civilization, which is exactly what the Initiative is all about.
** The N7 Piranha shotgun got retconned in order to appear in this game. In Mass Effect 3 it was explicitly stated to have been designed after the initial Reaper invasion due to the sudden need for a powerful, low-weight weapon for species like salarians and quarians who had trouble handling heavier guns. In Andromeda, it's stated that it had already reached the functioning prototype stage early enough to be included in the Initiative's equipment stores. It's also been changed to be one of the heaviest shotguns in the game, while in Mass Effect 3 it was one of the lightest.
* TheReveal:
** On Voeld, it turns out the kett [[spoiler:turn prisoners into more kett.]]
** [[spoiler:Examining Alec Ryder's memories reveals Jien Garson was murdered after the Nexus reached Andromeda.]]
** Nakmor Morda [[spoiler:isn't a bad guy. Bad-tempered, sure, but not bad.]]
** A side-quest that begins after finding the salarian Ark has an STG operative wonder whether someone on-board that ship deliberately let the kett take it, though at first his claims have little proof. [[spoiler:It turns out that yes, several salarians did surrender their people to the kett.]]
** [[spoiler:The angara were ''created'' by the Remnant's builders.]]
** [[spoiler:Meridian isn't a Vault. It's also not the city-ship. It's an entire Dyson sphere.]]
* RevisitingTheRoots: The game in general bears more resemblance to the story and gameplay of the original VideoGame/MassEffect1. Specifically:
** The emphasis is on exploring planets and actually dropping down to find resources. Vehicular gameplay returns in the form of the Nomad ATV, with MASSIVE maps to drive around.
** The soundtrack regains the synthesized "80s techno" roots.
** Environments are much larger, combat has a lot more vertical aspect and the TakeCover element is a passive feature like in the first game rather than a necessity as in 2 and 3.
** Inventory and resource management is a major feature, with a limit cap forcing you to dismantle and reassess different items.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: Revolvers (or something similar to them, [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter considering how guns work]] in ''Franchise/MassEffect'') [[http://imgur.com/Z0j1A2e make their debut]] in ''Andromeda''.
** The Talon (basically a shotgun in pistol form) returns from ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' and still relies on rotating internal ammo blocks to prevent shaver jam and misfires, making it fall under this trope once again.
* RewatchBonus: The early part of the game is chock full of {{Foreshadowing}}, {{Brick Joke}}s, {{Meaningful Background Event}}s, and other things which are {{Hilarious|InHindsight}} or HarsherInHindsight that part of the fun of a replay is seeing how much of it you can find.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Once again, TheHero can acquire a Space Hamster as a pet. It's even an in-universe example - Sara Ryder all but starts [[{{Squee}} squeeing]] over how cute the little guy is when she sees it the first time.
* RidiculouslyFastConstruction: When Ryder founds an outpost, they activate a homing beacon, the screen briefly fades to black and voilà: instant buildings everywhere! It's compounded further by the game's utter lack of day-night-cycles which gives the impression of no time having passed at all. Justified, as all the buildings are obviously prefabricated, so they only have to be set down on solid, flat ground and you're almost done.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge:
** When Ryder and their team find out [[spoiler:the Archon has been horrifically experimenting on hundreds, if not ''thousands'' of salarians after capturing the salarian ark]], they stare at the pile of disposed and rotting bodies in utter horror. In the very next room over, they're attacked by a group of kett, and are overcome with a blinding urge to make every single one of them pay for what they've done.
** This is how Ryder [[GondorCallsForAid calls for aid]] against the Archon during the FinalBattle. S/he tells the ''Tempest'' to call every single person they've met in the game and ask them if they're ready get [[PrecisionFStrike "Fucking Payback"]] against the kett. Every pissed-off angarian, turian, asari, krogan, outlaw, and other factions Ryder has met show up in waves and blow up all the kett they see.
* RomanceSidequest: Ryder can romance several members of his/her squad and the ''Tempest'' crew, including Peebee and Vetra as bisexual options, Cora, Liam and Jaal as exclusively heterosexual options, and Gil and Suvi as exclusively homosexual options. There are additional light romances outside of the crew on the various worlds the player visits that Ryder can engage in.
* RuleOfThree:
** Three Remnant monoliths seal the entrance to each planet's Vault and need to be reactivated before the Vault itself can be entered. A lot of these monoliths require three Remnant glyphs to be tracked down before the activation can commence.
** Architects have three [[AttackItsWeakpoint conduits]] - one on each leg - that must be destroyed one after the other, and they cycle through three combat phases while you're attempting to do that.
** One sidequest in New Tuchanka on Elaaden pits Ryder and two bickering krogan warriors against [[spoiler:a pack of [[ThisIsGonnaSuck three Fiends at once]]]]. Thankfully, the arena is large enough to have some room to manoeuvre.
** Another sidequest on the Nexus sends Ryder to Voeld to do the exact same thing, only this time it's [[spoiler:three ''boss-level'' Fiends simultaneously]], and with a Level 1 Cold Hazard thrown in for good measure.
** During the final battle, [[spoiler:Ryder must interact with three consoles to sever the Archon's connection to Meridian's control systems]].
* RunningGag:
** Lexi is constantly reminding the ''Tempest'' crew of outstanding medical exams she's scheduled for them, which the crew is constantly trying to skip in return.
** Jaal awkwardly asking his traveling companions what they do for 'fun' as an icebreaker.
** Suvi trying to find a way to safely eat Heleus flora, to Kallo and Lexi's increasing exasperation.
* SadisticChoice: Par for the course in a Bioware game:
** During the mission to rescue Moshae Sjefa, [[spoiler:the Cardinal offers to free the imprisoned angara in the exaltation center in exchange for your leaving the base intact. You have a weapon that can destroy the base, but there won't be enough time to get the imprisoned angara out of the base before it blows. Your are forced to choose between sacrificing innocent angara or leaving the base intact so the kett can exalt more innocents.]]
** Dealing with [[spoiler:the ancient angaran A.I. has one. Kill the A.I. and save the angaran it's zapping, or let it live.]]
** The quest "Contagion" ends with [[spoiler:the woman that carries a fatal, incurable, rapidly-communicable, and worst of all, ''cross-species'' virus being held at gunpoint by the Roekaar--a xenophobic Angaran faction that happens to be immune and carrying a sample of said virus as a bioweapon. She will beg you to kill her so that you can kill him and stop a future genocide, but SAM will tell you that the virus is decayed, possibly beyond use. Do you allow the innocent woman to die to save other innocents, or do you save her and risk letting the genocidal bigot go with one of the deadliest pathogens in the universe?]]
** During "Hunting the Archon," [[spoiler:you have to choose between saving Drack's scouts and helping Pathfinder Raeka save the last imprisoned salarians. Save the scouts, and Raeka dies, leaving the less experienced Captain Hayjer as salarian Pathfinder. Save the salarians, and Drack takes it as a personal betrayal. Either way, after the mission, you are treated to footage of the aliens you didn't save being herded into an exaltation center.]]
* SaharanShipwreck: It probably ''isn't'' a coincidence that Elaaden, the desert moon, has a crashed Remnant ship dominating the skyline.
* SandWorm: Elaaden is home to a physics-defying robotic version called the Remnant Abyss that moves around by constantly disassembling its tail and reassembling the matter at its tip while it plows through the dunes. It's completely harmless as long as you don't happen to stand anywhere near the point of impact when it hits the ground, though it looks intimidating enough that even Drack is unnerved by its presence.
* SanitySlippage: As Lexi realises on Elaaden, an unfortunate side-effect of the defrosting can result in a bad case of this, which can't be cured, just alleviated.
* ScaryDogmaticAliens:
** The kett are a quasi-religious KnightTemplar race that are heavily implied to control a vast empire outside of the Heleus Cluster, and the reason they sent the Archon to Heleus is simple: [[spoiler:to "exalt" the entire cluster, which basically means [[AssimilationPlot "turn everyone compatible there into more kett, kill the rest"]]]]. No negotiating about peaceful coexistence is possible; the best you can manage is defeat the current invasion force, never knowing when the next one will roll into town.
** The angara, while reasonable and peaceful overall, have the Roekaar, an alien-hating fraction that hates your guts just for being human, asari or anything else not angaran, no matter how much you do to help the species in their struggle against the kett. They usually shoot first and forget the questions, and you'll never fully get rid of them.
* SceneryGorn: In a conversation with Cora, Drack will describe what he remembers of seeing the aftermath of the Rachni Wars. It falls squarely into this trope, even though Drack was born centuries after it ended.
* SceneryPorn:
** The 2016 trailer has plenty of gorgeous alien vistas, often with other planets visible in the sky.
** A Remnant vault looks breathtaking, especially in 4k.
** Players can now see any planets or anomalies in the place they're in outside the Tempest's windows, and they look amazing.
** Voeld, once the blizzards let up. Mile after mile of snowy mountains, with a gorgeous aurora in the sky. The ice caverns and frozen bodies of water are just as captivating.
** Ryder will even admit this is the only thing H-047c has going for it. It's utterly dead and destroyed, but the views are spectacular.
** [[spoiler:Meridian is absolutely gorgeous. Tragically, you can't take the Nomad out for a spin on it after everything's over.]]
** Frankly, every location in the game looks awesome in some way thanks to the extremely improved graphics over the original trilogy. If your console or gaming rig is powerful enough to play ''ME:A'' on 4k and ultra-high settings, chances are you'll find yourself distracted by the gorgeous vistas all around you as often as you'll be shooting at something.
* SchmuckBait:
** A great many of the interrupt prompts you sometimes get during cutscenes are detrimental, with consequences like getting chewed out by someone or losing support for the final battle all the way up to forfeiting the ability to romance certain team members. Read very carefully what exactly the prompt says before you hit that button. General rule of thumb: Don't use them. ''Especially'' not during loyalty missions. They almost always do the opposite of what the squad mate in question wants Ryder to do.
** The [[BossInMookClothing Remnant Destroyer]] is a massive robotic enemy susceptible to SubSystemDamage - its two rapid-fire energy cannons are separate entities that can be shot off to reduce its withering firepower. While that may seem like a good tactic, it actually makes the thing even more dangerous because for every weapon it looses, it channels the surplus energy into its motive systems. With both cannons down, Destroyers can cross even the largest rooms frighteningly fast to close in on their target, and once they're there, they proceed to spam a short-ranged but very damaging energy field that can knock Ryder out of commission in seconds. It's much easier and safer to just [[AttackItsWeakpoint shoot their large central cannon]] when it opens for charging.
** In-universe, the kett have a tendency to just leave their vehicles and technology just lying around, unclaimed, in the open, where ''any'' angara could stumble across them... at which point it turns out the kett have booby-trapped it, and it explodes. The angara who tells Ryder this mentions they only started doing it after the angara did it to them first.
* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Cora and SAM can have a discussion on AI in which SAM argues that true AI are so rare that there can't exist a sufficient sample size to determine if [[AIIsACrapshoot AI is always a crapshoot]]. Cora counters by saying that while that may be true, any rogue AI is automatically a ''serious'' threat to organics. SAM counters that by saying that if an entire society believes AI are automatically hostile, then the AI will inevitably become hostile.
* SequelDifficultyDrop: Although not a direct sequel to the original trilogy, ''ME:A'' is both the next title in the ''Mass Effect'' franchise and significantly easier than any of its predecessors - at least once you're past the [[EarlyGameHell sadistically tough major battles]] against the kett in the prologue mission. The PlayerCharacter quickly becomes exceedingly versatile and very difficult to kill, all squad mates are powerful assets [[MadeOfIron made of tank-grade composite armor]], and there are a lot of hard-hitting guns with potentially unlimited ammo available. Weapons handling in general is notably smoother, too, since even the most powerful guns have little to no climb or sway. If you play on Normal difficulty and actually manage to get Ryder killed in combat, you either did it on purpose or something went horribly wrong.
* SequelHook:
** The Arks that have arrived in Andromeda were for humanity, turians, salarians, and asari, and the krogan were explicitly denied one. However, Director Tann explains that a quarian ark was also in the works, but they have had to postpone transit due to a desire to include accommodations for the drell, hanar, and other races, and their ark should not be expected for some time. [[spoiler:During the epilogue party, a worker alerts Ryder that the Initiative has picked up a distress call from the quarian ark, but they haven't been able to pinpoint the ark's location.]]
*** More alarmingly, [[spoiler:the message isn't a call for help. It tells anyone receiving it to stay away.]]
** Prior to leaving for Andromeda, the Initiative [[spoiler:received massive amounts of funding from a MysteriousBacker, who have been theorized to be Cerberus, and whom were also responsible for sending an agent along on the expedition who murdered Jien Garson. The identity of the backer and the agent, as well as their motives for murdering Garson remain unknown.]]
** [[spoiler:Ellen Ryder is also NotQuiteDead thanks to being put in cryo by Alec and being smuggled aboard the Initiative under a false name. She remains in cryo until a cure for her condition is found.]]
** [[BigBad The Archon]] is the agent of a larger kett empire that is causing trouble in many places throughout the Andromeda galaxy. Preparations for their expected future attacks on the Initiative and its angaran allies are already underway.
** [[spoiler:The fate of the jardaan race is unknown, as is their reason for creating the angara and the Remnant network. Ryder and SAM speculate that they are likely to return to finish what they started.]]
** The identity and fate of [[spoiler:the race that created the Scourge to fight the jardaan are complete unknowns.]]
** After the credits, talking with one of the ''Hyperion'''s newly defrosted crew reveals [[spoiler:seven of the Remnant ships survived the final battle, linked up with Meridian, and then left for parts unknown.]]
* SequenceBreaking:
** A minor case in the Architects. When the one on Eos makes its DynamicEntry, everyone freaks out and starts wondering what the hell that thing is. But, you can fight them in any order, and if you do, everyone already seems to know what that ginormous thing is and even the name is already established.
** Players are clearly meant to face the Cardinal as their first Ascendant. She is the first mandatory one in the story, and she boasts about her shields (drawing the player's attention to them) and explains why she has these powers above other kett. That said, the player can fight two others on Voeld and Eos before her with no clue about who or what they are.
* SeriousBusiness: An initial suggestion of Liam's to have a movie night quickly mutates into a massive string of quests forcing Ryder to travel all over the Heleus Cluster, just to get everything needed for it. Liam will even point out eventually he had just meant for it to be a bit of harmless fun.
* SexyDiscretionShot: Some of the romance scenes end with a discreet fade to black before the characters have sex. Others... [[{{Fanservice}} do not.]]
* ShipTease:
** Peebee and Jaal seem to have a lot of chemistry, and she flirts with him more than any other cast member to the point that Jaal directly propositions her to mate (although it's revealed that he and Ryder set it up to tease her back).
** Peebee at one point makes the suggestion that she and Liam's disagreements are built on BelligerentSexualTension, wonders if they'd have a relationship [[SlapSlapKiss that'd be "slapstick funny"]]. Liam, however, doesn't seem interested in her.
** Lexi has an obvious crush on Drack, but he doesn't return any affections.
** Vetra at one point admits to being [[ArousedByTheirVoice aroused by Suvi's voice]].
** Drack questions a romanced Cora about her relationship with Ryder, and she asks if he's jealous. When he teases her back and says she couldn't handle this much krogan, she says she'd rather kiss a thresher maw--to which he says he knows some that are single.
** Jaal at one point notes that Cora is in perfect physical condition and an embarrassed Cora expresses surprise that he was looking. Jaal states, "The mind wants what it...wants". At another point, Cora asks Jaal to scoot over in the Nomad because it's too hot. He asks if she means "hot" or ''[[DoubleEntendre "hot"]]''.
* ShockAndAwe: ''ME:A'' sees the return of a wide variety of electric attacks available to Ryder, from [[AbnormalAmmo Disruptor Ammo]] to [[ChainLightning Overload]] to a BeehiveBarrier power that electrocutes anything close to it.
** The game also introduces a new environmental hazard: streams and ponds of a mysterious, electrically charged liquid that's prevalent in most Remnant installations; touching it deals massive amounts of damage.
** Speaking of Remnant - one of the Architects' most dangerous attacks is a massive, cover-piercing electric shockwave that deals high initial damage and even more over time if you don't move Ryder out of the area of effect.
** Kett grenades don't go boom like Ryder's do. They instead unleash what you might call a localized thunderstorm trapped under an orange shield dome that deals considerable damage over time and lingers for quite a while.
** One ultra-rare gun augmentation changes the projectile type to a tightly focused stream of lightning discharges.
* ShortRangeShotgun: In full effect, mostly due to their ridiculously wide spread. If they don't have one (like the N7 Crusader, which shoots single slugs instead of pellets), they're so inaccurate you won't hit the broadside of a barn that's more than twenty meters away.
* ShoutOut:
** You are offered a pyjak pet near the beginning. The instructions are "[[{{Film/Gremlins}} no food after 2359, no baths or showers, and please limit his exposure to solar radiation]]"
** Ryder can find yet another hamster. [[VideoGame/BaldursGate A space hamster, you might say.]] [[MythologyGag Shepard would be proud.]]
** Ryder gets a bunch of fanmail from other Bioware characters. Among the many notes thanking you [[spoiler: for settling Meridian]] is one from Anders, who writes, "[[VideoGame/DragonAgeII Let's blow the roof off the place!]]" There's also V. Tethras, who declares he's going to write a book about all this.
** During Liam's loyalty mission Ryder can try to pass the noise of a fire fight off as a weapons malfunction, say everything is fine, and ask how they are. With an interrupt option to disconnect the line when the other guys answers back. Remind you of another adventure in a [[Film/ANewHope galaxy far far away]]?
** While driving around Voeld in the Nomad, one squad mate will eventually start griping about how their parts are getting frozen. Ryder tells them to [[Disney/{{Frozen}} let it go]].
** Similarly on Voeld, near an angaran outpost you get a prompt for a mission called "White Death", where you assist a sniper in finding a cloaked target. Only way they could have made this more obvious would have been to name the [[UsefulNotes/SimoHayha sniper Simo.]]
** After [[spoiler:The Remnant City]], Liam sends an message with various vids attached, including one about "[[Film/TheComputerWoreTennisShoes a 1995 vid about an AI's choice of footwear]]."
** The way the Remnant ship sticks out of the sand dunes of Elaaden bears a striking resemblance [[Film/TheForceAwakens to another ship, on another desert planet, in another galaxy]].
** The krogan "Strongjaw Grog" appears to be named after barbarian Grog Strongjaw from ''WebVideo/CriticalRole''.
** The large black hole at the centre of the Heleus cluster resembles Gargantua from {{Film/Interstellar}}, though tinted blue instead of gold. Appropriately, that film also dealt with the challenges of exploring and colonizing another galaxy.
** The Remnant Vaults and their robotic guardians bear more than a slight resemblance to the Forerunner installations and their Sentinels in the {{Franchise/Halo}} games.
* ShownTheirWork:
** The writers record radiation dose in the unit mSv, or millisieverts, which is a commonly used unit. The level encountered at Hazard Level 3 is about the maximum dose allowed annually for working in a nuclear plant, every second.
** [[ArtisticLicensePhysics On the other hand]]: Hazard Level 1 is listed as around 0.04 mSv/hr. In the game, this won't kill you very quickly, but it will will eventually prove fatal. In real life this exposure rate is too low to cause even the mildest symptoms of radiation sickness.
** The turian scientist in the Nexus' research lab correctly uses the term "meteoroid" to describe small stellar objects on an orbit around a star. Most people tend to call these things "meteors" or "meteorites" instead, but those terms don't become valid until the object in question has entered a planet's atmosphere. "Asteroid" would be another matter since the only thing that sets them apart from meteoroids is their size (and there isn't a clearly defined line where the meteoroid ends and the asteroid begins), but that matter notwithstanding, it's a refreshing case of someone at Bioware having done their homework.
* SingleBiomePlanet: Played straight in gameplay, but it also seems to be that way in the lore. Some are even explicitly described as such on the galaxy map. Of note is that their current status appears to be grounded in the malfunctioning Vaults and that they will eventually become the diverse "Golden Worlds" they used to be once again.
** Eos and Elaaden are two slightly differing shades of [[ShiftingSandLand desert worlds]].
** Voeld is an [[SlippySlideyIceWorld ice world]] locked in a planet-wide ice age that froze its oceans solid to the very bottom.
** Havarl is a [[JungleJapes jungle world]] suffering from uncontrolled hyper-evolution.
** Aya is a [[LethalLavaLand rabidly volcanic world]] with a single paradisiac oasis where the resident angara live.
** Kadara is somewhat more difficult to categorize, but between its rocky landscape and acid lakes caused by Vault-induced volcanism, it's closest to being another Volcano World.
** Habitat 7 is a solid DeathWorld.
* SinisterGeometry: Kett technology has a very Creator/HRGiger-esque design, which always feel uncomfortable to look at. Their architecture always has a lot of ribbed surfaces, exposed tubes, bulbous orbs, and sickly green color. Everything about it seems ominous and sinister.
* SleeperStarship: You arrive in the Andromeda galaxy by going into stasis on board a starship which arrives at the new galaxy after many generations.
* SleptThroughTheApocalypse: A double example. The arks leave Citadel space in 2185, the year before [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 the Reaper War]] and all it entailed, then arrive in Andromeda 634 years later to discover that the star cluster they intended to settle has suffered both an apocalyptic NegativeSpaceWedgie (the Scourge) and a major AlienInvasion (the kett) since they surveyed it from afar.
* SlippySlideyIceWorld: Voeld is a frozen world. Its icy surface makes controlling the Nomad somewhat more difficult than normal.
* SpaceMines: [[spoiler:The Scourge, Heleus' resident NegativeSpaceWedgie, is eventually revealed to be little more than a very esoteric take on this trope - a gigantic, incredibly devastating area denial weapon made of unstable dark energy that destroys ships, makes worlds uninhabitable and gives physics as we know it the finger across an entire star cluster. Liam even explicitly compares it to a minefield once he learns of its origin and purpose. It actively seeks out and hunts down its enemy's technology, can't be cleared or fought, and might eventually smother the whole Heleus cluster if no solution is found in time.]]
* SpaceCossacks: Has the premise of you fleeing the galaxy just a year before the arrival of the Reapers without knowing you are, [[spoiler: except at the leadership level.]] You then find most of the worlds you were going to settle are hellholes and you have to make a deal with the local species, the angara, to fight an invading one in the Kett.
* SpacePirates: Encountered in Liam's loyalty mission.
* SpaceWestern: Just as the original trilogy evoked the SpaceOpera popular in late '70s/early '80s sci-fi through aesthetics and themes of politics, personal tragedy, and epic warfare, ''Andromeda'' seems to be angling for the SpaceWestern sensibilities of science fiction like ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' and ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' atmospherically and by focusing on exploration and colonization. The announcement trailer starts by showing a sprawling desert landscape filled with buttes and mesas set to "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky" by Music/JohnnyCash.
** You mean... ''[[JustForPun Ryders]]'' In The Sky?
** [[http://imgur.com/Z0j1A2e Screenshots]] also reveal [[RevolversAreJustBetter revolver-type pistols]] will be in the game.
* SpinAttack: Equipping a kett carfalon sword will have Ryder perform one every time they use a melee attack.
* StopBeingStereotypical:
** Due to the angara's distrust for aliens, several characters (especially an Emotional Ryder) state that all of the Milky Way species need to be on their best behavior to convince them that they're different from the kett. When Ryder and crew come across various criminals or Exiles that paint them in a negative light, they are audibly frustrated and recognize how far back this is going to set them.
** A number of salarians often mention the part their species had to play in the Rachni Wars, the Krogan Rebellions, and the genophage and comment that they have a lot of mistakes to atone for. Former members of the Special Task Groups also mention how hard it is for old habits to die hard.
** A few krogan [=NPCs=] can be heard complaining about New Tuchanka (and specifically Morda's) power and command structure, saying that it's way too similar to the original Tuchanka. Some point out that they ''tried'' to change but [[ThenLetMeBeEvil if the Nexus is going to treat them like brutes, then they may as well own it]].
* StoppedNumberingSequels: The given reason for this game not being called "''Mass Effect 4''" is that the developers consider the numbered installments to comprise the "Shepard trilogy", while ''Andromeda'' is an entirely new story, unrelated to the Commander and the Reaper wars.
* StormingTheCastle: Or more precisely, Storming The Kett Stronghold. A number of worlds boast huge, heavily fortified kett garrisons that can be cleared out during certain missions or simply because it's a real blast to do. Pulling it off increases the respective planet's viability by an impressive 10%, more than any other secondary objective save for defeating the resident Architect (also 10%) and activating the local Vault (a whopping 40%). Many smaller examples occur during various sidequests over the course of the game.
* StuffBlowingUp: ''ME:A'' provides ample opportunities to blow up shit in creative ways, from Ryder's omni-grenade power over explosive canisters to all flavors of power combo detonations and more. Certain enemies are even worse thanks to their fondness for GrenadeSpam. Last but not least, a lot of missions include lovingly rendered cutscenes in which big things explode spectacularly.
* SubSystemDamage: The [[BossInMookClothing Remnant Destroyer]] is a massive robotic enemy susceptible to this - its two rapid-fire energy cannons are separate entities that can be shot off to reduce its withering firepower. While that may seem like a good tactic, it actually makes the thing even more dangerous because with every weapon it looses, it channels the surplus energy into its motive systems. With both cannons down, Destroyers can cross even the largest rooms frighteningly fast to close in on Ryder, and once they're there, they proceed to spam a short-ranged but very damaging energy field that can knock Ryder out of commission in seconds. It's much easier and safer to just [[AttackItsWeakpoint shoot their large central cannon]] when it opens for charging.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAliens: [[spoiler:The jardaan race was so advanced that they created an entire sapient species. [[TokenReligiousTeammate Suvi]] briefly questions where the line between advancement and divinity is once a race reaches that level.]]
* SuperDrowningSkills: Despite there being lakes on several planets, neither Ryder nor the Nomad can cross any body of water that is more than ankle-deep. Trying to do so will simply have them respawn at the shoreline. The acid lakes on Kadara are an exception - they can be as deep as Ryder is tall, and once the Vault has been reset and the water is safe again, (s)he can walk through it like it isn't even there.
* SuperSpit: Everything in Heleus has a ranged attack. If any species of animal can't get into melee range with its prey for whatever reason, it'll instead spit huge globs of a greenish liquid over considerable distances with pinpoint accuracy. While these attacks are pretty powerful as well, they're easily dodged and therefore a lot less dangerous than risking close combat.
* SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity: The Archon's private quarters has spare ammo boxes lying around. [[spoiler:They are needed for dealing with the Behemoth.]] However, it's subverted as often as it's played straight - a lot of locations are stocked with tons of supplies, yet no fight ever happens there ([[spoiler:the Resistance HQ on Voeld]] is a good example).
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute:
** In universe, the Nexus is meant to be to Andromeda what the Citadel is to the Milky Way. The Nexus has a similar design to the Citadel and is meant to be the capital of the worlds settled by the Andromeda Initiative. It also uses the same Avina VI guide as the Citadel.
** Kett Ascendants behave ''a lot'' like [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 Banshees]] - they move around the battlefield via FlashStep spam, have a NoSell shield that's even worse than the Banshees', hurl slow but powerful energy projectiles that can knock you out of cover, and to put icing on the cake, they have an insta-kill attack at melee range. Even their general body shape (tall, thin, creepy face) is similar. The only difference is that Banshees didn't hover around, for which we're all thankful.
** On a similar note, Hydras are basically the ''Andromeda'' equivalent of Atlas mechs - heavily armored MiniMecha that steadily advance on their target while pummelling it with barrages of heavy weapons fire. Their ArmCannon even looks almost identical to the Atlas', and although they lack the Atlas' shields, it supports the theories of the Hydra being a less advanced precursor technology.
* SwordAndGun: The game allows you to carry several guns at a time (which can be [[PlasmaCannon plasma weapons from the Helius Cluster]], [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter kinetic weapons from the Milky Way]], or [[FrickinLaserBeams Remnant energy weapons]]) as well as a melee weapon of your choice.
* TakeCover: ''Andromeda'' uses a similar system to the first game-get close to a suitable object, and Ryder will automatically crouch behind it. Also, blind-firing is now possible.
* TaughtByTelevision: The krogan of Andromeda, now able to have children of their own, have started learning about this whole "courting" mess they keep hearing about, taking inspiration from things like ''Blasto 6'', and even what's heavily implied to be an asari adult movie. Results seem to be mixed.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork:
** Liam and Vetra - though the hostility comes more from Liam than Vetra, who is more indifferent to him.
** Peebee and Cora aren't exactly fond of the other, either. They grow to accept each other eventually, but never really become friends.
** On a larger scale: Ryder allying the Initiative with whoever ends up running Kadara Port. The Charlatan appears a lot more open to the idea than Sloane, but the Nexus leadership will never feel comfortable about it regardless of who's in charge.
** A lot of angara feel this way about cooperating with the Initiative. Most eventually get over their issues, though.
** Surprisingly averted if Ryder allies with New Tuchanka - the Nexus and the krogan colony get along pretty well if the right choices are made.
* TellMeAgain: The Ryder twins seem to have had a pretty sheltered upbringing, as they're totally in the dark about some basic facts of life of the Mass Effect universe that the average Alliance citizen really should already know (but which many video game players in Real Life would also be unaware of). For example, when speaking to the Nexus V.I., Ryder is completely clueless as to the fact true A.I. is ''incredibly illegal'' and that most people have massive prejudices against true A.I.s and also seems to not remember the geth attack against the Citadel.
* TieInNovel: ''Nexus Uprising'', ''Annihilation'' and ''Initiation'' will bridge the gap between the original trilogy and ''Andromeda'', as well as provide additional information about the events that led to the state of the Andromeda Initiative at the start of the game.
* TimeSkip: The Milky Way-to-Andromeda trip took the ''Hyperion'', the Ark housing humanity, 634 years. As the trip started in 2185, following the events of Mass Effect 2, Andromeda is set in the year 2819.
* TooDumbToLive: The scavenger from Elaaden who rigs up an EMP will attack Ryder if they say he can't be allowed to keep on going, despite the whole reason they're talking at all was him pointing out attacking Ryder was stupid. Even worse, he's no more powerful than any other mook, so it's possible to take him out in one hit. That's how outmatched he is.
* TripodTerror: The Remnant Architects, when they drop down onto the ground and attack you.
* TronLines: The ultra-rare Heleus Icon Armor Ryder can research has these along the torso and arms. They even cycle smoothly through two colors (magenta and ice-blue) in regular intervals. Remnant weapons and most of their tech in general have them all over.
* TurnsRed: Remnant bots and even their Vaults do this in the most literal way. Their lights, beams and TronLines are blue when they're idle, but everything glowing on them turns red when things get messy.
* UnexpectedGameplayChange: If you visited Voeld first after founding Prodromos on Eos, you're in for one when you reach Havarl. Both Eos and Voeld have huge maps you explore in the Nomad, encountering hostiles only sparingly in small camps scattered throughout the op zone. Havarl not only denies you the Nomad and has you explore entirely on foot; it also saturates your radar with red blips the moment you step out of the ''Tempest''.
* TheUnfought:
** The Remnant Abyss, a giant mechanical SandWorm on Elaaden, exists only as an environmental hazard that the player has to evade while exploring the desert. It's explicitly mentioned to be invulnerable to weapons fire, so don't even try unless you have a death wish or too much ammo.
** [[spoiler:Both contenders for Kadara Port's throne]].
** [[spoiler:The Archon]], frustratingly.
** [[spoiler:The Primus, the Archon's [[TheDragon dragon]], counts as well]]. She at least is implied to reappear in a DLC or sequel.
* UngratefulBastard: While exploring Voeld, Ryder can come across a bunch of angaran Resistance fighters who're engaged in a shootout with kett forces. [[ChronicHeroSyndrome A sidequest pops up to help them]] and talk to their leader afterwards, who promptly proceeds to chew Ryder out for interfering in matters that don't concern them. Actually serves as a nice TakeThatPlayer against the game's massive display of MightyWhitey since the angara really do hold their own pretty well and will eventually defeat the kett without Ryder's help.
* UniqueEnemy:
** A minor Nexus sidequest has Ryder compete in a set of three combat trials set up by angaran elite commandos. One of these trials consists of defeating an "ancient creature" which turns out to be a boss-level Fiend of unique design. Well, ''almost'' unique - [[OhCrap It brings two identical buddies as backup]].
** The Archon's ship has kett scientists, who don't attack and tend to run off as soon as Ryder comes near. They have health and armour equivalent to an Annointed, meaning actually killing one of them before they get away is pretty difficult. Later on in the level, there's the Behemoth, of which there is mercifully only one.
* UnnecessaryCombatRoll: Humanoid combatants have some very fancy moves to vault over low cover, one of which is an impressive over-the-shoulder roll that would be next to impossible to pull off in RealLife.
* UnrealisticBlackHole: The Heleus Cluster has a big one right in the center, which is often visible in the background of several star systems visited and can even be investigated up-close from a nearby system.
* UnusableEnemyEquipment: Zigzagged. Enemies do occasionally drop weapons or armor pieces of their respective faction, but it's randomized and therefore rarely the stuff they were actually using before their painful demise. These drops also don't appear to kick in before you've reached a certain point in the story. What's really strange is that this trope extends to your squad mates and even to Ryder themselves. Liam's Charger submachine gun has a unique design with a secondary grip, and Cora's shotgun is a completely unique model exclusive to her that can't be seen or obtained anywhere else in the game. On top of that, both them, Ryder and any other squad mate can often be seen wielding a fancy-looking assault rifle with a white chassis that is also unavailable to the player.
* UselessUsefulSpell: The vast majority of Ryder's available powers, especially the supposedly damage-focused ones. There's more or less only one single exception to this rule -- Biotic Charge -- which is comparatively powerful and a blast to use, but so buggy that it ''will'' get Ryder killed in situations you could've handled safely by just shooting the target from afar. The best use of powers is usually for their utility, such as being able to curve over or around cover, make enemies helpless for a limited time, or restore health/shields. Also averted for powers that don't require ammo -- a "pure Soldier" Ryder with non-rechargeable guns and only grenade/power cell abilties is absolutely screwed if they're pinned down by enemy fire without a single consumable resource.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:V - Z]]
* VendorTrash: Called "salvage" in this game - items of varying value that exist solely to be sold off for credits. There's a dedicated button in every merchant interface to sell them all in one go.
* VestigialEmpire: The angara once ruled over much of Heleus before the Scourge appeared, drove them off of scores of their worlds and reduced them to isolated colonies that struggle to survive, losing most of their history and culture in the process. You can help them recover parts of their ancient legacy, as well as forge an alliance to improve their lot in life.
* VideoGameCaringPotential:
** Ryder doesn't necessarily have to help the angara on Voeld. They can just do the storyline mission, set up the outpost and then leave them to freeze. Likewise, they don't need to [[spoiler:give the krogan the drive core on Elaaden.]]
** During the Knight quest, [[spoiler:Ryder has the option to help Knight's disabled son as an optional objective. Of course, if they don't, he'll assume Ryder's been corrupted by SAM and swear vengeance on them.]]
** Ryder can talk to a lot of otherwise unimportant [=NPCs=] on the Nexus or at outposts. Many of them ask for advice, reassurance or some candid words on the current situation, all of which you're free to give without getting anything in return.
** Dialogue with Ryder's crew members can have wildly differing tones depending on which answers you choose. Consistently choosing emotional responses will always have Ryder express sympathy and moral support to whatever problem is currently bothering the crew, again without gaining anything from it aside from feeling like a decent person.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: One sidequest on Voeld tasks Ryder with searching for an angaran demolition specialist whose friend refuses to believe she's dead. When you eventually find her, she's [[spoiler:torturing a wounded kett soldier to learn the location of her missing family, and obviously has been for quite some time already]]. You can make her stop, or turn around and let her continue without a care in the world. Ryder's squad will [[WhatTheHellHero call them out]] if you do the latter.
* ViolationOfCommonSense: What else to call taking a ''massive'' detour just to rob yet another Remnant chest while there's a lethal energy cloud hot on your heels? That's what many vaults are set up for; SAM even points the locations out and marks them on your map when you get near them during your initial exploration. Anyone tempted to do so should know that those chest are nothing special, though, and contain no better loot than the average containers scattered throughout the vault, which only adds insult to injury.
* WagonTrainToTheStars: The Andromeda Initiative is a massive, multi-species project to explore and colonize another galaxy.
* WakeUpCallBoss: It appears the Cardinal on Voeld is meant to serve in this role, judging by the amount of build-up, dialogue and cutscenes she gets, plus her lengthy explanation of how her powers work. Being a kett Ascendant with their customary NoSell DeflectorShields, FlashStep spam and OneHitKill melee attack, she suddenly requires tactics and strategies beyond camping in a convenient spot and blasting away until nothing hostile so much as twitches anymore. Unfortunately, her example is particularly vulnerable to SequenceBreaking due to how easy it is to unknowningly encounter other Ascendants before you meet her, thus defeating her entire purpose beyond acting as another, slightly more annoying speed bump for Ryder on their way to their mission objective.
* WarIsHell: Many angara grow up never knowing if they, their parents or their friends will come home at the end of the day. Most have lost family members to the kett, often by the dozen, and only a handful of very old angara [[ForeverWar have ever known peace]]. Those who don't die in battle are dragged off to labor camps if they're lucky, or to somewhere else for [[BodyHorror other]] [[AssimilationPlot purposes]] if they're not. The newbies from the Milky Way have it just as bad in a slightly different way, particularly the ones that got jumped while still on their arks. There's no imagining the terror most people aboard [[spoiler:the asari, turian and salarian arks]] must've gone through when the kett attacked and did their thing, and for them the war was just beginning at that moment. The kett, however, have a different perspective on the matter, naturally. They're just [[spoiler:procreating]].
* WarpWhistle: Almost all maps have fixed drop zones for automated forward stations that activate when you come near them. Once deployed, they serve as fast-travel locations, healing stations, resupply depots and a lot of other useful things, making their activation a priority on any newly discovered world. Established outposts as well as the Tempest have their own fast-travel markers, as do important locations on hubs like Aya.
* WasOnceAMan: It turns out [[spoiler:the Kett are, mostly, actually genetically altered Angarans, and have been growing their army by kidnapping and converting Angarans. They've all been injected with the Archon's DNA, and he may very well be the only "true" Kett in Andromeda]].
** Mirrored against the Reapers and the Collectors of the original trilogy, being made up of various races, such as Leviathan, prothean, human, rachni, asari, turian... Etc.
* WeAreStrugglingTogether: The Andromeda Initiative has become highly fractured since their arrival in Heleus. First there was an armed mutiny on the Nexus, creating a rift between the loyalists and the mutineers who were exiled from the station and became the Outcasts. Those exiles then settled on Kadara and Elaaden, and fractured even further into multiple gangs and factions of outlaws and scavengers. The krogan quit the Initiative and left the Nexus shortly after being double-crossed by the station leaders after putting down the mutiny, founding their own separate colony on Elaaden.
* WeHaveReserves: This seems to be Kalinda's attitude towards her forces during Peebee's loyalty mission. When Ryder remarks that she's running out of minions, she doesn't really care aside from calmly pondering that she'll need to go on a recruiting spree when this is over. Shortly before that exchange, Peebee is put off by how many goons Kalinda continues to throw at them at every turn just to keep Peebee from reaching the artifact both of them are after.
* WelcomeToCorneria: The ambient chatter you can overhear in hub areas has a... limited number of lines available. A very limited number. Even the infamous guards in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' have a larger variety of things to say.
* WhamEpisode:
** Voeld, when [[spoiler:it turns out just what the kett do to their angaran prisoners.]]
** The Remnant City, where Ryder learns the origins of the Remnant and the Scourge. [[spoiler:The Remnant were created by an incredibly advanced race called the jardaan. The jardaan were so advanced that they didn't just create the Remnant, they created ''the angara race'', as well as many other organisms found in the Heleus Cluster for an as yet unknown reason. The Scourge is a weapon created by an unknown race that was at war with the jardaan.]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The status of the Milky Way civilizations 600 years after the Reaper Invasion is left ambiguous. WordOfGod says this was an intentional choice by the creators, so that the new Andromeda trilogy can exist apart from the previous games.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark:
** A lighthearted version while Ryder is investigating Spender. They find he stole a model ship that's been labelled missing, and have the option of taking it for themselves.
** A nowhere near light-hearted version on Kadara. [[spoiler:Ryder can intervene to save Sloane Kelley's life from Reyes' assassin, or they can let her die, with no-one the wiser.]]
** Similarly, with the [[spoiler:ex-Cerberus scientists, Ryder has the option of turning off their hive-mind machine, or turning it back on the scientists, or... leaving it alone and walking away.]]
** Kadara in general is a massive example on the bad side. Most of those who participated in the Nexus uprising were decent people who just wanted answers and some action from their leaders, but after barely a year on Kadara, the vast majority of them have turned into vicious scavengers, pirates, killers and even cannibals. Unsurprisingly, the image it paints of the Milky Way species in the eyes of the angara is... [[{{Understatement}} less than flattering]].
* WorldOfBadass: This is a game where everyone is either a BoldExplorer who crossed the void between galaxies in search of a new home, or a resistance fighter who continues to survive in a decades-long genocidal war against ScaryDogmaticAliens. And that's not even getting into the OneManArmy called Ryder and their BadassCrew.
* WorldOfSnark: In between a [[TheSnarkKnight naturally snarky hero]] and a crew that can't go ten seconds without dropping a witty one-liner, be ready for an extended snark fest whenever someone opens their mouth.
* WretchedHive:
** Kadara port is ruled by Sloane Kelley and her gang, the Outlaws, who extort protection money from the citizens. People who don't pay up get beaten, or just kicked out into the Badlands to starve. Underneath the topmost city is a shanty-town slum, where murder and petty crime thrive. The Badlands outside are worse.
** Even Kadara is tame compared to the Flophouse on Elaaden; save for the krogan colony, the customary lifestyle on the planet consists of murdering other scavengers for scraps.
* YouAreInCommandNow: Happens to Ryder early in the game, and to Director Tann prior to the start of the game. [[spoiler: It's also possible for this to happen with ''every single Pathfinder''. The original human, asari, and turian Pathfinders will always die, and the salarian Pathfinder may die as well depending on your choices.]]
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: {{Justified}}, since you arrive in a new galaxy on a starship that has been on a centuries long journey. It's a one-way trip and everybody you used to know from your past life (except for the asari and krogan maybe) are long dead. [[spoiler: Especially since the expedition launched a year before the Reaper Invasion. So it's possible the entire Milky Way galaxy is dead.]] Of course, one of the stated goals of the Initiative is to eventually, work out a way to get between each galaxy.
* YourHeadAsplode: Killing humanoid targets with a high-powered shot or a barrage of automatic gunfire [[BoomHeadshot to the head]] will make that body part pop in a satisfying welter of bodily fluids. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Your squad will also heap tons of praise on you for your awesome aim.]]
[[/folder]]

* ButThouMust: When the game wants you to HoldTheLine against boss-level enemies, it ''will make you'' hold the line against boss-level enemies no matter what you do to avoid it. A good example is the mission to [[spoiler:rescue the Moshae]] on Voeld where the final battle pits Ryder against scores of kett troops including a Fiend with little room to manoeuvre. No problem - that's why you always carry your trusty [[OneHitKill Cobra RPG]] with you, right? Wrong. Kill the Fiend too quickly and not one but ''two'' new ones will immediately take its place, plus a fresh wave of kett soldiers for good measure.

* ButtMonkey: Danny Harris is an eager colonist Ryder can talk to after things at Prodromos have settled in. He'll ask Ryder for suggestions on what to do with all his new-found, post-cryo freedom. No matter what you choose to tell him (researching flora and bugs, patrolling the perimeter or studying the Remnant), he'll end up cornered by huge bugs, cornered by angry kett ''and'' cornered by Remnant bots, one after the other. After he's been saved for the third time, he's so sick of Eos that he leaves the planet for something he believes to be a way better alternative: [[WretchedHive Kadara]]. Ryder promptly hangs a lampshade on it.

* ButThouMust: When the game wants you to HoldTheLine against boss-level enemies, it ''will make you'' hold the line against boss-level enemies no matter what you do to avoid it. A good example is the mission to [[spoiler:rescue the Moshae]] on Voeld where the final battle pits Ryder against scores of kett troops including a Fiend with little room to manoeuvre. No problem - that's why you always carry your trusty [[OneHitKill Cobra RPG]] with you, right? Wrong. Kill the Fiend too quickly and not one but ''two'' new ones will immediately take its place, plus a fresh wave of kett soldiers for good measure.

** Remnant Decryption Keys are ultra-rare items that can be used to bypass almost any Remnant decryption puzzle. They were extremely rare and prohibitively expensive in the game's release version but have since been made a lot cheaper and more readily available from merchants.

** The game gives you audio-visual clues to fire up Ryder's scanner when you're in proximity to something worth scanning, which usually means the various factions' tech nodes that give 100+ research points apiece.

** Cobra missiles might me considered one as well. They're rare and expensive but kill every type of enemy in one shot, allowing you to bypass the majority of bosses and all those annoyingly resilient critters with the press of a button - if you dedicated one of Ryder's consumables slots to them, that is.
** The Nomad is completely invulnerable while you aren't driving it to allow players to use it as mobile cover without having to worry about losing it if they take too long. Unlike the Mako, it also can't be damaged by crashing or falling into stuff, only by enemy fire and environmental hazards like the acid lakes on Kadara.

** The Nomad is complete invulnerable while you aren't driving it to allow players to use it as mobile cover without having to worry about losing it if they take too long. Unlike the Mako, it also can't be damaged by crashing or falling into stuff, only by enemy weapons fire and environmental hazards like the acid lakes on Kadara.

* DropTheHammer: Another available melee weapon is a krogan-designed war hammer (albeit one significantly smaller than ones krogan have been [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 previously spotted using]]). Squadmate Nakmor Drack wields the same type of hammer as his default melee weapon. Its special trait is an in-built GroundPunch that covers a significant area and often stuns its victim(s).

** Tons of foreshadowing about the angara's origins is mentioned on Havarl. [[spoiler:We're told that the angara had their technology uplifted by Remnant artifacts, with one scientist stating that it was found dismantled, as if someone had left it as instructions. In addition, some angara have the ability to use Remnant technology without knowing how they know. The Havarl vault has the ability to rapidly speed up the evolution of the planet's lifeforms and ecosystem. After leaving Havarl, Ryder asks Jaal how angaran biology evolved and he says he doesn't know.]] Furthermore, the fact that they need the vault to be functioning for Havarl, their homeworld, to be habitable hints that the Angaran are related to the Remnant and didn't naturally evolve on the planet.

** Tons of foreshadowing about the angara's origins is mentioned on Havarl. [[spoiler:We're told that the angara had their technology uplifted by Remnant artifacts, with one scientist stating that it was found dismantled, as if someone had left it as instructions. In addition, some angara have the ability to use Remnant technology without knowing how they know. The Havarl vault has the ability to rapidly speed up the evolution of the planet's lifeforms and ecosystem. After leaving Havarl, Ryder asks Jaal how angaran biology evolved and he says he doesn't know.]]

* KarmaHoudini:
** [[spoiler:Whoever it was that murdered Jien Garson gets away with it, assuming they weren't killed in the uprising.]]
** [[spoiler:William Spender. After manipulating events so the uprising took place, unleashing and double-crossing the krogan, then continually working to make life hell so every one at the Nexus cannot get along, he branches out into trying to outright sabotage the krogan colony for the sheer hell of it. When caught, his ultimate fate is either imprisonment, or exile, rather than the fate he actually deserves.]]

* KickTheDog: An angaran scientist hires a group of outlaws to hunt the Voeld equivalent of whales so she can study them. Even worse, a datapad found by one of the hunting sites mentions the outcasts tried killing a calf. Once found, Jaal is ''very'' pissed at the scientist.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Whoever it was that murdered Jien Garson gets away with it, assuming they weren't killed in the uprising.]]

* ThePurge: If the Charlatan takes control of Kadara Port, near all the non-angara inhabitants vanish from the place.

* ZeroGSpot: You can choose to have a one-night-stand with [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Peebee]] in the ''Tempest's'' escape pod with the artificial gravity turned off. It's mostly an off-screen scene but [[ShownTheirWork makes an effort to demonstrate]] how complicated it would be to successfully have sex under these conditions. [[LovableSexManiac Ryder and Peebee]] of course figure it out and have the time of their lives in the process.

* ZeroGSpot: You can choose to have a one-night-stand with [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Peebee]] in the ''Tempest's'' escape pod with the artificial gravity turned off.

** A major one can happen early in the "Firefighters" mission when you must interact with three consoles in SAM Node aboard the ''Hyperion''. Sometimes the mission won't proceed after you've done so or hit the consoles in the wrong order, leaving you stuck and unable to ever talk to SAM again. That in turn locks you out of the "Ryder Family Secrets" mission chain and may also make the entire game impossible to complete.

* KnowWhenToFoldThem: A scavenger out in the north of Elaaden has set up an EMP generator which he uses to fry any vehicle he likes the look of, before attacking and killing the owners so he can grab their stuff. He tries it on Ryder, and then promptly realises there's no way in Hell he'd actually win that fight, and kindly offers to fix the damage and let Ryder and co. go on their merry way. Of course, Ryder might not be feeling so benevolent...

* AliensOfLondon: Kett all speak with a British accent once you can communicate with them, which practically makes them [[EvilBrit Evil Brits]] [[RecycledInSpace In Space]]. Several angarans also have British accents, though they actually have a wide variety of accents due to their fractured culture, including British, African, South African, Australian, and Kiwi.