This page is for listing the tropes related to the Non-Sapient species in the Mass Effect universe, each with their own (often averted) tropes.
For the pages listing tropes related to specific characters in the trilogy, see the Mass Effect Character Index.
This page includes significant spoilers, and some are by their nature unmarked. Read at your own discretion.
open/close all folders
Husks
Thane: There are tales about such things among my people - devices buried on distant worlds that turn the finders into abominations.
Homeworld: Various
Non-sapient synthetic creatures that are created using the bodies of organic beings. They are of Reaper origin. Husk is both the name of the 'generic' human zombie enemy and a general term for Reaper-fied organics.
- Action Bomb: Abominations. In Mass Effect 3 multiplayer, it is shown that the detonator for their explosion resides in their heads. Thus, killing Abominations with either an anti-material shot to the head, or via a bladed strike to the neck / crushing it will prevent them from detonating. Killing them any other way triggers the explosion.
- Arm Cannon: Scions in 2 and 3. Cannibals, batarian-human hybrids from 3. Adjutants from Omega.
- Artificial Zombie: They're reanimated corpses with distinctly zombie-like feral mannerisms, but they're actually being puppeted by alien nanomachines and cybernetics.
- Body Horror: All of them, often mixed with Mix-and-Match Critters.
- Husks and Abominations are formed from humans who have had their internal organs all replaced by cybernetics by dragon's teeth, with the latter exploding upon getting close to foes. Cerberus troopers in 3 are much the same, but more intelligent.
- Scions are combinations of three human husks fused together around a single biotic Arm Cannon. A blue sac over the same shoulder as the cannon holds redundant organs and element zero sources for their weapon.
- Praetorians are comprised of thirty human husks surrounded by a hard shell.
- Collectors are Protheans that had a complete genetic rewrite, including three fewer chromosomes, reduced heterochromatin structure, and elimination of useless "junk" sequences. Due to the extensive amounts of cybernetics, they lack many of their organs, and are essentially clones, with whether or not they even have any remaining gender unknown.
- Marauders are husks of turians with armor plates grafted on and lenses embedded in their faces.
- Brutes are formed from krogan, but with a turian head attached for intelligence. Due to the aversion of No Biochemical Barriers, the krogan levo-DNA clashes with the turian dextro-DNA, meaning that the entire creature would die very painfully if the cybernetics were not in place.
- Banshees are naked, asari husks of those who are or have a predisposition to be Ardat-Yakshi. Due to the nature of asari sex, their creation could technically be considered a whole new meaning of Mind Rape.
- Cannibals are batarian husks with an Arm Cannon made out of a human corpse who eat their allies to regain health.
- Synthetic Harvesters are, as their name implies, huskified harvesters, though they also have added head-mounted cannons.
- Ravagers are mobile turrets formed from rachni. Notably, concept art included a human husk corpse on the back, but BioWare decided that was too disgusting.
- Swarmers appear to be spider-type robots made from rachni workers.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: Banshees, husked Ardat-Yakshi, in Mass Effect 3. They have Biotic barriers and armor instead of health which makes them immune to a lot of biotic effects, they can Flash Step, and they also have the ability to grab people and subsequently impale them with their hands, resulting in instant death. Sometimes they will stand still and briefly appear to charge up, after which they will scream and release an attack that covers a surprisingly large area. Finally, they throw powerful projectiles that move slowly but track their target. Have fun. Praetorians and Scions in the third game multiplayer as well.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: To create a husk, organics are impaled on spikes called "Dragon's Teeth" which releases nanobots that converts organic materials into synthetic ones. Usually though, they're already dead, though the rush of adrenaline in their final moments of consciousness is enough to speed up the nanobot's processes.
- Zigzagged if the Synthesis ending is used, since they become sapient, possibly immortal beings again. Hopefully, the human husks in such creatures as the Praetorians and Scions (and the arm cannons for Cannibals, which are fused to a human husk) are extricated, or it'll be a double dose of Body Horror on the level of The Human Centipede.
- Cthulhumanoid: Adjutants.
- Cybernetics Will Eat Your Soul: Luckily, most husks are already dead pre-huskification.
- Elite Mooks: Marauders. Husked turians, they have kinetic barriers and a turian assault rifle, and also tend to buff nearby foes as well.
- Giant Mook: Scions. Also a Boss in Mook Clothing. In Mass Effect 3, Brutes fill this role; they're huskified krogan with a turian head for higher intelligence. Scions, however, return in Retaliation for multiplayer.
- Glowing Mechanical Eyes: Many variants have cybernetic eyes in place of their formerly organic ones.
- Grenade Launcher: The Cannibal's Arm Cannon, in addition to shooting what appears to be red flechettes in the place of bullets, can also fire frag grenades. Unlike most examples of this trope, the grenades still take a few seconds to detonate after they land.
- Heavily Armored Mook: Marauders are capable of turning husks and cannibals into these.
- Hell Is That Noise:
- Scions tend to grunt and groan, as if their every waking moment was wracked in horrific pain. Which, from the looks of them, is probably true.
- The high-pitched scream produced by Banshees. Lampshaded by Joker, who suggests that the Reapers only engineered that feature because they are taking pleasure in actively screwing with them.
Joker: Mutating people to turn them into living weapons is one thing, but the yelling? Why make them yell?! That's totally uncalled for! - I'm a Humanitarian: Cannibals replenish health by eating corpses, friend or foe.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- Regular husks are made by impaling humans on spikes called "Dragon's Teeth".
- Banshees will kill anyone within arm's reach with an impalement Coup de Grâce.
- Instant Armor: Cannibals are capable of spontaneously growing armored plates by consuming the bodies of other husks. Marauders are capable of applying instant armor to several other husk types, causing the targeted husk to float up in their air and channel some kind of nano-paste onto them which grows into more of those armor plates.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: Banshee barriers are capable of negating powers.
- Looks Like Orlok: Fittingly for the vampiric imagery of the Ardat-Yakshi, Banshees have a distinctly Nosferatu-like appearance with their long claws, spindly limbs, hunched gait, and horn-like extensions that resemble pointed ears.
- Meaningful Name: The macabre spikes that convert living creatures into cyborg husks are quickly nicknamed "dragon's teeth"
by the Alliance, after tales in Classical Mythology where the fangs of a dragon can be buried in the earth, and quickly grow into an army of berserk warriors. - Mini Mook: Swarmers.
- Mooks: For the Reapers across all three games. In the first game, they're assumed to simply be a terror weapon devised by the geth, but their subsequent appearance in the Collector military confirms Shepherd's suspicions that the husks originate from gifted Reaper technology.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: It's not uncommon for certain husk variants to be comprised of more than one individual, sometimes not from the same species. Scions are 3 human husks fused together. As noted above, cannibals are batarian-human hybrids while brutes are krogan-turian hybrids.
- Non-Human Undead: Mass Effect 1 and 2 only shows human husks, with the exception of Saren and the Collectors, but 3 (where the Reapers are invading the galaxy in force) features husks created from all the Citadel Space races and then some.
- Night of the Living Mooks: Discussed. Garrus points out the horrific genius behind the Reapers using husks as ground troops. The effect is two fold, you lose a man to their side and then lose the guy who hesitates to kill an old comrade. Javik states this is why the Protheans were only delaying the inevitable after a certain point. Every world they abandoned to fight another day would become an army of husks used against them in the next battle. The Reapers have the dual benefits of psychological warfare and a constant source of "undead" cannon fodder.
- Ominous Walk: Banshees will engage in this when not teleporting around.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Well, they're mechanical, for one thing. The creation process is taking (preferably living) organic beings and impaling them on spikes, which slowly replaces tissue with machinery. They start out as somewhat standard zombies (albeit with electrical attacks), but Mass Effect 2 and especially Mass Effect 3 features tons of varieties with neat abilities like exploding, having guns built into their arms, and being very durable.
- Power Floats: Banshees, before you take down their biotic barriers.
- The Reveal: In Mass Effect 2, it's revealed that the geth didn't create husks - the Reapers did. As the first game did allude to the possibility husks were not geth technology, Shepard and their crew merely had their suspicions confirmed come the sequel.
- Rule of Scary: Invoked by the Reapers. Beside their obvious physical threat, husks serve as potent psychological warfare. Preying on the fears of their enemies is a weapon they know all too well how to make use of.
- Sinister Nudity: Unlike all the other husks in the game, the Banshees still have enough of their biology intact to make it clear that they're stark naked, playing the usual Asari sex appeal for horror - not to mention a generous dose of Fan Disservice given their corpselike bodies and LED nipples.
- Slave Mooks: Husks have been robbed of all former sentience and self-awareness. They are essentially Reaper cannon fodder.
- Smash Mook: Brutes charge headfirst into front lines, in an effort to steamroll oppositon with their strength and power. Once they close the gap, you have to contend with their massive claws.
- Teleport Spam: Banshees will do this almost constantly while "charged", screaming as they do so. Their power will eventually wear down, restricting them to an Ominous Walk, but eventually they will get a surge of power back and do it all over again.
- Villain Override: When the Collectors return in Mass Effect 3, Harbinger has extended his control to their unique husks. Possessed Scions fire grenades, while Abominations explode with about three times the force.
- The Virus: Adjutants are capable of turning victims into more of them.
- There is some implication that the Banshees can do the same to asari.
- Was Once a Man: Or whatever other species (plural or singular) they came from.
- Zerg Rush: When you consider that the Reapers can produce essentially unlimited numbers of these things, their use of this tactic is not surprising. Garrus even respects the Reapers for employing this tactic, saying that it puts down any local resistance, you'd never run out of cannon fodder, and for every soldier you gain, your opponent loses two: the guy you converted, and his buddy when he can't pull the trigger.
- Zombie Gait: Scions tend to move very slowly and awkwardly. Averted with regular Husks and Abominations.
Thresher Maw
Zaeed: Standard operating procedure when you get a thresher maw is run the hell away. Pick up sticks. Move the hell out! Krogan don't know any better.
Homeworld: Unknown, possibly Tuchanka
Tuchanka's ultimate predator, thresher maws are enormous subterranean creatures that spend their whole life eating or searching for something to eat. Thanks to their method of reproduction (spores that can survive in space), they've made it to plenty of other planets. In the Sole Survivor background, Commander Shepard was the Sole Survivor of a thresher maw attack triggered by a particularly nasty Cerberus cell.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Their scythe-like arms are able to cut through the Mako like it was made of paper if you get too close to one.
- Adaptational Badass: As if the Thresher Maws in the original Mass Effect weren't bad enough, the Legendary Edition made them even more dangerous. They now Lead the Target with their acid spit, which has been turned into a shotgun-like barrage instead of a single projectile, making it much harder to evade than before. And just as in the original, this acid bypasses the Mako's shield entirely. They also occasionally spawn a bunch of Sensory Tentacles on the battlefield once they disappear underground. These tentacles are immobile but can deal heavy damage at close range, and the Maw won't resurface until all the tentacles have been destroyed or it catches you, which can often be a One-Hit Kill. This can happen multiple times in each battle.
- Bioluminescence Is Cool: The younger Thresher Maws seen in the first two games have blue-glowing maws, eyes and spots in their heads. Averted by Kalros, who doesn't have any glow in her body.
- Degraded Boss: Inverted. In the first game you killed almost a dozen of them in various sidequests. In the second, there's only one thresher maw, but you don't have the Mako to help you fight it, so it's a boss fight.
- Not to mention the MASSIVE one (Kalros) seen in the third game, which is strong enough to kill a Reaper Destroyer.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In the third game, the gigantic Kalros kills a Reaper Destroyer single-handedly, crushing it with her body like a snake.
- Do Not Run with a Gun: They can only use their Super Spit ranged attack by popping out of the ground, which immobilizes them until they retreat back underground.
- The Dreaded: Thresher Maws are dreaded because of how hard to kill they are. note Played straight with Kalros, who's the only creature to truly terrorize the Krogan to the point of them actively avoiding her territory.
- Extreme Omnivore: Thresher Maws eat anything, be it organic or not, dextro or levo, plant or animal. In ME 3, Mordin comments that the massive krogan tank you're riding in at the time would make an excellent iron supplement for the Maw's diet. The fact that they can survive and thrive on otherwise lifeless worlds with unbreathable atmospheres implies they can also live off of minerals in the ground, radiation from the local star, or even more exotic sources.
- Eye on a Stalk: Their eyes hang on stalks on the sides of their heads. Most noticeable when Kalros attacks the Reaper, as her eyes are flung backwards due to the inertia.
- Fast Tunneling: They can move around underground faster than you can drive the same distance in a high-powered IFV going flat-out. In ME 3, Kalros bursts from the ground with enough speed to get her entire gigantic body airborne for a second or two.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The first time one that is encountered in the first game can come off like this.
- Horse of a Different Color: Javik regrets that in this Cycle, they are now too big to ride anymore.
- Kaiju: Kalros especially. Her body is so massive that it dwarfs everything around her, including the Reaper and the Shroud. She even dwarfs her own race as her surfaced body part alone is already over twice a common Thresher Maw's full length, and Thresher Maws aren't precisely small.
- Made of Iron: They're immensely resistant to damage. Kalros is slammed into the Shroud and it barely makes a scratch on her body. They're also incredibly adaptable in terms of their habitat, being able to survive and grow to immense sizes on hostile planets where no other organic life can be found. Kinda makes you wonder what these things use for sustenance on these worlds.
- Misplaced Wildlife: All thresher maws you see in the series, including planets far away from Tuchanka, got there either by floating along for an insanely long time or being assisted by spaceflight in some capacity.
- Monster Mouth: Their mouth seems to consist of four long tendrils surrounding a tentacle-like, irretractible tongue.
- Monster Progenitor: The legendary Kalros, said by Eve to be the mother from whom all thresher maws spawn. This is probably just a legend, but considering that her size is over ten times bigger than the rest of her species...
- No Biochemical Barriers: They seem to function well on many planets, regardless of the strength of gravity or air or food composition.
- Plant Aliens: A mixture of a worm and a fungus, essentially. Thresher maw spores are so strong that they can survive indefinitely in the vacuum of space until they find a planet to embed themselves in.
- Really 700 Years Old: We don't really know how long Thresher Maws can live but, if Kalros is any indication, they can live for several millenia. note
- Sand Worm: Javik's line about riding them seems to be a Shout-Out to Dune.
- Square-Cube Law: Thoroughly ignored. In an otherwise quite plausible sci-fi setting, Thresher Maws stand out for being far too huge to function as living creatures as we know them, plus they're way too quick and agile for something that big.
- Stationary Boss: Zigzagged.
- ME 1 Thresher Maws can't attack at range unless they're stationary. However, they can and will chase you around in an attempt to devour you in a Dig Attack while they're underground.
- The boss-level Maw in ME 2 can't get close enough to your party to attack in melee, restricting it to its acid spit from outside the arena. It changes positions every now and then but is otherwise effectively immobile as far as the player's combat strategy is concerned.
- Super Spit: Their main attack is their hideously powerful Hollywood Acid spit, an attack with very long range that deals extremely high damage and completely bypasses shields. In ME 1, a handful of hits are enough to destroy the otherwise damn near indestructible Mako IFV. In ME 2, even a glancing blow can be a One-Hit Kill when you fight one on foot.
- Timed Mission: On Grunt's loyalty mission in the second game, you have to survive a thresher maw attack for five minutes. Or you can just kill it.
- Transplanted Aliens: They have been transported unintentionally to many planets, as they reproduce through tiny spores that can be carried by unsuspecting spaceships on interstellar journeys. The biggest Thresher Maw, Kalros, is said to be the ancestral mother of them all and she comes from Tuchanka, explaining why they're so tough.
- Ultimate Life Form: This oversized worms can live in any planet, regardless of the strength of gravity or air or food composition.
- Worm Sign: The Legendary Edition gave ME 1 Thresher Maws a highly visible trail while they move around below ground, making them easier to track and avoid than in the original version. It's the one bone you're thrown to make up for their increased lethality.
Virtual Intelligences (VIs)
- Thank you for using Avina! Have a pleasant day.
Homeworld: N/A
Not a "species" in and of themselves, VIs are complex quasi-intelligent (but not truly sentient) computer programs often used to drive user interfaces; the ones most commonly seen throughout the franchise are humanoid, although Avina is asari in appearance, and Vigil is of Prothean origin. They can play a number of roles, usually serving as information access points, data analyzers, system monitors and optimizers, and distress beacon maintainers/interface points. True AIs are highly regulated or illegal in Citadel space; a VI might seem intelligent or sentient, but it's an illusion of clever programming.
- Brain Uploading: At least with Vigil. While still a VI, it was given the lead scientist's personality via this.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: There's several instances of VIs being hacked, given a virus, or otherwise just subverted somehow to the point they become a serious threat to anyone using the systems under their control. David Archer of Project Overlord is a much more literal example.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: Relative to what information it has access to, that is. If the user has the clearance for the information they request, that information will be dispensed to the VI's best ability with no trickery or deception.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: A VI's enforced etiquette will often invoke this if circumstances around them are abnormal.
- Do Androids Dream?: In this case, no. They're specifically made to be limited, and said limits are usually found very quickly if they're treated like sentient beings. In 2, Jarrahe Station's VI becomes infected with a virus that makes it treat everyone like threats, and some of the station residents hope that maybe by doing nothing they can convince her that they're not dangerous. It fails, and it's clear when Shepard visits that 'she' has no understanding of the situation at all. Vigil, the Prothean VI on Ilos, seems to be more sophisticated and it does seem to have a grasp of the situation, but outside the situation it has no use or knowledge whatsoever - it wasn't programmed to. Several times a VI will bluntly respond to sapient reactions or questions with something along the lines of "I am incapable of [giving that information/feeling that emotion/making that judgement/accessing such data]. Do you have any other requests?" However, one VI became sentient — the Luna Station AI — and eventually became an AI, EDI. This hints that VI's can become self-aware if not scrubbed regularly.
- Just a Machine: This is the legal extent to which the Council races permit an artificial intelligence of any sort to develop. One VI explicitly has no feelings one way or the other if its database is wiped after it's served its purpose, and says so; "In order for me to be 'killed', I would need to be alive."
- Nice Guy: Programmed to be such; VIs are impeccably polite and incapable of making qualified judgements about the decisions of organics.
- Omniscient Database: Averted, as VIs can't access any information which is outside of their reach, and there's at least one point where you need to re-establish a VI's connection with outside servers for it to provide more information to you. Avina's first appearance in Andromeda has her describing the Nexus in incredibly out-of-date fashions, as the station was never formally opened when the Pathfinder arks failed to arrive on schedule.
- Projected Man: Avina provides the trope picture.
- Robo Speak: Thoroughly averted. The vocal synthesisers employed in Mass Effect are evidently very sophisticated.
- Theme Naming: All prothean-made ones we see have names starting with V.
- Tron Lines: When a VI is given a humanoid-shaped holographic interface, it's covered in these. Andromeda seems to have abandoned the practice.
- Unreliable Narrator: In the same way the Codex is written in-universe, so are the available information stores in a VI.Avina: I have no information on a "Reaper." References to the term exist in some para-historical theories on galactic extinction cycles.
- Viewer-Friendly Interface: Can't get much more user-friendly than a person you just talk to.
- You No Take Candle: Usually averted, but a VI can occasionally slip into it when it's not addressing the user, such as when it's parroting status messages.
