History Characters / MassEffectRaceTropesNonCitadelSpace

* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler:They were mostly wiped out by the Reapers, with the few survivors being corrupted into Collectors. Ironic, given the Protheans' imperialistic attitude towards the other sentient species in the galaxy at the time of their empire, whom the Protheans assimilated or annihilated. And in some cases ate]].

* ProudWarriorRace: {{Deconstructed}}. The krogan are a species of reptilian aliens native to a harsh and unforgiving world. Their culture values strength and honor, with initiation rituals that involve attracting and defeating a Thresher Maw (a massive sandworm creature). However, their warlike ferocity (not to mention a prodigious birthrate) has made them feared in the universe to point where they were afflicted with a genetically engineered SterilityPlague that reduced them to being barely able to survive on their homeworld. While krogan are in demand as mercenaries, the krogan world is a broken down backworld with little to no influece in the larger political sphere.

* AdaptiveAbility: The vorcha possess non-differentiated cell clusters allowing them to adapt to new environments quickly. In one example, the planet description for their home world mentions that the Reapers showed up and started orbital bombardment on their cities and cut off their water supply. The vorcha ignored the burning cities and adapted their bodies to get moisture from food. At one point, vorcha working for the Blood Pack plan to take over a section of Omega by turning off the life support: they'll adapt to having no air just fine.

* CrazyPrepared: You don't wipe out hundreds of thousands of civilizations without being this trope. In addition to their Plan A ([[spoiler:[[BeneathSuspicion the Keepers]])]], the Reapers always have a Plan B, ([[spoiler:[[TheManBehindTheCurtain Sovereign]], the vanguard left behind to monitor progress]]. Then there's Plan C, ([[spoiler:in this cycle, [[BugWar the rachni]])]]. And a Plan D ([[spoiler:[[RobotWar the geth]]]]). And a Plan E ([[spoiler:the [[DungeonBypass Alpha]] [[SecretPath Relay]]]]). And a Plan F ([[spoiler:[[EliteMooks the Collectors]]]]). And a Plan G ([[spoiler:full assault]]). But that's it. [[spoiler:Nah, not really, they have a Plan H ([[ManchurianAgent indoctrinated sleeper agents]]) as well.]]

* OffscreenVillainDarkMatter: This is part of what makes them so unbeatable in conventional combat, even if you foil their usual strategy of taking everyone by surprise and dividing and conquering. They don't have supply lines; [[PerpetualMotionMachine their ships appear to have infinite ammo and fuel]], and [[NightOfTheLivingMooks their troops don't require food or rest]]. They don't have colonies; their civilization begins and ends with their fleets, which hide in dark space between purges. They don't even have bases you can bomb; they only have specialized, remote-controlled support ships that exist purely to build and move husk armies. They don't have any meaningful weak points; most wars are won by battering the enemy until they run out of money and troops or targeting their strategic resources immediately, but everything the Reapers need is contained within themselves, and every inhabited world they land on becomes a billions-strong recruiting pool. Infiltration won't work either, because any infiltrators will become indoctrinated double-agents. They're essentially a perfect military.

Krogan are available for multiplayer, and can use the [[TheRedMage Sentinel]] and [[WalkingArmory Soldier]] classes. The Resurgence pack adds [[MagicKnight Battlemaster Vanguard]], Retaliation adds [[BarrierWarrior Shaman Adepts]], and Reckoning adds [[StrongerWithAge Warlord]] [[DropTheHammer Sentinels]].

* DropTheHammer: They've outfitted their planets with gigantic seismic hammers, designed to summon Thresher Maws. That, and the Krogan Warlord Sentinels are equipped with hammers capable of channeling their own biotic energy into the strikes, and unleashing an electrical burst. In ''Andromeda'', krogan hammers are considered one of the best melee weapons in the game.

** Zigzagged in ''Andromeda'': Nakmor Morda shows the difference between wise and ''calm''. She knows working with the Initiative is a better deal, and tries to encourage her people to be less warlike, but Tann's poor treatment and the krogan's history means she has a ''foul'' temper (aside from, in Nakmor Drack's own words, being a hardass anyway).

* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: Before [[DownloadableContent Bring Down the Sky]] is downloaded, their codex entry in the first game shows them looking more like four-eyed salarians.

* OurGoblinsAreDifferent: They are basically goblins IN SPACE! Like the standard fantasy race, they're small, ugly, rapidly reproducing creatures of generally low intelligence with pointy 'ears' and buggy eyes that everyone else in the universe considers a pest. Aria even explicitly refers to them as "little goblins".

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: {{Subverted}}. Even though most batarians you meet in the first and second game are terrorists, slavers or other criminals, there are some relatively friendly among them too. It's also explained in-universe that part of the reason they are so hostile to humans in particular is because their government repeatedly instills it upon them, in propaganda that claims HumansAreBastards and are to blame for ''every'' problem they've had since their withdrawal from the Galactic community; your average Batarian is as much a bastard as [[AllGermansAreNazis your average German is a Nazi]]. In the third game, it is clear that most Batarian civilians aren't that different from humans, and mostly victims of a government that makes sure that the only Batarians most people ever meet are the fanatical terrorists and rat bastards.

* WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture: Antebellum slavery is almost one of their [[PlanetOfHats hats]]. Deconstructed, as their refusal to abandon an archaic slave economy is the product of a tyrannical government and is very clearly holding them back, politically and economically, but the Hegemony refuses to abandon it no matter how much ordinary Batarians might want to. And while they ''say'' that slavery is an important part of their culture, it's fairly clear that the Hegemony just wants to cement their own control.

-->'''Geth Prime''' We regret the deaths of the creators.\\
'''Shepard''' ''[Sadly]'' They made their choice.

** If Legion is destroyed in the suicide run, he calls out "No carrier! No carrier! No carrier!", meaning he cannot upload his runtimes to the geth consciousness. When [[spoiler:the quarians attack the geth DysonSphere in 3]], they lost a significant fraction of their civilization; ergo, what if everyone in the United States lost fifty IQ points when the Twin Towers were hit. Cue the President being voted emergency powers and launching nuclear missiles, never mind the untold consequences of DisproportionateRetribution and possible endless debates whether it is justified or not like what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- or in the geth's case, [[spoiler: [[DealWithTheDevil allying with the Reapers]] and putting all their efforts into exterminating the quarians. While knowing very well that the reapers will forcibly convert the geth into Reapers too when they are no longer useful to them.]]

** If Legion is destroyed in the suicide run, he calls out "No carrier! No carrier! No carrier!", meaning he cannot upload his runtimes to the geth consciousness. When [[spoiler:the quarians attack the geth DysonSphere in 3]], they lost a significant fraction of their civilization; ergo, what if everyone in the United States lost fifty IQ points when the Twin Towers were hit. Cue the President being voted emergency powers and launching nuclear missiles -- or in the geth's case, [[spoiler: [[DealWithTheDevil allying with the Reapers]] and putting all their efforts into exterminating the quarians. While knowing very well that the reapers will forcibly convert the geth into Reapers too when they are no longer useful to them.]]