ME:A blather- Argh, I am so pissed I missed one of the remnant data cores! I mean, its not too big a deal because its just a task and so doesn't really do anything plot wise so all I'm missing out is on XP (which I don't really need) But it does leave the task left uncompleted in my journal.
I guess it wouldn't be so frustrating if not for the one I missed. So before the 1.05 patch, this task was bugged anyways and not showing up. But when it finally showed up, I already had 6 of the 9 cores. Apparently, you get 1 automatically in the EOS vault, you get 1 each for killing each of the 4 architects, you get another three in the Voeld, Kadara, and Elaaden vaults, and the last one in Khi Tasira, during the Journey to Meridian mission.
So they're all entirely missable, and because I was unaware of the task until after the patch, I figured I missed one already, most likely in one of the vaults. Though the Voeld vault one seems to me the easiest one to miss, and I did get that one. But seriously, that one was ridiculously off the beaten path.
In that vault, you come to a fork. To the right will take you directly to the controls. Going to the left leads to a insanely hard remnant console puzzle where you have to activate certain sets of the consoles to do different things. Like one set up will raise a pillar nearby to the consoles to reveal one of those remnant adaptive cores you can scan for data. Another will raise a pillar on the right path that will reveal the remnant data core to pick up, not that you know its there to raise. And another set will unblock a side chamber which has a force field in front of it that only goes down once you activate the vault and you have to run quickly to get it on the way out before the vault kills you.
And honestly, that's total bullshit. I mean, I knew about it because I'm a dirty cheater. But that vault has a cold hazard, so your life support is already ticking down. (You can activate a bubble via one of the consoles to give yourself a breather and refill life support, but that also deactivates all the other consoles, so you have to start all over again) And they expect you to randomly tinker around with activating different consoles to reveal these things?
If there was a rhyme or reason to which way you activate the consoles, I never got it. I just knew there were three things I had to get (there was a fourth, a random chest, but that wasn't a priority) and just kept activating things until I unlocked everything. I couldn't tell you how I did it.
At least in Kadara, Elaaden, and the Journey to Meridian, those ones are a little more obvious. Kadara and Elaaden, the cores are in rooms that aren't on the direct path to the vault controls. So they're possible to miss if you're not an astute explorer. But yeah, they're behind locked doors with puzzles you need to solve to get in. But at least those puzzles are right in front of the door.
Similarly, the one in Khi Tasira, its in the room with all the pods, behind a locked door. Now, to open that door, you have to notice when you did the thing you needed to advance the mission, the two observers that show up came from a previously closed chamber from up above, one that contains the console to unlock that door.
So in those latter three cases, you know there's something up because of the big locked doors. I'm not sure how you're supposed to figure out that there's a pillar that needs raising in the Voeld vault. I guess the pillars are not coming out of nothingness, so I suppose if you look down you'll see it. But I don't think its easy to spot unless you know to look down around that area. But with your life support ticking down and trying not to fall to your death, I think you'd be too preoccupied to notice.
But I digress. Like I said, I got all those. No, the one I missed was from the freaking Voeld architect, and I'm skeptical I did. To be fair, a couple of times I fought architects, I forgot they spawn a chest after you kill them and interface with them. I thought all you need to do to get the goodies (like the fusion mods!) is to interface. I apparently remembered to pick up the chests for the ones on Eos and Kadara. But I apparently forgot to do that in Voeld and Elaaden.
Which is weird, because I beat them in this order: Eos, Voeld, Kadara, Elaaden. So you'd think if I forgot to pick up a chest, it would be either the first two, because I didn't realize that was a thing you need to do, or the latter two, because I had forgotten you had to look out for a chest. Its odd that I forgot for Voeld, did it on Kadara, and forgot to grab the chest again for Elaaden. Luckily, I realized those were the two I missed because I was missing the Fusion Mod of Hovering (which you get from the Voeld one) and the Fusion Mod of Tech Mastery (from the Elaaden one).
And its frustrating, because apparently Voeld's is the only one who's chest will despawn if you don't get it. It took me a while wandering around the area you fought Elaaden's architect after going back when I realized I was missing the fusion mod it gives you, but I eventually found the chest again. I'm skeptical it was in the same place he died, because the chest was out in the open, and I remember when I defeated it, some freaking pillars raised up and blocked my way to its head. I still interfaced with it on time though.
The thing I can't believe is that I'd miss the two chests they give you, since they do pop up right next to where you defeat the architect. And its like, how the hell could I miss that? And its not like I would leave the area without giving it a through once over to see if there were any random containers or mineral deposits or enemy drops.
Like the only thing I can think of is maybe those were bugged, and they weren't showing up after I killed those particular architects, but the Elaaden one did re-appear after I left and came back. Because missing a chest doesn't sound like me. In any case, it didn't stop me from thoroughly going over the Voeld area thrice just in case.
I guess I deserve it though, for being a dog! Heh, I was able to get the trophy for romancing three different characters across all playthroughs. Nominally, its supposed to be for different playthroughs, but I think they sorta intended this by making it three instead of all, since you can bang Keri on the side without it affecting your main romance, and you can get into a sorta relationship with Avela as well. (You kiss and she's all, "maybe after this war is over, we can look each other up")
So yeah, as I've said in a previous entry, I romanced Cora, had Keri on the side, and determined you could also have Avela on the side. Which gave me the three I needed for the trophy.
Anyways, I'm up to the final mission, right before the point of no return. So I should be beating it soon. I dunno if I want to new game+ it though. Like the only thing a new game plus would get me is another crack at the remnant data core task above, and the chance at some more heleus and remnant data. Like I have the all the augments except for ricochet system, the angaran commando arms and legs, Heleus helmet and Dhan shotgun all at X. But I wouldn't mind being able to unlock the higher levels of the Isharay sniper rifle, Hesh shotgun, and Soned machine gun. I guess I wouldn't really use the latter two, but the Isharay is supposed to be pretty good, especially if I could find another bio-converter (well, two, since I need one for my Black Widow). I did buy one from the store, but again, that's the base model, and it sounds like the gun really shines when you craft it with the bio-converter (plus the double mod slots and some kinetic coils to boost damage)
Its frustrating you don't have a way to easily get more of that. I mean, at least you get a delivery of milky way points every 45 minutes with that one cryo-pod perk, its annoying you can't get it for Heleus or Remnant data. Like once you scan everything in the game, the only other way to get that data is via research loot boxes from the strike teams, but even then, its only 30 per box and its random which data type you get. So doing the trick to convert the other reward boxes into research (since data is the only thing I need at this point) will still take a while. Like I have three strike teams, which is enough to cover the ten daily missions that show up each day. Though gold is still in the 60% to 80% range for success for my one level 20 team.
So lets say if I don't get totally screwed by the RNG (its happened before), right now I have a 90% chance on the bronze and silver missions. So, 2 boxes by 6 missions, that's 12 boxes a day. Which is only 360 research points. And again, I still have to hope its Heleus or Remnant data. I guess the biggest research cost I've seen is 375. So if I happen to get all Heleus, that's one upgrade a day.
But yeah, starting the game over would give me access to a lot more data, but there's a lot of negatives. First off, as I've mentioned before NG+ is a little buggy right now due to certain items not disappearing from your inventory and causing events to happen earlier. Secondly, while I still have access to all my stuff, the cryo pod perks are reset. So not only would I get the full fusion mod penalty until I got fusion mod support back (which in turn has some pre-req perks, as well as 90% viability on Kadara), I also couldn't craft anyways since I have to go three perks down the research track to unlock the extra augmentation slot.
Also, I've done everything but the remnant data core task. I'm presuming there's DLC coming out eventually, and I'd want to go into it with a perfect (or near perfect in this case) save. I know this current save is fine, but there are a number of quests that I resolved that some on the forums say bugged out on them, so the NG+ save could end up being worse.
I guess I could just not NG+ for now, just level grind and check in for research data, and if they patch the aforementioned issues, then I can start a new game plus.
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