Mass Effect Andromeda Architect battle guide to help you tame the beasts

There aren’t many battle scenarios in Mass Effect: Andromeda that would classify as “boss” battles, but the Architect encounters certainly fit the bill. You’ll battle these monstrous robotic beasts on the planets of Eos, Voeld, Kadara and Elaaden.

There are a few key approaches you can take when battling Architects, but whichever strategy you use it’s important to know that you’re most definitely in for a very tough fight, easily the toughest fights you’ll come across throughout the entire game.

So, how can you best approach these battles? In this guide, we’ll take you through some key strategies, squadmate structure, and ideal loadouts to use when battling it out against an Architect.

Best Squad To Battle Architects

This author is a Biotic and Adept profile player, but when battling Architects you want to take advantage of broad range of skills and profiles so as to get the most out of headshot and damage amplifies.

The general rule of thumb is to avoid biotic powers for these encounters, as they stand to be probably the least effective against the Architect armour.

Vetra is a really good candidate, and having her Focus Fire skill upgraded is perfect for dealing a damage amplifier. You could really take any other squadmade in alongside her, aside from probably Cora. Peebee is good because her Invasion skill can make taking down conduit armor a lot easier.

Peebee is also great at working alone, so you don’t really need to worry about her when dealing with enemy waves should they come out.

Best Profile To Battle Architects

The Infiltrator profile is the best profile to take into these battles, without a doubt.

It increases Battlefield Awareness, which will reveal any Remnants behind walls during waves.

Cloak Evades will briefly cloak you during the Architect’s attacks, which is particularly useful when you’re in a bind.

It’s also the best profile for sniping, which is perhaps the most efficient way to promptly take down an Architect.

Weapon accuracy is increased substantially from the early levels, while the Weapon Headshot/Weak Point Bonus is increased from Level 1 by 50%, up to 100% with Rank 6. That means a crafted Black Widow sniper can have a damage output of up to 1200.

Architect Basics

An Architect functions in “waves”: firstly you’ll need to wound one of its leg conduits in order to open its head conduit, which is when you start dealing actual damage to the Architect. You can wound all legs to below 50%, but if you don’t deal any damage to the head conduit, you’ll never take it down.

Once a leg has been wounded, the architect will get up and move somewhere else on the map. When it does this, you need to reposition yourself in a position with good cover, health packs, and ammo recharge packs. This will protect you against both Remnant waves should this happen, and the Architect’s powerful attacks.

Thankfully, the pattern the Architect moves in is the same every time, so if you apply a little trial and error, and die, you can try again and know exactly where it’s going to move. Make sure you use this moment to restock.

Quick Tips

• Direct your squadmates to deal with any minion waves on the map
• Focus Ryder’s fire on the leg conduit
• Stay behind cover, and take note of the Architect’s weapon patterns (more on this later)
• Use the Architect’s repositioning to quickly restock

Architect Attacks And Weapons

The Architect has three core weapon attacks:

Energy Blast: This is akin to an energy field grenade. You’ll see the weapon charging, as it leaves an orange glow over the area it attacks. Make sure you promptly leave this area before the Architect fires, as it leaves an electrical field that will kill you almost instantly. It is used during both leg and head conduit modes.

Tentacle Fire: This is basically a machine gun, and has perhaps the smallest visual and audio cue before it fires, so quickly take cover and be sure not to take any damage, as it is a powerful weapon. Alternatively, you can use Tactical Cloak to hide from the range of fire.

Grenades: You’ll have a small time window to jump out of the blast radius of grenades, which will also explode on impact should this hit you or a squadmate.

Quick Tips

• Avoid getting too close to the Architect, as it always has an electric field in place directly beneath it
• Use skills and abilities to improve speed and cloaking
• Don’t over-fire and risk getting damaged. All of its attacks are extremely powerful, so take your open shot, and as soon as you see or hear it preparing to attack, move out of range

How To Defeat The Architect

Leg Conduits

You’ll have three leg conduits to damage with each Architect encounter.

You have 30 seconds to either destroy a single leg conduit, or bring it down to 50% damage. Failing to do so will unleash a Remnant wave, which can make things tricky. You’ll have to deal with the Remnant while also battling the Architect.

If you wound a leg, the Head Conduit phase will open. This deals the most damage. If you destroy a leg, the Architect will move to a different location.

Quick Tips

• You want to deal as much damage to the legs as quickly as possible so as to avoid a Remnant wave. Make sure you direct both squadmates (up on the d-pad) to attack a leg. Use high-damage, high-burst assault rifles, and sniper rifles that deal 500+ damage. A crafted sniper or assault rifle with grenade launcher mod will do particularly well here.
• Start each new attack with some sticky Omni grenades, aimed directly at the legs
• If you fail to destroy or reach the 50% damage benchmark and a Remnant wave is unleashed, keep your focus on the Architect, and direct your squadmates to deal with the Remnant. They should manage just fine.

Head Conduit

This is the phase that will really put your crafting and profile customisation skills to the test. Hopefully you have managed your Ryder and squadmates to build a team that deals good damage, takes advantage of damage, armor, cloaking, and headshot amplifies.

Once the Architect breaks out into this mode, you need to aim directly for the centre red eye area to deal the most damage: don’t focus fire on the armor as it won’t deal any damage.

The Architect is generally quite angry and aggressive as it deals with a damaged or destroyed leg, so you want to find a good balance between cover and firing. Blind firing won’t do the trick, so you need to rush to a spot — without moving too far — to break out into a good range and all aggressively attack the head.

Quick Tips

• Crafting a Black Widow sniper rifle in and of itself is necessary for the game, but if there’s any time to do it, it’s before an Architect battle
• If you play your cards right and follow this guide, you should be able to deal between 800 and 1000 damage per shot with a Black Widow sniper rifle.

Have any tips for dealing with Architects? Tell us in the comments below!

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