Garrus Vakarian - Complete Build guide - Mass Effect 1 (ME1) | LE

Garrus is a C-Sec Turian who joins Shepard on the journey to catch Saren. In this post, I will share my tips on how to best build Garrus in Mass Effect 1 Legendary Edition.

Talents and skills

Garrus is Turian Agent. This means that he concentrates on using Sniper and Assault rifles in Combat. Moreover, he specializes in Tech allowing them to easily deal with enemy shields and crippling their weapons.

Here are the talent point allocations that you should have close to the end game:

• Assault Rifles: 6 (12 – if you decide to go for Assault rifles)
• Sniper Rifles: 12 (Skip it if you choose to concentrate on Assault rifles)
• Tactical Armor: 12
• Assault Training: 12
• Decryption: 9
• Damping: 4
• First Aid: 7
• Electronics: 9
• Turian Agent: 6

If you have Garrus as the only Tech-type character in your group, your priority is Decryption 9, First Aid 7, and Electronics 9. This way you can unlock all the chests, safes, and other containers as early as possible in Mass Effect However, if not follow the steps below:

I suggest going for Assault Rifles 6 and then Sniper Rifles 12. Sniper has the ability to knockdown. This is specifically useful for Insanity difficulty where enemies can be hard to deal with.

My next suggestion is Decryption. Get it to 9, this way you can disable enemy weapons making them stand around taking damage. This works well for enemies like Krogans or Geth Destroyers which take a while to kill.

Next, get First Aid 7 and Electronics to 9. You will now be able to easily take out enemy shields and deal additional health damage. This works well against most of the enemies, especially Geth.

Now, you have all the core skills needed and can put the rest of the points to Tactical Armor, Assault Training, and Turian Agent

Recommended Gear for Garrus

Garrus represents Infiltartor Class. So similar equipment is needed.

Weapons

As you can guess the best weapons are the ones for Spectres: HMWA – assault rifle and HMWSR Sniper Rifle. Try to get the highest tier available to you, either 7 or 10.

Now for upgrades, you have these options:

• Frictionless Materials – boosts damage without increasing heat generation
• Scram Rail – provides large damage boost and increases heat generation
• Inferno Rounds – good rounds that affect all the enemies in the game: does damage per second and reduces their accuracy
• High Explosive Rounds – these rounds will enable you to knock down most enemies in the game. I think this is mandatory on Insanity difficulty

Armors

Garrus can wear Light Armor. However, with level 7 Tactical armor investment he will be able to equip Medium Armors. This will give the needed protection bonus from the enemies – a much-needed improvement to his survivability

There are two main options:

• Colossus armor – has the highest physical protection, which I personally is better
• Predator armor – has weaker damage protection, but provides larger bonuses to Shields and tech/biotic protection

I recommend getting these upgrades: Energized Plating, Medical Exoskeleton.

Best Omni-tool for Garrus

As with all Omni-tool users I recommend Savant. This is the best item available that will boost Garrus Tech cooldowns and shields:

Savant can be bought in Normandy or Emporium on rare occasions and on some quests

Logic Arrest is a weaker alternative if you are not able to obtain Savant.

Garrus Vakarian Tactics

I suggest having Garrus equipped Sniper Rifle. Regarding the skills, here is how I use them:

1. Sabotage
2. Damping
3. Overload
4. Adrenaline Burst (repeat from the first point)

It is fairly straightforward, with Sabotage and Damping you should be able to disable most of the enemies, making your encounters much easier.

Conclusion

I hope you have enjoyed this guide. It should help you to get an understanding of how Garrus should be built to maximize his utility in the party.

Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions in the comments