OP Insanity Assault Rifle Build - Mass Effect: Andromeda (MEA)

This post covers the best Assault Rifle build in Mass Effect Andromeda. It is one of the main game weapon types, that provides a fast firing rate and is good at medium to long-range combat. The weapon allows the creation of some overpowered (OP) Insanity builds that just remove enemies

Overpowered Insanity Assault Rifle Build

The idea of this build is fairly simple. We concentrate on maximizing our effectiveness with Assault Rifles. Before that, we will need a few things - correct skills, armor, and weapons. Once everything is in place, you will be able to shred enemies on the Insanity difficulty easily.

The only concern that may arise, is that the build does not have any combo activation. However, this is definitely not a problem, as our main concentration is Assault Rifles. The difficult part may be to obtain good augmentations for crafting. However, as you progress through the game you will easily research or drop most of them.

When using the build, I felt something like a SWAT operative, that is cleaning each room with precise assault rifle shots. Hitting first, second, and third enemies and just clearing them out of existence. I truly felt overpowered as some of the enemies were just too easy, compared to other builds

Skills allocation

This section covers how skill points should be allocated for the end game on the Assault Rifle build

Combat Skills

Power name	Upgrades Choices	Description
Turbocharge	Duration Damage & Force Supercharge	One of the pillars of this build. Should be used any time it is not under cooldown and Ryder is in combat. It greatly boosts weapon clip capacity, fire rate, and damage. Almost any weapon with this skill becomes overpowered.
Combat Fitness	Regeneration Heavy Lifting Hold the Line	Provides various stat boosts - max health, shields, weight capacity, weapon damage, etc. The level 6 upgrade, is especially good as it gives 200 damage resistance when HP is low.
Combat Tools	Hover Any Aerial Combat	The skill is not exceptionally important early on. However, it improves aerial combat, allowing Ryder to hover for longer. This unlocks some better angles to take out enemies behind the cover.
Assault Rifles	Weight Clip Size Shatter Defenses	Pretty obvious choice why we pick this passive skill. It improves Assault Rifle handling, damage, and clip size.

Once the other skills are covered, dump all points into combat skills for a higher Soldier profile level.

Biotic Skills

Power name	Upgrades Choices	Description
Barrier	Unyielding Barrier Biotic Alacrity Saving Barrier	Provides improvements to shields and gives instant shield restore when health is low

Tech Skills

Power name	Upgrades Choices	Description
Invasion	Outbreak Weaker Virulence	The skill is very powerful, especially when fighting armored or stronger opponents. It allows you to shred through them with Assault Rifle. Moreover, thanks to Team Support, you will regain health every time it is used.
Tactical Cloak	Damage Bonus Duration Combat Cloak	An extremely important ability for this build. It is the only choice to avoid enemy fire (besides moving to cover). However, with Combat Cloak, Ryder can also deal a huge burst of damage in 2 seconds.
Team Support	Support Team Recovery Life Support	Provides support-type bonuses. Our goal is the level 6 upgrade Life Support. It gives health regeneration that allows freely using Bio-Converter on weapons
Offensive Tech	Anti-Shield Detonators Technical Rounds	Improves various stats of tech skills. Moreover, after each tech skill use, we get bonus weapon damage.
Auxiliary Systems	Weapon Mass Reduction Enduring Tech Omni-Vents	Provides general bonuses for tech skills. Not as important for this build, so you can take it later in the game. The last upgrade gives a boost to skill recharge times.

Profile

Profile	Description
Soldier	For this build our goal is to get the highest boost of weapon damage, accuracy, and clip size.

Ability Progression

This section covers detailed ability progression for the best Assault RIfle Build. This is just a suggested progression, feel free to adjust it based on your needs.

Order	Skill	Description
1	Assault Rifles Lv 4	Unlock the main skills of the build. We need 9 skill points to unlock Turbocharge and Tactical Cloak to be invested in respective skill trees.
2	Turbocharge Lv 3
3	Invasion Lv 4
4	Tactical Cloak Lv 4
5	Turbocharge Lv 6	By maximizing these skills we boost Ryder's combat potential and unlock the level 3 Soldier profile
6	Assault Rifles Lv 6
7	Combat Fitness Lv 6
8	Team Support Lv 6	Unlock the Life Support upgrade for a health regeneration boost.
9	Invasion Lv 6	Maximize the active skills and get relevant upgrades
10	Tactical Cloak Lv 6
11	Offensive Tech Lv 6	Maximize the passive abilities, this will improve your combat capabilities, defenses, and tech skills
12	Auxiliary Systems Lv 6
13	Barrier Lv 6 (if you have Biotic Training)
14	Combat Tools Lv 6	We take it late because leveling it will not unlock the next level of the Soldier profile, and the bonuses are not crucial.

Now, we are done with the base of the build. However, you still need to pump the combat skills to get the Soldier profile to the maximum of level 6 for huge bonuses to weapon damage.

Tactics

This section will cover playing the OP Assault Rifle build in Mass Effect Andromeda. Follow the recommendations and it will be easy to breeze through the Insanity difficulty

Fighting strong or armored enemies

This build is extremely powerful when fighting strong enemies like Hydras, Fiends or Einrochs. The only limitation is how accurate you can be.

Generally, you would start the combat by activating Invasion. After that, use Turbocharge, target the enemy, and activate Tactical Cloak. Now you are ready to release the volley of shots. The damage is greatly boosted by all of these skills.

Main combat rotation

For general combat, it is fairly easy. Just target an enemy's head, and release a volley of shots. So it mostly depends on how accurate you are. Of course, if you see the shielded or armored enemy, I would first use Invasion, to weaken them.

After this, activated Turbocharge and start shooting. Have a Tactical Cloak ready. In case everyone starts shooting at Ryder, you can easily die. Using a Tactical Cloak will allow it to divert attention and fire again with increased damage.

I would also use Hovering (shooting when jumping) as you may have Aerial Performance optimizer augmentation on your weapon. This greatly boosts damage and gives you a better angle to take out enemies behind the cover.

Companions

The build is powerful on its own especially once you get augmentations on your Assault Rifles. Genreally, any companions work. Check the squad builds recommendations. However, one companion shines the most.

Core has a Shield Boost skill that restores shields and HP. This is especially useful once you get Bio-Converter and don't want to die fast. Moreover, she also has freezing bullets once you maximize Asari Commando, they make the combat much easier.

Equipment

This section will cover what equipment you should be using with Insanity Assault Rifle Build.

Weapons

Name	Mods	Augmentations
N7 Valkyrie	AR Barrel AR Heavy Magazine AR Light Stock AR Receiver	Bio-Converter - use HP to reload Automatic Fire System - turns the weapon into automatic Double Mod Extension - adds two mod slots Kinetic Coil - increases weapon damage
Sweeper	AR Barrel AR Heavy Magazine AR Light Stock AR Receiver	Bio-Converter - use HP to reload Aerial Performance optimizer - another option to Bio-Converter, gives a 35% damage boost while hovering Automatic Fire System - turns the weapon into automatic Double Mod Extension - adds two mod slots Kinetic Coil - increases weapon damage

Melee Weapons

Name	Augmentations	Description
Asari Sword	Kinetic Coil - increases weapon damage	Even though you may not use melee weapons, their bonuses from augmentations always apply. Due to this, we want to maximize weapon damage with 5 slots.

Armors

Armor piece	Stats	Augmentation options
Kett Helmet	+3%-12% Combat Power Damage +1%-10% Weapon Damage	Tech Recharge Module - reduces tech abilities recharge time
Maverick Chest	+3%-12% Weapon Headshot/Weak Point Bonus +3%-15% Weapon Spare Ammo +5%-20% Weapon Damage	Shield Oscillator - provide shield restoration on kill Kinetic Coil - increased damage resistance
Kett Legs	+3%-12% Combat Power Damage +1%-10% Weapon Damage	Tech Recharge Module - reduces tech abilities recharge time
Kett Arms	+3%-12% Combat Power Damage +1%-10% Weapon Damage	Tech Recharge Module - reduces tech abilities recharge time

Fusion Mods

Name	Description
Fusion Mod of Adrenaline	You can try out this fusion mod, which provides instant skill recharge after killing an enemy. The thing is that Assault Rifle build mostly relies on the weapon and not skills. So waiting a few seconds longer will not be a game changer. However, you can always skip it if you do not prefer this mechanic.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this post on the overpowered Insanity Assault Rifle build in Mass Effect Andromeda. I covered recommended abilities and their progression, best equipment, and tactics.

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