How Will Shepard Beat the Reapers? (Minor Mass Effect Spoilers)

[Avatar Roku]

She will find a big red button that says don't push and she will push it and all the reapers will become subservient and work at mcdonalds for the next 50k years.

Really I dont see anyway this is going to end other then finding a magic mcguffen and it somehow beating all the reapers, with the setup the 3rd game has. Really the game should be about organizing the races into a fleet and finding a way into deep space to kill most of them while they are still sleeping, have a few wake up before they are wiped out and have that be the epic final battle, where it takes most of the fleets to deal with a few reapers and one of those reapers is infiltrated and taken down by Shepard's team, while the others are either taken down by similar infiltration teams or blown to hell by dreadnoughts.

I think that is exactly what the game WILL be about. Think about the allies we have (possibly) been recruiting. The Krogan, the Quarians, the Geth, the Rachni. All of those but the Quarians are renowned for terrestrial combat prowess (good for boarding reapers, for example), and all of them but the Krogans are renowned for strong fleets (hell, the Quarians have the largest one in the known galaxy, and the Geth fleet that followed Saren was only about 5% of the total Geth strength). And that's to say nothing of what a you could do with the Citadel and Alliance Fleets when they fight the Reapers at full strength and while not surprised.

I bet Mass Effect 3 will mostly be spent making sure that those allies are at full strength. Convincing the Quarians and Geth to make peace (or choosing between them, which Keelah knows I don't want to do), convincing the Salarians to lift the Genophage, scouting the Reapers so that the big fleets are not taken by surprise, etc.

Few things to keep in mind.

1. We've come to find out, more or less, that not all reapers are the BIG, capital ships Sovereign was. Granted, there are prolly alot of them big ships, but in general, it's not a fleet of "Sovereigns" like it's been made out to be.

2. Sovereign was taken down, more or less, but one wing, or fleet of earth ships, not the whole earth navy, and what was left of a suprise attack on the citidal that started with them knocking out communations so they couldn't call for help. There were alot more reinforcments to be had, if they'd known they were under attack in the first place.

3. The reapers are burning ALOT of resorces and fuel to make the trip to the cidital. Not only did they have to come back from dark space, but once the alpha relay was blown, that added possible up to a years worth more FTL travel, which has to be taxing.

So i think there's a SLIGHT misconception as to how powerful the reaper fleet really is, IE, they aren't all Sovereigns, and are buring ALOT of resorces right now, and we aren't as WEAK as we seemed. It was a suprise attack, and a fraction of the galaxies full milatery might. A head on fight, with the WHOLE galaxie, as in, EVERYONE, might be more then the reapers can handle.

After all, all reapers invasions START with a sneak attack that cripples interstaller travel. where they can pick apart picemeal resistince one system at a time. That won't be the case this time. It's going to be a head on fight, after a long exidos, with a unitifed galaxie (once i'm done with them). Something they may well have NEVER faced before.

And of course, there may be a magic Maguffin. That can always happen to if the writers get lazy... >.>

On that subject, we've been told that there is one set piece in ME3 wherein a Thresher Maw fights a Reaper, so they really all better NOT be Sovereign's size, or else Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense OF Scale.

 

[Whispering Cynic]

Retcon them into cybernetic equivalents of crippled hamsters and stomp them mercilessly out of existence? At this point I wouldn't be even surprised.

 

[AT God]

Im pretty sure he is going to have to sacrifice several of your favorite characters like in the first and second.

 

[Avatar Roku]

Retcon them into cybernetic equivalents of crippled hamsters and stomp them mercilessly out of existence? At this point I wouldn't be even surprised.

I dunno, I'm impressed that Bioware has kept the Retconning down to such low levels thus far. As far as I know, as of ME2, the only outright retcon was about the Quarians' immune systems, with thermal clips being something of a pseudo-retcon.

How do you think the Reapers will be defeated, considering one of them managed to demolish half a fleet before going down?

Here is my theory: Dark Matter. I've been playing through both games over the past few weeks, and I've noticed quite a few references to dark matter that have no other context in the story. Namely on Tali's recruitment mission and a few galactic newscasts. I feel that somehow, dark matter is going to be weaponized in the game as a means of combating the Reapers with superpowerful weapons.

So that's my pitch, what do you guys think is going to happen?

I've been wondering if I was the only one to notice that. Newscasts on illium, on Haestrom, everywhere.

Yeah, it was underplayed for how blindingly important it seems like it will be. So much so that I bet the vast majority of fans will be pissed if Dark Energy end up being even a bit important, since it would really seem like an ass pull. We'll see how they handle it.

 

[Maldaris]

I don't think that gun was prothean. I believe it was older but they could learn to use the remnants of that one to recreate a dark matter launching weapon

 

[Worgen]

She will find a big red button that says don't push and she will push it and all the reapers will become subservient and work at mcdonalds for the next 50k years.

Really I dont see anyway this is going to end other then finding a magic mcguffen and it somehow beating all the reapers, with the setup the 3rd game has. Really the game should be about organizing the races into a fleet and finding a way into deep space to kill most of them while they are still sleeping, have a few wake up before they are wiped out and have that be the epic final battle, where it takes most of the fleets to deal with a few reapers and one of those reapers is infiltrated and taken down by Shepard's team, while the others are either taken down by similar infiltration teams or blown to hell by dreadnoughts.

I think that is exactly what the game WILL be about. Think about the allies we have (possibly) been recruiting. The Krogan, the Quarians, the Geth, the Rachni. All of those but the Quarians are renowned for terrestrial combat prowess (good for boarding reapers, for example), and all of them but the Krogans are renowned for strong fleets (hell, the Quarians have the largest one in the known galaxy, and the Geth fleet that followed Saren was only about 5% of the total Geth strength). And that's to say nothing of what a you could do with the Citadel and Alliance Fleets when they fight the Reapers at full strength and while not surprised.

I bet Mass Effect 3 will mostly be spent making sure that those allies are at full strength. Convincing the Quarians and Geth to make peace (or choosing between them, which Keelah knows I don't want to do), convincing the Salarians to lift the Genophage, scouting the Reapers so that the big fleets are not taken by surprise, etc.

Few things to keep in mind.

1. We've come to find out, more or less, that not all reapers are the BIG, capital ships Sovereign was. Granted, there are prolly alot of them big ships, but in general, it's not a fleet of "Sovereigns" like it's been made out to be.

2. Sovereign was taken down, more or less, but one wing, or fleet of earth ships, not the whole earth navy, and what was left of a suprise attack on the citidal that started with them knocking out communations so they couldn't call for help. There were alot more reinforcments to be had, if they'd known they were under attack in the first place.

3. The reapers are burning ALOT of resorces and fuel to make the trip to the cidital. Not only did they have to come back from dark space, but once the alpha relay was blown, that added possible up to a years worth more FTL travel, which has to be taxing.

So i think there's a SLIGHT misconception as to how powerful the reaper fleet really is, IE, they aren't all Sovereigns, and are buring ALOT of resorces right now, and we aren't as WEAK as we seemed. It was a suprise attack, and a fraction of the galaxies full milatery might. A head on fight, with the WHOLE galaxie, as in, EVERYONE, might be more then the reapers can handle.

After all, all reapers invasions START with a sneak attack that cripples interstaller travel. where they can pick apart picemeal resistince one system at a time. That won't be the case this time. It's going to be a head on fight, after a long exidos, with a unitifed galaxie (once i'm done with them). Something they may well have NEVER faced before.

And of course, there may be a magic Maguffin. That can always happen to if the writers get lazy... >.>

On that subject, we've been told that there is one set piece in ME3 wherein a Thresher Maw fights a Reaper, so they really all better NOT be Sovereign's size, or else Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense OF Scale.

No, unfortinatly according to everything I have seen about the game so far, it starts out with the reapers invading and attacking earth and Shepard is able to escape and tries to round up allies to counter attack but each race is involved with its own stupid shit, like the quarians have decided to retake the homeworld.
This is the trailer.
If it wasn't for the space ships you would think it was a cod clone.
So ME3 has the reapers already here and that should be bad ending, I mean unless they retcon the reapers to suck, I don't see how they are saving earth.

 

[Avatar Roku]

I don't think that gun was prothean it was older but they could learn to use the remnants to recreate on for dark matter launching weapon

You're right; if you visit Klendagon in the first game, it's mentioned that the Great Rift (which was formed from that gun) is the only evidence that that particular civilization ever existed. So it must have been a race earlier on in the Cycle.

 

[tmande2nd]

How else does Shepard solve issues?

A combination of shooting it in the face...and shooting it in the face.

Probably going to be some epic persuasion check at the end or some BS.
Paragon: Convince the Reapers to fall into the sun
Renegade: Scare the reapers into falling into the sun.

 

[Avatar Roku]

She will find a big red button that says don't push and she will push it and all the reapers will become subservient and work at mcdonalds for the next 50k years.

Really I dont see anyway this is going to end other then finding a magic mcguffen and it somehow beating all the reapers, with the setup the 3rd game has. Really the game should be about organizing the races into a fleet and finding a way into deep space to kill most of them while they are still sleeping, have a few wake up before they are wiped out and have that be the epic final battle, where it takes most of the fleets to deal with a few reapers and one of those reapers is infiltrated and taken down by Shepard's team, while the others are either taken down by similar infiltration teams or blown to hell by dreadnoughts.

I think that is exactly what the game WILL be about. Think about the allies we have (possibly) been recruiting. The Krogan, the Quarians, the Geth, the Rachni. All of those but the Quarians are renowned for terrestrial combat prowess (good for boarding reapers, for example), and all of them but the Krogans are renowned for strong fleets (hell, the Quarians have the largest one in the known galaxy, and the Geth fleet that followed Saren was only about 5% of the total Geth strength). And that's to say nothing of what a you could do with the Citadel and Alliance Fleets when they fight the Reapers at full strength and while not surprised.

I bet Mass Effect 3 will mostly be spent making sure that those allies are at full strength. Convincing the Quarians and Geth to make peace (or choosing between them, which Keelah knows I don't want to do), convincing the Salarians to lift the Genophage, scouting the Reapers so that the big fleets are not taken by surprise, etc.

Few things to keep in mind.

1. We've come to find out, more or less, that not all reapers are the BIG, capital ships Sovereign was. Granted, there are prolly alot of them big ships, but in general, it's not a fleet of "Sovereigns" like it's been made out to be.

2. Sovereign was taken down, more or less, but one wing, or fleet of earth ships, not the whole earth navy, and what was left of a suprise attack on the citidal that started with them knocking out communations so they couldn't call for help. There were alot more reinforcments to be had, if they'd known they were under attack in the first place.

3. The reapers are burning ALOT of resorces and fuel to make the trip to the cidital. Not only did they have to come back from dark space, but once the alpha relay was blown, that added possible up to a years worth more FTL travel, which has to be taxing.

So i think there's a SLIGHT misconception as to how powerful the reaper fleet really is, IE, they aren't all Sovereigns, and are buring ALOT of resorces right now, and we aren't as WEAK as we seemed. It was a suprise attack, and a fraction of the galaxies full milatery might. A head on fight, with the WHOLE galaxie, as in, EVERYONE, might be more then the reapers can handle.

After all, all reapers invasions START with a sneak attack that cripples interstaller travel. where they can pick apart picemeal resistince one system at a time. That won't be the case this time. It's going to be a head on fight, after a long exidos, with a unitifed galaxie (once i'm done with them). Something they may well have NEVER faced before.

And of course, there may be a magic Maguffin. That can always happen to if the writers get lazy... >.>

On that subject, we've been told that there is one set piece in ME3 wherein a Thresher Maw fights a Reaper, so they really all better NOT be Sovereign's size, or else Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense OF Scale.

No, unfortinatly according to everything I have seen about the game so far, it starts out with the reapers invading and attacking earth and Shepard is able to escape and tries to round up allies to counter attack but each race is involved with its own stupid shit, like the quarians have decided to retake the homeworld.
This is the trailer.
If it wasn't for the space ships you would think it was a cod clone.
So ME3 has the reapers already here and that should be bad ending, I mean unless they retcon the reapers to suck, I don't see how they are saving earth.

According to the Game Informer article on ME3 from a few months ago, part of the game involves solving a conflict between the Salarians and the Krogan (that was just one example given), which to me smacks of gathering allies in the sense of entire armies and fleets, not just his squad. Also keep in mind, if the events of ME2 are any indication, the Reapers will want live humans, so they'll probably be on Earth for a while after actually winning the battle there. That extends the time frame immensely.

As I see it, Shep is at Earth answering for the events of Arrival, and then the Reapers invade. Act 1 will be fighting to get off Earth. Act 2 (i.e, the Act in every Bioware game where you choose where to go) will be gathering Armies and Fleets of allies (by, for example, convincing the Salarians to lift the Genophage, or making peace between the Geth and Quarians [or helping one side win]), that sort of thing. Then Act 3 will be taking all of your allies and either trying to take back Earth or else attacking wherever the Reapers are at that point.

 

[JPArbiter]

Draw the reapers to an evacuated system and blow up another mass relay. as the reapers are just as reliant on Relay's as galactic civilization this will isolate any that are not destroyed for a few centuries.

 

[caffineking]

**relics spoiler alert**

I think the end should be taken from the end of Shaun Hutson's book Relics...

And all the time that loathsome black shape expanded, it's monstrous roar filling the night as it stretched cross the boiling skies. It's hidious form blotting out those blood soaked clouds, filling the heavens
Then there was only darkness.


Or Shepherd can make friends with the mysterious Keepers who actually knew how to destroy the Reapers all along but no-one bothered to ask... I'm easy...

 

[Sinspiration]

Your Pitch(Black) on Dark Matter is certainly interesting but I still think there'll be some heavy galactic combat involved. And if you got the right allies (such as our dear buggy friends the Rachni and rebellious lil robot pals the Geth) on board then there's bound to be some serious Reaper beat-downs in the works.

Plus there's probably been study on Reapers by now but certain factions *hackcoughcerberuscough* meaning weapons may or may not have been developed to try combating them.

Either way I can see a wide web of possibilities that could be all or nothing.

It's cool to have the Krogans on my side too because Wrex is their head honcho and he's my best buddy xD

 

[Avatar Roku]

Draw the reapers to an evacuated system and blow up another mass relay. as the reapers are just as reliant on Relay's as galactic civilization this will isolate any that are not destroyed for a few centuries.

Not centuries, unfortunately. Bear in mind, the Reapers apparently began moving from Dark Space towards the galaxy after ME1 ended,* and by the end of ME2 they've made it all the way to the outer rim. They can fucking MOVE. It would buy a couple years at best. The explosion from the Relay blowing up, on the other hand...

*If Sovereign was still trying to activate the Citadel Relay, the other Reapers must have still been at their normal place in Dark Space, or else activating the Relay wouldn't do anything for them.

 

[badgersprite]

With great difficulty, and a lot of people dying.

 

[Avatar Roku]

Your Pitch(Black) on Dark Matter is certainly interesting but I still think there'll be some heavy galactic combat involved. And if you got the right allies (such as our dear buggy friends the Rachni and rebellious lil robot pals the Geth) on board then there's bound to be some serious Reaper beat-downs in the works.

Plus there's probably been study on Reapers by now but certain factions *hackcoughcerberuscough* meaning weapons may or may not have been developed to try combating them.

Either way I can see a wide web of possibilities that could be all or nothing.

It's cool to have the Krogans on my side too because Wrex is their head honcho and he's my best buddy xD

In an epic Rock-Paper-Scissors battle that decides the fate of the galaxy.

More seriously I really don't have a clue, but I have a hunch those bugs things from the first game(raka something) might play a role if you spared them. Same might go for those geth in Legion's mission.

Yeah, I pretty much trusted everyone to help in the final hour. That meant converting the Geth, saving the Rachni, handing over the collector ship... pretty much everything.

But it will probably be a 'gaining favours from all races and factions to help in the final fight' kind of deal.

As far as Cerberus goes, the reason that they're fighting you in ME3 is apparently one of two things:
1. You handed the Station over to them and they got Indoctrinated
2. They're pissed at you for blowing up the station (which is retarded, but whatever)

So don't count on Cerberus' help.

 

[Worgen]

She will find a big red button that says don't push and she will push it and all the reapers will become subservient and work at mcdonalds for the next 50k years.

Really I dont see anyway this is going to end other then finding a magic mcguffen and it somehow beating all the reapers, with the setup the 3rd game has. Really the game should be about organizing the races into a fleet and finding a way into deep space to kill most of them while they are still sleeping, have a few wake up before they are wiped out and have that be the epic final battle, where it takes most of the fleets to deal with a few reapers and one of those reapers is infiltrated and taken down by Shepard's team, while the others are either taken down by similar infiltration teams or blown to hell by dreadnoughts.

I think that is exactly what the game WILL be about. Think about the allies we have (possibly) been recruiting. The Krogan, the Quarians, the Geth, the Rachni. All of those but the Quarians are renowned for terrestrial combat prowess (good for boarding reapers, for example), and all of them but the Krogans are renowned for strong fleets (hell, the Quarians have the largest one in the known galaxy, and the Geth fleet that followed Saren was only about 5% of the total Geth strength). And that's to say nothing of what a you could do with the Citadel and Alliance Fleets when they fight the Reapers at full strength and while not surprised.

I bet Mass Effect 3 will mostly be spent making sure that those allies are at full strength. Convincing the Quarians and Geth to make peace (or choosing between them, which Keelah knows I don't want to do), convincing the Salarians to lift the Genophage, scouting the Reapers so that the big fleets are not taken by surprise, etc.

Few things to keep in mind.

1. We've come to find out, more or less, that not all reapers are the BIG, capital ships Sovereign was. Granted, there are prolly alot of them big ships, but in general, it's not a fleet of "Sovereigns" like it's been made out to be.

2. Sovereign was taken down, more or less, but one wing, or fleet of earth ships, not the whole earth navy, and what was left of a suprise attack on the citidal that started with them knocking out communations so they couldn't call for help. There were alot more reinforcments to be had, if they'd known they were under attack in the first place.

3. The reapers are burning ALOT of resorces and fuel to make the trip to the cidital. Not only did they have to come back from dark space, but once the alpha relay was blown, that added possible up to a years worth more FTL travel, which has to be taxing.

So i think there's a SLIGHT misconception as to how powerful the reaper fleet really is, IE, they aren't all Sovereigns, and are buring ALOT of resorces right now, and we aren't as WEAK as we seemed. It was a suprise attack, and a fraction of the galaxies full milatery might. A head on fight, with the WHOLE galaxie, as in, EVERYONE, might be more then the reapers can handle.

After all, all reapers invasions START with a sneak attack that cripples interstaller travel. where they can pick apart picemeal resistince one system at a time. That won't be the case this time. It's going to be a head on fight, after a long exidos, with a unitifed galaxie (once i'm done with them). Something they may well have NEVER faced before.

And of course, there may be a magic Maguffin. That can always happen to if the writers get lazy... >.>

On that subject, we've been told that there is one set piece in ME3 wherein a Thresher Maw fights a Reaper, so they really all better NOT be Sovereign's size, or else Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense OF Scale.

No, unfortinatly according to everything I have seen about the game so far, it starts out with the reapers invading and attacking earth and Shepard is able to escape and tries to round up allies to counter attack but each race is involved with its own stupid shit, like the quarians have decided to retake the homeworld.
This is the trailer.
If it wasn't for the space ships you would think it was a cod clone.
So ME3 has the reapers already here and that should be bad ending, I mean unless they retcon the reapers to suck, I don't see how they are saving earth.

According to the Game Informer article on ME3 from a few months ago, part of the game involves solving a conflict between the Salarians and the Krogan (that was just one example given), which to me smacks of gathering allies in the sense of entire armies and fleets, not just his squad. Also keep in mind, if the events of ME2 are any indication, the Reapers will want live humans, so they'll probably be on Earth for a while after actually winning the battle there. That extends the time frame immensely.

As I see it, Shep is at Earth answering for the events of Arrival, and then the Reapers invade. Act 1 will be fighting to get off Earth. Act 2 (i.e, the Act in every Bioware game where you choose where to go) will be gathering Armies and Fleets of allies (by, for example, convincing the Salarians to lift the Genophage, or making peace between the Geth and Quarians [or helping one side win]), that sort of thing. Then Act 3 will be taking all of your allies and either trying to take back Earth or else attacking wherever the Reapers are at that point.

Which is why the plot will be bad or the reapers will have to be retconned to hell since so far its been established that we are using tech that they control, mainly the gates which are the key to intergalactic travel, the only one they don't control is that lil one that links the promethium world to the citadel, all they need to do is either shut down the gate to sol, station a fleet outside the gate so they can nuke anything that comes though or just blow or just blow up the gate and then nothing is getting though. Not to mention that the reapers have been doing this awhile so they know pretty much how the tech of the races will work and where species will be and since they have spies they will even know fleet size and such, really the only reason this invasion is different is because they weren't woken up by the keepers since the promethians managed to stop them from being able to send a message this time.
The only plot that really would make sense is to attack them in deep space, any other way of fighting them seems doomed, without the plot going wacky.

 

[Bailey1337]

This is what I secretly hope is going to save the galaxy from the Reapers in the very end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hul4pJo_z-8

 

[Foxblade618]

How do you think the Reapers will be defeated, considering one of them managed to demolish half a fleet before going down?

Here is my theory: Dark Matter. I've been playing through both games over the past few weeks, and I've noticed quite a few references to dark matter that have no other context in the story. Namely on Tali's recruitment mission and a few galactic newscasts. I feel that somehow, dark matter is going to be weaponized in the game as a means of combating the Reapers with superpowerful weapons.

So that's my pitch, what do you guys think is going to happen?

I agree with your dark matter hypothesis. I think that there will be a choice to be made about blowing up Sol to kill the Reapers attacking Earth: stopping the main force of Reapers at the cost of humanity's home. The galaxy fleet, assembled by Shepard will then have to clean out the remaining Reapers that went to other places.

 

[midknight129]

You guys are close with the computer virus thing. I'll give you a hint: it'll involve a copy of Windows.

 

[SaunaKalja]

Reapers? Those things are just a myth. First you need to search the galaxy for evidence they even exist. Oh those things that totally wrecked Earth in one fell swoop? They're propably a Cerberus ploy, or those crazy aliens from the Terminus Systems.