In this Mass Effect Legendary Edition Build Guide I’m going to cover my Engineer Build for Mass Effect 1, which is an Engineer Build meant for mid-range encounters. I’ll be sharing the best Talents to prioritize, what it means to choose the Operative Specialization for your Engineer, the optimal Weapons, Armor, and Mods to equip, and the Squadmates to take with you on Missions and Assignments. If you’ve been looking for a way to optimally play as an Engineer then this Guide is for you.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition Build Guide: Engineer (Mass Effect 1)

The Engineer Class specializes in dealing decent damage at mid-range distances due to their proficiency with the Pistol. Because they lack additional Weapon Training, Engineers gravitate towards utilizing their Tech Abilities to debilitate enemies by weakening the effectiveness of their Weapons and Shields.

What makes this Class fun to play is how varied each of their Tech Abilities are when it comes to disrupting the tactical strategies of their foes. They have Sabotage to overheat enemy Weapons, as well as Overload to increase the damage they deal to Shields. Additionally, the Engineer is the only playable Class that can use AI Hacking. This lets them manipulate Synthetics or robotic enemies into attacking anything nearby, including their own kind.

The Operative Engineer Build enhances both the range and performances of Sabotage and Overload to debuff targets better while making them more vulnerable to the Squad’s attacks.

Engineer Talents and Abilities (Mass Effect 1)

In this section, I’ll talk about the different Weapon, Combat and Tech Talents and Abilities that you should focus on to make the most out of your Operative Engineer Build. Note that the number of Talent Points I’ve allocated is based on reaching Level 50 in Mass Effect 1 Legendary Edition, or 25 if you’re using the Legendary mode.

Weapon Talent and Ability

There is only one Weapon Talent that you’ll have to put sufficient Talent Points into because this will help you tackle enemies by increasing the accuracy of your shots and the damage you deal.

Pistols

This Talent unlocks the Marksman Ability at Rank 3. The Marksman Ability increases the accuracy and damage of the Pistol. This Weapon should be used in combination with Tech Abilities, that is, after disabling enemies in order to take advantage of their vulnerability.

Note that since the Pistol is the only Weapon the Engineer is proficient with, it’s imperative to start investing at least 3 points at earlier levels to enhance its performance. Moreover, you’ll have to follow through with 9 additional Talent Points, a total of 12, to maximize the damage you inflict.

Tech Talents and Abilities

There are 4 Tech Talents that you’ll have to put sufficient points into in order to effectively debilitate enemies. These are Decryption, Hacking, Electronics and Damping.

Decryption

Decryption lets you do several things at once both in and out of combat. Every time you use your Tech Abilities like Sabotage, Overload or Damping, you automatically throw a tech proximity mine, which detonates after a few seconds. As you raise the rank of this Talent, the explosion brought about by that same proximity mine increases.

Because Decryption is available at the onset of the game, you have to start allotting as many points as possible. At Rank 1, you immediately gain access to Sabotage, which tampers with your enemy’s Weapons via overheating, thereby preventing them from shooting your Squad. Note that this Ability will not disable enemies that don’t wield Weapons such as Rachni Workers.

The best way to to make use of Sabotage is to immediately cast it when Synthetics appear. This gives you time to shoot them to their deaths with your Pistol afterward. Additionally, hitting fuel tanks with this Ability detonates it, causing explosions to severely damage nearby targets.

Outside of combat, you can decrypt locked containers and objects in order to obtain better gear. The amount of Omni-gel you gather is also increased. This is useful in repairing your Mako Vehicle and in bypassing security systems.

Ideally, you should reach Rank 7 to unlock the Hacking Talent and Rank 9 to get Master Sabotage so you can improve the explosion damage of your tech proximity mine.

Hacking

At Rank 1, Hacking gives you access to AI Hacking, which lets you manipulate Synthetics to aid you in combat, by attacking their own kind. However, you have to be careful when activating this Ability since hacked enemies can attack your Squad if there are no other targets nearby. What happens is that they will run after said targets, which will then attack them back, thereby diverting their attention away from you. Note that Squadmates will only inflict damage to hacked enemies when you command them to do so.

The best targets of AI Hacking are those positioned at the back of the group. This adds extra movement for unaffected Synthetics to turn around and to gang up on the hacked enemy, giving the latter extra time to kill its comrades. What’s more is you can keep hacking the same enemy when the duration of this Ability runs out.

At higher levels, this Talent significantly reduces the recharge times of Sabotage, Overload and Damping. Since Decryption will have to reach Rank 7 to unlock Hacking, you’ll be allocating points into this a bit later into the game. It shouldn’t be a problem given that you have other relevant Tech Abilities available for use. To gain full advantage, you’ll have to invest a total of 12 points into Hacking to access Master AI Hacking. This enables you to manipulate the majority of Synthetics for a longer period of time.

Electronics

Similar to Decryption, Electronics also provides benefits in and out of combat. As you raise its ranks, your Shield Strength improves, helping you survive longer and tougher encounters. At Rank 1, you gain access to Overload, which severely weakens enemy Shields, making them momentarily vulnerable to additional damage. When you’ve completely destroyed their defenses, you can easily whittle down their HP to kill them. This makes it necessary to allot points into Electronics at the start of the game. Like Sabotage, it’s best to use Overload right after seeing Synthetics so you can immediately weaken them. You can then finish them off with your Pistol.

Outside of combat, you can hack security systems and repair huge parts of your damaged Mako’s hull. You ought to reach Rank 4 to unlock the Damping Talent and to gain access to Master Overload at Rank 9 in order to deal a significant amount of damage to the enemy’s Shields while increasing your tech proximity mine’s explosion damage.

Damping

Damping increases your tech proximity mines explosion radius in order to affect more enemies. At Rank 1, you unlock its corresponding Damping Ability, which prevents targets from using any of their Tech and Biotic Abilities, making it easier to deal with them. As you continue to invest more points into this Talent, you increase the effect radius of Sabotage, Overload and Damping.

I suggest allocating 6 Talent Points into Damping to gain access to Advanced Damping. This Ability also stuns most enemies, rendering them powerless for a period of time.

Combat Talents and Abilities

There are 2 Combat Talents that will make your Operative Engineer Build resilient in mid-range combat. These are Basic Armor and Spectre Training. I’ll explain why these are essential and how they integrate well with your Build.

Basic Armor

This Talent makes you durable in combat by protecting you from incoming Melee and Weapon Damage, as well as Tech and Biotic Attacks. Its corresponding stats, namely damage reduction and Hardening, are increased every time you rank up Basic Armor. At Rank 3, you unlock the Shield Boost Ability, which restores 30% of your depleted Shields per second. At Rank 12, which is what you’ll be aiming for since you can only equip Light Armor, you gain access to the Master Shield Boost Ability to restore 50% of your Shields per second.

Spectre Training

This Talent can be unlocked after you become a Spectre when you complete a Citadel Mission within 2 hours of playing. Spectre Training makes your character stronger by raising the accuracy and damage of your Pistol, improves your Abilities, and raises your max HP.

What makes Spectre Training relevant is its Unity Ability, which lets you revive dead Squadmates. This is especially helpful in fighting challenging enemies when the chances of dying become higher. At Rank 12, you’ll be able to gain access to Master Unity so you can restore half of your downed Squad’s HP and 100% of their Shields, protecting them from any form of damage.

Auxiliary Talents

There are 2 Auxiliary Talents, which are useful to you even if you don’t allocate too many Talent Points into them. These are First Aid and Medicine.

First Aid

This Talent allows you to restore a portion of your Squad’s HP. I recommend increasing its rank to 6 so that you can unlock Advanced First Aid in order to give back 100 HP every time you consume a Medi-gel.

Medicine

This Talent reduces First Aid’s recharge time, allowing you to heal your Squad more often. At Rank 1, you gain access to Neural Shock, which temporarily knocks down an Organic or live enemy while dealing extra Toxic Damage.

Operative Specialization (Mass Effect 1)

In this section, I’m going to discuss the Unique Class Talent for this Build as well as its evolved form or Specialization upon completing a certain quest.

The Engineer Class Talent reduces the recharge times of all Tech Talents and Abilities while improving your resistance to Tech Attacks. You can only allot a maximum of 6 Talent Points into it.

At Level 20 when you access the Galaxy Map, the Assignment UNC: Rogue VI on Luna will be given to you by Admiral Hackett. Upon completing this side quest, you will be able to choose between two Specializations, namely, Operative or Medic. Either Specialization will increase the rank of your Engineer Class Talent from 6 to 12. Note that the Talent Points you may have allotted to your Class Talent prior to unlocking your Specialization will carry over and you’ll be receiving the same bonuses from Ranks 7 to 12.

Operative increases the range of both your Overload and Sabotage Abilities while boosting your tech proximity mine’s explosion damage. As such, you can effectively debuff more enemies. Comparatively, Medic focuses on lengthening Neural Shock’s duration and the Toxic Damage it inflicts as well as the restoration of HP to recover faster from fights. Between these two, I highly recommend choosing Operative so you can also maximize the reduction in recharge times of all Tech Abilities allowing you to use them more often.

Squadmates

Every time Shepard explores the different clusters of the Galaxy, you’ll be asked to select 2 Squadmates or Companions to bring with you. In Mass Effect 1 Legendary Edition, there are a total of 6 to choose from, each with their own Combat, Tech and Biotic Specialties. Remember that their levels are the same as yours even for those who are left in the Normandy Ship. Since your Squadmates’ Talents are fewer than Shepard’s, they receive less Talent Points every time they level up.

Urdnot Wrex

Since you lack Biotic Abilities to immobilize enemies, it’s best to bring Urdnot Wrex who is a Biotic and Combat Specialist. You can recruit him after completeing the Citadel: Wrex Mission.

What makes him a very good Squadmate is his Biotic Abilities like Warp and Throw. Warp weakens Armor while damaging the enemy over time whereas Throw hurls targets away from your Squad to damage and to briefly render them helpless. Additionally, he is capable of wielding a Shotgun and Assault Rifle, which deal massive damage at point-blank and mid-range distances, respectively. Wrex is also highly resilient due to his Heavy Armor.

Ashley Williams

In order to balance your need for additional firepower when it comes to dealing Weapon Damage from afar, you’ll need another durable Squadmate like Ashley Williams. You can recruit her after completing the Find the Beacon – Continue to the Dig Site Mission.

Since Ashley is a Combat Specialist, she is proficient with all Weapons, namely the Pistol, Assault Rifle, Shotgun, and Sniper Rifle. This makes her versatile when shooting from any distance. Moreover, like Wrex, she can also equip Heavy Armor, making both of them the ideal frontliners in combat while you activate your Tech Abilities from the sidelines.

Engineer Weapons and Mods (Mass Effect 1)

For the Operative Engineer Build, you should equip the Pistol Spectre Gear. To acquire this, you’ll need to unlock the “Rich Achievement” by having 1,000,000 credits and reaching Level 50, which are doable as long as you complete the majority of Assignments.

If you don’t reach Level 50 but you get the Rich Achievement, you can still obtain the lower version of this Weapon, specifically HWMP VII, which is still far superior than the other Pistols in the game. You can buy Spectre Gear from the C-Sec or Alliance Requisition Officers located in the Citadel and the Normandy, respectively. Note that at the time of creating this guide, there is a bug that doesn’t make the Spectre Gear available for purchase at higher levels.

Pistol

The best Pistol is the HMWP VII, which deals massive damage compared to other Pistols that you’ll obtain from locked containers. Moreover, you can fire about 20+ shots before this Weapon overheats.

Weapon Mods

For the Pistol Spectre Gear, you can add 2 Weapon Mods and 1 Ammo Mod. With Weapon Mods, you can choose the Rail Extension VII and Combat Scanner VII. Rail Extension significantly boosts your damage but it has a heat absorption penalty of about 20%. Note that this becomes negligible at higher levels so it shouldn’t be an issue. Meanwhile, Combat Scanner improves detection in combat since enemies will often jam your radar making it tough for you to spot their positions and total number.

For Ammo Mods, I suggest switching between Tungsten Rounds VII and Shredder Rounds VII, which deal extra 40% damage to Synthetics and Organics or live enemies, respectively. More often than not, you’ll be using Tungsten Rounds due to the high volume of Synthetics relative to Organics.

Occasionally, you can also use Polonium Rounds VII because this inflicts high Toxic Damage and extra damage over time while preventing regeneration.

Grenade Launcher Mod

For the Grenade Launcher Mod, I highly recommend equipping High Explosive X because this maximizes the blast radius of your grenades, which is essential against enemies far away from you. Your Blast Damage and Weapons Force, or the force by which you can knock down enemies, also increases notably. You can also use this in combination with one of your Tech Abilities as a finisher.

Engineer Armor and Mods (Mass Effect 1)

When it comes to Armor, you are only limited to equipping Light Armor. As such, the best Light Armor to have is the Colossus X, which you can obtain by first purchasing the Kassa Fabrication License from the C-Sec Officer in the Citadel. You can buy this Armor from the Alliance Requisition Officer if your Level is 50+. Note that Colossus X appears randomly in the merchant’s stock so it’s not a guaranteed purchase. Alternatively, you can acquire it from locked containers but the drop rate is low.

What’s great about Colossus X is that it has the highest Damage Protection of all the Light Armor in the game and it also has commendable Shields and Tech/Biotic Protection. To raise your Tech/Biotic Protection, I suggest equipping the Shield Modulator VII and Energized Weave VII Mods. Shield Modulator greatly increases your Shield Strength while Energized Weave raises your Shield Recovery, thereby ensuring that your Shields are up almost all the time. The Colossus X is a strong Light Armor that boosts your survivability when hit with Combat, Tech and Biotic Attacks.

Final Tips

When selecting your Pre-Service History and Psychological Profile during Character Creation, note that you can choose whatever you like since these only affect dialogue options and have no impact on your Build. Feel free to choose whatever suits the personality of the Shepard you wish to play.

Given that you’ll be facing different enemy types like Synthetics and Organics, remember to alternate your use of Ammo Mods, specifically Tungsten and Shredder Rounds VII to effectively eliminate them.

The weakness of Engineers is their lack of Biotic and Combat Abilities to employ crowd control measures and to eliminate enemies with firepower damage. Because of this, you’ll need to utilize the strengths of your Squadmates like Wrex in order to immobilize targets and Ashley to shoot and to kill them from any distance. Furthermore, you can command both of them to lead the way in combat since they’re highly resilient.

Lastly, make sure to equip higher versions of Pistols if you don’t have access to the best Spectre Gear yet because these will help your Build succeed. The Karpov VIII is an excellent alternative due to its high damage, Heatsink Capacity, and accuracy.

Another good Light Armor is the Mantis VIII because of the considerable amount of Shields and decent Tech/Biotic Protection. To raise your Damage Protection, simply add 2 Ablative Coating VII Mods. You can get this from locked containers.

Stay tuned for more Build Guides for Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, and be sure to check out the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Wiki if you have questions about the game!