There are four areas in which you can customize your characters for online play, consisting of your physical appearance, your powers, your weapons, and your equipment. The weapons of Mass Effect 3’s online play were covered in previous guides, which will be linked at the bottom of the page, so look into those if you need help deciding on a loadout. This guide will cover the appearance, powers, and equipment that you can bring into battle with you.
First off, and of overall least importance, is your appearance. While you cannot actually customize your character to the extent that you can in the single player campaign (in multiplayer, you will always be wearing a helmet and thus won’t need to customize your face) you can still swap out various armor patterns, colors, and lights. When you first begin to play online, you will only be able to customize the primary and secondary colors of your armor. In order to unlock the other options, you will have to purchase Reinforcement Packs from the ME3 online store, either with credits or with real money. These packs will sometimes unlock new customization options for you, such as the ability to add patterns or lights to your armor.
Your powers are possibly the most important part of character customization. You will upgrade them just like you will in the single player campaign, so every time you level up online be sure to return to the customization menu before the next match begins to tweak your loadout. Just like in the single player game, you will be able to spec your character’s powers in multiple ways. Just be sure that you know what you are doing, as you can’t reset your powers unless you get a Respec Token from one of the booster packs.
Finally, there is the equipment. This category of customization is exclusive to the multiplayer, and because of this, it can be easy to forget that you have it during the heat of battle. But once you get used to it, you’ll find that the equipment will save your life in a tough spot more often than not. The biggest game changer is the Cobra Missile Launcher. You can basically get a one hit kill with these if you have the time to charge it up. You can also bring in the Ops Survival Pack, which will restore your health and shields in a pinch. You can also bring in Medi-Gel, which is useful for reviving players. You can activate this yourself when you are downed if it looks like you are going to die. A Thermal Clip Pack, on the other hand, will restore all of your ammo when you use it. You can also bring in several Bonues items that will increase things such as your armor or power ratings. Ammo Bonuses will function just like the Ammo Powers (Incendiary, Warp, etc) in the main game, and can give you a huge advantage if you know who you’ll be going up against. Armor Bonuses will increase your shields and your armor, while Weapon Bonuses increase the damage dealt by a single gun.
