When you emerge from the caverns, you will find yourself in the ruins of a once-great city. Your party will express surprise at seeing greenery and vegetation seeping through the cracks of the industrial rot that has taken much of the planet. The ruins are beautiful in a tragic sort of way, but serve to pose a deeper question that one of just beauty. Could the krogans really stay true to Eve’s word and rebuild their civilization? Are the krogan really so dangerous and war-like, or is their current state merely a product of the rest of the galaxy’s barbarism? If you haven’t come clean about the plan to sabotage the genophage cure already, you should take time here to think about what you really want to do.
When you are ready, head further into the ruins to initiate combat. A group of Reapers consisting of Cannibals, Husks, and Ravagers will attack you once you enter the ruins proper. This can be a deceptively difficult encounter, especially on higher difficulties. For this reason, you may wish to hang back and take on the enemies from afar. Order your squad to take cover to the right. Find cover yourself, but be sure that you have a good line of sight down the battlefield. Engineers, or players with EDI in their party, can use Combat Drones or Decoy to draw the enemy’s fire away from their position, while Infiltrators can use Tactical Cloak to get to cover unseen. From here, you can pull out your Sniper Rifle of choice and focus fire on the enemies. You should try to take out the Ravagers first, as they are the strongest of the enemies you will be facing right now. This strategy works especially well if you are playing an Infiltrator and you have popped your Tactical Cloak already, as the damage bonus from attacking while cloaked, combined with the raw power of a good Sniper Rifle, and maybe an ammo bonus such as Incendiary or Cryo Ammo, will be enough to deal a ton of damage.
Alternately, if you are playing an Engineer and you sent out your combat drone to take on the enemies, you can simply use the drone as a first line of attack and rush out behind it to assist it. In this case, you should have your squad cover you from the left while you and the drone loop around to the right. Be ready to deal with the Ravager and dodge its powerful attacks. If you have Biotics in your squad, have them create a bottleneck on the narrow right-hand part of the path using Singularity and Warp so that you may easier pass through to deal with the Ravager before returning to clean up the other various enemies.
If a more head-on approach isn’t working for you, you can also try flanking. Position someone like Garrus, who is good at long-range combat, towards the back of the arena, and head over the ruins to the left. From here, you may be able to surprise the enemies from the side. This again works especially well if you are playing as an Engineer or Infiltrator, as you will be able to distract enemies or cloak yourself. Soldiers can make use of Adrenaline to make the most of their surprise attack, though, and Vanguards can use a combination of Biotic Charge and Nova to clear out groups of enemies.
Cross the bridge after combat is over to reach a courtyard. A fallen pillar to the left of the path will make for great cover in the upcoming battle, especially for long-range players. You will be able to see all of the action in the courtyard ahead. At first, there will be nothing but Cannibals out there. Don’t be fooled by the relatively weak opposition, though, as things will get hairy fast after you eliminate this first wave.
Stay behind the fallen pillar and pick off the Cannibals from the safety of this position. They should be pretty easy to take out. When they are gone, a second wave consisting of more Cannibals, a group of Husks, and a Brute will emerge from around the corner. The Husks will be the first to reach you behind your cover. Don’t bother leaving cover to dispatch these guys. Simply pop up and concentrate your fire on their rush, and you, combined with your squad, who should be taking cover nest to you, will be able to eliminate them easily. Next will come the Brute.
Take out the Spike Thrower Shotgun if you have it and begin to charge it up. A fully charged blast from this gun will be enough to kill almost any enemy at close range, and deal good damage to a Brute. Hit it with the Spike Thrower as it charges you, then command your squad to focus their fire on the hulking beast. Vanguards will do best to stay in close, using Biotic Charge, Nova, and the charged Spike Thrower to deal immense damage while their squad distracts the Brute. Otherwise, keep your distance, use armor-depleting powers such as Warp as frequently as you can, and pepper it with Assault Rifle fire.
If you are playing a more defense-oriented class, it can also be beneficial to close the distance and simply charge into the fray from the beginning of this fight. You can surprise the Cannibals who will initially populate the courtyard by donning your Tactical Cloak and getting in close for a few Shotgun kills. If you are playing a Sentinel or a Vanguard, you can rush the enemies. The Sentinel’s advanced shielding will make this an especially potent strategy, as their combination of distracting tech and damaging Biotics, along with a Shotgun or Assault Rifle, can clear this arena in seconds. Take cover in the recession by the corner when the Brute emerges. This will put you at extremely close proximity to the creature. This is a bit of a risky strategy, but having your squad cover you from the fallen pillar back on the bridge while you get in close with a Sentinel, Vanguard, or Infiltrator, equipped with the Spike Thrower can be just as damaging as hanging back and waiting for the enemies to come to you. The Cannibals and Husks should go down with one shot from the powerful weapon, leaving the Brute by himself sooner rather than later.
When you have finished clearing out all of the enemies, scour the area for ammo and prepare to head forward, into another battle.
