At last you have reached the top of the research facility and the landing pad where your men can take Mordin and the last krogan female aboard the Normandy. Cerberus will not let you go without a fight, though, and naturally this one will be the biggest of all. It will start off innocently enough; several waves of Cerberus troops will emerge from the sides of the arena and begin to attack the elevator. Numerous soldiers will also be firing upon the elevator already, even as you move up to the area. Just like last time, they will not notice your presence until it is too late.
Proceed to the back wall, up the short staircases, to get behind the troops without them noticing you. Position one of your squad-mates to the left side of the long wall, the other to the right, and yourself in the center, or some combination of the above positions. Fire upon the enemies from behind to quickly divert their attention from Mordin and the female and take out as many as you can before they realize what is happening. This is the last showdown, and although the elevator’s health will receive a small boost here because of the difficulty of the upcoming waves, you should still try to make sure that the health bar on the top of the screen goes down as little as possible. If any of the enemies prove too difficult to flush out of cover, run down one of the small staircases and surprise them by attacking at close range, using either a Shotgun or a charged melee attack.
This will be far from the end of the battle, although it appears safe. Mordin will urge you to activate the computer terminal and send them on to the next level before Cerberus comes back. His warning is not a hollow one; dawdle too long in this area and more waves of Cerberus troops will emerge to fire upon the elevator. Luckily, there are not really any items to collect here other than ammo for your weapons. Head to the terminal and examine it to send Mordin and the female up in the elevator. Or at least, they will begin the process, but will be interrupted by an Atlas mech hurtling down to the ground.
Even as the mech begins to attack you, numerous soldiers will begin to file in from behind it. This will be one of the most difficult battles you have faced so far, especially on a higher difficulty setting. If you choose to focus squarely on the Atlas mech, the soldiers will have the time to circle around you and flank you from behind, killing you. If you start to pick off the soldiers, however, you will leave yourself open to attack from the mech. Slow as it is, it can still climb the stairs and circle around to your side if you get distracted. One missile from the mech is all it takes to ruin your day. The whole time, you will also have to worry about protecting Mordin and the last female in the elevator. The elevator will receive a little health boost here to help them counter the increased firepower on display, but you should not rely on this to save the day. If the soldiers grow bored, they will start firing upon the elevator instead of you and your squad-mates. Luckily, the Atlas mech will remain focused on killing you instead of the elevator, so you will not have to worry so much about a stray missile striking the elevator.
You can have your squad-mates attempt to kill off the regular footsoldiers while you attack the Atlas mech. This can be risky though, as you attention will be divided between commanding your troops and evading the mech, and there’s no guarantee that your squad will continue to focus on the soldiers as opposed to the lumbering mech in front of them, unless you keep popping up and ordering them to attack specific targets. A better tactic might be to launch a unified attack on the mech. This will leave you open to flanking from the soldiers, but it will damage the mech more heavily and give you some help in wearing down its armor. If you have EDI in your party, you can use Overload to weaken the mech’s shields before attacking. Try using Warp Ammo as well, as it will help both when attacking the mech and when attacking the soldiers.
Another, equally risky, way to attack the Atlas mech is to focus solely on its pilot. Take out your Sniper Rifle and go for headshots on the soldier piloting the mech. You will see the glass in the visor beginning to crack. Hit is one more time to shatter the glass and kill the pilot, leaving the mech sitting useless across the battlefield. Of course, the Cerberus soldiers swarming into the area will not simply let you stand by and snipe their most powerful unit. Position your squad-mates ahead of you to cover you as the soldiers move in, or you will surely be overwhelmed. Similarly, you will have to keep moving if you wish to avoid the missiles that the mech will fire at you while you are sniping at it. Once you have killed the pilot, however, you can actually run over to the mech and hop inside, stealing it for yourself and earning an Achievement/Trophy while you’re at it. Use the mech to mow down the remaining soldiers as if they were nothing at all. If you opt to use this strategy, a number of Biotics can prove invaluable. The Soldier’s Adrenaline ability can slow down time enough for you to take a precise shot or to run up close if you run out of Sniper Rifle ammo, while the Infiltrator’s Tactical Cloak ability will take some of the heat off of you while you snipe and provide a nice damage bonus when you finally leave your cloaked position.
Finally, Mordin and the last female will be safe to board the Normandy. You mission will complete and you will find yourself back on the ship.
