Pinnacle Station Time Trials

[Bannor]

Having a lot of trouble completing the time trials on Pinnacle Station - just can't kill all the enemies quickly enough (not even close). I'm just wondering what tactics I should be employing, any tips / advice / help anyone can give me would be most welcome. I'm playing as a soldier.
Why am I doing the time trials? 'Cos I want to - so don't bother telling me to not waste my time with them - just scroll on past to the next post...

[Vellari]

What level are you/your gear? There is really no way around the fact that you need quite a bit DPS for the top scores.

Bottomline, you just have to f-it and go in hard&fast. No time to take cover and all that...

[Bannor]

I'm Level 47, Kovalyov X assault rifle, HMWSG 7 shotgun, Karpov 8 pistol, Volkov 9 sniper rifle (all with upgraded barrels and ammunition), Colossus 8 armour. I tend to prefer the assault rifle (maxxed out in assault rifle, sniper rifle & armour talents, as well as spectre training)
Some of the other kinds of challenges were MUCH easier and less grindy than this - I'm obviously not tacking the time trials in the most efficient way, but can't work out what I should do.
I've gone in hard & fast, I've tried sniping from a distance - both methods just take WAY too long.

[Vellari]

Should be sufficient gear. Been years since I've done the time trials (as they are indeed very grindy and not particularly fun, to me) but I seem to recall them requiring literal running and gunning to get kills fast enough. No time to aim or finess so I'd go with assault rifle or shotgun.

[Bannor]

Well, I've tried that quite a few times - but thanks for the advice. Haven't tried the shotgun yet - haven't used it much through the entire game - just a bit near the start; just didn't seem terribly useful. Maybe I'll give it another go. Maybe shotguns all round....?

[Vellari]

Try it. Shotguns are devastating close range, and don't have to be aimed as carefully. That is, faster to get kills IF you run up real close to enemies.

[Dreadnought]

full level up with frictionless material on pistol +other mods +marskman pistol lvl 3 pratically a small SUB machinegun

[MaximumEffort]

The trials aren't actually that fast. Just keep moving forward. Don't stop. Get fast damage dealing combos, don't just use all assault units. You'll want a sniper for the hard to kill targets and a biotic to clear the groups.

Also, if you think TT are bad, wait till you get the final 'test'.

[epgeek]

Throw and lift are both excellent talents in the Pinnacle Station courses. High level tech talents are invaluable for the Geth courses, and helpful with organic enemies. On Veteran difficulty with a level 7 Spectre shotgun, a close shotgun hit with sledghammer ammo was usually a one-shot for most "regular" enemies.

Ahern's course was almost impossible for me with Wrex and Kaiden on Veteran....

[Fredericks of Cursewood]

For me, this is the key to these missions is. You need to know the order of the spawns and then use your squad mates accordingly. For instance; I am doing the tropical map. I take Garrus and Wrex. Since the last group to spawn is to your right, I position Garrus there and then just take Wrex with me. I then go up the ramp and take the first group out myself. While I do that, I have Wrex go to where the 2nd group will spawn, so that when I finish with the 1st group he is in place. When we have the second group killed, I move Wrex to where the 4th group will spawn and I solo the 3rd group. I basically use Wrex to leap frog ahead of me and it prevents the enemies from getting in cover, plus he gets some kills to. Then when the last group spawns, Garrus is already on the back side of them and gets 1 maybe 2 kills, but then he forces the remaining towards me which is really what he is there to do.

I'm one of the few people that enjoy this dlc. I know it doesn't have any story to it, but it is challenging and the rewards are awesome.

[Bannor]

Originally posted by C2H5SH:

I take Garrus and Wrex. Since the last group to spawn is to your right, I position Garrus there and then just take Wrex with me. I then go up the ramp and take the first group out myself. While I do that, I have Wrex go to where the 2nd group will spawn, so that when I finish with the 1st group he is in place. When we have the second group killed, I move Wrex to where the 4th group will spawn and I solo the 3rd group. I basically use Wrex to leap frog ahead of me and it prevents the enemies from getting in cover, plus he gets some kills to. Then when the last group spawns, Garrus is already on the back side of them and gets 1 maybe 2 kills, but then he forces the remaining towards me which is really what he is there to do.

This sounds very interesting! What weapons do you assign them? What weapon do you have yourself?

[Bannor]

Originally posted by epgeek:

Throw and lift are both excellent talents in the Pinnacle Station courses. High level tech talents are invaluable for the Geth courses, and helpful with organic enemies.

Would you mind giving some more details on using these talents? Truth is, I haven't bothered with them at all through the game. Yeah, I know......

[Vellari]

Originally posted by Bannor:

Originally posted by epgeek:

Throw and lift are both excellent talents in the Pinnacle Station courses. High level tech talents are invaluable for the Geth courses, and helpful with organic enemies.

Would you mind giving some more details on using these talents? Truth is, I haven't bothered with them at all through the game. Yeah, I know......

Throw and lift work somewhat similarly flinging enemies in air: levitating in case of lift making for easy targets or "force push" type thing with throw.

Tech talents (all of them pretty much) do increased damage to synthetics/Geth.

[epgeek]

More specifically, Lift will levitate one or more enemies out of combat for a few seconds. While lifed, they are unable to fire weapons or use tech or biotics, and they're also easy to pick off. Throw just "pushes" enemies backwards, with considerable force at higher levels, which also takes them out of combat for a few seconds while they recover. Both Lift and Throw are area affects, so they can affect multiple enemies and can work over/around cover (sometimes). On some levels, such as the citadel end-game, lift/throw is a near insta-kill.

Tech talents damage shields, weapons, and biotic/tech talents. "Overload" overloads shields, dropping several bars of shields on most enemies. "Sabotage" overheats weapons. Geth only have one weapon (I think), so they cannot shoot until their weapon cools (3-4 seconds). Damping prevents tech and biotic abilities.

There's also the neural shock talent for use on organic enemies. It paralyzes the enemy for a few seconds, and inflicts toxic (poison) damage.

I tended to use an overload, followed by sabotage and/or neural shock. I didn't use damping too much, unless there a lot of biotics or krogan around. Then with no shields, they fall quickly to gunfire. Throw I used when too many enemies were too close, and lift usually was saved for really tough enemies like Krogan or Geth Juggernauts/Armattures.

IME, it can be pretty easy to run through the entire ME saga as a soldier on at least normal or veteran difficulty while never using tech or biotic talents. I just played through ME1 as an engineer, which required near-constant use of my own and my squadmates' talents on Veteran... at least until I aquired a spectre shotgun and sledgehammer 8+ ammo, since that combo one-shots most "basic" enemies at close range. (There may be better combos, but I stuck with what I found works.) After that, talents tended to be "reserved" for special situations, like Pinnacle Station.

[★ГλMΞЯ]

It is very hard to get 1st place, even with maxoud gear and levels, need to practice a lot, almost perfect! I dont know if you get anything when you complete it.