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Veteran achievement in Mass Effect 3

Veteran

Kill 5,000 enemies.

Veteran0
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How to unlock the Veteran achievement

  • Striker 805Striker 805
    11 Mar 2012 11 Mar 2012
    As i started my 3rd playthrough in the beginning(the prologue) i noticed to run into an amazing glitch that helps towards the 5000 kills. As i played after the part where the ship blows up in the sky and knocks you and Anderson down to the injured soldier, you get the the semi cutscene with the cannibals shooting at you. From this point it will ask you to take cover on the wall, DONT. If you never take cover on the walls then the enemies across the water will continue to spawn forever, i had 3800 kills when i started and got my achievement in about a hour or so. Also remember to put the difficulty on Narrative. This method is boring but it gets the job done.

    Guide not helping? View 6 more guides for this achievement.

    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    EthigyShinerbock’s comment is invaluable, definitely the most efficient method.
    Posted by Ethigy On 08 Oct 20 at 07:34
    ShilohCyanwith MELE having an achievement for 2000 at the highest, this might still be the easiest method.
    Posted by ShilohCyan On 18 Jun 21 at 10:02
    ParagonSoundThis solution combined with Shinerbock’s is so broken! 🤩 thanks so much!
    Posted by ParagonSound On 12 Nov 21 at 04:53
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  • Removed Gamer
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    FOR ANYONE WHO HAD THIER KILLS RESET!!!! (like me)

    FOLLOW strikers guide to get you to the area.

    BUT FIRST .... You want to be an engineer to boost this so if you were not an engineer in me3 don't import a me3 character as it may not let you choose to be an engineer.

    Instead import a me2 character and you WILL get the option to choose a class... Pick engineer and as soon as you can go to the squad screen. Spend points on sentry turret and level it up to six picking the following options ...

    Rank 4 - shields and damage
    Rank 5 - cryo ammo
    Rank 6 - flamethrower

    This will allow your sentry to last long and do major damage and also freeze the enemies quite often.

    Now select tech mastery and level it to 6 picking the following ....

    Rank 4 - power damage
    Rank 5 - damage and capacity
    Rank 6 - DRONE MASTERY

    Rank 6 is super important it allows your drones to be super drones!

    Now select combat drone and boost it to the highest level you can choosing the following....

    Rank 4 - shields and damage
    Rank 5 - shields and damage
    Rank 6 - chain lightening

    Now you can choose to be lazy and allow both the drones to kill for you which will take about 4 to 5 hours to obtain 5,000 kills OR you can use both drones and shoot enemies as well with the pistol which will take about 1 to 1.5 hours to obtain 5,000 kills. You will need to keep an eye on the drones either way because they will die sooner or later. It seems that the sentry drone lasts 3 to 5 times longer than the combat drone.

    Or you could do a little of both like I did, it took me 3 hours and I only shot the enemies for about 30 minutes.

    Also just stand to the far right where the ammo spawns and send your drones across from that spot.... It's the optimal spot to place them.

    I suggest doing this all in one session as you don't want to risk being reset again as it has happened to many people multiple times!

    Good luck! Any questions feel free to ask.


    Update:

    FYI you can also add that using a turbo controller then you can just let it run for you over night just turbo the combat drone button.
    Posted by Nuckinn on 28 Mar 12 04:38:34
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    Armstrong x360aNot working for me. Was this patched? The cavalry keeps showing up no matter where I stand and I have to keep reloading quick. Anyone know if this resets my kills? If not I don't mind doing it like that but I'm worried because I've been doing it for a bit and haven't gotten a status update on the achievement.
    Posted by Armstrong x360a On 17 Apr 15 at 03:04
    Armstrong x360aNevermind, I was at the wrong place.

    And I can confirm it counts all your kills even if you reload a save.
    Posted by Armstrong x360a On 17 Apr 15 at 03:20
    Ryn0 LWorked great. Ended my game and all DLC and everything with a bit over 2100 kills. With this method I got to 5000 in a couple of hours. I just watched some TV shows and periodically used incinerate, and replaced turret/drone as needed.
    Posted by Ryn0 L On 11 Aug 15 at 20:26
  • WyndoWyndo
    29 Mar 2012 28 Mar 2012 28 Mar 2012
    Good solutions. Mine is probably about the same amount of time, but doesn't require any special character configuration or change to the difficulty setting. It can't be done hands-off as with the drones method, but it's much safer than picking random close-encounter battles (trying for the achiement through normal play).

    There's a mission not too far into the game where you have to rescue a Primarch from Paleven's moon. There's a place in this mission where you climb a ladder and take control of a mounted turret. At that point, two waves of Husks start approaching the barricade, and you pretty much just blast them away from a distance with the mounted gun.

    If you have a save before this mission or somehwere near the beginning of it, find it and then make another save just before climbing up the ladder. That will give you a load point between rounds.

    Load, climb the ladder, blast both waves of Husks, and then when the cutscene kicks in with the Brute knocking you off, just quickly skip through the cutscenes (takes about a second or two to skip) so that you see the "saving" message. Now just reload the save before the ladder, climb up, and repeat.

    I seem to be getting 25 to 35 kills each round, and the round doesn't last long if you get into a good groove. I haven't timed it, but I seem to be getting about 500 kills in under half an hour using this method.

    Maybe not the best, buf it might work for somebody close to the 5000 target and just needs a few hundred more.

    (Update) Yeah, I timed it, and I got about 35 kills in less than 2 minutes. Factor in the loading time, and it should be possible to get somewhere around 500 kills every half hour. Gets boring after a while, of course.
    Showing all 3 comments.
    DhyphoonUsing this, thanks.
    Posted by Dhyphoon On 15 Apr 12 at 17:51
    WyndoTo anybody voting negative - please let me know what's wrong with the guide that makes it not useful.
    Posted by Wyndo On 19 May 12 at 22:08
    CandidFever3Thanks. I'll be finishing this up later today. I've already received my long service reward for two playthroughs. I'm pretty sure I'm close. There is an in-game achievement tracker, by the way.
    Posted by CandidFever3 On 26 May 20 at 22:45
  • ArkhangelArkhangel
    06 Jan 2013 07 Jan 2013
    I just finished this achievement and wanted to let you all know of a fantastic spot I found. Spoilers below..

    So on the final mission, Priority Earth when you first land you are sent to take out a cannon using heavy weapons from a downed shuttle, once you destroy the cannon it shift to a sequence where you are waiting for extraction. You will know this started as a Banshee comes up over the edge.

    So you kill the banshee them move over to where the enemies will endlessly re-spawn. The shuttle will arrive, DO NOT GET ON. Cannibals will spawn endlessly in fairly rapid succession here. Kill as many as you can as fast as you can until the shuttle explodes, game over screen, hit continue and you start right as the banshee comes up.

    I was getting 30-50 kills, if you have the ability pickup Aria's Flare ability. Great AOE killer.

    Good luck! and remember easier difficulty makes this quicker, you can even place a save right after Cortez goes down.
  • James12183James12183
    05 Apr 2018 03 Apr 2018 05 Apr 2018
    A quick and easy way to unlock this achievement is through the DLC 'The Citadel'. In the Armax Arena location there is a place you can fight against holograms but each kill you get counts towards your kill count. Each match you can get about 30 kills and if you are at about level 60 with good weapons and upgrades, playing on Narrative difficulty with the arena enemy on footsoldier difficulty without teammates you can get through the match in about 1 -2 minutes. You can get around 1800 kills per hour. I am not sure how quickly you can get through a match at lower levels. If you can think of a way for me to improve this let me know.
  • wildwest08wildwest08
    12 Jul 2012 28 Jun 2012
    I just wanted to let you know that playing multiplayer also increases your kill count towards veteran. I had about 2,000-2,500 kills after a few playthroughs of the game. After playing online I noticed the kill progression chart appearing every once in awhile. Didn't take me too long to get past 3,500 so it is not fast but will help along the way to getting defender and master and commander achievements as well
  • Removed Gamer
    Gamer has been removed
    I found an alternative as well. In the Citadel DLC, once you have beaten the story part you gain access to a combat arena, where you fight waves of enemies, with or without sqadmates. If you play without sqadmates you can net 30 odd kills per match, and make some extra credits along the way. It can be a little slow, but it's still pretty fun rather than tedious. I've gotten around 200 kills in about an hour.
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