This page will show you some of the best builds for your squad mate Garrus Vakarian in Mass Effect 3 Legendary Edition. Here, you’ll find details on the best abilities to pick, the best weapons to equip, and the best Outfit to wear.

Garrus Vakarian Overview¶

Garrus Vakarian is a Turian who used to be a part of the C-Sec Investigation Division. In Mass Effect 1, he was one of the main people responsible for the Saren investigation, who at the time was the Council’s top Spectre. Fast-forward, and he helps Shepard take down Saren, and stop the Geth. After the unfortunate incident with Shepard on the Normandy in Mass Effect 2, Garrus goes his own way, known as Archangel, a vigilante to the various gangs around Omega. After being saved by Shepard, he joins the team once again to help out on the mission against the Collectors.

When do you get Garrus¶

Garrus becomes available during the Mission Priority: Palaven.

Armor-Piercing Sniper Build¶

This build revolves around maxing out Garrus’s Overload Armor-Piercing Ammo, and Proximity Mine. This combination will give Garrus the highest weapon damage in the game because the Armor-Piercing combined with the Sniper will do tremendous damage. Overload is maxed out to strip shields and barriers as well as setting up Tech Bursts, and the Proximity Mine is a great debuff tool, softening up the enemies for the rest of the team. Finally, we max our Turian Rebel to increase his damage across the board.

Powers¶

This section will go into more detail on why the Powers are chosen for this particular build.

Overload¶

Overload is one of the main reasons you bring EDI along. Overload is the best power to use when you want to take down enemies who have shields, which in Mass Effect 3, by taking the Chain Overload passives, you can hit up to two additional enemies with one cast.

Armor-Piercing Ammo¶

When Armor-Piercing Ammo is activated, it’ll deal bonus damage to armored enemies as well as penetrate through light cover. At max level, it’ll increase damage to health and armor by 30%, headshot damage by 25%, increase penetration by 0.70 meters, and reduce enemy armor effectiveness by 50%.

Proximity Mine¶

A proximity mine will explode, dealing damage to enemies in a 3-meter radius. At the beginning it’s a pretty weak power but at upgrade level 5, you can upgrade it to increase the damage to enemies hit by it for 20% over 8 seconds, this includes all damage sources. This turns a weak power into a strong debuff power.

Concussive Shot¶

Concussive Shot was buffed in Mass Effect 3, and is useful for knocking down enemies, and dispersing enemy barriers. We don’t max this out in this build, due to building for max damage with his Sniper and Overload. This could be taken over Proximity Mine, but the debuff on it is too strong to ignore.

Turian Rebel¶

Turian Rebel is Garrus’ passive skill line which’ll increase his Health, Weapon Damage, and Power Damage. The final upgrade will give his Snipers a damage boost by 60%.

Best Outfit¶

In Mass Effect 3, each outfit gives squad mates different bonuses. For Garrus, choose his alternate Outfit to increase his Weapon Damage a further 25%.

Best Weapons¶

This section will talk about what weapons are best for this particular build. This build relies mainly on using your powers, so you’ll want to keep your weight as low as possible. Doing this will keep your cooldowns low, allowing you to use powers more often.

Sniper Rifle¶

The Krysae Sniper Rifle was originally a DLC weapon in the original Mass Effect 3, in the Legendary Edition, it can be purchased from the Cipritine Armory terminal in the Presidium Commons, Citadel for 10,000 credits

What makes the Kyrsae Sniper Rifle so strong is its high damage and Semi-Automatic Fire Rate, on top of that it has specialized ammunition, which is both armor-piercing and explosive.

Or

The Black Widow can be purchased from the Spectre Requisitions terminal in the Citadel Embassies for 125,000 Credits

It’s hard to pick between the Black Widow or the Kyrsae Sniper Rifle. Both are great guns that do incredible damage. You can’t go wrong with either, but the Kyrsae is the cheaper out of the two which is why it’s listed first.

Assault Rifle¶

Garrus should only be using a Sniper in this build, but if you want an Assault Rifle as a backup, then it doesn’t get much better than the Cerberus Harrier, which can be purchased from the Spectre Requisitions terminal in the Citadel Embassies for 150,000 credits.