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When you regain consciousness on the Hyperion you’ll find out that you gained a more intimate connection with SAM and a promotion… but lost a father. Probably a few brain cells, too, considering your brush with death. Ryder and the crew will chat about the situation, which Cora handles surprisingly well, all things considered. Best of all is the news that whatever machine your father managed to activate cleared up the energy anomaly, freeing the Hyperion to continue to rendezvous with the Nexus.

Watch a scene where an alien of some importance (capes are universal symbols of prestige!) tries to mimic the Pathfinder, and fails, then the Hyperion will finally complete its journey and dock with the Nexus. Nothing seems to be going right in Andromeda, however, as the Nexus is still inexplicably incomplete and incommunicado.

Alone in the Dark¶

Make your way north through the Atrium, down some stairs and into the Hyperion - Operations room, where you’ll find a container to loot. Plunder it, then continue north, turn west and go up some stairs and use the tram to reach the Nexus.

Things don’t improve when you reach the Nexus and are confronted by the welcoming party… or rather, the lack of one. Scan some Terrariums and Terminals to come to the conclusion that the Nexus never got fully operational, then talk to the Avina VI, once a staple of the Citadel in the Milky Way, now re-purposed for the Nexus. Endure the VI’s hopelessly out-of-date, inaccurate and canned responses and propaganda, then continue west around some crates to find a Construction Worker. Talk to him and in short order you’ll be interrupted by a Turian named Kandros, who will offer to escort you to the Nexus Operations center and fill you in along the way.

Follow the Turian west to a tram and ride it to your destination, where you’ll meet Director Tann, a woman named Addison and a Krogan named Kesh. After some… admittedly awkward dialogue the Nexus leaders will explain their predicament and place a great weight on your shoulders. Simply put, the Nexus is running out of resources, and to get more resources, they need more personnel, and to get more personnel, they need a habitable world for them to go to… and of course, for that, they need a Pathfinder.

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On the apparently derelict Nexus you’ll meet Kandros (left) who will take you to meet the rest of the Nexus leadership, such as it is (right).

Task - Getting to Know the Nexus¶

For the first time since starting the game you can finally manually save, as well as wander about and pick up quests, do some shopping, chat with random NPCs… you know, RPG stuff! You also have numerous new Codex entries describing what happened on the Nexus since it arrived in Andromeda, and about the newly encountered races: the Krogan, Salarians and Turians.

Read up if you wish, after which let’s scratch off a task that popped up after meeting with Nexus leadership - meeting with them again! This time in a more lengthy, individual basis. To satisfy this object you’ll need to talk to Addison, Kesh, Tann and Kandros… ideally in that order.

To start things off, turn around and head up the ramp to the east to find Addison in her “office”. She’ll keep her somewhat adversarial tone (and wooden personality), but at least she’ll tell you about the aliens, the Kett, repeated failed outposts, and her job.

Once you’re done suffering Addison’s company, head back down the ramp, then go down some stairs and pass through a door to the north to reach Kesh’s office. Oddly enough, the Krogan will be more amiable than Addison, and like a typical Mass Effect Krogan, she’ll gleefully tell you about the genophage and other millennia-old sources of racial tension. She’ll also give you more a brief overview of more recent developments concerning the troubles the Nexus has had to overcome in the past year or so. When you’re done, loot a container, read a Datapad and leave Kesh’s Office.

From Kesh’s Office head south, past an information wall, which you can check out for some outdated Andromeda Initiative propaganda, the current viability status of the initiative, and other tid-bits of information. Continue south the reach the office Director Tann, or “Number eight” if you prefer. Once you enter the office you’ll be treated to a conversation with Cora and Tann, with Tann laying out your immediate goals. As mentioned earlier, the Nexus needs resources, and to get them, it needs active colonists, who in turn need colonies. Your first goal will be to travel to Eos and get a viable colony started on that planet - the actual details of how are left up to you. After the brief overview you’ll be pointed to your new scout ship, and will have a bit of an… episode.

Now that you’re done talking to Tann… talk to Tann again! This time he’ll talk about the missing Arks (although he has little information about them, save “they’re missing”), improving viability, the Nexus’s past and ongoing problems, and of course his distaste for Krogan.

Three down, one to go. Leave Tann’s office and make your way back north to the information wall, en route to which you’ll see an engineer named Raj Patil have a bit of trouble with a wall panel. Ignore him for now - you can get to side quests shortly - and at the information wall turn east and head down some stairs, then turn east south to find Kandros standing next to a circular Strike Team console.

More on that in a bit, but first talk to Kandros, who, as the head of the Nexus militia, has useful, first-hand experience of various events and dangers the Nexus has endured. Ask him about the Kett, his motivations and most importantly the uses you can make of his militia.

To finish up this task, leave Kandros and make your way east through Operations, head up some stairs and turn north to find some scientists. Talk to a Salarian named Professor Herik, who ogle your SAM AI before briefly babbling. This, finally, will put an end to “Task: Getting to Know the Nexus”, and probably give you enough XP to hit level three. Now it’s time to see what that little SAM-induced migraine was all about… and explore the Nexus a bit more.