Mass Effect: Andromeda Guide - Making an Impression Sidequest & Architect Boss Battle

Once you've settled Prodromos and used the vault to make the world of Eos habitable, a bunch of side quests open up: this is in truth the moment that Mass Effect: Andromeda really throws open its open world doors and invites you in for real.

One of those quests is the 'Making an Impression' sidequest, a series of short objectives that leads to a particularly impressive boss battle. Trust us, this is a quest you want to do.

Want more Mass Effect: Andromeda help? Be sure to check out our hub - it's full of quest walkthroughs, tips, tricks, system explanations and more.

Starting the Making an Impression sidequest

In order to get access to the Making an Impression quest you need to have first settled Prodromos on Eos, as mentioned earlier. To do this you need to complete the 'A Better Beginning' quest early in the game. When that's done, leave Eos - when you return later it'll look significantly different, with clearer skies, less radiation and a bustling settlement.

Once Prodromos is founded and in a properly up-and-running state, find an NPC called Hanley in the Prodromos settlement. Hanley is a scientist, and will talk about earthquakes that have been rocking the settlement, plus issues gathering clean water. They want you to install some seizmic hammers to help them figure out the cause - take them up on the offer.

Head up to the upper level of the Eos map towards the north to find the waypoints. Place your first seizmic hammer and them move on. At the second seizmic hammer, you'll be faced with a choice...

Meeting the Advent - Water or Gas?

As you approach the second seizmic hammer spot you'll spot some humans. Go talk to them! He claims to be from the nation of advent, a group of rebels who have also settled on Prodromos. His group is a sovereign nation separate from the settlers from the Nexus, but they're struggling for water. They suggest a trade: they mine natural gas, and will trade it for water. If you agree with him, you can place the hammer in a different location.

Which drill location you choose, water or gas, is entirely up to you. It doesn't have any major consequences now, but it might have a major consequence in a future game - it's hard to say. Choose water or gas - Nexus or Advent - and then place the second hammer. When you place the hammer, enemies will spawn - take care of them.

Once you're done, head to the third and final hammer. Place it, and be ready. You're about to learn what was making those tremors.

Fighting the Architect

As shown in the video by Alex above (which was designed to show off the game running at 4K), the Architect is an enormous Remnant machine with three legs and an enormous head. This is a massive remnant construct - and this is the first of several in the game.

Scattered around the area are resource replenishment boxes, so be sure to use these liberally. If Dragon Age has dragons, this is Mass Effect: Andromeda's equivilant - and sort of similar to fighting a thresher maw in the Mass Effect trilogy, though without the assistance of the Mako. 

Remember that the architect is a synthetic/robotic enemy, like all remnant units - this means that overload is a great skill to use, as is disruptor ammo as a consumable for your weapon. You should always aim for the weak points, specifically the eye in its head.

The flow of the battle is to attack its legs until it exposes its head to attack that way - when that happens, focus fire there. Occasionally the architect will spawn other enemies or move to a different position on the map - take down its minions and move to the next point. Eventually, the architect will fall. Run up to it and interface with it. Later, you'll be able to pick up additional loot from it - but from its corpse in space.

Want more Mass Effect: Andromeda help? Be sure to check out our hub - it's full of quest walkthroughs, tips, tricks, system explanations and more.