Last Thursday, BioWare announced the release of the new Retaliation multiplayer DLC for Mass Effect 3. While it had a nice sizzle reel and listed new enemies, characters, equipment, updated maps and more, it was definitely lacking in detail of what was in the pack. We’ve been perusing the internet and have compiled a detailed breakdown of everything that is confirmed as part of the DLC and all the leaked info about the DLC that BioWare isn’t telling you.

Note: This post has been updated with confirmed info about the DLC. As of the last update, we have new info on the characters released, character classes, map hazards, ammo upgrades and more.

New Enemy Faction: Collectors

One of the most common pieces of the Retaliation DLC rumours was that a new enemy faction would be introduced. The rumours most often suggested the return of the Collectors who were the antagonists in Mass Effect 2. Despite the game ending with Shepard killing the Collectors, it would seem that enough survived to support the Reaper invasion in Mass Effect 3. I don’t think this fits with the established lore but it’s BioWare’s video game and I’m more interested in having fun than strictly enforcing lore.

Anyway, the Collectors will have five types of units at their disposal. Four of them are familiar and one is new. Abominations (husk variants that can explode), Collector Troopers (called Drones in ME2) and praetorians (the large floating enemy with a particle beam attack) are back and appear to have been largely unchanged from how we remember them the last time. Scions (the big, ugly Shockwave-spamming enemies from ME2) are back but the trailer showed them armed with a weapon and never throwing their trademark shockwave attack.

The new enemy is called the Collector Captain. The Captain is front and centre in the teaser photo above and doesn’t look like any previous collector unit. I am fairly certain that it won’t just be the Harbinger Collector from ME2, however. BioWare staffers Preston Watamaniuk and Jos Hendricks have hinted (as strongly as possible without out-and-out confirming) that Harbinger will assume direct control of collectors mid-wave. So, long story short, the Collector Captain is new and we don’t know what it will have to differentiate it yet.

New Enemy Units

In addition to the Collectors being added to the game, BioWare has added a new enemy combatant unit to Cerberus and the Geth.

Cerberus adds the Dragoon unit. This appears to be a part of the Project Phoenix which was established in game lore in the Rebellion DLC. In the Retaliation trailer, there is a Cerberus troop using orange-coloured biotic whips which appears to be similar to the Project Phoenix characters’ Smash power. Apart from that detail, no new information has been found on it.

The Geth have a new unit that appears to be called a “Bomber.” BioWare referred to it as a new drone in the official announcement. Like the Cerberus Dragoon, this is a new name for a Geth enemy unit. Nobody really knows what it is so we’ll have to wait until someone plays a game against the Geth later today.

UPDATE: The Bomber is a floating drone, similar to the drones from ME1, that drops a series of grenades. I believe the number of grenades increase as difficulty increases.

New Player Characters (Kits)

I doubt that I’m going out on a limb by suggesting that this is what you’re probably looking for. When the announcement first went up on the BioWare forum, Chris Priestly noted that there would be 16 new “kits” (BioWare speak for player characters) released as part of this DLC. However, only two were officially announced with the DLC: Turian Havoc Soldier and Turian Ghost Infiltrator.

Thanks to study of the Retaliation trailer, data-mining last week’s new patch and an accidental slip by Priestly himself in the DLC announcement on the BioWare forums, we know what some of the unconfirmed kits are.

Confirmed by BioWare: Turian Havoc Soldier, Turian Ghost Infiltrator

Leaked by BioWare: Krogan Shaman Adept, Batarian Brawler Vanguard, Asari Huntress Infiltrator

From Retaliation trailer (unconfirmed): Drell Assassin Infiltrator (seen using homing grenades), Geth Trooper Soldier (geth with new head)

Data-mined from patch (unconfirmed): Asari Valkyrie Sentinel, Batarian Slasher Adept, Quarian Marksman Soldier, Turian Saboteur Engineer, Volus Adept, Volus Engineer, Volus Protector Vanguard, Volus Mercenary Sentinel, Vorcha Hunter Engineer

So we know which species are being represented in this new DLC. The community has even been able to figure out all race and class combination with the exception of the new Quarian (who is seen in the trailer). People have found evidence of both a Turian Vanguard and a Turian Engineer but the fourth turian (in addition to the Havoc Soldier and Ghost Infiltrator) would make 17 kits in this DLC. It’s possible that BioWare changed their mind on 16 kits that were promised in the original announcement. Until BioWare says otherwise, I’m working on the assumption that we’ll got 16 new kits from this DLC.

UPDATE: XBox players on the BioWare forums have said that the Quarian Marksman is a soldier and the unconfirmed Turian is an engineer, not a vanguard. The above character listing has been updated to reflect the new information.

The four Volus kits sound like an April Fools’ joke played on fans who liked the high as a kite Volus character from Samara’s recruitment mission that fancied himself a “biotic god.” Not only do we get one biotic Volus. We’re getting two. A member of the BioWare forums found Volus character images uploaded (but not posted) by BioWare for the forum members’ ME3 multiplayer manifest pages. Per the images that BioWare have in their online image database, there are the Volus Adept and Engineer as well as a Volus Sentinel and Volus Vanguard.

The addition of Volus characters has sparked a controversy among Mass Effect fans. Some think that the addition of a species never before seen in combat and, in Mass Effect lore, not a species of with a large military force makes no sense. Others don’t like the emphasis of a gimmick species addition over other species like the Salarians and the Drell which have fewer kits and are underused in multiplayer. In fact, if there are four Volus kits, that means they will more kits after all kits are released than the Salarians (two), Drell (three), Geth (three) and Vorcha (three).

From the BioWare forums, here’s a visual breakdown of the characters coming as part of Retaliation:

UPDATE: New kits released today are Turian Havoc Soldier, Turian Ghost Infiltrator, Volus Adept (listed as an ultra-rare character in the store), and Volus Engineer (listed as an ultra-rare character in the store) per various reports on the BioWare forum.

UPDATE: I’ve read (but haven’t seen myself) that BioWare’s Bryan Johnson indicated that there would be one new kit released per week until all are released. If BioWare sticks with that plan, the release of new kits would drag on through to January 1, 2013. I can’t say I’m a fan of that. Two a week, I can live with. However, I expect to have moved on from ME3 by mid-November at the latest. Oh well…

Multiplayer Challenges

If you were to read the official announcement on BioWare’s Blog, the addition of Challenges is the biggest part of this DLC. It appears to be an achievement system within the multiplayer portion of the game. There are over 25 different categories (usually called “Mastery”) of challenge achievements with several subcategories in each. Completing a challenge will give you Challenge Points. These points can be used to unlock bonuses for multiplayer including unique player banners and titles.

While it sounds like Challenges change the game, they’re really just a method of stat tracking. It will also display in the multiplayer lobby along with your N7 ranking. If anything, this is a way to reward loyal/long-term players while addressing a complaint that N7 rankings don’t correlate to player skill. Perhaps Challenge Points won will better reflect skill.

Hazards

Six of the maps currently in multiplayer will see the addition of environmental hazards. These hazards include Acid, Lightning, Meltdowns, Sandstorms, Swarms and Whiteouts. BioWare hasn’t specified what these hazards will do and how players can avoid/survive the hazards. The trailer indicates that encountering a hazard won’t be immediately fatal. However, it’s likely to have a damage over time effect if it doesn’t instantly kill you. Except for the lightning. That’ll probably insta-kill you.

UPDATE: It appears that only Firebase Dagger and Firebase Reactor have hazard conditions this week. Dagger’s hazard is a nearly blinding sandstorm while Reactor has a reactor core purge which can down anyone in the central core room. BioWare level designer Jos Hendriks says that two maps at a time will be hazard maps with a weekly rotation among the six maps with hazard conditions.

New Weapons/Equipment

Another area that doesn’t have much in the way of details is new weapons that are coming with this DLC. The Collector Assault Rifle was already available with a redeem code from certain ME3-branded products. This is an automatic assault rifle with high weight, a small clip and high accuracy. The DLC also has a Collector SMG and Collector Sniper Rifle but no info is known about them yet. Data mining has revealed the existence of a Quarian minigun to be introduced with the Quarian Marksman. Presumably, it will be either an assault rifle or SMG.

Five new non-consumable gear items will be added. They are Armored Compartments, Assault Loadout, Medi-Gel Transmitter, Responder Loadout and Survivor Loadout. Sorry to sound like a broken record but we haven’t seen any specifics as to what these do. Presumably, the Medi-Gel Transmitter gear will create a medic role by allowing ranged revives of teammates rather than having to stand next to a teammate to revive.

Three new consumable ammo types have been added. They are explosive rounds, phasic rounds and drill rounds. In Mass Effect 1, high-explosive rounds worked exactly how they sound. They would explode upon hitting a target. Without a weapon-overheating penalty like in ME1, I’m not sure how BioWare would balance this ammo so they aren’t overused. Phasic rounds bypassed shields and hit the target’s health with a damage reduction. Drill rounds are new but they could be similar to the staggering effect produced by hammerhead & sledgehammer ammo in ME1. That’s just speculation but it would be the most logical assumption.

UPDATE: I was sent a brief description of Drill Rounds. They are described as passing through cover and objects. I wasn’t sent any damage bonuses but I think Drill Rounds and a sniper rifle on a Geth Infiltrator would be a massively overpowered sniper setup.

The intrepid souls of the Mass Effect community have found a fourth kind of ammo. Based on an image uploaded but not posted to the BioWare database (similar to the way that some of the characters were uncovered), Polonium Rounds will be added to multiplayer. Like Phasic and Explosive rounds, Polonium Rounds were only seen in Mass Effect 1. They had a poison effect which resulted in a damage over time effect. Since polonium rounds weren’t in the official announcement, I’m not expecting them to be released with Retaliation today.

Sources:
BioWare Blog – Mass Effect 3: Retaliation Multiplayer DLC
BioWare Social Network – Decompiling Retaliation (DLC spoilers)
BioWare Social Network – Your Favourite Volus?