Earlier in the week, BioWare told fans of the Mass Effect franchise to expect big changes as a show that they were listening to player feedback. From improvements to the romance, the animations, character customization, as well as tweaking the loading times – there are a lot of aspects to Andromeda’s gameplay that will be changing. The first of many patches set to launch over the next two months arrived earlier today and it greatly impacted the facial features of many characters, most notably that of the “My face is tired” Addison. That wasn’t the only patch to hit, however – Multiplayer got some much needed adjustments as well with Patch 1.05.

Though more tweaks are on the way, a huge balance adjustment has been made to Andromeda’s multiplayer experience based solely off of player feedback. Something BioWare has always been known for is their ability to respond quickly to fan feedback.

We increased the threat and effectiveness of some of the heavy hitters in enemy factions. Hydras, Remnant Destroyers, and berserkers are now more likely to target nearby players, increasing the threat for close-quarters characters and reducing the effectiveness of repeated melee attacks. Players also won’t be able to avoid damage from the kett anointed by standing beside them.”

Effectiveness with both ranged weapons and melee has also been improved upon as well as class adjustments to scale more realistically and appropriately. You can see the full list of patch 1.05 notes right here as detailed on the BioWare blog:

Player Abilities

Melee

• To reduce the effectiveness of repeated melees against tougher enemies, player melee attacks can now be interrupted by enemy attacks.

Challenge Tracking

• Biotic, Tech, and Combat Detonation Challenges now update on the Challenges screen.
• Lance and Throw will now successfully increment the Biotic Detonation Combo challenge progress.

Weapons

Generally, we’ve found that semiautomatic assault rifles and pistols are underperforming when compared to their automatic counterparts. We’ve increased the damage per round for most of these guns and fixed bugs that limited the rate of fire for semiautomatic weapons.

Assault Rifles

Mattock

• Fixed an issue that prevented the Mattock from reaching its designed rate of fire
• Lowered damage per round to partially offset increase in rate of fire
• Lowered damage per round from 71–89 to 50–63
• Increased spare ammo capacity from 112–140 to 160–200

Sandstorm

• Increased damage per round from 112–134 to 140–168

Sweeper

• Increased damage per round from 60–72 to 64–77

Valkyrie

• Increased damage per round from 80–93 to 86–99

Halberd

• Increased damage per round from 73–90 to 92–113

Pistols

Predator

The Predator also benefits from the rate of fire adjustment applied to the Mattock assault rifle.

• Increased damage per round from 38–51 to 54–72
• Decreased rate of fire from 500 to 450

Carnifex

• Increased damage per round from 155–195 to 175–220

Hornet

• Increased damage per round from 37–49 to 44–55

Phalanx

• Increased damage per round from 106–113 to 133–142

Scorpion

• Increased damage per round from 428–512 to 485–580

Shotguns

Hesh

• Ammo increased from 40–50 to 60–75

Sniper Rifles

Shadow

• Increased damage per round from 27–32 to 38–46

Indra

• Increased damage per round from 84–101 to 105–126

General

Weapon Reloads

• Fixed some timings of reload actions so they better match their animations

Boosters

Assault Rifle Amp III

• The Assault Rifle Amp III booster now properly states that it gives a 30% boost instead of a 35% boost. This was a text error only. The functionality was always 30%.

Enemies

Kett

Kett Anointed

• Players can no longer avoid damage by standing up against a firing anointed

Kett Ascendant

• Kett Ascendant’s Orb will now give 15 points when killed, instead of points equal to the Ascendant himself

Kett Behemoth (Boss objective)

• Behemoths are more likely to target nearby players

The Outlaws have generally been easier to fight than other factions, so we’ve closed the gap. While Remnant Observers and kett anointed are effective at pushing players into cover, sharpshooters needed improvements to get players to hide. Across the rest of the palette, changes to targeting and the hydra’s sync attack help keep the Outlaws competitive.

Outlaw Adhi

• Adhi no longer attempt to chain sync attacks

Outlaw Agent

• Outlaw agent’s holographic clone will no longer give points

Outlaw Sharpshooter

• Sharpshooters now fire more frequently, especially against targets out of cover
• Sniper rifle damage increased by 44%
• Sharpshooters sprint more often
• Aiming time is now shortened at shorter ranges
• Aiming and impact audio are now clearer
• No longer pursue melee targets over long distances

Outlaw Berserker

• Berserkers are more likely to target nearby players

Outlaw Hydra

• Sync attack is now lethal
• Hydra is more likely to target nearby players
• Hydra now lose their target—but no longer cancel firing—when their target cloaks while locking on
• Fixed situations where the hydra’s body would reappear after being destroyed

Remnant Observer

• Observers can now lose their target while firing when the target cloaks
• Maximum beam duration decreased from 6s to 5s
• Beam damage decreased by 10%

Remnant Nullifier

• Rate of fire has been decreased against enemies in cover
• Projectile attacks now travel faster and hit harder
• Stays still and fires in more situations
• No longer flees in protracted melee situations
• [Single player only] Fires less frequently on lower difficulties

Remnant Destroyer

• Destroyers are more likely to target nearby players
• Fixed situations where the Destroyer’s body and turrets would reappear after being destroyed

If you are interested in the full list of changes expected to drop within the next two months, you can read the outline of everything promised right here. Mass Effect Andromeda is available now for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. It is a graphically demanding game, so if you’re playing on PC – make sure you’ve got the rig. You can see the specs here as well as download the optimized driver here. Be sure to follow us on Twitter for live updates 24/7 in both gaming and entertainment!