Ravagers are synthetic-organic creatures derived from rachni through the use of Reaper technology. They appear in 2186, where they act as mobile artillery pieces for Reaper ground forces.

Description

Ravagers are former rachni that the Reapers have transformed into heavy artillery through a process of implantation and genetic modification. As walking organic turrets, they can sustain and inflict considerable damage.

Ravagers bear egg sacs that continuously spawn swarmers. If the sacs are destroyed, either during combat or upon the ravager's death, their entire contents burst forth to charge the enemy and explode on contact. A dead ravager expels a caustic gas and an acidic puddle.

Alliance scientists have theorized that it is easiest for the Reapers to maintain control over units of rachni genetic extraction because of the species' neurological predisposition for hive-mind consensus.

Capabilities

Offensive

Ravagers are armed with two powerful long-range cannons that they fire in three-round bursts after locking on to a target with visible blue targeting beams. They will also continually spawn small numbers of Swarmers to harass their foes. These creatures, though individually fragile, are volatile in large groups, and can hinder shield regeneration with damage over time in addition to their initial impact. When a Ravager dies it leaves behind a smoking pile of acid goop that causes environmental damage to any of its foes who step in it.

While they lack a conventional melee attack and do not attack with their cannons at close ranges, if engaged at melee range a Ravager will often spontaneously burst the orange sacs on their bodies, releasing acid and sometimes several Swarmers as well. Depending on how close a foe is to the Ravager and how many Swarmers successfully attack, this can potentially deal massive damage. Ravagers continue to spawn Swarmers regularly whether their sacs are intact or not.

Defensive

Ravagers have high armour that acts as their health. Like any other armored enemy, they cannot be grabbed from over cover. Shooting at what appears to be their head, the large single "eye", will not inflict extra damage on them; in fact, Ravagers do not possess any headshot area or analogous weak point.

The orange sacs on their bodies can be easily punctured by standard gunfire dealing a set amount of moderate damage, though this often releases several Swarmers. Puncturing the sacs does have the advantage of making it somewhat safer to approach a Ravager at close range. Also, if a weapon that fires piercing shots capable of penetrating objects (either inherently or because it has been modded or augmented to do so) bursts a sac and the shot carries on to hit the Ravager's body, this results in two instances of damage, one for bursting the sac, and an additional hit to the body, though any damage penalties for piercing objects will apply.

Tactics

• The Ravager's guns have a brisk rate of fire, high accuracy, and deal significant damage, making them lethal at long range. However, they will rarely fire their weapons at close range, instead preferring to retreat to a safe distance (akin to the Cerberus Nemesis).
• Swarmers are regularly spawned in groups by Ravagers whether their orange sacs are intact or not.
• Dark Channel is an effective power against Ravagers, as it can wear down a Ravager with its gradual damage while the user stays safely out of sight or attends to other threats. Additionally, once the Ravager is killed, any Swarmers nearby will be rapidly killed as the Dark Channel leaps from target to target.
• Targeting lasers can be seen just before a Ravager fires its guns. Use this to your advantage by executing a combat roll or quickly getting into cover to avoid getting hit. In multiplayer, human characters can effectively dodge all three shots fired by rolling left and right quickly, if their timing is good.
• If you have to move in the open within range of a Ravager, sprinting perpendicular to its line of fire will usually prevent you from being hit.
• The Ravager's guns fire in salvos of three. Use the time window between them to return fire.
• Both the Engineer's Combat Drone and Sentry Turret are very effective against Ravagers, as they will completely ignore both, and will take damage until the Drone and/or Turret are destroyed by other enemies.
  • This also makes drones and turrets useful "bug zappers" for cleaning up Swarmers.
  • Not only do Ravagers ignore sentries and drones, but Ravager fire can be blocked by them. This will destroy a Combat Drone instantly, but Ravager shots seem incapable of destroying a Sentry Turret from direct hits (the same is true of the warp attacks fired by Banshees). If a turret is directly between a player and a Ravager, its shots can be blocked and prevented from reaching the player indefinitely while the turret lasts.
• Using Stasis Bubble (rank 6 evolution) on a Ravager will cause any Swarmers it spawns to be instantly killed during its duration.
• A Ravager will leave behind an acid pool when it's killed. If you stand in it, you will take damage over time for several seconds.
  • If a player is killed by this in Multiplayer, no kill notification will be logged, similar to as if they were killed by a Swarmer. If you melee kill a Swarmer, it will NOT leave a pool of acid, but considering you will more than likely be struck by the other swarmers, or the Ravager, this is not a wise move.
  • The acid puddle will damage and eventually destroy friendly drones and turrets even though they hover in the air.
• A rank 6 Incinerate that has armor damage can take down a Ravager fairly quickly on lower difficulty levels.
• Dominate is quite useful against Ravagers, turning their potent damage on other foes for its duration. At long range, aiming down sights or zooming through a weapon's scope can assist in aiming the power on distant targets.
• As counter-intuitive as it may seem, it's feasible to engage Ravagers with heavy melee attacks. This is especially true in multiplayer with krogan, vorcha, or batarian characters optimized for melee damage; the health regeneration of vorcha or the Krogan Warlord Sentinel in particular enable them to easily shrug off acid or Swarmer damage. However, Swarmers can interfere with landing melee hits on Ravagers, so try and clear them out first. If possible, also burst the Ravager's sacs before getting too close as the burst can do heavy damage at very close range.
  • Warning: When playing as a non-host in a multiplayer game, firing weapons point-blank at a Ravager with intact sacs can sometimes cause an abnormal level of damage to yourself, enough to down almost any character from full health and shields.^[1]
• Grenades are useful both for damaging Ravagers and clearing out Swarmers, as most types are not limited in the number of targets they can hit within their blast area.
• Any weapon that deals area damage is useful against Ravagers for clearing out Swarmers, with the Krysae Sniper Rifle being one of the more effective options as it deals bonus damage to armored targets.
• Power Combos are very effective at killing any Swarmers that appear, due to their area of effect damage.
• The Vorcha's Flamer ability can be used to devastating effect against the Ravager. Not only does it specialize in destroying armor, but it burns any swarmers that exit the sac. If the Bloodlust ability is turned on, damage taken should be easily shrugged off.
• The Kishock Harpoon Gun will not burst Ravager's sacks, making it an ineffective weapon against them.
• If the Ravager spawns in front of other enemies in narrow spaces it acts like a clog and blocks other enemy movement because enemies can't go through them. By using this one can block enemy movement for a short period of time and can use this to damage the enemies behind the Ravager.
• Even after it is killed, its body continues to be a solid object that blocks movement, weapons fire, powers, etc. until its death animation fully completes.

Trivia

• In initial concepts, a Ravager's cannon was originally formed from a clearly discernible humanoid husk fused to the back of the rachni, this was removed when it was deemed to be too disgusting.^[2]
• In cutscenes during Attican Traverse: Krogan Team, Ravagers are shown crawling up and down vertical walls in insect-like fashion, though they cannot do so during actual combat.

See Also

• The Art of the Mass Effect Trilogy/Mass Effect 3#Reaper Forces

References

Mass Effect 3 Enemies
CAT6	Atlas • Brooks • CAT6 Heavy • CAT6 Sniper • CAT6 Specialist • Clone • Disruption Drone
Cerberus	Adjutant • Assault Trooper • Atlas • Centurion • Combat Engineer • Dragoon • Dr. Eva • Guardian • Kai Leng • Legion Assassin • Nemesis • Phantom • Rampart Mech • Turret
Collectors	Abomination (Possessed) • Collector Captain (Possessed) • Collector Trooper (Possessed) • Collector Web • Praetorian (Possessed) • Scion (Possessed) • Seeker Swarm (Plague)
Geth	Combat Drone • Geth Bomber • Geth Hunter • Geth Prime • Geth Pyro • Geth Rocket Trooper • Geth Trooper • Geth Turret
Reapers	Banshee • Brute • Cannibal • Harvester • Husk • Marauder • Ravager • Swarmer