Latest 'Mass Effect: Andromeda' Update Teases Batarians, Platinum Difficulty For APEX Missions

In addition to the search for a new home for the races of the Milky Way galaxy, Mass Effect: Andromeda lets you participate in APEX Missions, which are story-based variants of the game’s multiplayer mode. In the middle of the July 4 festivities yesterday, the team at Bioware teased some new content for the missions, which include a higher difficulty setting and new foes.

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The 11-second trailer briefly showed the icon for a new difficulty level in APEX Missions. At launch, you can choose from Bronze-, Silver-, or Gold-level difficulties for each sortie. With the latest update, which arrives tomorrow (July 6), you’ll get an even tougher challenge with Platinum-level missions. Successfully surviving multiple waves of enemies at the Platinum level provides you with some high-end rewards to use in the single-player campaign.

You can also try the new difficulty level against a familiar enemy from the original Mass Effect trilogy. The main attraction of the teaser trailer was the four-eyed batarian. These aliens were known in the Milky Way as drug smugglers and slave traders. Some of the more reputable alien races, such as the salarians and turians, have their own ships on the way to the Andromeda galaxy, and it’s possible that the batarians illegally hitched a ride and are looking for new customers or slaves in the uncharted galaxy.

The batarians and the introduction of the Platinum difficulty are the latest in Bioware’s additions to the Mass Effect: Andromeda multiplayer experience. Right after launch, the studio added the first of its APEX Missions to the game, and subsequent chapters, which relate to Andromeda’s new species, came out on an almost-weekly basis. It’s safe to say that the developers will continue to implement more features to the multiplayer, but the addition of new content to the single-player story is still in the air. Unlike most games today, Mass Effect: Andromeda did not include a Season Pass for additional downloadable content, which casts the arrival of additional stories or characters in the main campaign in doubt.