The Vanguard is a fusion between the Soldier and the Adept. A soldier, an agressive one, with biotic abilities. But it's more than that : you can launch yourself into your enemy with that marvellous power named Biotic Charge. Not only that it teleports you infront of your enemy and gives you the chance to hit him with a heavy shotgun blast in the face, but it also recharges your shields.

However, it doesn't make you invulnerable. If you charge in a crappy fight, you will die in less time than needed to say « Charging this enemy was the worst idea of my life. ».

As for the bonus power, I like to go with Reave. It grants you defensive and crowd control abilities you lack as a Vanguard.

I already described Biotic Charge so I won't do it again. On top of that, you have Incendiary and Cryo ammo and that's all for the martial powers. You also have two more biotic abilities : Shockwave and Pull.

Building won't be too much of a problem since you have two useless powers : Shockwave and Pull. That's not (only) because all enemies have protections (shields / armor / barrier) in Hardcore and Insanity. It's simply because you will be charging most of the time, thus triggering cooldowns, at the end of which you will need to use a defensive power OR charge again.

Shockwave and Pull are not defensive powers and are simply not interesting to use for attack. So that will be one point in shockwave (mostly because I had one point left, but well, I guess it could be useful once every fifteen hours) and 0 in pull.

So, what do we do now ? Max everything else.

Biotic Charge : Rank 4 with Heavy Charge, so you have the cool slow-motion effect after the charge. And not only it is cool, but it also helps you wreaking havoc without letting time to enemies to react.

Incendiary Ammo : Rank 4 with whatever you like. I like the Inferno ammo better but that doesn't mean group ammo is bad.

Cryo Ammo : Rank 4 with whatever you like. I like the group ammo better on these, because they are effective enough as they are. Keep in mind that a frozen enemy takes 100 % more damage from « powerful » attacks… including concussive shot or… Biotic Charge, that's right !

Another cool feature of Cryo Ammo is that if a Husk gets frozen, it will die instantly. Just remove its armor, and shoot him (or wait for your teammates to do it).

Shockwave : One point.


Pull : Zero point.


Assault Mastery : Rank 4 with Champion to maximize your Paragon and/or Renegade points.


Reave : Rank 4 with the zone effect, to get a bit more crowd control.

You should level up powers in this order : Biotic Charge and Reave, Champion, Ammo powers.

Claymore, of course.
1. It's badass.
2. You don't need no stinkin' assault rifle nor sniper rifle - you're a vanguard, so use the High Lord !

Note : Taking the Assault Rifle specialization to play with the Mattock can prove an interesting change.

If you didn't read my weaponry guide, here are some tips about the weapons you should use :

Shotgun : until you unlock the Claymore, the best choice is the Eviscerator. You should have it since it's in the Cerberus network access DLC prenium blah-bloo-blah pack.

SMG : All are good. The Locust will be your best friend when playing defensive (and let's be honest, you will probably have no other choice in some situations in early-game). But charging with the Tempest or the Shuriken in hand is also quite effective, especially with the Tempest. Take your pick !

Heavy Pistol : Phalanx if you have it. Carnifex otherwise.

Heavy weapon : as always, the Avalanche is extremely good against protections. You can also take the Collector Beam if you struggle against shields and barriers, or the Arc Projector. Forget about all others.

Team dextro = win as always. It's ALWAYS a win.

All jokes aside, Garrus / Tali and every other squadmate (Miranda, Zaeed) who can destroy shields is a good choice. With Incendiary Ammo and Reave, you can deal with Armors and Barriers. Shields will be a bit more of a problem – well, heavy shields. Your shotgun will deal with the common troopers' shields. Tali’s Drone will also provide a nice distraction.
Kasumi with her flashbang or Miranda are also good choices.

That’s sad, but something happened to the Gentleman’s guide to playing Vanguard in ME2 : the picture is unreadable so I can’t show it. We’ll have to do without.

The art of this class is to know when to switch to defensive / offensive gameplay. You cannot charge headless into melee : if there are too many enemies in front of you, they will surely kill you before you can charge once more and regain your shields.

What’s good is to go defensive a few seconds to analyze the enemies’ strength and positions. While doing so, use your teammates and your SMG / Pistol to destroy some shields / armors, even to kill some enemies.

Once the battlefield is a bit (just a bit) more clear, it’s time to charge ! Pull out the shotgun, pick a target (preferably an isolated / weak one), charge, shoot the shotgun in his head. Is it dead ? If not, melee to stun it. Is it dead ? If not, charge / shoot him again. He’s dead. Pick another target and repeat the operation.
It’s also good to get into cover after you killed and enemy, to take time to analyze the enemies strength / positions again. You don’t need to think strategies for twenty minutes, your gameplay should look like that :

- The fight starts, you get into cover, destroy some protections using your squadmates’ powers, your Reave and your SMG / Pistol
- You pick a target that you will be able to kill quickly (a common trooper, a weakened elite or an isolated enemy), charge it with shotgun in hand, shoot him in the face, melee him / shoot / charge again to finish him
- Optional : get into cover to reload your shotgun / your charge
- Quickly go back to step 2.

When you find yourself in danger (because you underestimated the enemies or because you were surprised by them), get into cover, cast Reave on a target (unless they have shields), then shoot until you see a health bar and cast reave again to regenerate your health. Take time to weaken the enemies (destroy protections, stun them with a flashbang or reave, distract them with Tali’s drone, kill some of them) and then you can start charging again.

Remember to always have incendiary ammo on your shotgun, to deal the maximum possible damage. Cryo ammo is mostly useful when you play defensive (on your SMG or pistol) to control the crowds or prevent some enemies from regenerating. Charging a frozen target is funny !

Here's some Insanity gameplay with the Vanguard (Suicide Mission) :


Have fun !