Garrus Vakarian

Garrus Vakarian is a turian investigator formerly with C-Sec. Like most turians, Garrus had military training at fifteen but later followed in his father's footsteps to become a C-Sec officer. He was responsible for the investigation into Saren Arterius after the Alliance claimed Saren had gone rogue. Commander Shepard saw Garrus at the Citadel Tower, arguing with Executor Pallin and asking for more time to finish his investigation. Garrus told Shepard that because of Saren's Spectre status it was nearly impossible for him to get anything useful, but he knew in his gut that Saren was guilty. Though Garrus was told his investigation was over, he decided to defy the executor's order and pursue another lead on his own. Eventually, Garrus joined Shepard's team, to help the Commander defeat Sovereign and the geth. Garrus Vakarian is voiced by Brandon Keener.

Dossier
Garrus was put in charge of investigating Saren after Ambassador Udina complained to the Council, claiming that Saren had gone rogue and attacked a human colony. However, Garrus found himself hampered at every turn; as a Spectre, most of Saren's activities were classified and it was nearly impossible to get any solid evidence. He appealed to Executor Pallin for more time, but Pallin, seeing only that Garrus hadn't found any evidence of Saren's guilt, ordered the investigation over and reported that there was nothing to support a charge of treason. However, Garrus had one lead and just needed more time to look into it. He decided to pursue it on his own.

When Shepard began looking for information on Saren, Garrus seemed like a useful contact. The commander found out Garrus had gone to the Med Clinic on the Wards. Shepard arrived to find Dr. Chloe Michel being threatened by a group of thugs, telling her not to speak to Garrus—not realizing Garrus was lying low nearby. Shepard's arrival distracted the thugs, allowing Garrus to take one of them out with a single perfect shot to the head. After the firefight, Garrus told Shepard he was leaving C-Sec: he knew Saren was guilty but regulations and his position had meant his hands were tied. Now, however, he was determined to take Saren down. Shepard agreed to let him come along and become part of the Normandy's crew.

Garrus is very courteous to Shepard, calm and reassuring to victims like Dr. Michel, and ruthless when fighting. He is also very impressed by the Normandy, saying she is proof of what races can accomplish when they work together; he is eager to see what she can do in a fight because the stealth system allows an entirely new angle on space combat. Though Ashley is suspicious of Garrus, despite the fact he's a C-Sec officer, Garrus tends to get along well with the rest of the crew, enjoying the chance to get off the Citadel and see how things are done outside C-Sec. He is surprised by Wrex, claiming that he thought all krogan were savage thugs, and prompting Wrex to retort: "What, using the genophage was more bearable when all krogan were savage thugs? You'd better head back to the ship, kid – any longer out here in the real world and you just might have to learn something."



Little is known of Garrus' past other than the fact he grew up on Palaven—he says Virmire reminds him of home, and if talked to on Therum's surface, he will say that he "thought Palaven was hot"—and that he had a very by-the-book father, a well-known C-Sec investigator whose mantra was "Do things right or don't do them at all." Shepard is surprised to hear that Garrus was targeted as a potential Spectre candidate, but Garrus claims he was only one of about a thousand potentials picked from the turian military. He could have received special training to prepare, but his father blocked his candidacy, despising Spectres for their legal freedoms. Garrus doesn't appear to have any regrets over losing his chance, but he is very interested to see how Spectres do their job and wants to learn from Shepard. He has no qualms about hunting Saren, a fellow turian—in fact, that is part of the reason he hates him so much. According to Garrus, Saren is not only a threat but a disgrace to his species.

Harkin describes Garrus as a hothead who "still thinks he can change the world," saying he is always arguing with the Executor. Pallin himself respects Garrus as an investigator, but claims that as a C-Sec officer he should have more consideration for the law: he may have seen Garrus as doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. Garrus' main objection to C-Sec is the abundance of restrictions and regulations. He believes it doesn't matter how you do it; just get it done. Garrus and Shepard can debate this while they are aboard the Normandy. He is particularly frustrated when regs mean a suspect goes free. He does mention to Shepard that he is concerned about their apprehension of Saren—if they arrest the ex-Spectre and bring him back to the Citadel, there's too much of a risk of him escaping, or being exonerated and protected by the Council to prevent a scandal. Garrus suggests it might be better in the long run if they just take Saren out rather than strictly going by the book. Shepard can offer an opinion on this.

Eventually Garrus thanks Shepard for bringing him aboard the Normandy and letting him be part of the team. He's learned a lot and he doesn't want to let those lessons go to waste. Depending on what Shepard has said to him and the commander's behavior throughout the mission, Garrus states that he is going to reapply for Spectre candidacy, with or without reapplying for C-Sec in the process.

Missions and Assignments
Garrus has a personal mission, Find Dr. Saleon, to track down a criminal who got away from him. When asked about his views on C-Sec and some of his old cases, Garrus mentions a particularly gruesome case involving a salarian doctor, Dr. Saleon, who escaped the Citadel with hostages because the authorities wouldn't fire on his vessel, despite Garrus telling them that the doctor would only use the hostages as test subjects. This caused him to start losing faith in C-Sec policy.

Shepard can offer to track Saleon down as an assignment—the experience gives Garrus some food for thought. If Shepard doesn't take Garrus as a party member for that assignment, later Garrus regrets missing the opportunity to take down Dr. Saleon.

Turian Rebel

 * Rank 1
 * Health: +5.00%
 * Weapon Damage: +6.00%
 * Power Damage: +6.00%


 * Rank 2
 * Health: +10.00%
 * Weapon Damage: +12.00%
 * Power Damage: +12.00%


 * Rank 3
 * Health: +15.00%
 * Weapon Damage: +18.00%
 * Power Damage: +18.00%


 * Rank 4 Unlocks choice between Turian Renegade or Turian Survivor
 * Turian Renegade: If it can be fired, Garrus knows how to use it. His weapon and power damage increases dramatically.
 * Health: +15.00%
 * Weapon Damage: +25.00%
 * Power Damage: +25.00%
 * Turian Survivor: Long hours alone against impossible odds have conditioned Garrus' health, and kept his powers sharp.
 * Health: +20.00%
 * Weapon Damage: +18.00%
 * Power Damage: +25.00%

Dossier
Shepard is advised to recruit a tactical genius and infiltrator known as Archangel, who is currently operating out of Omega. Apparently, over the past few months, Archangel has developed a reputation of being nothing short of a menace to Omega's crime empires; arriving with his team of twelve operatives, Archangel caused an impressive amount of trouble for three of the Terminus Systems' most powerful and successful mercenary groups (Blue Suns, Blood Pack and Eclipse), simultaneously provoking all three of the aforementioned groups into forming a temporary alliance with one another, intending to combine and use every last one of their available manpower and resources to eliminate Archangel (even though they themselves had their own reservations over the alliance), an action that either stunned, alarmed or impressed the Omega inhabitants; as Aria T'Loak explained, unless a war was to break down, the three were almost never seen together, opting to manage and maintain their own sphere of influence on Omega.

After Shepard's team gets through to Archangel, he removes his helmet, revealing himself to be none other than Garrus Vakarian. After the events of Mass Effect, and Shepard's death, Garrus reveals that he followed Shepard's example and created his own squad to enforce their own version of justice to Omega, leading to his current predicament. After Garrus explains the situation to Shepard, Shepard's team assists Garrus in taking out the mercenaries, who have kept Garrus stuck on one side of a bridge. During the battle, Garrus is hit by a Blue Suns gunship and suffers multiple wounds to his face and upper torso. Following the battle, he is rushed back to the Normandy to receive medical treatment.

After being treated by Dr. Chakwas, Garrus greets Shepard in the comm room, revealing the damage he sustained in the gunship attack. A quarter of his face on the right side has been blasted away, replaced by a bandage/artificial graft. There are also various degrees of damage to his armor, and a chunk of the armor's collar has been blasted off.

It soon becomes clear that in the past two years, Garrus has become even more lost in his life. Regardless of what Shepard taught him in Mass Effect, Garrus remains unable to withstand the bureaucracy of the Citadel, possibly a result from how quickly the Council downplayed Sovereign as a geth initiative and the Reapers as nothing more than hearsay after Commander Shepard's death. To know the threat of the Reapers and being unable to do anything about it was bad enough, but after Garrus heard that Commander Shepard, his friend and the only real threat in the way of the Reaper invasion, had died, it was the final straw for him. He fled to Omega, determined to make a difference there, even gathering a team in much the same way Shepard did. With the loss of his team as the result of a traitor in their midst, Garrus became overwhelmed by anger and guilt, making him even more violent. Joker himself notes this change, saying "It's great that Garrus finally managed to work that stick out of his ass, but now he's trying to beat people to death with it." Garrus admits to Shepard that he is a bad turian, as he lacks the discipline expected of him. He feels that, in the face of the Reapers and the galactic extinction they bring, its is simply not worth blindly following bad orders.

Loyalty: Eye for an Eye


Throughout the course of the game, Shepard has an opportunity to ask Garrus about past events when catching up. Garrus eventually tells of a past deployment in the Terminus Systems in which his squad was sold out to the mercenaries by Sidonis, a former team-mate of his. Garrus eventually finds out that Sidonis is on the Citadel, and Harkin (under the alias "Fade"), was the one that facilitated Sidonis' disappearance. After interrogating Harkin, Shepard can choose to aid Garrus' assassination attempt on Sidonis or attempt to warn Sidonis, though either choice secures Garrus' loyalty and unlocks his Armor Piercing Ammo ability. During this mission Shepard has the choice to either let Garrus shoot Harkin in the kneecap or stop him for Paragon points. If stopped from shooting Harkin, Garrus will headbutt him instead. If Shepard stops Garrus from killing Sidonis, a news report later on by Emily Wong will inform Shepard that Sidonis has handed himself in for the murder of 10 people—presumably Garrus' squad.

Romance
Garrus is a potential romance for female Shepard. The option becomes available after completing Garrus' loyalty mission. It is interesting to note, however, that in order to pursue the romance with Garrus, the player should not make the "Paragon" choices. For instance, telling Garrus that she doesn't want to ruin their friendship with an awkward interspecies romance will convince Garrus that it is a crazy idea. More coquettish responses will lead to Garrus to pursue the romance as well, though the mood does remain somewhat awkward, as Garrus admits that he is not necessarily attracted to humans—just Shepard. However, if Shepard asks Garrus whether his awkward behavior suggests that he is uncomfortable with the idea, Garrus says he is just nervous, and that Shepard never has to worry about making him uncomfortable. It should be noted that the Paragon interrupt for the romance has Shepard convince Garrus that he has impressed her.

When Mordin notices Shepard's attraction to Garrus, Shepard can ask him for advice regarding the turian, to which Mordin will warn Shepard about chafing. He advises her not to consume turian tissue, as it is based on dextro-DNA and can cause an allergic reaction in Shepard's body. He then suggests that she returns later for a painkiller and forwards information packets regarding turian physiology to Shepard's room.

Trivia

 * Along with Ashley, Garrus is one of the "poster" characters for Mass Effect and appears on most of the promotional art and demo footage.
 * During the Xbox 360 demo, a conversation with Garrus was used to demonstrate the dialogue system, where Shepard interrupted Garrus' complaint about endangering the mission to rescue civilians, and ordered the turian to fall in line.
 * If certain dialogue choices are made during his loyalty mission and if certain actions were taken in Mass Effect (e.g. how the player dealt with Dr. Saleon outright during Garrus' personal quest), Garrus will indicate his methods were learned from Shepard. If Shepard chose to kill Dr. Saleon outright instead of turning him in in Mass Effect, Garrus expresses surprise when asked if killing Sidonis will make things right, stating Shepard was the one who taught him killing is the best solution; otherwise, he will acknowledge that Shepard doesn't approve. Before the meeting with Sidonis, Garrus will state that he "learned from the best" if Shepard states that he/she would kill Sidonis for betrayal too. This means Garrus' personality and conduct is shaped by Shepard's guidance in Mass Effect.
 * During his recruitment mission, Garrus will shoot at the player and his/her squad if they stand around too long, but later claims that he fired "concussive rounds only" that were merely meant to bring down their shields. He reasons that he did so only to avoid arousing the mercenaries' suspicions regarding Shepard and the commander's squad. When Garrus' response is met with skepticism, he will joke that Shepard and the squad were taking too long and that he wanted to hurry them along.
 * There is currently a bug on the PC version of Mass Effect where even on Ultra-High detail, Garrus' face is remarkably low textured. This is known by the developers of the game, who have said that a patch is not currently in the works and most likely never will be, since due to the way the game is made, it would require a multi-gigabyte patch to fix.
 * Owing to his prior history with Commander Shepard, Garrus has some unique (and often humorous) dialogue.
 * According to the email you receive from Dr. Michel in Mass Effect 2, Garrus is bad at regularly checking his own mail, due to him being preoccupied with his own 'grand crusades'.