N7: Eclipse Smuggling Depot

An Eclipse smuggling depot has been detected on planet Daratar (Faryar system, Hourglass Nebula). Cerberus would pay very good money for any cargo recovered from the site.

Acquisition
After helping Aria by giving her a datapad recovered during Garrus' recruitment mission and helping her handle the Patriarch she will give you the location of the smuggling depot.

The assignment can also be acquired by scanning the planet. These mission notes are displayed after scanning the planet: "The planet Daratar in the Faryar system is a suspected Eclipse smuggling site. Cerberus is interested in obtaining the materials kept at this site. Operatives will be paid handsomely for any intact crates retrieved from the site. Be aware that Eclipse would rather see the cargo destroyed than lose it to a rival organization. Payment will be made once the acquisition of undamaged crates is verified."

Walkthrough
The Normandy SR-2 is detected while in orbit by the three YMIR Mechs guarding the cargo. The mechs will then try to destroy the crates before the squad can recover them. There are 20 crates in the depot. You have to destroy all the mechs before all crates have been destroyed. You will get paid based on how many crates survive. You can shoot at a mech to get its attention (and therefore stop it from destroying crates). This option, though, should probably be reserved only for the easier difficulties, as YMIR Mechs are aggressive and you may find that cover will be difficult to find as they flank you. When all mechs have been destroyed, the mission is completed.

It is recommended you bring the M-100 Grenade Launcher, the ML-77 Missile Launcher, or the M-920 Cain. They are long range and can make the job go faster, especially with the YMIR armor. If you happen to have the Collector Particle Beam, then that is not a bad choice, either. Recommended squadmates are Miranda and Garrus due to their overload abilities. If you have the DLC either Kasumi with her own Overload abilitiy or Zaeed's Disruptor Ammo are also useful choices.

There are 3 YMIR Mechs that will begin destroying crates as soon as the first one is in sight. In order to save all 20 crates, they must be killed in a specific order. You can only attack a Mech to get its attention if no other mechs are currently focused on you, so simply hitting all 3 once will not work. The first that must be destroyed is the first that comes into sight as you round the corner to begin the mission. If not focused on you, it will almost immediately begin destroying crates, as it has the shortest distance to travel to the crates it will destroy. The next is the Mech to the far left in the back, and finally the last is the mech that begins in the center and moves across to the right.

Once a YMIR finishes off the crates that it is assigned to destroy, it will then focus on the squad, even if there are still crates left.

The easiest way to do this is to use the M-920 Cain first on the first mech, which will either destroy it outright or heavily damage it, depending on the difficulty. Once it's dead, get the attention of the far left mech, then while it is focused on you, unload on the one moving to the right. The hardest parts of this will be destroying the first one fast enough to get the attention of the second before it destroys a crate, then killing the third while the second is focused on you before it can kill a crate. If you can manage to do so, however, you will save all 20 crates.

It is possible to destroy (or severely damage) all 3 mechs with one shot from the Cain, but you must hurry before they get too far apart and aim between them. An easier and safer solution (mostly in Insanity) is to simply get 200% Cain ammo (attainable via 6 Heavy Ammo Upgrades + using the Ordinance Packs from Harrot's Emporium at Omega), and fire two consecutive shots at the mechs, as shown in this video.

Another possible strategy is to stay back and send your squad in to do the damage. If you don't trigger the gunships, and don't shoot the mechs yourself, your squad will take them all down without the mechs even moving, allowing you to save all 20 crates.

Note that only fire from the mechs can damage the crates, so you don't need to worry about Shepard or teammates inadvertently destroying crates from inaccurate weapons fire or the Cain's explosion. There are some typical fragile crates used for cover props that can be destroyed &mdash; but these are not part of the 20 crates you need to save.

Before leaving, grab the element zero and the med-kit off to the left of the clearing, near the computer terminal, and the power cells on the rear landing platform.

Mission Summary
__ of the 20 crates were saved. (__ is replaced by the number that you saved)
 * Experience reward: 125 (156)
 * Credits: 3,750-7,500
 * Cerberus Funding: 3,750
 * Credits Found: 3,750 - (190 per crate lost); minimum = 0
 * Minerals:
 * Element Zero: 500