This article is about information and tactics for fighting the enemy Balak. For the page about him in general, see Ka'hairal Balak. |
Balak is a batarian terrorist attempting to crash Asteroid X57 into the human colony of Terra Nova.
Mass Effect[]
After shutting down all three fusion torches, Shepard goes to the main facility and confronts Balak and his remaining team. Balak gives the Commander an ultimatum, let him go or let the scientists Balak captured die. Determined to stop Balak, Shepard states that Balak will be stopped and that killing the scientists will be the last thing he does. Balak then activates a bomb, killing all the hostages in the other room and engages Shepard in combat.
Shepard then guns down the rest of Balak's terrorists, varren and defense drones. A wounded Balak then states that Shepard is no better than him by throwing those innocent scientists lives away. Shepard can then choose to either leave him for the Alliance, let him die or outright kill him. Whatever fate you choose for Balak will have consequences for subsequent games.
Tactics[]
- Balak is essentially a stronger version of the Batarian Trooper.
- He will rely heavily on Immunity to defend himself and advance from cover to cover to attack.
- Balak will occasionally overheat your weapons with Sabotage and/or put your powers on cooldown with Damping. Consider beefing up your party's tech protection stats before facing him so these negative effects don't last as long, or at least make sure you have backup weapons to switch to if anything gets overheated. If your squadmates aren't firing the same likely happened to them, so remember to order them to switch to a backup weapon temporarily as well, if they have one equipped.
- With his other guards and drones assisting him, the overall fight may prove to be a challenge, but Balak alone is not especially difficult to defeat.
- On higher difficulties watch out for his Assassination ability when he's using his sniper rifle, as it can one shot even a Shepard who usually survives normal snipers. Defenses include Immunity, keeping him off his feet with your own powers, and of course staying in cover.