On the Road Again
Lizbeth insists that she be allowed to come with Shepard; she wants a chance to make things right. Return to the Mako and start rolling across the skyway once more.
Joker was correct: many more geth forces lie in wait on the skyway. Advance with caution as you encounter a large group of heavy geth forces just outside ExoGeni’s garage.
Employ the same tactics you used on your initial trip to ExoGeni.
Utilize the garage doors as cover, or position the Mako sideways so you may avoid armature pulse blasts and rocket trooper bombardments while combating these foes.
Refugee Camp Revisited
Make a quick pit stop at the refugee camp to reunite Lizbeth with her mother, Juliana. Unfortunately, the team finds the camp in a state of panic.
Ethan Jeong is quite upset about something. It seems communications have been reestablished with ExoGeni’s off-world corporate headquarters, and the company has decided their Feros colony has become far too disorderly.
They want the entire place "purged" to contain the situation before it gets any worse.
Persuade Jeong to spare the lives of the Zhu’s Hope colonists if you’re able; you’ll gain a hoard of morality points when the dialogue concludes.
If you’re unable to persuade Jeong, Shepard is forced to kill him when the madman draws his weapon, and no morality points are attributed.
Whether or not you’re able to persuade Jeong, Juliana soon comes up with a way of sparing the colonists’ lives.
Speak with her to receive a special upgrade for Shepard’s grenades: an Anti-Thorian Gas device.
Visit the Equipment menu and install this upgrade onto Shepard’s grenades so you may knock out the infected colonists at Zhu’s Hope without actually harming them.
Agreeing to this humane plan also earns you a handful of Paragon points.
Back to Zhu’s Hope
You guessed it: more geth lie in wait along the final stretch of skyway leading to Zhu’s Hope.
As you did before, position the Mako sideways so that you may dodge incoming fire while dispatching these threats for XP and items.
Or simply haul onward, smashing through their ranks in your frantic dash to return to the colony.
Attack of the Creepers
Arriving at the Zhu’s Hope garage, the team encounters a frightening new breed of hostile: a Thorian creeper. This lone adversary presents no significant threat, so simply cut it down with all speed.
Afterward, you can either order your team to fire on the infected colonists, or to spare them so Shepard can knock them out with gas grenades.
Choose to spare them if you’re playing a Paragon hero or kill them if you’re going Renegade.
Garage Assault
After killing the lone creeper, use the nearby wall console to open the garage door. A vast swarm of creepers lies in wait just inside the garage, quickly moving to tear into Shepard’s crew.
Immediately open fire, focusing your attacks on the nearest advancing creeper. Backpedal as necessary to keep the fiends at bay.
The first group of infected colonists opens fire with pistols from the far end of the garage, near the elevator to Zhu’s Hope.
Toss a grenade at one of the colonists and detonate it to knock them all out. Dash to the elevator afterward and ride up to Zhu’s Hope.
Zhu’s Hope Assault
The ExoGeni refugees have said that the entrance to the Thorian’s lair has been covered up by a large freighter parked atop the access hatch.
You must fight to the heart of the colony to reach the freighter controls. Exit the elevator and turn left, being quick to cut down the trio of creepers that rush you from the corner ahead.
Another pair of colonists fires on you from behind some debris just beyond the creepers. Toss a grenade right between the two and stick it to the wall behind them.
Detonate the grenade to knock out both colonists in one blast.
More creepers attack you in the stairwell; cut them down before proceeding downstairs. You’re nearing the heart of Zhu’s Hope and the colonists have taken up defensive positions.
They pick shots at you from behind cover while creepers rush forward to attack. While securing the colony, try to lure the creepers away from the infected colonists, backing off and blasting the fiends with shotguns.
Seek cover afterward. Heal up and recharge your shields before moving out once more to knock out the infected colonists with well-placed grenades.
Unfortunately, the freighter crane controls cannot be used in the heat of battle, so you must eliminate all the infected colonists and Thorian creepers in the area.
Do your best to knock out the colonists with grenades whenever possible if you’re looking to pick up Paragon points, or simply slaughter the whole lot if you’d like to bolster your Renegade status.
Secure the area, then activate the freighter crane controls to reveal the entrance to the Thorian’s lair.
The Fall of Fai Dan
Before entering the Thorian’s underground burrow, Shepard and company are surprised to see Fai Dan staggering toward them.
The man is being overwhelmed by the Thorian’s influence, but continues to struggle valiantly against the creature’s insidious will.
Unable to handle the pressure any longer, Fai Dan pulls free his weapon…and kills himself. There can be no doubt now as to how potent the Thorian’s effect really is.
Thorian Lair: Level 1
After witnessing Fai Dan’s demise, take the underground stairwell you’ve revealed and enter the Thorian’s lair. Proceed down the corridor at the bottom of the stairs to enter the Thorian’s chamber.
The party then gets their first glimpse of the Thorian itself: a monstrous plant being with tendrils stretching all about the place. Destroying this creature could be a bit more challenging than the team originally thought.…
The Thorian soon begins pulsating, then spits out some sort of creature. The being stands up and approaches the party, who are then able to identify it as an asari.
The asari clone speaks for the Thorian, voicing the ancient plant’s anger at the party’s intrusion.
Speak with the asari to learn that Saren recently paid the Thorian a visit to learn more about ancient beings, perhaps more about the Protheans.
Saren then double-crossed the Thorian and sent his synthetic minions to assault the plant being’s servants. The Thorian will no longer listen to the lies of outsiders.
No matter which dialogue options you choose, you soon end up fighting the Thorian’s asari clone. This formidable enemy is on par with the asari commandos you faced at Noveria.
Beware of her powerful biotic abilities and unload on the asari to cut her down fast. Don’t give the clone a chance to gear up her powers or the fight becomes far more challenging.
Weakening the Thorian
Defeat the asari commando and swarming creepers to secure the area. It is obvious that the Thorian is far too massive to be harmed by direct attacks; a different approach must be found.
Fortunately, the answer isn’t far; a giant Thorian neural node is found in the northern tunnel, and it seems to register as a sensitive spot when attacked. Fire on the neural node until it explodes in a gruesome splatter.
The Thorian screams in unnatural agony. You have indeed found a tender spot.
Continue down the hall and begin scaling the far stairs to reach the lair’s second level. As you climb the steps, the Thorian births another asari clone, who then rushes to attack your team from the landing above.
The asari is backed by a pair of creepers. Unleash shotgun blasts and powerful abilities to wipe out these hostiles as fast as possible, retreating downstairs if necessary.
Thorian Lair: Level 2
Begin exploring the lair’s second level after securing the area. Open the weapon locker that stands against the south wall for items, then proceed into the eastern chamber.
Several more creepers rise up and attack you inside the room. Back off and blast them before they manage to close in.
The team finds another one of the Thorian’s neural nodes inside the eastern chamber. Unload on it until the node erupts, inflicting severe pain on the Thorian.
You’re doing well. Continue up the sloping pile of rubble ahead to reach the lair’s next level.
Thorian Lair: Level 3
More creepers and an asari clone await you at the top of the rubble heap. Dispatch them as you’ve done before, utilizing powerful combat abilities and shotgun blasts to keep them at bay.
Remain on the rubble heap until the hostiles stop coming, then move forward to explore the lair’s third level.
There are two more neural nodes for you to take out on this level. Move to each one in turn, dispatching their creeper defenders and then firing into the nodes themselves.
Scale the western rubble mound beyond this floor’s second node to access the level above.
Thorian Lair: Level 4
Yet another asari clone backed by Thorian creepers assaults you when you reach the top of the rubble mound.
Obliterate these enemies without delay, but fall back should you become overwhelmed. As before, try to cut down the asari as quickly as possible.
There isn’t much to see on the lair’s fourth tier. Move northward to find another neural node attached to a nearby wall.
Fire on the node until it’s destroyed, then run down the slope beyond to access the third level’s northern stairwell. These stairs lead all the way up to the lair’s fifth floor.
Thorian Lair: Level 5
A final mob of creepers guards the Thorian’s sixth and final neural node. They’re backed by another asari clone.
Employ the same tactics as before: target the asari to kill her as fast as you can, and fire on the creepers only when absolutely necessary. Destroy the neural node after securing the area to deal the final blow to the Thorian.
Acquiring the Cipher
Having suffered enough, the Thorian collapses to the bottom of the chamber. Another asari climbs out of the ancient plant’s remains, but this one seems to be non-aggressive.
The asari thanks Shepard for saving her. The tone you take can earn you some morality points.
The asari informs Shepard that she served under Matriarch Benezia, and joined forces with Saren alongside her master.
She recounts the strength of Saren’s influence, enhanced by the power of his mysterious warship, Sovereign.
The asari reveals that Saren offered her to the Thorian as a method of communication, and as a means of securing an alliance with the creature.
After getting what he needed out of the Thorian, Saren was quick to order his geth forces to attack and eliminate all trace of the ancient being’s existence—he didn’t want Shepard to learn its secrets.
The Thorian is now dead, but Shepard still needs a way to learn its secrets. The asari offers to transfer the ancient growth’s knowledge into the Spectre, just as she’d done for Saren.
The experience is overwhelming, but Shepard finally attains the cipher needed to comprehend the vision projected by the Prothean beacon back on Eden Prime.
The puzzle pieces will still take time to fall into place, but feel free to question the asari for a bit of fast insight if you like.
Mission Accomplished
Excellent work, Commander. The Thorian has been destroyed. Free of its influence at long last, the colonists can’t thank you enough.
Spend time chatting with them if you’d like, and return to the Normandy when you’re ready to move on.
Back aboard the Normandy, Liara notices Shepard acting a bit out of sorts. She offers to help the Spectre make sense of the cipher recently gained from the Thorian’s asari captive, and the commander agrees.
Unfortunately, Liara can’t offer any additional insight. She is simply able to confirm what Shepard has believed all along. Liara advises that they continue the search for Saren.
He must have extracted additional information from the Prothean beacon at Eden Prime. Questioning the former Spectre is likely to be the only way of uncovering the answers they seek.
Have Joker contact the Council to debrief them personally. They wish they’d known about the Thorian and are disappointed that such a rare creature had to be destroyed.
They understand why it had to be done, of course; such a dangerous being couldn’t be allowed to enslave the minds of others as it had the Zhu’s Hope colonists.
As customary, the tone you take with the Council can earn you a couple of morality points.
