Mass Effect 3 planet scanning provides you with a way to amass war assets and increase your Total Military Strength, which you'll need if you want to be successful in the final battle with the Reapers. As you search around the various clusters you'll discover war assets, artifacts, intel, credits, and fuel locations that are all used to improve your military standing, and how much of this you can collect will directly have an impact on the Mass Effect 3 endings available to you. You also need to be on your guard while you go about planet scanning in Mass Effect 3, as the Reapers are constantly watching and will be alerted if you keep searching in the wrong places.
So, we know that these items are essential in the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, which means you want to gather as many of them as you can ahead of the big final fight. However, if you just scan every planet you see with reckless abandon, the Reapers will eventually get to full alertness and chase after you, meaning you'll have to leave the system immediately. The Reapers might look slow at first, but they quickly pick up speed and won't take long to catch you unless you hotfoot it out of there. In addition to this, once the Reapers have been alerted within a system, you'll have to go somewhere else and complete another mission before it will be safe to come back for further investigation. Therefore it pays to use our Mass Effect 3 planet scanning guide, so you know where to look and can slip in and out with (probably) no trouble.
As it will soon become apparent, not all of these clusters can be accessed in Mass Effect 3 planet scanning from the start of the game. There will be new clusters opening up as you progress through the story or complete side missions, while others do not become available until a specific quest, such as an N7 assignment, is received from Traynor. If a cluster listed here isn't available to you, then make some more progress through the campaign before taking another look to check if it's now unlocked.
Assets in this guide are listed as they appear in the images from left to right, and locations that have no planet at the center signify ship wreckages, which grant varying amounts of fuel upon investigation. Clusters are listed in alphabetical order for ease of locating, with the number of resources they contain shown in brackets after. If a particular cluster isn't featured in the list, then there are no useful items to be found there and you can safely skip over it.
- Page 1:
- Aethon Cluster (9)
- Apien Crest (5)
- Arcturus Stream (3)
- Argos Rho (6)
- Athena Nebula (9)
- Attican Beta (4)
- Page 2:
- Caleston Rift (3)
- Crescent Nebula (4)
- Exodus Cluster (7)
- Gemini Sigma (4)
- Hades Gamma (9)
- Hades Nexus (7)
- Page 3:
- Hourglass Nebula (7)
- Ismar Frontier (1)
- Kite's Nest (9)
- Krogan DMZ (3)
- Minos Wasteland (2)
- Nimbus Cluster (6)
- Nubian Expanse (6)
- Page 4:
- Pylos Nebula (5)
- The Shrike Abyssal (8)
- Sigurd's Cradle (6)
- Silean Nebula (11)
- Valhallan Threshold (6)
Aethon Cluster
Aru: Book of Plenix artifact on Irune, 200 fuel, Volus Fabrication Units war asset on Cherk Sab
Nura: Volus Intelligence Archives intel on Oma Ker, 250 fuel
Esori: Volus Dreadnought Kwunu war asset on Solu Paolis, 300 fuel
Satu Arrd: Volus Engineering Team war asset on Nalisin, 200 fuel
Apien Crest
Castellus: Banner of the 1st Regiment artifact on Digeris, 350 fuel
Gemmae: 750 fuel, Turian 79th Flotilla war asset on Pheiros, 800 fuel
Arcturus Stream
Arcturus: 350 fuel, Intel from Battle of Arcturus on Arcturus Station
Euler: 100 fuel
Argos Rho
Hydra: Haptic Optics Array war asset on Canrum, 270 fuel
Phoenix: Fossilized Kakliosaur on Intai’sei, 450 fuel, Turian Spec Ops Team war asset on Pinnacle Station
Gorgon: Advanced Power Relays war asset on Camaron
Athena Nebula
Parnitha: Asari Cruiser Cybaen war asset on Tevura
Vernio: Hesperia Period Statue artifact on Polissa, 400 fuel
Tomaros: 200 fuel, Asari Cruiser Nefrane war asset on Pronoia
Orisoni: Asari Research Ships war asset on Egalic, 350 fuel
Ialessa: Asari Engineers war asset on Trikalon, 500 fuel
Attican Beta
Hercules: Interferometric Array war asset on Eletania, 370 fuel
Theseus: ExoGeni Scientists war asset on Feros, 240 fuel
Jump to Section:
- Page 1:
- Aethon Cluster (9)
- Apien Crest (5)
- Arcturus Stream (3)
- Argos Rho (6)
- Athena Nebula (9)
- Attican Beta (4)
- Page 2:
- Caleston Rift (3)
- Crescent Nebula (4)
- Exodus Cluster (7)
- Gemini Sigma (4)
- Hades Gamma (9)
- Hades Nexus (7)
- Page 3:
- Hourglass Nebula (7)
- Ismar Frontier (1)
- Kite's Nest (9)
- Krogan DMZ (3)
- Minos Wasteland (2)
- Nimbus Cluster (6)
- Nubian Expanse (6)
- Page 4:
- Pylos Nebula (5)
- The Shrike Abyssal (8)
- Sigurd's Cradle (6)
- Silean Nebula (11)
- Valhallan Threshold (6)
