Mass Effect 3 Aria: Blue Suns Walkthrough—Choices, Rewards, and Paragon Fixes
Mass Effect 3’s Aria: Blue Suns side mission sends you through Omega’s underworld politics and into the Citadel’s power plays. The guide breaks down where to go, what to do in each conversation, and what rewards you can expect—plus it flags a Paragon-route problem that can cost you loot if you leave at the wrong time.
Key takeaways
- The side mission unlocks after completing “Priority: Palaven,” which opens up the Citadel for exploration.
- Talking to Aria at Purgatory grants the Terminus Fleet war asset worth 50 TMS automatically.
- The assignment can be resolved peacefully via negotiation with General Septimus Oraka, or ended immediately with a kill order option.
- On the Paragon path, you’ll be tasked with recovering Black Market Artifacts by scanning and probing the planet Vana.
- A Paragon-route bug can prevent rewards from being granted if you walk away from Kannick before the on-screen reward pop-ups appear.
Checklists
This wiki guide page covers the Aria: Blue Suns side mission, including where to find key items, how to handle every combat segment, and which choices matter for your run. It also points players to jump straight to the most important sections, such as mission stats, travel steps, conversations with Aria T’Loak, Darner Vosque, General Oraka, and Kannick, and the tasks involving the Black Market Artifacts—both finding and delivering them—before returning to General Oraka.
Mission Stats
Video Guide
Mission Rewards
- Mission Experience: 210 XP (Paragon only)
- Reputation: +5
- Mission Credits: 5,000 credits (Paragon only)
- War Assets:
- Terminus Fleet (50 TMS)
- +50 TMS to Terminus Fleet
- Terminus Fleet (50 TMS)
- +50 TMS to Terminus Fleet
Travel to Widow
- Prerequisite: Complete “Priority: Palaven”
- Location: Serpent Nebula – Widow – Citadel – Purgatory
The side mission appears after finishing “Priority: Palaven,” which unlocks every Citadel area so you can explore freely. The Citadel serves as the main galaxy hub and is permanently shown in the western portion of the Milky Way map.
Meet Aria T’Loak
To start the mission, go to the Purgatory bar on the Citadel and head inside. Take the first short stairs, then turn right. You’ll find Aria T’Loak—the leader figure for Omega—who previously interacted with Shepard in Mass Effect 2. This time around, she’s clearly not in a great spot, and Purgatory fits the mood as well as her Afterlife bar once did in the earlier game. After you speak with her, you’ll respond with one of the following options:
- “But you’re alive” for +2 Paragon Points.
- “Payback is hell” for +2 Renegade Points.
Aria then offers three side missions: “Aria: Blue Suns,” “Aria: Blood Pack,” and “Aria: Eclipse.” You can add more alignment points by choosing how to talk to her at this stage:
- “Those gangs are scum” for +2 Paragon Points.
- “Whatever it takes” for +2 Renegade Points.
While you’ll focus on “Aria: Blue Suns,” simply speaking to Aria also grants the Terminus Fleet war asset worth 50 TMS.
Meet Darner Vosque
To keep the assignment moving, head to the Docks: Holding Area on the Citadel. At Cargo Hold: A, all the way at the far end, you’ll meet Darner Vosque, who leads the Blue Suns. He wants Shepard to eliminate a Turian general named Septimus Oraka. At this point, choose your response:
- “I won’t kill for you” for +2 Paragon Points.
- “I’ll take care of it” for +2 Renegade Points.
After that conversation, Shepard contacts Aria. Aria explains she expects you to negotiate with General Oraka rather than killing him. You can respond with:
- “Same damn thing” for +2 Paragon Points.
- “Save the soft sell” for +2 Renegade Points.
Meet General Oraka
General Septimus Oraka is located in the Presidium Commons. From the elevator, go to the right along the hallway, then take the doorway on the left to descend the stairs. Check the benches between the second and third stair runs to find him. If you played Mass Effect 1, you might recognize him from the “Citadel: Asari Consort” assignment.
When you speak with Oraka, you can try to find a non-violent exit route by dealing with a black market dealer in the Presidium Commons.
- If you want a peaceful outcome, select “I’ll get weapons for you” to continue the side mission.
- If you’d rather resolve it immediately and avoid a fetch-type step, choose “Walk away from this” and then “[Place a kill order on Oraka].” This kills Oraka off-screen, ends the side mission, and awards +5 Renegade Points and +50 TMS to the Terminus Fleets War Asset.
- This approach skips the XP and credits normally gained for the Paragon-style conclusion to the side mission.
- This approach skips the XP and credits normally gained for the Paragon-style conclusion to the side mission.
If you originally chose the peaceful option but later change your mind, you can speak to Oraka again and select the kill order route. Either way, completing this quest improves the Terminus Fleets War Asset by +50 TMS, but Paragon players can only apply that kind of change later.
Meet Kannick
If you chose the Paragon approach and decided to help Septimus instead of killing him, you’ll gain a fourth person to talk to during this chain of negotiations. Head to the Cipritine Armory store in the southwest corner of the map and speak with Kannick.
Kannick is planning ahead and will only trade his black market items through a barter arrangement. His logic is that he’s preparing for how the galaxy will operate after the Reapers have had enough time to exterminate the spacefaring races. When you talk to him, choose:
- “What will you take?” for +2 Paragon Points.
- “I’m not asking” for +2 Renegade Points.
No matter which option you pick, Kannick says he’ll trade his best stock in exchange for rare artifacts you recover while saving the galaxy. That means you’ll need to obtain one through the Search and Rescue objective.
Find the Black Market Artifacts
- Location: Kite’s Nest – Vular – Vana
By talking to Kannick, you unlock the system path needed to complete the Paragon version of the assignment. Start by flying to the Kite’s Nest cluster near the southeastern edge of the Milky Way. Because this is part of the side mission, the objective will be highlighted and labeled “Find Artifacts” when you hover over it.
From there, travel to the Vular system. It might not appear right away on the main view, but if you move “southwest,” you’ll spot it in the bottom-left corner of the screen with its own “Find Artifacts” label.
In the Vular system, the third planet—Vana—also has a “Find Artifacts” marker. Use Scan to verify there’s something to collect, enter orbit, then fire a Probe at the artifact location to retrieve the Black Market Artifacts.
Deliver the Black Market Artifacts
WARNING
This Paragon-route step contains a bug: if you leave Kannick before the rewards appear on the right side of the screen, the game will not grant the rewards. If you must step away, wait until the rewards pop up on the right-hand side before you do anything else.
After you collect the Black Market Artifacts, return to Kannick in the Presidium Commons and speak with him again to finalize the assignment. In addition to boosting the Terminus Fleet by 50 TMS, you’ll receive an additional 210 XP and 5,000 credits. These rewards are not awarded when you assassinate Oraka.
Return to General Oraka
This step isn’t mandatory, but you can go back to General Oraka at his bench to confirm that your negotiation approach worked. Doing so grants +5 Paragon Points.
If you want more help with Mass Effect 3, the guide also points readers toward pages covering Legendary Edition changes, general how-to content, key choices and consequences, romance options, walkthroughs, and side missions.
Up Next: Aria: Eclipse
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