[Official] Mass Effect 2


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Who lives and who dies at the end is based solely on 3 factors: team member loyalty, shield/armor/gun upgrades for the Normandy, and which team members you pick for the special roles during the suicide mission. Team upgrades and your Paragon/Renegade level do not factor into the outcome of the mission.

I made a terrible pick my first play through in that I picked Samara to lead the first fire team. She always gets the teammate you pick for the tech/solo part killed. I first picked Tali for that role, and she died. So I switched to Legion thinking it was Tali's fault. Legion died too. So that's when I picked Garrus as the fire team leader, and no one died on the first act of the suicide mission. This was with everyone loyal too. After that I had Garrus lead the second fire team, Jacob lead the survivors back to the Normandy, and Jack was the biotic shield person. No one died.

I also tried the exact same situation except I switched Garrus and Jacob. The outcome was still the same. I haven't tried other picks yet. I'm still grinding my way through Insanity.

Wrex is dead, the council is dead, Udina is in charge, and the Rachni queen is dead. So they basically assumed that you went through the game as a complete renegade.

I downloaded a savegame that had made the same choices as me in the First game(paragon baby!), lost all my savegames

I downloaded a savegame that had made the same choices as me in the First game(paragon baby!), lost all my savegames

Nice. That would definitely be the best way to go, since the game lets you change every aspect of the character anyways. One of the downsides of playing on the 360 I guess :).

I used Legion and then Miranda as the distraction leader. Both died. I had all the ship upgrades to...so not sure what happened.

Did Miranda loose her loyalty? Legion not the best choice, lacks organic charisma :p

Did Miranda loose her loyalty? Legion not the best choice, lacks organic charisma :p

Yea, Miranda was not loyal.

Do all your characters need to be loyal in order to survive? Also, spoiler for some,

but is there any way to prevent your crew from being taken by the collectors?

Just started the game some hours ago. I got Garru, the salarian doctor who's name I dont remember right now (BTW, it's just me or he is losely based on dr house?) and jack. So far it's... AMAZING!

I made sure Jack didn't become loyal so she did die, what a crappy character. Anyway, what do you think is the 'default' end for this game? In the first it was the council destroyed, and Shepard a paragon. In this one, I am getting the feeling, after talking to the crew at the end, that I should have destroyed the ship, not saved it.

I made sure Jack didn't become loyal so she did die, what a crappy character. Anyway, what do you think is the 'default' end for this game? In the first it was the council destroyed, and Shepard a paragon. In this one, I am getting the feeling, after talking to the crew at the end, that I should have destroyed the ship, not saved it.

I assume it would be handled similarly to the default ME1 story:

You don't recruit Zaeed Massani, the Collector ship is destroyed, the entire crew (minus your squadmates) die. You'll probably have the opportunity to justify your actions in ME3, assuming [all or some of] the characters from ME2 are in it. Just to put things into perspective: The default ME1 story is the death of the Council and Rachni queen as well as Kaidan (for Shepard) and Ashley (for female Shepard).

Onto my revised ending:

Instead of choosing Tali as the tech expert, I chose Legion and he survived. I also swapped Garrus as the leader with Miranda just to see if she'd live, and she did (just like Garrus). And finally, I chose Garrus to serve as a distraction instead of Grunt who died. So there it is, my ending where no one died. I must've lost loyalty with Tali and Grunt seeing as how they died no matter what I did. I guess that proves your choices don't affect your squad mate's survivability. What affects it is their loyalty strength as well as their roles. Wrong role = death, and imperfect loyalty = death. Oh, one more thing - Tali... I exposed her father in her loyalty mission so that must've been why she wasn't loyal enough to survive.

This thought just occurred to me. In ME1, there were missions that required you to drive around in the M35 Mako (the 6-wheeled vehicle). You also see it in the start of most missions because that's how you go from planet-to-planet. You're airdropped from the Normandy to the planet's surface. Anyway, I was wondering why there weren't any vehicle-based missions in ME2.

A bit of Googling lead me to this: M57 Hammerhead. It's a hover thank that could make its way into ME2 in the form of DLC. If this is true, then I hope BioWare makes the planets in ME2 explorable.

This thought just occurred to me. In ME1, there were missions that required you to drive around in the M35 Mako (the 6-wheeled vehicle). You also see it in the start of most missions because that's how you go from planet-to-planet. You're airdropped from the Normandy to the planet's surface. Anyway, I was wondering why there weren't any vehicle-based missions in ME2.

A bit of Googling lead me to this: M57 Hammerhead. It's a hover thank that could make its way into ME2 in the form of DLC. If this is true, then I hope BioWare makes the planets in ME2 explorable.

I was so happy when I learned that the Mako was taken out of ME2. I didn't mind moving around the planets with it, since they were so vast that you could easily move around enemy fire (or just anticipate it and jump over), but really cramped areas like Ferros were a pain in the ass. There were a few points where I just got out of the vehicle and sniped some of the smaller Geth, just to thin out the herd. I wouldn't be opposed to the idea of a new vehicle, just as long as they completely overhaul the driving mechanics (make it more like the Warthog in Halo perhaps?).

Congrats on getting everyone to survive. I think you're right about loyalty, and how it isn't just black and white. That's pretty interesting that Tali would die as your tech expert, since that isn't suppose to happen. Legion and Tali are suppose to be the two choices (whereas anybody else dies no matter what). I think that pretty much confirms that loyalty isn't black and white. Perhaps Mordin wasn't completely loyal in my game, which is why he died. Maybe I just didn't talk to him enough or something.

@techbeck: As for configuring squad points for team members outside of squad selection, I haven't found anything like that. I don't think you can do it, but I could be wrong.

Getting everyone to survive the suicide mission is a matter of having the loyalty of every member, assigning the right people to the right jobs, and advancing on the map quick enough. It's pretty easy to do actually.

Those who aren't loyal will die no matter what you do. Illusive Man, Jacob and probably others have been saying as much throughout the entire game. Your team must be focused on the mission, not their personal issues.

Assigning Garrus to lead the other teams, Tali or Legion in the pipe, Samara or Miranda to block the swarm, and Grunt or Jacob to take the crew back to the Normandy will result in everyone surviving.

Zaeed might be able to successfully lead in place of Garrus, but I haven't tried with him being loyal.

Also I'm not sure if your speed in advancing through the ship matters beyond opening the gates in the pipe.

Question guys. So far I have Garrus, Jack, Solus, the krogan in stasis (Still I havent freed him) and just got back from horizon where I had a very emotional reunion. Now the Illusive Man gave me more coordinates for more team members. Jacob just told me about his loyalty mission. My question is: What would be the best strategy to get as many missions done before taking the final one? I want for everyone to survive.

As long as you don't do the Reaper IFF mission, you can take all the time you want doing whatever. The order you do the missions is not important at all, not even the loyalty missions as long as they are all completed before doing the Reaper IFF mission.

Once you take that mission, the end game scenario is in play and you are on a timer.

Haha that 'Those Minerals' rap is hilarious. :rofl:

Where might I find that? I've finished the game twice and am currently on my 3rd run. So far I haven't found anything new on the 3rd run, but that would certainly do it.

FYI for anyone: I think Mordin Solus swings both ways. He sure hinted at it very strongly.

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