I couldn’t agree even more, when I first did this I had no idea about this information. Everyone died on me 🤣 did the story again I think I had 3 or 4 survivors.
@@joshhaney9769 Wow…Was he loyal? That’s odd. That’s definitely a change from back in the day. I feel bad for you. I always chose him, and I never lost anybody. :-(
During my first ever play through of the ME trilogy Garrus was the one who was carried away by the swarm and I had to pause the game and take a lap of the house. I was so mad that my favorite character went out like that
@@legoferrari14 I figured it out. Everyone recommends Jack as the biotic but when I picked her I forgot that she was unloyal because I picked Miranda’s side in that argument. Still dumb though because I can’t figure out how to reverse that even when I already had 85% paragon
I Chose Tali as my tech expert but she just died in the first step of the mission. In ME3 I finally got Rannoch back for her race so she would be happy.
@@eagleye2893 yeah, I was doing another playthrough and I chose tali for my specialist and zaeed as the leader for the first squad. I just watched this video and realized that zaeed wasn't supposed to be the squad leader. Now I have to start all over from my last load.😢
I remember my first ME2 playthrough, when I had no idea about the reaper IFF. I still completed all loyalty missions afterwards, most of my crew died. Tali, Mordin and Legion died. And I thought I had done so well during the entire playthrough. Newcomers for Legendary Edition, I envy you.
I played through and got everyone out alive. I was so proud of myself. Then my 2nd playthrough Tali ended up getting domed and I was like "And this is where it ends because a life without my geeky quarian bae is no life worth living."
My proudest achivement is saving everyone on the first time without any guide or tip, I just used logic (an engineer for the ventilation, a leader with experience in battle (garrus twice too), the doctor to go with the crew, and jacob and thane for final because they seemed like the least effective people in a bunker down situation, and besides miranda everyone were loyal)
Very proud that got it all correct first playthrough back in the day, and I've only ever lost members in later playhthroughs due to dis-loyalty via those damn arguments.
u can also get the paragon speech check by having significantly higher ratio of paragon points over renengade or little to no renegade points. similar to zaeed's parogon speech check in his loyalty mission where if u do it early there is a high chance to get it because at that point in the game there are very little satisfying renegade moments for you to choose. but if u made a couple of renegade choices your paragon score must be way higher to win his loyalty with the speech check
@@AnsweredElk113 You need nearly a full bar in order to retain their loyalty. You should get that realatibly simple as long as you don’t over do the renegade options.
Always thought it was weird that every time a character volunteers for a role, they are incapable and will get someone killed. 1 red herring, in character, would be fine, but without fail if you listen to volunteers they will get shot
I accidentally wandered into a full team survive on my first playthrough, and haven't duplicated it since. I think I'll actually use this guide when I play Legendary Edition. Thanks!
Do all loyalty missions and build paragon renegade points so you can resolve differences. Upgrade the ship. Always take the weakest members with you as squad mates. That's it.
I’ve always liked the hold the line calculation because it’s the only definitive way the game tells you which races are stronger than others. Krogans and Turians are the toughest, quarians and Salarians are the weakest, and humans can range anywhere depending on what character class they are
I think it also reflects the characters own physique and approach. Like, Jack tore up a space station bare-handed, but is so reckless that despite the damage she can do she's only ranked 1 point if loyal, since she's prone to just not taking cover.
Turians aren't actualy much tougher than Humans. It's their Military training that makes them excellent at defending positions. In the game there's even a saying "You will only see the back of a Turian once he's dead."
I remember getting a legit full survival on my first playthrough all those years ago. Mostly because I tended to overthink things and ah, well it came in handy! My stress level was through the roof upon making every decision but the relief at the end with everyone still being alive was worth it!
I just started the series and I do NOT care about spoilers I NEED to make sure everyone lives til the end because then I'll feel bad and won't have any fun, which why I'm here!!! So thank you! I saved this video so I can come back to it as a reference for when I get to the end ME2
The hold the line calculator explains why i've never lost a crewmate, as I always make sure they are loyal, Mordin can help the survivors and since the final boss has armor and health and miranda has bonus dialogue, i usually take her and thane because of sniper and biotics
Your channel is SOOOOO helpful. I can’t imagine the effort getting all these different outcomes for so many characters, missions, conversations, footage, etc. so well put together! Thanks for all your hard work, sir.
I don't know if anyone mentioned this, but Miranda can't die until the very end of the mission (because she has dialogue in every cutscene.) If she's picked as one of the squadmates for the barrier section and it fails, the other squadmate will always die instead of her and she'll always survive if she's the second fire team leader. The only times she can die is if she's not loyal and is on your team during the Human-Reaper fight and if she's left behind as part of the ground team.
Bro I didn’t even know this till I just finished the play through I didn’t even know Miranda died it didn’t even say anything lol she was literally the only one that died and the paragon speech check was too damn high since not legendary
Great video, I would add a couple of things to this. The ship's main weapon, armor, and shielding are important, but you really do need the mandatory weapon and armor upgrades as well. They are additional upgrades that unlock after you get 2/5 and 3/5 of a specific damage or protection upgrade, I got Tali killed because I did not research one of the two mandatory tech ability upgrades. When choosing team leads, your looking for tacticians in the squad. Garrus, Jacob, and Miranda fit that description. Some say Zaeed can do it. I thought so too since Zaeed is also a tactician, but his leadership style shows that he doesn't care about casualties on his side as long as the objective is met. I chose him at the beginning and lost my tech specialist as a result. Thankfully I saved right before I hit the omega 4 relay. Your tech specialist needs to be a hacker and your biotic specialist needs to be a powerful biotic.
Many also commented before that if you listened to his stories carefully, whenever there were 'teams' involved, it almost always ended with him being the sole survivor & everyone else doomed. that pretty much showed that the guy treated his subordinates as only tools & cannon fodder, thus dooming their survivability.
I just finished ME2 for the first time ever. Played ME1 so many times, but it was yours and others’ videos that finally convinced me to play ME2. And I had this video on standby as I did the final mission. Everyone survived 😸. You’re like the Garrus of RU-vid. Thank you so much!
Thanks to this guide I was able to save my entire crew on my first ME2 playthrough (I never played the original ME2 before Legendary came out). I promptly went back and reloaded a save before the SM and sent Jacob through the vent and exported that save into ME3.
You know there were suppose to be several other confrontations after you completed their loyalty missions Grunt vs Mordin (Krogan vs Salarian) Garrus vs Samara (Vigilantism vs Code) and Thane vs Jacob (Strongly hinted at when Thane comes on board) But they never carried it out (There is a audio recording of Mordin and Grunt having a fight).
That was because none of them were as antagonistic or volatile as Jack & Tali. Grunt didn't like salarians, just like most of his kind, but both of them stayed cooped in their own corners & hardly interacted with any of the crew, let alone with each other, keeping their heads buried in whatever they were doing. Garrus didn't like Samara's strict adherence to a damn strict code, but he tolerated her due to at least admiring her adherence to principles, which was something he could relate to, & Samara simply saw little point to talking to anyone, let alone actually picking fights. Jacob didn't like the idea of having an assassin on board, but he was sensible enough to know not to start a fight with Thane, while Thane simply wanted to be left alone in silence, if he couldn't fit in with the rest well enough.
None of those make sense. Especially Grunt vs Mordin. Mordin deeply regrets what he did. That's why he exiled himself to small clinic for the poor. Both Garrus and Samara are vigilantes who operate by a personal code that does not jive with the laws of the government. (See for example that Samara was ready to kill the police officer who was just doing her job). Thane and Jacob have no beef with each other at all. Jacob is a member of a known terrorist organization while Thane is a professional hit man. But Jack and Miranda had bad blood because of their positions and history. Jack's life was ruined by Cerberus whereas Miranda is a head researcher for Cerberus who engaged in the very type of immoral unethical and illegal experiments that Jack was part of.
Quick sanity check. That is after the crew is captured, correct? If so, I may have just found my fifth ME2 "Must Do" Renegade options as Paragon Shep. And lets be honest here, I should be getting BOTH Paragon and Renegade points for head butting that Krogan. I *AM* respecting their culture, after all. 😼
I don't know how but on my first ever playthrough of the series I was able to keep everyone alive, never lose loyalty, and bring peace to the geth and quarians, and have every ending available, let us hope I will be so blessed on my new playthrough
Getting everyone through alive on my first try, during my first playthrough of ME2 was the best feeling in the world. I'm glad that they didn't make it too difficult to do.
Thank you so much for this video, it saved me experiencing the same thing that happened to me on my first try of suicide mission. Now on my legendary edition playthrough I got it all right thanks to you, so again thank you so much
This mission was an absolute masterpiece in writing and nothing ever will match that feeling I had when I first played it and I couldn't figure out how to save everyone. Then that feeling I had when everyone survived
I think from a role playing perspective it makes the most sense to send Mordin back with the Normandy crew. Sheppard is sending back the best medic to tend to the crew that was kidnapped by hostile aliens. The sick bay will need all the help it can get.
Last night I did the suicide mission and to ensure that everyone would survive I watched your original how to save everyone video and it worked I got the good ending
@@shadenox8164 ikr. I picked miranda on my first run through and was pissed at myself for picking her instead of samara, the actual fucking biotic. Legion died because of her, which sucks but i would have been furious if someone like garrus died because of her inability to put up a damn shield.
First time I tried I lost two. Legion hit me and I rage started completely again, didn't regret though finished it in 3 days by telling school to suck it
I have been following your videos for a while, and I´m glad to see someone so passionate about Mass Effect that you have took your time to make every one of your videos covering so much content and guides. You´re truly a Shepard, and one I would be glad to be loyal in any suicide mission. Keep up the good work Big Dan You better be making videos when Mass Effect 4 (Andromeda doesn´t count lol) gets made someday, because I will enjoy them
"Look at you... Both of you! This is what exactly the Reapers want! Tali... Of course the Geth worried about your people... You wanted to destroy them!"
You can do EXACTLY two missions after the Reaper IFF if you want the best result for the Normandy Crew. Meaning you can do Legion, then take him along to Tali's Loyalty Mission for some unique dialogue.
This is how you save everyone 1. Do ALL the loyalty missions 2. Do ship upgrades- namely ship armor, shield and Thanix cannon. Each one you omit will cost you a team mate 3. Do any other missions you want to do (save Arrival for later) 4. Now do the Reaper IFF mission and activate Legion 5. Do Legion's loyalty mission. Note- you have an option on what do do with the heretics. I STRONGLY recommend "kill the heretics" It doesn't matter in ME2 but in ME3 if you chose "Rewrite" (or if you don't import a ME2 save) you will likely get a situation in ME3 where you will have two VERY BAD options Now the Collectors will attack and they will take the crew and you have Joker's mission Go to the Collector base. Now when team mates are assigned a role they MUST be loyal Take people on your team that have skills that work with yours First phase Tech specialist Tali Legion (or maybe Kasumi) 2nd team lead -- Garrus MIranda or Jacob Second Phase Biotic Shield Samara/Morinth or Jack 2nd team lead : Garrus Miranda or Jacob Escort -- Mordin is ideal but really anyone loyal Final Phase: Leave strong defenders to hold the line -- like Garrus Grunt and Zaheed
I love these videos thank you so much! I played mass effect years ago but this time playing the legendary edition and always wanted to try keep everyone alive! 😊
I've only had a problem with the suicide mission the very first time I did it. After that, I researched how to protect my crew and reverted to an earlier save. I needed to know whether or not anything major had been changed in Legendary edition, so I'm glad you did this video. It is also possible, if you do everything else first and recruit Tali as soon as you get her but put off her loyalty mission until second to last, to take Legion on Tali's mission and Tali on Legion's. And I have some in character reasoning for doing this. Shepard knows the reapers are coming, and instinctively senses that diversity will be the Reapers' strength. A plan has been forming in her mind since they first got the SR2 to try and get as many races on board as possible. But there are three fracture points where her idea could crumble, the Genophage, the fight over Rannoch, and the Batarian/human rivalry. In order to save as many lives as possible she needs the Geth on board, and is luckily given a representative to help her make her case to the rest of his kind. Tali's trial makes the perfect opportunity to feel out how the Admirals would react to an attempt at reconciliation. Further, she suspects that the Admirals may be using Tali as a scapegoat to solidify their own power. Tali does have a lot of leadership potential if she can become confident in the role, potential she can't utilize if she's in exile. And her father being vilified will simply give the Geth sympathizing wing of the Quarians more power allowing them to pull away from the others when the going gets dangerous and make an enemy of Gerrel, whom he's going to need as a combat capable command officer when the Reapers show up. Therefore he cannot allow the truth to be outed at the trial. If the admirals find out later and classify what happened, that's different. They can take care of the matter in private without worsening the divide amongst their people over the Geth. In legion's case, she can set Tali up as the quarian he trusts if Tali doesn't pull shenanigans on the mission and stays objective. Tali can gather intel to further cement her loyalty with the fleet along the way.
Fun Fact: Before the IFF mission before “crew” members get abducted by collectors on normandy, when speaking to EDI about Cerberus she’ll continuously say, she has a “block” from answering your question. After the crew is abducted by collectors when you speak to EDI again about Cerberus (dialogue options from this point can be missable), she’ll start giving you answers & every information that you didn’t know about Cerberus.
First and foremost, I would like to thank you for making this updated guide. I played through the original Mass Effect trilogy as the games released for the 7th generation (twice). It has been quite a few years since I have played Mass Effect and it's nice to have a guide to check my progress with for the best results. My fiancee is a die hard gamer that's new to the series and is also enjoying your coverage of said trilogy. Addendum- The Mass Effect trilogy is one of my all time favorite series that exists today. I'm in absolute awe that I am getting a chance to play this trilogy again and on modern hardware. We have played the Mass Effect Legendary Edition side-by-side every single night after work since it dropped this past Friday. I'm playing the Mass Effect Legendary Edition on the Series X and she is on our PS5 *physical. I'm absolutely floored by how great the original game looks and can't wait to see the second in short order.
@@TrippleBPlays my first time I didn’t know anything and I skipped all ship upgrades and failed half the loyalty missions. Lost Kasumi, Thane, and Jack before we even landed. Lost Legion to a rocket and said nope, reloaded and lost Tali instead, then lost Jacob to the swarms. My second time I saved everyone and was amazed by the difference in 3 when everyone’s alive.
My crew survived on dumb luck and intuition the first time I played. This time around I’ll compare what I would’ve done to this guide to see if anything changed. Nice 👍🏾
A belated thank-you, very helpful. On a side not, controlling Joker is not, strictly speaking, the only instance in which the player slips into another skin. During the Dr. Kenson storyline ("Arrival"), Shepard briefly controls several mechs, which are then under player control. Just a nice little detail.
I'm so glad everyone survive on my 1st playthrough and yeah it was hard deciding who should be in that position. Good thing I finish all of their loyalty missions and also learn all of their skills and stories.
My first time doing this I choose Miranda for the bubble as she was always putting herself over so this felt like a good time to put up or shut up, I took Jack with me as I felt the Shockwave skill would work well in the tunnel to clear out and if Miranda failed maybe they would have an interrupt for Jack to take over...... I ended up losing Jack, however my first thought wasn't that Miranda couldn't do the tunnel field, my first thought was did she do that on purpose to get rid of Jack?
I think the only thing you forgot to mention is that during the long walk, loyalty isn't enough to keep Jack alive. You also need to buy a certain upgrade on the Normandy I believe in order to ensure she survives if you pick her. Aside from that, this guide is wonderful. Give it a chef's kiss.
Are you thinking of her special research project, the experimental bio-amp? If so then no, that's not required, only her loyalty is. Of course, I believe Jack is normally the first one to go if you didn't upgrade the Normandy, because she's first in line to die if you haven't upgraded your armour.
Yes, the bio amp is required. If not, I believe Samara is the only one that can get you through the seeker swarm without dying but only if she is loyal.
Pretty sure this is incorrect. After completing ME1 I was gonna attempt to get everyone through the Suicide mission with as few possible loyal members, so I think I'll take that opportunity to test Jack without the research.
My first playthrough of mass effect 2 Thane was my sole casualty because I chose him as the tech specialist for the first part, my second playthrough all squad members survived (enough to satisfy the achievement) and my third and every subsequent playthrough I figured out the strategy with the reaper IFF and Legions loyalty mission and everybody survived.
I read an article about how the suicide mission is time sensitive but they weren't clear on what they meant by time sensitive. You have no idea how grateful i am to you and this video!
Ahh, but keeping everyone alive is as easy as being a completionist, making common sense decisions, and making moderately insightful decisions regarding special roles during the suicide mission. What you really need to make is a guide on how to kill as much of your crew as possible. That's much harder to pull off.
This. Buy all upgrades and gain the loyalty and the mission itself is like 2+2=4. "Whom I assign as a squad leader? Ooh, it's so complicated. Maybe the literal squad leader trained in advanced field tactics like Garrus idk? Who's gonna be our tech expert? Wow, maybe one of those two tech experts whom I coincidentally have in my crew?". The only non-obvious part of the suicide mission is rescuing Normandy's crew.
Yeah, I remember all the wailing and gnashing of teeth when the game first dropped! From what I remember, most people that screwed it up didn’t listen carefully to the dialog and chose the wrong companions for the various roles.
It's still a tense situation because anyone could die at any point, which is why I consider it one of the best missions in RPG history. I did lose Mordin my first playthrough in the vents, but it was pretty easy to see how to fix that (I knew Tali would be the better choice, but I was thinking with the wrong head). I think it could have been frustrating if you lost people in the Hold the Line part though -- if you didn't have Zaeed's DLC, he contributes a lot to the hold-the-line score, and you might have decided to send someone like Garrus back to escort the crew. It's not immediately clear how to fix things because Mordin and Tali might die.
@@Empiro3 Yeah, i completed all loyalty missions, ship upgrades etc, really you only have to have 2 neurons to figure out how to not get your squad killed, except for hold the line as it isn't really clear. Only reason i survived hold the line i think is because i sent Tali back with the crew because she was my romance and i really didn't want her getting killed
Recently completed Mass Effect 2 on Legendary Edition for the first time, and I can confirm that most if not all speech checks are easier. Went into it without looking up a guide or anyting. I had completed literally all of the game's missions and assignments before doing the Reaper IFF mission, and neglected to wake up Legion before the Collectors boarded the Normandy, forcing me to do his loyalty mission before heading to the Omega 4 relay. I also foolishly chose Zaeed as the second squad leader in Phase 2. So other than him and half of the non-combat Normandy crew, everyone survived. Edit: Just finished my second playthrough, zero casualties! Your video really helped! Thanks
I managed to save every member my first playthrough through sheer luck! I had full paragon, every loyalty, and every ship upgrade but, using the correct allies for each segment was just logic and luck
No he can't....his loyalty doesn't matter because he's specifically a terrible leader who constantly got his people killed in the past. If you select him as a leader someone WILL die regardless of whether he's loyal or not.
@@DarthTrethon yup this was my only mistake in my paragon vanguard playthrough last week zeead ended up dieing I was pissed right off just double pick garrus kasumi in vents and samara on barrier. Also full hold the line was achieved by taking mordin and thane into final fight its was fun to do to
I do hope the legendary edition does well and BioWare adds the multiplayer back in as dlc. I think that would be awesome. I really liked playing mass effect 3s multiplayer. Before that I rarely ever played multiplayer cause it was usually pvp. I never thought I would play it as much as I did. This video is great.
If they do, then I really hope they change the random procurement system, because that was easily the worst part in an otherwise excellent multiplayer mode.
Have always enjoyed watching your vids whenever they popped up on my recommendations. Also question: Do you plan to do a "The Perfect Run" video for the Legendary Edition where you do everything "right" for the most part across all 3 games?
Apologies if this has already been mentioned... Dan, you state that when the Collectors board the Normandy and you control Joker, this is the only time in the trilogy you directly control someone other than Sheppard. While technically you are still Sheppard, you control a mech in the Arrival DLC
did my first playthrough years ago, no guide, just some advice that the terminal to get the upgrades was beside Mordin. no deaths, full crew, shiney achievement. I really liked how the choices were sensible if you had been paying attention
When i got to jack and miranda's confrontation i chosed Jack, and by the end of the game with 100% paragon and like 25% renegade i could not get the paragon conversation with Miranda. Because of this Tali and Mordin died... Be careful just saying 😅
There are a couple of upgrades that are upgrades for the squadmates that I believe increase the chances on the suicide mission for that specific characters like Mordin's omni tool and Mirand's implant, I believe the implant even allows Miranda to be strong enough to hold the biotic shield. Also, respect for Garrus, I also select him as a leader in every playtrough
I'm fairly certain those have strictly gameplay effects- nothing effecting the suicide mission. Also, I doubt a better implant would really put Miranda at the same level as Jack, who is introduced tearing up a space station bare-handed.
This video was informative, interesting and detailed. You spoke in a clear and concise manner and your voice wasn’t annoying to listen to. You sir have my subs, dubs, and I look forward to more
I've been reading online that once you activate legion you can bring legion on tali's loyalty mission and then do legions loyalty mission and still save the entire crew. I know you are still guaranteed to save everyone if once you activite legion, do legion's loyalty then go through the relay but some people are saying you can also do tali's loyalty as well and still save the entire crew before going through the relay. Is this true? I want to save as many of my crew as I possibly can but I also want tali and legion's loyal before I go but I also want legion to come with me to do tali's loyalty as well. Essentially I want to get the reaper iff, do tali's loyalty, do legions loyalty, then head through the relay.
I heard you can do 2 missions before the Reaper IFF triggers and Collectors arrive. So i recommend waking up Legion right away after IFF, then doing either his or Tali's Loyalty mission. After those 2 it should trigger. I recommend saving before doing any of that just in case. Ps. DO NOT go anywhere else than those 2 missions or you cant do both.
@@boksutinjt507 thank u I just started testing this out, i was also seeing that it's the ftl traveling after iff is what triggers collectors, it seems to be working out but now I have a problem with accidentally romancing jack which alot of people have this problem as well but I think I'm good now. Did tali's loyalty but found the "I wanna talk about us" line so I loaded a save before talking with her and doing tali's loyalty again.
Currently running through the legendary edition (finally) bringing back great memories man! Love your channel since I found it, love everything mass effect! Can’t wait for the new one!
