Mass Effect is all about choices; most of them matter, but some of them don't. Shepard's background adds minor story info as well as changes some dialog relating to the commander.

Shepard's pre-service history affects how the NPC's will talk to and about you as well as your psychological profile evaluation. It also affects the Paragon and Renegade points that you start out with. The pre-service history also includes a little side mission exclusive to your choice during the character creation.

• Spacer: Shepard's parents both served with the Alliance while their childhood was spent aboard ships and stations as they dragged you between their postings. You didn't have a very sedentary childhood. You followed your parent's footsteps by enlisting at eighteen.
  
  This choice offers a chance to have a short conversation with your mother. With the other two options, Shepard's parents are dead or otherwise not around.
  
  
• Colonist: You were raised on Mindor, a border farming colony that was raided by batarian slavers that slaughtered most colonists, Shepard lost most of their family and friends. Shepard was saved by an Alliance patrol and then enlisted a few years down the road.
  
  Colonists will be able to meet with a fellow survivor of the Mindor attack after exiting the docking bay elevator.
  
  
• Earthborn: You were an orphan on the streets of the mega-cities that sprawled over Earth, now a cesspool of crime and gangs, Shepard enlists at eighteen to get off that rock.
  
  A member of a gang Shepard had belonged to is asking you to free a member of the ol' gang from a turian in the bar.

• War Hero: Early in your service, you fought overwhelming odds against batarians on Elysium. You risked your own life to save fellow soldiers and drive the batarians back despite things looking pretty crazy, if I'm being honest with you. Your heroism and awesomeness was actually acknowledged and you got some cool medals from the Alliance fleet, earning the Star of Terra. The highest honor, apparently, good for you.
  
  War Heroes start out with bonus Paragon points and have special dialog in the UNC: Espionage Probe assignment.
  
  
• Sole Survivor: During your military service a mission had gone horribly wrong; Trapped in some pretty wicked survival situation, you had to overcome intense physical and mental stresses and torment that would have clapped the cheeks of most people. Surviving what felt like Hell on not-Earth, you were able to survive a thresher maw attack on Akuze.
  
  You begin with a bonus mix of Paragon and Renegade points as well as special dialog for the UNC: Dead Scientists mission.
  
  
• Ruthless: Through your badass military career, you only had one rule. Do it. And by it, I mean getting the job done. You've been called cold, calculating, a bit of a ♥♥♥♥, that guy that won't pay back those ten credits. Your reputation of ruthless efficiency and punching the press makes your fellow soldiers wary of you. But when the varren ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan, the Alliance calls on you first.
  
  You sent three-quarters of your own unit to their doom and murdered surrendering batarians on the planet Torfan. Really war criming the place up. They may have been pirates and slavers, but professionals have standards.

• Adept: Adepts are ultimate biotics, space wizards basically, using the power of the mind and mass effect fields to unleash powerful attacks and fields of manipulation upon their enemies. I'm a fan of biotics because it's really fun to throw spheres of dark energy to make your opponents fly off into nothingness. You get no access to "tech" skills because that would be a lil crazy.
  
  Biotics don't need help from fancy technology. You get access to skills like Throw, Lift, Warp, Singularity unlocks later, Barrier, and Stasis later as well. The basic skills you also get at level 1 are Basic Armor and Pistols specialization. Once you get to a certain level, you gain access to class specialization.
  
  Specialization Classes
  
  
  • Bastion: Bastion will give a boost to your Barrier skill, increasing its barrier health and its duration by 25%. Barrier will also regenerate shields by 40 points per second.
    
    
  • Nemesis: This specialization provides biotics with more impressive power, raw strength. It grants bonus damage to all biotic powers. Warp's AOE is increased by 2 meters and the damage raised by 25% per second. Lift has been enhanced by increasing its AOE by 4 meters.

• Soldier: Soldiers are beefcakes, able to deal with anything the battle can throw at them. They get improved health, widest selection of weapons with the eventual ability to wear heavy armor. This class is great for being in the heat of combat and outlasting opponents with the arsenal available to this class.
  
  These badasses' talents focus on buffing durability and damage, allowing them to specialize into any weapon they want. They are the only class to have access to assault rifles*. Soldiers start with medium armor and are the only class that may upgrade to heavy armor*. One of the few downsides are the fact that they do not have access to biotic or tech abilities, so pick some brainy squaddie to bolster your weaknesses. Or else you'll end up like.. Well I wouldn't want to spoil anything if you haven't played before.
  
  Talents for these basic ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ include; Pistols, Shotguns at pistols level 4, assault rifles, sniper rifles at Assault level 7, combat armor, First Aid, Assault Training, and Fitness at Assault Training level 5. Everyone knows you can't go into the dragon's den without fitness.
  
  Specialization Classes
  
  
  • Commando: This class relies on lethal efficiency and precision strikes rather than brute force to kill the baddies. Their stats get a boost to their damage and efficiency with weapons and improvements to the Immunity, Marksman, and Assassination abilities.
    
    
  • Shock Troopers: These guys are highly trained killing machines, tanky enough to take a tank round and still strong enough to punch the tank back. They have increased health and protection, favoring purely defensive bonuses. You gain the Immunity specialization and an improvement to Adrenaline Burst.

• Engineer: These nerds are tech specialists, able to use their computer science degree to manipulate their environment and even their enemy's weapons, shields, and heal allies. They get all the tech toys but no brain powers, but they got brain power. Right? Yeah. They also get access to First Aid and Medicine talents to boost their personal and/or squad healing potential.
  
  Talents for these bookworms and engine humpers include; Pistols, Basic Armor after Pistols level 6, Decryption, Hacking after Decryption level 7, Electronics, Damping unlocked after Electronics 4, First aid, and Medicine after First Aid level 5.
  
  Specialization Classes
  
  
  • Medic: Medics are best known for de-holeing bullet holes and slapping on a band-aid. They can revive fallen squad members, one of the only way to do it other than putting some points into Spectre Training with Unity. With this class, it's a good idea to have a decent supply of Medi-gel on hand. One of the reasons I loot everything, because then you can just turn it into goop if you don't like the way it looks on you. Medic training allows First Aid to ignore toxic damage which makes the need for the squad to have a very high toxic resistance a fair bit lower.
    
    
  • Operative: These brainiacs use their skills to the maximum, manipulating the environment to give them the best advantage. But not the high ground, you cannot jump in this game. Bonuses include a recharge reduction to all tech attacks and improvements to Overload and Sabotage specifically.

• Vanguard: These freaks of nature are CQC specialists, packed with all the powers and gizmos to push forward and clear the way. These guys are first to the fun, first to the heart of battle. They favor shotguns, getting in the enemies faces with their Tactical Armor to back them up. With a mix of their medium armor and barriers, they are a mobile bastion with one hell of a punch. Biotic and Tech powers allow this soldier to shake things up under the enemies very feet. Though they aren't perfect. While they have a lot of skills under their belt, they are lacking in engineering. Without an engineer, sentinel, or infiltrator backing them up the team's offense might falter.
  
  Talents for these combat biotics include Pistols, Shotguns at Pistols level 6, Assault Training, Tactical Armor at Assault Training level 5, Throw, Lift at Throw level 7, Warp, and Barrier at Warp level 4.
  
  Specialization Classes
  
  
  • Shock Trooper: These guys are highly trained killing machines, tanky enough to take a tank round and still strong enough to punch the tank back. They have increased health and protection, favoring purely defensive bonuses. You gain the Immunity specialization and an improvement to Adrenaline Burst.
    
    
  • Nemesis: This specialization provides biotics with more impressive power, raw strength. It grants bonus damage to all biotic powers. Warp's AOE is increased by 2 meters and the damage raised by 25% per second. Lift has been enhanced by increasing its AOE by 4 meters.

• Sentinel: This class of supporting tech-biotics take the expertise of dark energy and technology bring combined arms to the field. These agents specialize in bypassing security systems and enforcing crowd control, while also able to heal their party. They have access to shield and barrier upgrades to bolster their defenses, though they lack armor talents. They are proficient in pistols but only average with other weapon types. They haven't a Shield Boost ability nor can they sport the heavy armors, leaving them vulnerable to damage that kinetic barriers don't absorb.
  
  The Sentinel class reduces the cooldown time on abilities and grants a boost to pistol accuracy and damage. Shepard is the only Sentinel in the game that has access to the Marksman ability, though they cannot reach advanced or higher levels of said ability. This class can further specialize in the Bastion or Medic specializations.
  
  Specialization Classes
  
  
  • Bastion: Choosing Bastion will give a boost to your Barrier skill, increasing its barrier health and its duration by 25%. Barrier will also regenerate shields by 40 points per second.
    
    
  • Medics: Medics are best known for de-holeing bullet holes and slapping on a band-aid. They can revive fallen squad members, one of the only way to do it other than putting some points into Spectre Training with Unity. With this class, it's a good idea to have a decent supply of Medi-gel on hand. One of the reasons I loot everything, because then you can just turn it into goop if you don't like the way it looks on you. Medic training allows First Aid to ignore toxic damage which makes the need for the squad to have a very high toxic resistance a fair bit lower.

• Infiltrator: The sneaky soldiers are quite the tech savvy tacticians, able to win the fight quickly by disabling and eliminating the baddies with extreme prejudice. They excel in hacking, procuring great gear, and taking advantage of the high ground.
  
  These skilled assassins wield a mix of combat and tech abilities, specializing in pistols and snipers. They begin with light armor but can upgrade to medium gear, taking advantage of advanced omni-tools to increase their lethality. The class also gains a reduction to heat build-up with pistols, sniper rifles, and an increase in proximity mine explosive radius.
  
  Specialization Classes
  
  
  • Commando: The Commando relies on lethal efficiency and precision strikes rather than brute force to kill the baddies. Their stats get a boost to their damage and efficiency with weapons and improvements to the Immunity, Marksman, and Assassination abilities.
    
    
  • Operative: These brainiacs use their skills to the maximum, manipulating the environment to give them the best advantage. But not the high ground, you cannot jump in this game. Bonuses include a recharge reduction to all tech attacks and improvements to Overload and Sabotage specifically.

After choosing your class, you get access to a bonus skill. I think it's because you're such a badass, the military gave you a freebie with your Alliance goodie bag.

At the beginning of the game, you'll start at the cockpit of the Normandy. I recommend getting to know some of the named crew and exhaust their dialog. It's not always necessary with most characters, but some like Wrex and Garrus have side-quests involving exhausting their dialog and getting them on your side. But for now; Pressly, Kaidan, Joker, and Dr. Chakwas are good NPC's to get to know. Another good thing to do is check your "Squad" to spend skill points. I'm personally a "good guy" so I would recommend spending more in Paragon as opposed to Renegade.

After talking with Joker and Kaidan in the cut scene, make your way towards the CIC. At the front of the galaxy map, Navigator Pressly will be talking with Engineer Adams. Pressly is a good guy and I recommend talking with him. Pressly has some generational beef with turians, I personally like to dissuade such thoughts. I think Mass Effect is a rich game, offering you the chance to talk with a crew member and hear of their views and how they joined the Alliance and other background information.

Next you can talk with Corporal Jenkins and Dr. Chakwas and get some tasty lore as well as a couple Morality points. Past them behind the partition wall of the CIC is the Comm Room where Captain Anderson and Agent Nihlus wait to debrief you on your shake-down run. After viewing the message sent from Eden Prime ground forces, you'll prepare for the ground mission to secure the beacon.

Once boots are on the ground, you progress through the corridor like map to find out that Jenkins was allergic to plasma ammunition and failed to alert the military to said allergy. You can say some words, or not, before proceeding to dispense Alliance justice to the flying toasters. You'll meet up with Ashley as she is being chased by geth probes. Like her racism, she can't outrun the flying death machines. Luckily you are there to save her. After exhausting her dialog or just skipping it completely, she will lead you to where she had seen the beacon last.

After inspecting the dig site you'll head up the ramp to discover the remains of the colonists. I mean, the remaining colonists. In one of the hab units, there are a couple of doctors in the far pod, if you can manage to decrypt the security lock. After rescuing or ignoring them, we find that Nihlus has met up with his friend Saren Arterius. After their meeting suddenly concludes and you head over the hill, there is another locked hab pod on your right after the bridge. Though, you should deal with the geth before trying the door. If you got a slick tongue or if your face is scary enough, you can get some free stuff off of the colonist Cole.

After reaching the loading docks you'll inspect Nihlus' body, triggering a conversation with Powell who was Cole's contact. After chatting him up, he'll head off for a nap while you get the trail schedule. After reenacting a little Red Dead Redemption and commandeering the choo-choo express, you'll head to the next platform to find Saren's welcome present. All the bombs are on one side of the map.

• The first one is right after stepping off the tram.
  
  
  
• The second one is located after taking the ramp up and a right toward the rest of the geth.
  
  
  
• The third is just a few feet past the last one on your way to the objective.
  
  
  
• The fourth one is at the end of the corridor sort of thing and past a big crate.
  

After saving Eden Prime, sort of, you fight more husks and geth to get to the beacon. Hopefully Saren hasn't sucked up all that sweet, sweet prothean juice. Once you inspect the beacon, the mission is over, so make sure you get all the items and junk in the area before touching the ancient data dong. After having the worst trip ever, you black out.

We move to Saren on board Sovereign, Lady Benezia debriefing him after his own mission on Eden Prime. She informs him of what you have done on Eden Prime, causing Saren to feel and express his emotions in a fairly healthy way. He issues your death warrant before the scene changes to the med-bay of the Normandy. After Ashley and Chakwas talk with you about your injuries and what happened, Anderson will ask for the room to speak with you. He'll talk about the optics of the mission and the plan to speak with the council.

I always make it my personal mission, my quest from the Flying Spaghetti Monster itself, to exhaust new dialog after each major mission. I will do my best to include when you should do that in this glorious guide. Don't forget to smash that like button and hit subscribe, or hit that dislike button and block me for making that joke.

After exiting the medbay I recommend talking with Ashley and Dr. Chakwas, Kaidan is just glad to see you're ok. Once you're done exploring the ship, there isn't much to do except look for codex entries, talk with Joker to head to the Citadel.

After talking to Joker, he flies the Normandy to the Citadel where we are met with Udina yapping at the Council for "results" at Saren's "treason". After speaking with him and Captain Anderson, leave the Earth Ambassadorial office to the greater Citadel. Take a right from the human office to talk with the volus and Elcor ambassadors to learn about their unique species and cultures.

Don't take on or try to finish too many side missions for now due to the fact you have low cool points. Getting high amounts of Paragon or Renegade points will give you the best results, better rewards, etc. Depends on your play style. You do you, homie. If you're into achievements like I am, I recommend talking to everyone and inspecting everything. Getting that Archivist achievement is tough and is missable late in the game, so keep those peepers peeled.

Talking with Executor Pallin on the other side of the Embassy wing provides some interesting lore, just try not to get lost in those blue eyes of his. After speaking with him, or just ignoring him, you can find a computer terminal behind the partition in his office that will give a side mission involving biotics.


In the same area, different room, there is a bar where you can get more information on The Consort from a loudmouth private. The bartender is also an informant on the cool places around the Citadel, a fun in character way of telling you where to find things on the Citadel. After speaking with the tour guide that doesn't take you anywhere, I recommend heading to the Council Tower to get the story rolling a little and unlock new squad mate possibilities. You can hit up the town car just past the Avina podium, it's only unlocked location is the Council Tower. You'll have to interact with others around the ward in order to unlock more fast travel locations.

After arriving at the tower, the gorgeous Garrus Vakarian will be talking with Executor Pallin at the top of the stairs. Keep him in mind for later. Sort of a Chekhov's Gun situation. And we all know the first rule of Chekhov's Gun; always have a gun. Walking through the beautiful foliage and stone or possible tile or some kind of..smooth space flooring, you make it to the Council chamber where Saren's hearing is taking place. After some mean or spicy words were exchanged, Udina and Anderson talk with you about finding new leads to get dirt on Saren. After Udina invites Anderson back to his office to talk his ear off some more, make your way down the steps and talk to Chorban to pick up the dreaded Keeper Scanning side quest. Don't start it yet, and try not to scan the keepers just yet. I have a map for you nerds to make your lives easier. We'll find them all in one sitting in the future.

Use the fast travel terminal to go to Chora's Den, Garrus was looking into a lead there as well as your own lead with Harken. After surviving an attack ordered by Saren, make your way into the bar to meet with Harken. Before you get to speak with him, you meet the indomitable Urdnot Wrex intimidating a bouncer. After getting the info out of the drunk bastard, Harken, he tells you to go to Dr. Michel's office near the Markets in the Wards. You can use the door behind the fast travel podium to get there. If you had spoken to Chorban's volus assistant Jahleed, you can also meet with Chorban here to progress the story of the quest. I highly recommend helping Chorban with his quest in scanning the keepers, it can have an effect on ME2 & ME3 if you carry your save over. Which, why wouldn't you? What has all of this been for?!

Past the lower markets you can find stairs to the upper markets where you will meet the slightly annoying Conrad Verner. I always handle him delicately because he is a little on the unstable side. And like the keepers, can have some level of effect in ME2 and ME3. After speaking with him and possibly taking your time at Expat's shop, head through the door toward Dr. Michel's office. Emily Wong, a reporter, will ask for an interview. She is looking into corruption and organized crime on the Citadel and would like your help getting into places she's either not allowed to go or places she can't go for her safety. After speaking to Ms. Wong you'll find Dr. Michel's office at the end of this level along with a rapid transit podium.

After entering the doctor's office for your check-up, you find that she's being hustled by a man aptly named "Thug". After helping out the doctor and Garrus, she'll give you the name of the man who hired Thug and his men. After a little bit of exposition, Garrus will ask to join you and your team in the hunt for Saren. The more the merrier. Garrus also tells you that Wrex was hired by the Shadow Broker, an information dealer, to silence Fist for betraying them. Garrus tells you where to find him and then you are free to make your choices there. You can go to the Academy to recruit the krogan or head straight for Fist using the fast travel terminal outside the doctor's office.

After I had recruited Wrex, I went after Fist with him and Garrus following. Don't forget to level them up and slap some new gear on your squaddies. After getting the battle toad on my team, I went straight for Chora's Den with the goal to rescue the quarian, gotta get all of the Citadel squaddies before leaving. Once you reach the Den, Fist has already gotten word that you're coming after him and has prepared for your arrival. You can find warehouse workers huddled in the back room, I let them go since they aren't real guards. After beating up Fist and interrogating him, Wrex will blast his ass to finish the contract with the Shadow Broker. You'll have a limited window where you can save the quarian before she's taken out. Be sure to grab the optical drives in Fist's office for Emily Wong. Now you must leave the Den and go straight for the alley way by the fast travel podium outside Chora's Den.

After rescuing Tali Zorah na Rayya, you take her to the human embassy to expose the evidence she has to Anderson and Udina. After speaking with them, they'll prepare the Council. I suggest bringing Garrus and Tali since they have the most information about Saren of any squad-mate.

After leaving the human office, you will be flagged down by a widower, Samesh Bhatia. He asks for your help in the return of his wife's body after her valiant defense of Eden Prime. Do not attempt to complete the mission until you have a high enough reputation level, Paragon or Renegade. To get the best outcome, you've gotta be charismatic. Or an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, if that's how you want to play it. I won't judge. Much. After speaking with Mr. Bhatia, use the Rapid Transit System to fly to the Citadel Tower to debrief the Council of your latest scandalous findings. Make your way up the stairs and speak with Anderson to proceed.

After being bestowed with awesome and heavy power and a great burden, you are a Spectre. An elite operative for the Council, the galaxy itself. After getting your big promotion, I recommend speaking with Rear Admiral Kahoku to get a side mission before you head out into the galaxy. I still recommend holding off on the keeper scan until we get back to the citadel again, there is no way to track which keepers you've scanned and I have a map for you to use. But this guide segment is enormous so next time we visit the Citadel.

Use the podium to travel to C-Sec and get some new gear if you can afford it, make sure you buy licenses so you can buy stuff while on your ship. Once you're ready, head to the docking by via the lift of C-Sec. There, you'll say your goodbye-for-now's with Udina and Anderson. They give you some leads on where to go next, but I suggest finding Liara to fill your crew roster. Her knowledge and skills will be very important. You can speak with Anderson a little more, then you'll board the Normandy and take your first mission.

After boarding the Normandy, you will give some motivational words to prepare your crew for the upcoming missions, the battles ahead. Be inspirational, you'll get some good guy brownie points for that. After the speech, I had spoken with the crew that have names and other squad-mates. Most if not all NPC's will have something to say after each Major Mission. Pressly is a good guy, help him see that non-humans can bolster Alliance strength. Give the ship a good tour before moving on, collect codex info n' lore n' such.

After opening up the Galactic Map, I suggest starting the side mission UNC: Lost Module. Located in the Attican Beta cluster in the Hurcules system on planet Eletania. I recommend using Steam own Notes to keep track of what systems you've been to, it's a bit tedious to go in and out and in and out of systems to figure out which one you've already visited. I'm a perfectionist, so I've visited every planet and beaten every mission before moving onto the next game.

After landing on Eletania and locating the probe, you'll find that space monkeys or pyjaks have taken the data core. Apparently, gently searching the pyjak without harming them will also give big brownie points. It is also recommended to save game prior to searching the monkey colonies, as they may be killed unintentionally when run over with the Mako. The data module is inside the mine where one of the pyjak colonies are set up, but there is also another colony beyond the mine if you want as many Paragon points as possible. You don't actually have to deal with any of the other monkeys or even examine the probe to progress the assignment if you don't care too much about the morality points. After grabbing the module, you'll be ambushed by geth on your way out.

Once leaving the mine, the last anomaly on the planet requires the reward from the asari consort to complete it. I couldn't include the consort in the previous section due to size, so I'll let you know when I do this side-mission in the future.

Heading to Artimis Tau, we need to find Liara. (In the Knossus system if you don't care about planet scanning.) IN the Macedon system on the planet Sharjila, there is a pirate base that has connections to an asari diplomat on the Citadel named Nassana Dantius.

In the Sparta system, there is a distress beacon on the planet Edolus from Admiral Kahoku's missing squad.

On the mission planet, you'll follow the road to the military check point before veering off to the right to avoid the geth defensive line of fire. All but one of the gatehouses has loot in it, progress past the gate without the geth turrets in front of it and follow the terrain. A geth dropship or corvette, so hard to tell with their unified hull design, will drop some armatures to slow you down. Once you get over the hill and defeat the colossus, you'll head into a tunnel. After exiting it, you'll engage a few more geth before entering another tunnel. This one has a geth patrol inside and at the exit of the tunnel.

You'll approach a block in the path in which you'll have to exit the Mako and proceed on foot. This part gets a little spicy, geth in the valley and along the ridges to set up a kill zone against you. After fighting through the environment, you'll get to the refinery just in time for a trap and geth reinforcements. After stomping the armature, head into the mine to locate Liara.

Once killing the geth guarding the elevator, take the lift down to the lower level of the cavern. Eventually you'll meet with Liara and speak with her before finding a way to free her. Before you can think too hard, you'll be shot at by more geth. After comp stomping those pathetic platforms, you'll read the user manual for the laser drill. Once you figure out the dance dance revolution password and make a new door for yourself, you'll have a fresh path to free Liara. In the back of the mine there are some pick-ups in some lockers.

After taking the lift inside the chamber, you'll get the doctor down from the containment field. You'll get a little dialog scene before the boss fight with the geth. After a badass escape scene, you'll get to the comms room to debrief the squad and ask Liara what she knows about her mother, Saren, and the protheans. After debriefing the council, I recommend talking with your crew since this was a major mission. They should have new dialog. Be sure to talk to Wrex and Garrus especially for their loyalty missions. You just need to talk with them after every primary mission, i think, to progress your friendship with them. After getting your full team, I think it's time to head back to the Citadel for a shopping trip, picking up side quests, and finding all of those damn keepers.

After docking with the Citadel, I was approached by a Rear Admiral for a ship's inspection. I certainly hope your paragon was as high as mine at this point to get all of the paragon or renegade responses.



Above is the map for all of the keepers. Since we are starting in the docking bay, we'll hit keeper number 21. And since we're starting at the bottom of the list, might as well work our way up to number 1, just to stay organized. But first, after getting out of the lift, you'll meet with the more rude reporter Kalisah Al-Jilani. Again, since I'm doing a paragon run, we'll be professional so the Alliance doesn't look bad on the Extranet. Plus, being honest and telling the truth helps the people know what you stand for. And what they will be fighting for in the future.

Keeper 20 is in the Wards Access. You can get there from the Presidium, behind the C-Sec officer talking with the hanar is a stairwell to an elevator that will take you to the Wards Access. There, in the first room on the left is a signal source involved with a quest you get from the tampered machine in the Flux Casino. Ahead, if you're a Spacer, is Zabeleta. He's a vet down on his luck, chip him 20 creds.

Keeper 19 is in the Flux Casino of the Flux Nightclub, so we'll use the fast travel podium outside the Wards Access that we passed earlier. Or, you can use the Upper Markets to get there. If you use the upper markets, Conrad is back to take your picture. He's going to blow it up fifty times and put it in his home for his wife to look at too. She loves you just as much as Conrad does, right? Anyway, after talking with the fans, head towards flux to find the stairs to keeper 20. On your way there, you can hand Emily Wong the Fist OSD's to complete that side quest. Then, get to Flux and go to the bar to talk to Rita and pick up another side quest. In the casino upstairs, #19 is typing away. And next to him is a suspicious console which is the start to another side quest, look at that.

Next #18 is outside the Consort's chamber's on the wards, near a podium too. Plus, you can stop by the consort again and speak with her about that one planet we went to with the big ol' orb. If you don't have the Consort's podium, use the Embassy podium and walk across the bridge towards the Financial District. Talk with Nelyna to get an appointment with the Consort. After collecting two side quests for Chora's Den, we'll head back there to continue the Consort's quest. After Septimus directs you back to the elcor diplomat, fast travel back to the Consort's chamber's to hit up keepers 17-11 on the Presidium, with keeper 13 in the elcor/volus office. Before leaving Chora's Den, Jenna's handler will bump into you to continue the quest.

Keeper 17-11 are all on the Presidium, 17 is out in the open after Consort's Chambers then 16 is on the second floor of the hanar emporium. After leaving Delanynder's Emporium, speak with Helena Blake just outside. She'll inform you of some pirates you can hunt. Real bad guys, honestly. Not too far after Helena, you'll find the Bank managed by Barla Von. Barla Von being the Shadow Broker informant Anderson told you about earlier. Another side quest! But wait, there's more!! Rebekah Petrovsky has yet another side quest for you too! This is more of an ethical question, but I told her that it was her opinion since it's her body and child. Keeper 15 is near the avina console by the Citadel Tower entrance. Then, head to the C-Sec officer talking with the hanar preacher. You can kindly persuade him to obey the society's laws and find a different spot to preach in, or buy it a license to preach. Keeper 14 is near the Wards Access stairwell. Next, head on into the embassies and go to the elcor/volus office for the side quest and keeper 13. Talk to the elcor to finish his quest and progress the Consort's, then you could talk to Udina and Anderson next door. After that, head to the opposite end of the embassies to the bar to find keeper 12 and talk to some patrons for more quests.

In the bar, you can talk with Clerk Boskar for Samesh's quest. Personally, the work I do in ME1 and ME2 outweigh the effect surrendering Serviceman Bhatia's body back to Mr. Bhatia. It's a small price to pay to give someone a proper burial and her husband closure. After that, talk with Azula-, I mean, Nessana. If you killed her sister on that base like I did, you can finish the quest lickity-split. After making a flame-o deal with Nessana for Asari mods, I hit up keeper 12 outside the bar. Before going to complete the Bhatia side quest, take a left into the computer lab and get keeper 11. Then, head out to the main embassies area to talk with Samesh about his wife.

Keeper 10 is at the Med Clinic in the wards, Dr. Michel's office. After leaving her office, take the podium to Chora's Den to get keeper 9. #9 is in the alleyway where you rescued Tali. #8 is back at the upper markets, so take the podium again and it'll be past the salarian and volus stands. We can get to keeper 7 by taking the stairs in the upper markets to C-Sec academy. Then talk to Officer Lang before going to C-Sec academy, he's a pretty cool dude. Take a left out the elevator for Keeper 6 in the traffic control. Before going there, take a right and talk with Jahleed to help him rest easy about not being murdered. After talking with Jahleed, you can talk to Jenna's handler, Chellick. I had enough paragon to convince him to let me take her place and help him instead. Now that Jenna is safe and Rita's sister is not dead. After scanning keeper 7 in the traffic control, head down to the requisitions office to scan #5.

Finally, the last four are all in the citadel tower. I can already taste the end of this damn side quest. It's worth it, trust me. The fourth one is near the top of the stairs on the way to the elevator and near a man named Garoth. He'll have a quest for you to search for his brother in the Traverse. Keeper 3 is in the farthest corner of the tower, a right on the way to the council chambers. On your way, you can talk to Emily Wong again for another side quest back at traffic control. After that, you can break the news to Admiral Kahoku to continue his quest as well. After that, finally head up the stairs and to the right to find keeper 3. Keeper 2 is just behind Kahoku and Keeper 1 is the first keeper that Chorban was scanning.

The Signal Tracking side quest's second location is behind Barla Von in the bank, then the third is in the second floor of Delanynder's Emporium, on the right. It will require you to solve a sort of memory puzzle like with Liara's containment field. I recommend saving.

The krogan Contact for Rita's sister, Jax, is in the lower level of the Wards Markets.

And, congrats. You did it. Kudos if you did it my way and didn't need to back track and find those annoying and sneaky keepers. From here, do or progress any side quest on the Citadel that you choose. I mainly wanted to help with this annoying quest and to try to give a good outline on what to do here.

You can take any of the side missions available to you in any order. Be sure to explore the maps to get your mineral, Turian Insignia, and Matriarch Writings. And while you're exploring the galaxy, you may not know that the asteroids can hide minerals and other secrets. Be sure to wave your wand over the asteroid belts while you're in system for sneakrets. (Sneaky secrets.)

The first thing we should do when we get back to the Normandy, is for Spacers to contact their mother for the Spacer special side quest. Other than that, go after UNC: Rogue VI and complete that mission.

Dr. Michel also needs help from a blackmailer, though you need to come back to her office while she's on a call and convince her to allow you to help. It requires another Paragon persuasion for an outcome without bloodshed.

While exploring the galaxy, do your best to find at least 10 Matriarch's Writings.

There is also the matter of the Missing Marines chain. Once you're a Spectre, you'll talk with Kahoku as previously stated to continue the event chain. You'll be raiding Cerberus outposts in order to clear them out and continue the chain. After completing the raids on the outposts, you may be contacted by a Shadow Broker agent. He talks of a deal between himself and Kahoku about Cerberus data. If you give him the info, you get Renegade points and if you don't you get Paragon points. There isn't any real consequences, other than some dialog options in ME2 and ME3. I'm a goodie this run, so Shadow Broker gets nothing but a middle finger.

Admiral Hackett will contact you at some point to attack various geth bases. The first four are on Maji in the Vamshi system, Casbin in the Hong system, Antibaar in the Tereshkova system, and Rayingri in the Gagarin system. The final base will be on Solcrum in the Grissom system. Once they're done, you'll get some data on the geth which can be given to Tali for some brownie points. Make sure you give her a copy of the geth data.

Once you've spoken to Garrus enough, he'll tell you part of his history and a grudge with a particular doctor. Though he's a doctor in the same sense that The Medic from TF2 is a doctor. Or Cornelius Evazan from Star Wars. You'll find the doctor's ship in the Kepler Verge inside the Herschel system. Obviously, take space boyfriend Garrus with you for his loyalty mission.

When you get to the planet Tuntau, don't forget to bring Wrex with you. Whether or not you have spoken with him enough, taking him planet side to the hidden building will trigger the start of his loyalty mission.

If, by now, you have or haven't gotten to the point where you get to the Newton system, on the planet Ontarom, you'll find an underground base where a trouble Alliance soldier is holding a scientist hostage. I recommend having a decent charm level to help talk down the troubled soldier.

In the Hawking Eta cluster there is another situation involving some biotics and their cult leader, a non-biotic. Hackett will contact you for assistance in dismantling this cult. I recommend bringing Kaidan since he's had his history with his own biotic powers, maybe Liara too. You can smooth talk your way into the compound and talk to Major Kyle directly. You don't really need to bring either specific companion, they add nothing, but this is an RPG, RP a little, yo. This entire mission can be completed without firing a single shot.

I said I'd let you know when I went back to Eletania to use the trinket that the Consort had given me, and here it is. It's a neat reading segment for a sort of out of body experience. After exploring most of the other systems to get the data and side missions completed, we head to Feros.

After landing on Feros, you'll be greeted by David Al Talaqani who will tell you where you need to go before getting blasted by a geth ambush. Push through the geth line towards the colony and talk to Fai Dan. He'll attempt to debrief you on the situation before another attack takes place. You'll fight off the first wave before pushing up the stairs and securing the area in the tower. Once the riff raff is cleared, return to Fai Dan to get a proper handle on the situation.

Make sure you pick up the side missions for food, power, and water. You'll be going into those areas to clear out the geth anyway, it'll save time if you pick up those three side missions. Davin Reynolds will give you a mission to hunt varren, May will ask you to find specific power cells further on in the map, and Macha will ask you to help with the water supply. There is a salarian merchant, Ledra, that has a license that you can purchase to buy Haliat items from the Normandy.

I recommend going into the tunnels first since it's the closest objective, there you will clear the geth and reconnect the water supply. On your way through the tunnels, look to the piping running along the walls of the corridor to connect the water. Past the first corridor, take a left to fight the pack of varren to supply food, and finally check the vehicle on fire for the power cells. Next, head back out and go across the bridge to clear the rest of the geth and destroy their transmitter. Walking back over the bridge, you'll take a right and down another corridor to find the final water valve. Continuing through, you'll find a colonist named Ian. He's struggling with mental issues, though they don't originate from his own mind.. dun dun duuuun! You'll be ambushed by a pair of geth again, and that's it for the tunnels. You'll want to go back to Zhu's Hope, getting attacked by more geth, and complete the three side quests you picked up before going to the skyway.

Once taking the lift, you'll help out a duo of guards and secure yourself a Mako for the mission. Take it out of the garage, take out the geth that just landed, then carry on toward the objective. You'll hear some radio chatter from some ExoGeni scientists hiding out from the geth. You'll want to help them out, hopefully your paragon is high enough to get the best outcome, plus the outcome can have some affect on ME2 and ME3. Getting to the next garage and navigating through the totaled area, you should see the ExoGeni hide-out on the left of the ramp that leads leads towards the main objective. Hop out, talk with them and pick up another side mission or two. Juliana needs you to find her daughter and Gavin needs some data from the ExoGeni headquarters.

Continuing up the ramps, you'll head towards ExoGeni HQ to clear the geth and rescue Lizbeth. Along the way, you might hear some radio chatter about a squad of some sort trying to secure a package before being attacked by the geth. They're in one of the alcoves along the road side, you can take the package from a crate for some free junk. Once making it through the skyway, you'll make it to a garage where you'll need to get out to continue towards the HQ. There is a door you can hack open, but there is just some items to pick up and an armature to kill. The other doorway is protected by a shield so you'll need to jump down a ledge to find Lizbeth. After smacking some varren, you'll continue on toward the HQ.

At the top of the stairs, you'll find a krogan commander trying to interrogate a VI. After impersonating Lizbeth, you'll get some information on this mysterious "Thorian" creature and why Saren sent the geth here. Once you're done speaking with him, head up the stairs and then jump down into the room where the geth are preying and two of the gunship's claws are anchored. Turning around and head through the hallway to continue. Fighting off a few geth here, move through another doorway and up the stairs. You'll eventually find a larger room filled with geth and more anchor claws Moving up the stairs in the room you'll be able to get to the other side of the blocked room. After clearing the geth in the other half of the room, there is a data terminal with information relating to Cerberus as well as the bay controls. After activating it, you'll do a little mini-game to get the PSI high enough to chop the claws. 11, 17, and 5 PSI will be enough to chop the claws.

Make your way through the halls and stairs the ExoGeni group and Zhu's hope. You'll want to talk with the ExoGeni scientists, of course, finishing those side quests. Helping these scientists and the colonists affect results in ME2 and ME3. On your way out, before making a left to find Lizbeth standing by the previously shielded door, you'll find Gavin's terminal and download the data in a room on top of the stairs. Going back to speak to Lizbeth, she'll give some information about what ExoGeni has been doing and more on the Thorian. Getting back to the Mako, you'll go back over the skyway to Zhu's Hope. Once you're close enough to the ExoGeni group, Lizbeth will hop out to aid her mother. Be sure to save before confronting the group. After talking sense into Ethan, you'll want to talk with Juliana to find a less lethal way in subduing infected colonists, super important. Be sure to equip this mod for your grenades, you'll want to only use the grenades on the colonists to subdue them, not kill them. Give Gavin his data and head toward Zhu's Hope.

Once you get to just outside the garage of Zhu's Hope, you'll be met with the plant version of a husk, a Thorian Creeper. These guys can be shot, they aren't colonists. Be sure to save before entering the garage, there are three colonists inside by the lift and 16 colonists that must survive. Save frequently, be cautious. If you run out of grenades in the moment, check for chests and canisters for they'll provide more grenades. Once the colonists are subdued, you'll activate the control panel to lift the ship segment to reveal the stairwell leading under Zhu's Hope and toward the Thorian. You'll get a 'job well done' jingle during a cut scene to tell you that you saved everyone. Unless you didn't, in which case, you're a terrible person.

Make your way down the flight of stairs to meet the psychic plant itself, the Thorian. It'll hack up an asari to talk to you. The Thorian won't listen to reason, so you'll need to prune this plant. The anti-thorian gas will deal heavy damage to the creepers if not kill them completely. You'll climb the surrounding ramps and stairs to eliminate the Thorian's tendrils extending into the walls. It'll continue hacking up asari clones to try to stop you, but.. Y'know. Keep going. Kill the creeps, kill the clones, and kill the thorian nodes. After finally shooting down all the nodes, the beast will fall to its doom. You'll find a pustule on the wall had burst and released the asari that the Thorian was making clones from. She'll freely tell you what had happened, her loyalty now in question because of what Saren had done. Once she has given you the cipher, she'll ask to stay and help the people of Zhu's Hope. In the future, she's a powerful spokesmen for the colony, so it is more than worth letting her stay. Next, Juliana will tell you how thankful she is that you helped convince Ethan Jong, giving the colony as much funds as it needs to rebuild.

Finally, you'll debrief your team on what happened on Feros and send your report to the council. You'll want to stay on their good graces, even if they don't believe everything you have to say during the course of the games. They'll learn to believe.. Soon..

I had chosen to complete the Feros mission before continuing to do more side missions, so long as you don't go to Noveria, the story won't progress.

If you did the Feros mission/following the path I've outlined in this guide, you'll be contacted from the Citadel and take a call in the comm's room. The salarian and asari councilor will inform you of a salarian STG group on the planet Virmier, news of Saren's work on the planet. This is a main story mission, so don't go to it just yet, just finish up the side missions you have currently picked up before moving on to the story. More systems will have become available to venture into and search for other side mission objectives. Follow your heart for the most part, this guide isn't perfect. This is a role-playing game after all. For example, I had info on Garrus' loyalty mission in the previous Side missions segment, but I actually completed it after Feros.

I went into the Horse Head nebula, on the planet Amaranthine, and met Helena Blake. She has her part to play in the future of Mass Effect, so I recommend using your paragon persuasion to have her 'walk away' from this. She'll see reason.

I'm a smidge too lazy to go over every single side mission in the game, some of them are just running around and fetch quests, do your best to explore this rich galaxy. It's a little tedious, sure, but having a perfect game is so satisfying to me, getting the best outcomes possible. Some missions do have some level of effect on ME2 and possibly a positive effect on the ultimate outcome of ME3 as well.

Next; so long as you have a high enough Charm or Intimidate, level four or higher, you should go after the batarians that have hijacked an asteroid. They intend to destroy a human colony, holding hostages on the mining asteroid itself. A potential reward for this mission is one of the best Omni-tool if not the best Omni-tool in the game. Though, it's only the best once you're a higher level, so you might want to grind to get the best out of it. Once landing on the asteroid, there are some sub-areas that you should investigate. There are two survey stations where some soldiers were posted. A survivor will approach you after shutting down the first or second fusion torch and he'll ask you to help locate his soldiers. This mission is on the tougher side and has consequences that can be felt in the other two games. After shutting down the third torch, a batarian commander will approach you for a sort of parlay. Don't fire upon him, please. The parlay can make the situation a little easier with Charn giving Shepard a pass to the main facility. You'll have a hard battle on your hands before you eventually encounter Balak. You'll have a nice chat with him before giving you an ultimatum; save the hostages and let him go, or attack him and let the hostages die. As a goodie and wanting the best outcome, Balak is let go and and the hostages are rescued. You have less than three minutes to disable three bombs around the area. Once they're disabled, the lead engineer will talk with you again and you can ask for his omni-tool and complete his side quest. After that, you'll release the hostages and speak with Kate. With the mission complete, head back to the Normandy.

At this point I went back to the Citadel and buy some stuff as well as check on the side mission with Dr. Michel, completing that before leaving and checking on the Obsessed Fan. It's best for Conrad's safety to just stay home. The good outcome requires enough Paragon, just fyi. As for the doctor, it also requires another Paragon persuasion for an outcome without bloodshed.

At this point, we should be ready with all but three side quests complete and just the main missions. We'll head to Noveria, be sure to bring Liara with you to the planet. There will be some running around on Noveria with a couple side missions, but we'll talk about that in the next segment.

Noveria is a private research planet technically outside the laws of Council space, thus it is privately controlled by a research company to perform potentially dangerous or controversial research. The private security team even threatened to blast you out of the sky and will insist on checking your documentation upon arrival. After talking to the head of security, Maeko Matsuo, they'll try to take your weapons, but Spectre authority has some jurisdiction here thanks to some outreach between the Council and Noveria. A staff member of the administration luckily steps in to confirm your identity, so no crisis breaks out.

After the weapon scanners give you a little heart attack, Gianna Parasini will come to talk with you. She's pretty important around here, so she's a good ally to have. After that conversation, Liara assumes you have questions for her, thinking that you might be questioning her loyalty. Though after reassuring that you trust her, you'll be able to take the lift to the rest of the complex.

Just to the right in a room is a hanar merchant that can buy and sell to you as well as a smuggling mission. It grants renegade points since you'd be doing something illegal. This has no effect on the story what so ever, so you can take it if you wish.

Head up to the second floor via the lift on the far side to talk to some of the bar patrons to get some side gigs and paragon points. Immediately to the left there is a rep from Binary Helix asking you to perform some corporate espionage. If you refuse her, you get good guy points and you'll carry on. Or you can break the law and perform said espionage. Just further ahead is Lorik Qui'in, the manager for the Synthetic Insights office. His office was shut down by the Noveria administrator Anoleis. He offers you his garage pass and a cash reward if you help him out in exposing the admin's dirty work. This is one way to get the garage pass. Some of the guards are corrupt, doing Anoleis' bidding. Helping Lorik helps Giana. Once accepting this mission, head to the second floor in the bar. The security system for the Synthetic Insights office is located in a back room, past the krogan buyer for Opold's smuggling mission. Once the security is disabled, we'll head towards Anoleis' office.

Once leaving the bar's lift and entering the central hub of Port Hanshan, on the far wall to the right, is the admin's office. Speak with Giana for some lore on the companies here if you wish, otherwise, ask her to buzz you into the lizard's office. I'd recommend against narking on Lorik Qui'in since it's Anoleis that is the corrupt one. Anoleis will have info on Saren and Benezia and what they're doing here. Once you're finished speaking with him head up to Synthetic Insight's. The lift to SI's office is in the garage area, just before Lilihierax, the chief mechanic. Once you approach SI's office, you'll have to talk to the guards. You can convince them with your cool guy points that what they're doing is wrong, letting you waltz in without a fight from the two guards. Though there will be more inside. Once you clear office, there are some lockers you can hack, but the main objective is in the office on the second floor. After leaving said office, you'll be stopped by the second in command, the mean one that stopped you at the dock. Once you kill the dirty cop, take the lift down where Giana will meet with you. She'll tell you to head to the bar before giving the info to Lorik.

Once you're in the bar, talk to Giana first and she'll give you the deets on what's going on. She needs Lorik to testify to the executive board about what's been going on with Anoleis. You'll have to use your cool guy points to convince Lorik, but he'll testify and you'll get your garage pass either way. After getting him to agree, meet with Giana once more in the admin's office. You'll swap Lorik's info for a garage pass and you get to watch the corrupt Anoleis being dragged out in cuffs.

Next, we'll head to the garage and progress towards Peak 15. If you speak to Li now, he'll give you kudos for taking out some more corruption. We already know there is a situation thanks to Lilihierax, if you chose to speak with him, so be prepared, Shepard.

Once showing your pass to the guard, she'll let you through and advise some safety during your travels. Once getting into the garage, you'll be ambushed by Benezia's cargo. After blasting the juggernauts and robo-frogs, you'll talk with security chief Maeko to give her the rundown. Continue forward after she leaves, take the Mako parked in the garage.

Forge ahead down the snowy roads of Noveria's surface. By the time you reach the first downed heavy vehicle, Geth forces will launch their attack. After moving through the underpass, an armature will activate to try to stop you. Along the path, there are crates and boxes where you can get some free stuff, just be advised if you need more mods and upgrades. Just follow the linear path, I'd be shocked if you got lost. Eventually, you'll get to the Peak 15 complex where you'll get out of the tank and proceed on foot. There will be a squad of krogan and geth just past the garage door, so take caution. Once taking care of the welcoming party, progress into the facility. You'll take a lift up to the next part of Peak 15. Once taking care of the geth, you'll meet a new..Ancient enemy. Somehow, the rachni have returned. Stomp the bugs like a good starship trooper and use the next lift to proceed. After exiting the lift, clear the infested reactor control room before entering the computer core. You can use some goop juice to repair it or play the spinney mini game. Once repaired you'll speak to Mother. I mean, Mira. She'll give you a status report for what needs to be fixed to get the facility functioning again, at least, partially functioning.

Turn around from where you are to access the roof to get comms online, the landline connection. Then, we'll head to the reactor to manually restart that. The reactor is more defended than the roof, geth and krogan guarding it. Once the reactor is online, head towards the trams to access Rift Station. If your hacking is good enough, you can use the decontamination procedure to burn the "contaminants" in the chamber. Proceed to the tram to get to Rift Station.

Once you're in Rift Station, proceed to the barracks to regroup with the survivors. The captain will give a run-down on what's been happening since Peak 15 went dark and you can ask him some questions before getting interrupted by a rachni attack. Head into the barracks to speak with some of the survivors. The elcor is a merchant in case you need supplies. If you spoke to the salarian doctor that was resting, he'll tell you to talk with the human toxicologist to get a side quest to help his patients. Use your cool guy points to get more info on how to help, you'll get further good guy points from helping. You need to convince the captain to let you into the quarantined labs to get the antidote research for Dr. Cohen. After convincing the captain, we'll take the Quarantine and Barracks lift to speak with the volus. After getting his story, talk to the turian guard to let you into the Quarantine labs. You'll have to play a little mini-game to get the cure mixed in the precise dosage. Once that's done, you'll be attacked by one of Benezia's agents, the moody asari from upstairs. The volus will tell you that a team lead will have the required access to the maintenance area, lucky for us we need to talk to him anyway.

Once you get the maintenance bay access, you'll go around the restricted area to get right to Benezia. Make sure you save after defeated the rachni warrior before the door to Benezia's area. Once you defeat her cadre, you'll have a moment to speak with her and she'll tell you what she can before her control over her own actions falter. She'll attack you, you'll defend yourself and defeat her. She refuses aid because of the indoctrination, she'll never be herself if you were able to save her. Once she has passed, you'll have an unusual conversation with the alien queen in containment. She requests that you kill her voiceless children, to end their suffering. You'll have a choice to commit a final genocide against an extinct race, or to allow her to live and free her. It is ultimately, in my opinion, best to free her. She will be important later, the help of her kin will come to play in the final battle.

Once she is free, you'll head to the tram station and then enter the hot labs to kill the voiceless rachni. Once in the Hot Labs, you'll speak with Yaroslev Tartakovsky to get to know the station before he gets a new hole in his body. Kill the warrior and grab the purge codes before proceeding into the next room to prepare the neutron purge. Speak with Moth-.. Mira and she'll arm the neutron charges. You'll have to run like hell and fight through a massive squad of warriors to escape in time. Get to the lift and the purge will take care of the rachni in the Hot Labs. Once you get to the tram, the mission is complete and you'll debrief your squad then the Council.

Once you assemble your team, you'll be air dropped under enemy radar by the Normandy. There are some crucial decisions that must be made during this mission, be sure to save in case something goes wrong. You'll follow a fairly linear path while avoiding the instant death that awaits just outside the shallows where the Mako can drive, so keep your peepers peeled for that. You'll eventually get to what looks like a dam where some supplies can be looted, weapon mods, etc. After leaving the dam/gate house, you can go left or right, they'll still bring you to the right place, but you'll want to be cautious of multiple geth Colossus defending the area.

The next dam/gate house is where the AA controls are located. You'll fight through the mean machines and battle toads to shut down the enemy's defenses. Next up, a third gate house, believe it or not. This is just to slow you down, so once you get this one open, then move on toward the STG camp at the end of the map.

Once arriving, you'll be greeted by the legendary Captain Kirrahe. He'll give you the run down on the 'sitch before hatching a plan. Get it? Hatching? Anyway. Kirrahe mentions the fact that Saren is researching a cure to the Genophage and Wrex takes interest. This is an important issue for his character and even the future of the krogan people and, in my opinion, a very important conversation to be had. It is imperative that Wrex lives. I hope to flying spaghetti monster that you have enough good guy points. And don't let the racist, Ashley, make the situation worse. Once you're done speaking with Kirrahe, you can get supplies from Rentola. Speak to Wrex and help him calm down. Once you tell him that you're doing this for the right reasons, speak with Kirrahe to move forward with the mission planning. He'll say he needs one of your Alliance squad mates to help coordinate his teams. It doesn't matter who you pick to send, but since I plan on leaving Ashley with the bomb because I'm not big on racists, send Kaidan with Kirrahe. I recommend taking Ashley and Wrex with you the rest of the mission, but you could probably pick anyone you want.

Once your team is picked out, it is imperative to support the STG team by sabotaging the enemies offensives. Dead ahead is the comms tower, take it out and advance. Make sure you check on the map, and hit up every named location to damage the enemy's infrastructure. The satellite uplink is located on the roof of the uplink checkpoint. Next up, hit the refueling platform and take out the flyers and fuel tanks. After clearing the krogan guards from outside the research building, enter the only door and carry on through the catwalk to a console that controls base security. This can doom Kirrahe's teams so I'd advise against shifting attention away from yourself. Be a man/woman, take on the entire base. You're a walking arsenal. (Not sponsored by Armax Arsenal.) Continuing forward, you'll fight indoctrinated salarians, krogan, and geth. After taking care of them, you'll walk across a catwalk where some salarians are being held. Taking the door to the right before the lift, you can rescue some of the commandos. In cell block B, taking the door past the lift, there are some salarian commandos being held. You can free them to get some good guy points, but their indoctrination will take hold and unfortunately they'll attack you. Once you've take care of them, go back to the lift and use it to go down to the labs where you'll fight some husks, scientists, and the lead krogan researcher. Moving through the door in the lower lab, continue on the bridge outside to another part of the facility. Here is Rana Thanoptis, she may seem harmless now, but her work here will send ripples through the galaxy and asari command. She needs to die after you grill her from information. Don't feel too bad, she wasn't a very good person.

After taking the lift, you'll get to a chamber with a beacon. Approach, and commune with it. Once you get the complete message from the beacon, you'll get the chance to speak to Sovereign. He'll issue some doom and gloom, you'll show some back bone, and he'll end the conversation before heading straight for your position. Take the lift out and move through the geth destroyer and progress before running into a krogan squad next. Continue forward and push forward to the turret controls. The geth will send down an elevator for you, along with a squad inside. Clear it and take the lift down to the next floor. Progress through and pass through the jumpy geth and move through the door at the end of the corridor. The Normandy will land and the bomb will be planted. You'll get a call that Kaidan's team is under fire and needs assistance.

Ashley will stay to arm the bomb and you'll pick your squad mates again before heading to assist Kaidan and Kirrahe's men. Take the only unlocked and fight through the krogan and geth squad, taking the elevator towards the roof of the facility. You'll see a drop ship land geth at Ashley's position, Kaidan will want you to save her, but her fate is sealed as a racist. She'll arm the nuke and you'll save Kaidan. I will anyway, you do what you want, it's you're game. But this is my guide, so I'll write it how I want. Press onward to the next elevator to advance toward Kaidan. But Saren interrupts you, wanting to stop you himself. Defend yourself, Commander. He'll try to tell you why he's doing all of this, but it'll only show that he's not in control of himself as he might think. You can try to convince him to come back using your cool guy points, but it won't be enough. Once you defeat him in combat, the Normandy will swoop in to save the day. We'll witness Ashley going down like a hero, in a blaze of glory. Finally, an act from her I can respect. Rest in peace, soldier.

Debrief your team and the council, then when you get to the map, you'll be sent to the Citadel.

After finishing the Virmire mission and returning to the citadel, you will not be able to leave the citadel until you progress towards the end game segment, speaking with Anderson. You will be able to freely pilot the Normandy after progressing, so if you have side missions you still need to do now is the time, just don't progress to Ilos.

After talking with the Citadel Council and Ambassador Udina, the latter will inform you that you're grounded. After pouting on your ship, Anderson will call you and ask for a meet up at Flux. Pick a team and go meet him. This is also where a few side missions will come available, so browse around the Citadel and shop too, this is the last time you'll come back here.

After approaching Flux, there might be two new side quests that pop up. One is an addict that wants you to get him a fix, what he really needs is a reality check, and the other is a salarian that got kicked out for a reason. Talk to em, or don't. I helped the addict see he needs help, because I'm "the good guy".

Anderson will be at a table waiting for you. Once you speak to him, he'll give you one chance to finish up your work and shopping on the Citadel. After accepting this task, it will set things in motion for the beginning of the end.

He'll discuss a plan to free the Normandy with you, and ask what the best course might be. Personally, I told him to go after Undina's computer in his office. (Cathartic.) After finalizing the plan, this might be the point of no return, make sure you're ready.

A fantastic cutscene will play out where Anderson convinces Udina to borrow his terminal. After getting your clearance to leave the Citadel, you'll have free roam to complete the last side missions before heading to Ilos to stop Saren and Sovereign.

After heading to Ilos, you get to watch a cut scene, so sit back and relax. Maybe grab some pop corn.

Pick your team, and prepare to land in a hot zone. Personally, I picked Liara and Garrus due to their ties to the Protheans and Saren. I felt their expertise would be invaluable.

Landing on the planet, you'll have to fight through a contingent of geth to unlock the door Saren went through. The map winds a bit and has pockets, but you start at the "landing zone" move through the "plaza", then towards the "courtyard". After fighting through the froggy geth, get in the elevator and head towards the security room.

After getting out of the elevator, you'll need to get past another squad of geth. If you can hack into the armature consoles, you can activate them for aid in the battle. Once victorious, activate the security console and observe.

After hearing the desperate pleas from the souls of the dead from an ancient message, you'll make your way to the armature bay, then down the hall under the security room. This will bring you back to the Plaza, allowing you to quickly get back to the Mako. Enter, and zoom on in.

Just follow the corridor into the facility until you come across an obvious obstruction, where you will need to get out and enter an elevator. Entering the next chamber, you'll find only a console and what looks to be a Virtual Intelligence. Speak to it. (Obviously, duh.)

Once getting your fill of lore and a copy of the data from Vigil, get back to the Mako ASAP. You're not on a timer yet, but pretend like you are. Once in the mako, follow the winding road, you can most likely ignore most of the geth enemies in your way. They're just trying to slow you down. You're in a tank, what are they gonna do? Throw a collosus at you?

After spotting the relay, you'll watch Sovereign and his fleet of geth launch a surprise attack on the Citadel. You'll have less than a minute to get to the conduit, ignore all hostiles and beeline it for the mini-relay. You're about to make history as the first tank to travel across the galaxy without a ship. See you on the Citadel, Shepard.

Well, you're on the Citadel, and Saren has wasted no time in wrecking up the place. Make your way to the council tower, dealing with husks along the way. Saren must be stopped. Once in the elevator, you'll watch another lovely cutscene where Sovereign don't give a care about nothing in his way.

After the reaper firmly grasping the tower, your elevator jams so you'll have to walk the rest of the way. Saren's forces will be deployed to the tower surface in an attempt to slow you further. But an unstoppable force cannot..be..stopped? Whatever, just kill the baddies.

It's a pretty straight forward fight down a corridor styled map, the only way is forward. Fight through the geth and krogan, you'll get to a point where a geth dropship will deploy additional reinforcements, but luckily there are three defense towers you should be able to bring online to help quell the invaders and annihilate the dropship. By now you can see Sovereigns big, meaty claws grappling the station, touching it weird. You're nearly there.

You'll fight through a few elites units before coming across another open combat zone, watch out for the rocket turrets. Eventually, you'll cross that huge open space before going down another ramp with more hex shields, like the ramp you walked up previously. You're nearly there now, just one more corridor. Prepare for the end. Enter the hatch to confront Saren to stop this madness.

Once inside, head towards the council area at the end of the room where Saren was last seen. After fighting through the last of Saren's guard, you'll head towards the control panel at the end of the chamber. There is a chance that you can help him see the light of what he's done, see how wrong he was about this. Certain actions in the game will also give you additional dialog options to persuade him. But if you can't convince him, prepare for one hell of a fight.

Once Saren is dead, you'll use the control panel to upload Vigil's file to gain control of the station again. Once comms are back up, you'll hear that the Destiny Ascension is under heavy fire with the Citadel council onboard. The Normandy will also contact you for a status update. You'll have a choice to send the Alliance fleet to save the council, or hold back to attack Sovereign. Personally, I save the council because I feel it is the right thing to do. To show the galaxy humanity is ready to put everything on the line to help protect the galaxy and everyone in it.

After the fleet saved the council, you'll need to make sure that Saren is actually dead. Because mostly dead isn't the same as all dead.

After Saren is finally finished, Sovereign will be heavily weakened. Along with the Alliance fleet. The last of humanity's ships will finally destroy the blasted Reaper once and for all. The ageless beast is finally destroyed. But not before it's debris ravages the Council Tower...

Just when you think our heroes might have bit the dust, a rescue team managed to find your crew. Things looked grim, but just when you think hope is lost, your badass self emerges from the fiery wreckage like a gorram hero. Well done, Commander.

If you saved the council, they will give their thanks and will give humanity a rightfully earned place on the Council. Due to Shepard's acts, they ask what you might think. While Udina is a career politician, you've seen his personality and actions through the game. He's a bad pick to represent all of humanity. Anderson, however, knows what must be done and will serve on the council admirably.

After speaking with the council, you'll don some sunglasses as you leave with a badass line. Anderson gives an inspirational speech to the council, and your journey has come to an end in this beautiful game.

I'd like to say thank you for reading my guide. It has been months in the making, trying to get through some of the more slog-ish parts of the game and to try to make things easy to follow and entertaining. If you choose to follow my path in getting the best/most positive/paragon ending, I hope you have been enjoying the choices we've made together.

If there is anything that isn't clear enough or should have more detail or information, please let me know and I will see if I can add it in the guide or expand on certain subjects.

Thank you, one and all, once again for using my guide.

And in the immortal words of Shepard, "I should go."