Mass Effect 2 Guide

This page contains a full walkthrough for the main missions of Mass Effect 2.

In an attempt to cut down the length of this page aim will be made to provide hints/tips and links to greater length pages with specifics.

Prologue: Save Joker
The SSV Normandy SR-1 is under attack from an unknown enemy. The ship is taking catastrophic damage and the crew have begun evacuating. A member of the crew, Kaidan Alenko, Ashley Williams or Liara T'Soni, informs you, Commander Shepard, that the ship's pilot, Joker, is reluctant to leave. After you convince Kaidan/Ashley/Liara they must abandon ship and save the crew, you are tasked with convincing Joker to leave.

As you gain control of Shepard, walk through the blazing hallways keeping to either the left or right and up a set of stairs where you will reach an airlock. Opening this door leads you to a damaged Command Deck, now exposed to open space as the roof has completely disintegrated. Walk forwards towards the cockpit, eventually reaching a kinetic airlock where you will find Joker reluctantly giving up against extremely unlikely odds.

A cutscene begins as you carry Joker into an escape pod. Before you can enter the pod, an energy beam separates you, forcing you to eject Joker by himself. Another explosion sends you flying into open space where you soon realizes your suit is quickly losing air. You struggle for a brief moment before losing consciousness.

Prologue: Awakening
(This is your very first mission)

Walk to the locker to obtain a pistol and armor. From this point just listen to Miranda's commands over the radio.

There are a few main differences from Mass Effect that returning players should pay attention to:

1. You do not automatically go into cover, to get into cover, you have to get next to a relevant object and then press [Space] on the PC or (A) on the 360 to get into cover. If you are sprinting towards an object you can take cover behind you will instantly do so when you reach it.

2. Instead of simply climbing on top of low cover, you are now able to simply flip over it if it is small enough with [Space] or(A)

3. Gun fire changed dramatically, instead of instant hit mass drivers, it now fires more like a real life firearm. This means if you are trying to hit a moving target you would need to aim in an arc. Damage calculation isn't done by a strict formula anymore, and much more like a shooter. Instead of weapons that dissipate heat, you have thermal clips, so don't go around spraying.

4. Most interactions are now done with [Space] rather than [E] on the PC but operate the same on the console.

5. The leveling system has be significantly overhauled, resulting in characters having about 4-6 skills to level instead of 15-20. Each skill has 4 levels, with the fourth evolving the skill in one of two ways, usually either strengthening the skill, or causing it to have an area effect, although each is different.

6. The game has done away with weapon skills, making all weapons 100% effective at the start of the game. This has a significant effect on weapons like sniper rifles, which no longer have scope bob.

7. Tech and Biotic powers can now arc over cover to hit their targets, no longer requiring direct line of sight to use them. They can however still miss.

8. Upgrades are now permanent rather than interchangable. However, the process to uprade has been significantly complicated. Rather than simply purchasing upgrades or finding them on corpses, you now must either find the upgrade blueprints on missions, by talking to your teammates, or purchase them in stores. Once you have Mordin on your team, you can go to his research lab and create the upgrades using resources that you find on missions and while scanning planets.

Use through cover command to avoid damage from the explosive and then surmount the cover.

Proceed through the next few rooms where you will encounter a few "light mechs" they will be the easiest targets you will find in this game, it might be a good idea to knock them down and kill them for the Brawler achievement. Needless to say Overload and hacking would make this part a lot easier for you, if you are on a harder difficulty.

There will be recordings by Miranda and Dr. Wilson about their experience reviving Shepard, nothing else of much note.

Eventually you will meet Jacob (Mass Effect 2's "Kaidan Alenko", but a vanguard instead of sentinel), the conversation choices will give you Paragon or Renegade points. This is very important because in Mass Effect 2, your paragon/renegade points determines how well you can persuade or intimidate someone, so be sure to build it up fast so you wouldn't have to backtrack so much later on.

After clearing the room with Jacob and a little bit more dialog, Shepard and Jacob will meet up with Dr. Wilson, after some dialog you will head forth toward the shuttle bay, the combat does not get much harder as now you have a biotic and a engineer mowing down enemies with their abilities.

As you reach the shuttle bay the mission ends.

Freedom's Progress
TODO

Recruit: Miranda
She joins you at the start of the game

Loyalty: Miranda
When Miranda escaped from her father, she also kidnapped from him her baby sister, a "twin" as she called her. Miranda then hid her from him on Illium. Her mission entails going to Illium and helping Miranda to move her sister and family to a new location. When you get there, you find that mercenaries have discovered her and you fight your way through them to meet up with Miranda's old friend, who you find has betrayed Miranda after learning that she had kidnapped her sister. He will tell Miranda that only he knows about her sister, her father has yet to be informed. Miranda will then shoot him although you have a Paragon option to stop her. After a final fight, you will find her sister unharmed and waiting with her family for a transport. Miranda will want to leave, although you have the option of convincing her to talk to her sister and letting her know she exists and loves her.

Recruit: Jacob
He joins you at the start of the game

Loyalty: Jacob
Jacob recieves a message he believes was sent by the Illusive Man that informs him that a distress beacon from Jacob's father's ship has been discovered after 8 years. You quickly leave for the planet and discover the wreckage of the ship and the A.I. After talking with the A.I. and exploring the ship, you come to discover some rather disturbing facts. After the ship had crashed, Jacob's father was promoted to captain as the captain had died during the crash. Shortly after landing on the planet, they discovered that the plant life effected their brains, making them stupid and in the case of the men, violent. You also find out that Jacob's father had forced the crew to eat the plants on the planet, while the officers used the supplies of the ship. Jacobs father also divided up the women among the officers. After fighting your way through the crazed crew and the robots, you find Jacobs father, who is at first relieved to be rescued until he realizes that his rescuer is his son. After berating his father, you have the option of either leaving him stranded on the planet in to deal with the mess he has created as his punishment, or giving him a pistol, which he will use to kill himself after you leave.

Recruit: Archangel
Archangel is Found on Omega. After you acquire information from Aria T'Loak in Afterlife (she is expecting you) about joining a mercenary group, you may sign up to "fight" Archangel. To do this, go into the the private room in Afterlife (this will be directly to your left when you enter the club). You have to apply for a freelance spot to attack Archangel. Once you're done applying, you'll start to walk out, passing a young-looking, gun-wielding man. You will overhear him ask about applying to fight. At that point, an opportunity for a Paragon interrupt appears. If you take it, you'll disable the cheap pistol and walk out of the room (If you do this, you'll later get a private message from the teen at your private terminal on the Normandy, thanking you from stopping him). Exiting the club, there is a small alcove with vehicles that look very much like Citadel Rapid Transport vehicles in it. A Turian wearing Blue Suns armor is standing guard. When you're ready, you may speak with him, and he'll take you to Archangel's base (It is highly suggested that you prepare yourself well for the Archangel mission, as once you get to Archangel's base, there is no returning until the mission ends). You will then be transported into a mercenary encampment, where you can talk to several of the mercenary leaders and gain valuable insight into their operations. As you make your way throught the hallways, check for footlockers containing cash and raw materials. In addition, you will be given the oppertunity to disable to the mech and/or dropship. Do this. It makes the upcomming fight much easier. However shortly after you do this, you will be ordered to begin your assault. Your assault entails you running across an open bridge as Archangel picks off your freelancer compains one by one. After making it across the bridge, you confront Archangel. He removes his helmet and reveals himself to be Garrus.

After a small disscussion over events to occur, the mercenaries begin their assault. Shepard and his team have to defend Garrus and his position from waves of mercs, including a massive battle walker. After a few waves are cut down, the mercenaries begin drilling their way through the sealed passageways below. Shepard takes his team below ground to reach 3 sets of blast doors in order to lock them off for good. After a long firefight, Shepard makes his way back up stairs were the mercs are preparing for their final assault. After defeating a krogan battlemaster, the fighting stops, and Garrus reccomends making a break for it across the bridge. Just as your about to leave, a dropship appears and guns down Garrus. Winning the fight is tough, but with enough engineering and biotic abilites, Shepard will prevail. As you run towards Garrus' lifeless body, he begins to wake up. You return to the normandy where he has a hell of a scar but survives and is ready to fight

Loyalty: Archangel
While on Omega, Garrus was betrayed by a member of his squad named Sidonis and sent on a wild goose chase while mercenaries killed his unit. Later on, Garrus recieves intel that someone on the Citadel named Fade hid Sidonis. Once you arrive that the citadel, you meet with a Volus pretending to be Fade. After a conversation with him, you learn that Fade is actually, C-Sec officer Harkin, from ME1. You then take the rapid-transit to the previously closed off Warehouse District, where you battle through mechs and Blue Sun forces to reach Harkin. After a confrontation with Harkin, he sets up a meeting between Shepard and Sidonis. During the meeting, you can either help Garrus and facilitate Sidonis's assassination, or inform Sidonis and spare his life.

===                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Recruit: The Professor                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               === Mordin can be found in the far end of the quarantined section of Omega. You must first fight through several Blue Suns before you reach his clinic. He will ask you to release the cure for the plague through the ventilation systems, and only then will he join your squad. Adding Dr. Mordin opens up the research laboratory on the second deck of the Normandy that you were previously restricted from entering.

Fight your way through krogan and vorcha to the environmental controls for the district. Along the way, make sure to turn off the beaten path and save Mordin's assistant. Upon arrival, a vorcha reveals that the Collectors are behind the plague. Once there, follow EDI's instructions to place the cure in the console in the center platform. Then go to the east and west fan controls, fighting more Blood Pack vorcha and krogan on the way. After you activate both fans the mission is over and you are back in Mordin's office, ready to return to the Normandy.

Loyalty: The Professor
On Tuchanka, one of Mordin's former STG associates has been "kidnapped" and Mordin asked you to save him. Talk to the "Scout Chief" in the Urdnot Camp. He'll lend you a truck to transport you to where Mordin's student is being held. Fight your way past the kogan and mercs until you find Mordin's old associate, who has not been kidnapped, but is instead working on a genophage cure, riddled with guilt. After the confrontation, return to the Normandy.

Recruit: The Convict
The Convict Aka Jack Subject Zero is found on the prison ship Purgatory Once the player arrives at Purgatory, they meet the Warden, who claims that his job is to keep the galaxy clean from criminals. However, you quickly learn that he is only interested in selling the criminals to line his pocket book and quickly attempts to capture Shepard and sell him to a client. After fighting your way out, Shepard releases Jack, who proceeds to start destroying the Purgatory. Following her, you eventually find the Warden, who has shielded himself with a number of shield generators. After destroying the generators and killing the Warden, Shepard tracks down Jack and convinces her to join him.

Loyalty: The Convict
Jack, being Jack, wants to blow stuff up! Specifically she wants to blow up the old Cerberus base on Pragia (Dakka System/Nubian Expanse) where she grew up. Of course, some mercs have other ideas and they'll try to get in your way. As you fight your way through them, hit all the conversation points and old computers to find out that Jack's the truth about her childhood was a little different than she remembered. Eventually you get to Jack's old cell, where you find Aresh, one of Jack's "classmates". He explains that, as bad as Jack had it, the other kids had it worse. Jack will either kill him or not. Afterwards, walk around Jack's cell and learn more about her experiences.

Recruit: The Assassin
On Illium, go see old shipmate Liara T'Soni, now a full time information broker. Liara will direct you to another asari woman, who will then transport you to a construction site where Thane has an assassination target. It is a good idea to search the tower as there are trapped Salarians who offer Paragon/Renegade interrupts. Throughout the tower, you will encounter Eclipse troops and mechs; Eclipse troops are fond of techs and rocket launchers, preparing for long/mid ranged fights is a good idea. Fight your way to the top of the towers and across the skybridge to find Thane's target. When you get there, a short conversation ensues before Thane drops in and kills everyone. Mission accomplished.

Loyalty: The Assassin
For Thanes loyalty mission he will ask that you help him find his son on the Citadel, who has followed in his fathers footsteps and become a assaisin, and make amends. Travel to the Citadel and choose Thane for your party. Go to the Sergeant in the C-Sec office and select Thanes son option. He will say that his son was spotted talking to Mouse, a street urchin. You can find mouse outside the Darkstar club. Talk to him and he will say that the Sons target is a local anti-human politician. After a very awesome cut-scene you will be placed on catwalks running the length of the route. Follow the politician easily seen by his bright red Krogan bodygaurd and press a every time there is a box to update Thane. After this you will arrive at the politicians apartment as the Son attempts the assaisination. chose the Paragon option to have Thane and his son have a nice long talk. That is the end of Thanes Loyalty mission.

Recruit: The Warlord
The warlord (Dr.Okeer) is found at Korlus in the Imir system.Right after alight the UT-47 Kodiak Drop Shuttle there will be a short cut scene. Head down around the corner and be ready to shot some Blue Sun troopers, enemies count at 3. After that, go on and you will have to talk to the Wounded Merc, after getting information on The Warlord continue down the road. Enemies will be waiting for your on top of the ship deck. 2 on the front port, 2 on the bridge and 2 on the far bridge. Do not forget to get the med-kit! Again continuing down and up the stairs there will be more enemies coming. But now there will be Blue sun Heavy (using the ML-77 Missile Launcher)Total Heavy count at 3.

Continue down, there will be a Tank-Grown Krogan to talk to, before being able to talk to him, there will be 5 more enemies to kill, easy ones. Now there will be a cut scene talking to him, getting more information about The Warlord, after that the tank-grown krogan will move the metal plate blocking the way down. There will also be a Blue Sun corpse to access (+2000 credits). Continue downhill there will 2 enemies running away from Kogan Berserkers, they will pop out very suddenly so be careful. Now, there will be a long fight, more Kogan Berserkers will come after you. There should be a med-kit around, after the fight go on towards the stairs. There will be a loot on Refined Platinum (+2000 Platinum). You will have to bypass the door upstairs. Continue upstairs, now there will be power cells, medical station and an update! (adds more damage to your squads sniper)

Opening the door will make you go into another fight, enemies count at 4 and 1 heavy. Continue down the hallway, there will be enemies waiting for you. After the fight go towards the door, before continuing, to the right side of the door there will be a PDA (+4000 Credits) if you hack it successfully. Going upstairs again there will be another fight. There will be a med-kit to the left side of the door on the table. After the fight, a Blue Sun corpse will be accessible (+2000 Credits). Again there will be another fight, after the fight inside the room there will be power cells and a wall safe (+4000 Credits). Continue down the hallway, do not enter the door yet. There will be a PDA (+4000 Credits) if you go on the hallway. After, this fight there will be a cut scene, you will met with a old friend from Virmire, her name is Rana Thanoptis. Inside the room, there will be a medical station and a Secure Terminal (+4000 Credits), and after the cut scene there will be another cut scene after talking to Dr. Okeer.Before continuing there will be a lad terminal (updates Krogan Vitality by 25%).

Now the fun kicks in, there will be a boss fight, Jedore, and her “army” of krogans and an YMIR Mech. **Important** 3 Headshots should kill Jedore if you are a soldier or a Infiltrator.

Total Credits.

Loyalty: The Warlord
Bring Grunt before the Krogan clan leader in Tuchanka, if you kept Wrex alive in Mass Effect 1, he will be the clan leader. Grunt will be instructed to take a series of tests before a structure called the Keystone. The structure will send out 3 shockwaves, one at a time in varying strength. The first shockwave brings waves of dogs, standard melee units. Second shockwave brings some kind of firebug that explodes when shot. Third wave brings a big worm that shoots acid and burrows to one of three places roughly every 10 seconds. Any cover aside from concrete will break in one hit from the acid blast. To beat this level the player had two options. The first option is to wait out the 3 min. timer, or to kill the boss within the 3 minutes. Killing the worm will trigger a scene involving another clan of Krogan attempting to recruit Grunt. A fight will ensue against a group of 6 or so Krogan. Killing them will result in the end of the mission.

Recruit: The Justicar
TODO

Loyalty: The Justicar
When you get the quest,you have to go to Omega and go check on one of Mornith's latest victims Nef. At the end of loyalty quest, you can choose to kill The Justicar (Samara) and replace her with Morinth. Morinth would be loyal to you when you obtain her and her fourth skill is Dominate, an extremely useful skill for the last mission.

Recruit: Tali
TODO

Loyalty: Tali
When Tali is accused of Treason by the Migrant Fleet, Shepard and team has to travel there to attempt to clear her name. She is put under treason for alegedly sending live Geth parts to Migrant Fleet compromising its security of one of its science ships. Shepard and team has to attempt to take back that ship to clear her name. In the mean time, they find evidence that clears Tali's name, but points to the recklessness of Tali's father and his team, which may have caused the incident. Shepard has the option of turning in the evidence. Depending on how Shepard talks afterwords, Tali is either exonerated or expelled and joins Shepard at the Normandy 2.

Recruit: Legion
During the mission on the derilict Reaper after destroying the power core you can choose whether or not to take Legion with you. If you choose to take Legion with you then when you return there will be a discussion in the briefing room between Miranda and Jacob. Choosing to reactivate Legion will then allow the player to go to the ships AI core and reactivate Legion. Choose to allow him to join during the conversation and he will join.

Loyalty: Legion
After a while, Legion will inform you that geth actually are friendly towards organics and those fighting organics are "heretics" following the Reapers or, as they call them, "The Old Machines". Legion will tell you that the heretics are developing a virus that will turn all geth into followers of the Reapers and asks you to head to an old, heretic-held quarian space station in order to destroy the virus threatening the peaceful geths. You need to fight your way to the central computer core. Once there, Shepard can decide whether to reprogram the virus and use it to free the heretics from Reaper-control or to destroy it and the space station with all heretics on it. If reprogramming is chosen, Legion will inform Shepard that the heretics will return to the geth and their memories incorporated.

Recruit: Veteran (DLC)
Zaeed Massani is found on Omega. After completing your first mission on Freedom’s Progress, the Illusive man will tell you to go to Omega to find Mordin Solu., Zaeed Massani will be found right outside the Docking Area along the passage way. Zaeed Massani will join your squad after you talk to him.

Loyalty: Veteran
You will receive a Mission on Traveling to Zorya. After walking/running thought the forested areas, you will encounter your first enemies, Blue Suns Troopers, pyro, heavy (using the ML-77 Missile launcher) and a Fenris Mech. Using overload on the Pyro will immediately kill him. There will be a Medi-kit around behind cover. After the fight a cut scene come when reaching the bridge. Continuing down to the Gatehouse there will be a crate of Refined Palladium. Again another cut scene will pop up when opening the door. There will be 2 enemies after the cut scene when reaching the cross section, and to the right there will be another crate of Refined Palladium. After, opening the door another cut scene will pop out. The cut scene added 11 Renegade for me.

No more cut scenes from now unil the end. There will be a Salvage(+6000 Credits) to the right side of the room after killing your first 5 enemies, going down the passage way there will be a Research Terminal (gives a updated on your Squad assault rifles’ damage). Going on there will be 9 enemies to kill. Continue on and again there will be a loot on Refined Palladium. Down the hallway there will be a M-451 firestorm(only given by downloading the DLC), which is basically a flamethrower. There will be 2 enemies and a Weapon Locker with power cells right beside.

Now this is where the fun kicks in. Enemies including the YMIR Mech will come after you. After waves of enemies the YMIR Mech will come last. Do not forget the Medi-kit; it is useful! The place where the Blue Sun Troopers spawn, the left and the right have some good stuff for you. (Top Left side doors, Salvage (+6000 Credits). Top Right side doors, Salvage (+6000 Credits)). Continuing on there will be a last cut scene.

Credits earned.

Over the Horizon
TODO

Reaper IFF
After this mission, you should save before moving into the Omega 4 Relay. And complete all loyalty and upgrages if you want all your crews to survive the last mission (someone dying may not have much impact on the rest of this ME2 game though...)

Suicide Mission
There are three stages to this mission. During which you would have to choose some characters to fulfill some other tasks, and picking a wrong character for those tasks will result in someone dying after the first or second session. Obviously, you can't use those dead character in the remaining sessions.

If you have chosen Morinth over Samara in Samara's loyalty quest, the skill Dominate is your best friend in this part because it would allow you to control unshielded collectors - if you haven't noticed by now, enemies always target the closest target. On the other hand, AI Hack would no longer be useful. The following is the combination needed to avoid anyone dying (provided that the conditions for no-one-dying are met)

First Session: You would have to fight some collectors and press forward to press 8 different buttons along a linear path. The last few buttons are timed so you should clear the enemies asap. It is advised to save to a new file before you press the last button - in case you pick the wrong character after the cutscene.
 * a specialist technician is required to crawl in some tube (Legion, don't pick Thane, Jacob, Garrus, or Tali or else they will die. Legion's arguably the best choice here.)
 * a leader is required for the second team (Garrus/Miranda/Jacob, don't pick Thane or he dies)
 * your team - you will be fighting against Collector Drones, Harbingers, and several Collector Assassins

Second Session: your chosen shield person will erect a dome shape shield. It will move slowly and you will move slowly within the shield. The biotic person will stop 3 times on the way when you fight off a wave of enemy during each wave : If you have followed all the necessary steps, no one should have died.
 * someone with biotic power to hold a shield (Samara/Morinth or Jack - Miranda (Thane dies) or Jacob will not work)
 * another person to escort the survivors back to the ship, and you can't use this person for the final session. (Any character should be able to do it)
 * your team - you will be fighting against Drones, Harbinger, Assassins, Husks+Abomination teams and 1 Scion
 * 1) First stop is a wave of Drones and Harbingers - same old stuff...
 * 2) After you start walking after stop 1, there would be Husk+Abomination Teams climb up from ledge. Then Drones, Harbinger and Assassins will appear. Finish them off and move to 3rd.
 * 3) The shield person will stop and there would be a lot Husk+Abominations coming at you, and a Scion as well. Before you talk to the shield person, save your game - this is your last manual save point. After you start walking again, a small group of Husk+Abominations will climb out at you. Give them the boot!

Final Battle (part 1 of 3):
 * The team you pick here will stay with you for the rest of the suicide mission - you will be fighting against Drones, Harbinger, Assassins, Abominations and Scion
 * The rest of the team stays back to hold the line until you're done.

It's the last part of the game thus it makes perfect sense for it to be hard. You can easily run out of ammo so use your skills well. Basically it's like what happened in the Collector ship. Platforms will fly in carrying several enemies on them. The last platform will contain 3 Abominations and 2 Scions on lower difficulty - good luck with it. There will be a console to trigger the next part (you cannot save here, although there are autosave points).

Final Battle (part 2 of 3):

More fly-in platforms. After clearing each platform, the armour covering the 4 tubes of the inactive Human-Reaper will open temporarily and you should destroy them ASAP (if you're lucky, you can destroy 2 each round, but this is incredibly difficult as their armour covers them very quickly after destroying one). Destroying the 4 tubes will trigger the option to destroy the facility (Paragon) or keep the facility for Cerberus (Renegade). Then, the final battle starts.

Final Battle (part 3 of 3):

You start behind a good barricade spot and you can start shooting at the Reaper's eyes (they are small, but there are 3 of them). It has a nasty charge up attack and it would be wise to not expose yourself until it is done. You have damaged the Reaper enough, Collector drones will attack. When the boss' life is below 25%, it will begin dodging around and send more attacks at you (if you are an Infiltrator, your sniper ammo should be your greatest asset at this stage). Keep poking its eyes until it collapses, thus ending the game.

This fight can be ended extremely quickly if you've got good aim and timing. To do this, you'll need the M920 Cain (researched on the Normandy). A successful hit on the Reaper's weak spot (located on its chest) will take a massive chunk out of it, well over 50% of its maximum health. This, combined with sustained assault rifle or heavy pistol fire, will end the battle in under five minutes. Only try this if you have a good aim, however, and dont waste the Cain's ammo before this fight!

The fight can be over within 10 seconds: You'll need the M920 Cain and a max capacity of heavy weapons ammo. With that you have exactly 200% for the Cain, so you just have to hit the weakspot twice and you are done.