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.

Cerberus Med Labs
(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.

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.

=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 personal 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).

Recruit
This is probably the easyest recruit after the two at the start.

once you have downloaded him from the cerberous network head to the omega 4 station and he is at the end of the first corridor.