How to Save Everyone in Mass Effect 2’s Suicide Mission
Mass Effect 2 continues the epic story of Commander Shepard and the Normandy Crew, this time sending you on a suicide mission to stop The Collectors. As you can imagine, suicide missions means someone most likely won’t be coming back. Basically the entire crew of the Normandy can die in the final mission of Mass Effect 2, including Commander Shepard if you don’t play your cards right. Luckily, it’s also possible to save everyone and make it out without casualties. There are a number of requirement you’ll need to meet to do this, however, and it can be a little complex.
First and foremost there’s a few things you’ll want to do before reaching the suicide mission in Mass Effect 2.
- Loyalty Missions: It’s very important that each of your teammates are loyal to Commander Shepard at the final mission, this’ll ensure their survival. You boost loyalty through certain dialogue options and by getting to know each character. The easiest way to boost loyalty, of course, is by completing each character’s loyalty mission. You’ll need to talk to your party members enough to unlock this option, and then complete the subsequent sidequest for each one. Keep in mind you need to do this before the final mission.
- Ship Upgrades: You’ll want to get a number of ship upgrades throughout the game to help boost your team’s survival. Once you recruit Mordin in the game you can unlock the ability to research ship upgrades. After this you’ll want to talk to the corresponding party member to obtain the research. Jacob for Heavy Ship Armor, Tali for Multicore Shielding, and Garrus for the Thanix Cannon. These are the upgrades you need at the very least, and remember that once again these need to be done before the final mission.
- Weapon & Research Upgrades: These aren’t the largest factor in the final mission, however, equipping your party with the best weapons and research can give you a slight edge. If you have the time do the best research and enhancements you possibly can for your entire party.
The final piece of ensuring everyone’s survival comes with the suicide mission itself in Mass Effect 2, and assigning roles to your party members. The most important thing to keep in mind here is that you’re going to want to use specialists for each job, not a hybrid character. For example, the character that uses a biotic shield to protect the party should be your strongest biotic, either Samara or Jack. Here are the best choices for each position, although it should be noted that all of these characters need to be loyal to Shepard in Mass Effect 2 if chosen for the role.
- Vents – Legion, Tali, or Kasumi
- 1st Squad Leader – Garrus, Miranda, or Jacob
- Shield – Samara or Jack
- 2nd Fire Squad Leader – Garrus, Miranda, or Jacob
- Escort – Mordin is the best choice, although anyone can work
- Final Squad (Pick Two) – Jack, Tali, Kasumi, Miranda, Thane, or Samara
If you have any characters that aren’t loyal there’s still a chance they could die during the final cutscene of Mass Effect 2, and sometimes random combinations of characters just don’t work out either. Having everyone loyal is the best way to reduce chances, however, leaving behind strong characters on the ground team also will boost your chances. Another thing to keep in mind is that higher difficulty levels boost your chances of a team member dying, so reducing the difficulty can help you out here.
Ultimately, surviving the suicide mission in Mass Effect 2 takes preparation and a little experimentation. If you’re having trouble try changing up your squads and choices a little bit, putting different loyal characters in different positions.
