How to Help All of Your Crew Survive the Final Mission of Mass Effect 2

Last Updated: March 29, 2019

Mass Effect 2's final mission could spell doom for your squad members (and if you're not careful, Shepard). If you take the proper steps, however, you can beat the odds and come away from the suicide mission with all of your squadmates alive. Be forewarned: this article contains spoilers.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Building Squadmate Loyalty

1
Complete all the loyalty missions. Securing the loyalty of your squadmates helps their chances of survival greatly. This is accomplished via the completion of their respective loyalty missions.
2
Be forewarned: some loyalty missions have conditions that will prevent them from becoming loyal if met. They are as follows:
- Zaeed: If you choose to help the refinery workers, and lack the Paragon points to open up the subsequent Charm dialogue option with Zaeed, Vido will escape, and you will not gain Zaeed's loyalty.
- Tali: If you present evidence of Tali's father performing illicit geth experiments to the admirals, his name will be stricken from the ranks of every ship he served on and he will be posthumously exiled. Although Tali will be cleared of her charges of treason, you will not gain her loyalty.
- Thane: If you take too much time keeping Thane apprised to Talid's location, his son Kolyat will assassinate him, and you will not gain Thane's loyalty.
- Samara: If you fail to capture Morinth's attention, or make her lose interest in you while talking to her, she will leave, and you will not gain Samara's loyalty.
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3
Deal with in-fighting. At two points, there will be in-fighting among your squadmates after completing both of their respective loyalty missions: one between Miranda and Jack, and another between Tali and Legion.
- If you have accrued a high enough Paragon/Renegade score, you can open a Charm/Intimidate dialogue option to defuse the conflict while maintaining both squadmates' loyalties.
- If you do not have a high enough Paragon/Renegade score, however, you will be forced to side with one or the other. In this case, you will lose the loyalty of whoever you sided against, although you can gain back their loyalty afterwards by talking to them with a high enough Paragon/Renegade score to unlock the Charm/Intimidate dialogue choice that will get you back in their good graces.
- If you side against Jack in her feud with Miranda, however, your loyalty will be permanently lost.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Preparing for the Final Mission

1
Purchase your ship upgrades. There are three ship upgrades you can purchase for the Normandy through the Research Terminal in Mordin's lab. Purchasing them will ensure your squadmates' survival. Lacking any of them when you pass through the Omega-4 relay will result in the death of one squadmate for each upgrade you lack. They are as follows:
- Heavy Ship Armor: Unlocked and after completing Jacob's loyalty mission. If you do not have it, Jack will die.
- Multicore Shielding: Unlocked after Tali's loyalty mission. Without it, one of your crew members will die.
- Thanix Cannons: Unlocked after Garrus's loyalty mission. Without it, one of your crew members will die.
2
Go to the Omega-4 Relay quickly. After getting the Reaper IFF, you will be able to perform one more mission before the Collectors abduct the Normandy's crew. Afterwards, you will need to act quickly. If you do more than one mission after the crew's abduction, they will die by the time you reach them.
- As such, it's recommended to save the Reaper IFF mission until you have completed everything you wish to complete, then use the short time you have before the Collector's abduction of your crew to complete Legion's loyalty mission.

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Tackling the Collector Base

1
Choose your squadmates' roles wisely for the infiltration. Once you pass through the Omega-4 relay and arrive at the Collector Base, you will be tasked with sending two teams through the base. You will also need to choose an infiltration specialist to work their way through the ventilation ducts to ensure both teams can rendezvous. Ensure that whoever you choose is loyal: if they are not loyal, or you choose anyone except those listed below, the infiltration specialist will die.
- Infiltration Specialist: Legion, Tali, or Kasumi
- Fireteam Leader: Garrus, Miranda, or Jacob
2
Assign roles for moving through the seeker swarm. After the infiltration, you will need to choose a second fireteam leader and a biotic specialist to help you move through the seeker swarm. If you choose an disloyal or unideal biotic specialist, one of the squadmates accompanying you during the next segment will die. If you choose a disloyal or unideal fire-team leader, they will die.
- Biotic Specialist: Samara/Morinth or Jack
- Fireteam Leader: Garrus, Miranda, or Jacob
3
Assign Mordin to help the crew return to the Normandy. Before setting off for the next segment, if you arrived in time to rescue the crew of the Normandy, you will be given the option to send one of your squadmates with them to help them return to the Normandy. Mordin is the most ideal squadmate to help the crew return to the Normandy: his relatively low defense stats makes him susceptible to dying later on.
4
Decide who to leave holding the line. Before heading off for the final battle, you will be given one last opportunity to choose squadmates, while the rest remain behind to hold the line and keep the Collectors busy. It is most ideal to take squadmates with lower defensive stats with you, such as Tali, Kasumi, Mordin, and Jack, since they're more likely to die while holding the line. In contrast, it is best to leave tankier squadmates such as Grunt, Zaeed, and Garrus to hold the line, as this will ensure the survival of everyone else holding the line (so long as they are loyal, of course).

Warnings

If all of your squadmates die, Shepard will also die at the end of the game. Game saves where Shepard dies cannot be imported into Mass Effect 3.

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If you side against Miranda, Jack, or Tali during their feuds, you will not be able to pursue a romantic relationship with them.

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Passing through the Omega-4 relay is the point of no return: once you begin the final mission in the game, you're committed until the end. Complete all preparations before going through it, and save your game beforehand, just in case the mission goes awry.

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