Mass Effect 1: the decisions that carry through the trilogy

Mass Effect 1: the decisions that carry through the trilogy Mass Effect is one of my top three game series, and a big part of that is being able to make a decision in the first game and still be dealing with it in the third. I used to plan those choices across the whole trilogy. So this is the decision guide: what you're choosing, what it changes right now, and what comes back later. Full trilogy spoilers below. This follows the first game's main decision points, with the smaller choices that are worth keeping track of. It isn't a room-by-room walkthrough. **Before leaving the Citadel: make sure you're carrying the right story forward** Use an actual completed-save import when you move into ME2, then import that Shepard into ME3. Genesis lets you choose selected big events, but it doesn't recreate all the side assignments you've done. A fresh character can therefore have a very different history even if the obvious headline choices look similar. Check the import summary before committing. [Save transfer details](https://t.co/jvT9N4osMY). In ME1, put talent points into Charm or Intimidate as those ranks unlock. Being generally nice or ruthless doesn't replace buying the conversation skill. If a major answer is greyed out, the opportunity may already be gone for that conversation. Keep separate saves before Feros, Noveria, Virmire and the final Citadel return. Recruit both Garrus and Wrex rather than leaving one behind. Talk to your crew between main missions. A conversation can open a personal assignment long before the choice it helps with. Get Liara early if you want the most time for her conversations and romance; delaying her changes her rescue dialogue and leaves less time with her. [Recruitment and carried decisions](https://t.co/6yyTVFPCLM). **Feros: saving people and saving the colony are connected** At Zhu's Hope, do the food, water, power and tunnel-geth assignments. They contribute to the colony's survival alongside the colonists themselves. When the colonists attack under the Thorian's control, equip the Anti-Thorian Gas grenade upgrade or use melee to knock them out. Keep squadmates from shooting them. Killing the Thorian does not undo colonist deaths. Jeong can be persuaded with 12 Charm or 10 Intimidate. If you can't pass that check, his death doesn't automatically doom everyone. Spare Shiala afterward if you want her to help rebuild. The colony needs a total of at least 13: one point per surviving colonist, one per completed colony assignment, plus leadership. Shiala gives five leadership points; a persuaded Jeong gives twelve. Those two leadership bonuses don't stack. That means you have room to recover from a missed conversation, but saving everyone and completing the local work is the straightforward route. [Feros survival rules](https://t.co/uY6uvkhXsB). A surviving Shiala later appears on Illium, asking for help with the colonists' medical contract. Help her there as well and this small colony can contribute to ME3's war effort. If she's dead, you lose her personal return. The Cipher itself is part of the required story; executing her doesn't give Shepard a different solution to Saren. [Shiala's Illium return](https://t.co/KyEBnIXZGo), [Zhu's Hope's later contribution](https://t.co/wCzqXmcPij). **Noveria: there are two separate decisions here** The Port Hanshan corruption investigation comes first. Helping Gianna Parasini build her case against Anoleis lets her survive and produces a later meeting on Illium. Get Lorik Qui'in's evidence, persuade him to testify, then go back to Gianna. Revealing her undercover identity to Anoleis can get both of them killed. Getting a garage pass by another route doesn't mean you've completed her investigation. [Port Hanshan branches](https://t.co/X7s4ECWydm). The much bigger choice comes after Benezia: the rachni queen. - Free her: the original queen survives. You receive a message from her in ME2 and can find her again in ME3. Saving that same queen later gives you rachni workers who actually support the Crucible project. - Kill her: the Reapers create a substitute breeder. ME3 still presents a rachni rescue decision, but this replacement isn't the queen you spared. Saving the breeder leads to betrayal and lost support. So don't assume that seeing a similar mission in ME3 means your Noveria choice was erased. It changes who you're dealing with and whether trusting her pays off. [Rachni consequences](https://t.co/qSh4nl61pW). **Before Virmire: finish Wrex's family armor assignment** This is one of the most useful small assignments in the entire trilogy. Talk to Wrex about his past, recover his family's armor, and give it back to him before Virmire. When he confronts you about destroying Saren's genophage work, you can then use his trust in you to talk him down. Choose the lines about not doing this otherwise or being a team. Without that preparation, eight ranks in Charm or Intimidate also give you a peaceful route. Killing him, ordering Ashley to kill him, or allowing the argument to end with Ashley firing makes his death permanent. Wreav takes his place as krogan leader. That changes ME2's reunion and ME3's genophage negotiations. Wrex supports reform and can discover a sabotaged cure. Wreav can be deceived. Keeping Wrex alive preserves his story, but it also means you cannot quietly betray him later and expect him to overlook it. [Wrex's branches and prerequisites](https://t.co/QrxwjFYRvU). **Virmire: Kirrahe, the prisoners, and Rana** Help Kirrahe's team during the assault. Destroy the communications equipment and satellite uplink, take out the geth flyers at their refueling platform, and avoid sending extra trouble toward the salarians. Destroying the flyers is the decisive survival requirement for Kirrahe. His survival is separate from the later Ashley/Kaidan rescue. Saving the person at the bomb doesn't automatically kill Kirrahe. If he lives, he returns in ME3 and can intervene during the salarian councilor's assassination if Thane isn't there to do it. [Virmire assault details](https://t.co/WFRGUmaL0t). Inside the facility, don't assume every prisoner has the same condition. Some have been broken by indoctrination; others can still be helped. These are local rescue decisions, not a hidden method of saving both human squadmates. Rana Thanoptis is a separate, lasting choice. Spare her and she escapes, appears again during Grunt's recruitment in ME2, and is later reported to have killed asari officials under indoctrination in ME3. Killing her prevents that particular continuation. You aren't given a test that proves she's safe before letting her go. [Rana's later appearances](https://t.co/s40cqFgvuZ). **Virmire: Ashley or Kaidan** Assigning somebody to accompany the salarians is not the final death decision. Later, the game makes you choose whom to rescue. The person you go back for survives; the other dies. There is no normal dialogue route, squad arrangement or perfect mission performance that saves both. The survivor appears on Horizon in ME2 and has a substantial role in ME3, including the possibility of returning to the Normandy. They still need to survive that game's confrontation. If your romance is Ashley or Kaidan, this choice also determines whether that relationship can continue. Choose the person whose story you want to keep following. You aren't deciding whether the bomb succeeds; the mission proceeds either way. [Virmire rescue choices](https://t.co/9VX09odQRY). **The smaller crew choices** Tali asks for a copy of the geth data recovered through UNC: Geth Incursions. Give it to her and she has something valuable for her pilgrimage. It also gives you a familiar reference when you meet again in ME2. Refusing it does not permanently prevent recruiting or romancing her later, and it doesn't by itself decide quarian/geth peace. Those bigger checks come in ME2 and ME3. [Tali and her pilgrimage](https://t.co/HeKl7X2SvM). Garrus's hunt for Dr. Saleon gives you a chance to challenge his methods or encourage them. Saleon still turns hostile, but the conversation matters to Garrus's attitude. Don't confuse this with his ME2 loyalty mission: stopping him from shooting Saleon doesn't automatically make him spare Sidonis years later. [Garrus's personal assignment](https://t.co/8CpcIC663s). For romance, male Shepard can pursue Ashley or Liara; female Shepard can pursue Kaidan or Liara in ME1. Speak to them regularly, make your intentions clear when competing relationships come up, and don't choose a relationship you don't want just because the answer sounds friendly. ME2 lets Shepard start another relationship, but the old one can still be acknowledged. [ME1 romance paths](https://t.co/Uo36eDuezy). **Conrad Verner: several tiny errands eventually meet** Talk to Conrad across his three Citadel encounters, then use the persuasion route to send him home instead of simply dismissing him. Keep him alive through his ME2 follow-up too. For the fuller ME3 payoff, the first game's checklist is surprisingly specific: - Help Jenna leave her undercover work through Citadel: Rita's Sister. - Recover Gavin Hossle's data on Feros. - Collect ten Matriarch Dilinaga writings. - Buy the Elkoss Combine armory license. Conrad's research, Hossle's schematics, the writings and the license eventually connect. Jenna has a different role: she can save Conrad when a Cerberus agent tries to shoot Shepard. This is a small war contribution, not a requirement for the ending, but it's a great example of unrelated-looking side quests meeting later. [Conrad's full chain](https://t.co/FHdtU0NU5H). **Other side decisions worth remembering** Helena Blake's Hostile Takeover assignment lets you leave her criminal operation alone, confront her violently, or persuade her to leave that life. If she survives, ME2 reflects whether she's still involved in crime or working to help people. [Helena's outcomes](https://t.co/1UnxOfxfrS). Bring Down the Sky gives you a harder immediate trade: let Balak escape and rescue the hostages, or attack him at the cost of their lives. Saving Kate Bowman produces later thanks. A surviving Balak can return during ME3's Batarian Codes assignment, where there's another opportunity to decide what to do with him. Killing him changes that encounter. Don't confuse letting him escape here with endorsing what he did. [X57 consequences](https://t.co/A2yEzeVSsd). UNC: Rogue VI on Luna unlocks your specialization and connects to EDI's later history. Completing it gives you recognition and dialogue later, but skipping it doesn't remove EDI from the trilogy. [Rogue VI connection](https://t.co/YvRNyOMeVS). **The Citadel finale: Saren, the Council, and the human seat** Persuading Saren can make him take his own life and skip the first part of his final confrontation. It doesn't eliminate the reanimated final boss or create a future living-Saren branch. When the Destiny Ascension calls for help, saving the Council preserves the original councilors and the ship, at the cost of Alliance casualties. Focusing on Sovereign leaves them dead and brings in replacement councilors. Both routes still let you win ME1. In ME3, the surviving Ascension and the different fleet losses affect your forces; neither choice is a requirement for completing the trilogy. [Council consequences](https://t.co/bKoMmydVEH). Recommending Anderson or Udina changes the human representative in ME2. It does not permanently stop Udina from becoming councilor in ME3. The original game's transfer handling also asks you to establish that choice in ME2, so pay attention to what you confirm instead of assuming every version records it identically. [Anderson and the Council seat](https://t.co/iCnMZvj7OU). Before the final run, finish the assignments and conversations you care about. Once you've escaped the grounded Normandy, ordinary Citadel cleanup is closed off; landing on Ilos commits you to the endgame. Keep the earlier save. The three chains to remember going into ME2 are Wrex and the genophage, the real rachni queen versus the later breeder, and the surviving Ashley or Kaidan. The smaller people are still worth checking on too. Some of them take two games to show you why.