Mass Effect 3: the decisions, the consequences, and where the earlier games come back

Mass Effect 3: the decisions, the consequences, and where the earlier games come back Full trilogy spoilers, including the endings. Mass Effect 3 is where a lot of those earlier decisions finally land. Saving somebody in the first game can change who leads an entire species. A loyalty mission in the second can decide whether somebody survives a conversation in the third. This follows the choices, not every fight or corridor. The main reference is Legendary Edition, which includes Extended Cut and the story DLC. The original release has different ending-score rules. **Before leaving Earth behind** Import the ME2 save that actually contains the history you want. A fresh Shepard uses default decisions; it doesn't quietly assume you saved everyone. Check the import summary. [Importing decisions](https://t.co/xR7G3aNynK) Missing characters can be replaced, but those replacements don't always offer the same outcomes. The Legion replacement, for example, cannot give you the normal geth/quarian peace route. Keep separate saves before Priority: Tuchanka, Priority: Rannoch, Priority: Horizon, and Priority: Cerberus Headquarters. Read messages and return to the Citadel between major missions. Several apparently small conversations are prerequisites for later survival. **1. Mars and the hospital: Ashley or Kaidan** Your Virmire survivor is the one available here. Treat the survivor reasonably on Mars, visit when they're awake in the hospital, and return for their later conversation. Acknowledge an old relationship if you moved on in ME2. These conversations build trust. During the confrontation with Udina, lower your weapons when the Paragon interrupt appears. With enough trust, the survivor believes you; a middling relationship needs a reputation check. At very low trust, you cannot talk them down and they die. Ignoring the shooting interrupt doesn't save them: a squadmate can take the shot instead. If they live, you can welcome them back aboard or let them serve elsewhere. Udina dies either way; choosing who shoots him doesn't create a route where he escapes. [Citadel confrontation and trust checks](https://t.co/wIaChEtfKs) **2. Grissom Academy: rescue first, deployment second** Do Emergency Evacuation before the Citadel coup. Handling it before Priority: Tuchanka avoids walking into that cutoff. If Jack survived ME2, she's teaching there. Missing the rescue means Cerberus captures her, and you later face her as a Phantom. Saving her gives you her continuing story and, where applicable, the chance to continue the romance. After the evacuation, decide what the students should do. Front-line combat gives more immediate military strength. Support duties give less, but the Extended Cut/Legendary Edition epilogue reflects the difference: the support route shows Jack with her students; the combat route shows her mourning them. If you rescued David Archer from Project Overlord, this is also where that decision pays off. He's at the academy rather than still being used as an experiment. [Academy outcomes](https://t.co/7NUMlzO2df) **3. The Tuchanka bomb has an actual mission counter** Tuchanka: Turian Platoon leads to Tuchanka: Bomb. Once Bomb is unlocked, completing three other missions first makes it fail. Go straight to it. Failure costs a large part of your krogan strength and kills Eve if she survived the cure mission. Saving her during the main story doesn't protect her from an ignored bomb afterward. Lieutenant Victus sacrifices himself when you successfully deal with it; there isn't a dialogue choice that saves him while still completing that resolution. [Bomb timing and consequences](https://t.co/s3qj6hH1bU) **4. The rachni: check which queen you're looking at** If you spared the queen on Noveria, the queen here is that same individual. Rescue her and she supplies workers for the Crucible. Leave her and you keep the surviving krogan company instead. If you killed her in ME1, the Reapers have a replacement Breeder. Saving that creature looks useful initially, but she later betrays you and damages the Crucible effort. The same-looking choice has a different result because of Noveria. Grunt's survival comes from ME2: a loyal Grunt survives the escape; a disloyal one doesn't. His replacement, Dagg, dies. Don't confuse Grunt surviving with his entire company surviving. In Legendary Edition, rescuing the queen or Breeder means Aralakh Company isn't awarded as a war asset. [Rachni and Grunt branches](https://t.co/cLZtpKGfgq) **5. The genophage: three games' worth of choices in one place** The setup matters: - Wrex alive from ME1 means Wrex leads the krogan. Otherwise, Wreav does. - Mordin alive from ME2 means he handles the cure. Otherwise, Padok Wiks fills the role. - Preserving Maelon's research lets Eve survive the procedure. Destroying it, or never securing it, means she dies while the cure is prepared. The Dalatrass offers salarian support if you secretly sabotage the cure. You can reveal the sabotage or keep it hidden. Revealing it commits the doctor to correcting it. If you keep quiet, the final conversation at the Shroud determines whether the cure goes through. Allow the cure and the doctor sacrifices himself to release it. The krogan get a real future. Wrex and Eve together offer a different future from Wreav ruling without her influence. [Cure setup and main outcomes](https://t.co/m5pQ0NYKo8) To stop the cure while Wrex or Eve is still alive, you cannot simply persuade Mordin to abandon it. The sabotage route means shooting him when he tries to proceed. The rare route where Mordin lives requires Wrex and Eve both dead, the sabotage still concealed, and a successful persuasion check at the Shroud. He agrees to fake his death and work on the Crucible. That preserves Mordin by leaving the genophage uncured under Wreav, not by finding a happy solution for everybody. If you sabotage Wrex's cure, he eventually discovers it. The confrontation ends with Wrex dead and krogan support reduced. Wreav never uncovers the deception. Also, curing the genophage doesn't erase every possible salarian asset; the Dalatrass's fleet is only one part of their contribution. [Sabotage branches and later consequences](https://t.co/bs8shgu4JS) **6. Before the coup: Thane, Kelly, and Kasumi** If Thane survived ME2, speak to him at the hospital before the coup. He can save the salarian councilor, though this leads into his final hospital scene. If Thane isn't available, a surviving Kirrahe can protect the councilor instead and dies doing it. Without either protector, the councilor is killed, making Udina's case against you harder to counter. [Thane and Kirrahe](https://t.co/wIaChEtfKs) If Kelly appears among the refugees, tell her to change her identity before the attack. Encouraging her to keep helping without hiding leaves her exposed to Cerberus. Later, forgive her when she confesses she reported on you; condemning her can lead to her death too. [Kelly's survival](https://t.co/6DSGGxzZNF) Finish Citadel: Hanar Diplomat before the coup. A surviving, loyal Kasumi can help you save both Jondum Bau and the hanar homeworld's defenses. Without her help, protecting Bau and stopping the upload become competing priorities. Kasumi's ME2 loyalty therefore buys more than a familiar cameo. [Hanar Diplomat](https://t.co/wZivg1jLII) **7. Rannoch: the peace route starts in ME2** Before Priority: Rannoch, do Geth Fighter Squadrons and Admiral Koris. During Koris's rescue, persuade him to accept extraction himself instead of insisting you save his remaining people. Saving him strengthens the voice arguing for peace. For the ceasefire, you need Tali and the real Legion alive, Geth Fighter Squadrons completed, at least four reputation bars, and enough of the following hidden points: - Destroy the heretics in Legion's ME2 loyalty mission: two. - Clear Tali without exile or exposing her father's experiments: two. - Resolve Tali and Legion's ME2 argument with the special persuasion option: one. - Complete Admiral Koris: one. - Save Koris himself: one. You need five of seven. Regaining someone's loyalty after taking a side in the ME2 argument doesn't retroactively award that argument point. Rewriting the heretics does not make peace impossible, but you need the other available points to compensate. [Peace prerequisites](https://t.co/kvec3pESV6) At the final choice, allow the upload and use Rally the Fleet or Warn the Fleet when the persuasion choice appears. The fleet stands down, both peoples survive, and both contribute to the war. Legion still sacrifices itself to complete the upload. If peace is unavailable or you reject it: - Stop the upload: the quarians destroy the geth, and Legion dies opposing you. - Allow the upload without stopping the quarian attack: the geth destroy the quarian fleet, and Tali takes her own life. The interrupt cannot save her. This is why the earlier choices matter so much. Having a full reputation bar at the last minute can't replace missing history. [Final choice sequence](https://t.co/613IKtZHHp), [Rannoch outcomes](https://t.co/MsSDlSV3Xf) **8. Samara and Falere** If Samara survived ME2, she appears at the Ardat-Yakshi monastery. At the end, take the Paragon interrupt to stop her suicide. Falere can remain there, and Samara can join the war effort. Miss that interrupt and Samara dies. You then decide whether to spare or kill Falere. If Samara was already absent, you face Falere's decision without the rescue opportunity. Choosing Morinth back in ME2 doesn't produce a second friendly version of this storyline. [Monastery branches](https://t.co/LWmZQjDsM5) **9. Miranda: the preparation is spread across the game** Her fate at Horizon is decided before you arrive. For the survival route: - Import a save where she survived ME2 and her loyalty mission was completed. - Meet her when she contacts you. - Read Anderson's Kai Leng dossier before the Spectre-office vidcall so Shepard warns her. - At the later apartment meeting, give her Alliance resources. - If continuing an imported romance, don't explicitly break up with her in ME3. That last one is unusually harsh. An explicit breakup can kill her even when the other requirements were met. Locking in another relationship elsewhere is handled differently, but don't use a breakup with Miranda as casual dialogue cleanup. The confrontation with Henry Lawson resolves his hold over Oriana, but it doesn't repair missing survival prerequisites. Miranda looking injured also doesn't automatically mean she will die. A surviving Miranda remains available afterward, including for Citadel DLC. [Miranda's conditions](https://t.co/oiMSiMQl68) **10. Smaller conversations with real consequences** **Cortez:** follow his friendship conversations in the shuttle bay, encourage shore leave, meet him at the docks and memorial, and follow through at Purgatory. Romance isn't required. Helping him through that chain lets him survive his shuttle crash on Earth; ignoring him can get him killed. [Cortez's conversation route](https://t.co/nNMzuKauOB) **Javik:** encouraging him to relive his memory shard leads him to say he plans to die beside his fallen comrades after the war. Encouraging him to leave it alone allows him to imagine a future. This changes his stated plans; don't mistake it for a new mission where you can intervene later. [Javik's shard](https://t.co/nxpiqKULKG) **Relationships:** use the follow-up invitations and make a deliberate commitment. An imported relationship isn't a substitute for the ME3 scenes. Check in before launching the finale, especially if the person you want is a former squadmate whose story ends elsewhere. **11. DLC choices** In **Omega**, let the reactor scene's Renegade interrupts pass and reroute power if you want to avoid cutting civilian life support. You can save the civilians without losing the campaign. Later, sparing Petrovsky lets him be taken into custody and contribute information; killing him satisfies Aria's revenge. Nyreen's death isn't avoidable through a different reactor decision. [Omega choices](https://t.co/qk2q7pHrpJ), [Nyreen's final stand](https://t.co/HWUYbQ51NO) In **Leviathan**, Ann's attempt to trace the signal can be stopped before you push her too far. Continuing to force the connection risks brain damage. You can still finish the investigation without sacrificing her health for a cleaner search. Completing the DLC brings Leviathan's support and more explanation of the Reapers, not a fifth Crucible ending. [Leviathan](https://t.co/Dfez2m8ZpJ) In **Citadel**, offering the clone a hand changes Shepard's response but doesn't save the clone. Brooks can be talked into surrendering; letting her try to escape leads to her being shot. For the party, wait until the people you want have survived their main-game stories and are available to invite. [Brooks's choices](https://t.co/MjI7l2u1tl), [the clone's outcome](https://t.co/8otfdqp4tn) **12. The point of no return and the ending** Before Priority: Cerberus Headquarters, finish the side stories, conversations, DLC, and scanning you care about. Check military strength now, not after you pick up the Reaper remains at the base. For Legendary Edition, the game-file analysis puts Synthesis at 6,200 strength and the additional Destroy scene suggesting Shepard survived at 7,400, measured before Headquarters. These are LE figures, not the original game's multiplayer-adjusted EMS table. At low strength, the Collector Base decision from ME2 can affect which options are available and how much damage Earth suffers. [LE ending thresholds and calculation](https://t.co/Fx1CoJS0iF) To unlock the final persuasion options with the Illusive Man, use the relevant special dialogue options in his earlier Mars, Thessia, and Headquarters conversations, including the Investigate branches. If you can't persuade him, take the required shooting interrupt. Anderson still dies; getting the final conversation with him doesn't create an Anderson-survives ending. [Final confrontation](https://t.co/R2kigia95U) The Crucible choice is yours: - **Destroy:** destroys the Reapers, but also EDI and the geth. Peace on Rannoch doesn't exempt them. - **Control:** Shepard gives up their human existence and becomes the intelligence directing the Reapers. - **Synthesis:** Shepard sacrifices themselves to change organic and synthetic life throughout the galaxy. - **Refusal:** reject the choices, including by shooting the Catalyst, and this cycle loses. Liara's record helps those who come after. Your military strength affects the damage and available outcomes. Your earlier decisions shape who is still alive and the civilizations shown afterward. There isn't one last dialogue choice that reverses Tuchanka, Rannoch, or all the people you lost along the way. [Ending outcomes](https://t.co/nqocZiVd3Y)