**Mass Effect: Andromeda: the decisions, the people they affect and what actually changes**

**Mass Effect: Andromeda: the decisions, the people they affect and what actually changes** Andromeda needs its own decision guide because it isn't importing your Shepard's history. You're building Ryder's relationships and deciding what the Initiative becomes in Heleus. Some choices change who lives, who runs a settlement or who helps at Meridian. Others mostly change a conversation. Those shouldn't all be presented as if they have the same consequences. Full Andromeda spoilers below. This follows the major decisions and a selection of smaller ones, not every objective or conversation. Where a choice looks like setup for another story, I'm keeping that separate from what this game actually shows. **1. Early priorities: Eos and the Nexus** When establishing Prodromos, choose a scientific or military outpost. Science emphasizes research; military emphasizes security and provides additional combat support later. Either way, you still establish the settlement and continue the main story. This isn't a choice that permanently turns every later colony into the same type. [Outpost consequences](https://t.co/jfdW1cCUpJ) In **First Murderer**, investigate Nilken's case rather than deciding from the accusation alone. He intended to kill his superior, but the evidence shows the fatal shot came from the kett. You then decide whether intent warrants exile or whether he should be released. Exile puts him among the people on Kadara. Release doesn't necessarily give him a clean personal reset: if you tell his wife about the attempted murder, their marriage collapses and he eventually wants to return to stasis. There isn't a completely happy answer hidden behind the investigation. [Nilken's case](https://t.co/BZJZ1a6rpb) Keep manual saves before these decisions and before major priority missions. Seeing the result of a choice isn't the same as having a way to undo it afterward. **2. The Moshae rescue: prisoners or the exaltation facility** During **A Trail of Hope**, you discover what the kett are doing to the angara. After defeating the Cardinal, the decision is whether to destroy the facility or preserve it long enough to release the prisoners. - **Destroy it:** the facility is gone, but the angaran prisoners die with it. The Moshae supports destroying it. - **Save the prisoners:** the facility remains, but those people survive and angaran resistance fighters can assist you later. - **The Cardinal's fate is a separate final moment:** after arranging the prisoners' release, you can use the interrupt to kill her. Saving the prisoners does not require letting her walk away. That separation matters. You aren't restricted to “destroy everything” or “save everyone, including the person running it.” [Facility branches](https://t.co/hGDIBcE9sO) **3. Voeld's ancient AI: three different outcomes** In **Uncovering the Past**, the AI threatens an angaran captive. Destroying the AI saves the captive. Keeping it means allowing that captive to die; it isn't a harmless research pickup. If you preserve it, you then choose where it goes. Give it to the angara on Aya or take it to the Nexus to interact with SAM. The angaran route can provide calculations that help during the finale. The Nexus route gives you further AI-related conversation. The immediate death and the recipient are real consequences. Claims that either choice inevitably causes some later civilization-ending disaster go beyond the story the game gives you. [Ancient AI decision](https://t.co/LCask0RQco) **4. Kadara: Sloane and Reyes are not just a dialogue preference** Work through the Kadara relationship quests until **High Noon**. At the confrontation, Reyes reveals himself as the Charlatan and arranges a duel with Sloane. A hidden sniper makes it a setup. Use the interrupt to save Sloane and the Outcasts keep control. Reyes escapes. The later opportunity to shoot him only wounds him; it does not produce a branch where you kill him there. Don't save Sloane and the sniper kills her. Reyes and the Collective take control instead. Both outcomes allow the Initiative's outpost to go ahead. You're choosing the people governing Kadara, not choosing between being allowed to settle it and permanently losing the planet. This is also a decision to make deliberately if you're pursuing Reyes romantically. Saving his intended victim is not a neutral reaction to his plan. [High Noon](https://t.co/4R7JPNfrVF) The faction you establish can assist during the final battle. That is a later payoff, but neither side changes the central objective at Meridian into a different campaign. [Finale allies](https://t.co/40YsRJXQ5B) **5. Elaaden: give Morda the drive core or keep it** During **Search for the Stolen Remnant Drive Core**, recovering the core isn't the last decision. Morda wants it for her people. Give it to her and you secure permission for an Initiative outpost on Elaaden. Keep it and you receive research data and credits, but lose that outpost opportunity. This is one of the clearest practical trade-offs in the game. If your goal is establishing every available settlement, hand it over. Keeping the core isn't simply the same route with a different reward at the end. The settlement itself is the thing you're giving up. [Drive core consequences](https://t.co/ahPXWslm2T) **6. Hunting the Archon: Raeka or the krogan scouts** On the kett flagship, you have to choose between rescuing the salarian Pathfinder's group and rescuing the captured krogan scouts. Save Raeka and she remains the salarian Pathfinder. You abandon the krogan prisoners to exaltation, which is why Drack is furious. Save the scouts and Raeka dies, while the rescued krogan can fight with you. This isn't a choice where everyone makes it if you find the right conversation. [Flagship decision](https://t.co/kaLNeaW9Z8) There is an important distinction for the ending: **Raeka dying does not mean you permanently lose the salarian Pathfinder position. Hayjer replaces her.** The later rescue involving Captain Dunn can still work with him. Don't sacrifice the krogan solely because a guide says Raeka herself is mandatory. [Pathfinders and Dunn](https://t.co/eAjqSJ4E9u) **7. The turian ark: encourage Avitus to take the job** Follow **Turian Ark: Lost But Not Forgotten** through to the truth about Macen. Avitus is left facing the role of Pathfinder while grieving someone he loved. Encourage him to accept the responsibility and the turians have a Pathfinder for the final operation. Let him walk away from it and they don't gain a different replacement who conveniently fills the same role. This is a conversation with a concrete survival consequence later. If you want all three other Pathfinders ready to help at Meridian, Avitus needs to accept. Finish the ark investigation before the final mission, not afterward. [Avitus and the ark](https://t.co/Pvx57YKvcC) **8. Cora's mission: Sarissa's secret and who leads the asari** In **At Duty's Edge**, you discover that Sarissa left the previous Pathfinder, Ishara, to die while retrieving kett information. Decide whether to expose that, then who should hold the position. Keep the secret and Sarissa stays. Expose it and you can support Vederia as her replacement, or argue that Sarissa should remain despite what happened. Vederia isn't automatically an invalid choice because she has less experience. [Cora's mission](https://t.co/3nPaQNlZod) **If you expose Sarissa but keep her in charge, follow up with her at Pathfinder HQ and repair the relationship.** Don't treat her title alone as proof she'll help. That follow-up is the easily missed difference in this branch. [Sarissa's follow-up](https://t.co/sDNtHevxWO) **9. Jaal and Akksul: sometimes the interrupt is the mistake** During **Flesh and Blood**, Akksul threatens Jaal. You can shoot him, but Jaal wants you to trust him and let the confrontation play out. Don't shoot and Jaal survives Akksul's attack. Akksul exposes himself in front of his followers, damaging his support. Shoot Akksul and you save Jaal from that injury but make Akksul a martyr, strengthening the very movement Jaal is trying to undermine. The important point is that waiting does not mean sacrificing Jaal. A timed prompt is an opportunity, not an instruction you must follow to get the better result. [Jaal's confrontation](https://t.co/UCnpTS4OD9) **10. Peebee: Kalinda or the Remnant device** At the end of **A Mysterious Remnant Signal**, Peebee tries to rescue Kalinda while the Remnant device is slipping away. Take the shooting interrupt and you kill Kalinda, allowing Peebee to recover the device. Leave the interrupt alone and Peebee saves Kalinda, losing the prize. This is not a choice between Peebee living and dying. It is whether you kill someone she still cares about for the discovery she's been chasing. She can complete her loyalty story on either branch, but the conversation afterward is different for an obvious reason. [Peebee's decision](https://t.co/zkfxvdj9ZQ) **11. Smaller choices worth keeping separate from the main plot** **Kadara's medicine:** in **Modern Medicine**, give the formula back to Dr. Nakamoto to stop its use for Oblivion production. Leave it with Farenth and the drug operation continues. This is a local medical and criminal outcome, not a requirement for beating the Archon. [Modern Medicine](https://t.co/ZQm2wRNvkn) **Drack and Spender:** in Drack's loyalty story, Aroane can be killed or taken alive as evidence against Spender. Later, choose imprisonment or exile for Spender. Neither punishment is a requirement to keep Drack loyal; you're deciding how the Initiative deals with his corruption. [Drack's story](https://t.co/wwu0OAl2gK) **The Nexus protesters:** in **Sleeping Dragons**, the families want their relatives brought out of stasis. You can agree to change the schedule or uphold the existing priorities and end the protest. This changes how you handle the dispute, not whether the main campaign remains winnable. There is no secret fleet reward for picking the harsh answer. [Sleeping Dragons](https://t.co/WEI78bcL3z) **Elaaden's water:** in **Water Supply**, leave Annea in control and accept the arrangement, or refuse and fight to remove her control of the source. Keeping her arrangement can bring her help later, but you're also leaving the local monopoly in place. Removing her isn't a requirement for Morda's separate drive-core agreement. [Water supply consequences](https://t.co/sDNtHevxWO) **The Primus's bargain:** **Dissension in the Ranks** offers a code to use against kett forces. Accepting gives you an optional advantage during the final mission. Refusing means proceeding without that help. The game leaves the broader political implications open; it doesn't show an entire later kett war resolving differently because of this one bargain. [The bargain](https://t.co/1LTOpxMH0H) These are good examples of why I wouldn't call every choice “good ending” or “bad ending.” Some solve a local problem. Some determine who trusts you. Some give you help in one fight. The size of the consequence is part of the explanation. **12. Before Meridian: bring these branches together** Before committing to **Meridian: The Way Home**, finish the ark and loyalty stories you want represented in the finale. For Dunn's survival, the important chain is a salarian Pathfinder, Avitus as turian Pathfinder, and an asari Pathfinder who will actually help. Raeka or Hayjer can fill the salarian role; the asari branch can work with Vederia or the appropriate Sarissa outcome. [Dunn's survival conditions](https://t.co/eAjqSJ4E9u) Your earlier alliances change who arrives or contributes. They don't replace the final battle with a completely different ending mission. That's the difference between changing the support around Ryder and changing the main objective. Afterward, your ambassador nomination expresses who should have a stronger voice in the Initiative's future. You can support the Moshae, Bradley or the salarian Pathfinder, Raeka or Hayjer. Morda is also an option if you gave her the drive core. Treat this as a political choice in the epilogue, not a hidden button that unlocks another playable story. [Ambassador outcomes](https://t.co/4MLKt7WffS) The choices I'd check first are the prisoners at the facility, Kadara's leadership, Morda's core, the flagship rescue and the three Pathfinder outcomes. Then follow the companion and local stories you care about. That keeps the decisions easy to track without pretending every conversation carries the same weight.