In the grim darkness of Mass Effect 3, there was never hope.
One of the most common complaints from detractors of the game is that the ending completely breaks from the main theme of the series, namely the idea of ‘hope’ and that ‘your choices matter’. However, perhaps that was the intention of the writers all along?When you play the game for the first time, most of the players will likely feel like a total badass that is like John Connor, Master Chief, and Jean-Luc Picard all rolled into one as you gather more and more allies mission after mission, side quest after side quest. With the expectation of being able to be the hero that saves the day at the end, naturally many of us were shocked at how the ending changes very little no matter what you did previously.
However, after you managed to calm down for a bit, replay the game again slowly, pay close attention to every conversation and read every secondary Codex entry. After doing so, you will make the realization that any you just experienced a masterfully done example of The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You.
Let’s take a closer look at the actual effect that your actions have on the Reaper War: When you are getting the krogan to support the turians, they weren’t there to retake Palaven or even to defend it, they were merely trying to delay the Reapers in order to buy you more time in building the Crucible. Similarly, the quarians and the geth weren’t there to help turn the tide, all they could do was help evaluate civilians and do hit-and-run attacks on the Reapers in an attempt to slow them down. Even all the hours (not to mention BioWare points) that you spent on multiplayer were only to buy Crucible engineers more time, not with the expectation of winning the war or even survive.
If Shepard (more importantly you the player) ever looked at the War Assets screen with the green bar filled to the maximum and thought to him/herself ‘I can do this. This war can be won. There is hope’, then s/he was either purely delusional or living in denial. From the very beginning, Admiral Hackett already told you that you cannot win conventionally. And if you have the From Ashes DLC, when Javik reads you for the first time, if you have previously been choosing all the optimistic dialog opinions, he will express his shock and disbelief at how foolish you are in thinking that you can win this war. During the Battle of Earth with best possible EMS, you were told that less than half of the ground forces even made it to the surface. The Catalyst will outright tell a defiant Shepard that this cycle has already used up a lot of its resources after less than a year at war with the Reapers. With this in mind, just how realistic was it that you ever expect your actions of talking down a criminal, rescuing a few hundred civilians, or choosing whether or not to save the residential district or the industrial sector of a colony matters at all?
A Paragon Shepard thinks that s/he lives in a story from an old pulp fiction sci-fi (Flash Gordon) or pre-cyberpunk traditional space operas (Star Wars), in which The Power of Friendship and understanding can indeed overcome all obstacles, while a Renegade thinks that s/he is the anti-hero badass from an action movie and the leader from a military fiction in which you must be able to be willing in sacrificing the few for the many or take morally questionable action while others don’t want to get their hands dirty. The one constant thing for both is that you can indeed win against impossible odds if you really work for it.
In reality, they are both wrong, since in the bigger picture, Shepard is not much more important than a random mook. All the previous actions that you have taken have slightly more impact than the background conversation on the Citadel you can overhear, and the hard battles that you fought made slightly more impact than a random mook shooting at enemies at the background. The thing that you fight against is an insane ancient power with incalculable knowledge and strength that can and probably will obliterate everything you know.
With this in mind, you will finally understand Mass Effect was never about saving the galaxy or winning against the Reapers. It was a story about the life of Shepard, an absolute speck in the grand design of things that happened to be at the right place at the right time.
- This reasoning is spot on for a person playing as The Fettered Paragon. If someone tries to put principles before results, they won’t be inclined to take any of the sadistic choices given to them. A pragmatic win-at-all-cost military commander, on the other hand, sees the Crucible and Catalyst as a way to defeat the Reapers, and does what needs to be done. Therefore, somebody who went into the game thinking “I’ll do whatever it takes” gets their wish.
- The reasoning in regards to playing a principled Shepard is flawed, as gaining more military strength DOES make a huge difference. If your military strength is low, then the Crucible will not just wipe out synthetics, but also Earth in its entirety and most organics. If you bother to go the extra mile, then Earth and its remaining inhabitants (which includes the people from other races, as in the people who will rebuild the galaxy) will survive. The notion that Shepard's actions ultimately don't matter much are nonsense. S/he will still be forced to make a hard call in taking the Destroy option, but it will save many lives, not just end them. In the long run, your actions WILL matter.
Shepard and the Illusive Man: What Kai Leng means in their relationship.
To establish some boundaries, this is written with a playthrough starting with Mass Effect 2 in mind and came from an impression of Cerberus as similar to the IRA, rather than the mad scientists we were actually shown in Mass Effect.This is going to be a bit fanwanky, but I believe I’ve got enough evidence to think that this is actually the storyline they were going for. However, whenever I describe TIM or Kai Leng as lame, imagine them with the flaw I described but ‘cool’ which is what BioWare were going for. The question is, if the Illusive Man could have had operatives like Kai Leng, why would he devote such a large chunk of his resources bringing Shepard back?
TIM is a Shepard fanboy. It clouds him to everything and occludes rational thought. TIM has always had a Jesus complex and in his own mind he’s the saviour of humanity that the law couldn’t understand and forced him into the shadows. He’s always wanted people to adore him for it but has persuaded himself that he’s genuinely giving up that light to do what’s really good for people. Basically he sees himself as sacrificing his soul for the greater good and other people just can’t understand that.
Then along comes Shepard, Shepard the first human Spectre, Shepard the saviour of mankind who stuck to her guns and ploughed on despite no-one believing in her. Willing to do what needs to be done outside of the law, and in the end, the whole galaxy worships him/her as a hero for it. TIM is infatuated with Shepard and projects himself onto him/her, he believes that they are similar people and equals and he absolutely craves her respect.
So when Shepard dies of course, he brings him/her back (this is where my version will differ from BioWare, who would say that bringing Shepard back was the right decision). A waste of resources? Don’t you understand? This is Shepard we’re talking about. And TIM believes that because Shepard is like him, if Shepard could just be shown who TIM is and what TIM does, Shepard would come around to his way of thought. TIM believes that Shepard thinks of him as a respected adversary who just happens to be on the other side of the table and if Shepard could just be brought round, then Shepard would think like TIM does and give TIM the respect he needs. ‘Mind control chip? NO! -no. You can’t do that, we need Shepard as she is. And besides, we don’t need one. Shepard will li— It’s not necessary, Miranda.’
When you play ME 2, you’ll notice that TIM is constantly explaining things to you, trying to justify his reasoning, and he keeps on asking Shepard for Shepard’s approval. He doesn’t do this with anyone else, because everyone else is a subordinate in his view. And when Shepard makes decisions that go against TIM, TIM seems genuinely impressed. If you save the quarian, TIM tells you it’s not what he would have done but seems honestly admiring of Shepard’s ‘tactics’ and strategy. Because he thinks they’re similar people making similar decisions and he’s deluded enough that he can convince himself that he might have made the same call if the situation had been right.
TIM goes to huge lengths to get Shepard to trust him, he deliberately places people around Shepard who are reasonable and will paint TIM in a light that Shepard might understand (Jacob), he digs up former colleagues, he sends Shepard on missions to see that these things really were rogue cells and if Shepard finds anything bad he goes out of his way to clean things up as quickly as possible.
And then Shepard spits in his face and leaves.
From then on, every conversation between Shepard and TIM in Mass Effect 3 runs like this: ‘I hate you’ ‘You just don’t understand Shepard. I’m doing everything for the good of humanity’ ‘You’re a monster.’ ‘Shepard! You’ve just got to give me some respect, I can’t keep letting you go on like this.’ And even then, when people ask if Shepard should die ‘No, she could still be useful.’
And then we have Kai Leng. Kai Leng the Shepard replacement puppet. ‘Your time is over. [Kai Leng enters the shot]’ The Illusive Man is embittered by the idea that Shepard won’t work with him and is trying to take this second person, dress him up to look like Shepard, and he pretends that he’s created a better Shepard, one who actually listens to him and obeys him.
But the point is, TIM can’t replace Shepard. And he’s not the same as Shepard; he’s so twisted, he can’t actually understand the sort of person Shepard is and what makes her great. And because of that, Kai Leng is flawed and won’t be capable of anything close to what Shepard can achieve. TIM can’t see that KL is an uncharismatic psychopath who can’t inspire the respect and doesn’t have the strength of character that Shepard uses in everything she does. KL is a flashy wannabe who, ultimately, is too useless to be able to beat Shepard in a simple fight. He’s a reflection of the Illusive Man’s flaws and can only ever be a shadow of what Shepard is. He gets some small victories, but every time Shepard lives and TIM says ‘don’t worry, your time will come, it’s Shepard, of course you failed, but one day you will fight and kill him/her and I will have a Shepard who does exactly what I say and is loyal to me’ and then that confrontation comes and Kai Leng straight up dies. Even in his deathblow, Shepard absolutely humiliates him and beats him down.
… So that is why Kai Leng exists and why TIM spent all that money bringing back Shepard. The Illusive Man, who installed Reaper tech in his own eyes, deludes himself and is blind to his failings. Petty jealousy and the inability to understand what sort of person he really is and what his own real motivations are. A craving for respect and the failure to recognise why it’s denied to him, resulting in this sad angry little Shepard doll doomed to failure. And a messy end to both of them.
Just to make things clear, Kai Leng is a useless character that destroys everything he touches, because ultimately whenever he’s in a scene, his poor writing and cutscene superpowers make you wonder what the writers were doing making such a whiny annoying power, instead of the corrupted but interesting ball of hate he should have been. But what he means in terms of TIM’s character is fascinating.
It’s a real shame that they chose Cerberus instead of inventing a new organisation for ME 2, because TIM has a complex relationship with Shepard and his conversation showdown is one of my favourite bits of the series.
The much-maligned War Assets, Effective Military Strength and their hidden meaning
At first glance, the War Assets numbers appear to boggle the mind. After all, how could a company of biotic cadets have a higher strength than the biggest dreadnought in the Victory fleet? How can noncombatant assets Miranda Lawson, Kasumi Goto, Doctor Chakwas, Diana Allers, and Khalisah al-Jilani combined have more strength than the Armali Sniper Unit and Serrice Guard?
Well, let’s look at the numbers.
If you were to sum up only your Crucible assets, engineering teams, science teams, more search data, dissertations, prototypes, blueprints, Prothean artifacts and data drives, fabrication units, labor teams, worker teams, liquid assets, shipments delivered to the project, materials, equipment, mineral resources and the Reaper body part, you already have up to 2,015 war assets. Add the Omega eezo hoard, and you have 2,315. Add Cerberus’s Reaper research data, and you have 2,365. At a 100% readiness and only these assets collected, what happens if you fire the Crucible? Only Destroy and Control are available, with Destroy only devastating all-important planets but still leaving them intact and capable of supporting life. Control outright saves all planets, leaving even the infrastructure intact. As destroying requires more energy to be relayed compared to rewriting the Reapers to accept the new controller, that devastation of planets is to be expected.
At higher EMS, we start to see diminished returns. At 2,650, even Destroy doesn’t devastate any planet, at 2,800 Space Magic Synthesis is available and at 3,100 (EC) or 4,000, the Crucible activator can survive. At higher EMS, you don’t see any difference whatsoever.
So all it takes to win is to build the Crucible using all assets possible and then pad it with some military forces. Anything more than that is just wasted effort. Not constructing the crucible properly however requires you to get more military forces to “compensate”. At lower readiness you also need more military forces to compensate.
Conclusion drawn: The Effective Military Strength is NOT a numerical value of the strength of your forces in a conventional battle against the Reapers. It is instead a measure of your Crucible’s effectiveness, with all your military forces existing primarily to protect it by drawing fire away from it. Their War Asset values are an assessment of how effectively can they protect the Crucible from damage in combat.
And now the numbers start to make sense! Why are Miranda, Kasumi, Chakwas, Allers, and al-Jilani combined stronger than the two asari commando units? Because they helped build the Crucible either directly by working on it, or by funneling assets to it, while the asari commandos have a very limited ability to draw Reaper fire away from the Crucible. Why is the Biotic Company slightly stronger than the Ascension? Because it is one big lumbering target as opposed to people who could distract a Reaper longer by scattering. Why is getting a banner, a religious artifact, and an ancient book such a buff to certain fleets? Because they gain a lot more motivation to Hold the Line against the Reapers with those things. It also explains the diminishing returns. A Crucible that fires with 3,000 effectiveness is still the same Crucible that fires at 5,000 or 8,000 effectiveness. Giving it more protection against damage isn’t going to change its effectiveness. Only with insufficient protection do you see different results, as the Crucible takes more and more damage. Even the Catalyst lampshades this.
A War Assets Guide
The War Assets system of Mass Effect 3 is complex and intricate, or even obscure and confusing. Getting the best endings requires making the right choices, as far back as the first game. Depending on the situation, the best course of action can be Paragon, Renegade, or a bit of both…
In short, this calls for Guide Dang It!. Fortunately, you are reading a guide.
This guide is split into the following parts:
- The Normandy and Her Crew: The Normandy and her crew past and present are powerful War Assets. Make the most of them.
- Mass Effect 3 Missions: These missions simply grant War Assets upon completion.
- Trilogy-Spanning Choices: The core of this guide. Make the right choices in all three games to unlock the best possible War Assets combinations. Alternate choices are proposed if you do not want to Shoot the Dog.
- Search and Rescue: Obtain War Assets by scanning systems. The clusters containing the most powerful War Assets are listed first.
- Miscellaneous: Obtain War Assets by finding data or items during missions and delivering them on the Citadel, by taking part in discussions, or by leveraging your Spectre status.
- Downloadable Content and Tie-Ins: Obtain additional War Assets by playing official DLCs, the iOS game Mass Effect: Infiltrator, or the multiplayer of Mass Effect 3.
WARNING: All spoilers will be UNMARKED. It is recommended to complete the trilogy at least once before going the Min-Maxing route.
The Normandy
- ME2: gather as much eezo, palladium, platinum and iridium as possiblenote
- ME2: buy the Thanix Cannon upgrade
- ME2: buy the Silaris Armor upgrade
- ME2: buy the Cyclonic Barrier Technology upgrade
Virmire Survivor
- ME3: the Virmire Survivor must not be killed during Priority: The Citadel II
- ME3: do not recruit the Virmire Survivor on the Normandy
Liara
- ME3: encourage Liara to talk to Matriarch Aethyta before Priority: Tuchanka
Dr. Chakwas
Jacob
Miranda
- ME2: Miranda must be loyal and survive the Suicide Mission
- ME3: if you romanced her during Mass Effect 2, do not break up with her
- ME3: read the dossier on Kai Lang before meeting her for the second time
- ME3: meet her for the third time and give her access to Alliance resources
Jack
Samara
- ME2: Samara must survive the Suicide Mission
- ME3: use the Paragon interrupt to stop her from killing herself during Kallini: Ardat-Yakshi Monastery
Grunt
- ME2: Grunt must be loyal and survive the Suicide Mission
- ME3: complete Attican Traverse: Krogan Team
Zaeed
- see DLCs folder
Kasumi
- see DLCs folder
Ken and Gabby
- ME2: Ken and Gabby must survive the Suicide Mission
- ME3: use the Spectre Terminal to grant them a pardon
- ME3: complete Citadel: GX12 Thermal Pipe
Kelly Chambers
- ME2: invite Kelly to dinner
- ME2: Kelly must survive the Suicide Mission
- ME3: locate Kelly on the docks, tell her to change her identity, and do not use the Renegade option when she reveals she spied on Shepard
Steve Cortez
- ME3: help Cortez achieve closure by talking to him on the Normandy, then on the Citadel.
Diana Allers
Military Strength Total: 465
Main Plot Missions: 1,320
- Priority: Mars
- see also: “Arrival”
- Tuchanka: Bomb
- Priority: Tuchanka
- see also: “Sabotage the Cure”
- Priority: The Citadel II
- see also: “Virmire Survivor”, “Save the Council”
- Priority: Horizon
Side Missions: 965
- Meet with Aria T’Loak in Purgatory
- Aria: Blood Pack
- Aria: Blue Suns
- Aria: Eclipse
- Citadel: Batarian Codes
- convince Balak to help
- see also: “Bring Down The Sky”
- Grissom Academy: Emergency Evacuation
- save all the tech students
- assign the biotic students to the front lines
- see also: “Jack”, “Overlord”
- N7: Cerberus Fighter Base
- N7: Fuel Reactor
- Citadel: Volus Diplomacy
- chose the Volus Bombing Fleet
- see also: “Zaeed”
- N7: Cerberus Abductions
- Arrae: Ex-Cerberus Scientists
- see also: “Jacob”, “Overlord”
- N7: Cerberus Attack
- N7: Communication Hub
- N7: Cerberus Lab
- Citadel: Hanar Diplomat
- chose to stop the upload
- see also: “Kasumi”
- Kallini: Ardat-Yakshi Monastery
- see also: “Samara”
- Citadel: Medi-Gel Sabotage
- see also: “Conrad Verner”
Military Strength Total: 2,285
Peace on Rannoch
- ME2: complete Tali’s and Legion’s loyalty missions
- ME2: Tali and Legion must survive the Suicide Mission
- ME2: complete at least 2 of these:
- during Tali’s loyalty mission, take the Charm or Intimidate option, or rally the crowd
- during Legion’s loyalty mission, destroy the geth heretics
- resolve the confrontation between Tali and Legion by a compromisenote
- ME3: complete Rannoch: Geth Fighter Squadron
- ME3: complete Rannoch: Admiral Koris and save the admiral instead of his crew
- ME3: broker a peace between the geth and the quarians at the end of Priority: Rannochnote
Second-best choice: support the geth
- ME2: complete Legion’s loyalty mission and rewrite the geth heretics
- ME3: complete Rannoch: Geth Fighter Squadron
- ME3: side with the geth at the end of Priority: Rannoch
Third-best choice: support the quarians
- ME2: complete Legion’s loyalty mission and destroy the geth heretics
- ME3: complete Rannoch: Geth Fighter Squadron
- ME3: complete Rannoch: Admiral Koris and save the admiral instead of his crew
- ME3: side with the quarians at the end of Priority: Rannoch
Sabotage the Cure
- ME1: kill Wrex on Virmire/do not recruit him
- ME2: complete Mordin’s loyalty mission and preserve Maelon’s data
- ME3: complete Tuchanka: Bomb
- ME3: kill Mordin so the genophage isn’t cured
Second-best choice: Mordin lives
- ME1: kill Wrex on Virmire/do not recruit him
- ME2: complete Mordin’s loyalty mission and destroy Maelon’s data
- ME3: complete Tuchanka: Bomb
- ME3: convince Mordin not to cure the genophagenote
Third-best choice: cure the Genophage
- ME1: let Wrex live on Virmire
- ME2: complete Mordin’s loyalty mission and preserve Maelon’s data
- ME3: complete Tuchanka: Bomb
- ME3: let Mordin cure the genophage
Save the Rachni Queen
- ME1: let the Rachni Queen go
- ME2: Grunt must be loyal and survive the Suicide Mission
- ME3: let the Rachni Queen escape
Second-best choice: save Aralakh Company
- ME2: Grunt must be loyal and survive the Suicide Mission
- ME3: leave the Rachni Queen (or the Breeder) to die
Save the Council
- ME1: save the Destiny Ascension
- ME2: Thane must survive the Suicide Mission
- ME3: speak with Thane at the hospital before Priority: The Citadel II
Salvage the Collector Base
- ME2: leave the Collector Base for Cerberus to study.
Captain Kirrahe’s Fate
Zhu’s Hope
Khalisah al-Jilani
Conrad Verner
- ME1: give Conrad an autograph and a photo
- ME1: complete Feros: Data Recovery
- ME1: complete UNC: Asari Writings
- ME1: buy the Elkoss Combine Armory License
- ME2: complete Conrad’s Mission on Illium
- ME3: talk to Conrad during Citadel: Medi-Gel Sabotage
Military Strength Total: 2,545
- Exodus Cluster225 Military Strength: Alliance Naval Exploration Flotilla, Prothean Data Files, Alliance Cruiser Shanghai, Spec Ops Team Delta
- Silean Nebula205 Military Strength: Elcor Flotilla, Code of the Ancients, Rings of Alune, Armali Sniper Unit, Serrice Guard, Dr. Jelize
- Aethon Cluster185 Military Strength: Volus Dreadnought Kwunu, Volus Engineering Team, Volus Fabrication Units, Book of Plenix
- Argos Rho180 Military Strength: Advanced Power Relays, Haptic Optic Arrays, Turian Spec Ops Team, Kakliosaur Fossil
- Athena Nebula165 Military Strength: Hesperia-Period Statue, Asari Research Ships, Asari Cruiser Nefrane, Asari Cruiser Cybaen, Asari Engineers
- Hourglass Nebula120 Military Strength: Shadow Broker Starship Tech, Shadow Broker Support Team, Terminus Freighters
- Valhallan Threshold120 Military Strength: Element Zero Converter, Prothean Data Drives, Emergency Fuel Pods
- Hades Nexus110 Military Strength: Obelisk of Karza, Prothean Sphere, SSV Leipzig, SSV Hong Kong
- Attican Beta85 Military Strength: Interferometric Array, ExoGeni Scientists
- Apien Crest80 Military Strength: Turian 79th Flotilla, Banner of the First Regiment
- Sigurd’s Cradle50 Military Strength: Javelin Missile Launchers
- Kite’s Nest40 Military Strength: Pillars of Strength
- Nimbus Cluster40 Military Strength: Library of Asha
- Nubian Expanse40 Military Strength: Alliance Marine Reconnaissance Unit, SSV Trafalgar
- Hades Gamma35 Military Strength: Spec Ops Team Zeta, SSV Agincourt
- Gemini Sigma25 Military Strength: SSV Nairobi
- Krogan DMZ25 Military Strength: Shadow Broker Wet Squad
Military Strength Total: 1,730
Citadel Deliveries
Note: items missed during missions can be purchased at the Spectre Terminal.- Alien Medi-Gel Formula
- found during N7: Cerberus Lab
- delivered at Huerta Memorial Hospital
- Biotic Amp Interfaces
- found during Grissom Academy: Emergency Evacuation
- delivered at Huerta Memorial Hospital
- Cerberus Automated Turrets Schematics
- found during Tuchanka: Bomb
- delivered at Presidium Commons
- Cerberus Ciphers
- found during N7: Communication Hub
- delivered at the Citadel Embassies
- Cerberus Turian Poison
- found during Arrae: Ex-Cerberus Scientists
- delivered at Huerta Memorial Hospital
- Chemical Treatment
- found during N7: Fuel Reactor
- delivered at Huerta Memorial Hospital
- Heating Unit Stabilizers
- found during N7: Cerberus Fighter Base
- delivered at Presidium Commons
- Improved Power Grid
- found during N7: Cerberus Attack
- delivered at Purgatory
- Reaper Code Fragments
- found during Rannoch: Geth Fighter Squadrons
- delivered at Citadel Embassies
- Target Jamming Technology
- found during Rannoch: Admiral Koris
- delivered at Presidium Commons
Overheard Conversations
- On the Normandy
- support Admiral Xen over Tali
- support Admiral Gerrel over Admiral Raan
- On the Citadel
- support Dock Officer over Refugee
- support Reluctant Civilian over Gung-Ho Civilian
- support Worried Merchant over Angry Merchant (then authorize Militia at the Spectre Terminal)
- support Cafe Owner over Frustrated C-Sec Officer
- talk to the Bank Teller
- warn two businessmen
Spectre Terminal
- Partner Benefits Increase
- Civilian Deportation Order
- Medical Supplies
- Surveillance Authorization
- Militia (after supporting Worried Merchant)
- Citadel Entry (after Grissom Academy)
- Civilian Consultant Authorization
Military Strength Total: 225
Bring Down the Sky
- ME1: let Balak go or leave him for dead. Not playing the DLC has the same effect.
Zaeed: The Price of Revenge
- ME2: Zaeed must be loyal and survive the Suicide Mission
- ME3: complete Citadel: Volus Ambassador and take the third option
Kasumi: Stolen Memories
- ME2: Kasumi must be loyal and survive the Suicide Mission
- ME3: complete Citadel: Hanar Diplomat and take the third option
Overlord
Arrival
- ME2: complete the DLC, otherwise the 103rd Marine Division is damaged
From Ashes
- ME3: complete Priority: Eden Prime
- ME3: retrieve all three pieces of intel during Eden Prime: Resistance Movement
Leviathan
- ME3: complete the DLC’s main missions
- ME3: do not take both Renegade interrupts when allowing Ann Bryson to be enthralled
Search & Rescue:
- The Shrike Abyssal45 Military Strength: Void Devils Fighter Wing, Vorcha Labor Team
- Sigurd’s Cradle40 Military Strength: Husk Neural Map, Dextro Rations
- Crescent Nebula40 Military Strength: Liquid Assets
- Pylos Nebula30 Military Strength: Jovian Dissertation, Radiation Shielding Sheath
- Caleston Rift25 Military Strength: Synthdiamond Heat Sinks
- Kite’s Nest20 Military Strength: Governor Grothan Pazness
Omega
- ME3: complete the DLC’s main missions
Citadel
Mass Effect: Infiltrator
- complete the game
- reach “Veteran” rank on every checkpoint in the main campaign
- reach “Veteran” rank on every checkpoint in the bonus mission “Incarceration”
ME3 Multiplayer
- promote a multiplayer class
Military Strength Total: 1,495
Final Military Strength Total: 8,745 (7,250 without DLC)
For more information, refer to the wiki
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A deeper meaning behind the optimal War assets playthrough
The above guide tells us what to do to maximize war assets but it doesn’t provide the deeper philosophical context to why they are the best choices. Let’s try to get at thatThis path is presented as the best choice to make vis a vis the krogan and salarians because of the way that krogan society currently is. The krogan are beset by infighting with warfare being seen as the only way their species can advance. If it hadn’t been for salarian upliftment, the krogan would most likely have committed autogenocide, taking other Tuchanka species with them. They then proved that they are immutable to major societal changes by maintaining that same aggressive warlike outlook even after upliftment and having been given a few other planets to colonize. They proved that again after the genophage by continuing their old habits of internecine warfare even with a depopulation threat hanging over their heads. And now curing the genophage would have been another major societal change for them. Wrex, for all his good intentions, didn’t grasp that a cure would most likely do very little to change krogan culture, which is why his leadership of the krogan doesn’t reassure many salarians. Eve, on the other hand, is actually in a position to influence the krogan much more than any male krogan can, but that influence is dulled if the genophage is cured. Why? Because with the cure, she’ll be seen as just another female clan shaman who did a great thing for the krogan. If someone doesn’t like her ideas about “finding a balance again”, there are plenty more krogan females who can spurt out thousands of young for them. But with a sabotaged cure, her immunity and fertility make her that much more powerful, as now the males have to abide by her wishes if they want to breed with her. She can even, if it came to that, let the old deadwood die out, then gradually repopulate the krogan race in her image. And this would be a gradual change instead of a sudden change. That is why sabotaging the cure but ensuring her survival is the best choice. Moreover, as a practical matter doing what the salarians want gains you the Salarian 1st Fleet, which is unavailable if you allow the cure to be distributed.
This one seems obvious, right? After all, you get two militaries instead of one and avoid having to commit genocide. And you pulled it off flies in the face of the Catalyst’s barking that it could never, ever, doesn’t it? The only issue is that to get it, you have to make some seemingly strange choices. Let’s examine those in closer detail.
1) Tali and Legion must be present. Why won’t it work unless both of them are present? Because they were the only quarian and geth who have ever cooperated on any mutual problem in a long time. Their friendship or at the very least collaboration is needed to convince both sides that it is possible to collaborate. With Tali dead, no other quarian is inclined towards cooperation, and with Legion dead, the geth don’t have its perspective on peaceful contact with organics.
2) Tali must not have been exiled. If she was, this erodes trust on both sides. On the quarians’ side, she is seen as someone who if not betraying the fleet, exercised poor judgement that jeopardized the fleet. And now she’s advocating peace with their longtime nemesis! Why should they even listen to her? On the geth side, only as an admiral do they see her talk of peace actually getting anywhere. Furthermore, it is possible they now know the reason for her exile. Otherwise, you'll need Admiral Koris, a peacemaker, and 4) below.
3) Shepard had to go into the geth server and disinfect the Reaper code. Aside from the obvious tactical benefit of disrupting Reaper command and control, this mission builds trust with the geth. Look closer, and this mission is much more about reconnecting the geth with archived memories of either peaceful times with quarians, or of quarians fighting and dying on their behalf. Why were the Reapers attempting to cut the geth off from these memories? Because they firmly believe that organic–synthetic cooperation is never, ever possible. Unless this belief is dispelled for the geth, peace cannot happen.
4) The heretics were destroyed. While not essential for peace, this greatly aids the cause. It is also a counterintuitive decision, as you would think that sparing geth would build trust. The reason why killing them builds that trust instead, is because for the geth it is all about perspectives. The heretics chose to follow the Reapers based on their perspective, and when they were rewritten, those perspectives were not erased. Said perspectives were still able to persuade geth that peace is not possible. Either that perspective had to be completely erased, or failing that, a lot more counterarguments with data were needed to refute that perspective. One big counterargument was
5) Brokering actual cooperation between Tali and Legion during their loyalty fight. An actual truce is one where both of them are convinced to help each other. The Renegade resolution has you pull a DI gambit where they cooperate or face your wrath. The Paragon resolution, however, is more poignant as it convinces each of them to want to cooperate. If this is not done, you have to convince the slighted one to play along to keep the other one invested. This kind of manipulation doesn’t help any when trying to broker peace.
Now, a deeper reason why this peace is an optimal choice. Although more war assets are always better, the timing of this arc is significant in influencing the available endings. Before you begin this arc, unless you have played a lot if multiplayer, your maximum EMS is somewhere in the 2,000 to 2,400 range. Saving only one side brings your EMS to around 2,800, while saving both brings it past 3,100. What is the significance here? Synthesis requires 2,800, while Destroy with Shepard surviving requires 3,100. At 2,800, everybody achieves synthesis on the Reapers’ terms, while the Destroy with Shepard surviving allows for a more gradual form of synthesis to occur on our terms. Shepard’s survival ensures that the geth and their sacrifice will not be whitewashed away and be able to advise galactic society that some solution must be found to head off organic synthetic conflict.
Why does saving the salarian councilor matter so much? Because if you read the Codex on the Council races, they reveal that the salarians are constantly thinking, analyzing, inventing, and are therefore more adaptable than the conservative turians and asari. Reading up on human diplomatic relations reveals that the humans and salarians are starting to form a bloc to act as a bulwark against the conservatism of the turians and asari. When talking to Mordin, he reveals that he knows about the Reapers. Even in the first game, Kirrahe’s STG team is the only backup the Council sends. Maelon also seems to know all about Reaper indoctrination. In the first game, Valern seems to be the only councilor who shows an initial interest in what these Reapers are. Conclusion drawn: the salarians knew all along about the threat the Reapers posed and, in those two years, were preparing for it. The dreadnought fleet that Linron gives you for sabotaging the genophage cure is the strongest individual fleet after the quarian and geth fleets. So why does saving Valern matter? Because Valern created an actual military asset to counter the Reapers, while Ishil had to set up that task force to play catch-up. You don’t get stronger assets from the surviving turian and asari councilors, because they ostriched up and didn’t take the Reaper threat seriously.
All in all, the Council-based War Assets scenario allows us the player to examine the pitfalls of retaining or replacing leaders who initially failed a challenge that was previously unknown, unique, and difficult. Retaining them gives you the possibility that these leaders might learn from their mistake and adapt. But it also brings about the possibility that because the challenge has passed, they might revert to Head-in-the-Sand Management. It all depends on how comfortable a leader is with risk and change. On the flip side, replacing leaders who fail might seem like the right thing to do, but it brings about the caveat that their replacement may be equally as clueless about the problem as their predecessors were. And those predecessors have something that these new people don’t have: past experiences of approaches that didn’t work before. The new people could unintentionally make the same mistakes their predecessors did.
The turians only require three assets to be scanned and located – the scout flotilla, an ancient regimental banner and that spiteful little runt. These aren’t just random fetch quests – they are indicative of how the turians are faring against the Reapers. They have no units or ships stranded in some remote planet because their forces are still holding against the Reaper onslaught. A scouting unit is cut off behind enemy lines, just like scouting units have been since the dawn of warfare. And Pinnacle Station is a very remote outpost jointly run by turians and humans. However, the fact that an ancient regimental banner buffs their dreadnought fleet by almost 50% indicates that while their line is holding, it cannot hold for long. This onslaught is slowly eroding the fight out of them because for the first time in probably ever, they are facing defeat.
Volus assets consist of one dreadnought with everything else being put towards funding or building the Crucible. This is indicative of their hat as the Proud Merchant Race. Also indicative of that hat – the fact that an ancient book has to explicitly instruct them to take off that hat in order to aid the war effort. This will probably be a seminal transformative moment for them.
The asari need assets rescued from three systems, and those assets are a mixture of civilian and military items. Unlike the turians and humans, they don’t have an Engineering Corps, they only send a science team. Their engineers are a random gaggle that needs rescuing. More telling is the fact that one of their ships you rescue is found in their home system! And their dreadnought fleet essentially needed to reacquire their equivalent of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War for its value to get anywhere close to the strength of a dreadnought fleet. Even their ground forces are scattered with two units you’d expect to find on Thessia, being stranded in a completely different star cluster. This is indicative of just how decentralized the asari are, and how that decentralization is affecting them.
The species that benefits the most from search and rescue – humans. You find a total of six ships and three infantry/spec ops units, and the human engineering corps more than doubles in strength by finding Prothean artifacts. But tellingly, you don’t have to find some ancient artifact to rally humans to fight, like you need to for the turians, volus, elcor, and asari. Humans are willing to fight. However, their entire military doctrine is for them to act like cavalry, rapidly rushing in to the rescue. That cavalry has been routed by an enemy with superior firepower and numbers but not actually annihilated, because that cavalry never tried to regroup quickly and try to Hold the Line. And this routed cavalry needs someone to rally and shepherd them back together into formation for the counteroffensive. Your role is to be that Shepard.
Would conventional victory have even been possible?
Although Hackett tells you many times that there is no way to defeat the Reapers conventionally, many of the people who felt slighted by the Refusal ending argue that it should have been possible to achieve a conventional victory with a very high EMS. Although the deeper meaning behind Effective Military Strength is analyzed above, let’s see if such a victory was actually possible.To achieve a conventional military victory, the defeated force must be in such a state that fighting is just not possible anymore. In the old days, this was achieved by just slaughtering enough enemy soldiers to the point where any organized resistance was futile. Later on, geography and logistics became incorporated, and therefore, if you cut off an enemy’s supply lines and boxed them into an untenable location, you won. As technology advanced, victory became less and less about killing your opponents and more about starving them, routing them, capturing them, encircling them, and eventually out-producing them. Ultimately, a conventional war will boil down to “Who has more reserves?” Who can produce more reserves?
The Reapers produce at least one capital ship every 50,000 years. And from the age of the Reaper corpse recovered from Dis, they have been at it for about 1 billion years. So they ought to have about twenty thousand Sovereign-class capital ships maximum. Given that some will eventually be lost during harvests, it is fair to say that they have about sixteen thousand. All those species that cannot be turned into capital ships become destroyers. In this cycle alone, there were about ten other spacefaring races besides the humans. If this same number of species achieve space flight every cycle, then the Reapers can create up to 10 destroyers per cycle. That can be a maximum of 200,000. Even assuming some losses in prior harvests, that could still be about 160,000 destroyers. With each capital ship also capable of carrying fighters (and assuming that this fighter complement is the same as a standard aircraft carrier, i.e. about 80–100 fighters per ship), we are looking at about two million fighter craft.
Now compare that to what the combined fleets of all Citadel races could muster up. With the 5:3:1 ratio dictated by the Treaty of Farixen, and the turians having only 35 dreadnoughts, this leaves the other three Council races supplying a max of 63 dreadnoughts, and even if all others produced up to their maximum capacity, they could only add about fifty or so more. The quarians apparently exceeded their limit with their Liveships, resulting in 10, and the geth apparently have as many as the turians – 35. With all of them combined, that is barely 200 dreadnoughts. While no limits have been placed on smaller ships, it may be economically impossible to build more than, say, five hundred per species. Sure, the quarians have 50,000, but the majority of those are transport ships. So at the most, you could expect about five thousand combat-capable ships. They are already outnumbered about 30 to 1. The Codex also tells us that three dreadnoughts are the minimum of what is required to bring down a Reaper capital ship. So when we need about sixty thousand dreadnoughts alone, we have only about two hundred. That is a gigantic deficit.
Sure, you could forego dreadnoughts and use carriers to deploy fighter wings. But remember that, besides humans, all other races are only now getting familiarized with large-scale fighter deployment doctrine. There is no way they can ramp up production and training to field enough fighters to bring down sixteen thousand dreadnoughts.
So, a simple battle of attrition just won’t work. Can we win by starving out the Reapers? No, since their power sources appear to be sufficient to keep them operating at peak for at least a century, while the volus estimates that the galactic economy will collapse within one year. Can we outmaneuver them in any way? No, since they are about twice as fast and can control the relay network. Can we use the environment against them somehow? No, since they’ve placed relays far away from any cosmological hazards that could threaten them – since those hazards threaten us, too.
Therefore, Hackett was absolutely right: conventional victory was never possible.
Why Dark Energy would not have worked as an Ending
The original idea for the Reapers’ motivation to harvest all life in this galaxy was supposedly to curtail the excessive use of mass effect fields for Faster-Than-Light Travel before it causes space-time in that region to rip apart or something. While dark energy ripping apart space and time is of great concern to actual physicists in Real Life, using it this way would have been erroneous. Let's see why.Dark energy is actually a catch-all term for something that is causing everything in the universe to recede from us at an increasing rate. The theory is that everything recedes due to the Big Bang, but due to gravity, that recession should be slowing down. Instead, it is increasing. Without knowing what force is causing this, Dark Energy is a placeholder used until the phenomenon can be explained better. So when Parasini claims to be “looking into it”, she is only doing what many astrophysicists are doing now.
The hypothesis is that this dark energy expansion, if allowed to continue, will rip space and time apart. But in reality, that rip (if it happens) will happen 50 billion years from now if the universe is a closed universe, and it will happen everywhere in the universe. The manner in which it will happen is also of scales much bigger than a single galaxy. First galactic clusters will be thrown asunder, then galaxies themselves will cease to hold on to their stars. Before any of these were to happen, all other galaxies will recede so far away that we may never even know they exist. Then star clusters like the Veil, Hourglass, Horsehead, etc. will be thrown asunder. Stars suffering rapid aging like on Haestrom would have been the penultimate stage. They would all shed mass in supergiant-like behavior as opposed to supernovae, which occur due to gravitational collapse.
After all stars have come unbound by gravity, things go From Bad to Worse. All molecular structures such as planets, satellites, asteroids, rings, even smaller structures get ripped apart, then scatter into individual molecules. No life form can survive this. Then individual molecules get ripped apart into atoms, then atoms explode into subatomic particles, which then further explode into fundamental quantum particles. Then these individual particles recede, and finally space and time shatters into quintillions of pockets.
But don’t worry! Scientific consensus is that this is NOT going to happen, as the closed universe theory isn’t widely accepted, and that it is actually entropy which slowly grinds the universe to a heat death from total lack of usable energy. A Big Rip of the space-time continuum might take more than a few googol years to occur. So in actuality, we have nothing to worry about from Dark Energy. A technological singularity, on the other hand, is a real and scary possibility.
For argument’s sake, let’s consider that the Big Rip will happen fifty billion years from now and that the Reapers are attempting to ward it off. Is what they are doing an effective way to do so? No! Because this Big Rip will span billions of galaxies when it hits. Will slowing down eezo use in one galaxy make any difference? Not if billions of other galaxies are going to be affected anyway. By doing this, it is the Reapers who are dust struggling against the cosmic wind.
The Mass Effect 3 Ending Controversy
When a controversy is enough to get its own page on The Other Wiki, you probably should know that you've seriously messed up as a writer.
So just why was the ending so controversial?
For those who were not around at the time, it is hard to overstate the controversy in gaming circles. Mass Effect 3 was an enormously anticipated title, following on the heels of the very popular Mass Effect 2. Fans were looking forward to a final showdown with the Reapers, and seeing how the hundreds of unique choices made would impact things. Combine that with a studio that has been putting out what were considered some of the best games of all time, and it seemed like nothing could go wrong.
Background
Mass Effect 3 had a troubled and rushed production, and it's hard not to feel some sympathy for the developers, having to churn out a more ambitious and complicated project without anywhere near enough time and resources. For those interested in the story behind this, a video by Raycevick has you covered. If you don't have the time to watch, we can distil it down to one line:
It shows, and resulted in a lot of cut corners. The one most relevant here is the writing, with conversation paths often not being present, or an illusion of choice being given which still results in the player progressing down the same path with minimal dialogue differences. Mass Effect 2 in particular gave the player a lot more control over Shepard's tone, and this would often result in very different responses, increasing immersion and replay value.
A very quick plot recap
After stopping the Reaper invasion (temporarily) in Mass Effect 1, their backup plan in Mass Effect 2 (temporarily), and their backup backup plan (temporarily) in ME2 DLC, the Reapers finally invade and it's not pretty. Shepard, under house arrest and awaiting trial on Earth due the events of the aforementioned DLC (or working with Cerberus in ME2 if you didn't do it) is reinstated into the Alliance Navy and escapes. On the way to the Citadel they pick up Liara, and more importantly plans for the Deus Ex Machina device, sorry, "Crucible" which will destroy the Reapers. Hopefully. No one really knows what it will do, which is exactly what you want to hear when spending trillions building some kind of super weapon.
The vast majority of the game involves building alliances with other species to actually get the resources together to build the damn thing, and get enough firepower to have any chance of defeating the Reapers. Also it's missing some MacGuffin called the "Catalyst", and we find out no one ever managed to build it. They weren't the protagonist though, so it's fine.
After a final trip to Cerberus HQ for reasons we'll gloss over for now, we're finally ready to take back Earth. Or die horribly. Preferably the first one.
Following a fight in the middle of London to get to a teleportation beam to get up Citadel (which is now on Earth, we'll also gloss over it for now), we find the Catalyst, who explains the Reapers kill everyone because AI and organics are doomed to kill each other which is bad, so they solve that by having AI kill organics (uh...) and you get given 3 choices:
- Red - Destroy the Reapers (and all other AI).
- Blue - Shepard mind uploads to Control the Reapers.
- Green - Synthesis: Shepard leaps into a beam and dissolves, to convert everyone, machines included, into organic-synthetic hybrids (somehow), so the Reapers won't want to kill anyone anymore (???????????????). Yeah, this one is pretty out there, we'll discuss it in a bit.
The Original Endings
In the original form, the culimation of potentially hundreds of hours of gameplay in the trilogy was pretty much "red, green, or blue". Really. See for yourself. Hope you don't happen to have some form of color blindness. All the decisions you make have almost no impact, other than changing some abstract military strength score. Also, the mass relays get blown up, and the Normandy crash lands somewhere.
With no post-game epilogue (not that these endings would lend themselves to one), it gave zero insight into the impact of decisions and actions the player had made; there was no chance to explore the galaxy afterwards, to discuss with other characters, or observe the outcomes.
The destruction of the mass relays also not only would have meant the destruction of the entire galactic civilisation, but also the mass starvation of any surviving aliens, and at least two of the Normandy crew, if not more.
So whichever option you pick, pretty much everyone ends up dead. Hope you enjoyed spending those hundreds of hours!
Also, Bioware would like to give you this important message: go and buy some DLC. Sorry if you were expecting a "thanks for playing" message or something.
While the uncertainty and possibly a dark path ahead seems originally intended (astute listeners will note the sinister closer of "An End Once and For All", compared to the triumphant tone in the extended cut mix), it appears that the above interpretation was not the one intended by Hudson and co.
Cue the backlash.
Extended Cut
Following the, um, very minor dissatisfaction with the original endings, an impassioned defence of said endings from the gaming media (which absolutely did not throw more fuel on the fire of debates over the quality of gaming journalism, and the incestuous nature of the relationship between the media and the industry), Bioware were forced into some major damage control.
The long and short of this is that Bioware released a free DLC called the "Extended Cut", providing epilogue slides, additional dialogue, and making some tweaks. For instance, the relays are not automatically obliterated if you have a strong EMS score. A lot of the fundamentals don't change, but at least everyone isn't automatically doomed. We also get a new ending option where we can tell the Catalyst to go to hell. Everyone dies, but the next cycle wins, so there's that.
Also: it's possible for Shepard to survive if you have a high EMS score and pick Destroy.
Also also: Bioware would now like to thank you for playing. It wasn't that hard after all Bioware!
"Space Magic"
The Synthesis ending has acquired the mocking name of "Space Magic" for a good reason. Aside from the One Big Lie of the eponymous "Mass Effect", the universe tends to try to stick to physics and other science, with codex entries often going into a lot of detail; the series has earned its entry in the Shown Their Work page.
Firstly let's compare it to the Destroy and Control endings. Regardless of how well they were executed as endings and narratives, The Reapers, being machines, some sort of super EMP that could affect them at least makes conceptual sense. And being machines, being able to hack or otherwise control them also at least makes sense, even if some blue wave thing doesn't (why not just broadcast a signal to them instead of overclocking the WiFi by a factor of ten trillion?). Shepard dissolving and immediately turning into an AI construct is more out there, but at least it's theoretically possible. These endings also fit in with the themes from earlier (destroying/keeping the collector base in ME2) and the geth standing on their own two feet vs. having the Reapers upgrade them (though this point falls flat on its face by having Legion immediately forget his own points about going their own way on their own journey, and use the Reaper code to upgrade them all — whoops writing team).
How can a beam spontaneously create all sorts of electronic circuits in the brains of organic beings across the galaxy, and do so aross many species with different biochemistry and brain structures. How does it create meat in computers made of metal and silicon? Who knows. Hence "Space Magic". It doesn't just violate the existing established rules, it throws them out the window into a black hole. And then destroys that black hole.
Bizarrely as well, the game frames this as the Golden Ending, from the amount of effort required to achieve it, and seems to have given zero thought to the morality of this choice. At best this is invasive mutilation without consent of the entire galaxy. At worst, you might even consider it some sort of galaxy-wide rape. In any case, it massively violates body autonomy of everyone in the galaxy, and can be considered at least culturicide if not genocide, forcibly converting everyone into a new form where everyone thinks the same. Compare this to Legion's comments in Mass Effect 2 where even benign anthropocentrism (read: trying to apply human morality to the geth, in good faith) was termed racist.
The short version, is that the ending throws the established rules out the window for pretty much literal magic, and unwittingly frames what would be one of the most immoral acts conceiveable by an individual as a good thing. All to solve a problem that goes against the trilogy's own narrative.
The option also comes completely out of nowhere at the very last second, compare that to the debate about destroying vs. controlling which crops up throughout the game between the Illusive Man and Shepard, and an extension of keeping the collector base vs. destroying it in ME2.
Switching Themes
As mentioned above and elsewhere, the original reason for the Reapers' actions was to solve the problem of dark energy destroying the universe, something foreshadowed back in Mass Effect 2 during Tali's recruitment mission. This shifted after Drew Karpyshyn moved on following the release of Mass Effect 2.
Mass Effect 3's ending was also constantly being rewritten and tweaked until the last minute, including further changes following a leak onto Xbox Live in November 2011. The ending was also allegedly written by Mac Walters and Casey Hudson with zero input and peer review from the writing team. Very little is known about this, other than a single writer's note "Lots of speculation from everyone", backing up the suggestion above that the ending was meant to be ambiguous.
The change to the Reapers wiping out organics due to organics and synthetics being doomed to destroy each other (presented without any acknowledgement of the massive hypocrisy and irony) results in an abrupt shift in narrative. This theme had not only been dealt with in the form of interacting with EDI in Mass Effect 2 and 3, but had also culminated in the Rannoch story arc about ten hours plus before the ending. Thus the entire motive is not only insane and circular ("we're going to kill you organics, because organics and synthetics kill each other which is bad"), but also resolved and potentially disproven by a possible peace between the Quarians and Geth, and EDI never turns on the player.
The last few hours also feature story changes and swerves that are shockingly abrupt, almost like a TV show that's realised it has a minute left and has to wrap everything up in the space of 60 seconds:
- The player attacks Cerberus HQ, to re-obtain a Prothean VI taken by Cerberus (and also destroy Cerberus), which has information on the Catalyst.
- The player finds out the Citadel is the Catalyst they've been looking for, and the Citadel has been moved to Earth. Offscreen. In a couple of lines of dialogue. Also, even in the Extended Cut the player is given zero information on what happened to all the characters you knew, so potentially they're all dead.
- The Catalyst is actually an AI controlling the Reapers, the Reapers kill everyone for the reasons above, and the Crucible allows you to destroy the Reapers, control them, or magically convert everyone into cyborgs. Somehow. And this story point comes in the very last seconds of the game.
To put it mildly, the pacing and thematic direction is all over the place.
Conclusion
Some stories are Vindicated by History. However, it is generally safe to say that Mass Effect 3 is not one of those stories. With large plot holes, huge narrative shifts all over the place with no build up, and making almost every decision inconsequential, even now the ending controversy still casts a large shadow over the franchise.
With a fifth Mass Effect game in development, it remains to be seen on how this is handled, and if the franchise can return to the heights it once had.
One thing that does seem likely however is that the Mass Effect 3 ending will remain as one of the most infamous and controversial incidents in video game history.
