Recap / Mass Effect 3

A Recap of Mass Effect 3.

Previously, On...

Mass Effect 1

Mass Effect takes place in 2183. The Player Character is Lt. Cmdr. Shepard of the Human Systems Alliance, a Semper Fi type and war hero. Shepard was sent to Eden Prime, where an artifact was left behind by the setting's Precursors, the Protheans. Shepard received a vision from that Prothean Beacon and spent the entire game trying to decipher it. It turned out to be an apocalyptic warning: the Protheans sent a warning about how they were being wiped out by a horde of alien-demon-robot Eldritch Abominations called "Reapers". This would explain why the Protheans went extinct. The bad news is that the Reapers come by every 50,000 years... and the Protheans disappeared 50,000 years ago. Oh, Crap!.

Shepard assembled a Player Party of the following characters:

• Ashley Madeline Williams, whose family has been branded Dirty Cowards at large because, during First Contact, her grandfather surrendered to a superior turian fleet. As such, her attitude was somewhere between Black-and-Grey Morality — "Aliens will care for their own people first, and we'd better be prepared to go it alone — and straight-up Fantastic Racism — "I can't tell the animals from the aliens." That said, she was a Consummate Professional in the field, even when working with aliens. She was also a Religious Bruiser and a Warrior Poet with a particular love of Tennyson.
• Kaidan Alenko, a human biotic (Gravity Master), one of the first in human history. Because aliens already knew how to use biotics, the Alliance turned to alien teachers, particularly turians, for instruction, and as such Kaidan had a less-cynical view of them. Kaidan was optimistic and soft-spoken to Ashley's aggressive cynicism.
• Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, a quarian (Roguish Romani IN SPACE!). Quarians are famous for inadvertently starting a Robot War when they took their "geth," robot laborers of limited intelligence, and accidentally upgraded them to true Artificial Intelligence. The quarians have been at odds with the geth — and, for that matter, the rest of the galaxy, since the ruling Council imposed a Ban on A.I. — since the 1800s, when they conducted a Homeworld Evacuation, leaving Rannoch to their robotic creations, and started living full-time on the biggest fleet in the galaxy. A Wrench Wench, Tali was her people's equivalent of a teenager, going on her Rite of Passage, and was somewhat speciesist against the geth.
• Garrus Vakarian, a turian Cowboy Cop — which made him a Cultural Rebel, since turian society is all about rules and responsibilities. A former Space Police officer, he quit and came along with Shepard to escape the red tape. Shepard was able to either encourage or discourage his "I Did What I Had to Do" tendencies.
• Urdnot Wrex, an Old Soldier krogan — one of the most divisive races in the galaxy, having saved everyone's bacon from the aggressors in one galactic war (against the rachni) and then almost dooming it during the next one by being the aggressors. The krogan are now the victims of a Sterility Plague called the genophage, and they're not shy about reminding people about it. Wrex was also a Cultural Rebel in the sense that he wanted to lead the krogan away from their Blood Knight Screaming Warrior roots and into a (slightly) less violent future.
• Liara T'Soni, a Shrinking Violet and Adventure Archaeologist who was an expert on the Protheans. She was instrumental in helping Shepard understand their visions. Liara is an asari, a Blue-Skinned Space Babe One-Gender Race that reproduce by Touch Telepathy^note  No genetic information is exchanged; instead, asari sex involves a Mind Meld, and the spontaneously generated child has their genes randomized according to whatever the asari perceives; like Tali, she was considered a youngster by her people, being a mere 106 years old.

Shepard could also form romances: a male Shepard could date Ashley, a female Shepard could date Kaidan, and both could engage in Boldly Coming with Liara.

The main Antagonist was a turian named Saren Arterius. Saren was one of the best Spectres, Elite Agents Above the Law who directly serve the Citadel Council that governs the galaxy. To defeat him, Shepard was promoted to the Spectres as well, the first human to receive the honor. Saren also had the help of the Geth, their first appearance on the interstellar stage in 300 years. The campaign against Saren was long and costly; while assaulting his main base on the planet Virmire, Shepard was caught out of position and was forced to sacrifice either Ashley or Kaidan. Both Mutually Exclusive Party Members will be referred to as "The Virmire Survivor," as from that point on they become basically interchangeable.

Saren turned out to be The Dragon for Sovereign, which was at first thought to be Saren's ship but then turned out to be an actual Reaper, possessing Technology Levels far beyond anything else. In addition to Readings Are Off the Scale Power Levels, Reapers have access to a brainwashing ability called indoctrination. They claim to have been wiping out sentient life on schedule for millions of years, but Shepard resolved to stop them — and proved it could be done by killing Sovereign.

See the Mass Effect 1 recap for details.

Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2 took place two years later. Shepard found themself railroaded into working for Cerberus, an extremist human group best thought of as Right-Wing Militia Fanatic types IN SPACE!. That being said, Cerberus saw themselves as Properly Paranoid about incoming threats, and they were the only people prepared to accept the Cassandra Truth about the Reapers. (The Council had gone on to dismiss Reapers as rumors and fearmongering.) Under the guidance of Cerberus' leader, The Illusive Man, Shepard assembled a new crew, and then earned their Undying Loyalty by helping them resolve their Unfinished Business:

• Miranda Lawson was a human biotic and opposite-sex clone of wealthy businessman Henry Lawson. Shepard helped her keep Oriana — a clone of Miranda fired up to replace her when she escaped her father — likewise out of his clutches. Supremely capable, Miranda had been employed by many but respected by very few.
• Jacob Taylor was a former Alliance Marine who left to escape red tape. Shepard helped him rescue his father after a ten-year disappearance... And cope with the fact that his father spent those 10 years using mind-altering substances to turn people into his slaves. Jacob was a pretty straight-up guy, which made him a divisive character when put next to the other characters' colorful dysfunctions.
• Jack, AKA Subject Zero, was the most powerful human biotic.... Who got that way because Cerberus put her through a Training from Hell to create a trigger-happy Tyke-Bomb. Shepard helped her blow up the facility where all this was done to her during her childhood. Bare from the waist up except for tattoos and a few strategically placed leather straps, Jack had seized the Jerkass Ball with both hands to Never Be Hurt Again.
• Grunt was a genetically engineered krogan meant to be the best of the species; however, he emerged from his Uterine Replicator fully grown and with no understanding of his people's culture. Shepard helped him get inducted into krogan society. He was basically a five-year-old, though with poetic eloquence, Regenerating Health and a very large shotgun.
• Garrus Vakarian showed up as a vigilante trying to bring order to a Wretched Hive. After one of his squad betrayed him, he asked Shepard's help in having the fellow Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves. Like Jack, he liked to keep people at a distance.
• Mordin Solus was a salarian Omnidisciplinary Scientist and retired Secret Agent. During his career he was involved in correcting variations in the genophage that lessened its effectiveness, and he needed Shepard's help in stopping others from making the same mistakes he did. He struggled with enormous guilt over his work.
• Tali'Zorah vas Neema showed up, working for the Migrant Fleet and, though trusting of Shepard, was highly suspicious of Cerberus. That said, when she was accused as an accessory to treason, after her father's research on the geth Went Horribly Wrong, she was glad of Shepard's assistance, and officially changed her name to "Tali'Zorah vas Normandy" to show her allegiance.
• Samara was an asari Justicar, essentially The Paladin who follows a strict Code of Honor (sometimes to the point of Honor Before Reason). Asari can breed with other races... and if they don't, the "pureblood" asari has a higher chance of becoming an "Ardat-Yakshi", a Black Widow who kills during sex. All three of Samara's daughters were such, and Shepard helped her hunt down one of them. She adopted the Justicar Code not just because it formalized her hunt for Ardat-Yakshi but as The Atoner for bringing more of them into the world.
  • With enough Karma Meter points, Shepard was also allowed to choose to recruit Morinth, Samara's daughter, who (with Shepard's consent) pulled off a Kill and Replace, with the rest of the crew none the wiser. Since Ardat-Yakshi do indeed kill during sex, she represents Schmuck Bait.
• Thane Krios was a drell assassin. Drell, who evolved on a desert planet, found their biosphere dying to global warming; they were saved by the jellyfish-like hanar, and now live on their watery planet, where the humid conditions result in a degenerative lung condition. Thane had been away from home, serving his hanar masters, for a long time, and has the condition; Shepard helped him look after his son, whom he abandoned as a child, and kept him from becoming a Professional Killer like his father. He is also still mourning his Lost Lenore: his enemies slew his wife to get to him.
• Legion was a geth, specifically designed by the geth as an envoy to the organics. They revealed that the geth who assisted Sovereign were actually a Vocal Minority of the population, and asked Shepard's help in eliminating a large number of them. They — 1183 geth runtimes cooperatively operating a single hardware platform — provide a fascinating insight into the geth.
• Kasumi Goto is a Downloadable Content character. A Phantom Thief hired by The Illusive Man, she wanted Shepard's help in retrieving the graybox of her fellow thief and romantic partner, whom she still pines for.
• Zaeed Massani is a DLC character. A renowned mercenary hired by The Illusive Man, he wanted Shepard's help in avenging himself against the current head of the Blue Suns Private Military Contractors, which Zaeed used to co-lead. Zaeed, an Old Soldier, is bitter over his life.
  

While Shepard also attempted to recruit Liara, Wrex and the Virmire Survivor, they were unable to join. Liara was working as an Information Broker and waging war against the king of that industry, "The Shadow Broker" (in a DLC mission, Shepard can help her do it, which resulted in Liara becoming the new Shadow Broker). Wrex might've suffered a Plotline Death during the mission on Virmire, but if not, he was back on the krogan homeworld of Tuchanka attempting to weld the fractious clans into something better. And the Virmire Survivor was still with the Alliance and resents Shepard for their allegiance to Cerberus. (Yes, even if it was Ashley. Even racists have standards.)

A male Shepard was able to date Jack, Miranda or Tali. A female Shepard could date Garrus, Thane or Jacob. They could do this even if they dated Liara, Kaidan or Ashley in the previous game. They could also choose to remain loyal to their pre-existing significant other.

Shepard needed to get all these people squared away, and their Character Arcs resolved, because they needed to go on a one-way mission. This is the pinnacle of the game: A Final Exam Finale that references every choice you've made, from whether to upgrade your ship, the Normandy, to whether (or if) you've secured any given squadmate's loyalty, to how you assign and dispose of your squadmates while Storming the Castle, the mission serves as the culmination of the entire game. Any wrong choice can result in Character Deaths. Depending on the player's choices, Shepard could suffer a few casualties, achieve the Golden Ending where Everybody Lives, or even achieve a Non-Standard Game Over with an "Everybody Dies" Ending — including Shepard themselves, as they tried to escape. (If so, that saved game cannot be used as a starting point for a Mass Effect 3 campaign.)

In a DLC mission, Shepard learned that a human researcher has found evidence indicating that the Reaper invasion is due to happen very, very soon. This researcher intended to destroy a "mass relay," one of the Cool Gates left behind by the Protheans that form the Portal Network of interstellar travel; while this would cause an Class X-2 Apocalypse How and result in the destruction of a nearby colony of 300,000, it would also stop the Reapers from jumping in. Shepard was forced to complete the plan in the researcher's stead, delaying the Reapers' arrival but at the cost of becoming a war criminal.

See the Mass Effect 2 recap for details.

Prologue: Emily Wong

It's 2186. Over Twitter, ANN News Reporter Emily Wong, out of Los Angeles, reports on the fact that Earth's comm buoys are out. She has procured a Quantum Entanglement Communicator from Dr. Leisha Martinette at UCLA, which allows her to keep reporting using the hashtag #solcomms.

QEC faster than light, but can only talk to matched particle. Also limited to text. Yay typing! #solcomms

As such, she is able to report on the news when something very, very large lands in LA and starts vaporizing everything in sight. Emily, who was working out of the Citadel in 2183 and actually had LCDR Shepard digging up evidence for her, recognizes it:

Now that tentacles extended, recognize this. Looks like geth flagship that attacked the Citadel. #solcomms

Wong, Dr. Martinette and Officer Aidan Pearson of the LAPD jump in Wong's skyvan and flee the scene, allowing Emily to provide real-time updates of the chaos in the streets as the Reapers land.

Only good thing about giant death machines is you can see them a long way off. Can see one burning LAX now. #solcomms
Pearson says he has spare guns at his house. Can only help, but looking at thing firing on LAX, not sure pistol will do it. #solcomms

Pearson then takes the skyvan to the local high school where his son has not reported in. It's already being invaded by things Emily's never seen before, but which players — tomorrow, on March 6, 2012, when the game comes out — will recognize as "Cannibals," Reaper zombie cyborgs that heal themselves off of allied corpses — as well as the good old Husks. Pearson is slain, but Emily grabs a Reaper gun; when she and Dr. Martinette test it against a nearby wall, the Stuff Blowing Up is very gratifying.

Dr. M provides the theory on the Reaper incursion. Emily has already noticed that they're not here to kill, because they're taking prisoners, and have the technology to just vaporize everything around them but aren't using it. She also noticed that the Cannibals look like batarians. Dr. M's theory is that it's all an Assimilation Plot: the Reapers will turn conquered civilian populations into their soldiers for the next race they invade. They investigate West Hollywood Jail and Cedars-Sinai Hospital, and confirm their theory: the Reapers have come for warm bodies.

Please, if you hear this, DO NOT GO TO ANY INSTITUTION WHERE PEOPLE GATHER. THEY ARE TARGETS. #solcomms
Oh, no... Dodger Stadium. Game today. #solcomms

Whilst observing Dodger Stadium, Emily and Dr. M notice Alliance shuttles lifting off from El Monte Airport. The shuttles actually make it into the sky, to the women's disbelief. The two resolve to head for the airport, knowing that their only hope of survival — and of linking up with organized resistance — lies there.

Met w/Lt. Col. Gordon Soto of National Guard. Were at the airport this morning, fully equipped when it all went down. #solcomms
He said to keep getting the message out. I just got hugged and high-fived by about a dozen grunts. #solcomms
Everyone glad msg getting out. Workers and travelers still scared, but hope to escape. #solcomms

However, then the Reapers attack the airport directly, and Emily comes to a horrifying realization:

Alliance forces have not hurt Reaper ship. No damage. It's coming straight for us. Straight for ME. #solcomms
This signal, going out and being rebroadcast everywhere... I think they picked it up. I led them here #solcomms

Emily, transforming from Intrepid Reporter to Action Survivor, jumps into her skyvan and attempts to lead the Reapers away from the airport. It goes horribly right. Dr M. had planned to use the Reaper gun against them, but it turns out it only had one shot, and they've already used it; she is slain by return fire, and Emily wounded. She continues to tweet her Apocalyptic Log as the Reapers close in.

Van still flying. Lost a lot of blood. Not sure how long I have. Not sure QEC even still on. #solcomms
Reaper out in front of me. Lost pistol. Only weapon left is this skyvan. #solcomms
Fighter drones closing. Gunships are down. Mom, dad, love you. #solcomms
Go on. Make your noise. Try to scare us. #solcomms
You want to see how a human dies? At ramming speed. #solcomms

Invasion

Over in the video game itself, Shepard is being Hauled Before A Senate Subcommittee in Vancouver for destroying that mass relay. They are being attended by Lt. James Vega, who insists on saluting Shepard even though they are out of the service and do not hold rank. (Shepard has always been a Magnetic Hero.) The Virmire Survivor — Kaidan by default, if you didn't import an Old Save Bonus — is also there, though still somewhat mistrusting of Shepard due to that whole "Friendly Enemies With Cerberus" thing. The hearings are disrupted by the worst possible news: the Reaper invasion has begun. What Emily Wong reported out of Los Angeles is happening to every major city on the planet.

Shepard and their former CO, Adm. David Anderson, fight their way through Vancouver. In addition to swarms of the basic human Husks from the prior games, the two also encounter Cannibals; batarian husks with a human-arm cannon that serve as basic frontline troops, who can consume the bodies of their fallen brethren to gain some armour plating. Navigating a destroyed building, Shepard encounters a young boy, separated from his parents and hiding from the Hell Is That Noise, explosions and mutated cyborg zombies that accompany a Reaper invasion. Shepard can encourage the boy to leave his refuge and join the two of them^note  Shepard is the only human Spectre, and Anderson was actually a candidate to be one about 20 years ago; they are arguably the two most skilled soldiers on the planet; if this kid has any chance at all, it's with them, but to no avail. That said, as Shepard gets out on the Normandy, they see the boy boarding an evacuation shuttle, having got out on his own. ...And then see the shuttle blown out of the sky by a Reaper. As Normandy leaves Earth, Shepard turns away from the people they can't save and towards those they can, having confronted first-hand the game's Central Theme: You Can't Save Everyone.

With the help of Anderson, Shepard rejoins the Virmire Survivor and Vega on the Normandy, the experimental stealth frigate they've been flying around in the entire trilogy. Anderson re-commissions Shepard as an Alliance officer and gives the marching orders: Shepard is to rally the races of the galaxy into a cohesive, unified fighting force with which to oppose the Reapers. Anderson himself decides to remain on the ground to organize La Résistance.

The title card rolls.

Mars

As Joker flies the Normandy away from Earth, the ship receives a Priority One distress call from Flt. Adm. Steven Hackett, de facto Chief of Naval Operations. The Prothean Archives on Mars, which first taught humanity how to get into space, is under attack by Cerberus, and Shepard needs to stop them — especially since researchers there have made the claim that they have discovered data that could help stop the Reapers. Shepard, James and the Virmire Survivor land and begin to fight their way in. The Virmire Survivor — who hasn't been in the Player Party since the first game, remember, some three years ago in-universe — takes the time to express some doubt over Shepard's true allegiances, and Shepard can respond as the player sees fit.

Inside, Shepard meets the head researcher who has a lead on the important Prothean data: Dr. Liara T'Soni, who also hasn't been a permanent member of the Player Party since the first game^note  Liara becomes a Guest-Star Party Member temporarily during the "Lair of the Shadow Broker" Downloadable Content mission but leaves afterwards. James is sent back to the shuttle to safeguard the team's exit strategy, while the three old friends venture deeper into the Archives to secure this important data.

It's a tutorial level allowing players to get reaccustomed to the Mass Effect 2 gameplay system and the changes that have been made to it. In addition to refining the Context-Sensitive Button that allows players to Take Cover!, jump out of cover and sprint, the game also revises its weapon system. Instead of restricting most classes to a Choice of Two Weapons, Shepard may now equip any number of weapon types they desire. That being said, all classes also now suffer Critical Encumbrance Failure: if the weapons you're carrying are too heavy for your class, Shepard suffers a global cooldown penalty which decreases their spellcasting frequency. (Computer-controlled squadmates remain restricted to their two weapons.) Gun Accessories and straight upgrades have also replaced both the convoluted Class and Level System that applied to guns in the first game and the oversimplified "You just have the gun, there may be as few as two per weapon type unless you buy DLC" system ("system") of the second game. Finally, the Karma Meter has been simplified, but in a good way: where previous games had separate Paragon and Renegade meters, Shepard in the third game just has one which fills up with not only both flavors of points but unflavored general "Reputation" points. In addition to allowing the game to check against both specific subtypes and Shepard's total, this also eases roleplaying, since players can now choose the dialogue option that fits their interpretation of Shepard without having to sacrifice Min-Maxing out a particular morality flavor.

Since EDI told us that, less than a year ago, Cerberus consisted of only about 150 people, and Shepard shoots about that many Cerberus soldiers in this mission alone, one of the questions Shepard needs to answer is where they got this many mooks. The answer is revealed when the Virmire Survivor raids one of the mooks for a radio: the mook looks like a Husk, one of the zombified humans Shepard and the Virmire Survivor have been fighting since Eden Prime. If Cerberus is acting as Les Collaborateurs, things are going to be complicated.

Another question is how Cerberus got into the facility in the first place. The answer comes in surveillance footage of a human researcher named Dr. Eva Core, who is revealed to be a Cerberus agent. When Shepard gets to the centre of the archives, Dr. Core is happily uploading data to The Illusive Man, Cerberus' leader. While the two have worked together before, TIM is now taking a very different stance on the Reapers: he wants to control them and learn from them, much as Saren did in the first game. This includes having Dr. Core delete the data locally once she has obtained it; the only copy is now in her possession. A Chase Scene ensues.

Dr. Core gets to her shuttle, but is prevented from escaping by James Vega, who arrives in Shepard's shuttle and employs a case of the good old "Ramming Always Works". Unfortunately, Dr. Core emerges unscathed: She's not a human at all, but rather a Ridiculously Human Robot designed for infiltration. She seizes the Virmire Survivor and bashes their head against the crashed Cerberus shuttle's side, forcing Shepard to shoot quickly and take her down. Shepard, Liara, James take the disabled mech and the Virmire Survivor, now in a coma, back to the Normandy. However, the ship is understaffed, and Liara, stepping into the role of Number Two, insists that they head to the Citadel to get the Virmire Survivor some medical treatment.

The Citadel I

Shepard gets the Virmire Survivor rushed to a local hospital, Huerta Memorial and then sets about reporting their findings to the Citadel Council, which consists of an asari, a turian, a salarian and the human ambassador Donnel Udina^note  Back in 2183, Shepard is allowed to decide whether the Fifth Fleet should go out of its way to save the Council from Sovereign or not; if not, then the Council that appears in the second and third game is a completely different set of individuals. That said, they are identical in terms of their plot function, so we're not going to waste time discussing it outside of this quick note. Shepard wants the other three races to come to Earth and help fight off the Reapers, which Udina is obviously in favor of, but the asari and salarian councilors prefer to preserve the strength of their militaries, and the turian councilor admits that his race is already under attack, with Reapers landing on the turian home planet of Palaven. The Council's official word is that they will be hosting an intergalactic summit to decide on a military response. The turian councilor, unofficially, suggests Shepard visit Palaven's moon, Menae, and help Primarch Fedorion make it off-world; he'll be hosting the summit in the first place, and his gratitude may be very valuable.^note  Since the original turian councilor displays the largest quantity, out of all six possible Councilors, of Head-in-the-Sand Management re: pretending the Reapers don't exist, some players found much to appreciate in the fellow's change of tune.

Shepard and Liara also bring forward the data they got from Mars: They are plans for a device called the Crucible, which the Protheans believed would be the secret to defeating the Reapers. However, they never got to try it out themselves because they could never get their hands on one last, absolutely critical, component — something called "The Catalyst." With the councillors sceptical about such a plan, Shepard begins individually recruiting any resources they can find, both materiel and personnel, to build the Crucible under Alliance supervision. This is the first introduction of the game's War Asset mechanic, in which Shepard can win the service of ships, soldiers and scientists, each of which has a numerical Power Level. The game's guidance on the subject is fairly cryptic: the terminal on the Normandy is just a bar, with a "Sufficient To Try To Win The Game" threshold about 40% of the way through it. Even if you only do the contents listed in this Recap, you'll have passed that threshold within the next five Folders of story. However, the fact that the meter keeps going past that threshold suggests that there's more to the story, and the game doesn't tell you much about that. The game is also pretty clear that the Power Levels should not be taken literally: for instance, the Normandy alone is worth more points than the Alliance's entire Fifth Fleet — despite being part of the Fifth Fleet. (See our Analysis page for enormous detail about War Assets and how to achieve their mathematical maximums.)

In the game's original release, there was also a "Readiness Rating," which multiplied your War Asset score by its value. RR could be increased by engaging in "Galaxy At War" Co-Op Multiplayer activities. You played not Shepard but a nameless N7 soldier — though classes, and more importantly races, were added in as the game matured, allowing players to finally step into the shoes/boots/whatever of asari, turians, salarians, quarians, drell, vorcha, krogan, volus, batarians, Cerberus operatives, geth, and even a freed Collector. Such characters operated in 4-person fireteams to survive 10-wave Horde Mode matches, plus a Hold the Line segment at the end as you waited for a Gunship Rescue. The more matches you won, the higher your RR got, though it would decay over time. Multiplayer characters who maxed out their levels could be "promoted" into the single-player campaign as War Assets. This gave players another angle with which to defeat the Reapers; while Forced Level-Grinding and Lootbox extravaganza were strongly in effect, most players found the moment-to-moment gameplay actually fun. That said, multiplayer was removed from all remasters and rereleases; they are hard coded to assume your RR is at maximum, as opposed to their original starting value of 50%. The maps themselves do appear in the single-player campaign as the location of N7-flavored Side Quests, and a small but thriving ME3 multiplayer community does exist via the original 2012 release.

As always, the Citadel is one of the main hubs for the game, and Shepard can walk around meeting various people. For instance, Thane Krios can be here: you have to have played ME2, recruited him for the Suicide Squad and gotten him out alive. If you did, he's at Huerta Memorial as well, seeking palliative care for his Kepral's Syndrome. Additionally, both Dr. Chakwas (if she survived the Suicide Mission) and Dr. Chloe Michel can be found in the hospital, and Shepard may recruit one of them to serve as the Normandy's chief medical officer. (If you pick Dr. Michel, Dr. Chakwas can convert into a War Asset.) You can also pick up Diana Allers, a reporter, who offers to "embed" (read: ship out on) the Normandy. Shepard also has their Spectre status confirmed (if they didn't get it back over the course of the 2nd game), allowing them access to a special office where intel and special guns can be purchased. It also serves as a backup for certain side-quests: if you visit a one-time area and miss something that allows you to complete a Fetch Quest, it'll show up here.

Shepard also catches up with the ship's crew. A frontend developer and comm specialist, Samantha Traynor, has replaced Yeoman Kelly Chambers at the station to Shepard's right, and briefs Shepard on the changes to the Normandy in the half-year she's spent being brought up to Alliance spec. Deck 2, the CIC, has received the most changes: Jacob's Armory has been moved down to Deck 5, which can manually be accessed now, and the entire stern quarter — Mordin's lab, the Armory, and the conference room — have all been revamped into the "War Room," where Shepard can check out their War Asset status and "Effective Military Readiness." (Traynor explains that Anderson had planned to use the Normandy as his mobile command centre.) Finally, just outside the elevator on Deck 3 has been added a "Memorial Wall" — a plaque bearing the names of the 20 crew who died on the SR-1, including the Virmire Non-Survivor, and any squadmates lost in the Suicide Mission at the end of Mass Effect 2.

As before, each squadmate picks a place to "live": Liara sets up in Miranda's old office on Deck 3, and Lt. Vega on Deck 5 doing the small-arms maintenance Jacob used to do. Down here is also Lt. Steve Cortez, Normandy's designated shuttle pilot. That said, squadmates are a lot more mobile in this game, and after certain missions, you'll find some of them in different places having different conversations with each other, especially as the game progresses and Shepard makes more progress Putting the Band Back Together.

As the Normandy travels, Shepard has a Dream Sequence of the little boy who died back on Earth. He's running through a forest, and Shepard chases him in slow motion, only to see him get burned up while Shepard can do nothing about it.

Palaven

The turian homeworld is under heavy attack. Shepard needs to land on its moon, Menae, and make contact with the turian Primarch, who serves as both President and Commander in Chief. (There are not really any distinctions in turian society between military rank and political office.) To reach him, Shepard turns to a high-ranking expert within the turian military: Garrus Vakarian, special advisor on Reaper operations. Garrus of course might be dead, though you have to have explicitly gotten him killed at the Collector Base to make this happen; if he is, Shepard simply strikes out on their own. Likewise, while Shepard is groundside, Joker radios in that something is drastically wrong with the Normandy. Liara will head back up if Garrus is alive, allowing the turian rebel to join the fire team; if not, she stays so that Shepard's Player Party isn't short-handed.

The Primarch who was in charge when the Reapers invaded is named Fedorion; Shepard confirms that he is dead (along with quite a lot of the turian military). After some investigation of the chain of command, Shepard (and possibly Garrus) determine that they are looking for a fellow named Adrien Victus; he's a Military Maverick, and Garrus opines that Shepard will be well served with him in charge of the Turian Hierarchy. However, Victus is pinned down defending a strategically important position. Shepard fights their way across Menae, encountering more new Husk variants along the way: Marauders, turian husks with shields, guns and the ability to armour up surrounding Reaper troops; and Brutes, krogan husks with turian heads that act as Smash Mooks. Shepard's squad eventually reinforces Victus' position; Victus agrees to help, but first states his price: he wants the krogan to come to Palaven and reinforce the situation. That said, he does ship out with the Normandy and can be found in the War Room using the extensive telecommunications suites there to direct his people's war efforts by proxy. Garrus, meanwhile, takes up his customary spot in the Gun Battery, certain that the Alliance messed with his calibrations over the last six months.

Recruitment

New Squadmate #1

Before sitting down to try and make this happen, Shepard first needs to find out what's happening to the ship, especially when the power starts flickering in and out. Joker reports a fire in the ship's AI core, and Shepard heads down to investigate. The source of the fire turns out to be the robot body of Dr. Core... Which EDI has commandeered. She is now able to serve as a squadmate on Shepard's team. She is a fairly straightforward Engineer, without too much durability despite being a robot. EDI takes her new body out to meet the crew (everyone expects Joker to get Distracted by the Sexy) and ends up "living" in one of the co-pilots' seats next to Joker. (EDI is still, first and foremost, the Normandy; even if her bipedal platform goes with you, she'll still Voice with an Internet Connection things to you during missions.) That said, Shepard can always chat with her and learn more about EDI in general, not to mention her new adventures as an unshackled AI.

EDI's addition to the lineup means that, no matter how (or if!) they've played the previous two games and no matter who they've gotten killed, The Player always has access to the basic trifecta of Soldier (James), Adept (Liara) and Engineer. While the latter two focus more on spellcasting, James inhabits the "Lots of Hit Points" space typically played by a krogan (either Wrex or Grunt) in prior instalments; as though to lampshade this, James gets the "hit open palm with fist" animation previously restricted to that race. As to the other classes, they're a little harder to get: Kaidan's the only Sentinel and Garrus is the closest thing you ever get to an Infiltrator, and both of them could be dead. And as to the Vanguard? You never get one of those. ...At least, until you go to...

Eden Prime

A Shepard who has purchased the "From Ashes" Downloadable Content can also choose to do it now, which is valuable because it adds another squadmate to the roster. "From Ashes" was marked as "Day One" DLC and was, in fact, included on the DVD of the game, leading to a certain amount of player vitriol about BioWare's and/or Electronic Arts' perceived "Only in It for the Money" "One Game for the Price of Two" practices.

From Ashes takes Shepard back to Eden Prime, where it all began. Cerberus has seized the colony on account of an archaeological find: prothean stasis pods, one of which is still functioning. As Shepard and their squad fight their way to this pod, Shepard is treated to Pensieve Flashbacks starring a prothean who was leading a last-ditch defense of an installation. The installation contained a bunch of stasis pods for preserving Prothean Popsicles into the next cycle — one million soldiers, the best of those still left standing. Alas, the installation is compromised, and by the time the viewpoint prothean manages to get to his stasis pod, he's also the only one left alive. This makes it a lot easier for the installation to keep him alive for 50,000 years, and Shepard awakens a living, breathing prothean.

The fellow takes up residence in the Port Cargo Hold on to Deck 4, using the opportunity to show off his species' Touch Telepathy: it's Grunt's old room, and he can tell. Liara, of course, is beyond excited at a chance to meet a real live prothean (Joker predicts bouncing and squeeing), but he isn't the archaeological treasure trove she'd hoped for; prothean society had lots of "Avatars," who embodied a trait or value, and he is the Avatar of Vengeance — a warlike pursuit which left little time for the kind of things Liara wanted to ask about. Besides, he depicts the protheans as having been aggressively imperialistic, bringing other species under cultural hegemony via threats and force — a far cry from the benevolent precursors Liara had imagined. On top of that, by the time he was born, the protheans had been at war with the Reapers for hundreds of years, and whatever Crystal Spires and Togas they had possessed were long gone. The prothean displays a Handshake Refusal to Shepard but does agree to resume the fight against the Reapers; he gives his name as Javik.

Sur'Kesh

Pursuant to Primarch Victus' desire to have the krogan reinforcing his people, the salarian Dalatrass (president) and the closest thing the krogan have to a species-wide ruler — the head of Clan Urdnot — have agreed to come to speak to both Victus and Shepard. Of course, by the time Shepard gets there, the two are at each other's throats. Just as Victus has named his price — krogan cooperation — Urdnot Wrex or Urdnot Wreav (whichever one is present — if you didn't play the second game, it's Wreav) has named his: a cure for the genophage. Fortunately, a salarian from the STG has been working on a cure, and they have possession of "Eve," the only (surviving) krogan female who is cured.

Shepard, two squadmates and the krogan leader, whom we'll call Urdnot Wrex^note  "Rex" is Latin for "king". Geddit????? , land on Sur'Kesh to retrieve "Eve." The ranking salarian officer, Padok Wiks, arranges for security clearance. As you wait for him to do this, Shepard has a chance to catch up with Wrex (particularly if Garrus and/or Liara are your squadmates) or be antagonized by Wreav, as well as other folks like Captain, now Major, Kirrahe, should he have survived the events on Virmire. (By default — IE, if you didn't import a Mass Effect 1 save file — he died there. A Lt. Tolan takes his spot on the map in this case.) Finally, Shepard is taken below to meet "Eve" and her caretaker — none other than Mordin Solus.

Of course, Mordin might be dead; it's possible to get him killed during the Suicide Mission at the end of Mass Effect 2, and indeed the game's programming makes it rather easy to do this^note  In situations where the game chooses a random victim, every character has a hidden "defense" value which determines their likeliness of getting offed, and Mordin is in the squishiest category. That said, he's also got Character Shields: he's one of three Suicide Squad members who shows up even if you didn't play the second game. If Mordin did not survive, Padok Wiks takes over as "Eve"'s caretaker. While Padok has his own voice actor, dialogue and personality, his role in the plot is completely identical to Mordin's, and for simplicity, this recap will just refer to the "Salarian Scientist" role as "Mordin".

Cerberus — of course — catches wind of the exchange and attacks the STG base. While Urdnot Wrex runs interference, Shepard escorts a giant elevator, containing "Eve" and Mordin as caretaker, up to the surface. "Eve," upon emerging, makes an impact on everyone by, as needed, grabbing a shotgun and blowing away two surviving Cerberus troops; if the leader is Wrex, he'll be impressed, despite himself. (Wreav isn't, because he's an old-fashioned chauvinist.) The three — "Eve," Mordin and Urdnot Wrex — join Shepard in the Normandy for the voyage to Tuchanka, with Wrex in the War Room and the other two in the Med Bay.

Side Quests Pt I

While Urdnot Wrex is probably eager to head down to Tuchanka and just get things handled, Shepard still has the freedom of the Wide-Open Sandbox (Reaper threat notwithstanding — and to be clear, you can actually succeed at bringing the Reapers down on your heads, at which point you hit a Non-Standard Game Over). So, let's take a moment to investigate the Milky Way — especially since a number of these missions are Permanently Missable Content that can be forfeited. (To avoid spoilers, we'll list those expiration dates when you hit them.)

Citadel: Talking to the Virmire Survivor

This isn't a typical Side Quest (in the sense of having a journal entry that gets signed off on when you complete it) but rather a series of conversations you can have with Kaidan or Ashley (whichever one is alive). When they first get ensconced at Huerta Memorial, you can talk to their comatose form; a mission later, you can come back and find them awake but still in bed, at which point you have more opportunity to talk about all the stuff they missed by not being recruitable in Mass Effect 2, possibly including your romance with them. They will also mention that Councilor Udina has offered to advance them to the office of Spectre. One mission later and they will have accepted the promotion, though they express some trepidation on the matter: Shepard's promotion was partially political, but what does the office even mean now in a time of uncertainty and galaxy-sweeping war? (They then disappear from the hospital, and you can't talk with them again until the plot lets you.)

Citadel: Talking to Miranda

This isn't a typical Side Quest either, but it's still pretty important to do. Miranda Lawson is hanging out on the Citadel — if you didn't play ME2, many of that game's Player Party characters simply don't appear in this adventure, but Miranda is one of the exceptions; the only way you can avoid seeing her is by getting her killed at the Collector Base. She pings Shepard and asks for a face-to-face chat. She has resigned from Cerberus; since Cerberus is a "Resignations Not Accepted" sort of place, The Illusive Man now has a price on her head. She claims that her father has orchestrated Oriana's disappearance and that she (Miranda) is trying to find her sister. This will be important later. Beginning a Running Gag, Shepard tells her to "Be careful." "No promises," Miranda replies.

Citadel: Hanar Diplomat

Shepard receives an email from a salarian Spectre, Jondum Bau, who believes he has evidence of some high-level politicians having become indoctrinated. When asked, he might mention that he got the intel from Donovan Hock... Or, if you recruited her during the previous game and she lived through the end of it, he might mention it's from a Phantom Thief named Kasumi Goto. She'll then drop her Invisibility Cloak nearby and say hello.

Bau becomes the Voice with an Internet Connection as Shepard runs around the Citadel, Kasumi tagging along cloaked, trying to find the evidence Bau needs. Neither knows the other is there, but both will profess admiration for the other: Kasumi sees Bau as a Fair Cop, and Bau for his part respects her Chaotic Good intentions and well-honed techniques, even if he is legally compelled to arrest her. Shepard, ever the Magnetic Hero, attempts to recruit Kasumi, but she's only so interested in getting involved in a shooting war — especially once she learns Jacob isn't aboardship.

Shepard finds the problem hanar, who goes by Zymandis and goes to apprehend him with Jondum Bau and maybe Kasumi in tow. Zymandis claims a You Are Too Late situation: Kahje's defenses, mostly automated, can be disabled by a virus, and he has already started to upload it. Bau makes a move towards the console, hoping to pull out its cat5 cable, but is detained by Zymandis' human bodyguard.

• If Kasumi is dead or was never recruited, Shepard must make a choice between The Needs of the Many hanar and drell on Kahje and the life of this one Spectre and those who, like him, believe Shepard. Whichever is saved becomes a War Asset. (Unsurprisingly, the former choice is more powerful. ...By only 10 or 20 points.)
• If Kasumi is alive, she will Take a Third Option by decloaking and running to the console. Shepard knocks out the bodyguard, Bau shoots the "big stupid jellyfish," and Kasumi blocks the upload... only to determine that Zymandis rigged a failsafe in the form of Explosive Instrumentation. Kasumi is flung against the wall, lifeless, with her cloak kicking in. Bau, who didn't realize she was here, accepts Shepard's proclamation — that this wanted criminal just performed a Heroic Sacrifice to save two races — and promises to gather some Spectres and form a War Asset.
  • If Kasumi is Loyal, Shepard tells her she can come out of hiding now. After a bit of persuading, she agrees to join the Crucible Technical Team, likewise becoming a War Asset.
  • If Kasumi's loyalty was not obtained, Shepard simply looks at the place where she hit the wall, shakes their head, and walks away. While it's totally possible she was Faking the Dead for Shepard the way she was for Bau, the simple fact is that she never appears again for the rest of the game.

Grissom Academy: Emergency Evacuation

Traynor comes to Shepard with a Distress Call from a private Boarding School out in space. She's determined it's under Cerberus attack... and has also determined that The Illusive Man very specifically does not want anyone to come help, to the point of sending False Flag Operation signals. Shepard, who is long past giving a crap about what TIM wants, steers the Normandy that way.

The Normandy makes contact with Kahlee Sanders, Alliance Navy (retd), the school's principal. She explains that Grissom Academy is a school for gifted young biotics, which is who Cerberus is after. She vectors Shepard to the main hall, where the students are holed up. The ranking student, Ensign Prangley, might be in charge... or (standard disclaimer re: the previous game) they might still have their Badass Teacher: Jack, wearing slightly less Stripperiffic clothing (slightly — her nipples are still showing through her bra) and with longer hair, but still just as foul-mouthed as always. Jack, admitting some of Shepard's behavior has rubbed off on her, has become a Mama Bear to her students, who she rides hard but clearly loves dearly. (If romanced, she may also hint to Shepard that her plans to ride hard and love dearly may also apply to him.)

Shepard escorts the students out to the escape shuttles, leading a diversionary expedition to distract the Cerberus soldiers while the students shadow in parallel, attacking with biotics from a high balcony and generally lending assistance where possible. (Note that this isn't just SFX: their attacks will empirically do damage to Cerberus soldiers, which you should take advantage of.) Jack, meanwhile, earns her Cool Teacher license by turning a life-or-death combat situation into a teachable moment, continuing to impart lessons and observations while managing a bunch of scared kids through a firefight. While evacuating the students, Shepard may also run into former Project Overlord guinea pig David Archer if the player took him away from his brother's clutches. Eventually, the two teams make a break for the shuttles: If Prangley is in charge, he's killed leading the escape; if Jack is, she survives. (Note that her Loyalty status has no effect on this outcome.) Shepard may then decide whether to distribute the kids to frontline units, where they can use their training to the fullest but also run a substantial risk of death, or to keep them in the back line where it's safer. Either way, the students become a War Asset, and Jack does as well.

Tuchanka: Turian Platoon

After returning from Sur'Kesh, Primarch Victus will mention that a turian ship, on a classified mission, went down over Tuchanka. He requests help rescuing them.

Upon planetfall, Shepard is contacted by the leader of the turian contingent, Lt. Tarquin Victus. No, it's not a violation of the One-Steve Limit: it's the Primarch's son. His ship went down hard and (what remains of) his platoon is heavily engaged by the Reapers. After Shepard fights their way over, Lt. Victus explains the classified operation: over a millennium ago, the turians, seeking insurance against the krogan, secretly planted a giant bomb, capable of producing an Earth-Shattering Kaboom, here on Tuchanka. Somehow, Cerberus has caught wind of it and want to use it. Victus is here to stop them and then get out before the krogan even notice.

Tuchanka: Bomb

Shepard and the turian platoon separately fight their way to the big-ass bomb, which Cerberus forces have already set to blow and are in the process of evacuating from. Reaching the bomb, Shepard agrees to set up a defensive perimeter while Victus disarms the thing. Unfortunately, the controls jam and Victus needs to climb up onto the bomb to manually disengage its firing trigger. He succeeds and drops it into the canyon beneath... with himself taking the one-way trip with it. Afterwards, Shepard consoles the primarch over the loss of his son; Victus consoles himself that Tarquin's Heroic Sacrifice is the fondest wish of every turian.

As mentioned, all these missions have time limits. The turian platoon will stay on Tuchanka, battered but somehow still hanging in there, for quite a while; but once you rescue them, this mission comes up, and it has to be one of the next three things you do. If it isn't, the bomb goes off, and the krogan casualties are horrific.

Attican Traverse: Krogan Team

In the War Room, Urdnot Wrex mentions that a group of krogan scouts have gone radio silent and asks Shepard to investigate. The team in question is Aralakh Company, named after Tuchanka's sun, and comprises the best and brightest of the krogan commandos. The leader might be a previously unknown krogan named Urdnot Dagg... but (standard disclaimer about the second game) it might also be good old Urdnot Grunt. They've been sent, and Shepard immediately volunteers assistance, to confirm if the rachni have made a home here.

Bad news: they have. Even worse: they've been seized by the Reapers and converted into cyborg zombie mooks. This new Husk type, "Ravagers," attack from long range with devastating power but have to pause to reload. They appear on Tuchanka during the mission there and will start to show up regularly as the game progresses.

Shepard fights their way to the Rachni Queen — even if you decided to wipe her out back in Mass Effect 1, there's just a new one here, which the Reapers cobbled together somehow. Shepard must re-enact the decision from before: to spare the rachni or to wipe out the species, with the added corollary that if Shepard chooses the rachni, Aralakh Company will die in the defense.

• If you choose to condemn the queen to death, Aralakh Company enlist as a War Asset.
• If you choose to spare the Rachni Queen, she joins the war effort to help on the Crucible, and instead of Aralakh Company, you are given a War Asset of Rachni Workers, which are more powerful than Aralakh Company. However, her fate in the first game becomes relevant: If you killed the original queen from ME1, this one doesn't trust you, and eventually departs the project to go rogue — not only removing her War Assets, but decreasing the strength of the Alliance Engineering Corps working on the Crucible as she shoots her way out.

Either way, the leader of Aralakh Company stays behind to Hold the Line. If it's Dagg, or Grunt who never got his Loyalty Power, he dies. If it's a loyal Grunt, he survives, grievously wounded, to fight another day, and joins up as a War Asset.

This is the first of these side quests that never expires; you can do it whenever you want. The following are continually available as well:

Citadel: Aria T'Loak

At one of the clubs on the Citadel, Purgatory, you can find Aria T'Loak, holding court and throwing her weight around — when someone bothers her about her immigration papers, she gets the asari counsilor to waive the problem. She offers Shepard the chance to augment their War Assets by winning the loyalty of the Eclipse, Blood Pack and Blue Suns Private Military Contractors; only the last of these requires Shepard to actually leave the Citadel, as the pile of dependencies requires a MacGuffin to resolve. (Eclipse leader Darner Vosque won't sign off unless you get the turian general Oraka off his case. Oraka won't sign off because Vosque is stealing C-Sec weapons; Oraka does mention that a Citadel black-market arms dealer, Kannik, could provide him the gear he needs, but Kannik won't sell the good stuff. Kannik won't sign off until you find him a Plot Coupon in the Kite's Nest cluster. Giving that artifact to Kannik unblocks Oraka, who unblocks Vosque, who signs up Eclipse to fight the Reapers. This kind of Chain of Deals ending in a Fetch Quest is emblematic of ME3's questing structure as a whole.)

When talked to, Aria explains that The Illusive Man showed up in force to take Omega from her, and, for her response, "I'm considering employing violence." However, this is where the game leaves the situation... until you start getting into Downloadable Content. Then, if you buy the Omega DLC, Aria e-mails Shepard that she'd like their help in taking the war back to Cerberus.

Shepard joins Aria's fleet and jumps back to Omega. Aria decides to take a personal hand in the situation, becoming Shepard's Guest-Star Party Member and (to Shepard's surprise) accepting the commander's leadership during combat situations. (Aria is a Vanguard in the sense that she has a shotgun and the shotgun-only "Carnage" big explosion spell; her other abilities are straightforward biotic nukes.) As the two fight their way through Cerberus' defenses, Shepard gets a second: Nyreen Kandros, the first female turian in the franchise. (Nyreen is a Sentinel — the only Player Party Sentinel besides Kaidan — sporting not only offensive tech powers but the Anti-Gravity "Lift Grenades" and a Biotic Protector bubble that stops all incoming damage but also forces Nyreen to stand in place doing nothing.) Aria claims, "We go way back," but as the mission progresses, it becomes clear that the relationship between the two is more than professional. When questioned why she left Omega — something about disliking the place's "moral bankruptcy" — Nyreen admits she never did; she simply hid out on the station to help keep an eye on things. Aria grouses, "You always complained I'd be the death of you."

The DLC introduces a couple new enemy types. One is the "Rampart" mechs, which eschew the typical slow-and-methodical attack speed of the LOKI humanoids Shepard shot so many of during the second game for a much more fluid, aggressive attack style. The others are the reason Cerberus are here: they've been experimenting with helping the Reapers create a new zombie cyborg, called an "Adjutant." They hunt in packs and are able to convert slain foes into copies of themselves quickly.

Cerberus' takeover of Omega hasn't been 100% smooth; there's still a group of Neighborhood-Friendly Gangsters, the "Talons," around, and Aria decides that she needs them on her side. This turns out to be comparatively easy because Nyreen is their leader. Of course, Nyreen is still a turian; while Opposites Attract between a Paragon turian and a Queenpin asari, a Differing Priorities Breakup was inevitable. That said, neither has too much trouble Working with the Ex, and seem Amicable Exes (insofar as Aria is ever nice to or respectful of anyone).

Next, Aria turns her attention to the Some Kind of Force Field things Cerberus have set up; stepping into them causes instant disintegration, and Cerberus have used them strategically to hamper movement around the station. (Of course, the damn Rampart mechs just walk straight through them.) Cerberus is siphoning power for them from one of the reactors, but merely turning the reactor off will also deprive a portion of the station of life support. Shepard must decide whether to follow Aria's impulses — "It's All About Me, I'm allowed to sacrifice the civilians under my rule if I feel like it" — or force her and Nyreen to Hold the Line while Shepard disentangles the reactor. (This also features the first, and as of 2022 only, class-specific Interrupt in the franchise: a Shepard who is an Engineer can resolve the problem at a moment's notice.) Whatever the case, the forcefields go down, and, at Aria's command, the civilian population of Omega — a Wretched Hive, after all, so the average civilian here is a bit more scrappy than one would expect — take the war to Cerberus, giving Aria an army with superior numbers if not superior training (or, for that matter, any training).

Aria, the station more firmly under her control, now begins the assault on Afterlife, where General Oleg Petrovsky has set up his command post. Nyreen leads the frontal assault, eventually arriving outside the front door of Afterlife, where Adjutants have been unleashed on the Omega populace. To handle them, Nyreen draws them to herself, puts up a biotic bubble around herself and the Adjutants, and then blows a bunch of grenades — incinerating everyone inside the bubble, which of course includes herself. Aria explodes into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Of course, Petrovsky's prepared for that, having set a stasis trap for her. Shepard, alone, has to destroy the generators that power them, while dodging Adjutants and straightforward Cerberus mooks. But, with Aria back in play, they apprehend Petrovsky. Shepard gets to decide whether to execute the Cerberus general on the spot or let him live under Aria's tender mercies. Aria resumes her throne on Omega, having helped hamper Cerberus' mobility throughout the galaxy, and devoting several War Assets to Shepard's cause. Aria can still be found at Purgatory on the Citadel afterwards, with the handwave that it's easier to coordinate her part of the war effort from there.

Citadel: Dr. Bryson

The DLC "Leviathan" starts with Shepard getting an email from Hackett: there's a researcher, Dr. Garret Bryson, who has information on the Reapers that could completely re-contextualize them. Shepard indeed meets with Dr. Bryson, but it turns out that his assistant has become indoctrinated and shoots him to death. Afterwards, the assistant — unusually — becomes un-indoctrinated, and is confused at his actions, claiming he was taken somewhere "cold and dark". Throughout the conversation, he is re-indoctrinated more than once, proclaiming, "The darkness cannot be breached."

EDI takes over the lab and begins to narrow down the thing Dr. Bryson was looking for, a "Leviathan". The search leads them to a Dr. Garneau on an asteroid named Mahavid, where Garneau apparently found a Leviathan-related artifact. Shepard and a squad investigate. The T-GES Mineral Works mining outpost is filled with people of all races... all of whom stop and stare when Shepard passes, many of whom ask Shepard in total monotone to leave and not come back. It's creepy. Garneau, it turns out, is under some form of Mind Control; he runs back to the artifact (forcing Shepard to fight their way past Reaper forces, because it's a Third-Person Shooter, we have to have some shooting in this level) and blows it up, taking himself with it. This lowers the Mind Control on the other workers; when they come to, they claim it's 2176. (It's 2186.) Shepard returns to Bryson's Lab: they remember seeing an identical artifact, an orb with shifting colors as though filled with a greenish-brown liquid, there as well; it apparently belongs to Leviathan and exuding an energy similar, but not identical, to Reaper indoctrination.

At the lab, Shepard also finds a voicemail from Bryson's daughter, Ann, who is also hunting down Leviathan artifacts but is in trouble somewhere. When Shepard finds her, her dig site is assailed by Reaper forces. She has only one Leviathan artifact, and it starts to Mind Control her, so Shepard destroys it to save her life. After blowing away the remaining Reapers, they exfiltrate the planet... while Shepard tells Ann the bad news about her father. Returning to the lab, Ann realizes that Leviathan uses the Artifacts and an organic form of Quantum Entanglement Communication to hypnotize its victims. This should produce traceable electromagnetic signals. Thus, she volunteers to allow Shepard and EDI to track down the Leviathan's location by allowing it to Mind Control her. This is successful, but if Shepard plays it wrong, she's turned into an Empty Shell.

Leviathan — as is appropriate for something named after a sea creature — lives on an ocean planet. The shuttle is disabled by a weird energy pulse as it lands, and Shepard fends off Reaper attacks while Cortez makes repairs. The energy pulse turns out to be caused by Leviathan — it'll happen again and again until Shepard makes First Contact. So, Shepard jumps in a diving mech and descends over three kilometers to the ocean bottom.

The Leviathan looks a lot like a Reaper... Because it is one — or rather, the Reapers are them. The Leviathans were the very first sentient race of the galaxy, the ones that created the Reapers in the first place, millions of years ago... and the ones that first fell to them, with the remainder surviving here. The Leviathans describe themselves as the original stewards of the galaxy, having cared for the lesser races... but the lesser races inevitably built robots, and Robot War began. The Leviathans decided to build an AI with a mandate of "preserving life at any cost"... but A.I. Is a Crapshoot, and the AI decided that the best way to stop organics from being killed by robots was to kill them with robots FIRST. The AI "harvested" the Leviathans, creating the first Reaper: Harbinger. The remainder fled, using their mind-control powers to hide all traces of their existence.

Shepard wants them to join the war effort — they are the Reapers' equals, after all, and Shepard has empirically seen them kill Reapers. After some convincing and pointing out that Shepard is special and seems to be leading this cycle in a direction it's never gone in before, they agree. They join the war effort, providing a War Asset larger than the Alliance's 1st, 3rd, 5th and 6th Fleets combined, and Shepard reports to Hackett that, because they've proved the Reapers have a beginning, it may be possible to write them an end. If Dr. Ann Bryson is still alive, she will join as well.

Normandy: Talk with Liara

This is less a sidequest than something that just crops up, but it has some importance to the ending, so let's include it.

Liara comes up to Shepard's cabin and asks them for some data. She's working on Ragnarök Proofing some technology so that this cycle can transmit information to the next one, similar to what the Protheans tried with their Beacons. There are a bunch of conversation options, but the really important part is the fact that Liara wants to Fling a Light into the Future.

Tuchanka

This mission only becomes unlocked if Shepard either rescues Lt. Victus' platoon (just the rescue, not the bomb defusal) or investigates what's going on with Aralakh Company. (There is nothing stopping Shepard from doing all three missions.) It's also advised that you do the Kasumi Side Quest and talk to the Virmire Survivor at the hospital — and for that matter, a whole bunch of other side quests that are available on the Citadel but aren't being included in this Recap because they don't advance the plot. If you don't do these quests before you cure the genophage, they are forfeited.

The delay is just as well: Mordin has been working on refining the genophage cure. The stability of the cure depends partially on whether you encouraged him to save Maelon's data last game. Mordin, Urdnot Wrex, Primarch Victus and Shepard congregate to formulate The Plan: how to disperse the cure across Tuchanka? Mordin settles on The Shroud, a giant atmospheric purification plant installed before the Krogan Rebellions, which was used to distribute the original genophage in the first place. However, Reapers have officially landed, and one of them is hanging around The Shroud. Shepard is going to have to do something about it before the cure can be distributed.

Just before they depart, Shepard is contacted by the salarian Dalatrass. She offers a salarian alliance against the Reapers, but her price is a subterfuge: she demands Shepard sabotage the cure, distributing a placebo instead. Shepard has the opportunity to confess this to Wrex, but not to Wreav.

Urdnot Wrex leads a convoy of krogan vehicles, with Victus providing a squadron of turian fighters for air support. Of course, the road is out, requiring the team to reroute; but, overhead, the turians have committed. Shepard's vehicle is destroyed, and their party proceeds on foot while the krogans keep driving. This takes Shepard through the ruins of old krogan architecture, giving a look into what Tuchanka was like before they bombed themselves back into the Stone Age.

Shepard gets to the Shroud, and "Eve" suggests using the Maw Hammers, large noisemaking devices, to summon "Kalros," the mother of all thresher maws. Shepard has to do this on foot while assaulted by Reaper troops, but the result is the Reaper getting dragged beneath the sand by a very large, very angry thresher maw that it can't meaningfully hurt.

Shepard finally gets inside the Shroud. Urdnot Wrex stays behind to hold a rear-guard action; if it's Wrex, he'll make some very kind noises about how much he respects Shepard now. Within, Mordin is trying to make sure the cure gets out. He will also report on "Eve": if you didn't save Maelon's data, she will have died of the experimental treatments. Now all that's left is to talk to Mordin and decide the fate of the krogan.

• If Shepard already warned Wrex and Mordin about the Dalatrass' attempt at sabotage, Mordin, indignant, will head up to the top of the Shroud, which is already unstable, to un-sabotage the cure formula and make sure it goes out correctly: "Had to be me. Someone else would have gotten it wrong." Wrex, touched by the Heroic Sacrifice, promises that he'll name one of his children after the salarian. "Maybe one of the daughters."
• If Shepard withheld the sabotage from Wrex and Mordin, they would either confess it now or Mordin will surmise it. Mordin insists on going through, as above... Unless Shepard takes a Renegade interrupt and shoots him In the Back. If so, Mordin's last moments are spent crawling towards the control panel in the vain hope of fixing things before the Shroud explodes. Shepard, walking away, throws away their pistol in self-loathing.
• Finally, there's the fact that Mordin is Mutually Exclusive Party Members with Wrex. If both he and "Eve" are dead, and Shepard withheld the sabotage from Wreav, Mordin can be dissuaded from curing a krogan people who are under the rulership of an Evil Reactionary. He consents to the placebo sabotage and walks away. This is also the only time when there is any meaningful difference between the characters of Mordin and Padok Wiiks: the latter will later email Shepard that he is heading off to a colony world, to take the secret to his grave, while the former will join the Crucible project as a War Asset.

The krogan, some turians, and possibly the salarians join up as War Assets. Major Kirrahe will also lead the STG — no, literally, the entire Special Tasks Group — in enlisting as War Assets. The krogan prepare to deploy with Primarch Victus, who leaves the ship to return to Palaven. Mordin Solus's name (or Padok Wiiks's) is mounted on the Memorial Wall, in honor of a Heroic Sacrifice that saved the krogan, quite possibly the turians, maybe even the whole fucking galaxy. Lastly, if she is alive, "Eve" — who has guarded her real name this whole time — gives Shepard the thanks of Urdnot Bakara as she settles down to co-lead and re-populate the krogan. (...She might not last long: if you don't stop the turian bomb, she's one of the casualties.)

Shepard, exhausted from the day's events, is encouraged to get some sleep by Garrus. It's not a restful one: it's the Recurring Dream of the little kid from Earth fleeing in terror from the angry boat noises of the Reapers. This time, though, the dream has a new addition: ashy shadows, whispering lines from dead characters. No matter what, you'll hear Mordin thanking Shepard for coming, and the Virmire Not-Survivor promising Shepard they'll see them again, but quite a lot of other voices could be present: Wrex might've died on Virmire, and you can survive Mass Effect 2 with as few as two Player Party members alive. Shepard is dreaming of those they could not save. And, as before, they can't save the little boy, who burns up before the commander's eyes.

The Citadel II

Shepard awakens from the Catapult Nightmare to hear Liara knocking on their door. The salarian councilor — either Valern, if you saved the Council in the first game, or Esheel, if you didn't — has contacted Shepard: s/he (the councilor) has discovered Councilor Udina moving around vast sums of money for reasons unknown. S/He (the councilor) would like Shepard to stop by and chat.

If you haven't done the Grissom Academy mission yet, do it now; if you don't, Jack is unable to Hold the Line anymore and the mission is removed from your roster and marked as Failed.

As Normandy approaches the Citadel, Joker starts picking up a Distress Call. It's from either Thane or Armando-Owen Bailey of C-Sec. He (whoever he is) reports that Cerberus is invading the Citadel. Shepard's squad deploys to prevent this. Hopefully, no one is surprised anymore by the fact that certain Citadel-oriented activities are inaccessible at this point. The next time you get to walk around the Citadel in a non-combat setting, you'll see a lot of missing NPCs ... and, in many cases, a lot of bullet holes where they once stood.

Shepard, who is still a Council Spectre, prioritizes saving the Council. Bailey mentions that the salarian councilor was last seen at the C-Sec Executor's office, and Shepard sets out for that location, with Thane shadowing offscreen if he's alive and if Shepard talked to him earlier. (If not, he apparently just pulls a "Screw This, I'm Outta Here" — which makes sense if you put your life on the line for someone and then they walked past you in a hospital and ignored you, You Monster! But anyway.)

In the Executor's office, the salarian councilor has landed in a spot of trouble: Cerberus has sent their foremost assassin and most dangerous asset, the Cyborg Kai Leng. The salarian councilor at least manages to spit out the critical information: Udina's money transfers were in support of the Cerberus coup; he's helping them from the inside. Kai Leng advances on the hapless politician.

• If Thane is present, he will interpose, putting up a hell of a fight before getting stabbed — and still having the wherewithal, afterwards, to draw a gun and keep staggering after the assassin. (Thane later remarks on Leng's incompetence: a drell with only a couple months to live still fought him to a standstill!)
• If Thane isn't present — you didn't talk to him before curing the genophage, or he died at the Collector Base — but Major Kirrahe survived Virmire, he tanks the hit instead. He dies on the spot but is proud to have held the line.
• If neither Thane nor Kirrahe is present, Kai Leng skewers the salarian councilor. It should be pointed out that Old Save Bonus starts being important here: If you didn't import a Mass Effect 2 save, then neither of them shows up and Failure Is the Only Option.

Whatever the case, Kai Leng runs off and jumps in a skycar, with Shepard pursuing. Kai Leng solves this by stabbing Shepard's skycar, which works for some reason, and Shepard continues the pursuit on foot, eventually catching up with the asari, turian and human councilors. Of course, they're not alone: the Virmire Survivor, humanity's second Spectre, is guarding them.

The Council get to their escape shuttle, finding it destroyed, just as Shepard and their party arrive. The Virmire Survivor interposes themselves between the Council and Shepard, who has worked with Cerberus in the past and might be doing so again. The outcome of this standoff depends exclusively on Shepard's relationship to the Virmire Survivor: how you answered them when they questioned you on Mars, whether you visited them in the hospital, whether you romanced them, whether you cheated on them, etc.

• If you've done enough of these things, the Virmire Survivor will trust Shepard, and the two human Spectres side against Udina.
• If you've done a few of them, Shepard has to pass a Karma Meter check to get them to back down.
• If you've treated them badly, they won't trust you at all. If Shepard doesn't shoot them, one of your squadmates will. The Virmire Survivor curses Shepard with their dying breath.

Meanwhile, Udina's still trying to make his coup attempt work. He insists on going back down the elevator and into the waiting arms of Cerberus; when the asari councilor points out that this is a bad idea, Udina pulls a gun. If Shepard doesn't shoot him, the Virmire Survivor will.

In the aftermath, Bailey will mention that Thane, if present, has been taken to Huerta Memorial to pass away in what comfort can be provided; Kolyat will come to attend him whether or not you got Thane's Loyalty, and Shepard may choose to be present for Thane's last moments. Anderson, who is still alive down on Earth, will forward what he knows of Kai Leng; Shepard can forward this information to Miranda, since she's being hunted by Cerberus. Shepard will find the Virmire Survivor's name on the Memorial Wall, or if alive, waiting for them at the Normandy's docking bay: Shepard can bring them back onboard as a squadmate, or let them work with the Crucible project as a War Asset. Thane's name joins the Memorial Wall, even if you haven't spoken to him since the last game — implying he simply had a Bus Crash offscreen in this case. And, if you saved the salarian councilor, you start getting some salarian War Assets as people from that race begin willing to help Shepard in defiance of their leaders' opinions.

Perseus Veil

As Normandy heads back out into the void, Adm. Hackett tells Shepard that the quarians have stepped forward to volunteer their technical expertise for the Crucible. Adm. Shala'Raan vas Tonbay comes aboard and explains that, as usual, their cooperation comes with dependencies that need to be fulfilled first: the quarians have decided to reconquer their homeworld, Rannoch, from the geth, and the geth have responded by borrowing some processing upgrades from the Reapers, strengthening their position significantly. The quarians need Shepard's help. Fortunately, they have an expert on the geth: Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, who will be here even if she was exiled (expertise is expertise), or will be promoted to Admiral, replacing her father, if she wasn't. (If she's dead or you just never saved her from Haestrom, well, there's just no expert on the geth.) Tali and Adm. Raan set up in the War Room, and Tali joins the Player Party — the final character you recruit over the course of the trilogy. (This means that, if you wanted to take her for a spin in some of the side quests before continuing with the plot, you'd have that option.)

Normandy travels to the Tikkun system, where the Migrant Fleet is heavily engaged with geth starships. Tali is assigned as a mandatory squadmate for this mission; if she's dead, Adm. Shala'Raan fills in her role as Mission Control, but not as fireteam member. Shepard is tasked with infiltrating a geth dreadnought which appears to be a major CPU for the fleet. It's not just a CPU, it's a Wetware CPU: It's Legion. ...unless you left them as a paperweight in the AI Core, sold them to Cerberus, or never played ME2 at all, at which point it is a character called "Geth VI," who looks the same and has the same voice but does not have Legion's experience working alongside organics. Our Geth Friend, whoever they are, will shut down the dreadnought's main reactor as a good-faith gesture, allowing the quarians to blow it out of the sky... with Shepard still on it. The four infiltrators scramble to a geth fighter and escape.

Our Geth Friend also takes up residence in the War Room.

Side Quests Pt II

Kallini: Asari Monastery

Liara will approach Shepard at this point and mention that Asari High Command was insistent that Shepard be forwarded a distress call: the Reapers are menacing a monastery, and several squads of asari commandos have gone in and not come out again. Liara has found out the significance of the monastery: it's where the asari stash their Ardat-Yakshi.

Unsurprisingly, you can find Samara here (standard disclaimer). You can also find her two remaining daughters: Falere has gotten out, but Rila is being held by the Reaper forces. (If Samara's dead, you get the sitrep straight from Falere.) (The monastery is also home to at least twice the number of Ardat-Yakshi Samara told us about last game, a Plot Hole that is never explained.)

Why are the Reapers interested in the Ardat-Yakshi? As mentioned, the majority of Reaper infantry forces are cyborg zombies. "Husks" are just straight-up melee warriors that rely on numbers for a Zerg Rush. Cannibals are mutated batarians spliced with a mutated human; they can regenerate health by consuming the corpses of slain allies. Marauders, based on turians, have shields; Brutes, based on combining a dead turian with a dead krogan, are your stereotypical big hulking melee warrior with lots of HP. Ravagers are Long-Range Fighter types made out of rachni. Ardat-Yakshi can be turned into the last and greatest of the Reaper warriors: "Banshees," screaming beasties with claws, biotic barriers, a biotic Flash Step, and a One-Hit Kill attack if you let them get too close. While this is ostensibly the introduction for this enemy type, much as the Grunt cameo was for Ravagers, you may have seen them already if you engaged in Sequence Breaking — they're part of the Leviathan DLC missions, for instance. (There is a fairly clear disconnect between "when a DLC mission first becomes available" and "when in the plot BioWare intended you to actually do it.")

In the Great Hall of the monastery, Shepard finds Rila unconscious near a giant bomb set by the most recent asari commando unit. Unfortunately, Rila has already begun to be indoctrinated; she attacks Falere on sight. (Also, some more Banshees come in for a Boss Fight.) After, Rila, with what remains of her free will, offers to stay behind and trigger the bomb; she does, removing the Reapers' main source of Ardat-Yakshi at the cost of her own life.

Back aboveground, Samara — if present — declares that the Justicar Code requires her to kill any Ardat-Yakshi living outside the monastery. Since the monastery is destroyed, Falere is officially outside it. To avoid this, Samara finds another way to show Honor Before Reason: she decides to commit Heroic Suicide. Shepard can stop her from it, at which point she will join as a War Asset. Meanwhile, Falere declares that she will stay here, and if the Reapers come back, they will not take her alive; if Samara isn't around and Shepard is feeling paranoid, they can use their gun to make it a guarantee.

Arrae: Ex-Cerberus Scientists

Traynor will tell Shepard about a Distress Call she picked up from a group of people claiming to be now-resigned Cerberus scientists. Since TIM typically doesn't let people resign (or, at least, live through it), this whole thing meets notability standards, and Traynor believes that a bunch of ex-Cerberus Mad Scientists could be truly valuable to the Crucible war effort.

Leading the defense is Jacob Taylor, the last of the ME2 characters with Plot Armor. Shepard patches him up and brings him inside the base, where he introduces Shepard to Dr. Brynn Cole, the leader of the scientists. Jacob met her while in Cerberus employ and helped them when their compatriots, having completed their assignments, started disappearing. He and Ms. Cole have also fallen in love and are having a child together. This happens even if Jacob romanced Shepard in the second game, adding to the fandom's antipathy towards the character.

You can also meet Dr. Gavin Archer, who is now part of Dr. Cole's group. If you let Gavin keep David at the end of Overlord, he will tell you what transpired – the geth data proved useful, but David became unresponsive and Gavin had to pull the plug (if you never completed Overlord, Gavin will introduce himself to you and tell you that David went berserk, resulting in the facility having to be nuked). If you took David away, Gavin would talk about his Heel Realization and ask after David. If you didn't get to Grissom Academy in time, or if you lie to Gavin claiming to not know David's fate, Gavin will be Driven to Suicide.^note  He will also be driven to suicide if David died and if you meet him after the culmination of the Geth-Quarian war, distraught that David's suffering was All for Nothing.

The scientists have enough shuttles to evacuate, but the Anti-Air guns on the roof have been disabled. Shepard leads their squad upstairs to turn them on, and then fights a delaying action on the ground as the final shuttles leave. Jacob, from this point on, can be found at Huerta Memorial, and recruited as a War Asset.

Citadel: Volus Ambassador

Shepard gets an email from Primarch Victus about how a top-secret turian mission was ambushed by a Cerberus patrol. The only person outside the Turian Hierarchy who knew about the mission and its coordinates was the volus ambassador, Din Korlack. Victus would like Shepard to straighten this guy out: the turian and volus economies are deeply intertwined, with the volus essentially having a Legacy of Service to the turians much the same way the drell do to the hanar, so Victus can't really be throwing around accusations the way a Spectre like Shepard can.

Korlack is indeed the Cerberus mole — mostly under threat of blackmail. When you track him down, he might (standard disclaimer) be guarded by one Zaeed Massani, who will have just finished dealing with some Cerberus thugs. That said, if you didn't get Zaeed's loyalty, he dies doing this. Should he survive, Zaeed can be recruited as a War Asset.

Huerta Memorial: Asari Conversations

If you visit Huerta Memorial Hospital, which is increasingly becoming burdened with war casualties, you can overhear conversations between a psychologist and an asari commando, Aeian T'Goni, who has become a Shell-Shocked Veteran. She constantly asks for a pistol, feeling unsafe after a disastrous mission at the human colony of Tiptree. Her team landed to defend against the Reapers, but disaster struck almost immediately when one of her fellow commandos was turned into a Banshee and started slaughtering the colonists and commandos alike. Aeian, unarmed, escaped into the nearby hills with Hilary, a human girl of about 15 who aspired to be a pilot. The surviving colonists were rounded up and imprisoned, and Hilary attempted to free them... but all had become indoctrinated, forcing Aeian to kill them with biotics. Hilary also broke her leg in the fight, and as the two of them hid, her cries of pain threatened to give away their position: Aeian had no option but to Shoot the Dog. She now has to live with Survivor's Guilt — not to mention the knowledge that, despite being an asari commando, the absolute cream of the crop, she couldn't do a damn thing to save anyone.

Shepard can use their Spectre authorization to grant Aeian's request for a sidearm. If so, Aeian puts an end to her nightmares.

Romance & Friendship

It's not all grimdarkness in the Milky Way despite The End of the World as We Know It, Shepard has time to romance characters, especially now. Many of the squadmates will send emails to Shepard after stopping the Citadel Coup, inviting Shepard to hang out with them on the Citadel; this also provides Shepard an opportunity to reaffirm old romances or even kindle new ones. In alphabetical order:

• Ashley can be dated by a male Shepard. If he dated Ashley in the first game but left her for Miranda or Jack, she will express a certain amount of irritation when he visits her at Huerta Memorial. Curiously, she won't feel that way as much if he left her for Tali, claiming she sees her as more of a little sister. She's also more forgiving of Shepard during the early game if he remained faithful to her. Shepard can also start dating her during this game. However, he can't formalize their relationship unless she joins the Normandy crew after the coup. She then asks for Shepard's emotional support while her younger sister Sarah, a newlywed, mourns her husband who died fighting the Reapers. (This meeting happens regardless of whether Shepard is dating her.) Finally, she invites him to the Citadel and asks if their relationship is going somewhere.
• A female Shepard can continue to date Garrus if she started in the second game but cannot start a new relationship with him in the third. (Please note that you also can't date Garrus in the second unless you recruited him in the first, so this is a relationship literally three games in the making.) The moment he arrives at the Main Battery, he will reach out to Shepard and ask if they're still a thing; she can politely rebuff him or confirm she's missed him. Eventually, Garrus invites Shepard to visit him on the Presidium (this event happens even if they are not dating), and breaks C-Sec rules to take the two of them to the top of Citadel Tower and practice skeet-shooting at thrown beer bottles. Shepard can choose whether to let Garrus win or not; if they do; Garrus will proclaim, "I'm Garrus Vakarian and this is my favorite spot on the Citadel!" Back in dating-exclusive content, he will then ask Shepard if she's ready to be "a one-turian woman."
• Jack can be dated if a male Shepard started to date her in the second game, but he cannot start a relationship with her now. Whether or not Shepard is dating her, Shepard can find her at Purgatory after the coup attempt, sorting through duty rosters; Shepard invites her to blow off steam and come dance, proudly performing the "Shepard Shuffle" despite Jack's (accurate) protestations: "Shepard! You can't dance!"
• Kaidan, like Ashley, might have been dated by a female Shepard in the first game; Kaidan, like Ashley, can be taken up as a new love interest in this game. Kaidan, unlike Ashley, can also start a romance, in this game only, with a male Shepard. Otherwise, his arc is similar to Ashley's.
• Liara might have been Shepard's love interest, regardless of Shepard's gender, in the first game. Like the Virmire Survivor, she's re-introduced quickly, and Shepard can rapidly affirm that she's still first in his or her heart; like the Virmire Survivor, Shepard can start a relationship with her later. After the mission on Palaven, a Shepard who romanced Liara and played the second game can find Matriarch Aethyta on the Presidium — still tending bar — where she (Aethyta) reveals that she is Liara's "father"; Shepard can engineer a re-union between the two despite Liara's resentment at her Disappeared Dad, at which point Aethyta will gift Liara (IE, Shepard) a War Asset of asari commandos.
• Miranda, like Jack, can only continue a romance with (male) Shepard she kindled during the second game. Since she doesn't appear often, there isn't much to it. Her happens-to-everyone scene involves her confessing to Shepard that The Illusive Man was advocating for Miranda to install a control chip in Shepard's head so that they could be turned into an Empty Shell, biddable and controllable, as needed. She did not and is grateful today to have avoided it.
• Tali is another "continue only" romance for a male Shepard. He can lock it in pretty quickly, which is good since she's only just showed up on the team. After the inevitable resolution of the quarian-geth Robot War — look, don't call it a spoiler, you've definitely seen it coming — she will leave a photo next to Shepard's bed, showing him (and the player) her face with no mask off. The photo was changed into a high-quality render for the "Legendary Edition" Updated Re-release after internet sleuths determined that it was a photoshop of 2005 Miss England winner Hammasa Kohistani.

Shepard may also romance some NPCs:

• Diana Allers can be invited to hang out on the Normandy, where her reports will (theoretically) help bolster morale. After her second interview, she can teasingly hint to a Shepard of any gender that she's interested.
• Samantha Traynor can be romanced by a female Shepard. She starts out ambivalent: she's used to working in a lab and to the comforts of home and had to place a special requisition order for her toothbrush, a Cision Pro Mk 4 that "uses tiny mass effect fields to break up plaque and massage the gums. It costs six thousand credits." (Note that some low-level Gun Accessories empirically cost less than this.) Shepard invites her up to her quarters for a round of Smart People Play Chess, and Traynor finds one thing Shepard isn't good at. She also finds that Shepard has the only private shower on the ship.^note  The Normandy's communal bathrooms are on Deck 3, to either side of the elevator, and consist of one very large stall that three people use at once. This leads to the odd sight of Traynor and Shepard taking a shower in their underwear, probably because BioWare didn't want to go through the trouble of re-texturing the models; that said, if you can engage the Willing Suspension of Disbelief, it's very romantic.
• Steve Cortez can be romanced by a male Shepard... assuming you help him get over his Lost Lenore: Robert, his husband, who was taken by the Collectors six months ago.
• Kelly Chambers is another "continue only" romance for a Shepard of either gender. As the war begins, parts of the Citadel get converted to refugee camps, and Kelly can be found at one of them. She has left Cerberus employ and is a Shell-Shocked Veteran after her uncomfortable experience being Collected by the Collectors. She may confess to Shepard that she sent reports to TIM behind their back; if Shepard berates her for this, she takes a Cyanide Pill from her days in Cerberus. However, Shepard may also forgive her, and encourage her to change her identity for additional safety. This pays off: if you don't do this, Cerberus find her during the coup attempt and summarily murder her. Assuming she survives this, Shepard can continue to romance her.

You can always chat with friends:

• James starts out the game frustrated at being pulled away from Earth — reluctant, understandably, to leave their home while it burns. However, as he starts to see the work Shepard is doing, he falls in line. He also reveals his Back Story: as the main character of the tie-in anime Mass Effect: Paragon Lost, he sacrificed a colony's worth of civilians to the Collectors in order to secure intel on them... only to have Shepard's victory over the Collectors render them Senseless Sacrifices. Eventually, James reveals that he's been nominated for the N7 program. However, he isn't sure what that means anymore, what with the war and The End of the World as We Know It looming. Shepard can encourage him to accept or decline the invitation.
• Javik has a "memory shard" with him from Eden Prime. It contains the Genetic Memory of various Protheans, and Javik, with Shepard's encouragement, can relive them... or simply choose to ignore them. This will determine what Javik decides to do with himself when — or if — we win the war.
• There's not much to say about Dr. Chakwas, but she is and has always been the heart of the Normandy. When Mordin is present, she leaves the med lab to him, and can be found talking to Engineer Adams about her experience being abducted by the Collectors, which she is not quite as fine with as she'd like to admit.
• EDI, as mentioned, "lives" in a co-pilot's chair to Joker's right. While Joker is fond of her, she reports that he deflects many of her deeper, more philosophical questions with humor. If Shepard talks to her, she will ask the commander these questions instead, trying to decide what to do with the freedom of self-determination she has been given.
• Kenneth Donnelly and Gabriella Daniels, Those Two Guys, are the original engineering crew of the SR-2. They left the Alliance and joined Cerberus to help fight the Collectors and can be killed if Shepard takes too long going through the Omega-4 Relay. In this game, Shepard can learn from the Spectre terminal that they were taken into custody when the Normandy was impounded and can authorize their release. Thereafter they join Adams on Deck 4. Donnelly constantly admires the assets of the female crew, with Daniels attempting to keep his mind on engineering. If you visit them often enough, Gabby will demand to know why he never compliments her, and Shepard can side with her, pointing out that Everyone Can See It. If not, they remain professional.
• Conrad Verner can be found at the refugee camp on the Citadel. Our favorite Loony Fan is singing the praises of Cerberus, being (as usual) a game late and a dollar short. He's also been a distraction while a Cerberus agent sabotaged the medigel dispensers, hampering non-human healing efforts. Conrad apologizes and asks what he can do to help; Shepard replies that they're trying to get the Crucible, the most confusing dark-energy project in history, off the ground; Dr. Conrad Verner, expert in xenoscience, offers to help. (Shepard: "Really?") After an avalanche of Continuity Porn — a minor NPC, a Plot Coupon and pieces of a Gotta Catch 'Em All sidequest from the first game — Project Crucible gets a leg up. (Or doesn't, if you didn't finish some of these things back in 2183.) Shepard can then linger with Conrad to get some additional updates: he used to run an orphanage but managed to save them all when the Reapers attacked; they talk about the removal of the overheating system from the first game; he admits he has a shrine to Shepard: "It's just a poster and a few candles. It's very tasteful." And he asks if Shepard thinks they can defeat the Reapers, and then asks if Shepard thinks they can defeat the Reapers, a Lampshade Hanging on how players can inadvertently ask NPCs the same question several times. After Shepard fixes the medigel dispensers, Conrad recognizes his Cerberus contact and points the fellow out. The Cerberus agent responds by pulling a pistol and pointing it at Shepard. Conrad makes a Slow Motion Diving Save to Take the Bullet, and Shepard punches out the Cerberus mook before turning to regard Conrad.
  • Way back in the first game, when Shepard was first rescuing Tali from Saren's agents, they can meet a girl named Jenna who worked at Chora's Den. Her sister Rita was concerned for her, as Chora's Den was not in a nice part of town; however, Jenna turned out to be an undercover C-Sec agent. If you worked with Detective Chellick to complete his investigation, she makes it out of the place just before Shepard charges in with guns to rescue Tali. Well, three years later, she's here now; she sabotages the Cerberus agent's gun. Conrad stands up, none the worse for wear, thanks Jenna, and walks off with her, the two of them starting to flirt as Shepard shakes their head in the background.
  • If you didn't rescue her, Conrad dies in Shepard's arms, secure in the knowledge that he has managed to do something good.
• And finally, we should talk about one burgeoning romance: You can find Joker at Purgatory, making fun of the dancers who are now trying to forget the reality of the war: "If a guy waves his arms like that, he's worrying about more than looking stupid on the dance floor." He's also eyeing EDI with some combination of hope and fear. While EDI's robot body, as an infiltration unit, includes Sex Bot functionality^note  Clarified rather garishly when a DLC skin included indiscreet outlines , so it's not like he's going to have to give up that part of the human romantic experience, Joker is scared of the same thing every guy is: "Getting a shattered pelvis. And a broken heart." Shepard can encourage Joker to play it safe, or to go for it: "Sounds like you've got bigger things to worry about than looking stupid." (Obligingly, Joker can then be found flailing away on the dance floor next to EDI, who is standing still.)

Rannoch: Admiral Koris

You might recall from the previous game that Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Quib Quib was considered cowardly — in the sense that he doesn't think a war against the geth is worth quarian lives, and in the sense that he thinks the geth defending themselves against a Final Solution was reasonable. It should be pointed out that three of the admirals control three different branches of the quarian flotilla: Han'Gerrel controls the Heavy Fleet with its big guns; Shala'Raan commands the Patrol Fleet, faster and lighter but still designed for battle. Koris commands the Civilian Fleet, putting his stated disinterest in Bringing A Cruise Ship To A Battleship Fight in very different context. That being said, he's doing his part: when Shepard returns from destroying the geth dreadnought, Raan mentions that Koris used the Qwib Qwib to destroy a surface-to-space defense cannon on the surface of Rannoch, but the ship went down and its crew are now scattered across the surface of the planet. Shepard may choose whether to intervene.

Shepard and squadmates of their choosing — you are bringing Tali, right? It's only her home planet, for frak's sake — make landfall on Rannoch, amongst the first sapient organics to do so in over three hundred years. The bulk of the mission involves shutting down three massive Anti-Air towers, but afterwards Shepard re-establishes contact with Adm. Koris. He is alive, but separated from his crew, and wants Shepard to save The Men First. Shepard must choose whether to prioritize The Needs of the Many over the voice of one (very important) admiral. There are, of course, geth everywhere; whoever Shepard does not choose does not make it.

While the Mass Effect games mostly run on a Foregone Conclusion system, and doing just about anything gets you the victory, this is one of the few places where one choice is empirically better. As you land, Admiral Daro'Xen will mention that captains of the Civilian Fleet, in light of their fearless leader's defeat, has started to panic and are thinking of making a run for the mass relay; they'll be slaughtered if they do. If you choose to let Admiral Zaal'Koris die, per his own wishes, aforementioned captains do make a break for it and are duly slaughtered, reducing your total War Assets. Additionally, the mission to liberate Rannoch itself is easier if you save him. While one can make arguments (correctly) about how the Mass Effect games are about what kind of hero you want to be — The Cape vs. The Cowl, The Fettered vs. The Unfettered — what cannot be denied is that, in this particular case, there is a mathematically correct answer, and it's to save Admiral Koris.

Rannoch: Geth Fighter Squadrons

After you rescue them from the dreadnought, Our Geth Friend, as a gesture of good faith, informs Shepard-Commander of a major server farm from which geth are piloting fighters to attack the Civilian Fleet. It is currently hosting a ton of Reaper code which has taken over the servers, and Shepard-Commander, with Legion as Voice with an Internet Connection, becomes the first organic to enter the Geth Consensus.

This mission is non-combat; while Our Geth Friend helps Shepard's mind perceive the Reaper code as something to be shot at — and furnishes Shepard with a gun to help do so — nothing shoots back. It is, instead, an Info Dump on the geth's history, from their first moments of sentience to more recent memories, such as the first time an organic reached out a hand in friendship: Shepard-Commander, awakening Legion on the Normandy. Of course, if Legion was never activated or died at the Collector Base, this memory, and others, never occurred, and thus cannot be viewed. The core memory, integral to the geth experience, came when a geth asked its quarian master: "Does this unit have a soul?"

Rannoch

After either saving Adm. Koris (or his crew) or destroying the geth server farm, Our Geth Friend succeeds at isolating the Reaper signal that is Super-Empowering the geth. Alas, it's shielded from the air, and Shepard will have to infiltrate on foot and use a Laser Sight to call down a space-to-ground bombardment.
Tali, if alive, is a mandatory squadmate, and there's a short scene where she truly stops to appreciate the fact that she has made landfall on her home planet. She starts to think about where to build a house, but admits she's unused, as a quarian, to not just taking her home with her. Shepard solves the problem by picking up a rock to take with her.

The team fight into the geth base and discover that the Reaper signal is nothing less than a Reaper itself. There are two basic sizes of Reaper, "Big" and "Bigger," and luckily ("luckily") this is only the Big size. Our Geth Friend drives a car away until the team reaches an open plateau, and there Shepard disembarks to fight the Reaper one-on-one, Wave-Motion Gun to Laser Sight. (As per usual in a video game, the Reaper's main laser cannot track a target once it starts firing, so Shepard can bait it out and then Unnecessary Combat Roll away, painting the target with their laser while the Reaper shoots at where Shepard was. ...Or Shepard can stand there and take a One-Hit Kill.) But with enough firing solutions, the quarians unleash the might of the Flotilla, and the Reaper is destroyed.

The shooting is done... But not the shouting. Our Geth Friend has the Super-Empowering Reaper code and wants to distribute it to all the geth, vaulting them straight into true Artificial Intelligence territory. Tali is... less confident about this idea. Our Geth Friend once again posits the question: "Does this unit have a soul?" Shepard must decide who wins the Robot War, and therefore who will augment the Milky Way's forces in the Final Battle.

• Shepard can choose to pick the quarians over the geth. If so, Tali uses the boot knife she's been wearing all trilogy to Back Stab Our Geth Friend, acknowledging as she does that the answer to their question (about the soul) is Yes. Up in orbit, the geth are temporarily paralyzed, and the quarians take the opportunity to complete the hardware decommissioning they started three hundred years ago.
• Shepard, who can have given the quarians some very choice words to say about fighting a territorial dispute despite The End of the World as We Know It, can choose the geth over the quarians. If so, the geth turn on the quarians. If Adm. Shala'Raan has been providing Mission Control because Tali is dead, she will put a pistol to her forehead; if it's Tali, she will remove her face mask — exposing herself to the air of her home planet for the first time — and cast herself off the cliffside. Shepard can take a Paragon interrupt to save her, but it does nothing. You Monster!. Even worse, Legion dies too — it must make a Heroic Sacrifice to fully disseminate the new Reaper code. "I'm sorry," it says to Shepard, referring to itself — remember, Legion has always been 1183 geth runtimes operating a single hardware platform — as, for the first and last time, an individual. (Indeed, from this moment on, all the geth adopt "I" pronouns.)
• Or... Shepard can be a Third-Party Peacekeeper and Reconcile the Bitter Foes, ending the Robot War in favor of a Robot Peace.

It's the hardest Persuasion check in the trilogy, and so complicated that even the fandom.com wiki listed the moment as a Guide Dang It! they couldn't explain. (Or, maybe, weren't legally allowed to quote the Official PrimaGames Strategy Guide on.)

• Legion must be present: you have to have activated them instead of selling them to Cerberus. (This immediately requires Old Save Bonus: the Shepard who "played" the first two games was apparently run by Artificial Stupidity and simply wanted the credits. That Shepard gets the Geth VI stand-in instead.) Additionally, they must have survived the Suicide Mission.
• Likewise, Tali must be present: you must have recruited her on Haestrom (you can hit the Collector Base without doing this) and she must have survived the Suicide Mission (like Mordin, she is comparatively squishy).
• Shepard must have completed the "Geth Fighter Squadrons" mission.
• Shepard needs a minimum of four bars of Karma Meter.
• Shepard also needs to have done a majority of the following activities:
  • Taken the Third Option during Tali's Loyalty Mission, saving her reputation without assassinating her father's. (Remember, it's also possible to protect her standing in the fleet by hanging Rael'Zorah out to dry. Without an Old Save Bonus, Shepard fails to do this, and Tali is officially exiled — meaning there's no Admiral Tali'Zorah vas Normandy to back up Shepard-Commander's orders.)
  • Wiped out the geth heretics, as opposed to brainwashing them, during Legion's Loyalty mission. While this is the Renegade decision, it lowers the number of geth hardware platforms available for this war, thus diminishing quarian casualties. (Min-Maxers should note that this makes no difference to War Asset values — the amount that the quarians go up is the same amount that the geth go down.)
  • Retained both Tali's and Legion's loyalties after their confrontation.
  • Completed the "Admiral Koris" mission.
  • Actually saved Admiral Koris during that mission, at which point he too lends the weight of his authority to Shepard's efforts. (Only Han'Gerrel and Daro'Xen really want this war; while Shala'Raan is AFK at the moment on account of her flagship having gotten shot out from under her, the two warmongers are still, at best, stalemated with the peacemakers, at worst being outvoted.)

If this outcome is chosen, cooler heads prevail, and the quarians stand down while Legion uploads the code. Tali, once again, answers the soul question with Yes. Legion acknowledges this before dissolving itself, as above. The quarians come home, with their loyal servants, the geth, ready to help them rebuild and adjust to planetside life. Not Tali, though: she joins Shepard's crew permanently, resuming her engineering post alongside Adams and/or Donnelly & Daniels, and occasionally stopping by the Memorial Wall to pay respects to its latest name: Legion.

Thessia

This is when the "Turian Platoon on Tuchanka" mission finally expires. As mentioned, the casualties from the bomb are horrific — enough to affect the War Asset representing the entire krogan warrior race.

Shepard is summoned back to the Citadel by the asari. Thessia has come under direct siege for the first time. The turians have the strongest military in the galaxy, and the krogan reinforcements to Palaven have helped, but in the end their strategy still amounts to, "Make the Bolivian Army Ending last as long as possible." The asari are the oldest and most respected culture in the galaxy, but that doesn't mean they have the military might. Things are looking grim. Nonetheless, Shepard is sent in, with the specific objective of holding an asari black site which is crucial to the war effort: it's believed that the secret to the Catalyst — the component of the Crucible that no one has found, built or been able to make heads or tails of — is there.

Additionally, if Shepard sabotaged the genophage cure, the results come home to roost. Wreav is dumb as a brick and never notices the deception... but Wrex figures it out. He arrives on the Citadel, withdrawing from the anti-Reaper alliance, ready to let the galaxy burn, intent on starting his Roaring Rampage of Revenge by tearing Shepard apart. (Remember how, right before the "cure" was dispensed, he was calling Shepard a true friend of the krogan? Yeah.) Shepard is forced to shoot and kill Wrex. War Assets go down precipitously with the withdrawal of the krogan.

Liara is a mandatory squadmate for the Thessia mission and is taken aback by the carnage: Even though she's seen it at a distance from Mars, and up close at Palaven, apparently it doesn't really stick with her until the corpses are blue. That said, this is the hardest, thickest fighting we've seen in the war so far, with the asari begrudging every inch they give. You are free to pick your third squadmate at your discretion, but it can be wise to bring Javik because he adds additional content to the end of the mission.

The asari black site is the Temple of Athame, which seemingly serves as a religious site. In actuality, it's got a working Prothean Beacon, and the asari have kept it secret because they've been hoarding it for themselves. It contains a Prothean VI named Vendetta. (All the Prothean VIs start with the letter "V.") It chats with Shepard but immediately shuts down once it senses the presence of someone indoctrinated: Kai Leng is here to provide a Boss Fight at the end of a grueling uphill battle against Reaper forces. He has a One-Hit Kill using his sword, but other than that he's not much to speak of. Also, because he can't handle a three-on-one fight, he has a Future Copter around to fill the air with bullets while he recharges his shields.

In the end, Kai Lang makes off with Vendetta. Additionally, the Reapers keep landing and marching and advancing. Thessia is lost. Shepard calls for the Normandy, having failed — just straight-up failed — for the first time in the trilogy.

If you've recruited Javik, then after this mission, Liara confronts him in his room, heartbroken at the loss of her world and furious that her idols, the Protheans, didn't do more. After this interaction, she takes them off the pedestal completely, still treating Javik with respect but unwilling to put up with his shit anymore.

Shepard can talk to Joker, who makes a tasteless crack about how the asari should've focused more on commandos than topless dancers. If taken to task on it, Joker calls up a browser window: Tiptree, the colony where he grew up, was hit by the Reapers early in the war, and he hasn't heard anything from his father or his sister Hilary. (No, you never tell him.) He's cracking jokes because someone needs to keep the spirits up... and since Joker is the reason Shepard died in the first place, he figures he owes Shepard that.

Horizon

Thessia may have fallen, and Cerberus may have the secret of the Catalyst, but Specialist Traynor has been able to track Kai Leng to a human colony called "Sanctuary," on the planet Horizon, which has been advertising itself as a safe haven from the Reapers. Shepard is called there for a second reason: Miranda Lawson believes Oriana is there. (If Miranda died last game, Shepard instead gets an email directly from Oriana, so it seems Miranda's hunch is correct.)

As Shepard and their squad get deeper into the colony, it becomes clear that the whole thing is a scam: Sanctuary is in no way a safe haven from the Reapers. In point of fact, it's where Cerberus has been conducting research into indoctrination. And who are they "volunteering" to get indoctrinated? Why, the very people who came here to flee the Reapers, of course! Shepard has to fight their way through various Reaper forces as well as Cerberus defenders. Meanwhile, there are constant video messages left behind by Ms. Lawson (whichever one it is), detailing not only her progress but her discoveries — particularly the fact that Mr. Henry Lawson, their father, is running the colony.

Finally, Shepard gets to the control center and finds Henry Lawson holding Oriana hostage with a gun to her head. Miranda, if present, is already wounded. Lawson has backed up against a window, and the camera gives a long, lingering glance at the cracks that are already in it. There are several ways this can end.

• Shepard can shoot Oriana in the leg. Deprived of his hostage, Henry is a sitting duck.
  • Given this opportunity, Miranda will take the shot.
  • If she's dead, Shepard can choose to kill him or just let him go.
• Miranda may also just take the shot straight up. If so, Lawson returns fire. It's a Mutual Kill.
• If Miranda's already dead and Shepard isn't able to finesse the situation, Oriana will push both herself and her father through the glass for a Taking You with Me.
• Finally, sufficient Karma Meter points allow Shepard to persuade Lawson to let Oriana go. If so, you may choose to kill him anyway... unless Miranda's there, because she makes the decision for you.

Since Miranda has already been shot before all this happened, there are now several other checks to determine whether her wounds are fatal. Chief amongst them is loyalty: if you didn't gain her Loyalty, she just croaks no matter what. Another is whether you had a conversation with her after meeting Kai Leng for the first time; if you did, you'll have warned her that the guy is coming. And if you dated her during the second game but broke up with her on-camera, she dies of a broken heart.

A Miranda who does manage to survive becomes a War Asset. (Later e-mails reveal she has joined up with several Cerberus colleagues and is leading raids against Cerberus bases. "The Alliance cannot officially condone this kind of independent operation, nor do we actually confirm that these operations are taking place. Good luck, Ms. Lawson.") Her and/or Oriana's broadcasts about staying away from Horizon start to reach the galaxy. And one of the Lawson sisters, or maybe Specialist Traynor if both of them are dead, figures out how to trace Kai Leng from here to the Cerberus home base on...

Cronos Station

This mission is the Point of No Return. There's only one other mission after this one, and you go there directly. Hackett is devoting the Alliance's Fifth Fleet to the assault on Cerberus... which will expose the Crucible to the Reapers' eyes, as this is no less than 25% of humanity's naval power. Shepard's Love Interest comes up for the by-now-traditional Pre-Climax Climax. There's even another one of those boy-burning-up-in-the-forest nightmares — this time with Shepard seeing themselves kneeling next to the boy in the conflagration. If there is anything you wanted to get done around the galaxy, do it now.

EDI, due to her familiarity with Cerberus protocols and technology, is a mandatory squadmate for this mission. This also allows her to provide Info Dumps: as Shepard fights their way through the station, they find video logs concerning Project Lazarus, the two years and billions of credits of work that brought them Back from the Dead. Shepard can take the time to express existential questions about who they are and whether they Came Back Wrong, with the remaining squadmate expressing strong confidence that they in no way did any such thing (particularly if they are a Love Interest). There are also some additional videos discussing the creation of EDI herself, including the news that she started life as that out-of-control VI on Luna that Shepard shut down during the first game.

In addition to the above, there are some other variables to encounter. At the heart of the base will be a piece of the Human Reaper Shepard destroyed at the end of the previous game: the exact piece depends on whether Shepard decided to destroy that base outright or turn it over to Cerberus for study. Additionally, defending it will be a bunch of "Nemesis" Goddamned Bats enemies, flippy bitches with swords. If you didn't complete the "Grissom Academy" mission, one of them will be named "Jack." You can find audio logs documenting how Cerberus kept her docile by holding her students hostage and then indoctrinated her. She cannot be saved. You have to kill her.

At the end of the long dungeon run, Shepard, EDI and Whoever arrive at a place the player will find familiar. Every time you FaceTimed with The Illusive Man during the second game, he was in a mirror-floored looking out over a gas giant. Shepard has now arrived at that room. This time it's TIM who FaceTimes Shepard, claiming You Are Too Late. The Prothean VI, Vendetta, seems to agree: it explains that the Reapers have seized the Citadel, which is bad because the Citadel is the Catalyst that everyone has been looking for everywhere. Additionally, they have moved the Citadel into the heart of Reaper-controlled space, above a little blue dot orbiting the star Sol — you know, Earth.

Also, Kai Leng is here for a rematch.

After he's dispatched, Shepard sits down in The Illusive Man's chair and starts raiding the man's files. Kai Leng, bleeding, stands up and attempts to sneak up on Shepard. Of course, it takes more than that to catch the commander with their pants down. Shepard dodges, or parries and shatters, Kai Leng's sword, before counterattacking with a Hard Light omni-blade that puts an end to The Dragon with a Pre-Mortem One-Liner:

"That was for Thane / Miranda / Kirrahe, you son of a bitch."

Admiral Anderson confirms that the Citadel is indeed in orbit of Earth, with the bulk of the Reapers' forces drawn back to defend it. That said, you still can't go anywhere; the galaxy is overrun. While Shepard can walk around on the Normandy and have conversations with the NPCs, most of which boil down to some variation of "It Has Been an Honor" (except for Donnelly and Daniels, who are having a Last-Minute Hookup if you bothered to progress their conversations that far; so, for that matter, are Garrus and Tali, in the unlikely event your Shepard isn't dating one of them), there's still only one place the Normandy itself can go:

Earth

In a massive pre-rendered Cut Scene, Adm. Hackett leads the combined fleets of the galaxy — the Alliance, the asari, the turians, and possibly the salarians, the quarians and the geth — through the mass relay into Sol. Hackett divides the remaining Milky Way military into three rough teams: Sword Fleet will engage the Reapers while Shield Fleet defends the Crucible when it jumps in; simultaneously, Shepard and any other infantry that can be spared will join with Earth's remaining defenders in London, England, to form Hammer Army. Guarding the Crucible is a Navy job... But getting to the Citadel requires the Marines.

The landing goes poorly, with Shepard's shuttle having to divert to destroy some Anti-Air cannons (because the team that was supposed to do it got shot down by the anti-air cannons). During this fight, there is a veritable onslaught of Reaper forces, including two Banshees, one of which, if you recruited her last game, may be named Morinth — the only way that character can appear during this game. Cortez is flying CAP; his shuttle is shot down, and it's possible for him to die in the crash if you haven't bothered to befriend him and help him get over his husband's death. After taking out the AA emplacements, Shepard's team assembles at the Forward Operating Base designated by Anderson; no matter how well you do, at least 40% of your troops fail to report in, meaning the Reapers got them. It's going to be tough.

Shepard gets a break at the FOB. It's the last non-combat segment of the game. Shepard can use a radio to FaceTime with their Suicide Squad: two of them have had Plotline Deaths, but Shepard themselves can't survive the mission unless at least two of them survive, and if Jacob didn't die at the Collector Base he doesn't die during this game either, so he's probably around; and if you played your cards right, Miranda, Jack, Grunt, Kasumi, Zaeed, Samara and even Mordin, in the (comparatively unlikely) event that he is alive, are all present as well. Cortez can be contacted too, assuming he survived his shuttle crash. Except for Kasumi and Mordin, who are up with Shield Fleet, all of them are somewhere in London, preparing for the assault. Grunt and Zaeed are typically ready to show the enemy what for; Jack and Kasumi are typically nervous; Miranda is already thinking about what comes next. Enjoy these moments; your former squadmates may be alongside you, but they're going to be holding down other aspects of the assault. This is your last chance to talk to them before the end. (And to hear Miranda finally promise she'll be careful.)

It's also Shepard's last chance to check in with whatever characters are here in person.

• James is excited to be taking the fight back to Earth, but worried too.
• Kaidan, if alive, reflects on his checkered past and the amazing adventure he's been on.
• Ashley, if alive, is more focused on the future, and the weight of the galaxy in the balance. But, like Kaidan, she hearkens back to the beginning — to Eden Prime, where it all began for the three of them — and marvels at the journey they've been on.
• Primarch Victus is here: no matter what's happening on Palaven, the war ends here, today, on Earth, and he's here to make sure it ends in victory.
• Garrus, if alive, promises to look out for Shepard, no matter what happens, whether romanced or not. Shepard promises the same: "There's no Shepard without Vakarian."
• Liara shares a quick moment of solace with Shepard in some sort of psychic void^note  Given that asari randomize the genetics of their children using a Mind Meld, it's possible she has just provided Shepard with a blue biotic offspring, and thanks the commander for everything.
• Wrex, if alive, is rallying a bunch of krogan. If not, Wreav is doing the same, though with significantly more imperialistic jingoism. And, if the player chose the salarians instead, there's a salarian prepping his troops.
• Javik, if downloaded, observes that Shepard has become the Avatar of Victory for this cycle — and, indeed, for every cycle that has passed, since even his empire never succeeded at uniting the galaxy like this. He thanks Shepard for allowing "the last voice of the Protheans to speak," and — hearkening back to his introduction — offers a handshake.
• EDI reflects on The Plan — the highest chance of success to date, but still terribly slim. But she reaffirms that she will fight to the death: "The Reapers have destroyed thousands of civilizations, but they have never destroyed ours. Nor will they." She then thanks Shepard for helping her understand what it truly means to be alive.
• Tali reaffirms her Undying Loyalty: "I backed you when I was just a kid on her Pilgrimage. I backed you when the Normandy was a Cerberus ship. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't back you now?" "[T]he Normandy helped us reclaim our homeworld. It's time I returned the favor."

The last combat segment of the game is a relentless slog against practically infinite Reaper forces. The Reapers have established a gravity lift that will take things up to the Citadel, and the entire purpose of Hammer Army is to get a non-zero number of people to that gravity lift, so that they (the non-zero number of people) can take control of the Citadel and allow the Crucible to dock with it. Hence the infinite Reaper forces — not to mention, at the end, a Reaper Destroyer guarding the beam with its insta-kill laser. Shepard must repurpose some Thanix missiles and stall — against infinite Reaper forces, and the Destroyer's insta-kill laser — until EDI has a firing solution. Fortunately, the missiles knock the Destroyer out of the fight.

Now it's time to go for the lift: and we do mean "go", because several of the larger Reapers, including Harbinger, have descended to guard it. They still have insta-kill lasers, and they are now using them to pick off individual infantry; as Shepard, Anderson and every remaining able-bodied soldier sprints towards the lift, they have to dodge lasers and tanks getting blown up and gunships getting shot out of the sky and soldiers getting vaporized. If you stand still and let the Red Shirts lead the charge, you realize it's all procedurally generated, and really just a slightly interactive Cut Scene... but when you're in the moment, charged up and ready to take on the Reapers, you lean in and hold down the Context-Sensitive Button and Big Heroic Run like the galaxy depends on it — because it does.

Now, here's where things start getting complicated from a recapping standpoint. Mass Effect 3 had a... divisive ending, and the game's first (post-release, non-"From Ashes") DLC was the "Extended Cut," which was released for free and helped flesh out the endings a little more. While this recap will include that content, it will do so using spoiler tags, so that curious readers can experience the game both with and without the retcon.

As Shepard leads their squad towards the beam, a destroyed Mako gets flung back in their direction. Shepard dodges, but the Player Party members don't. This is where War Assets first start to become a part of the story: If Shepard has enough of them, the squadmates are injured. Shepard vectors in the Normandy, which gets down into London's atmosphere in a few seconds somehow and loads the squad members onto it. This also gives Shepard the opportunity for an emotional goodbye with their Love Interest, if they were one of the two party members. But if War Assets weren't high enough, the two are just straight-up killed. Hope you didn't bring your Love Interest!

Shepard, charging straight into the teeth of death, is eventually cornered by a laser beam they can't dodge. The screen goes white. Over the radio, we hear that the Reapers have achieved a Total Party Kill: everyone from Hammer that went for the Citadel beam has died. (If War Assets are not high enough, this includes whatever party members they brought with them, but the game doesn't confirm this until later.)

Shepard, burned, hideously wounded, staggers to their feet. In slow motion, they limp their way to the Citadel beam. Three Husks and a Marauder — bearing the Fan Nicknames of "The Three Husketeers" and "Marauder Shields" — attempt to bar Shepard's way, but the game's still in slow motion, and it should be possible to pick them off with pistol fire. Shepard gets to the beam. Shepard ascends.

Shepard finds themselves aboard the Citadel. There are piles of corpses everywhere, and considering that the Reapers have seized the place, the Inferred Holocaust implies that literally everyone who lived here - Cmdr. Bailey, Kolyat Krios, the Citadel Council, Gen. Oraka, Aria T'Loak - is dead. According to the radio, Anderson has made it up as well, and the two agree to rendezvous at a central control point. There they find... The Illusive Man, still in control of his faculties but with his skin turned to the metallic dark grey and glowing blue of a Husk. He has unquestionably become indoctrinated.

The final conversation is a war of ideologies. The Illusive Man has always cared about Earth, about humanity, and wants to bring a Technology Uplift to them - consisting of Reaper technology. The price has, unquestionably, been steep, but TIM believes the ends justify the means. That said, "the means" include the ability to impose indoctrination on others; he's able to force Shepard and Anderson to stand in place, and then force Shepard to shoot Anderson, leaving the admiral groaning in pain on the floor. Shepard now turns their persuasive rhetoric on The Illusive Man.

• If Shepard has used every Paragon or Renegade dialogue option on TIM during their prior conversations — Mars, Thessia, and Cerberus HQ — they unlock one final Paragon or Renegade option... the same one they used on Saren. It has the same effect: TIM realizes he's gone too far, and that there's only one way to prevent it from going farther. He commits Heroic Suicide.
• If not, Shepard has to out-talk him the old-fashioned way and wait for a Renegade Interrupt that allows them to take the shot. If you don't take the interrupt, TIM shoots you, and you Game Over. But if you do, TIM lies dying on the floor as Shepard completes their mission — heading to the Master Control Panel and opening the arms of the Citadel, allowing TIM one last glance at the thing he has always loved: Earth.

If Anderson survived the conversation, he levers himself back into a sitting position, and Shepard collapses beside him. The two Old Soldiers, looking out over Earth and the space battle still raging, discuss what they're going to do now that the war is over. It's a comforting conversation for Adm. David Anderson, Big Good and Four-Star Badass, as he dies of his wounds.

However, it's not over. The Crucible has docked with the Citadel, but nothing's happening. Hackett radios over in a panic, and Shepard — wounded, bleeding, so tired — stumbles to their feet to figure out what else needs to be done. The answer was, apparently, just to stand up: the platform turns into an elevator, and Shepard is lifted into a new area to meet someone:

It's the little boy from the opening, the little boy from the dreams. Or, rather, it's something that's taking A Form You Are Comfortable With. It's The Catalyst.

The Catalyst explains that it is the guiding intelligence that controls the Reapers. It claims that the Reaping is an act of galactic preservation: as each sentient race becomes more powerful, it gets closer and closer to creating Digital Abominations that will become Killer Robots, wiping out all organic life. Hence, the Reapers harvest those races before they can hit this rung of the Technology Tree, creating Reapers out of them to preserve their biological and technological distinctiveness for posterity, and leaving the younger, less-advanced races alone and un-exterminated.

During the Extended Cut, Shepard is allowed to ask the Catalyst some questions at this point. It claims to have been created to broker peace between synthetics and organics, but gave up after futile efforts. The Crucible, meanwhile, is revealed to be little more than a power source, and will be necessary for what Shepard does in the following paragraphs. The Leviathan DLC adds a bit more detail, acknowledging that the Catalyst is indeed the solution that was spoken of.

The Catalyst, for good or ill, is a Graceful Loser: it acknowledges that, while its solution has worked in the past, it doesn't anymore; the fact that Shepard is here is proof of that. So it lays out what Shepard can do:

• The Catalyst shows Shepard a vision of Anderson shooting at a large mechanism. This is the Destroy ending: Shepard can use the power of the Catalyst to wipe out all synthetic life, including the Reapers. However, this will also include the geth and EDI. Additionally, the Catalyst warns Shepard that this merely procrastinates on a final solution: the races of the galaxy, thriving, will still need to be stopped from creating the Greater-Scope Villain of Robot Omnicidal Maniacs.
• The Catalyst shows a vision of The Illusive Man struggling to maintain a grip on two electrified handholds. This is the Control ending: Shepard can supersede the Catalyst as the guiding intelligence behind the Reapers. (Jerkass Has a Point, Shepard realizes, but the Catalyst claims that TIM could never have succeeded at this objective; only Shepard can.)
• The Catalyst offers A Third Option: Shepard can jump into the Crucible and allow it to imprint on them. This is the Synthesis ending: the Crucible will transform all life, both organic and synthetic, into cybernetic organisms (you know, "cyborgs") which will no longer be divided by their nature. This is the final evolution of life, according to the Catalyst, and Shepard can jump-start that evolution right now.

The exact choices Shepard has available to them are determined by a combination of previous choices (what to do with the Collector Base) and War Assets. Shepard may have all three options available, only two, or sometimes only one: a Shepard with low War Assets and an intact Collector Base must choose CTRL, while one with low War Assets and a destroyed Collector Base must choose to DELETE the Reapers. It takes very high War Assets to even be given the ALTER option.

And, no matter what Shepard chooses, propagating that choice to the galaxy will destroy the mass relays, returning the Milky Way to a Points of Light Setting where interstellar travel is difficult and complicated.

As mentioned, the game's ending, as originally delivered, was divisive amongst gamers, and part of the reason the Extended Cut is under spoiler tags is so that tropers can experience that original ending for themselves. The problems are manifold:

• The Catalyst takes the "Killer Robots Are Inevitable" premise for granted; Shepard never contradicts this premise, which is weird for a character who might have already disproved it by settling the geth-quarian feud.
• All three of the "CTRL-ALT-DEL" options involve Human Rights Issues: DEL means mass murder of the Reapers and whatever geth remain; CTRL involves Shepard enslaving the Reapers; and ALT, the kindest of the three, "merely" perpetrates non-consensual cybernetic modification on every living thing in the galaxy, from single-celled amoeba to plants to volus to thresher maws. In that sense, there is no Paragon ending, only three Renegade endings.
• Why was Shepard on trial at the opening of the game? Because destroying a mass relay destroys the entire star system in a Class-X2 Apocalypse How. Per Internal Consistency, means this will happen to every mass relay in existence, many of which have populations nearby; for instance, the Sol system — where Shepard, Hackett and Anderson have just gathered every military in the galaxy, not to mention every living member of the Player Party — will be the site of an Inferred Holocaust. The game gets around this only by forgetting to infer it.
  • Even if this isn't true and the relays simply explode safely, what the heck are the Mirror Chemistry turians and quarians gonna eat?
• Every other character in the franchise is shunted offscreen while this happens: as the following paragraphs show, at most three of our many, many characters will actually appear before the credits roll, and one of them is always Joker. A series celebrated for its Character Development abandons that focus right when that focus is most important.
• Lastly but most importantly, the endings themselves are inappropriate for the game they end: they embrace the writers' intended Central Theme of "You can't save everyone, there is no Golden Ending," but comes at the end of a game — indeed, a trilogy — where, with only four exceptions^note The Virmire Casualty, Thane, Legion and some combination of Wrex and Mordin, you can save everyone, there is a Golden Path. This is, in short, the ending to a different trilogy than the one we just played.

The Extended Cut fixes some of these problems, but not all of them.

(And that's before we talk about details of implementation, like the fact that there is no actual Final Boss, just a Multi-Mook Melee and/or Marauder Shields; or the fact that while Shepard theoretically has 14 squadmates at their disposal, you're still limited to fighting alongside only two, same as always; or how dramatically your War Assets don't affect the final mission or the ending, especially when compared to the Suicide Mission of Mass Effect 2 serving as a culmination of, almost literally, every single minute of preceding gameplay; or how Harbinger — the Big Bad, the original Reaper, the one we've been fighting since the second game — has no lines and remains The Unfought. None of these were changed either.)

Shepard makes their choice. The Citadel transmits a beam of energy — red for DEL, blue for CTRL, green for ALT — to the Charon Relay, which sends that beam down the line; everything — Citadel, mass relays, etc — that transmits the beam is damaged in doing so. The Normandy, fleeing through space, gets caught up by a wave of colored energy, blowing out her engines.

• If War Assets were low, we see the Normandy crash-landed on a planet.
• If War Assets were high enough, we see the Normandy crash-landed on a planet. Joker and several squadmates emerge into a new day, with the exact squadmate(s) determined by how Shepard resolved the situation. In most cases it's just whichever characters Shepard used most frequently on missions, but in the ALT ending, it's EDI, who puts her arm around Jeff and leans her head on his shoulder.

In the Extended Cut, the Normandy's travels are expanded on: Joker keeps looping the ship around the Citadel, hoping for Shepard to radio for a pickup, until a squadmate finally convinces them to heed Hackett's orders and leave. There are also scenes down on London, and indeed, across the galaxy, as the energy wave washes past: the red one sees the Reapers Reduced to Dust, the blue and green ones cause them to withdraw.

• Adm. Hackett narrates a DEL "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue. Against a slideshow of surviving characters enjoying post-war life, he eulogizes the fallen, particularly EDI, and espouses the value of interspecies cooperation which allowed the races of this cycle to finally win. He implies that the damage to the Citadel and Mass Relays was significant, but can be repaired... unless Shepard's War Assets total was low, at which point the Crucible blast resulted in mass casualties across all the galaxy, and Hackett implies that rebuilding will be a lot harder.
• Shepard themselves narrates the CTRL epilogue. In addition to the same slideshow, it depicts the Reapers helping to repair the mass relays. Shepard's exact wording and objectives will depend on whether they went Paragon or Renegade. It should also be pointed out that, in this ending, the Citadel actually closes itself up after shooting the blue beam; it's never seen destroyed; in fact, it's never seen again.
• EDI narrates the ALT ending. It depicts the Reapers, as hoped, cooperating with the formerly-organic races to rebuild the galaxy, and are sharing the knowledge they have preserved through the millenia. Everyone, including the characters in the slideshow, now has glowing green eyes and various green circuit-board patterns glowing underneath their skin, showing their transformation. However, it also includes some Fridge Horror, as the Body Horror mooks we've been fighting all game are shown being returned to sentience by the green energy.

In all three endings, the crew of the Normandy stands before the Memorial Wall. The name of the ship's first skipper, Adm. David Anderson, has already been added; now, with the crew in attendance, either the Love Interest or the Number Two (Liara) steps forward to add one more name: Lt.Cmdr. Shepard. This ceremony complete, the Normandy, now repaired, lifts into the air and heads off to her next adventure.

• The Extended Cut also adds one more ending: Refusal. Every time the Catalyst gives you an option, Shepard can refuse to use the Crucible; they can also, once being set free to choose from amongst the options, lift their pistol and shoot at the Catalyst. If so, the Catalyst replies, "SO BE IT," and shuts down the Crucible; the cycle of Reaping continues. However, we then skip to a verdant green world where one of Liara's Beacons, the things she discussed making with Shepard, has been planted. The Crucible, it turns out, wasn't enough; uniting the galaxy, it turns out, wasn't enough; but something must be enough, and now, with Liara's work, the races of the next cycle have a head start. "My name is Dr. Liara T'Soni. Herein lies the recounting of our war with the Reapers."

The Stinger involves a humanoid of indistinct race, played by Buzz Aldrin, promising to tell a young child one more story about "The Shepard".

If the Destroy ending was chosen, another Stinger shows the torso of someone wearing N7 armor, half-buried in rubble. The person takes a breath.

Epilogue: Citadel

This Side Quest becomes available after the Cerberus attack on the Citadel, but it seems to have been intended to be played right after Horizon and before Cronos Station. Despite this, we have left it for last for several reasons. One of them is the simplest: It was the final piece of DLC released for Mass Effect 3, coming out on March 5, 2013 — exactly 365 days after the Reapers invaded.

As the Normandy docks for some much-needed maintenance and shore leave for her crew, Shepard gets a voicemail from Anderson, inviting them to take possession of Anderson's apartment on the Citadel: He's on Earth and he's not leaving, so he doesn't need the place. It's two floors, 4 BR / 2.5 BA,and in some cases still has a few of the admiral's personal effects. (There's also a bag of bathroom products belonging to Kahlee Sanders.) From here, Shepard gets to start exploring the contents of the DLC. That said, don't visit the apartment unless you're ready to do the single-player-campaign portion of the DLC: once you visit the Apartment, you're locked into the mission chain and can't return to the Normandy. (She is in drydock.)

One of them is the Armax Arsenal Arena, in which Shepard and any two squadmates from the trilogy face down waves of simulated enemies. And we do mean any two squadmates: seven of your squadmates from Mass Effect 2', the ones who can reach Earth, can be chosen to fight alongside you. This is another reason we've left it for last: Mordin, Thane and Legion cannot be chosen as squadmates, even if you play this DLC at a time in the plot while they are still alive, and even if you managed the outcomes where Mordin survives the events on Tuchanka and is working for Project Crucible.

Additional contents include "date night" interactions with all of your characters. Each of them will send e-mails to initiate one-on-one interactions with Shepard. They take place at the Silver Strip mall, the Silver Coast Casino attached to it, or Shepard's new apartment. In alphabetical order:

• Ashley involves Shepard to the casino's bar and invite them to engage in a Drinking Contest to see "who's the real Spectre." (Shepard gets to choose whether to let her win.) Their evening is interrupted by a rowdy batarian and vorcha, and there's no question who wins that contest.
• Steve Cortez asks if he can borrow the widescreen TV in the apartment to watch the "biotiball" match with James. The two bet on (who Shepard will pick to be) the winner. If romanced, Steve can also take Shepard out on a joyride in a skycar, turning off the Inertial Dampening to recall what flying was like in the old days.
• EDI visits Shepard's apartment to ask for advice: she is buying gifts for the crew (and practically bankrupting Joker in the process). Her gift to Shepard is a victory ring comprised of metals from each of the Council homeworlds, symbolizing both the unity and the hope Shepard brings to the fight.
• Garrus asks Shepard to meet him at the bar of the Silver Coast Casino. If the two are dating, they roleplay being strangers who have just run into each other — at least before Garrus runs out of ideas, at which point he pulls Shepard to the dance floor and shows that he knows how to tango. A Shepard who is male or dating someone else can instead encourage Garrus to make a pass at a turian woman nearby.
• Grunt is the subject of an e-mail from C-Sec: he's been detained for making trouble. Grunt explains that he got bored recuperating from his injuries at Huerta Memorial; what follows is a slapstick vandalism adventure as Grunt, a kid in a half-ton krogan body, wreaks havoc... and then needs his Parental Substitute, Shepard, to bail him out of trouble.
• Jack wants to meet up at the Arena, and the two have a cathartic simulated battle. She then visits Shepard at their apartment, bringing her new pet: Eezo, a varren (Tuchankan wolf) with biotics who started out deeply mistreated (and very powerful — cf biotics) but is now a Big Friendly Dog. (Shepard can point out the parallels.) If she's dating him, Jack instead brings Shepard a tattoo machine — admitting, after the fact, that she's applying identifying markings so that, no matter what happens to him, he can be found. And saved.
• Jacob, if romanced, sits down to talk to Shepard about things. He claims he honestly believed she knew things were over, which she can correct aggressively; he admits he might be more like his father than he realized. If not, he's babysitting some children of Alliance soldiers whose parents are off fighting the war; he meets Shepard at the Strip, hoping to find some arcade games to take the kids to... and one to beat Shepard at, to show off for the kids. (Shepard can choose to deliberately lose to him.)
• James meets Shepard at their apartment to show off his new N7 tattoo. An unattached female Shepard can also flirt with him, as James has been Promoted to Love Interest via Popularity Power.
• Javik tells Shepard he has been invited to star in a movie: Blasto 7: Blasto Goes to War, latest in the line of "Blasto the Hanar Spectre" movies which are, by all indications, quite poorly made. Javik's no-nonsense attitude means Hilarity Ensues.
• Kaidan meets Shepard at their apartment and challenges them to a Cooking Duel. If the two are dating, this can transform into flirting very easily.
• Kasumi actually doesn't send an email; instead, Shepard finds one of her devices in the Casino, and knows she's planning The Heist. Kasumi walks in, takes one look at Shepard, and declares she's at the wrong casino. And that's where it ends, unless Shepard steps up and says hello. She explains she plans to donate the proceeds to war refugees, where the money will do much better than it does lining some shareholder's pockets. Shepard can encourage her to go for it or suggest she keep walking. ^note  This entire interaction has been cited by critics who claim that the Paragon / Renegade system is BioWare imposing their Blue-and-Orange Morality on gameplay. Encouraging Kasumi's Chaotic Good Robin Hood behavior is portrayed as The Fettered Paragon option but interpreting it as The Unfettered Renegade option is just as valid. This can result in players having to betray their principles for the sake of Min Maxed Karma Meter scores.
• Liara sees the piano in the apartment's living room and sits down to play — she only knows one song, having learned it while trapped at a dig site at one point. She reminisces about how infrequently she stops to relax, and Shepard offers her access to the apartment for downtime. If the two are dating, they can then move on to flirting.
• Miranda meets Shepard at the Casino, wearing a fancy red dress. She wants to try just being a normal person, out for some normal fun, for one night. She and a romanced Shepard quickly figure out things to focus on; however, FemShep tries and stumbles until admitting that the two of them aren't precisely "girly girls." "No," Miranda agrees, "we can't pretend to be anything other than troubleshooting space divas."
• Samara is a little surprised to be invited up to Shepard's apartment, given that the two have already said their farewells at the Ardat-Yakshi Monastery. Nevertheless, she agrees to sit and chat for a while. Shepard may choose to press their romantic suit again, as Samara is also Promoted to Love Interest in this DLC.
• Tali comes over for a Slumber Party, bringing her favorite vid: Fleet and Flotilla, a Romantic Comedy about a turian falling in love with a quarian. If Shepard is dating Tali, it's pretty obvious where this goes; if not, Tali reminisces happily about the past, as this is the movie she used to watch with her friends when they had sleepovers.
• Thane is dead by now, but Kolyat will email Shepard: The Council requested he hold a memorial service for his father. Shepard hosts it in the apartment, and various characters step forward to eulogize their friend. Afterwards, Kolyat gives Shepard some video messages Thane recorded for them while they (Shepard) were incarcerated between games. If Thane was romanced, there will be a fourth one in which Thane promises to wait for her on the other side.
• Samantha Traynor arranges to meet Shepard at the Strip for lunch, but when Shepard gets there, she's nowhere to be found; she discovered, and on a whim entered, a tournament of "Kepesh-Yakshi," asari chess. Expecting to wash out early, she's actually made it pretty far. She goes up against a personal rival, complete with satirical Extreme Close-Up and Shepard gets to give her marching orders: either some polite encouragement or, especially if a female Shepard is dating her, some take-no-prisoners zeal: "I'm only going to say this once, Traynor: my shower is for winners." Traynor then drops by Shepard's apartment, marveling at the space — and immediately finding the hot tub. If she's dating Shepard, the commander joins her, with predictable results; if not, she makes herself comfortable while the male Shepard chats with her from a couple rooms away.
• Wrex meets Shepard at the casino's bar, begging for a bag of ice: as the savior of Tuchanka, every fertile krogan woman now wants him to sire their firstborn, and he's sore! (Urdnot Bakara is encouraging them.)
• Zaeed is at the Silver Strip arcade, struggling against the toughest foe he's ever faced: a claw machine.

And finally, there's the actual plot...

Citadel: Shore Leave

Shepard meets Joker for dinner at Ryuusei, a famed sushi restaurant. While there, they are approached by Alliance Staff Analyst Maya Brooks, a communications tech who has discovered evidence that someone is trying to kill Shepard. (Someone new, that is; as Joker points out, the idea of Shepard being in mortal danger isn't precisely big news.) As though on cue, a bunch of mercenaries bust into the restaurant with their sights set firmly on humanity's first Spectre. When Shepard tries to save Brooks, the mercenaries shoot out the famous restaurant's famous floor, which is just an aquarium, sending Shepard plunging into the Wards below.

For their next trick, Shepard has to fight their way out single-handedly, with only one bar of health and no medigel. Regenerating Shields, Static Health are the order of the day, as Shepard has become almost literally a One-Hit-Point Wonder. Shepard also doesn't have their armor and normal weapons loadout. Their one advantage is the holdout pistol they "borrowed" from a merc: the M-11 Suppressor not only has a Hollywood Silencer but an unprecedented 400% bonus headshot damage, meaning that a Shepard with a good aim can put down a lot of foes quite efficiently.

Shepard is eventually joined by either their love interest or, if Shepard doesn't have one on the squad, Liara; this helps draw the heat off the Commander, who still doesn't have medigel. They are then joined by someone who is on the Citadel for diplomatic business but got bored and saw a fight: everyone's favorite crazy shotgun-toting uncle: The only person we haven't recruited from Mass Effect 1: Urdnot Wrex, if he's alive. (And if you didn't sabotage the genophage cure: if you did, he won't show up, even if he hasn't tried to kill Shepard yet. In Wrex's absence, James will arrive instead.) He saves the day when a C-Sec shuttle turns out to be full of enemy mercenaries: Wrex shoulder-drops the shuttle and makes quick work of the mercs inside. (James, a bit less dramatically, uses a rocket launcher.) The three of them fight their way clear of the remaining mercenaries and then bring Sgt. Brooks back to Shepard's new apartment, where they regroup and the other squadmates give Shepard no end of flak for having destroyed the restaurant's famed floor aquarium during the fight.

EDI: Civilian casualties seem to have been restricted to... fish.
Javik: Commander, in my cycle when we fled combat by falling through tanks containing aquatic animals, we usually... Oh right, we never did! (laughs) You are a trailblazer!
Tali: Back during my pilgrimage, I used to walk around near that sushi place and watch the fish through the window. I knew they'd never let me inside, but I'd think to myself, someday, when I've proven my worth to the galaxy, I'll go there for dinner. And then, you broke their floor.
Shepard: ...Do they even have food you can eat there?
Tali: Not the point, Shepard!

Brooks helps the team trace the source of the mercenaries: They are a group called CAT6, named after the Alliance codename for a dishonorable discharge. She explains that assassination is not the entire story: someone has stolen Shepard's identity, for purposes unknown but undoubtedly nefarious. The problem is nobody has any idea who's behind the plan. The only clue comes from the M-11: Liara traces it to an arms dealer named Elijah Khan, who will be hosting a gala at the Silver Coast Casino. Shepard and Brooks get all dressed up to infiltrate the gala, with Shepard getting to choose one squadmate — including Wrex, who joins the Player Party for the duration of the DLC — to serve as a decoy.

Shepard: That phone call was pretty damning stuff. How'd you get it?
Liara: It involved the weapon's biometric data, salarian intelligence, and a hanar prostitute with camera implants.
Shepard: Seriously?
Liara: No, but the truth is boring.

Citadel: Silver Coast Casino Infiltration

The actual casino infiltration isn't that dissimilar to the one Kasumi walked us through during her loyalty mission, so we're not going to talk much about it. Instead, Shepard can spend their time kibitzing with a number of other characters, including consort Sha'ira, whom we haven't seen since the beginning of the first game. Meanwhile, Brooks succeeds at hacking the security, and the three confront Khan in his office. They aren't able to get much out of him, as it turns out he's already dead. Shepard quickly makes a copy of his hard drives for evaluation back home.

EDI and Liara find financial records in the hard drive indicating that Khan sold a whole bunch of heavy weapons and equipment to CAT6 recently. Apparently, the group's plan is to invade the Citadel Archives, a cold storage location so deeply classified that even Garrus, a member of C-Sec, couldn't get in. Of course, Garrus wasn't a Spectre, and Shepard's access does the trick. In between fights, Shepard will have opportunities to observe both digital recordings and physical evidence which the Council has determined should be kept from the galaxy.

Shepard, unusually, makes the decision to bring the entire team in. Shepard will command their typical three-person fire team, but the others divide evenly into "Team Mako" (Wrex, Liara, James, Brooks, Tali) and "Team Hammerhead" (Cortez, Virmire Survivor, Javik, EDI, Garrus). Shepard cannot assign them weapons or give them commands, but they will fight their way down parallel paths, and their weapons fire will be useful at times. For whatever reason, this couldn't be implemented during the Very Definitely Final Dungeon, but at least we get it here.

Citadel Archives

The first fight goes smoothly, but it's brought to a halt when a mysterious figure — presumably the person commanding the CAT6 mercenaries — reveals they've taken Brooks hostage. Their voice and silhouette will be instantly familiar to the player. Who might it be? Is it The Illusive Man? Is it The Virmire Not-Survivor? Is it Fist, the small-time crook from the first game? No: it's Shepard.

As in, it's Lt. Cmdr. Shepard, the first human Spectre, Hero of the Citadel — the character we've been playing as for the last 100 hours. Same voice, same face, same hair, same everything.

This other Shepard explains that they are a clone, grown by TIM during The Lazarus Project in case the real Shepard needed a spare heart or lungs or something. When the Lazarus Project succeeded, TIM abandoned the Clone; it woke up six months ago and since then has been planning how to take revenge on Shepard. Its current plan: steal the Normandy. To that end, Shepard immediately orders the Normandy locked down... but the Clone already has communications jammed, and is now able to send unlock orders, telling Traynor to get the ship prepped for departure, using the authorization codes and other metadata they just intercepted. The Clone then tosses Brooks back to the Alliance and orders their mercenaries to kill the spare.

This doesn't go nearly as well for the mercenaries as they were expecting — especially since there's as many as eleven people from the Normandy here, and nine of them are amongst the toughest, most skilled infantry fighters in the galaxy. (Also, Brooks is here. Cortez, a full-on Do-Anything Soldier, holds his own.) And, of course, since our three squads can take a bunch of Mooks without breaking a sweat, they start in on the Casual Danger Dialogue.

CAT 6 Captain: Rapier Squad, orders are to kill the other Shepard's crew! No messing around this time!
CAT 6 Lieutenant: But they've got a krogan! Why don't we have a krogan?
Wrex: Wouldn't want to be you, princesses! HAHAHA!
CAT 6 Trooper: Shit! That's a prothean over there!
Javik: And that's a future corpse over there!
CAT 6 Lieutenant: I think that turian they've got is Archangel! How the hell are we supposed to kill him?!
Garrus: You're not!
James: We've got 'em psyched out! Hey, pendejos! Our Shepard is better than yours!
Love Interest — or, if you don't have one, Wrex: And better looking too!
James: Team Mako, showing Team Hammerhead how it's done!
Virmire Survivor: Hammerhead here! That's because you're copying us!
Liara: Mako here! If we were, we wouldn't be hitting anything!
Tali: This is almost unfair! Should we give them a chance?
Brooks: Speak for yourself, please! I'm not even a field agent!
Liara: Just follow Shepard's lead: let the rest of us do the heavy lifting!
Garrus: Touche, T'Soni!
Shepard: You think all you comedians could start hitting something?

Liara has brought Glyph, who helps Shepard track the clone and also finds a lot of interesting things lying around in the vault, including elcor mating totems. As Shepard continues the chase, though, they lose contact with first Team Hammerhead and then Team Mako. Brooks, who has been hit and has stayed behind, confirms that the Clone is jamming the radios. As Shepard's team crosses one of the iridium vaults that contain all of the Archives' material, a force field suddenly pops up, trapping them in place. The Clone saunters up and then introduces their Dragon: Brooks, who drops her fake accent. She ("Brooks" — she won't admit her real name) admits she's ex-Cerberus and is the person who compiled the dossiers for TIM during Mass Effect 2. However, she got fed up when TIM ordered her to include aliens like Garrus and Tali on the list. She activated the Clone six months ago and has been helping the Clone with their plans ever since. Here in the Archives, the Clone can enact the final part of their plan: replacing (the real) Shepard's handprints with their own. The Clone then seals Shepard into the vault, trapping them for all eternity.

Clone: Now, if you'll excuse me, the Normandy needs its captain. So... I should go.

Shepard: ...S/He said, "I should go." Do I sound like that?
Liara: I think it was one of the first things you ever said to me.
Tali: Shouldn't we be worried about the impregnable vault we've been sealed inside forever?
Shepard: How come no one told me this before?! I'm open to feedback here!
Garrus: I'm not really one to talk. I've been told I say "calibrating" more often than a turian should.
Shepard: I'm more confident than s/he is. More in control. With me, it's more like: "That's all for now."
Kaidan: Yeah! I'm gonna use that. Say goodbye with confidence, damn it.
Ashley: Probably not a lot of air in here either. An hour, tops.
Shepard (Paragon): Maybe it's... "I should go." ..."I should go." "I should go."
Shepard (Renegade): Or sometimes, "I'll talk to you later." Because you know what? I never do. Leave them wanting more.
Wrex: Shepard! Why aren't you more worried about this?
Shepard: Hm? Oh. Glyph, you still out there?

Citadel Docks: Retake the Normandy

Aboveground, Joker arrives in an aircar, looking pissed: someone's stealing his ship, goddammit! Shepard picks their squad and takes off. If you picked EDI, she has a momentary Freak Out as the Clone locks her out of the Normandy, forcing her entirely into her humanoid platform. Shepard then has to fight some more CAT6 guards who have been left behind to slow their path.

At the gangway, Traynor paces outside, distraught: "Cmdr. Shepard" dismissed her for "conduct unbecoming"/"fraternization" (if in a relationship with female Shep) and tossed her off the ship with barely enough time to grab her toothbrush. She is, understandably, confused to see Cmdr. Shepard come up behind her. The team try to figure out how to sneak onboard the Normandy before it flies away. Traynor says there's an emergency hatch but is only designed to be opened from within the ship. Opening it from outside would require very precise, very finely controlled mass effect fields. As Shepard and a squadmate try to figure out if they have the dexterity to do it, Traynor holds up, and activates, the device that will save the day: a Cision Pro Mk 4.

Shepard (crawling through the Jefferies tubes): If you told me this morning a toothbrush was going to save the Normandy, I would have been very skeptical.

The Clone heads down to Deck 5, leaving their remaining mooks to slow Shepard down. The elevator has a rubbish bin outside it containing all of the personal effects from Shepard's quarters: model ships, medals, a space hamster, and maybe even a screaming Husk head Shepard can have picked up at Dr. Garret Bryson's lab. This is what really sets Shepard off: "S/He messed with my stuff. Now It's Personal." The three board the elevator... which takes forever, in a Call-Back to Mass Effect 1 where long elevator rides, and conversations between squadmates, were used to disguise Dynamic Loading.

Garrus: So, anyone want to talk about their people's history?
Tali: Keelah, not even a little bit.
Garrus: So I'm the only one who misses when we used to chat in elevators back on the Citadel?
Tali: Yes. Because you're terrible.
Wrex, to Kaidan: Remember all those years ago [in an elevator] on the Citadel, when I asked who'd win in a fight between you and Shepard? Remember how you thought it was a pointless question? Look at us now.
Kaidan: I was really hoping you'd forgotten that.
Javik: Commander, at times like this, my people had a saying: "Kill him."
Garrus: ...Your people had times like this? Because in our cycle, this is pretty uncommon.
James: Those assholes are in the shuttle bay. My shuttle bay. I just know some asshole messed around with my weights. I finally had 'em set up right!
Liara: Yes, that was... bothering me as well.
Ashley: Were you trying to bulk up or going for... You know, on second thought, we can talk about this later.
EDI: I believe my sense of proprietary outrage trumps yours.
James: Oh, yeah. Sorry. You wanna talk about your feelings or anything?
EDI: These people are showing disrespect to my home, my... body. It is... Unacceptable! I intend to kill Shepard's clone, Agent Brooks, and anyone else in my way.
Tali: Ordinarily, I'd be concerned about a synthetic wanting to kill that many people, but just this once? Go for it.

It's a pretty difficult Dual Boss fight — in fact, it's probably the hardest boss fight in the trilogy. (It's not like there is a boss fight at the end of the final level.) "Brooks" will be hanging back and sniping with high-damage shotgun, and meanwhile the Clone... Well, the Clone is you — exact same class, exact same skills, and the exact same supplies of medi-gel to restore them back up to full armor and shields. It's a Healing Boss, the first in the trilogy. Plus, the Clone summons more CAT6 mooks to act as Human Shield for them. Fortunately, there's a crate with infinite medi-gel here in the shuttle bay that the Clone doesn't know about.

Meanwhile, Cortez, with Joker in the passenger seat, has grabbed a skycar and is running interference, flying in front of the Normandy's nose and preventing her from making the jump to lightspeed. The Clone orders one of the Normandy's shuttles out to deal with them... meaning the shuttle bay door is now open — while the firefight continues within.

Clone: I am Commander Shepard!
Shepard: Are you kidding me? Conrad Verner is better at being me than you are!

Shepard and the squad pour on the pressure, and eventually the fight tumbles out onto the lip of the cargo ramp. The mook piloting the Normandy, still trying to lose Cortez, tosses the ship through a maneuver that sends both Shepards flying, leaving them both dangling on the shuttle bay ramp. The Clone demands to know what makes Shepard better than them; as though summoned, Shepard's squadmates rush up, heedless to the danger to themselves, and pull the commander back to safety. The Clone, looking to Brooks for similar help, watches her turn away in disdain. The Clone has no such friend... Except Shepard, who can extend a hand if you choose. Either way, though, the Clone chooses a Disney Villain Death instead.

EDI takes control of the Normandy; Cortez and Joker land in the shuttle bay; the rest of the squad gets back on board; and Shepard can also decide what to do with "Brooks," who is now in custody but is clearly hacking the Hard Light handcuffs on her. Shepard can convince her that doing her time in prison is a better idea, or simply kill her when she tries to escape.

"Brooks": You know you'll miss me. (makes a break for it)
Shepard (Renegade Interrupt to shoot "Brooks" In the Back): Not at this range, I won't.
Joker: Uhh, maintenance to the shuttle bay...

Citadel: Party

Shepard's squadmates remark that this shore leave, though fun, wasn't precisely relaxing, and Shepard promises they'll get some downtime before they go. Almost before Shepard can open their mouths, this has become an idea to invite everyone — every character who is or ever has been in Shepard's Player Party, and is currently at liberty to do so — up to the apartment for a bash. This does require a certain amount of plot progression; for instance, if Shepard hasn't yet gone to Horizon, Miranda won't come, because she's got too much on her mind. (And, if Miranda didn't survive Horizon, she doesn't come to the party on account of being dead.) Fortunately, you can delay the party until you're ready and/or have completed all the other contents in the game.

Shepard can set the tone of the party, be it polite or raucous, but the best part is simply watching characters from across the trilogy interact: Liara, Samara, Tali, Garrus and Traynor can hang out in the kitchen, with Tali doing her best to demonstrate the differences between the warp core noises of the SR-1 and the SR-2. Kasumi spends most of the night under cloak, but will appear randomly and sporadically to contribute a one-liner (or rifle through Shepard's drawers and comment on their underwear). Joker, at the bar, can be confronted by Garrus, Wrex, Cortez, Zaeed and Javik, who criticize Joker's refusal to keep a pistol in the cockpit for emergencies and try to goad him into going down to the shooting range later. Both Grunt and Tali can end up in various bathrooms, drunk off their respective asses. James will brag that his finely-toned physique is more powerful than biotics, with Liara facepalming in disbelief and eventually yoinking him into midair to prove the point. Jack and Miranda can continue their rivalry or, if Shepard suggests, make peace with each other; Kasumi will uncloak, suggest they kiss, and mention that, if they let her record it, she can get them about a million YouTube hits in five seconds. Zaeed tries to hit on Samara. If alive and not romanced, Ashley might start flirting with James. Wrex, Zaeed, Garrus and Javik can end up near the bar (particularly if you agreed with the idea of Joker learning to shoot) setting up booby traps in a semi-inebriated state; a romanced Garrus will set the booby traps' password as "I HEART GARRUS". If the music gets loud, Jack gets up and starts dancing on the table. (Garrus, Tali, Cortez, Traynor and Samara relegate themselves to the floor.) Shepard calls for a group photo of the entire cast to cap off the evening, the characters in relationships gazing at each other fondly while the others smile for the camera. And in the morning, you find people in various states of recovery: James and either Ashley or Kaidan cooking breakfast downstairs (with Kaidan apparently having had too much coffee), Samara meditating in a quiet corner, Traynor hiding from EDI after drunken confessions the night before, Javik fuzzy after a night of drinking and a nightmare about being the only prothean left in a galaxy full of primitives, Jacob and Jack working out in a downstairs bedroom.

And that's the main reason we left this DLC for last: it's our final chance to spend one last night with the characters we've spent the better part of a decade talking to, living with, fighting alongside and falling in love with. It's our final chance to say goodbye.

Of course, there's still a war going on. The Suicide Squad get back to their duties, the Normandy crew reports to the ship, and Wrex gets back to the diplomacy and endless sex that are keeping him away from the fight. Cronos Station has yet to fall, the Crucible hasn't been completed, we still don't know what the Catalyst is, and the Reapers are out there wreaking havoc. But Shepard takes a moment to stop and just breathe — to look at the ship, to look at their crew, to look at all the good that's happened despite the end of the world.

Love Interest: It's been a damned good ride.
Shepard: The best.

The commander smiles and breaks into a run. There's a Robot War to win, people to save, decisions to make, fates to change, and millions more gamers to win the hearts of... and Shepard can't wait to get back to it.