Recap / Mass Effect: Andromeda

In the year 2185, humanity lives in a golden age of interstellar travel.
Our discovery of ancient alien ruins on Mars propelled our understanding of science and technology ahead by thousands of years.
While many now enjoy the newfound freedom and challenges of exploration in the Milky Way, others look to even more distant stars.
For the hundred thousand adventurers embarking on this one-way voyage, the future begins in...
Mass Effect: Andromeda

634 Years Later

It's the year 2819. The Ark Hyperion, containing 20,000 Human Popsicles, has arrived at its destination: the Andromeda galaxy, about 2.5 million light-years away from the Milky Way. Advances in science have overcome the limitations of standard FTL drives^note Typical drive cores, like the one found on the old SSV Normandy SR-2, build up static electricity over time, and several times a week have to be grounded by discharging the static electricity somewhere. The magic breakthrough turned out to simply be figuring out how to use that static electricity to run the ship., allowing ships to travel the "dark space" between galaxies. The Hyperion is en route to "Habitat 7," a planet within the (fictional) Heleus Cluster satellite galaxy.

Within, one of those Human Popsicles wakes up: "We made it." It's the Player Character. In Mass Effect Andromeda, the player chooses one of two Half-Identical Twins, Scott and Sara Ryder, to take control of. Their father, Alec Ryder, is present as the "Pathfinder," the lead scout for the Hyperion. Both Scott and Sara can have their appearances customized, and Alec Ryder, an Old Soldier and Genius Bruiser, will have his appearance dynamically generated according to those alterations. (You can also change their first names, but if you don't, other characters will actually call them "Scott" and "Sara" during voiced dialogue, so it can be worth it to leave them alone.)

As Player Ryder wakes up from 600 years of cryo, the Hyperion continues its approach to the Heleus Cluster. Using a FTL telescope partially adapted from geth technology, the Andromeda Initiative back home was able to select the Heleus Cluster as a good place to gain a foothold in this new galaxy. It also gives Ryder a chance to get used to the conversation menu. Gone are the Karma Meter-driving, and somewhat Railroading-prone, Paragon and Renegade choices, with Ryder instead able to roleplay via Emotional, Logical, Casual and Professional choices. These basically don't have any effect on the narrative, a significant change from the deeply-integrated Reputation meter Shepard used to wield. The player also meets "SAM," an AI that can access Ryder's head via an implant. SAM, like EDI, will be a valuable Voice with an Internet Connection for the human colonists.

The Hyperion strikes some sort of Negative Space Wedgie, a glowing tendril of golden energy that the ship bounces off of like a car hitting a wall. Inside, the Cryo Bay temporarily loses gravity... And, when everything comes crashing back down, the pod containing Sibling Ryder is damaged. You know how your phone or computer or console will sometimes say, "Do not unplug the device while it is rebooting"? Yeah, that's what just happened to your twin. As such, Sibling Ryder will remain on the ship in a medically-induced coma until they are able to recover. Meanwhile, Player Ryder reports to the bridge alongside Cora Harper, another member of the Pathfinder team.

Captain Dunn is trying to keep Hyperion moving on reserve power only; whatever that Negative Space Wedgie is, it caused problems. It certainly blocks the sensors; even with SAM performing adjustments, no one can get readings on Habitat 7, which is theoretically within the Goldilocks zone, but also happens to be encircled by all those golden tendrils. If Hyperion can't get her FTL back online, is Habitat 7 actually habitable? Pathfinder Alec Ryder orders two shuttles prepped so his team can investigate.

In the shuttlebay, Alec Ryder assembles his team: the Player Character; Cora, his Number Two; Liam Kosta, a former Cowboy Cop; Dr. Harry Carlyle, The Medic; and some Red Shirts. Alec is wearing his old N7 armor from back in the Milky Way, a reminder that he's one of the most proficient soldiers the Human Systems Alliance has ever produced. The team heads out to make landfall.

Habitat 7

Habitat 7 isn't necessarily uninhabitable, but it's certainly inhospitable: there's lightning everywhere, jostling the shuttles as soon as they hit atmo. One of them slices the player's shuttle in half, and Ryder barely manages to make an unscheduled landing after SAM reconfigures their hardsuit's jump jets. It's still rough; Ryder cracks the faceplate of their helmet, and has to use their only repair kit to patch it up. Ryder, with Liam Kosta in tow, begins to make their way towards the other shuttle in a land of lightning strikes and floating rocks — illustrating, graphically, that they are not in Kansas anymore.

Like many games, this level starts out as a movement tutorial, which is actually very valuable: Ryder is significantly more maneuverable than Shepard ever was. In addition to the standard Context-Sensitive Button that lets Shepard, and now Ryder, Take Cover!, pop out to fire, sprint, and Unnecessary Combat Roll, Ryder has the ability to cling to and clamber up ledges, a jump button augmented by thrusters in their hardsuit, and even Air-Dashing. Shooting controls remain similar, but Cooldown has been revised: instead of Shepard casting one spell and then having a global cooldown that prevents them from casting another, all of Ryder's skills have individual cooldowns, allowing much easier application of power Combos and Combination Attacks. (The game may be an Interquel with Mass Effect 2, but apparently the Andromeda Initiative has tech that neither the Alliance or a Nebulous Evil Organization and N.G.O. Superpower like Cerberus has. To be fair, The Illusive Man did spend Eleventy Zillion credits bringing Shepard Back from the Dead; maybe that was their entire R&D budget.)

Ryder soon realizes that the human pathfinders are not alone: there's an alien race here, bipedal and with perpetually angry faces. While Ryder attempts to adhere to First Contact procedures, these aliens appear to prefer an Attack Hello, killing a Pathfinder Red Shirt who was attempting to surrender. Ryder also finds alien structures on the planet, though they can make no sense of them.

Ryder and Liam finally make contact with the second shuttle, where Cora, Dr. Carlyle and a third Red Shirt are besieged by the aliens. Cora reveals that she has strong biotics; why she kept this a secret is left as an exercise for the player. In any case, she explains that Alec Ryder headed off to see if he could find a way to stop the lightning storm, as it is preventing the shuttle from taking off again. She joins the Player Party, and she, Liam and Ryder head off after Ryder's dad.

Party members in this game have three active skills and two passives. They no longer have a Choice of Two Weapons, instead being restricted to one gun which they wield at all times. However, Ryder makes up for them in flexibility: Ryder has access to "Profiles," which are a combination of a character class (Soldier, Adept, etc, plus a new hybrid one called "Explorer" which places an emphasis on evasion and maneuverability) and three active powers. Courtesy of SAM, Ryder can assign any class, and any three powers, they like to each of their four Profiles — Ryder could absolutely class as a gun-oriented Soldier and then equip three biotics powers, though this is Not the Intended Use. Ryder can also switch to a different Profile at any time, though this puts all their powers on a rather long cooldown.

Alec Ryder has been inspecting a large alien monolith. Its tower, he believes, is producing the lightning storm. Alec begins by destroying two of the giant lightning rods which have been protecting the hostile aliens from the weather. Alec then charges into battle, showing what an N7 can do, with Ryder, Cora and Liam simply trying to keep up. Of course, soon it all falls on the player's shoulders: There's a control panel outside the tower's entrance, and Alec hunkers down to have SAM decrypt it while Ryder leads the defense.

Within, SAM is able to turn the tower off. However, this has the side effect of releasing a massive gust of wind that knocks father and child off a ledge. Ryder, down below, finds their helmet's faceplate smashed — again. This time there's no repair kit.

Alec Ryder, limping out of the fog, gives his child his own helmet. He transfers the office of Pathfinder, and hosting privileges for SAM, to them, with the last of his oxygen. The shuttle arrives, but too late for Alec Ryder.

The Nexus

Ryder awakens on the Hyperion, specifically in the AI Core where SAM "lives." SAM explains that Ryder was clinically dead for a hot minute, and that SAM had to extend its digital tentacles deeper into Ryder's mind to revive them. Ryder can now communicate mentally to SAM in a way others can't. SAM also confirms that Ryder is now the Pathfinder — a slap in the face to Cora, who was the heir designate. That said, SAM can't be transferred to Cora without killing Ryder, so the team lives with it for now.

Captain Dunn has located The Nexus. Jien Garson, founder of the Andromeda Initiative, realized that they'd need their own equivalent of the Citadel over there, and sent The Nexus, with its own support crew consisting of all five primary races (humans, asari, turians, salarians and krogan), in addition to the five Arks. Hyperion warps in, only to find the place in power-saving mode: the Nexus wasn't designed to operate solo, but none of the other Arks have arrived. The Nexus, meanwhile, has been here for two years at this point, trying to make things work: there's been two unsuccessful colonization attempts, a mutiny, a case of good old Fantastic Racism against the krogan, and of course the glowing gold Negative Space Wedgie, which the Nexus folks call "the Scourge." It resulted in catastrophic damage and the death of much of the Andromeda Initiative's C-Suite, including founder and CEO Jien Garson; Jarun Tann, a salarian accountant, has since been promoted to head of the Initiative, as he was the eighth Spare to the Throne. Other authority figures include Foster Addison, head of Colonization efforts; Nakmor Kesh, the second krogan female in the franchise, who serves as the Nexus Superintendent; and Tiran Kandros, a turian who stepped up in a fight and has since become head of the Nexus Militia.

Ryder's arrival is a source of both joy and foreboding. The main reason everyone's happy is because 1. the Hyperion's survival means that the Initiative isn't just straight-up doomed, end of story; 2. hooking the ship up to the Nexus's power grid means that there's finally enough electricity that they can turn the fucking lights on. That said, the Nexus authorities were also looking forward to Alec Ryder, who not only had leadership and survival experience as an N7, who not only had the charisma to lead, but who was a Genius Bruiser who invented the SAM AI that now assists every Pathfinder in the Initiative. While Kesh and Kandros are at least nice about it, the simple fact is that all of them are a bit skeptical of having this untried, inappropriately promoted replacement Falling into the Cockpit while lives hang in the balance. As Addison somewhat narmfully puts it, "You're not a Pathfinder until you've pathfound something."

To that end, Administrator Tann basically throws down the gauntlet to Ryder: Go pathfind something. The two failed colonization attempts have been on Habitat 1: the planet Eos, the only one in range of the Nexus. Tann throws all their remaining resources behind Ryder: a ship, the Tempest, a 3-deck scout ship that can land planetside — there used to be enough for all the Pathfinders, but the others were destroyed when the Nexus met the Scourge for the first time — and Vetra Nyx, a turian smuggler who now works for the Initiative in procurement. Vetra also joins the party.

Eos - A Better Beginning

Ryder and two squadmates of choice leave the Tempest and venture out into the abandoned first colony, Site 1: Promise. It's surrounded by shield masts which are used to keep the radiation out; Eos's radiation levels are too high for comfort, and being outside the shield ring for too long will actually cause Ryder to take damage. That said, the Tempest's sensors pick up readings which indicate that some sort of massive terraforming structure, like the tower on Habitat 7, exists here as well, and Ryder hopes to use SAM to turn it on. Also, Ryder quickly finds a second solution to the radiation problem: the Nomad, a six-wheeled rover that was left behind at Site 1. While it has no weapons, its play control is substantially superior to that of the old M35 Mako. (Criterion Games, creators of the Need for Speed franchise, were apparently consulted on the subject.)

Eos is one of several major hub worlds in Mass Effect: Andromeda, and sets the tone for the rest of the game. It's a Wide-Open Sandbox, large enough that driving around is the only convenient way to get from place to place, and there are a lot of Side Quests to be found here. Most of them have the effect of raising Eos's "Viability," a percentage score which indicates how hospitable the planet is for Milky-Way life. Obviously, if Ryder manages to fix the radiation problem, that'll be a big bump, but it's also smaller things like clearing out hostile wildlife or helping to track down slain colonists from Site 1: Promise or Site 2: Resilience. Ryder's hardsuit is also equipped with a scanner, which can be used to scan just about everything; each thing you scan gives you Research Data, which are (going to be) used to design, build and upgrade player equipment on the Tempest. In general, you will need to do a lot of scanning. Finally, as Ryder cruises around the planet, they will find locations where they can summon "Forward Stations". These spots refill your shields, allow you to resupply, allow you to fast-travel between them, allow you to choose new Player Party members, and increase the planet's Viability by 2%. (Of course, you never get to just drop 50 of them and call it a day.)

Ryder and their party arrive at a monolith which seems to be connected to the terraforming tower. To Ryder's surprise, this leads to a Crash-Into Hello with an asari archaeologist. She calls herself Peebee and is fascinated by Ryder's ability to interact with the monolith's tech, which she (Peebee) claims is from a race of Precursors called "the Remnant."

Ryder learns that the hostile alien race from Habitat 7, whom the Nexus call the "kett," are here; Peebee claims they too are deeply interested in the Remnant. To that end, they have set up camps near the three monoliths on the planet, which is a problem because Ryder seems to need to activate all three of them by solving some basic logic puzzles with the Fan Nickname "Remnant Sudoku" — they use (fictional) Remnant characters, but otherwise the rules are the same. While clearing one out, Ryder comes across yet another Milky Way familiar face: a grizzled krogan mercenary putting an end to some kett. This krogan, Nakmor Drack, at first wants nothing to do with Ryder, as they are explicitly affiliated with the Initiative, but changes his mind when Vetra vouches for them. That said, he's still got kett to kill, and strikes out on his own.

After activating all three Remnant Monoliths, Ryder succeeds at exposing the entrance to the Vault. Fortunately, we're not on Pandora, where the Vault is used to seal away end-of-the-galaxy-type stuff; this Remnant Vault supposedly holds the key to terraforming the planet. Ryder's party spelunks the Vault, with Peebee tagging along as a non-controllable NPC who goes her own way. With SAM's help, Ryder succeeds in reconfiguring the Vault to clear up the radiation levels... but doing so means resetting the Vault, which creates an Advancing Wall of Doom in the form of a "purification field". Ryder, party and Peebee race for the exit.

Back aboveground, the radiation is cleared, and Eos has gotten +50% Viability. Peebee, impressed by what Ryder can do, forces her way into the Player Party. Meanwhile, Drack has gotten in deep, and Ryder drives up to the rescue; Drack, impressed with Ryder's fighting prowess, also joins up.

Finally, Ryder is allowed to formally call down the prefabs and colonists who will form Site 3, which is called "Prodromos." Ryder is asked to decide whether this colony should focus on scientific advancement or military prowess, which will affect every colony Ryder helps found from now on.

Back To The Nexus

Ryder flies the Tempest back to the Nexus and reports in. While the others have already painted Tann as a careerist Professional Butt-Kisser, Ryder gets firsthand experience of this; no matter how they reacted to Tann earlier, Tann will portray the conversation as though he and Ryder always got along. Meanwhile, Ryder can perform some side quests on the Nexus, explore the station, and check in with Tiran Kandros, who leads the APEX Strike Missions — the four-player Co-Op Multiplayer introduced by Mass Effect 3. Kandros will admit that he joined the Initiative partially to live a life of his own; he started out as career military (the way every turian does), but when other members of the Kandros family, particularly his cousin Nyreen, decided to go their own way, he felt increasingly forced to uphold the family tradition. For him, the Andromeda Initiative was a way out.

Ryder can also investigate the Tempest a bit further. Like the Normandy, one deck is comparatively small; in the Tempest's case, it's the conference room, which is the only thing on Deck 1. The second deck has the bridge, various labs, and engineering; the third deck has crew quarters, the med bay, the galley, and the Pathfinder's quarters directly under the bridge. Ryder can also start talking to their crew; they were all there before, of course, but none of them were interested in talking, being focused on getting down to Eos and getting started.

• Cora Harper has the shotgun and biotic-cannonball Foe-Tossing Charge of a Vanguard, the only NPC in the franchise to truly qualify for the class. She turns out to be something of an Ascended Fanboy of the asari: born in space, she exhibited truly staggering biotic powers, and was actually assigned to an asari commando unit for several years. Scott Ryder can romance her. She lives in the Bio Lab on Deck 3, where she likes to tend to plants.
• Liam Kosta is the franchise's latest victim of the Infiltrator NPC Identity Crisis; he has a SMG, tech powers and dual Hard Light omni-blades which he uses for Back Stab attacks. A happy-go-lucky kind of chap, Liam has always been kind of restless, bouncing from law enforcement to crisis response (IE SWAT) to the Andromeda Initiative, but never quite finding a place to fit in. Sara Ryder can romance him. He lives in one of the cargo bays on Deck 3, where he's installed a ratty old couch.
• Vetra Nyx fills the Soldier archetype of having a Gatling Good repeater cannon and a lot of durability. A Cultural Rebel, she is one of the, what, 1% of turians who don't enlist in the military. Her talent for procurement brought her to the attention of Nakmor Kesh, who back in the Milky Way was helping to put the six giant spaceships of the Andromeda Initiative together. She is a romance option for both Ryders. She hangs out in the other cargo bay, where she is keeping her procurement network going.
• Peebee has the pistol and dual-emphasis-on-biotics-and-tech of a Sentinel, though not the Tech Armor. An Adventure Archaeologist, she got bored of the Milky Way and came here to see something truly new. Her dialogue implies that she is more of a Chaotic Good type, harboring little malice but bending the rules when they don't suit her. She is a romance option for both Ryders. She lives in the Tempest's Escape Pod just off the bridge, in case her unwillingness to settle down and take root was not anvilicious enough.
• Nakmor Drack fulfils the shotgun-toting Stone Wall Screaming Warrior slot of Wrex and Grunt before him. Born in the 700s CE, during the Krogan Rebellions, he has rattled around the Milky Way for 1400 years — and has the prosthetics to show for it. Like most krogan, he's a Bruiser with a Soft Center; when, at one point, he had more or less given up the will to live, someone handed him a tiny bundle in need of care: Nakmor Kesh, his granddaughter. The two have stuck together ever since. As usual for krogan, he cannot be romanced. Since Real Men Can Cook, he likes to hang out at the galley, earning the approbation of the crew.

Ryder can also consult with the multiple NPCs on the ship.

• Kallo Jath is the salarian pilot of the Tempest. He's also one of the ship's designers, though he has by now long outlived his coworkers. The Tempest was designed to be flexible and capable — it even includes a copy of the classified stealth drive from the Normandy SR-1, though the game's Encyclopedia Exposita is deliberately vague on how the Initiative got this technology — and when it was realized that one of those designers should go along for the ride, Kallo volunteered.
• Suvi Anwar is the human science officer, providing the now-classic religious viewpoint that Sgt. Ashley Williams did. She is a romance outlet for Sara Ryder.
• Dr. Lexi T'Perro is an asari physician who helped Dr. Carlyle in the Hyperion med bay. Yes, she was on the human Ark. After the firefight on Habitat 7, Carlyle decided to take a quieter posting, and Lexi got his spot on the Tempest. She was born on Omega and hasn't seen her parents in ages, as they spent every credit they had getting her off-station and into med school.
• Gil Brodie is the ship's main engineer. He was recruited to the Initiative by Vetra, who recognized his talent for mechanical work. He can be dated by Scott Ryder.

Finally, Ryder can return to the Hyperion, where Dr. Carlyle is minding Sibling Ryder, who is still in a coma. Harry uses SAM to create a temporary telepathic bridge to Sibling Ryder. Ryder can decide how much of the current situation — hostile kett, beheaded Initiative, Alec Ryder dead — they want to mention; Sibling Ryder will hold it against you if you don't, but Harry will get defensive over his patient's wellbeing if you do. (To be fair, if you give enough bad news, the connection shorts out as Sibling Ryder passes out in shock.)

A Trail Of Hope I

The Vault on Eos indicated the location of other Remnant installations, and Ryder takes the Tempest after one of them. They're confronted by the Archon, the leader of the kett forces. He wants Ryder and/or Ryder's ability to interact with Remtech. The Tempest can't fight — it isn't armed — so Ryder commands a daring escape through the Scourge. It works, but Gil radios that the damage is extensive, and Ryder orders them to put down on the world where the active Remnant installation was. As the Tempest approaches, they are hailed by yet another alien, and Ryder prepares for First Contact.

After the Translator Microbes adapt, Ryder learns that the aliens are called the "angara." They are nervous because the kett have been after them for decades, and Ryder has just landed on their previously-hidden stronghold; Ryder is, in fact, the first extraterrestrial to ever set foot on this planet, which the angarans call Aya.

Ryder meets with Paaran Shie, the mayor of this city; Evfra de Tershaav, the leader of the angaran Resistance; and Evfra's subordinate Jaal Ama Darav. Ryder does not meet with Moshae Sjefa, a religious leader who controls access to the Remnant Vault on Aya, because she (the Moshae) has been taken captive by the kett. Ryder, whenever asked, is quick to advocate for the Initiative and suggest alliance between them and the angara, but after fifty years of Attack Hello "diplomacy" from the kett, Evfra is understandably cautious about trusting aliens. Evfra agrees on a test: Ryder is tasked with traveling to two angaran colonies, Voeld and Havarl, and helping them out. If Ryder does, Evfra will tell Ryder how to get the Moshae back and permit access to Aya's Vault. To ensure that all goes well, Jaal will be assigned as an observer.

Jaal joins the Player Party. Jaal is the angaran equivalent of an Infiltrator — they don't have element zero in their systems, the way Milky Way biotics do, but they can manipulate their bioelectric fields for similar results. Jaal is a more traditional representation of the class, toting around a Sniper Rifle and having an Invisibility Cloak Back Stab effect similar to what Kasumi had back in 2185. Jaal provides a window into angaran culture, which is based around the family unit and includes a lot of honorary mothers and siblings. Initially a romance option for Sara Ryder, a later patch saw him Promoted to Love Interest as a Gay Option for Scott as well.

Your party now consists of:

• A powerful human biotic,
• A human soldier with a spotty reputation,
• A streetwise turian who doesn't fit in,
• An archaeologist asari who is an expert on the galaxy's Precursors,
• An Old Soldier krogan who thinks about the future, and
• One person from a local race who will have bearing on larger events.

If this sounds similar to what Shepard shipped out with on the SR-1, well, let's just say that BioWare may have been playing it Strictly Formula on this one.

Havarl - Help the Scientists

Havarl is a jungle planet, or at least the part of it that Ryder is allowed to visit; it's one of only two planets where you can't use the Nomad, and the other was Habitat 7, which you never get to go back to. The Andromeda Initiative used to call this planet Habitat 3, but once Ryder discovers that it's actually the angaran homeworld, all colonization plans are canceled. (As to Aya, it's the angaran backup stronghold; 300 years ago and in a different Intellectual Property, the humans of Halo did something similar with the planet Reach.)

Ryder is dispatched to free a group of angaran researchers who were caught in a Remnant stasis trap. They do, and the scientists go home. That's it, that's the whole mission: you get them free, and Evfra back on Aya's like, "Nice job, I can trust you," and you can move on with the plot. See, that's the thing about Mass Effect Andromeda: You start out with the goal of Being Pathfinder and helping settle planets and spawn colonies... but the instant you meet the Archon, there's a Halfway Plot Switch and suddenly all Ryder cares about is stopping the Big Bad. You don't have to found any other colonies, or do any other activities pertaining to the Andromeda Initiative. All of those are Side Quests.

So let's talk Side Quests.

Side Quests

Roekaar Defensiveness

First off, Jaal will tell Ryder about the Roekaar. They're a group of angaran conservatives who distrust all aliens, whatsoever. These are going to be important as we move forward, because Ryder learns from the Havarl scientists that even more aliens have been sighted — ones that don't look like the kett — and the Roekaar are interested in wiping them out. If Ryder investigates, they find the Roekaar attacking... turians.

The leader, Avitus Rix, explains that a number of escape pods were shed by Ark Natanus, and their occupants are currently bunkered down here; Avitus, who back in the Milky Way used to be something called a Spectre, has taken the command. Unfortunately, that's all Avitus can say; he doesn't know where Natanus is, nor the turian Pathfinder Macen Barro. He can only assume that Macen is alive because the turian SAM hasn't transferred to the Number Two Pathfinder — Avitus himself. He leads his contingent back to the Nexus, where he plans to keep searching for the turian Ark.

A Dying World

Kiiran Dals, the head angaran scientist whom Ryder freed from the stasis trap, has been trying to figure out what's wrong with Havarl. Everything's out of whack here, and the jungle is slowly encroaching on the civilized settlements. Dals' suspicion is that the Vault isn't turned on — when all three Monoliths are active, they shoot bright energy beams at each other, so Ryder only needs to look at the sky to see that one of them is turned off. To figure out how to fix this, Ryder goes to consult some angaran sages in the sanctuary of Mithrava.

Ryder learns that the angarans believe in reincarnation, and that their best bet to finding the third Monolith is to find the reincarnation of Zorai, an ancient angara champion. Unfortunately, that reincarnation, named Taavos, is a member of the Roekaar. Ryder has to Fetch Quest up a Plot Coupon that once belonged to Zorai, and then give it to Taavos, who upon touching it is instantly filled with Past-Life Memories. He takes Ryder to the third Monolith, where Ryder activates it and uncovers the Vault. After that, it's just a matter of spelunking the Vault, reconfiguring its systems and escaping its purification field.

Ryder doesn't plant an Initiative colony here — angaran homeworld and all that — but the angarans invite the Initiative to join their research efforts, and from this point on Ryder can find Milky Way techheads here as well.

Voeld - Meet the Resistance

Voeld is the planet's name, but the Initiative called it Habitat 6. For a planet that's in the Goldilocks Zone, it's extremely frozen, having been knocked out of its orbit by the Scourge; the average temperature is a balmy -40 degrees Celsius. The kett are entrenched heavily, and Voeld is the heart of the fight between kett invaders and the angaran Resistance.

Ryder lands on the planet and meets the local commander, Anjik Do Xeel. Do Xeel asks Ryder to speak to some Resistance lookouts, who mention some angara which have been kidnapped by the kett.

Ryder heads to Hjara Station, a daar (Shelesh for "village") where the kidnapped angara were last seen. One of the villagers, Skeot, does indeed know of the kidnap victims: his uncle is one of them. He points Ryder at the kett prison, and Ryder stages an attack. Skeot's uncle, Nilij, explains that they have found some critical kett data, and asks Ryder to take that data to Techiix, the biggest city on the planet.

Buxil, Skeot's mom, is a data analyst and part-time hacker at Techiix. She discovers that the critical data includes security codes and other time-sensitive material for the main kett stronghold on the planet. These are going to be changed any day now, and Ryder could mount a Storming the Castle raid on the base. ...Or Ryder could move on with the plot, because attacking the kett base falls under...

Side Quests

Remove The Heart

There's honestly not much to say about this mission; it's straightforward combat, with its only major wrinkle being the first introduction of the "Ascendent" enemy type, a Cores-and-Turrets Boss with a melee-range One-Hit KO.

After Ryder takes down the kett base, Buxil mentions that the kett were maintaining Some Kind of Force Field over a former angaran daar called Ja Niihk. The mission to investigate it automatically becomes available.

Uncovering The Past

The major find within Ja Niihk is an Ancient Angaran AI that predates the Scourge. It is defensive of its existence and entraps an angaran who tries to destroy it. Ryder must decide what to do:

• Destroy the AI, sparing the angaran who's being electrocuted. Evfra applauds this action the most.
• Send the AI to Aya, where Evfra has it classified immediately and starts to research it.
• Send the AI to the Hyperion. If this sounds ridiculous, it should be pointed out that this is what the AI actually asks for. It hangs out in SAM Node, making friends, while Evfra sends a Strongly-Worded Email implying that Ryder is five or six brain cells short of a pair.

Whatever the case, the mayor of Techiix now invites Ryder to plant a colony on the planet.

Settling Voeld

Voeld requires only 40% Viability. Rescuing Nilij provided 5% of that, and shutting down the kett base alone another 10%; the remaining 25% comes from all the side quests and fetch quests and such. You don't have to activate the Vault if you don't want. The settlement is named Taerve Uni, Shelesh for "Forward together". Doing this gives you an additional +20% Viability on Voeld.

Restoring A World

This is the traditional "Turn on the three Monoliths, raise the Vault, go into the Vault, reconfigure it, get out again" mission. Little and less needs be said about it. However, post-activation scans show the limits of the Vault's power: it engages in deliberate Global Warming to alleviate the Endless Winter; the actual solution — pushing Voeld back into its original orbit — is beyond the Vault's capacity. It gives +40% Viability on Voeld, which — if you've been doing the math — should be enough to get the planet up to 100%.

Cora Harper: Asari Ark

Cora will mention that a refugee from the Ark Leusinia at Prodromos. This refugee, Hydaria, explains that Leusinia came under heavy kett attack, and a smaller ship, the Periphona, was launched to help draw them off. Ryder traces the Periphona to Voeld, where the ship's flight recorder is found; however, it's damaged, and Cora's going to need some time to decipher it.

A Trail of Hope II

Evfra is more trusting of the Andromeda Initiative at this point (even if you "stole" the AI). He's tracked Moshae Sjefa, the half-scientist half-saint, to a kett facility on Voeld. Just in time, too: as Ryder and a Resistance squad breach the gates, they overhear instructions that the Moshae's "exaltation" is to be hurried. The team doesn't get any clue on what "exaltation" means, though they do see some angara being ceremonially herded into pods. Only later, when they see one of the pods at work, do they understand: "exaltation" is the process of forcibly mutating something, in this case an angara, into a kett. Jaal, a mandatory squadmate for this mission, is overcome with remorse for how many of them he's killed.

The Moshae is in direct custody of the kett Cardinal who runs this exaltation facility. Ryder must fight her to secure the Moshae's freedom. The Cardinal is an Ascendant with twice the Hit Points.

Moshae Sjefa thanks Ryder for her freedom, and then turns to contemplate the kett facility.

• The Cardinal, who is still alive, offers to free the current crop of angara prisoners in exchange for leaving the place still standing. Jaal, surprisingly, agrees with this idea, because the alternative is:
• Moshae Sjefa wants to just blow the place up: It's the Only Way to Be Sure. If this results in angaran prisoners dying, well, so be it.

If Ryder chooses the former, you get an interrupt option to nonetheless gun down the Cardinal. If Ryder chooses the latter, Jaal takes the shot instead.

The final portion of the level is an Escort Mission similar to the Long Walk at the Collector Base: Moshae Sjefa puts up a bubble that protects anyone near it, while the three of you protect her from floods of kett. The extraction shuttle arrives just in time.

After returning the Moshae to the angara, Ryder is turned loose on the Wide-Open Sandbox again. Paaran Shie is pleased at the results of the initial angaran / Initiative cooperation; she formally opens Aya for Initiative visitors, and the angarans open up an embassy on the Nexus. Ryder may also talk to Sjefa at the Vault on Aya — you know, the thing we've been working towards for this whole first half of the game. Within, Sjefa has figured out how the whole satellite galaxy works: all the Vaults are connected to a central one on a planet called Meridian. The Moshae believes that all Vaults in the Heleus Cluster could be remotely activated from this Central Vault. Unfortunately, no one knows where Meridian is... but Moshae Sjefa says she saw a map to the place on the Archon's ship, the Verakan, while he fretted over not being able to decipher it.

Hunting the Archon

Ryder needs to hunt down the Verakan so they can board it and get a glimpse at that map. To this end, they start to hunt down a member of the angaran Les Collaborateurs, Vehn Terev. He was last seen on Kadara, a Wretched Hive with its own history. Kadara, Habitat 4, is another angaran colony... and has also become home to the "Exiles" who left the Initiative after The Mutiny. The potentate of Kadara Port, ruling over Milky Way and Heleus residents alike, is the Initiative's former Chief of Security, Sloan Kelly.

Ryder heads to a local bar, Kralla's Song, to meet a contact, Reyes Vidal. Vidal explains that Terev is in prison because the angaran populace don't like that they almost lost Moshae Sjefa to his (Terev's) machinations; as Kelly, whatever her other faults, listens to her people, Terev is to be executed shortly. Ryder now has a chance to speak to Kelly and make their case; if Ryder fails to convince Kelly, Vidal will have a way they can sneak into the prison.

Terev doesn't know where the Verakan is; all he has is a transmitter, which he buried outdoors somewhere on Kadara. He gives Ryder its location, and Ryder obtains it to triangulate the ship's location. Gil Brodie narrows it down to the Tafeno System. A Ryder who is in a hurry to continue the plot jumps back in the Tempest and flies away, having not even fired their gun the entire time.

Side Quests

High Noon

Things are not precisely sunny with the Exiles. They've split down the middle into Sloan Kelly's "Outcasts," who like to publicly intimidate, and the "Collective," which works behind the scenes. The Collective is run by someone known only as The Charlatan. Vidal is a member of the Collective, though even he claims he doesn't know who The Charlatan actually is.

The local situation has gotten tense: the Collective managed to run a False Flag Operation which resulted in Kelly's Number Two, a turian named Kaetus, getting beat up by his own men. Kelly found a note from the Charlatan taking credit for the operation and challenging her (Kelly) to a one-on-one meeting. Kelly asks Ryder to accompany her for backup.

The Charlatan turns out to be Vidal himself, and he and Kelly begin circling like gunslingers in a Western. SAM notes that Vidal has positioned someone with a Sniper Rifle and is about to take the shot. Ryder must choose what to do.

• If Ryder warns Kelly about the foul play, Reyes gets away and Kelly retains rulership of Kadara.
• If not, the sniper just takes the shot. Reyes earns himself a Klingon Promotion.

Vault

There is a Vault on Kadara. Ryder needs to activate it, as the water is horribly acidic. After the typical business of activating the Remnant Vault, Ryder is allowed to found a new colony, which takes the name "Ditaeon" — a satirical military acronym for "Deployed In The Ass-End Of Nowhere." (The colonists themselves chose the name.)

Elaaden: A New World

Upon returning to the Tempest for the first time after landing on Kadara, Drack calls for a staff meeting. He's learned that things aren't all that peachy at home — home being Elaaden. This world, originally known as Habitat 2, is now the home of basically every krogan that were part of the Nexus staff, after Director Tann's Fantastic Racism drove them away. That said, Ryder does not have to visit this planet to progress the plot.

Side Quests

Elaaden is a desert world with a lot of angry fauna — pleasantly reminiscent of Tuchanka. Its most notable feature, however, is the giant-ass Remnant starship half-buried in the dunes. The part that's aboveground is several kilometers long.

Ryder meets with Jorgal Strux, a krogan, who is concerned that Nakmor Morda, the current leader of Elaaden, is becoming a tyrant and plans to take on the Nexus. At the heart of the colony, New Tuchanka, Morda turns out to be everything she's said to be; Ravanor Brenk, her advisor, explains that she's trying to dig the drive core out of the Remnant starship and convert it into a bomb. The majority of the krogan under her command, somewhat unusually, would actually prefer peace with the Initiative. Whatever the case, Ryder resolves to get to the Remnant Drive Core first.

It's not in the ship; Drack, if brought, will mention that Morda can't have it, because the krogan are still trying to break in. After a series of misadventures, Ryder traces it to a Scavenger Flophouse, where armed guards resist the Pathfinder's investigations. The Pathfinder's party recognize them as working for Jorgal Strux: he's been playing both sides against the middle.

Back at New Tuchanka, Morda is irate at the Pathfinder: Jorgal Strux paid the scavengers to "steal" the Core from Morda, with plans to recover it himself and be hailed as a hero. This plan no longer being an option, he challenges Morda to a fistfight, which she wins easily. With Strux and his followers now exiled, Morda demands the Core.

• If Ryder keeps it for the Initiative, Morda cuts off all diplomatic ties with the Initiative and refuses them permission to colonize. Director Tann is very approving of this, as he sees no value in the krogan.
• If Ryder hands it over, Elaaden is open to colonization, though Ryder might need to do additional activities to get the Viability high enough. The Elaaden Outpost is the only one that doesn't get its own name, as it's arguably an extension of New Tuchanka. Foster Addison is excited about getting the krogan back into the Initiative.

H-047c: A New World

Habitat 5 was originally pinpointed as the primary turian colony, and there's belief amongst Peebee and Vetra that the Natanus may have headed there. It's not going to gain them much, though: the planet formerly known as Habitat 5 has experienced a literal Earth-Shattering Kaboom because of the Scourge. H-047c, the largest remaining piece, is a lifeless, airless, low-gravity hunk of rock ravaged by cosmic radiation. While Habitat 7 and Havarl don't let you drive the Nomad, H-047c is the opposite: aside from pre-existing, shielded domes, Ryder must be in the Nomad at all times.

Ryder does not have to visit this planet to progress the plot.

Side Quests

There is almost nothing valuable that can be done here. Ryder finds a bunch of Exiles who are mining helium-3, the main fuel source for Milky-Way sublight engines. Ryder can take over the operation and then buff it up with a Remnant Installation, guaranteeing the Andromeda Initiative a source of fuel. That's literally all two quests available on this "planet".

Hunting the Archon, cont'd

As the Tempest arrives in the Tafeno system, Kallo immediately engages the stealth systems: not only is the Verakan here, it's hard-docked with the last thing anyone expected: the salarian Ark Paarchero. However, this gives Ryder's team an opportunity: they can board the Paarchero and get into the Verakan from there.

Ryder starts by finding the salarian Pathfinder, Zevin Raeka. Ryder finds Raeka's pod, and Raeka's corpse inside it... except that it's a male corpse, and according to Initiative personnel files, Zevin Raeka is female. She's had her Death Faked For Her. Ryder hunts down her actual stasis pod, and Raeka gives the sitrep: Captain Lumont Hayjer surrendered, preferring to preserve the salarians' strength for another day; accordingly, he ordered Raeka to hide amongst the population and dismantle her SAM. Ryder's SAM hooks up with her to provide what support it can.

As Ryder's team breaches the Verakan, Raeka mentions that the revived salarians have taken stock of the situation and discovered a bunch of stasis pods are missing. She leads the salarians on a separate mission to recover them, finding not only pods but additional salarian prisoners, including Captain Hayjer.

Ryder fines the Verakan's guns pointed straight at the Paarchero, complicating any attempt at getting the Ark away. The gunscan only be disabled from the Archon's quarters. Raeka comes up with an alternative plan: she heads to the batteries to set up an EMP and shut them down.

Unfortunately, the Archon has laid a trap for Ryder, catching the Pathfinder's party in a stasis trap which is attuned specifically to Ryder's vitals. He (the Archon) also injects some sort of tracker into Ryder's bloodstream. To escape the stasis trap, SAM deliberately stops Ryder's heart, reviving Ryder after the trap releases them. It's not a pleasant experience, but it works.

In the Archon's quarters, Ryder finds the map. Unfortunately, the Archon has security cams present — and he now knows that SAM is the secret he needs, not Ryder themselves as he (the Archon) had previously believed. To establish dominance, he looses his latest toy on the Pathfinder team: exalted krogan.

After fighting their way free, Ryder finds more krogan in pods, ready for exaltation. Meanwhile, Raeka's forces are pinned. Drack wants to save the krogan: he sent out some scouts and they never came back and he's been talking about them all game, and here they are, captured by the kett.

• If Ryder decides to sacrifice Pathfinder Raeka, she — unsurprisingly — dies. Hayjer will step up as a backup Pathfinder.
• If Ryder decides to save Raeka, the krogan are left behind. Drack will be irritated, though there are no other consequences — in this game, at least.

Whatever the case, the Tempest and the Paarchero make their Hyperspeed Escape. Back on the Verakan, the Archon is informed by his Number Two, the Primus, that he's getting flak from kett high command about his obsession with the Remnant; his job is to assimilate the Heleus Cluster, not engage in xenoarchaeology.

Side Quests

There's a lot of additional stuff we can start to pursue here. As you've seen, Mass Effect Andromeda is kind of like an iceberg: there's a lot of stuff in it, but much of it is under the surface and doesn't have to be accessed if the player chooses not to. So expect this section to be rather long.

First off, let's talk...

Loyalty Missions

These missions don't work quite the same way they did in Mass Effect 2: Ryder isn't planning to lead anyone into a Suicide Mission. However, your Player Party characters cannot invest in the final rank of their skills until you complete these missions, and each one focuses on Character Development, so they serve a similar function.

Cora Harper: At Duty's Edge

Cora has finished decoding the Periphona's flight recorder and has determined the Leusinia's location. Cora is particularly excited not just because she's an asari fangirl: the asari Pathfinder, Matriarch Ishara, has a tiamna (Praetorian Guard, My Master, Right or Wrong) in the person of Sarissa Theris, a renowned commando whom Cora idolizes. The Tempest zips over to investigate.

Ryder, Cora (mandatory squadmate) and one more character board the Leusinia. Captain Atandra immediately prepares to vent the corridor to space, believing them kett attackers. Once this is sorted out, Ryder heads up to the bridge, where Capt. Atandra awaits — along with Sarissa, who has been promoted; Matriarch Ishara was slain trying to negotiate with the kett, and Sarissa is the new Pathfinder. The Leusinia's drive core is down, and nobody wants to repair it because doing so means wading through a bunch of kett. Ryder volunteers, while Atandra continues trying to chart a course through the Scourge so that a Hyperspeed Escape can be made once the drive is back up. She is using kett navigational charts, which Sarissa says she stole in revenge for Ishara's death.

Down in Hangar Control, Ryder meets Sarissa's Number Two, Vederia Damali. Though ostensibly an asari commando, Vederia's training was never completed and she feels herself woefully unprepared for the trials ahead. She explains that the kett have wedged the hangar doors open, and the power drain of the ship trying to close them is why the FTL is offline. So Ryder overrides the override and closes the doors. ...And defends the console against three waves of kett, because it's still a third-person shooter. However, once they're closed, Vederia identifies a second power drain going on somewhere else, and Ryder sets off to investigate. The party remains in radio contact with Vederia, with Cora helping to provide some ad hoc training.

Ryder makes their way through the ship's civilian dormitories, finding enough logs to make it clear that, on Sarissa's orders, civilians were awoken from cryo during the kett invasion. This proved to be a liability: there was a major hull breach on Deck 12, resulting in over a hundred asari trapped on the deck with no way to escape and no way to get them out. A junior engineer, Lapiris T'Caal, jury-rigged a huge mass-effect field that held the breach shut, making the region airtight enough for the trapped civilians to escape. That mass-effect field is still there, draining the ship's power, and Ryder is needed to turn it off.

The power restoration leads to The Reveal: According to Matriarch Ishara's personal logs, Sarissa disobeyed orders and chased after the navigational charts instead of bodyguarding the person whose body she was supposed to guard, directly leading to Ishara's death. Cora is appalled at the Broken Pedestal. However, they don't have time to do anything about it: Ryder needs to rush back to the hull breach and stop three waves of kett, because it's still a third-person shooter. This time, however, Ryder has the giant mass-effect field: they can trigger it, once, to blow most of a wave back out into space. This is best left for the third wave, which has an Ascendant Mini-Boss.

The Ascendant, once defeated, orders their ship to just blow the Leusinia out of the sky. Sarissa Theris, however, has arrived; with Cora's help, she sets up a massive biotic field which deflects some of the kett missiles and causes others to turn around, destroying the kett ship. Meanwhile, Captain Atandra punches the FTL. The Leusinia is in bad shape, but she'll make it to the Nexus. The asari Ark is saved.

On the bridge, Sarissa thanks both Ryder and Cora, whom she has essentially been treating as a full-on asari commando, for their assistance. Cora immediately turns on Sarissa and reveals the truth — not only that Sarissa betrayed her oath, but that she lied about it. Sarissa justifies her actions via The Needs of the Many, and her need — as a Pathfinder — to be seen as The Paragon. Ryder can decide whether to tell the truth or not.

• If Ryder supports Sarissa's actions, Sarissa remains Pathfinder.
• If Ryder decides to reveal the truth, Capt. Atandra wants to strip Sarissa of her position and install Vederia instead. Ryder can let this happen, or insist that Sarissa's greater experience — and, now, enforced humility — remain in the role.

Back on the Tempest, Cora gives the biggest vote of confidence she can: she believes Alec was right to choose Ryder instead of his own Number Two. Cora is a born follower, and she knows it; she can't blaze a trail the way Ryder can. She affirms her loyalty as Ryder's Number Two, and her final skills are unlocked.

Jaal Ama Darav: Friend or Foe?

After freeing the Paarchero, Jaal asks to speak with Ryder. He is acquainted with Akksul, the firebrand who leads the Roekaar; the two were students of Moshae Sjefa together. Akksul was a Remnant archaeologist who was captured by the kett and subjected to forced labor, enkindling his hatred of all things xeno. Unfortunately for Akksul's personal convictions, the Roekaar stand in the way of full cooperation between the angara and the Initiative, and Jaal thinks the Pathfinder should do something about it.

Ryder goes to track down Thaldyr, an angaran who escaped the kett labor camp alongside Akksul. Unfortunately, Thaldyr has already committed (what she perceives to be) Heroic Suicide to prevent anyone from getting the location out of her. Instead, Jaal reaches out to Moshae Sjefa, who manages to arrange a meeting. Unfortunately, it's for naught; Akksul's Absolute Xenophobia has removed him from reality to the point where conversation isn't really possible. Ryder is then called to Prodromos, where a Roekaar attack is expected. Ryder manages to lure them away into ambushes at Sites 1 and 2.

Finally, it becomes personal: Jaal learns from two of his mothers that three of his siblings have joined the Roekaar. The upside is that Jaal now knows where Akksul's base of operations is: at the Forge, a sacred site on Havarl where the angara are believed to have first evolved. Ryder, Jaal and a squadmate head in. They find that the Roekaar were invited to the Forge by its archaeological staff, but have seized control in a (bloodless) coup.

Ryder and Jaal come across a sentry post manned by Jaal's siblings, Barajj, Tevint and Lathoul. The first two are deep in Akksul's rhetoric, but Lathoul tells his older brother what's up: Akksul is planning to blow up the Forge using explosives stolen from the Initiative; the frame-up should be easy. Tevint, angry, shoots her brother in the back. While she has her "My God, What Have I Done?" moment and runs off, Lathoul (it's Only a Flesh Wound) encourages the Pathfinder to stop Akksul.

After a Timed Mission in which Ryder has three minutes to deactivate the bombs while the Roekaar assail them left and right, Akksul finally emerges. He taunts Ryder, hoping to provoke a reaction; you get a Renegade Interrupt allowing you to shoot him, but Jaal has already pointed out that this is exactly what Akksul wants — to martyr himself — and if you're smart, you won't take it. Instead, Akksul turns to Jaal, declaring him a traitor to his own species. He levels a gun at Jaal's face and pulls the trigger. This is exactly what Jaal wanted: a chance to reveal that Akksul, for all his pro-angara rhetoric, is perfectly willing to kill his own people.

Also, Akksul apparently can't shoot for the life of him — despite being at point-blank range, he misses, merely scarring Jaal's shoulder. Jaal, whatever the case, takes his siblings back to his family for a happy reunion.

• If Ryder chose to shoot Akksul, Jaal will be upset and will refuse to speak to Ryder until their next major (IE non-sidequest) mission. That said, Ryder will receive an email from Lathoul supporting their decision.
• If Akksul was spared, he will send an e-mail, admitting that his actions have shown him What You Are in the Dark, and that he doesn't like what he saw.
  "To hate blindly is as dangerous as to trust blindly." An old angaran proverb, one of many I have forgotten somewhere along the way.

Liam Kosta: All In

Shortly after founding Prodromos, Ryder can chat with their crew about their lives back in the Milky Way. Liam will mention not only his ratty couch (which is good for dispersing the static charge built up with omnitool use) but an internal-combustion automobile which he and his family used to work on, and which they launched at the Andromeda galaxy. (It's going at sublight speeds, so he'll be several hundred thousand years too dead to receive it, but it's the thought that counts. And yes, this was before Elon Musk.) Later, he asks to meet Ryder at the bar on Aya, where he confesses to a bit of a screw-up: he made some promises that weren't his to make, and now people from both the angara and the Initiative are angry at him because he can't keep them. This kind of "jump off the cliff and build my wings on the way down" mentality gets to be a pattern with Liam. (It also explains the mixed reaction to the character; some fans applaud how he leads with his heart, while others believe he would benefit from spending a non-zero number of seconds thinking first.)

Later in the game, Liam calls to Ryder for assistance. He's already spoken to Mayor August Bradley of Prodromos, but it turns out he needs bigger guns. Liam has given classified Initiative data to some angaran scientists, led by a woman named Verand, in the hopes they can modify it for better accuracy... only, her group have since gotten kidnapped. Liam needs to mount a rescue mission, and fast. (Kallo Jath has some very pointed commentary when he hears of it.)

Ryder, Liam and a third squadmate get themselves "captured" by hiding in a cargo container which the kidnappers will scavenge. It turns out to be a kett vessel... but scavenging isn't the kett MO. The ship's skipper is an angaran Space Pirate, Calot Gurting, who managed to capture this vessel. He attempts to threaten the Pathfinder... who is too busy arguing with Liam, who is personally offended that his gallant rescue attempt is going so wrong. Calot vents the cargo bay into space to win the argument.

The Cavalry arrives in the form of Mayor Bradley, who swoops in with a strike force on shuttles. They hack the kett ship, closing the cargo bay doors but also screwing with the gravity. Ryder is forced to play much of the mission from what used to be the ceiling. Undaunted, Ryder and Liam go after the captives; it turns out Calot, like many Space Pirates, isn't quite good at engineering — or, for that matter, solving problems via any method except murder — and has started kidnapping anyone he can find, by now including Andromeda Initiative personnel. The good news is, the classified intel is safe; Verand, when contacted, confirms that Calot has not even bothered asking about it, using his captives solely as a labor force. Bradley helps the captives escape while Ryder and Liam go to put an end to Calot. They then get off the ship, fast; the reactors are overloading.

Back on the Tempest, Mayor Bradley confirms that his entire team, and the erstwhile prisoners, have gotten away safely. Ryder is asked what to do with the angaran contingent.

• Ryder can let them return to their people... with all that classified Initiative intel in their heads. (Liam says he's going to get the Nexus to change it from their end, so it's out-of-date, but this will only accomplish so much.)
• Ryder can also instruct Bradley to keep them nearby, since they represent a security risk for the Initiative. If Ryder does this, Liam, who is a "Rousseau Was Right" kind of guy, is mightily offended by this; in fact, if Sara is romancing him, he will break up with her on the spot.

Afterwards, Liam will invite Ryder down to Eos for one more gesture: he has organized an Association Football match for the people of Prodromos and local angarans. While Liam has been looking for a Grand Romantic Gesture to bring the two cultures together, he's realized that he can start small.

Nakmor Drack: A Future for our People

Back when he was first recruited, Drack will talk about the Nexus mutiny that resulted in Sloane and her people getting shipped off to Kadara. He doesn't explain everything — that story is left for the tie-in novel, Mass Effect Nexus Uprising — but he does mention that Foster Addison's Number Two, William Spender, seems to have had a hand in the situation: when Kelly's mutineers started, Tann made the decision to wake Clan Nakmor from stasis with the intention of using them as muscle, and Spender promised them a greater voice in Initiative affairs. Naturally, Tann laughed this idea out the airlock, but Spender showed his hand by pretending he'd never made the promise in the first place. (This is when Nakmor Morda decided to take the krogan to Elaaden and try things on their own.) Additionally, Spender's Establishing Character Moment as a Know-Nothing Know-It-All is when Ryder encounters him harassing salarian engineer Del Jasin for making frivolous inventory requests and wasting time repairing some useless equipment — after all, it's not like the Nexus needs working air filters or anything. Before too much investigation has been completed, it becomes clear that Spender has Chronic Backstabbing Disorder who likes Playing Both Sides, and a Small Name, Big Ego to boot.

Drack asks Ryder to investigate Spender's full role in the mutiny, and Kiran Tandros grants Ryder access to the security footage from that time. It's become corrupted, but Spender does mention connections on Kadara. Once Ryder is able to visit that planet — remember, all of this can happen before you even reach Aya — they are able to track down the people Spender was working with, and it becomes clear he (Spender) is secretly sending Sloane's Exiles supplies. Ryder also finds an email from someone named Araone indicating that the Exiles have furnished Spender with a (very illegal) "scrambler," and Ryder breaks into his quarters on the Nexus to find it. However, the existence of the scrambler isn't enough, and Ryder needs a Bridge Bunny on the Nexus to hack it and see who has been using it.

While Ryder is waiting for this, Drack comes in with a crisis. A freighter containing Elaaden's "seed vault," which has all their genetically-adapted crops, has been stolen. He, Ryder and one other squadmate venture out to retrieve it.

The seed vault has been ensconced in a facility where Araone is in charge; since Araone is the person who sent Spender the scrambler, this explains how he (Araone) could have gotten the freighter's security codes and such. Even worse, Araone has — without realizing it — a hostage: a krogan botanist named Vorn. Vorn is a little embarrassed to see Drack, since he and Kesh are dating; Drack, for his part, has little interest in a krogan who is not Rated M for Manly. That said, Vorn proves shows his quick thinking at the end of the level: after the Pathfinder's team have cleared away all the other mooks, Araone shows up to take Vorn hostage, but Vorn simply pulls out a seed pod from his plants which is toxic to humans, subduing Araone with ease. Drack, after Ryder decides what to (let Drack) do with Araone, shows his grandson-in-law-to-be a bit more respect from that point on.

Finally, Ryder and Drack return to the Nexus, where the Bridge Bunny has finished decoding the scrambler and proving it was indeed Spender's usage. Ryder, Drack, Kesh, Kandros and Addison all confront the slimy guy, who is unable to clear his name. Ryder may decide whether to send him into exile — which he isn't going to survive for long, given that he's managed to make enemies of literally everyone in the Heleus Cluster — or keep him jailed on the Nexus, where Kesh will later report that she has to keep people on guard so that the mob can't throw him out the airlock.

Lastly, Kesh will invite Ryder, Drack and Vorn to her quarters, where she reveals a clutch of five krogan eggs. Vorn is the father... but more importantly, all five of them are free of the genophage, meaning that the slow-working genetic modifications Clan Nakmor put onto themselves before coming to Andromeda are working. No one has any idea what's going on back home, but here in the Heleus Cluster, the Sterility Plague is losing its hold on the krogan people.

Peebee: A Mysterious Remnant Signal

Peebee's loyalty mission, like Drack's, is actually the last in a long quest chain, so buckle up a bit.

From the moment you meet her on Eos, Peebee is working on reverse-engineering / adapting some "Remtech" for her own uses. On Voeld is the last piece she needs. After you retrieve it, she won't tell you what she's up to, but she will invite you to her apartment on the Nexus. Here, Peebee and Ryder meet Kalinda T'Reve, the asari who arranged for Peebee to be awakened from stasis early. This actually has an impact on gameplay, as it unlocks a skill for Ryder, a free-floating "Remnant VI" which Peebee has named "Zap". She also reveals that "Peebee" is short for "Pelessaria B'Sayle," something Peebee hadn't really been interested in sharing.

Back on the Tempest, Peebee has assembled her actual project, a Remtech drone she calls "Poc" ("Proof Of Concept"). She's also got plans for a new scanner that will help detect new Remtech. However, to complete it, she needs Ryder to perform another Fetch Quest finding more Remtech bits.The last one requires talking to a krogan Remtech broker down on Kadara; while Ryder is dirtside, someone breaks into the Tempest and steals Poc. The thief, Kalinda, left a note thanking Peebee for the work.

Peebee finds a lead in the form of one of Kalinda's former crew. She admits that Kalinda, a diplomat, has always spent time on the other side of the law; she is Peebee's ex-girlfriend, and the relationship was emotionally abusive, with Kalinda dumping on Peebee whenever she felt like it. She is now running with a band of outlaws hunting down Remtech. Using the outlaw's intel, they find Poc for sale at a scavenger's den. Peebee buys it back, but discovers an embedded message from Kalinda, saying she broke Poc on purpose, and has similar plans for Ryder. That being said, Peebee has Poc back, and also has her Remnant scanner working.

Finally, Peebee's Remnant scanner pinpoints a planet, and she asks the Tempest set course for it and then briefs Ryder in the Escape Pod. And by "briefs Ryder in the Escape Pod" we mean "uses the Escape Pod to make a totally unscheduled landing." Whatever's down there, Kalinda is on her way as well (of course), and the two teams race for the artifact. Eventually it comes down to a jump to a teetering platform. Peebee makes it easily; Kalinda, not so much. She's dangling, while the Remtech artifact goes skidding off in another direction. Ryder has the choice to Shoot Kalindra and solve the problem; if Ryder doesn't, Peebee, succumbing to her better nature, lets the artifact plunge into the lava while she saves Kalindra. Either way, the four must now escape the rising lava and get to Kalindra's shuttle, their only way off the planet.

Aboardship, Kalindra will send over a cache of Remtech, noting that her Near-Death Experience appears to have changed her attitude. If not, Peebee will contemplate the Remnant data core they looted from the planet. Either way, Ryder will then confront her about the paperwork she'll need to fill out regarding the used escape pod.

Vetra Nyx: Means and Ends

Vetra has gotten an email from her younger sister Sidera; Sid works in the Nexus as one of the Bridge Bunnies and has intercepted transmissions about colonists getting kidnapped. She's managed to narrow down where the colonists are getting taken to. Vetra is, naturally, concerned about her kid sister getting involved in stuff like this; they are all the other has.

Ryder, Vetra and one more squadmate land on H-047c. They find evidence that the rumors were planted by someone named Meriwether, who wanted to lure Vetra here; Vetra has no idea who Meriwether is or why she wants revenge. The colonists, likewise, thank Vetra for helping them escape Meriwether's clutches earlier, which confuses Vetra given that she's never met or seen or heard of any of these people before. The colonists claim to have been part of Meriwether's smuggling ring and to have been living on Prodromos before being captured. Vetra's non-participation in the whole adventure is clarified when someone comms in, speaking with Vetra's voice, and helping the whole gang escape Meriwether's dungeon. Who is it? It's Sid, obviously.

In the center of the base, Meriwether has captured Sid, and Ryder et al have to free her. Vetra wants Sid to stop her derring-do and return to a life of safety on the Nexus; whether or not Ryder agrees with her, Vetra's loyalty is earned.

Romance

Avela Kjar

Avela is an angaran historian on Aya. Scott Ryder can romance her by flirting with her during visits to the history museum there. However, the romance can only be locked in after the Very Definitely Final Dungeon.

Cora Harper

Scott can flirt with Cora throughout the game, though she will politely rebuff Sara's advances. She will appreciate Scott's confidence in the face of the daunting odds they face. Eventually she invites Scott to Fairwinds Basin on Eos, where she has used a soil converter to start purifying the land. Cora has planted her own rose garden. Scott has the chance to kiss her and solidify the relationship at this time.

Gil Brodie

The Tempest's chief engineer will, after the rescue of Ark Paarchero, send Scott a message inviting him down to Prodromos. Gil wants Scott to meet his best friend and Fag Hag, Jill. The two have been discussing the possibility of (platonic) reproduction, since colonies inevitably need babies; Scott can encourage this, or can steer Gil his way instead with a kiss.

Jaal Ama Darav

Jaal starts out skeptical of the Andromeda Initiative: in addition to the angara's poor experiences with the kett, there's the fact that there's only so much real estate in the Heleus Cluster. However, if Ryder — Scott or Sara — flirts with him enough, he will let his guard down.

After the Akksul loyalty mission, Jaal will bring Ryder down to Aya to do that most terrifying of things: Meeting The In Laws. As mentioned, angara have very large family units, and Ryder has to meet quite a lot of people. Jaal then brings Ryder to his childhood bedroom, where the two have a chance to lock in the relationship.

Keri T'Vessa

A journalist on the Nexus, Keri can be romanced by either Scott or Sara and does not care if Ryder is already involved with someone else.

Liam Kosta

Sara can flirt with Liam from the start, which will lead to the story about Elon Musk's car. He then sets up the soccer game on Prodromos. Sara can choose to kiss him or choose to remain platonic; if the former, she's also given the option to sneak off with Liam for some alone time.

Finally, Liam sets up a date on Eos. He has modified some jump jets to allow the two of them to free-fall out of the sky, in commemoration of their first meeting on Habitat 7. After they land, Liam points up at the sky, where their descent trails make the shape of a heart. The date ends with Liam and Sara canoodling on the ground.

Peebee

Both Scott and Sara can flirt with Peebee the moment she arrives on the Tempest. They can also speak to her on Aya, where they find her at the history museum having gotten rather drunk.

Back aboard the Tempest, Peebee admits to feeling caged in by the bulkheads of the ship. With SAM's help, she disables the artificial gravity and turns her escape pod into a zero-G chamber, allowing her to relax. She also invites Ryder in for casual sex. Ryder can continue to take advantage of this possibility until they lock in a relationship later.

After her loyalty mission, Peebee will reach out to Ryder and offer to meet them in the Pathfinder's cabin. She requests the certainty of an actual relationship, and not just sex: she admits she's never done the Mind Meld part with a partner before, and Ryder can become her first.

Reyes Vidal

Both Scott and Sara can flirt with Reyes, and there are several sidequests where the two of them solve problems in Kadara Port. Eventually, though, the truth about the Charlatan comes out, and Reyes admits that he didn't want the unsavory rumors concerning the Charlatan to color Ryder's perception of him. Ryder can accept this and move forward or break off the relationship.

Dr. Suvi Anwar

It doesn't take long before Sara is able to confess to Suvi that she finds the scientist really cute — though this is up on the bridge, with Kallo sitting nearby ("Kill me now"). Ryder can eventually invite her to her quarters, where Suvi brews some Earth tea leaves — some of the very small supply of the stuff that is in the Andromeda galaxy — and questions the choices that led her here. Sara can remind Suvi that this also led them to each other.

Vetra Nyx

Vetra is receptive to both Scott and Sara, who may ask her if she (Vetra) brought anyone special, besides Sid, to Andromeda. Vetra will be surprised to learn that Ryder is a romantic. She later confesses that she isn't doing a good job of parenting Sid; their father made mistakes, and Vetra is making some of the same ones. If comforted, she'll muse that she might just be lucky... but that luck runs out eventually. Ryder will reassure her that their luck isn't going anywhere.

After Vetra's loyalty mission, she will invite Ryder to go mountain-climbing on Kadara. The two scramble to the top, and Ryder flops to the ground, exhausted. Vetra asks Ryder for confirmation of their interest, and Ryder has the option to both commit and decline.

Finally, Vetra arranges a surprise for Ryder: she's made dinner. She's managed to obtain an actual human steak — cow — and cooked it for the Pathfinder. Unfortunately, Vetra's not precisely an accomplished cook; plus, since turians have Mirror Chemistry, she couldn't exactly taste-test it (as most cooks do) and see how it's turning out. The results are not precisely edible. Ryder confirms that it's the thought that counts.

Turian Ark: Lost But Not Forgotten

After you first land on Kadara, Avitus Rix will send Ryder an email claiming they've found traces of Ark Natanus on Elaaden. There are a number of ejected stasis pods there, but no Pathfinder Macen Barro.

Next, Rix receives coordinates which he believes came straight from Macen. He and Ryder head off to H-047c, where the Natanus has indeed arrived. It's in low-power mode; all that's left are stasis pods and some old emails between Captain Dea Praeton, Rix himself, and Barro, who it turns out is more than just friends with Avitus. The team reaches the Natanus's SAM node, where Human SAM manages to revive the Turian SAM. Turian SAM admits that it sent the coordinates, as it needs to pass Pathfinder authority to Avitus: when Natanus was hit by the Scourge and practically torn in half, Macen was wounded, and gave orders to Turian SAM to 1. get the ship to Habitat 5 and 2. install Avitus as the new Pathfinder.

Avitus, traumatized by the loss of his beloved, refuses; as a former Spectre, I Work Alone, and he doesn't feel confident in his ability to be a Pathfinder. Ryder can accede to his wishes or remind him he's already been doing the job, just without the title. Afterwards, Tann sends Ryder an email declaring that a good 15,000 turian stasis pods have been reclaimed, though it goes easier if Avitus took the job.

Movie Night

After Jaal joins the crew, Liam will make a suggestion: Ryder should throw a movie night to help the crew bond. This very simple idea almost instantly spirals out of control, as everyone on the Tempest starts making suggestions and Ryder is sent on a long variety of Fetch Quests:

• Liam sends Ryder to the Nexus to download the menu of available movies. (In 2819 we have FTL, artificial gravity, Deflector Shields and the ability to travel to an entire new galaxy, but apparently streaming services never recovered from 2022.)
• Suvi has found an angaran snack recipe that should be appealing; however, it needs some native flora.
• Vetra is dismissive of Suvi's snacks. She's hunted down actual popcorn, not to mention its turian equivalent "graxen," from a merchant in Kadara, and thinks it would be much superior.
• Jaal has heard about this whole thing from Liam and wants to add an angaran touch. The components, obtainable on Aya, will enhance the experience by providing bioelectric feedback in sync with the moving images.
• Lexi wants some asari liquor, which can be found on the Nexus.
• Everything's finally ready... except that Liam doesn't like the movie anymore. He wants Ryder to find a copy of Last of the Legion, a turian military drama which has been described as containing "excessive turian flexing." This is also found in Kadara Port.

Finally, Ryder calls the crew to their quarters, and the eleven people on the Tempest — Kallo, Suvi, Lexi, Gil, Jaal, Vetra, Peebee, Drack, Liam, Cora and Ryder themselves — laugh their way through the preposterous frippery that is the turian movie. Drack trades tall tales with Cora and Gil about the Artistic License – Military employed in the film's maneuvers. Kallo criticizes the "Space Is Noisy" aspects. After a "Big "NO!"," Ryder is "encouraged" to show off their own Bad "Bad Acting" with Kallo's help.

Kallo, "dying": Ryder... I can't feel my... I can't feel my gall bladder...
Ryder: Th—... (out of character) Do you even have a gall bladder?
Kallo: Oh no, it's worse than I thought!

And, if Ryder has a Love Interest, the segment ends with them cuddling with Ryder on the couch.

Ryder Family Secrets

When Ryder first gets access to SAM — yes, way back at the beginning of the game — SAM will present a Gotta Catch 'Em All sidequest. Scattered around all the game's planets are little glowing orbs that represent Alec Ryder's memories, which are stored in SAM. As Ryder collects enough orbs, a new memory is unlocked, as well as additional audio logs on the computer in the Pathfinder's office on Hyperion.

Memory #1

Alec Ryder is talking to his boss, Ambassador Goyle, the person who preceded Donnel Udina as the human Ambassador on the Citadel. (The memories are all in first-person view from Alec's head — which makes sense, given that they're his memories.) He's making the case that creating an AI to hybridize with the human mind would be a good way for the human race to catch up with the greater technological advancement of the Council races; it could even lead to the first human Spectre, for instance. Ambassador Goyle turns him down, citing the Council Ban on A.I.. As though that news wasn't bad enough, his wife Ellen drops by and mentions she's just been diagnosed with a terminal disease: Mrs. Ryder has been conducting studies into element zero, and in fact helped develop the L2 and L3 implants that allow biotics to harness their powers, but the repeated exposure has resulted in a neurodegenerative disorder with no cure.

Alec's computer unlocks some messages: one ruminates about the state of Ellen's disease and how SAM might be an answer to it. Another mentions some research and correspondence he got from a young asari archaeologist named Liara T'Soni (Ali Hillis), and unlocks access to some voicemails Liara left Alec some time prior to 2183.

Memory #2

Back on Earth, Alec has been productive, despite the not-precisely-legal nature of his work. He introduces Ellen to the Simulated Adaptive Matrix AI — SAM. Alec wants to give SAM access to Ellen's biotic implants; hopefully SAM should be able to bolster her physiology. Ellen, however, is reconciled to the end.

Memory #3

All four Ryders are home. Alec and Ellen discuss their children's careers. Alec, an N7, is famous for accompanying Jon Grissom on the very first voyage through a mass relay to the Arcturus system. Both Scott and Sara became Systems Alliance marines: Scott helped defend Arcturus Station, which guarded the other end of that mass relay, while Sara joined a group of bodyguards who helped protect Prothean researchers. However, both had their careers cut short when Alec himself was dishonorably discharged for creating SAM.

Memory #4

Alec is contacted by the Andromeda Initiative — not Jien Garson, but rather The Man Behind the Man, a person known only as The Benefactor. The Benefactor offers Alec all the funding he needs, in exchange for his participation in the program. In an unlocked audio log, Alec decides to accept the offer, as Ellen's disease is progressing.

Investigations

At this point, Ryder can go to Director Tann and ask some questions. Tann was eighth in the line of succession, which is why he's now in charge of the Initiative... but apparently the existence of The Benefactor was still super highly classified, because Tann's never heard of such a person. Tann reveals, over the course of the conversation, that no proper investigation was ever conducted into Jien Garson's death. He defends himself by pointing out that the Nexus was in shambles — the Scourge made a huge mess and wiped out a lot of other people (cf 8th in line of succession), and when Garson's corpse was found in an apartment, covered in severe burns, assumptions were made while more-important work was done.

Ryder opens an official investigation. Using SAM, who has rather astonishing Rewind, Replay, Repeat powers, Ryder discovers that someone was standing over Garson's body — in a locked apartment that neither of them ought to have been in. She also finds that Garson hid some additional information in the VI copy of herself in the Nexus Embassy. The VI explains that The Benefactor provided the credits — Jien Garson was a billionaire, but six giant spaceships with bleeding-edge technology and enough stasis pods for 100,000 individuals is more of a "gajillionaire" thing — because something made The Benefactor paranoid. The VI doesn't have any more answers than this, and Ryder goes back to unlocking more memories.

Memory #5

Ellen lies on her deathbed with her husband and children by her side. It's not a happy time.

Memory #6

Ryder isn't able to do this for a second, but we're going to group it here for now. It involves good news: Sibling Ryder has finally awoken from their coma and is up and about. SAM also tells them that their father's final memory can be unlocked... but to brace themselves, because it's a Wham Episode.

Alec is on the phone with a former C-Sec cop, a fellow named Castis Vakarian (Brandon Keener). Castis, through his son Garrus, has learned about the theories held by one LCDR Shepard, First Human Spectre, on a race of Eldritch Abomination alien robot demon death gods called "The Reapers." If Shepard is right, Castis explains, the Andromeda Initiative might be the last hope for the races of this current cycle to avoid extinction. As such, the Benefactor decrees that the Initiative must be kept secret, even up through its departure in 2185.

Alec speaks with SAM, who confirms that Ellen Ryder is safe in stasis and her disease is not progressing.

The final portion of this memory is Alec's death, from his own point of view. He gives his helmet to Ryder, saying, "There's still hope for your mother."

Finally, Ryder — who isn't quite shocked enough by all this — unlocks one final voicemail.

Hello, Alec. This is Liara T'Soni, and the year is 2186. I don't know if you'll even receive this message, but we corresponded years ago. I remember you spoke about a plan to settle Andromeda. I don't know if your Arks made it out of the Milky Way, but... the worst has happened here. I'm with Commander Shepard and a brave crew. We're trying to build a weapon to turn the tide, but... I fear that the civilization you remember, the people of the Milky Way as you knew them, could be gone forever. You may be all that's left. Please, don't forget us. Keep us alive in your hearts, and tell your children of the wonders that once were. On behalf of the crew of the Normandy SR-2, this is Dr. Liara T'Soni, signing off.

Player Ryder bursts out of their father's office and brings Sibling Ryder with them to the Hyperion Cryo Bay. They find a cryo pod belonging to "Elizabeth Reilly," but SAM confirms: it's actually Ellen Ryder, awaiting treatment. There's still no cure for her condition, of course, so SAM tells them to leave her in stasis; but SAM is confident that, given the advances Player Ryder has found as Pathfinder, a cure is forthcoming.

The Journey To Meridian

Back in the main plot, the Initiative has been able to figure out where Meridian is. Ryder is invited to a meeting with top Nexus leadership: Jarun Tann, Tiran Kandros, Foster Addison, Nakmor Kesh, and however many Pathfinders there are — either Zevin Raeka or Lumont Hayjer is guaranteed to be there, because you rescued them last mission, but Sarissa Theris, Vederia Damali and/or Avitus Rix have to be hunted down as optional content. Within, Ryder proposes their plan to go straight to Meridian; the other Pathfinders back them up without question. But, even if he's outvoted, Director Tann vetoes the idea. The other Pathfinders start to approach Ryder with a plan, but they are interrupted by an urgent call from the Hyperion: Sibling Ryder is finally awake, and Player Ryder can bring them up to speed on everything that has happened. (Also, time to go unlock Memory #6!)

Player Ryder now meets with the other Pathfinder(s) in a lab on the Nexus. They offer Ryder a new technology, "Ghost Storm," which will confuse kett sensors with multiple fake copies, and offer to help Ryder steal the Tempest and get to work. Ryder calls for the support of their Player Party, who agree without question.

Khi Tasira, AKA Meridian, is actually a giant Remnant space station. Unfortunately, the kett have also figured out how to decipher the Archon's map, and they are entrenching here, resulting in a three-way war between kett attackers, Remnant automated defenders, and Ryder's Initiative fireteam. Ryder discovers they're all looking for something called a "Meridian Engine," and leads the long uphill fight to get to Khi Tasira's central controls. There, SAM discovers that the Precursors who created the Remnant, the "Jardaan," sent the Meridian Engine away from Khi Tasira itself to save it from "The Opposition," whoever or whatever they are. The Opposition are also the creators of the Scourge, which functions off of dark energy and element zero. Finally, the party — especially Jaal, if he is present — are shocked to learn that the angara were genetically engineered by the Jardaan.

Whatever the case, Ryder still needs to find where Meridian went after Meridian left Meridian — or, rather, where Meridian, which is what everyone now calls the Engine part of it, went when it left the station formerly known as Meridian, which everyone now calls Khi Tasira to avoid Mind Screw. (Ryder also has to survive a kett assault on the control room, because third-person shooter.) That said, Tann leaves a voicemail admitting that he was wrong to stop Ryder from finding Meridian, and offering to throw all the Initiative's remaining support into the ongoing search. This could be useful, as all Ryder knows is Meridian's heading was ejected from Khi Tasira: even assuming it was simply thrown, as opposed to traveling under its own power, the Scourge's gravimetric distortions could've done all sorts of awful things to its trajectory.

Meridian: The Way Home

It turns out that Ryder doesn't need Tann's help. Suvi figures out how to trick the Remnant back on Khi Tasira into leading the Initiative to wherever Meridian is now. Ryder and their party land back on the station and implement the hack. Meridian is revealed to be a moon-sized Dyson Sphere and the heart of the Vault Network, as believed; activating it will restore even more planets to habitable status.

Ryder is then thanked by the Archon. He has seized Hyperion, and he now understands that what he needs is not Ryder themselves: it's SAM. Accordingly, he plans to take custody of Sibling Ryder and work his will on Meridian. He then turns off Player Ryder's SAM implant... which, back on Habitat 7, was used to keep Player Ryder alive. Player Ryder staggers towards the Tempest, dying.

Back on Hyperion, Sibling Ryder is unexpectedly Promoted to Playable. SAM instructs them to head to SAM Node and manually reconnect Player Ryder's SAM implant. Unfortunately, Sibling Ryder is still Level 1; they may be a trained Alliance marine, but all they have is a M-5 Phalanx pistol, an Omni-Blade for melee attacks, and one grenade. Fortunately, they also do have the Hyperion's Red Shirts on their side, not to mention Captain Nozomi Dunn. The kett arrive with too many guns, and Sibling Ryder's Day In The Limelight is over, but they've done it: back on Meridian, Player Ryder's heart restarts for the third time this game, and they stagger to their feet.

The problem is, Player Ryder is still on Khi Tasira — a Remnant station. And neither Player Ryder nor Sibling Ryder is actually capable of working with Remnant technology; only SAM is.

But Player Ryder, showing their 11th-Hour Superpower, manages to get the Remtech to bow to their will. The process is difficult and painful, but Player Ryder can still use Remnant technology. They muster a Remnant fleet from Khi Tasira's hangar bays, with which to oppose the Archon's kett armada (now including the Hyperion) which is heading to Meridian at top speed. The Tempest leads the new fleet, consisting largely of the Remnant ships but also whatever forces the Initiative can muster, in pursuit, with Ryder having one last chance to walk around the ship and chat with their crew.

The Archon stands on the bridge of the Hyperion with Capt. Dunn and Sibling Ryder. He reveals his evil plan: to use the Vault Network to force everyone to submit to exaltation. However, the Initiative fleet has just arrived to spoil his day. Additionally, while the kett armada is larger, Ryder is able to use the Scourge in battle: since the Scourge hates Remnant, those ships can be used to drag the Scourge into kett ships. Deciding not to waste time, the Archon opens Meridian's outer shell and flies Hyperion inside the planet, with Tempest in pursuit. Both ships emerge into a verdant world: Meridian itself is a Hollow World, an M-class planet suitable for most sentient life. The Archon leaves the ship with Sibling Ryder in tow, and Player Ryder is dropped in the Nomad to give chase.

As Ryder arrives at the entrance to Meridian Control, various Cut Scenes depict intervention by the Pathfinder's allies:

• If Ryder chose a military focus for Prodromos, then an armed militia shows up.
• If Ryder saved the kett exaltation facility on Voeld, angaran Resistance members, including Moshae Sjefa, show up.
• If Ryder chose to save the krogan scouts aboard the Verakan, they lend a hand.
• If Ryder chose to spare Kalinda T'Reve during Peebee's loyalty mission, she lends a hand.
• If Ryder visited Jaal's family after his loyalty mission, some of his siblings arrive to provide fire support.
• If Ryder helped get Elaaden's seed vault back, Vorn shows up to do what he can.
• Sloane Kelly will arrive to help, unless Ryder backed the Charlatan, at which point Reyes takes her place.
• And Tiran Kandros shows up in a fighter, plus Evfra and much of the Resistance.

These characters rally around the Hyperion, freeing Ryder to enter the Control Room and put an end to the Archon. The Hyperion itself is on maneuvering thrusters only and eventually crash-lands on the interior surface of the planet; if Ryder went out of their way to find all three Arks and convinced Avitus to take the position from Macen, the collaboration of those Pathfinders helps Captain Dunn survive the impact. If not, she dies.

Ryder leads their fireteam down into the structure, helping Initiative and Resistance, fighting off kett, and occasionally finding clues left behind by Sibling Ryder. They emerge into a central control room. Within, the Archon has hooked himself up to an "Architect," a Robot Sand Worm which serves as an Optional Boss on all other planets. ...In other words, Ryder might have defeated five of them already. And this time, Ryder has help: Sibling Ryder will draw attention to three power interfaces where the Archon is drawing power, and the remaining members of the Player Party, two by two, will drop in to provide supporting fire (though Ryder cannot issue them commands). In the end, the Archon is fried by his own overloaded power inputs, and Player and Sibling Ryder emerge victorious.

Epilogue: Home and Away

After the credits, Player Ryder gets up from their father's computer. It's been a while since the Final Battle, and Sibling Ryder has been recuperating. The remaining human colonists have been woken from stasis, having adopted Meridian as the new Habitat 8. Sibling Ryder is still a bit distant, however, reeling from all that passed them by while they were sleeping; in fact, they are never seen again after this moment, though there is no implication anything nefarious has happened to them.

Tann, Addison, Kandros and Kesh accost Ryder: they want Ryder to nominate an Andromeda ambassador to the Initiative. Ryder must choose from between Prodromos mayor August Bradley, the salarian Pathfinder, Nakmor Morda or Moshae Sjefa.

Hyperion is also the site of a party: not just to celebrate the Archon's defeat, but the Initiative's first true success within the Heleus cluster. A large number of characters, including all 10 non-Ryder Tempest crewmembers, have gathered to relax and socialize... but inevitably, Ryder feels the draw of adventure. They gather their crew and head back to the ship to finish whatever side content they did not complete already.

Finally, if Ryder brought all five colony worlds — Eos, Havarl, Voeld, Kadara and Elaaden — to 100% viability, they will be invited back to Habitat 7. While its Vault is damaged, there is old-fashioned (IE non-Remnant, Milky Way) terraforming equipment in orbit, and the colonists announce their intention to bring the planet to a livable standard, which they only have time to do because Ryder already did it elsewhere. They have also renamed it Ryder-1.