Mass Effect 2 Insanity Difficulty Achievement Help

[ZodiacMaster101]

I'm trying to get the achievement for completing Mass Effect 2 on Insanity Difficulty, and I was wondering if I make a new character and then just zip through the story mode and my Shepard ends up dying on the last mission will I still get the achievement?

 

[Saladfork]

I think so, but it's really simple to make sure at least 2 people survive (thus ensuring Shepard's survival).

Thane and Samara's quests don't actually have any combat in them, so the difficulty has no bearing on your ability to finish them.

 

[shado_temple]

First, shame on you for rushing through Mass Effect 2 just to get an achievement.

Second, yes, it should work; as soon as the credits roll, you'll get the achievement, regardless of who survived (yourself included).

 

[Treeinthewoods]

If you just want to zip through quickly use a soldier, squad cryo ammo for the team and inferno ammo for yourself. You will kill everything with ease.

 

[T_ConX]

I did an Insanity run just over a year ago... Fun times...

Some basic tips:
- Start at lvl 1. If you reuse a lvl 20 from a previous game clear, you'll be in trouble. Enemies scale with your level, but since all your research and weapon upgrades start back at square one in a new game, you'll be greatly outmatched. Starting at level 1 scales back the enemies, and since you get material bonuses from prior runs of ME 1 and 2, you'll have a slight edge at the start.

-Might I suggest going Infiltrator? Cloaking saved my ass more times than I can count.

-Save and save often. Don't always trust the auto-save. Save between every combat encounter.

-Use your skills. And your squad-mates skills. In Insanity, nearly every baddie in the game now has Sheilds, Armor, or both. Just about every Reaper has a barrier on top of that. Make sure your teammates have biotics/techs that are effective against those.

- If you like being a Paragon... it's time to abandon your idealistic ways. If it offers you a tactical advantage, take the Paragon interrupts. You're going to want to fight dirty a few times. Sabotage that Gunship in Omega. Shoot the gas pipe below that platform the Krogan Warlord is on. Punch that reporter in the face!

 

[Steampunk Viking]

Insanity isn't that hard man. Once you pass Horizon, its nothing but cruising from there. Try playing an aggressive vanguard (just shotgun and charge) now that's fun!

I found the Collector Ship the hardest part of Insanity myself. Specifically where all those platforms start appearing with Collector soldiers. Bizarrely, the rest of it wasn't that hard.

If you're going for the insanity achievement fully, do the bare minimum + Lair of the Shadow Broker and you should breeze through it (to my knowledge, it's the only DLC that has an achievement for completing it on insanity - Arrival doesn't have this achievement).

 

[The Wykydtron]

Infiltrator with Cloak and Barrier... The "get out of fuck up free x2!" class. I beat ME2 and all the DLC on Insanity with that guy. Really if you've been through the game before you should bring squadmates who have the most useful powers in all the different missions.

And Miranda is really damn good, come on Warp and Overload?! Awesome sauce, I think Miranda and Mordin was a pretty good Insanity team though. Get Warp, Overload and Incinerate in one team (maybe Pull/Slam as well) and you're golden.

 

[JWRosser]

I did an Insanity playthough. I went vanguard. It was a challenge at times but not too difficult to be honest. There were a few points that I had to do over and over again, but apart from that. s'all good. I also equipped my Shep with Reave, which was very handy in taking down barriers and shields. Plus Miranda.

And yeah I'm pretty sure you still get it if Shep dies. I was really expecting mine to die as I didn't do any of my crew's quests but I think only one or two of them did, so Shepard survived.

 

[Sexy Devil]

Insanity isn't that hard man. Once you pass Horizon, its nothing but cruising from there. Try playing an aggressive vanguard (just shotgun and charge) now that's fun!

The derelict reaper was super annoying but otherwise, this. I hate husks so very much.

 

[implodinggoat]

Played the hell out of Insanity on ME2. A few tips.

1: Don't do an Insanity Run with a character imported from an ME2 endgame save. You'll start out at level 30 and all the enemies will be scaled to level 30; but you won't have any upgrades when you start the game so the game will be really, really hard at first and get easier as you go on.

2: Infiltrator is probably the easiest class. The tactical cloak will save your ass.

3: Use cover and your squad commands heavily. There's almost always a best spot to hunker down in. Find some cover that gives you an advantage and hold it.

 

[Bebus]

A shout out for the insane, aggressive playing Vanguards on this thread (you rock), you will find that playing as a Vanguard will ensure every battle is extremely short, which is good for your playthrough. Several reasons:

1. Shotguns (especially the Claymore) at point blank range will decimate enemies. Melee also does a large amount of damage. Spend time to learn the Claymore 'reload trick' which does insane DPS and can drop Insanity Harbinger in about 3 seconds.

2. If you Charge to a certain point at the back of most battlefelds, many enemies will not spawn. When you hang back, enemies often have several waves but if you are in their ranks, messing up their shit, these waves will not spawn. A very cool mechanic. Also, I do not know how the AI works but it seems that enemies 'behind' you die a lot quicker by your teammates hands than they would if you were progressing on foot.

3. If you do it wrong, you will die. Very quickly. Before you even know you have done it wrong, really. Your quicksave finger will be hardened to the equivalent of a Krogan armour plate by the end of the game

Warning: You will HATE the missions on the collector ship. You cannot use Charge across the floating platforms and so are reduced to the boring cover based shooting every other class is stuck with, and have no weapons suitable for long range combat...

By the way, if you have the Zaeed and Kasumi DLC installed, you pick them up without an accompanying mission and they will help you keep enough squad members alive to finish the game alive. I made this mistake when I played through trying to die at the end!

 

[spectrenihlus]

Hardest part of insanity is the first fight you have on the collector ship where EDI says "It's A Trap!!!" The two Scions really hurt and your companions are pretty much slaughtered within 5 seconds. I was playing as a soldier and ran out of ammo had to finish off the final scion with just concussive shots.

 

[Arkley]

A shocking amount of good information here, usually this sort of thread is filled with people touting their own preferences as the "best" option.

A few things to bare in mind as you do the insanity run:

1. Start over with an imported ME1 save, not an imported ME2 save. People have already explained why.

2. Vanguard's charge can save you from having to fight additional waves at some points, but be aware that the Vanguard is a generally ill-equipped class for playing Insanity.

3. Regardless of what anyone else says (and people will try to tell you that their favourite class is "best") Soldier is the class best for playing Insanity. It has the highest damage output with the Mattock/Adrenaline Rush combo. Adrenaline Rush will also save your ass, and the ammo powers fit any situation. It is, unfortunately, a boring class to play and the Mattock is DLC.

4. Check some form of guide or walkthrough to see what kind of enemies you'll be up against, and take squad members who specialise in damaging the enemy's defenses. Don't forget to check what weapons you're using, too. The Geth shotgun, for example, is a great weapon, but not against Husks. To re-use the same example, the Mattock assault rifle has the best DPS, but it's semi automatic and also not suitable for use against Husks.

5. Unlike other difficulty modes and the entirety of ME1, you'll need to use squad commands. There are several moments (usually the moments with Praetorians) when you really need to have team mates take the heat off you by having them attack a particular enemy from a specific location.

6. For loyalty powers, take Barrier. Barrier is the only shield based loyalty power that's affected by upgrades and it has no activation animation, meaning it just springs up instantly, even if Shepard is downed or staggering from a flamethrower/missile hit. It will save your life.

 

[Aity]

Insanity difficulty is not hard, just the Horizon part is hard, as you get used to the up'd difficulty. I actually thought insanity was much easier than I expected, which is why I didn't do any of the loyalty quests for my squadmates, intentionally trying to make it harder. Ended up killing everyone off but Miranda(I tried so hard to get her killed to, damn woman just won't die) and Thane. Was hoping I'd keep Garrus, but that's how the dice roll.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

Personally, I think the Engineer would be a better choice in an insanity run (though the videos of those who have played the Vanguard are pretty awesome). Some things I learned:

1. Drone makes for a great distraction and serves as an unofficial ally. In terms of usefulness, it rivals the Infiltrator's Cloak, and can save your or a squadmate's bacon, as it can be used to force something out of cover and/or to distract Harbinger or an annoying heavy. And Scions have trouble killing them. The drone is great if tactics are your thing.

2. Most enemies use shields, and Overload will make them your plaything; same thing applies to Incinerate to armor, but that won't be enough. Miranda/Zaeed will perform best in most situations, unless no enemy in the area uses shields (in which case, Grunt or Jacob will do, as they can have Team Incendiary Ammo). Remember to give Zaeed Team Disruptor Ammo, so that you can save Overload for more difficult encounters.

3. As for special powers, Dominate or Flash Grenade are your best friends in terms of tactical gameplay, and the former makes for a great scratching post for the enemy while you mop up those that focus on their (temporarily former) mate. Stasis is awesome as well (assuming you have Shadow Broker DLC), but repeated use on one enemy will eventually give that one immunity to stasis.

 

[RJ 17]

I fully admit that I've only taken one shot at Insanity...I made the mistake of starting a replay character so the lack of upgrades ensured that I was quite thoroughly boned on the first mission. After that I bumped it back down to Hardcore and asked the game to kindly remove its boot from my rectum.

That said, however, I'm replaying both games with two characters to get ready for ME 3, once I've played through ME 1 with my Infiltrator, I intend to import him over to ME 2 and give Insanity another go. My thought process is this:

-As many have mentioned, Tac Cloak is a life-saver.

-Widow Sniper Rifle (once fully upgrade) eats Scions and Praetorians alive

-Infiltrator comes with AI-Hacking, I tend to pick the bonus ability of Dominate...why fight the enemy when you can make them fight each other?

-On that note, I intend to keep Miranda glued to my side, as well as Mordin (to begin with, I'll switch to Thane after the first fight with the Collectors) to help rip down the barriers allowing me to use Hacking and Dominate.

If I still get my ass handed to me, I intend to bight the bullet and play my least favorite class: Soldier (by changing classes during the game's start up)...just because I know you can't fuck with one of'em, they're designed to be the standard ass-kicking class. Not flashy, just a blunt object to bash your enemies faces in with. I just prefer the flashier classes that have special abilities and what-not.

 

[Aerosteam]

I got the achievement on the save file where my Shepard dies, just ignore as many long mission as you can. The DLC characters, Zaeed and Kasumi are useful since you can skip an entire mission where you have to recruit another squad member like Samara and Thane.

The fastest way the main story goes:

Recruit 4 people
Horizon
Recruit 3 more people
Collector Ship
Acquire IFF
Suicide mission

Recruit any 7 members you want, just make sure 2 of them are DLC ones if possible.

Also it doesn't matter who dies in the collector base, you're likely to not transfer that character to Mass Effect 3 anyway.

You're definitely going to struggle for ammo, so make sure you can keep yourself from becoming completely offenseless.

I used a soldier, special power Thane's shredder ammo. A tech or biotic power is probably more useful though if you become a soldier and run out of ammo.

Insanity difficulty is not hard, just the Horizon part is hard, as you get used to the up'd difficulty. I actually thought insanity was much easier than I expected

My ass. Any part with Harbinger and the collectors are the hardest parts.