Mass Effect Players! Toss me a bone will ya?

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Tips for first time ME2 play through:

- Pick an alignment for role play purposes and stick to it
- Pick a favourite store on the citadel (you'll see what I mean )
- Do all the recruitment/loyalty missions.
- Try and get all the upgrades
- Explore all the main non-combat hubs
- There are two occasions in the game where there is an actual "time" limit (not real time but in-game time, ie. doing other missions first). Meeting or failing to meet the deadline will have an affect.
- Pistols aren't nearly as good as they were in ME1.
- Play on Veteran difficulty
- Play a Vanguard, because they absolutely rock.
- And the number one rule, don't f**k with Aria.

Tips with SPOILERS: *MINOR SPOILERS - MINOR SPOILERS - MINOR SPOILERS*

Spoiler

- The timing for finding Legion and completing his loyalty mission comes at a crucial time in the story. As many others as possible should be done before that point.
- Not having a high enough paragon or renegade score at certain times will limit your options.
- Miranda can give a 15% team wide damage bonus and has warp which is very effective when enemies are already affected by other biotic powers.
- Warp Ammo is the best ammo power.
- The only upgrades you actually need are Jacob's, Tali's and Garrus'. The rest are completely optional (and varying usefulness) and have no adverse effects.
- There are no fish in the Presidium

I would love to but I couldn't get the first one. So I have to settle for the second

Do it [http://store.steampowered.com/app/17460/]. It really is worth it to have your same Shepard from 1 carry over into 2. You'll appreciate a lot of little things as a result of your decisions from the first.

 

[krugerrand123]

Max out one karma meter more that the other, because sometimes, you want to make a good dialogue option, but you cannot choose it because you paragon or renegade meters are too low, so focus on one.

 

[Sparrow]

There will be a point where you're given a choice pick one of three weapons, or if you can't use those weapons you'll have a choice to learn to use them. If you can already use sniper rifles, pick up the sniper rifle. It kills everything darn quickly.

At some point on Tuchanka (I think that's it) a Krogan will start giving you lip. You'll be prompted to pull RT, or click the mouse by a red icon in the corner.

Do it.

I don't care if you're a Paragon. Do it.

Actually, if you're Paragon you can just wait until the last second of his speech and press it. You get no Renegade points, probably as a reward for sitting through his long-ass speech.

 

[Siegfried Raybrandt]

Well everyone thanks for the many tips so far. I had no idea there was so much to this game though. Still, think I might clear the air a moment.

I don't have Steam.
The Mass Effect 1 I NOW have is PC only
The Mass Effect 2 I have is PS3 only
So I doubt I can import characters

Edit: Is the karma system, ie Paragon and Renegade, similar to the karma system of infamous?

 

[violent_quiche]

There will be a point where you're given a choice pick one of three weapons, or if you can't use those weapons you'll have a choice to learn to use them. If you can already use sniper rifles, pick up the sniper rifle. It kills everything darn quickly.

At some point on Tuchanka (I think that's it) a Krogan will start giving you lip. You'll be prompted to pull RT, or click the mouse by a red icon in the corner.

Do it.

I don't care if you're a Paragon. Do it.

Actually, if you're Paragon you can just wait until the last second of his speech and press it. You get no Renegade points, probably as a reward for sitting through his long-ass speech.

Renegade & Paragon don't cancel each other- all you do in those "L/R trigger" situations is pick up renegade or paragon points and only occasionally pass up a chance to earn 1-2 points of the opposite. I mostly play paragon, but can indulge in a bit of bastardry when the mood strikes without setting myself back that much.

Having said that, my tips are:

Gain as many alignment points as possible until you at least get through Miranda & Jack's loyalty missions (do both as soon as they become available).

Your specialist talent (eg. combat mastery for soldiers) typically boosts your paragon/renegade, so push it up early.
Use your squad talents
Get the Shadow Broker dlc (unless you have the PS3 version which I believe has everything?)
Mine planets progressively- it's tedious, but if you get in the habit of exploring systems when you first arrive in them, it at least breaks it up.

 

[9thRequiem]

Essentially, go full Paragon or Renegade, otherwise you might not have enough points to access some of the game's more... important options.

Seconded on this.
If you do everything, you'll have roughly a 20% leeway to pick the other side (more if you have ME1 and/or some of the ME2 DLC), but it's not really worth risking, as you can have major problems if you mix-and-match too much.

Between missions, make sure you talk to all your crew to squeeze out all dialog possible.

 

[Yogal_Fish]

Explore everywhere. Never know what you may find.

Also, some of the Renegade choices are really... well, hard to do. Not gameplay wise but an immersive game like Mass Effect can make some choices feel difficult to do. So, from my own opinion, be Paragon and not Renegade.

Calumon: Buy ALL the fish!

REMEMBER TO FEED THEM!

i was so sad when mine died....

anyway OT talk to your crewmates as often as you can, best content in mass efect is probably the dialogue

Flirt with Kelly until she agrees to feed your fish. It's kind of all she's useful for.

And she dances for you.

 

[SpaceBat]

Pick Vanguard, pick shotgun, biotic charge like a boss.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Tips:

--Find the first game and play it. It makes the second game a completely new game if you transfer your save.

--If you want your squad to survive and DON'T want to read a walkthrough, stop for a second and think about everyone's strengths and weaknesses. It's actually easy to figure out.

--When given the option in a conversation, ALWAYS choose Paragon/Renegade. I'm talking about when the text is highlighted in blue or red, because these options will make your life easier.

--Get the DLC, but if you can only get one get Lair of the Shadow Broker. Again though, this ties heavily into the first game, so once again, pick that up.

--If you like Kelly, yes it's true you can romance her. Male or Female.

--Feed your fish after every mission, or at least until Kelly offers to feed them for you.

--Scions SUCK!

--If you play on Insanity, I found the best class to use in the Engineer. Upgrade that combat drone and use it constantly to distract enemies.

 

[octafish]

Well everyone thanks for the many tips so far. I had no idea there was so much to this game though. Still, think I might clear the air a moment.

I don't have Steam.
The Mass Effect 1 I NOW have is PC only
The Mass Effect 2 I have is only
So I doubt I can import characters

Edit: Is the karma system, ie Paragon and Renegade, similar to the karma system of infamous?

I'm guessing your ME2 is for PS3? Sell it and buy the PC GOTY/Collectors version with all the DLC. If your machine is strong enough to play the first one you may as well play them all on the same system. The only thing I recommend for the first one is to put a decent amount of skill points into either Charm (Paragon) or Intimidate (Renegade) before you go to Vermire to save yourself some heartache.

 

[Nieroshai]

If you play the first game first, you can change fairly important plot points depending on the paths you took. Like certain characters surviving and certain romances carrying over, etc. There's my first tip. Second: if you want everyone to live, make everyone absolutely LOVE you right away and fully upgrade your ship.

 

[Nieroshai]

Explore everywhere. Never know what you may find.

Also, some of the Renegade choices are really... well, hard to do. Not gameplay wise but an immersive game like Mass Effect can make some choices feel difficult to do. So, from my own opinion, be Paragon and not Renegade.

Calumon: Buy ALL the fish!

REMEMBER TO FEED THEM!

i was so sad when mine died....

anyway OT talk to your crewmates as often as you can, best content in mass efect is probably the dialogue

Flirt with Kelly until she agrees to feed your fish. It's kind of all she's useful for.

And she dances for you.

And humps your leg in bed. That always confused me: when you lie on the bed with someone, that person humps your leg. Not complaining, but it ALMOST looks like it's an unintentional thing in the game considering the humpee gets nothing and the movement is slight enough that it might only be a breathing animation. Meh.

 

[Farther than stars]

If you haven't already, play the first one first.

I would love to but I couldn't get the first one. So I have to settle for the second

No! Please, try to get the first one anyway you can before playing the second. Buy it online if necessary, but the games are a trilogy. It's like reading Two Towers of Lord of the Ring before you read Fellowship of the Ring.

 

[trebot]

if you take the time, you can "romance" kelly to have dinner and have her feed your fish for you. Just go with the paragon responses while talking with her.
Doesn't matter which gender either.

 

[trebot]

you know that the first game was never released on some consoles, right?

 

[Siegfried Raybrandt]

Well luck ran short for me unfortunately. The PC version of Mass Effect 1 I have simply refuses to work. I don't want to go into details. Still, I have the second one for PS3. I might as well try to enjoy that one.

 

[Asita]

Ok, I can't think of a way to say this without a mild spoiler, but it's a very important one so I'm going to forgo the spoiler tags: Do all the loyalty missions before you do the Reaper IFF mission. That starts the endgame in earnest and you do not want to wait terribly long to do that final mission after...well, you'll see shortly after the IFF mission. This cannot be emphasized enough.

 

[kypsilon]

If you have the option, punch the news reporter in the face. You'll thank me if you ever get to play the first one.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

Will echo the others: play the first one first. It's a tremendously more gratifying experience and you will likely be especially happy that you did once ME3 comes out. If distribution is an issue, it's available pretty cheaply on every digital distribution service. If cost is an issue, you could probably find a used copy for about $5 if you poked around. Even if you've already played 1, you want to import the save. Again, you can probably find a truly cheap copy of the first one if you got ME2 for a console and it's worth having both of them on the same system even if it means you end up owning two copies of 1.

Befriending Kelly (doesn't interfere with any other romances) is probably the easiest thing to miss and really obnoxious if you like collecting items since it's the only reasonable way to keep the fish (otherwise you have to feed them every time between missions). I messed it up on my main save and was kicking myself for a while later. The route to romancing her is pretty simple - just take the choices that seem blindingly obvious.

The point of no return is the Reaper IFF mission. Once you do that, it's possible to delay the last mission and do other things, but doing so has rather large negative repercussions. If you want everyone to survive the game, you need to have done all of their loyalty missions and have all of the ship upgrades before that point. Also, you need to make certain choices in the last mission that are not entirely obvious, so it's worth keeping a save right at the start of it in case you make the wrong ones (looking up which choices to make involves some serious spoilers for a pretty righteous mission, so I'd recommend strongly against it).

Oh and for the love of god play the DLC. Some of it is pretty meh, but Lair of the Shadow Broker was my favourite part of the entire game and several of the others are pretty superb too (the vehicle ones not so much, but at least they're better than the Mako).

 

[AwkwardTurtle]

Not to sound a bit pessimistic, but Mass Effect 2 Pro tip: Just decide from the get go whether you want to be Paragon or Renegade and stick with it every single time, with few possible exceptions such as to gain the loyalty from a party member.

If you fail to be consistent the game penalizes you by locking you out from certain dialogue options just cause you weren't 'good' or 'bad' enough.

Never give anything to Cerberus cause they're pricks. Forgot about any foreshadowed 'consequences' of releasing anyone who is on the ship cause the reason they're on the ship is to mindlessly help you go 'pew pew' all across the galaxy.