Mass Effect 2 Ending (Spoilers from first post)

[Samnite]

I just completed Mass Effect 2 - I personally couldn't see any way that letting the vile aliens live meant I had completed what I set out to do, so I blew up the station, but that's not what I'm here for.

When I got back to the Normandy, the game told me that, in some place and at some point in time, Legion had fallen. Now I personally have no damn clue where he had died - I left him and the rest of the team to hold the doors while myself, Garrus and Thane went to tackle the final boss. There was even a little cutscene where Shepard hailed the door-holding team and Legion replied to say everything was dandy.

Was there a specific choice I made that meant he died? Is someone randomly selected from the door-holding team to die? Or is Legion always supposed to die as he was an optional companion from the outset?

 

[Amnestic]

The "Hold the line" team has hidden values assigned to each squad member. Those who are badass soldier types like Grunt or Legion have higher values than squishies like Mordin and Tali. Loyalty boosts it as well.

If you want everyone to live when HOLDING THE LINE you want to have as few squishies there as possible and everyone loyal.

Garrus is such a hardcore badass he actually gives an additional bonus to the Hold the Line team as well, so leaving him behind is heavily advised.

 

[Nikajo]

Yeah apparently loyalty majorly affects whether team mates survive or not when you're not with them on the suicide mission. Was legion loyal? All of my team was loyal when I first attempted it and the only mistake I made was letting jacob have his way when he volunteered to go through the vent himself. That was damn annoying!

 

[Paragon Fury]

The most surefire way to make sure everyone survives is as follows:

Recruit everyone
Receive the Reaper IFF Mission, BUT DO NOT GO ON IT.
Do Everyone's Loyalty Missions
Do all Upgrades, though you can skip the Med Bay One if you want
Do the Reaper IFF Mission
Activate and do Legion's Loyalty Mission
Survive the Collector Attack As Joker.
Immediately afterwards, go through the Omega 4 Relay

While in the Collector Base, do the following:

Choose Legion for the Vents
Choose either Miranda or Garrus for the Fireteam
Send Mordin back with the surviving crew
Choose either Jack or Samara/Morrinth for the Biotic Shield
Choose whoever you didn't send last time (Miranda/Garrus) for the second Fireteam
For the end mission, choose two squad mates (leave Garrus, Grunt and Legion behind, if possible).


While this ensures you have the best chances of survival, there are several random factors that have % chance of occuring, regardless of your choices.

- The Vent Member can be hit and killed by a Rocket
- For either Fireteam, the leader can randomly be hit and die
- The Swarm can randomly abduct a team member
- Your Biotic can fail
- Someone can randomly die during the "Hold The Line" section
- Your sqaud in the final battle can randomly be killed by the Final Boss destroying one of the platforms
- The debris can crush one of your endgame squad members
- Rarely, Shepard can fail to make the jump at the end

 

[Nikajo]

Shepard can fail the jump at the end? lmao XD while that would be incredibly annoying I think I would've wet my pants laughing if that had happened! That dramatic slow motion jump followed by him plummetting into a pit, ha!

Yeah you definately want the ships advanced guns, plating and shields. apparently if you don't get the shields then Tali will die during the cutscene but I'm not sure what happens if you don't buy the other two. Probably can't get back through the Omega 4 relay because your ship is too damaged or something annoying like that.

Does anybody know if being a certain level affects dying rate for any characters at the end?

EDIT: you can also get away with picking Tali at the end to do the vent solo mission, but only if she's loyal otherwise there's a good chance she'll bite the dust aswell. I think her and legion are the only ones who are capable of doing that bit and not dying.

 

[Baconmonster723]

While this ensures you have the best chances of survival, there are several random factors that have % chance of occuring, regardless of your choices.

- The Vent Member can be hit and killed by a Rocket
- For either Fireteam, the leader can randomly be hit and die
- The Swarm can randomly abduct a team member
- Your Biotic can fail
- Someone can randomly die during the "Hold The Line" section
- Your sqaud in the final battle can randomly be killed by the Final Boss destroying one of the platforms
- The debris can crush one of your endgame squad members
- Rarely, Shepard can fail to make the jump at the end

These all occur if you take too much time or choose the wrong person for the job. I know for a fact if you take too long on the final boss team members start to die. I believe on Insanity if you allow the tubes to close more than twice a member dies. It's all quite complicated however, if you get the ship upgrades, get team loyalty, and choose the right members for jobs the chances of people dying are incredibly low.

 

[SerbianWolf]

It's funny but I think all of the end game scenarios could boost ME2's replay value exponentially. I for one am going to try and do everything from the 'bloodbath' ending to stuff in between.

From what I understand, the best 'vent' people are Tali and Legion, the best fire team leaders are Garrus, Jacob and Miranda, and the best biotics are Jack or Samara/Morinth. I wasn't aware of the 'hidden value' aspect that Amnestic mentioned, but I'm happy to hear that they used common sense with it, particularly Garrus' bonus (always chose him becuz he's led a squad before).

 

[Samnite]

Wow, it's a good job I added those Normandy shields and guns as an afterthought.

Legion was the only one who was not loyal - which is strange in itself, as I did his loyalty mission (although I elected to kill the Geth...?)

I sent Tali through the vents. No troubles there.

I didn't think that it made that much difference when choosing team leaders - although I always chose Miranda and Garrus for most of them nonetheless. I sent Jack back with the crew because I knew I sure as well wasn't going to use her.

I had Garrus and Thane with me in the final battle because they were the only ones who I cared about not dying

Incidently, what happens if you fail as Joker and lose the Normandy.

 

[milkoy]

I sent Legion through the ducts, and got shot in the face after he got out.

Then I took Grunt and Garrus across the swarm with Jack as the biotic, and killed the terminator with Samara and Jack.

Only Legion died for me. Not to sound insensitive, but he was a robot. I wasn't too upset.

 

[Ascarus]

i've never had anyone die who stayed to hold the line (2 game completions) but both times Tali died when i sent her through the vent system. she gets out and as she's helping shepard close the doors, she gets shot (she had upgraded loyalty on both occasions). in fact, she was the only one to die on both occasions.

not sure if i will play through it again, but if i do, i'll send legion through and see what happens.

 

[NinjaSquirrel]

I used Thane and Tali as my teammates for the whole mission. I sent Legion through the vents, and had Garrus as my first Fireteam Leader. For the Biotic March, I chose Samara, and had Zaeed as my team leader. it went fine...except Zaeed got killed as the door opened. I was less than thrilled by that. Saved the Normandy's crew, and sent Jacob back with the survivors. In the end, everyone but Zaeed lived. I had everyone loyal.

...in hindsight, I KNEW I should've chosen Garrus as the team leader at the end, but I wanted to give him a break. I definitely talked to my TV during the mission prep, when Miranda argued that the squad leader should "Be able to lead by example and experience," I actually said to my XBox "Well, I'm sure as hell not choosing you!"

I haven't reloaded my save right before the Omega-4 relay, but when I do, I'm not letting Zaeed lead anything. I should've learned from his story about leading the Blue Suns that any time he leads a group, he ends up with a bullet in him

 

[ian528]

On my first play through Thane and Mordin died. On my second, play through everyone lived but I never got legion cause I sold his robot ass. 3rd play through is so going to be everyone lives and paragon. 4th playthrough going to get Legion early and make him a permanent team member even when I go to get Tali.

 

[Fappy]

The "Hold the line" team has hidden values assigned to each squad member. Those who are badass soldier types like Grunt or Legion have higher values than squishies like Mordin and Tali. Loyalty boosts it as well.

If you want everyone to live when HOLDING THE LINE you want to have as few squishies there as possible and everyone loyal.

Garrus is such a hardcore badass he actually gives an additional bonus to the Hold the Line team as well, so leaving him behind is heavily advised.

I didn't know that about Garrus. The game mechanics even remind you he's a badass! Awesome.

 

[Samnite]

Next playthrough (the one which begins with me having destroyed the council) I'll try and keep everyone alive. I just wanted that damn achievement. But I'm selling Tali's dad's evidence to get cyber stuff for the humans.

Ninjasquirrel; Have I missed something? Who the hell is Zaeed?

 

[Ascarus]

Next playthrough (the one which begins with me having destroyed the council) I'll try and keep everyone alive. I just wanted that damn achievement. But I'm selling Tali's dad's evidence to get cyber stuff for the humans.

Ninjasquirrel; Have I missed something? Who the hell is Zaeed?

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Zaeed_Massani

 

[ShotgunSmoke]

You should leave Garrus to hold the line. He's got a lot of experience in that aspect (see : his recruitment mission).

I personally took Miranda and Garrus with me to the final boss fight, Mordin was already in the ship (escorting the crew) and everyone survived.

 

[Amnestic]

I didn't know that about Garrus. The game mechanics even remind you he's a badass! Awesome.

He's basically Batman crossed with Captain Price crossed with Commander Shepard.

Yes, he's crossed with his squad leader. The game basically throws out the fact that Garrus is molded by what you tell him and how you react to his personal missions.

 

[pneuma08]

i've never had anyone die who stayed to hold the line (2 game completions) but both times Tali died when i sent her through the vent system. she gets out and as she's helping shepard close the doors, she gets shot (she had upgraded loyalty on both occasions). in fact, she was the only one to die on both occasions.

not sure if i will play through it again, but if i do, i'll send legion through and see what happens.

It depends on who you send with the fireteam as well. My tech specialist died every time I tried Samara as the fireteam, because Miranda recommended someone with experience, but I guess 400 years of not playing well with others isn't the kind of experience that was needed. :\

The opening tech death I found unfortunate, but the first time I tried out Grunt to lead the second fireteam and he totally got a badass death and an incredibly satisfying way to go. ("Good fight, Shepherd. Good....fight...")

It also makes a ton of sense that Garrus gets squad bonuses and especially Hold the Line bonuses. He did hold out against the three toughest merc squads on Omega with a small team, and although he lost everyone in the end, he did last over a day, including taking down a helicopter with small arms fire. Even the Illusive Man's dossier recommends him as a master of small unit tactics. I did kinda wish I had the dossiers on hand when choosing people, as the additional info could have been helpful...

 

[Fappy]

I didn't know that about Garrus. The game mechanics even remind you he's a badass! Awesome.

He's basically Batman crossed with Captain Price crossed with Commander Shepard.

Yes, he's crossed with his squad leader. The game basically throws out the fact that Garrus is molded by what you tell him and how you react to his personal missions.

Which is why he better be a fucking Specter in ME3 damn it!

 

[Brad Shepard]

I didn't know that about Garrus. The game mechanics even remind you he's a badass! Awesome.

He's basically Batman crossed with Captain Price crossed with Commander Shepard.

Yes, he's crossed with his squad leader. The game basically throws out the fact that Garrus is molded by what you tell him and how you react to his personal missions.

Which is why he better be a fucking Specter in ME3 damn it!

in my ME1, he said he was going to reaply for Specter training (Not that he needs it) but hes more of a badass as he is now, and still no rules, specter or not