Mass Effect 2 Achievements Guide by Ber'Zophus.
This is a guide on getting any one, or all, achievements in Mass Effect 2. The guide is kept as spoiler-free as possible. Of course, the very nature of this guide may be considered "spoilers" to people who don't want to have anything spoiled, but at least know I won't ruin any plot points wherever possible.
Mass Effect 1 was pretty easy to get 100%, but time consuming. Thankfully, Bioware has made this one even easier to achieve 100%. The grind-style achievements (like killing 150 enemies with pistol & sniper rifle, using 150 techs) are either gone, or have greatly reduced requirements. Most achievements will come through a natural progression of the game with little difficulty.
(Note: To find something specific quickly, hit CTRL + F on your keyboard to search for it)
Table of Contents:
Story-Progression Achievements [Can't be missed] (240 G)
Story-Based Achievements [CAN be missed] (150 G)
Party-Recruitment Achievements (80 G)
Party-Loyalty Achievements (100 G, +15 DLC)
Combat-Based Achievements (100 G)
Completion-Style Achievements (330 G)
[#A] In Closing
=============================================================================== [#0] FAQ - Mass Effect 2 Achievements =============================================================================== This section is just to provide answers on questions you may have about the achievements, and advice as you start the game. - First off, all achievements but one can be obtained on the easiest difficulty, Casual. The only other one requires you to play through on the hardest difficulty, Insanity. I highly, highly recommend you play through the game once on Casual to get the feeling of the new combat system. Trust me, it is very, very different from Mass Effect 1. Standing your ground against enemies just blindly shooting will get you killed even on Casual...yet that's just about all you do in Mass Effect 1. Weapons now have an ammo restriction, and the ammo in the game is rather limited, so your powers and squadmates are much more important this time around. But you can make an entire FAQ on the differences between ME1 and ME2. Just know it's different and you're probably in for a world of hurt if you try Insanity right from the start. - Unfortunately, the rewards for getting achievements (like bonus damage or money that you got for achievements in ME1) are not as great this time around. Most give you nothing, and all of them only matter on a new playthrough. But they're still good perks. (Thanks to Maniacpoodle and Jonathon for reminding me of a couple ones I missed). Finishing the game (the "Mission Accomplished achievement") will give you a 25% bonus to all experience obtained in future playthroughs. And getting Long-Service Medal, which is finishing the game twice or once with an imported ME1 character, will give you a starting bonus: an extra 200,000 credits, plus 50,000 units of each of the 4 research minerals. As well, for each individual loyalty achievement you get, you can choose to get their Advanced Training power right at the very start of the game. ie, if you did Jacob's loyalty mission, you can start your next playthrough with Barrier unlocked. Hence, there's three very good reasons you should do your Insanity playthrough after a Casual run. - This time around, the combat tech-based achievements can be obtained even if you're not a tech/biotic. In ME1, you need to be a Tech to get the Tech-based achievements. However, this time around, you need not be. I'll explain this in the Combat-Based Achievements section. Just keep that in mind when you go to build your character: you don't have to keep Achievements in mind, as any class of character can get all the achievements. Play who you want. - Importing your ME1 character vs. starting a new character have no affect to any achievement except one: Long Service Medal. This achievement is rewarded playing through the game twice with a new character, or once with an imported ME1 character. Nevertheless, you should really import your ME1 character. You get perks that are useful but not overpowering (like starting at a slightly higher level, and getting some credits and research minerals right from the start), and you'll catch the tons and tons of ME1 references thrown throughout the game. But fear not if you haven't played ME1, as it will otherwise not affect your achievement hunting. - The achievements that have a counter, like warping X barriers, or getting X headshots, are saved separate from your save file. Hence, any progress counts to them even if you reload and do the same section over and over again. This is a good way to get any of the Combat-based achievements, like Warp Specialist. =============================================================================== [#1] Story-Progression Achievements [Can't be missed] 240 G =============================================================================== (Page Top) These achievements revolve around completion of the story and cannot be missed. There are other achievements in the game (certain party-recruitment ones, for example) that also cannot be missed, but they are discussed in their own section of this guide. ----------------------------------------------- Missing in Action 5 G "Save your crew from an overwhelming attack." ----------------------------------------------- You will get this after you complete the introduction. ----------------------------------------------- Very Elusive 10 G "Return to active duty." ----------------------------------------------- This is rewarded very shortly after the first one, after you're given your first mission. ----------------------------------------------- Colony Defense 25 G "Defend a human colony from attack." ----------------------------------------------- You will obtain this after completing the main mission on Horizon. ----------------------------------------------- Ghost Ship 25 G "Complete the investigation of a derelict alien vessel." ----------------------------------------------- This is actually a main-quest mission the Illusive Man will give you later in the game, and it's just as it says: investigating a derelict ship. Complete it for the achievement. ----------------------------------------------- Suicide Mission 50 G "Use the Omega 4 Relay." ----------------------------------------------- This is the, rather obviously, point-of-no-return mission (The game will make that clear to you). You are awarded this achievement literally the moment you use the Omega 4 relay, before the mission even really starts. ----------------------------------------------- Mission Accomplished 125 G "Save humanity throughout the galaxy from certain annihilation." ----------------------------------------------- This is rewarded after completion of the suicide mission, the last in the game. Take note, when you have this achievement, you'll earn 25% additional experience whenever you'd get XP on your future playthroughs. =============================================================================== [#2] Story-Based Achievements [CAN be missed] 150 G =============================================================================== (Page Top) These achievements revolve directly around the story, but are the ones that CAN be missed. You only have one shot on each playthrough. Fortunately, they are not at all difficult. ----------------------------------------------- Big Game Hunter 10 G "Thresher Maw defeated" ----------------------------------------------- *Sorta Spoilers ahead* This will occur on the loyalty mission for Grunt. You will face off against a Thresher Maw. Remember, those giant land worms from ME1 you fought in the Mako? Well, you're on foot for this one. For the loyalty mission, you need only survive for 5 minutes (a clock will be onscreen). But to get the achievement, you must kill the Thresher Maw within those 5 minutes. Fortunately, on Casual, this is still very easy. (And still easy even on Insanity). The Thresher Maw is only armored. Hence, be ready with anti-armor techs, like Incinerate, Incendiary Ammo, and Warp. It's easy to see its attacks coming; just stay in cover. And for a super-easy win, just use the Cain "Nuke Launcher". A single hit will wipe out over half its health. And if you don't have that, the Particle Beam is another heavy weapon that can easily mop the floor with the Thresher Maw. Seriously, what else would you save your heavy ammo for? Why not go all out? ----------------------------------------------- Paramour 50 G "Successfully pursue a relationship with a teammate" ----------------------------------------------- Yeah, maybe this isn't "Story-Based" per-se, but really, if you've played Mass Effect, you know the characters are the story. And you do have to put effort at this one throughout the whole game or you will miss it. Still, this is not at all difficult to get. Simply talk to your teammates. With each of them you'll be given the conversation option to just chat with them. They'll have something new to say every 1 or 2 missions (not assignments), and otherwise will simply tell you they're busy and to come back later. So try to be diligent to check on them, especially after you finish a major mission. Obviously, do their Loyalty mission as you likely will otherwise stand zero chance. And clearly don't treat them like garbage and you'll do fine. You'll pretty much always be choosing paragon options, yeah even in the case of Jack. But note, not always; sometimes the Paragon path WILL kill your chances, and other times Renegade is actually the good thing to pick, but it's easy to tell when. If you're just going for the achievement and don't care who you bed, chances are if you tried even a little to be on people's good side you'll have your pick of 4 people to choose from when the time is right. You'll get the scene, and achievement, once you decide to enter the Omega 4 Relay. Also note, since you can continue to play after you've finished the main quest, you can also get it then, too. Just complete an assignment or quest and try talking to them again. So long as you've been working at the relationship you should still get it. ----------------------------------------------- No One Left Behind 75 G "Keep your team alive through the suicide mission" ----------------------------------------------- *** SPOILERS ARE AHEAD. They will not ruin the story, but the very nature of this achievement is a spoiler if you want to know how to keep everyone alive. On the suicide mission, your whole team will be participating in a light sorta way, and you'll need to make some choices. Choosing inappropriate people will get them killed on the mission, for good (and clearly blow the achievement). This is a rough one, as people are slowly, through experimentation, determining what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately, through all I've read there is still no consensus on a couple points. People are following what is written and having random people die, and I'm yet to figure out why. For reference, I've completed two playthroughts now, on Casual and Insanity. On each I played polar opposites; paragon and renegade, choosing completely different outcomes literally whenever possible. Both times I had no problems with my choices. Thanks to everyone for e-mailing me their notes, as it helps get closer to a conclusive guide. All I can confirm for sure is what I've done to get the achievement and relay what I've heard. - First off, before you even enter the Omega 4 Relay, be absolutely sure to purchase the Armor, Weapon, and Cannon upgrades for the Normandy, or someone will die right away. These are the "Thanix Cannon" which Garrus provides, "Multicore Shielding" which Tali provides, and "Heavy Ship Armor" which Jacob provides. (Thx leechify for correcting me on that one.) Just recruit each team mate and simply talk to them about [UPGRADES] and you can then purchase them from the research station. - I would have everyone, even the people you don't send out, be loyal. Greyfox1987 let me know his one remaining unloyal character got killed no matter what he did, so this seems to matter. And hey, you're reading an achievement guide which means you probably want achievements, right? Well getting everyone loyal gives you an achievement for each teammate, so why wouldn't you? Also note, Brad and Steve have each reported to me that you can lose the loyalty of Miranda or Jack. They will confront eachother during your playthrough, and if you don't have the necessary paragon/renegade, your choice will cause the other to go unloyal, which will likely blow your chances at this achievement. Likewise, the same is likely true between the Tali/Legion confrontation. Be sure you choose the Paragon/Renegade option and don't side with someone. - When you finally land, you'll be asked to choose a tech expert. I, personally, have had both Tali and Legion go through this and survive with no difficulites, and that seems to be the consensus as well. Yet, a lot are reporting that either die despite following everything else. Take note, after you choose this you must also choose a secondary team leader (my choices are below). You MUST choose correctly on that or that will cause the Tech Leader to die. Be SURE to take one of my picks below. (And thanks to everyone who e-mailed me this tip.) Otherwise, I have no clue why this woudln't work. Tech damage upgrades seem to make no difference (I had 3/5, Legion survived.) Sent Tali in after I turned her down in the Romance section, she still lived. Clearly there's just some other factor that hasn't been cracked yet. Wish I could help further since I just can't recreate the problems people are having. (Did everyone talk thoroughly to their team mates? I talked to them through the whole game until they finally had nothing more to say.) - For the secondary team leader, I've had Garrus and Jacob do fine. (Miranda, it's been told, also succeeds). Again, if you choose wrong on this, the Tech expert gets killed, not the squad leader. While I don't know if there are others who can succeed, it seems Samara/Morinth for sure will result in the tech expert getting killed. - As for your own squad, I don't believe it matters who you pick. - When you meet up with everyone again, you're asked to choose a biotic specialist to shield your team. Samara and Jack have worked fine for me (and I've heard Morinth also works if you sided with her) - You're also asked for another secondary team leader. Again, Garrus and Jacob each worked ok for me, and Miranda should too. - You're also given the option to send an escort to return some survivors to the Normandy. Anyone who's loyal should work fine here. Many have advised to send Mordin as their Mordin just seems to otherwise die no matter what they do. That was not the case with me at all; I had him on the sidelines and he lived, yet still more than one person has reported this to me. I suppose if you're not using Mordin it's better safe than sorry to send him as the escort. Aaris has advised me that you can opt not to send anyone and while the survivors will get killed it will not blow the achievement. I tried this once (after I already had the achievement), and can at least confirm this didn't affect one of my primary teammates. And that's it. Hopefully everyone should survive, and you'll get this achievement at the end of the game. (After the other end-of-game achievements are awarded. Don't be alarmed that it gives you Mission Accomplished first, yet doesn't immediately give you this. There's a bit of a gap between them for some reason. Just so you don't freak out.) ----------------------------------------------- Against All Odds 15 G "Survive suicide mission." ----------------------------------------------- To be honest, I only assume this one can be missed. You're obviously awarded this when completing the last mission...yet there's already an achievement for finishing the whole game, and it's given to you at the same time. Hence, is it possible they're separated because you can finish the game and not survive? Without giving away spoilers, I can see the possibility of Shepard not making it at the end of the mission. But to do so would basically require you to get almost everyone possible killed in the suicide mission....basically upgrading nothing, making terrible choices, and leaving everyone un-loyal. So really, if you're going for the No One Left Behind achievement above, it'll be impossible to miss the Against All Odds achievement. If anyone wants to play the ultimate jerk and see if it's possible to miss this achievement, let me know the results. =============================================================================== [#3] Party-Recruitment Achievements 80 G =============================================================================== (Page Top) Most of these achievements cannot be missed. You're required to recruit these characters to progress the story. But still, some can be missed. (And I didn't go out of my way to annoy them and pick "I don't want you on the team" conversation options just to confirm them all). The missions to recruit them are not really hard in any way except on Insanity, and doing the game on Insanity is a faq in of itself. Hence I won't spoil the missions unless there's something noteworthy. ----------------------------------------------- The Professor 10 G "Successfully recruit the Professor." ----------------------------------------------- He's likely the first you'll recruit. Once you gain control of the Normandy, you'll have this mission available. It's done on Omega. ----------------------------------------------- The Archangel 10 G "Successfully recruit Archangel." ----------------------------------------------- This is also given to you at the start of the game, and is also done in Omega. Just be sure to keep Archangel alive (you've given his health bar on-screen). When you split up, give him a teammate to help as you're otherwise not given much time to keep him alive. (I'm not positive if his death would result in failure to recruit him or just a game over. Can anyone clarify?) ----------------------------------------------- The Convict 10 G "Successfully recruit the biotic Convict." ----------------------------------------------- I believe this mission is given after you recruit The Professor. Just complete the mission when it's given to you. ----------------------------------------------- The Krogan 10 G "Successfully recruit the krogan." ----------------------------------------------- This should be the last one you get before the Colony Defense mission kicks in. Note, the mission is actually called "Dosier: The Warlord" in your journal. At the end of the mission, the Krogan will be in stasis on your ship. You must wake him up to get the achievement. (I don't believe anything's stopping you from just leaving him in the tube.) Also note that, if this is your last team member to get before the Colony Defense mission, you should wake him up BEFORE you go talk to The Illusive Man as otherwise you will be immediately drawn to the mission. Yeah, you can still wake The Krogran up after that mission of course, but it's a minor annoyance especially if you want the Krogan for that mission. ----------------------------------------------- The Quarian 10 G "Successfully recruit the quarian." ----------------------------------------------- This one should appear right after the Colony Defense mission. ----------------------------------------------- The Assassin 10 G "Successfully recruit the Assassin." ----------------------------------------------- This, too, should appear around the same time, but it might be interrupted by the Ghost Ship mission (which you do immediately when given to you). You can still do this mission after the Ghost Ship mission is done, but I believe you're not required to do it and could skip ahead, missing the opportunity to recruit him. ----------------------------------------------- The Justicar 10 G "Successfully recruit the Justicar." ----------------------------------------------- Like The Assassin, I believe you can skip this by if you choose to progress the main story and ignore this. ----------------------------------------------- Friend or Foe 10 G "Obtain geth technology." ----------------------------------------------- Without giving away spoilers on this, while you're doing the mission to obtain the Reaper IFF, you're given the option to recruit another team member. When you talk to Miranda and Jacob on the ship after the mission, just don't choose to give him to Cerberus or you'll miss out on recruiting him. =============================================================================== [#4] Party-Loyalty Achievements 100 G, +15 DLC =============================================================================== (Page Top) These achievements will first require you to recruit the team mate. After you do so, talk to them as often as you can. They will eventually tell you about a side mission they want resolved, or it'll simply show up in the Missions section of your journal. Typically you'll need to recruit the team member, then complete one or two missions before they'll give you their Loyalty Mission, but in the case of the late recruits, you might be able to get them almost immediately. Completing this mission will cause that teammate to become "loyal" to you... and give you a 'cheev, natch. For each achievement you get, you will have the ability to start your next playthrough with their corresponding skill you'd get from Advanced Training (ie, Warp Ammo from Jack, Barrier from Jacob, Fortification from Grunt, etc). [Thanks again to Jonathon for pointing that out. While I did notice I got this on my second playthrough, I didn't know this was the reason.] Like the Party Recruitment achievements, I won't break down all the missions as they're pretty easy and straightforward. Only the stuff that could blow the achievement is listed. ----------------------------------------------- Revenge! [DLC ACHIEVEMENT] 15 G "Gain the loyalty of the mercenary." ----------------------------------------------- This achievement is part of the DLC pack for Zaeed. Recruiting him is as easy as stepping foot in Omega. Very shortly after, you'll get his Loyalty mission without even having to talk to him (You actually can't converse with him like the other characters....Zaeed just talks with no response from you). Zaeed wants to kill a specific target. However, during the mission, you are given the option to forego pursuit in order to save some civilians. While you can choose to go this route, and still get Zaeed's loyalty despite him failing to kill his target, ituran has advised me you must convience Zaeed with a Persuasion (Paragon) option at the end. He otherwise will blame you for failure and you'll lose his loyalty/achievement. ----------------------------------------------- Ghost of the Father 10 G "Gain the loyalty of the Cerberus Operative." ----------------------------------------------- This is Jacob's loyalty mission. While you're given some choices at the end on how to finish this, Jacob will become loyal either way. ----------------------------------------------- The Prodigal 10 G "Gain the loyalty of the Cerberus Officer." ----------------------------------------------- This is Miranda's loyalty mission. You can't screw this up, either. ----------------------------------------------- The Cure 10 G "Gain the loyalty of the Professor." ----------------------------------------------- Again, while you have a choice to make at the end, the Professor will still be loyal to you at the end no matter what. ----------------------------------------------- Fade Away 10 G "Gain the loyalty of Archangel." ----------------------------------------------- Archangel, too, wants revenge on betrayal. Now, I've seen sources say it's possible to fail this, but I couldn't make it happen. You do have the option to stop Archangel from killing his mark with a Paragon interupt, and then using a Paragon persuasion. This did not affect me gaining his loyalty, and this was on my Renegade walkthrough with very, very little Paragon. Everything else you do will result in Archangel shooting him, gaining you the loyalty/achievement. Hence, if there's a way to fail it I couldn't find it. E-mail me specifics if you find a way. ----------------------------------------------- Catharsis 10 G "Gain the loyalty of the biotic Convict." ----------------------------------------------- Don't worry about missing this, either, based on your choices. ----------------------------------------------- Battlemaster 10 G "Gain the loyalty of the krogan." ----------------------------------------------- You have to go through a proving-style mission for this. Pretty sure it's impossible to blow the achievement/loyalty. I died in the Proving, twice, on my Insanity run, which just gives a typical Game Over. ----------------------------------------------- Treason 10 G "Gain the loyalty of the quarian." ----------------------------------------------- This one IS possible to fail. This one revolves around a trial. The trial will start but will be interrupted. Take this opportunity to thoroughly talk to all 3 of the Admirals running the court, as it may be important later. You'll go through a combat section, during which you'll find evidence that clears the quarian of wrongdoing, but directly blames her father. She, hence, will not want you using this evidence in court. If you use this evidence at the trial, the Quarian will be acquitted but will NOT become faithful to you and you'll lose this achievement. If your Paragon or Renegade is high enough, you can use those options at the trial to win over the judges without the need of the evidence, hence having the Quarian be tried innocent yet gaining loyalty (your best outcome). Otherwise, if you talked to all the admirals, you can rally the crowd about their hidden agendas. This, too, will win the trial and gain the quarian's loyalty. You otherwise have nothing to present. You will lose the trial. However, the Quarian at least will still be loyal to you if you go this route. ----------------------------------------------- Cat's in the Cradle 10 G "Gain the loyalty of the Assassin." ----------------------------------------------- The Assassin's son is trying to kill someone, which the Assassin himself wants you to stop. You can fail this. (thanks Jesse for confirming my suspicion). You first have to trail your mark. Periodically, the Assassin will want you to provide updates on the mark's status, and you have to keep pretty close by to do so. If you can't provide an update on time, you'll lose the mission; his son will go through with the assassination, which blows your chance at getting his loyalty, and the achievement. Eventually you'll confront his son just before the assassination attempt. I actually don't think you can fail at this point. You can intervene with a paragon action to successfully stop him. Belaying that, you'll get a Renegade option to simply kill the mark yourself, which also works as in a roundabout way that does stop his son, after all. There's also an option to disable his son, ie, with a non-fatal shot. This option, too, worked out fine for me (he practically shrugs it off. The drell really are tough). Mind you, that was my Renegade playthrough...maybe I didn't have the necessary Paragon or something. E-mail me if you find a way. ----------------------------------------------- Doppelganger 10 G "Help the Justicar resolve her mission." ----------------------------------------------- A lot of people seem to have issues with this one. The Justicar wants you to find a person, Morinth, so she can kill her. You have to successfully seduce Morinth in a bar, or she'll leave and you'll lose the achievement. Before you even start, be sure to get the note and diary in Diana & Nef's apartment, which explains Morinth likes the drug Hallex, the elcor artist Forta, and planet Vaenia. Very important points. Definitely talk to Samara before you enter the bar as she has good pointers: Morinth doesn't care at all about chivalry, righteousness, and pointless violence. She prefers power, confidence, and strength, and justified violence. Talk to the patron (Vij) near the entrance to hear that Morinth likes the band Expel 10. Otherwise, just talk to everyone in the bar. I don't believe what you do actually matters here at all. Just stand up for yourself, convey confidence. It seems every single thing you do, regardless, results in just that though, hence you should be fine no matter what you do. After enough little encounters, Morinth should approach you for conversation. In the conversation, talk about your wildcards. Speak Music, and favour Expel 10. Mention Hallex. Talk Art and favour the elcor Forta. Mention Vaenia. Finally, talk Travel and mention about the danger, and power being its own reward. In general, just pick a subject and always choose the lower-left option. That should be enough for her to take you back to her apartment. Talk with Morinth in her apartment. She'll ultimately asks if you'll kill for her. If you go with the Persuade/Intimidate option here, you'll have the ability to side with Morinth or Samara (if you don't, Samara will simply win). I've heard reports that say it doesn't matter who you side with as each will get the achievement....but have also heard the opposite. While I already have the achievement and can't confirm, I believe siding with Morinth would get it based on the Mission Summary you get at the end (which is the same no matter who you choose). ----------------------------------------------- A House Divided 10 G "Hack a geth collective." ----------------------------------------------- This is actually Legion's loyalty mission, if you chose to recruit him in the Reaper IFF mission. It's given to you immediately after recruiting, since by this point you're at the end of the game. Your choice at the end shouldn't matter here; I've done both options and both resulted in his loyalty. =============================================================================== [#5] Combat-Based Achievements 100 G =============================================================================== (Page Top) These achievements revolve around actions performed in combat. If you need targets that don't have armor/barriers/shields so you can just grind for your achievements, a good place is on the assignment "N7: Wrecked Merchant Freighter". (But take note, I only know they don't have armor/shields on Casual, and know for sure they're protected on Insanity. So if you're grinding for achievements you may want to just set the difficulty to Casual to guarantee they're unarmored.) Head to the Eagle Nebula, then the Amun system, and scan Neith. When you land and deactivate the distress beacon, wave after wave of wimpy mechs will come after you (and a heavy mech, but just take that out first). Only a few come at a time, and since they're so weak, it's the perfect target to get some of the grind achievements like Head Hunter, Brawler, or Tactician. I'm not sure an infinite number come or not, but suffice to say it's enough. With the 3 "Specialist" achievements, that have you use techs to shred away Armor, Shields, or Barriers, you do NOT need to have those skills on your character. ie, you can be a Soldier, and still get all three achievements. To do so, you simply need to have teammates in your party that do have the required ability. Specifically tell them to use their ability (through your left d-pad/right d-pad shortcut, or by selecting it on the radial menu). If it successfully removes the armor/shield/barrier, it counts towards the achievement. Note if your squad mates use their powers freely and they do it on their own, it DOES NOT count towards the achievement. ----------------------------------------------- Head Hunter 10 G "Perform 30 headshot kills with any weapon on humanoid targets." ----------------------------------------------- This is incredibly easy, and one I wouldn't even bother boosting; you're likely to get this simply playing through the game, especially if you're a class that uses sniper rifles. Enemies lose a lot of health from headshots, especially on Casual, so you should always aim for the head anyway. I got this achievement before I even recruited one teammate. Yes, killing a Mech with a headshot counts. ----------------------------------------------- Merciless 10 G "Make 20 enemies scream as they fall or are set on fire." ----------------------------------------------- Far easier than it sounds, especially if you have Incendiary Ammo or the Incinerate tech. All you have to do is hit a non-machine target that's down to just base health (ie, no armor, shields, or barrier left). They will always scream. If you have Incendiary Ammo, you'll likely get this one very, very early on without even trying. ----------------------------------------------- Brawler 10 G "Shoot and kill 20 enemies while they're knocked back by a punch." ----------------------------------------------- This one is kinda a pain to get. You need to get up to an enemy, hit it with a melee attack (B button), then shoot AND kill it while it is stumbling back. You can use any gun, even assault rifles, for this as it doesn't need to be a one-shot kill. But you do have to kill them while they're stumbling, hence Shotguns are your best bet if you can use them. And clearly, you should remove all protection first (shield/armor/barrier). Your chances of killing a protected enemy that quickly is unlikely to say the least. (But perhaps not impossible.) This is no Mass Effect 1. You can't just run up to a wave of enemies for a melee and expect to survive. You can usually survive fine doing this against just one enemy, but otherwise, forget it. Only do this when you're down to the last enemy or 2. And save yourself grief and don't try this on Insanity. I personally grinded away at on the N7: Wrecked Merchant Freighter mission (Eagle Nebula - Amun - Neith). The mechs that come are unarmored and weak (on Casual at least), and a lot of them come, but in very small waves so you don't get overwhelmed. Another good place you can try is any mission that involves Husks, like on Horizon and especially when getting the Reaper IFF. On that mission, there are tons of them, and an infinite number will come at you when you're destroying the core. They're unarmored on Casual, and they only have melee attacks, so you can just wait and club them as they're running towards you. ----------------------------------------------- Master at Arms 15 G "Kill enemies with 5 different heavy weapons during the game." ----------------------------------------------- Easy. Just research any of the new heavy weapons you have the opportunity to, then take them for a spin. There are only 5 heavy weapons in the base game, but they're easy to find: - M-100 Grenade Launcher (You find it on the very first mission) - ML-77 Missile Launcher (Research) - M-622 Avalanche (Research) - Collector Particle Beam (Find on Horizon) - M-920 Cain (Research) Just research all the Heavy Weapon ammo's whenever you can to unlock the research for the heavy weapons themselves. There's one DLC heavy weapon as well: M-451 Firestorm [in the Zaeed DLC]: You find this on Zaeed's loyalty mission And if you happened to have preordered you game from select retailers then you may also have a bonus heavy weapon, the M-490 Blackstorm Projector. But neither of those are required for the achievement. ----------------------------------------------- Overload Specialist 15 G "Disrupt the shields of 25 enemies." ----------------------------------------------- See the note above about Specialists. You have to actually nullify a shield with Overload, not just hit it, to count. Specifically ordering a squad mate (like Miranda) to do it will also count, but it will not count if they do it on their own. Shields are pretty common. Bosses and tough enemies almost always have it, as do any Blue Suns you meet, and most of the low-ranking Eclipse mercs. Hence, really, most of the enemies you face. So just take the time to nullify all shields you meet with Overload and you'll get this fairly easily. Even though I started grinding for these achievements, I found myself using them throughout the whole game after, as they're an excellent way to remove defenses while saving precious ammo. ----------------------------------------------- Incineration Specialist 15 G "Incinerate the armor of 25 enemies." ----------------------------------------------- See the note above about Specialists. You have to actually destroy armor with Incinerate, not just hit it, to count. Specifically ordering a squad mate (like Mordin) to do it will also count, but it will not count if they do it on their own. Bosses and tough enemies almost always have armor, as do some machine-only enemies like the Scions. The Krogan and Blood Pack will be your common enemies that always have armor. They're not overly common enemies, so try to get this when you can. Still, you should have enough armor sources to not need to panic about this. And if you're on an Insanity run, the Husks are armored too, and very weakly. They're a good source for this. ----------------------------------------------- Warp Specialist 15 G "Warp the barriers of 25 enemies." ----------------------------------------------- See the note above about Specialists. You have to actually nullify barriers with Warp, not just hit it, to count. Specifically ordering a squad mate (like Miranda) to do it will also count, but it will not count if they do it on their own. Barriers are the rarest of the defenses. Only some of the Eclipse mercs carry it, and they're already not a common foe. The Harbinger and some of the Collectors do as well, but you only meet them on a few main missions. I'd say try to get this one every chance you get, as you never know how many barriers your buddies are going to deal with before you Warp them yourself. So long as you take a bit of an effort to get this, you should be able to without worry. If you absolutely just can't foresee getting it, note this achievement (and all others, actually) save separate from your save file. You can always find a spot with a ton of barriered enemies, hit them with Warp, then reload. Your count won't be lost. ----------------------------------------------- Tactician 10 G "Hit 20 different targets with multiple biotic powers to combine the effects." ----------------------------------------------- This is actually easy to do, too. Again, like the Specialist achievements, you have to order your squad to do it; they can't do it on their own. But it makes it easy to do even if you're not at all a biotic. Going into the Options, and turning off the Squad Power Usage feature helps, as having your teammates using powers on their own can screw up your dynamic. Lots of combinations work, but my favourite is Pull (Jacob) and Warp (Miranda), especially since you have both characters at the start of the game. Just remember Pull won't work unless the enemy has no barrier/armor/shield, but after that, using Pull brings them to you, and you can easily Warp the defenseless enemy for an almost guaranteed kill on Casual. (Not that you have to kill them for it to count towards the achievement.) As for possible combinations, I'm not sure if you can start with anything but Pull, but there should be no reason not to: the enemies will be wide open for the next attack. Pull/Throw and Pull/Slam will work too. =============================================================================== [#6] Completion-Style Achievements 330 G =============================================================================== (Page Top) This is really just the section for everything else. Stuff you'd get by being thorough, and a lot of things that you're going to get without trying. ----------------------------------------------- Fashionista 5 G "Personalize your armor in your quarters on the Normandy." ----------------------------------------------- Easy as it sounds. Use your Armor console in the personal quarters of the Normandy, change anything at all about your armor and bam, cheev. ----------------------------------------------- Highly Trained 15 G "View all advanced combat training videos at Shepard's private terminal." ----------------------------------------------- Very easy. Once you're on the Normandy, use your personal terminal and watch all 3 "Advanced Combat Training" movies. That's it. ----------------------------------------------- Scientist 10 G "Complete any research project in the Normandy's laboratory." ----------------------------------------------- You'll need to recruit Mordin first. After that, use the research terminal on the Normandy to make ANYTHING and there you go. ----------------------------------------------- Scholar 15 G "Unlock 15 new Mass Effect 2 codex entries." ----------------------------------------------- This isn't like Mass Effect 1 at all. There are far, far more codex entries than 15 to be had. Just talk to people, Investigate anything you get the chance to, and you will have this very, very early on. ----------------------------------------------- Technician 15 G "Obtain 10 technology upgrades." ----------------------------------------------- You just need to get 10 upgrades, either through purchasing them, or researching them. That's stuff like Heavy Weapon Ammo, or Assault Rifle Damage. There's far more than 10 to be had in the game so you'll get this one, too, really early on. ----------------------------------------------- Prospector 5 G "Retrieve mineral resources by scanning and probing a planet in the galaxy map." ----------------------------------------------- Ah the infamous planet scanning. Just approach almost any planet, start the scanner with Y, hold LT until you find a mineral deposit, launch a probe with RT, and you get the achievement. (Then repeat a hundred times ad nauseum to afford your research projects. Seriously, Bioware, this is better than the Mako?) ----------------------------------------------- Operative 15 G "Complete a mission discovered by scanning an unexplored world." ----------------------------------------------- When you're exploring the planets of the galaxy, and you hit Y to bring up the scanner, you'll sometimes have EDI (your ship's computer) announce an anomaly on the planet. Use the scanner to pinpoint the source of the anomaly, launch a probe, and you can now land on the planet and do a side quest. Finish any such quest for the achievement. ----------------------------------------------- Agent 50 G "Complete 5 missions discovered by scanning unexplored worlds." ----------------------------------------------- Just like "Operative" above, only you have to finish 5 such missions. There are plenty more than this. Simply take the time to visit all the planets you can, pop open the scanner to see if there's an anomaly, and if not, leave. Usually there's one such mission in each Nebula/Cluster you head to (but not always...some have two, and some none). I'm not positive, but I believe the assignments you get after completing such missions (ie, you get "N7: Abandoned Research Station" after finishing "N7: Wrecked Merchant Freighter") also count towards the achievement. Not that it matters if they don't as there's still plenty you can do. ----------------------------------------------- Explorer 10 G "Visit 100% of the planets in an unexplored cluster." ----------------------------------------------- Very easy, can be done in the Omega Nebula. Just fly to all the planets and objects (like space stations) in a system, and hit A to enter orbit to get some info about it. Once you hit all the planets/objects in a system, the map will give you a 100% indicator in the corner. Now just fly to the green border of the system to hit the Nebula level, and you can fly to other systems in the cluster. Hence, just keep hitting planets in each system. While you're at the Nebula level, you'll get a % progress indicator for all planets in the entire cluster. Hence, get that to 100% and you've got this achievement. ----------------------------------------------- Power Full 15 G "Evolve any power." ----------------------------------------------- Just get absolutely any skill, no matter what it is or does, to level 4. Easy. This will take up to 10 skill points to do (obviously the powers you start with only need 9 total), but you should still get it with relative ease even if it's later on in the game. Once you unlock level 4, choose one of two modifications for that power, and the achievement is yours. ----------------------------------------------- Weapon Specialist 15 G "Fully upgrade a weapon." ----------------------------------------------- Weapons have 7 upgrades possible. 5 will be Damage-based, and the other two will vary based on the weapon. For example, the Shotgun also has Shotgun Extra Rounds, and Shotgun Shield Piercing. The Sniper Rifle has Sniper Headshot Damage and Sniper Rifle Penetration. (etc.) Some upgrades can be bought, others are found and researched. Typically, the 2 extra ones that aren't damaged based you'll get automatically at the research terminal once you have the damage-based ones, but not always. Be sure to hunt for them on every mission/assignment you do. Obtain all 7 on any weapon and you've got the achievement. This shouldn't be hard at all to do, as you only have to fully upgrade 1 of the 4 weapons. But it is time consuming, as you're only going to get the last upgrades to your guns very late in the game. ----------------------------------------------- Power Gamer 10 G "Reach Level 30 with one character" ----------------------------------------------- Level 30 is tough to reach, even with a character imported from Mass Effect 1. Trying to do absolutely everything I could, I only got level 30 while I was on the suicide mission. Unlike ME1, you only get experience for finishing assignments and missions. NOTHING else counts, including finding codex entries or even killing enemies. But on the flipside, every single level only takes 1000 xp to level to the next, and you get 1000 for each major mission. The loyalty missions give 750, and most assignments give 125 XP (some really minor ones only give 40). If you don't get it on one playthrough, don't worry, as the Mission Accomplished achievement gives you a 25% bonus on all experienced gained in future playthroughs. Hence there should be no problem hitting level 30 on your second playthrough. ----------------------------------------------- Long Service Medal 75 G "Complete Mass Effect 2 twice, or complete it once with a character imported from Mass Effect 1" ----------------------------------------------- It's as easy as it sounds. People new to Mass Effect 2 should do two playthroughs anyway: Casual and Insanity. Or hell, just so that they can play as a Paragon and again as a Renegade to see what happens. But of course, if you played Mass Effect 1, there's no reason not to import your character so you keep all the choices you made, get perks like money, minerals, and a higher starting level, and obviously to get this 75 gamerscore bonus for finishing the game only once. Getting this achievement will also give you a nice starting bonus on your next playthrough: 200,000 additional credits, and 50,000 units of the 4 research elements. (Thanks again, Maniacpoodle, for the reminder). ----------------------------------------------- Insanity 75 G "Complete the game on the "Insanity" difficulty level without changing the setting" ----------------------------------------------- In a sea of very easy achievements to get, this one stands out as being just maddeningly hard. This is not at all like the Insanity run through of Mass Effect 1. This time, insanity really really is insanity. You take a lot more damage, shields take longer to recover and recover much slower, enemies have a lot more health, and every single enemy has some sort of protection (ie, shield/armor/barrier). Without constant intervention, your teammates will be dying monkies. And if you so much as pop out of cover unshielded, even for the minimum amount of time possible, you can die. I'm going to say this right up-front: You have to really, really want this one. The game is, quite simply, not fun on Insanity. It's annoying. It's unfair. It is not for the faint of heart, and absolutely not for those prone to rage. It easily reaches controller-throwing levels of frustration. Times where you order your squad mates to cover and they charge at the pile of enemies instead. Or times where they desperately need to cover to restore health, and instead pop out of cover to die. You'll order Shepherd to go into cover and he'll just stand there and die. And, well, places with infinite enemies, Harbinger, Praetorian, and the Geth Collosus are...anger inducing. It screams of "unfair". Really, for anyone who's beaten a Call of Duty on Veteran, this actually will feel rather similar. The phrase "You will not survive" is familiar. You're going to need practice, preparation, and a hell of a lot of patience. Getting this achievement really needs its own complete FAQ. But I'll list what I've done to get it. I'll provide tips, and advise on the really hard sections of the game. Of course, these are just my opinions and what I personally did to win. You may play through differently, disagree on some points, and that's fine. There's more than one way to get this. I'm sure every combination could. What's below is simply mine. And yes I did get it. In hindsight I'm not sure it was really worth it, but I'm a real sucker for getting 100%. Now get ready for a wall of words. You may think this is broken down needlessly, but if you think that you probably haven't tried Insanity yet. ** TIPS AND TECHNIQUES BEFORE YOU START ** Before you even start choosing your class and squad mates, you should know some specifics of Insanity mode that can affect your choices. - DO A NORMAL PLAYTHROUGH FIRST! I just can't stress that enough. Just don't go through the game for the first time on Insanity. You're just asking for even more rage than is already provided. You really, really should know what's coming or you could be hosed. Walking into a tough boss fight with no ammo or supplies, or completely the wrong team mates. You need to get used to the new system before you try this. And you absolutely want all the perks that finishing a game gets: bonus money, an advanced tech right at the start, minerals, and the +25% XP bonus. - ALL ENEMIES ARE PROTECTED. Everyone has at least a barrier, shield, or armor. The tougher enemies can actually recover their protection if you leave them alone for long enough. - AMMO IS PRECIOUS. Especially early on in the game, you more than have the ability to drain your ammo, and you never, ever want to run out of ammo in the middle of a firefight. Typically the game tends to throw you what you need at the end of a fight, but not always. Don't rely on it. This restriction will lessen a little later on in the game, when your weapons start doing more damage, and you start getting better guns. But because all enemies are protected, you might want to lay off using your guns for everything. Personally I only use guns when enemies are down to very little protection or base health only. And no, guns are hardly useless on insanity. They still do great damage. It's just the ammo restrition. A sniper shot to the head of an unproteted enemy will be very close to an instant kill, and almost always will be when your gun is upgraded. It can even instant-kill some protected enemies late in the game. Just choose your shots wisely. - YOU NEED SKILLS TO HIT PROTECTION. This is the logical conclusion of both points above. Ammo is precious, all enemies have protection, so you need something else to damage that protection. You should have access to ideally 2 different ways to hit barriers, armor, and shields. That way, if someone dies you can still deal with it, and if both are alive, you can deal with it faster. - YOUR TEAM MATES HAVE NO REGARD FOR THEIR WELLBEING. If they are inches away from death, they will still pop out of cover to try shooting enemies. If they are being flanked, they will not do anything about it. They will run into the middle of firefights. They are dying monkies. Your best bet, almost everywhere throughout the game, is to always, always order your squad mates into cover (with the left and right D-pad options). When ordered to cover, they will STAY there. While this may mean they can't shoot at some enemies, they'll at least typically stay alive. They will leave cover if you leave them too far back, and they won't move even if an enemy is flanking them. Hence, you have to be ready to regularly order them to new cover. Really, your team mates are just there for you to use their skills. Don't rely on them to shoot enemies. They can, and it's great when they do, but that ability is lessened on Insanity as the cost is typically they'll die. Be ready to do most of the killing yourself. And the nice thing about leaving them in cover is your squad mates DO NOT need a direct line-of-sight to use their skills. Even if they're well back, so long as you can see the enemy you can still use their powers. But note, later in the game they'll be a high enough level and have enough upgrades that you won't need to do this as often. But you really have to hold their hand through the first half. - MED-KITS GIVE JUST 1 MEDI-GEL. A minor point, but worth noting. On casual, you typically get 2 medi-gels from a medical station or med kit. Well, it's only 1 on casual. And don't forget reviving both team mates at once still requires 2 medi-gels. So I guess what I'm saying here is it's usually better to leave a dead team mate dead. Only revive them in tense situations and boss fights. Otherwise, wait it out until the end of the fight for them to get up on their own. Best to save the medi-gel for when you really, really need it. - BIOTICS THAT DON'T HIT PROTECTION ARE QUESTIONABLE. That would be skills like Pull, Throw, or Slam. I find them useless. They don't work through protection, and while they do damage protection, the skills designed to damage protection do a far better job of it. And when an enemy is down to base health, why not just shoot him? But again, that's the way *I* play, YMMV. - KROGAN AND VORCHA REGENERATE HEALTH. Vorcha especially, they're insane. Enough they can recover most health when you're reloading, and you can hardly stay out of cover shooting for long. Don't even bother shooting them if you can't outright kill them. What you really need against these foes is a skill that stops health regeneration. Warp and Incinerate do just that. - ENEMIES ARE TOUGH AS THEY CAN GET AT THE START OF THE GAME AND GET NO WORSE. This isn't really advice you can directly use or anything but still worth noting for one reason. The game has a tremendous difficulty level through most of the game, but you eventually get stronger where the enemies do not. Hence, believe it or not, the end of the game is NOT the hardest part. If you're dead set on getting this achievement, just know if you stick with it the pain does lessen. ** CHOICES ** - CLASS SELECTION: There's no one way to get this, but personally I'd go with the Infiltrator class. Sniper rifles are still ultra powerful, and the strongest sniper rifle can still headshot kill most enemies in a single shot. You also get a nice slowdown when you zoom down the sniper rifle scope, which is very, very handy in the many intense firefights you'll be in. You get access to Incinerate, perfect for anti-armor and for taking out unprotected enemies. Hence, it's really good against pretty much everyone. The cooldown is quite short when you get levelled up. You also get Disruptor Ammo for Anti-Shields, and anti-machines. You unfortunately have nothing specific for barriers but your teammates can help you there. AI-Hacking is sorta a utility that you by no means need to depend on, but can be handy. Especially in missions against the geth, which are rather tough. And what might be the best is the Cloak ability, the ability to briefly disappear. This not only increases you damage, but gives you much needed breathing room. It can absolutely be a life saver. Of course, you can pick whatever you want. The Infiltrator works very well if you want to get this cautiously. Pick whatever best suits your playstyle. - ADVANCED TRAINING: There's a lot of choice to go with on your advanced- training skill and will matter greatly on what class you took. You can't go wrong with Barrier, as it's the ultimate panic button that can save you in a tight spot. But as an Infiltrator, you kinda have that covered with the Cloak ability. Mind you, Barrier does give you the ability to survive a little longer while still being able to shoot. If you Cloak, you really have to run or you'll decloak...and there isn't always somewhere to run to. Personally I like Warp Ammo. It fills a gap in your ability to hit Barriers, it's great against Armor, and even good against unarmored. And it's also passive, meaning it won't affect the usage of your other powers. - TEAM SELECTION: Again, this varies totally on your character. You have to choose teammates that fill the gaps. Really, what you ideally want is powers that can destroy barriers, armor, and shields. Everything else just doesn't matter. (Though they all have uses, like AI Hacking, you have to focus on what will be used the most.) And don't forget to have a skill that deals with Health Regeneration, as the Krogan and Vorcha otherwise will be a massive pain to kill. Hence, with our Infiltrator build above, we can deal with anything through Disruptor Ammo, Incinerate, and Warp Ammo. But it's best we have techs that don't require ammo to use. That would be Overload and Warp. So I choose Miranda first. She has both Overload and Warp. Slam is mostly useless, I found. It does have very fast cooldown, but that usually doesn't matter. Only place I found it really useful was when being swarmed by Husks. Nice thing about it is you can easily get all her other techs to level 4 and just ignore Slam. Plus, her Cerberus Officer ability gives squad health and weapon damage bonuses. She's a great support character. For my second, I chose Garrus. He, too, has Overload. Concussive Shot actually does good damage to Barriers though it doesn't say so. Armor Piercing Ammo is just okay, but kinda moot if you go with Squad Warp Ammo. Hence, we've got two skills each that can be used on Barriers and Shields, and your own Incinerate for Armor. Since it's your own tech, the cooldown on it is far shorter than on your teammates. Again, you can choose teammates as you see fit, as all characters have their pros and cons. I found this worked the best for me. - WEAPON BONUS vs WEAPON TRAINING: On the Collector ship, you're given a choice. If you can use Assault Rifles, Shotguns, or Sniper Rifles, you have the choice to pick a really-powerful version of that gun. If you don't, you can train in that class of weapon. Hence, with the Infiltrator build, you can gain the ability to use Assault Rifles, gain the ability to use Shotguns, or get a really powerful Sniper Rifle. Personally I think the sniper rifle is totally the way to go. I don't care much for the Viper; it fires a lot slower and does a lot less damage. This isn't a game where you want to be out of cover long, and with the Cloak's damage bonus, clearly you want that multiplied by a powerful shot. With the Widow, and a lvl4 cloak, you can kill most enemies, even some shielded ones, in a single hit. And I certainly don't see the point to using shotguns with a build like this. And once you get the Tempest Submachine gun, there's not much point to the other assault rifles in my opinion. Certainly Assault Rifles are better, but not worth turning down the Widow Sniper Rifle. ** OTHER STRATEGIES ** Ok, so you've made your choices, I'll finish off with some tips on playing through. - COMPLETE ALL MISSIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS. Levelling up is good. Unlike ME1, you really notice yourself getting stronger as you level up. Hence, experience is good. Plus, finishing quests is the only way to get money, which you'll need to purchase the rather expensive upgrades. - RESEARCH WHAT YOU NEED ASAP. Of course it goes without saying to research the stuff you'll use, even if you're not sure it'll matter much, like improving Shepard's melee damage. And the stuff you directly use you should get the moment you can. But if you know you won't need it, just don't get it. Face it, not only is planet scanning a massive pain, it also costs money to do. So if you know you're not going to use the Missile Launcher, don't research it. And save the massive 50,000 platinum required for the Medi-Bay. - ONLY PLANET SCAN THE RICH PLANETS. There's a great Planet FAQ on Gamefaqs that tells you which planets are Rich in minerals. Only scan these, and only launch your probes at the largest spikes. While it clearly saves money, more than anything it saves time as well as your sanity. God is planet scanning boring. Really, you can get all the minerals you need from just hitting the huge spikes on Rich worlds. - >>> BE AS CHEAP AS POSSIBLE <<<. I can't stress that enough. It's not like the game has any feelings, and Holy crap is the game ever cheap to you. Enemies have the privilege of infinte ammo, and in some cases, infinite more enemies. Far too many enemies can happily stand out of cover, slowly walk up to you, and kill you...where meanwhile you blip out of cover and you die. Oh, and nothing beats franctically trying to kill a Collector, bringing it down to a sliver of health, and watching Harbinger take it over at that second back to full health and barrier. Insert swearing here. So don't feel ashamed to stay in cover and just fire Incinerate after Incincerate at them. Herd enemies to a door and bring them through one at a time to kill them. Order your team into cover well into safety and just use their squad powers over and over. Try to find spots you can hit the enemy and they can't hit you. - SAVE EVERY CHANCE YOU GET. You can't save in a fight, hence every time you can save it is safe to do so. And DO SO. You stand a chance of dying in every single fight. And while Auto-Save is pretty good, it will not always save each chance it can. Plus, you might actually want to keep multiple saves just incase you get caught with low ammo or something. - LET ENEMIES COME TO YOU. Obviously, if enemies stay where they are you won't have any problems. You'll be playing cheap and using your skills over and over to kill them where they stand. It's the ones that come out of cover and run for you that you, ironically, have to worry about. These are the toughest sections of the game. And in these situations, it's best to be as far back as possible and just let them come to you. They'll typically do so one at a time, giving you time to kill them then recover before the next gets there. A specific example, on the Collector ship, the moment you have the Husks start to swarm you, just run. Run far back. You can then carefully deal with each from a distance while they come to you. Or, while on Legion's loyalty mission, in the 3rd security room with all those damn Geth Hunters, rather than take the fight to them and get swarmed, stand upstairs and trip the alarm. Let them come to you. You can't get swarmed that way. And, finally, here's some specific tips to tough sections of the game. - SCREW HARBINGER. Seriously, screw him. He's probably the most annoying enemy you'll face. His ability to push you out of cover will typically result in your death, as you're wide open to his other ridiculous powers and all the other enemies shooting at you...and you're stunned so you can't do anything about it. I wish I had a good strategy against him, but alas I simply don't. I just hope I find the magic spot where his pushback attack fails to push me out of cover, and hope to hell he doesn't approach. If he does, again, you'll likely die. He has far far too much health for you to stand that chance. All I can say is just use your skills and unload into him...screw worrying about ammo. Hit the barrier quick with Warp and Concussive Shot, and unload your SMG. You stand a better chance when he's down to Armor, as Incinerate does a lot of damage to the armor, as does the M-6 Carnfiex heavy pistol. So if you can quickly get that barrier down you hopefully should be ok. But I can at least say, painful as he is to face through most of the game, he doesn't get any tougher by the end while you do. He's not as annoying on the Suicide Mission, as by that point you are much stronger and can adequately take him down. - PRAETORIAN: This is the wonderful boss fight at the end of Horizon. The cheap bastard has the ability to recover its barrier whenever it gets close to you. Hence, to stand a chance of survival, you're going to be running, a lot. This is one instance where you SHOULDN'T have your team in cover. If they stay in cover, Praetorian will swoop down on them and kill them. A minor annoyance considering dying is what your team mates do, but the fact its barrier recovers is the real annoyance. Without being in cover, your team mates will generally keep their distance. And thankfully (or unthankfully), Praetorian otherwise only cares about you. He'll swoop to the ground only if he's near a teammate. He otherwise only shoots at you and only flies towards you. So from the start, take out those husks ASAP. They're an annoyance you just do not want to deal with. I find I didn't use much ammo against Praetorian, so I used my Sniper Rifle against the Husks. Even with full armor, a shot to the LEGS of the husks is an instant kill. With the Husks dealt with, you can then focus on Praetorian. All I can say is to run, first. Have your team mates use their anti-barrier/ anti-armor abilities the second they can, while you just focus on running to cover. DO NOT let him get close to you. You don't want him recovering his barrier (he will do that on his own throughout the fight, so don't add to it). And you can't stay out of cover long, as his shocking attack will quickly kill you. You really have to focus on keeping your distance. If you've got distance, go ahead and fire a few rounds (remember, rapid-fire weapons for barrier, and slow weapons for armor) or use a tech, but personally I prefer saving my tech for a panic usage (like an emergency Barrier or Cloak) and let my team mates do the majority of the damage. The area by the console has a high enough wall that Praetorian can't shoot through it. Hence, you can constantly keep him on the other side of this, and he can't shoot you even though you're not in cover. But it's risky...if he does get a shot at you you have no where to go. Plus, you can't easily hit him either. You have to at least get a brief sight of him to use a tech. But I found that this did help me. - GETH COLOSSUS: In Tali's recruitment mission you face a geth colossus, oh and if you're lucky, an infinite wave of Geth. Fortunately if you know the trick this isn't that bad to do, otherwise it's almost impossible. Start off ignoring the colossus. Don't worry about how much health it has or doesn't have (though clearly keep one eye on those projectiles it fires at you so you don't get hit). Stay where you are at the start and kill all the geth in front of you (order your team into cover right there quick, or they'll likely run ahead and get flanked). A few might come, and you'll find a couple around the corner to the left as well as up the ramp to the right. They should eventually stop coming. Then, order your team up the ramp on the right. Order them to cover in the shade. You'll have another large wave of geth, so kill them, and it should eventually stop. Now, run forward to the area that has a ramp leading back down to the left (don't go down it). At this point you might get a few more geth to spawn, and it's important to take them down here or they will flank you and your teammates. Finally, press forward to the end of this walkway, and you can turn left to face the colossus. The Geth should completely stop coming, and from here the Colossus won't regenerate its shields. Take it down in any way you see fit. Personally I prefer with lots of name calling and swearing. Whatever you do, DO NOT take the Left path. The geth WILL NOT stop coming. And it's not like an occassional one here or there, it's a whole wave of them, including Destroyers. You won't at all have time to damage the Colossus, and the Colossus will still regenerate! Only pick this path if you've given up on ever being happy ever again. - THE COLLECTOR SHIP: I had so much problems at the section of the game where you first grant EDI access to the ship. Tiny, tiny area with very little cover, and the joys of 3 Harbingers (at least), and 2 Scions. This part SUCKED. I personally believe it was the single hardest part of the entire Insanity run. From my memory, the platform sorta crudely looks like this: --- --- / 3 1 \ | --- | | / 2 \ | | X Y | \ / ------------- I found my team mates died really, really easily here, and the best way to keep them alive was ordering one to cover in position 1, and the other to cover in position 2. Then you take cover at position X. The first wave of enemies is going to come from the right, so it's important you have the teammate at 1, not 3, as he can be flanked at position 3. A platform will fly in to the right with 3 collectors. Ignore them, but order your team mates to attack them so their focus isn't on you. Instead, you focus on the Scion that's flying around. He too easily has the ability to kill you and your team mates, so you should take him out first, even if Harbinger takes control of a Collector which he will. Use your Incinerate tech and your sniper rifle (hope you got the s-98 Widow when you had the chance). You should be able to kill the Scion before Harbinger does serious damage...hopefully. There is an element of luck. With the scion dead, obviously turn your focus to Harbinger. From your position at X, his knockback attack will hopefully miss. There's a lot of space between you and him. But it's not a guarantee, if he gets close enough. Just unload into him. I find the M-6 Carnifex pistol actually does a lot of damage to his armor, so use that. When you're down to one enemy left, the next platform will fly in to the left. Try to take out that last enemy before the platform gets there, though it is really tough to do. More important that you revive dead team mates now, order whoever was in position 1 to now go to position 3, and you yourself take cover at position Y. You'll face off another 3 Collectors, and Harbinger again will take one of them. Though another Scion will appear at this point, he will be too far from you to fire if you stay on this first platform. Hence, you hopefully should maintain enough control to kill Harbinger this time around. Really, the first platform is the really tough one. Beyond this point it's fairly simple. When the enemies are all dead and only the Scion is left, move only a little bit closer to just get a target on him without him firing on you, and launch a ton of Incinerates at him until he DIES. Remember what I said about being cheap? God, when you've reloaded this section for the 15th time it just feels good. - PRAETORIAN....AGAIN: You get the joy of fighting him a second bloody time also on the Collector ship, only now with far less space and cover. This, too, gave me great troubles until I found a good way to survive. All the strategies for the first Praetorian still apply, like DON'T order your team to cover. First, turn off Squad Power Usage if you have it on (personally, I just don't have it on, but it's up to you how much you like to micro manage.) Stay on the high ground. The moment EDI opens that door, use your sniper rifle and take out the two Husks coming through the door. Save your team's powers for the moment, as soon a couple Collectors will come for you. This is where you want to use their powers to take out their barriers, then use a Sniper shot to kill them. ie, kill the colletors ASAP. There will be another Husk that comes through the door, too, so be ready to take him out before he gets close. If you were quick with all that, the Praetorian will likely be just reaching you by this point. Just do the same thing you did before: use your squad powers to take it down. Keep the praetorian running around and around the area you start. Just lead him down the ramp, around, and back up the other ramp in a circle. So long as you're focusing on keeping your distance from him, you should have time to get to cover. Plus, there's a lot of obstacles up on the high ground that he can't shoot through, but you can. Once you know this trick, this fight actually isn't as bad as the first one, but really, running anywhere else will run you into a corner, which is as good as death. - TALI's LOYALTY MISSION: There was only one part to give me troubles on this, and it was in a very tiny room that has a ramp leading down. The geth come from below, as well as a flanking position to the left that you can't get through. The geth WILL charge you here, and because there's just so many of them and they're all shielded, it is incredibly hard to keep control, even with two sets of AI Hacking. What worked for me is to order your squad mates to take cover in that small room before the ramp. Walk in only far enough to spawn the enemies, then you too run to the room. The geth will slowly climb the ramp and crawl into the room. You should be strong enough to easily take out individual ones in seconds. To help, just use AI Hacking when it's down to base health, and kill it anyway. - LEGION's LOYALTY MISSION: I seriously recommend you just don't freaking do it. You hopefully already have his Loyalty Achievement and the No One Left Behind achievement, hence really his loyalty just doesn't matter, and by this point you probably don't need the money or XP this mission provides. But if you do, there are two tough parts. First is the 3rd of the Geth Security rooms (with the green security fields on the ground). Because there's quite a few hunters here and you don't want to be swarmed by them, it's best to just set off the alarm the moment you enter the room. They have a long path to get up to where you are, and should be able to easily deal with them as they slowly come for you. The much worse part is when you are readying the hack. Swarms of geth come for you with no save in between. Pretty sure I got this by luck on my third try. The turrets sadly do little, but you might as well activate them because, if anything, it's a temporary distraction. Try to get the shields removed from geth ASAP so you can use either your own AI Hacking or Tali's AI Hacking on them. If you can hit them when they're still below, hopefully a bunch of the geth will stop focusing on you and hit it. Likely some won't, though. Stay in cover very close to one of the two ramps. The moment enemies start walking up the ramp you're by, just unload into them. Kill them ASAP. Don't worry about the other ramp at all. It's more important you don't get caught from behind. Don't forget about AI Hacking: you can use it to get free shots on an enemy if anything. And obviously once they're dead, you can turn your focus to the enemies coming up the other ramp, which shouldn't be too hard. Really, the tough part is just getting the enemies on that first ramp killed ASAP. The rest isn't so bad. But you do have to survive 3 waves without saving, and it's still annoying. - ENDGAME: Believe it or not, the entire end game sequence was a cakewalk for me, in comparison to the rest of the game at least. I would have thought for sure getting those valves opened for the tech expert would blow. But you're pretty strong by this point: Harbinger doesn't talk what he used to to kill him. Plus, you can save between every valve. It's not that hard. There is a tougher section when you're with the Biotic. You're thrown a ton of Husks and a Scion within a very, very tiny space with almost no cover, and the Scion absolutely comes for you. Luck helps. Just try and kill those damn Husks ASAP or they'll otherwise swam you. Then use your trusty Carnifex for some excellent damage against the Scion. You can't really run much, so try and save your skill usage for an emergency Cloak or Barrier as he'll likely be right on top of you when you kill him. Finally the boss battle. It's almost not worth talking about, believe it or not. Use the trusty Cain to deal solid damage, even if you don't happen to nail the weak spot bang-on. With all the ammo upgrades, you only need to pick up one Heavy Weapon Ammo before you can use it again. Harbinger drops Heavy Weapon Ammo in this fight, so take the time to pick it up when it's safe. And thankfully, the boss' own attack will greatly damage the Collectors too. So you don't need to focus on the collectors that much. Take the time to at least use your techs against the Boss' weak spot, as trust me, that damage adds up. Again, your Carnifex is great damage against the boss so use that. And absolutely nothing is as satisfying as using the Cain to kill it. The last enemy you face in the game, the last thing you have to do, blowed the hell up in a gigantic explosion. Oh...so...satisfying. And the achievement will be yours once the ship has left this area. If you successfully get it, congratulations are well deserved. Good luck. You really are going to need it. =============================================================================== [#A] In Closing =============================================================================== DISCLAIMER: You may NOT use this FAQ for any profit what-so-ever, including magazines, game guides, commercial web pages that charge fees, etc. This FAQ is meant for personal use only. You may put this document on your own web page provided you guarantee that it has not been modified in any way what-so-ever and gives clear credit to me, the author, Ber'Zophus. You may use this as a basis for creating your own faq, just give me, the author, Ber'Zophus, credit. Of course, Mass Effect 2 is still a very new game at the time of this writing. There might be mistakes or oversights on my part. If you notice anything missing, wrong, insights, whatever, please e-mail me and let me know. [And sorry if I don't respond....nothing personal, I'm just really busy and I receive a lot of mail. I do read them all.] Author: Ber'Zophus E-mail: berzophus, at, sympatico.ca Xbox Live: BerZophus Special thanks to Bioware for making yet another completely awesome video game that sucks up far too much of my life. Can't wait for Mass Effect 3! Hope you enjoyed the FAQ. In closing, I think there's only one thing that can be said: I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favourite store on the Citadel. Truly words to live by. - Ber'Zophus