Mass Effect 3 Walkthrough [Guide]

Mass Effect 3: The battle for Earth has begun with Mass Effect 3. Don’t dare take on the Reaper threat unprepared.

Mass Effect 3
Written by Dalton “HorrorSpooky” Cooper
Copyright 2012

Contact Information
E-mail: [email protected]

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction and Controls
2. Creating Shepard
3. Walkthrough – Priority Missions
A. Prologue
B. Mars
C. The Citadel
D. Palaven
E. Sur’Kesh
F. Tuchanka
G. The Citadel (2)
4. Side Missions
5. Multiplayer
6. Playing with Kinect
7. Achievements
8. Conclusion

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1. Introduction and Controls
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It’s the end of the world as you know it. The Reapers have come to destroy all organic life in the galaxy. And the only person that stands in their way is Commander Shepard. The ultimate battle for humanity has begun.

LT – Aim
RT – Shoot
A – Sprint/Roll/Interact
X – Switch weapon
B – Melee
Y – Powers
LB – Weapon Wheel/Powers
RB – Powers Wheel/Powers
RS – Camera/Focus/Objective
LS – Movement/Map
D-pad – Squad command
Back – Quick save
Start – Pause

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3. Walkthrough – Priority Missions
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A. PROLOGUE
In typical Mass Effect fashion, the game begins with a cut-scene. Evidently, large objects have been detected that are nearing the Milky Way galaxy. Worried, Anderson hunts down Shepard on Earth for his help, fearing that it may be the Reapers. Shepard is fetched by newcomer James Vega.

As you follow Anderson down the hallway to go speak with the Alliance leaders, there will be various conversations choices that you must make. This walkthrough is going to objectively lead you through the primary events of the game; there will be many elements that factor into the exact events of the game, but the general overarching storyline will remain the same. Various aspects such as choices made in Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 (depending on if you chose to import your character) will factor into the exact goings-on in the game. Furthermore, conversation choices will also alter the events of the game. I will not tell you what conversation choices to make–Mass Effect 3 is your experience.

At any rate, all hell will break loose as Earth receives a transmission from the moon base showing that the Reapers have started to attack. The Reapers then begin their attack on Earth and destroy everything, blasting the hell out of the building you’re in. Yourself and Anderson seem to be the only ones that have survived the attack, meaning a decent portion of the Alliance leaders have been compromised to a permanent end. Anderson will give you a pistol, and then the two of you will go about checking for any survivors.

The game will prompt you to click on the right analog stick to show your objective. Afterwards, hold A to sprint and follow Anderson along the catwalk. An explosion will rock the two of you, but afterwards continue chasing Anderson along the catwalk, then hold A and push forward when you reach the gap to hop over. Resume following Anderson, then climb up the next ladder.

Take cover against the wall as instructed, then jump over it and continue to follow Anderson. Hop off the rising, then continue following Anderson until the two of you see Husks climbing the walls. Blast the hell out of the Husks. They will eat your ammo until you are completely empty. Hop off the ledge.

More Husks will be pounding at the doors of a nearby building. Since you’re out of ammo, run over and bash them to death with your pistol. A Reaper will shoot the building with a laser beam and Shepard will dive out of the way of the resulting blast. With the building blown to hell, head inside the rubble. A Husk will try to get through a broken door. Approach the Husk and hold B to deliver a devastating melee punch that kills it.

Then go through the door, and in the next room, Shepard will come across a little boy–the one playing with the toy spaceship from earlier. The boy will crawl into a ventilation shaft. Shepard will try to coax the boy to come with him, but he’ll refuse, and then when Shepard looks back at him, the boy is missing.

Shepard will follow Anderson through the rubble and you’ll have a conversation decision to make. When the two of you escape from the building and into another, similarly destroyed building, you’ll happen upon some ammunition. Press X to reload your pistol as instructed by Anderson, then follow him through the broken window. Hop down onto the ledge, then sprint and follow him down the ramp and onto the roof of the adjacent building. Hop over the cover, and continue to follow Anderson. A massive ship will be blown up, causing an explosion that knocks you down onto rubble floating in the ocean. Run along the rubble, hop across the gap, and continue to follow Anderson.

Shepard will then take cover as a new type of enemy called Cannibals make themselves known. These guys are like Husks except they’re bigger, use firearms, and have more health. Stay behind cover and shoot the Cannibals until they have all been killed. At which point, Shepard and Anderson will check on the injured soldier leaning against the nearby wall.

Hop over the cover and take a left. Grab the med kit, and then take cover at the next opportunity. From cover, shoot and kill all the Cannibals. Then hop over that cover and run to the next cover. To the right, kill all the Cannibals again. You will then be tasked with finding the radio.

Run to where the Cannibals were just now, on that barge of rubble. At the end of it and on the right side you will find the radio. Interact with the radio to deploy a beacon. More Cannibals will arrive. There’s a machinegun lying on the ground near the radio, so grab it and then quickly get behind cover.

Pick off the Cannibals from afar with your new toy, or your pistol if you still have adequate ammo. The game will then teach you how to switch between weapons, so do that to make the prompt get off the screen. Afterwards, resume until all the Cannibals are dead, and the evacuation ships arrive to save you and Anderson…though Anderson has other plans.

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B. MARS
On the ship, you’ll meet back up with James Vega, as well as a familiar face. If you saved Kaiden in Mass Effect, then he’ll be here, but if you saved Ashley, then be prepared to reunite with her. Go through the usual conversation. Shepard will decide to go to the Citadel, but Admiral Hackett orders them to go to Mars instead. Now that Shepard has been reinstated as Commander Shepard, he’s a bit obliged to follow orders, not to mention Mars just may hold the key to thwarting the Reaper threat!

The Normandy will dock at a station on Mars. Then Shepard, James, and Ashley/Kaiden will take a smaller ship to the Prothean Archives Station on another part of Mars. Once you gain control of your character, you are given the opportunity to level up. Take the opportunity now. Also spend a bit of time upgrading your partners. Of course, you can also choose to turn on auto-leveling if you’d prefer.

Run along the Mars surface, grabbing the machinegun off the ground as you do. You’ll reach a ledge, which is your prompt to hop down. You’ll be prompted to click on the right stick. This will focus your attention to a dead Turian. A sniper rifle will be lying to the dead body, so grab it.

As you continue along Mars’s surface, you’ll see a cluster of Cerberus soldiers in the distance. Take cover and whip out your newly acquired sniper rifle. Pick off the troopers from your position behind cover. Head down the Martian slope, towards the base. More troopers will come out of the base, so find a boulder to take cover behind and then kill them all.

With them dead, head into the base. Approach the controls and interact with them to cause the elevator to start rising. The three of you will start having a conversation, which will result in more conversation decisions. As the elevator continues to rise, the airlock will shut, and the gang will remove their helmets. Then the elevator will come to a stop.

Liara, the sexy blue Asari with dat ass will escape her Cerberus pursuers by working her way through a ventilation shaft. She will kill them all as Shepard and co. watch from the safety of being behind a crate. When Liara’s done killing the Cerberus bastards, it’s time to chat it up with her as well. She gives some useful information. Liara tells you about the plans for a Prothean device that was discovered on Mars. She says that the device could have the capability of destroying the Reapers. She then explains that Cerberus came to Mars to get the plans, and Admiral Hackett sent her to Mars to do research on the device.

Liara then says the data needed to continue work on the device is at the Archives. More Cerberus troopers will start breaking into the room. Shepard sends Vega off, leaving you with a squad of Liara and whoever was lucky enough to not get blown to hell in the first game.

Kill all the troopers in the area. The game will recommend using your special abilities to take them out, so humor it and mix up the combat a bit in the process. When they’re all dead, go to the lift and interact with the controls. You’ll discover that Cerberus has broken it. Shucky darn. A bit of looking around the room will yield a large orange vehicle. Press the button near it to make it rise. When it stops, turn to your left. Go up the ramp, then climb on the boxes. Face the vehicle that you just made rise, and sprint across so you jump over the gap. Then sprint to the next door.

When you open it, a scientist will fall to the ground, dead. Take cover and don’t engage the enemies just yet. With Shepard pressed against the cover, move to the right and then pause when you near the Cerberus trooper. Hold B to kill him. The other troopers will know your position now, so stay behind cover and kill them all, then head into the next room.

In the following room, go to the small adjacent room with no door. Grab the medkit on the shelf, and investigate the floor near the slumped over, dead guy for a new pistol. Then interact with the controls to check out the security feed and get the next door unlocked. It seems Dr. Eva was the one that helped the Cerberus invasion of Mars. Now go through the door that you just unlocked, and then to the next door after that.

A brief black screen will pop up as the airlock disengages and Shepard puts on his helmet. Walk outside and climb down the ladder. Press on the right stick will show that the Cerberus troopers have commandeered the tram system. Sprint to the next ladder and climb up. On the roof, hold A and jump across the gap to the adjacent roof. Go through the open doorway.

It will be too dark in this building to see anything, so Shepard will switch on his flashlight. A few dead bodies will be lying on the ground, and in the middle of the room will be a Datapad that you can read for background information Resident Evil-style, as well as for experience points.

Find the stairs and walk down. The windows will open and Shepard will instruct the squad to switch off their flashlights. Take cover, and then surprise the troopers by firing through the glass. Kill them all, and then hop through the broken window. You’ll find another room with computers in it. Interact with them to watch more of the security feed, where you can see Dr. Eva pick off a few more enemies. After the conversation with Liara is over, go through the next door that you just unlocked.

Immediately to the right as you go through the door is a station where you can switch out your weapon loadout. Find a combination of weapons that suits you best. Grab the loot near the dead body, and then open the nearby door.

Take cover and then pop out of cover to get the jump on the Cerberus troopers down the hallway. Using grenades in this situation can be very advantageous, especially since a few of them are rocking powerful shields. Move down the hallway when the coast is clear. There will be a datapad on the ground to read. When you’re done with that, round the corner and be prepared for another firefight. Kill all the Cerberus that are down the hallway.

When they’re all dead, the door at the end of the hallway will open and more Cerberus fools will come piling out of it, shield-guys first. Kill them all from your position, then go through the door they opened. Run through the next room and through the open door. Then look to your left, through the windows of the next room.

If you mess with the controls, you’ll notice that you can turn the laser grid in that room on and off using the terminals. When they’re on, they move left and right in the room. When they’re deactivated, they pause. Time it so that the grid allows you to go up the stairs and through the door on the east side of the room. This will allow you to go through the door, collect a bunch of helpful items, and then go through the next door as you need to.

As you go through the next door, a turret will start firing down the hallway at Shepard and co. Get behind cover, then sprint to the next designated cover. Then sprint to the next, and then the one after that. The game will constantly tell you where you need to take cover. When you do take cover, wait for the turret to stop firing before you run down the next set of cover.

When you reach the smaller cover, you can tilt the left analog stick to the left to make Shepard go directly to that cover. Work your way around the left side and through the next door. A squad of Cerberus troopers will come down the hallway. Take cover and poke your head around the corner and kill all the troopers in the hallway. Keep fighting your way through the hall until you reach another room with computer terminals. There’s another datapad in here to read. Interact with the computers for another security feed-viewing. Bring the popcorn.

Get through the following conversation. Ashley/Kaiden will take a communication device from the helmet of one of the dead Cerberus troopers. In the process of doing this, it is discovered that he was turned into a Geth-like Husk; essentially, this revealed that Cerberus has been upgrading their soldiers.

Shepard will trick the other squad of Cerberus troopers to ride the tram back to their location, posing as the Cerberus squad that they just killed, using evacuation as an excuse. When that’s done, the game will instruct you to order Ashley/Kaiden and Liara to take cover behind these crates to the left of the door in order to flank the Cerberus troopers when they arrive. Do this now using the d-pad or the Kinect voice controls, then take position yourself somewhere else in the room. Once the Cerberus people arrive, kill them all.

When they’ve all been killed, go to the tram that they arrived in. Interact with the controls to get the tram moving back towards the Archives. When the tram comes to a screeching halt, use it as cover to kill the troopers arriving in the approaching tram car. When they’re dead, hop across the perilous gap to the other tram car. Then activate the controls of that tram car and ride it to the Archives, finally.

When the tram stops again, get off of it and then take cover against the wall. Pick off the enemies in this room. Then work your way to the end of the room and loot the initial area. Then open the next door. The crew will rush to the computer. Liara will be shocked to see that someone has taken the data needed to build the Prothean device and has then subsequently deleted the data. The Illusive Man will then appear via satellite hologram.

Have a chat with him. While you’re doing that, Ashley/Kaiden find Dr. Eva, who was the one that stole the data. She will flee. You shall follow. Sprint and follow her into the next room. She will jump up into the ceiling. Press the button to lower the windows and then she will fall down in the next room and continue running. Chase her up the ladder and outside. She will fire at you occasionally and her buddies in a ship will also take potshots at you. Just ignore them and keep running at Dr. Eva. Don’t bother taking the time to shoot her.

Follow her down the ramp, and then chase her up the side of the building. Climb the ladder up the side of the building, and then Dr. Eva will run along the rooftop and jump into the ship. James then pulls a crazy move and pilots the ship right into Dr. Eva’s ship, causing it to crash. Ashley/Kaiden will lead Liara away from the carnage, but then Dr. Eva will burst out of the burning ship, burnt and damaged, though not dead. Dr. Eva will then smash Ashley/Kaiden’s head repeatedly into the side of her destroyed ship.

She’ll then turn her attention to you. She’ll run at you in slow-motion. Fire at her with your pistol. Head shots will drain her health faster. Keep firing until her health is depleted and she dies. Afterwards, it’s time to get the hell off of Mars.

Back on the Normandy, Hackett will be filled in on the Prothean device by Shepard and Liara. Ashley/Kaiden will be taken to the medical wing. In order to get Ashley/Kaiden better medical assistance, it’s decided to go to the Citadel, where a meeting with the Council is also scheduled to take place.

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C. THE CITADEL
Upon arriving back on the good ‘ole Citadel, you’ll be greeted by Commander Bailey. Bailey is the new commander of C-Sec, the police force that governs the Citadel. When the conversation is over, the game will teach you about the INCREDIBLY useful map system. This will let you know if there’s anyone worth talking to on each floor, and it will tell you where they are at, almost exactly. This is incredibly helpful tool and it makes running around the Citadel much less of an annoyance that it was in previous games.

This part of the guide is dedicated to getting you through the main storyline. Because of that, I’m not going to go out of my way to tell you to do all the different side missions or to pursue the romantic subplots. I recommend you play the game your way, as I stated earlier. Take the time to do extra things like speaking to people, purchasing items at the shops, or going to speak to your injured comrade at the medical wing. There’s all sorts of things you can do while on the Citadel. Once I finish this guide, I will make a guide dedicated to side missions. Remember, even the choices made during these detours will determine the overall outcome of the game.

Back on the main path, you need to speak to Councilor Udina. Take the Citadel’s handy elevator to the Embassy floor. Head to Udina’s office, where you’ll be greeted by his Asari assistant. She’ll take you to meet with the Council. The Council will be their typical unhelpful selves, and they refuse to give aid to Earth when their own planets are under threat of the Reaper invasion. Udina and Shepard head back to Udina’s office, where the Turian Councilor, the one that’s usually a jackass to Shepard, actually shows support to their cause. He recommends that you help out the fight on Palaven’s (the Turian home planet) moon, were the Reaper invasion is underway. This will free up resources to help protect Earth.

When you’re ready and done exploring, recruiting new crew members, or whatever, head back to the Normandy and get on board.

Suddenly, Shepard will be in a strange wooded area, like a forest on Earth. There’s a lot of space between the trees, and there’s a small apparition of a child running. Chase after him, though in typical dream fashion, it will be as though you’re running in mud. The child will crouch near a tree, so approach him. A blinding light will scare the boy, the one Shepard saw die back on Earth, and he will begin running away again.

Continue to follow the ghostly lad yet again. As you near him, Shepard will reach out to save him, only for the ghost boy to burst into flames, with an apathetic look on his face. Shepard will wake up and leave his quarters. He will be greeted by Liara. Have a chat with her, and then you’ll be introduced to Specialist Traynor, a newcomer amongst the staff of the Normandy.

Get to know that young lady. When she’s done talking, you’ll have a conversation with a hologram of Hackett. Shepard will fill Hackett in on the situation–the plan is to get a summit of the leaders of the various races and unite all the species in the galaxy against the volatile Reaper threat.

After that conversation is over, you can familiarize yourself with the ship. You can walk around and speak to the various crew members and get to know everybody. You can check the status of the war and how prepared each nation is to stand against the Reapers. You can check your private terminal to read e-mails. If you played the Kingdoms of Amalur demo a couple months back, you will have an e-mail telling you about it. Change into it in your room if you want…though I personally think it looks pretty ugly, and it doesn’t do much for your health and shields.

After you’ve had your fair share of the Normandy, go to the Galaxy Map on the second floor. This is how you go to each cluster and explore the planets. You can press the left trigger to scan planets for resources in a mini-game similar to the plant harvesting that took place in Mass Effect 2. However, there’s a twist this time. Each time you use your scanner to look for resources, it attracts the attention of the Reapers. They will come after you if you fill their attention bar all the way by scanning too much. To evade the Reapers, simply fly out of that system. Before you can return to that particular system without having to worry about Reapers killing you, you’ll need to complete a mission, whether it’s a main mission or a side one.

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D. PALAVEN
Explore, complete side missions, do whatever. But when you’re done, head to Palaven’s moon. The Turian planet is being absolutely decimated by the Reapers, despite heavy resistance. When the Normandy lands, head out on the surface of the Palaven moon and start killing the Husks.

Move your way across the moon’s surface, toward the Turian camp. When you reach the camp, loot it for credits, weapon mods, and whatever, then go speak to the Turian general Corinthus. He’ll inform you that the Primearch, the leader of the Turian people, has died. You can’t have the summit without all the leaders, so you need to find the new Primearch. Corinthus will suggest that you fix the communication tower so he can get in touch with his leaders and find out who the new Primearch is.

Push on the left analog stick to lead you in the right direction along the moon’s surface. If you have trouble, just look into the sky towards the large tower with the satellite attached. Move towards that tower. There will be opposition in the form of Husks along the way, but they are easily dispatched. When you reach the tower, interact with the controls at the base of the tower. It will be discovered that in order to repair the tower, someone has to climb to the top. You then have a choice of who to send to the top of the tower to make the repairs. I recommend sending Liara because James is a stronger fighter, but it’s really up to. If you Liara is a better foil to your powers and abilities, then by all means, send James.

Whoever you send, stand in front of the ladder. This is to keep any Husks from sneaking by and climbing the ladder themselves. Kill the Husks as they climb over the side of the craters and charge you. When your other squad member climbs down, move away from the ladder and start heading back to the Turian camp. Kill any and all Husks that get in the way as you head back to the camp.

If Garrus didn’t die in Mass Effect 2, you’ll meet back up with him at the Turian camp now. It will be discovered that Victus is the new Primearch. He’s also a valued military asset to the Turians, so they are understandably reluctant to let Victus out of their hands. But before Victus can be picked up, a Reaper Harvester flies over the area and drops something off.

Go investigate. Take cover and start killing the Husks and Cannibals that will start charging you guys. A new type of enemy called a Marauder will debut. These creatures are the Husks of Turians that can provide armor to other Reaper-created monsters. They are a bit tougher to kill thanks to their stronger shields and plentiful health, but they don’t do too much damage when compared to the Cannibals. At any rate, kill the Marauders and all the other Husks and Cannibals in the area.

As you continue along the moon’s surface, take control of the turret gun. From this position, kill all the Husks that are dropped off by the Reapers, and make sure they don’t climb up the sides of the cliffs and flank you and your squad. Just move from the left to right and blast them off the sides of the cliffs as they climb. After they’re all dead, a Beast will drop. These are giant armored monsters that will charge you and deal a ton of damage.

Unfortunately, the Beast will knock Shepard from his position at the turret. That means you have to find the thing one-on-one, face-to-face. Blast the hell out of it. It’s not that tough of a fight. Just be sure to roll out of the way when the monster charges the lot of you. After the Beast is dead, continue along the moon’s surface, towards General Victus. Check out the gorgeous view of Palaven along the way. It’s a long walk to Victus, and there will be Husks to deal with as well, so just kill them and continue sprinting towards the diamond objective marker that represents General Victus’s location.

When you finally reach the location of Victus, you’ll find that their camp has been overrun by Reaper minions. Take cover before running head-long into the camp and pick off as many as you can from that position. Once the smaller enemies are picked off, a Beast will appear. Focus your attention on the Beast, then move deeper into the camp to find even more enemies. After every single Reaper creature has been defeated, chat it up with General Victus and inform him of his impressive new political position.

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E. Sur’Kesh
Back on the Normandy, you’ll have a short chat with the Asari councilor. Admiral Hackett will be the next hologram to talk it up with, so talk with him as well. Speak with Victus in the war room, then continue through the Normandy, heading towards the Galaxy Map. The lights will flicker, and Joker announce over the intercom that EDI, the Normandy’s AI system uploaded by Cerberus in ME2, has evidently gone offline. Traynor will then worriedly exclaim that the systems onboard the Normandy have gone haywire!

Shepard has his hands full. I mean, he has to convince the Krogans to help the Turians so that the Turians will help the humans and ah…politics suck. At any rate, head to the medical bay. EDI’s room is located behind the medical bay. So walk through it and approach the two crew members guarding the door. They will open it and use a fire extinguisher to put out the flames. From the smoke will emerge the robotic Dr. Eva! However, EDI has taken over Dr. Eva in an attempt to learn information about Cerberus by taking it directly from the robot horse’s mouth, so to speak.

If you’re nice to EDI about her new curves, she’ll be a new squad member that you can choose to join in on missions. Her Overload ability is EXTREMELY helpful, so I personally take EDI with me wherever I go.

Anyway, when you’re ready, head to the designated location on the Galaxy Map to get the meetings underway. Go through the typical conversation paces. By the end of it all, you’ll be headed to the Salarian home world of Sur’Kesh. If Wrex wasn’t killed in the first game, he’ll be joining you on this trip. When the ship nears the Sur’Kesh landing zone, the Salarians will deny landing clearance. The resulting conflict is solved quickly and you will then be introduced to the Salarian named Padok Wiks. He’ll give you a brief tour of the laboratories.

So, why are you on Sur’Kesh anyway? A Krogan female, one that became immune to the Genophage thanks to the experiments done on her in Mass Effect 2. She can be used to possibly create a cure that can help all of the Krogan population. This needs to be done in order to win the Krogan support in the war against the Reapers.

Walk around and speak to the Salarian scientists if you want, but when you’re ready to continue, go speak to Padok Wiks. He has given you clearance to traverse throughout the laboratory. Approach the nearby elevator and interact with it to continue exploring the labs.

When the elevator reaches its destination, depending on if he survived Mass Effect 2, you will meet Mordin Solus! Mordin is that annoying Salarian that, for some reason, a lot of people find immensely entertaining. Needless to say, I am not in that camp. Regardless, you will be taken on a tour throughout the lab, in which you will see the dead Krogan females, and then meet the living Krogan female that’s a necessity in making sure the war effort stays on track.

The Krogan female will begin being transported out of the lab in a containment pod as the  base is suddenly attacked by Cerberus. Return to the elevator, which won’t open at first. A soldier will then fix it, but when the doors slide open, there is a bomb inside! Shepard will dive out of the way, and then an alternate route is required to leave the Salarian labs.

The objective marker on the screen will point you directly to the emergency exit door. Sprint there and then run down the hallway and climb up the subsequent ladder. As you sprint through this area, Cerberus troops will start attacking. Push through the enemy, using cover and various powers as necessary.

Work your way to the next door. In the following hallway, a burst of fire will blow through the wall. Turn to the left and hop over the ledge. Then leap across the gap, then go over the ledge to get on the other side of the flames. More Cerberus troops will arrive, so that’s your cue to kill them all. A few will be dropped off in a ship, and you can take care of them fairly easily, before they even have a chance to attack.

A brief cut-scene will play. Afterwards, go through the hole in the wall and walk along the line of plants on the side of the building to snake around back in the building. Kill all the Cerberus troops in your path. Open the next door. Go up the stairs, and the Combat Engineer class of Cerberus troops will debut. These jerks have heavy armor and can place turrets. EDI has an Overload ability that works wonderfully against turrets, by the way.

Destroy the turret from the safety of cover, then start pushing forward and killing Cerberus troops again. The next door you come across will be locked. Examine the terminal next to it to unlock it, then head through the next room. Loot this area for supplies, then go through the next door where a poor guy will get pounced by a dog-like alien.

Run up the stairs and kill the Cerberus troops. Then approach the hole in the floor and use this advantageous location to pick off the rest of the Cerberus troops on the ground below. Bypass the door up here, then start killing all the Cerberus troops int he following area. They’re mostly just Assault Troopers and nothing too strenuous.

In the top right corner of the screen, the a meter called Pod Integrity will appear. This meter measures how durable the pod that’s holding the female Krogan is. As you can imagine, if that pod is destroyed, then so is the Krogan, so protecting that pod is high priority. Prepare to defend the pod. Hunker down in cover in a place where the pod is in sight, and kill all the enemies that appear.

Once the coast is clear, interact with the control panel in front of the female Krogan’s containment pod. As Shepard speaks with her, more Cerberus troops will flood into the area, complicating matters. Hold your position and defend the female Krogan, blasting the Cerberus troops as they come.

When this has been accomplished, your objective marker will lead you to a nearby door. Go through the door then up the ladder. Once you reach the top, more Cerberus troops will drop down on your position, and they will focus their attention on the female Krogan’s containment pod. Push your way to the pod, then approach the console in front of it. Interact with the controls to send the pod on its way.

An Atlas mech will then drop from the sky. Take cover. Focus all of your energy as well as your squad’s energy at the mech. Use up your powers as frequently as possible to constantly deal damage to it. These mechs are easily destroyed, but they take a while and deal a lot of damage. As long as you stay behind cover and are constantly pelting it with attacks, then the mech should be completely destroyed without too much of a headache. Kill the straggling remains of the Cerberus troopers, and then a cut-scene will play in which the female Krogan is retrieved. This will be done by Wrex, assuming he’s alive.

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F. TUCHANKA
Back on the Normandy, you’ll have a conversation with the Salarian scientist (possibly Mordin) as well as Victus and the Krogan that you’re paling around with. Mordin goes to the medical bay in order to create a cure. In the meantime, you are encouraged to explore the galaxy and complete side missions to pass the time. The game actually gives you two major side missions in the form of helping out the Krogan investigate Rachni sitings in one system, and to help the Turians in a secret mission on the Krogan’s home planet of Tuchanka.

Do what you like at this point. Remember, this particular guide is only to get you through the main game and side missions will not be covered here. There will be another guide that will be dedicated to the side missions. Keep in mind that side missions and what you do during them do have an effect on the outcome of the game. Like I’ve said repeatedly, Mass Effect 3 has to be your own experience. It’s not like other games where I can tell you exactly what to do. This guide is just that–a guide, to help steer your decisions and to get you out of a rut if you happen to get stuck.

You probably have a hefty amount of side missions built up anyway, so go nuts. After you either complete the side mission for the Turians or the Krogan and you get back on the Normandy, Mordin will reveal that they have finished the cure for the Genophage. However, they still need a way to send it across all of Tuchanka at once. After a bit of thinking, it is decided that the Genophage cure should be used at the Shroud device–a large tower on Tuchanka that was used to administer the Genophage in the first place. So, it’s settled; the Genophage cure will be taken to the Shroud.

Before you land on Tuchanka, the Salarian councilor will speak with you through vidcom. He suggests an alternative that will allow the Krogans to be tricked into thinking that the Genophage is occurred, gaining their support, though in reality, a placebo would be placed into the Shroud. Mull that over for a bit. As the ship lands, the doors open up and Husks will be there to greet you with smiling faces.

Kill all of the Husks and then a cut-scene will trigger as you continue. The Salarian scientist you have with you, maybe Mordin, will then come with you as well as Wrex and the female Krogan. There will be a confrontation with a group of other Krogan, but it will be settled thanks to the female Krogan.

The gang will then be headed on their way to the Shroud in a Mako-style vehicle. There will be a discussion about whether or not the Krogan should settle new planets in the galaxy after the Genophage is cured. The transport will come to a halt and Shepard, naturally, goes to investigate the problem. A Reaper has attached itself to the Shroud, and the convoy stopped to watch in appalled horror. Take the time to loot the area for any weapons or mods, and then speak to the Krogan scout that the game is pointing you towards. Speaking with this Krogan triggers a cut-scene.

The planned Turian airstrike will swoop in and attack the Reaper, but with little success. One of the ships will be blasted on its tail end, and then blast right towards Shepard and co. The explosion destroys a large part of the street. Wrex, Mordin, and the female Krogan escape through the rubble as Shepard and the two crew members taken with you go into the nearby ruins.

It’s super dark in the ruins, so Shepard switches on his flashlight. As you move through the ruins, in which there is constantly one direction to go, the ground and walls will shake; dust will fall from the ceiling as the tremors shake Tuchanka. Radio chatter will reveal that the quakes are likely the cause of the original giant scary worm monster Kalros.

Eventually, you will find the dead body of a Rachni with Reaper enhancements. Shortly thereafter, sunlight will pour into the ruins and the crew will be outside. All hell then breaks loose as Reaper troops show up. Push forward and kill all the enemies. There will be Husks, Brutes, Cannibals, and the Rachni, named Ravagers. The Rachni deal very powerful laser blasts, so keep behind cover when facing them. Try to kill the Rachni before facing the Brutes, since the strategy for each of them is pretty much the exact opposite.

With the first set of enemies defeated, move ahead a bit more, in which you will be greeted by even more enemies. Defeat them all. Then move onto the bridge. Kalros, the OG thresher maw (in case my earlier description wasn’t good enough) will destroy part of the bridge. Hop over the gap to the other side. More enemies will have to be dealt with in this area, so kill them. The objective marker will point you to the Dunes, so run towards it. You’ll get picked up as Kalros is in hot pursuit.

When the vehicle comes to a halt, your new goal will become clear:  get rid of the Reaper poisoning the Shroud. To do that, you have to activate two Krogan drums that are built near the Shroud. This will cause Kalros to dig her way there, and hopefully she will engage in a fight with the Reaper. When you regain control of Shepard, run straight across the bridge. The Reaper will blast the bridge with a laser, causing it to fall.

When Shepard recovers, sprint forward, towards the Shroud. Avoid the laser beams that the Reaper blasts by sticking behind cover every few minutes. A bunch of Reaper minions will fall from the sky, but just ignore them. There are way too many Beasts to deal with at this juncture, so sprint towards one of the drums. Use your objective marker system to point you to the right path, but they aren’t hard to find. One drum is to the left of the Shroud and the other drum is to the right of the Shroud. Easy does it.

Once both drums have been activated, Shepard will order whoever is with you to retreat. Kalros will then attack the Reaper and pull it underground. Shepard will then rush to the Shroud and have a conversation with Mordin, or the Salarian scientist that takes Mordin’s place if he happened to die in the second game. You can choose to tell him about the conspiracy to sabotage the cure or not, with the consequences effecting the allegiance of the Salarian armies. At any rate, when the conversation is over, view the following touching cinematic, and then go through the conversational ropes back aboard the Normandy.

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G. THE CITADEL (2)
When the conversations are over, Shepard will return to Silent Hill the weird dream world from before. The task is the same as before. Chase after the little kid as he runs through the woods. The major difference this time is that the kid is straight up sprinting through the trees, yet Shepard is still restricted to the sloppy, walking-in-the-mud dream pace. The first time you reach him, he’ll run off. Notice that there are shadowy ghost figures floating around now as well. Spooky. Anyway, chase him down a second time, and then he will once again run off. Third time’s the charm, so hunt down that little brat for a third time, and he’ll do his “burst into flames” trick again.

If you’ve been pursuing a romantic relationship, that subplot thread will continue to develop as Shepard wakes up from his disturbing nightmare. Afterwards, the Salarian council member will warn Shepard via video communications that human Councilor Udina has been a part of suspicious activity.

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…

And that’s all she wrote. One of my fellow Cheat Masters has written an absolutely amazing guide for Mass Effect 3 as well, and one that is simply packed with content. Click here for it. But don’t fret! My Mass Effect coverage is not over. Please scroll down to the other sections for links to other great Mass Effect content, and stay tuned to Cheat Masters for much more that’s on the way!

4. SIDE MISSIONS
There is a wide variety of Side Missions available in Mass Effect 3. The Side Missions are separated out into different categories. One, there are the N7 Missions, and then there are the other Side Missions in the game.

Right now, you can check out this guide for more information regarding Side Missions. There will be a guide made especially for Side Missions as well, so stay tuned.

5. MULTIPLAYER

6. PLAYING WITH KINECT

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7. ACHIEVEMENTS
Mass Effect 3 has 50 achievements for a total of 1000 Gamerscore, and the same amount of trophies for one platinum trophy. Just in case you’re having problems unlocking any of these or aren’t quite sure how to, I’ve written up an achievement guide to get you on your way.

8. Conclusion
I hope this guide helped you beat Mass Effect 3 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC!

Special thanks to Jeremy Wise and everyone at Cheat Masters!

Please check out all the other Mass Effect 3 coverage, including our achievement guide, and the finished FAQ/Walkthrough!

IN SPACE!

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