Mass effect 2: How to get a perfect ending

Like in many other Bioware games, your choices in Mass Effect 2 matter. How much do they matter? Well, if you're careless you will lose members of your crew, permanently.

You can easily get a perfect ending though. Contrary to popular belief, your moral alignment (Paragon/Renegade) has nothing to do with whether your crew members live or die. To accomplish this, you only need to think about 3 things:

1. Earning the loyalty of your crew
If you want all your characters survive the last mission, you have to make them loyal. To do this you must accept and finish their personal quests. For example, if you want Grunt to live, you have to accompany him to Tuchanka and help him through his Rite of Passage. You get the personal quests by talking to the characters while you're on the Normandy.

To preserve a characters loyalty after this, you have to resolve the conflicts aboard the ship by using the paragon/renegade options. Other choices might affect the loyalty status. However, if you choose one of the other options, you can correct it later by talking to the disloyal character. (You need a certain amount of paragon/renegade points to pick the conversation option that restores their loyalty though).

2. Improving your ship
The second Normandy isn't a perfect ship. She needs plenty of improvements before you enter the Omega 4 Relay. To find out what improvements are required, talk to your crew members. You have to get every available upgrade, so be thorough.

3. Making the right decisions in the last mission.
You'll make a lot of choices near the end of the game. Make the wrong ones, and people die. To save your crew, choose the following characters for the specified assignments:

Climbing the ventilation system - Tali or Legion
Leading the secondary squad - Miranda or Garrus
Escorting the crew back to the ship: Mordin or Jacob
Keeping up the Biotic Field - Samara or Subject Zero (Jack)

A sidenote: If you want Yeoman Kelly Chambers to live, you have to enter the Omega 4 Relay as soon as your crew has been kidnapped. If you travel anywhere else with the Normandy at this particular moment in the game, she'll die.

If you'd like to see a perfect ending, there are plenty on Youtube.

Good luck!

If you have any questions, post a comment.

// Rick'