Nightsolo's Mass Effect Legendary Editon Hints

• Saving:
  • I'll only mention this once: Save often.
  • Quick Save before every conversation. It'd suck to screw one up only to have to reload from a slot you saved an hour or more ago.
  • Use the Save Menu to save in new slots on occasion. These saves stay with your character, so they won't overwrite other games. But don't keep too many slots, as there is a limit! To avoid cluttering your save folder, I recommend rotating between 3 or 4 slots.
  • There is an autosave slot for when you first land on a new planet or start a mission.
  • Save your save games. You can import them into LE2 and LE3, and your choices will affect many of the side-missions, and some other subtle options.
  • Keep a text file with your save games, in which you'll keep notes about what you did in each, and what your Shepard looks like. This makes choosing imports to LE2 easier, as well as for a New Game +.
  • There are a couple of bugs related to importing a game from one game into the next. After finishing LE1, and before importing into LE2, use a Save Editor to ensure that your choices in LE1 were recorded correctly. Do this again when importing into LE3
• Exploration:
  • LE1: When exploring a planet in the Mako, often times it takes longer to go over a mountain than around it. Especially on those planets with really steep and sharp mountains.
  • LE1: Sometimes while exploring a planet in the Mako, it may be quicker to return to the Normandy and re-land than going over a mountain again.
  • LE1: While in the Mako, if you find yourself near the red zone on the minimap, drive into it, and after a couple of warnings you'll be instantly returned to the starting point for the planet.
  • LE1: When you're looking for a hidden asteroid, you'll need to run your mouse all around the rocky belt to find it.
• Combat:
  • Use your Abilities often. They make combat easier, especially on the higher difficulty levels.
  • LE2: Neural Shock can one-shot Husks.
  • Stasis can be annoying, as enemies don't take damage while in it.
  • Throw is useful for tossing enemies over ledges, thus shortening combat. Pull and Shockwave can situationally do the same thing.
  • In my opinion, Soldier is the most boring class. You may want to play on Casual just to get the fights over with sooner.
  • LE1: Fire your weapons in short bursts. They overheat quickly.
  • Take cover at the start of the fight, and only lean out to attack. Stay in cover to recharge your shields and let your weapons cool down or to reload.
  • Do position your squad mates strategically. You can also use them as shields or order them to run head-first into the fray.
  • Your squad mates revive after combat ends, but if you die, you'll have to resume from your last save.
  • Combat against larger enemies may get tedious. If you don't mind forgoing the Achievement for not changing difficulties, lower it to Casual, then raise it back up once the bullet sponge is dead.
• Leveling:
  • Enemies level up at the same rate as you do, so the game is consistently challenging. This also means you need to keep your gear upgraded.
  • Equip better items as soon as you can, as enemies level up at the same rate as you, and therefore combat will get way harder if you don't.
  • LE1: In order to get the most XP, you'll need Decription and Electronics to loot stuff. If your Shepard doesn't have those skills, bring along squad mates who do. If those skills are still too low, note where the container was and come back to it later. You may also want to take control of squad skill point distribution until those skills are maxed out. On the other hand, even a completionist playthough left me about 36,000 XP short of max level.
  • LE2: Unlike in LE1, the minigames do not require you or your squadmates to have any specific skill.
  • LE2: You'll need 240 Probes if you want to scan every planet once (and Uranus twice!).
  • LE2 & LE3: You only get XP for completing Missions and Assignments. You do NOT get XP for killing enemies, so look for ways to avoid combat altogether, or at least to shorten it.
  • Be careful when speaking with characters you DON'T want to romance. It's surprisingly easy to get involved with the "wrong" person.
  • LE2: Legion joins late. If you want to hear all of Legion's conversations, save two DLCs for after the credits. New conversations only trigger after Missions, and N7 Assignemtns don't seem to count.
  • Recruit everyone as soon as possible. If you wait until the last minute, some conversations won't advance to their conclusion.
• Loot:
  • LE1: Item levels (of newly looted stuff, not what you've already got) advance at the same rate as your character advances in level, but they all reduce to the same amount of Omni-Gel regardless of item level.
  • LE1: Loot Everything. If you hate the Decrypting game, turn loot into Omni-Gel to bypass a lock. Otherwise, keep the items and sell them for cash, which you'll need for buying Licenses and stuff.
• Gameplay:
  • There is no manual. Good luck! Maybe you can find a decent one on the internet somehwere?
  • Every time you play the game, take different squad mates with you to hear different banter.
  • On Paragon vs. Renegade. Personally, I've found it very difficult to be consistently one or the other. The game seems to be made for a combination of the two. I find some situations are better with a Paragon response, and others just beg for the Renegade option. I'd go so far as to say the experience is better with whatever mix feels good at the time. In any case, don't sweat your decisions - just have fun. It is, after all, a game.
  • It is possible for your squad mates to trap you. When that happens, draw then holster your weapons, and they'll spread out.
  • Occasionally, a squad mate will stop following you. When that happens, Save and then Load that save, and they'll resume following you.
  • If you want to hear all of your squads reactions, and all of the elevator conversations, do so before going to Virmire in LE1, the Derelict Reaper in LE2.
  • If you don't like the new default female face, here are two that look similar to the default from the original games:
    743.Q9G.M17.F8A.JDQ.62Q.1DA.711.966.414.6G6.177
    743.QGG.M11.F81.JDG.13Q.1EG.611.G66.37D.2GB.176
  • LE3: It is possible to find stuff on the galxy map without using the scan pulse. Just fly around in open space, and you'll hear the same sound as when the Normandy is over a planet. Then just double-click that spot to gather the resource.
  • LE3: When exploring, scan the system with the Mass Relay last. Gathering fuel here when you're full is pointless.
  • LE2 & LE3: The direction your ship faces determines where in the system you appear. This is handy when you want to enter a system from a particular direction, like to save time getting to the Relay.
  • LE3: Buying all the weapon upgrades to X in the game costs about six million credits. Focus on upgrading only your favoirite weapons.
• System:
  • If you're alt-tabbing back into the game and the mouse pointer disappears, alt-tab back out, and as you tab back in, keep moving the mouse and it'll show up.
  • LE1: To disable the relay movie, rename or delete GLO_01_Relay.bik
  • LE2: If you remap the "leave planet" key, make it the same as the "melee" key. I don't know why, but making them different from each other prevents you from being able to return to the Normandy.
  • LE3: You can start a New Game Plus without having beaten the game. First, start a new game and Save it when you gain control of Shepard. Exit the game, and open a Save Game Editor. Open the save game you just saved. On the Raw tab, the second line down is End Game State. Change this to LivedToFightAgain. Save on the New Game Plus slot and exit the editor. Start up the game again and choose new game, and Import ME3 Character. Be warned, however, that some of your choices from LE1 and LE2 will have been forgotten, and defaults used instead.
  • LE3: To upgrade weapons to level X (10) without starting a New Game Plus, open a Save Editor and go to Raw > Plot > Plot > Known Variables, and change New Game + Count from 0 to 1.

last modified 1 August 2021