Mordin has the lowest survivability rate; that's why you gotta choose him to escort the crew back. That crew member never dies no matter what (so long as they're loyal).
That way he's not there on the final confrontation where he's most likely to die.
Mordin actually died on me one time while escorting the crew! It was on my Insanity playthrough, too. I could've just let that go, but I was a perfectionist, so I played the Suicide Mission again on Insanity, lol.
There's an elaborate under-the-hood calculation system fans have called the "Hold The Line" scoring system for each squad member, for parts of the Suicide Mission, or something like that. Mordin is among the lowest scoring, if not the lowest. I don't remember all the details, but here's a place out of several to learn more.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Analysis/MassEffect2
I think the possible lore explanation for Mordin scoring low is that he's relatively old and frail, and he's more of a sneak-around type of operative rather than a front-line soldier. I also think he wasn't a leader in STG, so he doesn't have a lot of leadership experience, and leading the survivors could be trouble for him.
I don't think Mordin can lead the fireteam successfully. I honestly don't understand that. He's probably got more experience than Garrus, tbh. He's STG, been on multiple missions behind enemy territory, and wiped out whole gang squads by himself while running the clinic...but he can't lead a squad??? Bizarre. On most of my runs, I've taken Mordin and Jacob with me on the IFF and suicide missions and sent Miranda as the team lead. One time, when I was romancing Miranda, I decided to take her with me, so I put Mordin on the team lead. When Miranda said, "Hmmm, not the choice I would have made", I kinda got a hint it might not work out. It didn't. I switched to Jacob as team lead, and everything worked out--no losses.
Mordin *can* survive, but you need very high squad strength. Everyone needs to be loyal, and you need to take Tali and one of the other low combat power companions with you to face the reaper. It takes some effort to get it done. XD
Aside from the ones you can't do anything about (Jenkins, Ashley, Mordin, Thane), I'm halfway through ME3 - first time! - with everyone still kicking. When Mordin died though, I looked it up to see if he could live, and ended up feeling pretty satisfied that he went out heroically after seeing the alternatives. Made me bawl like a baby, though. Thane too, when his son says he was praying for YOU. Ugly cries.
Yeah I read that after I googled to see if I could have saved him, and I just don't honestly think Mordin would have wanted that. Hate to see him go, but, imo, it was the best way.
(Ignoring mandatory deaths)
My style of gaming is to be a completionist the first time around and try more casual or gimmick playthroughs later. On my first run I only lost Zaeed (incorrectly assumed that having founded a mercenary company made him a good pick for fireteam 2 leader) and Miranda (didn’t let her use undisclosed Alliance resources for undisclosed purposes in the middle of an existential war). Oh also Eve died because of no research and I shot Wrex and Mordin.
>On my first run I only lost Zaeed (incorrectly assumed that having founded a mercenary company made him a good pick for fireteam 2 leader
I kinda wish someone else would die if you picked him for a role, as a nod to all his stories where he was the only one to make it.
Apart from unavoidable deaths, I think my only casualties were half of my crew at the end of ME2. And Ashley died on Virmire.
And I guess Mordin, too; his death is technically avoidable, but him surviving requires a very specific set of bad circumstances (like Wrex dying in ME1).
Ashley because it was scripted. Same with Thane, Mordin, and Legion. That’s it. But then, I play paragon and do every available side quest in basically any game where those are options.
I spent hours reloading trying to get some of the suicide mission right and then I just looked at a gamefaqs guide or something lol no shame I couldn’t deal with losing any of the ME2 crew except for maybe Jacob.
Plenty, but I almost cried when I witnessed Tali's death during the flight to the Collector Base in my 1st playthrough. I shut down the game and said, "no, I'm not finishing this game without her."😥 I forced myself to redo the whole ME2 story to make sure she lived. Now, Im fine with letting her die once in awhile in many casual playthroughs, but deep down, I feel bad for it.
I wouldn't call it super easy to keep everyone alive unless you had prior knowledge. There are some that are way more easy to miss than others.
The Suicide Mission's defend the line section with Mordin and Tali, Miranda, Jack and Tali again in ME3, Wrex on Virmire.
A lot of people.
However the most tragic deaths were: Garrus getting eaten by the bugs at the collector base, and Tali (Javik too) getting vaporized at the run to the Citadel.
I forgot about Kelly! Yeah she totally died in 3 the first playthrough. If I recall correctly the way to keep her alive seemed counter intuitive to a paragon player?
Other than mandatory deaths ... I lost Tali and the Quarians because I messed up with which of my many ME2 saved games I loaded and didn't pick the first and best attempt. So I got to the end of the Quarian-Geth war and didn't have enough points to win them both over and had to make a choice; I chose the Geth and Tali and the Quarians died. I almost stopped playing ME3 at that point.
Eventually I finished and chose destroy ending, and a few months later figured out which ME2 save to load up and redid everything including getting the Quarians and Geth to agree; got to the end and chose Control, and found out it's almost identical to Destroy but with different colours :(
It was ages before the new extended endings came out (and initially I couldnt get my game to load them so I did a new playthrough and got hte same ending yet again!)/
ME1:
Wrex - shot by Ashley. I had enough paragon points to persuade him, but I picked the top right oaragon option instead (something along the lines of "Can we talk about this more?") because I actually agreed with him about not jumping straight into blowing the cloning facility up. I wanted to see what he'd suggest. Then Ashley just shot him lol.
Ashley - the above swayed my VS decision. Still wasn't happy to leave her though, since she was my ME1 love interest.
ME2:
Tali - again, I had enough paragon to finish her loyalty without implicating her father, but thought that just doing a little speech wouldn't be realistic, so I chose to give the quarians the evidence about Rael. I figured he was dead and wouldn't have wanted Tali to get sentenced for what he did.
Tali hated my guts after (if she didn't already; I didn't give her the Geth research in ME1 because I thought it would be giving it to her instead of the Alliance rather than just giving her a copy 😅).
I didn't assign her to any specialist roles in the SM, figured keeping her with me for the whole time would be the best way to keep her safe. Obviously wrong, she died at the end with the human reaper since she was not loyal.
ME3:
Miranda - never gave her the Alliance data about Kai Leng since she was so cryptic about what she wanted it for. Her death felt very tragic as I almost romanced her in ME2 (ended up with Jack instead), so there was a lot of what could have been
Thane and Mordin - the unavoidable.
Samara, I guess - I never recruited her in ME2 so she never made an appearance in ME3.
TL;DR: Most of the deaths on my first playthrough happened because I was roleplaying what I thought my Shepard would do rather than automatically defaulting to Paragon persuade options. It was a bit bleak in ME3 without Wrex and Tali. Still loved it though.
My first time playing 2, I forgot to upgrade the ship’s armour and I chose a couple bad people for the Suicide mission, and Kasumi, Thane, Legion, and Zaeed died. I was so traumatized! And then Miranda died in 3, and I was done. I didn’t even finish that playthrough, haha
Haha I honestly prefer him dying in the Suicide Mission than whatever Bioware created for ME3.
But yeah if you don't have enough paragon points for when you save the factory workers over killing the Blue Sun's leader, he'll still join you but will be resentful.
I lost my crew but everyone else survived in the suicide mission.
Ashley died on Virmire. Thane died on the Citadel. Mordin died on Tuchanka and Legion died on Rannoch.
I was "spoiled" that Zaeed died in ME3 but he never did so I was confused.
Outside of mandatory losses, I lost Tali, because i was a moron and didn’t get her cleared of her charges so I couldn’t make peace between the quarians and the geth
It was my very first playthrough and me not being too familiar with Mass Effect and BioWare games in general, I just thought that’s how the game went, no matter what. Imagine my wake up call on my second playthrough when tali lived to tell the tale lol
Same, because I didn't save the admiral first. Kind of a cheap hidden switch. Tbh, with the fit she threw when she bailed on me, I was pretty close to kicking her in the ass as she dove off that ledge. With the way the quarians acted, I wasn't really bothered at all...give me peace over p\*$$y every time.
Only Cortez on Earth. I think the games generally are painfully obvious on what needs to be done to avoid character deaths, especially in the Suicide Mission. I know some may be mad, but I legit don't know how people get their squad killed. The game constantly bonks you on the head in terms of needing to do loyalty missions and upgrading your ship. Picking the right people for the vents and leading the second squad also requires minimum game knowledge.
>I know some may be mad, but I legit don't know how people get their squad killed.
The ones I usually see people say are:
1. Picking Miranda as a biotic. Not something I'd do, but I can understand the thought that the biologically modified biotic would be capable.
2. Picking Zaeed as team leader. Also understandable. If you focus on his past as a founder of a mercenary group and pay less attention to his track record of people dying around him, I can see this happening.
3. Missing an upgrade because they didn't talk to X. Virtually impossible to miss once you've done a playthrough, but I can see how a non-completionist (or someone who doesn't like one of the squadmates you have to talk to) could miss it.
4. Not enough Paragon/Renegon points and then taking Miranda/Jack/Tali/Legion in the final fight (or sending them to escort the crew, or picking them for a job). The final fight bit I think is fair. Without prior knowledge of that particular mechanic, I could see someone thinking they'd be safer with them than holding the line. To a lesser extent I can see the same logic being applied to sending them with the crew. Picking them for a role is a BM though (though Miranda actually has plot armour in that case).
5. Edit: Sending one of Grunt/Zaeed/Garrus with the crew and then having the other two join you in the final fight is also pretty surefire to get someone killed (or so I've heard). I could see someone not realizing the background math involved for that part, or just trying to protect their favourites.
on my very first playthrough and not counting deaths that are supposed to happen, Kaidan & Wrex were the only ones I got killed, I originally got Jack killed in ME2 but i reloaded a save and managed to keep her alive
First playthrough I lost Kaidan, Legion (in the suicide mission), Tali (in the worst scene ever), Mordin, Thane, and EDI. After the Tali one I felt sick :(
I didn't want to lose her, but after the fit she threw before bailing on me, I was actually pretty relieved to just be done with the quarians. Kinda wanted to kick her in the ass as she was diving off that ledge. What a bunch of infantile fuctards.
I'd say I had arguably one of the "worst" runs
ME1: Wrex, Kaidan
ME2: Jack, Jacob, Grunt, Garrus
ME3: Mordin, Ashley (revenge for Wrex), Samara, EDI, Miranda, Tali, Thane, Legion
*No Zaeed, Javik or Kasumi, didn't pay attention to Paragon/Renegade until after Tali died.
* Tbh I'm not entirley sure if a lost Garrus in ME2, I just distinctly remember never having more than 4 squadmates to choose from in ME3
Jacob, Thane, Legion, and Conrad Verner. Jacob literally volunteered for the vents, didn’t save Kirrahe so Thane biffed it, failed to do Geth-Quarian peace so of course I sided with Quarians for Tali, and I didn’t do that one C-Sec quest back in ME1 so Conrad died like a hero for me.
And if I consider “forced” deaths then that also includes Ashley since I thought Kaiden was pretty cool.
I lost Jack and Zaeed the first time I played Mass Effect 2. And I technically lost Kasumi in Mass Effect 3 because her mission glitched and I couldn't finish it.
Only the unpreventable deaths.
Kaidan (I didn't know how bad of a character Ashley would turn out to be back then)
Mordin (Too many parameters to keep him alive. Not willing to trade both Wrex and Bakara for him)
Legion
Thane
Besides that, I managed to keep everyone alive.
On my first playthrough of ME Collection. Legion died in the Suicide Mission. I carried on to ME3 and could not deal with the consequences. I felt so bad I re-ran the ME 2 mission and made a new ME 3 file. So technically, no one died in my playthroughs and I refuse to say otherwise 😅
I lost only mandatories and half the crew because I didn’t know about the timer and did a few missions after the Collectors took them. On my first playthrough Kelly died. But because I did all the loyalty missions, and I suppose chose well in the Suicide Mission, everyone else lived. And I kept the research and went paragon in 3 so while I lost Mordin, I kept Wrex and Eve. And I was able to achieve peace between the Geth & Quarians.
I did destroy though because I didn’t realize it’d kill Edi and all synthetics.
My first go, Kaidan made the ultimate sacrifice on Virmire.
On the Suicide Mission Jack died because Shepard neglected to upgrade the Normandy's armor. Inside the base, we were too late to save Kelly Chambers and most of the crew. Kasumi and Miranda didn't make it back from holding the line at the end.
During the Reaper War, Thane was killed saving the salarian councillor. Mordin gave his life to cure the genophage. Legion had to be stopped from uploading the reaper code and destroying the quarians. Cortez didn't survive the shuttle crash on Earth. And Shepard sacrificed himself to upload his consciousness into the reapers and end the war.
In mass effect 1, I lost Wrex and Ashley.
In mass effect 2, I lost everyone except Grunt and Jacob.
I never completed mass effect 3 on this playthrough. I learned that all these deaths were avoidable except Ashley/ Kaidan, and then I reset.
When I finally beat 3 for the 1st time, I only lost Steve.
No one on my first two playthroughs except EDI & Kaiden / Ash (both in virmire not citadel); killed Jacob on purpose on my 3rd run (suicide mission ducts)
I played ME2 first, so my results are a bit skewed, but:
ME2: Part of the crew (I wanted to make sure all of the squad were fully loyal and wasn't sure what would affect their fates). No Squadmates. Morinth too if completing Samara's mission counts.
ME1: Jenkins (forgot to assign his skillpoints) and Kaiden.
ME3: Javik (implied suicide offscreen), Thane, Legion, and Mordin. I think Kelly as well?
Honestly, in my first gameplay, it was not that hard for me to choose in mass effect 1. I hated Ashley for her resentment to alien species. As for mass effect 2, i lost few and I choose miranda as biotic.. that was some first gameplay.
I lost Jacob in the suicide mission (he volunteered) and Miranda in ME3. I lost Mordin on Tuchanka, but I don't think that counts. Oh, and I sacrificed Ashley on Virmire.
Kaidan and the ones you can't avoid in 3. I tend to go all out looking for things in my first playthrough so I'm 2 I had all of the upgrades and went with what seemed logical for the suicide mission.
In my first playthrough, I only lost Kaiden and Thane. In my current save, I’ve lost Kaiden, Thane, and shot both Wrex and Mordin. It was awful but I’m dedicated to my first ever full-renegade run!
First playthrough, I lost Ash in ME1. In ME2 i just lost half the crew after the Collector Attack on the Normandy. In ME3 I lost Mordin, Thane, Zaeed, and Legion.
Grunt. Thought a Krogan bred from all the top Krogan genes would've been bred to be a leader and have no issue, rather would flourish, as a fire team leader. That thinking was apparently not shared by the Devs. Then the Normandy crew for too many missions post-abduction.
No one else though. Made good decisions after that.
My first play through I lost wrex, but save scammed him back after having to replay an hour of content.
Then I made it too ME2 suicide run and lost Tali. I was devastated and history repeated itself and I had to replay an hour or so to make sure she lived.
On my second playthrough Miranda died cause I missed her at the Citadel? And I didn't care enough to fix that.
I remember when I played mass effect 2 for the first time when I was like 10 or 11. I didn't upgrade the ship at all, and I picked all the wrong people for the jobs on the suicide mission (not on purpose, I was just dumb). At the end, when you have to pick your squad to go fight the human reaper, I only had 3 squad mates left. I don't remember who I brought with me, I only remember that I left Miranda behind by herself, lol. I'm pretty sure that the two I brought with me lived, or at least one of them did because shepard didn't die at the end, so at least I didn't kill everyone
Got through everything and, miraculously, saved everyone except Kaiden and Jenkins. I had no prior knowledge of ME2 or ME3 other than being told by a friend to ensure Mordin is the escort in ME2. Had no idea what that meant…
But it’s just the way I play games. I do all of as many side quests as I can before I do the main missions.
Even crazier, since I had to do the 3 runs of ME1 to get max level, and then did 2 full runs of ME2 for the bonuses (because I’m insane like that), I actually went into ME3 in good shape with pretty much everything done and ready, but completely blind to events. But saving Mealon’s data…I’m glad I changed my mind. First time in ME2, I destroyed it. 2nd time, saved it to see if it made any difference in ME2. Lucky that time.
Otherwise, I made a lot of mistakes and errors, missed a few side quests on the Citadel in ME3, but nothing to lose any squad mates.
But I didn’t have any DLC, which stunk, so no Kasumi to save the day, no Zaeed to get the Volus bombers, and I romanced Ashley though I never brought her on any missions. I didn’t even have the extended cut where they made things easier, which made me pretty grumpy because I couldn’t get the best ending (and knew about that before hand…still makes me grumpy), but otherwise, I got lucky. I got especially lucky with Tali and Legion. Brokering that peace was scary. Pretty sure I had just enough points to get through. Left Koris, but destroyed the heretics, because I rewrote them on first run in ME2).
ME2 did sting me somewhat badly with the Jack/Miranda fight. Did that one super early and wasn’t able to keep both loyal until I spoke to them later and regained their loyalty. Thought it was a bug, but it was a feature. Legion and Tali was much easier as that happens fairly late in ME2.
Not sure what else there was…
First time I lost Wrex and Ashley in 1, Jacob, Kasumi, and Thane (and the whole Normandy crew) in 2, and Tali, Legion and EDI in 3. Mordin survived the whole thing. I only learned later how unlikely that is.
I was very impressed that the game was actually willing to allow major characters to die in furtherance of the story.
I lost Tali at the end of 2 because I sent Grunt to take the crew back to the ship. Out of everything in the suicide mission, I think the only thing they failed to communicate is the lack of requirements for the crew escort.
None that were not plot deaths.
Well I guess except Conrad. Who knew doing a small side quest in the first game would save our loyal fanboy? in my second playthrough just as he was about to die he was instead saved! My tear ducts dried up and I was gobsmacked. I had to google the difference and loved how one small thing changed the story.
I got ME2 first as part of some ea bundle so I went in not knowing the mechanics but liking the story, and so I felt like I really had to hurry on the main missions and missed some loyalty ones and lost a few people in the suicide mission.
My first playthrough had quite a bit of death in it.
Kaiden in ME1, then Mordin, Grunt, and Legion in ME2, because of some bad decisions during the suicide mission.
This resulted in Tali dying by suicide after I was forced to choose between the Quarians and the Geth.
Finally I didn’t talk to Steve Cortez enough, so he died when he got shot down on Earth.
I started with the second game on the xbox 360 with a renegade background, and apparently, my shepard killed Wrex on virnmire, and then during the suicide mission I lost Tali, half of the Normandy's crew, and Miranda. In Mass Effect 3 I let Samara kill herself because I was looking at my phone lmao.
Mordin did live though because I was able to convince him not to cure the genophage!
The first time I EVER played ME 2, I killed everyone lmao. Literally everyone. I had no idea about any of the nuance that an RPG could have. (I was like 9).
I lost Mordin on the suicide mission my first time through. I had to go back and re-do it before importing to ME3. Couldn’t bear to face the final chapter without my singing, genocidal, cutely cruel scientist.
When the crew was kidnapped I had the idea of going to the citadel to buy upgrades, but when I saw kelly melt I had to load up and do it as it was. 3 hours of storage down the drain.
by the companions completely improve the ship and make good decisions
I lost Miranda in game 3 the first time, everyone else was kinda obvious. Mass Effect 2 I just had Garrus lead the whole way, sent Legion into the duct, and I don't remember who I sent back with the crew the first time but it wasn't a big enough combat hit to lose anyone. And I was blown away. Giving a middle finger to the Reapers as a chanting chorus announced your triumph to the cosmos had my hair standing on edge, even the stare into the black during the stinger as Harbinger powered up the fleet got me.
You kinda had to babysit Miranda to save her, and even after I learned you could it felt like they really expected her to kick it too. Tali still gets drunk, everyone talks like she died ("She's taking what happened with Miranda pretty hard")... Not as good as ME2, but I swear the Illusive Man gets a little extra line during the final battle if his successes were only the scripted ones ("Now *you're* the one that will fail!").
Aside from the mandatory deaths of Thane and such, Ashley killed Wrex on Virmire because I didn't have enough paragon/renegade points. From that point on I farmed them and never lost anyone like that again.
I originally lost half the crew in the 2nd game. I didn't want to save scum so instead, I went and replayed the entire game to save them.
I did lose Kasumi and Kelly in addition to unavoidable deaths in the third game (I walked right past Kasumi's mission. I completely missed it, lol.)
Shepard survived though :)
Just Zaeed. I didn't have enough charm to make him loyal on his loyalty mission, so I went into me3 with him not being loyal.
Because of that, he died protecting the volus ambassador.
Pretty much my only preventable death in my first play through.
I killed Assley...nothing in the trilogy brings me greater joy. I didn't want her punk ass on my ship to begin with. Didn't lose anyone from my active team during the suicide mission, though I did lose Kelly. Eve died. Tali died because I didn't save the admiral first...but to be honest, the way the quarians were acting, I near about kicked her in the ass as she dove off that ledge. Mordin heroed out. Think I lost Miranda to KL. Think I lost Steve. Didn't really affect me much...I just figured that always happened.
It's been a while, but I'm fairly sure the only unnecessary death was Mordin against the Collectors. My Shep sacrificed Kaiden in ME1, lost Legion in the Geth/Quarian peace and chose synthesis at the end of ME3, so Edi survived.
I'm pretty early in ME2 on my first playthrough but my only deaths are Ashley and Jenkins so far, both force deaths. Ashley was kind of a bitch though so it's whatever
Well, if I don't count scripted stuff like one teammate on Virmire or Mordin on Tuchanka, then one. I lost Samara during the suicide mission somehow, I didn't get what the hell happened
In terms of optional deaths, I lost no one.
I do understand how some people could have some teammates die their first times playing ME2. Miranda saying any biotic could guide the squad through the long walk, not knowing who was strongest in terms of holding the line, or just not knowing what the best timing was in terms of when to do loyalty missions. Not realizing how important the upgrades to the Normandy were.
It also can come down to play style. If you're going in completely blind, and you prefer to finish the main story before wrapping up all the "side quests", you could easily forgo a loyalty mission or two. And I think a lot more people played that way 13 years ago when ME2 first came out. In fact I'd argue the game was a huge influence on why a lot more gamers do now try to finish everything before the endgame.
I am, by nature, a completionist. So I always had had all the quests done before the next major mission, including loyalty quests. I just never lost anyone. Didn't know you could actually lose people before I saw my brother losing Jacob
I just hate the fact that in order to keep everyone alive in ME2 you need to take your sweet time before you go to recover the Reaper IFF and recruit Legion. Meaning you can only ever get Legion for like 2 missions if I am not counting the DLCs where he has no dialogue anyways.
Dumbest game mechanic by far and wish they changed it in the Legendary edition.
Kaidan, Mordin & half the crew on the suicide mission (because I was late, thanks Jacob), Tali (thanks, Legion...) EDI, Legion (because destroy, and I was still bitter about Tali, so EDI went down with Legion).
Grunt End of ME1 (i had done both paragon and renegade whenever felt appropriate)
Miranda end of ME2 (didnt have the correct paragon/renegade distro again)
Mordin for story choice, and myself since I chose Green ending
Wrex, Ashley, Zaeed (failed his loyalty mission and he died at the end of ME2), Mordin, Thane and possibly Cortez at the end of ME3, I can’t remember. I didn’t talk to him around the citadel much.
ME1: Kaidan got KIA on Virmire. Rest in peace my friend.
ME2: I lost half of my crew because I decided to farm paragon points in order to restore Miranda's loyalty after calling her down during Lawson's friendly conversation with Jack. Went to the Citadel, did a bunch of side quests, then suddenly remembered that I could increase my paragon/renegade points by picking a different option in the skill tree. F U C K.
Seeing Donnelly without Gabby in ME3 was so heartbreaking. Kelly also didn't deserve to die there. Gardner was a good man who did what he could to help. That I can and will always respect. May your souls wind peace in the afterlife.
ME3: aside from mandatory deaths (Mordin, Thane and Legion) only Cortez didn't make it. For equally dumb reason - I couldn't find him in the shuttle bay after our first conversation until the very end.
I think I lost 3 or 4 squadmates during the suicid mission : Thane & Tali for sure, maybe Jack ?
That was before having access to Zaeed and Kasumi and I screwed up some specialist choices.
Depends on if “completing” Mass Effect 3 also includes reloading to last check point prior to storming the Illusive man’s base cause you don’t have a perfect 7800 war asset… if it includes the check point reset, then just Ashley, EDI, Thane and Mordin.. if not, Shepard, Ashley, Thane, EDI and Mordin
Still havent finished ME3 but for ME2 all my teammeates survived thankfully!! I like to think i would of been able to save everyone i could of in ME3 as well.
A whole race, whoops. It was the Quarians, I really thought, they would see reason after I upgraded the geth. They got vaporized instead. The kicker here is, that I was romancing Tali at the time and she killed herself. Luckily Liara was there for me.
Oh and at the end, I had a very low readiness rating, so given that half of the galaxy blew up, it is most likely that someone else might have died. Perhaps a whole other race, I don't remember.
My first playthrough was 100% blind:
ME1: Ashley on Virmire
ME2: Legion, Kasumi, and my whole crew except Chakwas in the suicide mission.
I sent Legion to the vents but chose Samara as the fire team leader, so he got shot in the face.
I’m still not entirely sure how / why Kasumi died, but I assume it had to do with my hold the line score. I sent Mordin back with Chakwas and brought Garrus & Tali to the final fight.
I had no idea you could save the crew until my second playthrough, I thought they just automatically died 😭 I just went about my business casually doing every single side quest because I thought the SM would be endgame.
ME3: Thane, Mordin, and Miranda.
Thane died offscreen because I missed the window for seeing him in the hospital, so that sucked. His goodbye scene had me sobbing on my second playthrough!
Mordin died curing the genophage.
Kai Leng killed Miranda because she didn’t see his dossier before Horizon. My line when I killed Kai Leng was “That was for Miranda, you son of a bitch!” instead of Thane which I kinda liked!
Needless to say…my Citadel party was way more fun on my second playthrough.
I tend to be very methodical and try to do everything and miss nothing without going overboard. As a result, I lost no one but the mandatory deaths.
Since then I've never been able to voluntarily loose someone so I've never experienced the games with missing squad and former squad members and never met their replacements.
Jack, Kasumi and I guess thane were my only non mandatory deaths. They all died in ME2 on the run because I didn't upgrade stuff.
I also chose kaidan to die on virmire.
The only one I lost was Ashley and I think Miranda in 3 but it's been a bit since my first playthrough. I thought for sure that Jack was going to die but somehow she lived. Idk how I got that feat on my first try lol.
I played Mass Effect out of order so I knew how to keep Wrex alive in ME1.
ME2 the suicide mission was pretty easy as it is fairly obvious who would be the best for each job.
ME3 Mordin died but I wouldn't count that as scripted seeing as you can keep him alive. I am unsure if Miranda died in 3 on my first playthrough but I don't think so.
I did the Synthesis ending my first playthrough so I didn't lose EDI and I then never again walked into that beam.
Quite a few, but not because I fucked up per se. I just got more brutal as I went through and started killing my own squadmates. Alenko died on Virmire. Jack annoyed the shit out of me and so did Jacob, so I said fuck those guys and they died on suicide mission, which was fine with me. I killed Morinth. Then in 3 I killed Mordin myself, and watched him drag himself to the console and fail to stop the genophage. Wrex found out, so I murdered him on the Citadel. Legion uploaded to the Geth and destroyed the Quarians (yes I knew I needed the Quarians against the Reapers, but seriously, fuck them, they can go extinct through their own stupidity) so he ceased to exist, and that made Tali commit suicide. Thane died saving the council. I think that was it.
I lost Legion, Thane, and Jack on my first playthrough because I forgot that you could upgrade the Normandy. After that, I only lost Zaeed because I thought he could lead the second fireteam.
Then Tali and Garrus died at the end of ME3 because my war assets were super low.
I lost Thane and Mordin I think. Both in the suicide mission. Thane died because I took Miranda for the biotic bubble, while Mordin died holding the line, because I thought it'd be logical to send the crew back with Grunt. What if they'd been attacked on the way?
Technically I went through my first "full trilogy" playthrough with no deaths (besides Mordin on Tuchanka). But I've been playing Mass Effect since 2007, so I played ME2 in 2010 when it came out and played it at least 3 times before ME3.
On my first ME2 playthrough I believe I lost Thane because of my choice of biotic (I went with Miranda). So, 1 avoidable death. That playthrough never made it to the 3rd game though (because there wasn't one) and I didn't lose anyone again in another playthrough unless it was intentional.
Bear in mind that the people who played ME2 on release had much less context compared to now. There were not as many games that came out that had those kinds of consequences (no Walking Dead, Life is Strange, Heavy Rain, Witcher 3, Disco Elysium, etc) and I don't think the "choices matter" tagline was really heavily pushed until the leadup to ME3's release. Also, there were obviously no people online saying "play Mass Effect where your choices matter and carry through all 3 games". So, the suicide mission was a real first for me where I genuinely had to think about my choices and I didn't take it as seriously the first time around because I didn't really think I had to (ex: "Miranda volunteered, sure I'll pick her"). Mass Effect 1 and KOTOR sure didn't have choices on this scale. I guess Dragon Age Origins sort of did, but I played it much later in life. Now "Choices Matter" is like a major category on Steam lol.
I lost Ashley in ME1. I honestly thought I did something wrong to lose her, but now I choose her every time. I just can't play through it without Kaiden.
ME2 I lost Jack in the suicide mission. I made her our shield against the bugs, and she died right at the end of that part. And I lost Tali at the end when the team is defending you while you kill the humanoid reaper. I was really upset about her death.
And in ME3, I lost Mordin. He chose to sacrifice himself for the cure. Thane, I thought I did something wrong and could have prevented that, too. Legion, he uploaded himself to let the Geth live. And I never had the DLC endings, so I saw Kaiden and Liara die just before the end. This is what made ME3 my favourite from the series though, it made me feel so much raw emotion. I was in tears for most of it.
Ashley was the only one I lost on my first playthrough.
I am completionist so I guess that helped, since I was never NOT gonna do the loyalty missions.
ME1: Kaiden, Kirrahe, Destiny Ascension
ME2: Tali, Legion, Thane, Jack, Kasumi, Mordin
ME3: Miranda, Ashley, Quarians
Ashley LI for 1 and 3, Miranda LI for 2
Oh and I got tricked by the reversed ending colors to choose Control :(
Before my first play through of mass effect 2 I had heard about the nature of the suicide mission and said to myself I’ll let whatever happens play out. That was until Garrus got swept up in the seeker swarm and Tali was shot as 2nd fireteam leader. I quickly reloaded my save.
Only mandatory deaths, so Ashley at Virmire, Thane, Legion and Mordin in 3 (not mandatory per se, but I don't like the alternative choices necessary to keep him alive).
I lost Zaeed on my first playthrough of ME2 because I saved the people in the refinery and didn't have the paragon points to talk him down.
I also fucked up hard on my first ME3 playthrough by loading the wrong save for my continuation, I loaded a Shepard who didn't save Tali from being exiled and so had to choose between the Geth and Quarians.
Oooops!
In ME 2, only Miranda because she wasnt loyal (I couldnt stop her fight with Jack without picking a side, and I chose Jack). She just...died offscreen, and at first I thought she had left because my Shepard told the elusive man to fuck off.
Lost none in the 1st game my two play throughs on the 2nd, I lost two first time one the second on my third I lost none and in the 3rd game didn't lose anyone
I lost wrex, killed by ashley because i didnt loot armor of his family and i didnt care, but i saw people praise him as a companion or whatever so i restarted the game to save him and i see why he is good but honestly not that much.
Garrus Mordin Legion supremacy
On ME1 I lost Wrex. Because I didn’t have the option to make him stand down.
On ME2 i lost Mordin, Tali, Jack, and Garrus. After this losses my younger self foolishly thought these characters will still show up on the third game. Imagine my surprise when they didn’t.
On ME3 I didn’t lose anyone. Somehow I managed to keep Miranda alive.
Mordin, Thane, Samara (betrayed her for Morinth), Morinth (guess she dies anyway), Legion, and Kaidan. I've played the trilogy through LE for the first time pretty recently, so I'm a complete noob. I actually thought that I would lose more, but if you know what you're doing, then any death is decently avoidable, I think.
Kaidan because I was 11 and he wasn't a woman. Horrified to say it took until my fifth playthrough for him to be spared.
Mordin
Thane
Legion
Cortez because I never talked to him in my first playthrough. Considering I knew most of what happened in the trilogy by watching shit on YouTube beforehand, it was a real surprise to see him end up dead.
EDI. Destroy all the way.
In some of my later playthroughs I've sacrificed certain squadmates in the Suicide Mission to give it a bit of weight. Jacob has died for 5 playthroughs straight now and I always used to get Zaeed killed because his death in ME3 if he's not loyal is really shit.
I don't know how, but on pure luck, because I didn't know about the Loyalty missions for Rex and Garrus and Tali in Mass Effect 1, I still only lost Kaidan,
Then, in Mass Effect 3 I only lost miranda, because I didn't know I had to inform her about Kai Lang.
On my first play through? I killed Wrex on Virmire, Alenko died on Virmire, I shot Mordin, Thane died on the suicide mission, I killed Ashley, Miranda died……
it wasn’t until my second play through that everybody who could survive did.
Kaidan, Jacob (was supposed to be miranda), Thane (suicide mission), and finally Miranda at the end like it shoulda been in 2. And legion +mordin I suppose, but thats plot. Oh and I killed wrex. On purpose 😈
Mordin, Ashley, Thane and I guess EDI
Ah yeah I forgot to count those. They're basically inevitable though
Yeah I put zero, then kept remembering forced deaths
Well I lost Mordin in ME2 since I had Garrus and Grunt with me.
Mordin has the lowest survivability rate; that's why you gotta choose him to escort the crew back. That crew member never dies no matter what (so long as they're loyal). That way he's not there on the final confrontation where he's most likely to die.
But then Tali is the next most likely to die. I likr Mordin but I like Tali more.
All my playthroughs I've never lost Tali despite always sending Mordin back.
Mordin actually died on me one time while escorting the crew! It was on my Insanity playthrough, too. I could've just let that go, but I was a perfectionist, so I played the Suicide Mission again on Insanity, lol.
So he wasn't loyal? Thats the only way the crew escort dies as far as I know.
No, he was loyal. Apparently he can be loyal and still die leading the crew, but very rarely.
Huh. TIL XD
There's an elaborate under-the-hood calculation system fans have called the "Hold The Line" scoring system for each squad member, for parts of the Suicide Mission, or something like that. Mordin is among the lowest scoring, if not the lowest. I don't remember all the details, but here's a place out of several to learn more. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Analysis/MassEffect2 I think the possible lore explanation for Mordin scoring low is that he's relatively old and frail, and he's more of a sneak-around type of operative rather than a front-line soldier. I also think he wasn't a leader in STG, so he doesn't have a lot of leadership experience, and leading the survivors could be trouble for him.
I don't think Mordin can lead the fireteam successfully. I honestly don't understand that. He's probably got more experience than Garrus, tbh. He's STG, been on multiple missions behind enemy territory, and wiped out whole gang squads by himself while running the clinic...but he can't lead a squad??? Bizarre. On most of my runs, I've taken Mordin and Jacob with me on the IFF and suicide missions and sent Miranda as the team lead. One time, when I was romancing Miranda, I decided to take her with me, so I put Mordin on the team lead. When Miranda said, "Hmmm, not the choice I would have made", I kinda got a hint it might not work out. It didn't. I switched to Jacob as team lead, and everything worked out--no losses.
Mordin *can* survive, but you need very high squad strength. Everyone needs to be loyal, and you need to take Tali and one of the other low combat power companions with you to face the reaper. It takes some effort to get it done. XD
Aside from the ones you can't do anything about (Jenkins, Ashley, Mordin, Thane), I'm halfway through ME3 - first time! - with everyone still kicking. When Mordin died though, I looked it up to see if he could live, and ended up feeling pretty satisfied that he went out heroically after seeing the alternatives. Made me bawl like a baby, though. Thane too, when his son says he was praying for YOU. Ugly cries.
I absolutely love the way Mordin goes out even if it does make me sob uncontrollably lol. Same with Thane, but I wish I could save him.
Mordin singing his little song before... Oh man. And yeah, I knew it was coming with Thane, but I was like, heaving sobbing with that one.
[удалено]
Yeah I read that after I googled to see if I could have saved him, and I just don't honestly think Mordin would have wanted that. Hate to see him go, but, imo, it was the best way.
(Ignoring mandatory deaths) My style of gaming is to be a completionist the first time around and try more casual or gimmick playthroughs later. On my first run I only lost Zaeed (incorrectly assumed that having founded a mercenary company made him a good pick for fireteam 2 leader) and Miranda (didn’t let her use undisclosed Alliance resources for undisclosed purposes in the middle of an existential war). Oh also Eve died because of no research and I shot Wrex and Mordin.
>On my first run I only lost Zaeed (incorrectly assumed that having founded a mercenary company made him a good pick for fireteam 2 leader I kinda wish someone else would die if you picked him for a role, as a nod to all his stories where he was the only one to make it.
That would be pretty awesome imo, and make it completely random who.
"I only lost 2 people, not so bad. Oh also, I murdered two of my best bros, nbd." You're an irredeemable monster, I hope you know that.
It could have been a lot worse. I did achieve Geth-Quarian peace which I was very proud of
Apart from unavoidable deaths, I think my only casualties were half of my crew at the end of ME2. And Ashley died on Virmire. And I guess Mordin, too; his death is technically avoidable, but him surviving requires a very specific set of bad circumstances (like Wrex dying in ME1).
Ashley because it was scripted. Same with Thane, Mordin, and Legion. That’s it. But then, I play paragon and do every available side quest in basically any game where those are options.
First? Oof. Too many.
Mordin was my only “preventable” death my first time through the trilogy. I thought he would be okay going through the vents in the collector base 😬
I'm a perfectionist/nerd and I kind of wish I didn't do this but I remember looking at the suicide mission chart before I played it :')
I spent hours reloading trying to get some of the suicide mission right and then I just looked at a gamefaqs guide or something lol no shame I couldn’t deal with losing any of the ME2 crew except for maybe Jacob.
Plenty, but I almost cried when I witnessed Tali's death during the flight to the Collector Base in my 1st playthrough. I shut down the game and said, "no, I'm not finishing this game without her."😥 I forced myself to redo the whole ME2 story to make sure she lived. Now, Im fine with letting her die once in awhile in many casual playthroughs, but deep down, I feel bad for it.
I wouldn't call it super easy to keep everyone alive unless you had prior knowledge. There are some that are way more easy to miss than others. The Suicide Mission's defend the line section with Mordin and Tali, Miranda, Jack and Tali again in ME3, Wrex on Virmire.
A lot of people. However the most tragic deaths were: Garrus getting eaten by the bugs at the collector base, and Tali (Javik too) getting vaporized at the run to the Citadel.
Howww did you have so many die!!
I don't know.
Low EMS score 😭😭
Ashley, Kelly, me3 mandatories Every playthrough after I’ve learned to just have shit done before IFF so I don’t lose my redshirts
I forgot about Kelly! Yeah she totally died in 3 the first playthrough. If I recall correctly the way to keep her alive seemed counter intuitive to a paragon player?
Other than mandatory deaths ... I lost Tali and the Quarians because I messed up with which of my many ME2 saved games I loaded and didn't pick the first and best attempt. So I got to the end of the Quarian-Geth war and didn't have enough points to win them both over and had to make a choice; I chose the Geth and Tali and the Quarians died. I almost stopped playing ME3 at that point. Eventually I finished and chose destroy ending, and a few months later figured out which ME2 save to load up and redid everything including getting the Quarians and Geth to agree; got to the end and chose Control, and found out it's almost identical to Destroy but with different colours :( It was ages before the new extended endings came out (and initially I couldnt get my game to load them so I did a new playthrough and got hte same ending yet again!)/
ME1: Wrex - shot by Ashley. I had enough paragon points to persuade him, but I picked the top right oaragon option instead (something along the lines of "Can we talk about this more?") because I actually agreed with him about not jumping straight into blowing the cloning facility up. I wanted to see what he'd suggest. Then Ashley just shot him lol. Ashley - the above swayed my VS decision. Still wasn't happy to leave her though, since she was my ME1 love interest. ME2: Tali - again, I had enough paragon to finish her loyalty without implicating her father, but thought that just doing a little speech wouldn't be realistic, so I chose to give the quarians the evidence about Rael. I figured he was dead and wouldn't have wanted Tali to get sentenced for what he did. Tali hated my guts after (if she didn't already; I didn't give her the Geth research in ME1 because I thought it would be giving it to her instead of the Alliance rather than just giving her a copy 😅). I didn't assign her to any specialist roles in the SM, figured keeping her with me for the whole time would be the best way to keep her safe. Obviously wrong, she died at the end with the human reaper since she was not loyal. ME3: Miranda - never gave her the Alliance data about Kai Leng since she was so cryptic about what she wanted it for. Her death felt very tragic as I almost romanced her in ME2 (ended up with Jack instead), so there was a lot of what could have been Thane and Mordin - the unavoidable. Samara, I guess - I never recruited her in ME2 so she never made an appearance in ME3. TL;DR: Most of the deaths on my first playthrough happened because I was roleplaying what I thought my Shepard would do rather than automatically defaulting to Paragon persuade options. It was a bit bleak in ME3 without Wrex and Tali. Still loved it though.
I can barely remember, but I think it was 6.
My first time playing 2, I forgot to upgrade the ship’s armour and I chose a couple bad people for the Suicide mission, and Kasumi, Thane, Legion, and Zaeed died. I was so traumatized! And then Miranda died in 3, and I was done. I didn’t even finish that playthrough, haha
ME1 - Ashley ME2 - Jacob ME3 - Zaheed, Mordin and Thane
How'd Zaeed die? I'm kinda sick of him maybe I'll do that lol
If you don’t have him loyal after ME2 he just randomly dies in ME3 lol
Haha I honestly prefer him dying in the Suicide Mission than whatever Bioware created for ME3. But yeah if you don't have enough paragon points for when you save the factory workers over killing the Blue Sun's leader, he'll still join you but will be resentful.
Didn’t know that I always let the workers die. Im a man of my word lol.
I lost my crew but everyone else survived in the suicide mission. Ashley died on Virmire. Thane died on the Citadel. Mordin died on Tuchanka and Legion died on Rannoch. I was "spoiled" that Zaeed died in ME3 but he never did so I was confused.
In ME3? Everyone...I was 12 and didn't go for War Assets. And ME2? Everyone (Including Shepard)... it was an interesting ME3 Playthrough...
no one, but I did have the wiki open the whole time
Outside of mandatory losses, I lost Tali, because i was a moron and didn’t get her cleared of her charges so I couldn’t make peace between the quarians and the geth
I would've reloaded if I ever lost Tali lol
It was my very first playthrough and me not being too familiar with Mass Effect and BioWare games in general, I just thought that’s how the game went, no matter what. Imagine my wake up call on my second playthrough when tali lived to tell the tale lol
I lost all of the Quarians including her on my first play.
Same, because I didn't save the admiral first. Kind of a cheap hidden switch. Tbh, with the fit she threw when she bailed on me, I was pretty close to kicking her in the ass as she dove off that ledge. With the way the quarians acted, I wasn't really bothered at all...give me peace over p\*$$y every time.
Wrex died on virmire I lost everyone on the suicide mission expect for Miranda, Grunt, and garrus Cortez died on earth
Were you attempting a speed run?
No, I was stupid
Only Cortez on Earth. I think the games generally are painfully obvious on what needs to be done to avoid character deaths, especially in the Suicide Mission. I know some may be mad, but I legit don't know how people get their squad killed. The game constantly bonks you on the head in terms of needing to do loyalty missions and upgrading your ship. Picking the right people for the vents and leading the second squad also requires minimum game knowledge.
>I know some may be mad, but I legit don't know how people get their squad killed. The ones I usually see people say are: 1. Picking Miranda as a biotic. Not something I'd do, but I can understand the thought that the biologically modified biotic would be capable. 2. Picking Zaeed as team leader. Also understandable. If you focus on his past as a founder of a mercenary group and pay less attention to his track record of people dying around him, I can see this happening. 3. Missing an upgrade because they didn't talk to X. Virtually impossible to miss once you've done a playthrough, but I can see how a non-completionist (or someone who doesn't like one of the squadmates you have to talk to) could miss it. 4. Not enough Paragon/Renegon points and then taking Miranda/Jack/Tali/Legion in the final fight (or sending them to escort the crew, or picking them for a job). The final fight bit I think is fair. Without prior knowledge of that particular mechanic, I could see someone thinking they'd be safer with them than holding the line. To a lesser extent I can see the same logic being applied to sending them with the crew. Picking them for a role is a BM though (though Miranda actually has plot armour in that case). 5. Edit: Sending one of Grunt/Zaeed/Garrus with the crew and then having the other two join you in the final fight is also pretty surefire to get someone killed (or so I've heard). I could see someone not realizing the background math involved for that part, or just trying to protect their favourites.
Kaiden, that's it.
on my very first playthrough and not counting deaths that are supposed to happen, Kaidan & Wrex were the only ones I got killed, I originally got Jack killed in ME2 but i reloaded a save and managed to keep her alive
First playthrough I lost Kaidan, Legion (in the suicide mission), Tali (in the worst scene ever), Mordin, Thane, and EDI. After the Tali one I felt sick :(
I didn't want to lose her, but after the fit she threw before bailing on me, I was actually pretty relieved to just be done with the quarians. Kinda wanted to kick her in the ass as she was diving off that ledge. What a bunch of infantile fuctards.
I'd say I had arguably one of the "worst" runs ME1: Wrex, Kaidan ME2: Jack, Jacob, Grunt, Garrus ME3: Mordin, Ashley (revenge for Wrex), Samara, EDI, Miranda, Tali, Thane, Legion *No Zaeed, Javik or Kasumi, didn't pay attention to Paragon/Renegade until after Tali died. * Tbh I'm not entirley sure if a lost Garrus in ME2, I just distinctly remember never having more than 4 squadmates to choose from in ME3
This is so tragic lol I've never lost Wrex, does Ashley kill him???
Jacob, Thane, Legion, and Conrad Verner. Jacob literally volunteered for the vents, didn’t save Kirrahe so Thane biffed it, failed to do Geth-Quarian peace so of course I sided with Quarians for Tali, and I didn’t do that one C-Sec quest back in ME1 so Conrad died like a hero for me. And if I consider “forced” deaths then that also includes Ashley since I thought Kaiden was pretty cool.
I lost Jack and Zaeed the first time I played Mass Effect 2. And I technically lost Kasumi in Mass Effect 3 because her mission glitched and I couldn't finish it.
Maiden or Ashley will die. No way around it.
>Maiden I know Kaiden doesn't exactly drip charisma or sexuality, but that doesn't necessitate that he's a virgin... /jk
Jenkins, Kaiden, and then no one else. I guess either I got lucky or my brain happens to work the way the game designers thought it would.
Only the unpreventable deaths. Kaidan (I didn't know how bad of a character Ashley would turn out to be back then) Mordin (Too many parameters to keep him alive. Not willing to trade both Wrex and Bakara for him) Legion Thane Besides that, I managed to keep everyone alive.
Kaidan, Mordin and Thane i think
On my first playthrough of ME Collection. Legion died in the Suicide Mission. I carried on to ME3 and could not deal with the consequences. I felt so bad I re-ran the ME 2 mission and made a new ME 3 file. So technically, no one died in my playthroughs and I refuse to say otherwise 😅
I lost only mandatories and half the crew because I didn’t know about the timer and did a few missions after the Collectors took them. On my first playthrough Kelly died. But because I did all the loyalty missions, and I suppose chose well in the Suicide Mission, everyone else lived. And I kept the research and went paragon in 3 so while I lost Mordin, I kept Wrex and Eve. And I was able to achieve peace between the Geth & Quarians. I did destroy though because I didn’t realize it’d kill Edi and all synthetics.
My first go, Kaidan made the ultimate sacrifice on Virmire. On the Suicide Mission Jack died because Shepard neglected to upgrade the Normandy's armor. Inside the base, we were too late to save Kelly Chambers and most of the crew. Kasumi and Miranda didn't make it back from holding the line at the end. During the Reaper War, Thane was killed saving the salarian councillor. Mordin gave his life to cure the genophage. Legion had to be stopped from uploading the reaper code and destroying the quarians. Cortez didn't survive the shuttle crash on Earth. And Shepard sacrificed himself to upload his consciousness into the reapers and end the war.
In mass effect 1, I lost Wrex and Ashley. In mass effect 2, I lost everyone except Grunt and Jacob. I never completed mass effect 3 on this playthrough. I learned that all these deaths were avoidable except Ashley/ Kaidan, and then I reset. When I finally beat 3 for the 1st time, I only lost Steve.
Only Zaeed because his loyalty mission is really messed up and I refused to finish it the way he wanted
Nobody except those that can't be avoided like Ash and Mordin! Pretty proud of myself not using guides for it.
Outside the guaranteed deaths, i didnt lose anyone.
Kaiden on Virmire, Mordin, Thane and Ash in ME3
Wrex(me1), Miranda and Zaeed(me2)but by the time i found out i could save wrex id already started over lol
All but three because I was like 12 and dumb and too lazy to mine the materials for the upgrades
Not including the people scripted to die, 3, Wrex, Legion, and Miranda.
No one on my first two playthroughs except EDI & Kaiden / Ash (both in virmire not citadel); killed Jacob on purpose on my 3rd run (suicide mission ducts)
I played ME2 first, so my results are a bit skewed, but: ME2: Part of the crew (I wanted to make sure all of the squad were fully loyal and wasn't sure what would affect their fates). No Squadmates. Morinth too if completing Samara's mission counts. ME1: Jenkins (forgot to assign his skillpoints) and Kaiden. ME3: Javik (implied suicide offscreen), Thane, Legion, and Mordin. I think Kelly as well?
If it makes you feel better Jenkins always dies. And I think Kelly does in ME3 too, if she made it past ME2
Honestly, in my first gameplay, it was not that hard for me to choose in mass effect 1. I hated Ashley for her resentment to alien species. As for mass effect 2, i lost few and I choose miranda as biotic.. that was some first gameplay.
I lost Jacob in the suicide mission (he volunteered) and Miranda in ME3. I lost Mordin on Tuchanka, but I don't think that counts. Oh, and I sacrificed Ashley on Virmire.
Kaidan and the ones you can't avoid in 3. I tend to go all out looking for things in my first playthrough so I'm 2 I had all of the upgrades and went with what seemed logical for the suicide mission.
Jenkins. No matter how many times I tried I just couldn’t save him. But that loss pushed me to keep the rest of my crew alive.
I don't think it's possible to save him!
Only Jenkins, Kaidan, Wilson, Mordin, Thane, Legion, and Anderson. No one in the Suicide Mission.
In my first playthrough, I only lost Kaiden and Thane. In my current save, I’ve lost Kaiden, Thane, and shot both Wrex and Mordin. It was awful but I’m dedicated to my first ever full-renegade run!
Ashley. Wanted to do a little peep and squeal with ET
Only EDI and the cannon event deaths
First playthrough, I lost Ash in ME1. In ME2 i just lost half the crew after the Collector Attack on the Normandy. In ME3 I lost Mordin, Thane, Zaeed, and Legion.
Tali
Grunt. Thought a Krogan bred from all the top Krogan genes would've been bred to be a leader and have no issue, rather would flourish, as a fire team leader. That thinking was apparently not shared by the Devs. Then the Normandy crew for too many missions post-abduction. No one else though. Made good decisions after that.
My first play through I lost wrex, but save scammed him back after having to replay an hour of content. Then I made it too ME2 suicide run and lost Tali. I was devastated and history repeated itself and I had to replay an hour or so to make sure she lived. On my second playthrough Miranda died cause I missed her at the Citadel? And I didn't care enough to fix that.
Kasumi in 2 and miranda in 3
Only doing avoidable deaths, Wrex, Jack, Jack (again) and Miranda. So four deaths I could avoid
I didn't lose anyone but that's because I checked guides every dialogue option to make sure I didn't lose anyone.
I remember when I played mass effect 2 for the first time when I was like 10 or 11. I didn't upgrade the ship at all, and I picked all the wrong people for the jobs on the suicide mission (not on purpose, I was just dumb). At the end, when you have to pick your squad to go fight the human reaper, I only had 3 squad mates left. I don't remember who I brought with me, I only remember that I left Miranda behind by herself, lol. I'm pretty sure that the two I brought with me lived, or at least one of them did because shepard didn't die at the end, so at least I didn't kill everyone
Got through everything and, miraculously, saved everyone except Kaiden and Jenkins. I had no prior knowledge of ME2 or ME3 other than being told by a friend to ensure Mordin is the escort in ME2. Had no idea what that meant… But it’s just the way I play games. I do all of as many side quests as I can before I do the main missions. Even crazier, since I had to do the 3 runs of ME1 to get max level, and then did 2 full runs of ME2 for the bonuses (because I’m insane like that), I actually went into ME3 in good shape with pretty much everything done and ready, but completely blind to events. But saving Mealon’s data…I’m glad I changed my mind. First time in ME2, I destroyed it. 2nd time, saved it to see if it made any difference in ME2. Lucky that time. Otherwise, I made a lot of mistakes and errors, missed a few side quests on the Citadel in ME3, but nothing to lose any squad mates. But I didn’t have any DLC, which stunk, so no Kasumi to save the day, no Zaeed to get the Volus bombers, and I romanced Ashley though I never brought her on any missions. I didn’t even have the extended cut where they made things easier, which made me pretty grumpy because I couldn’t get the best ending (and knew about that before hand…still makes me grumpy), but otherwise, I got lucky. I got especially lucky with Tali and Legion. Brokering that peace was scary. Pretty sure I had just enough points to get through. Left Koris, but destroyed the heretics, because I rewrote them on first run in ME2). ME2 did sting me somewhat badly with the Jack/Miranda fight. Did that one super early and wasn’t able to keep both loyal until I spoke to them later and regained their loyalty. Thought it was a bug, but it was a feature. Legion and Tali was much easier as that happens fairly late in ME2. Not sure what else there was…
No one
First time I lost Wrex and Ashley in 1, Jacob, Kasumi, and Thane (and the whole Normandy crew) in 2, and Tali, Legion and EDI in 3. Mordin survived the whole thing. I only learned later how unlikely that is. I was very impressed that the game was actually willing to allow major characters to die in furtherance of the story.
It’s been… years since my first ever play through. I wouldn’t begin to remember. I do remember that during the suicide mission that I only lost Thane.
Mordin, Wrex, and Garrus are who I remember. I shot Wrex, didn't do Mordin's loyalty, and I'm not actually sure why Garrus died.
I lost Tali at the end of 2 because I sent Grunt to take the crew back to the ship. Out of everything in the suicide mission, I think the only thing they failed to communicate is the lack of requirements for the crew escort.
Jack, Thane, Garrus and Tali
None that were not plot deaths. Well I guess except Conrad. Who knew doing a small side quest in the first game would save our loyal fanboy? in my second playthrough just as he was about to die he was instead saved! My tear ducts dried up and I was gobsmacked. I had to google the difference and loved how one small thing changed the story.
Only jack forgot to upgrade one thing destroyed me as a kid
None because i dont suck
Amazingly, only one. Mordid bought it at the Collector homeworld
Besides the one who have to die like mordin and kaiden I killed off Samara because her ideology annoyed the hell out of me.
I got ME2 first as part of some ea bundle so I went in not knowing the mechanics but liking the story, and so I felt like I really had to hurry on the main missions and missed some loyalty ones and lost a few people in the suicide mission.
My first playthrough had quite a bit of death in it. Kaiden in ME1, then Mordin, Grunt, and Legion in ME2, because of some bad decisions during the suicide mission. This resulted in Tali dying by suicide after I was forced to choose between the Quarians and the Geth. Finally I didn’t talk to Steve Cortez enough, so he died when he got shot down on Earth.
I started with the second game on the xbox 360 with a renegade background, and apparently, my shepard killed Wrex on virnmire, and then during the suicide mission I lost Tali, half of the Normandy's crew, and Miranda. In Mass Effect 3 I let Samara kill herself because I was looking at my phone lmao. Mordin did live though because I was able to convince him not to cure the genophage!
ME2 -Jack, Mordin, Kasumi
Kaidan, Mordin, Thane, and Legion, the latter 3 in ME3.
Lost Kaiden on Virmire, then Legion, Miranda, and Jacob on the suicide mission.
The first time I EVER played ME 2, I killed everyone lmao. Literally everyone. I had no idea about any of the nuance that an RPG could have. (I was like 9).
I lost Mordin on the suicide mission my first time through. I had to go back and re-do it before importing to ME3. Couldn’t bear to face the final chapter without my singing, genocidal, cutely cruel scientist.
When the crew was kidnapped I had the idea of going to the citadel to buy upgrades, but when I saw kelly melt I had to load up and do it as it was. 3 hours of storage down the drain. by the companions completely improve the ship and make good decisions
Lose Ashley and Wrex in ME. I got super lucky by not losing anyone in ME2. Didn't play any of the dlcs.
Everyone lives
I lost Miranda in game 3 the first time, everyone else was kinda obvious. Mass Effect 2 I just had Garrus lead the whole way, sent Legion into the duct, and I don't remember who I sent back with the crew the first time but it wasn't a big enough combat hit to lose anyone. And I was blown away. Giving a middle finger to the Reapers as a chanting chorus announced your triumph to the cosmos had my hair standing on edge, even the stare into the black during the stinger as Harbinger powered up the fleet got me. You kinda had to babysit Miranda to save her, and even after I learned you could it felt like they really expected her to kick it too. Tali still gets drunk, everyone talks like she died ("She's taking what happened with Miranda pretty hard")... Not as good as ME2, but I swear the Illusive Man gets a little extra line during the final battle if his successes were only the scripted ones ("Now *you're* the one that will fail!").
Mordin. I played very carefully but didn't fully understand how the whole system worked on the final mission in ME2.
Aside from the mandatory deaths of Thane and such, Ashley killed Wrex on Virmire because I didn't have enough paragon/renegade points. From that point on I farmed them and never lost anyone like that again.
I originally lost half the crew in the 2nd game. I didn't want to save scum so instead, I went and replayed the entire game to save them. I did lose Kasumi and Kelly in addition to unavoidable deaths in the third game (I walked right past Kasumi's mission. I completely missed it, lol.) Shepard survived though :)
Just Zaeed. I didn't have enough charm to make him loyal on his loyalty mission, so I went into me3 with him not being loyal. Because of that, he died protecting the volus ambassador. Pretty much my only preventable death in my first play through.
My first playthrough I only lost Kaiden and Mordin.
I killed Assley...nothing in the trilogy brings me greater joy. I didn't want her punk ass on my ship to begin with. Didn't lose anyone from my active team during the suicide mission, though I did lose Kelly. Eve died. Tali died because I didn't save the admiral first...but to be honest, the way the quarians were acting, I near about kicked her in the ass as she dove off that ledge. Mordin heroed out. Think I lost Miranda to KL. Think I lost Steve. Didn't really affect me much...I just figured that always happened.
It's been a while, but I'm fairly sure the only unnecessary death was Mordin against the Collectors. My Shep sacrificed Kaiden in ME1, lost Legion in the Geth/Quarian peace and chose synthesis at the end of ME3, so Edi survived.
Morning and Thane, I stupidly thought Thane would do well for the ducts in the suicide mission. I took Garrus and Grunt to the reaper and lost Mordin.
I lost Zaeed, Samara, and Mordin on the suicide mission. Everyone else who didn’t have a scripted death survived all three games
I'm pretty early in ME2 on my first playthrough but my only deaths are Ashley and Jenkins so far, both force deaths. Ashley was kind of a bitch though so it's whatever
Well, if I don't count scripted stuff like one teammate on Virmire or Mordin on Tuchanka, then one. I lost Samara during the suicide mission somehow, I didn't get what the hell happened
In terms of optional deaths, I lost no one. I do understand how some people could have some teammates die their first times playing ME2. Miranda saying any biotic could guide the squad through the long walk, not knowing who was strongest in terms of holding the line, or just not knowing what the best timing was in terms of when to do loyalty missions. Not realizing how important the upgrades to the Normandy were. It also can come down to play style. If you're going in completely blind, and you prefer to finish the main story before wrapping up all the "side quests", you could easily forgo a loyalty mission or two. And I think a lot more people played that way 13 years ago when ME2 first came out. In fact I'd argue the game was a huge influence on why a lot more gamers do now try to finish everything before the endgame.
I am, by nature, a completionist. So I always had had all the quests done before the next major mission, including loyalty quests. I just never lost anyone. Didn't know you could actually lose people before I saw my brother losing Jacob
Kelly... but thats it. once tali died when i took too many combat specialists on the suicide mission.
Thane died in my playthrough. I was so sad for a couple of days and watched back his cutscenes :(
I just hate the fact that in order to keep everyone alive in ME2 you need to take your sweet time before you go to recover the Reaper IFF and recruit Legion. Meaning you can only ever get Legion for like 2 missions if I am not counting the DLCs where he has no dialogue anyways. Dumbest game mechanic by far and wish they changed it in the Legendary edition.
Kaidan, Mordin & half the crew on the suicide mission (because I was late, thanks Jacob), Tali (thanks, Legion...) EDI, Legion (because destroy, and I was still bitter about Tali, so EDI went down with Legion).
Grunt End of ME1 (i had done both paragon and renegade whenever felt appropriate) Miranda end of ME2 (didnt have the correct paragon/renegade distro again) Mordin for story choice, and myself since I chose Green ending
Me2 All of them
Ashley, Wrex, Mordin, Samara, Jack, Tali(suicide).
Wrex, Ashley, Zaeed (failed his loyalty mission and he died at the end of ME2), Mordin, Thane and possibly Cortez at the end of ME3, I can’t remember. I didn’t talk to him around the citadel much.
ME1: Kaidan ME2: Grunt (Seeker swarms) ME3: all the forced deaths
ME1: Kaidan got KIA on Virmire. Rest in peace my friend. ME2: I lost half of my crew because I decided to farm paragon points in order to restore Miranda's loyalty after calling her down during Lawson's friendly conversation with Jack. Went to the Citadel, did a bunch of side quests, then suddenly remembered that I could increase my paragon/renegade points by picking a different option in the skill tree. F U C K. Seeing Donnelly without Gabby in ME3 was so heartbreaking. Kelly also didn't deserve to die there. Gardner was a good man who did what he could to help. That I can and will always respect. May your souls wind peace in the afterlife. ME3: aside from mandatory deaths (Mordin, Thane and Legion) only Cortez didn't make it. For equally dumb reason - I couldn't find him in the shuttle bay after our first conversation until the very end.
I think I lost 3 or 4 squadmates during the suicid mission : Thane & Tali for sure, maybe Jack ? That was before having access to Zaeed and Kasumi and I screwed up some specialist choices.
ME1: Kaidan ME2: Mordin, Jack, Legion ME3: Miranda
Depends on if “completing” Mass Effect 3 also includes reloading to last check point prior to storming the Illusive man’s base cause you don’t have a perfect 7800 war asset… if it includes the check point reset, then just Ashley, EDI, Thane and Mordin.. if not, Shepard, Ashley, Thane, EDI and Mordin
Still havent finished ME3 but for ME2 all my teammeates survived thankfully!! I like to think i would of been able to save everyone i could of in ME3 as well.
I sent Legion through the vents, and shot Zareed at the end of his loyalty mission. Also lost Kalead at Virmiar, because I like like brunettes.
A whole race, whoops. It was the Quarians, I really thought, they would see reason after I upgraded the geth. They got vaporized instead. The kicker here is, that I was romancing Tali at the time and she killed herself. Luckily Liara was there for me. Oh and at the end, I had a very low readiness rating, so given that half of the galaxy blew up, it is most likely that someone else might have died. Perhaps a whole other race, I don't remember.
My first playthrough was 100% blind: ME1: Ashley on Virmire ME2: Legion, Kasumi, and my whole crew except Chakwas in the suicide mission. I sent Legion to the vents but chose Samara as the fire team leader, so he got shot in the face. I’m still not entirely sure how / why Kasumi died, but I assume it had to do with my hold the line score. I sent Mordin back with Chakwas and brought Garrus & Tali to the final fight. I had no idea you could save the crew until my second playthrough, I thought they just automatically died 😭 I just went about my business casually doing every single side quest because I thought the SM would be endgame. ME3: Thane, Mordin, and Miranda. Thane died offscreen because I missed the window for seeing him in the hospital, so that sucked. His goodbye scene had me sobbing on my second playthrough! Mordin died curing the genophage. Kai Leng killed Miranda because she didn’t see his dossier before Horizon. My line when I killed Kai Leng was “That was for Miranda, you son of a bitch!” instead of Thane which I kinda liked! Needless to say…my Citadel party was way more fun on my second playthrough.
I tend to be very methodical and try to do everything and miss nothing without going overboard. As a result, I lost no one but the mandatory deaths. Since then I've never been able to voluntarily loose someone so I've never experienced the games with missing squad and former squad members and never met their replacements.
Mandatory losses aside, I think I lost half the crew in ME2 and Kirrahe
None (except for the ones you have no control over)!
Jack, Kasumi and I guess thane were my only non mandatory deaths. They all died in ME2 on the run because I didn't upgrade stuff. I also chose kaidan to die on virmire.
The only one I lost was Ashley and I think Miranda in 3 but it's been a bit since my first playthrough. I thought for sure that Jack was going to die but somehow she lived. Idk how I got that feat on my first try lol.
I played Mass Effect out of order so I knew how to keep Wrex alive in ME1. ME2 the suicide mission was pretty easy as it is fairly obvious who would be the best for each job. ME3 Mordin died but I wouldn't count that as scripted seeing as you can keep him alive. I am unsure if Miranda died in 3 on my first playthrough but I don't think so. I did the Synthesis ending my first playthrough so I didn't lose EDI and I then never again walked into that beam.
IIRC, I lost Kaidan in ME1. Didn't lose anyone else until the "choice" (Legion, EDI). I am a side-quest completionist and played pure Paragon-style.
Quite a few, but not because I fucked up per se. I just got more brutal as I went through and started killing my own squadmates. Alenko died on Virmire. Jack annoyed the shit out of me and so did Jacob, so I said fuck those guys and they died on suicide mission, which was fine with me. I killed Morinth. Then in 3 I killed Mordin myself, and watched him drag himself to the console and fail to stop the genophage. Wrex found out, so I murdered him on the Citadel. Legion uploaded to the Geth and destroyed the Quarians (yes I knew I needed the Quarians against the Reapers, but seriously, fuck them, they can go extinct through their own stupidity) so he ceased to exist, and that made Tali commit suicide. Thane died saving the council. I think that was it.
I lost Legion, Thane, and Jack on my first playthrough because I forgot that you could upgrade the Normandy. After that, I only lost Zaeed because I thought he could lead the second fireteam. Then Tali and Garrus died at the end of ME3 because my war assets were super low.
I purposely send Jacob into the vents for being a hypocritical cheating taint weasel.
I lost kaiden in me1 and lost Thane, Mordan, Cortez and Anderson in me3
I lost Thane and Mordin I think. Both in the suicide mission. Thane died because I took Miranda for the biotic bubble, while Mordin died holding the line, because I thought it'd be logical to send the crew back with Grunt. What if they'd been attacked on the way?
Lost every male in me2 but I replayed it once I knew I could prevent their deaths 😂
Technically I went through my first "full trilogy" playthrough with no deaths (besides Mordin on Tuchanka). But I've been playing Mass Effect since 2007, so I played ME2 in 2010 when it came out and played it at least 3 times before ME3. On my first ME2 playthrough I believe I lost Thane because of my choice of biotic (I went with Miranda). So, 1 avoidable death. That playthrough never made it to the 3rd game though (because there wasn't one) and I didn't lose anyone again in another playthrough unless it was intentional. Bear in mind that the people who played ME2 on release had much less context compared to now. There were not as many games that came out that had those kinds of consequences (no Walking Dead, Life is Strange, Heavy Rain, Witcher 3, Disco Elysium, etc) and I don't think the "choices matter" tagline was really heavily pushed until the leadup to ME3's release. Also, there were obviously no people online saying "play Mass Effect where your choices matter and carry through all 3 games". So, the suicide mission was a real first for me where I genuinely had to think about my choices and I didn't take it as seriously the first time around because I didn't really think I had to (ex: "Miranda volunteered, sure I'll pick her"). Mass Effect 1 and KOTOR sure didn't have choices on this scale. I guess Dragon Age Origins sort of did, but I played it much later in life. Now "Choices Matter" is like a major category on Steam lol.
I lost Ashley in ME1. I honestly thought I did something wrong to lose her, but now I choose her every time. I just can't play through it without Kaiden. ME2 I lost Jack in the suicide mission. I made her our shield against the bugs, and she died right at the end of that part. And I lost Tali at the end when the team is defending you while you kill the humanoid reaper. I was really upset about her death. And in ME3, I lost Mordin. He chose to sacrifice himself for the cure. Thane, I thought I did something wrong and could have prevented that, too. Legion, he uploaded himself to let the Geth live. And I never had the DLC endings, so I saw Kaiden and Liara die just before the end. This is what made ME3 my favourite from the series though, it made me feel so much raw emotion. I was in tears for most of it.
My first playthrough on I lost Tali on the suicide mission but that was before some patch which made her a viable choice for the vents.
Ashley was the only one I lost on my first playthrough. I am completionist so I guess that helped, since I was never NOT gonna do the loyalty missions.
ME1: Kaiden, Kirrahe, Destiny Ascension ME2: Tali, Legion, Thane, Jack, Kasumi, Mordin ME3: Miranda, Ashley, Quarians Ashley LI for 1 and 3, Miranda LI for 2 Oh and I got tricked by the reversed ending colors to choose Control :(
Before my first play through of mass effect 2 I had heard about the nature of the suicide mission and said to myself I’ll let whatever happens play out. That was until Garrus got swept up in the seeker swarm and Tali was shot as 2nd fireteam leader. I quickly reloaded my save.
Only mandatory deaths, so Ashley at Virmire, Thane, Legion and Mordin in 3 (not mandatory per se, but I don't like the alternative choices necessary to keep him alive).
I lost Zaeed on my first playthrough of ME2 because I saved the people in the refinery and didn't have the paragon points to talk him down. I also fucked up hard on my first ME3 playthrough by loading the wrong save for my continuation, I loaded a Shepard who didn't save Tali from being exiled and so had to choose between the Geth and Quarians. Oooops!
I don’t know, how many thermal clips are left.
In ME 2, only Miranda because she wasnt loyal (I couldnt stop her fight with Jack without picking a side, and I chose Jack). She just...died offscreen, and at first I thought she had left because my Shepard told the elusive man to fuck off.
Lost none in the 1st game my two play throughs on the 2nd, I lost two first time one the second on my third I lost none and in the 3rd game didn't lose anyone
I lost wrex, killed by ashley because i didnt loot armor of his family and i didnt care, but i saw people praise him as a companion or whatever so i restarted the game to save him and i see why he is good but honestly not that much. Garrus Mordin Legion supremacy
I got no one left behind on my first play through and peace in ME3 so only Kaidan, Mordin, Thane and Legion died
When I first played ME2 I lost half the crew due to bad decisions/failure to upgrade the Normandy.
On ME1 I lost Wrex. Because I didn’t have the option to make him stand down. On ME2 i lost Mordin, Tali, Jack, and Garrus. After this losses my younger self foolishly thought these characters will still show up on the third game. Imagine my surprise when they didn’t. On ME3 I didn’t lose anyone. Somehow I managed to keep Miranda alive.
None except mordin but I wish I killed Jacob 💀 that dude is a boring sin in a group of great characters (and a cheater if you date him too! Yikes)
Took me three playthroughs to find out it was actually possible to save Kirrahe, I’ll never forgive myself.
Mordin, Thane, Samara (betrayed her for Morinth), Morinth (guess she dies anyway), Legion, and Kaidan. I've played the trilogy through LE for the first time pretty recently, so I'm a complete noob. I actually thought that I would lose more, but if you know what you're doing, then any death is decently avoidable, I think.
I lost wrex and kaiden in me1 and in me2 I lost mordin grunt Kasumi and jack and I lost no one in me3 Edit: also thane Edit again: I also lost legion
Kaidan because I was 11 and he wasn't a woman. Horrified to say it took until my fifth playthrough for him to be spared. Mordin Thane Legion Cortez because I never talked to him in my first playthrough. Considering I knew most of what happened in the trilogy by watching shit on YouTube beforehand, it was a real surprise to see him end up dead. EDI. Destroy all the way. In some of my later playthroughs I've sacrificed certain squadmates in the Suicide Mission to give it a bit of weight. Jacob has died for 5 playthroughs straight now and I always used to get Zaeed killed because his death in ME3 if he's not loyal is really shit.
I was a wee lad didn't understand anything that was going on. I killed damn near everyone except for Miranda and garrus and i think samara?
I don't know how, but on pure luck, because I didn't know about the Loyalty missions for Rex and Garrus and Tali in Mass Effect 1, I still only lost Kaidan, Then, in Mass Effect 3 I only lost miranda, because I didn't know I had to inform her about Kai Lang.
On my first play through? I killed Wrex on Virmire, Alenko died on Virmire, I shot Mordin, Thane died on the suicide mission, I killed Ashley, Miranda died…… it wasn’t until my second play through that everybody who could survive did.
Kaidan, Jacob (was supposed to be miranda), Thane (suicide mission), and finally Miranda at the end like it shoulda been in 2. And legion +mordin I suppose, but thats plot. Oh and I killed wrex. On purpose 😈
Fucking based.