Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Guides, Tips, And Tricks Roundup

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is an all-new collection featuring Bioware's classic sci-fi RPG series that revamps many aspects of the original games, providing a new way for old and new players to experience these much-loved games. As you'd expect, there's quite a lot to the Mass Effect games, and it may be a lot to take in at first for newcomers. And with the new mechanical changes made to these versions of the games, even returning players might find themselves confused about some things. To help you get the most out of your Mass Effect: Legacy Edition experience, we've compiled a suite of guides and walkthroughs below, each detailing essential tips and tricks for all three games.

For more about how the collection stacks up, be sure to read our Mass Effect: Legendary Edition review in progress. Otherwise, read on for all our guides!

Essential Tips For First-Timers

If you're new to the Mass Effect series, this guide is a solid place to start. We outline important tips about how to best play these games and highlight essential practices to follow to ensure that you're always on the best path from game to game.

Everything Returning Players Should Know

Returning players should start with this guide, as it details all the big new changes to Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, many of which are important to know. This is because the Legendary Edition, in particular, does things like incorporate DLC content more organically into the main experience and create new challenges thanks to adjustments to how your actions impact the final game's epic conclusion.

Mass Effect 1-3 Walkthroughs

Sometimes it helps to have a walkthrough handy as you play an RPG series as involved as the Mass Effect games. Fortunately, we've got in-depth walkthroughs that you can refer to that'll provide beat-for-beat directions on how to get through each game. Note that these walkthroughs were published on GameSpot during each game's original release, so the content within does not account for the changes made in the Legendary Edition. Regardless, these walkthroughs should help you get to where you need in a general sense.

Fun Side Missions You Don't Want To Skip

There's quite the array of side quests in the Mass Effect games--known specifically in the games as Assignments. Not all of them are as involved, but the ones that offer substantial story details and beats that follow through into subsequent sequels as your save transfers from game to game. We've compiled a guide detailing some amazing side quests you shouldn't miss. As of this writing, we only cover the first Mass Effect game in this guide, but we'll be updating it with even more awesome side quests in the days to come.

You Can Pick Any Dialogue Option, You Should Fully Play Paragon Or Renegade, Here's Why

It may be a no-brainer for returning players, but if you're a newcomer, it's especially important that you commit to either Paragon or Renegade in the game's morality system. The decisions you make are important, so it's essential to be consistent with your dialogue choices when it comes to the game's more complex moral situations. We've compiled a quick PSA guide detailing why this is essential.

• Mass Effect: Legendary Edition PSA: You Should Fully Play Paragon Or Renegade, Here's Why [Coming Soon]

Rarest Moments You Might Not Know About

That said if you don't make consistent decisions as a Paragon or Renegade, you will encounter some intriguing and rare moments. This is less a guide, but more of a fun feature recounting some of the most memorable rare moments that can occur in the Mass Effect games and how they happen. This feature contains a ton of story spoilers, so do not read it if you're new to the series.

How To Get Mass Effect 2's Best Ending

If you're vaguely familiar with Mass Effect 2, you'll know that the biggest story beat in it is about the big suicide mission that Sheppard and his crew need to tackle during the game's climax. It's pretty much what the game reiterates and works to culminate to, and it can go very wrong if you're not consistently doing the right things throughout the game. Here's a guide detailing exactly what you need to do to survive Mass Effect 2's suicide mission. As to be expected, this guide will have story spoilers.

How To Reach Ideal Galactic Readiness

One of the most important aspects of Mass Effect 3 is the measurement of your galactic readiness--a factor that heavily dictates how your journey ends. In the past, this measurement was dictated by a variety of factors, including your decisions, time spent in multiplayer, activity in the game's companion mobile app, and more. But seeing as those last two are no longer around, Bioware made some changes with the Legendary Edition by adjusting how galactic readiness is measured. To help you best understand what contributes to your overall galactic readiness throughout the three games, we've compiled a feature detailing what you need to know. We'll be updating it in the coming days with even more details, but it should give you a general understanding of this complex system.

• Mass Effect: Legendary Edition - How To Reach Ideal Galactic Readiness [Coming Soon]