Need character advise ( From experienced ME players)

[Blawdfire]

I have decided to do a complete playthrough of ME 1, 2 and 3. I (Obviously) plan on importing my character into 2 and 3. Any advise on class choice for each game and anything else I should know?

[Method]

Depends on your goals of doing this. Are you planning on just trying to play for fun on casual, go for all achievements, trying to max war assets in ME3, etc? Based on those answers you'll get better advice.

[Blawdfire]

Originally Posted by Method

Depends on your goals of doing this. Are you planning on just trying to play for fun on casual, go for all achievements, trying to max war assets in ME3, etc? Based on those answers you'll get better advice.

I was planning on going for every achievement in all 3 games, DLC included.

[ReynoldsM]

Well if your going for all achievements, i'd personally recommend going for either the soldier or sentinel class in the first game for the difficulty achievements. That's just preference though, from personal experience i've found those two to be easier on hardcore/insane.

[Veedrock]

I apologize if this is too much or if it seems like I'm trying to play the games for you. That is not my intention.

Overall advice:

• Run 2 characters through the series: The achievements for all games, especially Mass Effect 1, requires multiple playthroughs. Usually these playthroughs will require different classes. Having 2 characters will help keep it fresh and keep your "checklists" in order so to speak. As an added bonus there's so many choices to make throughout the games and you'll get to see how each one plays out into the next games if you run both characters differently.

Mass Effect 1

You'll need many playthroughs for this game. You'll need at least 3 playthroughs for difficulty achievements (as well as level achievements which will come naturally with this), 3 playthroughs for squad member achievements, and then various class-specific playthroughs for weapon/power achievements (don't worry, these can overlap).

For your first character, the one that will tackle difficulty achievements, I highly recommend the Soldier as it breezes through them all; that's not to say other classes struggle necessarily, but the Soldier is in a league of its own. I also recommend you make this your "main" character, so make your primary decisions with this character.

For your second character, you should run either Adept or Engineer. You will eventually need to use both classes and use all of their powers 75 times each, but you can "boost" the one you don't pick for a playthrough. This will be your secondary character, so make your decisions based on that.

Combat changes drastically in Mass Effect 2 and you can change class at the start of it, so don't let that influence you to pick inefficient classes.

Lastly, you can do the DLC at any time on any playthrough. Also keep in mind that these missions do count towards the squadmate achievements, so you might find yourself coming back to them even if you have the achievements.

I've decided to break this down into specific playthroughs if you want more input. It doesn't have to be followed to the letter or even at all. It's more of an outline. Putting it in hide tags since it's quite long, though this is free of any real spoilers. the overview above covers the basics. pretty well.

Spoiler! (click here to reveal)

Playthrough 0 Class: Adept or Engineer Difficulty: Casual/Normal (your preference) Goal: Beat the game, power/weapon achievement progress. Summary: This is optional. If you start playing Mass Effect and find it hard to get into or feel overwhelmed by how large the game seems to be, then ignore everything and only do the main missions. After you beat the game you'll have a better perspective of it as a whole and future playthroughs will seem much less daunting. In combat, use your powers as much as possible. Even if a target isn't affected by the power, it adds to the counter as long as it's actually targeted at something. The exception is AI Hacking for the Engineer, in which case you should give that priority and use it against all machine enemies. Remember, the more powers you use, the less you have to use later in the mop-up. You should also end up with a lot of Pistol kills. Playthrough A1 Class: Soldier Difficulty: Casual/Normal (your preference) Goal: 2 squadmate achievements, progress of Shotgun/Sniper weapon achievements, unlock Hardcore. Summary: This will be your main character, so create them to your liking. During this playthrough, pick 2 squadmates and stick with them throughout the game. Don't use Ashley and Kaiden together though. You'll need to do side quests to get enough assignments for the achievements, so visit systems without main quests to get them. After the achievements pop for both squadmates, proceed to beat the game. Your combat focus be using the Sniper and Shotgun weapons, since you may not find them very useful on higher difficulties. Knock out as many kills as you can while you can for each, and after the achievement pops for one switch to the other. If you get both in this playthrough, feel free to use whatever you want. Playthrough A2 Class: Soldier (continued) Difficulty: Hardcore Goal: 2 more squad mate achievements, unlock Insanity Summary: Begin a New Game+, which will import the same character from Playthrough 1 with the same level, equipment, etc. Change the difficulty to Hardcore before you go into the conference room. Same deal as before, but pick 2 different squad members than before and complete assignments until the achievements pop. No specific combat focus for this, just use the Assault Rifle and best equipment/mods you have. Playthrough A3 Class: Soldier (continued) Difficulty: Insanity Goal: Beat Insanity, (optional) last 2 squad mate achievements Summary: Time for Insanity. Remember to change the difficulty before you enter the conference room. You may not notice much difference from Hardcore other than taking more shots to down an enemy. Rush the main quests to get this difficulty out of the way and get the treasured N7 gamerpic. While I recommend another dedicated playthrough (see Final Playthrough) to finalizing your import into ME2, if you don't care to play again after having the achievements, then this will be your last run with your main character. Make your decisions accordingly as they will be what goes on to ME2. Again this is only if you don't want a final playthrough. Playthrough B1 Class: Adept or Engineer Difficulty: Casual Goal: Last 2 squad mate achievements, power achievement progress, finalizing decisions for secondary character. Summary: This will be your secondary character, so create them to your liking. Use the 2 squad members you don't have done yet and do side missions until they pop. In combat use your powers as much as possible. Even if a target isn't affected by the power, it adds to the counter as long as there's a target. The exception is AI Hacking for the Engineer, which has to affect the enemy, so you should give that priority and use it against all machine enemies. Remember, the more powers you use, the less you have to use later in the mop-up. You should also end up getting plenty of pistol kills. Additionally, unless you want to do another dedicated run for this character, make your decisions count as this will be one of the games you import into ME2. Mop-up Playthroughs Class: Adept, Engineer, or Soldier (continued) Difficulty: Casual/Normal (depends) Goal: Weapon/Power achievements, Level 60. Summary: These shouldn't be full playthroughs. For the Adept and Engineer power achievements, these can be "boosted" early in the game (see the achievement guide), so you don't need to progress much at all. If for some reason you didn't hit level 60 with your Soldier before, you should at least be very close, so begin a New Game+ again on Normal and breeze through the main missions since they award large amounts of HP. If you want to do a final playthrough with your soldier, this can wait. Final Playthrough (A4) Class: Soldier (Continued) Difficulty: Casual Goal: Finalizing decisions for main character. Summary: This is optional but recommended. This run isn't relevant to achievements, in fact you should have them all by now. This run a 100% run for a richer experience. You should be plenty acquainted with all the decisions in the game, so make them count since they will impact ME2 and ME3.

I'll leave it at that for now, can cover the other games later but they're a lot more straightforward than ME1.

[Blawdfire]

This is incredible! Thanks!

[Tsaako]

Originally Posted by Veedrock

I apologize if this is too much or if it seems like I'm trying to play the games for you. That is not my intention.

Overall advice:

• Run 2 characters through the series: The achievements for all games, especially Mass Effect 1, requires multiple playthroughs. Usually these playthroughs will require different classes. Having 2 characters will help keep it fresh and keep your "checklists" in order so to speak. As an added bonus there's so many choices to make throughout the games and you'll get to see how each one plays out into the next games if you run both characters differently.

Mass Effect 1

You'll need many playthroughs for this game. You'll need at least 3 playthroughs for difficulty achievements (as well as level achievements which will come naturally with this), 3 playthroughs for squad member achievements, and then various class-specific playthroughs for weapon/power achievements (don't worry, these can overlap).

For your first character, the one that will tackle difficulty achievements, I highly recommend the Soldier as it breezes through them all; that's not to say other classes struggle necessarily, but the Soldier is in a league of its own. I also recommend you make this your "main" character, so make your primary decisions with this character.

For your second character, you should run either Adept or Engineer. You will eventually need to use both classes and use all of their powers 75 times each, but you can "boost" the one you don't pick for a playthrough. This will be your secondary character, so make your decisions based on that.

Combat changes drastically in Mass Effect 2 and you can change class at the start of it, so don't let that influence you to pick inefficient classes.

Lastly, you can do the DLC at any time on any playthrough. Also keep in mind that these missions do count towards the squadmate achievements, so you might find yourself coming back to them even if you have the achievements.

I've decided to break this down into specific playthroughs if you want more input. It doesn't have to be followed to the letter or even at all. It's more of an outline. Putting it in hide tags since it's quite long, though this is free of any real spoilers. the overview above covers the basics. pretty well.

I'll leave it at that for now, can cover the other games later but they're a lot more straightforward than ME1.

Thanks, actually decided to playthrough all the ME games again, never actually got around to finishing the 1st one so I might follow your lil mini guide.