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Easy Ally Achievement Guide: Knock out these achievements in as little as 6 hours!


RavenBlackthorn
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After investing an incredible amount of time in Mass Effect, I gradually started to realize what it really took to knock out the incredibly time consuming Ally achievements. I just rolled 1000 points in this game and wanted to pass on some of the lessons that I learned.

 

It's been stated plenty of times that you need to choose which Allies that you are going to use throughout the game and continue to stick with those characters throughout so, I'm not going to beat a dead horse, if you are new to Mass Effect and new to these achievements, just realize that it is only possible to get 2 ally achievements per playthrough. Choose which Allies you want to get for each playthrough and stick to those two Allies for each and every mission.

 

As I continued to play through the game and complete the various missions, I began to realize that it really didn't matter -how- I completed the mission, it only mattered that I complete the mission be it good, bad, or indifferent. Whether I killed Wrex, or convinced the Tarian to testify or not, it really didn't matter, as long as the mission registered as "Complete". Wipe out the Biotic base and kill it's leader, or avoid a massacre, it really didn't matter either way! So, I asked myself, what is my incentive to get the "good" completion for this mission?? There is none, if you are really just trying to knock out these achievements in an efficient manner. So long story short, as I continued to play through the game a number of different times, each of my playthroughs took increasingly less time as I began knocking out these missions in the quickest ways possible. Sometimes you could even refuse to help someone and the mission would register as complete. It may not have been the "best" or most rewarding ending, but it was "Complete" none the less.

 

The other lesson that I learned is that it really doesn't matter -which- missions that I completed, it really only mattered that I completed "X amount" of missions. With that in mind, pay close attention to my next statement: Only complete the easiest, simplest, and least time consuming missions!

 

If you are hoping to avoid spending 160 hours of gameplay knocking out the full K, stop killing yourself completing the really time intensive missions, each and every playthrough. For Comlpetionist and for game enjoyment--sure, do each and every mission. It is worth at least 1 playthrough to do so. The storyline is fantastic and it is a great game that should be enjoyed in its entirety at least once. I'd even go so far as to recommend that fans of the game complete each mission as a Paragon and each mission as a Renegade. The storylines as they play out are truly a blast. If you enjoy RPG's do yourself a favor and experience both at least once.

 

Keeping in mind my previous statement about not having to complete all of the "time consuming quests", you DO NOT need to Survey A Single Planet, You DO NOT need to Investigate A Single Anomaly, You DO NOT need to Gather A Single Prothean Disc, Or a Single Tarian Insignia. You absolutely DO NOT need to scour the galaxy for A Single Medal of One, or a Single Sign of Battle. Matriarch's Writings??? You don't need to search for them either. Mineral? Gas? Heavy Metal? Light Metal??? (This quest is a huge one, but you don't need to complete it either). Mummified Salarians?? You guessed it! Don't need those either!! Do you need to recover every/any of the Crashed Debris? Absolutely not. Do you need to destroy 5 Geth Outposts for single 1 completed side mission?? NO! Do you need to run around the citadel for an hour scanning every Keeper?? NO!!

 

Do you even need to beat the game?! (I'm going to caveat this statement) For the most part I don't believe that you do! (Liara is the only one that you may need to--and I'll explain why here in a second).

 

As I continued to play through, I realized that I really didn't need to spend hours upon hours scouring the galaxy for every last Mineral, Gas, Light and Heavy Metal when (in terms of completing the achievement) convincing the guy in Flux to lay off the stimulants is exactly the same thing. One quest can take hours, and the other can literally take seconds. Of course these are at two different ends of the spectrum, but you get my point and if you've played through at least once, you'll get a feel for what missions are more time consuming than others.

 

Why search for tons of Turian Insignias when you can much more easily convince the brother to ease up on the testing of his sister in law's baby? Some quests can literally take seconds to complete by tapping X (to advance the dialog). The outcome "good" or "bad" doesn't matter.

 

Do you need to open every crate? Hack every terminal or locked Weapons Locker? Absolutely not. For the vast majority of the Ally achievements you only need to complete roughly 16-17 main missions and 32 to 35 side missions. I proved this with each Ally. The only exception to this rule of thumb is the Asari Ally achievement. This one takes a bit longer to complete because you get her later in the game (thus are unable to complete early missions with her). I nabbed most of my Ally achievements with only 17 Main quests completed. For those Allies that you get later in the game, (the Asari Ally Achievement for example) the achievement will unlock upon subsequent main quest lines completed. For my Asari Ally for example, it unlocked the moment my 18th Main Quest unlocked. Of course this isn't an issue for most of the Allies, only with those Allies that you get later in the game--namely Liara.

 

EDIT: It seems as if these achievements are dependant on the number of main quests completed. I've recieved numerous reports from players that have far exceeded the required amount of side quests (high fourties, low fifties) but have still not gotten the achievement. Once they advanced the main story line to 17 quests or higher--the achievement unlocked. So, it seems as if just completing a sheer number of quests (main + side = achievement) is not necessarily the case. It seems that unless the main quest is advanced far enough, even high amounts of side quests won't trigger the achievement.

 

In closing, do yourself the favor of enjoying the game for at least one playthrough. As I mentioned previously, I'd even recommend fully pursuing the Paragon storyline and the Renegade storyline in their entirety. Both are fantastic. To avoid getting burnt out in this game (believe me, if you play it enough this can happen) try my advice and you'll be able to finish off the full 1000 Gamerscore in quite a bit less time than you might imagine. My last two playthroughs were only 6 hours of in game time per playthrough. For these, I blew through the discussions and only completed the necessary/least time consuming quests. Good luck! Feel free to message me if you have questions, or need help.

 

- RavenBlackthorn

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Well I can't really agree with you there, I finished the game with Ashley and Liara and only got the Ashley achievement. I did all but maybe 4-5 side missions, and only got the Ashley ach. near the end of the Saren battle in the citadel..

 

But I did get the wrex/garrus ach. quicker when i did the mineral and collection assignments..guess you're lucky.

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Well I can't really agree with you there, I finished the game with Ashley and Liara and only got the Ashley achievement. I did all but maybe 4-5 side missions, and only got the Ashley ach. near the end of the Saren battle in the citadel..

 

But I did get the wrex/garrus ach. quicker when i did the mineral and collection assignments..guess you're lucky.

 

Liara is the most challenging Ally Achievement to get, so I'm not surprised this was the example that you used. I have a feeling that getting these achievements does hinge upon the Main Quest line to some extent. When I went for this achievement, I did the absolute minimum amount of quests possible to get off of the Citadel. Once I lifted off, I went straight to Liara's Dig Site and rescued her. Once I rescued Liara, I went back to the Citadel and continued on as before. Once I finished my Sentinal Ally achievement, I headed over to Ilos and the Asari achievement followed shortly thereafter (again, completeing an additional Main Quest).

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My advise is (after getting 1000GS); Don't risk Assignments when going for the ally achievements. Get the allies before any Assignments and then do all the Assignments and Story missions up to before you get grounded. If you haven't got your achievements by then you HAVE to do more Assignments. ALL of the Ally achievements can be unlocked before you get locked down (Some people got the Liara achievement during loackdown but before Ilos).

 

Yes technically you can skip about 15 odd Assignments but why happens if you get to the end of Ilos and no achievement because you missed out on one Assignment? That would suck. If you are dedicated to this game and are prepared to go the distance for the achievements then there's no need to cut corners and skip missions to save a couple of hours.

 

Just my thoughts, take them or leave them ^_^.

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I got the Liara achievement when I opened the gate for the mako on Ilos. I didnt do any collect achievements(including Scan the Keepers), and skipped about 6 non collect missions. So I pretty much skipped about 11 side missions for Liara.

 

Also I would like to say that Im pretty sure its impossible to complete the game in 6 hours, since the main story line takes around a minimum of 7 to 8 hours. And your also adding in side missions.

 

Now maybe you might be able to complete the main storyline in 6 hrs if you were level 50 on casual, but even thats a stretch. My first play through was 27 hours, and my second was 15 hours.

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My advise is (after getting 1000GS);

Yes technically you can skip about 15 odd Assignments but why happens if you get to the end of Ilos ^_^.

 

You're right, but with my experience of rpg (ff7 and ff8), make always 2 saves. always keep older saves.

on this game i've made a separate file before landing on ilos, so if i can leave the planet or if i missed a quest or an object i can load an older save and i don't have to play the entire game.

 

To new players in their first playthrough, make a separate file before ilos and before virmire. I don't want to spoil, you'll see what happen by yourselves.

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I got the Liara achievement when I opened the gate for the mako on Ilos. I didnt do any collect achievements(including Scan the Keepers), and skipped about 6 non collect missions. So I pretty much skipped about 11 side missions for Liara.

 

Also I would like to say that Im pretty sure its impossible to complete the game in 6 hours, since the main story line takes around a minimum of 7 to 8 hours. And your also adding in side missions.

 

Now maybe you might be able to complete the main storyline in 6 hrs if you were level 50 on casual, but even thats a stretch. My first play through was 27 hours, and my second was 15 hours.

 

To be honest, my first playthrough took me nearly 40 hours (mainly because I was enjoying the game and did absolutely everything possible). Each subsequent playthrough however, I got progressively faster. Conversations that were taking me 5 minutes were now taking 5 seconds (tapping X to tab through). Missions that I completed because I thought I needed them, didn't get finished on subsequent playthroughs. For example: I must have spent 5 hours -just driving- around planets looking for minerals. Five hours just driving, for one mission! Since I knew I didn't need to complete this mission, or any of the other "tedious search" missions, I started landing on planets, bringing up the map, dropping a pointer right where I needed to go, and driving straight there. Instead of spending 45 minutes to an hour on each planet, I was literally knocking them out in 5. I know it is really hard to believe but, it is possible. On one of your later playthroughs try it out and keep an eye on your in-game clock (attached to your gamesaves) and see how you make out. If you are efficient with your quest completion (know when and where they spawn, work 2-3 at a time, use the Citadel Transport for everything etc etc) it is doable. I had almost given up completing the full K in this game because of the time I thought it would take. Once I started working the shortcuts I realized it was still doable on a rental.

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You're right, but with my experience of rpg (ff7 and ff8), make always 2 saves. always keep older saves.

on this game i've made a separate file before landing on ilos, so if i can leave the planet or if i missed a quest or an object i can load an older save and i don't have to play the entire game.

 

To new players in their first playthrough, make a separate file before ilos and before virmire. I don't want to spoil, you'll see what happen by yourselves.

 

I'd even recommend doubling that at the very least. Have gamesaves at major plot events, so that in the event that something doesn't work out as expected, you can reload and try again. When I went in for the final achievement yesterday, you better believe I saved on the Normandy prior to landing on Ilos (once you land you are pretty much locked in from there on out). Had the achievement not kicked in, I would have reloaded, redone my math, and tried again. Don't make the mistake of having only 1 gamesave. I've been in the habit of saving before every major "room", "battle", "pivotal discussion", etc. If you do miscalculate the amount of quests that you've completed with each character, having only one gamesave is just going to piss you off. If the achievement doesn't unlock and you lose a half an hour, oh well, reload and try a different approach.

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My advise is (after getting 1000GS); Don't risk Assignments when going for the ally achievements. Get the allies before any Assignments and then do all the Assignments and Story missions up to before you get grounded. If you haven't got your achievements by then you HAVE to do more Assignments. ALL of the Ally achievements can be unlocked before you get locked down (Some people got the Liara achievement during loackdown but before Ilos).

 

Yes technically you can skip about 15 odd Assignments but why happens if you get to the end of Ilos and no achievement because you missed out on one Assignment? That would suck. If you are dedicated to this game and are prepared to go the distance for the achievements then there's no need to cut corners and skip missions to save a couple of hours.

 

Just my thoughts, take them or leave them ^_^.

 

Totally sound advise. All of my Ally achievements unlocked waaay before Ilos and even before Virmire for most, with the exception of Liara. I went in for the Main Quest on Ilos to see if that would trigger it and it did. Had it not triggered, I simply would have reloaded the save (one of many saves before landing) and tried again. I knew however that I had exceeded the side quest requirements at that point. (I think I knocked out 39 or so, which was well beyond what I estimated was needed). But yeah, don't ever put all of your eggs in one basket with an RPG. I would never have gone in for the completion had I not felt comfortable or had a backup plan (other gamesaves).

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So this game is worth getting and easy to get achievements in?

 

Quite simply: No. This is probably one of the most time consuming 1000 points you'll ever get--unless you cut some of the more time consuming corners like I recommended. The game is definately worth getting because the Paragon and Renegade storylines are a blast, but as far as an easy 1000, definately not. It can be a lot less time consuming once you've played through and know when and where to trim the fat but your first playthrough will take you some time.

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im tired of this game.. I give up

 

This is what separates you and me ^_^.

 

This game is long and some times boring but I you like the game stick at it, it is very rewarding.

 

And like you all, I had about 5-6 saves going at one time and is a good habit I've picked up from all my RPG game playing days.

 

And who said the main story takes 6-7 hours? This is defiantly not true as I ran through Insane In under 4 hours! Maybe for the 1st time you play and want to listen to each piece of dialog and want to kill every enemy (this I recommend everyone does) but on my 4th playthrough I just ran past everyone and skipped all dialog possible ^_^.

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This is what separates you and me ^_^.

 

This game is long and some times boring but I you like the game stick at it, it is very rewarding.

 

And like you all, I had about 5-6 saves going at one time and is a good habit I've picked up from all my RPG game playing days.

 

And who said the main story takes 6-7 hours? This is defiantly not true as I ran through Insane In under 4 hours! Maybe for the 1st time you play and want to listen to each piece of dialog and want to kill every enemy (this I recommend everyone does) but on my 4th playthrough I just ran past everyone and skipped all dialog possible ^_^.

 

Ezekiel, you are not the average player. ;) You know this. :)

Although I didn't think this was possible initially, you can blow through the main quest really quickly. You can even knock out Completionist and Ally achievement much much faster than I initially thought. Granted you likely are not listening to most of the conversations (hell, you've probably heard them 3 times by this point) or complete the more time consuming quests, but it is possible.

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My suggestion is, don't try and burn yourself out getting all of these achievements, do a run or two of the game, then take a break for a few weeks, then come back.

 

Also don't try and do a Liara and Kaidan combo on insanity, you'll never do it. (I tried, with me as an engineer, it's just easier to do a casual run and then just do another run doing only the main quests)

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Just wanted to toss in something I observed last night:

 

First play through I used Kaiden and Ashley only. I did just about every side mission I had available before going to Virmire. On Virmire I had to choose between them. After Virmire I was forced back to the Citadel. I only had one Citadel assignment to do, the Negotiator. Once I did that I got Ashley's achievement and the completionist achievement. Luckliy I saved the game before I had to choose between Kaiden and Ashley so I just reloaded and did the Negotiator assignment and I got Kaiden's achievement.

 

Now on my second play through I picked Tali and Liara. I did only missions to get off the Citadel and then went and picked up Liara before doing any other missions or assignments. I all of the Feros and Noveria assignments, all the Citadel assignments (except Negotiator), and few UNC assigments (I'll list each assignment I did below). I did Virmire again, went back to the Citadel, did the Negotiator... bang I got Tali's achievement. 3 achievements at the same point in the game? I did WAY less assignments with Tali and I got her achievement at the same point.

 

I'm wondering if the ally achievements can be done with only the Citadel assignments being completed? I didn't scan the keepers but I did finish the assignment by refusing to scan them. Here is the complete list of missions and achievements I did to get Tali's:

 

Missions:

-Prologue: Find the Beacon

-Citadel: Garrus

-Citadel: Wrex

-Citadel: Expose Saren

-Find Liara T’Soni

-Feros: Colony Saved

-Noveria: Leave Port Hanshan

-Noveria: Lorik Qui’in

-Noveria: Peak 15

-Noveria: Reactor Repair

-Noveria: Contamination

-Noveria: Quarantine

-Noveria: Rift Station

-Noveria: Death of a Matriarch

-Noveria: The Hot Labs

-Noveria: Reconnect Landlines

-Virmire: Base Destroyed

Assignments:

-Feros: Water Restoration

-Feros: Geth in the Tunnels

-Feros: Varren Meat

-Feros: Power Cells

-Feros: Data Recovery

-Noveria: Espionage

-Noveria: Smuggling

-Citadel: Scan the Keepers

-Citadel: The Fourth Estate

-Citadel: Jahleed's Fears

-Citadel: Presidium Prophet

-Citadel: Asari Consort

-Citadel: Family Matter

-Citadel: Xeltan's Complaint

-Citadel: The Fan

-Citadel: Reporter's Request

-Citadel: Signal Tracking

-Citadel: Rita's Sister

-Citadel: Homecoming

-Citadel: Schells The Gambler

-Citadel: Doctor Michel

-Citadel: Planting a Bug

-Citadel: Old, Unhappy, Far-Off Things

-Asari Diplomacy

-UNC: Missing Marines

-UNC: Privateers

-UNC: Hostile Takeover

-Virmire: Kirrahe’s Team Rescued

-Virmire: Wrex is Convinced

-UNC: Rogue VI

-UNC: Missing Survey Team

-UNC: ExoGeni Facility

-UNC: Geth Incursions

-UNC: Colony of the Dead

-UNC: Derelict Freighter

-UNC: Lost Freighter

-Citadel: Negotiator’s Request

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Just wanted to toss in something I observed last night:

 

First play through I used Kaiden and Ashley only.

 

I'm wondering if the ally achievements can be done with only the Citadel assignments being completed? I didn't scan the keepers but I did finish the assignment by refusing to scan them. Here is the complete list of missions and achievements I did to get Tali's:

 

 

(Good call on reloading the save to get Kaiden and Ashley on the same playthrough.) But, to answer your question, I don't think doing -just- the citadel missions is going to put you over the mark. There are tons of citadel missions that will definately put you close but not quite. Each time I played through, I'd knock out the Citadel, Noveria, and Feros first, then do onezy twozey type of missions until the achievements unlocked. Once they unlocked I'd go in for the finish (Hit Virmire, clear lockdown, and hit Ilos/Citadel).

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you couldn't do it because of your class choice. you need some combat in your party. had you been a soldier, you would have had a much better chance. no one in your party could deal big, unadulterated, pure damage.

 

Heh, no kidding, only reason I tried was because my engineer was 58 and I wanted to get a bunch of achievements out of the way. I'll just do a quick insanity run with my soldier when I'm finished with this last run.

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ah.

 

i did a soldier on my hardcore, and i'll be using her for insanity. she got to level 52, i think.

 

as far as unlocking, and that whole thing with the citadel, i got ashley and kaiden on feros. i got liara, landed on every planet possible and did those quests, bought spectre gear for my entire party, noveria, landed on all the new planets, finished cerberus, and they both unlocked during feros. all i have left is garrus and wrex, and they shouldn't be that bad. i'm on virmire now, and i think i'm still under 20 hours total.

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