Everything you've done in Mass Effect 2 has led up to this point. You've gathered your squad, you've investigated abducted colonies, and now you're ready to take the fight to the Collectors on a final Suicide Mission.

The name "Suicide Mission" isn't just a catchy title. Every member of your squad is in jeopardy during this operation. And you could end the mission with none of them alive. Of course, you want to avoid that, as these are your closest allies. So, here's everything you need to do to give your team a chance of living through the dangerous escapade.

Updated October 14, 2023, by Sean Murray: If you're looking to keep your merry band of loyal aliens and biotic users alive in the final fight against the Collectors, you've come to the right place. This guide has been updated with better formatting and more breakout tips to ensure your squadmates survive the Suicide Mission.

How To Prepare For The Suicide Mission

There are two very important things to know as a prerequisite for attempting the final mission if you plan on keeping everyone alive.

First, the Normandy needs to be outfitted with several ship upgrades in order to survive the approach through the Omega-4 Relay. Secondly, Shepard will need full loyalty from every squad member.

One or two can be unloyal, but then you'll need some luck on your side to get everyone through the mission safely.

Ship Upgrades

To unlock the ship upgrades, Shepard will need to talk to each of his squadmates on the Normandy between main missions. When talking to them, select the Investigate option, then [NORMANDY UPGRADES].

Doing this will reveal the appropriate upgrade in the Tech Lab terminal. While every squad member will give you an upgrade in the Tech Lab, only three of them are necessary to survive the approach through the Omega-4 Relay:

Squad Loyalty

To give your squadmates the best chance to survive the remainder of the mission, you will need their loyalty, which requires that Shepard gets to know them, and helps them when called upon.

The easiest way to establish loyalty is to talk to every squad member between story missions. Exhaust all dialogue options every time you talk to them and eventually, they will ask Shepard to help them with a personal matter.

Loyalty missions work much like any other mission and flesh out the backstory for each crew member as you explore the galaxy. After you complete a loyalty mission for a squadmate, an orange ring will appear underneath their character model on the squad selection screen to indicate their loyalty to you.

However, there will be a couple of times when the loyalty of your squadmates is in jeopardy. This happens when two of them get into an argument. These are the fights that occur:

How To Survive The Suicide Mission

As long as you have purchased the Heavy Ship Armor, Multicore Shielding, and Thanix Cannon for the Normandy, you have nothing to worry about once you pass through the Omega-4 Relay heading to the Collector Base.

As soon as you finish the sequence in the Normandy cargo hold and land on the Collector Base, you have some important decisions to make.

Unless stated otherwise, everyone you pick for a role needs to be loyal for it to go well.

Phase 1 - Tech Specialist Selection

For the first main part of the Suicide Mission, you will need a Tech Expert to travel through the ventilation shaft in order to open some doors from the other side. Jacob is a woefully naive volunteer, but you really only have three choices here:

• Tali - Mechanical genius even among the advanced engineers of the quarians.
• Kasumi - Master thief and unmatched infiltration specialist.
• Legion - It possesses the collective memory of the entire geth, and has the unmatched technical expertise of a sentient machine that can be used with calculated proficiency.

You can choose any of these three as the tech specialist, but choosing anyone else (including Jacob) will result in them dying.

Phase 1 - Fireteam Leader Specialist Selection

It is important that you select a squad member with natural leadership qualities since most of your squad won't listen to the "lone wolf" types. You have three options here:

• Garrus - Veteran officer of Citadel Security who quit to lead his own elite military group within the Terminus Systems to combat crime at its source.
• Miranda - She can move effortlessly from formidable biotic and superior soldier to brilliant tactician and vigilant guardian.
• Jacob - A seasoned combat professional and veteran of the Alliance military.

Selecting anyone else for this role will result in your tech specialist dying.

Proceed through the gauntlet of enemies, being mindful of the meter at the bottom of the screen. You will need to release several valves in the next few chambers before the meter empties, or your tech specialist will die.

Phase 2 - Biotic Specialist Selection

Once your tech specialist and fireteam leader get your squad through the doors, you will come across pods of colonists and your abducted crew from the Normandy. At this point, you will need to choose a biotic specialist to get your squad through the seeker swarms. Miranda claims that technically any biotic can accomplish this feat, but she is a liar.

You have three choices for this task:

• Jack - She was subjected to experimental drugs and illegal medical procedures as a child to enhance her already prodigious biotic talents.
• Samara - An honored and feared asari justicar, her incredible biotic powers have been honed into a devastating weapon.
• Morinth - She is Samara's daughter and equal to her mother in biotic power. So, if you choose her over Samara during the Justicar's loyalty mission, you can safely pick her for this role.

Sadly, these three biotics are the only ones capable of surviving the seeker swarms, as the other biotics on your team don't possess strong enough abilities, despite what Miranda says.

Phase 2 - Second Squad Leader Specialist Selection

Just like the first time you chose the fireteam leader, you will need someone with a knack for being in a leadership role. You have three choices here, and you can even choose the same one as last time if you want:

• Garrus - Veteran officer of Citadel Security who quit to lead his own elite military group within the Terminus Systems to combat crime at its source.
• Miranda - She can move effortlessly from formidable biotic and superior soldier to brilliant tactician and vigilant guardian. Even an unloyal Miranda succeeds in this role.
• Jacob - A seasoned combat professional and veteran of the Alliance military.

Phase 2 - Crew Escort Selection

A shuttle will come to rendezvous with the crew, and you can choose to either escort them with someone from your squad or let them go it alone.

You can technically choose anyone from your team to escort them, but it is highly recommended you choose Mordin, unless you plan on keeping him in your personal squad (more on this later).

Choosing to let the crew head to the shuttle alone will result in the crew dying.

Phase 3 - Final Battle And Suicide Squad Selection

Once you get through the next few rooms with seeker swarms, you will need to select a squad to go with you into the last fight and leave everyone else to hold the door in a last stand against the Collectors.

This decision is interesting as it's more about who you don't choose. This is because, as long as they're loyal, anyone you bring with you will survive. But if you take all the heavy hitters, then the team holding the line will have problems.

As such, it's best if you take two of your squishier squadmates into the last fight because they are the most at risk when left with the ground team. If you didn't send Mordin as the crew escort, you need to bring him with you here, as he almost always dies. If you want some bonus dialogue for the end of the game, bring Miranda with you.

Here's a ranking of all your teammates, from 'you should choose them for your last squad' to 'don't choose them for your last squad.'

You can include one, but not two of these as your final battle squad (choosing two will almost guarantee a relief team member's death):

If you followed all the steps in this guide, your squad will likely come out of the horrifying final battle unscathed, prepared to take on the Reaper threat in Mass Effect 3.

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