Playthrough strategy
To obtain all of the achievements as efficiently as possible it is necessary to do three full playthroughs plus another two partial ones (starting at the Prologue and completing the first visit to the Citadel). For the first playthrough, we will use the Normal (or Casual) difficulty, since Hardcore (playthrough 2) is only available after completing the game at least once, and Insanity (playthrough 3) is only available after completing the game on Hardcore. The recommended procedure is to
- First, play as an Engineer up to Level 6 to obtain all of the Tech ability achievements, the First Aid one (optional), as well as (some of) the weapon achievements
- Restart the game as an Adept to obtain all of the Biotic ability achievements by Level 6 or 7, then optionally continue on or restart the game
- Play three full playthroughs using a single class, reimporting the same character for playthroughs 2 (Hardcore) and 3 (Insanity), in order to get 2 ally achievements per playthrough, the separate Renegade and Paragon runs, completing a romance, as well as reaching Level 60.
For playthrough 1 (on the easier difficulty) we will also attempt to get Tactician, which requires you to lose more shields than health by the game's end. Also note that you can only reach up to Level 50 on the first run; the level cap is removed on subsequent runs.
You cannot change your character's class, optional additional power, appearance nor background when its reimported. Your previous unlocked powers and abilities are also unchanged; only the Paragon/Renegade morality meter is reset. You keep all of your equipment, credits and omni-gel from the previous playthrough, although the number of medi-gel and grenade units are reset back down to 5 and you have to repurchase equipment licenses for the Normandy requisition officer. You also have to reassign power and ability points to your squad mates, who are at the same level you are.
The advantage of doing steps 1 and 2 is that you can take care of the power- and weapon-related achievements relativity early, and you will then be free to choose a class that suits your playstyle for the much longer three full playthroughs, as well as selecting a bonus power (assuming you have unlocked its related achievement). For example, if you want to play as a Soldier, then you can skip the weapon-based grinding in step 1, since you will naturally complete the achievements simply by playing the game three times, but you will be able to select a Tech or Biotic bonus power.
For steps 1 and 2, it takes around an hour or so to reach Level 6, assuming you skip dialogue and rush through sections, and grinding out the Tech- and Biotic-related achievements then each takes an additional one to two hours. If you are going to play with a Class that does not allow certain weapon specializations (e.g. Adept), then grinding out the 150-kill weapon achievements in step 1 takes around an hour for Sniper, becoming easier and quicker with the Pistol (45 mins), Shotgun (30 mins) and Assault Rifle (20 mins). Completing steps 1 and 2 will take around 8 hours or so, compared to a full single playthrough of around 25 hours or more.
Character creation
When you start the game you will be presented with creating your character. The default option is an Earthborn male Soldier with a Sole Survivor psychological profile. In order to use a different class, you need to select the "Enter New ID" option. About midway through the game, there will be an extra side mission given to you that will differ depending on your background choice (Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer); you are free to choose any pre-service history since the walkthrough gives information about all 3 quests. Your psychological profile and history choice will change certain dialogue responses throughout the game, as does your character's gender, although this will not affect your ability to complete missions.
So in the character menu, select "Custom Male/Female", choose a first name, pre-service history, and psychological profile, select your class (Engineer for step 1, Adept for step 2, any class for step 3), then finalize after optionally customizing Shepard's appearance.
Missable achievements
There are nine missable achievements (meaning that you need to redo a playthrough in order to acquire them). The first three are:
- Scholar (finding codex entries) is missable if you do not select the correct dialogue option in the Prologue when speaking to Captain Anderson
- Paramour, if you don't flirt enough with either Ashley Williams (male Shepard), Kaidan Alenko (female Shepard) or Liara T'Soni (both genders), and if you make certain choices midgame that affects Ashley's or Kaidan's relationship with you
- Tactician, which requires you to complete a full playthrough with shield damage greater than health damage.
There are also 6 missable ally achievements: if you don't use the required squad members enough times during a given playthrough then you need to try again from scratch.
Scholar and Paramour are taken care of by following the steps in the story walkthrough. Tactician should be attempted on the first full playthrough on the easier difficulty; when Shepard's shields drop to get into cover or cast an ability such as Barrier to restore protection. This will be obtained naturally if you play the game slightly defensively, so don't worry too much about it.
Ally achievement choices
There are in total 6 squad members you can recruit (in order of appearance): Kaidan Alenko (Alliance Sentinel) and Ashley Williams (Alliance Soldier) in the Prologue, Garrus Vakarian (Turian Agent), Urdnot Wrex (Krogan Battlemaster) and Tali'Zorah nar-Rayya (Quarian Machinist) during the first visit on the Citadel, and Liara T'Soni (Asari Scientist) after the first series of missions on the Citadel. This order also reflects the difficulty of obtaining their respective Ally achievements, from easiest to hardest.
The story walkthrough will indicate the approximate time when you will unlock the ally achievements, assuming that they remain in your squad after you recruit them; you will unlock them earlier if DLC missions are used. Be aware that each ally achievement only counts during a single playthrough; you can't combine multiple playthroughs to increase the number of missions completed with them, unfortunately.
The recommended play order strategy is to do:
- Playthrough 1: Wrex and Garrus squad, selecting only Renegade choices (which Wrex and Garrus like), reaching level 50 (maximum possible level on 1st complete run)
- Playthrough 2: Liara and Tali squad, selecting only Paragon choices (which Liara and Tali like); importing the same level 50 character on Hardcore difficulty, reaching approximately level 59
- Playthrough 3: Ashley and Kaidan squad; reimporting the same level 59 character on Insanity difficulty (to reach level 60).
The ally achievements for Wrex, Garrus, and Tali all unlock at approximately the same time (before the 4th plot planet mission on Virmire).
The ally achievement for Liara is done on the second run since you will be familiar with the game by then and you need to rush to recruit her as soon as you are able before attempting further missions: M1.0 (Prologue), M2.0 (Expose Saren), M2.1 (Garrus), M2.2 (Wrex), finish M2.0 then immediately do M4.0 to recruit Liara; then the rest of the walkthrough can be used, starting from the Citadel assignments (side missions). You also need to complete essentially all possible missions and assignments with her, assuming you don't use DLC missions, and this is a good idea on the Hardcore run since you need to level up as much as possible anyway in order to reach level 60.
Kaidan and Ashley are used for the Insanity run since their ally achievements only require you to use them up till the end of the 3rd main plot planet mission (Noveria, not Virmire), and so you are then free to ignore further assignments (since you will also reach level 60 by that point) and any other squad members can be used for the remainder of the game. These ally choices also provide one team member that can unlock doors and containers with the Decryption and Electronic skills (Garrus, Tali, and Kaidan), irrespective of your own class.
We will now go through the full story walkthrough, describing main missions as well as all assignments, highlighting places where we can grind out the ability and weapon achievements for steps 1 and 2, and indicating when various achievements are expected to unlock.
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