What did you do today in ME?

I found something I haven't discovered in ME3. I would tell you, but you don't need to know, and there's not enough time to explain. By the end of the week I will have answers. excellent

My recommendation: play five side missions (preferably with little to no combat) to get the Widow as soon as possible.

Recruitment missions are the longest missions and tend to have more combat, which means more opportunities to use the Widow! Lair of the Shadow Broker is also lengthy. 

This is why any unplayed Firewalker missions are good. There are five Firewalker missions, and only three needed to get the Biotic damage upgrade).

I always recommend playing N7: Anomalous Weather for the third Damage Protection upgrade (unlocks Hard Shields upgrade). The mission kind of sucks but the upgrade makes up for it. It's garbage for sniping anyway since it is too foggy to really snipe well.


Generally in all my playthroughs, I try to get to the Disabled Collector Ship as soon as possible so I can use my bonus weapon for as many missions as possible. On the old BSN forums, someone did the math and you can have your bonus weapon for about 75-80% of all missions if you get it as soon as you can. 

You have one of 3 choices. This, that or the other thing.

Jeph Shepard, Space/Sentinel/Butcher of Torfan:

- After fighting off those things the Harvester dropped we had to go to the wall inside the base to prevent Reapers from breaching it. Got to face off against this new thing that was so huge it had to be part krogan. Or yahg. Head was tiny, though, and looked more turian. Acted like an ape, pounding its chest. Also knocked me off the barricade. I've faced krogan, headbutted them when necessary, but who knew what this monstrosity could do? By the time we finished with it, General Corinthus still couldn't reach Primarch Victus. I wasn't interested in waiting around and asked Garrus to take me to the last place he'd seen Victus. Saw some terrifying views along the way, life taking out a frigate and god knew how many people with it. Garrus pointed to a flaming orange spot on Palaven that was the place where he was born. Had to be tough. Didn't quite relate since I'd moved from place to place was a military brat.

- One thing I did come to realize is how truly empathetic James can be. He sees the devastation on Menae, sees ships go down and considers the dead turians, and truly feels for them. He's the kind of guy I need fighting with me, someone who is pissed off he had to leave Earth but just as mad to see the same thing happening to other races.
- We made it to Victus not a moment too soon since a Harvester had dropped some serious shit onto the base. The doors were smashed down. Once we'd cleared them out, we informed Victus of his new position. He was stunned. Then I told him what I wanted. He said he couldn't, not while Palaven was being pounded. He'd only relent if I got the krogan on Palaven. This after Garrus and I had just explained to James why the krogan would never help the turians or salarians. Upside was the Garrus was rejoining the Normandy.

- The asari councilor outright said they wouldn't join the summit if the krogan were there because the salarian dalatrass was upset. Yet, the salarians were going to be present. Just more bullshit that was going to keep us separate. And I didn't exactly have high hopes of any summit where the krogan and salarians were both present. Hackett also told me how I was extremely important in gathering allies and resources to help get the Prothean weapon built. No pressure.
- EDI then went offline and both Joker and Traynor said AI Core and Deck 3 was the center. That's also where that damn mech was. I investigated. EDI had taken over Dr. Core's body and a portion of her AI was now inside of it. Plus side was that all the data the mech had taken about the Prothean device was now completely accessible to EDI. The transition had been a bit of a fight against Core's own AI but in the end EDI won out. Then she put all systems back online. In addition, she could come with me on missions. I sort of liked the idea given that anything that happened to the mech didn't actually endanger EDI since EDI was primarily in the ship.
- Had a chat with Garrus. His father had believed Garrus about the Reapers and pushed for something to be done with that information with the old primarch. Garrus got a task force out of it and ran with it, doing as much as possible to prepare the turians for what was coming. Wish the Alliance even gave half as much of a damn. Sure, Anderson and Hackett 100% believed me but that was about it. That's why my old team had been disbanded, why Donnelly and Daniels had left the Alliance in frustration. We also exchanged weak platitudes like "I'm sure your family is fine even though you haven't heard from them."
- Received some messages with missions and people who wanted to see me or that I should see. The one that grabbed by attention was Kaidan's. He was up and that meant the Citadel was my next stop. Traynor also did find something odd about a transmission from Grissom Academy. I was torn but that's where I'd go after seeing Kaidan.

- Went right to Huerta. We talked a bit. I have Kaidan some whiskey since I knew it was a favorite of his. Nothing says "I love you" like an expensive bottle of whiskey. Kaidan even said he thought we were good together. We talked about Horizon and how to get past it. He said he wanted to be in my life no matter what, that he wasn't seeing anyone and that even if we never happened he wanted me to know he still cared.

- Thane was hanging out in the lounge at Huerta. He'd come there as a favor to his son. It didn't really change things with his disease but made his son happier to feel that something was being done. Since Kolyat lived on the Citadel it also brought them physically closer together. Thane mentioned having seen Kaidan and talked to him, thought he was honorable. He believed my enemies might go after Kaidan and promised to look out for him. I always liked Thane but now I was feeling grateful for his presence. This could easily be the last time I saw him.

- My aquarium was looking empty so I bought some Koi on the Presidium. Also bought an Aquarium VI because I doubted Traynor was going to be as generous as Kelly had been in feeding them. Then again, Traynor is no psychologist and has very important work to do on the ship. It'd be a waste of her talents to build time into her schedule to feed my fish.
- Did something I thought I'd never do and helped EDI figure out how to romance Joker, who already seemed interested. I guess my feelings about Kaidan left me generous on this front.

I usually stall the Collector ship too until I'm at a nice enough level (I'm not that great a player and often have trouble with this mission, and I always stall Horizon too for the same reasons ), but I think this time I will take Red's advice I have Kasumi's Flashbang Grenades to hopefully render Harby useless I have them as my bonus power, too, but I didn't level them up yet.

How many squadmates did you have in the end?

Jeph Shepard, Spacer/Sentinel/Butcher of Torfan:

- Aria wanted to see me about something. She was on the Citadel in the club called Purgatory. Don't know why she wasn't on Omega but I was going to find out. Turned out Cerberus has ousted her from Omega. That's not why she wanted to see me. She knew that if the Reapers won than everyone was dead. She asked me to united the Blood Pack, Eclipse and Blue Suns mercs under her leadership. Then she'd send them against Reapers. I could deal with putting them in the front lines.
- Found Donnelly and Daniels in Purgatory getting drunk. They were in Alliance uniforms. After talking to them and making sure they were clear of Cerberus, I recruited them back to the Normandy. They knew the ship well and Adams could use the help.

- Ran into Kelly Chambers at the Holding Docks. After I left Cerberus she took a closer look at their actions and decided they weren't what she had thought. She left and was here helping the refugees. Kelly believed Cerberus wasn't interested in going after her but I didn't have that same thought. I told her to change her look and identity. She finally agreed. Oh, and it turned out she had saved my fish! She had them sent to the Normandy. I asked her to come with me but she was too afraid after her experience with the Collectors.
- Helped the Blood Pack leadership change hands in exchange for their help. Why I was dealing with a vorcha and not a krogan was inexplicable.

- Wasted enough time on the Citadel so was now off to Grissom Academy. In the interest of seeing how she operated, I brought EDI with me. Also Garrus because I hadn't worked with him in a while. There were Cerberus cruisers blocking our access so sneaking on board with the shuttle was necessary. Joker created a diversion so we could do so. Cerberus was after the biotic students. No way I was letting that happen.
- Kahlee Sanders was our contact here and told us where to go. We headed to Orion Hall. Sanders said they had an instructor with them. I was shocked as hell to see it was Jack. I could understand, though. She no doubt wanted to make sure no biotic kids went through the hell she had.
- Ran across some kids behind a barrier that were being harassed by Cerberus troopers. I took them out but the girl was too afraid to let it down. David Archer was there, though. He named me and showed gratitude for the number of days he continued to live after having been freed from Project Overlord. Then he told us of a security office he'd hacked open where we could get more weapons. Good kid. Glad I saved him.
- When we got closer to our destination, I commandeered an Atlas mech. It really helped clear out the Cerberus troops so the students could escape to the shuttle. Sanders believed they were ready for the front lines but Jack had already convinced me otherwise. I said we needed more barriers and Jack agreed completely.

- Back on the Normandy, something was up with Cortez. His husband had died during a Collector attack and he hadn't gotten past it. I told him I'd be there for him if he needed anything. Then headed back to the Citadel. Kaidan was up and about though still in the hospital.

- When I got to the hospital, he was in uniform. He said he'd accepted the Spectre position and that there was going to be a pretty big ceremony. Didn't do anything like that for me, but of course there was no human councilor at the time. I invited him back to the Normandy, and he was considering it, but he first wanted to find his old spec ops squad. I hoped he sorted things out soon.
- Completed a deal with the Blue Suns and also with Eclipse, one which would leave that psycho Jona Sedaris dead.
- Helped Spectre Jondam Bau and (secretly) Kasumi track down an indoctrinated hanar who was threatening the hanar homeworld. Bau had been tracking her for years and intended to arrest her. She had to reveal herself to stop a virus which would destroy hanar defenses while I saved Bau from death. Then she poorly faked her death. Couldn't get her back on the Normandy but convinced her to help with hacking Prothean technology for the Crucible Project with the promise that tech would be lying around at the end. Also got a Spectre unit on my side.

I already know what happens if I don't talk to her on Illium. If Shepard talks to her in ME3, she will mention that she wished she joined you back on Illium even though Shepard never talked with her or even went to Illium.

Loaded up ME3 while todays livestream droned on in the background. Bit of Kathrine time. Learned that the black text cutscene at the beginning covers the screen during the cutscene if you are doing something else in the background. So no Vega screenshots. Also had the better dream mods, so had to see vent brat. Ewwww.

Biotically kept the cannibals off the lawn.
Unless anyone says otherwise, the redhead you meet at the start was Becky. And now she's dead. So my chance to go OMG Becky, look at that post is gone. Bummer.

Stow it Lieutenant. I'd toss you out of the airlock right now, but my mental condition requires me to travel in groups of three at all times. Except when storming Batarian bases and eating sushi. And on the Citadel... Just shut up Vega.
Biotically smashing heads into a pulp .  Also, usually just hide behind the counter and shoot the glass. But Kathrine sauntered up to the window, squatted then reached up, grabbed a goon AND SMASHED HIS FACE TO A BLOODY PULP. YES. YES. YES. 
Anyways...got up until the room before Timmy boy, then the stream ended and Kathrine met a grenade. Oops.

So the moral of the story is: Is there a way to upgrade squad skills without using the mouse. How clever is the game with auto level ups and is there a way to be not one-shot-ted by a grenade. Some damage resistance or something. Because damn those things in other people hands.

stephenw32768: Thanks for the Kaidan pics!

Melody Shepard, Colonist/Sole Survivor/Infiltrator, ME3 Insanity:

Melody met up with Ann Bryson at the lab. In spite of her bereavement, Ann was keen to help track down the being that killed her father. She volunteered to be enthralled by the shielded artefact to enable EDI to trace Leviathan's communication signal. After making doubly sure that Ann was prepared to go through with it, Melody ordered James to drop the shield while EDI began the trace. Possession by Leviathan put Ann's body under tremendous strain; when capillaries started to burst, James called a halt to the experiment. EDI had enough information to narrow Leviathan's location to within two systems in Sigurd's Cradle.

Tracking the signal to the ocean world Despoina, Cortez suggested taking a shuttle below the surface. It was a good plan, until the Kodiak was knocked out of the sky by an EM pulse, crash-landing on the remains of a downed spaceship, itself apparently a victim of the pulse; the crew dead, driven to insanity and murder by enthralment artefacts. Melody, James, Kaidan and Cortez were stuck there unless something could be done about the pulse.

A Reaper dropped out of FTL and dispatched troops, apparently also intent on getting their hands/claws/appendages on Leviathan. The party dispatched them (one stupid death), then liberated a marine-spec Triton mech from the shipwreck for Melody to use to follow the signal to Leviathan.

At a depth of 4km, Melody made contact with Leviathan, an ancient creature resembling a small, organic Reaper. She learned the truth about the Reapers and the cycles: the product of a botched attempt by the Leviathan race to solve the problem of organic-synthetic conflict. Having sown the seeds of their own destruction and countless aeons of strife, the remaining Leviathans had retreated to Despoina, using the artefacts to monitor the galaxy and enthrall victims where "necessary" to keep their existence a secret. Melody yelled at them, amazingly managing to convince them to take an active part in the war instead of merely hiding from it. They shut down the EM pulse and destroyed the Reaper, allowing the Normandy party to escape safely. En route back to the Normandy, Melody spoke with Ann over the comm, recovered from her ordeal and keen to offer her expertise to the war effort.

The Normandy took a route back to the Citadel via Ontarom in the Kepler Verge, where Melody, Garrus and Liara reclaimed an Alliance communication hub from Cerberus. (This needed three attempts before I managed it in one take).

EMS at the end of this mission: 2511.

Things to look at: