Mass Effect 1 Walkthrough: Part 2, Noveria, Feros, Virmire, Ilos and Saren

This is part 2 of our Mass Effect 1 walkthrough. It covers the last two priority missions, Noveria and Feros, then Virmire, the escape from the Citadel, Ilos and the final battle with Saren. It also flags every big choice that carries into Mass Effect 2 and 3.

Mass Effect trilogy walkthrough: ← Previous part  |  Next part →

You can do Noveria and Feros in either order. We cover Noveria first, but swap them if you like.

1. Noveria: Matriarch Benezia

Noveria is a frozen, corporate world. You dock at Port Hanshan, and you need a garage pass to drive out to Peak 15, where Benezia went.

Getting the garage pass

1. Talk to the staff in the port. Administrator Anoleis won't give you a pass.
2. Talk to Lorik Qui'in, a turian executive in the hotel lounge. He offers a pass if you recover evidence against Anoleis from Lorik's own office at Synthetic Insights.
3. Break in, deal with the guards, and take the evidence back to Lorik. He gives you the pass.
4. There are other ways (such as working with Anoleis instead), but Lorik's route is the clearest.

When you go to the garage, geth attack inside the port. Clear them, show the pass and take the Mako.

Peak 15 and Rift Station

1. Drive through the blizzard. Geth wait in the tunnels and on the road. Stay at range.
2. Inside Peak 15 the building is half dead. You fight strange bug-like creatures: the rachni. Their workers rush you and their soldiers spit acid, so shotguns and area powers help.
3. Restore the power and the facility VI to open the way, then take the tram to Rift Station.
4. Fight through to the Hot Labs, where Benezia waits.

Boss: Matriarch Benezia

Benezia is a strong biotic. She throws and lifts your squad, and asari commandos and geth fight beside her. Kill the commandos first, use cover, and hit Benezia with damage and tech powers when her barrier is down. When she falls, she breaks free of Saren's control for a moment and gives you useful information before she dies.

Choice: the Rachni Queen

The queen of the rachni is held in a tank in the lab. You can free her (Paragon) or kill her with acid (Renegade). This choice carries into ME2 and ME3. A freed queen sends you thanks in ME2, and can become an ally in ME3.

2. Feros: Zhu's Hope and the Thorian

On Feros you land at the colony of Zhu's Hope, built on top of old Prothean towers. Geth are attacking.

1. Fight off the geth at the colony and talk to the leader, Fai Dan. The colonists act strangely. Help them if you want XP, but the main path is to deal with the geth.
2. Head out along the skyway in the Mako to the ExoGeni headquarters. Expect geth and armatures.
3. At ExoGeni you learn the truth: an ancient plant creature, the Thorian, controls the colonists with spores.
4. Find Juliana Baynham in the ExoGeni building. She gives you anti-Thorian gas grenades.
5. Go back to Zhu's Hope. The colonists, now fully controlled, attack you along with Thorian creepers. Use the gas grenades and non-lethal powers to knock colonists out, and save your guns for the creepers.
6. Go down under the colony to the Thorian.

Boss: the Thorian

You can't shoot the Thorian directly. Instead, walk through its lair and destroy its neural nodes. Green asari clones keep attacking you; kill them and keep moving to the next node. Equip shotguns for the tight spaces. When all the nodes are gone, the Thorian dies.

Choices on Feros

• Colonists: if you knocked out most of them instead of killing them, the colony is saved. That pays off in ME2 and ME3.
• Shiala: the asari the Thorian held. She gives you the Cipher, the key to understanding your vision. You can spare or kill her. Sparing her helps later games.

3. Virmire: Saren's base

Virmire unlocks after you finish two of the three priority missions. Do all three first, and any side content you want. The story moves straight toward the end from here.

1. Land and fight to the salarian camp. Captain Kirrahe explains that Saren is breeding krogan with a cure for the genophage, and that the base must be destroyed with a bomb.
2. Wrex gets angry and walks off. Find him on the beach. You can calm him with Paragon or Renegade options, or Ashley shoots him if you let it come to that. Doing his personal quest, Wrex: Family Armor, earlier gives you more ways to talk him down. Wrex alive matters a lot in ME3.
3. Choose who joins Kirrahe's team: Ashley or Kaidan. Then attack the base with your squad, opening the way for the salarians.
4. Deep inside, you meet Sovereign and learn what it really is.

Boss: Saren (first fight)

Saren appears on a flying platform. You can't kill him here. Use cover, focus fire, and use tech powers on his shields. Saren only targets Shepard, so let your squad hit him hard. Once his health drops far enough, he flies off.

Choice: Ashley or Kaidan

Both humans are in danger, and you can only save one. The other dies. Your pick carries on into ME2 and ME3. There is no wrong answer: choose the one you like better.

4. Grounded on the Citadel

Back on the Citadel, the Council refuses to act and Udina locks the Normandy down. Meet Anderson at the Flux club. He offers to unlock the ship by either hitting Citadel Control or using Udina's terminal. The result is the same: the Normandy is free. Fly through the Mu Relay to Ilos.

5. Ilos: the Conduit

1. Land with the Mako and fight through geth and armatures on the way down.
2. When a barrier blocks the Mako, get out and take the lift nearby. Fight through to a Prothean VI called Vigil. Listen to it: it explains the Reapers and the Conduit.
3. Get back into the Mako. Now it is a race: drive straight through the trench to the Conduit. Ignore the geth and armatures and don't stop.
4. Drive into the Conduit. It sends you to the Citadel.

6. Final battle: Saren on the Citadel

The Citadel is under attack by geth, and Sovereign is on its way. Fight up the outside of the Citadel Tower. Geth and krogan block the path. Activate the defence turrets on the way, then reach the Council chamber.

Boss: Saren (final fight)

1. Talk first. If your Paragon or Renegade score is high enough, a blue Charm or red Intimidate option lets you convince Saren he is being controlled. He takes his own life and you skip the first phase.
2. Phase 1: otherwise, Saren fights from a hover platform with geth around him. Stay in cover, kill the geth, and hit his shields with tech powers like Sabotage or Overload.
3. Phase 2: Sovereign brings Saren's body back as a husk-like machine. He moves fast and climbs the walls. Keep moving, shoot him when he lands, and keep your squad alive with medi-gel.

Choice: the Council

After Saren falls, you must decide whether to save the Council on the Destiny Ascension, or let the fleet focus on Sovereign. After the ending, you choose who represents humanity: Anderson or Udina. Both choices carry into ME2 and ME3. Keep your final save: Mass Effect 2 imports it.

Tips for this part

• Do the squad side quests, like Wrex's family armor, before Virmire. They unlock dialogue that saves lives.
• On Feros, keep a few gas grenades for the colonist fight and stun rather than shoot.
• Upgrade the Mako's shields and avoid driving close to armatures. Ilos is much easier with a healthy Mako.
• Bring tech users (Tali, Garrus) for Saren's fights. Shields go down fast with Sabotage and Overload.
• Make a manual save before each big choice in case you change your mind.

My take

Virmire is still the mission I think about most in the whole trilogy. The bomb choice hurts every time, and the Ilos run to the Conduit with that music is a great finale. Who did you save on Virmire?

FAQ

How do I avoid fighting Saren?

You can't skip the whole fight. With enough Paragon or Renegade, you can talk him into taking his own life, which skips the first phase. You still fight his husk form.

How do I keep Wrex alive on Virmire?

Use the Paragon or Renegade dialogue options when he confronts you. Doing his family armor quest first gives you more options.

Is the Ilos Mako run really timed?

It feels timed, so treat it that way. Drive straight through and don't stop to fight. The enemies are not worth it.

Which choices from ME1 matter most later?

Wrex's survival, the Rachni Queen, who you saved on Virmire, the Feros colonists and Shiala, and the fate of the Council all show up in ME2 and ME3.

Mass Effect trilogy walkthrough: ← Previous part  |  Next part →