Mass Effect 3 Walkthrough Part 1: Earth to Tuchanka and Rannoch

This is part 1 of our Mass Effect 3 walkthrough for the Legendary Edition. It starts with the Reaper attack on Earth and ends after Priority: Rannoch, when you settle the war between the geth and the quarians. On the way you face the two biggest choices of the game: the genophage cure and Rannoch.

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The whole series

How Mass Effect 3 works

The whole game is about one number: your war assets. Almost every main mission, side mission and choice adds fleets, armies or scientists to the war effort. At the end, that total decides which ending options you get and how well Earth survives. Part 2 explains this in detail.

• Priority missions move the story. Their names start with "Priority:" in your journal.
• Side missions add war assets. Many expire after you finish a later priority mission, so do the ones you have before each big story mission.
• Planet scanning on the galaxy map finds war assets and items. Scanning draws Reapers to the system. If they catch you, you are thrown out of the system, not killed, but you lose the chance to scan there until you finish another mission.
• In the Legendary Edition there is no multiplayer and no Galactic Readiness. Your single-player war assets are all that count.

Prologue: Earth and Priority: Mars

1. Earth: the Reapers hit Vancouver. Follow Anderson through the ruins. It is a short tutorial for cover, sprinting and climbing. Escape on the Normandy.
2. Priority: Mars: go to the Prothean archives with James Vega and your Virmire survivor (Ashley or Kaidan). Cerberus troops are everywhere.
3. You find Liara inside. She joins your squad. Soon after, EDI also becomes a squadmate in a new body, early in Act 1.
4. Chase the Cerberus android at the end. The mission ends with plans for a Prothean superweapon, the Crucible, and your Virmire survivor badly hurt by Kai Leng.

Your custom ME2 import matters from here on. Characters who died in earlier games are replaced or simply missing.

Priority: The Citadel I and the hub

Visit the Council on the Citadel. They will not commit troops yet. After this the Citadel becomes your main hub. Walk around and listen: many side missions on the Citadel start from overheard chats, and they count as war assets once finished. Visit your hurt Virmire survivor at Huerta Memorial Hospital.

Priority: Palaven

1. Land on Menae, Palaven's moon, to find the turian leader.
2. Meet Garrus. He joins the squad.
3. The turian leader is dead, so you pick up Primarch Victus instead.
4. The turians agree to help if you solve the krogan problem first. This opens the genophage story.

Once Palaven is done, more missions open up. Priority: Eden Prime (the From Ashes DLC, included in the Legendary Edition) appears early in this stretch. Do it: it recruits Javik, a living Prothean, and he has useful lines in later missions.

Priority: Sur'Kesh

1. Go to the salarian world with Wrex (or Wreav if Wrex died in ME1).
2. Cerberus attacks the base. Fight through and protect the elevator carrying the krogan female.
3. If Mordin survived ME2, he is here and helps. The female, Eve, is the key to curing the genophage.

Act 1 side missions worth doing

• Grissom Academy: Emergency Evacuation: save the biotic students. Jack is there if she lived. How you assign the students later changes the asset.
• Tuchanka: Turian Platoon and then Tuchanka: Bomb: the Bomb mission is time-limited once it appears. Do it quickly or it fails.
• Attican Traverse: Krogan Team: rescue a krogan team from Cerberus.
• Attican Traverse: Rachni: a Reaper-held breeding site. Grunt and his krogan company are here if he lived. If you saved the Rachni Queen in ME1, you choose whether to free her again. Freeing her gives a war asset, but there is a risk later on. If you let her die in ME1, a different creature takes her place.

Priority: Tuchanka (the genophage)

This is the first huge choice. Do your other open side missions first, because some expire when you finish it.

1. Fly to the krogan homeworld and head for the Shroud, the tower that will spread the cure.
2. A Reaper guards the Shroud. You cannot shoot it down. Instead, you call up Kalros, the huge thresher maw, to fight it. Fight through the ruins and ring the old maw hammers when the game tells you.
3. At the Shroud, the choice comes up:
   • Cure the genophage: the krogan are fully with you.
   • Sabotage the cure: before this mission the salarian leader (the Dalatrass) offers salarian help if you secretly sabotage it. To sabotage, you must stop the person working the Shroud, and how that goes depends on who is alive and on your choices.

I won't tell you which is "right". Both give war assets. The cure is the path most players feel good about. Sabotage has real costs with the krogan if they ever find out.

Priority: The Citadel II

1. Cerberus attacks the Citadel. Fight through the embassies to reach the Council.
2. Kai Leng attacks. You chase him off but do not kill him here.
3. At the end there is a standoff with your Virmire survivor and the traitor. Strong Paragon or Renegade reputation, plus choices from earlier, let you talk it down. With weak reputation, someone may die.

After this, three DLC missions start: Leviathan, Omega and later Citadel: Shore Leave. Part 2 covers when to play them.

Priority: Geth Dreadnought

1. The quarians ask for help. Board the geth dreadnought with your squad.
2. Rescue Tali (if she survived ME2). She joins.
3. Inside, you meet Legion if it survived and you activated it in ME2. Otherwise a geth VI takes its place.

Rannoch side missions

• Rannoch: Admiral Koris: rescue a quarian admiral. Saving him helps your chances of peace later.
• Rannoch: Geth Fighter Squadrons: you link into the geth consensus and shut down the server guiding their fighters. Do this one: it matters a lot for the final Rannoch choice.

Priority: Rannoch

1. Land on Rannoch and fight to the Reaper base.
2. A Reaper destroyer lands. You fight it on foot with a targeting laser: hold the laser on it until the fleet fires, and keep moving to dodge its red beam.
3. Then comes the choice. You can side with the quarians or the geth. If you made the right choices across ME2 and ME3 (Tali and Legion both alive, their ME2 conflict settled well, the optional Rannoch missions done, and high reputation), a third option appears: talk both sides into peace.

Picking one side means the other is lost, and you may lose a squadmate. Peace keeps both fleets in your war assets.

Tips for this part

• Do side missions before priority missions. Priority: Tuchanka and Priority: The Citadel II both close off some side quests.
• Talk to your crew after every mission. New chats unlock between missions, and some lead to war assets.
• Use the Spectre terminal at the Citadel embassies to buy war assets once it unlocks.
• Keep a save before each big choice, mainly before the Shroud and before Rannoch.
• Check the War Assets terminal in the Normandy's war room to see how you are doing.

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Don't have it yet? Mass Effect Legendary Edition is often on sale, and it includes every DLC mentioned here.

My take

For me, Tuchanka is the best stretch in the whole trilogy. Every choice from ME1 and ME2 suddenly pays off, and Kalros taking down a Reaper still gets me. I always go for peace on Rannoch, but it took me two playthroughs to get it. Did you get the peace option on your first try?

FAQ

Can I cure the genophage and still get the salarians?

Yes, partly. The Dalatrass offers extra salarian help only if you sabotage. If you cure, the salarians still join the war later, just with less help than the secret deal would have given.

How do I get peace between the geth and quarians?

You need Tali and Legion alive from ME2, their loyalty missions done and their argument settled well, both optional Rannoch missions done, and enough reputation. Missing several of these usually removes the option.

Can I miss missions in Mass Effect 3?

Yes. Some side missions expire after later priority missions, and Tuchanka: Bomb fails if you wait too long. Do side work as soon as it appears.

How long is Mass Effect 3?

The main story takes about 20-25 hours. With side missions and the DLC, expect 35-40 hours or more.

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