Mass Effect Legendary Edition Trilogy Achievement Guide

“This is madness!”

Insanity I
Complete Mass Effect 1, 2 or 3 on Insanity without changing difficulty

Insanity II
Complete two games in Mass Effect Legendary Edition on Insanity without changing difficulty

Insanity III
Complete all three games in Mass Effect Legendary Edition on Insanity without changing difficulty

There are two ways to go about doing these. You can choose to go for a single playthrough on “Insanity” from the get go. Be aware that this will be a serious challenge. I’d recommend this method to players who have already played through the trilogy before and/or to people who don’t want to play through all three games twice.

Or, and I’d recommend this to new players of the series, you can start on an easier difficulty to get accustomed to the games and unlock a majority of the achievements and then play through the games a second time on “Insanity”. Considering you’d have already unlocked most achievements the first time around, you’d be able to rush through the main storyline. Starting the second playthrough on New Game+ would also simplify things to an extent.

The choice is ultimately yours.

(Tips for “Insanity” coming later, maybe)

Long Service Medal
Finish Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 with the same character

I’ll throw this one in here as it’s related to finishing all three games. When starting Mass Effect 2, make sure to import your character from Mass Effect instead of creating a new one. Do it again when starting Mass Effect 3.

“Make Love, not War.”

An important part of the Mass Effect games are the romance substories. In each game, you’ll be able to chose and get close to one of several characters which will lead to a steamy scene, usually happening before the last mission or two.

Unlocking this scene is fairly easy, simply make sure to talk to whoever you want to romance most after every mission to check if they have any new available dialogue option. During said conversation, you’ll want to chose the Paragon (blue) dialogue option if available which often leads you to say something nice.

If you pursue several of them at the same time, they will eventually confront you and ask you to choose. Completing their Loyalty Missions (which you’ll need to do for other achievements anyway) is usually required.

Paramour I (Missable)
Establish a romantic relationship in Mass Effect 1, 2 or 3

Mass Effect has three romanceable characters.

Male Shepard can romance Ashley.
Female Shepard can romance Kaidan.
Both of them can romance Liara.

Spoilers
During one of the last mission of the game, you’ll be faced with a choice to either assist Ashley or Kaidan once Saren attacks. If you have your heart set on romancing either of these characters, make sure to assist said character as the other one will ultimately perish in a nuclear blast.

Paramour II (Missable)
Establish or rekindle a romantic relationship in two games in Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Mass Effect 2 has six romanceable characters for the purpose of unlocking the achievement.

Female Shepard can romance Garrus, Jacob and Thane.
Male Shepard can romance Jack, Miranda and Tali.

(If you import your Mass Effect save in which you romanced Liara, you can continue said romance. However, in the original Mass Effect 2 game, this option did not unlock the Paramour achievement, this is yet to be confirmed for the Legendary Edition.

The same limitation applies to three other romantic interests which are Kelly Chambers, Morinth and Samara. If you do decide to romance Morinth, be careful. She… bites.)

Paramour III (Missable)
Establish or rekindle a romantic relationship in all three games in Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Mass Effect 3 has ten romanceable characters for the purpose of unlocking the achievement.

Female Shepard can establish a romance with Samantha. Romance with Garrus can only be rekindled from Mass Effect 2.

Male Shepard can establish a romance with Ashley and Steve. Romances with Jack, Miranda and Tali can only be rekindled from Mass Effect 2.

Both of them can establish a romance with Kaidan and Liara. Romance with Kelly can only be rekindled from Mass Effect 2.

(Five more characters can be romanced although they did not grant the Paramour achievement in the original Mass Effect 3. They are James and Javik for female Shepard. Thane is also available only if continued from Mass Effect 2. Diana can be romanced by both as well as Samara but only if continued from Mass Effect 2. Yet to be determined if this also applied to the Legendary Edition.)

(For additional information about Romances, check the Wiki page[masseffect.fandom.com] on the subject as it wouldn’t be sensible or useful to cover everything in this guide.)

“War. War Never Changes.”

Recruit
Kill 250 enemies in Mass Effect 1, 2 or 3

Soldier
Kill 1,000 enemies in Mass Effect 1, 2 or 3

I personally wouldn’t sweat too much about farming these as there should be enough enemies in all three games to reach 2,000 kills in a single playthrough as long as you don’t rush through the main storyline (which you shouldn’t do anyway).

Bruiser
Kill 100 enemies with melee attacks in Mass Effect 1, 2 or 3

This one might be a little bit more tricky however, especially if you’re playing on “Insanity” or if you’re playing a class focused on long ranged combat. Although I would still try to get as many melee kills as possible during the entire playthrough, you may want to hold off on them until the part where you’ll have to replay the beginning of the first Mass Effect to acquire some other achievements (which we will cover later in their own categories).

You may also want to wait until you reach Mass Effect 3. As part of the Citadel DLC, a combat simulator was introduced allowing the player to fight normal difficulty enemies (even on “Insanity”) in a controlled environment.

This is up to you.