Mass Effect 2 Trophy Guide

Mass Effect 2 Trophy Guide and Road Map

Welcome to our Mass Effect 2 Trophy Guide for PS4. In this guide, you will find strategies and tips for unlocking every trophy on your way to the platinum. We have broken the journey up into easily digestible phases with expert information packed into each one. With this, anyone should be able to conquer this game and its challenges.

Mass Effect Trophy Guide: Before You Begin

Acquiring the Reaper IFF

Shortly after the first act, the Illusive Man will contact you and ask to acquire a Reaper IFF to travel through the Omega 4 Relay. Though you can grab it immediately and launch the final mission as soon as this task is available, it’s advisable to continue recruiting squad members, completing their loyalty missions, and upgrading the Normandy.

If you launch the final mission without being 100% prepared, you will receive a “bad” ending and have to do another playthrough.

Once you acquire the Reaper IFF an invisible timer will start. You can complete a single mission and then head through the Omega 4 Relay without any penalty. However, if you continue to complete missions after acquiring the Reaper IFF, the fate of your crew becomes more dire.

Make sure you have finished everything before acquiring the Reaper IFF as you only have room to complete Legion’s loyalty mission once you do acquire it. Any unfinished assignments will have to be forgotten.

Squad Loyalty

Yeoman Kelly will keep Shepard informed of the squad’s needs and any messages he/she might receive. The most important of these are the Loyalty Missions. To increase your chances of surviving the final mission, each squad member will need to be loyal, and the only way to make them loyal is to complete their assignments. It’s advised to make Paragon or Renegade choices as and when they are available during these missions; sticking to regular dialogue choices will result in a disloyal squad member.

Jack and Legion also have additional charm/intimidate checks after their Loyalty missions, which can result in them becoming disloyal if failed. It’s advised to hold off on completing these two loyalty missions until you have at least 75% Charm or Intimidate bars.

Planet Scanning

The Normandy SR2 is equipped with a planet scanner and a pod full of probes. These are so you can probe planets and extract valuable materials to upgrade weapons, armor, and most importantly, the Normandy itself. Some planets yield more materials than others. A complete list of the materials and which Normandy upgrades are needed can be found under the No One Left Behind trophy.

Codex

Codex makes a return in Mass Effect 2, though this time you need to acquire 15 codex entries. This process will be virtually impossible to mess up, though make sure you use the “investigate” option on the dialogue wheel to discuss other topics and reveal new codex entries as much as you can.

Phase One – Recruit Squad Members, Investigate Horizon & Collector Ship

During this phase of our Mass Effect 2 Trophy Guide, you will be focusing on building up your crew with the best soldiers, infiltrators, and specialists in the galaxy. After recruiting the first selection of potential squad members, you will automatically be sent to Horizon, a human colony, to investigate before the Alliance can. You’re free to explore and play as you want from this point.

Pick up everything you see, as some of these will be research projects for weapons that are needed for Weapon Specialist. Check the trophy for more information.

Skill Usage

There are significantly less skill related trophies in Mass Effect 2, though they can be a little tricky.

You should Incinerate, Warp, and Disrupt 25 enemy shields (75 in total). The shield must be completely destroyed for these to count. The best practice, is to turn off Squad Power Usage to prevent them from wasting their powers. Once confronted with an enemy with shields that can be incinerated, warped, or disrupted, first shoot them to get their shields down to half or a quarter and then command your team to use their abilities on them. You can farm these trophies like you did in Mass Effect 1, however, there are more than enough enemies in Mass Effect 2 to earn these trophies naturally.

Still on the topic of skills, you must “make 20 enemies scream as they fall or are set on fire”, and “hit 20 different targets with multiple biotic powers to combine the effects”. These two trophies can be combined if your Shephard has biotic abilities. Use Pull on an enemy and then immediately have a Biotic squad member use one of their own Biotic abilities on the now floating enemy. Enemies will scream while they suffer the effects of your pull.

Lastly, make sure you get 30 headshots on humanoid enemies, though this will be very hard not to accomplish.

The best places for each trophy:

• Incineration Specialist – Mordin can use his Incinerate ability enemies with Yellow armor. Take the armor down to about 1/4 and cast Incinerate to destroy the rest. The best missions to attempt this trophy are when you recruit the Krogan Warlord and when trying Mordin’s loyalty mission as both features many Krogans.
• Overload Specialist – Garrus can use his Overload ability on enemies with Blue shields. Take the shields down to 1/4 and cast Overload to destroy the rest. The best places to attempt this trophy are the Project Overlord DLC and Tali’s loyalty mission, as both feature large numbers of Geth.
• Warp Specialist – Miranda can use her Warp ability on enemies with Purple barriers. Take the barrier down to 1/4 and cast Warp to destroy the rest. Collectors and Asari Commandos frequently have barriers.

Post-Horizon

After Horizon, you will have a new selection of squad members to recruit, and start to receive Loyalty missions for the ones you already have. You can complete these missions as soon as you receive them or keep them banked for later. However, hold off on completing Jack/Miranda’s loyalty mission until the moment before you acquire the Reaper IFF. This is to ensure you have the most Paragon or Renegade points as you can to pass the charm/intimidate skill check after the mission is over.

You can also complete all of the DLC missions, and any assignments you pick up, though assignments aren’t as important in Mass Effect 2 as they were in the previous game.

Finally, you will also be sent to investigate a Collector ship during this phase. The mission is pretty straightforward, and you can return to completing assignments, DLC, and loyalty missions if you so wish.

Story Related. Unmissable.

Story Related. Unmissable.

Story Related. Unmissable.

Story Related. Unmissable.

This is virtually impossible to miss. Explore additional topics in the “Investigate” option on the dialogue wheel and you should get this trophy within the first hour or so of playtime.

Talk to Aria T’Loak on Omega and ask about Archangel. She will mention how the local Mercenaries have banded together to try and put him down. You must sign up with these Mercs and then you can head outside of Aria’s club to catch a Taxi to Archangel’s location.

Talk to Aria T’Loak on Omega and ask about the Professor. She will mention he’s set up a clinic in the slums which is currently under attack from Mercenaries, and a particularly nasty plague. Leave Aria’s club and head to the Markets. On your right will be a Turian guarding a door, charm him to get inside and fight your way to the clinic.

Head to the Hourglass Nebula and dock with the Purgatory Prison Ship. Proceed to out-processing where you discover the Turian warden of the ship has other plans. Fight your way through the ship until you catch up with the biotic Convict.

Upon landing on Korlus, you will immediately be under fire from Mercs. Fight your way through the linear planet until you find the Warlord who will ask you to kill the leader of the Mercenaries.

Landing on Haestrom, you will be informed that the local star is too hot for your shields and prolonged exposure will completely destroy them. You will have to stick to the cool shadows to avoid damage. To make things more difficult, you will have to fight off several Geth forces as you proceed towards the Quarian.

Landing on Illium, you will discover that Liara T’soni is the local Information Broker. Talking to her will reveal more about the Assassin and who you should talk to in order to find him. You will be taken to a tower nestled in Illium’s skyline and you will have to fight your way to the Assassin at the top.

Landing on Illium, you will discover that Liara T’soni is the local Information Broker. Talking to her will reveal more about the Justicar and who you should talk to in order to find her. Once you find her, she will ask you to continue her investigation while she cooperates with the local Police force.

Phase Two – Misc Trophies

During this phase of our Mass 2 Effect Trophy Guide, you should complete miscellaneous trophies before entering the final act.

While exploring the galaxy, you will enter countless star systems. Make sure you press on every planet/moon in each system within a cluster to achieve 100% exploration. This is best done while planet scanning as you will occasionally find a planet with an anomaly. Upon scanning the anomaly, you will be able to land on the planet and complete a small assignment. You must do this 5 times.

You should also spend time fully evolving one of Shepard’s abilities if you haven’t already, and fully upgrading a weapon.

While scanning planets, EDI will sometimes notify you of an anomaly. Finding and probing this anomaly will let you land and play a small mission.

When you enter a star system, every planet will be unknown to you. Pressing on them will reveal their names and a small bit of information on the population, orbit, surface temp etc. Once you have learned the names of all the planets in a system, you will see “100%” in the top left of the screen. To get this trophy, you must learn 100% of the planet names in all the star systems within a cluster.

Get any of Shepard’s skills to rank 4 in the Squad Menu

Using the Research Terminal on the Normandy, Shepard can upgrade the weapons he/she uses. Though first you must find the related research projects during a mission, buy them in a shop, or be given them as a reward for completing certain missions. Only the Damage upgrades are needed for this trophy and for only a single weapon.

A list of only the weapon upgrades—in chronological order—is below.

Upgrade	Location	How to Acquire
Shotgun Damage 4	Omega	Buy from Kenn’s Salvage
Sniper Rifle Damage 5	Omega	Buy from Omega Market
Assault Rifle Damage 1	Omega (Professor Recruitment Mission)	Near a Blue Suns corpse, in the quarantine area.
Submachine Gun Damage 1	Omega (Archangel Recruitment Mission)	Behind a bypassable door just before you get to the Gunship.
Shotgun Damage 1	Purgatory Prison Ship	After freeing the Convict; on a dead YMIR mech.
Sniper Rifle Damage 1	Warlord Recruitment Mission	Found after fighting waves of Krogan; at the top of a staircase
Submachine Gun Damage 4	Citadel	Buy from Rodam Expeditions
Heavy Pistol Damage 4	Citadel	Buy from Rodam Expeditions
Sniper Rifle Damage 4	Citadel	Buy from Rodam Expeditions
Assault Rifle Damage 5	Illium	Buy from Gateway Personal Defence
Submachine Gun Damage 5	Illium	Buy from Gateway Personal Defence
Submachine Gun Damage 2	Illium (Assassin Recruitment Mission)	On a ledge near the bridge that leads to the next tower
Heavy Pistol Damage 1	Haestrom (Tali Recruitment Mission)	In the first area, near a Quarian corpse at the bottom of some stairs
Assault Rifle Damage 2	Haestrom (Tali Recruitment Mission)	In the room blocked by the stone pillar
Heavy Pistol Damage 3	Jacob Loyalty Mission	In the camp after blowing up the mech to progress
Submachine Gun Damage 3	Miranda Loyalty Mission	In a shipping container after the first elevator ride
Sniper Rifle Damage 2	Garrus Loyalty Mission	Obtained from hacking a Terminal in a room with Fake IDs
Shotgun Damage 2	Grunt Loyalty Mission	Automatic reward from the Krogan Shaman
Assault Rifle Damage 6	Tuchanka	Buy from Fortack’s Database
Heavy Pistol Damage 5	Tuchanka	Buy from Fortack’s Database
Shotgun Damage 5	Tuchanka	Buy from Fortack’s Database
Heavy Pistol Damage 2	Thane Loyalty Mission	On a datapad right at the beginning.
Assault Rifle Damage 3	Samara Loyalty Mission	On the wall inside Morinth’s apartment
Sniper Rifle Damage 3	Derelict Reaper	Next to some power cells before you fight your first Scion
Shotgun Damage 3	Derelict Reaper	After the first Legion cutscene, near some power cells
Assault Rifle Damage 4	Zaeed Loyalty Mission	Obtained from a terminal on the Renegade path only

Project Overlord is a DLC mission and should be attempted before acquiring the Reaper IFF.

Lair of the Shadow Broker is a DLC mission and should be attempted before acquiring the Reaper IFF.

Phase Three – Loyalty Missions & Acquiring the Reaper IFF

During this phase of our Mass 2 Effect Trophy Guide, you will be completing any loyalty missions you have been neglecting, and acquiring the Reaper IFF.

While completing your squad’s missions, it’s important to spend some time mining planets for the necessary materials to upgrade the Normandy as well as any upgrades you desire for Shepard and the crew. See No One Left Behind.

You might have noticed that there is still one slot to be filled in your crew. This is Legion, who will join your crew automatically (Shepard has to activate him on the Normandy) after finishing the Reaper IFF mission. Legion too, has his own loyalty mission, though if you’ve completed all DLC and loyalty missions up to this point, you can immediately go talk to him to unlock his loyalty mission.

You should have enough Paragon or Renegade points to pass the charm/intimidate check after the loyalty mission, securing Legion’s loyalty.

Jacob’s Loyalty mission is pretty straightforward. Just fight your way to the end and always make Paragon or Renegade dialogue choices and actions.

Miranda’s Loyalty mission is pretty straightforward. Just fight your way to the end and always make Paragon or Renegade dialogue choices and actions. If you have previously completed Jack’s loyalty mission, then a fight between the two will break out back on the Normandy and Shepard will have to diffuse it. You will need at least 70% Paragon and 50% Renegade to diffuse it successfully.

Garrus’ Loyalty mission is pretty straightforward. Just fight your way to the end and always make Paragon or Renegade dialogue choices and actions.

Mordin’s Loyalty mission is pretty straightforward. Just fight your way to the end and always make Paragon or Renegade dialogue choices and actions.

Jack’s loyalty mission is better saved for last on a Paragon playthrough as you will need 70% of available Paragon points after to diffuse an argument between Jack and Miranda (assuming Miranda’s loyalty mission is also completed). Otherwise, Jack’s mission doesn’t have any surprises and it quite short.

Grunt’s loyalty mission is possibly the easiest of the ones featuring combat. Speak to Wrex on Tuchanka and fight a few waves of enemies with Grunt while making Paragon or Renegade dialogue choices and actions.

You must kill the Thresher Maw during Grunt’s loyalty mission to earn this trophy. On the lower difficulties, this is effortless.

Thane’s loyalty mission has no combat. You only have to do a little investigation and follow a target. Always make Paragon or Renegade dialogue choices and actions.

Samara’s loyalty mission features no combat. Instead you must investigate her daughter, Morinth, and try to seduce her in conversation. The correct/best choices to make are as follows:

• Talk to the human, Horftin, and help his friend escape a dangerous criminal by working “Terminal” and “Eternity” into a conversation
• Defend an Asari dancer, Hallia, from a pushy Turian, Meln, who is trying to solicit her
• Dance with an Asari called Waera

Morinth will introduce herself to Shepard at this point and the two will sit down at a table to talk some more.

• Talk about Travel and mention “enjoy the danger” and “power is its own reward”
• Talk about Music and mention “Expel 10” and “Hallex”
• Talk about Art and mention “Forta” and “Vaenia” when on the topic of vids

Morinth will take Shephard to her apartment and Samara can then show up to complete the mission.

If Shepard has a high enough Paragon or Renegade score, you will have no trouble clearing Tali’s name at her treason hearing. If you’re playing a Paragon playthrough, do not reveal the evidence collected when fighting Geth on the Flotilla vessel.

Kasumi’s loyalty mission can be attempted immediately after adding her to your crew. Her mission requires a bit of undercover work and then mostly combat. Kasumi’s loyalty is always guaranteed.

Zaeed’s loyalty mission has two routes, Paragon and Renegade. The renegade option will always end in Zaeed becoming loyal; however, he will not become loyal in the Paragon route if you fail a charm skill check.

Unlocked after finding Legion on the Derelict Reaper.

Legion’s loyalty mission is pretty straightforward, though there is a difficult decision to make at the end. Always make sure you’re making Paragon/Renegade dialogue options and actions at every opportunity. After gaining Legion’s loyalty, you will have to diffuse an argument between Legion and Tali. You will need a Paragon score of 70% or a Renegade score of 50%.

Phase Four – The Suicide Mission

All that’s left to do in this phase of our Mass 2 Effect Trophy Guide, Is head through the Omega 4 Relay and take the fight to the Collectors.

If you have fully upgraded the Normandy and gained the loyalty of every single crew member, then your odds of surviving the suicide mission are high. In fact, it should be almost impossible to not survive it.

You will have to make some decisions during this mission like which tech expert to send into the pipes, who to command a decoy group, or who to maintain a Biotic bubble while the rest of you fight around them. It’s important to choose the more suitable squad members for these roles as you can get the wrong squad member killed. For example, it’s not a good idea to send Grunt into the pipes to hack a gate as he isn’t as good as Tali or Legion at hacking.

The best choices for each role are (providing everyone is loyal):

• Tech Specialist – Legion, Tali, or Kasumi
• Secondary Fire Team Leader – Miranda, Jacob, or Garrus
• Biotic Specialist – Samara or Jack
• Diversion Fire Team Leader – Miranda, Jacob, or Garrus
• Normandy Crew Escort – Anyone will do (I always send Mordin as he’s a Doctor. Just makes sense).

As Shepard goes off to fight the final boss, everyone else (except Mordin or whoever you sent to escort the Normandy Crew) will stay behind to fight off the Collectors. Shepard must choose 2 people to take with him to fight the boss. It may be tempting to take your heaviest hitters like Grunt and Garrus, though I would recommend you leave them behind as their defensive stats are detrimental to the survival of your team.

Grunt, Garrus, and Zaeed are the best defensive squad members, while Tali, Mordin, Jack, and Kasumi are the weakest. I would advise you to take Garrus and Tali, or Grunt and Jack. As long as 2 of the 3 best defensive characters are left to defend, the rest should survive. Alternatively, you can take 2 of the weakest characters with you to further increase the odds everyone survives.

If you’ve been following our Mass Effect 2 Trophy Guide closely up to this point, then the suicide mission shouldn’t throw you any curveballs and your survival should be guaranteed.

Story Related. Unmissable.

Story Related. Unmissable.

There are several points at which any member on your team can die during the suicide mission. After travelling through the Omega 4 Relay, the Normandy will be put through its paces as Collector drones attack. If the Normandy is not upgraded, any member of your crew who is not loyal will die when the Normandy enters the debris field or when one of the drones penetrates the hull with its laser beam.

To avoid possible crew deaths, invest in Normandy upgrades when they are available. You can either ask your squad members about Normandy upgrades, or complete their loyalty mission to have the upgrades automatically added to the research terminal. You still need to purchase them via the terminal for them to be installed.

Normandy Upgrades

Upgrade	Cost	How to Unlock
Med-Bay Upgrade	50,000 Platinum	Dr. Chakwas will email Shepard about the upgrade
Thanix Cannon*	15,000 Platinum	Ask Garrus about Normandy Upgrades, or complete his loyalty mission
Heavy Ship Armor*	15,000 Palladium	Ask Jacob about Normandy Upgrades, or complete his loyalty mission
Multicore Shielding*	15,000 Palladium	Ask Tali about Normandy Upgrades, or complete her loyalty mission
Advanced Mineral Scanner	15,000 Iridium	Ask Miranda about Normandy Upgrades, or complete her loyalty mission
Modular Probe Bay	15,000 Iridium	Ask Thane about Normandy Upgrades, or complete his loyalty mission
Extended Fuel Cells	3,000 Element Zero	Ask Samara about Normandy Upgrades, or complete her loyalty mission

You will need a minimum of 45,000 Palladium to upgrade the Normandy to survive the suicide mission.

Squad Loyalty

In addition to Normandy upgrades, you can secure your success even further by gaining the loyalty of each of your squad members. Shortly after completing the Horizon mission, Yeoman Kelly will notify you that your teammates would like to speak to you. This is the indicator that their loyalty mission is available.

During loyalty missions, it’s advised to always choose Paragon or Renegade options—whichever flavour playthrough you’re going for—as they have the highest chances of successfully gaining the trust of your squad member. Never choose the middle right dialogue option on the wheel because it will end conversations quicker and give you no Paragon or Renegade points.

After completing Miranda and Jack’s, and Tali and Legion’s loyalty missions, you will have to pass an additional charm/intimidate skill check to placate them, otherwise, you have to pick a squad member to back up and the other will become disloyal. You need at least 70% Paragon, or around 50% Renegade, to pass both skill checks.

PlatGet!

The platinum will unlock once you have acquired every other trophy in Mass Effect 2

Planet Scanning Targets

Although you only need 45,000 Palladium to upgrade the Normandy for the suicide mission, I have provided a list of some of the most resource-rich planets so you can acquire some of the other research projects too. Almost every planet has resources that can be mined, however, for the sake of keeping this Mass Effect 2 Trophy Guide concise, I have only included 10 of each resource type.

Platinum

Cluster	System	Planet
Rosetta Nebula	Alpha Draconis	2175 Aeia
Crescent Nebua	Ondeste	Acaeria
Pylos Nebula	Satent	Anedia
Pylos Nebula	Satent	Boro
Omega Nebula	Sahrabarik	Bindur
Omega Nebula	Fathar	Dorgal
Omega Nebula	Amada	Engana
Hades Nexus	Hekate	Bothros
Hourglass Nebula	Osun	Erinle
Minos Wasteland	Caestus	Invictus

Iridium

Cluster	System	Planet
Caleston Rift	Aysur	Agnin
Caleston Rift	Balor	Bres
Hourglass Nebula	Faryar	Antictra
Hawking Eta	Verr	Corang
Hawking Eta	Schwarzchild	Atahil
Eagle Nebula	Imir	Gregas
Eagle Nebula	Relic	Fitful Current
Eagle Nebula	Relic	Beach Thunder
Titan Nebula	Haskins	Capek
Vallhallan Threshold	Micah	Farlas

Palladium

Cluster	System	Planet
Minos Wasteland	Fortis	Aequitas
Minos Wasteland	Fortis	Pietas
Omega Nebula	Amada	Alchera
Nubian Expanse	Dakka	Bannik
Crescent Nebula	Tasale	Beregale
Hawking Eta	Century	Canctra
Hades Nexus	Sheol	Gel Hinnom
Krogan DMZ	Aralakh	Kruban
Sigurd’s Cradle	Secoris	Laena
Eagle Nebula	Amun	Neith

Element Zero

Cluster	System	Planet
Caleston Rift	Balor	Caleston
Crescent Nebula	Lusarn	Tarith
Eagle Nebula	Amun	Anhur
Eagle Nebula	Amun	Sekhmet
Eagle Nebula	Relic	Preying Mouth
Hades Nexus	Pamyat	Dobrovolski
Hades Nexus	Sheol	Gel Hinnom
Hawking Eta	Schwarzchild	Etamis
Hourglass Nebula	Faryar	Daratar
Omega Nebula	Batalia	Thunawanuro

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