Mass Effect 3: Finale - how should I prepare? Mass Effect 3 guide, walkthrough
Last update: 29 October 2022
On this page we have provided tips and tricks on how to prepare for the grand finale of Mass Effect 3, that is, how to play the final battles and achieve the preferred ending. We have prepared tips such as what to do before advancing to the finale, how to collect as many war assets as possible and how to increase your readiness rating indicator.
Preparations - Finishing all side activities
Starting two final missions of the game, named Priority: Cerberus Headquarters and Priority: Earth #2, automatically blocks access to some of the other functions of the game. For example, you won't be allowed to visit the Citadel anymore in order to meet with NPC's, shop and complete side missions. As a result you should read the contents of the table seen below very carefully, so that you'll find out when is your last chance to perform certain types of activities.
ACTIVITY TYPE | LAST CHANCE TO PERFORM AN ACTIVITY | COMMENTS |
Completing side missions | Before starting Priority: Cerberus Headquarters main quest. | All side missions (including the ones provided by the DLC's) become blocked. The only exception are the multiplayer co-operative missions. |
Visiting the Citadel | Before starting Priority: Cerberus Headquarters main quest. | This restriction is only about meeting with certain characters on the Citadel, using the Spectres office and finishing side quests, because you can shop even after the Cerberus HQ mission using a terminal located on the Normandy. |
Exploring the galaxy | Before starting Priority: Cerberus Headquarters main quest. | This restriction is about exploring the galaxy for new resources, intel data and rare artifacts. After the Cerberus HQ mission only the newly unlocked Solar System will be available on the galaxy map. |
Talking to Normandy crew members | Before starting Priority: Earth #2 main quest. | This restriction is only about meeting with other people on board the Normandy, because most of the important characters can be encountered or contacted for the last time after reaching the safe haven in London. |
Increasing the readiness rating | Before starting Priority: Earth #2 main quest. | This restriction is about completing multiplayer co-operative missions, because this is the only way to increase the readiness rating. I recommend that you focus on increasing it to its maximum value which is 100%. |
Buying new equipment | Before starting Priority: Earth #2 main quest. | Visiting shops on the Citadel is blocked much earlier so this restriction is only about shopping using a terminal found on the Normandy. |
Gathering war assets
You will be gathering war assets throughout the entire campaign and they represent the strength of the fleet that will take part in the final battle with the Reapers. The easiest way of obtaining new war assets is by completing quests and you can unlock the best ones by finishing primary missions which are about convincing various races (like the krogan or the turians) to join the cause.
This isn't of course the only way, because you can also obtain war assets by recruiting new crew/Normandy members, by doing favors for important characters and by scanning the galaxy for interactive spots.
Sadly the mechanism works both ways. This means that you also must think about the consequences of your actions, because in the worst case scenarios you may weaken your war assets or even lose some of them for good. This usually occurs when you've angered an entire civilization or didn't save someone in time (like for example - didn't disarm the bomb found on Tuchanka). As a result it's very important that you read the descriptions of all quests found in this guide so you'll know about the existence of these danger situations, you'll know how to avoid them and you'll also know how to make the best decisions when it comes to receiving new assets.
The game allows you to track your progress and this means you can always find out how much war assets you've gathered. This is achieved by interacting with a console in the war room (screen above), located on the Combat Information Center (CIC) deck. The war assets are divided into several groups and you're also told about the new additions to the list.
Notice - War assets can be gathered up to the moment when you start the final quest of the game - Priority: Earth #2. Focus on having as much of them as possible before proceeding with the finale of the campaign.
Increasing the readiness rating
Additional note - Mass Effect 3 multiplayer mode, which we mentioned in the description below, does not appear in the remaster of the game included in the Legendary Edition. This should make it easier to prepare for the game's finale, as you won't have to complete the battles in online mode.
Gathering war assets isn't the only thing you must know about, because raising the readiness rating is equally important. This factor tells how much effective military strength you have at your disposal and only this value is taken under consideration in the finale of the game.
The default value of the readiness rating is 50% which means that all war assets you acquire are divided by 2. For example, gathering 550 points of war assets (it's named total military strength) and having the readiness rating at 50% results in receiving 275 points of effective military strength (550x0.5=275).
The only way of raising the readiness rating is to take part in the co-operative multiplayer missions of the Galaxy at War mode. The map of the multiplayer mode is divided into five sectors (screen above). Engaging in missions in a certain sector result in increasing the readiness rating in it, however it also raises the "global" readiness rating (this is the one that's important to you). This means that if you achieve 100% readiness in one of the sectors you should switch to a different one, because otherwise you won't be able to continue raising the global rating value.
The game will inform you about the increase of the readiness rating each time you've finished a multiplayer mission. It's worth knowing that the percentage increase depends on how well you've fought and how big was the challenge (bronze, silver or gold mission).
Obviously you should try increasing the global readiness rating to its maximum value which is 100%. You should however know that the readiness rating declines overtime and if you run the game after a few days you'll notice that it may have dropped even by more than 10 percent.
If you're not interested in engaging in multiplayer missions just for the fun of it, then there's a way of avoiding this problem. After you've raised the rating to 100% you should switch Origin to offline mode, preventing the game from connecting to EA servers. Doing this will keep the rating at the same value even if you play it after a long period of time. I personally wouldn't recommend ignoring the Galaxy at War mode, because you're allowed to transfer the characters you've created to singleplayer mode, making them valuable war assets.
Notice! If you don't want to watch the worst versions of the game's endings, you should gather at least 1750 points of the effective military strength. If you want to secure a chance of seeing the best possible versions of the game's endings, you should gather at least 5000 points of effective military strength (or at least 4000 points if your character has developed high reputation). You can find out more about the endings and about additional factors that may change the final cut-scenes in the Endings section.