

The first two games have fewer endings, but the Mass Effect 3 ending factors in decisions made throughout the trilogy into your final ‘Effective Military Strength’ rating. So long as you fulfilled both these requirements, you’ll be treated with a scene at the end of the game where Shepard is shown coming to beneath a pile of rubble, inhaling sharply to prove they’re still alive.BioWare complicated things with Mass Effect 3. This will leave all organic life alive while destroying every reaper in the universe.

You’ll need to choose to Destroy all sentient AI and machines by shooting the red pillar with your pistol. This is done by ensuring none of your potential allies are killed, collecting every artifact for the citizens of the Citadel, and otherwise doing everything you possibly can in the game before engaging in the final story mission “Priority: Earth.”Īs for the final choice, there’s only one that leads to the Shepard survival scene. This means you’ll need to gain as many military assets as possible and fill the Total Military Strength bar. On the Effective Military Strength front, you’ll only have one job to do: Gather enough War Assets to achieve 7,800 or more Total Military Strength. Whether or not you’ll see this ending, however, comes down to a couple of different factors specifically, your Effective Military Strength and which final choice you made. However, there is one outcome where it’s hinted that Shepard lives after the ending of Mass Effect 3.
Likewise, the majority of the Destruction endings will lead to Shepard being wiped out in the Reaper-destroying blast from the Crucible. This is true regardless of how many war assets you managed to gather before the final battle, and regardless of how many races you managed to rally to your cause. In almost every ending of Mass Effect 3, Shepard will die in exchange for stopping the Reapers.īoth the “Control” and “Synthesis” endings will always lead to Shepard’s death, as his consciousness will need to be infused into the Crucible for them to work.
