Mass Effect 2: Preparations for the final battle - walkthrough Mass Effect 2 guide, walkthrough

Last update: 02 June 2021

The most important thing for you to know about is that when you use Omega 4 relay to travel to Collector base you WON'T be allowed to return to the Milky Way until the mission has been completed. There's also a risk that the entire Normandy crew may die.

BEFORE you use Omega 4 relay you should:

1) Recruit ALL crew members. It's also crucial that you complete their personal missions in order to increase their loyalty towards Shepard. Don't forget that you can lose loyalty points if you make a decision which doesn't satisfy one of your followers. The problems I'm talking about are confrontations and you'll witness two of those during the course of the game - Miranda will have a problem with Jack and Tali with Legion. Choosing a standard response will result in losing loyalty points of the crew member you didn't support. Thankfully this can be avoided assuming you've spent enough points to develop paragon or renegade bars. You will have a chance to use a special paragon/renegade dialogue option and that will calm down both crew members.

2) Unlock all offensive and defensive upgrades of the Normandy. If you ignore this you'll start losing crew members after you've travelled through the Omega 4 relay. Here are the upgrades I'm talking about:

- Heavy ship armor (you must ask Jacob about his ideas on how to upgrade Normandy)

- Thanix cannon (you must ask Garrus about his ideas on how to upgrade Normandy)

- Cyclone shields (you must complete personal missions of your crew members)

As for the things which are NOT required, here's the list of them:

1) You don't have to purchase other Normandy upgrades, because they won't affect the ship's effectiveness in battle (taking more fuel, probes etc.). Same thing applies to standard technologies.

2) You don't have to scan all the planets in the Milky Way.

3) You don't have to buy all the items/upgrades from the vendors.

4) You don't have to complete all side missions.

All of these actions can be performed after your return from the final mission.

Once you feel you're ready for the final assignment open the galaxy map, return to Omega Nebula, fly over to Omega 4 relay and confirm that you want to use it. The next part of the campaign is described in Stop the Collectors - Finale: Part 1 section.