Every replay of the Mass Effect games tends to start with a promise: this time, you’ll do things differently. Then Shepard makes the same speech, you bring the same squad, and you’re right back where you started. BioWare’s Mass Effect Legendary Edition, the remastered trilogy released in May 2021, makes starting over easy. But the best replay value is in changing the rules. Swap the class you always play, tank a choice on purpose, or finish the whole thing with one gun. These eight runs each come with their own mission parameters. And this time, maybe you’ll really do things differently.

8

Let Cerberus rebuild you as a Vanguard

Mission parameters: Come back from the dead as a biotic

Commander Shepard dies in the opening minutes of Mass Effect 2. On the first playthrough of the trilogy, this is earth-shattering. On a replay, it’s more of an opportunity. As Shepard gets a new body, you get a chance at a new playstyle. Interested in skipping the first game and its slower exploration vibe entirely? You can: Import your last Mass Effect 1 save, keep your major choices, and swap your class on the way in. (Or start fresh at the second game in the Legendary Edition, which lets you skip the first installment entirely.) The Vanguard, a biotic class built around the Charge, a power that launches you into the middle of a fight, is a good option. Pick a class you’ve never played, and let Cerberus take the blame.

7

Go Renegade, with three exceptions

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Mission parameters: Red options everywhere — except to save Wrex, the Rachni Queen, and the Council

The Renegade path is an uneven one in this trilogy. Your dialogue options are color-coded: You get a blue, diplomatic Paragon option and a red, ruthless Renegade one. The red options mean different things at different times. In Mass Effect 1, they swing between prejudice, efficiency, and plain rudeness. By the time you get to Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, the Renegade options settle on one primary idea: Getting the job done at any cost. One effective approach, is to take the red option nearly every time, and go Paragon only for the choices the sequels depend upon. Be ruthless, but leave a few people alive. Like Wrex, at least. For the story’s sake.

6

Write an unexpected headcanon Shepard

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Mission parameters: Pick a less-expected combo of one of Mass Effect 1’s three histories and one of its three profiles. Then answer every dialogue wheel in full character

Mass Effect 1 asks you to pick a pre-service history (Spacer, Colonist, or Earthborn) and a psychological profile (Sole Survivor, War Hero, or Ruthless). Each history and profile unlocks its own mission, like “Old Friends” for Earthborn Shepards, where a former gang member asks you for a favor.

Pick your ideal pair of backstory attributes, preferably ones that you might not think go together or that you haven’t played before. A Spacer who was a Ruthless commander at Torfan, a slaver base; or a Colonist who was the War Hero of Elysium; or an Earthborn andSole Survivor of a thresher maw attack. Come up with a full backstory. Write it down, for bonus points. Then, treat every dialogue wheel as a true test of that person. This breaks down a bit in Mass Effect 3, where auto-dialogue takes over, but see if you can stay in character until then.

5

Dawdle through the Collector abduction

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Mission parameters: Once the Collectors take your crew, do every mission you can before you go after them

A truly funny hallmark of video games is when something obviously dangerous or devastating happens…and the game just lets you go back to non-essential side quests instead of dealing with the problem at hand. In Mass Effect 2, this happens when the mysterious alien race known as the Collectors invades the Normandy and kidnaps the crew. It is arguably the most urgent moment in the game.

And here, there actually are stakes. After the Reaper IFF mission, you get a mission or two before the abduction, and every mission you take after that means fewer hostages survive. But what if you decide you don’t care? Take your sweet time. Run every side mission you can find, and chat up your squadmates between them. By the time you finally head through the Omega 4 relay, a skeleton crew remains. If you happen to like your consequences with a side of regret, the trilogy has other places to go bad on purpose. You might consider letting the Council’s flagship go down in Mass Effect 1, for starters. See what happens.

4

Go pistol only

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Mission parameters: One pistol. One talent. And a weapon that overheats

In Mass Effect 1, opting for the Marksman pistol talent gets you a pistol that can outshoot a rifle, limited only by how fast you can click. Go ahead and lean into that idea and refuse to pick up a rifle for the entire game. When your pistol is your only weapon, every fight turns into a rhythm of firing, watching the heat gauge, and cooling down. There are some tradeoffs here, clearly: The damage you’ll be able to deal out can be comparable to an assault rifle, but you give up the sniper rifle’s range and the shotgun’s burst. And if you’re not really careful, overheating can force you to stop shooting at the worst possible moment. But, done right, the pistol is a tireless little death machine. Just keep an eye on your heat gauge, and everything will (probably) be fine.

3

Fight everything from the Mako

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Mission parameters: Stay in the vehicle for combat and get out only for interiors

The Mako — your six-wheeled armored rover for exploring barren planets — is excellent for scrambling up steep slopes and crossing rough terrain. While it’s got a cannon and a machine gun, it’s built more for getting around than fighting — which sounds like a challenge to me. See if you can beat everything in it and keep on-foot fights for interiors. That includes the giant burrowing acid-spewing sandworms. There is a catch to this one: Fighting from the vehicle nets you less experience than killing enemies on foot, a penalty that’s fairly easy to miss. You’ll gain levels slowly, in a vehicle you’ve likely complained about for years, with nobody to blame but the Mako.

2

Keep your first weapons

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Mission parameters: Be undyingly loyal to the first gun of every type that drops. No swaps allowed

Mass Effect gives you weapons that come in ranks — a Predator X pistol is better than the base Predator you get early in the game, for example. You can also buy upgrades and attach mods like scopes and extended barrels. Except if you’re doing this type of run. Here’s the rule: Whenever a new pistol, rifle, shotgun, SMG, or sniper rifle drops, you keep the first of each type you find. Ignore the rest. This means your first Avenger rifle will either become a legend…or it’ll get you killed very, very quickly.

1

Ruin the galaxy

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Mission parameters: Kill as many people as you can!

Mass Effect 2 ends with a doomed mission through the Collector base. How well you prepare will determine which of your squadmates survive. Usually, the goal is all of them, but in this challenge run, your objective is flipped. Kill everyone! Including your squadmates. This is horrifying, but it does come with some funny unintended consequences. If all of your squadmates perish, Shepard’s big finale speech — given to a room full of “nobodies” — is hilarious. Nobody in the galaxy deserves this, but it does make for a great story.