ME2: How can I get rid of Cerberus?

[AC-Darth]

I know that the majority of the community loves Mass Effect 2. I don't. I actually dislike it because of its story and the missing RPG elements from the first game.

I don't want to start a fight and hope that we can have a friendly discussion.

There will be spoilers!




Cerberus in Mass Effect 1 did some really horrible things. Feeding Alliance soldiers to thresher maws, rachni and thorian creepers. They also killed Admiral Kahoku and turned an entire colony into husks.

My paragon Shepard would never work with cerberus yet I am forced to do so in Mass Effect 2. I usually play my Shepard exactly the same in every playthrough (on Xbox). I never experiment with other option after I found out how to get the best endings.

But now after I just finished ME1 again I dread playing ME2 again. There are just two Squadmembers that I like. Garrus and Tali. As well as one DLC that I like. It's called Arrival.

That alone can't carry the game for me. But I want to keep playing.

So I thought I would like to try something new to keep me entertained. Is there a way to kill the entire Cerberus crew as well as Miranda and Jacob while everyone else survives?

It would be interesting to see how that would effect Mass Effect 3.

[Aenno]

Originally posted by Aurellios:

Cerberus in Mass Effect 1 did some really horrible things. Feeding Alliance soldiers to thresher maws, rachni and thorian creepers. They also killed Admiral Kahoku and turned an entire colony into husks.

They also fed the colony on Akuze to said maws before marines come to investigate. I suppose that's worth remembering. Fifty marines was just a cherry on top.

[St.Absinthe]

Lvl 0, private profile, suspiciously specific profile pic. Nothing to see here.

[Hartford688]

Well can delay Suicide Mission by doing two extra missions. The kidnapped crew will die.

Don't do Miranda and Jacob's loyalty missions, but do everybody else's.

Have Jacob do the tech role on Suicide Mission. Take Miranda on final stage of Suicide Mission. That might do it. (Or indeed take both on last stage).

[AC-Darth]

Originally posted by Aenno:

Originally posted by Aurellios:

Cerberus in Mass Effect 1 did some really horrible things. Feeding Alliance soldiers to thresher maws, rachni and thorian creepers. They also killed Admiral Kahoku and turned an entire colony into husks.

They also fed the colony on Akuze to said maws before marines come to investigate. I suppose that's worth remembering. Fifty marines was just a cherry on top.

Thank you. I forgot about that.

[ruppe27]

Not everyone in Cerberus is an evil psychopath.
They work with cells, the cell you are commanding are all good guys.
Miranda and Jacob don't deserve to die.

[AC-Darth]

Originally posted by Hartford688:

Well can delay Suicide Mission by doing two extra missions. The kidnapped crew will die.

Don't do Miranda and Jacob's loyalty missions, but do everybody else's.

Have Jacob do the tech role on Suicide Mission. Take Miranda on final stage of Suicide Mission. That might do it. (Or indeed take both on last stage).

I will try that. Thank you

[Aenno]

Have Jacob do the tech role on Suicide Mission. Take Miranda on final stage of Suicide Mission. That might do it. (Or indeed take both on last stage).

Simpler way to kill Miranda is to make her biotic specialist.

Well can delay Suicide Mission by doing two extra missions. The kidnapped crew will die.

I think it would take about 4 or 5 missions to kill everybody, not just a half.

[AC-Darth]

Originally posted by ruppe27:

Not everyone in Cerberus is an evil psychopath.
They work with cells, the cell you are commanding are all good guys.
Miranda and Jacob don't deserve to die.

But they all answer to the illusive man.
I know that Miranda and Jacob come around at the end of Mass Effect 2 and leave cerberus.

I usually like to play it like that but I want to try something new.

[Hartford688]

Originally posted by Aenno:

Have Jacob do the tech role on Suicide Mission. Take Miranda on final stage of Suicide Mission. That might do it. (Or indeed take both on last stage).

Simpler way to kill Miranda is to make her biotic specialist.

Well can delay Suicide Mission by doing two extra missions. The kidnapped crew will die.

I think it would take about 4 or 5 missions to kill everybody, not just a half.

Indeed, I think I'm wrong. You can do one mission and still rescue everyone. Two kills half the crew, three kills them all. Iirc of course.

Re Miranda, yes, can do that indeed. Though bringing her on last stage isn't exactly harder.

[Champ Paper]

Originally posted by Aenno:

Have Jacob do the tech role on Suicide Mission. Take Miranda on final stage of Suicide Mission. That might do it. (Or indeed take both on last stage).

Simpler way to kill Miranda is to make her biotic specialist.

Well can delay Suicide Mission by doing two extra missions. The kidnapped crew will die.

I think it would take about 4 or 5 missions to kill everybody, not just a half.

No.. Miranda will get someone else killed in that role... take her with you to the final boss or have her escort Chakwas. It's your best shot

[Aenno]

Indeed, I think I'm wrong. You can do one mission and still rescue everyone. Two kills half the crew, three kills them all. Iirc of course.

Quoting wiki:
"In the immediate aftermath you learn that the entire crew except for Joker had been abducted. You are now at a major decision point: either head to the Omega 4 Relay immediately, or finish any remaining assignments. If you choose to go immediately, i.e. without completing any missions or assignments, you will save the entire crew. If you do 1 to 3 assignments, you will lose half the crew, including Kelly Chambers. If you do 4 or more assignments, you will lose the entire crew except for Doctor Chakwas."

[AC-Darth]

Originally posted by Nord Supreme:

Originally posted by Aenno:

Simpler way to kill Miranda is to make her biotic specialist.


I think it would take about 4 or 5 missions to kill everybody, not just a half.

No.. Miranda will get someone else killed in that role... take her with you to the final boss or have her escort Chakwas. It's your best shot

Am I right in assuming that she has very strong plot armor?

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by Aurellios:

Originally posted by ruppe27:

Not everyone in Cerberus is an evil psychopath.
They work with cells, the cell you are commanding are all good guys.
Miranda and Jacob don't deserve to die.

But they all answer to the illusive man.
I know that Miranda and Jacob come around at the end of Mass Effect 2 and leave cerberus.

I usually like to play it like that but I want to try something new.

Did you listen to the logs in ME3, the ones in the Illusive Man's base?

If you did you would find out the entire crew of the Normandy is selected to give you a good impression of Cerberus, this means THEY ARE ALL GOOD GUYS. None of them have ever done anything dodgy, they all think Cerberus is doing good things for Humanity and the bad things they hear about are either lies or rogue cells.

Miranda is the only one with enough clearance to know most of the news stories are true... well maybe Jacob, but he's a soldier who did all his dodgy stuff while in service with the alliance, he's only done good PR stuff since joining Cerberus.

[AC-Darth]

Originally posted by alexander_dougherty:

Originally posted by Aurellios:

But they all answer to the illusive man.
I know that Miranda and Jacob come around at the end of Mass Effect 2 and leave cerberus.

I usually like to play it like that but I want to try something new.

Did you listen to the logs in ME3, the ones in the Illusive Man's base?

If you did you would find out the entire crew of the Normandy is selected to give you a good impression of Cerberus, this means THEY ARE ALL GOOD GUYS. None of them have ever done anything dodgy, they all think Cerberus is doing good things for Humanity and the bad things they hear about are either lies or rogue cells.

Miranda is the only one with enough clearance to know most of the news stories are true... well maybe Jacob, but he's a soldier who did all his dodgy stuff while in service with the alliance, he's only done good PR stuff since joining Cerberus.

Ok. I must have missed or forgotten about those logs.

That makes things even more tragic. How can they be so oblivious to the truth about cerberus.

So if Miranda is the only one with enough clearance than is she the only bad guy aboard the SR-2?

I have to admit. I always just rushed through ME2 and may have missed a lot. All I saw was Cerberus and I was out.

I was so relieved that Shepard was back with the Alliance in ME3.

Funny thing is. ME2 was the first Mass Effect game that I played. And I loved it. I played up until the point where Ashley showed up on Horizon.

Then I decided to stop playing and go back to ME1 to play from the beginning. When I came back to Mass Effect 2 I couldn't stand it anymore because the first game felt like the better game and story to me.

[GlorFindel1983]

You can survive Suicide Mission with only two squad mates surviving + Joker, so Tali+Garrus and Joker is completely doable. It just can be a little hard to accomplish first time and without meticulous planing, as having less then two squad mates surviving means game over for Shepard.
IMHO, Tali+Garrus are not only squad mates that deserve to survive in Pure Paragon playthrough! Samara is also pure Paragon and not Cerberus, so she should be your "third" surviving squad mate, just so you have some failure leverage.