The "All You Need" Guide for Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (LAST UPDATE: 24 Aug, 2021)

This guide was last updated on 24 Aug, 2021. Therefore, the information provided in it might be outdated. You can still follow the steps provided in the guide, as I will leave it as it is for those who need guidance, and don't plan to update it anytime soon. That being said, most if not everything in my guide should still work today, but, as always, I highly suggest everyone also check PCGamingWiki [www.pcgamingwiki.com] for the latest fixes and improvements to the game, provided by the community.

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Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is a really great remaster that makes lots of stuff from the three games better-looking and fixes a huge list of issues. Unfortunately, as the originals did, it still has a number of issues and things one can manually improve or fix by using stuff already made by the community.

This guide does not include anything new. It includes everything already available in other guides but put together, so whoever wants everything can check this out instead and have an easy time installing them.

This guide tries to be as vanilla & lore-friendly as possible, but there might still be minor stuff not entirely as it was supposed to be originally, so please keep that in mind. Also, this guide includes everything I have chosen to use and do, so there might still be mods available out there that might look awesome and could be used, but I did not include them because I did not want to use them.

Lastly, since this game was released not long ago, there’s still lots of time for new fixes, mods, and other stuff for the community to create. I am not planning to keep updating this guide for the next 2 years or whatever, so for anything that's not in this guide, I suggest PCGamingWiki [www.pcgamingwiki.com] and NexusMods [www.nexusmods.com].

Let's make Mass Effect: Legendary Edition great

- Please do everything in the order I wrote.

ME3Tweaks Mods

Download:

• ME3Tweaks[www.nexusmods.com] - You need this to install the mods.
  
• No Mouse Acceleration[www.nexusmods.com] - fixes mouse acceleration in ME1LE
  
• Better Camera[www.nexusmods.com] - fixes the FOV (download all 3 files)
  
• Conrad Verner Remembers[www.nexusmods.com] - bugfix for a bug related to Conrad Verner
  
• Conrad No Apology[www.nexusmods.com] - bugfix for another bug related to Conrad Verner
  
• Missing Codex Restored[www.nexusmods.com] - restores 3 missing codex entries
  
• Overlord Morality Fix[www.nexusmods.com] - adds morality reward for the Overlord mission, which originally lacked it
  
• Ronald Taylor's Fate Fix[www.nexusmods.com] - bugfix for a bug related to Ronald Taylor
  
• Citadel Asari Hands[www.nexusmods.com] - bugfix for some of the Asari on the Citadel having human hands
  
• Hammerhead Suicide Mission[www.nexusmods.com] - bugfix for a bug related to the Suicide Mission
  
• Oriana Looks Like Miranda's Twin (ME2LE)[www.nexusmods.com] - fixes, lore-wise, the face of Oriana to really look like Miranda's twin sister in ME2LE
  
• Oriana Looks Like Miranda's Twin (ME3LE)[www.nexusmods.com] - fixes, lore-wise, the face of Oriana to really look like Miranda's twin sister in ME3LE
  
• Respec Javik[www.nexusmods.com] - adds the option to respec Javik, as you can do with every other crewmate, an option which Javik originally lacked for some reason
  
• More Gay Romances[www.nexusmods.com] - this is optional. It adds same-gender romance for some characters, using stuff already present in the files but not used by BioWare
  
• Early Recruitment[www.nexusmods.com] - fixes some minor bugs, while also adding the option to recruit some crewmates sooner in ME2LE
  
• Councilor Name Fix[www.nexusmods.com] - bugfix that changes all the Councilors' misspelled names to their actual ones

1. Launch „ME3Tweaks Mod Manager”, let it get extracted wherever you want (desktop works as well), then launch „ME3TweaksModManager” (you can find it where you chose to extract it).
   
2. After you get through the launch window, choose only Legendary Edition on the upper right side of the window.
   
3. Drag & drop the No Mouse Acceleration archive. You then get to make a choice, I would personally choose "Disable Mouse Smoothing and Dampening". You can then install it.
   
4. Drag & drop the 3 Better Camera archives, one by one, after you install each. Choose whichever FOV you wish to have in the respective game.
   
5. Drag & drop the Conrad Verner Remembers archive and install it.
   
6. Drag & drop the Conrad No Apology archive and install it.
   
7. Drag & drop the Missing Codex Restored archive. You get to choose if you also want the option to no longer have codex narration. I personally wouldn't use that option, but it’s up to your preference, of course. After making up your mind, go ahead and install it.
   
8. Drag & drop the Overlord Morality Fix archive and install it.
   
9. Drag & drop the Ronald Taylor's Fate Fix archive and install it.
   
10. Drag & drop the Citadel Asari Hands archive and install it.
    
11. Drag & drop the Hammerhead Suicide Mission archive and install it.
    
12. Drag & drop the 2 Oriana Looks Like Miranda's Twin archives, one by one, only after one’s done installing. You get to choose which haircut you want Oriana to have. I chose the classic one, but it’s your choice.
    
13. Drag & drop the Respec Javik archive and install it.
    
14. If you choose to install the More Gay Romances mod, then do it now by drag, drop & install as well.
    
15. Drag & drop the Early Recruitment archive and install it.
    
16. Drag & drop the Councilor Name Fix archive and install it.

MassEffectModder Mods

Download:

• MassEffectModder[github.com] - You need this to install the mods (don't download the NoGui version)
  
• Asari Makeup Fix[www.nexusmods.com] - fixes the Asari makeup, making it less pixelated
  
• Brows and Facial Hair Transparency Fix[www.nexusmods.com] - fixes the brow/facial hair transparency issue
  
• Teeth Fix for New Hairstyles[www.nexusmods.com] - fixes the teeth texture issue caused by some of the new hairstyles (download all 3 files)
  
• ALOT[www.nexusmods.com] - a HUGE graphical overhaul mod (download all 3 ALOT files and all 3 ISL files)

1. Unzip „MassEffectModder” into a folder wherever you want (desktop works as well), then launch „MassEffectModder” (you can find it where you chose to extract it).
   
2. Click on Mods Manager under ME1, then Mods Installer -> Add to list.
   
3. Choose the "Asari Makeup Fix", "ISL" (for ME1), and "ALOT" (for ME1) files and click Install all mods.
   
4. After the mods have been installed, go back to the main window of MassEffectModder.
   
5. Click on Mods Manager under ME2, then Mods Installer -> Add to list.
   
6. Choose the "Brows and Facial Hair Transparency Fix", "ISL" (for ME2), and "ALOT" (for ME2) files and click Install all mods.
   
7. After the mods have been installed, go back to the main window of MassEffectModder.
   
8. Click on Mods Manager under ME3, then Mods Installer -> Add to list.
   
9. Choose the 3 files from the "Teeth Fix for New Hairstyles" mod, "ISL" (for ME3), and "ALOT" (for ME3) files and click Install all mods.

Other improvements

• Disable Origin Overlay.
  That overlay created lots of performance issues for the original trilogy, and still does for LE as well.
  Unfortunately, at the time when I am writing this, you can't disable it from Origin the normal way. You can try it though: right-click the game (in Origin) -> Game Properties -> uncheck "Enable Origin In-Game (...)". Maybe in the future, this usual way to disable it will work for Steam users, but at the moment it does not.
  The way it works right now is by renaming the file "igo64.dll" from the Origin main folder to whatever you want. BUT this will also disable the Origin Overlay for ALL other Origin games. So make sure you rename it back when (or if) you wish to use it again.
  
• Lower the report rate/polling rate of your mouse.
  This improves performance in ME1LE for some, while also making stuttering less frequent. You can do it by using the mouse’s original software.
  If your mouse has no companion software, then it can be a little more complicated. You can check this guide[nerdschalk.com] (read after "Changing the polling rate of other mice"), as I have never tried changing the polling rate without the original software of the mouse. Nearly all gaming mice have software, so I don't think most of you will need that guide.
  
• Disable Vsync.
  Make sure you have Vsync off in all 3 games, as it creates stuttering.
  Having Vsync off will force you to cap the game's FPS, so that also means you have to disable Radeon Enhanced Sync / NVIDIA Fast Sync, since those work badly together with an FPS cap. FreeSync and GSync are alright to be used.
  Also, make sure you don't cap your FPS in Mass Effect 3 to more than your monitor’s Hz, since that will activate a bug that prevents shields from recharging.
  
• Disable Mouse Dampening in ME1.
  Although we have installed a mod for that, making sure it is also written in the config file doesn’t hurt.
  Go to "Mass Effect Legendary Edition's main folder\Game\ME1\BioGame\Config", open "GamerSettings.ini" and make sure you have UseMouseDampening=FALSE. If it does not exist at all, then add it under [SystemSettings]. If that doesn't exist either, then add that one as well.

Credits

Nothing could have been possible without the authors of the awesome stuff I have provided in this guide:

• Mgamerz (ME3Tweaks)
  
• Fus1onpanda (No Mouse Acceleration)
  
• JadeBarker (Better Camera)
  
• Marcus22Khaar (Conrad Verner Remembers; Conrad No Apology; Missing Codex Restored; Overlord Morality Fix; Ronald Taylor's Fate Fix; Citadel Asari Hands; Hammerhead Suicide Mission & Oriana looks like Miranda's Twin)
  
• DropTheSquid (Respec Javik)
  
• Mentlegen3218 (More Gay Romances)
  
• beccatoria (Early Recruitment)
  
• vegz (Councilor Name Fix)
  
• aquadran (MassEffectModder)
  
• Jenya66 (Asari makeup fix & Brows and facial hair transparency fix)
  
• xramina (Teeth fix for new hairstyles)
  
• CreeperLava (ALOT)
  
• PCGamingWiki (fixes & improvements)

I am sure there are other things one can add to this guide or change, but this is 100% what I did and I am more than happy with the results. I hope my guide helped you! ^^

[Ciocolici]

@all I have not updated the guide in a while, so I can't really help you with what came after. I am sure a lot has been updated, fixed and improved with newer mods and tweaks, but I lack the motivation to research and update the guide in the near future. Maybe someday

[Banderx27]

Ausdrake mentioned in the comment down below that they installed Community Patches for Legendary Edition 1 and 3. I found them on Nexus mods and would also like to incorporate these 2 mods/patches. Do you have any recommendation for what order I should put these? I already looked over what is changed in the community patches and left out any mods in your list that would be redundant. It was just 2 I believe. The ones restoring or fixing Conrad Vernor's interactions.

Great guide by the way. It is really appreciated. I always get overwhelmed trying to decide what mods to try and still keep to a semi-vanilla experience and this just helps a ton to relieve any of that stress. Thank you and keep up the awesome work!

[Critterina]

can i just delete this stupid dll file?

[Critterina]

how do i rename the .dll file? there is no option to

[GreedoMustDie]

Nice guide

[NucaCola]

Probably would be a good idea to include the DLC Timing mods for ME2 and ME3

[POO BLENDER]

this would be great if i could get the game past the splash screen.

[Ciocolici]

Why would they? They did not for me

[Dragon]

Do any of these mods disable achievements I doubt they do but I thought I’d check.

[Ausdrake]

This was excellent. The only thing I did differently was add the LE1/3 Community patches, because more bug fixes are always nice, but I wouldn't have found them without this guide so thank you very much!