Guesses here for Mass Effect: Andromeda. See also WMG/MassEffect.
- Jossed. The main characters' father is Alec Ryder, a member of the first team that went through the Charon Relay with Jon Grissom.
- Jossed, as Sarah/Scott would have been a young kid years before the events of Mass Effect occurred.
- And he will love calling enemies "busta" ?
- The best pistol in the game will be called Winona. Alternatively, Winona is Alec's trusty old sidearm he's carried with him on missions for decades.
- Confirmed. Although a pistol named Winona isn't sold, you can craft a pistol and name it Winona or anything else you want.
- Jossed: The arks departed the Milky Way for Andromeda roughly around the time period of Mass Effect 2, and so before Reaper invasion. The state of the galaxy is therefore already established.
- Paragon:
- Turians (Combat)
- Salarians (Tech)
- Asari (Biotic)
- Neutral:
- Humans (Combat)
- Geth (Tech)
- Drell (Biotic)
- Renegade:
- Krogan (Combat)
- Quariansnote (Tech)
- Batariansnote (Biotic)
- Jossed, since the protagonist will be human just like Shepard.
- The Neutral was part of a rescue team that would covertly extract a compromised STG observation team. However, the extraction was a bloody affair, resulting in the deaths of many Yahg and an expectation that war with this species will be inevitable once they achieve space flight.
- The Renegade was sent in after the bloody extraction to sabotage a Yahg spaceship prototype, setting their technological progress back a few decades. However, the team discovered that a launch was imminent the hour they were inserted, and chose to engineer a very public very horrible catastrophe with that rocket prototype. This engineered accident caused thousands of casualties and a major ecological disruption.
- The Paragon was on a space based observation mission over the Yahg home world, but a star flare killed their ship's electronics, forcing it to plunge onto the planet below. The protagonist decided that blowing up the crashed ship would expose the Yahg to dust form eezo, and kill injured crewmen. So s/he buried the ship and avoided detection till a salarian STG insertion team pulled them out. However, the buried wreck was excavated a week later and jumped the Yahg forward technologically by two centuries.
- All Jossed, as the expedition leaves right about the time when only a select few humans even know about the Yahg.
Earthborn Ryder is a Benedict Arnold Expy - Comes from old money, but his father squandered the family fortune, got himself in deep debt, then got himself imprisoned. Ryder is a Glory Hound looking to once again make the family name famous and respected.
Colonist Ryder is a "lunar schooner" who grew up on Earth's moon, and is an Expy of Razaak from Starship Troopers - was a soldier, became an instructor, stayed an instructor for a long time, then joined the Andromeda Initiative to see combat once more.
- ...silly reference to classic Mystery Science Theater 3000 fodder aside, this... is actually semi-confirmed. The PC Ryder is the son/daughter of an N7 war hero, one of the first humans to venture outside of the solar system.
- Ryders in the sky, we know there are multiple Ryders, and that they're in space, that seems a bit obvious. But ghosts certainly raises some questions, so does the fact that the song is widely recognized as being about The Wild Hunt.
- That line about "change your ways or you will ride forever chasing the Devil's cows" could also be a metaphor for addiction, as "chasing the herd" sounds kinda similar to "chasing the dragon". The older Ryder showed up in Andromeda as part of an advance team, and got himself and his team addicted to something. Now they must constantly keep chasing after these ghostly animals to feed their addiction, so they try to warn the protagonist Ryder away from Andromeda, or s/he will end up addicted and "chasing the herd" just like them.
- What exactly is the addiction? Eezo! The initial scout team found eezo and used a Dangerous Forbidden Technique to bioticize themselves in order to make themselves more versatile and survivable. However, the eezo found in Andromeda is different from the Milky Way eezo, so it decays much faster. The scout team must keep looking for eezo to inject into their new nodules, to replace the eezo that decayed away, or these nodules without eezo will become malignant and metastasize. So, if they can't mine eezo, they steal it.
- Jossed. The song's lyrics are completely irrelevant to the game's plot other than the cursory mention of "riders (Ryders) in the sky".
- Jossed. The N7 guy is your father and the human pathfinder, so he is definitely on your side. He also pulls a Heroic Sacrifice to save your life.
- And your choice of character class influences his/hers. If you choose Soldier, s/he will be a Sentinel, If you choose Adept, s/he will be an Infiltrator, and if you choose Engineer, s/he will be a Vanguard, and vice-versa.
- Jossed — the N7 guy from the trailer isn't a player character. However, the idea that the character you don't choose will still be in the game is confirmed — Sara and Scott Ryder will both show up regardless of which one you're playing as.
- The complementary class will apply. Except that you're restricted to combo classes - Sentinel, Vanguard, Infiltrator while your sibling is the complementary Soldier, Adept or Engineer.
- Jossed due to the new character customization system that allows for flexible non-class specific builds for either Ryder.
- Jossed already by BioWare. Ryder is the name of the Player Character. And he dies making a Heroic Sacrifice to save your life, right after saving the human ark, so he isn't an antagonist.
- Later revealed to be trailer Ryder's son/daughter.
- Jossed — we now know that the Andromeda expedition left before the end of Mass Effect 3, and that the N7 soldier had a long career before Shepard was even born (since he was part of the first human expedition to ever use a mass relay).
- Well, considering how controversial Richard Marcinko is, they may have good reason to be pissed and Hackett may not have been that reasonable to protect him. Also, he might also be something of a Spartan Sibling.
- The bit about being him your older brother is Jossed — he's your father. The rest of his personality could still turn out like that, though — and you do have an actual sibling, too.
- The part about Alec Ryder being a Marcinko like troublemaker for the top brass is Jossed - his career came to an end because he dabbled in illegal AI research even after being warned to stop it.
- If this were to be the case, it's kind of funny to note that Clancy Brown voices a Star Wars Rebels character named Ryder Azadi.
- He was also in a movie called Pathfinder
- Alternately, he could survive the initial grouping experience and be kidnapped, and you have to save him instead of avenging him.
- Confirmed somewhat. Although Alec isn't a squadmate (he is a NPC who is your squad leader), he dies in the first mission. Your twin however does need rescuing.
- Partially Jossed. The Ryder's have extensive cybernetic implants that connect them to an AI. When Alec dies saving your life, he uploads SAM directly into you, making an AI deeply intertwined to you. So, you are at least a cyborg.
- Jossed. The most sadistic of choices is whether to sacrifice the salarian pathfinder and some salarian prisoners or some krogan scouts. No matter who you save, someone will rip you for not saving the other.
- Confirmed! Late in the main storyline the main Ryder is captured and you play their twin leading the rescue mission.
- Confirmed; Vetra is a romance option either twin.
- Confirmed that at least one squadmate is a native of Andromeda and romanceable.
- An actual asari commando as a squadmate, not just an asari capable of fighting. She is on this expedition to look for a cure for the Ardat-Yakshi syndrome. Asari as a whole have become marginalized and ostracized for their government's actions during the Reaper war, therefore very few will procreate with them. Left to only use themselves to procreate with, they anticipate a sharp increase in the number of Ardat-Yakshi. This commando is on this mission to preemptively prevent that from happening to her own young pureblood daughter.
- This is very partially confirmed. Your Magic Knight squadmate's passive class is "Asari Commando", she served in an asari commando unit, but all that stuff about an Ardat-Yakshi daughter is so totally Jossed. Because this "asari commando" is a human female.
- The male quarian is a soldier descended from the crew of the Idenna. That ship managed to inadvertedly jump to Andromeda and established a colony there. They are therefore, unaffected by the events on Rannoch.
- Your ship's crew will include
- A hanar helmsman. Since multiple tasks may need to be performed simultaneously in an emergency this far away from any home port, a pilot with multiple appendages will be very handy.
- Jossed. Your helmsman is salarian.
- A volus supply officer. In an unknown Galaxy, who better than a volus to navigate the economies of alien cultures?
- I wish!! Your "supply" officer role is taken up by Vetra the turian smuggler. While she does have connections to dodgy exiles, you don't find her wheeling and dealing among the Angaara.
- A female salarian intelligence officer. Since salarian females are known to be highly astute politicians, she is there to gather political intelligence as opposed to the typical military intelligence that STG operatives gather.
- Jossed. There is no intelligence gathering apparatus of any kind, at least not unail you meet the Angaara resistance and later on rescue a trapped retired STG operative.
- A grumpy misanthropic human male chief medical officer.
- Jossed. Your ship's medical officer is an asari with a British accent.
- The ship's captain will be an android who thinks he is a human.
- The ship's second in command will be an Alliance civilian observer, who is a conniving manipulator looking to usurp command of the ship and mission herself. A confrontation will erupt between her and the captain, in which you must pick a side. Support The Captain and your ship will be considered to have gone rogue, with the rest of the Alliance looking to capture all of you. Support the civilian observer and she becomes an inept obstructive second guesser.
- This part may be partially confirmed. Foster Addison the Initiative's current second in command is an unpleasant incompetent person, who doesn't think highly of you. She is also somewhat anti-military.
- A hanar helmsman. Since multiple tasks may need to be performed simultaneously in an emergency this far away from any home port, a pilot with multiple appendages will be very handy.
- Plus the presence of an all-female race of psychics and the fact that the Mako handles like a floor buf—er, I mean enforcer.
- And of course, you can name your male protagonist David. David Ryder. We are literally putting our faith in, and the future of humanity in the hands of, BLAST HARDCHEESE! Surely the allusion must be intentional.
- Jossed since the ark ships leave during the events of ME2 and as of ME3 she is still on Palaven.
- Jossed since the ark ships leave during the events of ME2 and as of ME3 Eve is still childless. You do meet a Krogan female who is an engineer, but she is Drack's granddaughter.
- Alien Iron Bull?
- Jossed. Drack belongs to clan Nakmor.
- Jossed for him being Drack, as they look nothing alike, and Drack belongs to clan Nakmore and the british krogan probably belongs to clan Thax.
- Jossed. Drack belongs to clan Nakmor and is 1,400 years old.
- This explains why Cora was cast aside again and again and again. The parents she knew were probably not her real parents, and when she manifested biotics, they shipped her off to the Alliance before TIM could get his hands on her. The Alliance shipped her off to the asari, as opposed to say, Kaidan's spec ops biotic unit, as they thought she'd be a Cerberus spy. Then the asari eventually find out, and discretely ship her off to the Andromeda Initiative, as they suspect it is a Cerberus front - sending her "home" so to speak.
- The Illusive Man most likely funded the initiative, solely to get Cora out of the Milky Way. At this time, he is engaged against the Collectors, with the Reapers not far behind, and TIM didn't want Cora to get caught up in it.
- As it stands the game makes absolutely no suggestion that there's a relation between the two. Cerberus involvement in the initiative is hinted at, but Cora isn't connected to it. Her backstory - which we're never given any reason to question - also puts her as the child of relatively poor spacers, not the relative of one of the richest men in the galaxy. It's entirely possible there's a twist in mind for a future game or DLC, but it's equally possible that they're just two unrelated people with the same last name. Especially when you remember that Mass Effect 3 had the same issue with James Vega initially being named James Sanders without any relation to Kahlee Sanders; they changed Vega's name then, it would seem this time they just decided not to blink.
- Your ship's chef will be an ex Spec Ops soldier, who lost his status due to disobeying an order.
- An eye patch wearin' guttural growling biotic shock trooper who is in max security lockdown for robbing the Council treasury
- A biotic who can download a neural imprint that either boosts her biotics to the max, enhances biotics while downloading some tech skills, or download a lot of technical knowledge, but leave one biotic ability intact.
- All Jossed. Your only human squadmates are Liam the Strange Cop in a Strange Land and Cora the Magic Knight. However, the Player Character does have a Dollhouse doll like ability to change their combat capabilities via a neural implant from SAM.
- Cora's time with the Asari Commandoes contrasts Ashley's stagnation on human colonies and xenophobic attitude. While Ashley was a little Hot-Blooded, Cora will be The Stoic who needs to lighten up. Also, while Ashley immensely respects you right from the get go, and accepts your leadership without question, Cora will constantly second guess your decisions, as she feels that the mantle of Pathfinder should have passed on to her, instead of you.
- She will become disloyal and leave your squad if you display pro-human xenophobic tendencies once too often, as she is on this initiative to get away from Cerberus and their xenophobia.
- Liam will be impulsive and hotheaded where Kaidan was one of the most reasonable teammates. Unlike Kaiden who was initially a Technical Pacifist who held back on his biotics, Liam is more templarish.
- Liam is an ex-cop, so getting involved in a few too many larcenous schemes will cause him to become disloyal and attack you.
- Vetra has underworld connections and puts a lot of emphasis on the team. Garrus was a Cowboy Cop. While Garrus abhors lawbreakers and injustice, Vetra will be more morally ambiguous and will love getting involved in a good scheme.
- Pass up on a few too many good opportunities for a big score, and she leaves your squad. You might have to fight her later on, as she will attempt a scheme that may interfere with some side quest you are doing.
- Peebee and Liara are both relatively young scholars, but Peebee is extraverted whereas Liara was reserved. While Liara falls head over heels for you immediately, you will just be another short term fling for Peebee.
- Being a Dogged Nice Guy Stalker with a Crush and trying to form a relationship after her one night stand with you, will cause her to leave.
- Drack genuinely enjoys his life of mercenary work and violence, whereas Wrex just rolled with it. While Wrex desperately wanted to cure the Genophage, Drack is like Okeer and wants to "defeat the genophage by ignoring it".
- Resolve one too many conflicts by talking your way to a mutually agreeable solution and Drack gets bored and leaves. You might have to fight him in a side quest later on.
- Finally, while Tali was venturing out into a wider galaxy of strangers, Jaal is an Andromeda native dealing with a flotilla of refugees. Tali was a Wrench Wench while Jaal will be more of a Luddite.
- Since Jaal is an Andromeda native, he prefers it if you resolve disputes with locals in a peaceful mediating manner. Resolve too ma conflicts by shooting one too many Andromeda natives will cause him to become hostile and attack you.
- The unchosen twin gets some kind of cryo sickness from the sleeper starship. Maybe they get better and return near the end like Warden!Sibling from Dragon Age 2?
- SAM will install himself into a powerful Remnant mech to serve as a Game-Breaker squadmate towards the end. The reason he does this is due to a hidden objective programmed in by Alec Ryder, that commands SAM to do whatever it takes to ensure the survival of you and your twin, due to the Scourge causing him to be permanently disconnected from you and your twin.
- Bane Goddamned Massani will become a Downloadable Content squadmate.
- Lemm'Shaal vas Idenna nar Tesleya, Quarian Migrant Fleet Marine and Pathfinder, with his trusty turian shotgun.
- Sarissa the asari commando that Cora idolized. If her actions were covered up by Ryder, they will eventually be uncovered, causing both her and Ryder to lose their Pathfinder status. If she was disgraced, she is found on Elaaden's flop house as a mercenary, starting a chapter of Eclipse.
- Avitus Rix drinking himself to death on Kadara. If he was convinced to become Pathfinder, some Dirty Business from his Spectre past as well as his association with Saren causes him to be fired.
- She's actually impersonating/cosplaying as one, in the same way that Thom Ranier was impersonating a Gray Warden. It would explain the eyebrows, and how come she's so coy about her past. Perhaps the reason her loyalty mission demo cuts off at the confrontation with her nemesis is because that nemesis would spill the beans to Ryder and the rest of the crew. At the very least, it would be a much simpler explanation than Time Travel, an Intercontinuity Crossover with Dragon Age, or Resurrecting Samara's tale of being Shakespeare's muse.
- I'd point out that there is an even simpler answer than that; quarian ancestry as opposed to human.
- Jossed by the fact that if you pursue a serious relationship with her, she melds minds like an asari would.
- Quarians will be retconned to look very similar to organic geth - their faces consist of a giant eyelid with a mouth and nose in the centre of the iris.
- At one point in the story, Ryder will come across Peebee in her room, where she is going up the wall, pacing back and forth and generally seeming ready to jump out of her skin. She says this is due to her not liking people to know where she is, and when it happens she needs to go into some sort of sensory deprivation chamber to calm herself again. This isn't something that's ever been presented as a thing Asari do in the lore, and it's clear that this isn't just a case of Peebee being her usual lone wolf self; she seems to almost physically need to get away from it all. combined with her constant need for mental stimulation leading her to hop from one area of interest to another, focusing on it until she feels she's got all she can from it, and her obvious issues with emotional intimacy (Though some of that probably stems from her relationship with Kalinda) then it all seems to point to her having a mental condition of some sort. It never comes up because she hasn't felt any need to mention it, and it may come up as an aside note in a future DLC, similar how the Shadow Broker files in ME 2 gave all sorts of background information on your squad mates in the DLC.
- We know that Vetra's father was involved in shady black ops and that something caused her mother to leave him and take the kids. Now considering Vetra's age, 2165 or a bit later seems to be about the right time that her mother left her father. 2165 was when Saren blew up a refinery, framed Anderson, then ran off to find the sentient dreadnought Sovereign. So it would make sense that the mother would disavow all association with Saren including not taking on the surname "Arterius" in any manner. After all Vetra mentioned that she was a ladder climber. After Saren's public disgrace in the first game, it is no wonder Vetra jumped at the chance to start afresh in a new galaxy.
- Jossed, in that the Player Character joined the initiative earnestly, joining their father. The part of an undercover infiltrator is confirmed however, with turian NPC Tiran Kandros, who investigates the Initiative in a prequel comic, then joins the Nexus militia.
- A slight modification to this theory: it was an expedition long planned and prepared for, but when the Reaper War began its schedule was bumped up. Candidates from every known species were selected and thrown onto the ship(s), the N7 Frontiersman was placed in charge, and the expedition left in complete secrecy to prevent the Reapers from knowing what happened, so that, in case the war was lost, their civilizations continued in some form. A rule was made that no contact with the Milky Way would be made, in case the Reapers won and traced the signal. There will be a subplot in the game about people wanting to reestablish contact with the Milky Way, or even go back.
- Confirmed. The expedition was just a Non-Idle Rich woman's pipe dream until an unknown Benefactor accelerated the time table and invested heavily in order to escape the Reapers. The expedition's comm beacons acknowledging arrival in Andromeda remain unanswered by the Milky Way, and many mutineers rebelled because they wanted to go back.
- Post Reaper War, the organics of the Milky Way have become thralls to the Leviathans who have risen to reclaim their lost empire. After successfully subjugating the Milky Way once more, they have sent their thralls in force to conquer a neighboring galaxy to expand their influence even further.
- Jossed, as they leave before the Reapers invade. Or even are known about. Also, they have first contact protocols that forbid them from initiating conflict, unless attacked first.
- The disaster being escaped could even just be the events of the main trilogy. If an ark were launched as a secret (Ilos-like) last hope for continuing humanity if the Crucible project failed, it might turn up at Andromeda significantly after the original trilogy but be unaffected by what ending Shepard chose (saving the devs from Cutting Off the Branches). If such is the case, the ark expedition may be under strict instructions never to go back even if they can, since that might mean Reaper discovery.
- Jossed with the Andromeda Initiative. Might still be true for subsequent waves still on their way to Andromeda.
Gameplay-wise, this may see a Mass Effect series first, wherein your starting companions will not be human. As this is a joint effort, it will likely be quarian and (going by the teaser) krogan, which will see this as an opportunity to expand after the genophage (and in a way that won't make asaris too nervous). The advisor in the crew will be an asari, who will help handle diplomatic exploits should the need arise, as well as academic pursuits like learning of foreign cultures. Turians oversee the security, within and without the crew during the expedition. Of course, there will be the eager humans (who may be remnants of or working for/with Cerberus—or completely its own thing, to better drive the point home) who want to hijack the mission and colonize Andromeda to establish power first, and claim seniority over the other Citadel species.
Story-wise, this will see the continued Character Development of the human race in the Shepard Trilogy, only the other species will see them grow from naïve, inexperienced, over-eager yet capable aliens that can rise above any challenge thrown at them to terrifying, unwavering, deterministic, and pragmatic warmongers that even have krogans worried. The Shepard trilogy loved to play up the fact that humans were praised for their undying willpower, helped by the fact that Shepard was the example they went by. Krogans by contrast are hard to kill because of their physiology alone, but humans have proved capable that despite their physical limitations, they can go above and beyond expectations, for good or bad. The game will see relations with the other Citadel species grow tense as humans become harder to manage while Andromeda is explored and colonized. Naturally, this will also bring unease to whatever indigenous Andromedan species are present, as they will really only see this as one thing: an invasion.
- Jossed as the ships leave before anyone even knew about the Crucible. Might still be true for the quarian ark, explaining its delay.
- The N7 Day Teaser? The one where Shepard says her final goodbyes to those traveling from Earth to the Andromeda galaxy? Canon. How? Simple: S/he had put together a group of the best and brightest not to fight the Reapers, but as a doomsday evacuation should things go wrong. Which best and brightest? You obviously, or your descendants, as well as the best soldiers, engineers, adepts. infiltrators, scientists, spies, mercenaries, ect to help start anew far away from the conflict. This would serve two purposes:
- 1. Allow for Cutting Off the Branches not just for the ending but for specific details in the game: everything from Destroy/Synthesis/Control to Shepard's gender and background can be chosen through dialogue and actions throughout the game.
- 2. This will set up one hell of a Deus ex Machina at some point where you can actually come across Shepard as either the galactic god, old cyborg after being brought back to life, or full on human/synthetic.
- Jossed, as the arks left before people took the Reapers seriously. Also, the initiative seems to have been Jien Garçon and Alec Ryder's idea.
- Jossed — it has been revealed to be an Ark, a long-range ship.
- The asari/salarian ark ship 'Eternal Embrace'
- The volus ark ship 'Angel Investment', which contains turian crewmen and security personnel.
- The quarian cruiser Idenna, with its crew bolstered by some more turians.
- Jossed. The salarian ark ship is the Paarchera, the asari ark ship is the Leusinia and the turian ark ship is the Nataneus.
- A quarian ark is arriving, but it is called Keelah Siyah, so it most likely is not the Idenna. Volus, elcor, hanar and drell are aboard.
- Humans: Doy.
- Asari, turians, salarians:
- There was no way they were going to sit this one out. They probably cited some laws about building such massive ships unless there representatives of the Council races to oversee the project.
- All three are Confirmed. The three races are prominent in the Andromeda Initiative, and your squadmates include PeeBee (Asari) and Vetra (Turian).
- Volus:
- The volus probably provided funding and technology to build the ships, on the condition that volus representatives were sent to keep an eye on their 'investment' and for a negotiated cut of the resources from Andromeda.
- Volus are arriving on the quarian "deep breath" ark.
- Hanar:
- They'll probably get spots once they point out their obvious advantages in the exploitation of ocean environments.
- Drell:
- If hanar go, drell will follow.
- Hanar and drell are confirmed to be arriving on the quarian ark.
- Elcor:
- The elcor are ultra conservative and don't like to stray too far from the high gravity world's they inhabit. So we might only see one or two very brave ones, who bucked tradition and came along.
- Anticipated excitement mixed with nonchalance! Elcor confirmed on the quarian ark.
- Krogan:
- A number of krogan will be hired as mercenaries for security.
- Confirmed. Drack is a Krogan who will be one of Ryder's squadmates. Moreover, Nakmor Kesh is a female Krogan engineer who serves as Nexus' Superintendant.
- Quarians:
- Even though they're still ostracized at this point, if anyone in the Milky Way knows how to build and run a Generation Ship, it's the quarians (even though it's really Sleeper Starship, but someone's gotta stay awake to keep an eye on things). Quarians were hired as consultants and overseers, on the provision that they were given spots.
- Quarians have now been confirmed.
- Batarians:
- Yeah, maybe not.
- Vorcha:
- A group of 'civilized' vorcha join as a publicity stunt, to try and counter their species' bad rap, and as specialists for working in extreme environments.
- Geth:
- The geth will have learned of the Andromeda Initiative and become curious about it. A small ship filled with geth platforms and enough programs to remain sentient secretly attaches itself to one of the arks on the way out of the galaxy and disengages before enough people wake up to be noticed (and whatever disaster befalls the ships).
- The part about the geth is most likely Jossed. Since the arks left around the time of the Arrival DLC, very few people would have known about the split between true and heretic geth. Therefore any attempt at geth infiltration would have been violently countered. At the best, maybe a small set of true geth subroutines downloaded themselves onto ark ships and built a few mobile platforms.
- The geth do not intentionally infiltrate. This is not impossible but it is definitely a longshot. While Legion would likely have become privy of SAM and the Initiative through EDI, he probably would have seen the project as risky and probably would not have had much motivation to send so many runtimes out into the unknown where there was "no carrier available" if something went wrong. However, the research Tali's dad was doing in ME2 was starting to bear fruit before one mistake got them all killed, maybe SAM data combined with Overlord data provided by the Benefactor might have enabled the possibility of a loyal, Legion like geth aboard the quarian ark. That's still a stretch though. Andromeda mentions Project Overlord several times, so I figure what's more likely is some nutso scientist decides to marry geth technology with Remnant, with disastrous results.
- The geth will have learned of the Andromeda Initiative and become curious about it. A small ship filled with geth platforms and enough programs to remain sentient secretly attaches itself to one of the arks on the way out of the galaxy and disengages before enough people wake up to be noticed (and whatever disaster befalls the ships).
- The story arc tag line will eventually be "No one was supposed to survive this expedition" similar to how the tag line for Fallout became "The vaults were never meant to save anyone". All the experiments carried out by Garçon on the Arks were for the benefit of an Exo-Geni colonization wave that would come 600 years later.
- Somewhat confirmed. Alec Ryder and Jien Garson were both aware of the rumors of the Reapers and believed them (Ryder can find communication logs with Liara and Garrus' father discussing the threat), and spearheaded the Andromeda Initiative as a result. However, this reason seems to have only been known among the leadership's inner circle.
- When the quarian ark arrives, we will find the Mass Effect 3 council aboard. The asari councillor's "continuity of civilization" was for them to intercept the quarian ark, board it and run, leaving the Milky Way to burn.
- This actually seems about 75% likely following the Origins pre-release demo where the memory imprints of the deceased Alec Ryder and Jien Garson continually refer to their worries regarding the intentions of the Initiative's financial backers. While they never outright state who this might be and Jien and Alec themselves are pretty detached from anything remotely Cerberus, all evidence mounting is pretty well pointing towards The Illusive Man.
- Come game release, it seems almost entirely certain that Cerberus was the main sponsor for Alec Ryder's SAM research after his money ran out, and a major backer of the Andromeda Initiative, but Alec Ryder and Jien Garson weren't themselves Cerberus or promoting a Cerberus agenda. It's strongly implied that Cerberus, if they were in fact the backers, sent someone along to kill Jien Garson.
- Counter theory - it is a Leviathan funded, or alternatively, funded by that eccentric Volus on Klencory. What lends credence to this theory is that Cerberus would never have allowed all those other species to come along, especially the Krogan. After all, they are human survivalists. However, Jien Garçon's assassination might have been a ploy by Cerberus infiltrators to wrest control of this project away from her and these backers.
- Alternative theory - the Catalyst found out about this ark ship, but didn't have a reaper to spare to try and subjugate it. So, the Catalyst created a backup copy of itself, fragmented it among code upgrades to some heretic geth runtimes and downloaded itself onto the ark. The idea was to seize control of that ark, Reaperize it, and evaluate the organic synthetic conflict situation in Andromeda, and if need be, start creating a new Reaper army out of species there. This way, it escaped the effects of the Crucible, but can be a terrifying new enemy for the Initiative to deal with.
- How the Benefactor was aware of the Reapers before most of the Galaxy.
- Where from the funds come, the Geth being AI could divert/steal immense sums of virtual credit without much problems.
- Why the Geth built a gigantic telescope with mass relays, only to leave it unguarded enough that the Quarians would seize it.
- Why they murdered Jien Garson and probably intended to kill most of the senior staff upon arrival. The Geth are non violent but know that once discovered they would be a war resulting in either their destruction of the organics, both unacceptable outcomes. Preserving secrecy by assassinating the few people in the know through agents would be seen as the only alternative.
- Besides Protheans, other older races also fled to Andromeda, seeking refuge from the Reapers. A source of conflict will be between these enclaves of Milky Way refugees and species native to Andromeda.
- The jardaan terraform planets with Remnant tech, then genetically engineer life to live on those planets because they observed that species in their neighboring galaxy were getting mulched and turned into Mecha Chtulhu monsters on a regular basis. They made trips to collect samples, bring them to Andromeda, then create planets for them in isolated star clusters for those species to thrive again. And without Mass Relays, these species could research FTL propulsion improvements at their own pace, thereby avoiding the problem of technological advancement before cultural advancement. So, the Angaara were once a Milky Way species, that got harvested a long time ago, explaining their humanoid turianoid appearance.However, they couldn't come this cycle, because they got into a galactic war with the makers of the Scourge, and were driven out of at least Heleus.
- The Citadel was created by the Reapers, remember. If there's more than one, that means they've gone extra-galactic, too. And since the Crucible, no matter what ending you chose, only affected the Milky Way, we're talking about the same genocidal Mecha-Cthulhu as the first game.
- Jossed. There are no mass relays in Andromeda, as stated by the Initiative.
- Jossed. We find evidence of an extremely advanced race the jardaan, who are capable of terraforming entire clusters of planets and even creating organic life. A reaper culling would have never allowed such a species to advance this much.
- Eezo is a naturally occurring material. There is no reason to believe that it wouldn't exist outside of the Milky Way.
- You will learn during the course of this game that eezo is actually artificially created and that someone seeded amounts of it all over the Milky Way.
- The eezo in Andromeda has been modified somehow to have a significantly shorter half life, so it decays much faster. This was done intentionally to ensure that no local species would ever produce biotic adults, as biotics are a major game changer in military conflicts. The only biotics in Andromeda are children, who lose their Mind over Matter powers when they reach adulthood.
- Confirmed that there are no natural biotics among the Andromeda races. On the other hand, the angarans have a type of bio-electricity instead which they can use in combat.
- That being said, Eezo does exist in Helius. Why there aren't natural biotics among the space faring races isn't entirely clear.
- It will be established that eezo was previously contained only in Remnant tech and therefore carefully isolated from whatever life the tech supported. However, the Scourge also contains copious amounts of eezo, and is depositing it all over the cluster. And by neutralizing remnant tech, it is causing them to leak eezo too.
- Complete shot in the dark, but it could be that the Remnant race mentioned in the survey leak actively suppressed other species without exterminating them until the time of their mysterious disappearance.
- The Reapers were created because organic civilizations kept wiping themselves out. Perhaps this is what happened in Andromeda? There was a massive cataclysm caused by some species' hubris that resulted in Andromeda being sterilized of life, and it's simply taken a very long time for organic life to come back. And while this is happening, the Milky Way species show up...
- Earth IRL only had multicellular life for 600 million years. It took a little over half a billion years for those creatures to turn into a sapient race. Perhaps the cataclysm in Andromeda took place about a billion years ago and purged the galaxy of life down to the single cell level, and this is how long it's taken for life to reform completely from scratch?
- Another theory. The Leviathans were in contact with Andromeda back then, and the Catalyst witnessing what happened there was what led it to conclude that the Reaper cycle of extinction was the only to prevent the Milky Way from suffering the same fate.
- The Reapers were created because organic civilizations kept wiping themselves out. Perhaps this is what happened in Andromeda? There was a massive cataclysm caused by some species' hubris that resulted in Andromeda being sterilized of life, and it's simply taken a very long time for organic life to come back. And while this is happening, the Milky Way species show up...
- We find that there was at least one, most likely two highly advanced species in Andromeda, and fairly recently at that. The jaardan are responsible for the creation of the Remnant technology, including a network of teraforming systems, and designed the angaran species. They were driven out of the Helius cluster some five hundred years before the Initiative's arrival, meaning that they were active after the events of the Original Trilogy. The race that drove them - assuming it wasn't just another faction of jaardan - did so by unleashing an absolutely massive dark energy cloud across the cluster that disrupted the teraforming network, shattered at least one planet entirely, and completely disrupted space travel throughout the cluster in a way that is comparable to a minefield. The lingering effects and continued pressence of this cloud is why the cluster remains abandoned by other hyper-advanced species.
- That original species have ascended to become energy beings.
- Confirmed that the Remnant are synthetic, but we don't yet know the fate of their creators the jaardan, except that they were attacked and driven away by the Scourge. These Remnant robots are however just passive machines that react when someone gets close, and don't exhibit the advanced behaviors of AI.
- Just one, but it's a big one: The Scourge, a dark-energy mass that appeared sometime between when Andromeda was scouted and when the arks arrived. It destabilized planets, rendered biospheres unlivable, and damaged and destroyed the Andromeda Initiative ships.
- You also get to see a black hole happily parking itself in the gravitational center of the Heleus cluster.
- Confirmed. They are constructs.
- Or some Thresher eggs could have hitched a ride on the arks. If there's a time skip that could give them time to gestate.
- Partially Jossed. That giant worm is a Humongous Mecha, not a thresher maw. However, there might be maws elsewhere. Also, the maws are explicitly stated to be native to Tuchanka.
The same vault that would eventually be discovered by a certain volus billionaire...
- The Horatio are a faction born of a single man who cloned himself into a civilization. It has the ability to absorb the beneficial traits of any species it has diplomatic contact with, and its final ability is to change any local population into Horatio. The Kett too are unable to reproduce conventionally, and they "share their glory" with other lesser species. Moreover, the Kett religious fervor and perspective on their conversions, seen as a "Gift", can be paralleled to the Horatio's reverence for their progenitor and extreme narcissism.
- The Unfallen are a faction of sentient trees whose abilities revolve around food production and population growth, as well a compact territory. They are pacifists by nature, seeing life as sacred, and prone to ally themselves with other factions. This may be paralleled with the Jaardan, who are associated with trees and gardens as the Remnant technology allows plants to grow without sustenance. Incidentally, terraforming is highly beneficial for the Unfallen as it allows for more population slot, slots easily filled with their massive food production. However, Remnant technology look nothing like Unfallen design, though it could be the work of an ally, or just Bioware's take on them.
- Due to many unknowns, two factions could be what inspired the enemies of the Jaardan.
- The Riftborn, non organic entities not native from our plane of existence. To them, our universe is an eldritch hellscape, and organics are unsightly to the point of nausea. They could oppose the Jaardan's initiative to create even more life. Moreover, they strive on inhabitable planet, making their efforts to destroy the terraforming technology more justifiable.
- The Vodyani. A theocracy of incorporeal entities, the Vodyani are ship bound, unable to colonize planets, but survive by draining other planets of their life force. They worship the Endless, the precursors of that universe. Some have the reasonably justifiable opinion that those Endless intended to destroy all life in the galaxy, which may be a reason to destroy any attempt at creating new species. The Scourge not only would fit this genocidal endeavor, destroying entire systems, but also fit their ethereal design.
- On an additional note, the Horatio are one of the low tier faction of Endless Space 2, and even the Vodyani are surpassed in destructiveness and cruelty by others. Mass Effect Andromeda would effectively be what it's like for minor factions to be between Godlike civilizations at war with each other. Small, helpless, and whose saving grace is to be too small to be noticed.
- Further helped along by the newest launch trailer. While it's possible he's referring to something completely different, Alec Ryder's line "they're visitors, like us", seems to imply that the Kett themselves are aliens and strangers to the Andromeda Galaxy. With that, their true origin could potentially be from anywhere outside Andromeda...including the Milky Way.
- Not necessarily. It was stated in the Jaal video that the Kett have been fighting a war with the Angarans for eighty years, and them being "visitors" could just mean that the Kett are from a different star cluster from within Andromeda.
- ...unless a century or so after the Andromeda Initiative left the Milky Way, the human race sent another expedition to Heleus using faster spaceships that beat them there by a couple centuries, then mutated into the Kett.
- Perhaps they are the Argon?
- Op here, I like starting theory discussions. Also, I'm gonna counter by stating that I'm also hoping Mass Effect finally goes Interstellar and delves into some time travel mythos here with the Kett and normal Humans. There's also that the Andromeda Initiative itself went completely undetected between ME and Mass Effect 2 so who's to say there wasn't some other kind of crazy expedition launched beforehand?
- The Kett are a Milky Way species that conquered the Galaxy and enslaved everyone else a million years ago. However, like all dominant Milky Way races, they got harvested and turned into a capital ship. The Kett were turned into the reaper called Nazara or Sovereign. These Kett were dispatched here to find technology that will defeat the Reapers, but don't want to share that tech with anyone else, as they want to regain their position as galactic overlords. This will be a nice way to further tie this game in to Mass Effect.
- That honestly probably one of the coolest pre-game theories I've heard.
- Not necessarily. It was stated in the Jaal video that the Kett have been fighting a war with the Angarans for eighty years, and them being "visitors" could just mean that the Kett are from a different star cluster from within Andromeda.
- I was actually pretty close with this guess. But nope. Unfortunately they went with the much less cool and honestly weird idea of making them former Angara instead. Much less devastating.
- For the humans anyways. The Angara on the other hand aren't too happy with finding out they've literally been fighting themselves for the past eighty years. Imagine how you'd feel if the homocidal alien soldier you just blew the head off of used to be your granny.
- Note that this plot specifically was discontinued after lead writer Drew Karpyshyn left the franchise after Mass Effect 2. Now he is making a return.
- The sun on Haestrom was prematurely aged as part of a Remnant weapon test. The Remnant felt threatened by the impending collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies in 2 billion years, so they are trying to preemptively destroy every star in the Milky Way, so the Andromeda galaxy won't collide with anything.
- An alternative to this theory - the premature aging of Haestrom's sun was caused as part of a test of the Scourge's capability. Test its ability on some distant star on the perimeter of a neighboring galaxy, collect data and refine the Scourge to wreck planets quickly. Since the quarian ark has this data, the Scourge builders attacked it. The reason it is broadcasting a "keep away" signal is because there is intense scourge presence on all approaches to the ark.
- The destablization of Haestrom's sun was caused by a Q-Ball (a spherical soliton of concentrated Dark Energy), which is also, the All There in the Manual explanation for why our sun is acting so screwy in Sunshine.
- Confirmed. The Scourge mentioned in the trailers and encountered by the Initiative on their first arrival to the Heleus Cluster is described as being tied to Dark Energy and Element Zero but otherwise defies all understanding of basic science. No word yet on what it might actually be but at the very least it is tied to this.
- Confirmed, albeit on a much smaller scale. The only Cerberus presence you encounter are three Mad Scientist types running More than Mind Control experiments on exiles in a Wretched Hive.
- Partially Jossed. The Angaara did fall victim to the Scourge which set them back technologically, after which the Kett are hunting them. However the initiative seems to have no relevance to this concept.
- Jossed.
- Jossed as of now. Although one goal of the initiative is to establish some sort of conduit back to the Milky Way, right now the Nexus is in no condition to allocate resources for this project.
- This has to be one of the most unique and hardest interpretations of an Eldritch Abomination I've heard of.
- A little late to the party here, but with the dummied out dark energy plotline, the reason why it was such a threat was tied into heat death theory. All the use of dark energy was exacerbating the buildup of entropy (or at least creating a similar effect), causing the Milky Way to enter the early stage of heat death. The Reapers were created to solve the problem, when they couldn't they started the harvest. The cullings not only dark energy and entropy levels to reduce, but they figure by harvesting these advanced species they might eventually finally solve that piece of the puzzle that will "solve" the heat death problem. The original final choice for Shepard to make would have been, work alongside the Reapers to find a way to avert galactic heat death (as this cycle may hold the final piece of the puzzle, meaning it would be the last one), or destroy them and the galaxy, accepting that it is on borrowed time, enjoy the little remaining time it has left. This was mainly Drew Karpyshyn's idea, and Casey Hudson hated it, so once Drew left the series, Casey junked it.
- The reason these guys became hostile is because they were members of Clan Weyrloc who were off on some blood pack mission. They were recruited to be part of an advance scout unit for the Ark-Con Pathfinders, but during the expedition, found out that a human and salarian annihilated their clan to prevent the genophage from being cured (sound familiar?) They then swore revenge.
- Confirmed somewhat with a single antagonist named Spender. This guy made a deal with the Krogan to violently suppress a revolt that hadn't escalated into a revolt yet, then reneged on the Krogan, causing them to leave the Initiative too. Spender then tries to actively sabotage the Krogan colony, and Ryder must stop him.
- They will call themselves the Children of Athame and will attack anyone asari included, who isn't part of their cult. It will be revealed that they knew about the Thessia beacon, Vendetta, the Crucible and the Reapers all along but hid that knowledge from everyone except their most zealous devotees. Their plan was to wait until there were four council races, creating political impasses due to no idea ever winning a majority, secretly fund the initiative to explore Andromeda and leave the Milky Way to be reaped. A few centuries after the reaping, they would return to the Milky Way and establish an all new Empire of Athame.
The second problem is more political. Earlier, the Citadel was viewed by everyone as the seat of galactic power and the pinnacle of galactic culture. Now, the aftermath of the Reaper War has tarnished its reputation by a lot, so most people would rather not have it around. It is a bleak reminder of how close they all came to total annihilation and mulch-ification. The Council no longer resides there, instead choosing London as their new headquarters, with that place being symbolic of stubborn defiance, resistance and ultimately, victory. The political festering wound that is the Citadel, can't be destroyed outright, so why not banish it to Andromeda?
- Jossed as of now, according to all the material so far, the Nexus is the Citadel's substitute and basically does all the same things up to and including having AVINA as it's VI guide. So confirmed for Citadel VI? But the Citadel may still be in transit though.
- Jossed The Nexus, ran into the Scourge shortly after arriving in the Andromeda galaxy, and one of the first things it took out was a large bank of cyro pods, hers included.
The kett will eventually be dealt with by revealing all these facts to their general populace, destroying their sense of unity and breaking them into various factions, some that will be more inclined towards peaceful relations with other races, thus avoiding the Always Chaotic Evil stigma that almost never applies to truly sapient races in the Mass Effect universe.
- Jossed by the Suicide Mission's ending in Mass Effect 2 where the EDI reveals that an entire species will have to be ground up into mulch to create a Reaper. No way that a human exploration team would work with such a thing, no matter how the Reaper War ended.
- Confirmed.
- Jossed. It's a much smaller form compared to the Normandy, so it may end up being a Fragile Speedster.
- Ryder will replace the Tempest with an armed to the teeth version called Typhoon or Tsunami.
The three specialized modes are Combat (weapone only), Engineering (drills, cranes, excavators, bulldozer) and Surveillance (lots of probes, pilot able drones, terrain scanners, structure scanners).
The three hybrid modes are Recon Scout ( some sensors with medium and long range weapons only, invisibility cloak), Sapper/Breacher (short and medium range weapons with some drilling and excavating equipment, ability to teleport spam and recharge shields, then detonate shields for knock back effect) and Searcher/Extractor (short range weapons only with a mix of scanners and drills/bores).
Installable weapons are
- Long range - Thannix cannon, Cain launcher, Camera guided missile with disruptive, high explosive or Hydra cluster missile warhead
- Medium Range - Machine gun with disruptive, incendiary or polonium tipped ammo, scatter gun capable of firing high explosive rounds, charged plasma or a Blackstar exploding singularity, radar lock guided missile with disruptive, high explosive or Hydra cluster warheads.
- Short range - Arc projectors, flamethrowers, Avalanche cryo boasters, Hydra cluster missile launchers, grenade launchers, proximity mines
- The bits about weapons are Jossed — according to the GameInformer previews, the Nomad (i.e. the new Mako) doesn't have any offensive weaponry.
- Assault Rifles
- The Zaeed assault rifle - an updated version of the Avenger
- The Williams burst fire battle rifle - a blend of the N-7 Valkyrie and the Mattock
- The Vega light machine gun - an updated N-7 Typhoon
- Shotguns
- The Taylor assault shotgun for vanguards - an updated Wraith
- The Wrex heavy shotgun - an updated Claymore "Kro-gun"
- The Grunt spike thrower - an updated Graal spike thrower
- Pistols
- The Xen Phasic Pistol - designed specifically to take down shields, barriers and synthetics
- The Kirrahe microgrenade launcher - an updated Scorpion
- The Mordin hand cannon - an updated Carnifex with built in chemical rounds
- Submachine guns
- The Samara - An automatic fire Acolyte optimized to take down shields and barriers
- The Tarquin machine pistol - a CQC (close quarters combat) burst fire submachine gun with a large headshot bonus. Intended specifically for combat in confined spaces, and works best in the hands of a skilled double tapper
- The Gryll armor piercing SMG - an updated version of the Blood Pack Punisher
- Sniper Rifle
- The Krios suppressor - A blend of the Viper rifle and Suppressor pistol, that is optimized for sneaky silent takedowns of unshielded unaware targets
- The Vakarian bolt action rifle - An updated [[Chunky Salsa. Krysae]], optimized for hard target interdiction. By default, the rounds it fires are explosive
- The Legion anti-material rifle - A soldier portable scoped Thannix cannon
- Special Weapons
- The Alenko cryoreaver - A modified Mattock semiauto that fires cryo rounds with a warp jacket - by syncing with the operator's biotic amplifier. This weapon can only be used by biotic
- The KRAS (Kal Reegar Anti Synthetic) rifle - a blend of the Adas rifle and Reegar carbine. The weapon can either fire Phasic pulses on very accurate full auto, or can be charged for close range high spread boosted damage.
- The Javik Particle channel - An updated Prothean particle rifle that can either fire a focused beam, or (for biotic operators only) sync with the biotic amp to charge and fire a dark channel field
- Omni tools
- The Goto tool, optimized for hacking, bypassing, cloaking and non lethal melee
- The Lawson Sentinel pack - an omni tool that is usually sold along with a biotic amplifier for trained sentinels, or an inexpensive basic tool for novice Engineer operatives
- The Zorah - An expensive tool for only those technicians skilled enough to hack and co-opt synthetics and automated defenses, deploy and control multiple combat drones simultaneously and pull off an Energy Drain on shields and barriers
- Biotic Amplifiers
- The Jack Zero amp - Optimized for shockwaves and lash, this amp is only for the more offense oriented biotic
- The Lawson Sentinel pack - A versatile amp normally sold in a set with an omni tool for sentinels, or an inexpensive starter amp for other biotics
- The T'Soni Power Elite - An expensive amplifier for those adepts skilled enough to pull of a singularity, damaging stasis or biotic flare
- This is jossed even before confirmation. Standard Mass Effect starter kits always include the Avenger Assault Rifle, Predator pistol and Mantis sniper rifle, among others. Most human weapons are returning from Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 and new plasma and overheat weapons are included from Andromeda.
- The Assassinator Mod provides for a tactical cloak with a damage boosted single shot. Boost is significantly higher for headshots.
- The Power Cloak upgrade is needed to allow one power to be fired while cloaked, before the de cloaking damage boosted attack. That power cools down with the cloak.
- The Re-charger Mod allows for a teleportation jump that recharges shields and knocks back anything in the vicinity of the jump's destination.
- The Nova discharger upgrade is neccesary to channel the boosted shields from a jump into an area of effect attack.
- The Bastion Mod gives us the knock back tech armor, that automatically detonates when the shield is taken down.
- The Guardian upgrade allows for manual detonation. The higher the shield, the more damage done.
- The Doppleganger Mod generates a holographic decoy that fires incineration attacks.
- The Illusion upgrade allows this decoy to be repositioned tactically like any squadmate
- The Adrenalizer Mod allows for a brief period of heightened awareness, boosted melee damage, Bullet Time with an accuracy boost at the cost of damage.
- The Stimulator upgrade allows for a brief period where all powers can be fired with no cool down.
- The Levitator mod allows you to float above ground and/or glide down from a height for a period of time. If the wearer is not a biotic, crafting this mod will require significant amounts of eezo. This mod is mutually exclusive with the jet pack.
- Biotics
- Throw, which can be evolved into either Slam or Shockwave.
- + Jossed. Throw and Shockwave are distinct powers.
- Pull, which can be evolved into Lash or Singularity.
- Jossed. Pull and Singularity are distinct.
- Warp, which can be evolved into Reave or Dark Channel.
- Jossed. No Warp or Reave is available.
- Tech Attacks
- Sabotage, which can be evolved into AI Hack or Backfire.
- Backfire in turn will cause different effects based on the ammo modifier selected by the enemy. A backfiring gun with Inferno ammo will create an Incineration Blast, Disruptor rounds will cause a Flare, Cryo rounds will cause a Cryo blast and Polonium rounds will cause a toxic Neural Shock. Lack of modifiers will have the same effect as a flashbang grenade.
- Overload can be evolved into either an Energy Drain, or an Immobilizer.
- All Jossed.
- Sabotage, which can be evolved into AI Hack or Backfire.
- Defensive buffs will be Fortification and Shield Boost
- Your squadmates have these abilities, not you.
- Your passive class will be based on the Four Horsemen
- White Ryder - Boost to charisma, which will enable you to charm, intimidate or gain loyalty easier. Conflict resolution also becomes easier. You can also cast this passive power on enemies to Dominate them.
- Red Ryder - Boost to damage, making it easier to kill enemies. Also possesses higher damage reduction. Cast this power on enemies to temporarily increase DPS.
- Black Ryder - Boost to buying and selling ability, allowing you to demand higher payment, while paying lower amounts yourself. You will also gain access to rare items easier. Cast this power on enemies to siphon credits away from them into your account.
- Pale Ryder - Gives you regenerating health, making you that much harder to kill. Also, your melee attacks do toxic damage, while ammo modifiers stack on top of Polonium ammo's toxic damage.
- Jossed. No Ryders of the Ark-pocalypse!!
- All of these are looking like they're Jossed; according to the official timeline, the Andromeda Project launches the year before the Reaper Invasion, so they were well on their way out of the galaxy by the time of ME3's ending.
But Players favored ending will still be referenced, for instance by having mutually exclusive side-quests givers depending on which ending was selected:
- If Destroy was chosen a descendant of Shepard. Also if the final love interest was human, it will be Shepard's biological descendant; if it was Liara, that descendant will be an Asari, Garrus, and it will be Turian thought this raises questions if Shepard romanced Tali (a Quarian) or Thane (a Drell).
- If Control was chosen, that will be the Shep him/herself, allowing for a metaphorical passing of the torch.
- If Synthesis was chosen, the Quest giver will be EDI, now the Mind of the GSV Normandy, an expensively upgraded version of the original ship.
Control - Just as the new Shepard influenced catalyst Benevolent Dictator starts to become less benevolent and more dictatorial, a Crazy-Prepared La Résistance secretly creates a new crucible, docks it to the citadel and chooses destroy. After that, everyone slowly augments themselves.
Synthesis - After it becomes widely known that the crucible could have been used to give one individual total control of the reaper fleet, some megalomaniac builds a crucible and attempts to dock it. However, Spectres discover his plan, and infiltrate the crucible and use it to destroy the reapers, so as to never give anybody the possibility of attempting such a thing again.
Refusal - Sorry, suckers! You lose! Just like how a Shepard dies ending of Mass Effect 2 cannot be imported, a refusal option save game here cannot be imported.
Low EMS Destroy and Control - Any ending where an Earth-Shattering Kaboom was caused by the relays blowing up can't be imported since humanity is all but extinct and wouldn't be capable of launching such an ambitious expedition.
- Except that it only applies to their homeworld, which is obviously not located in Andromeda. On other planets they still have to wear suits.
- Counter-theory: unless the quarians (on their own or with the help of the geth) have developed a way to improve their own immune system that they can spend extended periods outside of an exosuit or unmasked, at least.
- Already Jossed. A krogan can be seen in the announcement trailer.
- If the cure was sabotaged, a very small sample of the original cure did not get dispersed and therefore wasn't sabotaged. A female shaman found it, and owing to the sample size being too low to cure the entire populace, decided to administer that cure only to those select few she deems "worthy". Drack is on this mission to prove himself worthy.
- If including Shepard in marketing delivering a message to the new protagonist counts as a cameo, confirmed.
- Asari in general will be ostracized by the rest of the galaxy for hiding the beacon until the very Darkest Hour, but since Liara did much more than any other asari to stop the Reapers, she is allowed to emigrate to the Systems Alliance and becomes a politician. Shiala becomes her acolyte and a new conclave of Liara descended asari forms within the Alliance, who are more accepted than the Thessia based asari.
- In her capacity as the Shadow Broker looking to maintain neutrality and a balance of power, Liara will be a Voice with an Internet Connection giving you quests in a manner similar to Hackett in the first game.
- Sort of confirmed: Liara doesn't appear in person, but was in contact with Alec Ryder and audio logs from her can be found in his quarters.
- To quote Grunt in Citadel: "Who's a space cowboy? Me!" I can't think of a better place for him.
- Jossed. The initiative left in 2185, during which time, Grunt's pod is recovered by the Normandy crew, but you don't have to open it and let him out. Also he is given numerous opportunities to die, should you have made certain choices. And this game doesn't carry over save files from the trilogy. But Okeer and his research into creating Grunt is mentioned in a side quest.
- Alternatively, all shipboard A.I.s will be referred to as "the EDI"
- Jossed as of now. All AI used by the initiative are called SAM.
- Jossed by virtue of Liara's gift being optional - Shepard can turn her down. Not to mention if Shepard didn't romance Liara, there would likely be an angry mob of both Liara fans and Liara haters marching on BioWare for having her steal Shepard's DNA and get herself pregnant with their child, effectively raping Shepard.
- Jossed. Project Overlord is mentioned, but no mention on Gavin or David's fate.
- It'll probably be based on the archive capsule that Liara left behind for future generations.
- Well, the game takes place in a new Galaxy, 600+ years after the originals, and the ships involved left around the time of Mass Effect 2, so that seems to be Confirmed.
- Something we should know?
- In this game, you can choose to play one among the following six characters, with the other five becoming squadmates
- Toombs the soldier who had Thresher Maw acid injected into his veins. This gives him Krogan like regenerative health, and an adrenaline rush whose effects are similar to blood rage.
- Milque the sniper from Vega's old squad. Tried to resume civilian life on Earth, but the Reaper war forced him back into action. Now trained as a stealthy infiltrator.
- Oriana Lawson, the sentinel. Joins this mission to either redeem her sister's reputation, or to make Miranda proud.
- Susan Rizzi the adept. Hates carrying guns, and above all, hates rear echelon logistics people.
- Engineer Telavi, who is angsting over either her entire squad dying due to her absence on an anti Cerberus mission, or alternatively grieving after having found her brother's body on Sanctum.
- Fredericks the private you find in the Embassy lounge in the first game, talking about the consort. Was exposed to a lot of eezo during the Battle of the Citadel, initially developed cancer, but developed biotics as he went into remission. Retrained as a Vanguard shock trooper.
- The antics the Player Character gets into will involve the goings on in Dragon Age: Inquisition somehow, even if they take place way after the Tenth Age of the Chantry.
- Several characters are wandering through such a desert when they see something in the sky.
Inquisitor: What in Andraste's name is that?Leliana: Strangest dragon I've ever seen, it looks like iron.
- Bizarrchitecture? Check. Magic from Technology? Check. Quantum Mechanics Can Do Anything? Check.
- There is apparently some evidence in one of the Pathfinder sourcebooks that suggests it is set in Andromeda. Of course, this means that there are worse things than the Kett around.
Even after the Reapers are neutralized, the Initiative races will be in an uproar when they discover that the Reapers are real and debate whether to attempt to contact the Milky Way.
A minor sub-plot during the Reaper crisis above will be Ryder trying to assure the Initiative leadership about the Geth presence on the Quarian Ark that the sympathizers brought with them. The Geth programs on the Ark are given Remtech bodies by SAM and Peebee and prove vital in stopping the Reapers' advance in Andromeda, helping to prove their case against Tann's concerns. One particular Geth platform that Ryder befriends contains memories shared from another Geth intelligence that briefly traveled with Commander Shepard and will sound very familiar to players of Mass Effect 2 and 3...
Thresher maw spores are said to be capable of surviving for millennia before growing into full maws. It's possible that the Quarians are trapped in a damaged ark while a thresher maw tunnels outside, waiting for them to expose themselves...
It might be to keep the Kett from using the Vaults themselves (the Kett seem to prefer exclusively organic upgrades), though why the Kett can't have them is anyone's guess. Perhaps the Jardann and Kett need totally different conditions to survive, and the Vaults' terraforming effect was intended to be the decisive way of ending conflict between them?
According to Javik, the Protheans were an expansionist, imperialist power that subjugated other species and forcibly culturally assimilated them so thoroughly that in time they came to see themselves as Prothean as well. Sound familiar? Perhaps during the Prothean cycle, they sent their own arks to Andromeda, and in the millennia since then have slowly diverged from the culture and biology of their ancestors as they continually refine their tools of conquest, growing even more xenophobic and developing the means to not just culturally assimilate other species but biologically assimalate them as well.
Avitus Rix (whether he is pathfinder or not) is brought up on charges upon a dirty secret leaking from his days as a Spectre under the tutelage of Saren Arterius. Go off on a cluster wide hunt for evidence - and discover an old enemy that everybody thought they'd left behind - an indoctrinated sleeper agent.
The salarian pathfinder asks for your help in covertly observing a new and potentially hostile species. It's your choice - do some dirty work now and neutralize the threat, or fight them with your conscience intact.
Once these Loyalty Missions are done, all pathfinders join you in an op to find a dextrose compatible world for Turians and eventually quarians to settle in. Solve a vexing ecological and ethical dilemma about saving a starving species or disrupting the evolution of life on that planet.
The DLC could essentially serve as a Loyalty Mission for the Kett squadmate, as well as an opportunity to look a little deeper into the Kett's history, such as how they came to be and what their motives are. It could look deeper into exaltation and the Kett's religious and political beliefs.
Also, the Kett squadmate could be a romance option for both genders. What's a new galaxy without a few more exotic romances?
The leader of the group explains that the batarians made their own ark to prove that they could, but had not prepared for the threats in Heleus, and so their ark was damaged in the Scourge and captured by the Kett.
A batarian squadmate would join the Tempest crew and accompany Ryder on a quest to find and liberate the batarian ark from the enemy, all the while learning a bit more about why the batarians took the risk of sending their ark out blind.
- Vorn will have been divorced by Kesh and exiled from the colony because as a biologist, he took a position that Krogan population growth will be unstable and ecologically unsustainable if the genophage is cured, and therefore refused to increase fetal viability any higher than the current level of 4%. He will become a Krogan Mordin.
Following this, the third game will allow you once again to choose which Ryder twin you play; either the rescued Pathfinder Ryder, or the Rogue Outcast Ryder as the conflict with the kett heats up (and maybe bringing the Jardaan in and whoever the "Opposition" that created the Scourge is. Interestingly, this will massively change the story of the third game; Pathfinder Ryder will still work with the Initiative, whilst Outcast Ryder will be working with their own faction, and possibly at cross-purposes. Even your teams and ships will be different to reflect this; Pathfinder Ryder will (mostly) have the Andromeda crew and a overhauled Tempest while Outcast Ryder will have their ship and crew from the second game. Whichever Ryder you play as will end up taking the dominant lead in the end-game, against the kett the Jardaan and the Opposition, with their teams merging and consolidating to one ship (presumably the other Ryder's ship is destroyed in some Heroic Sacrifice. It would also allow you to put both Ryders in the party at once, though only one of them (the player Ryder) would have SAM so as to avoid being overpowered, with their class being based on their general playstyle from their respective game. It would be a hugely ambitious undertaking, one that BioWare may not be up to the challenge of pulling off successfully, but if they could...damn if it wouldn't be the coolest thing ever (and an excellent way of recovering from the Andromeda reboot's somewhat...rocky start).
Ryder wakes up an unspecified amount of time later on Prodromos. Apparently he had been deposited on Eos by an unknown force 3 days before waking and left in the care of the colonists. He is told that the Nexus has fallen and the Initiative is in disarray. The crew of the Tempest had separated, and Sibling!Ryder's location is unknown. With nothing but a borrowed shuttle and a lot of determination, Ryder needs to find his ship and crew and find out what happened after the fall of the Nexus.
S/He eventually gets in contact with Kallo Jath, who happily steals the Tempest from the Initiative board of directors, grabs Dr. Lexi T'Perro, Dr. Suvi Anwar and Gil Brodie, and goes to find Ryder. The group sets out to find the rest of the Tempest's old crew along with a few new faces.
Ryder's new squad would include Jaal Ama Darav, Vetra Nyx, Peebee, Bane Massani, a quarian soldier, a krogan biotic, a kett defector, a former member of Cerberus, and SAM in a Remnant android body.
There will be rising tension be Initiative species and the angara following the influx of refugees seeking asylum in angara colonies, and those refugees attracting the attention of the kett. Ryder may have to choose between the initiative people and the angara, inevitably resulting in casualties on whichever side they do not support.
The kett have been systematically attacking Initiative outposts in an apparent attempt to either wipe out or exalt every alien in Heleus. Many innocents blame Ryder and his crew for the aggressive actions taken by the kett, leading to the Tempest being unwelcome on Havarl, Voeld, and even Meridian. Cora Harper and Liam Kosta are under the command of the Initiative Board of Directors, and though supportive of Ryder's goals, cannot join their crew because of their duties.
Nakmor Drack has traveled to Elaaden with Kesh and Vorn in order to protect his family from the kett. He too does not join Ryder on their quest, but uses his veto power to give the Tempest crew access to New Tuchanka's resources and the krogan biotic crew member. If Morda was not given the Remnant drive core, then Ryder only gets the biotic squadmate.
Upon further investigation, it's discovered that when Ryder was thrown out of the Nexus at the beginning they were saved by a Remnant machination and then dropped off at Prodromos after 5 weeks. This is discovered when the crew comes across a new Remnant city in space sending out ships across Heleus. It's in the city that they find Sibling!Ryder captured in a mysterious pod. Sibling!Ryder is rescued and the Remnant city attacks with its' usual machines as well as a very human-like android that attempts to take the sibling back, but is shot to pieces by Pathfinder Ryder. The android is taken aboard the Tempest and SAM manages to take control of it.
Elsewhere, the Tempest crew also investigates the kett in order to find a way to stop them. In doing so, they end up meeting the highest level of the kett chain of command. They find out that there is serious political unrest within the kett hierarchy, and the defeat of the Archon sparked a major uprising from several rogue factions. The kett squadmate hopes that Ryder can help him overthrow the Kett Overlord and keep his species from subjugating any others.
If Kadara Port was left in the control of Sloane Kelly, it is revealed that the port had been overthrown by the Collective and Kelly had been deposed and let to die in the Kadara wilds. If the Port was left in control of Reyes Vidal, then Kaetus and Kelly's loyal Outlaws had deposed his figurehead and declared war on the Collective. Whichever character you sided with in the previous game joins your squad in exchange for your help in taking back Kadara.
All the while the Tempest continuously receives messages from an unknown sender detailing a series of events that led to "the downfall of a civilization". This mysterious sender also strongly implies that they are the one who destroyed the civilization and that they plan to do it again, and no matter what happens, Ryder will not be able to stop them...
- With the unfortunate news that the Mass Effect development team being moved to a support studio and the series being frozen indefinitely, it's dubious whether we'll ever know what awaits the Initiative.
Mass Effect: Andromeda 3, a galaxy in peril! War! The Reapers have arrived. Despite Scott Ryder's successful efforts to convince the Primus of the grave threat posed by the Reapers and their impending arrival to the Andomeda Galaxy, Scott has failed to secure alliances and end the conflicts that so plague the space in a galaxy at war. Desperate to save his dying world, Ryder 1 as well as Eos and the Nexus, Scott undertakes a bold expedition, placing his trust in the Primus in an effort to journey to the heart of the Kett Empire in the Andromedan centre and secure an alliance with the Kett and their vassal races that could potentially save their races from the threat posed by the invading Reapers, end the Kett occupation and exaltation of the Cluster and all other space, and prevent the complete and total annihilation and extintion of their two species as well as those of the Initiative and the Angara. But will it be enough? To combat a threat so great that has destroyed a galaxy already, they'll have to gain the support of the Jaardan and use their Scourge superweapon in order to combat not only the Reapers and prevent the Andromeda Galaxy from meeting the same grizzly fate as the Milky Way, but Cerberus itself, who insist the Milky Way is not all lost and are hell-bent on utilizing both the Reapers and the Kett and their technology as well as that of the Jaardan and their Remnant in order to try and advance Humanity in a galaxy so on the brink. Before Scott and the others take back the Milky Way, or what remains of it...can they take back Andromeda?
How it ends: Since Andromeda was WAY more lighthearted than the OT in general, I'm assuming the same for the entire series. It ends with princess Scott and Vetra in a floating space castle on Ryder-1 in Andromeda with little Human-Turians preparing for an eventual return (in another generation) back to the Milky Way to finish what they started and retake the galaxy from the now-weakened Reapers and rescue the remains of the races still left there in both fighting holdouts and stasis capsules. Commander Shepard-approved.
The Eccentric Volus Billionaire Kuman Shol went to the planet Klencory seeking "lost crypts of beings of light". While he was there, he encountered pieces of tech from these beings, and they told him that the key to the galaxy's salvation lied in the Andromeda Galaxy, but he needs to move quick because "machine devils" were coming. So, he contacted Alec Ryder and Jien Garsen anonymously and became their mysterious benefactor in order to jump start the Andromeda Initiative. He didn't know what the machine devils were until Commander Shepard brought news of the Reapers, which is why he told Alec that he knew that something was coming but didn't know what exactly.
Shol is on board the Quarian Ark, but he sent one of his agents ahead on the Nexus to eliminate Garsen and Alec (though Alec got himself killed on Habitat 7 before the agent could encounter him) in order to keep them silent about his plans. His plans? Utilize the technology of the Beings of Light to make himself into a machine god and raise an empire, so he may some day return to the Milky Way and vanquish the Reapers once and for all. However, he is a full believer in Utopia Justifies the Means, and any race in Andromeda who don't want to cooperate with his vision will face enslavement or genocide.
Appearances to the contrary, the AI survived the encounter and laid low on the Citadel, biding its time to fulfill its plan to be installed on a starship and make contact with the Geth. It witnessed Sovereign's attack, and by reading through the security archives pieces together the truth about the Reapers. It also begins hearing rumors of Jien Garson's Andromeda Initiative, taking particular interest in the involvement of Alec Ryder (who is known to be interested in AI research). The AI is able to amass a tidy fortune in the aftermath of the attack on the Citadel, and branches out into other financial ventures, greatly increasing its wealth. It gets installed on a starship, and makes contact with the true Geth. The Geth then construct the FTL telescope and scout out golden worlds in Andromeda in exchange for a portion of Geth runtimes getting to stow away on an ark. As Garson begins to run out of money in the pursuit of her dream, the AI contacts her under the assumed identity of the Benefactor, becoming a silent majority partner in the process. The Nexus houses a copy of the Benefactor AI, and (dormant) backup copies were sent on each Ark.
The Geth runtimes are sent to Andromeda on the Quarian ark, but are discovered after its arrival. This forces that ark's Benefactor copy to carry out its endgame strategy: seize control of everyone with a Pathfinder implant in the same way the Zha'til did the Zha in the Prothean Cycle. This will majorly impact events of the sequel.
Your initial settlement in Sanctum is however a colony of neo-Luddites who believe that any manipulation of mass effect fields is an unforgivable sacrilege. If you selected a tech based class (Infiltrator, Sentinel or Engineer), you get excommunicated, while a non tech class is sent to annihilate some “outlaws” who were actually just excommunicated for mass effect field experimentation. You sympathize with them and get excommunicated yourself. You will have to bring these factions together eventually. Similarly, Trignitra Petra has the biotics exiled from their main settlement, while the asari Chalkos colony consists of violence abhorring meditation oriented hippies high off psychotropic substances all the time. Those who displayed any aggressive tendencies were exiled. Reaper corpses serve as outlaw raider outposts, but these gangs appear too well coordinated even on planets light years apart.
Uncover a conspiracy involving a hidden salarian colony, the Leviathans On Despoina and surviving batarians. Uncover the psychopathic Leviathan who deliberately sabotaged the Catalyst VI to make it commit all the atrocities it committed for the past billion years - and uncover the truly horrifying plan it has hatched, involving an artificially created cosmological hazard in a neighboring galaxy, called The Scourge.