How to Keep Everyone Alive in "Mass Effect 2's" Ending

"Mass Effect 2" is a futuristic shooter/role-playing game for the Xbox360, PlayStation 3 and PC. The game puts you in conflict with an alien race abducting humans, and you are sent to find out why. Towards the end of the game, you are tasked with a suicide mission to stop the aliens and save mankind. If a series of steps are not met, several members of your team will not survive the mission.

Upgrade all of the ships by improving the shields, armor and cannons. Talk to Jacob about upgrading the shields. Talk to Tali to add thicker armor to the ship. Lastly, talk to Garrus to upgrade the cannon on the Normandy. All of these members of your crew can be found on the Normandy ship. Each upgrade costs 15,000 Platinum.

Raise everyone's loyalty up. Everyone on your team has missions they ask you to undertake which you must pass to raise their loyalty. You gain access to these missions through dialogue choices with your teammates on the Normandy. After they tell you what help they need, travel somewhere to accomplish it. As an example, Garrus asks you to accompany him to the Citadel to settle a score with an old friend. Passing the missions results in your teammates becoming loyal. Members of your team without full loyalty have a higher chance of dying.

Max out either of your paragon or renegade points. After you complete all of the loyalty missions of your teammates, there will be two separate arguments between two different sets of teammates while on board the Normandy. Only having a very high amount of paragon or renegade points will calm the fight. If you do not, you will lose that teammates loyalty. Gain renegade and paragon points through dialogue with citizens around the game world.

Choose the right team leaders. The final assault is broken up into squadrons, so you must pick the right person for the right job. The game gives you the option to select each position through dialogue choices before the final fight. Place either Garrus, Miranda or Jacob as the head of the fire team. Make the tech specialist either Tali or Legion. Choose either Samara, Morinth, or Jack for the biotic specialist. Pick Mordin to escort survivors, and lastly, pick any non-offensive players for the final battle squad.