How to Make Everyone Survive in "Mass Effect 2"

The final mission in “Mass Effect 2” is a potential suicide mission to attack a Collector base in an uncharted system. Only one of the crew members of the Normandy is guaranteed to survive this mission. Commander Shepard, every squad member and the rest of the crew may die depending on the player’s actions. Some members of your squad are going to die without proper preparation before the mission. But if you wait too long to attack the base, almost your entire crew will be wiped out.

Recruit all of the available characters before starting the Reaper IFF mission. This mission starts the countdown for the final mission, and it can impact whether some characters die.

Ask Jacob, Garrus and Tali about ship upgrades. You must have all three of these upgrades or squad members die at the beginning of the mission. None of the other ship upgrades have an impact on crew survival.

Complete all the loyalty missions successfully. Each squad member has his own mission.

Complete the Reaper IFF mission after you have completed everything you want to do before the final mission. You do not go directly to the final mission after the Reaper IFF mission, but the countdown will start. You recruit Legion during this mission.

Complete Legion’s loyalty mission.

Land on a planet or complete a mission. Your ship will then be attacked.

Go to the Omega 4 relay immediately after your ship is attacked. This starts the final mission. Do not land on a planet or begin another mission. Part of your crew will die if you do.

Choose Kasumi, Legion or Tali as your tech specialist. Choose Garrus, Jacob or Miranda as the fireteam leader. Any other character chosen for either role causes the tech specialist to die.

Choose Jack, Morinth or Samara as your biotic specialist. Any other biotic causes another member of your squad to die.

Choose Garrus, Jacob or Miranda as the next fireteam leader. Any other character dies if selected.

Choose Jack, Kasumi, Mordin or Tali to escort the crew back to the Normandy. Your crew dies if unescorted. Any loyal character automatically survives if she escorts the crew. Sending one of these four characters increases squad members' chances of survival later.

Choose two squad members to aid you for the final fight. These squad members are guaranteed to survive as long as both are loyal. Do not select Garrus, Grunt or Zaeed. Your remaining squad members stay back to stop reinforcements from attacking you from behind. Whether these squad members survive depends on who you left and their loyalty. If everyone is loyal and Garrus, Grunt and Zaeed stay behind, then all of your squad members are guaranteed to survive.