The Mass Effect 3 Final Level Setup and Boss Fight

By: Tooneyman
Nickelstarfilms.com

Here is how I would have made the final boss fight for the fans. I would have made it just as epic as any other part of the game. Hell, I would have thrown in some of the old ideas from the first two games, but added a nice twist for the fans to help bring up some old memories.

I would have started the final fight off with Shepard getting hit with the beam. When Shepard wakes up harbinger is gone, but your shields are basically blown down. I would have Shepard here Anderson's voice telling him/her to get up and get up to the beam. Shepard gets up, but is shields are blown out. Your Shepard would comment on it. Saying how he/she hears Anderson and then heads up the beam.

Level Set 1: Refugee camp-

You would have started off at the end of the level with only one gun and no shields. The enemies would have been easy enough to at least get you through the level. Your armor would have been scrapped and you would have had only one gun.

As you make your way through the hangar bay you would fight the low levels of Cerberus Troops. It would be the same gameplay, but you would have to rely on your powers and the single gun. You would see bodies everywhere and the devastation what happened to the citadel. It would be like walking through a living hell.  Your shields would be down, but it would be the idea of survival which would keep the player moving forward until you got to the memorial wall. This would be an opportunity for the player to have a couple of backlashes with Ashley’s character and maybe a few other memories from the people in the previous games. It would give the player the sense of self to help keep them going. Even though in the refugee camp there would be bodies everywhere.

After you got the memorial wall, you would meet up with a couple of Mercenaries or group of civilian who are holding off Cerberus troops to keep themselves alive. For the mercenaries (Blue Sun’s, Eclipse, and Blood Pack) depending on if you completed the mission with Aria they would help you advance to the next level. (This would also give the player some use of the war assets) If you didn’t complete Aria’s mission you would have to defeat the remaining horde with the civilians or sneak past them.

Now if Kelly Chambers was alive you could also meet up with her and have her be the leader of the civilian group sense she knows how to deal with Cerberus if she survived the first attack.  She could also be a distraction to help get you past the Cerberus troops.  She would could give you access to one new weapon and ammo she might have found. This would give you the chance to start building back up your weapon’s stock for the final boss fight. It would be the same for the mercenaries.

After you completed that small level you would head up to the next level.

Level Set 2: Purgatory-

Once you made it up to the purgatory level you would start fighting a few husks and Cerberus troops until you made it into the night club. There you would come across Aria. A cinematic cut scene of Aria using her powerful biotics would ensue as we watch her just destroy husks and Cerberus troops.   We would join up with her and talk about how you need to get up towards the control room of the citadel council. This would be your chance to actually have Aria as a side partner.  She would agree of course agree to help, but in the end she would want a favor. (It’s Aria!)  Aria would help devise the cover and you would help her take on a couple of reaper troops until the mini-boss of a banshee came into play.  This would be the climax of the purgatory bar. Trying to help keep whatever people survived alive along with Aria and yourself. As you and Aria would beat down the Banshee people would start to evacuate the bar. Once you got the banshee down with all her life another cut scene would ensue and you would see Aria take the Banshee down like a sack of potatoes. It would be your turn to move on to the next level. Aria would be left alone to keep fighting the husks. As Shepard leaves for the next level Aria would stay behind and help keep the Husks and Cerberus troops distracted and focused on her instead of Shepard. As your Shepard heads to the elevator.  You would hear more Banshees shrieking in the background.  This would give the idea that maybe Aria is out of her legal, but stays behind to help keep you moving forward.   I would let the player interpret whether she lives or dies up to the player.

Level set 3: Hospital-

As you get off the elevator. You would come across Cerberus troops. You would also hear a slight transmission from Anderson and both of your teammates.  Depending on whoever went up the beam with you will depend on the dialogue for that level.  They would tell you that they are held up in the back of the hospital and are holding off Cerberus troops. You would make your way through the hospital and see the devastation that Cerberus and the reapers have caused.

Anderson would tell you to get some medi-gel or some supplies to help bandage yourself up while trying to save your squad mates and the people they are protecting.

The reason I would have the squad mates meet up with you at the hospital level is because they would have been injured from Harbingers beam too and it would be common sense for them to try to go straight to the area on the citadel with medical supplies.

As you meet up with your teammates. You would have to find a way to get them and the people who are in the hospital out of there, or if you wanted to be renegade you could sacrifice the people and use them as a distraction to get out of the hospital and up to the next level.  When you get to the back of the hospital and you want to leave your squad mates and yourself will take on a couple of Cerberus waves. Until the final mini-boss which is an atlas arrives.

You would have to destroy the atlas and get back to the elevator. At that point a cut scene would ensue with you and your squad mates talking about how they got up to the hospital and what you guys needed to do to get back up to the citadel tower to get the arms open for the crucible.

At the elevator you would hear Anderson’s voice again and he would ask what happened on the hospital. Depending on your choice he would address you accordingly. If you saved them he would congratulate you on being a hero, but also let you know that many lives are still being lost outside of the citadel and down on earth.  If you choose to sacrifice the people in the hospital to get a quicker way out he would tell you certain lives need to be sacrificed for a greater cause, but at the same time you could have used the medical staff to help with the injured troops.

I would do this scenario with Anderson just to help keep the idea of the story in the grey zone.
After the hospital and after you got your two squad mates back. You would head up to the Presidium Commons.

Level Set 4: Presidium Commons-

Once you get off the elevator you would come across Reaper troops and husks. You would see the aftermath of the presidium commons, but it would be truly devastated with dead bodies and people put up on reaper spikes.  You would first make your way up to the bank area of the presidium commons and find Barla Von and the Turian General who would be trying to hold off the husks with everything they have a long with a few civilians. From there it would pretty much be you and your squad mates to either assist the general, and Barla Von or move on and let them be slaughter to the husks and reaper forces who are advancing on their position.

If you help them out they will give you access to more weapons and armor which they have had time to gather through the presidium stores.

If you sacrifice them the waves you will take on with the reapers will be less intense, but you won’t gain any further weapons to help you out against the final boss.

From there you would move throughout the level until you got to a new elevator.
There you would hear Anderson. Your squad mates and your Shepard would let him know you are all heading up towards the Embassies and towards the citadel tower. Anderson would let you know how far he had advanced on his position.

Doing this with Anderson would actually give the story a reason to have Anderson beat you to the control tower remote sense he would be moving on his own up the citadel.

Level Set 5: Embassies-

Here is the final level before the epic boss fights. You would get up to the elevator and you could come across Bailey from the start. You would have to take on from the get go a couple of reaper hordes. As you slowly take down the reaper fleets Bailey would help you get make your way to the Spectre room where he would probably sacrifice himself to help get you through the door. (Remember Bailey’s family is pretty much gone, but that is still open to interpretation.)

Once through the door you and your team will meet up head down the firing range and get all access to the Spectre weapons. This would be a great reward for the final battle.  Once you get the weapons you would head to the range room. There you and your team would start having target practice with Cerberus troops coming down the firing range and it would give a little humor too as you pick each one off. Once through horde of Cerberus troopers are done you would blow a hole in the side of the wall of the Spectre wall and make your way out the side of the Embassy building and through the council’s offices where you would meet up with the three councilors.  This would give you the decision to sacrifice the council or save them again from Reaper forces. If you save them you would get more alien support after the final battle and if you didn’t you would have less reaper troops to deal with.

Once you got done you would get to an elevator and make you way up to the citadel tower.

Level Set 6: Citadel Tower-

Once you got to the citadel tower you would hear Anderson’s voice about how he made it to a control module, but is having trouble fending off reaper and Cerberus forces.  This is where you and team would end up fighting for full survival as you make your way up to the citadel tower which is the control panel for the activation of the arms for the citadel like it was for the first game.

Once you got to the top of the tower you would run up with Anderson. At that point you would get taken over by the Illusive man. Illusive man would knock your squad mates out right away that way it is only you and Anderson.  The dialogue scene would ensue between Anderson, Illusive man and your Shepard.

You would have the conversation you had on with him about controlling the reapers. You would end up shooting Anderson and then you would try to convicts him to stop. At that point depending on if your renegade or Paragon points were high enough you could break free from the reaper indoctrination control of the Illusive man and begin a small shoot out with him. You would have to face Cerberus hordes for the final time and slowly take them out as you wear the Illusive man down.  Illusive man would be exactly like Saren was trying to explain his ideas and why we need to control the reapers and not destroy them. This would be a good old fashion setup for the fans of ME 1. It would be a little fan service to them.

Once you beat him he would go into a small speech about how he was trying to do his best for humanity, but didn’t see what he had done. Once the battle was over and The Illusive man would of course die. You would hobble over to Anderson who would give you the final speech before he died. You would be worn out and totally exhausted.

At the final moment you would hear Hackett on the com channel. He would tell you to open the arms. Shepard would stumble over to the control panel and open up the arms and the scene with the crucible would activate.

As it hits the citadel the scene would go back to Shepard who sits next to Anderson and talks about a few of the times you and him had together working to stop the reapers.  At that moment Shepard would hear Admiral Hackett again and how the crucible is not firing. Shepard would get up and slowly head over to the panel and right as he/she got there he would pass out and fall on top of the panel activating the crucible and heading up to a secret room where the crucible is connected to the citadel were we would meet the star child.

Shepard would slowly wake up and ask what is going on. The star child would explain that he is part of the crucible and the reason he looks the way he does is because of a recent memory can be familiar with.

The star child would explain that he is the one who created the reapers and that the reason the reapers exist is because they want to preserve all organic life. They realized with their own race that they would eventually meet a moral fate so they turned themselves into reaper form to last for eternity and never be forgotten.  The reason they created the reapers is to preserve the organics for eternality by taking their civilizations and harvesting them into reapers.

This would make much more sense than the war with synthetics. It gives the reapers an full purpose of why they harvest organics and makes you kind of consider their stance on wanting to exist forever. It’s goes back to the human idea of wanting to never be forgotten and hits on the issue of being mortal.

(In my own personal opinion if Bioware had gone this route the story would have made much more sense with why the reapers exist and why they come back after fifty thousand years and harvest new organic life.)

It would also make way for new organic life to grow and create their, own space faring civilization.

While Shepard talks with the star child we see a reaper start closing in on the crucible area. The reaper would be Harbinger and would grab onto the crucible and start to make holes into it.  The reaper would gain access to the crucible and try to start destroying it.

The Star child would then give you a bunch of choices

Choices-

1.)    Join the reapers and give humanity the option of becoming immortal from their own free will and continue the cycle with the understanding that the reapers are preserving your species and you would see cut scenes of humanity and all the other species in the galaxy get harvested.

2.)    Try to take control of the reapers, but in doing so Shepard would sacrifice his/her life and the old crappy ending would ensue and the reapers would just leave, but there would be no guaranteeing they wouldn’t come back.  This would be a bitter sweet ending, because Shepard had sacrificed him/herself to take control of the reapers and save the galaxy from destruction of the reaper threat.  This would also give the cut scenes to what happened to the civilization and all your squad mates after you sacrifice yourself to save them all.

3.)    Choose to fight the reapers with whatever forces you have with the war asset you have obtained. In choosing this ending Harbinger would take control of the crucible and destroy the star child while assuming direct control.

Final Boss fight-Inside Harbinger

This would be one heck of a fight. It would be much like the reaper fight from Mass Effect 2 when you find Legion for the first time. Harbinger would break into the room with Shepard and the star child. He would start to explain why humanity need to become a part of the collective of reapers just as the star child has explained.   Shepard would then make his/her way into harbinger taking on multiple reaper hordes. This would be a solitary solo mission for Shepard and a few guns you have obtained. You shields would be down, but you would fight a small level into Harbingers main core. While you are fighting cut scenes of some of the war assets would active and you would see depending on which assets you unlocked the different races fighting the reapers on earth.  If your readiness was at 100% you would see all the assets and civilization fighting with you survive, but depending on if you were mission a few percentage points some of the races might end up being whipped out depending on the decisions you made with them in the two previous games.

Once you finally make your way through the final reaper himself. You would see the true form of Harbinger.  Here you will fight the reaper inside itself.  You will take on a few waves of husks as you try to destroy the inner core of Harbinger.

While you hit each core as it shuts. You’ll hear joker and the Normandy talk about how they are trying to get a direct shot towards harbinger, but the reapers shields are two intense. Once you destroy the core of the reaper. Just like what happened in the first game. Joker will take the Normandy and fire the main gun straight through Harbinger.  This will lead to the harbinger blowing up. Joker will tell Shepard that he/she needs to get out of Harbinger and find a safe location. This would be just like the collector base as you tried to escape it while it was starting up. You would literally try to run to get out of Harbinger and get back on the citadel.

If your war assets are strong enough the crucible will remain intacted, but if they are below a certain level and you don’t have enough scientists on the project it will be destroyed by the end of your fight with Harbinger.

Once there you would see harbinger blow up and fall to earth a pile of scrap. And of course Shepard would give a great cheesy one liners.

After the battle with harbinger you would see cut scenes of your war assets taking on reaper forces throughout the galaxy and slowly beating them down.

You would then have an award Ceremony as Shepard as the savory of the galaxy. He/she would be offered a place on the council as one of the main councilors. You would then have a chance to see your cut scenes with the decisions you made through all the games you have made when it came to the personal relationship with your crew. You would find out what happened to all the people who had been a part of your journey there the credits would roll.

There the credits would roll and at the end of them you would hear the old man telling the little kid about Shepard’s story.

End

I hope everyone enjoys this read. Please give feed back and hopefully it makes people happy. If anyone wants to use this as a guide to help create a mod they are more than welcome or fans can consider this just a fan fiction. The choices are yours which is exactly what Mass Effect is supposed to be about. If you liked it please send it to your friends and let them know about this little guide.

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