Normally you don’t get to see much of Legion in Mass Effect 2 unless you’re willing to sacrifice your ship’s crew. Legion is a great character, and it’s a shame to miss out.
But there’s a way to solve this and use Legion for more of the game without any of the usual consequences.
As described in this great video, using a save editor to go into plot flags and simply uncheck the “Acquired Reaper IFF” box cancels the 2 mission timer you normally get. (Where if you do more than 2 missions after the IFF before starting the Suicide Mission your abducted crew starts dying.)
Thank you, Pikmonwolf, for the awesome tip for everyone that cleanly corrects this story oversight.
This works because normally, once this box is checked, the next time you approach the Galaxy Map it triggers the crew abduction. With the box unchecked, the game proceeds as though you hadn’t yet gotten the IFF, even though you have Legion.
Now you can play the game as desired, and when you’re at the point where you’re ready to trigger the crew abduction and then the Suicide Mission, simply edit your save again and re-check the IFF box.
(Your crew will be captured, and you can proceed straight to the Collector Base and save everyone because technically you haven’t played any missions since “acquiring the IFF” according to your save file.)
Legion Has Dialogue Even In The Early Game
Mass Effect devs have said that originally you were going to recruit Legion very close to the beginning of ME2. At some point in development they decided to link Legion’s recruitment to the Reaper IFF mission, but they’d already recorded lines fora variety of earlier game missions where he had comments.
This means two things in relation to this overall topic:
- Recruiting Legion immediately when the IFF mission becomes available means he’ll have plenty of content to explore, and with the above trick you aren’t sacrificing a good game ending to enjoy this content.
- If you use a save editor to have Legion earlier than you normally could in the game, there will actually be mission content for him.
If you decide to try #2, from what I’ve read you’ll want to avoid bringing Legion on the IFF mission when you eventually get there, since two instances of him can confuse the game. Some have suggested even using the save editor to not have him recruited anymore as you enter this mission, that way he can be rerecruited the normal way and the game is happy, but you’ve still enjoyed the early game with him as well.
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Brian Watkins has worked as a copywriter, SEO strategist, and photographer since 2007. He’s helped numerous businesses level up their revenue through stronger copy, and is also a YouTuber. Blending creative and technical disciplines has been a passion since he was a teenager, growing up in a home with two IT tech parents while he practiced creative writing and camera work.