Galaxy at War Introduction

The Galaxy at War cooperative multiplayer, a franchise first, is not just for fun: Your successes and failures also directly influence the galactic Readiness Rating across the five sectors of the Milky Way.

The total readiness of the galaxy indicates how well the War Assets fighting in those regions are weathering the Reaper advance. The overall percentage also determines how much each asset can contribute to the war effort.

It also determines how prepared your War Assets are to move at a moment’s notice and is a critical factor in defeating the Reapers.

A basic example would go something like this: An Alliance marine unit is worth 100 points. However, your Readiness Rating is at only 50 percent, so the Effective Military Strength asset can contribute to the final push is 50 points.

Now take that Readiness Rating and apply it to every War Asset you collect throughout the single-player campaign. Suddenly that 2,000 point armada is much less effective.

Cooperative multiplayer is the primary way to increase your Readiness Rating in Mass Effect 3 .

Working with other players around the world, you create a team of elite soldiers and fight to maintain a hold of objectives that Commander Shepard helped liberate from enemy hands in the single-player story.

Each battle, won or lost, raises overall galactic readiness, with victories contributing more to readiness than losses.

In this way, even players who do not have access to War Assets that are available only to imported Shepards can boost the power of their fleets to be capable of standing up to the Reapers.

The percentage of Readiness Rating gained for each multiplayer session changes based on several factors:

• If the player plays a random multiplayer map (the random option must be selected), they earn a 3 percent bonus to overall galactic readiness.
• If the player plays a specific map, the sector the map takes place in gains a 7 percent bonus, with overall readiness going up by 1 percent.
• Failing to complete a map offers a lower Readiness Rating increase compared to a successful mission.

The Readiness Rating does not stay maxed out forever. It is in a state of constant decay. A week of inactivity can reduce readiness by nearly 7 percent, but it will never fall below 50 percent.

In order to maintain it, players are encouraged to put some time into multiplayer. However, this is optional!

It is still possible to reach the end game, but the available endings are tied to both the Effective Military Strength of the forces you gather for the fight and how high your Readiness Rating is. Certain ending sequences are directly affected by these factors as well.