Mass Effect (PC) Guide Essentials Spectre Orientation Department

Start New Career

Use the Alliance Military Personnel Database to customize your character before beginning a galaxy spanning career. The following sections outline the profile creation process.

Profile Reconstruction

You’ve got two choices right away: play as John Shepard or enter a new ID using the Xbox virtual keyboard. You can only change the agent’s first name; all agents created will share the last name Shepard for story purposes. If you chose the default settings, your agent is:

Name: John Shepard
Origin: Earthborn
Reputation: Sole Survivor
Class: Soldier

If you choose to proceed with the above settings, you will give up the opportunity to customize your agent for this career. Should you choose to make a custom agent, the following sections open up for you.

Gender

In the Gender screen, you’ve got four options:

Custom Male
Custom Female
Quick-start Male
Quick-start Female

The two custom characters are the only ones that have editable features. If you want to change everything about your character’s appearance, choose one of those two. The Quick-start characters offer little customization.

Choose Custom Male or Custom Female to access the next section of character customization.

Pre-Service History

The table below shows the three Pre-Service Histories to choose from as part of your agent’s background.

This is not just text you’ll never see again, however; your choices here affect the storyline by accessing exclusive assignments (side quests) and Shepard’s dialogues with various NPCs during the career.

Pre-Service History Summary

Title	Associated History
Spacer	Both of your parents were in the Alliance military. Your childhood was spent on ships and stations as they transferred from posting to posting, never staying in one location for more than a few years. Following in your parents’ footsteps, you enlisted at the age of 18.
Colonist	You were born and raised on Mindoir, a small border colony in the Attican Traverse. When you were 16, slavers raided Mindoir and slaughtered your family and friends. You were saved by a passing Alliance patrol, and you enlisted with the military a few years later.
Earthborn	You were an orphan raised on the streets of the great megatropolises covering earth. You escaped a life of petty crime and underworld gangs by enlisting with the Alliance military when you turned 18.

Psychological Profile

The psych profile makes up the second part of your agent’s background. Your choice affects dialogue during the story and assignments made available at certain points of your career. Your background choices directly affect your desired style of play.

Psychological Profile Summary

Title	Associated History
Sole Survivor	During your service, a mission you were on went horribly wrong. Trapped in an extreme survival situation, you had to overcome physical torments and psychological stresses that would have broken most people. You survived while all those around you fell, and now you alone are left to tell the tale.
War Hero	Early in your military career you found yourself facing an overwhelming enemy force. You risked your own life to save your fellow soldiers and defeat the enemy despite the impossible odds. Your bravery and heroism have earned you medals and recognition from the Alliance fleet.
Ruthless	Throughout your military career, you have held fast to one basic rule: Get the job done. You’ve been called cold, calculating, and brutal. Your reputation for ruthless efficiency makes your fellow soldiers wary of you. But when failure is not an option, the military always goes to you first.

Military Specialization

The choice of specialization for your agent is the single most important factor that will impact gameplay. Study the following summaries and think seriously about what style of play you’re most interested in.

Military Specialization Ratings

Military Specialization	Combat Rating	Tech Rating	Biotic Rating
Soldier	Excellent	Poor	Poor
Engineer	Poor	Excellent	Poor
Adept	Poor	Poor	Excellent
Infiltrator	Good	Good	Poor
Sentinel	Poor	Good	Good
Vanguard	Good	Poor	Good

Appearance

The facial ID screen allows you to confirm or customize your agent’s facial appearance. Use the default settings if you’re happy with them, or select Change Appearance to get into the full facial remodeling screens.

Facial remodeling allows a high variety of agent appearances. With some work, you can create a fully customized character.

Select Cycle Presets to view the various random faces to use as a baseline to work with. Then enter each subsequent customization menu to adjust their associated parameters. Each of the following items has their own list of editable settings:

Facial Structure
Head
Eyes
Jaw
Mouth
Nose
Hair
Makeup (for female agents)

Options

After you’ve confirmed your agent’s appearance, the Career Options menu displays the variable settings that can dramatically affect gameplay. You can choose among various aspects that can otherwise be fully automated.

Make choices depending on how immersed in the game you want to be. Our recommended settings appear in bold font in the following table:

Career Options

Casual:

All enemies scale more slowly than the player. The player and henchmen also take half damage

Enemy	Scale
Minion	10% of player level
Elite	20% of player level
Sub-Boss	30% of player level, +1 additional level
Boss	40% of player level, + 2 additional levels

Normal:

Only Bosses scale as quickly as the player.

Enemy	Scale
Minion	33% of player level
Elite	50% of player level, +1 additional level
Sub-Boss	75% of player level, +2 additional levels
Boss	Player level, +4 additional levels

Veteran:

Bosses and Sub-Bosses scale as quickly as the player.

Enemy	Scale
Minion	50% of player level
Elite	75% of player level, +2 additional levels
Sub-Boss	Player level, +2 additional levels
Boss	Player level, +6 additional levels

Hardcore:

Only Minions scale more slowly than the player.

Enemy	Scale
Minion	75% of player level, +2 additional levels
Elite	Player level, +2 additional levels
Sub-Boss	Player level, +6 additional levels
Boss	Player level, +10 additional levels

Insane:

All enemies scale as quickly as the player.

Enemy	Scale
Minion	Player level
Elite	Player level, +6 additional levels
Sub-Boss	Player level, +10 additional levels
Boss	Player level, +15 additional levels