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To carry your Mass Effect story forward, finish the current game, keep its completed career save, and use the next game’s import-character command. The supported trilogy chain is Mass Effect 1 → Mass Effect 2 → Mass Effect 3. The receiving game reads story decisions—and, on the documented Mass Effect 2-to-3 path, Shepard’s level—rather than opening one universal save file. If the earlier career is missing, Mass Effect: Genesis can recreate major choices, but it is not a complete copy of every mission state. Mass Effect 3 choices also do not import into Mass Effect: Andromeda.
How does Mass Effect save transfer actually work?
Mass Effect uses a hand-off between separate games. You complete one title, leave a completed career on the device, then choose that career from the next title’s import screen. The next game consults the imported world state for decisions that affect its story; it does not treat the trilogy as one shared save directory.
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Electronic Arts describes the design this way: “Your choices seamlessly travel from one game to the next.” That means a decision can alter later scenes, mission conditions, relationships, returning-character outcomes, alliances and the trilogy’s wider end state. It does not mean every gameplay value is copied verbatim.
The normal sequence is:
- Complete Mass Effect 1 and import its completed career into Mass Effect 2.
- Complete Mass Effect 2 and import its completed career into Mass Effect 3.
Each game still owns its own saves. Legendary Edition’s overview explicitly keeps saves unique to each game, so importing is a story-continuity process, not a universal file transfer.
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How do I transfer Mass Effect 1 choices to Mass Effect 2?
Finish Mass Effect 1, preserve the completed career, open Mass Effect 2, and select its import-character option. For the least compatibility risk, use a completed Legendary Edition Mass Effect 1 career with Legendary Edition Mass Effect 2.
Legendary Edition steps
- Play Mass Effect 1 through its ending and create a normal end-of-career save.
- Exit the game normally so the completed career is written to disk.
- Start Mass Effect 2 in the same Legendary Edition installation.
- Choose the game’s Import Character option.
- Select the completed Mass Effect 1 career, then begin the new game.
The imported world state is then used by Mass Effect 2 when it reaches scenes and conditions that depend on Mass Effect 1. Keep the original career until you have confirmed that the imported character starts correctly.
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The original PC Mass Effect 1 save format is not treated as a supported direct-import route into Legendary Edition Mass Effect 2 by the cited compatibility guidance. Renaming a folder or moving a file cannot convert an incompatible format. If the old career is not recognized, the practical choices are to continue with a supported same-edition career or use Mass Effect: Genesis in the receiving game to recreate major backstory choices.
How do I transfer Mass Effect 2 choices to Mass Effect 3?
Complete Mass Effect 2, launch Mass Effect 3, and choose IMPORT ME2 CHARACTER. The official Mass Effect 3 PC manual says this import maintains Shepard’s level and the decisions that impact Mass Effect 3’s story.
- Finish Mass Effect 2 and make a completed career save.
- Close Mass Effect 2 normally.
- Open Mass Effect 3.
- On the new-game or character-import screen, select
IMPORT ME2 CHARACTER. - Choose the completed Mass Effect 2 career you want to continue.
Do not select a fresh Mass Effect 3 career if the purpose is to use the Mass Effect 2 world state. A new career starts without that imported hand-off.
The manual’s wording is deliberately specific: it promises Shepard’s level and story-impacting decisions. It does not promise that every weapon, credit balance, inventory item, skill allocation or other numerical statistic will be reproduced.
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What carries over between Mass Effect games?
The reliable carry-over is narrative state, with a documented level carry-over on the Mass Effect 2-to-3 transition. Treat everything else as game-specific unless the particular edition and transition explicitly support it.
| Category | What the next game uses | What is not established as automatic |
|---|---|---|
| Story decisions | Choices the receiving game checks for missions, relationships, alliances, returning characters and later outcomes. | A guarantee that every minor flag or optional activity is represented identically. |
| Shepard’s level | Retained on the documented Mass Effect 2-to-Mass Effect 3 import. | A promise that all other progression numbers transfer. |
| Character identity | The imported career identifies the Shepard whose world state is being continued. | Automatic transfer of every appearance setting. |
| Appearance code | Legendary Edition lets you reuse the same character-creator code across all three games or change Shepard’s appearance at the start of each title. | The code is not evidence that decisions, equipment or a completed career were imported. |
| Inventory, credits and skills | Not promised by the cited official import description. | Do not assume weapons, armor, currency, upgrades or skill allocations are preserved. |
| Save file itself | The receiving game reads a completed career through its import screen. | There is no single save file that every Mass Effect title opens directly. |
EA’s description that choices can affect “every mission, every relationship, every battle – and even the fate of the galaxy itself” describes the possible reach of story flags, not a percentage of all decisions that transfer. No official source in the available documentation publishes such a percentage.
Which decisions does the next game check?
It checks decisions that have consequences in the receiving game’s story. Those checks can change who appears, how a mission is structured, which relationship or alliance is available, and what outcome a later scene presents.
- Returning-character outcomes: a prior decision can determine whether a character returns, and in what circumstances.
- Mission conditions: earlier choices can alter objectives, available support or the state in which a mission begins.
- Relationships: romance and other relationship decisions may affect later conversations and scenes when the next game has a corresponding story check.
- Alliances and survival: choices can change who is available for a later conflict and the consequences attached to that decision.
- Trilogy end state: the accumulated world state contributes to the broader outcome of the original trilogy.
These are conditional story reads, not a promise that every prior interaction receives a visible callback. A choice can be imported correctly even when the next game has no immediate scene for it.
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Several assumptions cause confusion because the games share a protagonist but do not share one universal save format.
- One all-purpose save file: each title manages its own saves. A file that appears in a similarly named folder is not automatically readable by another game.
- Original PC Mass Effect 1 to Legendary Edition Mass Effect 2: the cited compatibility reporting does not establish this as a supported direct path.
- Every original-PC direction: matching-game compatibility has been reported for original PC Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 saves into Legendary Edition, but that does not establish universal compatibility across every game, platform or direction.
- All gameplay statistics: the documented guarantee for ME2-to-ME3 is level plus story-impacting decisions, not a complete inventory or economy transfer.
- Mass Effect 3 to Andromeda: Andromeda sits outside the original Shepard trilogy’s save chain and does not import Mass Effect 3 choices.
When edition or platform documentation does not explicitly support a direction, treat it as unverified rather than relying on a copied file.
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Can I import an old save into Legendary Edition?
Compatibility depends on the source game, receiving game, platform and edition. The cleanest supported route is to complete Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 inside Legendary Edition and use each game’s built-in import command.
Legendary Edition to Legendary Edition
A completed Legendary Edition ME1 career is the practical input for Legendary Edition ME2, and a completed Legendary Edition ME2 career is the practical input for Legendary Edition ME3. This same-edition chain avoids the original-versus-remaster format exception.
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Guidance reports a matching-game path for original PC ME2 and ME3 saves into Legendary Edition, but it does not turn every old save into a universal import. In particular, the original 2007 PC ME1 format is not presented as a direct Legendary Edition ME2 route. Check the exact game pair before moving files.
Console saves
Use the in-game import screen rather than treating console storage as a PC folder-management problem. The PC directory procedure below is secondary troubleshooting guidance and should not be assumed to apply to consoles or every installation configuration.
What should I do if the earlier career is missing?
Use the Mass Effect: Genesis comics offered before Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 in Legendary Edition. They let a new player set important prior choices when the earlier career is unavailable.
Genesis is a fallback choice-setting mechanism, not a byte-for-byte restoration. It recreates major backstory decisions but does not restore every possible mission state, side activity, inventory value or hidden flag from the missing career. If you later find the original save, use the completed-career import for the fullest continuity rather than assuming Genesis rebuilt the entire file.
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How do I protect and repair a PC import?
On Windows, practical Legendary Edition guidance uses a separate folder for each game under DocumentsBioWareMass Effect Legendary EditionSave. The usual pattern is ME1, ME2 and ME3 beneath that directory. This is a troubleshooting path, not an official guarantee for every launcher, profile or installation.
- Finish the source game. Make a normal end-of-career save rather than relying on an autosave or an in-progress mission.
- Close the game normally. This gives the game a chance to write the completed career to disk.
- Back up the relevant Save directory. Copy the whole folder to a separate location before replacing or moving anything.
- Use the matching game folder. Put an ME1 career under the ME1 directory, an ME2 career under ME2, or an ME3 career under ME3.
- Preserve the character-folder nesting. Do not flatten a character folder into the parent directory if the installation expects the original structure.
- Launch the receiving game. Use its import screen; do not expect the game to ingest a file merely because it exists somewhere under Documents.
- Verify before deleting anything. Confirm that the intended career appears and loads, then keep the backup until you have progressed far enough to know the correct world state was selected.
Symptoms and likely causes
- No career appears: check that the source game was closed normally, the folder is under the correct game directory, and the character folder remains nested correctly.
- The wrong career appears: multiple completed careers may be present; use the import screen’s identifying information to select the intended one rather than deleting files immediately.
- A file is present but rejected: suspect an unsupported game or edition pair before trying more folder renames. A format mismatch cannot be repaired by changing the filename.
- A copied career stops working: restore the backup and repeat the process with the original folder structure. Keep the untouched source copy until the receiving game loads it successfully.
Which continuation method gives the most faithful result?
A completed save import is the highest-fidelity option because it supplies the receiving game with the prior career’s stored world state. Genesis is useful when that career is unavailable, but it is intentionally narrower.
| Situation | Recommended method | Continuity level | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Completed Legendary Edition career and next Legendary Edition game | Use the built-in import-character command. | Highest available for the supported chain. | Still does not make all inventory and statistics universal. |
| Earlier career missing | Use Mass Effect: Genesis before the receiving game. | Major-choice reconstruction. | Not every mission state or hidden flag is restored. |
| Original PC save and uncertain remaster direction | Verify the exact game-pair compatibility before copying. | Depends on the documented pair. | Folder renaming cannot solve an unsupported format. |
| Mass Effect 3 career for Andromeda | No trilogy save import is available. | Not part of the Shepard trilogy chain. | ME3 choices do not transfer. |
Does Legendary Edition change the transfer process?
It consolidates the original trilogy and includes more than 40 pieces of single-player DLC, according to Electronic Arts’ 2021 description, but it does not turn the games into one shared save system. You still finish one game, retain its career and import it from the next game’s own menu.
Legendary Edition also adds a practical appearance option: the same character-creator code can be used across all three games, or Shepard’s appearance can be changed when starting each title. Keep that feature separate from career importing. A reused appearance code controls character creation; it does not recreate the prior game’s decisions.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsCan Mass Effect 3 choices be transferred to Mass Effect: Andromeda?
No. Andromeda is outside the original Shepard trilogy’s save chain, so an ME3 career cannot be imported to carry its choices into Andromeda. The trilogy hand-off ends with Mass Effect 3.
What is the safest order for a fresh trilogy run?
For a new playthrough, use the same edition throughout, complete each game before launching the next, and keep a backup of every completed career. This removes the largest source of ambiguity: crossing from an old format into a remaster without a documented conversion path.
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- Start Mass Effect 1.
- Finish it and preserve the completed career.
- Import that career into Mass Effect 2.
- Finish Mass Effect 2 and preserve its completed career.
- Import it with
IMPORT ME2 CHARACTERin Mass Effect 3. - Keep the backups until the intended Shepard and world state are confirmed in the receiving game.
The rule is simple, but the qualification matters: import the completed career through the receiving game’s menu, and treat edition, platform and game direction as separate compatibility questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a completed career for import?
It is a career saved after finishing the source game’s ending, not merely a character created or a mission left in progress. Close the game normally after making that end-of-career save so the receiving title can find the finished record.
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Does reusing a Shepard appearance code restore my old story?
No. A creator code only reproduces appearance settings in Legendary Edition. Story decisions, relationships and mission outcomes come from importing the completed career or selecting choices through Genesis.
Are original PC Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 saves guaranteed to work in every Legendary Edition setup?
No. Reported compatibility applies to matching-game paths, not every platform, launcher, edition or direction. If the exact pair is not documented, preserve the original backup and avoid assuming that a folder copy is a conversion.
Can Genesis recreate a missing save exactly?
No. Genesis lets you set major prior choices, which is useful for continuing the broad narrative. It is not a complete reconstruction of every side mission, hidden flag, item or numerical value stored in the original career.
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