Mass Effect Legendary Edition (EP)

Ok- I was thinking he meant either that or you play on normal and switch to insanity on a save before Saran to get credit for the insanity run

Weird, I actually tried this when other achievements had similar, but it didn't work for me.

Edit: 3rd clear got me the achievement. It works, but you have to reboot the game entirely between attempts it seems. I went back to ME1 menu for my 2nd and that didn't work.

Screw the downvoters yo! Thanks for the mention and congrats for getting it to pop. I get that its cheese ... but we have all done worse for achievements.

This is lame, but since the crossgame achievements are not unlocking properly, better than it being unobtainable. I cleared ME2 on Insanity and did not get Insanity II so this might be the only way to force it through until/if Bioware patches it.

This won't apply to many but this does not work on PS4. The cheese works, so you can skip Mass Effect 1's insanity playthrough, but you cannot reload a save and beat the boss again to receive the Insanity II and Insanity III trophies.

@Neo even more reason for me to push through ME 1 on Insanity to get these done before Bioware patches it.

Or you could get good and earn it.

I clarified the solution. Please state what you do not understand if you downvote. I know this is a cheesing method but not a reason for downvoting :)

I'm gonna try this as my insanity iI achievement didn't unock post beating me2. My paramour 2 didn't unlock either on me2 for the romance.

@Neo lol "get good" at a 13 year old game that we've all played before? Insanity is fairly easy anyway, I'm breezing through ME1 on Insanity on my first playthrough. Who gives a shit if anyone cheeses these, they're not all that difficult in the first place.

Yes, because "just how good are you" should be replaced by "how far can you get on exploits rather than skill" as TA's slogan. If they're not all that difficult to you then just do it.

1. That "just how good are you" has been removed ages ago from the site logo.
2. They most likely finished ME2 on insanity long ago like myself, so what need there is to prove anything.
3. This is not something like "switch to insanity on the last moment of the game to gain credit". The entire first playthrough had to be done on insanity to use this.
4. It is very common on TA to unlock achievements the easiest way possible. This is achievement website, not professional gaming league.
5. The devs could have easily prevented this by better coding or decisions. They could have made separate achievements for each insanity completion. Now it triggers a new insanity completion every time you finish the game.

Yes it still works. I just did it. I'm a goddamn PRO GAMER.

Sweet, I will be one of the few who does it legit

@SPACE ODDITY same here. ME2 Insanity run was one of my all-time favorite gaming experiences.

Thanks for the Solution. Spared me the awfull Praetorians in 2 and the Banshees in 3. Now I can enjoy Mass Effect.

Works as I write this. Just did it a few minutes ago.

^ the Banshees were the main reason I did this 😂 they were a nightmare in ME3 all those years ago, didn't want to bother with them again on Insanity if I could help it.

thanks for the solution! got them all tonight!! :D like people said, nothing really to prove if you've already 100% all the games previously. Shame there's missing some of the fun achievements of the DLCs. oh well.

Still works after the recent update. Did a full ME1 Insanity run on NG+ and followed the guide to unlock all 3 Insanity achievements in one run.

For whatever reason it took me 5 fights with Sauren to unlock all 3.
Fight 1 - Unlocked Insanity I
Fight 2 - Nothing
Fight 3 - Unlock Insanity II
Fight 4 - Nothing
Fight 5 - Unlock Insanity III

After the battle, if it gets to the point where you are presented a dialog option with Anderson and Ahern, try exiting out and reloading the game.

I also had to do it 5 times. Fight 2 and 4 I had nothing.

Can somebody confirm this case? I have save before final, but i play me2 now, and me1 finished. Can i use this glitch?

It gave me the first achivement first time doing it , second one after the second time and nothing for the third time


Edit I restarted the game and did it again and it popped

Can somebody confirm this case? I have save before final, but i play me2 now, and me1 finished. Can i use this glitch?

@DEFAULT404 - Yes, i started ME2 on Insanity and saw this guide, Dashboarded, then replayed my autosave in Saren fight and unlocked both Insanity II & III. You just need to dashboard after each achievement.

It works even after starting ME2. Had the same problem. I also had to do it five times.

@Fooga I will add that info also.

Just did this, worked like a charm, only needed 3 times, played the whole game on insanity though wasn't that difficult

just did this only needed 3 times as well

Does anyone know if you can just put the game on casual til like the last hit on Saren and then change it to insanity to finish him off? Playing on insanity and I don’t want to start over cuz the fight is making me rage. Message my gamer tag with an answer cuz I don’t normally check back here to see if anyone quoted me.

^ Check the link I provided, zombie. He added it to the solution as well.

Did the ME1 cheese five times to unlock all three achievements. On my second attempt I just reloaded the autosave and it didn't pop, after that I loaded the Eden Prime save first, then the boss fight save. Attempts 3 and 5 popped the other two Insanity achievements.

Cheeseing the Insanity II and II seems to be the ONLY way to unlock them since achievement tracking doesn't seem to work properly between games.
I wasn't awarded the Paramour II or Insanity II achievements for ME2 and going back to ME1 also resets the Kill 250, 1000 and 2000 enemies achievements in ME2 and 3

I wish it could be done legit, but as others have posted and commented it cannot be done the "right" way. This solution worked perfectly. Thanks!

works perfect

Considering the cheese method resets the counters for the 250, 1000 and 2000 kill achievements, has anyone been able to unlock the Long Service Medal achievement? Just wondering because this method resets the playtime clock when you check your saves as well.

Wonder when they'll patch this. I need to get a hold of the game.. And fast!

Ash, it never reset anything for me. I got the long service medal no problem. Not sure where you read that.

So im actually not that smart and am slow to understand things i read the forum from the link provided and still dont get it. Do i need to play the whole game on insanity or play on causal then just before the second stage boss fight i change to insanity ?

The latter. Before you change the difficulty to Insanity though, you can just beat Saren on casual, just make sure you create the save beforehand. After you beat Saren, reload the save, switch difficulty to Insanity, save again. Then import your save on NG+, switch difficulty to Insanity while on the Normandy, save on Eden Prime., then reload the Insanity save before the boss fight.

Not sure if this really was a better explanation, I think the forum post explained it quite well. It's a bit confusing when you first read it but if you actually do it it's quite simple to follow.

Thank god, i came here after beating me2 on isanity and it didn't pop

So if its bugges tracking, how is long service medal going to work? This will suck

Anyone else had trouble with long service medal? I finished all 3 games and the achievement is unlocked in the in game tracker however hasn't popped on xbox

I just went back to an old save that I finished on normal, loaded in just before the Saren fight and changed to insanity and it popped for just beating Saren on insanity. It's works for all three achievements, you only have to beat Saren on Insanity.

@Fooga - I followed the instructions in that link. I got the Insanity I achievement the first time, but the next two times I did it, it didn’t count. I was hoping it would be possible to repeat it three times for the Insanity II and III achievements. Unfortunately, that did not work for me. It seems to only work for Insanity I. Anyone else encounter that issue?

Never mind. I figured out what the issue was. You have to quit the game and reboot after each attempt or it doesn’t count.

I came here to make sure I didn't have to do Eden Prime all the way through to the end of the trilogy without doing normal runs and then NG+s.

That's insanely easy. Taking my xbox offline right now just in case they patch it.

@Recovski those steps are literally what my guide says

+1. This method works as described for getting the achievement on a not-insanity run and just doing the final fight on insanity (with the required new career steps above).

Definitely need to dashboard to get the repeated achievements.

For those doing this legitimately, similar to the Paramour achievements, if ME2 insanity doesn't pop, then go to launcher and play any ME1 save. Save the game again in ME1 and back out to launcher. ME2 should no longer have resume as an option. Proceed into ME2 and load your end-game save. Complete the final mission and it should then activate the achievement properly.

Credit to Nightmarity who found this and added it to Paramour achievement.

Doing that method above reset my kill counter. I was at 1700..

Can confirm that the method still works for playing through most of the game on a lower difficulty and changing it to insanity for the Saren fight (just make sure you follow the instructions in the link to the letter.)

I also had a similar issues as others where this worked for the first, third, and fifth attempts. If Insanity II doesn't pop after your second attempt, try again. It came on my third try.

Do you have to do a fresh insanity run to start this? Im.asking because my final save just before the saren fight is on insanity and when I start a new game with that character, it defaults to casual. Or at the very beginning can I set it to insanity and it will still count?

I've tried this about a dozen times and it does not work for me unfortunately. Playing on PC via Origin.

@XxCHURCH85xX please read the guide and link in it, everything is answered there.
@SpoinkPlays this guide is for Xbox (and PS) only.

I can confirm as of this post you can still cheese this with one playthrough of ME1. For me it was save before last fight > set to Insanity > beat Saren to grab Insanity I. Then I reloaded the save, beat Saren again, but Insanity II didn't trigger. So I took @THEpaynexkiller suggestion and started a new career, etc. Was able to get Insanity II on the third try. Then unfortunately going for Insanity III did not trigger until my 7th time beating Saren and this time I did not start a new career, though I rebooted my console and quit the game so I'm not sure if any of that has any effect at all. All I will say is just keep trying if you can't seem to get it and eventually the cheevo should pop.

Still insanity 2 not fixed, but paramour 2 unlocked? You'd think they'd have fixed the tougher one...I mean it's easy to bang liara. Going to cheese it.

I was doing it legit...pretty painful going thro ME 2's insanity without achievement. Made it work by taking the advice of an earlier post. I reloaded mass effect 1 and saved. Going back to 2, continue is no longer an option so I loaded up last save in the collector base, killed human reaper again, this time it popped. Can confirm this fixed it. Wish bioware had.

Can confirm I got Insanity 1, 2 and 3 by replaying the Saren fight. I played the whole story on Insanity just to be safe, thanks for the excellent tip, I can now play the rest of the game on a more relaxed difficulty 👍

thx worked perfectly, for the original method to work you must complete all of me1 on insanity up to the final fight...

1) Do you know if the Insanity and Paramour workarounds can break the
"Long Service Medal" achievement?
2) Do you have to complete Mass Effect 2 and 3 normally before using that glitch/trick?
3) Finally is there any issue/conflict with this achievement (Long Service Medal) if I do the Insanity I.II and III workaround at the end of the first Mass Effect (before playing the other two games) by changing the difficulty to "Insane"? thanks

I got the long service medal ok. Just done Ashley romance again for ME3...no paramour 3. It's bad.

Insanity 3 not popped legit either. LoL no wonder they've not nerfed this method, as they don't seem to be able to fix the paramour or insanity cross achievements.

Just play ME1 3x on insanity and also works for Paramour I, II and III

I already have Insanity 1 and 2 legit, but want to do the Saren cheese for 3, can someone say when it is safe to quit out as I don't have the pop up to work with. Can I quit immediately after Saren dies?

Not popping for me following this solution.

edit: took four tries to get it going - the first completion on insanity didn't get - after dashboarding and loading through again, it worked from that point on

Can confirm that this method is still working fine

@ChalkWhite Don't know if you still need an answer or not. It doesn't pop immediately after killing Saren. It pops quite a bit after that actually. It should pop during the loading screen for the dialogue scene with the Council where you get to pick whether or not you elect Udina or Anderson to be on the Council.

Just wanted to add my two cents. I beat all three games on insanity and couldn't get the achievement to pop at the end of ME3. Had to cheee this method to get it to pop. I'm not saying it's impossible in ME3, just that this achievement is bugged to hell and this method was the only way that worked for me. Thanks for posting the guide!

Same as @BobWings above. Only insanity 1 popped legit. For 2 I went into ME1 and made a random save. went back to ME2 beat final boss it popped. ME3 last method wouldn't work. Had to beat saren twice for insanity 3 to pop.

If you are like me and don’t get an achievement pop a few things :

I did the last fight in ME2 on insanity a second time from my last save and it popped the second time (didn’t originally)

If you go back to ME1 after already completing the game, you have to dashboard after completing another insanity Saren kill. So, load your last save before Saren fight. Kill him again on Insanity (you won’t get a pop), then dashboard during Udina and Anderson conversation. Reload that save AGAIN and do fight once more. Then it’ll pop.

Just wanted to confirm this (second method) still works as of 6/6 and honestly thank you because the insanity playthrough in ME1 was miserable and made me not actually want to play the other two games and im really happy i can just playthrough on casual now and enjoy this story and smoking dudes

Today's patch says it fixes achievement issues like Paramour and count tracking achievements, so congrats to those of you who got it in with the glitch, it might not be possible post patch.

^ Are we SURE this is the case?

Paramour 3 didn’t pop for me so I am unsure. Insanity 3 didn’t either so it has been quite frustrating lol

Sin Cudi, no we are not sure, so I didn't want to say definitively.

Dunno what they've patched. I got all achievements except paramour 3. Trying to redo 3's love scene without success. If they can't fix their stuff, maybe they should have left glitch alone?

Can someone confirm Ashlorne's statement? Seems that they somewhat fixed this but not 100%...

Just to confirm this is still working post patch... just unlocked Insanity 1 today (June 8th)

Hi PeteMc. Insanity I still works. We're trying to figure out if II and III still work post patch.

Tried 8 times, all different ways. Can only unlock Insanity 1. Safe to say it's been patched.

Insanity II and III have not unlocked for me using this method post patch. Missed it by a few days... bummer

Seems to have been fixed.
Only got insanity 1 by completing ME1 on insanity. Tried redoing last fight multiple times and couldn't unlock the others.

Anyone know if you can still get insanity 2 & 3 from doing another two Mass Effect 1 insanity runs, as ME1 was really easy and fast for me on that difficulty, so I wouldn't mind doing two more playthroughs to get the other 2 insanity achievements? Or do you have to do insanity on all 3 games now?

And what about changing the difficulty to Insane before last Saren fight? is it still possible?

I just finished ME3 on Insanity, never turned it off for the whole 3 games and this didn't pop for me. Anyone got anything? This is such bullshit.

Just to confirm this is still working post patch... just unlocked Insanity 1 today (June 8th)

@PeteMc Did you complete Insane run legit or did you change the difficulty before the last fight vs Saren? I'd know if at least Mass Effect 1 insane run can still be cheesed: it would be a nice time-saving.

Is it possible to remove the patches and stay offline to do this if it indeed has been patched?

@PeteMc You're supposed to unlock Insanity I when you beat ME1 on insanity so that's not what people are talking about being patched lol.

@DayusMakhina You can't do that for digital. If Physical you should be able to be offline and play without patches

The thing is... I don't mind playing the second and third on Insanity but I want to be sure the achievements pop. Oh well. I'll just start with 2 and I will let you know when I finish the game 😅

Pretty sure it’s been patched just tried for insanity 2 and nothing popped

Beat it twice now on me1 on insane so think it’s been patched

I don't know if it is bugged or you now need to do insanity difficulty in all 3 games.

I just completed Mass Effect 1 for the second time on insanity, a completely new character and didn't get the Insanity 2 achievement even though it should count as it was a new character and not a reloaded Saren fight.

Is this a bug or did they change it so you need to beat Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 on insanity and just haven't updated achievement text?

I'm still needing the paramour 3 for the full set. With insanity I did all 3 legit but only ME1 popped for insanity 1. The other 2 I had to make saves in 1, go back and beat last boss again ECT. the only paramour that didn't pop was in ME3. I've still got a save just before 3's romance, but it won't unlock achievement. Now I don't have a clue how to unlock it. This is a mess.

I did Paramour and Insanity legit across my trilogy playthrough. Like others, I had trouble getting them to unlock in 2 and had to do the "load up ME1 then go back to ME2" workaround. I just finished up ME3 and neither of them popped.

I went back to ME1, replayed the romance scene and final boss fight from previous saves, and both Paramour III and Insanity III finally unlocked.

Now it's patched the description reads " start or rekindle any relationship in all 3 mass effect games" I've unlocked one for ME1 and two for ME2....does this mean only 3 can now unlock paramour 3??

@Arteen: I'm curious... did you start ME2 and/or ME3 before or after june 7th (after the latest patch)?

I can confirm that changing the difficulty after beating the game once will pop the insanity achievement, but I did not get Insanity II after beating ME1 a second time.

Hi @Kaynx. As I asked before in this thread: did you start ME2 and/or ME3 before or after june 7th (after the latest patch)? In other words. Is the savefile from before the 7th of june?

Yes all of my saves are from before the patch. @Ashlorne I finished Me3 this morning and did ME2 again twice now

To unlock my legit insanity 2 and 3, I had to go into ME1 and make a save. Then go back and manually load save and redo end(human reaper) and (citadel) this unlocked the insanity 2 and 3 achievements.

@Eds killerbox 7 I did the saren thing first before I attempted the human reaper fight in 2. No idea why it won't pop for me but I'm honestly done with this game. 2 achievements off too.. Damn

@Eds: you mean manually replay the last mission of MS2 and 3?

Just redo the last boss or last save of each. I finished ME2 on insanity ...no achievement, so jumped in 1 saved and reloaded last save on 2 and redone boss (on insanity) Same with ME3.

Sorry....got that wrong. It worked for ME2 insanity 2, but could not get insanity 3 to pop after beating 3 on insanity. Had to redo saren twice to pop insanity 3.

@Eds: Yes but the issue is you did that method before the patch on june 7th... since that patch it is not possible anymore.

@Ashlorne I started up ME3 June 1st.

True...and that's why I'm stuck with paramour 3 :(

What I really want to know is, are saves started before the recent patch still able to have insanity/paramour type achievements unlock? As all my saves were started pre patch. is a new game post patch needed to be started?

I started my ME2 Insanity save on june 8th so it will take me a while before I know if the achievements will work as intended post patch.

Starting my ME1 Insanity run through today. I will try the glitch when i get to it. so fingers crossed. If not i am undecided if i can play ME1 3 times to unlock all insanity achievements or if i have to do 1,2 and 3

Seems like this has been patched

Lmao yep just beat ME3 and no paramour or insanity achievement. Love how they patched the exploit, but didn't fix the achievements themselves. Guess this will be getting shelved until they sort their shit out.

If it's been properly patched you'll be able to play through all 3 importing your character. Only ME1 unlocked for me doing this pre patch. Had to use different methods to unlock insanity 2and3. Similar with paramour. Paramour 3 is the last one I need still trying to unlock it.

They have really cocked up the achievements that run across the games why not just have beat chosen game on insanity and paramour on chosen game instead of it tracking across all 3. I had no issues with the long service achievement as it was only 1 medal. Every time I look at the achievements in extras the medals across each games are mostly greyed out only the first is activated meaning I bet when i play through me1 again it will activate the 2nd medal even though I already have that from finishing ME2.

Patching the exploit before fixing the broken achievements feels like a deliberate slap in the face to the fans

Just finished ME3 on insanity. The achievement didn't pop. I had the same issue with Insanity II, but defeating Saren in ME1 again fixed it.
Not cool at all, I've poured hours and hours into this game

I uninstalled l, then reinstalled from disc offline and then, after doing the ending to 1 again there times (didn't work after doing it once despite having Insanity II) and going back online, it popped. However, it's tracked on here and on Xbox.com, but on my console, I no longer have it unlocked.

According to CompanyOfWolves said, using the disc version of the game and reinstalling it offline You should still be able to use last Saren fight workaround and get Insanity 2-3 achievements... Just a question... You must be online to sync/download your game saves from Microsoft server: are your patched saves compatible with a not updated version of the game? is it possible to avoid installation of the last patch when you are online to download your saves???

I apologize for my English. I hope I explained it well.

Can anyone confirm if I can start a new game plus and get this achievement?

Yes, NG+ is ok, as long as the games set to insanity. 1 & 3 can be changed to insanity after game starts, but I think 2 has to be on insanity from the start.

I will add the offline solution here. If someone can confirm that it works, please comment!

At what point do you need to change the game difficulty to Insanity? I did it a little into the very first intro mission, where Shepard and Anderson are on earth.

For ME1, before you leave Eden prime.
ME2 from start
ME3 before you leave earth
I think that's right...it's how it went on 360

I believe the achievement is triggered when the in game medal is awarded. I finished ME1 on insanity got Insanity1 and the medal to say I had got it. Went to ME2 checked the medals and Insanity 1 was greyed out so i went back to ME1 and the medal was also greyed out. Finished ME1 again on insanity and re-activated the medal. I am going to play ME1 again on Insanity to see if medal 2 unlocks and also the achievement. This was the same issue i had with Paramor. As when I moved to the next game the medals were greyed out and when I did a romance only the 1st medal was awarded and thus i did not get the 2nd achievement.

I've already got all achievements except paramour 3, but none of the in-game medal charts show that. ME2&3 show insanity 3 and paramour 3 missing, while ME1 shows 10 missing, including insanity 1,2&3. Plus paramour 2/3. I don't have a clue where paramour 3 will open .played 3 for 3rd time and nothing, so now playing one. Had 5 romances so far. Could easily have popped this last horrible achievement pre patch. They should have left it alone if they can't fix it

I am being hopeful that what I am doing will unlock Insanity 2. I suspect the patch removes the ability to get the 2nd and 3rd achievement off the same playthrough of a game. I did remember seeing other players say they got paramour 2 when they did their insanity run straight after their normal run on ME1. If this works then it would be best to play the same game 3 times in a row to get those achievements if the exploit is now patched.

Playing ME1 twice in a row on insanity does not work unfortunately.
I did have to turn off the game today and when i went back to it the medal i had got for completing it on insanity was grey out again. Im going to leave this game alone now until i know they are truly fixed. Do not want to play large RPGs on the hardest difficulty and not receive a reward for doing so. The way this is going those achievements are looking to be unobtainable now.

Ryan, why are you set to no stat tracking on the site?

After i beat mass effect 2 on insanity but insanity 2 didn't unlock I went back and cheesed it in me1. I didn't cheese insanity 3 at the time because id hoped that it would unlock naturally after I beat me3. It didn't. And now the cheese doesn't work.
Great. Lol

Cheese still works - please see my other solution

Guess I’ll save myself the headache and shelve this until it’s properly patched. I don’t mind playing 2 & 3 through on insanity, but only if I know I’ll receive credit towards these achievements, which it sounds like they DIDN’T fix… oh EA…

Check my solution, you can still unlock them

I went through the first two parts of the game, but then decided to get all the achievements and started the third part on Insanity difficulty. Then I replayed the first part. I didn't get an achievement. I read that I need to go through the battle with Saren again. Achievement was given. Then I played the second part at maximum difficulty. Achievement was not given and the battle with Saren did not help. Now I don't know what to do, I have only one Insanity 3 achievement left. All three parts were completed at maximum difficulty. I've been looking for solutions for a week now. I can only swear

See my solution

I have a digital version of the game. No disk

Oh, i'm sorry dude. I've done a huge amount looking for a digital fix and there is absolutely nothing. The only thing I can think of is borrowing a disc from a friend or starting a thread here on TA of users to post the copy around to perhaps? I'd post you mine but I think you're in Russia!

I just grabbed a disc off ebay that I am happy to post to another TA user in need so long as that person is willing to pass it along. Maybe we can do a forum signup thread?

This is exactly what you guys need to do - good luck setting up a group guys!

I will of course return the disc. But will it be convenient for you to send it? It's far enough. And for the sake of just achievement, send the disc, at your discretion.

This is breakthrough and needs to be a solution, not a comment

Just unlocked it myself, been seeing alot of disc only guides so here's mind. Post June patch, load up your last saves. I got Insanity I from ME1 so I loaded up my collector base save from ME2 completed it all the way, skipped cutsences. Loaded up ME 3 did that same from Cerberus base through the end. I then loaded up ME 1 from Saren autosave and killed him. Popped for me. I figure with the patch in place it doesnt read ME1 being complete even if you have Insanity I. Hope this helps, dudes.

Guys, write a solution. People may not read the comments and it will get lost in them

Can someone make a video please

So 14 years without patching ME1, when achievements were incredibly strict. then a month into MELE, when achievement laws are lax enough to allow a 3000G game, they patch it.

So I just finished ME2 today on insanity (the legit way, a full playthrough). Both the achievement for Insanity II and Paramour II unlocked as intended. This was with a new game save created after june 7th (but used the import save from ME1 which was saved before june 7th). Also all my achievements are correctly shown ingame after the update we received on june 28th. Hope this information will help some of you.

The offline method seemed to have worked for Insanity II, however did not unlock Insanity III. Tried it multiple times to get it to unlock, even checking the medal and it does go from grey to 'unlocked' in game but the achievement will just not unlock when turning back online, and even after the game see's the medal as unlocked, when I relog back into the game, the medal becomes greyed out again.

@ ST3ALTH EMPER0R did you follow the method descriped in the Spoiler Tag? Worked perfectley fine for me! Game showed all 3 Medals in the Menu but no Achievements popped so the good old Xbox "Hard Reset" forced all 3 Achievement to pop.

If you don't know how Hard Reset works it very simple while your Xbox One is turned on press and hold the "ON/OFF" Button until the Xbox One starts up again (takes about 30-60 seconds) then sign in and that's it Achievements popped.

Yeah i've been doing a Hard Reset each time, each time just no achievement. It worked for the Insanity II, just not III, and i've uninstalled/reinstalled the game close to 10 times now and I am getting the medal each time, but after hard resetting, then going back online nothing unlocks, and once I get back into the game (once it's updated), the medal is greyed out again. The amount of times i've killed Saren on Insanity is getting to me lol.

Legit worked for me today (August 3rd 2021) just fine, although it didn't pop on screen (only "Legend" and "Long Service Medal" popped on screen right after making 'the choice'). But after watching the credits I looked up the achievements and it was there.

Thanks, I will update the solution

Thanks for adding it - for those who want to do it legit but fear the bigger enemies like Banshees, Brutes and Atlas' - buy the N7 Typhoon, slap it on Garrus or basically any squad mate that can carry an assault rifle, spec them for weapon damage, use the damage and mag extension (or scope) mod on it (best partner it with armor piercing ammo from Garrus) and watch them win the Reaper war all by themselves: https://youtu.be/ZPbB4qfsA14

Can this achievement be done out of order? I played ME1 on Vet, then got insanity I and II for ME2 and ME3. Can I now beat ME1 on insanity and get Insanity III?

Finally unlocked this achievement (Aug 8, 2021)! Here's what I did:

I beat Saren 4 times in ME1 hoping it would trigger, but it never did. Then I went to ME3 and played through from the "Citadel: The Return" Mission Restart save (starting from where you shoot 3 Husks and a Marauder). No luck there. Finally, I loaded up ME2, went through the Omega 4 Relay, did the entire Suicide Mission, and it finally popped after I beat the final boss. It seems like beating each game's last mission again triggers the achievement. (P.S. I played through all games on Insanity from the start, I can't confirm if changing the difficulty works)

I can confirm they now unlock correctly. Just finished ME2 and 3 on Insanity and achievements unlocked. YEY!

I finished all three on Insanity last night, no achievement. I don't know if it's my mistake of doing NG+ in ME2 prior to starting ME3 however. Annoying regardless.

Can anyone confirm that defeating seren on insanity 3 times due to reloading saves still gives you all 3 insanity achievements or do I have to do the grind

You got until the end of Eden prime to change 1, until you leave earth to change 3. 2's the one to watch as it must be set to insanity before you start playing.

I'm just getting started using the disc cheese approach, and was having trouble installing via the discs only. Here is what you need to do.

1. Go offline
2. Install from disc 1
3. When done, go online to validate the disc (this happens by virtue of going online)
4. Decline any updates
5. Go back offline
6. Continue installing ME2 and ME3 (this will start from the discs and eventually you will be asked to install disc 2)
7. As a precaution, I usually like to pack my HD full just to make sure I can't install any patches
8. Go offline to play through ME1 and do the Insantiy trick to get your achievements

Oh BS, I was on insanity and the difficulty said Casual! GARBAGE! ABSOLUTE GARBAGE!!!

What do you mean?

With the game coming to Gamepass tomorrow could someone confirm if this would be possible?

Complete ME1, 2 and 3 on whatever difficulty getting all the achievements except Insanity I,II and III.
Uninstall game.
Purchase a physical copy of MELE.
Install game offline with no patches.
Start a NG+ of my ME1 playthrough on Insanity and save before the end fight and reload to get Insanity achievements?

Feel like this would work unless there is something wrong with save compatibility for different patch version, or would I have to beat the game on non NG+?

Sounds like youd be the first person in history to try that why dont you let us know how it goes

Thanks for the passive aggresive peer pressure friend.

My question was aimed at TA users who have knowledge/expereince manipulating saves between patches and if thats effective at unlocking achievments.

My solution above will still work as you're using an unpatched physical copy of the game so any solution presented above pre patch will work, I'm just trying to find a effective way to help Gamepass folk who want to do the cheese method.

Is this unlocking properly these days just want play for completion normally

They didn’t pop for me after a first insanity finish. Second try no insanity II. But I did not have ME2 and ME3 installed…so I’m hoping that will make the difference. 😬😬😬

Well it didn’t work.

Can confirm this is unlocking properly now. Just completed all three games on insanity without any issues.

So help me, IF I NEVER DO ANOTHER INSANITY PLAYTHROUGH, IT WONT BE SOON ENOUGH!

Does this still work? Can we beat ME1 three times and get the Insanity II and III achievements without beating ME2 and ME3?

Does this still work? Can we beat ME1 three times and get the Insanity II and III achievements without beating ME2 and ME3?

@thagkol13 Only works if you have the physical copy and play offline with no patches.

@Spascifica offline acivements will not unlock. Do i need to complete 3 Times last fight(ME1) and then connect to internet (update game) and 3 achievements will unlock?

Are you able to play through all 3 games on NG+ to unlock each insanity achievement(or does it have to be a fresh playthrough)?

NG+ is fine.

Offline method still works 23 Feb

@tha playah360 I was doing it wrong initially and it wasn’t working

I re read the comments and started dashboard quiting as Shep walked away from the final convo - Unlocked both 2 & 3 in consecutive fights

Hello all,

I have a digital copy on an XBOX 1....
I was able to get the Insanity 1 achievement by following the steps earlier. However, this post and all of the edits are not very clear about how to get Insanity 2 and Insanity 3.
Am I supposed to go back to my Mass Effect 1 save, and beat Saren on Insanity again both to get the Insanity 2 and Insanity 3 achievements?

Thank you.

Useless

Thank you for everyone’s contribution! Offline disc mode worked perfectly for me! I just followed tips from the comments as well. I made sure to dashboard and quit each time I was back to the Home Screen after killing Saren!

Can confirm the offline method still works, you get the achievements as soon as you go back online. Thanks for saving me time!

So there is no way to do this if we have the digital copy? We're screwed?

how do you play offline with no patches? my game just instantly dashboards when i get to "press any button"

Do you have a disc version? If you do, then when installing the game, be offline and play the game offline. Do not connect to internet at any times when playing the game. Otherwise at every launch it searces for patches and you must install them in order to play. If you have installed the game already, you have to uninstall it first. I dont think there is a way to only uninstall the patches.

I have the digital version and Insanity 3 and Paramour 3 are not unlocking for me either. 3 Insanity playthroughs ,ME1,ME2 all trophies popped fine until ME3. Two Insanity playthroughs of ME3 and still not popping. So beating Saren still works offline, I wonder if repeating Ashley romance scene in ME3 ,3 times will trigger Paramour 3 (offline)? I don't have any saves in my other games of romance scenes. Didn't think it would be an issue 😞. Would my saves from digital edition be ok to use for disc edition?

But to unlock other achievements you need to be online, right?

from my experience today (June 7th, 2022), the reload saves trick worked for ME1 to unlock Insanity I, but replaying the saren fight from autosave doesn't unlock insantiy II (and therefore no insanity III).

my question now is, if i import my cheesed insanity character from ME1 into ME2 (and then to ME3) would the Insanity II & III achievements unlock if i play those games legit on insanity? or can i do a newgame+ playtrough of ME1 on insanity, then import that character? or should i be resigned to play ME1 again starting from scratch on insanity?

Cheesed import will work, just did ME2 insanity run with a ME1 cheesed import.

My biggest problem with no patches, you need to play offline. Thus you dont know whether the achievement unlocked or not until you connect again. But after connected, even once, you cannot launch the game until you download the patches. SO basically you playing blind.

Ok I tried the offline method with the disk. Not even launching the game.

It is worth noting that refusing to activate the crucible does not seem to unlock this achievement. I had to restart the last mission and then chose destroy, the achievement then unlocked.

Not sure how playing the earlier games count towards this achievement but I played Insanity on ME1 on new game+ after a normal play through, on ME2 I imported the ME1 character and played though on Insanity, then on ME3 I did new game+ again using the character I completed the normal play through with.

I have a question: If I need to switch the game from ME2 Insanity to ME1 Normal for some achievements (i want to get Paramour 2), will this achievement (or Insanity 2) won't drop or I can do this without any potential trouble?

I haven't got any problem throughout the game, but...!!!
The endless spawning Banshees, and the bigger problem for me Marauders! I just kept dying, because couldn't reach that damn console at the end they shoot me dead under a second!

I haven't got any problem throughout the game, but...!!!
The endless spawning Banshees, and the bigger problem for me Marauders! I just kept dying, because couldn't reach that damn console at the end they shoot me dead under a second!

I installed the game offline with a disk but whenever I press a on the menu, the game closes to the dashboard. Any help?

Having the same issue here.

Can i do this achivement on a new game plus

Would also like to know if this is doable on new game plus.

Cheesed ME1, and finished 2 and 3 legit with Ng+ aaaand.. Insanity II as well as III popped during the last cutscene of each game :)

This has been patched. I did all 3 legit and didn't get the insanity achievement 2 or 3. Tried the glitch method and it doesn't work no matter how many times I try. I also played through the end of mass effect 2 on insane again and no achievement. Awesome. Seriously sick of Devs releasing games that aren't complete.

So guys, i'm post patch and haven't started any insanity runs. What am I supposed to do exactly? Start ME1 on insanity and try the end glitch, if it doesn't do I have to play ME1 three times on insanity? Or can I play through them all on insanity importing my character?

Can the achievement still pop if you start another playthrough? I did ME1 on insanity and finished it, then started a insanity ME2 insanity playthrough. But then i decided to do another ME1 run to grab some achievements I missed. This playthrough is on easy. Will this mess up the achievement tracker? Thank you

https://forum.psnprofiles.com/topic/108299-psa-mass-efffect-...

Should add this to your solution, bro. You can change the settings to insane at the end of ME1 due to an old bug they left in the game. You don’t have to play this trilogy on insane at all with this.

Thank you this worked! I actually legit beat Mass effect 1 on insanity and also 2 but the second game did not pop my achievement. I came here to see this and wish I came sooner. At least my third game will be a chill playthru on easy.

I went back to an old save just as you reach the top of the Citadel before the Saren fight, switched the difficulty up to Insanity and then access the console and started the Saren fight... took him out and nothing popped.

However... Neo Yggdrasilll's method worked fine, started a new game with an imported character, switched to Insanity and saved, reloaded my Citadel save and it popped after finishing Saren off.

I just want to add a couple steps to be clear about insanity II and III.

If you're doing the method of saving and creating a new profile to cheese the insanity achievements there are 2 things to keep in mind.

1. You only need to complete steps 5-8 on the method suggest from the pan forums for your second and third runs.

2. Make sure you quit the game and fully close MELE after you re-beat the game each time. I got insanity I on my first attempt but did got get insanity II on my second or third attempt. I closed the game and restarted the next two times and got insanity II and III.

Hope this helps clarify!

I started my Mass Effect 1 run with an imported character.
I changed the difficulty to Insanity when I dropped onto Eden Prime (it is possible to change the difficulty before, when you’re on the Normandy)
I only did the main missions, Liara Rescue, Noveria, Feros, Vermire, then Ilum
Insanity 1 popped after I had defeated Saren during one of the cutscenes BEFORE I chose the leader of Humanity

Quit during the credits, Exited to launcher, then dashboarded & closed the game.
Re-loaded game my Saren fight, killed the blue bugger & Insanity 2 popped at the same time as mentioned above.

Did the same thing as above, Insanity 3 popped

I tried yesterday to get all the Insanity achievements through the Saren fight. Only insanity I popped. I tried different methods to get II and III but no luck so far. It could be possible they patched this loophole...

I hope someone today can confirm it still works. If so, please tell me exactly how you did it so I can reproduce your steps

To eleborate on my previous post. I tried different methods to receive insanity achievement II and III.

1. After I received the Insanity I achievement and watched the credits I reloaded my save from main menu to defeat Saren again. No luck.
2. I went back to the home screen, quit the game and restart the Xbox. I resumed my save to defeat Saren. No luck.

Every step I checked to options to see if the difficulty was still Insanity, which was the case.

Tonight or tomorrow I will delete all my Mass Effect 1 saves except for the save before the final battle against Saren. I will make a new game plus save again and follow the steps as explained above.

Okay, if you are like me and played through each game on Insanity only to have the Insanity achievements not unlock, I am happy to report with awesome news. Unlocked on Xbox Series X, digital copy, post June patch.

I went back to Mass Effect 1, reloaded my last save on an Insanity play through (the Citadel tower save) killed Saren on Insanity, no player Biotic powers, skipped credits, exited to main menu.

Immediately loaded up Mass Effect 2, I had played through on Insanity as well, right to the Collector Base. Reloaded final save (battle before destroying four tubes and Human Reaper larvae). Skipped credits, exited to main menu.

Immediately loaded up Mass Effect 3. Loaded up last save on Earth, but had played through on Insanity without changing difficulty. Then as soon as I picked Destroy and the Extended Cut started playing, it popped.

—
Saw a comment saying that it might have to do with cross game tracking and the achievement medals in the Extras folder. I just checked on ME3, and all three Insanity medals are lit up.

Hope this helps someone, I was going to pull my hair out when they didn’t pop.

Yes, the achievement is unlocking normally in New Game+, with a character imported from the same game.

In Mass Effect 1 you can change the difficulty to Insanity early on in the game, while still in Normandy, before Eden Prime.

In Mass Effect 2 you can set it to Insanity right away by selecting and starting a New Game+, before the game actually starts it asks you to choose the difficulty.

In Mass Effect 3 you can change the difficulty to Insanity in the menu, before starting a New Game+. So just check at the beginning of the game if everything is ok.

I can confirm that the achievement is unlocking normally for those who play all three games on Insanity, without changing the difficulty, I just did that and get it.

I completed ME1 shortly after release with a physical copy on insanity legit. Trying to save some time I thought I'd try cheesing the next two having down them legit on the 360 already, however On my (new) Halo series X I can't seem to run the game offline. It keeps prompting for the game update.

Even when I did manage to launch with my profile signed in disconnecting the Ethernet cable after, the game wanted me to start a new career because of course it couldn't bring up my previous saves as no option to resume (hopefully they're still online on the cloud after trying this and I don't somehow manage to overwrite - but updating now...)

So long story short, maybe you can do try this first time without the patches or if you feel inclined running through ME1 again on a whole new career, but not after already having done a run and expecting to continue offline.

If anyone doesn't have this unlock after completing ME3 like I did and was about to pull their hair out... initially I choose the refuse ending, I restarted the final mission (beam bit onwards) choose the 'control' ending instead and it popped right as I pressed the control terminal.

To provide an update, I was unable to finish the game while at a friends house, but I was able to play off-line on my old Xbox one X, that is now at his place. It looks like the crash hast to do a series only

Tried the Saren fight out after the achieve didn't pop when beating ME3 and it still works as of 7/8/2023. Bioware is done pushing updates for the LE, so this won't get patched out (and frankly it got very few updates to begin with, there's still bugs in this version that were present from the LE launch, and weren't even in the original games to begin with lol)

Walkthrough:

1. Make a save after you reach Saren the first time in the Citidel, before you go down to the final fight. Right before you access the console (to save/kill the council) so after the first saren fight.



2. Complete the game.



3. Reload the save you made in step 1.



4. Change the difficulty to Hardcore/Insanity and save over your save from step 1.



5. Start a new career and import your character that you just beat the game with.



6. Change the difficulty to Hardcore/Insanity while on the Normandy.



7. When you are on Eden Prime make another separate save.



8. Reload your previous save, verify the game is on insanity from step 4 and beat the game.

I was playing Mass Effect 2 with the current patch when I realized I had forgotten to get Insanity III. I uninstalled the whole game and then reinstalled it from the disc, while offline. I was able to load up my Mass Effect 1 save.

I beat Saren then went online - nothing happened. I went offline again, without allowing the update, and beat Saren 3 times just to be safe. Came back online and still nothing. I did a full power down and sign out/in then it instantly popped however it wouldn't show in the achievement section of the Game Activity thing. It DID on the full achievement profile and Xbox.com/TA. It's now caught up everywhere.

I will note that my Mass Effect 1 save file was never played AFTER the most recent patch and, as such, can't guarantee anyone whose save was made post-patch will be able to do this. If you're going to try this I'd recommend getting the 2000 kills done first as this might reset the counter.

I’ve been sent a few Xbox msgs asking how I did the offline method. So thought I’d clarify here what I did right and wrong

Steps 1-7 and then 10-12 are the CORRECT way to do it. I added 8-9 in case anyone is also doing what I was doing wrong just to highlight it.

Thanks to everyone who tested it and nailed down the process. All credit goes to them for the cheese method.

I should say I have 3 consoles, so I did a fresh install on a 2nd box offline. Though deleting all traces of the game from your main box should still work. Incl online and offline saves

This will only work with disc. Others would have to confirm but I’m not sure there is a cheese for the digital versions any longer

1 - Obv I cleared up all other achievements first through the 3 playthroughs on a fun class

2 - I then went back and did a speed run soldier run on easy. Just enough to make sure I had maxed adrenaline and immunity

3 - right before pressing the button to go down to second Saren fight. I changed to insane and saved a few times.

4 - beat Saren on easy.

5 - started a new career (imported save). Changed to insane on the Normandy then went down to eden prime.

6 - saved when on the ground and quit

7 - loaded up prior save from step 3, went down and beat saren on insanity.

8 - repeated 5-7 multiple times. This is where I went wrong.

9 - I went online without updates enabled and insanity 1 popped. But not 2 and 3.

So I went back and re read the comments and nailed down where I went wrong.

10 - after you beat saren on insanity, after the conversation back up with the ambassador you need to force dashboard quit the game when Shep is walking away

11 - you can reload and continue. You will be at the saren fight. Beat him and dashboard quit after the convo again

12 - you can then reload and continue and beat saren on insanity again.

That will allow allow all 3 achievements to unlock using the disc method as of today 14/03/2022. You can see from my time stamps I think it was taking me around half an hour between fights. But I was sitting back spamming adrenaline and immunity and casually sniping him and the ads, so it can probably be done faster 🙂


Hope this helps everyone who has been messaging me.

& thanks again to everyone who did the hard yards working this out. You saved me a heap of time 🙂

That's great to hear!

Thank you for the solution. Worked for me +1

My achievement didn't unlock once I completed ME2 insanity on the digital version. I loaded up a disk and followed this. I didn't see the achievements unlock but that don't matter. I was facing a second ME2 insanity run until I saw this. For anyone who is interested, this 100% works.

Really appreciate how well you laid everything out. I was getting a little lost in the comments on the first guide.

Lol... I've insanity I and insanity iii unlock but not insanity ii 🤣

Guide worked perfectly for me.

* Followed PART ONE to get Insanity I.
* Uninstalled game and disconnected from internet.
* Reinstalled using disc (1.0.161.8428, from GameFly).
* Resumed (loaded autosave) from before Saren fight. Beat Saren a second time and manually quit the game during the dialog scene with Anderson.
* Repeated last step for a third completion.
* Reconnected console to internet. Insanity II and Insanity III popped immediately after connecting, while still at the dashboard.

This Still Worked great for me on Series X! I was able to get Insanity 2 & 3 completed. Thank You!!!

This method worked very well. Thanks for finding it.

Two things to note, The game had a glitch in the original patchless version where whenever you press a button with a headset connected after starting the game, the game crashes. You have to connect the headset once you are passed the title screen, (had to look this up, and I also restarted the xbox a couple of times thinking it would fix it).

Secondly, they didn't immediately pop for me once I connected to the internet, but after restarting the Xbox.

Is there any way to do this through Xbox Cloud gaming. I am playing through Gamepass for achievements and am struggling to get Insanity II and III.

It can only be done disc only as you need to be offline to use the unpatched version of the game.

I do not know what the disk version is considered. Once I uninstall and disconnect, I did not reconnect at all during the disc installation and during the actual gameplay. I would only connect again to make the achievements pop. And at that, i was still on the base disc version.

If you got the first one to pop, that means that the save should pop the rest. Did you reconnect back to xbox live after each killing of Saren? Also people originally reported that some Saren kills would make it pop and some would not. My best advise would be to try again on the save that you got the first achievement with.