Mass Effect 3 has a secret extra ending you probably missed

A Mass Effect 3 player has discovered a secret ending by accident that some of us may have missed.

Along with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age: Origins, the Mass Effect series is probably the most consistent high-quality property from BioWare, over its original trilogy spanning from 2007 to 2012.

I’d be hard pressed to pick my favourite from the trilogy (sorry, Mass Effect Andromeda). The original game holds a lot of sentimental value, but if I had to pick one, Mass Effect 2 probably pips it.

In the spirit of the two previous games, the choices you’ve made throughout the trilogy will impact your ending in Mass Effect 3, for better or worse.

Without giving too much away, Mass Effect 3 has four endings: Destroy, Control, Synthesis and Refuse. Just a heads up, I will be going into spoilers for the ‘Refuse’ ending.

A Mass Effect 3 player has discovered an alternative way in which you can trigger the ‘Refuse’ ending, which ultimately results in everyone dying and the galaxy being conquered by the Reapers. Happy days!

Typically, Commander Shepard will be given dialogue choices by an ancient AI called Catalyst, which will result in one of the three endings. However, Shepard can make a certain choice without uttering a single word.

“The little ghost kid [Catalyst] explained each one of the choices, and I wasn't sure which ending I wanted to pick,” said Redditor user ThrowItAway6828.

“As I thought it over, I walked around the area a bit, looked at the ghost boy, jokingly pressed the right trigger, and shot a bullet through the ghost boy. He's a ghost; it doesn't matter,” they continued.

“Anyway, the ghost boy's voice changes to an angry man's voice and says, ‘You've made your choice. Peace is no longer an option.’ Or something like that. The game abruptly ends and goes to a cutscene. Everyone dies!”

“That wasn’t part of the original endings, it was added because a lot of people wanted BioWare to recon the endings as indoctrination, and to be able to refuse or shoot the Catalyst to defeat it,” explained ShinyArtist in response. “BioWare went nope, everyone dies.”

“You can arrive at a similar, but somewhat more resonant version of it by just arguing the Catalyst down in dialogue. It's one of the better scenes in the game,” replied Driekan.

You can play the original Mass Effect trilogy gloriously remastered, including all previously released DLC, with the Mass Effect Legendary Edition on PC, PlayStation and Xbox.