Mass Effect 3: The War Asset Number Crunching

**WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR MASS EFFECT 3**

So earlier this month I promised to do a number crunch to see if it is possible to get the best ending in Mass Effect 3 via the single player game alone, as has been claimed by Bioware's Jesse Houston. Whether the endings are actually any 'good' is a subject of debate, although my feelings are fairly well summed up by this Game Front article, but I wanted to see if Bioware's claims were true given their own statements, not our judgements. To that end, I asked Bioware via twitter if their definition of 'Best Ending' was the Synthesis ending, and to date have not received a reply.

The reason I asked is because there has been some debate on the internet as to what constitutes the 'best' ending, with the common consensus being that it is the one where Commander Shepard lives. Although there are  16 confirmed ending variations, although the variations are very slight. Regardless, this is not a discussion about the merits of the ending–rather a question as to whether the 'Best Ending' is possible.

The reason this is questionable is because players, by and large, have defined the best ending as the ending where Shepard lives–i.e. where you get the cutscene showing Shepard is still alive. This ending requires an effective military strength of between 4000 and 5000 if you have a high enough reputation (importing an existing ME3 character required) or 5000+ if you do not have a high reputation score. So allowing for a second play through (which is a requirement I would consider unsporting, but in line with the letter of Bioware's claims), the question is: Can you get over 4000 War Assets in Single Player alone in the base game inclusive of currently available base game DLC? Or taking into account the 50% war readiness: Can you get over 8000 War Assets in a Single Player Game without playing multiplayer

In short: No.

Even if you go back to play through Mass Effect 1 and 2 and make specific choices with the sole aim of maximising your war assets, the best you can get in a single player game is 7729, and without playing any multiplayer to change your war readiness, that gives you a war readiness of 3864.5 (depending on rounding).

In Mass Effect 3, you can get a total of 4819 War Assets irrespective of previous game choices in Mass Effect 1 and 2. This requires taking Diana Allers and using the right Paragon/Renegade choices in her interviews, supporting the militarily effective side of any citadel conversation, doing all the side quests in time and scanning all planets.

You can get up to 2910 points more depending on . . . → Read More: Mass Effect 3: The War Asset Number Crunching