This page of IGN's Mass Effect wiki guide details everything you need to know about the Morality system, including Paragon and Renegade, as well as how to earn more Charm and Intimidate points.
Want more Mass Effect help? Check out the following pages:
- Legendary Edition Changes
- How-To Guides
- Key Choices and Consequences
- Romance Options
- Side Quests
- Overview
- Playing Paragon / Running Renegade
- Playing Paragon
- Running Renegade
- Not Neutral?
- Charm and Intimidate
- Ultra-Renegade...?
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Overview
Mass Effect's morality system is one of the showcase features of the game, and is the primary way players can personalize their Commander Shepard. Players can choose between playing as a Paragon (good) or Renegade (bad), with many dialogue choices affecting how characters react to Shepard's decisions and actions.
What makes Mass Effect's morality different from titles such as Bioware's previous game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (or KOTOR), is that Paragon and Renegade are tracked on independant meters, where choices for one will not affect the other. This means that you can make a seemingly out-of-character decision that you feel fits the moment without being punished for it. Also unlike KOTOR, changes appear in the game based on individual choices rather than how much of a meter you've filled, making the experience more dynamic.
Only Commander Shepard has the ability to choose their morality in this way. Squadmates and other NPCs are much more rigid, although Shepard is able to influence their behaviour a bit, an idea that's explored further in the sequels.
The overall story beats and sequence of events are identical whether you choose Paragon or Renegade: what changes are more granular details, which characters are alive or not, and how people perceive Shepard based on their reputation.
Playing Paragon / Running Renegade
The two Morality-based playstyles in Mass Effect are Paragon and Renegade, and each one is explained below, along with the third Neutral option.
Playing Paragon
In many ways, playing as the good guy is a lot more difficult than playing as a bad guy. It's not that the Paragon outlook has a more difficult play-through in the literal sense. Rather, playing as a Paragon forces you to take the high road with people, being very empathetic and placing a high value on life. Instead of being the cause of trouble, you must often be the rectifier of it.
A great example is at the beginning of the game when Shepard is being inducted into the Spectres. Respecting the tone and significance of the situation, a Paragon Shepard will respond with dignity and humbleness, despite the amount of work it took to get there. Paragons handle many situations with grace and dignity, but they are also very sympathetic towards others and always want to help those in need with no expectation of reward.
Paragon options are almost always represented in the top two corners of the dialogue wheel. Picking them will often reward you with Paragon points, which will unlock more Charm points and a unique UNC Assignment.
Running Renegade
Playing Renegade is a lot easier than playing Paragon, simply because the choices you make will necessitate a lot more fighting and action than decisive problem solving. Indeed, those playing as Renegades will let their guns do the talking, pushing people around and having a general lack of respect for everything and everyone around them. Renegades are also very human-first, thinking only of Earth's agenda and often being abjectly racist towards the other species.
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One needn't look any further than Commander Shepard's interaction with their own superiors. While talking to those who outrank you, a Renegade will often completely disrespect them and their opinions by blowing them off and acting rudely. Due respect isn't what playing as a Renegade is all about, and they are the exact opposite of Paragons for a reason. They worry about themselves and what benefits them. Nothing else matters. Remember that if and when you choose to play as a Renegade.
Renegade options are almost always placed in the bottom two corners of the dialogue wheel. Picking them will often get you Renegade points, which will unlock more Intimidate points and a unique UNC Assignment.
Not Neutral?
Players may notice that in addition to the Paragon and Renegade options, there is frequently a third one in the middle, often referred to as Neutral. These options are almost always unrewarding because they literally do not reward you with anything; they don't give you any Morality points, nor is the dialogue particularly interesting or different when you do this either.
For this reason, it's highly advised that you commit to a specific morality; being neutral, or bouncing between Paragon and Renegade a lot, will ultimately lock you out of better choices you can make at critical points in the game, as explained below in the Charm and Intimidate section.
While Mass Effect doesn't exactly reward you for bouncing between Paragon and Renegade options, it doesn't truly punish you for dabbling in the other morality if you deem it appropriate, which is the primary difference between it and KOTOR.
Charm and Intimidate
The reason why you want to earn Paragon or Renegade points and fill up their meters is to unlock Charm / Intimidate points for Shepard in the Squad menu. Unlike every other stat, which unlock more Points to buy through levelling up, the Charm and Intimidate stats only open up by earning Paragon and Renegade points, respectively.
You initially start the game with three points open for purchase in both Charm and Intimidate. You unlock 2 more points when you fill up 10%, 25% and 75% of the associated Morality bar (Paragon for Charm, and Renegade for Intimidate). You also get a bonus point purchased for free for becoming a Spectre early in the game.
This is very important, because at critical points in the game you will be presented with a blue Charm option in the upper-left corner of the dialogue wheel, and a red Intimidate option in the lower-left corner. When these show up, they allow you to resolve the situation favourably and often without having to kill anyone (yes, even with Intimidate options).
In these moments, the game will check how many Charm and Intimidate points you've bought in the Squad menu. If you pass one, that option will be lit in the appropriate colour, and you'll be able to choose it, often with a hefty amount of Paragon / Renegade points to boot. If you don't, the option will be greyed out and you won't be able to pick it.
Crucially, the white options on the right will never have a favourable resolution to the situation. This is the main reason why playing Neutrally, or jumping between Paragon and Renegade too often, is ultimately not a good idea. You simply will not earn enough Paragon or Renegade points to unlock the more preferable options, especially towards the end of the game.
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Ultra-Renegade...?
Because Charm and Intimidate always reach the same favourable results, what if you truly don't care and want to kill, hurt and traumatize as many people as possible? In these situations, you should intentionally pick one of the white options on the right in a Charm / Intimidate situation, which often results in the most death, bloodshed and trauma for those around Shepard. This can be seen as an "Ultra-Renegade" approach: you truly do not care about anyone around you, and are borderline evil.
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