So i've been replaying the series and have forgotten a few things about the mechanics of loyalty missions and when the game becomes "timed". Preferably i'd like to save everyone, and one problem I had with my first playthrough was not being able to see a lot of the latter squad-members because of it; I did everyone's loyalty missions as soon as they became available, which meant a lot of palling around with Jacob, Miranda and Garrus, but almost no time to hang out with Samara, Thane or Legion. This time around, i'd like to mix things up by bringing different crew members along to Loyalty missions/side-missions, to keep things interesting.

That said, i'm aware that there is a point in the game where if I start fucking around with side-missions, I end up getting Kelly and some of my crew killed. Hence my question; will there be a point in the game where I will have all of the squad-members and be able to go around doing their loyalty missions WITHOUT being punished for wasting time? Or do I really have to do all the Loyalty missions ASAP?

I believe Reaper IFF is what starts the timer, you have to do everyones mission now, I think, then do Legion's right away after the IFF. That said, you can get away with missing a few missions and still get everyone out if you do it right, particularly if you have both character DLCs.

By "Now" are you meaning once everyone is recruited? Basically I still have Samara and Thane to go, but i'm nervous about completing all the recruitment missions and then having the game say "HEY THE CREW JUST GOT ABDUCTED YOU BETTER GO GO GO OR EVERYONE DIES".

@lackingsaint:

The time limit doesn't start until AFTER you get the IFF. When you get the mission, finish everything else first. You don't get Legion until that mission, so I believe the general progression of the game is something like:

Recruit Some Dudes/Loyalty Missions --> Recruit More Dudes/Loyalty Missions --> Finish Loyalty Missions --> Do IFF Mission {TIME LIMIT STARTS} --> Legion's Loyalty Mission --> End Game

@lackingsaint: By now I mean before you do the IFF. After you do the IFF the abduction triggers after a couple of missions. I can say from experience that if you do everyones recruitment and loyalty missions, than do IFF, it lets you do Legions mission than immediately triggers abduction next time you do anything.

You have as much time as you want to dick around till you do the IFF, though.

As someone that has played through Mass Effect 2 somewhere around 7 or 8 times, I can confirm this is 100% accurate. The key is to do Legion's loyalty mission immediately after the Reaper IFF. This means the crew will be abducted pretty much right after Legion's loyalty mission, and at that point any more fucking around will get people killed.

Awesome, thanks to both of you for letting me know. Though I know it really doesn't change much, I like the idea of being able to spread my squad-members around enough that they all feel like they got some use out on the field in missions. I hated the feeling I had in the first playthrough of "Here's a ragtag group of expert killers... now half of you can just hang out on my ship until the end of the game, thanks."

A part of me wishes there was a 3rd major "act" to the game (just after you get Legion), with a series of missions in which they pre-select which two squad-members would go with you. Just to help develop their relationships with eachother in the narrative, and make sure everyone had something to do before the suicide mission aside from their loyalty thing. Though there's probably a bunch of reasons that wouldn't have worked.

Kelly dies if you do not start the mission immediately. If she is taken, and you go do something else, she dies.