All max loyalty:
Atempt#1
Vent: Leigon
Team1: Garrus
Shield: Jack w/ Implant
Team2: Zaeed (also worked w/ Garrus)
Escort: Jacob
Final Team: Mordin + Miranda 
 
When I put Zaeed in charge of Team1 it resulted in Leigon's death, I put Samara in for the Shield and Garrus for Team2 - this ended with Garrus dying. Everyone else lived.

" I just did finished Insanity with this order, the order I used to go through on veteran which worked.   Specialist: Tali 1st leader: Garrus Biotic: Jack (With implants) 2nd leader: Garrus Escort: Zaeed  Mordin died. Everyone was loyal and had no more conversations for me. I have no idea what went wrong, but I'm thinking I should have put Miranda as the second squad leader. This order worked for me on Veteran though. "

First time I went through, I wasn't going for the perfect ending... I just made the choices I would in that situation.
 

Good to know, I put in Thane as my second squad leader and he died, he is one of my favorites so I restarted and put in zaeed and he died, so I figured it doesnt matter who I put in they will just die and I am going to have to live with it. But now it looks like I can reload it and keep everyone alive.
Also something thats bugging me is, im almost full on Paragon and sided with Miranda on everything and she still didn't romance me :(

I did it with everyone surviving on my third play-through.
 
I had everyone loyal except Legion. I had all ship upgrades and all the team member specific upgrades (I also had most, but not all of the other upgrades).
Vents: Tali
1st Team Leader: Garrus 
Shield: Samara
2nd Team Leader: Garrus
Escort: Mordin
Party: I used Miranda and Thane as my two party members the whole time, as heavy Warp is very usefull against biotic barriers and armor on the higher difficulties.
 
The first time i tryed it with everyone except Legion loyal, i sent Legion as the escort and he ended up dying. So id recommend that if you have one or two people not loyal, just ignore them and dont assign them to any of the roles, not even in your party. Because when i redid it and didn't assign Legion to anything he survived.

K.. 2nd playthrough on Casual, was hoping to get the achievement but Jack died at the very end =|
She wasn't loyal due to her and Miranda's argument, i didn't use Jack at all
Anyone suggest what i do?

" K.. 2nd playthrough on Casual, was hoping to get the achievement but Jack died at the very end =| She wasn't loyal due to her and Miranda's argument, i didn't use Jack at all Anyone suggest what i do? "

" @RandomHero666 said:

" K.. 2nd playthrough on Casual, was hoping to get the achievement but Jack died at the very end =| She wasn't loyal due to her and Miranda's argument, i didn't use Jack at all Anyone suggest what i do? "

Is Samara loyal? You could use her instead as she's also a biotic specialist. "

" @mracoon said:

" @RandomHero666 said:

" K.. 2nd playthrough on Casual, was hoping to get the achievement but Jack died at the very end =| She wasn't loyal due to her and Miranda's argument, i didn't use Jack at all Anyone suggest what i do? "

Is Samara loyal? You could use her instead as she's also a biotic specialist. "

I did use Samara for the shield. The last cutscene showed Jack laying dead. I guess i could use her to escort the survivors "

I just finished a playthrough on veteran, full paragon, all squad loyal, with everybody surviving. Tali was my tech specialist, Garrus led both fireteams, Samara held the shield, Zaeed escorted the crew, and my final team was Miranda and Thane.

Just finished it the last mission was tough no main characters died for me except I was sad to see kelly die I choose Miranda for both leading attacks jack for shields mordin for escort ( he survived) everyone was loyal and played on hardcore...... I think the the second hardest difficulty. Awesome game and ending thanks for this guide!!!

I dont know if this has been posted yet but if you use the above choice's and lose moridin try researching is omni-tool that is all I did diffrent and he survived. Any person that has a character specific weapon or tool get it and it increases their survivability I do believe

 Anyone with some common sense can pick up the subtle hints the game gives you on who can do what. On to my setup.
  Lvl 30 infiltrator, paragon, insanity, all loyal, 1 attempt (really beats the point of a suicide mission to reload till you get it right, the point of games like mass effect is standing by your decisions, whatever they may be)
 Vent: Tali
 1st Fire team: Garrus
 Escort: Mordin
 Biotic: Samara
2nd Fire team: Garrus
 Final squad: Samara, Tali
  All survived, saved the crew too, freaking hollywood ending.

I just finally got the no one left behind one last night.
 
What I did was
Vent - Legion
Team Capn - Miranda
Escort- Mordin
Second Team - Garrus because Im too cool under pressure to break.
Biotics - Samara
Hold the line/Pick my squad to kill reaper -I took Thane and I took Jack, because Jack is a psycho and Thane is an assassin, they are the least likely to actually dig in and work as a team player, though Legion may be the same I feared the fact he was standing to the far side of the platform as opposed to with the rest of the squad, that he would die but he did have the Geth Widow Rifle.
 
Everyone loyal and everyone survived.
 
 
Did not save crew because I did not start straight away when they were abducted - this affects whether they survive or not, Chakwas is there but Kelly was too, dunno what happened to her, I skipped the scene - it genuinely does scare me when they get melted.

So... Jack and Grunt as my final team is a bad idea? 
 
How about Jack and Garrus...?

I had a problem with Zaeed dying because I messed up his loyalty mission. I tried him leader both teams, going back with the crew and even being in my squad and he would always die at some point. The only thing that worked for me was to not use him for anything and have the crew stay instead of being escorted back and everyone lived. My reasoning was that the barricade would be stronger and so perhaps people would be less likely to die, either way it worked and 'pop' achievement unlocked.

On my insanity playthrough I'm totally gonna make sure a few people die. I don't care if he wont survive, Jacobs is GOING in that tube!

Isn't it kind of weird that the dark second chapter, Mass Effect 2, with its suicide mission and all, managed to have less death within my party than in Mass Effect 1?

" On my insanity playthrough I'm totally gonna make sure a few people die. I don't care if he wont survive, Jacobs is GOING in that tube! "

Is it possible to save all the crew and your party members? I'm just getting my second set of dossiers now and I'm wondering whose I Should do first. Should I just basically do the IFF mission at the very last?

Killjoi, I would just like to say thanks for this guide. I followed it to a tee and my Normal playthrough went well; no I am going for Insanity and I will probably follow your exact approach. This post is very organized and easy to read: kudos to you, sir!

Honestly it's sad if you do all the missions before going and getting the IFF.  Legion is one of the most uniquely interesting characters in the game.  Do yourselves a favor, in one play through complete the minimum number of missions to trigger horizon, then do the thane or samara recruitment mission followed by N7 Anomaly missions until you trigger the disabled ship story mission.  After this, go straight to the IFF mission and get Legion, now take him on everyone elses loyalty quests and you get loads of interesting comments and conversations as you drag your "trophy bot" or "personal synthetic assistant" around with you.
 
Maybe I'm just too easy, but I couldn't stop laughing at this:  (dialog clip, non-story related)
 
 

I did pretty good my first try. didn't use the guide and I did kill 1 squad member on purpose
Vents I used Moridin because he annoyed me and I wanted him dead
2nd squad leader I used Garrus Both times..him being an ultra experienced Spectre I figured that was the most obvious choice..and I hate Miranda
Shield I used Samara....figured I had just porked Jack shouldn't get her killed right off..but samara lived so it all worked out
Escort I used Jacob...just because i figured he was a people purson
and on My team throughout i used Grunt and Thane. never had a problem with them

I lost Thane and Mordin.   Losing Mordin pissed me off.  He was loyal, but I used  him in the vents.  Thane wasn't Loyal, so didn't really care about  him.

Thanks.

 I beat it on insanity last night.  Full renegade infiltrator, no team deaths.
 
Vents: Tali
Squad1:  Garrus
Shield:  Jack
Squad2:  Garrus
Escort: Jacob
Final Team:  Legion and Zaeed

" I saw a video of some fucker who blasted through the game in 10 hours and

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

got the ending he deserved..
 
@JohnKiller118:
EVERYONE DIED. it was funny.

"

I'm looking for pretty much the complete opposite of what this thread provides. I'm on my second playthrough and I want as many squad mates to die as possible but I want Shepard to survive the final mission. Any ideas? How many crew members do I need to protect minimum to make it through?

I played two playthroughs with no deaths, both times had the following:
 
Vents: Legion
Fire Team A: Miranda
Fire Team B: Miranda
Biotic shield: Samara/Morinth
Escort: Garrus
 
All max loyalty and max biotic/tech upgrades, and special upgrades.

" i finished my first playthrough and i managed to get every team member, except Jack,  out alive.    
Vents: Tali 
1st/2nd Squad Leader: Garrus  
Shields: Samara 
Escort: None 
Final Team: Miranda & Jack  
Notes: I had all upgrades for the team and ship; after i recovered the IFF i've done 3 more missions and then i went through the Omega 4 Relay. Non-loyal members were Legion and Jack. "