Save Ashley or Kaiden

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (ME1) Virmire choice guide: Learn how to save Ashley or Kaiden, the consequences of your decision, and their roles in future Mass Effect games.

As you explore the base on Virmire, you’ll have to send either Ashley Williams or Kaiden Alenko to work with Captain Kirrahe and his Salarians. This choice doesn’t significantly impact gameplay, but if either is a core squad member, do not send them away, as you won't be able to bring them with you.

Later, you will conspire to destroy the Virmire base using a bomb delivered by the Normandy. The human squad member you did not send with Captain Kirrahe will arrive with the bomb and stay behind to arm it. You’ll then receive a distress call from the squad member who was with Kirrahe, reporting they are pinned down in an AA tower. En route to the AA tower, the squad member guarding the bomb will inform you that Geth are attacking their position and that they’ve armed the bomb to ensure it detonates. This leaves you with one of the more important choices in Mass Effect: do you rescue Ashley or Kaiden? It doesn’t matter which one was sent to the AA tower with Captain Kirrahe and which one was left to arm the bomb; the outcome plays out the same way. You only have time to save one, and whoever you neglect will be killed when the bomb destroys the Virmire base.

When you approach the AA Tower, you’ll receive more bad news, forcing you to choose between rescuing Kaiden or Ashley.

Consequences

The consequences of this choice are immediate: either Ashley or Kaiden will die and remain so for the rest of the trilogy. You won’t be able to romance the dead character or take them with you as a squad member. In Mass Effect 2, you will meet the survivor, but they will not be a possible romantic interest or squad member. In Mass Effect 3, the surviving character takes a more active role, though their overall contribution varies based on later choices. You will have them for one mission at the start of Mass Effect 3, after which various choices will determine whether they perish, become a War Asset, or rejoin your squad as a possible romantic interest.