How to Romance Ashley Williams - Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Guide - IGN (2024)

This page of IGN's Mass Effect Legendary Edition guide is all about How to Romance Ashley Williams through the entire Mass Effect Trilogy, including how to successfully initiate and complete it for the Paramour Trophy.

It goes without saying that there are BIG SPOILERS for all three Mass Effect games on this page.

• Mass Effect 1

• • Complications with Liara
• Mass Effect 2
  
• Mass Effect 3

• • Clearing Your Name
  • Citadel Coup
  • Locking In Ashley
  • After Locking In

Uniquely, if you aren't able to Romance Ashley in Mass Effect 1, you can take another shot in Mass Effect 3.

Mass Effect 1

If you're playing as a Male Commander Shepard, Ashley will be the one to interfere with the Prothean Beacon on Eden Prime during the Find the Beacon mission. You can begin flirting with her in places after that, such as immediately after the Med-Bay scene, or the Scenic View on the Citadel.

You aren't able to progress the Romance for real however until you complete your first Mission World (either Therum, Noveria or Feros). At this point, you have an extended conversation with her regarding her mistrust of aliens and her military service. You'll want to avoid picking "You're out of line!" since that will forcefully shut down the conversation. At the end is where you start progressing the Romance: pick "What about me?" to do so.

After the second Mission World, Ashley will talk about her military family, including a lengthy story about her sister. At the end she'll recite some Alfred Tennyson; avoid picking "Bored now" or "What's this crap?". Assuming you do that, you'll then talk about her Christianity. Avoid picking "Keep it to yourself" or "Are you a fanatic?" to not upset her. Once you do that, Ashley will allude to you two being something more. Pick "We will" or "Oh?" to progress the Romance.

After the third Mission World, Ashley will talk about her grandfather and why his legacy has held her career down. So long as you haven't been abrasive to her before and right now, it's impossible to displease her and the Romance will be progressed. If you talk with her again, you'll have a more direct conversation on your relationship, although at the train can't be stopped in this exchange.

Towards the end of Virmire is where things get complicated. At a certain point you'll be asked to rescue either Ashley or Kaidan: one of them will be at an AA Tower, while the other will be at the makeshift bomb. If you want to continue the Romance with Ashley, you'll need to pick "Rescue Ashley" so that she can live.

After you complete all four Mission Worlds and return to the Citadel, the Normandy will be grounded, and Ashley will appear to comfort Shepard while stuck on the ship. This is when your Romance with Ashley will be Locked In, and it will happen unless you consistently pick Renegade options and be abrasive to her.

Once you have a Locked In Romance, then when you go to Ilos and start the one-way ticket to the end of the game, Ashley will approach Shepard in their quarters. This is when you'll get the Romance Scene, unless you turn Ashley away with Renegade choices.

If you want Ashley to be with you at the end of the game, you should actually pick her when landing on Ilos. This is because you won't get another shot to pick your Squad after that point.

Complications with Liara

Liara is one Mass Effect 1's major complications when it comes to Romance. Because her young soul is all to eager to learn more about Shepard, she'll make some unintended advances towards Shepard even if you're trying to Romance Ashley.

One Mission World after recruiting Liara, Ashley will say she's surprised you're not chatting it up with Liara. Unfortunately none of the given options is enough to convince Ashley that you're not interested in her, but avoiding the abrasive "You're out of line" is always a good idea.

If you've been making romantic advances with both Ashley and Liara, then two Mission Worlds after recruiting Liara both she and Ashley will approach you in the Comm Room about it. You'll have three options here:

• If you pick "It's not like that" and then "Goodbye, Liara", you'll choose Ashley over Liara, and a Romance with Liara will be locked out.
• If you pick "Don't be", you'll pick Liara, and a Romance with Ashley will be ceased.
• If you pick "Can't I have you both?" at any time, BOTH of them will be upset with you and you'll be locked out of a Romance with Ashley. You can however rekindle a Romance with Liara if you pick this.

Notably, Ashley will be surprised to find herself sorry for Liara after sending her away, which is the earliest point in time Ashley starts getting over her xenophobia.

Mass Effect 2

Due to Shepard working with Cerberus and Ashley working for the Alliance, you'll unfortunately only have one face-to-face interaction with her in Mass Effect 2, which is the end of the Horizon Mission. Interestingly, what you say to her in this scene has no bearing on the relationship. Once you return to the Normandy, you'll have an email from Ashley apologizing for what she said and wishing you luck.

What actually determines the fate of your relationship is your faithfulness to Ashley. If you Romance either Miranda, Jack or Tali in Mass Effect 2, then you'll be confronted by her about it and have to make your pick. If you remain loyal to her throughout Mass Effect 2, her photo will remain in Shepard's Cabin and he will look at it after you initiate the Suicide Mission.

Ultimately an Ashley Romance won't advance at all in Mass Effect 2 via direct interactions with her, it's much more determined by if you Romance any other Squad Mates in the interim.

You won't have to worry about Ashley surviving the Suicide Mission: since she's never part of Normandy's Crew in Mass Effect 2, she's at no risk whatsoever.

Mass Effect 3

Ashley is unique among the Mass Effect 3 Romance options because she is one of only three who can both be Romanced for the first time in this game, or have a Romance from a previous game continued.

Clearing Your Name

The first thing you need to do before even thinking of Romancing her is to clear your name. After all, you were dead for two years and then worked with Cerberus, so Ashley has a lot of reasons to be suspicious of you.

First, during Priority: Mars, Ashley will have two scenes where she asks about your alliance with Cerberus. You'll want to answer "It was a temporary alliance" and "You know me better than that" for the first scene, while for the second scene you'll want to pick "You think I'm like him?" and "I'm still that guy".

At the end of Priority: Mars, she'll be gravely injured, and spend the next while at Huerta Memorial Hospital on the Citadel. While you can get her The Collected Alfred Tennyson from Sirta Supplies in the hospital, it's ultimately your conversations when she wakes up that matters.

After completing another Mission, she'll drop you an email to let you know you can visit her at Huerta. If you were Loyal to her and didn't Romance anybody in Mass Effect 2, you'll be able to reaffirm that you still love her, or be more reluctant. If you weren't and Romanced Tali, Miranda or Jack, you'll have the option to choose Ashley over them.

After completing a second Mission, Ashley will send you another message letting you know she's accepted the Spectre position, and is up and about. You'll want to visit her again for reasons that will become clear below.

Citadel Coup

Things come to a head in Priority: The Citadel II, where Udina helps Cerberus launch a coup against the Citadel Council and is escorted out by Ashley. Here you'll need to pass a Trust check, where various actions in the past will determine if Ashley trusts you enough to side with you over Udina, which ultimately decides if she lives or dies. Here's all of the points you can earn or deduct:

• Romancing Ashley in the first place during Mass Effect 1 gets you +2 Points.
• Sparing the Council at the end of Mass Effect 1 gets you +1 Point. Sacrificing the Council gets you -1 Point.
• If Kirrahe died in Mass Effect 1 and Thane died in Mass Effect 2, you get -2 Points.
  

• • The reason for this is because nobody is there to stop Kai Leng from killing the Salaian Councillor, allowing Udina to fabricate footage of Shepard killing them instead.
• Cheating on Ashley with Tali, Jack or Miranda in Mass Effect 2 gets -1 Point.
• Picking the Paragon options on Mars gets +1 Point, while the Renegade options get -1 Point.
• Visiting Ashley at Heurta while she's awake but bedridden at Huerta will get +2 Points.
  

• • Not apologizing for cheating on her here will get -1 Point.
• Visiting Ashley at Heurta when she's up and about and accepted the Spectre position will get +1 Point.
• Finally, right at the start of the confrontation scene outside the elevator, using the Paragon Interrupt to lower your weapons will get +1 Point.

Depending on your actions, you can have anywhere between +8 and -6 Points to your name. During the confrontation at the end of the Mission, your points will determine if Ashley trusts you.

• If you have 4 Points or more, Ashley will automatically trust you.
• If you have between 0-3 points, you'll need to pass a Reputation Check.
  

• • If you have enough Reputation, you can pick a Charm or Intimidate option that will earn their trust.
  • If you don't have enough Reputation, you can only pick the white option on the right side of the Dialogue Wheel. Ashley will refuse to trust you, and you'll be forced to kill her.
• If you have -1 Points or fewer, Ashley automatically refuses to trust you, and you'll be forced to kill her.

So, after all that, assuming you passed and Ashley lived, you can meet her again at Normandy Dock: Bay D24 when you open the door to the Normandy. Here you'll learn that Ashley's been offered to join Admiral Hackett's Crucible team, but she'd rather stay with you.

• If you pick "Welcome aboard", Ashley joins the Normandy as a Squad Mate and can be taken groundside just like in Mass Effect 1.
• If you pick "I don't think so", she'll be assigned to Hackett's team. You'll be unable to make any further interactions with her for almost the entire rest of the game, including the Citadel DLC.

Locking In Ashley

From this point, you'll have several interactions with Ashley to help lock her in as your Romance Partner. This is the point where those who didn't Romance her in Mass Effect 1 will be able to for the first time in 3.

First, you'll want to meet Ashley at the Citadel at the Docks: Holding Area Memorial. You'll want to be here for Ash and pick comforting dialogue choices, and use the Paragon Interrupt, to progress things.

Next, at some point Ashley will send an email asking to meet Shepard on the Citadel. This is where you can Lock her In as it were. You'll want to pick "You're very distracting" and then "Yes" to confirm the Romance. Picking "No time for that during a war" or "It's not the right time" will permanently turn her down.

After Locking In

With Ashley confirmed as your Romantic partner, the game won't let you start or continue for a Romance towards anybody else. If you have the Leviathan DLC, you'll have some unique dialogue with her in the final mission, and if you have the Citadel DLC, you'll have a great amount of unique dialogue and altered scenes with her.

In the finale of the game, when you start Priority: Earth, Ashley will visit Shepard in the Captain's Cabin for the big Romance Scene. In the calm before the storm before you go to the Conduit beam, you can have a final talk with her before you go.

The last time you can interact with Ashley is in the Extended Cut during the final charge to the Conduit Beam. Here, a Mako will overturn and flip dangerously close to her. If your EMS is 1,749 or lower, Harbinger will then vaporize her with his laser beam. If it's 1,750 or higher, she'll be injured by the Mako and Shepard calls for an emergency pick-up, where you can have your final words with her.

After you make your Crucible choice at the very end of the game, Ashley will be the one to put Shepard's name up on the Memorial Wall. However if you picked Destroy and your EMS is 3,100 or more, she'll smile and refrain from putting it up, sensing that Shepard is alive.