General Tips

Selling Items

Mass Effect has a somewhat restrictive item limit: you can only carry around 150 items at any one time. Anything you pick up when you have 150 items will be reduced to omni-gel. Unfortunately, it can be tough to tell what you want to keep and what you should scrap, since most items are a simple name and series of numbers.

One thing to keep in mind is that you have a merchant in the lower bay of the Normandy, right near the equipment lockers. After a mission, you'll probably have a bunch of upgrades and items that you don't really need in your inventory. Head to the lockers first and upgrade the equipment of everyone that you didn't bring on your trip; that'll help you keep the best items on your party members while stripping them of the stuff that's been outdated, which you can then reduce to omni-gel.

Unfortunately, the game makes it a pain to reduce ammo and armor upgrades into omni-gel. Most of the crap that you want to get rid of will be at the bottom of your list, but reducing it to omni-gel will bump you all the way to the top; brilliant design, that. Luckily, the merchant in the Engineering section of Normandy (near the lockers) will buy items from you, with the list sorted with the cheapest items at the top. That'll let you clear out your items pretty easily; if you're finding items that are V or VI, say, you can simply sell everything from I to IV and know that it'll all be stuff you're unlikely to use.

Merchant Licenses will let you buy more crap on the Normandy.

Merchant Licenses

As you travel, you'll see that many of the merchants in the game will offer you licenses. The utility of them isn't clear at first, but if you buy them, then the quartermaster on the Normandy will be able to sell items from the designated manufacturer.

Licenses are marginally useful; it's pretty rare that you'll find an upgrade that you can afford at the merchant, and even if you do, you'll want to save your money until you get 1,000,000 credits, which unlocks the ability to buy Spectre weapons from the Normandy and C-Sec quartermasters, which are going to be better than anything else you can buy. Regardless, if you want to complete your collection, check with every merchant you find; usually the licenses are at the bottom of their lists, and sometimes the same merchant will sell different licenses depending on when you visit them. These start off cheap but will eventually grow to be very expensive. Like we said, they're probably optional: the best stuff you can wear will usually be found.

Creating A Team

One of the best aspects of Mass Effect is that you can create a team of three characters and keep them throughout the game; there aren't any of those crazy RPG segments where you have to create two teams to control at the same time, or anything like that. Thus, you can feel free to concentrate on your favorite teammates and keep the rest in the Normandy throughout the entire game. So long as you talk to them in between missions, you'll still get all the quests that they give and will be able to complete your romance quests with them. In case you do feel like bringing them along, they'll be at the exact same level as your main character; they don't suffer from being left behind at all, although you'll need to upgrade their equipment, obviously.

Also, keep in mind that only the highest level of Decryption or Electronics applies to those powers. There's no need for two characters to have a lot of Decryption; only the highest applies. However, skill points in First Aid and Medicine areadded together, so multiple party members with skill points in those skills can come in handy.

'…these pants are a little tight in the crotch.'

Roam The Normandy In-Between Missions

After every mission you perform (at least the four main ones at the beginning of the game, meaning Vermire, Noveria, Feros, and finding Liara), head around the Normandy and speak to everyone. Most of the party members will have new interactions available, and you'll get to reexperience those loaded pauses when you approach your love interests. You can also find some free equipment in your locker in the mess hall.