Mass Effect Legendary Edition – Enabling Steam Achievements Without Origin

Alternative method for enabling achievements in Mass Effect Legendary Edition on Steam without Origin launcher installation

EA App Offline Mode Workaround

To activate achievements for Mass Effect Legendary Edition on Steam without the need to install Origin, follow these simple steps:

1. Prior to launching the game on Steam, open the EA app directly on your computer.
2. Within the app, navigate to the settings and switch to offline mode, as illustrated below:

3. It is important to note that you should refrain from exiting the EA app, as doing so will automatically switch it back to online mode.
4. Once you have successfully completed the previous steps, you can proceed to launch the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition launcher within the Steam platform.
5. After launching either Mass Effect 2 or Mass Effect 3, navigate to the “Extras” section in the game’s main menu. From there, locate and select the “Achievements” option.
6. Upon accessing the achievements menu, you will observe that any achievements you have not yet earned will be displayed as locked, as depicted in the image below:

I verified the aforementioned workaround by earning the easiest locked achievement that was currently accessible to me.

The provided screenshot showcases an unlocked achievement in the Steam version, clearly indicating that although one achievement has been successfully unlocked, there are still other achievements that remain locked.

It should be noted that upon further examination, the unlocked achievement in the Steam version was also reflected as unlocked in the EA app when the online mode was reactivated.

Precautions

IMPORTANT: It is crucial to be aware that you can switch the EA app back to online mode once you have closed the game. However, it is strongly advised not to do so while the game is still running, as this can lead to the corruption of your save file and cause all achievements to become unlocked.

To mitigate this issue, it is highly recommended to create backup copies of your save files after each game session. This precaution is necessary in case the EA app accidentally goes online.

The folder containing the save files can be found at the following directory:

C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\BioWare

In the event that you have unintentionally run the game with the EA app in online mode, you will need to delete all save files and replace them with the backup save files, or alternatively, start a new game with an offline mode save.

It is important to note that this method does not retroactively unlock achievements that should have been triggered earlier in the game, such as completing a mission. Therefore, if you have locked achievements from the beginning of the game, you will need to replay the game to earn them.

Additional Note

In light of the recent update to the Origin client that rendered a commonly used workaround ineffective, I have experimented with the EA app and discovered a straightforward solution, which I assume may already be known to many, but not necessarily to everyone.

Personally, I find this method to be significantly more convenient than the previous one, as it does not require making modifications or removing files within the Origin app folders.

If you encounter any problems or have a better solution, please feel free to leave a comment below.