Mass Effect: should you kill or spare Fist in Chora’s Den?

In the early stages of your adventures in the first Mass Effect, you’ll find yourself on the sprawling space station the Citadel undertaking the mission Citadel: Expose Saren. As one of the potential paths for that mission, you’ll have the opportunity to encounter a small-time gangster known as Fist.

Fist is found in the Citadel Wards, in a bar called Chora’s Den. Beware as you approach Chora’s Den - when you’re coming after Fist, the bar is actually closed and an ambush awaits. Bartenders, Thugs, and Bouncers await you inside - as well as a couple of AI turrets in the back room where Fist is hiding out.

Fight your way through the club and you’ll find Fist cowering in the back room. He’ll fight you; blow up his turrets and then damage him a little, he’ll surrender. At that point, you’ll enter into a conversation and you’ll be faced with one of the earliest choices of this common kind in Mass Effect - a choice between killing or sparing Fist.

Mass Effect Fist encounter: should you kill or spare Fist?

Fist will cough up the information you’re after pretty quickly if you interrogate him, and then you’ll be faced with a simple choice: should you let Fist go, or should you execute him there and then?

Note that if Wrex is in your party, Wrex has a contract with the Shadow Broker to kill Fist and will execute him regardless of what Shepard decides. If you specifically want to keep Fist alive, you should leave Wrex behind for this mission and bring two more squadmates. 

The choice is yours, but it will have minor repercussions in Mass Effect 2. If he’s alive at the end of this mission, Fist will appear on Omega, a key location in Mass Effect 2. Fist doesn’t have a major role to play - but he will remember Shepard and will talk about where he’s been in the interim between Mass Effect and its sequel.

Regardless of what you choose, be sure to loot Fist's office and pick up the OSD item which is required for a useful side quest with Emily Wong. 

The decision of if you should Kill Fist or not is a good early primer for a lot of the similar choices of this nature throughout the first Mass Effect - by which we mean that you shouldn’t sweat it too much, and should generally go with your gut. Most decisions will be referenced, acknowledged and have echoes throughout the sequels - but few choices are major.

The most important choices in the first Mass Effect are the decisions you’ll make on Virmire - but if you want to know about everything that can have a significant impact on ME2 and ME3, check out our full Mass Effect trilogy choices and consequences guide.