Mass Effect 2 Tali Trial walkthrough: how to stop Tali being exiled in Treason, her loyalty mission

Mass Effect 2 gives you twelve squad members to fill the Normandy - and each of them has a personal problem that needs to resolved if you want to have them working at maximum capacity. For returning friend Tali, this takes the form of her being put on trial for treason in a mission of the same name.

Of all of the various Mass Effect 2 loyalty missions, Tali's trial is the one that can have some of the most varied outcomes, with exactly what opens that are open to Shepard depending in part on your actions in some of ME2's earlier missions. The ultimate goal is to make Tali loyal, which ensures she's ready to tackle the ME2 Suicide Mission while keeping everybody alive, as Tali has a key role she can play in that mission. It's quite easy to make Tali loyal out of this mission - but the easiest paths also see Tali exiled from her home, which obviously isn't an ideal outcome, especially if you're wanting to have Tali as your romance choice in ME2. 

With that in mind, on this guide we quickly run down how to prevent Tali from being exiled during her trial in her Mass Effect 2 loyalty mission. Here goes:

Treason: how to prevent Tali being exiled in her Trial

Once Tali's loyalty mission pops, Kelly will inform you that she has received a message from home and is upset. The mission will then take you to the Quarian Flotilla Fleet, which is her race's home in lieu of having a home planet of their own. Going to the fleet is especially exciting, especially for those who got to know Tali in the first Mass Effect and heard all about her home - now you can see it first-hand!

When exactly you do this loyalty mission is up to you, but we do have a suggestion or two about where it might best slot into the story in our Mass Effect 2 Mission Order page. When you start the mission and head to the fleet, it turns out Tali is on trial and must defend herself. 

As well as the trial itself, this mission will include some combat encounters with the Geth. Bring characters with tech abilities with you who can hack and disrupt the artificially intelligent foes. Tali will be with you by default, but bringing along someone like Garrus, Kasumi, or even Legion (if you're doing this mission very late, which is inadvisable) will be a strong choice. Overload and Disruptor Ammo are your biggest friends in this mission.

We recommend that you take time to talk to everyone in full at every phase of this quest. There's a lot of unique dialogue here, and it'll give you fascinating information about one of the most interesting races in the Mass Effect universe - and also, in some cases, give you context that'll help you navigate Tali's trial.

Once you finish the combat section of the mission and return to the main ship for the trial with your evidence, you have a few options. You can now prove Tali's innocence, but doing so will incriminate Tali's father - which she pleads with you not to do. Here's the ways you can break down the trial, and what happens if you do them:

• To end the mission without securing Tali's loyalty, you simply have to present the evidence. This will prove that Tali is innocent, but ruin her father's reputation forever. She'll remain in your squad but will not be loyal, and will therefore put her life and the lives of others at risk in the Suicide Mission.
• To secure Tali's loyalty but end with her exiled, you simply have to refuse to present the evidence, instead lying and saying you didn't find anything. Tali will be found guilty of treason and exiled from the fleet, but she will be loyal to Shepard and the Normandy crew for the ending. 
• To end the trial with Tali found innocent and not exiled, there are two potential ways you can get this result:
  • First, you can use Paragon/Charm and Renegade/Intimidate dialogue options to impress the judges of the trial with an account of Tali's upstanding character. You will of course need morality points in one direction or the other to do this. This sees her exonerated without ruining her father's reputation.
  • Second, you can convince the judges of the trial without charm or intimidate if you made certain choices earlier in the story. Specifically, you must have returned Veetor the Quarian to the Flotilla back in the game's second mission on Freedom's Progress, rather than returning him to Cerberus. Then, when recruiting Tali, you need to ensure the Quarian Kal'Reegar survives the mission. Finally, you must speak to the various admirals in depth, learning their motivations and feelings. You can then use all of this to persuade them to drop the charges against Tali and end the trial.

Aside from helping to determine her status for the Suicide Mission and therefore adjusting the probability of her survival, the specifics of this mission have no major repercussions in Mass Effect 3.