Point allocationOnce you max out one of the abilities for either yourself or one of your squad you get to choose one of two special abilities. These special abilities greatly enhance you or your parties combat effectiveness, and often bring new alternatives to combat.
Tactical placementGenerally speaking it's a good idea to have vanguards and party members like Grunt up front so they can use their superior health and short range weapons like shotguns to keep enemies from flanking. Also, biotic or semi biotic players or squad members are best place in mid-range, while snipers and full biotics should be at long range. Before entering an area scout ahead either by using your sniper scope, or if you're an infiltrator your stealth ability, to find the best place to set up your defense/attack. Adequate cover, bottlenecks, and other environmental elements can play a big part on you surviving a tough fight.
Discounts at storesBefore you buy ANYTHING from a store try and speak to the store owner - they often let you get items at a reduced price if you cpeak to them, or perform a quest for them.
Incidental questsAs you're running from one place to the next in one of the hub cities listen carefully to those you pass by. Often the chatter is about recent events, but sometimes the conversations are a prelude to quests you can do. These quests often don't become active to pick up until the conversation between NPCs finishes and can earn you extra credits and paragon/renegade rep.
Ammo on the moveAmmo doesn't drop from every enemy you kill, so once you've cleared an area out take a good look around before moving on to make sure you replenish your stock. If you're an old Mass Effect 1 player remember that the guns don't overheat in Mass Effect 2, and are cooled when you expel one of the emptied clips. Also, in Mass Effect 2 ALL guns use ammo of some description.
Tips from crew membersWhen you're on the bridge of the Normandy keep an ear out for Yeoman Chambers as you run passed her - she often will remind you to check your personal messages, or notify you that one of the squad members on your ship wants to talk.
*Click to enlargeScanning and mineral collectionWhen you're scanning for minerals, make sure you only fire a probe on high readings. Wasting probes on low readings can very quickly become an expensive practise. However, if you pick up a low or medium reading for Element Zero you should always launch a probe - this is the exception because it's the rarest resource in the universe.
When scanning keep an eye on what it says directly underneath the planet's name (which you can see in the screenshot below). The status indications are 'rich', 'moderate', 'good', 'poor', 'depleted' - these indicate the general amount of minerals left on the planet that you can gather, and NOT the status of the minerals under the cursor.. The status will change the more you gather resources using probes, and you should only stop looking once a planet reaches 'depleted' - also note that planets with a 'poor' status can still provide you with a decent number of minerals, but mostly likely from only one or two sources.
*Click to enlargeProtecting your personalityRegardless of whether you're playing as a paragon or a renegade, it's often a good idea to use the quicksave just before entering a conversation. You might make the wrong choice or activate one of the personality icons by mistake, and can quickload back to before the conversation to rectify it. Obviously, if you're playing neutral this still might be useful.
ResearchUse your research wisely. Scanning is very boring and wasted resources on items you never use is pointless. Try and initially focus on the armour and weapons research that you and your squad use. Once your squad gets bigger and other weapons become available you can branch out, but keep it simple to start with. Also, don't neglect to upgrade your ship and research prototypes - without wanting to spoil things, these are very worthwhile things to look into from around level 12.
Squad loyaltyYou can check each member of your squad for their loyalty towards you at the squad menu. Also, from the squad selection screen (which you can see below) a higher level of loyalty is denoted by a small red circle at the feet of the squad member. Once a squad member has increased their loyalty to you a button called 'Cycle Appearance' will appear allowing you to change their default uniform for something a little meaner looking.
*Click to enlargeFuelWhen entering a new galaxy with however many star systems there are, remember to make a note of where the fuel ship is. Sometimes they are not right next to the mass relay you jumped through.
If you ever run out of fuel while travelling form one galaxy to the next don't panic. Your ship will still fly, but will consume some of your minerals to do so - so make a heading for the nearest fuel ship asap.
I'll add more when I think of them
RUSE out - 05 Sep