Damn, I've finished the game but Miranda died on me

Loyalty is the main way, then you pick the right people for the job.

How'd you lose Grunt, he's all but unkillable? If it was in the swarms bit, you used the wrong person as 'bubble'. Only Jack, Samara and Morinth can do it as long as they're loyal. Anyone else and one of your two mates will get picked at random to die.

Holding the line, soft people like Tali, Jack, Mordin and Kasumi are the ones that are most vulnerable. Getting them off the defensive team (like sending them back to the ship or taking them with you) strengthens the line so more can survive.

"This world is mine, in time." Lucifer - Constantine

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!!!

you don't lose anybody if you do it like this:
first, have everbody as Loyal by getting their special mission done properly (quite easy) and for the Miranda/Jack fight and Legion/Tali fight, always take a blue or a red answer (depending on how good you are at Paragon / Renegade)
you get this done best, by finishing all loyal missions BEFORE discovering the Reaper FFS and getting Legion (robot) in your team. After this mission, you can activate Legion and almost immediately take his loyalty mission. Take it. Do it right after taking it. No stops to cities or non-loyal missions. After that your team goes away and your Normandy gets attacked. To later on rescue all your team members (and not seeing fine Kelly becoming a slurpie and eventually shagging her after the game) you have to start the Reaper mission through the Omega 4 Portal right after Joker tells you everything. If you take your time and finish other stuff, your non-combat-important crew will be doomed.

Anyways, get in the O4 Portal. The sequences where Joker battles the Collectors with the Normandy is lethal for your relevant characters. Throughout the game your members demand 3 important upgrades for your ship. You need better cannons (Thanix Cannon from Garrus), a better defense ("Heavy Defense", cant recall, who asks for it. Just look around) and a Multi Core blahblah from Tali. Buy all of it. For each ship upgrade you DON'T buy, one team member WILL die.

All right. You're about to enter the Collector base...

the part where you need a hacker and Jacob's like "I can do that", you either choose Tali (the Quarian / alien girl with mask) or Legion (the Geth / robot) or Kasumi (ninja bitch). If you don't do that, the character who wants to be the hacker will die.

and the group leader for team 2 you either take Miranda, Garrus or Jacob (each one is good enough for the leader role) If you take another one, your leader of team 2 dies.

once you managed this, you need a biotic where Miranda is like "I can do that".. Take Jack or Samara (the Justicar / blue lady) or her equivalent Morinth. Also again a team leader either Garrus, Jacob or Miranda (I preferred taking some other member, instead of the leader from the previous sequence, just that everybody has a job once). Once again, if you take any other characters for the job, the character is killed.

to lead those people home the Collectors abducted (like fire haired fine ass Kelly) you best take Mordin (effin Jar Jar Binks!). Any other loyal (!) person could do this too, but Mordin WILL die, if you don't take him for the escort. (I'll explain it in a few)

once you made it through with your biotic, you have to choose 2 persons to kill off the boss. The rest will stay and provide support against the Collectors. Here you absolutely have to LEAVE the "big guys" behind, like Garrus and Grunt. They seem to have a high potential in defending the doors they guard. Physically weak characters like Mordin, Jack, Kasumi or Tali will most likely die. Considering, that Mordin isn't available because he escorts your crew, you best take Jack and Kasumi or Tali in the team. I took Jack and Tali and the rest defended the doors. Boss went down, we got out, everybody lived. Shagged Kelly. Yeah.

also for the prior two main parts 1. "where you open the valves, that your hacker doesn't die" and 2. "where your biotic protects you against the force fields" my recommendation for your two fighting companions (my Shepard was a soldier) would be:
1. Mordin and Miranda, because Incinerate and Overload are very effective against the armors and barriers the Collectors in this area have.
2. Grunt (with shotgun) and Tali. Grunt for these ugly zombie like hunchbacks and Tali, because her drone (maxed out on 4, with specialty on "attacking") is able to leave the force field and fight or disturb enemies behind objects, so you can take em out easily.

So long, have fun with it.

P.S. the Scrior hunchback *beep* are a pain in the ass..

For the longest time I forgot that you could chose Jacob as Team Leader. He is that forgettable.

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Yeah, just picking stuff up like when you're on missions won't get you anywhere near enough materials. On the plus side; there's like a zillion planets worth scanning for junk. Heck, I only did the mining thing on like a tenth of the planets I encountered (say roughly one in each system) and I still ended up with ridiculous amounts by the end, even with all the upgrades... except that stupid one to fix your face up, since it's ridiculous. (Seriously; if you're good, it'll heal anyway, but if you're bad, you want to look scary anyhow!)

On the original game, scanning for stuff had no real purpose other than to fill a 'task' on your menu screen.

"The Jedi are extinct! Their fire has gone out in the universe."