What Year Does Mass Effect Take Place? 2183 to 2819

The first Mass Effect game is set in 2183 CE. The original trilogy runs from 2183 to 2186, and Mass Effect: Andromeda is set in 2819 CE, more than six centuries later. For the full dated history, see the Mass Effect timeline. This page covers only the years of the four main games.

What year is Mass Effect set in?#

The game is set in 2183 CE, and the wiki says that is 35 years after humans discovered Prothean ruins on Mars. From that technology, humanity learned mass effect physics and element zero, which unlocked faster-than-light travel.

The year is also when the story's conflict starts. The timeline records the attack on the human colony of Eden Prime that year, and it leads to the Eden Prime War. Commander Shepard's pursuit of Saren ends with Shepard defeating him and the Alliance Navy destroying Sovereign. For the earlier history of the ruins, see the Prothean page.

What year does Mass Effect 2 take place?#

Mass Effect 2 (2010) is set in 2185 CE. The timeline's note on the game gives that date, and the official plot summary says the story starts "Two years after Commander Shepard repelled invading Reapers".

The timeline is more precise than the blurb. Its entry for the game's start places the destruction of the SSV Normandy "One month after the Battle of the Citadel", which falls in 2183. The main story, where Shepard is revived and sent after the missing colonies, sits in 2185. So the game opens in 2183 and its story happens two years later. For the plot, see the Mass Effect 2 story page.

My read is that 2185 is the year to give for Mass Effect 2, and the 2183 opening is a footnote that explains why the Normandy is gone at the start.

What year does Mass Effect 3 take place?#

Mass Effect 3 (2012) is set in 2186 CE. The timeline places the game's start six months after the Alpha Relay was destroyed, when the Reapers invade through batarian space and attack Earth.

The Mass Effect 3 article does not state a year. The 2186 date comes from that timeline placement, and the timeline's opening note gives 2183 to 2186 as the span the trilogy is set in. For the ending, see the Mass Effect 3 ending explained page.

What year does Mass Effect: Andromeda take place?#

Mass Effect: Andromeda is set in 2819 CE in the Heleus Cluster. The Andromeda Initiative's first wave launched in 2185, which is the same year the timeline sets Mass Effect 2's main story. The Nexus arrived in 2818 after a 633 year journey, and the Hyperion reached the galaxy 14 months later, in 2819.

The Andromeda article says the game "starts around 2185". Read that as the start of the expedition. The same article says the events of the game "take place far in the future". The timeline agrees with the second statement, which is why 2819 is the answer to give. For the expedition, see the Andromeda Initiative page, and for the game's plot, see the Mass Effect: Andromeda story page.

Canon notes#

The timeline warns that "Numerous events are backdated during conversation, via Codex entries, or some other means", so older events are often dated by counting back from the year a story is set, and those years are approximate. The games' own years are the fixed points that count starts from, 2183 to 2186 for the trilogy and 2819 for Andromeda, not inferred dates.

The Andromeda article reads two ways in its setting section. It says the game "starts around 2185", then says the events are far in the future. Both can be true if 2185 is the departure and 2819 is the story, and that is how the timeline reads it.

My read on Andromeda#

My read is that 2819 is the honest answer, and 2185 is trivia. The Initiative left in the same year Mass Effect 2 is set, so the two stories share a calendar, but the Andromeda article says characters from the trilogy are not present and that past decisions have no impact. I treat Andromeda as its own timeline, not as the next chapter of Shepard's story.