Achievement Guide
Unlocking all the race-related primary codex entries is mostly a matter of exhausting dialog options early in the game.
Archivist is a fairly missable achievement, as you need to “find all primary Alien: Council Races, Extinct Races and Non-Council Races codex entries” in a single playthrough. Codex Entries are recorded bits of lore gained primarily from talking to NPCs, and in the case of all the Codex Entries required for Archivist, NPC dialog is the source of all of them.
Unlocking most of these aren’t a problem, as you can pick them up by talking to various characters on the Citadel, but a few - like the codex entries gained from Nihlus and from Ashley early on - can be missed. On the plus side, there aren’t very many required Codex Entries for this achievement, and most of them can be obtain very early in the game (before you leave the Citadel for the first time), so while missing it sucks, it’s not a massive, game-spanning timesink.
A list of all the codexes you need and where you can find them follows:
| Codex Entries | Location |
|---|---|
| Aliens: Council Races - Asari | Citadel, you should get this codex during your first meeting with the Council. |
| Aliens: Council Races - Salarians | Citadel, you should get this codex during your first meeting with the Council. |
| Aliens: Council Races - Turians | Prologue, on the Normandy, during your very first conversation with Joker and Kaiden regarding Nihlus. |
| Aliens: Extinct Races - Protheans | Prologue, on the Normandy, in the Comms rooms. While talking to Nihlus, exhaust his dialog options. |
| Aliens: Extinct Races - Rachni | Citadel, any time before Ilos. Use an Avina terminal near the krogan statue (Presidium) and exhaust her dialog options. |
| Aliens: Non-Council Races - Batarians | Citadel, after you become a Spectre and gain control of the Normandy, talk to Captain Anderson and exhaust his dialog options. |
| Aliens: Non-Council Races - Elcor | Citadel, any time before Ilos. Talk to the elcor in the Embassies area and exhaust its dialog options. |
| Aliens: Non-Council Races - Geth | Prologue, on Eden Prime, during your first conversation with Ashley, exhaust her dialog options. |
| Aliens: Non-Council Races - Hanar | Citadel, any time before Ilos. Talk to the hanar shopkeeper (Delan) in the Emporium and Bank area and exhaust its dialog options. |
| Aliens: Non-Council Races - Keepers | Citadel, any time before Ilos. Use an Avina terminal near the Citadel Tower (Presidium) and exhaust her dialog options. |
| Aliens: Non-Council Races - Krogan | Citadel, during your first visit, head to Chora’s Den and witness a scene involving Wrex. |
| Aliens: Non-Council Races - Quarians | Citadel, after talking to Harkin in Chora’s Den, head to the Med Clinic and talk to Garrus after fighting off some thugs. He’ll tell you about a quarian, earning you this codex entry. |
| Aliens: Non-Council Races - Volus | Citadel, any time before Ilos. Talk to the volus in the Embassies area and exhaust its dialog options. |
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