Pathfinder Ryder

Pathfinder Ryder Scott Ryder / Sara Ryder
Mass Effect character
The default male (left) and default female (right) Ryder as presented in Mass Effect: Andromeda.
First appearance	Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017)
Voiced by	Tom Taylorson (male)1 Fryda Wolff (female)1
In-universe information
Occupation	Pathfinder
Affiliation	Andromeda Initiative
Family	Ryder's twin sibling, Alec Ryder (father), Ellen Ryder (mother)

Pathfinder Ryder, whose default name is either Scott Ryder or Sara Ryder, is the player character in BioWare's Mass Effect: Andromeda. Ryder is a fully customizable character whose appearance, gender, and name can be altered by the player at the beginning of the game.

Within the story, they are a member of the Andromeda Initiative, an organization that fled the Milky Way to escape an ongoing war, and inherit the title of Pathfinder from their father Alec Ryder, tasking them with the exploration and colonization of new worlds in the Andromeda Galaxy. Throughout the story Ryder is tasked with exploring the Andromeda galaxy while trying to fend off the kett, a mysterious hostile race native to Andromeda. Scott Ryder is voiced by Tom Taylorson, while Sara Ryder is voiced by Fryda Wolff. The character was designed to feel like an outsider navigating an unfamiliar world, with BioWare emphasizing personal growth over established heroism.

Pathfinder Ryder was the subject of a facial animation controversy, particularly regarding Sara, which drew criticism from multiple outlets both before and after the game's launch and ultimately prompted BioWare to issue a corrective patch. As a character, Ryder received mixed reviews upon the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda, with critics divided over their personality and characterization when compared to the series' original protagonist Commander Shepard. Ryder has since been the subject of academic analysis examining their role through colonialist, gender, and narrative frameworks.

At the beginning of the game, the player has the ability to fully customize Ryder's appearance, gender, and name, which by default is that of Sara or Scott. This character creator offers a set of preset characters as starting templates, though the default Ryder appearance as seen in promotional material cannot be selected or edited directly.² Within the game, Ryder is the main playable character, with the gender the player does not choose serving as their twin sibling and a character within the story.³

The Ryders begin as ordinary members of the Andromeda Initiative, an organization founded with the goal of fleeing to the Andromeda Galaxy to escape the Reaper War, an ongoing conflict being waged in the Milky Way between all spacefaring civilizations and a massive fleet of sentient starships known as the Reapers. To achieve this, the initiative sent four massive starships known as "arks", to travel the distance between both galaxies with thousands of members of each species in cryostasis. Each ark had a Pathfinder, an individual which was in charge of the exploration and colonization of "golden worlds", a set of presumably habitable worlds within the fictional Heleus Cluster of the Andromeda Galaxy. Aboard the human ark, this role fell to Alec Ryder, an experienced military officer and the father of Scott and Sara.³⁴⁵

At the beginning of the game, the role of Pathfinder is passed down from Alec to whichever sibling the player chooses, while the other remains in cryostasis.⁶ During the transfer, Alec's artificial intelligence assistant, the Simulated Adaptive Matrix, better known as SAM, is neurologically linked to Ryder via a neural implant, granting them enhanced situational awareness, problem-solving capabilities, and tactical enhancements. From that point on, Ryder, and by extension, the player, takes on the responsibility of exploring each of the golden worlds which prove to be less habitable than the Initiative had anticipated, with SAM serving as guide and assistant throughout the journey. This neural connection with SAM also grants Ryder the ability to interact with the "remnant" technology left behind by the jardaan, an ancient species native to Andromeda, which allows them to terraform these planets back to a habitable state.⁶³⁷⁸

Mass Effect: Andromeda's creative director Mac Walters described Ryder's conception as rooted in the idea of a "stranger in a strange land", someone entirely unfamiliar in a new galaxy, which was meant to be an integral part of the story. Unlike Shepard, who was already an established hero when players first met them, Ryder was deliberately designed as someone who had not yet achieved that status, with the team placing a greater emphasis on how the character feels and deals with their circumstances throughout the story. In an interview with IGN, Walters described Ryder's story as a hero's journey told through a more intimate lens, in which Ryder learns and grows over the course of the game, starting from a darker place and progressing toward a hopeful future. BioWare also moved away from the idea of a singular, fixed protagonist. They instead decided to frame Ryder as a role the player inhabits rather than a defined character, a deliberate departure from the approach taken with Shepard in the original trilogy.⁹¹⁰ The team also made the decision to make both Ryder genders present in the game, regardless of the gender picked by the player.¹¹ For the voice acting of the character, BioWare cast Fryda Wolff as Sara Ryder and Tom Taylorson as Scott Ryder.¹

The narrative team also replaced the Paragon/Renegade system, the morality system utilized by Commander Shepard in the original trilogy, with a dialogue system based on four distinct tones: emotional, logical, casual, and professional, each denoted with a specific icon. Walters stated that the previous system had been too closely tied to the character of Shepard to function effectively with a new protagonist, and criticized its binary nature, noting that most players would simply commit to one path for the entirety of the game.¹²² Lead designer Ian Frazier elaborated that the new system grants the player the freedom to adopt any tone at any point in the game, irrespective of prior dialogue choices. Frazier noted the decision to forego dialogue skills as in other western role-playing games in favor of more situational dialogue reactions, in which characters respond based on specific choices and relationships formed throughout the game rather than an accumulated morality score.¹³

The Pathfinder's design went through several iterations. The art team wanted the Pathfinder to feel more like an explorer than a soldier, in contrast to Shepard, and early concepts reflected this by exploring more tactile elements and integrating technology directly into the suit, such as a melee weapon on the right arm and scanning and information devices on the left. As development progressed, the team decided to give the Pathfinder an underarmor similar to the base suit from the original Mass Effect, opting to keep the armor free of excessive detail in order to preserve the franchise's established visual style. The art team played with the idea of giving visible upgrades and a cape to the armor, but it was ultimately discarded. The final design instead features armor and an asymmetrical backpack closely tied to the underarmor whose helmet incorporates a glass dome intended to evoke explorer utility, while also keeping the character's emotions visible during moments that require them to wear it. The standard Andromeda Initiative armor was then derived from the Pathfinder design, refined into something sleeker and cleaner. The art team also designed several other armor sets available to the player.¹⁴

The events of Mass Effect: Andromeda take place roughly 600 years after those of the original Mass Effect. The selected Ryder awakens aboard the human ark, the Hyperion, and joins a small team led by their father to scout humanity's assumed first home planet, while their twin remains in cryostasis. Upon arrival, however, the team discovers that the planet's atmosphere is no longer capable of supporting human life and that it is being besieged by a mysterious hostile alien race known as the kett. As the mission progresses, Ryder fights off the kett and discovers a set of ancient technology capable of terraforming the planet back to a habitable state. However, Alec Ryder sacrifices his life to save his child's, leaving Ryder to inherit the role of Pathfinder.³⁴⁶⁷

After leaving the planet, Pathfinder Ryder leads the Hyperion to the Nexus, an intergalactic space station that had also been sent to Andromeda alongside the four arks, only to realize that it had been badly damaged by an intergalactic space-storm known as the Scourge and that none of the other three arks had yet arrived. Ryder is then tasked with restoring power to the Nexus and exploring the Heleus Cluster's various "golden worlds" aboard the Tempest, a dedicated exploration vessel, joined throughout the journey by a rotating cast of squadmates.¹⁵³ As the story progresses, Ryder makes first contact with a race native to Andromeda, the angara, one of whom, Jaal, becomes a permanent squadmate aboard the Tempest.⁴ Throughout the story, it is also revealed that the Initiative had sent a fifth ark, led by the quarians and including a vast array of minor alien species, toward Andromeda.¹⁶ After numerous confrontations with the kett and their leader, including a raid on their flagship, Ryder uncovers the location of Meridian, a massive jardaan-built megastructure that serves as the hub of the vault network responsible for rendering planets habitable. The kett subsequently launch an assault on the Hyperion, prompting Ryder to lead an attack toward Meridian with the allies gathered throughout their efforts to locate the missing arks and terraform the golden worlds. The game concludes with Ryder defeating the kett's leader and activating Meridian, setting the restoration of the Heleus Cluster in motion. During a small section of this final mission, the player gets to control the Ryder twin that had not been selected, who still sat aboard the Hyperion.¹⁷

During an optional sidequest the player can complete to learn about Alec Ryder's memories, it is revealed that Ellen Ryder, Pathfinder Ryder's mother and a key figure in the development of SAM, had been secretly placed aboard the ark Hyperion under the false identity of Elizabeth Reily by Alec Ryder, having fallen gravely ill from a terminal neurological disease caused by her research.¹⁸ During the game's epilogue, Pathfinder Ryder also receives a distress signal from the Keelah Si'yah, the quarian ark, warning others not to make contact.¹⁶

Pathfinder Ryder was among the aspects of Mass Effect: Andromeda subject to technical criticism, particularly regarding facial animations. Prior to the game's release, a gameplay trailer featuring Ryder drew criticism over the quality of Sara's facial animations specifically. Andy Chalk of PC Gamer described them as "not-quite-perfectly animated," while Tom Phillips of Eurogamer remarked that they made her look as though she was "stifling a sneeze". This pre-release controversy prompted former BioWare studio manager Aaryn Flynn to issue a public apology, in which he promised to address the issues.¹⁹²⁰ Merely days before launch, Madeline Ricchiuto of Bleeding Cool renewed criticism of Sara's facial animations, highlighting her "uncanny and wooden expressions" as well as her "wandering eyes".²¹ The problems persisted after release, leading members of the modding community to attempt their own improvements to Sara's facial structure.²² While being positive about Scott, Paul Tassi of Forbes criticized Sara's facial structure and animations, stating that it made her look "uncomfortable" when talking, leading him to the conclusion that "Sara is not the ideal face for this game".²³ This controversy ultimately prompted BioWare to issue a patch overhauling the quality of Sara's facial structure and the game's character animations, among other issues.²⁴

Upon the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda, Pathfinder Ryder received mixed reviews. In his review of the game, Dan Stapleton of IGN noted Ryder as a likable and well-acted character who could carry the story forward and viewed the fact that the non-selected gender variant for Ryder became a character in the story positively.²⁵ In their preview review of an early access section of the game, Matt Eliott and Lucas Sull analyzed Scott and Sara Ryder separately. Sull highlighted Sara's style and voice acting while Eliott highlighted Scott's humor and levity in contrast to Commander Shepard's.²⁶ Andrea Kasparian of RPG Site viewed Sara Ryder specifically mostly positively, regarding her as a personable but awkward character, but criticized instances where dialogue choices led to unintended responses from the character.²⁷

More negatively, Brittany Vincent of Shacknews criticized the customization options presented for Ryder by the game in the character creator, denouncing the player's inability to utilize default Sara or Scott as a template. Vincent also criticized Ryder's personality and stance within the game, noting the lack of respect that Initiative members have toward them and the lack of player choice regarding Ryder's personality, calling Ryder "frustratingly bland" and denouncing the fact that the player could not make Ryder "less awkward and automaton-like".² Andy Hartup of GamesRadar+ criticized Ryder's personality, arguing that the character's tendency to joke early in the game made them come across poorly. Hartup also noted that, unlike Commander Shepard in the original Mass Effect trilogy, Ryder felt like an already fully-formed character rather than one shaped by the player, and observed that Ryder's responses to dialogue did not always flow naturally.²⁸ Edwin Evans-Thirlwell, writing for Eurogamer, criticized the simplicity of the new personality system, stating that it reduced Ryder to four very basic personalities that did not really seem interesting to know.²⁹

Reception in later retrospective coverage remained mixed. In his comparison between Commander Shepard and Pathfinder Ryder, Kenneth Shepard of CGMagazine, argued that Ryder's role as Pathfinder grounds the player's choices in a more immediate sense of collective responsibility than the original trilogy, making the player feel responsible for the people depending on the Initiative. Shepard also argued that Ryder's goals were different from Shepard's, describing Ryder as a someone looking to shape the future "for more than just himself".³⁰ Charlie Stewart of GameRant highlighted how Ryder's characterization in Mass Effect: Andromeda had failed to replicate the success of Commander Shepard and cited it as evidence that the untitled next Mass Effect game would have issues in finding a worthy successor to Shepard.³¹ Jade King, writing for TheGamer, viewed Ryder very positively, stating that because they did not have a military background like Shepard, they were more relatable and reacted in ways consistent with an ordinary person.³²

The role portrayed by Pathfinder Ryder in Mass Effect: Andromeda has been analyzed from a social and political perspective by various scholars. Tomas Z. Majkowski and Magdalena Kozyra of the Jagiellonian University analyzed Ryder through imperialist and colonialist dynamics, highlighting their resemblance to Allan Quatermain from King Solomon's Mines. Majkowski and Kozyra also compare Ryder's exclusive access to Jardaan technology, thus excluding the native angara, to the attitude of the Victorian age, which saw itself as the rightful ruler of many non-Western civilizations.⁶ Similarly, Sauvik Mukherjee analyzed Pathfinder Ryder's role in Mass Effect: Andromeda through the context of colonialism, comparing them to the eponymous hero of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales.³³ René Reinhold Schallegger argued that because the default Ryder is male and from a "white, highly educated, upper-class family", Mass Effect: Andromeda hints a problematic lack of understanding of colonialism. Schallegger also criticizes that, by leaving default Ryder's twin Sara aside throughout the game if not chosen as player character, the game reinforces a "damsel-in-distress" plot.⁷ Shifting to gender dynamics, Leandro Augusto Borges Lima examined BioWare's promotion strategy for Mass Effect: Andromeda through the lens of Steve Woolgar's configuration concept, arguing that, while Sara and Scott Ryder received more equal representation than male and female Commander Shepard, Scott still received more promotional attention than Sara.³⁴

Ryder has also received significant analysis through narrative and structural frameworks. Vlad Melnic of the Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca analyzed Ryder and their relationship with SAM under the context of Joseph Campbell's monomyth and the works of David Leeming, arguing that their mentorship with SAM morphs the journey motif into a post-humanist myth.³⁵ Gregory Carl William Blomquist of the University of Alberta analyzed Ryder's involvement in the Andromeda storyline through a transmedia perspective, comparing their involvement in Mass Effect: Andromeda to the involvement of Commander Shepard in the original Mass Effect.³ Stephanie Farnsworth of the University of Sunderland argued that by allowing the player to modify Ryder's appearance at any moment, something that was not possible in the original Mass Effect trilogy, Ryder is capable of becoming a mutant, arguing that this creates a narrative inconsistency because biotechnology in Andromeda is supposed to be more limited than in the Milky Way.³⁶