Not enough XP

Admittedly there were some materials and a Salarian medallion that I needed. I figured that Would have at gotten me to at least 29. If not even 30 or 60. I mean if a person gets the completionist achievement. That should go hand in hand with reaching level 30 or 60

I don't know man, I'm level 38 right now (classic mode), and out of the main quests, I've only done Therum to get Liara - other than that, all UNC & Citadel missions.

Bring Down the Sky, Noveria, Feros, Virmire, Ilos & the Citadel endgame are still waiting for me, and I'm already 60%+ of the maximum level. I'm still missing two or three side quests before I head to the main content. Add the fact that certain UNC missions are also only available after their corresponding main quest.

If this rate continues, I'll easily reach level 60 by the end of it.

Edit: Also consider that there are many more resources and collectibles than their quest indicates. I'm early in the game, and the resource survey quest is completed with e.g. 25 light metal findings instead of only the needed 20 and so on. Finding them still grants XP after the quest is completed.

I'm quite curious whether I'll face the same problem as you guys... It would be quite a bummer, since this change was advertised by the company.

I posted in a different thread, but your right, you can't hit max in one playthrough.

No matter how much you do, you'll be left needing between 150k-170k exp.

As far as I can tell at least.

I can validate this.  I did everything in the game and was still short about 200,000 XP or so by the time I got to Saren the second time.

Hmm, I'm starting to agree with you.

Since Monday, I've now reached the point where I am about to go to Ilos, and I'm only level 56, with 449059 / 462100 XP, so I am not even that close to 57. I don't know if difficulty matters, I would think not, but I've played on Insanity all the way.

I've almost quite literally did everything there is in the game. The only thing missing is the UNC mission on Nonuel that is only offered when your Renegade score is high. Other than that, I've even unlocked all the goddamn chests I've found, and don't even get me started on the amount I've exceeded every survey / collection mission, lol.

I think they modified the XP count with Pinnacle Station still in mind...

Getting from level 29 to 30 in legendary scaling takes 200k xp (and that is level 59 in classic scaling). I currently see no way to reach level 30 in a single playthrough.

Yeah, I've just finished the game. No way in hell level 60 could have been possible... I think I might have gotten to 58, but that's a stretch.

I really am meticulous about ME1, played it countless times, so I'm inclined to believe that BW dropped the ball on this one.

Edit: Nop, I finished at level 57.

Yep, got same, cleared every single thing in ME1 and ended up at lv 29, no way this is possible to do in single run.

@felker_s 

Pretty much were I ended up 29/30 converted in ME2 as 57/60. I'm the same as you, so many playthrough of the original game, there wasnt going to be anything I missed.

It's not all bad though, as when you import to ME2, you still get rewards as though your level 60.  Not sure where in the 50's the cut off is, but 57 deff gets you all the goodies.

@Webb-samaYeah, I'm not even mad about the transfer bonuses... It's just irritating for my "inner completionist", lol.

I mean I did the game 110%, and ended up three levels short - while they advertised that this would be fixed. Like, come on, lol.

Also, I absolutely love the ME universe, but... Let's be honest, ME1 is a bloody chore, even in its LE state. I have already had more than ten playthroughs of it in the OG game, and all of them were completionist runs. It was alright back then, I was a patient kid with a lot of free time. Now as an adult, I was on vacation for a whole week, and this ME run took three days of it. It kinda feels like a waste of time now that I did not even reach max. level... I mean come on, 80% of those UNC missions mean nothing in the long run, and man they are tedious.