Mass Effect: Andromeda took fans of BioWare's iconic space franchise to a whole new galaxy in search of a home for the future. The Ryder twins, known canonically as Scott and Sara, traveled across the stars with their father, Alec, in hopes of finding a fresh start for themselves and the collection of alien races they brought along with them from the Milky Way.
The player character's gender, name and appearance was a matter of choice. After creating a character more details were revealed about their purpose. A recon specialist in their father's Pathfinder team, Ryder's position primed the chosen twin to take their father's place as the human Pathfinder as events progressed.
When the ark Hyperion arrived in Andromeda, it collided with a violent energy cloud that disrupted the ship's systems. One Ryder twin was awakened from stasis, but their sibling's cryo pod suffered damage that put them in jeopardy. The medical team induced a coma, which the sibling remained in for a significant portion of the early game. After becoming the human Pathfinder, Ryder was offered an opportunity to speak with their sibling using the artificial intelligence known as SAM (Simulated Adaptive Matrix).
Despite one of his children being in a coma, Alec Ryder pushed for his team to scout Habitat 7, which was meant to become humanity's next home world. On descent to Habitat 7's surface, Ryder and potential companion Liam Kosta were separated from Alec's team as their ships crashed. Forced to search for survivors, the pair traversed the dangerous landscape of Habitat 7 together, making first contact with a violent race of aliens later identified as the Kett.
Kosta and Ryder eventually reunited with Alec Ryder's team, but he was not with them. Battling through a host of aggressive Kett forces, the two teams eventually relocated Alec and headed toward a Remnant structure in the distance. Alec believed that the Kett were also alien to the planet, and their heavy presence at the Remnant base suggested they were there to study it as well. Infiltrating the base, the teams battled through heavy attacks from the Kett before finally reaching the base's tower.
Within the tower, Alec discovered a device that seemed to be controlling Habitat 7's climate, making it a dangerous place to settle into. His suggestion to deactivate the Remnant structure led to him interfacing his advanced SAM device with the control module and turning it off to stabilize the environment. Upon doing so, a massive purification field pushed outward, throwing both Ryder and their father from the platform. In the fall, Ryder's helmet was damaged beyond repair, and they began to asphyxiate.
Alec Ryder took off his own helmet to save his child's life, but before he died, he also passed his duty as the human Pathfinder onto them when he transferred command access to SAM. Upon awakening after returning to the Hyperion, Ryder underwent significant changes as SAM integrated itself into their systems in a way no one but Alec had undergone before.
Suddenly faced with their father's command duties, Ryder steered the Hyperion to the Nexus, where those who had already arrived in the Heleus Cluster had begun to set up base. While few were thrilled with Alec's choice to pass on his position to his untrained offspring, there was little anyone could do to change that decision. With the weight of the Andromeda Initiative on their shoulders, Ryder had little choice left but to take the Pathfinder mantle and secure a new home for humanity's future.
Upon arrival at the Nexus, Ryder learned that the Hyperion was the first and only ark to make contact with the station. It was also made clear that the crew and teams of the Nexus met with their own disaster upon arrival in the Heleus Cluster, with the core leadership of the Andromeda Initiative wiped out. With the Initiative left in the hands of a barely qualified accountant named Jarun Tann, the Nexus was in obvious dire straights. It suddenly became Ryder and their crew's task to save all who survived arrival in Andromeda.
It became Ryder's mission to not only find a secure home for those who'd come all the way from the Milky Way, but to find out what happened to the other Pathfinders and their arks. Because Alec Ryder bore such heavy responsibility as one of the Initiative's core members, the burden of his position fell on his child. Not everyone agreed with Alec's choice, and many butted heads with Ryder at every opportunity they could. In time, however, Ryder's deeds and efforts to preserve all that survived of their mission was proof enough that their father made the right choice.
Ryder had no intention of playing such an integral role in the survival of the Andromeda Initiative when they set out from the Milky Way. The Ryder family suffered a heavy blow when Ellen Ryder, the twins' mother, died from a rare and incurable neurogenetic disorder. In all likelihood, they were looking for a chance a fresh start with their father.
Circumstances certainly offered both Ryder twins a fresh start in the Heleus Cluster, but not in the way they initially hoped. Much like their iconic and heroic predecessor, Commander Shepard from the original Mass Effect trilogy, Pathfinder Ryder became a beacon of hope for not just humanity, but for all the races who traveled through the stars in search of a new home.