"Mass Effect" - Gameplay [6] - Abilities Quiz

Answer: Singularity

"Mass Effect" is a cover-based shooter, and as such, enemies will take cover a lot. You can get an enemy to move from cover by dealing damage to it. Enemies don't always have perfect cover, and you can get them to move by shooting any exposed armor. Or you can get one to move by setting off an ability near them. An example would be using Overload right beside where an enemy is taking cover, even when you cannot see the target. The enemy will be caught in the blast radius, and will move, giving you a chance to shoot it, or hit it with other abilities.

Singularity is a very powerful biotic ability. It will pick up anything close enough to it (enemies, objects), and keep them in orbit for its duration. It is not unusual to see five or more enemies caught in a fully leveled Singularity. Singularity can not only pull enemies from cover, but can also keep them suspended for a very long time so they cannot find new cover.

Answer: Sabotage

Sabotage can be very useful in fights against large groups of enemies, or against large, difficult enemies, especially on Insanity. If you use Sabotage on krogan or Geth Destroyers, then they will charge at you. Up close they can do lots of melee damage, and they still have strong shields and lots of health to deal with.

You gain more experience when on foot than when in the Mako, so hopping out of the Mako for a kill shot on large enemies is a popular strategy. When you reach higher levels, you can actually do more damage outside of the mako than inside. Outside, though, large enemies, such as Geth Colossi, can often kill you with a single attack. Sabotage can prevent them from firing on you, and at higher levels, you can actually cast Sabotage almost continuously so they will never be able to fire a shot.

Answer: Barrier

Barrier is a biotic ability that gives a temporary shield boost. This can be good if you're in trouble and need to protect yourself while retreating, or if you're a Vanguard and are about to run into a room full of enemies. Putting points into Barrier will increase the duration and strength of the shield, while decreasing the recharge time.

In "Mass Effect", enemies only have shields and health. Generally a shield has to be knocked out before the health bar can be damaged, but there are ammo upgrades that allow for a small amount of shield bypass (Cryo Rounds and Snowblind Rounds).

In "Mass Effect 2", two more defensive bars were added. Barriers were added, which function like shields, but are used by biotic classes and enemies, and they require a different set of powers to remove. Armor was also added, which is generally stronger than shields and barriers, but it will not regenerate.

Answer: Marksman

Each of the four weapon types has an ability associated with it. When equipped with a pistol the Marksman ability can be used. Marksman increases the accuracy and firing rate of a pistol for a certain amount of time, while reducing the heat generation. This means players can lay down accurate, sustained fire without worrying about overheating.

Marksman is an ability that can be learned by every player class. Marksman is granted by leveling up the Pistols talent, which will eventually become Advanced Marksman and, finally, Master Marksman. The Sentinel does not have any weapon talent, but can unlock the Marksman ability by leveling up the Sentinel class talent. Sentinels cannot gain access to Advanced Marksman or Master Marksman.

Answer: Warp

Warp deals damage over time to a target. This damage also ignores shields. Warp can be used on krogan to counter their health-regenerating capabilities. It can also be used on heavily shielded weaker units, like Geth Shock Troopers and mercenaries. You can use Warp on them, and then forget about them. Warp itself might be enough to take out that enemy for you, without you ever firing a shot at it.

In "Mass Effect 2", Warp no longer deals damage over time. Instead, it deals an instant set amount of damage, provided the Warp blast hits its target. It is a prime power for taking out biotic barriers and armor.

Answer: Neural Shock

Neural Shock is useful against strong organic enemies. It has no effect on synthetic targets. Neural Shock will cause the target to fall down in pain, and will induce toxic damage, which will hurt the target over time.

Enemies on the ground cannot activate abilities, such as Immunity, and the toxic effects counter the regeneration abilities of enemies like krogan. It can also drop a charging krogan before it can close in on you and hurt you with its powerful melee attacks.

In "Mass Effect 2", many powers cannot be used on an enemy, or will have a reduced effect on an enemy, if the target still has active shields, barriers, or armor.

Answer: Assassination

Assassination is unlocked by leveling up the Sniper Rifles talent. It will reduce the wavering of the scope to nothing, making the weapon hyper-accurate, and will add in extra damage. Assassination will add a mere 50% damage, but a fully leveled Master Assassination will add 225% damage. The Sniper Rifles talent will also increase the damage of your weapon.

Some enemies will use Assassination. When one has Assassination activated, a long red laser pointer will emanate from their weapon. If you are not a combat-oriented character, this indicates that you should kill that enemy as quickly as possible, or find cover. On higher difficulties, non-combat oriented characters can easily die from a single shot.

Answer: Lift

Lift is used to make enemies float above the battlefield. It cannot be used on yourself or your squad members to fly around cover. Lift is very useful for preventing enemies from taking cover, exposing and incapacitating them so you can load them full of rounds from your weapon of choice.

Barrier temporarily increases the shields of the user. Immunity increases the damage protection of the user for a short time.

In "Mass Effect 2", most biotic and tech abilities are not instantaneous. They are conveyed in projectiles that have to travel to their target. The abilities can be fired at an angle so they arc around to hit targets, sometimes even when they're behind cover (though this is rare).

In "Mass Effect 2", Lift is replaced with Pull. Instead of lifting enemies "up" off the ground, Pull will levitate enemies in the direction that the biotic attack hit its target.

Answer: AI Hacking

AI Hacking is a tech-specialist-specific ability. It disables the identify friend/foe system of a synthetic target. This does not make the target friendly to you, however. If you shoot the hacked enemy, or if you're the only target it can find, it will still attack you.

Enemies will attack the nearest hostile target. If you use AI Hacking on an enemy in the middle of a group, the target will instantly attack its former allies, and vice versa. Master Hacking will let you hack all but the strongest enemies.

A perfect place to use AI Hacking is right outside of the mine on Therum (where you recruit Liara). There is a Geth Armature supported by many smaller geth units. The Armature has strong shields and lots of health, coupled with a cannon that can take out most other geth units with a single blast. Hacking this armature will get all the smaller geth to focus their fire on it, weakening its shields for you, while the Armature takes out the smaller geth one by one for you. You still get the experience points. The Armature will likely survive the event, but without any support units and weakened shields, it will not pose as much of a problem.

Answer: Carnage

Carnage is only usable when wielding a shotgun. It actually gives shotguns the ability to accurately hit distant targets. Carnage fires a single, high-damage projectile that travels in a straight line (pretty much the exact opposite of what a shotgun normally does). The projectile travels slowly, so enemies can move out of the way and dodge it, but Carnage also has a blast radius, which can damage enemies too close to the impact point.

In "Mass Effect 2", weapon-specific abilities were removed. Ammo powers can be used to give any weapon a special effect, much the way ammo upgrades affect the weapons in "Mass Effect".

Answer: Stasis

Stasis is a biotic ability that holds a unit in place for a certain amount of time. This can be convenient in a large fight. You can essentially remove an enemy from the fight while you take out its allies, and then refocus your attention once Stasis has worn off. Enemies in Stasis cannot move, shoot, or use abilities, but they are also immune to damage. That is, unless you fully level the Bastion talent.

The Bastion is a specialization class accessible to the Sentinel and Adept. Level 12 of the Bastion talent will grant you the ability to damage enemies in Stasis, which can be very useful.

Answer: Damping

Damping can be useful against tougher enemies. Asari Commandos will try to use biotic attacks against you, geth units will use tech attacks, and strong "regular" units will use Immunity and Shield Boost to make them more durable. These can be disabled for a short time with Damping.

Sabotage, Damping, and Overload are all transferred in tech proximity mines, which look similar to the grenades. While these abilities are generally used for their primary function, they can still do damage. Damping will increase the blast radius of the mines (which also means more enemies will be hit by the primary effects of these abilities), Decryption (Sabotage) will increase the damage done by the mines, and Hacking (AI Hacking) will decrease the recharge time.

If you are ever in a fight without larger enemies, you should still use Damping for the damage it grants as a mine. Especially at higher levels when the tech mines become more powerful and have lower recharge times.

Answer: Adrenaline Burst

Adrenaline Burst is a good ability for when you're in a desperate situation. It instantaneously resets all the recharge time of your other abilities, so they can be used right away.

Unlike biotic and tech abilities, Combat abilities don't get much in the way of recharge time reduction. It takes a while for abilities such as Shield Boost and Immunity to reset themselves, as well as the neutral Unity, which is used to revive fallen squad members. If you're in the middle of a fight and have to use Immunity again within 60 seconds, then you had better have an Adrenaline Burst ready to reset it. If you can't get out of a dangerous situation within two uses of Immunity, then you're in big trouble, because the initial recharge time on Adrenaline Burst is 120 seconds.

In "Mass Effect 2", there is a power called Adrenaline Rush. Despite the similar name, it it very different from Adrenaline Burst. Adrenaline Rush causes time to dilate while simultaneously decreasing the damage you take and increasing the damage done by weapons. "Mass Effect 2" uses global recharge times, so you can't use ANY ability while a recharge is in effect. The trade-off is that the recharge times are much shorter. Adrenaline Rush initially has a cool down of only five seconds.

Answer: Overload

Overload is used to remove the shields from enemy units. Overload is one of the three abilities that use tech proximity mines (the other two being Damping and Sabotage). Tech mines do not have to be thrown at a target. If you use Overload on an enemy behind cover, then you will not hit that enemy. You can, however, place a tech proximity mine beside the enemy, which will still detonate, causing the enemy to run from cover. If you throw a mine and it doesn't immediately explode, don't worry. There's a still a chance that an enemy could walk near it. Remember: they're proximity mines. You can only have one of each type of mine on the field. As soon as you use Overload again, if you had an undetonated Overload mine, then it will disappear.

Electronics, the talent that grants the Overload ability, increases your personal shields, and increase the amount of damage repaired by using omni-gel on the Mako. Overload is very useful when trying the get the Tactician achievement, for which you have to take less health damage than shield damage in one play-though of "Mass Effect".

Answer: Sabotage

Throw will push an enemy backwards, often picking it up off its feet. This can be used to great effect when the target is already airborne, or in low-gravity environments.

Lift will pick up and suspend an enemy for you to shoot or cast abilities upon. At higher levels, it can easily lift more than one enemy. Lift cannot be used on yourself or your squad, so, no, you cannot just fly over the battlefield and flank your enemy that way.

Singularity is similar to Lift, but instead of just raising an enemy off the ground, it will pull enemy towards its center (the singularity). Singularity can usually snag many enemies at once, and even other objects, like chairs. The trade off is that enemies caught in the influence of Singularity will be in constant motion, orbiting around it.

Abilities like Sabotage, Overload, Damping, Warp, etc. can have significant effects on their targets, but they will not ever knock down or apply a force to their target.