Mass Effect 3: Weapons - basic information Mass Effect 3 guide, walkthrough
Last update: 29 October 2022
This page of the game guide contains the most important information about using weapons in Mass Effect 3. You will learn about the types of weapons, how to choose your weapons before you embark on a mission, the weight factor of a weapon and the rules of upgrading weapons.
Weapon types
There are five main categories of weapons in Mass Effect 3 plus one additional category of unique guns that are used only in special situations and can't be added to the inventory. The main categories are:
- sniper rifles,
- assault rifles,
- submachine guns,
- shotguns
- heavy pistols.
Each group of weapons has several models and you should take some time to read about all the weapons you find or plan to buy, because they have different weight, ammo capacity, rate of fire, damage value and precision.
Selecting weapons
I recommend that you carry weapons that suite your style of play, so that you'll find each of them useful. You can change your current equipment mostly by interacting with weapon modification stations.
One of the stations can be found on board the Normandy (screen above), however you may also find stations while completing main missions. This isn't the only way, because the game allows you to change weapons each time you've found a new one, so you won't have to wait until you've located a station in order to test the newly obtained gun.
Weapon weight
A very important thing you should know about weapons is that each gun has its own weight. As a result it's recommended that you don't take all five weapons with you, because the more weight you carry the slower your active powers recharge.
The game displays the power regeneration bar while changing the equipment, so you can always know how much time you'll have to wait for Shepard's abilities to recharge. It's best to maintain a positive or at least a neutral value, because most active powers which you unlock during the game are very useful and you'll want to keep using them as often as possible. My recommendation is to always have two weapons in the inventory, because the regeneration bar won't suffer too much and you'll have a spare gun in case if you run out of ammo or encounter a different type of an enemy.
Weapon upgrades
A good way of resolving the "weight problem" is to upgrade the weapons you're using and it can be done by interacting with one of the terminals found on the Normandy (screen above).
The game allows to upgrade each weapon to level five (V), however if you're replaying the campaign (New Game Plus Mode) the limit is raised to ten levels (X).
Each time you've upgraded a weapon you'll increase the damage it inflicts and how much ammunition it can have in the magazine, so it can make a difference on the battlefield. I don't recommend upgrading all the weapons. It's best to improve only the ones you like to have with you, because each upgrade costs credits and you'd be wasting money on something you don't necessarily need.