Heavy Weapons

Heavy Weapons are a class of weapon available to all player classes in Mass Effect 2. They consume Power Cells as ammunition, rather than the universal heatsinks utilized by smaller weapons.

M-100 Grenade Launcher
Popular Manufacturer(s): Elanus Risk Control Services

Rounds per minute: 125

Rapid-fire grenade launcher favored by the Blood Pack vorcha mercenaries. Capable of taking down multiple enemies with a single well-placed shot. Effective against armor, shields, and biotic barriers. Its resonably high damage, coupled with high rate of accurate fire make it a great all around heavy weapon.

ML-77 Missile Launcher
Popular Manufacturer(s): Armax Arsenal

Rounds per minute: 80

The missile launcher is recommended for engagements where large–scale opposition is expected. Single-person portability is retained thanks to the now-standard collapsible design. What makes the missile launcher so effective is the friend–or–foe projectiles it fires – the user can fire the weapon from behind cover and the missiles will, within milliseconds, identify, lock onto and track enemies (organic or synthetic). The intended target has only a 6.8% chance (plus or minus, depending on weather conditions and available cover) of evading the impact(s). One of the, if not the least useful heavy weapon available, thanks to its low damage, long missile reach time, missile's dumb aiming (just as the player can easily dodge an enemy's missile, or completey ignore it behind cover, so can the enemy from the player's missile) and small number of additional spare missiles.

M-622 Avalanche
Popular Manufacturer(s): Unkown Rounds per minute: 50

Cryo Round technology is used to modify standard weapon slugs. A cooling laser collapses the ammunition into Bose-Einstein condensate, a mass of super-cooled subatomic particles capable of snap-freezing impacted objects. Normandy's scientists have found a way to apply this technology on a large scale: by generating a mass effect containment "bubble", this proof-of-concept large weapon technology is effective against armor, shields, and biotic barriers. It is nicknamed the "Cryo-Blaster". Very effective against unshielded groups of enemies. The main drawback is that it takes a while for its projectile to reach a target and the projectile itself deals very little damage. Also in order to freeze an enemy they must stand in the freezing cloud, making it mainly defensive support weapon.

M-920 Cain
Popular Manufacturer(s): Unknown Charge up time: 4 seconds

The effectiveness and efficiency of mass effect-based weapon technology has rendered large-scale deployment of highly explosive infantry weapons all but obsolete. Normandy's scientists have prototyped a modified version of traditional high-explosive rounds that is applied to a 25g slug. When accelerated to 5 km/s, the round is devastating. Though a technically inaccurate label, this prototype weapon is nicknamed the "Nuke Launcher", and its high-explosive matrix generates an archetypical mushroom cloud on impact. It inflicts high damage with large area of effect. Very effective against armor, shields, and barriers.

The Cain is capable of killing enemies within an extremely large area in a single shot. The final boss as well as the Thresher Maw on Tuchanka are the only enemies in the game that the Cain cannot kill instantly; instead, the Cain takes off a little more than half of each boss's life bar. However, Cain can only be fired when its ammo count is at 100% or above, meaning a player is most likely to fire it only once in a mission. Still, it is a devastating one shot weapon.

Collector Particle Beam
Popular Manufacturer(s): Unknown

Precise and lethal, this focused radiation weapon is very effective against shields, barriers, and armor. The amount of energy required to create a destructive beam is several orders of magnitude more than the amount needed to launch a high-velocity projectile via a mass effect field. The Collector Particle Beam can be found on Horizon. One of most useful heavy weapons available, having great power, precision, only one all containing high capacity magazine (no need to reload) and continuos beam fire, making it an excellent offensive heavy weapon.

M-490 Blackstorm Projector
Popular Manufacturer(s): Unknown Charge up time: 3 seconds

The Blackstorm encases a few particles of matter within a high-powered mass-increasing field, elevating them to near-infinite mass and creating a powerful localized gravity well that draws nearby enemies and objects into itself. The rapidly-increasing gravity near the event horizon of the singularity rips the objects apart and then explosively hurls them away. Perhaps the best support heavy weapon available, having great destructive effect, long singularity duration and sizable amount of extra shots.

The M-490 Blackstorm Projector is a retail bonus item available exclusively when pre-ordering Mass Effect 2 from certain retailers.

M-451 Firestorm
Based on the turian "Hieras" flamethrower, the Firestorm is an anti-personnel and anti-armor flame unit that can accept a wide variety of liquid fuels. The turian design used low-octane hydrocarbons thickened with dentra oil, which is taken from large marine animals similar to Earth's whales. Humans then reverse-engineered a synthetic composite with almost identical properties that could be fabricated from heavy weapon fuel cells using an omni-tool. The result is a sticky spray that burns at approximately 1,600 degrees Celsius, a less intense fire than plasma weapons but covering a significantly wider target area.

The M-451 Firestorm can be found during Zaeed Massani's loyalty quest. Zaeed and his quest are available as a downloadable content pack for Mass Effect 2.

Trivia

 * The M-920 Cain is not named for the Biblical Cain, but for Fallout and Fallout 2 designer Tim Cain. It's possible it is also a reference to Cain from Robocop 2.
 * The M-451 Firestorm is the smallest of the heavy weapons when folded down.