Geth Plasma Shotgun

The Geth Plasma Shotgun is an shotgun in Mass Effect 2.

In-Game Description
This three-barrelled geth weapon fires miniature but potent cluster rounds of superconducting projectiles and has a longer range than standard shotguns. A two-stage trigger system allows for either quick fire-capacitors or a charge-and-release attack to electrify the projectiles as they exit the weapon. As the rounds hit the target, they fragment and electricity arcs between the pieces, flash-converting the air to conductive plasma. The resulting impact, heat, and electrical charge overloads shields and barriers and causes massive trauma to unarmored targets.

Acquisition
Available through purchase of the Firepower Pack DLC.

Player Notes

 * This weapon fires 3 pellets instead of the standard 8. Also it should be noted that hitting the same target with second and third chunk does 30% of its base damage. Thus hitting a target with all 3 pellets while fully charged, does 556.4 base damage instead of the expected 1043. This makes it the highest damage per shot weapon apart from heavy weapons.
 * When charged up, the shotgun will expend 2 thermal clips upon discharge instead of just one.
 * Even with one round left in the clip, charge shot works without any drawbacks. Only the remaining round is consumed in this case. Because of this, the Plasma Shotgun can fire up to nine charged shots (sixteen with upgrade + ammo pack) before running out of ammo, giving it the highest damage per ammo out of any non-Heavy weapon.
 * Maximize overall damage by hitting multiple targets with one shot. Hitting at least 2 targets will always do more overall damage than hitting a single target with all 3 pellets.
 * It is possible to fire 2 normal shot in rapid succession. This can be done by pressing and holding fire till the gun just begins charging, and immediately releasing to fire the first shot, and quickly firing again to fire the second shot. Although this doesn't necessarily increase your DPS (due to the charging phase), its very effective when used with Adrenaline Rush. A soldier with Shock Trooper specialization can fire upto 3 shots in a single Hardened Adrenaline rush using this technique.

Trivia

 * The Geth Plasma Shotgun was designed to be an "unshotgun," allowing players to reliably deal damage at longer ranges than normally allowed. Wanting to preserve the "heavy hitting" aspect of shotguns, the overcharge ability was added to compensate for its lessened effectiveness at shorter range.


 * The Geth Plasma Shotgun currently is the only shotgun in Mass Effect 2 not to be named after a sword, though that may be explained through the fact that the others are all human-made.