N7 Valiant

The N7 Valiant is a sniper rifle in Mass Effect 3.

Description
The Valiant is a sniper rifle tested by Alliance soldiers during a series of harsh survival exercises on the planet Kruljaven. This streamlined weapon employs a sophisticated fire-control system that improves accuracy by stabilizing the barrel during targeting. Although this comes at the cost of reduced capacity and rate of fire, most soldiers find the increase in precision and quick reloading time a worthy tradeoff.

Acquisition

 * Single-player: Included in the N7 Collector's Edition Pack as a bonus item for players who order the Collector's Edition of Mass Effect 3.
 * Multiplayer: Randomly awarded if individual or squad goals are completed as part of community weekend challenges.

Player Notes

 * Single-player
 * The N7 Valiant has very low recoil, much less than the other multi-shot snipers. This means that the Valiant can quickly and dependably put shots on target with little effort in wrestling the aim between shots
 * The Valiant is in fact accurate enough to be fired quite effectively from the hip, allowing the user to pick off enemies from cover without the need to go into scope and hunt for the target.
 * The Valiant's rate of fire is high enough to get all three rounds off with Tactical Cloak up. The cloak will wear off just after the third shot is fired.
 * The drawback of this weapon is that it has a constant spare ammo amount of thirty (though ammo count increase in multiplayer with upgrades), regardless of the upgrade level. However, a single clip obtained yield seven to eight shots. Pay attention to resupply after each engagement and the risk of running out of ammo can be minimized.
 * The Valiant works excellently with a Concentration Mod, with the time dilation for each shot, you can land headshots every time with a relatively rapid rate of fire and quick reload. The mod also gives a significant damage bonus. Combine that with a spare ammo or damage bonus mod, the Valiant is a fantastic sniper for lower difficulties and a versatile one for higher difficulties.


 * Multiplayer
 * The Valiant fits in between the Mantis and Viper sniper rifles, doing more damage and holding more spare ammo than the latter, but less than the former, while still providing a higher rate of fire than either.
 * The Sniper Rifle Piercing Mod is very effective on this weapon, especially when fully upgraded as the damage lost isn't significant enough to be of any real hindrance. Two or three well placed shots can quickly end multiple targets if used correctly. While weapons like the two Widows can do this with single shots due to their higher damage, both have a much slower rate of fire and a slower reload.
 * Reloading the Valiant is extremely quick, when reload cancelled, it's near-instantaneous if done correctly. If this is used, it also gives an extra benefit of giving the Valiant a near-constant rate of fire, but this also means you will burn your ammunition supply very quickly. But done correctly, the damage per second can very easily become unmatched in the sniper category.
 * The Valiant works better against shielded enemies such as Geth Hunters and Centurions than any single shot sniper rifle such as the Widow, as it can bypass the feature that excess damage done to the shields of enemies doesn't carry over to their health/armour. In one magazine, for example, the Valiant can kill a Geth Rocket Trooper on gold difficulty whereas a Widow would only reduce its shields to 0.
 * With the addition of the Sniper Rifle Amp Gear, it is possible to further increase the damage of the Valiant by up to 15%. This increase can drop almost any shielded infantry in just two shots, one shot for shields (or two with tougher enemies), and one for the health. The overall damage of the Valiant becomes so devastating when damage is applied that the weapon becomes unmatched for quickly eliminating groups of infantry on any difficulty.
 * Alternatively, if playing as the salarian Infiltrator, it can be useful to have the Operative Package Gear, as this increases both the damage of the Valiant and that of Energy Drain by 11%, which makes it very easy to fight geth on any difficulty.