M-92 Mantis

The M-92 Mantis Sniper Rifle is a sniper rifle in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3.

Description
Powerful sniper rifle able to take out most targets in a single shot. Incredibly accurate at long range, but rate of fire is slow. Effective against armor, but weaker against shields and biotic barriers. Manufactured by Devlon Industries, the Mantis is primarily used by police and planetary militia groups. The prevalence of kinetic barriers has made this weapon less popular with the military, but it is used more frequently in the Terminus systems where these defenses are less common. Has great damage and accuracy with near instantaneous hit, offset however by its small amount of extra ammo that can be carried.

Acquisition
You get this weapon automatically when you start the Freedom's Progress mission as a Soldier or Infiltrator.

Squad Use
This weapon can be used by Garrus, Legion, Thane, and Zaeed. Squadmates deal 45% less damage with this weapon than if wielded by Shepard.

Player Notes

 * The M-92 is a very powerful weapon, able to take down most lower-ranked enemies in a single headshot. This power is offset by the huge heat buildup caused by the weapon, causing the rifle to fire only one shot before the thermal clip must be replaced, and its low spare ammo capacity.
 * Using Adrenaline Rush helps you get some very hard headshots, boosts the damage of the M-92, and allows you to reload much faster, if you aren't waiting too long to shoot.
 * The M-92 is the typical single-shot, precision sniper rifle found in shooters.  Infiltrators and Soldiers can compensate for this with Adrenaline Rush, Tactical Cloak and the time dilation effect of the Infiltrator's class skill. Other classes that pick up Sniper Rifle training on the Collector's Ship will find it much harder to take a precision headshot, and may find it more beneficial and less wasteful to use either the semi-automatic M-97 Viper or semi-automatic/burst-fire M-29 Incisor which have higher ammo capacities and firing rates than the Mantis, and thus have more room for error.
 * The M-92 is generally the best one-shot, one-kill weapon, if the player chooses not to or cannot pick up the M-98 Widow during the Collector Ship mission. Other sniper rifles can be difficult to use if you are trying for a quick direct headshot. With the Viper rifle, the stagger caused by the first headshot usually makes it is difficult to line up a second headshot on the target.
 * For any difficulty through Veteran, this default sniper rifle should be the preferred choice for Infiltrators and Soldiers, since one shot will always take down any enemy below elite rank.
 * For higher difficulty levels, where all enemies have protection and very few enemies can be taken down in a single shot, the one round clip capacity and low ammunition reserve of this weapon render it unusable, and the M-97 Viper should be preferred for Shepard.
 * The M-92 has a field of view of only 10° and therefor a much higher level of magnification than the M-97 Viper and the M-98 Widow, as they both have a FoV of 40°.

Description
The Mantis is a powerful sniper rifle able to take out most targets in a single shot. It's incredibly accurate at long range, but rate of fire is slow. Manufactured by Devlon Industries, the Mantis is primarily used by police and planetary militia groups.

Acquisition

 * Single-player: At the beginning of Priority: Mars
 * Multiplayer: One of the multiplayer mode's five starting weapons.

Player Notes

 * Fully upgraded the Mantis is probably the best sniper rifle in the game. It lacks the Widow's AP power but it's combination of accuracy, hitting power and weight make it a superior choice if paired with a light SMG or geth pulse rifle
 * The M-92 Mantis is a single shot sniper rifle, requiring a reload after each shot. Make sure to take that into account as you must make your shots count.
 * The M-92 is a good starting sniper rifle, packing good damage per shot, and is more than capable of killing most enemies in one or two shots.
 * As with all the sniper rifles, it has pin-point accuracy, meaning where you aim is where your bullet will go.
 * As with all sniper rifles, it does suffer from being heavy to carry, and will hinder any player who likes to (or needs to) use powers frequently..
 * Until you can level up the Mantis with additional spare clip capacity, or acquire the spare thermal clip mod, ammo is very scant.
 * With an unshielded enemy, using Cryo Blast will freeze an enemy in place for 2-3 seconds before falling over. This allows consistent headshot kills with each shot. This can also be done with Stasis, or to a lesser extent, Energy Drain or Overload.
 * As with other sniper rifles, if the M-92 is shot without aiming with the scope, it will do about half the normal damage.

Trivia

 * While the M-92 looks nearly identical to the standard sniper rifle from Mass Effect, the scope has changed and the multiple levels of magnification are absent.