Infiltrator Guide (Mass Effect 3)

While focusing on taking out enemies from afar without detection, the Infiltrator also specializes in flanking and misdirection, serving to disorient the opponent.

Overview
The Infiltrator uses its powers to create opening which can be exploited by other powers or weapons. Tactical cloak lets an infiltrator maneuver into position AND set up attacks without enemy targeting. Sabotage temporarily disables enemies OR turns them against their allies (through the AI Hacking feature). Incinerate provides some help against armor, Sticky Grenade can be quite useful if your aim and timing are good, and two ammo powers help give  the Infiltrator some variety.

Tactical Cloak
As in Mass Effect 2, the Tactical Cloak is one of an Infiltrator's greatest assets. Not only are you able to move around enemy lines undetected, but the next shot you take gets a considerable damage bonus. New to Mass Effect 3 however, is that disabling the Cloak before it wears off will reduce the cooldown of your powers, allowing the cloak to be turned on and off more frequently. In addition, the weight system allows infiltrators to take a shotgun into combat in lieu of or in addition to a sniper rifle, granting the same damage bonus from the cloak, but at much closer range. This allows an infiltrator to maneuver around enemy cover and deal damage in situations where a sniper rifle has a high chance of missing or being blocked by armor (which is particularly helpful against Cerberus Guardians).

Cryo Ammo
Cryo ammo best used with weapons like Assault Rifles and SMGs--weapons that spray many shots, further increasing the chance of icing an enemy over. If you're quick at changing weapons and aiming, a sniper rifle shot can finish an enemy off--or you could use Incinerate. Cryo Ammo also softens up armored enemies, making it a good thing for wearing down Brutes, Banshees, Atlas Mechs, and anything else with armor as a protection. This ammo is particularly devastating when used with the Falcon, as any enemies caught in the area of effect are all susceptible to being frozen. Another tip is to evolve the squad version and allow your squad to stop entire squads of enemies. This also enables the player to use a different ammo type while still taking advantage of the freezing debuff on enemies (e.g. frozen Brutes + Armor-Piercing Ammo).

Disruptor Ammo
Disruptor ammo is eternally useful. It fries shields and synthetics, while also having a decent chance to stun organic enemies. As an added bonus, Disruptor Ammo now deals bonus damage to Barriers (though not to the same magnitude as Warp Ammo). It's not a bad idea to get the Squad Disruptor Ammo evolution, but it's hardly essential.

Sticky Grenade
Sticky grenade is useful mostly because it is has no cooldown and can be used at any time. It fares well against single, well-armored enemies, as they are often large targets which require much less effort to stick than the standard grunt. When stuck, the grenade deals massive damage, but unfortunately its damage radius is quite small, meaning a miss is unlikely to deal much, if any damage to moving targets. Guardians will not take any damage if you stick the grenade on their shield. Using sticky grenade does not disable cloaking effect of Tactical Cloak, so one can gain further advantage against unsuspecting enemies.

Incinerate
Incinerate's relatively quick recharge, solid damage, and anti-armor abilities are good features to have along. One of its late power evolutions does greatly increased damage to frozen enemies, making it self-synergize with Cryo Ammo above. Remember that the shot will curve towards the target, so it can be used to break enemies out of cover. On high-level difficulties, evolving Incinerate towards its anti-armor role makes dealing with Brutes, Banshees and Harvesters much easier.

Sabotage
Sabotage disables the weapons of enemies and causes slight damage over time to its targets. If recharge times are kept low, this can be a useful tool to disable enemies on one flank to give you time to eliminate the others. If an enemy has been wounded to near death, Sabotage will let you ignore him while the damage effect finishes him off. The opposite approach--disabling the strongest enemy present--has its virtues, especially against Atlas mechs. Sabotage is slightly less useful against Reaper forces, but it still affects Cannibals and Marauders. It can also be used to hack synthetics, including Cerberus turrets. A good approach is to subvert enemies at the back of the squad; enemies in cover against you are likely not so protected against their own allies. Also, if you see a Cerberus turret, hack it immediately. They are quite powerful and they can eliminate several enemies in short order.

Fitness
Fitness adds to your health, shields, and melee damage. If you're an Infiltrator and taking damage use your Tactical Cloak to be somewhere else. And again melee. If you're in a brawl then cloak and get out of there. That said, 1 point for 15% to all three is a good investment. Either that or throw the normal playbook out of the window, pack a shotgun, cloak to get into melee, and use the melee spree evolution. It's fun! (If slightly slow).

Operational Mastery
Operational Mastery is a good all round set of abilities, increasing your influence, your weight capacity (thus allowing you better weapons or faster recharges), sniper time dilation (giving you an easy time of lining up headshots), and more damage. What's not to like?

Energy Drain
One of the strongest choices, and one of the reasons why salarian infiltrators are among the dominant infiltrators in multiplayer. The Infiltrator lacks the ability to deal with shields natively, and the ability to restore its own shields. Energy Drain covers both those gaps nicely, and finding shielded enemies is relatively easy. Since cloak stops all shield regeneration, energy drain will be the only way to restore shields with heavy cloak usage. Even without tactical cloak's bonus power upgrade, you can combo your cloak shots with energy drain, as long as you energy drain or fire your shot quickly after the other.

Dark Channel
While not as useful for an Infiltrator as it would be for a biotic class like the Sentinel or Vanguard, a fully evolved Dark Channel grants a 75% damage bonus to Barriers and Armor, and can be used effectively against multiple targets by "jumping" to a new target when the previous one is killed. This lets you soften up multiple armored targets very quickly. If you choose Dark Channel for your bonus power, Kaidan and Liara are ideal squadmates, as they both have powers which can both detonate and be detonated by Dark Channel.

Decoy
Decoy is a more traditional "Assassination skill" that allows you to maintain your stealth position by confusing the enemy into shooting your Decoy.

Defense Matrix
Defense Matrix is the primary defensive option for the Infiltrator, initially providing a defensive boost at the cost of a 60% recharge reduction - a steep price for a class heavily reliant on Tactical Cloak. The 25% damage boost and 30% recharge reduction evolutions offsets this damage and recharge penalty, while purging your Defense Matrix will restore 50-100% of your shields (based on rank and evolution). Due to the diminishing returns from very high recharge bonuses, a 30% penalty to recharge times will increase your cooldowns by very little; more than justifying the damage reduction and increased outgoing damage if you keep your weight bonus high and seek out other power recharge bonuses.

Marksman
If you'd prefer to be a "pocket-soldier", using weapons rather than powers to actually do almost all your killing, Marksman can be activated while in Tactical Cloak, then you cancel the tactical cloak by shooting and are recharging at the rate of Tactical Cloak, which for all practical purposes, gives you a permanent Marksman boost. It is probably best to combine this with one of the rapid fire sniper rifles.

Stasis
Utilizing Stasis's Bonus Power evolution, along with Tactical Cloak's Bonus Power evolution, virtually allows for infinite Stasis use, and you should be able to fire 2 more powers for a total of 3 while under a single Cloak.

Shotguns
The low weight and staggering effect of the Disciple or a very heavy shotgun like the M-300 Claymore work best with this strategy. The former to allow you to recloak that much faster and more safely, and the latter to take that much more advantage of the weapon damage bonus when decloaking. Of specific interest is the Geth Plasma Shotgun and the Graal Spike Thrower, both of which break the cloak when you start charging them rather than when on discharge, meaning that you can start charging the shotgun, activate the cloak, walk up to the enemy, discharge the fully-charged shotgun while still cloaked, and either get a second shot or run away before the cloak wears off.

Sniper Rifles
The true headshot specialist normally favours a single shot bolt action sniper rifle with the power to stop a charging krogan, the M-98 Widow or even the humble M-92 Mantis being favoured here. And for those who can afford it the Black Widow has almost all the advantages of the widow and three shots before needing to reload. The Javelin also works well and has the advantage of spotting cloaked or smoke-concealed targets. But other than the Mantis, these are all extremely heavy weapons severely retricting power use. The black widow though deserves special mention if playing on insanity. Since shielded enemies can not be killed in one hit, black widow allows you to kill multiple shielded targets. For example, with one cloak, you can energy drain and cloak shot the first shielded target down. While cloak is cooling down, you have 2 more shots in the clip to either take down 2 unshielded targets or one shielded target.

For those less concerned about one hit kills, the M-13 Raptor is effective for lightweight players, the low damage is offset by the high rate of fire and high-capacity clips and can be enhanced with Armour-piercing Ammo and Sniper Rifle Extended Barrel for maximum stopping power. The M-97 Viper's advantage over other Sniper Rifles is its thermal clip size of 6, its large reserve, its low weight, its fast reload speed, and its low recoil coupled with a decent fire rate.The damage it delivers may not kill most targets in one shot, but it can leave most opponents at a very low health with a single headshot, allowing you to finish them off with your sidearm. If ever one is against multiple opponents with armor or shield, one can throw Incinerate or Energy Drain at a fairly fast rate. It's main weakness is the need to score a headshot to actually deal any recognizable damage, and its lack of penetration through surfaces.

Submachine Guns
Submachine guns are a good complement to the classic Infiltrator's sniper rifle, since they're effective at close range where the rifle would be unwieldy, and have a high rate of fire for dealing with swarms of weak enemies on whom a rifle shot would be wasted. Another benefit of submachine guns is that with the SMG Ultralight Materials upgrade, they are the lightest guns in the game, which helps an Infiltrator keep a fast cooldown despite carrying a heavy sniper rifle. Infiltrators who use SMGs frequently should prioritize getting M-9 Tempest, since it's a much more effective SMG than the starting M-4 Shuriken. In the single-player campaign, there are few other good choices of SMG -- the M-12 Locust comes very late in the game, so while it might be useful in a New Game Plus, it's an afterthought in a character's first playthrough. The M-25 Hornet may also be a viable choice, although its recoil makes it difficult to handle.

Combat Guide
As with Mass Effect 2, Infiltrators should take full advantage of Tactical Cloak during flanking-maneuvers and to position themselves for the best possible shot. The Infiltrator's default weapons-loadout is the bolt-action Sniper Rifle ( such as the Mantis or Widow) backed with any PDW-platform of choice (usually an Ultralight-SMG) for CQC-situations (SMGs being considered superior backup weapons to Pistols due to negligible impact on recharge rate.) The Concentration Module is recommended for its time-dilation effect and slightly increased damage.

More than two weapons are not recommended as they cripple your power recharge rate to no good purpose, although some players have good success with a Soldier-type approach by carrying a hard-hitting Sniper rifle, and pair it together with a heavy shotgun for a massively damaging load-out allowing you to take out the toughest enemies with minimal effort from any range.

As always, when using a sniper rifle, aim for the head after stripping off shields and barriers. With a strong single-shot sniper rifle, this will one-shot kill any Cerberus troops and all but the heaviest Reaper troops. This style of play is of most importance on harder difficulties, and particularly on Insanity: Often the biggest threat are grenades lobbed at your position as these will kill you instantly if you're anywhere near them, but the enemies who throw them are without shields or barriers (Assault Troops and Cannibals). Taking out these enemies before they can get into position and throw them at all can save the hassle of repositioning when a grenade is thrown into your covered area.

With a style centered around close-quarter combat (focusing on melee damage and use of a shotgun with Disruptor ammo), one particularly effective and fun technique is to position your squad members at a medium distance while you use Tactical Cloak to rush an enemy position and quickly dispatch an enemy with a heavy melee attack before ducking into cover. This will create a hammer-and-anvil situation where your squad is free to fire upon targets while you sow confusion with Cloak and a combination of melee attacks and a powerful wallop from a shotgun, with Sticky Grenades to supplement your firepower. However, caution is advised against attacking enemies in entrenched positions or Reaper forces -- without cover to hide in between Cloak recharges, or against Husks and Ravagers, you'll quickly find yourself in trouble.

Another method of playing uses the Sniper rifle as more of a support weapon, or even eschews it entirely. The build revolves around melee damage and close range combat using Tactical Cloak, which means that weapons should be in the Shotgun or Heavy Pistol family with the appropriate melee damage increases. Shotguns are suggested, as one point-blank shot can decimate the opponent's shield and/or health, making it easier to melee enemies to death.

Incinerate is useful for finishing weak enemies, hurting armored enemies, and flushing targets from cover. (Remember that it arcs to the target. Aim a little high and to one side of your target to help it around cover). While it's not on the level of Tactical Cloak, it's nonetheless a valuable part of your arsenal.

Sabotage doesn't do much damage by itself, but it can remove a strong enemy from the fight long enough to attend to the weaker enemies, or end a weakened enemy (from the backfiring of his weapon) while you move onto the next one. It's also very useful for shutting down Atlas mechs to give you a few retaliation-free shots at it.

Sabotage's AI Hacking function is also extremely handy to have; Cerberus turrets are very, very effective, and often set up in the middle of an enemy position. It's not an exaggeration to say that one subverted turret will ruin any troopers, engineers, or Centurions that happen to be near it. AI Hacking still has the same uses against geth that it always had: Subvert a target in the back of the group, and he'll either divert attention to himself or flush enemies from cover, or get killed himself while softening up the group as a whole.

Sticky grenade is good for slow-moving or large targets, like Brutes or Banshees. If you can get close enough, try throwing a grenade on them. Few things in the game do damage like a grenade that just went off on an enemy's shoulder. The sticky grenade is also good for tight groups of enemies.

Disruptor ammo helps remove shields and destroy synthetics, and sometimes stuns organic enemies. Cryo ammo is good for its armor-softening abilities, even if it doesn't freeze the target.

If playing in multiplayer, especially if using a widow, be aware of your weapon's power and the difficulty you're playing on. If using a widow X, even on gold, extra time spent lining up a headshot on weaker targets may be a waste when a simple body shot would do the job.

An interesting note: There is something along the lines of an "active reload" in the game, most notably with the Infiltrator and the Sniper rifles. Using a power cancels the reload animation, which is fairly long with sniper rifles. However, the ammo is filled within the animation. Using this fact, you can essentially decrease the time between shots by activating one of the power buttons, even if it on cooldown. For example, you can activate your Cloak immediately after the reload has occurred. This takes some practice to get it right, but when completed properly, and with practice, it becomes an invaluable tool for the Infiltrator in combat -- able to pop shots off at an incredible rate.

Squad Members
If you're playing as a sniper, Liara is invaluable. Stasis locks enemies into place and allows you to get a headshot lined up; it also works on shielded enemies, allowing you to eliminate common shielded enemies like Centurions, Engineers, or Marauders. . Warp and Warp Ammo help strip barrier defenses. And, finally, her Singularity can render unshielded enemies helpless, and easy to pick off with a sniper rifle, as well as strip the shields of Guardians if one is not using an armor piercing sniper rifle. Singularity's recharge time can be made quite short, allowing her to use Warp on enemies within it before it expires for extra damage if they aren't already killed by sniping. Finally, the Infiltrator's Sticky Grenade will wreck a great deal of havoc on enemies clustered together by Singularity.

Similarly to Liara, Kaidan Alenko makes an excellent choice as a squadmate. Reave functions in a way very similarly to Warp in removing barriers, while Cryo Blast and Overload will either freeze or stun most enemies, allowing the Infiltrator to set up a killing headshot.

Characters who have Overload, such as Kaidan, Garrus, and EDI, are also good to have along. In addition to removing shields so you can take out one enemy with a sniper round, Overload often stuns organic enemies for a few seconds, giving you the opening for that sniper round. Garrus's Armor-Piercing Ammo will grant damage boosts to the Infiltrator if given the Squad upgrade, helping out against tougher foes like Atlas Mechs and Brutes, while EDI's Incinerate coupled with her power damage boosts due to Unshackled AI can allow the Infiltrator to focus on other skills such as Tactical Cloak or Sabotage.

For other guidelines, characters who can use assault rifles (Ashley Williams, Garrus, Javik, James Vega, and Kaidan) are good to have, especially with the piercing mod to help get to the enemies behind cover. From Ashes also adds the Prothean Particle Rifle, which is an amazing tool for focus-fire.

If you have the DLC From Ashes, Javik is also a very reliable option and can even effectively replace Liara's position. Javik's powers are somewhat similar to Liara's if evolved around the appropriate steps; by giving his Pull and Slam the ability to affect multiple targets. Javik also has a very low recharge speed towards both said powers, allowing you to spam them effectively.