Black Widow/ME3SP

Description
The Alliance wanted to reduce the reload time of the original Widow rifle, without sacrificing its stopping power. The solution was to increase the number of shots the gun could fire before it needed a fresh thermal clip. Heavy for a sniper rifle, the Black Widow's firepower more than compensates for its encumbrance.

Acquisition
The Black Widow can be purchased from the Spectre Requisitions terminal in the Citadel Embassies for 250,000 credits.

Player Notes

 * The Black Widow seeks to improve on the M-98 Widow's faults. The result is a powerful rifle, still capable of dealing significant damage, while at the same time giving the Black Widow three shots instead of one before reloads are needed. However, it does less damage per round than the standard Widow, and even slightly less than the Mantis.
 * The main strength is that the Black Widow has much higher damage than any other semi-automatic rifle--it can kill weaker enemies outright in one shot to the body while stronger targets can be picked off with a single headshot. The high damage, combined with the semi-automatic firing means that this rifle can achieve much higher damage per second than most sniper rifles. Against armor it is virtually unparalleled.
 * The biggest problem, however, is that it weighs as much as the M-98 Widow, making it certain to increase power cooldown times. Because of this, it would be highly recommended to avoid using this weapon on classes that rely heavily on their powers, such as Adepts, Vanguards, or Engineers.
 * It is recommended to use the Black Widow with Adrenaline Rush. Adrenaline Rush compensates for the loss of damage per shot. You can get off at least 2 clips with the Black Widow while in Adrenaline Rush.
 * The Black Widow does have a steep initial purchase price. However after initial purchase, the cost to upgrade will be the same as any other weapon's upgrade cost (eg: from level III to IV).
 * With a great deal of spending discipline and completion of all side missions, the player can buy and begin upgrading this rifle before Priority: Tuchanka. It helps to be diligent about scanning all clusters for war assets as soon as they become available on the galaxy map, which will reveal a lot of credits early in the game; taking the store discount option from the remains of a Reaper destroyer on Borr may also be useful.
 * With Armor-Piercing Ammo focused on penetration and the piercing mod this rifle can penetrate most cover, rendering almost no enemy safe from its rounds.
 * The Black Widow can send shots through 25cm of cover even without armor-piercing mods.