M-300 Claymore

The M-300 Claymore Heavy Shotgun is a shotgun from Mass Effect 2.

In-Game Description
Very rare krogan shotgun. Deals high damage at short range; less effective at long range. Effective against armor, shields and biotic barriers. It is of human design but is only used by krogan, due to the fact that the kickback from a single shot has enough force to break a human's arm. Protected by Fabrication Rights Management (FRM) technology, this weapon is nearly impossible to reproduce and is prohibitively expensive.

Acquisition
'''Note: This weapon is exclusive to Shepard and Grunt. No other squadmates may choose to use it.'''
 * If playing as a Soldier or a Vanguard, the player will have the option of acquiring this during the Collector Ship mission.
 * After recruiting Grunt, asking him about upgrades will make the M-300 available for research as a weapon for him. Only Grunt can use this Claymore.

Squad Usage

 * Only Grunt can wield the M-300 and he deals 40% less damage than Shepard.
 * For Grunt it may be a better idea to use the M-22 Eviscerator Shotgun over the M-300 because the Eviscerator has a longer range and has similar damage rate. Grunt may deal more damage with the M-22 in certain situations than he would with the M-300 because squad members tend to shoot shotguns at a longer range than a player would, and tend to shoot more often with weapons that possess a larger clip and higher rate of fire than weapons with a lower fire rate and clip size.

Player Notes

 * General Notes
 * The M-300 only holds one round per thermal clip and a limited amount of spare ammunition. Coupled with its short-range and high damage, these qualities make the M-300 a high-risk, high-reward weapon.
 * The Claymore's fire rate can be dramatically improved by keeping the fire button pressed and performing a melee attack on hearing the click sound during reloading. This will fire another shot as soon as the melee animation starts. This reduces the delay between shots from 2.4 seconds to approximately 1.4 seconds. This trick can be repeated to maintain a constant improved fire rate.
 * The Claymore becomes less useful on higher difficulties when it becomes more difficult to get a one-shot kill, and combined with its one shot clip, it becomes very inefficient.
 * Class Specific Notes
 * For Vanguards, this is an extremely useful weapon when used with the Heavy Charge evolved ability. Because Charge slows time down directly after it hits, players can inflict heavy damage by immediately following up with a powerful blast at point-blank range, all before the enemy has time to react.
 * Although the Charge tactic is useful on common soldiers, it is inadvisable to use the Claymore against boss characters with multiple protection layers (unless they are the only remaining enemy, at which point the squad can focus on the boss as well).

Trivia

 * The model number is printed on the weapon as "300-M" so that it can be interpreted as "BooM."
 * The Claymore is likely named after the two-handed Scottish sword.
 * While the M-300 is described as only usable by krogan, many species throughout the game are shown using it. For example, the batarian Command Bodyguard of the MSV Strontium Mule and the asari Captain Enyala.