Heavy Weapons

Heavy Weapons are a class of weapon available to all player classes in Mass Effect 2. They consume power cells as ammunition, rather than the universal heatsinks utilized by smaller weapons. The ML-77 Missile Launcher, M-622 Avalanche, and M-920 Cain are researched within the Normandy SR-2's tech lab after the player has acquired enough Heavy Weapons ammunition upgrades; the others can be found during missions.

M-100 Grenade Launcher
Popular Manufacturer(s): Elanus Risk Control Services Rounds per minute: 125

Rapid-fire grenade launcher favored by the Blood Pack vorcha mercenaries. Capable of taking down multiple enemies with a single well-placed shot. Effective against armor, shields, and biotic barriers.

Player Summary: This is the first heavy weapon acquired (during the escape from Lazarus Station), and remains quite useful in many situations. Its reasonably high damage, coupled with high rate of accurate fire make it a great all around heavy weapon. The M-100 Grenade Launcher deals splash damage, making it a good choice against groups of small targets.

ML-77 Missile Launcher
Popular Manufacturer(s): Armax Arsenal Rounds per minute: 80

The missile launcher is recommended for engagements where large–scale opposition is expected. Single-person portability is retained thanks to the now-standard collapsible design. What makes the missile launcher so effective is the friend–or–foe projectiles it fires – the user can fire the weapon from behind cover and the missiles will, within milliseconds, identify, lock onto and track enemies (organic or synthetic). The intended target has only a 6.8% chance (plus or minus, depending on weather conditions and available cover) of evading the impact(s).

Player Summary: A general-purpose weapon, very useful in some situations. Its most useful attribute is the fact that it does not require line-of-sight. Missile tracking is reliable if the weapon is aimed above or to the side of a target protected by cover in a way similar to aiming biotic skills, giving the missiles time to lock on and maneuver towards the target. The homing nature of the ML-77's missiles also makes indirect fire possible; precise aiming or line-of-sight is not required to hit a target. This is especially useful for fighting large, heavily-armed enemies such as Gunships or YMIR Mechs which can deal considerable damage to an unprotected player and often move around. Missiles do take some time to reach their target; time shots appropriately. While each missile deals only moderate damage, the missile launcher can carry more than twenty when fully upgraded and can fire them rapidly.

M-622 Avalanche
Popular Manufacturer(s): Unknown Rounds per minute: 50

Cryo Round technology is used to modify standard weapon slugs. A cooling laser collapses the ammunition into Bose-Einstein condensate, a mass of super-cooled subatomic particles capable of snap-freezing impacted objects. Normandy's scientists have found a way to apply this technology on a large scale: by generating a mass effect containment "bubble", this proof-of-concept large weapon technology is effective against armor, shields, and biotic barriers. It is nicknamed the "Cryo-Blaster".

Player Summary: Very effective against unshielded groups of enemies. The main drawback is that it takes a while for its projectile to reach a target and the projectile itself deals very little damage. Also in order to freeze an enemy the target must stand in the freezing cloud, making it mainly defensive support weapon. The Avalanche can be fired rapidly or charged up for a more damaging attack. A growing crystal will form in front of the weapon when the fire button is held down, giving a rough indication of how powerful the shot will be. It isn't a good idea to bring this weapon into confrontations with the Blood Pack, as the freezing effects don't stop regeneration, and the little damage it does won't be enough to make a dent in enemy numbers.

M-920 Cain
Popular Manufacturer(s): Unknown Charge up time: 4 seconds

The effectiveness and efficiency of mass effect-based weapon technology has rendered large-scale deployment of highly explosive infantry weapons all but obsolete. Normandy's scientists have prototyped a modified version of traditional high-explosive rounds that is applied to a 25g slug. When accelerated to 5 km/s, the round is devastating. Though a technically inaccurate label, this prototype weapon is nicknamed the "Nuke Launcher", and its high-explosive matrix generates an archetypical mushroom cloud on impact. It inflicts high damage with large area of effect. Very effective against armor, shields, and barriers.

Player Summary: On normal difficulty, the Cain is capable of killing enemies within an extremely large area in a single shot. The final boss as well as the Thresher Maw on Tuchanka are the only enemies in the game that the Cain cannot kill instantly; instead, the Cain takes off a little more than half of each boss's life bar. However, Cain can only be fired when its ammo count is at 100% or above, meaning that it can only hold enough ammunition to be fired twice (full ammo upgrades bring its capacity to 200%, or 2 shots). If the Cain is shot quickly after the first shot, the charge time would be neglected. Still, it is a devastating weapon. Because of its large damage effect, don't fire it within a small room. A second problem with this weapon is the long 'charging time' before the weapon fires, which forces the player either to expose him/herself to enemy fire, or to hide behind a wall and carefully time the shot in order not to have the slug explode right in front of them.

Collector Particle Beam
Popular Manufacturer(s): Unknown

Precise and lethal, this focused radiation weapon is very effective against shields, barriers, and armor. The amount of energy required to create a destructive beam is several orders of magnitude more than the amount needed to launch a high-velocity projectile via a mass effect field.

Player Summary: The Collector Particle Beam can be found on Horizon. One of the most useful heavy weapons available, the Particle Beam has great power and precision. Its continuous beam fire combined with an all-containing high capacity magazine that eliminates the need to reload makes the Collector Particle Beam an excellent offensive heavy weapon in all situations. It is also one of the best heavy weapons for an Adept, as it is very efficient against enemy shields.

M-490 Blackstorm Projector
Popular Manufacturer(s): Unknown Charge up time: 3 seconds

The Blackstorm encases a few particles of matter within a high-powered mass-increasing field, elevating them to near-infinite mass and creating a powerful localized gravity well that draws nearby enemies and objects into itself. The rapidly-increasing gravity near the event horizon of the singularity rips the objects apart and then explosively hurls them away. However if the enemy is too large, it will not pull them in but still do damage. Perhaps the best support heavy weapon available, having great destructive effect, long singularity duration and sizable amount of extra shots.

Player Summary: The M-490 Blackstorm Projector is a retail bonus item available exclusively when pre-ordering Mass Effect 2 from certain retailers. It will only fire when fully charged up, releasing a ball of mass, which will head to the location where the weapon was pointed while dragging any foes (provided their shielding/barrier/armor is down) with it until it explodes, pressing matter out and sending foes flying, if they havent been killed by the blast already. Great for clearing out a corridor filled with foes,can take out a portion of armor etc if the blast is close enough. Not recommended against bosses such as the final boss or the Thresher Maw on Tuchanka, as the ball simply passes by and doesn't deal much damage. On Tali's recruitment mission, there is a possibly beneficial glitch associated with this weapon. If you fire it at the colossus and it impacts the colosuss, one it will cause a large amount of damage, and two, when it explodes it has a very high chance of making the colossus glitch into the air and stay there, affording you time and much easier shots at the colossus. This glitch has been confirmed on hardcore multiple times.

M-451 Firestorm
Popular Manufacturer(s): Unknown

Based on the turian "Hieras" flamethrower, the Firestorm is an anti-personnel and anti-armor flame unit that can accept a wide variety of liquid fuels. The turian design used low-octane hydrocarbons thickened with dentra oil, which is taken from large marine animals similar to Earth's whales. Humans then reverse-engineered a synthetic composite with almost identical properties that could be fabricated from heavy weapon fuel cells using an omni-tool. The result is a sticky spray that burns at approximately 1,600 degrees Celsius, a less intense fire than plasma weapons but covering a significantly wider target area.

Player Summary: The M-451 Firestorm can be found during Zaeed Massani's loyalty quest, on the body of a dead mercenary. Zaeed and his quest are available as a downloadable content pack for Mass Effect 2. It is similar to the Collector Particle Beam or the enemy Pyro flamethrowers, firing a burst of flame straight ahead. This is a short-range weapon.

Trivia

 * The M-920 Cain is not named for the Biblical Cain, but for Fallout and Fallout 2 designer Tim Cain.
 * Tactical Cloak is an excellent strategy for firing the M-920 Cain or M-490 Blackstorm Projector without being under enemy fire. This is most useful on higher difficulties or against strong enemy types.