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Disambiguous This article is about the tech power Energy Drain in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. For the Energy Drain skill in Mass Effect: Andromeda, see Energy Drain (skill).

Energy Drain is a tech power in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3's single-player and multiplayer modes. This power travels in a straight line from the user to the target, hitting instantly.

Mass Effect 2[]

Energydrain Drain enemies' kinetic barrier power to boost your shields.

Power Ranks[]

  • Rank 1 - Within a small area of effect, you can divert power from an opponent's shields or from synthetic enemies to restore the user's shields.
    • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds (Shepard); 12.00 seconds (Tali)
    • Energy Drain: 120.00 points
    • Impact Radius: 1.20 meters
  • Rank 2 - Within a small area of effect, you can divert power from an opponent's shields or from synthetic enemies to restore the user's shields.
    • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds (Shepard); 12.00 seconds (Tali)
    • Energy Drain: 140.00 points
    • Impact Radius: 1.20 meters
  • Rank 3 - Within a small area of effect, you can divert power from an opponent's shields or from synthetic enemies to restore the user's shields.
    • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds (Shepard); 12.00 seconds (Tali)
    • Energy Drain: 160.00 points
    • Impact Radius: 1.20 meters

Rank 4

Evolves Energy Drain into one of the following options:

Heavy Energy Drain[]

  • Your energy drain is much more disruptive to synthetics and shields, causing unparalleled damage.
    • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds (Shepard); 12.00 seconds (Tali)
    • Energy Drain: 200.00 points
    • Impact Radius: 1.20 meters

Area Drain[]

  • You can greatly widen your energy drain's radius to easily hit multiple targets.
    • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds (Shepard); 12.00 seconds (Tali)
    • Energy Drain: 160.00 points
    • Impact Radius: 3.00 meters

Player Notes[]

  • Energy Drain deals the damage amount listed above to synthetic armor, barriers and synthetic health. Double damage is dealt to shields. No organic health damage is dealt.
  • Energy Drain is capable of providing the largest shield restorations in the game.
  • Your shields are only restored if enemy shields or unarmored synthetics are hit. Hitting an armored synthetic without shields will damage the armor but will NOT restore your shields.
  • Energy Drain applies the following effects if used against shields or health of synthetic enemies[1]:
    1. increases maximum shield or barrier by an amount equal to its total damage,
    2. instantly restores a portion of shield or barrier equal to its total damage.
      • Both effects are affected by damage upgrades.
      • Neither of these effects are affected by the amount of actual damage dealt–attacking an enemy with only a sliver of shield/health left or using up the majority of damage for stripping a protection first and barely touching health will still apply the full effect.
      • Restoration effect scales with a number of opponents hit, but bonus to maximum shield/barrier does not, nor does it stack with subsequent uses.
      • Bonus to maximum shield/barrier always lasts 30 seconds, it is unaffected by duration upgrades and will remain in effect even if the original target dies or user's shield/barrier is partially depleted.
  • Energy Drain is useful for Adepts and Vanguards on higher difficulties because of the prevalence of shields among enemies as well as acting as an anti-synthetic weapon since Adepts do not have any powers or weapons training tailored to destroy synthetics. The bonus maximum shields granted by Energy Drain can stack with the bonus from using Charge.
  • Energy Drain is a powerful ability for any class because it refills shields much faster than waiting for the normal recharge, greatly reducing the amount of time the player must wait before popping out of cover to deal damage to enemies.
  • Area Drain's ability to easily hit multiple targets in one cast makes it much more useful in general combat especially for shield restoration, as hitting even two shielded enemies or synthetics will up to double the amount of shields restored to the user.
  • Energy Drain and all other "hitscan" (non-projectile) powers can bypass the circular yellow shields deployed by Collector Guardians, though against their barriers it does reduced damage and has no other special effects.

Availability[]

Mass Effect 3[]

ME3 Energy Drain

Power Ranks[]

Rank 1: Energy Drain[]

Hit an enemy with this energy pulse to inflict damage and to steal barrier and shield power.

  • Recharge Time: 8 sec
  • Damage: 220
  • Radius: 1.50 m
  • Shields Restored: 50%


Rank 2: Recharge Speed[]

Increase recharge speed by 25%.

  • Recharge Time: 6.40 sec
  • Damage: 220
  • Radius: 1.50 m
  • Shields Restored: 50%


Rank 3: Damage[]

Increase damage by 20%.

  • Recharge Time: 6.40 sec
  • Damage: 264
  • Radius: 1.50 m
  • Shields Restored: 50%


Rank 4: Damage/Radius[]

Damage

Increase damage by 30%.

  • Recharge Time: 6.40 sec
  • Damage: 330
  • Radius: 1.50 m
  • Shields Restored: 50%

Radius

Increase impact radius by 100%.

  • Recharge Time: 6.40 sec
  • Damage: 264
  • Radius: 3 m
  • Shields Restored: 50%


Rank 5: Drain/Recharge Speed[]

Drain

Increase shield restoration rate by 50% when draining shields, barriers, or power from synthetic enemies.

  • Recharge Time: 6.40 sec
  • Damage: 330 (Damage), 264 (Radius)
  • Radius: 1.50 m (Damage), 3 m (Radius)
  • Shields Restored: 100%

Recharge Speed

Increase recharge speed by 25%.

  • Recharge Time 5.33 sec
  • Damage: 330 (Damage), 264 (Radius)
  • Radius: 1.50 m (Damage), 3 m (Radius)
  • Shields Restored 50%


Rank 6: Damage/Armor Boost[]

Damage

Increase damage by 40%.

  • Recharge Time: 6.40 sec (Drain), 5.33 sec (Recharge Speed)
  • Damage: 418 (Damage), 352 (Radius)
  • Radius: 1.50 m (Damage), 3 m (Radius)
  • Shields Restored 100% (Drain), 50% (Recharge Speed)

Armor Boost

Reduce damage taken by 40% for 10 seconds by gaining a temporary layer of armor by draining shields, barriers, or energy from synthetics.


Player Notes[]

Mechanics
  • Energy Drain deals 3x damage to all shields and barriers, normal damage to the armor of synthetic enemies, and only half damage to the armor from organic enemies.[2]
  • Energy Drain will only replenish the player's shields when it hits an enemy with barriers/shields or any synthetic enemy regardless of protection layer hit; this differs slightly from its behavior in Mass Effect 2 where hitting an armor layer did not restore shields even against synthetics. Of course, Energy Drain restores shields based on the damage it does, and it does much less damage to armor than shields.
  • Energy Drain can hit a maximum of two targets within its area of effect, regardless of how it is evolved.
    • Unlike Incinerate and Overload, Energy Drain does have a small radius of effect baseline and can affect up to two targets that are close together, even if the Rank 4 Radius evolution is not chosen.
    • Hitting a Cerberus Combat Engineer carrying an undeployed Turret on its back will also hit the Turret and count as hitting a synthetic enemy for the purposes of the Drain and Armor Boost evolutions.
  • Energy Drain can no longer boost the user's maximum shield value as it could in Mass Effect 2.
  • Energy Drain will prime any enemy hit for a Tech Burst. It can also detonate fire, cryo, and tech combos but only when used against an organic with shields or barriers, or against any synthetic regardless of protections.
  • Electrocution effects: Energy Drain is able to electrically shock and stun almost all types of unshielded (red and yellow bar) infantry enemies. This stun can take two forms: the default causes unshielded targets to double over briefly. The second stun is an electrocution effect that causes the target to spasm violently while standing; this effect lasts noticeably longer than the default stun but occurs less frequently. If multiple unshielded targets are hit, each individual target hit can suffer a different stun effect. Other tech powers can also cause these stuns such as Overload and the backfire effect of Sabotage.
  • The Armor Boost effect is visible on the user as a hexagonal honeycomb pattern similar to the appearance of Defense Matrix or Fortification; for whatever reason this effect doesn't always appear.
Strategies
  • When comparing Energy Drain and Overload, both powers have pros and cons:
    • Overload has a few more damage multipliers than Energy Drain and can do much more damage to its primary target, especially with Neural Shock if the target is organic; Energy Drain can deal moderate damage to up to two targets. Being able to one-shot the protections of a target can be very important with certain playstyles such as sniping with powerful single-shot weapons, in order to prevent enemy shield gates from blocking damage.
    • Overload can detonate up to 3 non-biotic Power Combos with a single cast, while Energy Drain can prime up to two targets for Tech Bursts (Overload can prime only one).
    • In single-player, Tali can have a much faster recharge time with her Energy Drain than the squadmates that can use Overload.
    • Energy Drain can restore shields to the user and the Armor evolution makes the user almost invincible against synthetics; Overload on the other hand has better disabling versus organics with Neural Shock.
    • Why compete when you can work together? Energy Drain on clustered targets followed by a chaining Overload can obliterate shields, barriers, and light targets of all types in a storm of tech lightning. If you want to overdo it, first debuff enemies with a Tech Vulnerability-evolved Sabotage for good measure.
  • Energy Drain with the Rank 4 Radius evolution has a greater chance of hitting two targets and is therefore better for crowd control and for priming enemies for multiple tech combos. It's also more likely to restore shields from a shielded enemy that is mixed in with a group of unshielded ones without requiring precision targeting.
  • Energy Drain is a useful bonus power for classes that are lacking in anti-shield capabilities like Adepts, Vanguards, and to a slightly lesser extent Infiltrators.
  • While not the most damaging ability, Energy Drain will almost always stun an infantry target, making it a great way to set up follow-up shots or melee.
  • On higher difficulties, Energy Drain is a useful survival tool, allowing the player to weaken enemies and restore precious shielding at the same time. It is one of the only ways to restore shields without waiting for them to recharge normally, especially useful against enemy attacks with damage-over-time effects that can delay normal shield recharge, such as the ranged attacks of Banshees and the acid attacks of Swarmers.
  • The electrical effect that Energy Drain applies does not last as long as the one from Overload or Disruptor Ammo, making it an inferior choice as a primer when attempting to self-detonate Tech Bursts.

Availability[]

References[]

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