Incinerate

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

Incinerate is a tech power in Mass Effect 2, and in Mass Effect 3's single-player and multiplayer modes.

Note: As with all projectile powers, the power does not launch an actual projectile when used by a squadmate. Instead, it impacts instantly.

Mass Effect 2

Exploding flame damages the health and armor of anyone nearby.

Power Ranks

• Rank 1 - This explosive plasma blast inflicts damage over time to all nearby enemies and permanently stops their health regeneration. Very effective against armor.
  • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds (12.00 seconds for party members)
  • Impact Radius: 1.20 meters
  • Damage: 130.00 points over 3.00 seconds

• Rank 2 - This explosive plasma blast inflicts damage over time to all nearby enemies and permanently stops their health regeneration. Very effective against armor.
  • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds (12.00 seconds for party members)
  • Impact Radius: 1.20 meters
  • Damage: 150.00 points over 3.00 seconds

• Rank 3 - This explosive plasma blast inflicts damage over time to all nearby enemies and permanently stops their health regeneration. Very effective against armor.
  • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds (12.00 seconds for party members)
  • Impact Radius: 1.20 meters
  • Damage: 170.00 points over 3.00 seconds

Rank 4

Evolves Incinerate into one of the following options:

Heavy Incinerate

• This advanced plasma round melts or burns nearly anything it hits.
  • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds (12.00 seconds for party members)
  • Impact Radius: 1.20 meters
  • Damage: 210.00 points over 3.00 seconds

Incineration Blast

• This [sic] splash zone on this plasma round is increased, allowing you to scorch multiple targets.
  • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds (12.00 seconds for party members)
  • Impact Radius: 3.00 meters
  • Damage: 170.00 points over 3.00 seconds

Player Notes

• Incinerate deals the listed damage to shields and barriers only. It uses a 2.4 multiplier against armor, 1.26 against organic health (0.86 is applied instantly, 0.4 as damage over time) and 0.316 against unprotected synthetics (a quarter of the damage dealt to organics).
• Despite dealing damage over time, Incinerate is not affected by power duration upgrades.
• If there is any cover between Shepard (not the squadmate using it) and the target, the power will strike the cover instead.
• Damage is dealt instantly (i.e. not "over time") against protections (armor, barriers, and shields).
• Like Overload, this power causes unprotected pyro-type enemies equipped with flamethrowers to explode. To cause this effect, it must land on exposed health (red bar); breaking the target's protection and damaging the health with leftover damage will not detonate the fuel tanks.
• Most unprotected humanoid organics panic for the duration, and there is a chance that they can be completely knocked to the ground. Other unprotected organic enemy types such as varren can be stunned. Most protected enemies are briefly staggered upon being hit. Klixen are not staggered and their health is highly resistant to fire damage, as is that of most synthetic enemies such as geth.
• Hitting the unprotected health of enemies such as vorcha and krogan permanently stops their health regeneration.
• A leveled up Incinerate may be a better and more damaging alternative to Overload against weakly protected organic enemies. This is because Incinerate is capable of depleting an enemy's protections and causing additional damage to their health with any leftover damage, whereas Overload can take out protections but never damages organic health.

Availability

• Engineers
• Infiltrators
• Mordin
• Dr. Amanda Kenson

Mass Effect 3

Power Ranks

Rank 1: Incinerate

Burn your opponents and incinerate their armor.

Heavy damage to health and armor.
Make an enemy panic, stopping health regeneration.

• Recharge Speed: 8 sec
• Damage: 300 (330 Multiplayer)

Rank 2: Recharge Speed

Increase recharge speed by 25%.

• Recharge Speed: 6.40 sec
• Damage: 300 (330 Multiplayer)

Rank 3: Damage

Increase damage by 20%.

• Recharge Speed: 6.40 sec
• Damage: 360 (396 Multiplayer)

Rank 4: Damage/Radius

Damage Increase damage by 30%. Recharge Speed: 6.40 sec Damage: 450 (495 Multiplayer)

Radius Increase impact radius by 2 meters. (1.50 m Multiplayer)

Rank 5: Burning Damage/Recharge Speed

Burning Damage Increase damage by an additional 40% (50% Multiplayer) over 8 seconds.

Recharge Speed Increase recharge speed by 25%. Recharge Speed: 5.33 sec Damage: 450 (495 Multiplayer) [Damage], 360 (396 Multiplayer) [Radius]

Rank 6: Freeze Combo/Armor Damage

Freeze Combo Increase damage to frozen and chilled targets by an additional 100%.

Armor Damage Increase damage to armored targets by 50%.

Player Notes

Mechanics

• Incinerate does 1.5x damage against armor, but only half damage (0.5x) against barriers and shields.
• Incinerate actually only does 75% of its damage up-front, the other 25% is dealt as a damage-over-time ("DoT") effect over 3 seconds (which is distinct from the rank 5 Burning Damage evolution that provides a DoT effect).
• Unlike its Mass Effect 2 version, Incinerate no longer has an area of effect baseline, only the rank 4 Radius evolution allows it to hit multiple grouped targets, up to a maximum of 4. Taking this evolution can also allow the power to land even on enemies attempting to dodge the projectile. It also can enable Incinerate to simultaneously both prime and/or detonate Power Combos on separate targets (though only one target maximum can be detonated per cast).
• Unlike in Mass Effect 2, Incinerate does not halt enemy health regeneration, though Incendiary Ammo/Rounds does.
• Incinerate will prime almost all targets hit for a Fire Explosion for several seconds. This includes even protected targets still possessing shields, barriers, or armor. The priming effect lasts several seconds, but the burning visual cue of the prime is not the same as the general burning effect of the power itself. Taking the rank 5 Burning Damage evolution does not extend the duration of the priming effect.
• Like similar evolutions for other powers that bestow a DoT effect, the rank 5 Burning Damage evolution is 40% (or 50% multiplayer) of the overall damage of the power, whereas other evolutions that increase power damage are based off the base—i.e. un-upgraded—damage.
  • The longer duration of the Burning Damage DoT over the normal DoT (8 seconds versus 3 seconds) does increase how long organic enemies are panicked.
• The rank 6 Armor Damage bonus is a multiplicative increase, raising Incinerate's total damage multiplier against armor from 1.5x to 2.25x (as opposed to 2.0x).
• The rank 6 Freeze Combo bonus is multiplicative, affecting all damage components of the Incinerate (instant damage, built-in damage-over-time and rank 5 Burning Damage). Calculations are made upon impact and are not readjusted even if the chill/freeze effect expires before the burning DoT.
  • However, targets must be chilled or frozen prior to being hit by Incinerate for the Freeze Combo bonus to apply. The burn damage over time is not doubled if a target is hit with Incinerate first and then chilled or frozen.
  • The damage of any Fire Explosions or other Power Combos caused by the Incinerate are not enhanced by Freeze Combo.

Strategies

• When used in tandem with Overload or Arc Grenades, the two powers can be alternated for a potentially endless sequence of Fire Explosions and Tech Bursts, as each power simultaneously detonates a combo and sets up a new one. This is effective against almost all targets, but especially armored or shielded/barriered enemies.
  • The Radius evolution of Incinerate and the Chain evolutions of Overload enables each cast of Incinerate to prime multiple targets for Fire Explosions, and allows each cast of Overload to potentially set off 2 or even 3 such combos.
  • The Radius evolution will also supersede priming effects from multiple targets at once, which can prevent multiple detonations from one primer cast, making it a less attractive choice when paired up with certain powers like Arc Grenade or Snap Freeze.
• Incinerate is also very effective against Reapers as a whole since most of their units are either armored or health-only (red bar). Incinerate also destroys the bodies of creatures killed by it, keeping Cannibals from eating the corpses. On the downside, Cannibals and Husks do not panic from being set on fire, and Cannibal health regeneration is not halted.
• The rank 6 Freezing Damage can deal excellent damage to all targets as long as there is an available source of cold attacks from the Incinerate user or from allies.
  • In single-player, the Engineer, Sentinel, Soldier, Vanguard, and Infiltrator classes have access to cryo attacks; the only NPC squad member who does is Kaidan with Cryo Blast.
  • For the N7 Paladin Sentinel, the "Freeze Combo" evolution's damage bonus only applies to enemies merely chilled by Snap Freeze.
  • For characters who lack this freezing option, like the Quarian Male Engineer or the Salarian Engineer, taking the +50% damage vs Armor upgrade is usually the better choice, although Cryo Rounds can be equipped to enable weapon fire to chill or freeze enemies.
• Because the rank 5 Burning Damage evolution adds a multiplicative bonus to the damage, especially high in multiplayer, this evolution is the obvious choice on almost any setup, especially when playing on higher difficulties where enemies won't die from one Incinerate cast. Even though Incinerate isn't as effective against shields or barriers, the burn duration is useful for preventing those protections from starting to recharge, especially on higher difficulties where the delay before recharging begins is much shorter.

Availability

• Single-Player: Engineer, Infiltrator, EDI, Nyreen Kandros, Miranda Lawson
• Multiplayer: Human Engineer, Krogan Sentinel, N7 Paladin Sentinel, Quarian Engineer, Quarian Male Engineer, Salarian Engineer, Vorcha Hunter Engineer

Bugs

• In Mass Effect 3, Incinerate has a buggy interaction with Incendiary Ammo (which itself has a buggy interaction with itself); both erroneously use the same damage effect, and once Incendiary Ammo is applied on an enemy under the effect of Incinerate, both damage-over-time effects get combined into an overly-damaging 3 second damage-over-time that is still technically considered by the game as "Incinerate", making the ammo use Incinerate's damage modifiers, which will let Incendiary Ammo do damage to shields and barriers. In addition, the buggy damage-stacking of Incendiary Ammo will still work, multiplying the effect.