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 Mass Effect 3's single-player and multiplayer modes.

It is a high-explosive plasma round fired from the user's omni-tool that inflicts damage over time to all nearby enemies and permanently stops their health regeneration.

Like Overload, this power causes unprotected enemies equipped with flamethrowers to explode.

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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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

Choose to evolve the power into one of the following,

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 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 against protection (armor, barriers, and shields).
• Most unprotected humanoid organics panic for the duration while other unprotected organic enemy types such as varren can be stunned. Most protected enemies are briefly staggered upon being hit.
• On higher difficulties, a leveled up Incinerate may be a better, and more damaging alternative to Overload against weakly shielded organic and/or armored 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 can never damage 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.
• 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. 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).
• 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).
• 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 Rank 6 Armor Damage bonus is a multiplicative increase, raising Incinerate's total damage multiplier against armor from 1.5x to 2.25x (as oppossed to 2.0x).
• The rank 6 Freeze Combo bonus is multiplicative and affects 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 freeze effect expires before the burning DoT.

Strategies

• When used in tandem with Overload as an Engineer, or with another character with one of the two powers in question, this combo is devastating against enemies with armor and shielding. Atlases, Banshees, Geth Primes and Geth Pyros all apply here.
• Incinerate is also very effective against Reapers as a whole since most of their units are either armored, or only have health and Incinerate destroys the bodies of creatures killed by it, keeping Cannibals from eating the corpses. In the case of Incinerate, when the Rank 6 Armor Damage evolution is picked, it does an extra 50% damage against, potentially allowing for over 1000 damage to be inflicted with just one Incinerate on armored foes (including damage over time). When the Rank 4 Radius evolution is picked, it can also panic multiple Assault Troopers at once, making them all prone to Fire Explosions or vulnerable to additional punishment, e.g. headshots.
• The Rank 6 Freezing Damage gives a big payoff if the character has a method for reliably freezing enemies. In single-player, the Engineer has Cryo Blast, and the Infiltrator has Cryo Ammo; both of those options can make the targets take more damage from any source. In multiplayer, the female Quarian Engineer has both Incinerate and Cryo Blast while the N7 Paladin Sentinel has both Incinerate and Snap Freeze. A little patience and a light weapon loadout will let you use devastating Incinerates every few seconds.
  • 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.
• If you use Incinerate on a frozen enemy, if they survive the initial blast, but still die from the DoT effect, a Cryo Explosion will still be triggered.
• Because the DoT effect of the Rank 5 Burning Damage evolution is relatively long (8 seconds), in multiplayer especially, this evolution may only be useful against larger boss-type enemies (Atlases, Banshees, etc.) as weaker enemies may die too quickly to take much extra damage. However, 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 (though it does not increase how long Incinerate primes a target for a Fire Explosion).

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