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The Krysae Sniper Rifle is a sniper rifle in Mass Effect 3.

Description[]

This turian antimateriel [sic] rifle is modified to kill Reaper enemies. The Krysae's scope uses a rangefinder that adjusts to keep the target in proper proportion to the shooter, which comes in useful when the sniper is forced into close range. Its specialized ammunition is both armor-piercing and explosive. In a desperate move, the turians released its specifications over the extranet so that nearly anyone with a fabricator could manufacture this weapon to help the war effort.

Acquisition[]

Singleplayer

The Krysae Sniper Rifle is available after downloading the Mass Effect 3: Firefight Pack.

In Legendary Edition it is available from the Cipritine Armory terminal in the Presidium Commons for a base amount of 10,000 credits.

Multiplayer

Weapons are randomly rewarded through purchases of item packs. The Krysae is categorized as rare and requires the Mass Effect 3: Rebellion Pack.

Player Notes[]

General
  • The Krysae is unique among sniper rifles as it fires explosive projectiles.
    • Despite the weapon description mentioning that it is armor-piercing, the Krysae, along with other weapons that fire explosive rounds, cannot penetrate objects; however, its damage is not penalized for striking enemy armor. Additionally, it deals 150% damage to armored targets.[1]
    • As with other weapons that utilize explosive munitions, the Krysae cannot deal bonus damage to enemy heads or weak points.
  • The Krysae's shots can be "held" by holding the fire button down, similar to the charging feature of weapons like the Venom Shotgun or the Graal Spike Thrower. This does not cause the Krysae to do additional damage. The shot is fired immediately on release.
    • Holding down the Fire button in this way increases the scope magnification from 2x to 10x. This can be done while unzoomed and then on zooming the magnification will be at 10x, though if this is done the number in the scope still reads 2.0 instead of 10.0.
    • Holding the shot in this way can be advantageous for an Infiltrator, as a shot that is being held will not break Tactical Cloak, nor will firing a "pre-held" shot.
  • This rifle has a noticeable travel time between firing and hitting targets, so compensation for the target moving must be made.
  • Similar to the M-37 Falcon, the Krysae has a proximity fuse and deals area of effect damage in the form of an explosion; this can be utilised to not only shoot enemies behind cover by aiming above their heads, but also to damage large groups of enemies.
    • However, the proximity fuse means that if a round passes near any enemy, it detonates. This means that it is very tricky to shoot enemies that are behind other enemies with precision. Ravagers are particularly difficult as the projectiles detonate as they pass over the Swarmers that come from the Ravager's sacs.
    • Due to the proximity fuse on the bullets, it is impossible to headshot a Guardian in normal fashion by shooting through the slit—the bullet detonates in front of the shield, and the Guardian takes no damage. A tactic to overcome this is to rely on the area of effect damage by shooting at a surface near (but not so close that it detonates prematurely) the Guardian. Another tactic is to aim just over the top of his riot shield; if done right the shot will airburst over the Guardian's head and instantly kill him.
    • The proximity fuse will even detonate when it passes near cloaked enemies. This makes the weapon very effective against Phantoms and Geth Hunters as you can shoot near them and it will damage them. Phantoms are also especially vulnerable to explosive weaponry being unable to dodge the shots with their acrobatics.
  • The Krysae's splash damage works well with area-debuffing powers such as Cryo Blast or Proximity Mine.
  • This weapon works best when it can be spammed into a choke point, as this maximizes the usefulness of the weapon's explosive area damage.
  • Although the explosion is visually large, the area of effect damage radius seems to be much smaller.
  • Enemies are completely destroyed when killed because of the Krysae's high explosive rounds, making it useful against Reaper forces as it denies Cannibals bodies to consume.
  • The Sniper Rifle Spare Thermal Clip can mitigate the Krysae's low magazine capacity.

Single-player
  • The Krysae is noticeably stronger in single-player compared to its multiplayer counterpart.
  • The Krysae is effective in the hands of squadmates who can wield it, especially Garrus Vakarian. In particular, the squad evolution of Cryo Ammo allows it to freeze multiple unshielded targets if it doesn't shatter them outright. Squadmates will not lead moving targets or utilize the airburst feature, however.
  • The Krysae can be obscenely effective on troops debarking from a Cerberus shuttle.

Multiplayer
  • Balance changes on July 24, 2012 drastically decreased the performance of the Krysae by reducing its damage, rate of fire, and spare ammo as well as increasing the recoil by 100%. This relegates the Krysae to more of a crowd-controlling support role on higher difficulties, flushing enemies from cover and delaying enemy advances.
  • The Krysae's current low rate of fire can be ameliorated by using Marksman, available to the Turian Soldier and Quarian Marksman Soldier. This allows it to become a viable weapon for these characters, though it is still not their best sniper rifle option.
  • The Krysae can be effective when combined with all of the weapon damage bonuses available to the Geth Hunter Infiltrator from Tactical Cloak, Hunter Mode and Networked AI. It can take out groups of weaker unprotected enemies in one shot on Gold.
  • Weapons that fire explosive munitions normally ignore enemy shield gates, except for the Krysae Sniper Rifle in multiplayer.[2]

Trivia[]

  • The Krysae was originally designed to have a scope that auto-zoomed on targets for easier aiming. According to Mass Effect 3 lead combat designer Corey Gaspur, the mechanic was abandoned because it ended up making players motion sick: "If you were aiming at six guys, it was going in and out and in and out, and it made people nauseous."[3]

References[]

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