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The N7 Piranha is a shotgun in Mass Effect 3 and Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Mass Effect 3[]

Description[]

The N7 Piranha is an assault shotgun designed for the Reaper war. When the N7 program began training alien resistance forces, the lighter-bodied species wanted a low-recoil weapon with a wide pellet spread for dealing with hordes of husks. The result was the Piranha, which hit a sweet spot in close-range firepower. Its rapid-fire capability tears apart not only husks but most opponents unlucky enough to be in its way.

Acquisition[]

Single-player

The N7 Piranha is available after downloading the Mass Effect 3: Groundside Resistance Pack.

In the Legendary Edition it is available from the Spectre Requisitions terminal in the Citadel Embassies for a base amount of 125,000 credits.

Multiplayer

Weapons are randomly rewarded through purchases of item packs. The N7 Piranha is categorized as rare and requires the Mass Effect 3: Earth DLC pack.

Player Notes[]

General
  • The Piranha is a fully automatic shotgun, and unlike its cousin the M-27 Scimitar, the Piranha has the same rate of fire whether the trigger is held down or pumped rapidly in semi-auto fashion.
  • The Piranha is essentially a Scimitar that packs a heavier punch at the cost of also being heavier, weighing the same as the M-11 Wraith and the M-96 Mattock assault rifle. This is still on the lighter end of the shotgun class.
  • The Piranha has an eight shot capacity and a good amount of reserve ammo. The large magazine makes it more suitable for sustained combat, whereas most shotguns force the user to retreat after firing to reload. This also makes it a little more forgiving of missed shots.
  • The main weakness of the Piranha is its relatively low damage-per-shot for a shotgun, requiring more shots on average to kill targets.
  • The Piranha's shots scatter pellets in a wider spread pattern than the Scimitar. The Shotgun Smart Choke is almost required for the weapon to be effective outside of point-blank ranges, making it easier to concentrate damage on enemy heads or weak points.
  • Aiming down sights (zooming) changes the reticle to a more easily visible circle, but this has no impact on the spread or accuracy of the weapon. As with most shotguns, firing from cover likewise provides no benefit to accuracy.
  • The Marksman power is one of the only ways to improve the accuracy of a shotgun outside of equipping the Smart Choke mod, and it is particularly devastating in tandem with the Piranha thanks to the weapon's large magazine size, minimizing the amount of time spent reloading. Combining Marksman with the Smart Choke concentrates the Piranha's spread to the point where all of the pellets will remain tightly grouped even at very long ranges.
  • Like all conventional shotguns, the Piranha suffers very little damage loss from shield gates and so is very effective against shielded infantry; however, it will deal very little damage to armored targets like Brutes especially on higher difficulties unless mods like the Shotgun High-Velocity Barrel or the Shotgun Shredder Mod are equipped, certain ammo powers/ammo bonuses are used, or enemy armor is weakened by powers such as Warp or Cryo Blast.

Single-player
  • For Soldier and Vanguard player classes, Incendiary Ammo's rank 6 Explosive Burst evolution effect is very effective with the Piranha, as each individual pellet has a chance to trigger the effect, and the Piranha has one of the fastest rates of fire of any shotgun.

Multiplayer
  • The Piranha's effectiveness with the Marksman power can make it a good option for the Quarian Marksman Soldier or the Turian Soldier; the latter can benefit from the stability bonuses available to the turian classes. High level Armor-Piercing Rounds allow for rapid takedowns of hard targets and eliminates the need for using a piercing mod.

Mass Effect: Andromeda[]

Description[]

An assault shotgun capable of automatic fire, the Piranha is devastating at short-range but loses accuracy with distance. In the Milky Way, the Piranha was a "proof of concept" prototype by the Bradford Engineering Group. The Initiative procured their Piranhas when the company's military clients deferred on a full production run.

Features[]

The Piranha got multiple damage tweaks per pellet in addition to its overall damage during post-launch patching. Other improvements are to max ammo and force impact by its projectiles.

Strategies[]

Stats[]

Singleplayer
Rank Damage Rate of Fire Max Clip Size Max Ammo Accuracy Weight
I 328 165 8 48 22 50
II 344 165 8 49 24 47
III 368 165 8 51 25 44
IV 384 165 8 52 25 42
V 408 165 8 53 26 39
VI 424 165 8 55 26 36
VII 448 165 8 56 27 33
VIII 464 165 8 57 27 31
IX 488 165 8 59 27 28
X 504 165 8 60 28 25

Multiplayer
Rank Damage Rate of Fire Max Clip Size Max Ammo Accuracy Weight
I 632 165 12 96 22 50
II 648 165 12 98 24 47
III 656 165 12 102 25 44
IV 664 165 12 104 25 42
V 672 165 12 106 26 39
VI 680 165 12 110 26 36
VII 688 165 12 112 27 33
VIII 696 165 12 114 27 31
IX 712 165 12 118 27 28
X 728 165 12 120 28 25

Development[]

Rank Rd icon milkyway orange Research Cost Omni-gel canister icon Omni-Gel Canister Copper icon Copper Lithium icon Lithium Vanadium icon Vanadium MEA Augmentation Slot For Tables Augmentation Slots
I 125 20 100 50 10 0
II 140 30 110 50 10 3
III 155 30 130 60 20 3
IV 170 30 140 70 20 3
V 185 40 160 80 20 3
VI 200 40 170 80 20 3
VII 215 40 180 80 20 3
VIII 230 40 190 90 20 3
IX 245 50 190 90 20 3
X 260 50 200 100 20 3
Total 1925 370 1570 750 180 N/A
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