Nightshade Blades

Nightshade Blades is a grenade power in Mass Effect 3's multiplayer mode.

Power Ranks

Rank 1: Nightshade Blades

Launch a short-range volley of venom tipped blades to paralyze non-shielded targets. These blades cause instant damage and poison the target, causing damage over time.

Blade damage is most effective at close-range. A limited number of these blades can be carried.

• Blade Damage: 1200
• Poison Damage Per Second: 50
• Poison Duration: 8 sec
• Paralysis Duration: 5 sec
• Range: 15 m

Rank 2: Capacity

Increase blade carrying capacity by 1.

Rank 3: Damage

Increase damage by 20%.

• Blade Damage: 1440
• Poison Damage Per Second: 60
• Poison Duration: 8 sec
• Paralysis Duration: 5 sec
• Range: 15 m

Rank 4: Damage/Capacity

Damage Increase damage by 30%. Blade Damage: 1800 Poison Damage Per Second: 75 Poison Duration: 8 sec Paralysis Duration: 5 sec Range: 15 m

Capacity Increase blade carrying capacity by 1.

Rank 5: Range/Poison Duration

Range Increase range by 50%. Blade Damage: 1800 (Damage), 1440 (Capacity) Poison Damage Per Second: 75 (Damage), 60 (Capacity) Poison Duration: 8 sec Paralysis Duration: 5 sec Range: 22.50 m

Poison Duration Boost the concentration of neurotoxins to increase the paralyze duration by 40% and poison duration by 40%. Blade Damage: 1800 (Damage), 1440 (Capacity) Poison Damage Per Second: 75 (Damage), 60 (Capacity) Poison Duration: 11.20 seconds Paralysis Duration: 7 seconds Range: 15 m

Rank 6: Enhanced Blades/Exploding Blades

Enhanced Blades Boost the concentration of venom in the blades to increase direct damage by 40% and poison damage by 60%. Blade Damage: 2280 (Damage), 1920 (Capacity) Poison Damage Per Second: 90 (Damage), 60 (Capacity) Poison Duration: 8 sec (Range), 11.20 sec (Poison Duration) Paralysis Duration: 5 sec (Range), 7 sec (Poison Duration) Range: 22.50 m (Range), 15 m (Poison Duration)

Exploding Blades Blades explode after 3 seconds, doing 400 poisonous area damage.

Player Notes

• Grenade powers do not have a recharge time and, thus, can be used immediately at any time, provided grenades are available. Using the power consumes one grenade each time.
  • If the player has multiple grenade powers, the grenade pool is shared between them.
  • The number of blades for this power is dictated by the grenade supply available to the player.
• Nightshade Blades hits all enemies in a fairly large cone-shaped area in front of the player.
• Nightshade Blades is one of the most damaging powers in the game even without taking the considerable damage-over-time into account. The initial damage dealt is more severe at very close range; the power can be thought of like a shotgun blast that fires pellets.
• Nightshade Blades has no ability to set up or trigger Power Combos.
• This power benefits from equipping Gear items that increase the number of grenades that a player can carry. Equipping a gear item that will increase grenade capacity will boost the number of charges for this power.
• As Nightshade Blades is neither a tech or biotic power, the only Gear slot item that boosts its damage is the Mental Focuser.
• Exploding Blades does not end the damage-over-time effect that Nightshade Blades places on a target.
• Paralysis: The paralysis effect of Nightshade Blades is unique to it and the rank 6 Poison Strength evolution of Poison Strike.
  • It works like a freeze, turning the affected target into a "statue" for the duration.
  • Despite the wording of the in-game text, only one target maximum can be paralyzed per cast of Nightshade Blades; all other targets in range are merely staggered. Unprotected targets are staggered more severely than protected ones. The effect prioritizes the closest target hit—if that target can't be paralyzed, then no target is paralyzed.
  • Only unprotected targets (red bar) infantry targets can be paralyzed; this works on synthetic targets as well as Phantoms.
  • Only the initial hit of Nightshade Blades can cause paralysis; if a shielded target's protection breaks due to the poison damage-over-time, it will still not become paralyzed.

Availability

• Single-player: N/A
• Multiplayer: Cabal Vanguard

Trivia

• The name "Nightshade Blades" is likely referencing the highly toxic herb Atropa belladonna, commonly known as deadly nightshade, which has a long history of use as a poison.