Overload

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

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

Note: This power travels in a straight line from the user to the target, hitting instantly.

Mass Effect 2

Massive energy blasts overpower shields and synthetic enemies.

Power Ranks

• Rank 1 - You fire an electromagnetic pulse that inflicts massive damage to shields and synthetic enemies.
  • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds (Shepard) 12.00 seconds (Others)
  • Impact Radius: 1.20 meters
  • Shield and Synthetic Damage: 120.00 points

• Rank 2 - In addition to massive damage on shields and synthetic enemies, Overload now briefly stuns synthetic foes If [sic] the target's resistances are down.
  • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds (Shepard) 12.00 seconds (Others)
  • Impact Radius: 1.20 meters
  • Shield and Synthetic Damage: 140.00 points
  • Synthetic Stun Length: 3.00 seconds

• Rank 3 - Your electromagnetic pulse punishes shields and synthetic enemies even more severely, and now also has the capability to overheat enemy weapons.
  • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds (Shepard) 12.00 seconds (Others)
  • Impact Radius: 1.20 meters
  • Shield and Synthetic Damage: 160.00 points
  • Synthetic Stun Length: 3.00 seconds
  • Weapon Overheat Length: 6.00 seconds

Rank 4

Evolves Overload into one of the following options:

Heavy Overload

• Your pulse now damages synthetic enemies so brutally that they explode on "death".
  • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds (Shepard) 12.00 seconds (Others)
  • Impact Radius: 1.20 meters
  • Shield and Synthetic Damage: 200.00 points
  • Synthetic Stun Length: 3.00 seconds
  • Weapon Overheat Length: 6.00 seconds

Area Overload

• You have increased your pulse's strength to cover a wide area, making it easy to hit multiple targets.
  • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds (Shepard) 12.00 seconds (Others)
  • Impact Radius: 3.00 meters
  • Shield and Synthetic Damage: 160.00 points
  • Synthetic Stun Length: 3.00 seconds
  • Weapon Overheat Length: 6.00 seconds

Player Notes

• Overload is typically used to take down shields or synthetics, doing twice as much damage to shields as it does to synthetics.
  • Overload does double the listed damage to shields (not counting any other positive or negative modifiers such as difficulty setting, upgrades, or armor pieces). The in-game text "Shield and Synthetic Damage" is therefore somewhat misleading, as only the listed damage is done to unprotected synthetic targets, i.e. the red health bar.
  • Overload does the listed damage to synthetic health (red bar), barriers, and armor (of any enemy type). It does no damage to the health of non-synthetic (organic) enemies.
• Overload will cause any unshielded enemies using flamethrowers to explode. The explosion is usually instant but it can be delayed if the target is frozen or momentarily stunned by another power or effect.
• Starting at Rank 2, Overload can stun synthetic enemies. This effect only works on unprotected synthetic enemies without shields or armor, and certain synthetic targets are immune to the stun effect even then, such as YMIR Mechs.
• Overheat Effect: Starting at Rank 3, Overload will cause the firearms of most unprotected infantry enemies to overheat, making them unable to fire for a several seconds.
  • Affected enemies can be seen repeatedly performing reload animations and their weapons will be visibly smoking.
  • The disable effect isn't absolute: sometimes a stray shot or two can still be fired. Many tougher enemy types are immune or highly resistant to the overheat effects such as shotgun-wielding krogan/Vanguards, or YMIR Mechs.
  • Heavy weapons wielded by enemies are likewise not affected, such as missile launchers, flamethrowers, or the particle beams used by Collector Assassins.
  • Flashbang Grenade and Disruptor Ammo are also capable of producing overheat effects in enemies.
• Overload, much like Reave and other "hitscan" (non-projectile) powers, can bypass the deployable "hex shields" of Collector Guardians. It doesn't do as much damage to them as Reave but it can overheat their weapons if they are unprotected.
• It can also be used on explosive containers to make them detonate more violently for added damage.

Availability

• Engineer
• Sentinel
• Dr. Amanda Kenson
• Garrus Vakarian
• Kasumi Goto
• Miranda Lawson
• Wilson

Mass Effect 3

Overload electronics with this power surge, stunning your enemy.

Power Ranks

Rank 1: Overload

Overload electronics with this power surge, stunning your enemy.

Effective against shields, barriers, and synthetics.
Not as effective against organics.

• Recharge Speed: 8 sec
• Damage: 220

Rank 2: Recharge Speed

Increases recharge speed by 25%.

• Recharge Speed: 6.40 sec
• Damage: 220

Rank 3: Damage

Increase damage by 20%.

• Recharge Speed: 6.40 sec
• Damage: 264

Rank 4: Chain Overload/Damage

Chain Overload Hit 1 additional target within 8 meters with 60% less damage.

Damage Increase damage by 30%. Recharge Speed: 6.40 sec Damage: 330

Rank 5: Neural Shock/Recharge Speed

Neural Shock Incapacitate weaker organic enemies for a short duration.

Recharge Speed Increase recharge speed by 25%. Recharge Speed: 5.33 sec Damage: 330

Rank 6: Chain Overload/Shield Damage

Chain Overload Increase damage by 15%. Hit 1 additional target within 8 meters with 60% less damage. Recharge Speed: 6.40 sec (Neural Shock), 5.33 sec (Recharge Speed) Damage: 297 (Chain Overload), 363 (Damage)

Shield Damage Increase damage to barriers and shields by an additional 100%.

Player Notes

Damage

• Overload does differing amounts of damage to health, armor, and shields based upon rank evolutions and the enemies being impacted by Overload.
  • Overload does half damage to organic health and armor, normal damage to synthetic health and armor, and triple damage to all barriers/shields.
  • Rank 5 Neural Shock evolution has an undocumented feature of striking organic enemies twice. This secondary hit always uses base damage multipliers (0.5x vs health/armor, 3x vs barriers/shields) regardless of Shield Damage evolution.
  • Rank 6 Shield Damage evolution increases damage multipliers to 5x vs organics' barriers/shields and 6x vs synthetics' barriers/shields.
  • With both Rank 5 Neural Shock and Rank 6 Shield Damage, Overload will do 8x damage to organics' barriers/shields (5x primary hit + 3x secondary hit).

Neural Shock	Shield Damage	Organic Health & Armor	Organic Barriers/Shields	Synthetic Health & Armor	Synthetic Shields
		0.5x	3x	1x	3x
	✓		5x		6x
✓		1x	6x		3x
✓	✓		8x		6x

• If both chain evolutions are chosen, the third hit will only do 16% of the original hit damage (an additional 60% reduction of the second hit's 60% damage reduction, not a 60% reduction of the original hit). In addition, it may "forget" to do normal damage to synthetics (instead doing half damage) or do extra damage to shields/barriers (instead doing normal damage).

Mechanics

• Overload will briefly stun (stagger) weaker infantry-type enemies in most cases even if they have protections (shields, barriers, or armor). This works against both organics and synthetics, and it is totally independent of the Neural Shock evolution.
  • Any additional hits from the various Chain evolutions of Overload likewise have this effect.
  • Any chaining hits from Overload can bounce to enemies hiding behind cover and dislodge them. The chaining effect does require some degree of line-of-sight between enemy targets, however.
• Electrocution effects: Overload is able to electrically shock and stun almost all types of unshielded (red and yellow bar) infantry-type enemies. This stun can take two forms: the default causes unshielded targets to double over briefly. The second stun is an electrocution effect that causes the target to spasm violently while standing; this effect lasts noticeably longer than the default stun but occurs less frequently. If multiple unshielded targets are hit, each individual target hit can suffer a different stun effect. Other tech powers can also cause these stuns such as Energy Drain and the backfire effect of Sabotage. This shock stun is more severe than the brief "stagger" effect that Overload (and many other powers) cause even on most protected targets. It is also separate from the incapacitation knockdown caused by Neural Shock and that evolution is not required to cause these electrical stuns. Chain hits also cause these shock stuns.
• Neural Shock: The incapacitation effect from Neural Shock will completely knock down most lesser unprotected (red bar) organic enemies hit. This disable lasts significantly longer than the normal "stagger" stun and is also longer than the electrocution stuns described above.
  • Neural Shock also applies to any chain hits in single-player, but not in multiplayer, where it only applies to the primary target.
  • Phantoms are always immune to Neural Shock and are never knocked down by it. Possessed Abominations become immune after getting knocked down several times.
• Overload has no effect whatsoever on Cerberus Guardians with their riot shields up, and even chain hits will not occur if a shielded Guardian is the primary target. Overload will, however, destroy the shield of a CAT6 Heavy and stun it.
• Overload is one of the few powers in Mass Effect 3 that can both prime and detonate Power Combos (though you must use a different power from Overload to prime or detonate any combo).
  • Overload will prime its primary target for a Tech Burst for several seconds, but chain hits will not prime.
  • If Overload is given one or both chain evolutions, each additional Overload chain is capable of detonating a separate Tech Burst, Fire Explosion or Cryo Explosion, which makes Overload relatively unique, as most powers can only detonate one combo per use.
• Chain hits will not jump back to targets that were already hit by Overload if there is no additional enemy in range—the chain hit(s) will simply not occur.
• Chain hits can jump to invisible targets such as cloaked Geth Hunters.
• Phantoms and walking-mode Banshees don't deploy their protective stances after being hit by Overload.

Strategies

• Overload is more effective against biotic barriers than it was in Mass Effect 2, and also now affects non-synthetic enemies' health, though with a penalty. This allows characters with the power to be effective against a wider range of enemies.
  • However, it has also lost most of the other effects it had in the previous game, such as weapon overheating, and no longer has an impact area, hitting just one target.
• Neural Shock is a powerful incapacitating effect, but it is primarily useful for the extra "hidden" damage multiplier against organic foes, since Overload even without Neural Shock will cause tech-shock stuns against most unshielded infantry targets (even synthetic ones). This also applies to any chain hits.
  • Husks and Abominations are immune to tech-shock stuns, but they are vulnerable to Neural Shock.
• In contrast to how the powers functioned in Mass Effect 2, Overload is now better at stripping barriers than Warp alone is, especially with the Rank 6 Shield Damage evolution which doubles its damage against shields and barriers. Warp tends to function better as a debuff against enemy armor, though it can deal substantial damage to barriers and armor if used to create a Biotic Explosion.
• Geth Engineers can use power evolutions in Hunter Mode to increase recharge speed and damage of Overload. Used correctly, Overload can become both fast and extremely powerful.
• Because each chain of an Overload can detonate a Tech Burst, Fire Explosion or Cryo Explosion, partnering with someone (either a single-player squadmate or a multiplayer teammate) who can quickly prime multiple opponents with an area-of-effect power can drastically increase the total damage potential for a team; notorious multiplayer examples of pairings include Snap Freeze or Flamer as primer. Great single-player options are EDI's Incinerate, Tali's Energy Drain, or Ashley's Inferno Grenade.
• If chain hits deal enough damage to destroy weak but annoying targets such as enemy Combat Drones, Geth Turrets, or Disruption Drones, Overload becomes even more powerful against the enemies that summon them.

Availability

• Single-Player: Engineer, Sentinel, EDI, Garrus Vakarian, Kaidan Alenko, Nyreen Kandros, Kasumi Goto, Miranda Lawson
• Multiplayer: Geth Engineer, Human Engineer, Turian Ghost Infiltrator, Turian Sentinel