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The Seeker Plague is a Collector unit encountered in Mass Effect 3. It is an enhanced variant of the Seeker Swarm. Possessed Collector Captains deploy plagues to paralyze opponents.

Capabilities[]

Offensive

Once launched, a Seeker Plague targets players in order to explode near them. The radius of this detonation is much larger than that of a normal Seeker Swarm and also penetrates terrain. If a player is caught in the Plague, they will take a significant amount of damage and their cooldown-based powers will be disabled for a short length of time. The explosion will also significantly decrease the accuracy of any and all players caught within the blast. NPC squadmates are immune to the disabling effects.

Powers that have no cooldowns, such as Nova, Phase Disruptor and all grenade-type powers are unnaffected by the Seeker Plague debuff.

Defensive

Seeker Plagues are relatively weak enemies, but they do possess a barrier for added protection. Their speed and small size make them hard to hit and can allow them to sneak up on players. They can also ascend or descend short vertical drops as well as traverse ladders. They cannot be frozen or placed into Stasis.

Tactics[]

A Possessed Captain can only have one swarm active at a time.

  • Area-of-effect attacks and rapid-fire weapons allow a player to take them down, even if their attacks are less than accurate.
  • They can be taken down relatively quickly with powers that damage barriers, such as Warp, Concussive Shot, and Overload.
  • On occasion, Pull can instantly kill an unprotected seeker plague.
  • Power-oriented classes should deal with Seeker Plagues quickly as they can severely hamper combat effectiveness.
  • A Singularity can be used against a group of Seekers to lock them down for extended periods of time. Due to the fact that Seekers will never dodge it, Singularity is extremely effective at locking down and arresting their erratic movements.
  • The Marksman power when active renders the user immune to the disabling effects of Seeker Swarm explosions. Even though none of the multiplayer classes with Marksman can use any other powers while Marksman is active anyway, once Marksman ends, powers go back on their normal cooldown without any interference from swarm effects.
  • As a swarm is about to explode, it will momentarily stop and vibrate even more frantically. Running or combat rolling away while it is immobile will cause the swarm to dissipate while keeping power use intact. This is much more difficult to pull off successfully than against a standard swarm though, as a Seeker Plague's blast radius is much bigger; for some less mobile classes it's completely impossible to escape the blast radius.
  • Powers that utilize a "charge" system, such as Biotic Orbs, Siege Pulse, and the hammer powers of the Krogan Warlord Sentinel, are not affected by Seeker Swarm detonations insofar as the already readied charges are concerned.
  • Seeker Swarms are not visible through terrain when using enhanced vision-granting equipment or powers. Also, while they make a constant buzzing sound, it's hard to tell their proximity from it. All in all, it's very difficult to tell when swarms are getting close to you, and the best way to avoid getting hit is to keeping moving at a fast pace and to just assume they are always approaching your position. Powers that automatically attack anything that approaches you such as Sentry Turret or Hawk Missile Launcher can be useful bug zappers.
  • Seeker Plague explosions can affect a player that is in the process of reviving in multiplayer. There is no real way to avoid this especially if self-reviving using medi-gel.
  • Swarms last until they are killed or they detonate.
  • Being a "summoned" unit, Seeker Swarm kills don't count as enemy kills in certain situations.
    • Eliminating all active swarms is not required to complete a current multiplayer wave. Because of this you should always stay vigilant even after a wave is completed.
    • Swarms do not count as enemies killed towards activating Rage for krogan classes or Bloodlust for vorcha classes in multiplayer.
    • Killing swarms with heavy melee attacks does appear to grant the on-kill bonuses of the Rank 5 and Rank 6 melee damage-centric evolutions of the other various Fitness-type powers.
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