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Disambiguous This article is about the power in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. For the Tactical Cloak skill in Mass Effect: Andromeda, see Tactical Cloak (skill).

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

Mass Effect 2[]

Cloak ME2 Icon

To your enemies, you're invisible.

Power Ranks[]

  • Rank 1 - Activates a cloaking field that prevents most enemies from perceiving you for a short time. Performing any offensive action breaks the cloak.
    • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds
    • Duration: 5.00 seconds
  • Rank 2 - Your attacks from a cloaked position are significantly more deadly, and if you do not attack, your cloak lasts slightly longer.
    • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds
    • Damage: +20.00%
    • Duration: 5.50 seconds
  • Rank 3 - Your attacks from a cloaked position are significantly more deadly, and if you do not attack, your cloak lasts slightly longer.
    • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds
    • Damage: +40.00%
    • Duration: 6.00 seconds


Rank 4

Evolves Tactical Cloak into one of the following options:

Assassination Cloak[]

  • You are a master of the hidden strike, gaining a huge bonus to damage if you attack while cloaked.
    • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds
    • Damage: +75.00%
    • Duration: 6.00 seconds

Enhanced Cloak[]

  • You have modified your cloak's power cells to stay hidden for extended periods, useful for bypassing enemies or setting up a strike.
    • Recharge Time: 6.00 seconds
    • Damage: +40.00%
    • Duration: 8.00 seconds


Player Notes[]

  • When activated, it instantly renders the Infiltrator invisible to all enemies and grants a damage bonus to all weapons as well as melee attacks. However, it also halts health and shield regeneration, leaving the Infiltrator vulnerable once the cloak wears off.
  • The power's 6-second cooldown does not begin until after the cloak is removed, and no powers can be used while the cloak is active.
  • Tactical Cloak is one of the few powers in Mass Effect 2 that can be used without interrupting Shepard when storming.
  • The cloak deactivates as soon as Shepard fires a weapon, melee attacks an enemy, or the duration simply ends. Charging heavy weapons like the M-920 Cain will end the cloak as well; starting to charge the Cain and then cloaking will both interrupt the charging of the shot and disable the cloak almost immediately.
    • The Geth Plasma Shotgun is somewhat of an exception to the above. A charged shot will not disable the cloak provided the charge is started before activating the cloak. The cloak will end if charging a shot begins after the cloak had already been activated. A pre-charged shot will benefit from the damage bonus of cloak and will not break the cloak to boot.
    • A melee attack that doesn't land on an enemy will not break the cloak; Shepard can't punch the air or even a destructible object such as a crate or explosive tank to cancel the cloak early.
    • Taking damage will not break the cloak.
    • Reloading weapons will not cancel or shorten the duration of Tactical Cloak.
  • The damage bonus of Tactical Cloak applies as soon as the cloak visually activates and ends as soon as the cloak visually deactivates, i.e. the moment Shepard starts shimmering out of/into view.
    • This means that the damage bonus is much more useful on powerful single-shot weapons such as sniper rifles and shotguns and less useful on rapid fire weapons that do less damage per bullet such as SMGs.
    • The damage bonus applies to melee attacks, though it's basically impossible to get more than two melees in before the cloak cancels.
    • The damage bonus does not apply to heavy weapons or powers.
  • When activated, enemies will immediately stop attacking Shepard and will instead turn their attention upon the rest of the squad. However, the cloak will not prevent automated targeting, such as missiles or direct-damage powers from hitting Shepard once they have been launched. Additionally, the cloak does not prevent damage to Shepard; the Commander can still be hurt or hindered by attacks targeted elsewhere. After the cloak wears off, enemies will attack Shepard again.
  • At least three enemies, the Oculus, the Geth Colossus, and the Thresher Maw, will continue to pursue and attack Shepard despite being cloaked.
  • If both of Shepard's squad-members are incapacitated, Tactical Cloak will cause all enemies to stop moving, giving the player ample opportunity to line up a head shot.

Availability[]

Mass Effect 3[]

ME3 Tactical Cloak

Power Ranks (Kasumi)[]

Rank 1: Tactical Cloak[]

Become invisible.

Gain a massive damage bonus when breaking from cloak to attack.

  • Recharge Speed: 20 sec
  • Duration: 8 sec
  • Damage Bonus: 50%


Rank 2: Recharge Speed[]

Decrease recharge speed by 25%.

  • Recharge Speed: 16 sec
  • Duration: 8 sec
  • Damage Bonus: 50%


Rank 3: Duration[]

Increase power duration by 30%.

  • Recharge Speed: 16 sec
  • Duration: 10.40 sec
  • Damage Bonus: 50%


Rank 4: Duration/Damage[]

Duration

Increase power duration by 40%.

  • Recharge Speed: 16 sec
  • Duration: 13.60 sec
  • Damage Bonus: 50%

Damage

Increase damage bonus by 40%.

  • Recharge Speed: 16 sec
  • Duration: 10.40 sec
  • Damage Bonus: 90%


Rank 5: Recharge Speed/Melee Damage[]

Recharge Speed

Increase recharge speed by 30%.

  • Recharge Speed: 12.90 Sec
  • Duration: 13.60 sec (Duration), 10.40 sec (Damage)
  • Damage Bonus: 50% (Duration), 90% (Damage)

Melee Damage

Increase melee damage by 50% while cloaked.


Rank 6: Bonus Power/Damage[]

Bonus Power

Fire one power while cloaked and remain hidden.

Damage

Increase damage by 40%.

  • Recharge Speed: 12.90 Sec (Recharge Speed), 16 sec (Melee Damage)
  • Duration: 13.60 sec (Duration), 10.40 sec (Damage)
  • Damage Bonus: 90% (Duration), 130% (Damage)


Power Ranks (Shepard and Multiplayer)[]

Rank 1: Tactical Cloak[]

Become invisible.

Gain a massive damage bonus when breaking from cloak to attack.

  • Recharge Speed: 10 sec
  • Duration: 8 sec (4 sec multiplayer)
  • Damage Bonus: 50% (40% multiplayer non-asari, 60% asari)


Rank 2: Recharge Speed[]

Increase recharge speed by 25%.

  • Recharge Speed: 8 sec
  • Duration: 8 sec (4 sec multiplayer)
  • Damage Bonus: 50% (40% multiplayer non-asari, 60% asari)


Rank 3: Duration[]

Increase power duration by 30%.

  • Recharge Speed: 8 sec
  • Duration: 10.40 sec (5.20 sec multiplayer)
  • Damage Bonus: 50% (40% multiplayer non-asari, 60% asari)


Rank 4: Duration/Damage[]

Duration

Increase power duration by 40%. (150% multiplayer)

  • Recharge Speed: 8 sec
  • Duration: 13.60 sec (11.20 sec multiplayer)
  • Damage Bonus: 50% (40% multiplayer non-asari, 60% asari)

Damage

Increase damage bonus by 40%. (60% asari)

  • Recharge Speed: 8 sec
  • Duration: 10.40 sec (5.20 sec multiplayer)
  • Damage Bonus: 90% (80% multiplayer non-asari, 120% asari)


Rank 5: Recharge Speed/Melee Damage[]

Recharge Speed

Increase recharge speed by 30%.

  • Recharge Speed: 6.45 Sec
  • Duration: 13.60 sec (11.20 sec multiplayer) [Duration], 10.40 sec (5.20 sec multiplayer) [Damage]
  • Damage Bonus: 50% (40% multiplayer non-asari, 60% asari) [Duration], 90% (80% multiplayer non-asari, 120% asari) [Damage]

Melee Damage

Increase melee damage by 50% while cloaked.


Rank 6: Bonus Power/Sniper Rifle Damage[]

Bonus Power

Fire one power while cloaked and remain hidden.

Sniper Rifle Damage

Increase sniper rifle damage by 40% while cloaked. (25% multiplayer.)


Rank 6 Multiplayer Variants:[]

Turian Ghost Rank 6: Bonus Power/Assault Rifle Damage[]

Bonus Power

Fire one power while cloaked and remain hidden.

Assault Rifle Damage

When Tactical Cloak is activated, assault rifles do 20% more damage for 10 seconds.


Asari Huntress Rank 6: Bonus Power/Biotic Damage[]

Bonus Power

Fire one power while cloaked and remain hidden.

Power Damage

Increase Power Damage by 40%.


Alliance Infiltration Unit Rank 6: Bonus Power/Shotgun Damage[]

Bonus Power

Fire one power while cloaked and remain hidden.

Shotgun Damage

Shotguns fired during cloak do 25% more damage.


Player Notes[]

Mechanics
  • Tactical Cloak can be used again while active to cancel the invisibility prematurely.
  • The biggest difference in how Tactical Cloak works in Mass Effect 3 compared to Mass Effect 2 is that now the cloak provides a damage bonus to all damage done by the user, not just weapons and melee attacks. This now includes damage done by powers and grenades, though not Power Combos. Also in contrast to the previous game, the damage buff now lingers for about 2 seconds after the invisibility ends instead of instantly. An Infiltrator can now fire multiple shots from certain rifles and even use a power before the damage increase wears off.
  • As in Mass Effect 2, Tactical Cloak halts normal shield regeneration for the duration of the effect upon activation. Health will still regenerate normally, provided no damage or damage-over-time effect is being suffered by the user.
  • In single-player, using First Aid will not cancel Tactical Cloak. In multiplayer, use of survival and thermal clip packs will not break cloak, but firing Cobra missiles will, just like firing any other weapon would.
  • In contrast to how the power worked in Mass Effect 2, performing a melee attack will cancel Tactical Cloak early even if no enemies are hit. However, if cloaked while grappling with a husk, killing the husk with a stomp does not break the cloak. An over-cover grab kill will break the cloak shortly after the animation completes.
  • Using grenade powers will not deactivate Tactical Cloak as firing weapons, melee attacking, or using other powers does, allowing an Infiltrator to cloak and use multiple grenades without losing either the invisibility or the damage bonus, provided the cloak duration does not run out; however, enemies are able to detect an invisible player after grenades are used.
  • In multiplayer, it is not possible to complete or directly aid in the completion of the Escort or Retrieval objectives while invisible. The progress of a Hacking objective can be advanced while invisible. It is also possible to cloak prior to starting to disable a device in multiplayer, but a full disarming takes 10 seconds, so the rank 4 Duration evolution is currently required to remain invisible the entire time.
  • Proportional Cooldown: The recharge time for Tactical Cloak in Mass Effect 3 is proportional to the length of time the cloak is activated. For example, if the cloak is activated for the maximum duration, the power will take the full time to recharge. However, if the cloak is deactivated immediately, or within a time that would not affect the cooldown, the recharge is always 3 seconds (the minimum). This minimum cooldown is unaffected by the Rank 5 Recharge Speed evolution, though this evolution will start to benefit cooldown speeds beyond the minimum, proportionately, with the largest benefit to cloak cooldown when it is kept active for the full duration.
    • A power can be used immediately after taking a shot or melee attacking while cloaked and it will still use Tactical Cloak's proportional cooldown. This essentially allows for a minor circumvention of the usual "universal cooldown" rule in Mass Effect 3. This can be taken advantage of without the rank 6 Bonus Power upgrade (see more on this below in the Strategy section).
  • Bonus Power: As the description states, the Bonus Power evolution allows the user to remain invisible after using a power that would normally cancel Cloak. What isn't exactly clear from the description is how this affects power cooldowns. Essentially, once a power is used while invisible, all powers go on the normal cooldown for the power that was used. However, if the cloak is then cancelled or ends for any reason, powers go on the proportional cooldown for Tactical Cloak (as described in the above note). This will occur even if powers were still recharging from the previous power that was used while invisible—Cloak's cooldown supersedes it.
    • If Tactical Cloak's cooldown is shorter than the power that was used (e.g. if Flare was used), this can be advantageous.
    • If Shepard has Marksman chosen as a bonus power, this can be activated without breaking invisibility with the Bonus Power evolution. This is in contrast to how Marksman does NOT work with the similar evolution of Adrenaline Rush. However, the interactions between the durations and cooldowns of Marksman and Tactical Cloak (with or without the Bonus Power evolution) is extremely complicated. For more information, see the strategy section below, or the notes on the Marksman page.
  • The damage bonus for firing while in Tactical Cloak stacks additively with those from other skills (such as passives) or weapon mods. However, the Rank 6 40% (25% for multiplayer) damage bonus for weapon types stacks by multiplying the other bonuses. It will also improve the damage of ammo.
  • On Insanity difficulty, many enemies still attack a cloaked Shepard, even if other party members are alive and nearby, especially if Shepard was seen cloaking.
    • This also applies to Turrets if the player cloaks in vision of them, though a Turret appears to lose the player after firing one burst.
    • If both squadmates are currently downed, enemies become very good at sniffing out a cloaked Shepard, even when Shepard cloaked out of sight.
  • In multiplayer, despite the skill being active, enemies will attack the player if:
    • They see the Infiltrator begin cloaking, and is alone in the area.
    • The Infiltrator is too close (nearly point-blank range).
    • The Infiltrator is the last one standing during a wave.
  • Activating Tactical Cloak while already firing the Adas Anti-Synthetic Rifle or the Striker Assault Rifle will not break the cloak, instead granting its invisibility and damage bonus across the entire duration of the cloak. The Assault Rifle Magazine Upgrade maximizes this advantage. However, enemies can detect the wielder while firing.
  • The charged shots of the Kishock Harpoon Gun, Acolyte pistol, Venom Shotgun, Geth Plasma Shotgun, Chakram Launcher, and Graal Spike Thrower will not break cloak as long as charging starts before activating it.
    • The charged shots of the Arc Pistol will break cloak when fired, though holding a charged shot will not provided charging started before cloaking.
  • The Asari Huntress Infiltrator's Tactical Cloak damage bonuses only apply to melee attacks and powers.
  • In multiplayer, this power is one of few that exist in multiple versions as listed above.
  • In multiplayer, when playing off-host, attempting to break the cloak too soon after cloaking might result in a desynchronization error, causing the cloak to be impossible to break until it wears off by itself, while providing no damage bonus at any stage before being activated again.
    • This bug can be avoided by waiting a split second between cloaking and attacking. The exact timing will depend on the ping to the host.
    • This bug can be mitigated by not picking the duration evolution on rank 4, decreasing the time that the desynchronized state lasts.
Strategies
  • While shields do not recharge normally during Tactical Cloak, it's possible to use Defense Matrix's purge function to instantly restore shields. Even though merely activating Defense Matrix does not normally cause powers to go on cooldown, activation while cloaked will cancel Tactical Cloak and send powers to a cooldown state, as will the shield restoring purge. Tactical Cloak's rank 6 Bonus Power evolution makes it possible to restore shields with the purge without breaking cloak, though re-activation of the matrix will count as a second power use and break cloak.
  • Tactical Cloak's proportional cooldown mechanic and the ability to fire off a "free" power before the cooldown goes into effect can lead to some very interesting strategies for Infiltrators.
    • This mechanic can even be taken advantage of when power recharge speed is decreased by 200% and cooldown times could be as high as 30-40 seconds. Depending on how much time you spent in the cloak when using the powers to break the cloak, you could still wait as little as 3 seconds for cooldowns rather than 30 seconds for example. If using such a heavy loadout, the rank 6 Bonus Power evolution should be avoided as while a power can still be used without breaking cloak, powers will then revert to the cooldown that will be slowed by the heavy loadout, thus losing out on the benefit of Tactical Cloak's proportional cooldown mechanic.
    • In single player effective use of this mechanic can enable efficient use of powers especially those with very long cooldowns normally (e.g. Dominate, Flare). This can make the Infiltrator uniquely able to use both devastating powers on a relatively fast cooldown (even while eschewing any evolutions of said powers that decrease cooldown times) while also carrying a heavy loadout of weapons and weapon mods that would cripple the power use of any other class; however, care must be taken not to cloak for long durations and never to use powers without being cloaked first, or a punishingly long cooldown period will result.
    • In multiplayer this tactic can make Salarian Infiltrators very difficult to kill due to Energy Drain, quarians adept at causing robotic carnage with Sabotage, and humans very capable of making sneak attacks with Cryo Blast.
    • As the Marksman power has its own duration that runs before its own cooldown kicks in, it can have some fairly complex interactions with Tactical Cloak's duration and cooldown. See the Marksman page for more information. In brief, if Tactical Cloak is active and is then cancelled, its cooldown period will take effect. However, if Marksman is simultaneously active and its duration ends while not cloaked, its normal cooldown time supersedes and takes effect.
  • Following an update, the Tactical Cloak's duration was halved. This drastically decreased the feasibility of performing objectives in hostile environments, and also made evading large groups of enemies or avoiding longer cooldowns with heavier loadouts more difficult. The Cloak can retain the 11 second duration if the duration evolution at rank 4 is taken, but otherwise only lasts 5.2 seconds.

Availability[]

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