Mass Effect Wiki
Mass Effect Wiki
Mass Effect Wiki

This is the talk page for Husk (enemy).
Please limit discussions to topics that go into improving the article.
If you wish to discuss matters not relevant to article upkeep, take it to the blogs, forums,
Discord chat, or discussions module.
Thank you.

Husk picture for Mass Effect 1[]

It seems the picture of the husk in Mass Effect 1 is a husk on Horizon, clearly from Mass Effect 2. Would it be better to use a picture from the first game instead? Freakium 04:02, June 16, 2011 (UTC)

Good eye, I never noticed that before. It would probably be better to get a picture from the first game, maybe one of a Husk on a "dragon's tooth" on Eden Prime. Tali's no.1 fan 15:26, June 16, 2011 (UTC)
Ok. I've uploaded a picture of husks as they appeared on the Citadel. I'm hoping it's clear enough and I had to brighten the pic a bit since the only lighting in the area was fire. Would this be good enough as a replacement? As a side note, it's nice to see progression of the husk in the ME series. The ME3 husk gives me goosebumps. Freakium 19:40, June 16, 2011 (UTC)
Looks good to me. And yeah, what is with the ME3 Husks? Tali's no.1 fan 20:47, June 16, 2011 (UTC)
Me? Reigniting an ancient topic? No. But the ME3 Husks are likely just more advanced versions of the ones previous seen; more tech, less flesh. Stronger, faster, perhaps easier to make; in fact, since alternative methods of creation were hinted at/outright stated in ME3, the new appearance is likely tied to that somehow. Even an old sentient war machine with preconcieved notions of godhood can learn a new trick. CaptainThunderdude (talk) 01:59, January 1, 2014 (UTC)

Works for me. I've added the image to the article. -- Commdor (Talk) 22:29, June 16, 2011 (UTC)

"NPC" husk encounters (mars planent notification)[]

should it be noted on the 1st level you "likely encounter" a "half husk" infected d human?

my quote for the wiki enemies on this subject is "oh my god it looks like a husk" - lutuineant.

and if possible from lingering or doing something hidden out of the blue normal gamers would do is there a way to make it active in mass effect 3? ideas here, suggestions, and a supplied quote for the top of the main page.

Ok, what is this saying as I've read it six times now and I can't make heads or tails of it? Lancer1289 04:45, May 2, 2012 (UTC)

Can warp detonate husk?[]

I experimented using Jacob (Pull 4) and Miranda. Can't detonate any Husks affected by a Pull. Can someone else confirm it is possible? Grail Quest (talk) 22:28, March 23, 2014 (UTC)

Kasumi FlashBang[]

During the Suicide Mission, I noticed that IF Kasumi gets FIRST STRIKE with her FlashBang on ARMORED Husks, they were knocked down and therefore died instantly. If anything else damaged them first, it did not work in the same way. Anyone else confirm? Grail Quest (talk) 16:53, March 31, 2014 (UTC)

  • Nevermind -- can't reliably reproduce after it failed after hitting an armored Husk after it was hit by something else. All subsequent trials failed, even on reload. Hmm... Grail Quest (talk) 22:01, March 31, 2014 (UTC)
Just for the sake of pointing any future peoples in the right direction about this, see Flashbang Grenade's Talk page and/or notes, this mystery has been solved. In short, Flashbang works like the projectiles from the Missile Launcher and Grenade Launcher: they all possess a force component, and if the damage component of the projectile was sufficient to penetrate the protection layers of the target, then the target, if vulnerable to the force, will suffer the full force effect. So a husk with a tiny amount of armor left can be insta-gibbed by Flashbang. Ale89515 (talk) 04:42, 19 November 2020 (UTC)

Dominate[]

During Reaper IFF, I noticed that using Dominate on an unprotected Husk caused it to die instead of becoming mind controlled, whereas it seemed that in previous missions they could be controlled. Anyone else confirm? Grail Quest (talk) 16:53, March 31, 2014 (UTC)

ME2 Husk - weak spots info seems inaccurate[]

I've done a bit of testing, and on that basis I'm putting forward that the entry on ME2 husks seems inaccurate on the point of weak spots:

  1. The article says husks are "vulnerable to headshots like any other enemy". This appears to me NOT to be true. While playing Reaper IFF on Insanity, I used the Locust SMG to be able to get repeated looks at small amounts of damage. No detectable increase in damage when shooting head as opposed to body.
  2. The article mentions that a "strong enough shot" can sever a Husk in half, killing it instantly. After killing several hundred husks with my Locust, I can report that this doesn't seem to have anything to do with the shot being "strong enough" as I can do it to almost every husk with even the not-so-strong shots of a Locust SMG. Worth noting is that husks are often severed in half (instakilled) when they're in the approximately 1/2 to 1/3 health range -- in other words this isn't just special art used when killing a husk normally, it's a way of killing a husk without wearing through 100% of its health (in other words a weak spot). The exact mechanics of this are difficult to establish (is it a percent chance per hit, or per hit below a certain health? does the chance increase below a certain health? etc) but the effect is so easy to reproduce frequently that it seems worth noting as a weak point on the ME2 Husk -- indeed as the weak point, given that hitting the head doesn't seem to produce detectable damage bonuses.

I'd noticed another user attempting to add similar information to the article and being reverted, so I thought I'd follow up with some testing and post my results here for discussion/refutation/posterity/whatever. Cattlesquat (talk) 21:58, May 10, 2014 (UTC)


shoot a million husks and it still won't matter if you fail to read the results correctly. rerun in slow motion so you can better see why you're incorrect. that's what console commands and key bindings are for.
  • x-3f predator (occasionally crits, still accounted for), weap damage +9% passive, insanity, derelict reaper
    • armor: 2-4 shots body, 2-3 shots head (2nd shot leaves about 1/3 armor on body, 1/minuscule on head)
    • health: 13-14 shots upper body (clip emptied + next reload, deliberately avoided torso, see below), 7-10 shots head (10th shot finisher; 9th shot barely left a sliver)
  • inaccurate to a (large) degree. the lower torso area around the circle is the start of the weak spot. the circle is just the identifying mark. and the so-called weak "spot" extends to the legs. shoot a husk at the lower back or sides and you still get the chance of it gibbing after around 4-6 shots.
what does this mean? weak "spot" is misleading. simply, after armor stripping DON'T aim at a husk's upper body and arms and don't bother lining up headshots even if there -is- a damage difference. or just use biotics on the fuckers instead of letting me waste time shooting your assumptions down.
all in all, the current wording on the article is still valid and only needed minor clarifications. all objections based on amateurish "observations" are invalid unless someone can devsource to the contrary or performs similarly real testing. T̴̴͕̲̞̳̖̼̱͒͛̎͒ͫ̃ͧeͩ̈̽̈҉͓̝̰̼̦̫̤̀͠m̫̪̪̯̻͎̫̅̇̓̇͌̚p̸̙̝̓̓͌ͨ͆ͣͥ̂̕o͒̽͐̽͏̞̬̻͕͔͕͚̰͍͠͞ṙ̢̞͚͈̹̰ͨ̓ͭ̈́̌ạ̢̧̪̹̺̺̣̹̲͂͆̏ͪͨ͒ͭř̹͈͜͠y̷͍̻̜̹̼̾̽̈́e̵̹̼̟̦͚͐̈́͌͘d͉̲̣̻͉̱͗̅ḭ̷̻̆͋̆̓̔͝t̨͍̦̫̗͂̅̍̋̆ͩ͝ộ̫̟̬̳̝̲̾ͫ̒̿ͮ̑̚rͯ̎ͨͭ̄̿̽͛҉̠̫̱̠̘̘̲́ͅ7̩̻ͤͩͨ͝͡8̜̣̙͇̻ͨ͛͛̆͒̆̽̒͐͜͡ ͥ̍̉̃̇ͥ̓ͨ͏̕҉̥̹͓̗̤̠̖̤ (talk) 07:22, May 11, 2014 (UTC)

If we stipulate the above is true, it seems like we should remove the reference to a "strong enough shot (like a shotgun or assault rifle)". So the final sentence could read e.g. "Instead aim for the legs and lower torso, as each shot has a chance to sever the husk in half, killing it instantly." That communicates the opportunity without a red herring about weapon type. Cattlesquat (talk) 13:53, May 11, 2014 (UTC)

Husk Locations[]

I just wanted to point out that Husks are also found on Rayingri (Armstrong Nebula, UNC: Geth Incursions mission). If someone who could edit the location box for the original game could do that, it'd be great. Thanks. --173.58.251.107 18:41, October 21, 2014 (UTC)

ME1 Husk Explosion Ignores Damage Reduction[]

The major damage from Husks comes from their AoE nova (which when using console is called "ZOMBIE_explode" by the game). The explosion as everyone knows does an assload of damage, but something I never totally realized before is that it actually appears to IGNORE all damage reduction modifiers on at least the player. I don't know if this also applies to allied NPCS/squad members the same way because for some odd reason, the Husk explosion seems to do erratic or less damage to them than to Shepard.

Specifically, I tested the damage from the explode with/without Level 3 Immunity on, and with/without Energized Plating mods in the armor, and the amount of damage I sustained from the Husk explosions appeared totally unaffected by the damage reduction modifiers in all cases. Based on this it would seem that the only real way to gain more resilience against Husk explosions is increasing max health and that's it.

Ale89515 (talk) 23:01, 20 October 2020 (UTC)

Further investigations[]

So I finally tested various defenses against Husk attacks in sandbox conditions (PC Console commands, squadmates and other enemies not interfering) and found out some interesting things. The husk overloading "ZOMBIE_explode" attack is actually a tech attack. So it does indeed ignore all Damage Protection boosting stats that reduce incoming physical damage by a % such as from Armor (top bar), Energized Plating, and Immunity. However, TECH Resistance stats and Upgrades such as the Combat Exoskeleton and the Tech/Biotic resist on Armor (bottom bar) do greatly reduce the damage from the explosion, against both HP and shields.

Also, the damage from Zombie Explode does indeed do much more damage to shields than to HP, by a factor of about 3. Tested this with more than one armor type on Shepard (Colossus M 10, Predator M X) and the numbers showed about a 3-1 ratio shields-to-hp damage both times. Energized plating mods, Immunity, Armor Damage protection again had zero impact on damage, only Tech resistance/Hardening type boosts reduced damage. Ale89515 (talk) 19:16, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

also tested Damping on Husks and confirmed using console that it does delay their explosions for a few seconds. Ale89515 (talk) 20:05, 18 November 2020 (UTC)