Talk: M-5 Phalanx

They say the gun is highly accurate, what they don't tell you is that you only get the laser sight and no reticle. This thing is definitely a finesse weapon and I'm enjoying it, as long as I take my time and sight the headshots, the thing has great distance and with pacing the 30 ammo clip goes a long way.--Xaero Dumort 16:16, August 3, 2010 (UTC)

Oh i'll definitely put the new pistol to good use since it has a laser sight :D Shadowhawk27 21:29, August 3, 2010 (UTC)

There's just one question that bugs me if this gun upgrades the M-3 Predator heavy pistol, then what weapon would be the upgradeable M-6 Carnifex Hand Cannon? Shadowhawk27 12:14, August 4, 2010 (UTC)

Just got my hands on this weapon today and I gotta say it definitely makes you feel good. It feels like a weapon that's right in between the Carnifex and the Predator. It does a heck of a lot of damage but of course, you have a laser sight instead of a reticle so the Carnifex surprisingly has better aim. I found that it was actually pretty hard for me to use the laser sight at enemies that were ~10 metres away from me. I'm playing on PC though so I have no idea if it's the same on the 360 but once I sight in, the laser goes haywire for a few seconds before it starts to level off. This gun is definitely not meant for quick pot shots from cover but it's still a decent weapon. Each shot that lands makes me salivate. Especially when shooting mechs. It takes awhile to get used to but after playing through Overlord with this weapon, I'm finally getting the hang of it. Freakium 16:59, August 4, 2010 (UTC)

Until now no weapons in the DLC's upgrade the original more powerfull versions of any weapon in the game. The Mattock upgrades the Avenger, not the Vindicator; the Locust upgrades the Shuriken; and so on. It makes sense, since the Tempest is a better weapon to fight with shielded enemies, like Geth (I usually change my Locust for the Tempest when fighting on Helstrom and in Legion loyalty mission). The Phalanx is one hell of a pistol, too much powerfull in my opinion, I putted down a Geth Destroyer after destroying his shields with 3 shots (Infiltrator, level 19, Helstrom, heavy disruptor)! Contrary to Freakium, I've found that the Phalanx is better to be fired from cover, where you aim the laser is where the bullet will hit, it's astonishing. The Carnifex is a better weapon to shoot if you're running or moving IMHO. Brfritos 05:55, August 5, 2010 (UTC)

I've found the biggest problem for me with this weapon is its slow rate of fire, meaning you really don't want to miss with it, especially in close quarters. Luckily, I don't find much of a problem aiming with the laser sight and the massive damage the Phalanx deals usually makes up for the slow fire rate. All in all, I think this is a beast of a weapon, but it doesn't render the other pistols useless. --Tali's no.1 fan 20:43, September 1, 2010 (UTC)

Correct title

I feel pedantic, but it's actually called the M-5a Phalanx in the game. It's meant to be an upgrade of the regular M-5. Teclo 02:48, August 7, 2010 (UTC)

Wait... what? The regular M-5? No, the baseline weapon (i.e. the weapon the title of the article is derived from) is the M-5. As you mention, the M-5a is what it's called after it gets upgraded. IIRC, it gets the 'a' after one damage upgrade. The M-5 pistol itself is described as an upgrade to the M-3 Predator. SpartHawg948 02:37, August 7, 2010 (UTC)

And you would be correct Spart, see Heavy Pistols#Upgrades. Lancer1289 02:40, August 7, 2010 (UTC)

Really? I must have upgraded it before using it since it's always been M-5a for me. Well you live and learn. I wasn't aware the in-game description of each weapon updated with each +10% damage upgrade you make to it. The in-game description for the Phalanx says it's an upgrade to the M-5 and I assumed the M-5 was a pre-existing pistol, from before the recent DLC. Teclo 02:48, August 7, 2010 (UTC)

That's odd... the in-game description I have of the M-5 says it upgrades the Predator heavy pistol (no alpha-numeric, just 'Predator), and the Predator is, after all, the dumpy old starter M-3 Predator. SpartHawg948 02:52, August 7, 2010 (UTC)

OK, now you're making me doubt my memory. I can't check at the moment because I'm just doing some Illium missions and can't readily access the weapon select screen. When I next get a chance to check, I'll update it here.

I want one of these for Christmas :D

Meaningful name?

Does anyone else suspect that the laser is supposed to represent the spear of the phalanx formation, while the ability to fire accurately from long range represents the defensive aspect, or am I looking too deep here?--Mehbah 16:15, December 16, 2010 (UTC)

I think you might be looking a little too deep. The laser might represent the spear, considering they were 8 through 10 feet long, but they usually weren't very accurate from range. Sometimes they did carry javelins, but javelins are extremely inaccurate. Phalanxes were more effective in close combat, while obvious it had to be said, than at range. So again, I think you are just looking a little too deep for this issue. When it comes to power however, you might have something, but even that's a stretch. Lancer1289 16:35, December 16, 2010 (UTC)

But on the other hand, in the interests of accuracy, it must be pointed out (in regards to the comment that "Phalanxes were more effective in close combat"), what made the phalanx so unique as a formation (particularly the Macedonian phalanx that we most commonly associate with the word) was that it had much greater reach than did previous melee tactical formations. Most ancient formations could only hit foes a few feet away, while the phalanx could hit foes nearly twenty feet away. In this respect, the analogy seems spot on. Like the ancient phalanx (a melee formation that distinguishes itself with its much longer range compared to other such formations), the M-5 Phalanx is a weapon that has much greater range (or better accuracy at range) than do other pistols in this class. Now, the power thing, that one really makes no sense. The phalanx was not particularly powerful, certainly not more so than other melee formations. But as far as the range comparison, no, I don't think it's at all a stretch, or looking to deeply. It makes perfect sense. SpartHawg948 18:54, December 16, 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, by "long range" I meant "long range for a normal weapons", since obviously a spear or javelin has longer reach than a sword, hammer, axe or other melee weapon. A phalanx formation with the same range and accuracy as this gun would have made history very different.--Mehbah 20:32, December 16, 2010 (UTC)

Indeed. It's a case of striking two weapons from dissimilar categories that stand out in strikingly similar ways within their own categories. As you say, of course a phalanx formation is a close combat formation, but so too are heavy pistols close-in weapons (as far as ME2 is concerned, that is), and both the phalanx formation and the Phalanx pistol, within the limitations of their categories, are notable for their extended range. So yeah, I'd have to say I'm in complete agreement with you on this one.

Oh, and just noticed this mentioned in the second post of the thread... the typical phalanx weapon, from the Macedonian phalanx, which is the formation the word is most associated with, weren't "8 through 10 feet long", as was stated above. The phalanx used a weapon known as the sarissa. The length of a sarissa was variable, but most were between 18-21 feet in length. Quite a bit longer than 8 to 10 feet. SpartHawg948 21:55, December 16, 2010 (UTC)

"Medium-Power"

The power wheel describes the Phalanx as "medium-power" and the Mattock as "high-power". I think that's a bit odd, as the Phalanx does more damage (per shot) and has more recoil than the Mattock. Thoughts? Tali's no.1 fan 18:39, April 1, 2011 (UTC)

Relevance to this article? This is once again something that belongs in the forums or a blog post, not here. Lancer1289 18:42, April 1, 2011 (UTC)

Squad Use

I notice squadmates really don't seem to fire this pistol very much, so would the Carnifex perhaps be better in their hands than the Phalanx? Tali's no.1 fan 19:06, April 2, 2011 (UTC)

It could be a useful note to add to the article. Tali's no.1 fan 21:20, April 4, 2011 (UTC)

Animation change

Not sure where to put this so I thought it would be best if I added it here. I encountered a bug when I was playing through the mission Dossier: The Justicar as a vanguard. When targeting the gunship, I suddenly noticed Shepard was firing the Phalanx just like a shotgun. The firing sound is the same but it fired with the animation of a shotgun and the reload animation of a shotgun. It was hilarious but also a little annoying as I couldn't target enemies as accurately as before. I don't know if it has anything to do with picking up the Scimitar shotgun because the first time I switched over to the Phalanx was when I was targeting the gunship. Has anyone else ever encountered this bug? Freakium 23:17, April 30, 2011 (UTC)

To be honest, I've never encountered this rather interesting bug. I've heard of things like this, glitches with animations and reload times, but never with the Phalanx. Lancer1289 00:01, May 1, 2011 (UTC)

This happened to me on Collector Ship (mission) apart from it switched to a sniper rifle animation. So that means one more person for it to be confirmed? Midnightpiranha (talk) 15:37, December 16, 2012 (UTC)

Laser sight

The laser sight itself is bad enough, but the delay before it activates makes the weapon completely unusable compared to Carnifex, which is a shame. Does anybody know how to reduce it through editing game configuration files?

Checking in from 2020 to report that, at least on the PC version, there is no noticeable delay before the laser starts up, so either this was patched long ago, or is just a console behavior. I removed it from player notes for now. Ale89515 (talk) 14:05, June 7, 2020 (UTC)

WHERE is it???

This might by a dumb question, but I can't find a straight answer anywhere at all. Where do I get this pistol? I have the Cerberus DLC and the Firewalker missions, but I still have no idea where to find it. Is there a specific store, or planet I need to go to? Exactly how do I obtain the Phalanx?

If you look at the article, there's a section titled "Acquisition" which explains that you need to purchase the Firepower Pack DLC in order to receive this weapon. -- Commdor (Talk) 05:45, November 7, 2011 (UTC)

Darn commdor, I just spent 10 minutes writting a letter telling this guy how to get it.Legionwrex 05:48, November 7, 2011 (UTC)

Damn I misread the DLC pack I thought it was Firewalker.

Langauge people. It isn't that hard. Lancer1289 13:33, November 7, 2011 (UTC)

Laser sight accuracy

From using this weapon on PC and testing using the console command Profile Combat self, I can confirm with numbers that this weapon becomes 100% accurate when using aim down sights with the laser pointer active (the Aim Error number for Shepard goes to 0.0) if firing without the laser active the the aim error number is a range between 1.2-5.6, slightly less if in cover (like other standard guns). In other words, the laser sight isn't just a visual guide for the user, using it actually makes the shots 100% accurate when they usually aren't, it acts exactly like a sniper rifle scope does without scoped effect, only a small zoom (the aim error of sniper rifles is huge when not scoped, but disappears to 0.0 when scoped). Ale89515 (talk) 13:55, June 7, 2020 (UTC)