Mass Effect: Andromeda's best weapons

By Jen Karner
last updated

The right weapon can make a nasty firefight much easier to shoot your way through in Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Mass Effect: Andromeda brings you an adventure that spans the Andromeda Galaxy, bringing humanity to a new home amongst the stars. However, things aren't going to be easy for Ryder and crew, and being armed to the teeth can certainly help you out when dealing with Kett attacks. With as many weapons floating through the game as there are, we decided to spotlight the top three weapons in each category. These weapons are the best for a variety of reasons, and each one can put a serious hurting on any alien ne'er-do-well.

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Pistols

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Pistols are your small sidearms, generally only getting serious use when you run out of ammo for the rest of the guns. Still, a good pistol can make the difference between dying to the influx of Kett or limping away. Each of these pistols does substantial damage, and each has plenty of room for augmentations.

  • Ushior Angaran Heavy Pistol: This is the nastiest pistol in the game. It's a single-shot plasma discharge, and contains four augmentation slots.
  • Talon MWS Handgun: This semi-automatic pistol uses shotgun shot with multiple pellets and has three augmentation slots.
  • Scorpion MWS Handgun: This semi-automatic pistol fires sticky grenades. It has a four-shot clip and three augmentation slots.

Assault rifles

Assault rifles are the easy go-to when dealing with large groups of enemies. You get a larger clip, they do significant damage, and they are set up for a firefight. Since there isn't an SMG class of weapons in Mass Effect: Andromeda, it's a solid bet that your assault rifle is going to be one of your most-used weapons.

  • Zalkin Kett Rifle: A three-shot, semi-automatic rifle that fires plasma rounds. This is the nastiest assault rifle in the game with a serious punch, 24 rounds in a clip, and the ability to switch between one and three rounds at a time.
  • Sweeper Remnant Assault Rifle: This rifle fires a three-shot burst with particle burst ammo. It's got a 22-round clip, three slots for aumentation, and a heat-based reload system.
  • Sandstorm MWS Rifle: The Sandstorm is a semi-automatic rifle armed with standard rounds and access to a scope. It has 12 rounds to a clip and three slots for augmentation.

Shotguns

When you need a single weapon to knock an enemy out of the running, a good shotgun is often your best bet. While they do have a harder hitting slug, you're not going to have as large of a clip to unload into your nemeses.

  • Ruzad MWS Shotgun: A semi-automatic shotgun that fires hitscan rounds. It has a three-round clip with two augmentation slots.
  • N7 Piranha MWS Assault Shotgun: An automatic shotgun that also has a semi-automatic feature. It has an eight-round clip and three slots for augmentation.
  • Scattershot Remnant Shotgun: A semi-automatic shotgun that fires tracking particle blast ammunition. It has a clip of 10, four slots for augmentation, and a heat-based reload system.

Sniper rifles

If you're a fan of picking off your foes from a distance while the rest of your team runs in, having a dead accurate sniper rifle is going to be the go-to.

  • Viper MWS Sniper Rifle: This Sniper has a three-round clip, with a single-action fire. It has two slots for augmentation.
  • Widow MWS Sniper Rifle: The Widow has a single-shot clip, with a single-action fire. It is the most powerful sniper rifle in the game, and it has two augmentation slots.
  • Vanquisher MWS Sniper Rifle: The Vanquisher has a four-shot clip, with single-action fire. It has standard damage rounds, with three slots for augmentation.

Melee weapons

No matter what weapons you decide to bring with you on your missions across the Andromeda Galaxy, you'll always have a melee weapon on you. There are four different types of melee weapons, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Some weapons are faster, while others will do more damage in a single strike.

  • Asari Sword: This MWS sword does both enormous damage and imbues the user with certain biotic powers when it is used. You'll blink forward before striking, though the sword takes a moment to warm up before the attack will trigger. This sword also has four augmentation slots.
  • Kett Vakarsh: This Kett sword does nasty damage, including burn damage that continues over time. This also gets your target primed for a fire combo. As a sword, it will take a moment to warm up before striking. You get four augmentation slots with this sword.
  • Krogan Hammer: This MWS hammer is slow when attacking, but it does serious damage. This includes heavy impact damage, which knocks your enemies away from you. It has three slots for augmentation.

What is your Andromeda loadout?

While there are plenty of different weapons in Mass Effect: Andromeda, you can't take all of them with you. Being able to trust the weapons that you equip will get the job done is key, especially when you're in dangerous territory. Do you agree with our choices for best weapons? What does your loadout look like?

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Jen Karner
Jen Karner

Jen is a contributing writer for WindowsCentral. She's an avid gamer, especially when she gets to kill zombies, craft things, or use a bow. She can often be heard yelling about her chainsaw while playing Gears of War 4. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

25 Comments
  • Haven't been reading too much good press on this one.
  • Mass effects best weapon will be a 30Gb patch.
  • Got almost every single perk for weapon weight reduction so I carry all type of weapons at once with 100% power cooldown
    ​my favorites are N7 Crusader (Shotgun)(Main), Black Widow (SR), M-5 (pistol), M-8 (AR), biotic amp (Melee)
    ​not a fan of alien weapons or armor except remenant armors which look pretty cool :D
     
  • My favourite is the P.A.W.
  • Same
  • Best weapon is the bad facial expressions. They can quickly kill the vibe of playing Andromeda.
  • Best Guns isn't saying much when they're in a ****** game
  • Is EA/Bioware a sponsor? Just trying to gauge why there have been so many articles on this single game.
  • People are searching for it, we provide content based on what people are looking for. I think we're the last website EA would want to sponsor, lol.
  • Fair enough, that's good insight into what drives article choices. :)
  • I mean it's not always the case, sometimes we write cus we enjoy writing or feel we can add something to a discussion. But yeah, lots of people search too, we have a search function on the site. :)
  • @jcrus If you don't like the article, just ignore it. You don't have to read every single article and bother writing a comment. We gamers do care about what you think is a sponsored article :)
  • The game isn't great, but it's still a good game. Yes there are flaws, but the combat is pretty engaging, the story isn't half bad, and there's a good multiplayer that ties into the story element. It's childish to just jump on the bandwagon to trash the game because that's the popular thing to do. Especially from people who haven't played it. Not interested in the game then keep it moving. It's about as dumb as it gets when people aren't interested in a game, but they take the time to devote complaining about it....
  • Agreed 100%
  • I'll check out the Angaaran pistol. I was going to develop the scorpion but i was concerned about the rate of fire and clip size. I'm definitely a fan of the P.A.W. and Scattershot. I was planning on making a Remnant Sniper Rifle. I have the N7 type Pathfinder Scout type armor and was thinking about developing the Remnant one. Need more Vanadium though.
  • By the end of the game you'll be swimming in materials, I ended up with a full loadout even as a biotic, using weight-reducing mods to stop the heavy weapons screwing my cooldowns.
  • Yeah, i think I'm going to have to do the same thing. I think the abilities really took a back seat. I mean you can create 4 different loadouts that you can swap to during a fight, but it's still kind of clunky. Having to hit the window button and then x and still having to switch the load out, it's just cumbersome. Right now my cooldowns suck because you need a shotgun on you for those annoying creatures that rush you. And what's this article talking about, I saw a couple SMGs.
  • Yeah the profile system blows so much, even ME1 was more intuitive. Terrible system. I ended up just sticking with throw/pull/singularity through the entirity of the game. SMGs come under "Pistols."
  • I am surprised the the DHAN Shotgun is not listed, that one is nasty! Give it a double slot extension = 5 mod slots total, electrical jolt and heat clip augmentation = equal one son of a gun! Together with the right mods you can get this one up to over 1.7k dmg/shot in its highest version and not worry about ammo.
  • I play on insanity, and you absolutely need the damage resistance from the Helius Icon armor set. I love the remanant gauntlet because it primes for combo detonations, reduces armor buffs, and has 4 augment slots. My favorite weapons are N7 Valkyrie, the Dahn, for tight spots, and the Remnant UR sniper rifle,
  • Thanks for the tips! Think my next playthrough will be insanity.
  • Great game so far, had no issues.. Yes its a bit behind times graphically but love it so far
  • Why take the Widow when the Black Widow is an option? Damage is about the same with a 3 round clip? Even better.
  • My opinion, the Lanat sniper rifle (Kett) is among the best in the game for heavy hitting snipers.
  • God bad taste humor, is treacherous among haters around here... I have seen trump dealing better lines... We've got it you don't like the game... But at least eat a clown before trying to be funny... It's just awfully bad to read...