The Mass Effect Legendary Edition includes a wide selection of firearms from both the base-game as well as the DLCs across all three of the remastered games - I've designed this guide from both my own experience, and from general agreements from the community at large to help inform YOU on what are some of the best weapons you can get in the three games.

Why should we believe you?
A large amount of this information I have gathered up from multiple sources, from the Wiki to general articles on the game - furthermore, I've actually went and bothered to test the effectiveness of the weapons in my own playthroughs, and come to some reasonable conclusions that'll help with the information.

What are your credentials?
I'm currently in the middle of my third Insanity Difficulty playthrough (Having completed all three games twice previously on the Origin version), and have played through the series at different difficulty levels on multiple platforms around 6 times (not including my current playthrough in the Legendary Edition).
I've played for quite a long time, even bothered to read the books - so - I've got some first-hand experience on the uses on the best guns in the game.

Note: This guide is a W.I.P - it's visual style will be updated and changed as it is developed.
Also - I've been unable to add a large majority of Images as Steam outdated creation system fails to allow .jpgs and .pngs to not be recognised sometimes. I don't know why, I don't understand it. But - that's where we are at. I'll try and update and improve visual fidelity to be more in-line with my other guides, however, today steam is just not having it.
Late update: 26/06/2021

In the original Mass Effect, there’s a simple answer to the question of which weapons are the best: the Spectre – Master Gear set.

The Spectre – Master Gear set spans the whole range of weapon types in the original Mass Effect. The weapons in the set are a pistol, a shotgun, an assault rifle, and a sniper rifle. So no matter which character class you’ve chosen to play as, there’s definitely a Spectre item you should be working your way to acquiring.

The main downside to these weapons is that they’re extremely tough to get hold of. Not only are there just a couple of vendors who will supply you with them — the Normandy Requisitions Officer and his C-Sec counterpart — but the items actually in the game are quite limited.

(Even more frustratingly, the DLC that made them slightly easier to acquire — Pinnacle Station — wasn’t able to be included in the Legendary Edition due to technical issues.)

Like all items in the game, Spectre weapons technically come in ten levels. However, you can only access Levels VII and X without using cheats.


To access Level VII, you need to have amassed over one million credits and unlocked the “Rich” achievement.

To access Level X, you need to have saved all that cash for the achievement and to be at least Level 50. These really are prestige items.

At Level X, though, Spectre weapons undeniably have the best stats in the game. Dealing base damage between the high 200s and high 300s, and with accuracy ratings of up to 91, you’ll cut through your enemies with unprecedented ease.

Tip for unlocking on your first playthrough:
In order to unlock the Spectre – Master Gear range on your first playthrough, you really need to avoid spending money whenever you can. So if you really want the Spectre weapons first time, you’ll need to scavenge for items and only purchase from merchants when it’s unavoidable. It’s difficult but do-able, and the payoff is that you’ll have access to the best weapons possible going into the endgame.

M-5 Phalanx

The M-5 Phalanx deals relatively high damage and can be used with 100% accuracy thanks to its built-in laser sight.

It’s well worth keeping the M-6 Carnifex as your back-up. Like the Phalanx, its damage is quite high, though its slow fire rate and small magazine capacity mean that it’s best used as a secondary weapon when your first runs out of ammo.


M-22 Eviscerator

As the name implies, the M-22 Eviscerator is a shotgun capable of doing some truly nasty damage when used at close range — though it’s actually quite good over distance too. Its large magazine and rapid rate of fire means that it can cut through enemies with far fewer pauses than other weapons of this type.

Originally a DLC item, it can be obtained in the Legendary Edition once you’ve recruited Mordin.

Geth Assault Rifle

The Geth Pulse Rifle is absolutely overpowered as an assault rifle. It has an extremely high rate of fire and ammo capacity, and is undoubtedly one of the best weapons in the game. However, it can be very difficult to procure — you need to be playing on Hardcore or Insanity difficulty and complete Tali’s recruitment mission for your chance to pick one up.

Luckily, the M-96 Mattock is almost as good, and much easier to obtain: this former DLC weapon can be readily bought on Omega in the Legendary Edition.

M-98 Widow

The M-98 Widow is the ultimate sniper rifle if you’re playing as a Soldier or Infiltrator. It can only fire a single shot before you need to reload, but its damage is so high you’re unlikely to encounter the need for a second shot very often. It’s also strong against shields and biotics.

Unfortunately, four character classes are locked out from accessing it permanently. For everyone else, we recommend the M-92 Mantis, which does most of the same things as the Widow without being quite as absolutely overpowered.

The M-98 Widow is the ultimate sniper rifle if you’re playing as a Soldier or Infiltrator. It can only fire a single shot before you need to reload, but its damage is so high you’re unlikely to encounter the need for a second shot very often. It’s also strong against shields and biotics.

Unfortunately, four character classes are locked out from accessing it permanently. For everyone else, we recommend the M-92 Mantis, which does most of the same things as the Widow without being quite as absolutely overpowered.

M-12 Locust

If you want accuracy over distance it’s best to go with the M-12 Locust instead. This weapon will do very little for you at close quarters, but is incredibly accurate at long-range. Honeslty, the Locust has always been a personal favourite of mine to use on Normal difficulty.

Collector Particle Beam

The Collector Particle Beam is an almost absurdly powerful heavy weapon. Its precision, ammo capacity, and range are through the roof; it’s strong against enemy shields and barriers; and it doesn’t deal friendly fire damage, allowing you to use it at close range with your squad around you.

The only real downside is that the beam requires a constant line-of-sight to deal damage, which can prove dangerous at higher difficulty levels.

M-358 Talon

The Carnifex is narrowly beaten out by the newly-introduced M-358 Talon. This pistol boasts some serious accuracy, blending a revolver-inspired rotating magazine with shotgun-strength pellet ammunition. Naturally, its damage is nothing to be sniffed at either.

Though. The classic M-5 can still be stuck to if you like.

M-300 Claymore

The M-300 Claymore heavy shotgun is one of the punchiest weapons in Mass Effect — as evidenced by the fact that in ME2, only Soldiers and Vanguards (and Krogan NPCs) had the physical strength to actually wield it.

But the new and improved Claymore design in ME3 gets rid of these restrictions, and it’s now available to any character class. It has incredibly high damage (only the Black Widow can really beat it across all weapon types!) — at the cost of being unwieldy and needing to be reloaded after every shot. Still, if you can make it count, it’s one of the most powerful weapons in the game.

M-96 Mattock

The Geth Pulse Rifle makes a return in ME3 and is much easier to get hold of, but it’s not quite as powerful as its ME2 counterpart.

So for your ME3 assault rifle needs, I recommend going straight for the M-96 Mattock this time around. It’s a hybrid weapon, giving you the rapid-fire advantage of an assault rifle but the damage-dealing capacity of a sniper rifle.

Black Widow

The Black Widow sniper rifle is an improved version of the M-98 Widow which can be purchased from the Citadel Embassies (and unlike in ME2, neither version is class-specific). It allows you to fire three shots before reloading instead of just one, at the relatively low cost of a small amount of damage per shot compared to the more basic model. However, it still has more damage potential than any other semi-automatic rifle in the game, and is practically essential if you’re playing as an Infiltrator.

N7 Hurrican/M-12 Locust

The N7 Hurricane and the M-12 Locust aren’t actually particularly similar beyond their weight, damage, and ammo capacity. The Hurricane has an absolutely phenomenal fire rate but low accuracy, while the Locust provides a decent balance.

It’s possible to find a grenade to suit your needs in almost any situation, but for sheer visual spectacle (as well as a decent chunk of damage to each enemy it affects), we recommend the biotic-powered Cluster Grenade. If you find yourself surrounded by enemies, it can be incredibly useful for spreading them out a bit, and whittling down their health bars while it’s at it.