Earlier this year, BioWare announced that Mass Effect 4 was in early production, hinting that they will be returning to the Milky Way Galaxy. While there is some doubt as to whether or not this will be a direct continuation of Commander Shepard's story, it wouldn't hurt to revisit the game that started it all.
Most of Mass Effect's features are pretty straightforward, but upgrading weapons and armor is either unknown or has been forgotten that it's possible. So, now that it's officially been made aware of, Mass 1's weapons can hold one or two weapons upgrades plus one ammunitions upgrade.
Increase Accuracy With Improved Sighting
In addition to being an RPG, Mass Effect is also a third-person shooter, and as such, one important aspect is to be able to accurately hit the broad side of the barn Commander Shepard is aiming at. That "barn" might be as large as a geth colossus or as tiny as a rachni worker. Either way, it is important to be able to hit the target before it can hit back.
With the help of Improved Sighting, accuracy can be increased by a percentage. Improved Sighting comes in three tiers: I, II, and III which raises the Accuracy Rating of the equipped weapon by 5%, 7%, and 8% respectively. With this upgrade, Shepard can hit that barn with ease and grace.
Avoid Overheating With Frictionless Materials
The worst thing that can happen in the middle of a live combat zone is Shepard's weapon overheating at the worst possible time. They might be fending off a horde of mindless husks or a single raging krogan, either way, an overheat can spell death. Overheating takes time to cool down, and until it does, Shepard cannot fire their weapon, leaving them open to attack.
The Frictionless Materials upgrade can increase a weapon's heat absorption by up to 28%. If Shepard has a weapon with the highest Shots Before Overheat, they can almost fire non-stop without fear of their weapon shutting down...almost. Frictionless Materials also comes with the added bonus of increasing a weapon's damage rating. No more Open Season on endangered Shepards.
Hyper Rail - Sacrificing Cooling For More Punch
If Shepard is less worried about their gun failing and more concerned about how much damage they are dealing per shot, the perfect upgrade would be the Hyper Rail. This upgrade more or less replaces the High Caliber Barrel, Rail Extension, and Scram Rail upgrades, and unlike those three, the Hyper Rail comes in all Tiers from I to X.
This upgrade greatly increases the weapon's damage output from 100% at its lowest tier to 160% at its highest. Another upside is that it boosts the force of the projectile by 40%-70%, making it incredibly effective against armored units, including tanks.
Use Shredder Rounds Against Organics
Shepard lives in a vast galaxy made up of multiple alien races, and unfortunately, not all of them are sweet little E.T. There are plenty of alien (and human) enemies to make as Shepard traverses the Milky Way, so, naturally, they need ammunition that is up to the task. Organics are made of soft fleshy parts, but they are still resilient.
Enter Shredder Rounds. Whether Shepard's enemy is a fellow human or variant alien, this upgrade projects rounds that tear apart upon impact, maximizing damage up to 40% against living, non-synthetic opponents. Pair this up with a Hyper Rail, and even those living tank krogans will have a difficult time regenerating.
Tungsten Rounds Are Machine Killers
It only takes the starting mission of Mass Effect to realize a primary enemy is a synthetic race of machines called geth, and yes, they are as cuddly as they sound ... so, not very. They come in various sizes from human height to towering, walking tanks, and they do not mess around. As Shepard encounters synthetics the most, a good invest in would be Tungsten Rounds.
Tungsten Rounds are smaller projectiles that are fired at a much higher rate in order to penetrate a synthetic's armored chassis. They increase damage output by up to 40% depending on their sophistication level. It only takes a few shots from a weapon equipped with this to bring down a standard geth soldier.
Kill It With Inferno Rounds!
Fire is a great equalizer, with devastating power to destroy in minutes what took years to create, which is displayed quite adequately in the Inferno Rounds. Organic, synthetic, flying purple people eater...okay, maybe not that last one...enemies of all types will have a hard time defending against weapons equipped with this.
As the name implies, Inferno Rounds set targets on fire. Each shot taken has a lasting burn effect up to 21 seconds per round causing continuous damage. Shepard can easily pepper an enemy enough to disintegrate them before they can even think about thinking of returning fire. However, weapons equipped with this take a hit to their accuracy.
Beat The Heat With Cryo Rounds
The elemental opposite of Inferno Rounds, Cryos do exactly as they sound: freeze Shepard's enemies! Insert cheesy Mr. Freeze pun here as Shepard turns every enemy into lovely ice sculptures waiting to be shattered like glass. Everyone needs a freeze-ray, but since that's not a thing, Cryo Rounds will do in a pinch.
Cryo Rounds by enemy shields up to 22% and, as stated before, instantly freezes them. Of course, much like its more fiery cousin, these bullet-cicles have their drawbacks, which are in accuracy. While it's all fun and games to turn enemies into temporary snow-people, Shepard has to work a little harder to hit their target.
High Explosives Go BOOM!
It is said that cool people walk away from explosions, however, how would they know how cool it looks without looking? That's no problem for Commander Shepard, especially if they have High Explosive Rounds equipped with their best gun. What's cooler than one giant explosion? Several mini-explosions, and with these rounds loaded up, each enemy hit provides that and more.
High Explosives provide a maximum damage boost of 28% backed by a 500% weapons force across all tiers. As an added bonus, this upgrade also has a blast radius ranging up to 420cm, dealing at least some damage to adjacent enemies. Unfortunately, High Explosive rounds also generate heat by 500%, making them Shepard's both best and worst choice for shotguns and sniper rifles.
Don't Get Caught Blind! Use Combat Optics
The only thing worse than a soldier not being able to see at night is a soldier not being able to see during the day. Unfortunately, Shepard's enemies know this and may have signal jammers in place to scramble their tracking radar. This makes it much easier to be sneaked up on and thus imperative to locate whatever is causing the jam and destroy it. Or Shepard can equip the Combat Optics upgrade.
Combat Optics improves Shepard's detection rating up to 10 depending on the tier, negating the effect of jammers. If Shepard stacks two of these upgrades at once, it makes jamming their radar that much more difficult. If each of Shepard's squates has a few, jamming becomes a non-issue forever. In addition, Combat Optics improves weapon accuracy by up to 21%.
A Kinetic Coil Steadies Your Weapon
The trouble with firearms is that when pushed, they kick back and hard! Mass Effect is no stranger to this concept as weapon recoil is something Shepard has to deal with a lot. Sure, a pistol isn't going to knock them off balance as much as a shotgun or sniper rifle could, but even the slightest recoil can be enough to throw Shepard off their aim. The Kinetic Coil provides weapon stability of up to 28% and assists with accuracy. This upgrade comes with an added bonus, as it also increases a weapon's damage output up to 7%. Now Shepard can hit the broad side of the barn, and they can do it without the disorienting recoil!
It would be quite nice to jam every single available upgrade into one weapon. Since that's little more than a pipe dream, Shepard will have to settle for some creative pairing and tactics as they gear up and jump into the next fight.