Across the entire Mass Effect trilogy, players will have the opportunity to select a class for their Commander Shepard from the six available options. Each class allows Shepard to specialize in Biotics, Combat, Tech, or some combination of two of these. For players who may not be extremely comfortable with shooters or who love the idea of taking down enemies without firing a single shot, the Adept class can be a popular choice. Adepts across the Mass Effect trilogy are extremely powerful, and their signature ability, Singularity, is one of the strongest and most versatile in the game.
While there are a few slight differences in an Adept's abilities between the three games in the Mass Effect series, many of the powers will stay the same, allowing players to master combinations. Adepts work well with other biotics, long-range fighters, and technology experts. They can detonate their abilities to trigger powerful explosions and cull a large throng of enemies quickly. In the original series, Adepts were only able to use Pistols and SMGs. In Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, they will have the opportunity to use any weapon class they wish, allowing even more freedom and possible combinations. When building an Adept Shepard, players will want to focus on lowering cooldown times on abilities and increasing power damage. Here's how to build the Adept class in Mass Effect.
How to Spec Adept Abilities in Mass Effect
Adepts across the Mass Effect trilogy will have access to most of the same abilities, with a few minor differences. In Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, after reaching Level 4 on an ability, players can select powerful upgrades for each one based on their preferred fighting style.
Adept Abilities in Mass Effect
- Basic Armor: Increases physical damage protection and unlocks the Shield Boost ability
- Throw: Knocks enemies back, preventing them from firing and making them vulnerable; heavier enemies require more force, which take more skill points in this ability
- Lift: Floats a group of enemies in the air, making them vulnerable
- Warp: Decreases enemy damage protections and deals damage over time through their shields
- Barrier: Adds additional shields on top of those added with Basic Armor
- Singularity: Creates a targeted point with a field that pulls enemies and other movable objects toward it for crowd control
- Stasis: Stun enemies and take them out of a fight for a moment; Stunned enemies are temporarily impervious to damage until higher levels of this ability are unlocked.
- Adept: Reduces ability cooldown and increases protection against biotics
- Specter Training: Increases health, adds the Unity ability to revive squadmates, and provides a bonus to damage, power duration, and accuracy.
Suggested Bonus Abilities:
- Electronics: Increases shields, allows Shepard to unlock more difficult containers, and unlocks the Overload ability
- Hacking: Unlocks the AI Hacking ability that makes synthetic enemies attack their own allies
Adept Abilities in Mass Effect 2
- Singularity: Creates a targeted point with a field that pulls enemies and other movable objects toward it for crowd control; damages defenses, especially at higher levels
- Shockwave: Detonates a line of explosions from Shepard to the enemy target, ignoring cover and height; less useful at higher difficulties
- Pull: Lifts weaker, unprotected enemies, causing them to float for a few seconds; damage increased when combined with Warp, Warp Ammo, and other biotic powers
- Warp: Decreases enemy damage protections and deals damage over time through their shields
- Throw: Knocks enemies back, often over ledges; heavier enemies require more force, which take more skill points in this ability
- Biotic Mastery: Increases Shepard's health, weapon damage, and Paragon/Renegade scores and decreases power recharge time
- Barrier: Protects Shepard from damage with a second layer of armor for enemies to break through; buffs maximum shields
- Dominate: Confuses an organic enemy, causing them to attack one of their own allies; most effective on ranged targets with heavy weapons.
- Energy Drain: Inflict heavy damage on enemy shields, restore Shepard's barrier, and increase barrier for a brief duration
- Reave: Drain 2 of 3 protections from an enemy from range
- Stasis: Stun enemies and take them out of a fight for a moment; useful even on large targets like Scions and YMIR mechs
- Warp Ammo: Increase damage against targets affected by biotic abilities like Pull or Singularity.
Adept Abilities in Mass Effect 3
- Singularity: Creates a targeted point with a field that pulls enemies and other movable objects toward it for crowd control; damages defenses, especially at higher levels
- Shockwave: Detonates a line of explosions from Shepard to the enemy target, ignoring enemy cover and height
- Pull: Lifts weaker, unprotected enemies, causing them to float for a few seconds; damage increased when combined with Warp, Warp Ammo, and other biotic powers
- Warp: Decreases enemy damage protections, particularly through armor; detonates biotic power combos
- Throw: Knocks enemies back, often over ledges; can be used as a detonator power when combined with Singularity, Warp, or Lifting Shockwave.
- Cluster Grenade: Creates a small field of three to five grenades in front of Shepard, dealing significant damage to large enemies or groups
- Fitness: Less important for Adepts; Shepard's points may be better spent on core abilities.
- Biotic Mastery: Increases Shepard's health, power damage and duration, weight carrying capacity, and reputation
- Reave: Drain 2 of 3 protections from an enemy from range
- Dark Channel: Inflict a persistent, damaging biotic field on an enemy; effect travels to another enemy upon detonation for 30 seconds or so
- Energy Drain: Inflict heavy damage on enemy shields, restore Shepard's barrier, and increase barrier for a brief duration
- Stasis: Stun enemies and take them out of a fight for a moment; useful against Phantoms but has no effect on armored targets
- Warp Ammo: Increase damage against targets affected by biotic abilities like Pull or Singularity.
- Flare: Throw enemies with a biotic detonation, inflicting massive damage
- Barrier: Protects Shepard from damage with a second layer of armor for enemies to break through; buffs maximum shields; less useful while Shepard is at lower level.
In the original Mass Effect, players should prioritize investing points into Charm or Intimidate to buff their Paragon or Renegade score. These unlock special dialogue options. Higher Charm scores provide bonuses to first aid and power cooldown time, while higher Intimidate scores increase power and weapon damage.
In Mass Effect 2, players should prioritize maxing out the Biotic Mastery ability. It provides a bonus to overall Health and weapons damage, lowers power recharge time, and provides a significant bonus to Paragon or Renegade points when making decisions. This also allows Shepard to choose a specialization between Nemesis and Bastion. Nemesis comes with further bonuses to power damage. Bastion increases health, Paragon/Renegade scores, and power duration. In Mass Effect 3, Biotic Mastery is somewhat less important. While the reputation, health, and power damage boosts can be useful, points may be better invested in the core Adept abilities.
How To Select Adept Equipment And Squadmates In Mass Effect
Heavy Pistols and SMGs tend to be the weapons of choice for Adepts. In Mass Effect 3 in particular, lighter loadouts with these weapons reduce cooldown times for powers, which is especially useful in the Adept class. However, Assault Rifles and Sniper Rifles can be good choices as well, depending on playstyle. Assault Rifles can be combined with a power like Singularity, Lift, or Pull. The weapon fires a burst of ammo that can eliminate targets caught by these biotic abilities right away. Sniper Rifles can deal heavy damage from a distance for Adepts who want to play it safe and stay at range.
Shepard should purchase or research armor upgrades that improve biotics, decrease power cooldown times, and increase power damage. Good options can include:
- Capacitor Chestplate
- Amplifier Plates
- Heavy Damping Gauntlets
- Life Support Webbing
- Archon Visor
- Kestrel Armor set
- Blood Dragon Armor set
Additionally, an Adept Shepard will want to bring along squadmates who can fill in some of their weaker points. The ability to quickly take down enemy shields will be important, so Garrus and Tali are good choices. Squadmates with good long-range fighting capabilities like Thane, Garrus, Legion, and Zaeed are also effective in combination with Adepts. Squadmates who can tank, particularly Grunt and James, may help in melee situations, as Adepts tend to be built less for defense. It is generally not as advisable to bring additional biotics, as their powers can become somewhat redundant. In certain situations, however, they can make for powerful biotic combos and detonations.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition launches May 14, 2021 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, with forward compatibility for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.