Adrenaline Rush is a power granted to the Soldier class in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. For a brief moment it slows down time around the player, giving a small window to line up the perfect head-shot with the sniper rifle or other weapons, as well as increasing the damage dealt, including melee damage.
Note: The description does not list the damage bonus. See the discussion page for more information on this bonus.
Mass Effect 2
Power Ranks
- Rank 1
- Recharge Time: 5.00 seconds
- Duration: 5.00 seconds
- Time Dilation: +50.00%
- Damage Bonus: +100.00%
- Rank 2
- Recharge Time: 4.00 seconds
- Duration: 5.00 seconds
- Time Dilation: +50.00%
- Damage Bonus: +100.00%
- Rank 3
- Recharge Time: 3.00 seconds
- Duration: 5.00 seconds
- Time Dilation: +50.00%
- Damage Bonus: +100.00%
Rank 4
Choose to evolve the power into one of the following,
Hardened Adrenaline Rush
- Your endorphins block out pain and trauma in addition to speeding your reaction time. Health damage is reduced for the power's duration.
- Recharge Time: 3.00 seconds
- Duration: 5.00 seconds
- Time Dilation: +50.00%
- Damage Bonus: +100.00%
- Health Damage Taken: -50.00%
Heightened Adrenaline Rush
- Your reaction time is the stuff of legends. When you are "on," enemies seem to stand still.
- Recharge Time: 3.00 seconds
- Duration: 5.00 seconds
- Time Dilation: +70.00%
- Damage Bonus: +140.00%
Player Notes
- The cooldown period for Adrenaline Rush doesn't begin until after its effect has worn off.
- In contrast to most other powers/upgrades that boost damage, the damage bonus from Adrenaline Rush is multiplicative and not only applies to weapon base damage but to upgrades and increased rag-doll/frozen damage as well.[1]
- Damage from ammo powers is not increased.[2]
- The damage bonus is not applied to heavy weapons.
- The fire rates of weapons do not speed up to match the time dilation of Adrenaline Rush. Because of this, you might actually do less damage depending on the weapon you are using.
- The 40% damage difference between Heightened and Hardened Adrenaline Rush seems a big advantage; however, they also have different time dilation effects. For example, a soldier with Heightened Adrenaline Rush will be able to fire 2 bursts from the Vindicator or 1 round from the Widow or Phalanx. On the other hand, a soldier with Hardened Adrenaline Rush (or lower ranks) will be able to fire 3 bursts from the Vindicator or 2 rounds from the Phalanx HP, but only 1 round from the Widow. In short, for bolt-action weapons 40% makes a huge difference, but for semi/full automatic weapons Heightened Adrenaline Rush is lower in relative damage dealt.
Mass Effect 3
Power Ranks
Rank 1: Adrenaline Rush
Accelerate reflexes, granting time to line up the perfect shot.
More weapon damage.
- Recharge Speed: 10 sec (6 sec multiplayer)
- Duration: 4 sec
- Weapon Damage Bonus: 50%
- Time Dilation: 30% (N/A multiplayer)
Rank 2: Recharge Speed
Increases recharge speed by 25%.
- Recharge Speed: 8 sec (4.80 sec multiplayer)
- Duration: 4 sec
- Weapon Damage Bonus: 50%
- Time Dilation: 30% (N/A multiplayer)
Rank 3: Duration
Increase duration by 30%.
- Recharge Speed: 8 sec (4.80 sec multiplayer)
- Duration: 5.20 sec
- Weapon Damage Bonus: 50%
- Time Dilation: 30% (N/A multiplayer)
Rank 4: Hardening/Damage
|
Hardening Decrease health and shield damage taken by 25% (40% multiplayer). |
Damage Increase damage by 25% (20% multiplayer).
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Rank 5: Duration/Melee Damage
|
Duration Increase duration by 40%.
|
Melee Damage Increase melee damage by 50%. |
Rank 6: Shield Boost/Power Use
|
Shield Boost Increase shield strength by 50% (100% multiplayer). |
Power Use Use 1 offensive power while Adrenaline Rush is active. |
Player Notes
- Mechanics
- Note: There is no time dilation in multiplayer.
- If the current weapon has spent any part of their clip but the player still has spare ammunition, the clip is instantly reloaded upon activating Adrenaline Rush. If used when the magazine is emptied, this doubles a Soldier's ammunition output before they need to reload. This is particularly useful with long reload weapons like the Black Widow and Revenant.
- With a light enough loadout, some weapons with sufficiently large clip size may never need reloading if Adrenaline Rush is available whenever the magazine is empty.
- If activated when a cooldown-based weapon (such as the Particle Rifle or M-7 Lancer) overheats, the magazine will not be refilled instantly, but the venting animation is interrupted and the recharging starts immediately.
- While many powers can be used with the Power Use evolution, Marksman is one of the powers excluded from this.
- Adrenaline Rush has no animation and can be performed while running.
- If the Shield Strength evolution is chosen, it will restore some of your shields when Adrenaline Rush is activated. Doing so will cancel any damage over time effects (e.g. Swarmers, Banshees' Warp).
- Strategies
- While it isn't ideal against tougher enemies that can destroy shields in one or two hits, the rank 6 Shield Boost evolution can provide an opportunity to get away from a bad scenario, e.g. being surrounded or being cornered by a powerful enemy.
- If the Power Use evolution is chosen, Power Combos can be set off by first firing on an enemy with special ammo activated (eg. Cryo Ammo), then using a detonation power. In multiplayer, this is limited to Concussive Shot (Human Soldier) and Carnage (Battlefield 3 Soldier): of the 2, Concussive Shot deals extra physics damage but relatively little damage, whereas Carnage deals significantly more damage but no physics damage.
- In multiplayer, the Hardening and Shield Boost evolutions are useful especially when enabling/disabling devices while under fire.
Availability
- Single-Player: Soldier
- Multiplayer: Human Soldier, Battlefield 3 Soldier