Shadow Strike is a power available to Kasumi Goto in Mass Effect 2. Using this power, Kasumi cloaks, appears behind her target and delivers a devastating sneak attack, then re-cloaks and returns to her previous location. Besides directly damaging the enemy, this power also has a distracting effect, as enemies will often turn to attack Kasumi when she appears in their midst, ignoring their previous targets; she usually takes little damage from this, and often her shields and health will have regenerated by the time she returns to her starting point, although it is possible for her to die before going back into cloak. The damage is effective against armor, shields, and barriers; the incapacitation only takes effect if the target is unprotected or if the strike's damage carries through to their health.

In Mass Effect 3, Shadow Strike is available to the N7 Shadow Infiltrator. It functions very similarly to Kasumi's power in Mass Effect 2: the Infiltrator cloaks, reappears behind the target, and delivers a powerful melee attack. Unlike Kasumi's power, in Mass Effect 3 the user does not re-cloak and return to their starting point.

Contents 1 Mass Effect 2 1.1 Power Ranks 1.1.1 Deadly Shadow Strike 1.1.2 Rapid Shadow Strike 1.2 Player Notes 2 Mass Effect 3 2.1 Power Ranks 2.1.1 Rank 1: Shadow Strike 2.1.2 Rank 2: Recharge Speed 2.1.3 Rank 3: Damage 2.1.4 Rank 4: Damage/Damage Protection 2.1.5 Rank 5: Electric Damage/Recharge Speed 2.1.6 Rank 6: Damage/Shield Drain 2.2 Player Notes 2.3 Availability

Mass Effect 2 Edit

Power Ranks Edit

• Rank 1
  • Recharge Time: 9.00 seconds
  • Damage: 300.00 points
  • Incapacitate Duration: 5.00 seconds

• Rank 2
  • Recharge Time: 9.00 seconds
  • Damage: 350.00 points
  • Incapacitate Duration: 6.00 seconds

• Rank 3
  • Recharge Time: 9.00 seconds
  • Damage: 400.00 points
  • Incapacitate Duration: 7.00 seconds

Rank 4

Choose to evolve the power into one of the following,

Deadly Shadow Strike Edit

• Increases the damage inflicted when assassinating the target.
  • Recharge Time: 9.00 seconds
  • Damage: 550.0 points
  • Incapacitate Duration: 7.00 seconds

Rapid Shadow Strike Edit

• Reduces the cooldown by 80% if the target is killed by this power.
  • Recharge Time: 9.00 seconds
  • Damage: 450.0 points
  • Incapacitate Duration: 7.00 seconds

Player Notes Edit

• The power has a 2x damage multiplier against shields, armor and barriers.
• The power type is actually split between combat and tech - it gains the bonus for reduced cooldown from the tech upgrade but the damage type is combat, so the damage tech upgrade has no effect.
• Kasumi can only strike with this power targets within a certain walking distance. She can not target enemies in the areas unreachable by Shepard, or in places where she must take a long walkaround to reach. She will tell you if she can not make a particular strike.
• Kasumi will execute the attack from any assigned position (keyboard Q or E on PC), and she will return to her original position. However, she will no longer be bound by the placement command. You have to re-assign the command to keep her behind cover after such a strike.
• This is very useful against the big powerful units such as Harbinger - the strike gives you enough time to aim out of cover and shoot the enemy in the back of the head without being shot at yourself.

Mass Effect 3 Edit

Power Ranks Edit

Rank 1: Shadow Strike Edit

Cloak and sneak behind your target to unleash a vicious sword attack.
Receives damage bonus from sword upgrades.
Considered a melee attack.

• Recharge Speed: 8 sec
• Damage: 600

Rank 2: Recharge Speed Edit

Increases recharge speed by 25%.

• Recharge Speed: 6.40 sec

Rank 3: Damage Edit

Increases damage by 20%.

• Damage: 720

Rank 4: Damage/Damage Protection Edit

Damage Increases damage by 30%. Damage: 900

Damage Protection Reduce all damage taken by 40% for 5 seconds after decloaking.

Rank 5: Electric Damage/Recharge Speed Edit

Electric Damage Hit your opponent with an electric attack that does 40% additional damage over 5 seconds. Detonate this effect with other powers.

Recharge Speed Increases recharge speed by 35%. Recharge Speed: 5 sec

Rank 6: Damage/Shield Drain Edit

Damage Increases damage by 50%. Damage: 1200 (Damage), 1020 (Damage Protection)

Shield Drain Strike shields or barriers to drain their energy to refill your shields. Increase movement speed by 15% for 4 seconds after decloaking.

Player Notes Edit

• If the N7 Shadow Infiltrator cloaks first and/or foes do not see her use Shadow Strike, then the attack cannot be blocked and the user always appears behind them; otherwise, foes will attempt to shoot and/or melee the infiltrator, and defenses will block the attack (e.g. a Guardian's shield).
• Shadow Strike's damage increases if the melee damage bonuses from equipment and weapon mods are equipped, and the melee damage evolutions from the Shadow Strike/Tactical Cloak/Sword Mastery. It is capable of instantly killing most basic-level enemies. On Gold difficulty, a double Shadow Strike from cloak (Tactical Cloak's bonus power and duration evolutions allow two strikes before breaking cloak) is effective against powerful enemies if their defenses have been brought down first.
• Shadow Strike can be used travel across the battlefield quickly, in order to escape danger and/or to reach a tactical position, since it immediately transports the user to the target. It can be used on any enemy that can be selected for targeting if the their names and health bars appear to the player targeting them; even obstructed enemies or difficult-to-reach places are vulnerable to Shadow Strike.
• When used against specific foes:
  • Shadow Strike may only be activated on Swarmers if they are in the middle of a jump.
  • Shadow Strike may be used on Phantoms and Geth Hunters even while they are invisible.
  • Be very careful about Shadow Striking Ravagers, as they are very likely to sprout an acid patch that you will be standing right in the middle of, especially if they die.
• Unlike the Vanguard's Charge, Shadow Strike has the disadvantage of not refilling the user's shield/barrier; this is somewhat offset by the following:
  • The Shadow Strike damage reduction and energy drain evolutions of the power.
  • The Sword Mastery durability and shield recharge evolutions, which synergizes with the power.
  • The Tactical Cloak duration and bonus power evolutions, allowing them more time to select a target while shielded from enemy sight.
• As of Patch 4, Shadow Strike no longer works against Atlases.

Note: Shadow Strike is considered a melee attack. The N7 Shadow's passive power damage bonus to Shadow Strike is a known bug and, thus, is subject to a fix.

Availability Edit

• Single-player: N/A
• Multiplayer: N7 Shadow Infiltrator