Build Title: Say Goodnight!

Class: Male Quarian Infiltrator

Map Difficulty Rating: This build has the potential for Platinum gameplay

Power Evolutions:

Tactical Cloak: (4) Damage, (5) Recharge, (6) Bonus Power

Tactical Scan*: (4) Weapon Damage, (5) Movement Speed**, (6) Damage

Arc Grenade: (4) Radius, (5) Electrical Damage, (6) Shield Overload

Quarian Defender: (4) Weapon Damage, (5) Power Damage, (6) Weapon Damage

Fitness*: N/A

*The alternative spec involves sacrificing both Ranks 5 and 6 in Tactical Scan for Rank 4 in Fitness (Durability). I only recommend this if you’re having difficulty with the class without Fitness and using it without the aid of Cyclonic Modulators. On Gold and Platnium, you should be using Cyclonic Modulators however and therefore can forego the extra Fitness. Personally, I like the build without Fitness better–there just isn’t enought points to go around.

**Movement Speed is to slow down those bosses, Headshots is also a viable option. Your preference really, but getting headshots consistently with the Claymore isn’t always easy. Especially if you have screen shake.

Weapons:

A high-leveled M-300 Claymore; not the hardest thing in the world to get but the store in the Multiplayer can be quite unkind. Use the Smart Choke on it; without it the Claymore’s effectiveness degenerates to just close-range. WIth it, you can practically snipe with it (sort of, aim for the head). I recommend High Velocity Barrel, for extra damage and armor ignore. Currently, there is a bug where if you put one of the Retaliation DLC mods onto a non-DLC weapon (weapons available before any DLC) like the M-300 Claymore, it adds no weight but still gives the bonuses. So, M-300 Claymore with Smart Choke and High Velocity Barrel. If you don’t have the High Velocity Barrel, just use High Caliber.

Gear:

You’ll want to use the best of the best for this guy. Armor-Piercing rounds for ammo, this compliments Arc Grenades well. You’ll use Arc Grenades to remove shields and the Claymore to kill everything else. You can substitute for Warp Rounds but I must say it works better with Armor-Piercing, as Warp Rounds is more team-based, as the debuff to armor is exploitable by all of your squad. Armor-Piercing for Randoms, and Warp Rounds if you’re short of AP or playing with a strong team. Shotgun Rail Amps for weapon bonus and Cyclonic Modulators when it comes to armor bonus. You’ll want to use Grenade Capacity for this guy, having seven Arc Grenades makes a big difference, and you’ll want that more than an extra 12% Claymore damage in the long run (no matter how tempted you may be).

Strategy:

The Quarian Males are both powerful characters because they have two powerful abilities: Arc Grenade and Tactical Scan. If you skip out on either, you’re doing it wrong. Both Quarian Males have 3 really good powers that work well together but unfortunately, this means his Fitness suffers. I’ll hit the powers, then the enemies and then the limitations.

Tactical Cloak has been evolved for damage. Without taking into account the damage bonus from Armo-Piercing Ammo, a cloaked Claymore shot with Shotgun Rail Amp III and High Velocity Barrel deals 4243.6 damage to a target. A headshot will deal 250% more damage to minions and 40% more damage to bosses (this includes Phantoms, Pyros and Dragoons). Arc Grenades also receive the 80% damage bonus, dealing 940 damage to Health and Armor, 1880 damage to Barriers and 3290 damage to Shields. Recharge Speed helps mitigate the damage to your cooldown the Claymore causes and Bonus Power allows you to set of Tactical Scan in cloak and then shoot or throw grenades. Tactical Scan is used effectively in cloak because it has a higher cooldown than normal due to the Claymore. For it, you want Weapon Damage because of the Claymore, Movement Speed because it slows bosses by 30% and Damage Taken so it becomes a constant Proximity Mine (25% damage taken). Arc Grenade is evolved for max damage to shields because you have the Claymore for Armor. You want Radius because 10.8m is massive! You could clear out a whole room of shields in one or two or three grenades nearly every time. Electrical Damage gives Arc Grenade the chance to set up tech bursts for your team to detonate. You want Weapon Damage and Power Damage and Weapon Damage for the passive. This gives the Claymore 22.5% more damage and gives Arc Grenades 35% more damage.

The Quarian Male Infiltrator is viable for Unknown/Unknown (Gold, I wouldn’t do Unknown/Unknown Platinum–you’re better to plan that to your team’s strengths) because he is effective against all factions. He has more difficuty with Reapers and Collectors because they have more armored targets but you have the Claymore for that. He shines best against Geth but will suffer greatly if stunlocked. He is all-round good against Cerberus.

Minions will lose their shields really quickly, it’ll only take a few grenades if that to remove their shields and a cloaked Claymore X shot with the suggested gear (III at least) will one shot most minions. Phantoms aren’t very difficult because you have Arc Grenades to stun or prime their barrier. Either will leave them in place long enough to kill it with the Claymore. Be aware you must learn how to reload cancel for this build to be effective; on consoles you can cancel reloads during the animation by trying to activate a power that’s cooling down or by activating a power. If timed right, it’ll reload instantly. Hunters will only cause grief if you miss your shots, stay on target or Arc Grenade them away. Big Armored targets like Ravagers, Scions and Brutes will suffer from Cloaked Claymore shots, especially if Tactical Scan is on them. Armor-Piercing Claymores munch through them. Even the big bosses aren’t tough. Two-Three Grenades will take down the Barriers/Shields of them (Four-Five for Possessed Praetorians) and it only takes 3-4 shots to kill Geth Primes on Gold/Platinum with Armor-Piercing rounds IV, Shotgun Rail Amp III, M-300 Claymore X with Smart Choke V and High Velocity Barrel V. It does more damage the closer, but still does good damage at mid-range.

The only limitations of this build are his frailty and his Tactical Cloak. 500 Health and 600 Shields isn’t much to be taking into Gold/Platinum, and Cyclonic III only bumps that to 1200 so you still need to be careful, even with Cyclonic IV its only 1500, so play smartly and don’t move into situations that will leave you killed in 2 seconds. You aren’t invincible, just powerful. The only reason I say Tactical Cloak is a limitation is because he cannot do Device objectives efficiently with it as it runs out half way through, its the cost you pay–damage or team play. But taking Duration instead weakens the Claymore by 40%, and that’s a lot of damage to miss out on, especially on this weapon.

N00b Rating:

3 - Getting him and the Claymore is probably harder than playing this character. He deals massive amounts of damage, especially against… Well any faction really. Be aware your shields are 600 at base, which means you have 1200 with Cyclonic III or 1500 with Cylonic IV. You’re more of a glass cannon, but a really, really big and powerful cannon. And note that without Duration spec Cloak you only have enough cloak for just less than half of a Device Objective, but just enough time to revive teammates or set of a Tactical Scan on a boss and get of a Claymore shot or a few Arc Grenades which get the 80% damage bonus. The only other thing is Reload Cancelling, and that should come with practice.