Build information for Kaiden, including talent point allocation and ideal gear.

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Suggested talent point allocation for Kaiden.

Kaiden is a Sentinel, which gives him access to a selection of both technical abilities and biotic abilities at the expense of any training in armor of weapon talents. This makes him a poor direct contributor to damage and renders him awfully squishy, but his suite of tech and biotic abilities make him an excellent support character for any squad.

Talent Point Allocation¶

Biotic Talents¶

Kaiden has access to four biotic talents, which thankful includes Lift, a strong contender for the best talent in the game. Obviously you’ll want to max this out, but you’ll need to invest seven ranks in Throw… which isn’t much of a compromise, as Throw is a good ability, too, and well worth maxing out.

For defense, Kaiden really only has Barrier, and in a game that highly prioritizes the Damage Protection of armor, this isn’t much help. Still, it’s all he’s got, so max it out to help keep Kaiden alive. You’ll need six ranks of Barrier to unlock Stasis, which is… fine. You’ll want to use Lift whenever possible, but if you need a foe locked down, Stasis is an option in a pinch. Still, it’s one of Kaiden’s less useful abilities, and six ranks will suffice to get you Advanced Stasis, which is functional enough. Note that Kaiden will not use Stasis unless explicitly commanded to do so… probably a good thing, preventing him from locking down enemies you’d rather just shoot.

Tech Talents¶

Like his biotic abilities, Kaiden’s tech abilities can be segregated into two pairs of abilities: the good pair, Decryption and Electronics, are essential for any would-be tech user. Not only do they give you the ability to hack terminals and loot containers, but their constituent abilities - Sabotage and Overload - are excellent, the former overheating enemy weapons and the latter disrupting Shields and reducing damage resistance. You’ll want to get nine ranks in both these abilities as quickly as possible, which will do much to improve Kaiden’s offensive contributions and your loot accumulation.

The lesser pair of abilities, First Aid and Medicine, are… well First Aid is of dubious utility, but you’ll need five ranks in it to unlock Medicine, which is… fine. Neural Shock is fine, as it will stop regeneration, deal damage and incapacitate organic enemies for a few seconds. Compared to Lift, however, Neural Shock works on fewer enemies, has half the duration, a longer cooldown time, more accuracy cost, no area-of-effect, and while Lift doesn’t directly deal damage, the fall at the end of it certainly does. Neural Shock is a fine tool to have, but it’s definitely not top-tier. Still, in lack of better options, we max it out.

Sentinel¶

When everything is said and done at level 60, we’ll have five talent points left to burn. Drop them in Sentinel for reduced biotic and tech talent cooldowns and increased pistol damage and accuracy - the sole boost to weapon damage Kaiden can muster.

Best Gear for Kaiden¶

Colossus X Light Armor is the best armor Kaiden can wear, and while the 65 Damage Protection is fine, keep in mind that Kaiden doesn’t have an armor talent, which means his damage reduction and physics resistance will be lower than what other characters have, just by virtue of their investment in an armor talent. A pair of Medical Exoskeletons will give him decent regeneration, which Kaiden natively lacks, but you might want to go with a Medical Exoskeleton and an Energized Plating mod to boost his Damage Protection somewhat. We’re in favor of two Medical Exoskeletons, personally, as Kaiden’s durability is just something of a lost cause, and he’s got a ton of great abilities that will benefit from the cooldown bonus offered by Medical Exoskeletons.

The best weapons in the game are tier X Spectre weapons: HMWA X, HMWSG X, HMWP X and HMWSR X. These will become available when you return to the Citadel after clearing the missions on Therum, Feros, Noveria and Virmire… provided you’re high enough level. Kaiden doesn’t have any weapon talents, so don’t expect him to be terribly competent with any weapon, but rotating your ammo to suit your current enemies and using Scram Rail X and Frictionless Materials X mods will help.

Kaiden is need of both an Omni-Tool and a Biotic Amp, and the best model for both is Savant X, as they’ll grant a number of useful boosts, including a whopping 50% reduction in tech ability cooldown time and a +35% Shield bonus (Omni-Tool) and bonuses to the duration, efficacy and cooldown rate of his biotics (+35%, +40% and +40%, respectively).