This page will show you some of the best Engineer builds in Mass Effect 2. Here, you’ll find details on the best abilities to pick, the best weapons to equip, including what heavy weapon to choose. Also, you’ll find what armor works best for the build.

Engineer Overview¶

The Engineer, like the Soldier and Vanguard, is a core class in Mass Effect 2. The Engineer is a Tech specialist and shines at disrupting or disabling your enemies. They’re the only class in the game to have a combat drone which can take away their attention for a bit, futhermore, they can even bring enemy synthetics on to your team for a short while with their AI Hacking power.

Attack Drone Build¶

This build revolves around manipulating the battlefield, keeping enemies distracted or disabled whilst your squad mop the enemies up.

Powers¶

This section will go into more detail on why the Powers are chosen for this particular build.

Overload¶

Overload is the de facto Power to use when you want to strip the enemies of their shields. We choose the Area Overload Evolved variant as this increases the amount of enemies effected by it, allowing you more control.

Incinerate¶

Incinerate is a damage over time power that is effective against enemies with armor, and can stop health rengeration, especially on the Krogan. We choose the Incineration Blast variant of the Evolved Power to increase the amount of enemies it hit.

Combat Drone¶

Combat Drone is a unique Tech power exclusive to Engineers. At max rank, it’ll distract any enemy from attacking you for as long as it’s still on the field. We choose the Attack variant, so it can inflict shock damage which’ll damage the enemies armor and biotic barriers as well as health.

Tech Mastery¶

We max out Tech Mastery to get all those Health and Cooldown passives allowing you to take more hits, and cast more powers. We choose the Mechanic variant so that your control on the enemies last longer.

Bonus Power¶

Bonus Powers are granted to you when you complete a companions’ loyalty mission, once you have the Power unlocked, head to Mordins tech lab on Deck 2 of the Normandy, and learn it from the Advanced Training Research Upgrade. You can only have one of these Powers equipped at any given time. We chose the Stasis Power from Liara T’Soni because it’ll add even more control on your enemies, Stasis is unique because you can use it on enemies even if they have protection, this power will cause enemies to be frozen in time, unable to move until the duration ends, which is the reason we chose the Deep variant, as it increases the duration.

Weapons¶

This section will talk about what weapons are best for this particular build.

Heavy Pistol¶

The M-5 Phalanx was originally added as DLC in the original Mass Effect 2, in the Legendary Edition, it can be purchased from Ratch, who resides on Tuchanka.

What makes the M-5 Phalanx so effective, is that it’s highly accurate due to its built in laser, and it hits like a truck with 109 base damage. Like most handguns, it’s better to use against enemies with armor, or as a weapon to fall back on if you run out of ammo in your primary or the enemies close the gap, making it harder to snipe them.

Submachine Gun¶

The M-12 Locust was originally added with the Kasumi - Stolen Memory DLC which is Kasumi’s loyalty mission, in the legendary edition, the mission is available once you acquire Kasumi at the Citadel. The weapon can be picked up during the mission, or if you miss it, as a mission reward.

The Locust is one of the strongest SMGs in the game, especially at mid to long range due to its pinpoint accuracy, and low recoil. This makes it act more like an Assault Rifle than an SMG.

Best Heavy Weapon¶

The Collector Particle Beam can be obtained during the Mission Priority: Horizon, where you first find the frozen colonists, by a stasis pod, there’s also another two in the same Mission, if you missed the first one, failing that, you’ll get it after the mission as a reward.

The reason the Collector Particle Beam is taken, is to help with you take down enemies Barriers, this thing will shred through them, allowing you to take them out quicker with your arsenal.

Advanced Weapon Training¶

During the Mission Collector Ship, you’ll get the choice to get Advanced Weapon Training, this will allow you to pick another weapon type to add to your arsenal, that your class wouldn’t normally be allowed to use.

For this build, choose Assault Rifle, then equip a Mattock. You could opt for a Sniper Rifle if you’d prefer to sit further back.

The M-96 Mattock is arguably the strongest Assault Rifle in the game, originally a DLC weapon, now purchased at Omega in the Legendary Edition. What makes this gun so effective, is it acts more like a hybrid Sniper Rifle. It hits hard and is extremely accurate, and is great at taking the stronger enemies in the game.

Best Armor¶

Best Squadmates¶

Although the Engineer can deal with stripping the enemies shields, it struggles a little with the other protections, Incinerate will help with Armor, but Warp is needed as well as someone to deal with the Biotic Barriers. This is why we choose Miranda, and Garrus. They both have Overload, Miranda has Warp, and Garrus has Concussive Shot. Thane is also a good shout instead of Miranda.