Mass Effect 2: Every Bonus Power, Ranked

Mass Effect 2’s classes are all very good at what they do, whether they are the gun-toting Soldiers, rifle-wielding Infiltrators, or biotically charged Adepts. The only thing that could make them even better is giving them a bit more flexibility — this is something so easily achieved by taking a Bonus Power.

These are acquired by making a team member loyal to you. You do this by completing their loyalty missions, which are among the best side missions in the series. Each one unlocks a new Bonus Power that can be slapped onto Shepard’s class by using the Advanced Training research project. Of course, some are more useful than others.

Updated December 10, 2024 By Ben Jessey: Mass Effect 2 remains an iconic action RPG that is still beloved today. In this list, we ranked the best bonus powers you can unlock in the game. Now, we’ve updated the piece to add a bit more information about the powers and update some of the formatting.

14 Fortification

Unlocked By Beating Grunt's Loyalty Mission

Fortification almost seems like a pointless reward for helping Grunt. It’s a defensive ability like Geth Shield Boost and Barrier, granting Shepard a large bonus to armor that makes them a lot more durable.

The problem is when compared to the other defensive bonus powers (and possibly the Sentinel’s Tech Armor), Fortification doesn’t benefit from any research projects and thus cannot be buffed — the perils of being a Combat power instead of a Tech or Biotic power.

13 Shredder Ammo

Unlocked By Beating Thane's Loyalty Mission

Shredder ammo is one of three ammo powers that affect Shepard’s bullets. It makes them hit a lot harder, literally shredding up Shepard’s enemies — the organic ones, at least.

This power provides a huge damage bonus, but it has many caveats. The enemy must be organic and have no armor, shields, or barriers. While still a useful power, it pales in comparison to others.

12 Inferno Grenade

Unlocked By Beating Legion's Loyalty Mission

Zaeed’s loyalty is required to unlock the Inferno Grenade power, and it’s quite a tough loyalty mission. As a result, the power feels just a little bit underwhelming.

Inferno Grenade is what it sounds like: a launchable grenade of flames that can deal a lot of damage to armored enemies. The problem is that other powers are more versatile, and it’s quite possible for your grenades to be hindered by pieces of cover.

11 Stasis

Unlocked By Beating The Lair Of The Shadow Broker DLC

Freezing enemies in place sounds like a great technique for crowd control. Unlocking the power to do so requires the completion of the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC. This is another skill that might be better in theory than in practice.

While getting some breathing room during a tough fight is possible with Stasis, enemies become immune to damage for the duration — it may be better to simply take a bonus power that finishes them off quicker instead of delaying the inevitable.

10 Neural Shock

Unlocked By Beating Mordin's Loyalty Mission

You may not think of Mordin as much of a combatant, but the power you get for completing his loyalty mission isn’t horrible. In fact, Neural Shock is useful on higher difficulties because it deals with powerful threats quickly and recharges even quicker.

Neural Shock causes a foe to fall over, instantly affecting the target and making them easily taken out since you get double damage against enemies that have fallen over. Additionally, the power will instantly kill an unarmored husk!

9 Dominate

Unlocked By Beating Samara's Loyalty Mission And Siding With Morinth

Dominate is quite the reward for players who decided to betray Samara and recruit her daughter Morinth instead. It is a biotic version of the useful AI Hacking skill, affecting organics instead of synthetics.

While turning enemies against themselves may sound like a fantastic idea, Dominate, unfortunately, has a somewhat low duration and is basically a short-lived distraction skill as a result.

8 Slam

Unlocked By Beating Miranda's Loyalty Mission

Slam is a biotic power that targets an enemy and lifts them into the air before slamming them onto the ground. It’s a very simple but effective skill.

What makes it useful is that it recharges extremely quickly (in just 3 seconds for Shepard) and leaves enemies on the floor ripe for picking off. Thanks to this, it may be an even better crowd-control skill than Stasis. It’s rather like Neural Shock but with a greater damaging element.

7 Energy Drain

Unlocked By Beating Tali's Loyalty Mission

Tali’s Energy Drain skill might not have the ability to kill organic enemies, but it is still a very versatile power to have.

It’s most useful on synthetic enemies, as it shreds both their defenses and health. Yet, it also works against shielded foes, which is what makes it versatile. The power will drain an enemy’s shield and replenish Shepard’s. So, this is a fantastic power to have if you’re sick of waiting for your shields to get back up behind cover.

6 Warp Ammo

Unlocked By Beating Jack's Loyalty Mission

It makes almost too much sense that the biotically charged Warp Ammo is unlocked by completing Jack’s loyalty mission. This makes Shepard’s ammo very deadly when used in conjunction with biotics.

Not only does the ammo deal extra damage, but it also gains a bonus against any enemies currently affected by biotic powers such as Lift. If that wasn’t enough, Warp Ammo also makes enemy barriers melt. The only thing stopping Warp Ammo from being even more perfect is the relative rarity of barrier-using enemies in Mass Effect 2.

5 Flashbang Grenade

Unlocked By Beating Kasumi's Loyalty Mission

Kasumi is responsible for this power, and completing her loyalty mission lets Shepard access her stash of grenades. These are very useful projectiles that explode and incapacitate enemies caught in the blast.

The main draw of this power is the way it completely disables enemy Tech powers and Biotic powers for a while — this can be so crucial to survival on the higher difficulties. It also has a huge radius, making it even more useful in crowded situations.

4 Geth Shield Boost

Unlocked By Beating Legion's Loyalty Mission

Whether or not you destroy the Geth heretics at the end of Legion’s Loyalty mission, you will unlock the Geth Shield Boost. It is the second of three defensive abilities and is miles better than Fortification thanks to being affected by Tech-related research projects.

Notably, one of the evolutions for Geth Shield Boost gives it an additional boost to weapon damage in exchange for not taking a larger defensive boost. This is a perfect complement for Shepards who favor a more aggressive strategy but still enjoy some more reliable shields.

3 Armor-Piercing Ammo

Unlocked By Beating Garrus's Loyalty Mission

Garrus will grant this ammo power, and it suits him well as the resident sniper. Armor-Piercing Ammo does what it says it does: It grants a very large damage bonus when targeting both armor and health.

While Barriers and Shields have multiple methods of dealing with them, armor is a little bit trickier, and heavily armored enemies can be very tough to take down. Thanks to this, Armor-Piercing Ammo is one of the best bonus powers in the game.

2 Barrier

Unlocked By Beating Jacob's Loyalty Mission

Instead of adding armor or replenishing shields, Barrier adds… a barrier. Notably, it does this immediately, requiring no animation and not interrupting a sprint or being hindered by a stagger.

One extremely useful aspect of Barrier is the combination of its long duration and short recharge time. Simply by reapplying the power, you can keep your barrier up at all times. This is the defensive power for higher difficulties.

1 Reave

Unlocked By Beating Samara's Loyalty Mission And Siding With Samara

Reave is a very offensively-geared biotic ability that has a lot going for it. For one, it shares Warp’s ability to melt armor and barriers. Additionally, it prevents enemies from healing — great for taking down enemy Krogans.

Best of all, when used against organics specifically, it will give Shepard a big boost to their health. Their maximum health will increase, they instantly get a heal, and they start regenerating over time. Reave is a perfect blend of offensive flexibility and pragmatic defensiveness.

Franchise Mass Effect Platform(s) PS3 , Xbox 360 , PC Released January 26, 2010 Developer(s) BioWare Publisher(s) Electronic Arts Engine Unreal Engine 3 ESRB M for Mature: Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Violence How Long To Beat 25 Hours X|S Optimized No File Size Xbox Series 13 GB (December 2023) Expand