Before going into battle, you have the option of equipping up to two weapons from four different groups. Card packs unlock additional weapons. A duplicate weapon card grants a small stat boost. A weapon hits its maximum potential at Level 10.
Equipping weapons causes your encumbrance meter to grow. Once it passes the small line on the left side of the bar, you begin to take a debuff to your power cooldowns. Your cooldowns never decrease below 100%, but they can increase all the way to 300%, meaning your powers take triple the amount of time to reload. Bear in mind, encumbrance only affects powers with cooldowns. If you use a power that utilizes power cells, like the Frag Grenade, this doesn’t affect you.
It is a good idea to keep a mix of weapons that allow you to attack at multiple distances effectively. For example, a sniper rifle may not work well at close range, so consider having a pistol or shotgun on hand for when things get up close and personal.
You may also want to choose weapons that complement your skills. For example, a biotic player has a variety of close-range powers, so match them with an assault rifle for medium-to-long-range encounters to effectively fight an enemy at any distance.
