How to Venom

When I first unlocked the Venom shotgun months ago, I was so excited. It was one of my favorite weapons in ME3MP when paired with the Salarian Engineer. In Andromeda, running, dodging or landing from a hovering state disabled the charged state.

I recently took it off the shelf and learned how to maximize its use. Contrary to current opinion, it’s actually an excellent shotgun. Charged shots have great direct and AOE damage and priming ability. It's important to charge your shots because uncharged shot will bounce like the Falcon assault rifle rounds. A charged Venom shot goes where you aim it, and the extra explosions go behind and to the right/left.

The Venom can be charged to kill (red bar enemies) outright or strip shields from multiple enemies at once. A charged shot also primes enemies for a combo explosion.

In the gameplay video below, I am using an Asari Huntress. Charged Venom shot, followed by either Throw or Lance for a fire explosion. I was using Incendiary Ammo 3 and the Shocktrooper equipment (20% to shotgun damage):

Laggy start to the match, so the Venom fun begins at 1:49 mark.



Some highlights:

Hit two raiders at once:



Three enemies, two kills. Would have been three if the Soned Krogan didn’t kill off the third Adhi:



Venom charged shot and reload times synergizes well with throw, lance, and elemental combo cooldowns (4 seconds). Here I take down an Atlas:



Another example of using fire combos with the Venom, Throw and Lance against a Berserker:



Next comes a fully shielded Saboteur that I take out in two charged Venom shots and a fire combination:



Right after that, I take out an Adhi, Raider, and Anarchist with a Knockdown Lance on the Adhi, charged Venom shot, charged Venom shot throw, and regular Venom shot:



If you aim the charged shot just right, you can outright kill multiple red bar enemies. Here I kill two Raiders while under cloak (1 point in stealth grid):



At long distances, the Venom fires with an arc, and it's hard to hit enemies that are flying, so it's not the best weapon against Remnant. Against the Kett and Outlaws, it's very effective. I encourage people to give it a second shot. Whilej it isn't Lord Venom from ME3MP, it's still quite good in Andromeda!

I am looking to find myself a crowd of enemies so I can re-create that awesome GIF of the Turian getting a Venom killstreak in ME3MP. Best chance is during a Hack or Upload objective.