Mass Effect 2: Getting the most from Flashbang Grenade (by numotsbane)

ATTENTION: The information in this post was originally provided by numotsbane in the old BioWare Social Network (BSN) forums. I am copying this information here so it does not get lost.


Flash Grenade is, with practice, probably the most useful bonus power available to you.


So what do you get?
Gun Lobby Disapproves (-12): enemy weapons overheat, starting from 3s and working up to 4s at rank 3.
Flash Delirium: flashbang makes robots go a lil’ crazy, stunning synthetics for 3-4s as above.
Just a scratch: flash grenade does…er, ‘extremely modest’ damage. 45pts at rank 1, then 60pts at rank 2, and 75 at rank 3 – not much, but that’s not really what you’re using it for either.
Using the force: On unarmored opponents, flash grenade does he equivalent of about rank 1 throw in a 6-7m radius around the explosion. Knocking over up to four enemies at a time can be quite satisfying.
Damping returns!: enemy incapacitation includes negating biotic abilities(and I think tech, but don’t quote me on that) for the incapacitation duration.
Harbinger of sweet calls: A flashed harbinger can do one thing – annoy you with a constant stream of monotone insults. Seriously, that’s it. Flash is the ultimate harby killer, because it stops his singularity/ firebomb spam.
Husk killer: unarmored husks go the way of death by disintegration. However, with a 6s cooldown I’m not sure I’d recommend it against husks – it’s just not effective enough against armored husks.
It’s staggering: an enemy in cover that gets flashed will, 50%+ of the time, pop up out of cover allowing for a clear shot. There is another animation where the incapacitated goon falls to their knees, but I tend to encounter that one less.


Level four flashbang gives you a ‘choice’ of frag grenade or improved flashbang. Its not really a choice – frag grenade is level 3 flashbang with +55pts damage. Improved flash has a 9m (9m!) Area of effect radius, and improved incapacitation duration (6s). flash is not a damage power, it doesn’t need to be. Trust me, go with improved.


A look at some of the basics you’ll need to know to get going with flashbang straight away. Credit to Arhka, who posted a whole heap of these in Pacifiens’ Worst Soldier Ever Thread. Moving straight into it then:

1. Throwing is Different: Flash grenade is not going to help you find a target, and this, first and foremost, is why it has such a steep learning curve. Flashbang will go exactly where you throw it. So the first thing you definitely should do is don’t use auto-aim/pause-aim. The computer won’t target it where it will be most effective, but will aim to hit the enemy – which is not what you want, especially if your target is behind cover.

2. Where to Aim: I’m going to credit you all to realize that as flash grenade follows a parabolic flight path, you have to aim up to get distance. However, further is not necessarily where you want to go. The sweet spot is somewhere just to the side and just behind the cover an enemy is taking.. If you have enemies out in the open, it’s even easier: they’re likely moving forward, and you’ll want to aim just in front to allow for the bounce and time delay. As so:

Aim in front of moving targets

3. King of the Hill: Elevation gives you better perspective. It also makes it easier to loop a grenade over cover. So if you plan on using flash, make sure to seek the high ground if you can.

4. Off the Backboard: If there’s a solid wall behind your target, always (well, most of the time) bounce it off the back wall. Look for deflections – they are, for the most part, much easier to calculate than a straight throw. Also, this will really help you get a target that’s behind cover.

5. Look for boxes: …yeah, boxes. A group of enemies in a box is a freaking pre-packaged gift. I’ll show you what I mean:

It is ridiculously easy to get a flash grenade within those walls
– and once it’s there, everything inside the box is neutralized. So always try to find confined spaces to lob a flashbang.

6. Pre-emptive strikes: because flash grenade has a bit of a time delay, you can immediately shoot it off at that opening door in the knowledge that enemies that come out are going to have overheated weapons. An example of where can be found in Grunt’s recruitment:

throw before the blue suns come running. Its worth a shot.

7. Its all about When: the most important part of using flash grenade is knowing when to use it, not how. My general advice is only to target groups of enemies that aren’t an immediate threat, and that you have a relatively clear or easy shot to. A prime example of when not to use flashbang is illustrated below:

In this situation, direct crowd control powers like concussive shot or throw are better


Flash Grenade is good, but its not perfect. Here’s the main issues that you’ll want to avoid:
1. Don’t aim for the sky: Elevated enemies are hard to get, and impossible to get if they’re behind cover. I’d advise to just not try it, unless you think you’ve got a really good shot. As always, it’s situational.
2. Claymore immunity: I learned the hard way that claymores don’t suffer any overheating as a result of flash grenade. (the hard way was a face full of shotgun ammo, in case you were wondering)
3. Still Online: YMIRS are untroubled by your puny light show. Praetorians appear incapable of noticing that they’ve been flashed. So yeah, It doesn’t work, which makes me slightly sad – though it’s a bit unreasonable to expect one power to neuter the hardest enemies in the game.
4. Did I do that?: yes, you can flash yourself. No, Its not fun. it can knock you out of cover, but only if you do a really bad throw and it lands back behind your cover.
5. Just throw the damn thing!: it does have a pretty long throw animation, be warned. Don’t throw if you’ve only got a sliver of health left, you’ll be dead before you can get back in cover. Its not too bad though.


Is Flash Grenade useful to all the classes? I’m inclined to say yes*, but with some it’s better than others. Below are how I integrate (or don’t) Flash Grenade into my class builds.
*yes with an asterisk actually means no.


Good God, and I thought Soldiers knew what to do with flash grenades. Sentinels, with 30% cooldowns and general tech-armor-tanking abilities, absolutely rock with flashbang, despite the overlap with overload. My Neutralize Sentinel is a beast to behold, and on NG+ insanity it’s only died once (goddamn flanking pyros).

The build:
4 - Heavy throw
4 - Unstable Warp
4 - Assault armor
1 - Overload
0 - Cryo blast
4 - Guardian
4 - Improved flashbang

The Team: Zaeed and Kasumi

With squad disrupter, two flashbangs and 2 overloads, this team generally overheats most standard enemy weapons. And you can do so much more when no one is firing at you. Shields? What Shields. The general way of death is mid range tempest spray and flashbang, then closing in for throw, tech armor bursts and more tempest spray. I use a GPR for long range stuff, I find it’s more accurate than the Avenger and doesn’t run out of ammo or need the precision of the vindicator though the vindicator is still a ridiculously good weapon.

Against blood pack I bring Jacob for warpsplosions and incendiary ammo.


Its hard to write a good guide for a flashbang soldier because the bonus weapon you pick tends to dictate how you play to an extensive degree. I’ll say now that I’ve found the least use for flash grenade with the widow soldier, as that tends to be a slower, purposeful play-style where the benefits of flash aren’t as necessary. As for the others:

Claymore and Revenant Soldiers
Generally Speaking, when I play Revenant or Claymore Soldiers, I tend to try to get up in the face of the enemy, or at the very least within a few meters. Breaking it down for your benefit, here’s a couple of things you’ll need to know:
Improved flash on a soldier generally has the same sort of cooldown as it has duration. So, you’ll only be able to get the tail end of its effects with adrenaline rush activated afterwards. This means you can’t really sit in cover, flash, wait for the cooldown, then activate AR and mop up. Here’s a few tips on when and when not to use flashbang:

1. One is never enough: A lone enemy is not worth a grenade. AR guarantees a quick kill, so don’t use Flash ‘just because you have it’. Its not the all purpose answer.
2. Missed ‘im by that much: often that sniper/ vindicator burst can leave an enemy with a tiny bit of health left – If you’ve got no cool downs going, a flash can be used as a finisher, as it can be better than switching to a new weapon, wasting another sniper shot, etc. It’s not something you have to do, but it can be useful.
3. Stop Hiding!: you know that enemy that’s refusing to pop out from behind that chest high wall? Yeah I hate that guy too. Soldiers don’t have access to arcing powers, so I use a flashbang to pop those recalcitrant enemies out of cover, ready for a bit of light machine gun fire… to the face. The flash stagger lasts long enough to get a clear few vindi bursts, which then staggers/ panics (with incend.) the enemy. Probably a favorite tactic of mine.
4. Break up the Party: AR is great to strip a few enemy defenses, or to finish off one target. But that group of 4 enemies all standing together? Flash is so much better at handling multiple units. And when you do flash them, well, I use that break in enemy fire to close in with shotgun. 2 Evi/ etc shots, then the cooldown is up and you can spam AR again to retreat or finish.
5. Freeze: I’ve only ever managed to do it a couple of times, and some of those were flukes, but with luck you can knock a frozen enemy that’s fallen behind cover out into the open with an (extremely) well placed flashbang. And when you do it you feel so good about yourself…

So I suppose the most important thing is (yeah I keep saying this…) when to use flash grenade. It’s not an AR substitute, and as a soldier you shouldn’t even be overly reliant on it. But it covers a niche that soldier play can lack.


I thought I’d quickly take a look at why you don’t want to be using flash grenade on a vanguard. In fact it’s probably the only class where I wouldn’t even bother at all. Here’s why:

Mid range? What mid range?: Vanguards play too far away to charge or right up in the enemy’s face. Which pretty much skips the entire useful range of flash grenade.
Approach? But I’m already there…: Flash is great to neutralize some enemies so that you can get closer without coming under fire. Vanguards… well, they don’t really have that problem.
Seeing the light: have you ever tried to use flash on an enemy within a few meters of you? Because the general result is flashing yourself, not firing the weapon you could have just fired, and having a 5ish second cooldown before you can activate defenses/ charge/ use another power. I seem to find that the closer I am to enemies the longer that cooldown lasts; and that’s real bad for vanguards.


I’ve had great fun with this build and its ability to lock down and destroy large groups of enemies at mid to close range. Flash really helps to do that. Here’s the important things:

The Build:
2 - Disrupter Ammo
4 - Squad Cryo Ammo
4 - Assassination Cloak
3 - Incinerate
1 - AI hacking
4 - Passive
4 - Improved flashbang

The Team: anyone with area defense stripping, bonus if they have the incisor

Besides the usual flashbang shenanigans detailed above, I’ve found myself using flash on groups of three or four enemies, as it stuns them and keeps them in a tight group – whereas otherwise they’d be inclined to spread out and find cover. So I’ll open with flash, follow with SMG fire and area overload/ reave to strip up to three or four defenses at once. Then, to the joy of all involved, squad Cryo kicks in and freezes them all in place for you. Dispose of at leisure.