Understand Empowered Blades
Useful when…
- Squad melee setups that make Heavy Attacks and value their increased status effects.
- Situations where the shield loss on each hit is manageable.
Effect and condition
At maximum rank, the squad receives +60% Status Chance and Status Damage on Heavy Attacks, but loses 90 Shields per hit. At rank 0, the bonus is +10% for each stat and the shield loss is 15 per hit. The benefit is explicitly for Heavy Attacks, and the shield cost is attached to each hit.
Slot and investment
This is a Naramon-polarity Aura mod with a base drain of -2 and maximum rank 5. Ranking increases both the status bonuses and the shield loss. The example rank 4-to-5 upgrade costs 480 Endo and 23,184 Credits; compare the added Heavy Attack status benefit with the larger per-hit shield cost before investing.
Related melee Auras
Swift Momentum provides Heavy Attack Wind Up Speed and Melee Combo Duration. Worthy Comradery instead provides Weak Point Critical Chance, and Dead Eye provides Sniper Rifle Damage. These effects address different needs; they do not reproduce Empowered Blades' Heavy Attack status bonuses or its shield cost.
Limitations and tradeoffs
- The status bonus applies to Heavy Attacks.
- Each hit costs shields, and that cost rises with rank alongside the bonus.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Treating the status bonus as applying to every attack type.
- Ignoring that shield loss increases alongside the Heavy Attack bonuses when ranking up.