Sectoid (LWOTC)

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The Sectoid is the first alien species XCOM will encounter during a campaign. Far from the scrawny foot soldiers of the initial invasion, the Sectoids now boast integrated human DNA, enhancing their durability as well as their psionic prowess.

In battle, the Sectoid unleashes its psionic powers through its Mindspin ability, capable of disorienting, inducing panic, or even seizing control of its target's mind! Psi Reanimation, meanwhile, allows it to revive a humanoid corpse as a Psi Zombie. And if these abilities are unavailable or a flanking oppurtunity presents itself, the Sectoid is more than capable of causing significant damage with its Plasma Pistol. However, Sectoids are not without weakness: mental effects such as disorientation will immediately return their zombies to dust and undo the terrifying effects of Mind Control, and their seemingly well-built bodies will quickly fold to melee strikes.

As the campaign progresses, the mightier Sectoid Commander appears. Stronger, tougher, and even deadlier with their pistols, Commanders are capable of using Mindspin and Reanimation over an area, affecting multiple targets and escalating the situation more quickly.

Sectoid (Rank 1)

Difficulty	Health	Armor	Aim	Psi Offense	Crit Chance	Flanking Crit Chance Bonus	Defense	Dodge	Mobility	Will	Detection Radius (tiles)
Rookie	7	0	70	15	0	33	0	0	12	80	10
Veteran	8	0	75	20	0	33	0	0	12	85	10
Commander	8	0	75	25	10	40	0	0	12	85	10
Legend	9	0	75	30	10	40	0	0	12	85	10

Weapon	Damage	Crit Damage	Clip Size	Other
Beam Pistol	3 - 4	2	3	-

Max Units in Pod = 4

Force Level				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Leader Spawn Weight				1	1	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Follower Spawn Weight				0	0	0	2	3	5	6	7	8	7	6	6	6	6	7	8	8	8	8	8

Abilities and Tactical Upgrades

Mindspin Launch a mental psionic attack, inflicting a negative mental effect. 3-turn cooldown.	Psi Reanimation Raise a humanoid corpse as a psionic zombie. 4-turn cooldown	Melee Vulnerability The sectoid's fragile frame makes it more vulnerable to melee attacks, taking an additional 3 damage.
Center Mass You do one additional point of base damage when using guns. 16% chance of applying after completion	Will To Survive Enemy damage is reduced by 1 when in cover and attacked through that cover. Also grants 5 will. 15% chance of applying after completion	Lethal You do 2 additional points of base damage and 1 additional point(s) of bonus critical damage with your primary weapon. 8% chance of applying after completion

Sectoid Commander (Rank 2)

Difficulty	Health	Armor	Aim	Psi Offense	Crit Chance	Flanking Crit Chance Bonus	Defense	Dodge	Mobility	Will	Detection Radius (tiles)
Rookie	12	0	75	30	10	33	10	0	12	100	12
Veteran	14	0	75	35	10	33	10	0	12	105	12
Commander	16	0	80	40	10	40	15	0	12	105	12
Legend	18	0	80	45	10	40	15	0	12	110	12

Weapon	Damage	Crit Damage	Clip Size	Other
Beam Pistol	3 - 4	2	3	-

Max Units in Pod = 3

Force Level				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Leader Spawn Weight				0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	3
Follower Spawn Weight				0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	4	5	5	6	7

Abilities and Tactical Upgrades

Mass Mindspin Launch a mental psionic attack against all enemeis within a cone, inflicting a negative mental effect. 3-turn cooldown.	Mass Reanimation Reanimate all humanoid corpses in a large area into zombies. 3-turn cooldown.	Melee Vulnerability The sectoid's fragile frame makes it more vulnerable to melee attacks, taking an additional 3 damage.
Flashbang Resistance Have a chance to resist the effects of flashbangs.	Center Mass You do one additional point of base damage when using guns. 16% chance of applying after completion	Will To Survive Enemy damage is reduced by 1 when in cover and attacked through that cover. Also grants 5 will. 15% chance of applying after completion	Lethal You do 2 additional points of base damage and 1 additional point(s) of bonus critical damage with your primary weapon. 8% chance of applying after completion

Tips

• Like most flankable units, they will ideally try to find reasonable cover whenever flanked. This can be taken advantage of if you want to force enemies to move.
• Unlike in the vanilla game, Sectoids are not required to use their abilities first before any other actions. They can and will shoot you if there is a very desirable target.
• Inflicting any negative mental effect on Sectoid's is a very powerful counter as it will cancel their reanimation or mind controls active.
• The Reaper's Throwing Knives do not gain Melee Vulnerability bonus damage.
• Despite the frightening possibility of losing a soldier, Mind Control is arguably the best result from a Mindspin, as a simple Flashbang (or other mental effect) will cancel the effect and waste the Sectoid's turn (presuming you have such tools!). Panic shuts down a soldier, but can be taken care of via tools such as Revival Protocol or killing the Sectoid. The seemingly innocuous effect of disorientation can in fact be the worst, as killing or disabling the Sectoid will not cancel it--without removal tools, the soldier has no choice but to grin and bear it.