UFOpaedia - User contributions [en]

Alien Grenade

2010-05-18T12:57:29Z

Funk:

The '''alien grenade''' is pretty much the ultimate grenade in the game, combining power with light weight and small size. It is the second most powerful grenade in the game next to the [[High Explosive]] but is much more convenient with its smaller size and weight, making heavy firepower the standard of all troopers instead of only a few soldiers carrying the high explosive. However, the increased firepower comes with an increased price-tag, with a single alien grenade being able to buy 49.5 standard grenades or 9.9 high explosives when sold.

Scrounge enough of these from the battlefield and you shouldn't have to manufacture any, unless your tactics always involve grenades and big explosions.

This weapon appears in ''[[X-COM|UFO: Enemy Unknown]]''. For the ''[[TFTD|Terror from the Deep]]'' equivalent, refer to the [[Sonic Pulser]].

== Stats ==
<table><tr><td>[[Image:BIGOBS39.GIF|left|64 px]]</td><td>
*Power: 90 High Explosive
*Size: 1 high x 1 wide
*Weight: 3
*TUs:
**Transfer from shoulder strap to hand: 3 TU. See [[Inventory TU Table]]
**Priming: 50%
**Throwing: 25%
*[[Buying/Selling/Transferring#Manufacturable_Prices|Manufacturing]]: $6,700 for parts, 200 Engineer Hours, 2 Elerium
*Sell Price: $14,850<br>
</td></tr></table>

==Tips==
as you can end up haveing a lot of them it may be a good idea to sell some off.
== See also==
[[Understanding Grenades]]

{{Equipment (UFO Defense) Navbar}}
[[Category:Equipment (EU)]]
[[Category:Research (EU)]]

Tanks vs Troops

2010-05-11T00:35:04Z

Funk:

Which is better, Heavy Weapon Platforms or Human Weapon Platforms? Submersible Weapon Platforms or Submersible Warm-blooded Personnel? The debate rages!

Pros and cons, in no particular order for now, include:

Pro:

*HWP/SWPs (hereafter referred to as "Tanks") are more expendable, and so can be used as forward scouts.
**I'm not sure how we argue they are "more expendable" since even basic tanks cost as much as 10 raw recruits. By the time your men are skilled enough to be worth ten times that, are tanks still useful?
***They can be thought as more expendable in the sense that the rookies that they take the shot for will not lose the accumulated experience they've earned. They are not expendable in the financial sense in the early game. In the late game, when money is one of the easiest resources to obtain, their cost no longer outweighs the benefits of having a throw-away psi-immune mobile bullet shield.
*Tanks have higher TUs and Firing accuracy at the start of the game, and probably into the middle.
*Tanks are cheaper over the long run, '''if''' they survive long enough, since they don't cost salaries every month. (Though I doubt the lifetime of an average tank is that long).
*Tanks are useful on base defence because you get free ammo for them.
**But only if you hadn't bought the ammo anyway, which you would have done if you were using the tanks for anything except base garrison. And they still use up 4 soldier slots, so unless they are good combat units, they are 'useful' only in saving a small amount of money - peanuts compared to losing a base.
***Though it's a good way to get a bit back for the ridiculous high cost of building Fusion /Hovertank ammo.
*Tanks seem to attract opportunity fire from aliens, making them highly useful as decoys to draw enemy fire, expose enemies, and thus protect friendlies. Until such time as the tank gets killed, anyway.
**TFTD's Coelecanths appear to have an intermittent immunity to opportunity fire, setting them slightly apart from their UFO cousins.
*Tanks don't go to sickbay. If you can get them back to base with even 1 point of mechanical "Health" remaining, they get repaired instantly.
*Since each tank replaces 4 Soldiers, that's arguably an extra 4 Scientists you could hire instead of those Soldiers/Aquanauts. This might make a big difference early in the game.
*If you lose a tank, you don't have to train a new tank up. You just buy or build one and it has exactly the same stats as its predecessor. So, compared to relying on human warriors, this decreases your exposure to casualties, and decreases the necessity to avoid casualties.
*Unlike soldiers, you can keep spares laying around, and all it costs you is Stores space, not any salary.
*And if you have excellent manufacturing capabilities, you may be able to replace an advanced tank much faster than you can replace a soldier.
*Non-explosive tank munitions tend to be more powerful than their hand-held counterparts, with the exception of the plasma hovertank's plasma beam which deals 5 less points than the heavy plasma. In comparison, TFTD's Sonic Displacer is vastly more powerful than its counterpart, but lacks the accuracy a veteran aquanaut can grant a Sonic Cannon.
*Tanks are immune to stun, smoke and largely immune to incendiaries. This can be helpful if you use a lot of these types of materials, especially early in the game when your warm-blooded soldiers are lightly armoured and susceptible to them.
*Each tank on the battlefield means 3 less units to move around each turn. And you don't have to mess about in the Equip screen before each battle, fixing their equipment loadout. A great labour-saving invention!
*Tank/Rocket Launcher carries more reloads than a single person, in addition it can fire more often or fire and move without pausing to reload.
*In early game while aliens are still using plasma pistols, even tracked tanks survive hits as a rule, recruits rarely do.
*Tanks can't be turned into more Cryssalids/Tentaculats - a dead tank is better than a dead soldier and twice the trouble.

Con:

*Each tank replaces 4 soldiers in any battle. Is one tank ''really'' more useful than 4 soldiers? It almost certainly will have approximately 3 TU bars worth of firepower and less tactical flexibility and maneuverability of four soldiers.
*Explosive tank weapons are mildly less powerful than their handheld counterparts. Advanced ammunition is considerably more expensive to build than the equivalent man-carried weapon ammunition.
*There is no way to carry reloads for tank weapons, unlike man-carried weapons.
*Armour for starting tanks is rubbish, unless you use a mod such as the XComUtil "Improved Tanks" mod. If you are playing the game as designed, or as implemented, starting tanks are barely more than decoys. They do have the honour of being better than your unarmoured units.
*Replacing a basic tank generally takes longer than hiring a replacement new recruit (96hrs vs 72hrs)
*Tanks take extra damage from HE area effect attacks, being 4-square units.
*Advanced tanks can be very expensive to build and operate, especially when the hidden costs of materials and labour are fully accounted for.
*TFTD's Gauss Coelacanth has ammo loss anomalies where ammunition vanishes after each mission or when it is so much as taken off a sub. The disproportionately high ammo costs for the Fusion compared to its results, etc.
*Tanks can only have one weapon and one ammo type, shooting from one place.
*The cost one rocket tank is the same as 4 troops ($160,000) with Rocket Launchers ($16,000)with two round each ($600 a shot x 8 = $4800) total cost $180800, you save $299200 by not takeing the tank you can get 6 more troops with rifles.
*The need for $480,000 per tank,the same money buy 10 troops and weapons.

Any more thoughts? Personally, I never use tanks except perhaps to fill in after I've taken bad casualties. For that, and emergency base defence, I might keep one or two around. Other people swear by them and send one or even two on every mission, e.g. the guy who completed the game in record time. (That probably just speaks to having fewer units to move each turn!). Some think a tank is appropriate for a terror mission, when extra firepower is needed. Rocket launcher tanks (and their big brothers, Fusion hovertanks) are undoubtably impressive at clearing a battlefield, if you don't mind having nothing but roasted fragments left over to sell at the Geneva bake-sale.

Chryssalid

2007-10-07T21:41:02Z

Funk: /* Notes */

[[Image:chryssalid.gif|right|Chryssalid]]
'''Chryssalids''' are an alien [[Terror Units|Terror Unit]] accompanying [[Snakeman|Snakemen]].

Nasty. Toothy. Very very fast. Able to implant an egg (that turns you into a [[Zombie]]) with little regard for body armor. The ability of single Chryssalids to multiply and wipe out entire squads makes them more feared than even the tougher [[Ethereal]]s.

==General Information==
Their lack of ranged attack or flying ability makes them easy meat once you have flying armor. AP works but you may want to skip the rifles and go straight to Autocannons or better.

A HORRIBLE way to meet one is shooting a zombie with reaction fire as it shambles in for melee... then a Chryssalid pops out and SPRINTS at you, turning your squad into more zombies. The only known way to prevent the Chrys hatching is to kill the zombie with [[Incendiary]] rounds.

''[[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]]: Only works if the KILLING BLOW was Incendiary. Good luck hoping your reaction shots used Incendiary ammo. ... In other words, while it's nice knowing about the Incendiaries not birthing Chryssalids, I don't think it's actually all that useful. Chrys are in fact LESS dangerous than most aliens during X-com's turn, since they only have melee and can't reaction fire. If you have enough TU to kill a zombie with Incendiary, it's more practical to auto-shot him with Lasers or Plasma. ... Just don't kill Zombies with Grenades. During Aliens turn, reaction fired Incendiaries aren't a safe technique.''

''[[User:Papa Legba|Papa Legba]]: Jason's got a valid point about the incendiaries, but I disagree with him about the danger of Chryssalids' melee attacks. Due to their freakishly high reactions and hard armor, I've seen them waltz up to one of my troops in full view, suck up a snap shot or two, and still take the troop down. Especially in alien bases, don't get too confident about eliminating Chryssalids with reaction fire.''

'' [ [[User:NKF|NKF]]: I'm of the personal opinion that incendiaries should be used actively to disable chryssalid zombies - not reactively. Waste of time otherwise. Also, reaction shots do have the unusual side effect of detouring charging melee aliens temporarily - until the next reaction shot, in which case they go back to their original target. Then repeat ad nauseum for every reaction shot thereafter. The detour may look like they're running in the other direction, but it can sometimes be a brief switch target if there's a closer target nearby at the time of the opportunity shot.] ''

'' [[User:abraxas|abraxas]]: actually, some chryssalids CAN reaction fire. i think it's a bug, but on my version at least, if they infect an X-com member, he occasionaly keeps his weapons, and the chryssalid gets them too. they can't use them normally, but can reaction fire.''

==Statistics==
'''TUs:''' 110-127
'''Health:''' 96
'''Energy:''' 140-162
'''Reactions:''' 70-86
'''Strength:''' 110-118
'''Bravery:''' 100
'''Psi Skill:''' N/A
'''Psi Strength:''' 50-69

'''Damage:''' 110-118
'''Close Combat Accuracy:''' 80%
'''TUs:''' 15

==Live Specimen==
The crab like claws of this creature are a powerful weapon in close combat. The high metabolism and strength of this creature give it speed and dexterity. Instead of killing its victim it impregnates it with an egg and injects a venom which turns it into a walking [[Zombie]]. A new Chryssalid will burst from the victim shortly after impregnation. Chryssalids are associated with the [[Snakeman]] race.

==Autopsy==
[[Image:chryssalidautopsy.gif|right|Chryssalid - Autopsy]]
The exo-skeleton of this creature is extremely tough, but surprisingly vulnerable to explosive ammunition. The brain is well developed, and its cell growth rate very fast. The creature carries twenty eggs which are laid inside other organisms. This creature is a very effective [[Terror Mission|terror weapon]].

<br>''[ [[User:NKF|NKF]]: Note, the above is taken directly from the game [[UFOpaedia]]. Technically, the comment about the vulnerability to explosives is only true when the Chryssalid is unconscious. Chryssalids, in fact, take normal damage from Explosives. To confirm this, refer to the [[Damage#Damage Modifiers | Damage Modifiers]].<br><br>With the [[Auto Cannon|Auto]] or [[Heavy Cannon|Heavy]] Cannon, Chryssalids are more likely to get knocked unconscious with HE rounds while AP rounds often kills them. Make it habit of examining the corpse before moving on if you haven't destroyed the corpse outright. ] ''
<br clear="all">

==Notes==
*Beginner level Chryssalids have 110TU, and each melee attack costs 15TU. This means they can be out of visual range at the beginning of the turn and cross the 23 intervening tiles and still attack you in the same turn!
* They can perform 7 attacks per turn max at Beginner difficulty and 8 at Superhuman difficulty.
*Chryssalid Damage Modifiers: Fire 80%, Stun 90%. They aren't particularly susceptible to anything, despite the "vulnerability to explosives" mentioned above. [[Unconscious]] chryssies are as vulnerable to ordinary grenades as any other object.
*Chryssies left on their own with [[civilian]]s in a [[Terror Mission]] can quite quickly raise an army of the undead. This is one of the few tricky situations where you might end up shooting civilians for their own good. And yours, of course.
*As commented under [[Zombie]], zombie research teams under controlled conditions have never seen a spontaneous Chrys hatching while the zombie is still mobile and unharmed. So although the zombie packs a wallop in melee, don't shoot them if you aren't prepared to deal with the Chrys immediately afterwards. Run away!
*If you find yourself in a Chryssalid-infested area without a flying suit, you can try heading upstairs then shooting away the stairs.
*[[Heavy Weapons Platforms|HWP]]'s can't be turned into Zombies but a Chryssalid attack can still make a mess of them.
*Zombie-spawned Chryssalids suffer from a oversight in the game code which means that they will ALWAYS have their core stats, unadjusted by difficulty level. In difficulties above Beginner, this means that Chryssalids birthed from Zombies will have lower stats than those that spawned at the beginning of the mission, and are thus less dangerous. '''HOWEVER''', if playing in Beginner mode, armor of units is adjusted to 50% of core for all units. This means that in Beginner mode, Zombie-spawned Chryssalids will be significantly better armored than mission-start Chryssalids! So if you're playing on Beginner, make sure you have plenty of TUs before you take down that Zombie!
* Chryssalids dont have gun's useing flying suit's you can just hover in the air and shoot them or drop High Explosives down on them.
As with all terror units, they can be encountered in the following mission types:
* [[Terror Mission]]
* [[Base Defense]]
* [[UFO Ground Assault]] ([[Terror Ship]] or [[Battleship]])
* [[Alien Base Assault]]
* [[Cydonia]]

==See Also==
*[[Snakeman]]
*[[Zombie]]
*[[Tentaculat]]
*[[Data Canister: Chryssalid]]

[[Category:Alien life forms]]

Chryssalid

2007-10-07T21:32:53Z

Funk: /* Notes */

[[Image:chryssalid.gif|right|Chryssalid]]
'''Chryssalids''' are an alien [[Terror Units|Terror Unit]] accompanying [[Snakeman|Snakemen]].

Nasty. Toothy. Very very fast. Able to implant an egg (that turns you into a [[Zombie]]) with little regard for body armor. The ability of single Chryssalids to multiply and wipe out entire squads makes them more feared than even the tougher [[Ethereal]]s.

==General Information==
Their lack of ranged attack or flying ability makes them easy meat once you have flying armor. AP works but you may want to skip the rifles and go straight to Autocannons or better.

A HORRIBLE way to meet one is shooting a zombie with reaction fire as it shambles in for melee... then a Chryssalid pops out and SPRINTS at you, turning your squad into more zombies. The only known way to prevent the Chrys hatching is to kill the zombie with [[Incendiary]] rounds.

''[[User:Jasonred|Jasonred]]: Only works if the KILLING BLOW was Incendiary. Good luck hoping your reaction shots used Incendiary ammo. ... In other words, while it's nice knowing about the Incendiaries not birthing Chryssalids, I don't think it's actually all that useful. Chrys are in fact LESS dangerous than most aliens during X-com's turn, since they only have melee and can't reaction fire. If you have enough TU to kill a zombie with Incendiary, it's more practical to auto-shot him with Lasers or Plasma. ... Just don't kill Zombies with Grenades. During Aliens turn, reaction fired Incendiaries aren't a safe technique.''

''[[User:Papa Legba|Papa Legba]]: Jason's got a valid point about the incendiaries, but I disagree with him about the danger of Chryssalids' melee attacks. Due to their freakishly high reactions and hard armor, I've seen them waltz up to one of my troops in full view, suck up a snap shot or two, and still take the troop down. Especially in alien bases, don't get too confident about eliminating Chryssalids with reaction fire.''

'' [ [[User:NKF|NKF]]: I'm of the personal opinion that incendiaries should be used actively to disable chryssalid zombies - not reactively. Waste of time otherwise. Also, reaction shots do have the unusual side effect of detouring charging melee aliens temporarily - until the next reaction shot, in which case they go back to their original target. Then repeat ad nauseum for every reaction shot thereafter. The detour may look like they're running in the other direction, but it can sometimes be a brief switch target if there's a closer target nearby at the time of the opportunity shot.] ''

'' [[User:abraxas|abraxas]]: actually, some chryssalids CAN reaction fire. i think it's a bug, but on my version at least, if they infect an X-com member, he occasionaly keeps his weapons, and the chryssalid gets them too. they can't use them normally, but can reaction fire.''

==Statistics==
'''TUs:''' 110-127
'''Health:''' 96
'''Energy:''' 140-162
'''Reactions:''' 70-86
'''Strength:''' 110-118
'''Bravery:''' 100
'''Psi Skill:''' N/A
'''Psi Strength:''' 50-69

'''Damage:''' 110-118
'''Close Combat Accuracy:''' 80%
'''TUs:''' 15

==Live Specimen==
The crab like claws of this creature are a powerful weapon in close combat. The high metabolism and strength of this creature give it speed and dexterity. Instead of killing its victim it impregnates it with an egg and injects a venom which turns it into a walking [[Zombie]]. A new Chryssalid will burst from the victim shortly after impregnation. Chryssalids are associated with the [[Snakeman]] race.

==Autopsy==
[[Image:chryssalidautopsy.gif|right|Chryssalid - Autopsy]]
The exo-skeleton of this creature is extremely tough, but surprisingly vulnerable to explosive ammunition. The brain is well developed, and its cell growth rate very fast. The creature carries twenty eggs which are laid inside other organisms. This creature is a very effective [[Terror Mission|terror weapon]].

<br>''[ [[User:NKF|NKF]]: Note, the above is taken directly from the game [[UFOpaedia]]. Technically, the comment about the vulnerability to explosives is only true when the Chryssalid is unconscious. Chryssalids, in fact, take normal damage from Explosives. To confirm this, refer to the [[Damage#Damage Modifiers | Damage Modifiers]].<br><br>With the [[Auto Cannon|Auto]] or [[Heavy Cannon|Heavy]] Cannon, Chryssalids are more likely to get knocked unconscious with HE rounds while AP rounds often kills them. Make it habit of examining the corpse before moving on if you haven't destroyed the corpse outright. ] ''
<br clear="all">

==Notes==
*Beginner level Chryssalids have 110TU, and each melee attack costs 15TU. This means they can be out of visual range at the beginning of the turn and cross the 23 intervening tiles and still attack you in the same turn!
* They can perform 7 attacks per turn max at Beginner difficulty and 8 at Superhuman difficulty.
*Chryssalid Damage Modifiers: Fire 80%, Stun 90%. They aren't particularly susceptible to anything, despite the "vulnerability to explosives" mentioned above. [[Unconscious]] chryssies are as vulnerable to ordinary grenades as any other object.
*Chryssies left on their own with [[civilian]]s in a [[Terror Mission]] can quite quickly raise an army of the undead. This is one of the few tricky situations where you might end up shooting civilians for their own good. And yours, of course.
*As commented under [[Zombie]], zombie research teams under controlled conditions have never seen a spontaneous Chrys hatching while the zombie is still mobile and unharmed. So although the zombie packs a wallop in melee, don't shoot them if you aren't prepared to deal with the Chrys immediately afterwards. Run away!
*If you find yourself in a Chryssalid-infested area without a flying suit, you can try heading upstairs then shooting away the stairs.
*[[Heavy Weapons Platforms|HWP]]'s can't be turned into Zombies but a Chryssalid attack can still make a mess of them.
*Zombie-spawned Chryssalids suffer from a oversight in the game code which means that they will ALWAYS have their core stats, unadjusted by difficulty level. In difficulties above Beginner, this means that Chryssalids birthed from Zombies will have lower stats than those that spawned at the beginning of the mission, and are thus less dangerous. '''HOWEVER''', if playing in Beginner mode, armor of units is adjusted to 50% of core for all units. This means that in Beginner mode, Zombie-spawned Chryssalids will be significantly better armored than mission-start Chryssalids! So if you're playing on Beginner, make sure you have plenty of TUs before you take down that Zombie!
* Chryssalids dont have gun's useing flying suit's stop them being as much of a pain on terror mission's if you care to brave the snakemens fire.
As with all terror units, they can be encountered in the following mission types:
* [[Terror Mission]]
* [[Base Defense]]
* [[UFO Ground Assault]] ([[Terror Ship]] or [[Battleship]])
* [[Alien Base Assault]]
* [[Cydonia]]

==See Also==
*[[Snakeman]]
*[[Zombie]]
*[[Tentaculat]]
*[[Data Canister: Chryssalid]]

[[Category:Alien life forms]]