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Best Way Of Fighting Cryssalids...


gufu

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Depends on your situation and how far you are in the game. Flying suits and plasma/lasers are the best defence but if you don't have them you'll have to hunt them out or rely on reaction fire but you'll need your men to have reactions in the 60s for this to work, perhaps less if your using pistols. If you've still got normal rifles your going to have to make use of explosives such as rockets and grenades, the autocannon (HE) also works well.

 

In terror missions killing Cryssalids is the highest priority even over saving civilians, basically if they are going to get caught in explosions they'll probably only get implanted instead if you can't kill the Cryssalids. Always keep men in groups of 2-3 to support each other and cover each soldiers blind spots up as well.

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And the rocket's red glare...

The bombs bursting in air...

gave proof through the night...

that the crys'lids weren't there. ^_^

 

Large rockets, Large rockets, and demo charges. These are your earliest and most trustworthy weapon against chrysallids for several reasons:

1) AoE. Hard to miss.

2) Kills everything around. Nice bonus.

2a) Kills civilians. In truth, they're better off dead than a zombie.

3) Very reliable at dealing a fatal blow. Against higher difficulty chrysallids you might need a second rocket, or some conventional arms.

4) Flattens the landscape. This is the biggest bonus. Chrysallids just loooove to hide behind doors, walls, shrubs, you name it. A chrysallid not spotted is going to be your biggest source of woe. Flatten the land and they have no places to hide.

 

Reaction fire is generally a Bad Idea™ against chrysallids. Chrysallids are born with high reaction scores and huge TU reserves. When the average wandering agent tries to make a shot, the chrysallid will already have crossed a baseball field and hit 2 men. If you want to spot one in time you need a LOT of open space for it to run across, for even the most idly waiting of reaction soldiers. In order to do that on a terror mission you will likely need to "make" some flat land with a good chunk of high explosives. If you're lucky, in the process of levelling you might knock down a chryssy or two!

 

I think the blaster bombs are too cheap for personal use. But when you get them you won't be fearing chrysallids much anymore.

Edited by Robo Dojo 58
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Killing chryssalids with reaction fire does work, but here are a few things you need to consider:

 

1. The Chryssalids must be seen. Makes sense really. ;) Waiting at the edge of the map with a large open spaces or long clear corridors (bases/alien bases) are good places to set up the ambush. If it's dark, be sure to have some flares out ahead. Any obstructions should be cleared, or seek a better location. Also make sure to cover ALL your blind sides.

 

2. The Chryssalid should be put in a position where it has to travel a long distance to get to your ambush. This wastes its TUS and negates its high initiative. This is where the wide open spaces and long clear corridors come into play.

 

3. You need some weapons that can actually kill it. Laser rifles are great here. The basic pistol isn't ideal, but it can serve one very important purpose. It disrupts the Chryssalid's approach. See, every time a melee unit makes a charge, if it gets interrupted by a reaction shot, it appears to switch to a different target and race off in that direction (or it looks like it's fleeing), until it gets another reaction shot in which case it will resume its charge. Running in circles is a TU waster. Mind you, the laser pistol is probably much better for this as it can get the same number of reaction shots as the pistol (2% slower, but who's counting?) and it will damage the chryssalid if the shot connects.

 

4. Use large overwatch teams. Small teams usually do not stand a chance.

 

5. Be sure to have a few contingencies in place in case the chryssalid survives the barrage but doesn't quite reach your team. A large rocket or soldier with great strength and a high explosive are handy.

 

Optionally, mine your approach with a proximity mine or two. It probably won't kill the chryssalid, but it's a good alarm system.

 

- NKF

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A little note of my own:

 

On Superhuman, don't necessarily expect a laser rifle to be perfect for the job. I've seen more than a few Chryssies take 3-4 shots square in the face, shrug them right off, and keep coming. I'm guessing the LRs penetration rating must be a bit marginal, here. As NKF says, volume of fire is a big help. I'd say have your men moving in groups of at least three, and try to position your elements so they can support each other if possible.

TBH, this is more of a factor in Base missions. In Terror Sites I rarely have the chance to move away from the Ranger before being rushed.

 

Also, in Superhuman especially I find laser weaponry isn't too reliable for a hard kill. That is, you'll often put the target down for a few turns, just for them to get up again later. This is usually good (free reaction training dummies, anyone?) but Chryssies can catch you out by playing dead.

 

I'd strongly roccommend mopping up using explosives or some sort. Removes the corpse from the map, just to be sure.

Edited by Munkeh
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Has anyone played the EU demo? You control a group of soldiers on a Snakeman Terror site at night. Yes, with Chryssalids. The weapons are nothing to sneeze at but they do teach a few tricks when dealing with Chryssalids. Like NKF mentions, anytime a soldier gets off a reaction shot and it connects, the Chryssalid will probably stop it's charge and retreat a bit. And even though the Pistol doesn't do much damage it has a very high rate of fire. That is a lifesaver.

 

I found that the Auto-Cannon with Incendiary rounds acts much like the Pistol. It doesn't do much damage and may prevent a charge. The TU cost is higher, but the main benefit is that Incendiary rounds create light. If your Electro-flares were blown up, this is a great way to light an area and perhaps damage an alien or two which gets caught in the blaze. Another benefit is Incendiary rounds kill Zombies outright preventing them from turning into Chryssalids.

 

One of my favorite items to use is the Proximity Grenade. Toss a few of these around your "safe" zone and you will not have Chryssalids sneaking up on you. They also act to disrupt a charge.

 

Of course, you need a weapon or two to kill the Chryssalid if it makes it past your outer defense perimeter. Any kind of a laser works well (I like the Heavy Laser personally). But consider the Stun Rod. It can dish out up to 117 pts of stun in one poke (taking damage modifiers into consideration). That's enough to knock it out cold in some instances. Sure, the unconscious Chryssalid is kind of dangerous sitting so close to your soldiers, but toss it a few tiles out near the perimeter. That's the explosive zone and Chryssalid bodies don't like it one bit. No grenades? That's ok, just proxy mine the sleeping claw monster. If another Chryssalid sets it off it may be a 2 for 1 deal. The biggest thing that I can point out is to pay attention and be aware of everything going on during your round as well as the aliens! If you don't hear a scream out of the Chryssalid, it isn't dead.

 

Heavy Rockets are ok too if your men are spaced out enough. But what happens if the Chryssalid gets closer? A sidearm of some type would be good. High Explosive packs also work well, but they suffer from lack of throwing distance. Alien Grenades are optimal if you have them, as they can be thrown as far as any other 1x1 item.

 

- Zombie

Edited by Zombie
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I don't know how much further it can be taken, but it's still a fairly good topic to keep open if anyone wants to add anything. Even if you do have flying suits, it's always good to know how to fight Chryssalids without them. You never know when you'll get trapped in some tunnels, such as in bases, where you have no room to fly.

 

- NKF

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Is it effective to just set up men to guard each and every entrance to the square and don't do anything but use the reaction fire. What do you think?

If you have the Heavy Plasma and Flying Suits, Chryssalids are basically a non-issue. Once you get above them, it's all over. However, a few times my unarmored soldiers were cornered by a Chryssalid on a Terror Mission. My fix was to move my men on the upper floor of a building and proxy mine the steps. When the Chryssalid tried to come up after the cowering soldiers, it set off the mine which blew up the steps. Next turn my soldiers shot it a few times from above and the mission was over. That's fairly effective. :P

 

- Zombie

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  • 3 years later...
I don't know how much further it can be taken, but it's still a fairly good topic to keep open if anyone wants to add anything. Even if you do have flying suits, it's always good to know how to fight Chryssalids without them. You never know when you'll get trapped in some tunnels, such as in bases, where you have no room to fly.

 

- NKF

 

Before you get PSI-training, Ethereals and psi-capable sectoids are the most dangerous. After PSI-training you can avoid sending any PSI-vulnerable soldiers against those aliens.

 

However, Chryssalids are still dangerous even to PSI-trained soldiers in flying suits when you go through single level corridors, because they can come from a hidden position a long way off (and the turn-based system makes them very powerful) and also destroy HWPs. For that reason, it's safer to destroy a snakeman terror ship in the air than have it crash land and board it. So if you have multiple interceptors, maybe it's a good idea to arm one of them with fusion ball launchers (it can also be handy to shoot down battleships), or shoot down snakeman terror ships over water.

 

If your interceptor hits a snakeman terror ship (on a terror mission -- I'm not sure that you can know if there are Chryssalids on board unless you know what the mission is, thus hyperwave decoder ), over land, you either destroy it or it crash lands. If you have to assault it, I would recommend opening holes in buildings rather than entering them, and blowing several holes in the hull via blaster bombs, so that you have a better view of places they could hide. If you have enough blaster bombs, you can vaporize some of those those potential hiding places.

 

That brings me to this: Assaulting a snakeman terror ship could be worse than fighting the same aliens in a terrorized city (unless a lot of them die in the crash), because Chryssalids can hide in the ship as well as buildings, and I don't think you can blast a hole in a ship's hull with a heavy plasma. So shoot it down over water, (or destroy it with fusion balls) if possible.

 

Another thought. In a terrorized city mission (not just snakeman/Chryssalid), maybe you want to exclude HWPs, so that you can put soldiers armed with blaster bomb launchers in front, to clear areas around the ship of aliens and anything that blocks your view.

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