Brain Sucker Pods

[Spoon]

Hey Hey,

 

OK in the past 5 alien missons and raids i have gone on i have done exelent, allways getting good scroes and stuff. but just now i did a misson with brain suckers. they sucked the minds of some of my men & then i were left to DIE!!!! I had encountered them before but only 1 or 2. now these blue aleins thow granade things which the sucker's come out from.

 

How can i repel my agents getting brain sucked? i do have the creatures to research on. but will that help me?

 

Thanks Bye.

Edited June 26, 2008 by Spoon

[Guest Azrael Strife]

When they are brainsucked, they get mindcontrolled, they don't die.

Just keep a tight formation and don't leave any of your men alone, when they encounter a brainsucker running at them, have them shoot it, having a team mate next to you will help in the case it leaps at someone's head.

 

Another way of dealing with them is you can run at the pods when they touch the ground, and pick them up; they will not hatch if they are on your soldier's possession.

[Spoon]

When they are brainsucked, they get mindcontrolled, they don't die.

Just keep a tight formation and don't leave any of your men alone, when they encounter a brainsucker running at them, have them shoot it, having a team mate next to you will help in the case it leaps at someone's head.

 

Another way of dealing with them is you can run at the pods when they touch the ground, and pick them up; they will not hatch if they are on your soldier's possession.

 

Ow ok cool. i found real time playing, is easyer to kill those pesky brain suckers then in trun based combat. I'am currently researching the brain suckers. what will i get after the research is done?

 

Thanks For your help.

[Guest Azrael Strife]

Not much, but the pod and the live brainsucker are needed, IIRC, for The Alien Life Cycle, which is very important for getting some of the late and most powerful weapons in the game

 

And yeah, Apoc is to be played in Real Time

[Spoon]

Not much, but the pod and the live brainsucker are needed, IIRC, for The Alien Life Cycle, which is very important for getting some of the late and most powerful weapons in the game

 

And yeah, Apoc is to be played in Real Time

 

Cool. you wouldent know where i could find a research tree for xcom apocalips would you?

 

 

Thanks Bye.

[TherilAlPenn]

Not much, but the pod and the live brainsucker are needed, IIRC, for The Alien Life Cycle, which is very important for getting some of the late and most powerful weapons in the game

 

Actually, in my current game I just started researching The Alien Life Cycle without having researched brainsucker pods, so I don't think it's a requirement for that unless it varies depending on version. Dunno about the next one of those techs though.

[[NKF]]

It's not so much mind control as replacing the host's brains with micronoids.

 

The Alien Life cycle comes from the worm series of aliens (one live multiworm will net you all of them, so no worries there). Although I think the brainsucker is needed as part of the later advanced toxin weaponry (not sure if it was toxin-c or the late-game AG gas munitions). Not to be too concerned about though - there's plenty more if you suddenly find that you need them.

 

A few extra anti brainsucker strategies:

 

- Use androids. You might initially stop using them because they they'll suck in the long run since they can't improve their stats, however brainsuckers do not make any attempt to attack them. They make good anti-brainsucker pals to tag along with your main soldiers (and can also double as ammo/shield mules/bullet shields/throwaway decoys - all at the same time in some cases).

 

- For humans/hybrids, an excellent defence against them is to go prone. This compromises your mobility a little (but you get an accuracy boost to compensate!), but you also become immune to brainsuckers as they'll knock themselves out cold when they try to jump on you. Don't know why they get stunned, but they do. Just make sure you are flat on the ground and not kneeling.

 

- Some players use low doorways to make it a bit more difficult for brainsuckers to jump on their troops. Works well if they attempt a high jump.

 

- When there are no pals nearby in real time to shoot a brainsucker off: Carry a few spare AP grenades with you. If the brainsucker latches itself to the agent, get the AP grenade out and set it to 0.25 (then drop it to start the timer) or left-click it and drop it to let it explode on impact. This will blast the brainsucker off easily (works gainst hyperworms too). Megapol armor can withstand a few AP grenades with no problem, and Marsec armor even has a small defense bonus against HE damage. Note, you cannot access the inventory through the agent being brainsucked. You have to go to the inventory of another agent, then get to the agent in mid-brainsuck through there.

 

Alternately, if you've got an autocannon with HE shells, just shift-click in front of you to shoot the ground and get the brainsucker off you.

 

- In addition to picking up brainsuckers pods when they land at your feet, you should get rid of them with a skeet-shoot. Just toss them out one by one and shoot them as they hatch.

 

 

- NKF

Edited June 28, 2008 by NKF

[zaimoni]

Hey Hey,

 

OK in the past 5 alien missons and raids i have gone on i have done exelent, allways getting good scroes and stuff. but just now i did a misson with brain suckers. they sucked the minds of some of my men & then i were left to DIE!!!! I had encountered them before but only 1 or 2. now these blue aleins thow granade things which the sucker's come out from.

 

How can i repel my agents getting brain sucked? i do have the creatures to research on. but will that help me?

 

Thanks Bye.

TB: reaction fire, Marsec M-4000 or Lawpistol. Nothing else (early-game) fires fast enough to be reliable. (Of course, explosive ammo in an autocannon works as do explosive grenades, but neither of those is effective as a reaction). Sadly, you want to nominate one agent in each firepair to be "the victim" (it is possible to shoot off a brainsucker before it controls the target, especially at range 2).

 

RT: Gas grenades, or maybe explosive grenades with a fresh suit of Megapol armor, if you have at least one agent not distracted at the time to cycle to the victim from. (Marsec armor isn't thick enough.) There may be other things that can be done with frame-stepping against extended-jumping brainsuckers (I've seen more than a few self-stunned when jumping soldiers using grav-lifts going down).

 

Note that there is no need to capture a live brainsucker: researching the pod will give a live brainsucker.

 

Research will not be directly useful.

[Jonaleth Irenicus]

These tactics are all rubbish. Use an all android team. You'll never miss the humans.

 

[Guest Azrael Strife]

And they are great against psionic aliens

[chowchow]

Here's a bug you can take advantage of. Just have your guys crawl when he/she see a brain sucker. The programmers didn't program the brain suckers properly when they attack people who crawl. When they attack your soldiers in the crawl position, they get stunned for some reason.

 

Problem solved, plus you get a live brain sucker at the end of mission.