Chrysallid Tactics

[[Blehm 98]]

if you reaction fire, even miss, tentaculats and chrysallids tend to turn around and run away...has saved me many times

[[NKF]]

Most of the melee units seem to behave in that way. The reaper behaves in a very similar manner.

 

While they do turn away, another reaction shot will make them turn back at you, then another reaction shot will turn them away... etc. They may even decide to break off after the reaction shot and attack a closer target. Very nasty if it happens.

 

- NKF

[Xer0]

Flying Suits.

 

I fly around and laugh at them until some Snakeman takes a shot at me.

[ticklemeozmo]

That's a very good point Puasonen, I've noticed the same.

 

Chryssalids seem to just say "ah, they wouldn't be here if they weren't going to win. Ooo, alien entertainment, let me check that out" when I get into a base. However, they are quite wound up (no entertainment to distract them?) on terror sites.

 

At least that's my experience on the lower levels. I'm not exactly a seasoned enough warrior to warrent kicking Celatoid and taking names on Superhuman. Anyone care to comment?

[Paladin]

Are you saying chryssalids are particularly sensitive to stun attacks? Or just any race in general?

 

Chrysalids: Vulnerable to IC and Stun damage...

 

Yup, when all else fails, even a stun rod is the best thing to go on those bastards.

When there's a snakemen Terror site I have'nt been able to shoot down, IC/HE and Rocket HWP are the way to go... Civilians are just potential Chrysalid in these horrible night raids...

 

Otherwise, they're easier in bases and UFO's: Snipers with Autocannons on top of buildings are pretty efficient (never miss thanks to Explosive/IC amno) :uzzi:

 

And grenades are the way to go inside... (what buildings?), then it's a piece of cake with small launchers and stun bombs, just one will drop the bug, and who cares about splash damage!! (Ahh, stims...)

 

Fortunately, Chrysalids seem not to remain inside downed UFOs (phew), and I'll never assault a Snakemen base unless I've got flying armors

:happybanana:

Edited July 20, 2004 by Paladin

[EtherImp]

I don't really see what the big deal with them is.. They have alot of time units and use melee attacks.. But they are very stupid and are easy to drop with the right weapons. I don't think grenades (atleast not proximity or normal human grenades) are very effective against them.. I have also seen them take a small rocket and laugh at me.. But once I got Heavy Plasma's they were a piece of cake.. Flying suits just makes them that much easier. In fact, when I was playing terror missions versus them I would focus on the snake men first because they can pick me off from range then run away where as Crystalids have to come at me. Just be careful going around corners with low TU. Move in 3 man squads playing leap frog (I suggest 12-14 man crew for this.. 10 recon/scout 2 heavy and 2 medics works well). Have 2 guys hold out on their TU's for reaction fire on any crystalid that comes into view. This is more difficult on night missions, but that's what IC ammo is for.. And considering 'lids are vulnerable to IC, I suggest packing atleast 1-2 of these magazines per terror mission.

[Paladin]

Exactly. They are pure evil in the beginning, nutil you get Flying armor you almost have to stay in the open and blow everything up...

The problem is that they multiply like mad in Terror missions. I've had to kill about 20 of them once... (they start out with 6 or so)

and yes, they are amojr pain in the ... in tight quarters...

 

That's when you learn teh virtue of blowing up every cover, the value of squads and reaction shots (makes them back off) and the joy of Flying suits...

An then you encounter the Ethereals... :o

[[NKF]]

I simply must correct you on one point: Chryssalids are not vulnerable to high explosives - despite what the autopsy report says (well, it's true in a sense, as all corpses are vulnerable to explosives). On the contrary, chryssalids take half damage from HE.

 

How do I know this? It was rather an amusing mission. I had a chryssalid charge down a group of soldiers with heavy and auto cannons. As it got closer and closer, the soldiers discharged HE shell after HE shell on it (most of them hit), but it just wouldn't stop advancing (this went through two - three turns). Then at the last minute (it was only a few tiles away), one soldier ran out of ammo and switched to AP shells and took it down very easily. This probably doesn't mean much as it was already heavily wounded at the time. But later chryssalid takedowns on the same mission showed that the AP shells were taking them down a lot faster than the HE shells.

 

I guess the difference between AP and HE isn't too much on easier levels, but on superhuman, you'll definitely want to stock some AP shells for chryssalid missions. Note this doesn't mean pistols and rifles will work. This only applies to the heavy/auto cannons. Or if you must use HE weapons, use really strong ones. For example, use the large rocket instead of small rockets and HWP rockets, or use high explosives over alien grenades.

 

- NKF

[EtherImp]

Agreed.. I have seen Crystallids walk through 3-4 proximity grenades along with alien grenades and high explosive rounds from an AC.. not pretty.

[Paladin]

Actually, the unofficial stratgy guide says they are vulnerable to IC and stun damage... Then again, it does takes a lot of explosives against those, probably simply because they're very armored... Edited August 18, 2004 by Paladin

[EtherImp]

Nothing a well placed heavy plasma shot won't bypass.

[Paladin]

Yeah, well, until you get the HP, explosives and lasers are your best friends, and they still have their uses afterwards...

[Admiral Harkov]

Yeah, in bases they are pretty stupid, just running around. In terror sites the do many times that of going back when the soldier was with the head in their mouth.

But yeah, the great thing is the reproduction, from one I saw appear more than ten.

Apart from getting them with heavy plasma (and some times with laser guns), considering I've never have flying suits (I play beginner and now three months experienced) they are a threat for my soldiers, so always I see a place with chances of holding some of them I throw to the entry door at least one proxy granade, then when they exit to kill some of my men booom! So I just place one solider watching if someone survives the explosion.

[Paladin]

Yeah, besides, Chrysalids will back off if someones takes opportunity fires at them. Just go VERY slowly, and you'll guys have far more chances of reacting if they have more TUs left, and they can get2-3 reactions shots instead of one

[Arjuna]

People were talking about the grenade trick, and how it just yields another chryssalid. However, what I do is have each guy carry TWO grenades (preferably the alien kind), one armed for 0 and one armed for 1. That way, grenade blows up, kills the zombie. Before he can move more, the other goes and you get treated to that lovely-sounding death shriek of the chryssalid.

 

I've also never had a problem taking them down with anything tougher than a heavy laser. Large rockets also work very well for me, if I aim and hit dead center.

 

But the first time I ever fought chryssalids/snakemen was after shooting down a terror ship in Brazil. Since this was a primary funding nation I investigated.

 

Jungle+Night+Chryssalids+personal armor+laser rifles/autocannons=

LOST ALL THE FRICKING SQUAD EXCEPT 3 GUYS!!!!

 

Got a corpse of both snakeman and chryssalid on the way back to the 'Ranger, though.

[Arjuna]

One more thing: wouldn't it be cool if you could breed your own alien-killing chryssalid? Use 'em as guard dogs for X-COM bases...or just as a pet.

[Adun_Toridas]

what i try to do is to put my people in circles. So each one defends others backs and so on. Then i try to keep the fight on an open field. That permits me to use all vision range and snapshots. Finally, i never enter buildings (ie farms) I destroy them.... hahahaha

[Dover]

Nobody thus far has mentioned the Zombie-Recovery glitch.

 

 

Let's say Colonel Badass gets zombified. Don't give up yet! Take his alien-killing butt back to your team!

 

MC the zombie, and while it's under your control shoot at it (Snapshots or aimed, auto might kill the resulting chryssalid). Once the chryssalid has hatched, it counts as alien controled, yet can't be MCed

 

Next round, ta-da! Your very own, permenantly controled chryssalid. Nifty for scouting, not so nifty for sniping (0 firing accuracy!) They get zombified by alien chryssalids (Plain old MCed anythings just die), allowing you to repeat the glitch if your chryssalid is in danger of dying. You can also access their item screen like you would a regular soldier.

 

At the end of the match, ta-da! Colonel Badass is alive and well.

 

 

Two problems:

1 - While it's perfectly okay to access the stats of an MCed chryssalid, NEVER try to bring up the bar graph on your permenantly controled chryssalid. It crashes the game

2 - In the endgame summery, you get deducted points for every time Colonel Baddass "died". This means you could have an unlimited amount of points deducted for "lost soldiers".

Edited February 26, 2006 by Dover

[Dover]

Sorry for double-post

 

 

More conventonal ways to deal with chryssalids are:

- Flying suits

- Heavy Plasmas

- Carrying primed High Explosives (Only 1, any more is a waste, and only when troops are scattered)

- The almighty Blaster Launcher

- MC them, and run them around in circles in front of snakemen until they get reactioned (Avoids the manditory morale penelty of killing your own men)

 

Edit: It just occured to me that these are more-or-less high-tech solutions, so here are some low-tech ones:

- NEVER face chryssalids at night. Ever.

- Use high accuracy, high-reaction, high TU soldiers

- Use larger teams (But be wary of grenades)

- Use choke points/buildings to your advantage. Chryssalids are scary, but they still can't reach you up on the 4th level of a a building. Snipe from there.

Edited February 27, 2006 by Dover

[[Blehm 98]]

when i did that, my i could see my chrysallid's 114 TUs and 34 armor fine. The game didn't crash or anything (permanently controlled chrysallid, that is)

[SprCobra]

Best thing to do is fill it iwth plasma from range using accurate guys with good reactions

[Kratos]

or use conventional on superhuman for the heck of it

[Dover]

I remember one base assault mission where I was too scared to go down and meet the chryssalids, so instead I stayed in the lifts and nuked everything apart from there using the handy-dandy Blaster Launcher.

 

Eventually I ran out of ammo and had to go kill the last couple snakemen by hand, but all the chryssalids were nowhere to be found.

 

The result? Expensive as heck, don't try it.

 

 

 

A note about flying suits and bases:

When attacking (Or getting attacked by) chryssalids, you must remember that the flying suit trick probably won't work. Why? There isn't enough maneurvablity in most base rooms. Usually the second floor isn't open to flying into (There are exceptions, hangers, etc)