66 replies to this topic

[Chaim]

I dont know if its possible but have anyone ever captured an alive megaspawn? How?

[Exo2000]

Megaspawn? The big 4-square battlescape bastards? Pelt them with explosives and bullets until they're badly wounded, then use liberal amounts of stun gas and stun grapples. Expect to lose soldiers unless well armoured.

Some aliens will NOT fall to stun damage unless already injured; in the case of one of the big green worms...

I was pelting it with stunguns and stungas, and the bugger was just... NOT KO'ing! It was the last one left, and it had taken several hits from my uberstungrapples (they did like 255 stun damage, fired really fast, etc.) and still wasn't down, so I sent in my heavy gunners to kill the git. They cornered it in the control room of the UFO and I lit the room up. A few moments later, I won the game, because it had succumbed to stun damage!

EDIT; There's a limit on how much stun damage a creature can accumulate, see below formula;

If;
TargetHP

Edited by Exo2000, 27 May 2005 - 05:25 PM.

[NKF]

From what I've seen so far, stun grapples can only deal double their listed damage, and I think superhuman megaspawn may have more than 510 health -- or perhaps the game sets a limit of 80 stun damage from stun grapples.

Stun grenades can go beyond the 80 stun limit with very carefully timed impact damage.

So the general rule of thumb is to just get the health of whatever alien you want to capture below 80.

- NKF

[Exo2000]

I just filled the room where they were with stun grenades, lots of them, worked wonders I say!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You realise this won't work against things like the big worms & megaspawns, right?

It'll KO weaker aliens easily though. Just try not to spam too much gas, otherwise you waste it and you end up losing money. Wait for the gas clouds to die out a bit before "reinforcing" them.

[Chaim]

So i have to surrond a lone megaspawn, make some shoot with toxic guns and stung grapples? this works? (aside the losses)

By the way i was wondering how my scientist can keep an alive megaspawn inside the contention area? (he might wanna escape), and i really doubt that a few scientist and a steel door can stop it

Edited by Chaim, 28 May 2005 - 11:03 AM.

[Exo2000]

You don't have to worry about aliens escaping in base missions.

Basically, wound it a lot (but don't kill) and throw stun damage at it. If it is stunned, not dead, it will collapse without a sound. (It'll appear to die, but it isn't actually dead) However, it can still die from "collateral" damage.

[NKF]

I'd suggest applying the stun damage to the megaspawn immediately rather than after, that way it'll get stunned the moment you bring its health down below 80.

And don't just surround a Megaspawn out in the open, use strategy and find a corner or a tunnel you can run into for cover. You can do it with no losses and only a few soldiers if you wanted to.

One place I know you can do this is in the battleship or mothership crash sites. There's tunnels on both sides of the UFO door. The mothership, I think, the one that crashes into a section of sewer pipelines, is excellent because the Megaspawn cannot chase you up the stairs and there's alcoves you can duck into for more cover. Just step out, damage the megaspawn a bit and then head for cover if you're starting to take damage and recharge your shields. Occasionally toss a stun grenade, or have someone sneak up from behind (the other pipe) and hit them with stun grapples and then retreat to safety (use smoke grenades to mask your retreat if they spot you). Repeat until it is stunned.

That's just one of the many ways you can capture them with no losses - there's plenty more, but they all involve making heavy use of cover.

Alternately, anyone ever notice how a Megaspawn will run away if you run up right next to it? Not always but I've seen it happen several times now. On several occasions I ran an android up to it with stun grapples and power swords and managed to knock one out as it was retreating. I really don't know if I'd be able to duplicate this...

- NKF

[Exo2000]

I just filled the room where they were with stun grenades, lots of them, worked wonders I say!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You realise this won't work against things like the big worms & megaspawns, right?

It'll KO weaker aliens easily though. Just try not to spam too much gas, otherwise you waste it and you end up losing money. Wait for the gas clouds to die out a bit before "reinforcing" them.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Have you realised this topic is about megaspawns, right? I tossed lots of gas, stepped back, wasn't exactly immediate, but worked, if any wouldn't fall, I just entered the room with stun grapples.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Still... I find it hard to believe you took out a Megaspawn without doing any physical (non-stun) damage.

I'd suggest applying the stun damage to the megaspawn immediately rather than after, that way it'll get stunned the moment you bring its health down below 80.

And don't just surround a Megaspawn out in the open, use strategy and find a corner or a tunnel you can run into for cover. You can do it with no losses and only a few soldiers if you wanted to.

One place I know you can do this is in the battleship or mothership crash sites. There's tunnels on both sides of the UFO door. The mothership, I think, the one that crashes into a section of sewer pipelines, is excellent because the Megaspawn cannot chase you up the stairs and there's alcoves you can duck into for more cover. Just step out, damage the megaspawn a bit and then head for cover if you're starting to take damage and recharge your shields. Occasionally toss a stun grenade, or have someone sneak up from behind (the other pipe) and hit them with stun grapples and then retreat to safety (use smoke grenades to mask your retreat if they spot you). Repeat until it is stunned.

That's just one of the many ways you can capture them with no losses - there's plenty more, but they all involve making heavy use of cover.

Alternately, anyone ever notice how a Megaspawn will run away if you run up right next to it? Not always but I've seen it happen several times now. On several occasions I ran an android up to it with stun grapples and power swords and managed to knock one out as it was retreating. I really don't know if I'd be able to duplicate this...

- NKF

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I haven't noticed that... I'll have to try it. They obviously have self-preservation... they figure they might accidentally shoot the missile at their feet and kill themselves.

[Chaim]

I just captured my first megaspawn, i an playing in lvl hard and made it in a tactical mission on a mothership, i made a fireline in the door of the ship, shoot all aliens that come out when i just realized that i was missing 1 megaspawn. I think, "ok lets go inside and get him", when i just step inside the ufo i saw him on the right side of the door and just start to shoot my toxic guns with B ammo on auto fire, and i saw "HE IS PANICKED AND AINT SHOOTING BACK", so i stop shooting, filled the room with stun grenades and and a few seconds later "HE WAS SLEEPING LIKE A BABY", nice ufopaedia description btw.

Edited by Chaim, 31 May 2005 - 06:22 AM.

[Cheshire]

I know that stun gas can't do more than 80 points of total stun damage. Are stun grapples limited too, or can they do as much damage as an alien can take?

In other words, can I stun a megaspawn or psimorph by stun grappling alone, or do I have to shoot them a few times to soften them up?

[Blehm 98]

I've stunned megaspawns with stun gas, but that was on the second to easiest difficulty
Stun grapples are very limited in how much they can do, but stun grenades can do a lot more than 80 if you do it right

[NKF]

Stun grapples are limited to 80. Stun gas itself generally tends to limit itself at 80 - stun gas impact damage can go beyond 80 if you detonate the grenades at the right time - it can go to really high level if you've got a lot of stun grenades - but ultimately it's easier to apply stun damage and soften up the target a bit to ensure a knock out for aliens with strong constituitions.

- NKF

Edited by NKF, 30 June 2005 - 02:18 PM.

[Tsereve]

Well, in the Battleships, there's an underground. . .chamber just outside the door, and that's the only place you'll find Megaspawns outside the ship. All you have to do is place a few brave agents on the sides of the doors, and then have the rest of your troops hang back and snipe any aliens that come out. When a Megaspawn appears, have your long-distance troops toss all the stun grenades they have in the same instant (pause if you're using real-time) and at the same time, have all the soldiers near the doors go autofire and aggressive with dual Stun Grapples. With any luck, sooner or later, the stun grenades and stun grapples will hit at the same time in tandem with each other, resulting in much higher stun damage.

The trick is not getting your guys killed. . .

[Pherdnut]

Well, in the Battleships, there's an underground. . .chamber just outside the door, and that's the only place you'll find Megaspawns outside the ship.  All you have to do is place a few brave agents on the sides of the doors, and then have the rest of your troops hang back and snipe any aliens that come out.  When a Megaspawn appears, have your long-distance troops toss all the stun grenades they have in the same instant (pause if you're using real-time) and at the same time, have all the soldiers near the doors go autofire and aggressive with dual Stun Grapples.  With any luck, sooner or later, the stun grenades and stun grapples will hit at the same time in tandem with each other, resulting in much higher stun damage.

The trick is not getting your guys killed. . .

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I saw a Megaspawn go down to a single stun grenade in turn based/medium difficulty. I just use the same tactic as I do on Multiworms. Let them stew in stun gas for a turn. Then shoot them until they konk out. Only the multiworms seem resistant enough to stun gas that this doesn't always work.

[gufu]

Simple way to capture megaspawn...
...make an agent fall on him from above ROFL

[Redbull]

Simple way to capture megaspawn...
...make an agent fall on him from above ROFL

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Never tried that before. I always throw a few stun grenades into the room with the last magaspawn ( after I killed all the sectoids and other aliens ), wait till the air is clean and ran with two soldiers towards the megaspawn. One field before the spawn they kneel and use the stun thingies in one hand and fire with toxigun ammo a in the other hand. Get the magespawn down ( not dead ) before the shields of my soldiers go poof

Best wishes
Redbull

Edit : Make sure that the magespawn is really the last enemy, nothing bader than to hear a stunned megaspawn die ( critical wounds ) when your soldiers are searching the last fraked popper

Edited by Redbull, 15 March 2006 - 07:07 AM.

[xalien]

How about psi-stun, how high it can go? I know that anything more complicated than psi-probe are unlikely to work with megaspawns, but I do remember few occasions where my 4 mutants have put psimorphs and even micronoids to sleep without firing anything lethal at them (although I'm not 100% sure about the latter).

[Jonaleth Irenicus]

I have had micronoids stun my androids using psi, so I guess anything is possible

How probable is it? Dunno, NKF to the rescue?

[xalien]

What I actually wonder is if the psi-stun damage is capped at some value, or will it go up as long as you keep chanelling the energy into it.

Also, if the unit is rendered unconscious will that allow the stun damage to increase further or at least prevent a recovery, like keeping the already stunned alien in a gas cloud or maintaining psi-stun link.

[Blehm 98]

may as well pin this one too, everyone has trouble stunning megaspawns, so yeah

***PINNED***

[NKF]

This really needs a bit of in-game testing, but here are the impressions I've got about stun:

- Normal stun damage appears to be capped at 80 - or perhaps 2x the weapon power.

- Stun impact damage (the damage dealt when a stun grenade detonates before the gas kicks in) is unlimited as long as you time the detonations right. Detonating multiple grenades at the same time will only apply the impact damage for one grenade.

- Mind stun will only stun as long as the unit is conscious, so maintaining lock will make sure that the stunned unit gets stunned again the moment it wakes up. This one needs a bit of checking.

--

For Megaspawn, the trick really boils down to applying some stun damage first then start damaging it until it drops. Once it drops, have a soldier stand on top of it and hope that you're able to beat the mission before any critical wounds (if any were dealt) kill off the Megaspawn.

The whole process is less mind numbing than the act of capturing poppers, which are also easy, but you have to know which direction they're coming from.

- NKF

[xalien]

By right detonation timing you mean that it must detonate within the certain distance from the target?
Or do you mean blow up one grenade for 80 or something points, then immediately blow another one for 80 more, rinse repeat until it overwhelms even a healthy Megaspawn? I think I once did something like that inside the Destroyer, but I probably wasn't patient enough and finished the job with few toxigun shots.

[NKF]

Actually, you first stun the alien up to 80 points. The stun grapples can do this very easily. Then, at 80, you throw a stun grenade at the alien set to blast-on-impact (left click). When it detonates, it'll push the stun level over 80. Now, if you pull out another stun grenade and repeat the process while timing the throw just right, it'll push this level up even further. Repeat so on and so forth until you knock out the alien. This is really tricky as your timing has to be impeccable or else the alien will recover the amount you've just applied!

It's really hard to perform. Personally, I find it easier to just start hitting said alien with a weaker weapon, like a plasma gun until its health goes below 80.

- NKF

[xalien]

So that push-over ammount is smaller than what you'd get otherwise before hitting the 80 cap, or does it gets recovered faster than normal stun damage? I mean, if you have to throw them like some RPG battery

[NKF]

I don't have any hard numbers, but the additional amount is pretty small. Even running through stun gas, up to the cut off limit, deals more stun damage.

That's why I said I prefer to just stun the subject and harm it until it falls unconscious. It's less wasteful than firing off hundreds of stun grenades at exactly the right moment. That's just too tiring.

- NKF

[Blehm 98]

As i said above, i've gotten megaspawns stunned before, my one guy just kept pouring stun grenades and eventually it dropped, stupid thing took forever though. Got two of my guys before i could get around to stunning him

but i used maybe 10 stun grenades, and it was very difficult. the first time i tried that, it woke up when my soldier moved off the unconscious body to react to alien fire, and he got torn to shreds. I would suggest NKFs post about using plasma guns to put it down

[gufu]

If megaspawn is 4 square - can it be hit by 4 grenades on different tiles?

[NKF]

Yes, certainly. But considering the area-effect nature of grenades, it hardly matters if it's on the same tiles or near it as long as it is caught in the blast. Detonating grenades on different tiles will have no special effect on the megaspawn that's any different from having them all blow up on the same tile. With stun grenades, the initial explosions still need to be timed right or else they'll be wasted.

Oh, hey, just a minor correction on my earlier comment in this thread: The normal stun damage cutoff level for the grapples is 180, not 80 like I mentioned earlier.

- NKF

[gufu]

Is it possible to Stuns on omne side - and normal(HE) on the other?

[NKF]

Well, you can use any combination of grenades that you want from any direction or any quadrant, they'll all behave the same way. They aren't as messed up as the large units in the first two games, that's for sure.

- NKF

[Outlawstar15a2]

yeah but how many times do you shoot with a toxigun with B clips? Because I can shoot till I'm blue in the mouth I dont know when to stop and I've lost 12 agents in three attempts.

[Cornuthaum]

it helps if your agents hit him, too

usually I have to empty either one full clip to kill them or two guns to half capacity with a 90+ accuracy agent

the best way to do it is in a battleship at the entry tunnel, first throw several stungrenades around (carpet bombing everything in the exit and directly around it, so no matter where he goes he's in the gas), then repeat this, then start shooting the big one til he drops (and once they're saturated with stun gas, they WILL drop unconscious)

another way is to shoot one full clip of T-B at them (and pray that a.) they dont kill it and b.) not too many of them miss) and then go in with dual Stun Grapples on full auto


no matter WHAT you do, two shields in the backpack are the absolute neccessity for any capture-team agent.

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

heck.. Im fine with no shields on catching those bitches D:
Srsly. Just make a flying guy, but you Gotta be CAREFUL on this one..
Fly above him stealthfully, using the marsec vest and the cloaking device. Then, Pause the game, prime a half back pack of Ap grenades dropping them on his head! BOOM! instantly almost dead, then you can go ahead and prime as many stun grenades as needed. Ive done this method on all the higher forms of aliens xD

Oh I forgot to mention that you need to start the grenades at 5.5 and move an intreval sooner each grenade, until it gets to 1.5 seconds, then your living dangerously :X

Edited by NRN_R_Sumo1, 14 January 2007 - 10:41 PM.

[Pherdnut]

2 Stun grenades. Wait. Shoot. That's the TB method.

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

.. My way is cooler

[NKF]

As cool as running up to one in clear daylight with one soldier and hacking away with a power sword and stun grapple? All the while weathering the dimension missiles? Well, okay, probably not. That's outright suicidal, but makes for fantastic viewing if it works. There are many ways to skin a cat.

- NKF

Edited by NKF, 25 June 2007 - 02:20 PM.

[Steelion]

NKF- sending agents to their deaths since 2003.

[NKF]

I actually started doing this while playing my berserker melee android campaign. I was so surprised at how effective this strategy was. Well, to be fair, it was with more than one android.

The funny part about it was how the Megaspawn would frequently turn around and try to run away and I'd have to make my androids chase after it. It was even funnier when my android got exhausted and chased after it at a walking pace. No teleporters yet at this time. This was a real stamina management campaign.

Ah, good times.

- NKF

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

That means he's been sending them to their deaths since the late 90's

[Steelion]

Yeah, I'm just going off the join date.

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

that dont make sense.. :X
Why would Nkf find the forum THEN start playing the game?!
Im sure he isnt that desperate for friends :\
You are so silly Steel

[Steelion]

What else am I supposed to go off? My super- psychic powers that no one knows about?

...crap.

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

Well put

[Steelion]

*Jedi mind-wave*

You heard nothing.

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

Oh, Hi. ..When did you get here? O_o..

[Steelion]

Exactly.

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

Steel stop trying to get your post count up by making pointless posts YOU SILLY GOOSE

[Steelion]

Right.

I wonder if sitting on the UFO lip, floating off with flying armor, and dumping a crapload of vortex mines ( 10 or so, full backpack, both hands, both legs... how many is that?) would yield satisfying explosive results...