The Weakest Alien Race.

[Sergio]

Floaters are easiest because you can pick them off with rifles, pistols or just about anything else, but when your soldiers are armed with heavy plasma and heavy laser guns, one shot is all it takes to kill a floater or a snakeman - and snakemen are slower.

 

So if your troops are assaulting a supply ship with advanced weapons, I'd say that snakemen are easiest. Of course if it's a terror site or something and Chryssalids are involved, that's a different story...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes but aren't Snakemen more aggresive than Floaters. I always seem to have more problems with Snakemen

 

[teukros]

Snakemen love to chuck grenades but I don't think I've ever seen one fire a blasterbomb...

[Sergio]

Thats true, I always get blaster bombed by floaters.

 

[[NKF]]

Personally, I don't really notice the difference between the two races. I get blaster bombed and have by practically every alien race, not to mention the shiny potatoes. I also find floaters to be just as agressive as snakemen.

 

The only real comparison between the two are their terror units.

 

Actually, if you ignore the psionic aspect, the sectoid also stands alongside the snakeman and floater. They're all weaklings, it's just one or two 'features' of the race that make them outstanding.

 

Stewart: I have an explanation. It's because the floater is literally standing on the level above it and not just on the tile below but with a higher elevation (which is where your grenade lands). This can happen to your troops too, particularly on the slopes in the forest maps.

 

- NKF

Edited February 8, 2005 by NKF

[[stewart]]

Stewart: I have an explanation. It's because the floater is literally standing on the level above it and not just on the tile below but with a higher elevation (which is where your grenade lands). This can happen to your troops too, particularly on the slopes in the forest maps.

 

- NKF

 

Really!?!?! So if I keep my soldiers on a slope I'm significantly less likely to be harmed by explosions?

[[NKF]]

Well, it depends if you can get it just right.

 

It's really hard to explain... Try experimenting by walking to the top of the slopes. Sometimes your soldier will appear to be standing on top of the slope but isn't and at other times the soldier will be standing on the slope proper. You can tell the difference by comparing the two different levels. It then depends on which level the grenade lands on.

 

Note: In TFTD, you often have to aim at the tile above to get grenades on the slope you want to throw them too. Very odd indeed. It can happen in UFO too, but the tiles aren't set up the way they are in TFTD so you don't notice this happening too much.

 

- NKF

[Exo2000]

Floaters. They're so damn inept and their terror unit is just silly and easily picked off by fliers. Now, if it was like the Tasoth terror unit, with some actual ranged weapons...

[jman4117]

When compaired soldier to soldier: Sectiod

When taking in higher ranks and terrorists: Floater

[Blood Angel]

In the beginning, human.

When you get armour and weapons, sectoids.

When they start to use psi, floaters.

[[Blehm 98]]

Sectoids always use psi on terror, but only leader and commanders can so you dont see it on smaller missions

 

I would say floaters all the way

crappy stats

no special skills(flying is hardly a skill when you can't do anything with it)

no particularly tough terrorist enemy(unless you get a reaper up close, they are nasty if they get you when you aren't looking, i had one kill 2 soldiers in one turn because i forgot to look behind at one point)

and floaters are ugly

 

Second easiest are.. I'd say Snakemen

As much as you all say, chrysallids aren't all that tough once you can beat them(or if you are good with lasers and plasmas) - once you get plasma rifles it is a good old-fashioned turkey shoot, although if you don't have enough men nearby you come to hate their large armor level

They are slow as molasses in July in Antarctica

No special abilities, but chrysallids can take a beating on higher difficulties

 

Snakemen are very ugly too, so they are stupid

 

I would say third easiest is Mutons

Although i have a higher loss rate on Muton missions than sectoids, mutons still are easier. The reason: Terror missions

Whenever i go on terror missions, mutons only claim the usual amount of kills as i do on normal missions, plus one or two taken by the celatids

Silacoids have never killed a single one of my soldiers, and are slow, but i had one get dangerously close once and i had to throw everything i had at it, those things can take a huge beating(very high armor)

 

2nd hardest: Sectoids

These guys aren't too dangerous on normal missions

in fact, a terror ship is pretty easy with sectoids. Battleships are hard, but not too hard

But terror missions are extremely tough. Sectoids bring the second toughest terror unit in the game with them: Cyberdisks

Sectoids do psi you, and often do it well

they have higher psi resistance than anything else non-human in the game

Cyberdisks have very thick armor plating, have an extremely powerful plasma cannon(not as powerful as celatid acid, non the less, so they don't get as many one shot kills as celatids) and they explode violently, killing nearby enemies, soldiers, and civilians as well as buildings

 

we all know etherials are hardest and why, so i won't bother, i'll just say that sectopods are Cyberdisks that

A) have weaker weapon

have much thicker armor

C) have an autoshot

D) Don't explode violently when killed

[gh0st3000]

floaters. out of all my games, i got paired with a game that happened to use floaters for the majority of the game, and they were in all the alien bases and in my base attacks, and it was a snap

[Kratos]

My first race ever faced playing and was the easiest of all...are the floaters. They don't always fly (not a very special ability) and have the second weakest armor. Really, we shouldn't be comparing those reapers, cyberdiscs, etc. because they are totally different races, but if we did, I would say reapers are the worst because they have no special ability.

[Brick-To-Face]

This requires an intricate answer:

Sectoids are the weakest, even though they're sneaky, they die the easiest from all kinds of weapons, however when you ground a large UFO you have a leader, and no the aliens use an advanced tactic. You know how your scouts see something, then the SS people take them out from far away, that's what I do most of the time, the aliens never do this, except... psi attacks. This makes Sectiods a lot more dangerous on medium/large ships. Same goes for base and Terror missions, but here's where it gets worse, the Disks are very immobile on base missions, but in the city they can easily maneuver around obstacles, and since they are usually the first terror missions, it's a pain in the arse getting your newbies exploded because they shot down a Disk.

Ethereals are worse, because they all have psi, and sectopods are obviously worse than those disks.

Mutons are mutons, strong, really strong, but their partners are lame so they become easier with experience.

I agree with the snakeman remark. This race sucks. But their partner is eevil, if you stay safe (bunched up by the transport), you have to pray that they come at you one by one, because if all those chrysallids (and the civvies they zombified) come at once, you're dead meat. Or you can advance in groups, but face it, eventually some group will have to split up, and, that's the end of that chapter... You need flying suits to be ok on these missions, so the snakeman is NOT the weakest.

Humans, well, if someone remade the game where you could play as alien, I bet I could kick their donkey (edit: hahaha! donkey! Oh man... funny... ). The AI balances the aliens' advanced tech with the tactics of an infant... monkey... with down syndrome... in a coma... missing half its brain... and both eyes... You get the idea. Having two snakemen stand next to each other on a terror mission, so I can kill both with one grenade from a rooftop does not count as "teamwork". Enough about how much snakemen and humans suck, floaters do more. They are like sectoids except: not sneaky, they can fly, "But that's what makes them so dangerous man, the snipe people from high places." HAHAHA! I've never seen a floater get onto a rooftop intentionaly, and since players tend to work in squads, it's more common that I'll snipe them off their high horse (no it's not a reaper pun) than they'll snipe me. Besides their accuracy isn't good for sniping. Speaking of reapers, oh boy, Isn't it funny how sometimes they walk up to you, and then away from you, and then back up to you, and then turn away from you just so you can shove the rifle... Well, it really did happen to me once. And take a look at this pic (no not mine) that I found:

 

http://www.battlereports.com/users/thedrone/xcom3/images/26.gif

 

Yep, no questions, floaters are the worst alien race since the ones from signs:

The movie "Signs" in four easy steps

(edit #2: btw, I voted for humans)

Edited December 29, 2005 by Brick-To-Face

[Sharp]

Weakness means a race take UP TO 200% or DOUBLE damage, because the amount of damage taken is always a random value with a MAXIMUM of the listed damage, and you substract the armor to get the actual damage inflicted...  That's why Mutons and Sectopods are so damn tough...

a damage resistance means that the alien will only take 50%, or HALF damage...

 

So, in summary, defense/vulnerability are:

Chryssalid: def none, vuln. IC+stun

Cyberdisk: def AP+HE, vuln none

Ethereal: def: IC, stun, vuln none

Floater: NONE & NONE

Muton: def: AP, vuln Psi

Reaper: def none, vuln IC

Sectoid: NONE & NONE

Sectopod: def: Pl+HE, vuln Laser

Silacoid: def IC, vuln HE

Snakeman: def IC, vuln none

zombie: def all, vuln none, turns into chryssalid

XCOM soldier: def none, vuln ALL

 

That's right, XCOM soldiers take double damage from everything...

That's why rookies don't have that much of a survival rate.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Im sure there has been a great deal of testing done to back up all these statements, however it doesnt explain why in the alien autopsy of a chyrsalid it specifically states that it is vulnerable to High Explosives but mentions nothing about Incedinary.

 

Weakest race as in easiest too beat would be floaters, the only time floaters are hard are at night when they hide at tree level by trees and chuck grenades at you, but as these statements show Humans are the weakest as they are vulnerable to everything (does that include civillians or is it just soldiers?)

 

Thats why the best alien base to keep alive for raiding and supply ships are floater bases.

[[NKF]]

Snakeman bases too, because Chryssalids don't show up in supply ships. Speaking of snakemen, despite having a mobility advantage over terrain, their TUs are very low compared to all the other races. This means they either move very slowly, or they suffer a severe reaction level hit.

 

The game has plenty of misleading information, such as the base information radar bars to name one (TFTD has a few as well). About the only truth I can get out of the ufopaedia entry about chryssalids being weak to HE is that Chryssalid corpses are vulnerable. This, I believe, cannot be disputed because all corpses are vulnerable to explosives. Or it could just mean unconscious chryssalids are vulnerable to HE - again, that's true for everyone.

 

- NKF

[Dover]

Floaters and panzys. They go down with 2 hits of a regular pistol, 1 hit of a regular rifle, or 1 hit of a laser pistol. Anything beyond that is overkill.

 

And for the record, they don't "fly", they "float", as their name suggests. Flying means moving through the air with some kind of speed and purpose. Floating...well...

[[NKF]]

Yes but Floating Suits just don't just have the same ring to it as Flying Suits.

 

Personally, I prefer to think of them as Power Armour with a levitation apparatus. Same as floaters. Floaters just have an anti grav device make up most of their lower body that lets them wobble about in the air. They have no grace or style to speak of, that's for sure.

 

- NKF

Edited January 19, 2006 by NKF

[Snakeman]

I agree with everyone's assesment of Floaters, but on the issue of Snakemen, I remember how tough they seemed to me back when I played the original night terror site demo.

 

All I can say is, if all you have are a couple of heavy weapons, but everything else is standard pistol and rifles, they seemed pretty formidable to me, especially if I'd panicked and used up all my grenades

 

Its a shame really, as the next weapons you tend to get are lasers, then they fall pretty darn fast.

[Dover]

Snakemen were really tough for me early on, because when I just started playing I have a thing for incinarary shot. With sectiods and floaters it was kind fun watching them burn, and those shaggy reapers...

 

But snakemen just wouldn't die!

 

Of course that was when I was 10 years old, and had no strategy at all...

[Hayashi]

I voted for floaters.

[JoeJoe]

My reasoning for picking floaters:

 

I have never started a mission and said "shuckeroonies, its the floaters."

 

But I have started a mission saying "Crap, those damn chrystal salads (name friends and i dubed them) are here"

 

Sectoids have MC me enough to respect them

 

Mutons are tough

 

Ethereals...i shiver whenever i see one of em.

[Dover]

Furthermore--The floater's little friends (Reapers) are absolutely stupid. In all my 6 years of playing, I've never seen ANYTHING get killed by a reaper. Not even civies.

[Pherdnut]

In ten years, I've had maybe two guys get killed by Reapers. But that's the kind of thing that should go down in the most embarrassing death threads like when a guy with 80 accuracy shoots his buddy behind him by accident. Floaters would be scarier if their AI was intelligent enough to deal with flight, but they're just too dumb.

[Mindstorm]

I voted for floaters. Their terror missions are the easiest for me, and their guys are pretty easy to kill as well. I can usually open up on them and not get any return fire, whereas sectoids usually tend to try to blast me into oblivion when I try to kill them. I'd never vote sectoids either because of all the psi powers. Those will tear you up if you don't find and kill the guys wielding psi-amps (early on in the game).

 

Snakemen are second weakest if only because they have nothing special going for them (besides those really hilly maps).

[Cornuthaum]

i just have to add my view on things here.

 

my first base was in the middle of europe.

 

right now, i have three alien bases around it.

 

one in the UK, full of mutons

 

one in northern italy, full of friggn ethereals

 

one in northern scandinavia, full of floaters.

 

 

 

I use the supply ships of the first to train my men in the use of their Psionics, the second to train accuracy, reactions and whatnot and .... I shoot down the third and leave them the heck alone.

 

floaters are cannon fodder, even for rookie scouts armed with lasrifles. extremely low hp, almost no reactions, neglegible armor (unless you're standing right below them...) and the weakest terror unit too. (I only ever lost one soldier to a reaver, when said soldier ran out of TUs after shooting four floaters in one turn and didn't get through the door in time :c)

 

mutons are psifodder. too bad there is no "Make their brains go boom" option, useable only with 100+ psi skill :/, but making them throw their weapons away and line up for my soldiers to shoot them is highly satisfying.

 

:&

[Aiki-Knight]

It's true that Snakemen aren't that tough, and can't fly, but they do tend to work with Chryssalids on terror missions, which make Snakemen scarier to me than floaters, whose bi-ped reapers don't do much. I don't think I've ever had an agent harmed by a reaper. Floaters can be a problem of course, especially when they fly a lot and hit you from sniping positions, but this is rarely the case. From time to time, a floater will manage to stand up after getting hit with an HWP rocket, which is a little disconcerting as well. I mean, "didn't I just slam an HWP down his throat? Why is he standing up again?"

 

Sectoids ultimately would be the weakest except that they have psionic abilities, and this is a real problem. Those cyberdiscs are also a problem in the early game, as they occur in substantial numbers, can fly, and can withstand practically an unlimited amount of small-arms fire. Rifle and Auto-cannon AP ammo do next to nothing to them.

 

But without chyssalids, psionics or cyberdiscs, the floaters are at a major disadvantage until they get blaster launchers. I fear floaters the least.

[Vagabond]

I voted Snakeman.

 

Their terror sites might be... terrifying (bad pun intended), but floaters, I always find them in the most odd places. Sometimes I spend about five turns to figure where the heck that sniper was, and well, whaddayaknow, five dead rookies.

 

Chryssalids are a real pain in the butt, along with Snakemen, as they both complement eachother pretty well, but at least I know they can only move along the ground. Getting ambushed by an aerial grenade is not fun stuff.