Defense (EU2012)

Defense reduces the chance of being hit. Defense comes from armor, smoke grenades, altitude, and cover. Some aliens have innate Defense bonuses. Each point of Defense reduces the chance to be hit by 1%.

Sources of Defense

Cover

• Low Cover: +20
• High Cover: +40

Abilities

• Hunker Down (all): Doubles cover bonus.
• Tactical Sense (Assault): +5 per enemy in sight (max +20).
• Damn Good Ground (Sniper): +10 vs targets on lower elevation (in addition to normal bonuses).
• Low Profile (Sniper): Low cover counts as high cover.
  • Works only for stationary cover, for example, does not work with low cover provided by the Evasion ability of the Archangel Armor.
• Smoke Grenade (Support): +20 to all units in area.
  • Dense Smoke: increases Smoke Grenade bonus to +40.
• Telekinetic Field (Psionic): +40 to all units in a large area.

Armor

• Skeleton Suit: +10
• Ghost Armor: +20
• Psi Armor: +10

Notes

• Defense provided from cover applies against shots coming from the frontal 180 degree area, a straight line that matches the direction the cover comes from. You can imagine whatever you are covering against extending forever to both sides.
• There is no difference at which precise angle the shot comes, all that matters is whether it comes from the front of your line of cover or from behind it (where you are). As long as the shot comes from the other side from where you are, your cover defense bonus applies. If the attacker is on the same side of cover as you, you gain no defense bonus from the cover, and the attacker gains an additional bonus to critical hit because you are Flanked (see Flanking).
• Lacking cover (standing in the open or being flanked) provides no bonus or penalty to Defense. Aliens tend to prioritize uncovered targets in their line of sight. Enemies do receive a bonus similar to Flanking, a +50% critical chance for you being an Exposed Enemy.
• Being behind scenery, behind another unit, etc. does not influence defense or decrease chance of being hit at all. In a situation when one can see the target, it does not matter if there are several scenery objects or other units in between (Sectopods, cars, debris, etc.) It only matters whether the target has an adjacent cover, and is not considered flanked.
  • You can always tell if you have low or full cover when moving based on the shield icon. When it's half filled-in that's low cover, and fully filled in means full cover. If there's no shield on a side, you don't have a line of cover in that direction.

See also

• Classes
• Cover
• Armor