Revision as of 07:08, 2 December 2023

Make some friends

if you don't know your enemy, you don't know what they are capable of

Live Alien Capture

Any alien on any battlescape should be recovered alive but unconscious, even if only once. A Bio-Transport Module must be used to recover alien lifeforms (dead or alive) from the successful mission and an Alien Containment facility must be built at the base to receive the alien lifeforms.

Methods

Stun and injury is what causes any entity to become unconscious, and then possible to capture.

Unconsciousness is caused by Stun effects from dense smoke, stun gas grenades, stun grapples and by psionic manipulation.
Battlefield injury which is servere usually results in slight stun effects along with fatal wounding (bleeding). If the health value falls below their stun value (seen in the attributes value for Health when viewing the inventory), any entity will immediately collapse before expiring very soon after due to blood loss. In this short time period, if the current mission is successfully completed, all critically wounded units (agents or aliens) will be immediately saved from dying.
Injury which is non-fatal (no bleeding involved) will decrease the health value. If any stun effects surpass this lower health level, immediate collapse will be the result.
Stun levels slowly decrease over time (Real-Time combat) or turns (Turn-Based combat) until the stun value is less than the health value - the entity will awaken.

Stun Power Limit

Any and all stun effects are limited to a maximum stun value of 255.

A stun effect will only work if the Stun value is more than their current Health value.
Aliens which have health values surpassing this limit cannot be made unconscious via stun effects only.
High health aliens must have their health reduced by injury so that health value is reduced to less than the stun limit.
The less health remaining after injury, the easier it will be to stun the entity.

Next: Psionics
Previous: Anti-Alien Strategies For Troops
Return to Start

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Unlike in previous and subsequent X-Com games, the primary goal of X-COM: Apocalypse - destroying the alien city - can be accomplished without capturing any live or dead aliens. However, capturing aliens is essential to the secondary goal of discovering [[The Real Alien Threat|what the aliens are planning]], and also unlocks the immensely-powerful [[Toxigun]], so it can be thought of as a sidequest.
+__NOTOC__
+'''Make some friends'''
+<br>
+<center>''if you don't know your enemy, you don't know what they are capable of''</center>
+<br>
+=Live Alien Capture=
+Any alien on any battlescape should be recovered alive but unconscious, even if only once. A [[Bio-Transport Module (Apocalypse)|Bio-Transport Module]] must be used to recover alien lifeforms (dead or alive) from the successful mission and an [[Alien_Containment_(Apocalypse)|Alien Containment]] facility must be built at the base to receive the alien lifeforms.
-==The Goals==
+==Methods==
+Stun and injury is what causes any entity to become unconscious, and then possible to capture.
+* Unconsciousness is caused by Stun effects from dense smoke, stun gas grenades, stun grapples and by psionic manipulation.
+* Battlefield injury which is servere usually results in slight stun effects along with fatal wounding (bleeding). If the health value falls below their stun value (seen in the attributes value for Health when viewing the inventory), any entity will immediately collapse before expiring very soon after due to blood loss. In this short time period, if the current mission is successfully completed, all critically wounded units (agents or aliens) will be immediately saved from dying.
+* Injury which is non-fatal (no bleeding involved) will decrease the health value. If any stun effects surpass this lower health level, immediate collapse will be the result.
+* Stun levels slowly decrease over time (Real-Time combat) or turns (Turn-Based combat) until the stun value is less than the health value - the entity will awaken.
-There are several distinct stages of this research path, which are worth keeping in mind when deciding which aliens to bother capturing. Each stage's information and toxin technology requires that of the previous stage.
+==Stun Power Limit==
+Any and all stun effects are limited to a maximum stun value of 255.
-*[[The Alien Genetic Structure (Apocalypse)|The Alien Genetic Structure]] and [[Biological Warfare (Apocalypse)|Biological Warfare]], the latter of which provides the Toxigun itself and Toxin Type A, merely require the autopsy of any one immature alien (Multiworm Egg, Multiworm or Hyperworm).
+* A stun effect will only work if the Stun value is more than their current Health value.
-*[[The Alien Life Cycle (Apocalypse)|The Alien Life Cycle]] and [[Toxin B (Apocalypse)|Toxin Type B]] require the live examination and autopsy of the Multiworm, Hyperworm and Chrysalis - as you'll see below, the Multiworm is the only tricky one here.
+* Aliens which have health values surpassing this limit cannot be made unconscious via stun effects only.
-*[[The Real Alien Threat]] and [[Toxin C (Apocalypse)|Toxin Type C]] require the live examination and autopsy of the Multiworm Egg, Brainsucker, Anthropod, Spitter, Popper, Skeletoid, Micronoid Aggregate, Megaspawn and Psimorph - i.e., every alien except the Queenspawn and Overspawn.
+* High health aliens must have their health reduced by injury so that health value is reduced to less than the stun limit.
-*[[Alien Gas (Apocalypse)|Alien Gas]] requires the live examination and autopsy of the Queenspawn.
+* The less health remaining after injury, the easier it will be to stun the entity.
-(Additionally, you will need to research the [[Bio-Transport Module (Apocalypse)|Bio-Transport Module]] and [[Advanced Biochemistry Lab (Apocalypse)|Advanced Biochemistry Lab]]; both should be considered high-priority if you wish to pursue this path, although in the former case there's nothing else to research yet anyway.)
-The important thing to note here is the enormous gulf between Toxin B and C; capturing a Multiworm is a high priority, as it is the only significant capture requirement for Toxin B, but unless you're willing to bother capturing ''all'' the aliens needed for Toxin C there's little reason to bother capturing ''any'' of them (or to capture the Queenspawn). Toxin B is already exceptionally good, so decide early on whether you want to get Toxin C and play accordingly.
-Note that you don't need to separately capture an alien alive and dead like in UFO or TFTD; examining a live alien will give you the corresponding corpse.
-==Methods of capture==
-There are three methods of stunning aliens in order to capture them alive: the [[Megapol Stun Grapple]], the [[Megapol Stun Grenade]] and the psionic "stun" attack with a [[Mind Bender]]. Each has advantages and disadvantages.
-*The Stun Grapple requires little micromanagement, is cheap and has infinite ammunition, but is short-ranged and cannot penetrate [[Personal Disruptor Shield]]s.
-*The Stun Grenade ignores shields and has medium range, but the cloud of stun gas dissipates quickly and also affects X-COM personnel; the grenades are also consumable and must be manually transferred to hand as needed. It also has no effect on Micronoid Aggregates.
-*Psionic stunning can be done anywhere within line of sight, ignores shields, and only uses (regenerating) Psi-energy, but you'll need to train [[Hybrids (Apocalypse)|hybrids]] to do it and it only has a high success rate on Anthropods and Skeletoids.
-==General capture procedure==
-The ideal way to capture aliens goes roughly like this:
-) Set up a situation where you can afford to concentrate on the capture. This means eliminating or drawing off other aliens, as well as bringing the proper equipment and/or soldiers to make the target itself less dangerous (you don't generally want to be risking soldiers for a capture).
-) Perform the capture. For most aliens, this simply means sending a few soldiers in with Stun Grapples or Stun Grenades while having the rest of your squad hold their fire. However, the maximum stun level is 255, and some aliens (Multiworms, Megaspawn, Psimorphs and the Queenspawn) have more health than this; you'll need to carefully damage them with weapons while keeping a fairly-constant stun level on them.
-) Pin the alien to the ground by having a soldier stand on top of it. This prevents the alien from "waking up" as its stun level decreases over time. It's generally best to put the soldier used for this in a squad by himself, so that you don't accidentally move him.
-) Complete the mission. Try to do this quickly, and without explosives going off near the unconscious alien (as unconscious aliens may be bleeding from critical wounds, and will still take damage from explosives).
-==Specific alien notes==
-===Zero-effort captures===
-The [[Multiworm Egg]], [[Hyperworm]] and [[Chrysalis]] do not need to be stunned in order to research them. The Multiworm Egg and Chrysalis are recovered alive automatically if left alone, and researching a live Multiworm puts four Hyperworms into your Alien Containment.
-===Low-effort captures===
-[[Brainsucker]]s, [[Spitter]]s and early-game [[Anthropod]]s pose very little threat at range, so capturing these is a simple matter of walking up to them with a Stun Grapple (or, in the case of Brainsuckers, having a Stun Grapple in hand when they charge you).
-You can also put a live Brainsucker into your Alien Containment by recovering and researching an unhatched [[Brainsucker Pod]], although this takes extra research time.
-===[[Multiworm]]===
-The problem with Multiworms is simply their high health and their high rate of fire. The safest way to capture these is to use Stun Grenades from long range (exploiting the short range of Multiworms' spit and their inability to escape the gas cloud) while chipping away with weak weapons like the [[Lawpistol]], [[M4000]] and [[Megapol Laser Sniper Gun|Laser Sniper Gun]] (to reduce their health below the stun limit without inflicting critical wounds).
-Alternatively, charging in to point-blank range with a full squad of soldiers in [[Megapol Armor]] dual-wielding the above weapons with Stun Grapples will almost always bring down a worm before it can kill any of them (though they'll usually be wounded).
-===[[Popper]]===
-Poppers are easy enough to stun, assuming you see them coming (in real-time mode) or get the drop on them (in turn-based mode). What's worth noting is that Poppers take critical wounds very easily and will explode if they bleed to death. As such, you should ensure a Popper is '''undamaged''' if you plan to have an Agent stand on it.
-===[[Skeletoid]]===
-While Skeletoids are very similar to Anthropods in most respects, they only show up in Week 3. Depending on X-COM's [[Alien Tech Levels (Apocalypse)|performance]], this means that they may already be equipped with [[Devastator Cannon]]s. A Skeletoid, or even Anthropod, with a Devastator Cannon is a serious threat at long range, and attempting a live capture will frequently result in soldier deaths. The humanoid aliens will also eventually gain access to [[Personal Disruptor Shield]]s, which negate Stun Grapples.
-Nabbing a well-armed Skeletoid safely is best done with psi from behind cover (line of sight is only required for the initial lock), or opportunistically (with Stun Grapples if encountered at close range, or with Stun Grenades if many Skeletoids are encountered in an enclosed space). If you find a lone Skeletoid with a Brainsucker Launcher or Disruptor Gun, of course, such caution is unnecessary.
-===Psionic aliens===
-The [[Psimorph]] and [[Micronoid Aggregate]] are very similar in that their only method of attack is psionic powers. Psionic powers are very effective against your [[Humans (Apocalypse)|human]] soldiers, but ineffective against [[Androids (Apocalypse)|androids]] or well-trained [[Hybrids (Apocalypse)|hybrids]]. As such, the trick here is to get them on their own (without supporting aliens) and send in a squad of ''only'' hybrids or androids - this renders them toothless and assures an easy capture (Psimorphs will need to be damaged, but with this tactic you'll have plenty of time to do it carefully).
-Note that Stun Grenades are not very useful against either of these; Micronoids are immune, while Psimorphs can fly and have a great deal of health.
-===[[Megaspawn]]===
-Megaspawn are a notoriously-difficult capture due to their heavy armament - in particular, their infinite supply of long-range homing missiles. The ideal way to capture a Megaspawn is to wait until you have [[X-COM Disruptor Armor]], which largely obviates their missiles as a threat, and/or [[Personal Cloaking Field]]s, which prevent them from targetting your soldiers at long range (unless another alien is spotting for them).
-If you aren't willing to wait that long, the best bet is to use several soldiers, each with a Stun Grapple and two shields and one additionally holding a Devastator Cannon, and  try to take a Megaspawn by surprise in the cramped rooms of a UFO. Expect lost shields and possibly soldiers.
-===[[Queenspawn]]===
-The Queenspawn capture is a bit complicated due to her tentacle whip, but quite easy with Cloaking Fields, 20 or so Stun Grenades, and patience. Given the very fixed nature of the mission (she's always in exactly the same place and can't move), this section will be quite detailed.
-) Kill all the mobile aliens on the map, and blow up all the reinforcement pads. This deprives the Queenspawn of spotters, making her harmless to cloaked soldiers at medium to long range.
-) Throw two Vortex Mines into the raised dais holding the Queenspawn, one on each side of her. These will inflict some damage and, more importantly, destroy the Multiworm Eggs around her (allowing the mission to end as soon as the Queenspawn is stunned).
-) Start throwing Stun Grenades at the Queenspawn. Wait for the gas cloud to nearly dissipate before throwing the next grenade, to get the maximum effect from each grenade.
-) After five grenades or so, if she is not stunned, have a soldier start shooting her with a Devastator Cannon on aimed shot (to inflict damage slowly; a Toxigun will often be too fast and kill her in the couple of seconds before the mission ends). Keep throwing Stun Grenades until she drops.<br>

Difference between revisions of "Capturing Live Aliens (Apocalypse)"

Revision as of 07:08, 2 December 2023

Live Alien Capture

Methods

Stun Power Limit

Navigation menu

Search