Chryssalid

Chryssalids are an alien Terror Unit accompanying Snakemen.

Nasty. Toothy. Very very fast. Able to implant an egg (that turns you into a Zombie) with little regard for body armor. The ability of single Chryssalids to multiply and wipe out entire squads makes them more feared than even the tougher Ethereals.

General Information

Their lack of ranged attack or flying ability makes them easy meat once you have flying armor. AP works but you may want to skip the rifles and go straight to Autocannons or better.

A HORRIBLE way to meet one is shooting a zombie with reaction fire as it shambles in for melee... then a Chryssalid pops out and SPRINTS at you, turning your squad into more zombies. The only known way to prevent the Chrys hatching is to kill the zombie with Incendiary rounds.

Jasonred: Only works if the KILLING BLOW was Incendiary. Good luck hoping your reaction shots used Incendiary ammo. ... In other words, while it's nice knowing about the Incendiaries not birthing Chryssalids, I don't think it's actually all that useful. Chrys are in fact LESS dangerous than most aliens during X-com's turn, since they only have melee and can't reaction fire. If you have enough TU to kill a zombie with Incendiary, it's more practical to auto-shot him with Lasers or Plasma. ... Just don't kill Zombies with Grenades. During Aliens turn, reaction fired Incendiaries aren't a safe technique.

actually, some chryssalids CAN reaction fire. i think it's a bug, but on my version at least, if they infect an X-com member, he occasionaly keeps his weapons, and the chryssalid gets them too. they can't use them normally, but can reaction fire.

Papa Legba: Jason's got a valid point about the incendiaries, but I disagree with him about the danger of Chryssalids' melee attacks. Due to their freakishly high reactions and hard armor, I've seen them waltz up to one of my troops in full view, suck up a snap shot or two, and still take the troop down. Especially in alien bases, don't get too confident about eliminating Chryssalids with reaction fire.

[ NKF: I'm of the personal opinion that incendiaries should be used actively to disable chryssalid zombies - not reactively. Waste of time otherwise. Also, reaction shots do have the unusual side effect of detouring charging melee aliens temporarily - until the next reaction shot, in which case they go back to their original target. Then repeat ad nauseum for every reaction shot thereafter. The detour may look like they're running in the other direction, but it can sometimes be a brief switch target if there's a closer target nearby at the time of the opportunity shot.]

Statistics

TUs:                   110-127
Health:                96
Energy:                140-162
Reactions:             70-86
Strength:              110-118
Bravery:               100
Psi Skill:             N/A
Psi Strength:          50-69

Damage:                110-118
Close Combat Accuracy: 80%
TUs:                   15

Live Specimen

The crab like claws of this creature are a powerful weapon in close combat. The high metabolism and strength of this creature give it speed and dexterity. Instead of killing its victim it impregnates it with an egg and injects a venom which turns it into a walking Zombie. A new Chryssalid will burst from the victim shortly after impregnation. Chryssalids are associated with the Snakeman race.

Autopsy

The exo-skeleton of this creature is extremely tough, but surprisingly vulnerable to explosive ammunition. The brain is well developed, and its cell growth rate very fast. The creature carries twenty eggs which are laid inside other organisms. This creature is a very effective terror weapon.

[ NKF: Note, the above is taken directly from the game UFOpaedia. Technically, the comment about the vulnerability to explosives is only true when the Chryssalid is unconscious. Chryssalids, in fact, take normal damage from Explosives. To confirm this, refer to the Damage Modifiers.

With the Auto or Heavy Cannon, Chryssalids are more likely to get knocked unconscious with HE rounds while AP rounds often kills them. Make it habit of examining the corpse before moving on if you haven't destroyed the corpse outright. ]

Notes

• Beginner level Chryssalids have 110TU, and each melee attack costs 15TU. This means they can be out of visual range at the beginning of the turn and cross the 23 intervening tiles and still attack you in the same turn!
• They can perform 7 attacks per turn max at Beginner difficulty and 8 at Superhuman difficulty.
• Chryssalid Damage Modifiers: Fire 80%, Stun 90%. They aren't particularly susceptible to anything, despite the "vulnerability to explosives" mentioned above. Unconscious chryssies are as vulnerable to ordinary grenades as any other object.
• Chryssies left on their own with civilians in a Terror Mission can quite quickly raise an army of the undead. This is one of the few tricky situations where you might end up shooting civilians for their own good. And yours, of course.
• As commented under Zombie, zombie research teams under controlled conditions have never seen a spontaneous Chrys hatching while the zombie is still mobile and unharmed. So although the zombie packs a wallop in melee, don't shoot them if you aren't prepared to deal with the Chrys immediately afterwards. Run away!
• If you find yourself in a Chryssalid-infested area without a flying suit, you can try heading upstairs then shooting away the stairs.
• HWP's can't be turned into Zombies but a Chryssalid attack can still make a mess of them.

As with all terror units, they can be encountered in the following mission types:

• Terror Mission
• Base Defense
• UFO Ground Assault (Terror Ship or Battleship)
• Alien Base Assault
• Cydonia

See Also

• Snakeman
• Zombie
• Tentaculat
• Data Canister: Chryssalid