Chryssalid

General Information

Chryssalids are an alien Terror Unit accompanying Snakemen. 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

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.

Note though that their lack of ranged attack or flying ability makes them easy meat once you have flying armor. Weak against explosives, says the UFOpedia entry below, but the USG says Chryssalid Damage Modifiers: Fire-80%, Stun-90%. 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 relatively harmless zombie with reaction fire as it shambles in for melee... then a Chryssalid pops out and SPRINTS at you, turning your squad into cheese. Always bring Incendiary rounds to Snakemen sites to take out the Zombie, as this will prevent the Chrys hatching.

Jasonred: Only works if the KILLING BLOW was Incendiary. Good luck hoping your reaction shots used Incindary ammo. ... In other words, while it's nice knowing about the Incendiarys 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 Incendiary's aren't a safe technique.

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:               110-124
Health:            96
Energy:            140-163
Reactions:         70-82
Strength:          110-128
Bravery:           100
Psi Skill:         N/A
Psi Strength:      50-58

Damage:                110-128
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 High Explosive. 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

The following are some miscellaneous notes on the Chryssalid:

• 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.

See Also

Snakeman

Zombie

Tentaculat