Chryssalid (EU2012)

1st Appearance	{{{appears}}}
HP	8/8/8/8
Aim	Melee
Defense	10
Will	120
Movement	20
Easy/Normal/Classic/Impossible

The Chryssalid is a savage murderous insect. Standing at about 5 feet, Chryssalids serve the alien forces as terror agents, though sometimes they can be seen defending structures of importance to the aliens. They are the fastest ground units in the game and they use their deadly claws to tear up your squad members. Perhaps the worst thing about them is that they can inject a venom into your operatives that effectively zombifies them, turning them into a thrall for the aliens, though that is not all. They also inject the victim with a Chryssalid egg. After 3 turns the egg will hatch and the new, fully adult Chryssalid will tear its way out of the zombie ready to inject more of your soldiers. (Or civilians where present.)

Tactical Advice

A priority when facing Chryssalids is to stay well away. If your squad members can hear Chryssalids running around you should put your squad on Overwatch. If a Chryssalid or two moves within your range a few extra hits before your turn will really help you in the fight.

They appear on Terror Missions, later UFOs, the Alien Base (if you've already had the first Terror Mission: if not, they will not appear) --- and fortunatley NOT on Council Missions, like VIP Escort.

Chryssalids have heavy armour but they usually charge at your squad out in the open, sometimes the fact that they often ignore cover is enough to negate their large amounts of health. However you should be sure you have enough firepower to take down the whole group, keeping up with technology will surely help you in this regard.

However, for all their dangers there is one game mechanic that really makes Chryssalids suffer. Dashing. Chryssalids will often often completely ignore the moving and action mechanics of the game, dashing straight up to your soldiers without considering whether they can still attack in that turn. This reduces the power of the Chryssalid dramatically, as they have a habit of dashing up to point blank range and ending turn, giving you easy hits. They have no long-range attacks, so as long as you are out of attack range, you might risk getting out of cover to get a clear shot, if it means downing it that much faster.

As always, keep a sniper or two around to quickly finish them off when they appear.

Concentrated attacks will be your tactic for their first appearance (which fortunately only has 3, and will stay that way if you move fast). Snipers with Headshot, Assaults with shotgun-type weapons (especially when at point-blank with Rapid Fire), and Heavies (especially with bullet storm, just in case) can kill them in one move, and a Heavy with a Blaster Launcher can 1-Hit Kill a whole squad. Your Support troopers are thus most at risk, as their best weapon, the Plasma Rifle, may leave Chryssalids at 1 health (still 1 too many). For them, Ghost Armor's Ghost mode is the best bet, as either it will kill with a critical hit, or a miss lets them remain invisible (in which case, at least a cloaked Support will remain unharmed, allow you to monitor the Chryssalid's actions, and they can spot for Snipers with Squadsight).

If you're clever and lucky, what you can do is if an activated squad of them stays in proximinty to each other, is whittle them down with regular attacks, and have a low-ranking soldier finish them all off with a(n alien) grenade; certainly worth a promotion.

Note that killing zombified soldiers or civilians no longer hatches a Chryssalid. They will only hatch after 3 turns. Chryssalids hatch at the beginning of the aliens' turn and can move and attack immediately after emerging. This can be a nasty surprise if you've not been keeping track when a slow, lumbering zombie you thought you were a safe distance from suddenly turns in to a 20 move chryssalid and covers the distance easily. You are given warning at the end of the Zombie's third move: if it ends with vomiting a massive amount of blood, then that is the tell that it will burst into a Chryssalid at the start of the next Alien Action.

Chryssalids are at their most dangerous in terror missions, where they can convert civilians in to zombies and if you advance too slowly you can find yourself overwhelmed by sheer numbers. In fact, some Commanders find it worthwhile to use explosives to kill the civillians within a Chryssalid's range, rather than risk a zombie, with powerful melee, that may survive long enough to form another Chryssalid. And, since civilians have only 1 HP, a Chryssalid may ignore a trooper that may survive an attack, and prioritize attacking civillians (as do most aliens during Terror Missions). So if there are equal or more civilians than Chryssalids between you and these insectoid horrors, opening fire is the most worthwhile action.

During missions such as larger UFO assaults or the alien base, where enemies are activated only when you get within sight range, Chryssalids can be extremely dangerous, as instead of falling back to cover, they will take their free move to surround your closest soldier, and then attack as soon as the alien turn begins.

Chitin Plating, made from dead Chryssalid bodies, is the best defense against their melee attacks, providing 4 HP as well as 50% reduced melee damage. In larger terror missions it is an almost essential piece of equipment for your front-line assault soldiers. Titan Armor further reduces risk of death (and another zombie to your now-reduced forces), as well as prevents poisioning.

Chryssalids have high will so they are resistant to psionic attacks. Avoid using psionic powers against them.

Notes

• Chryssalid corpses can be used to create Chitin Plating, which protects against melee damage, this can help against Chryssalids a lot. Unfortunately it has no visual effects on the soldier wearing it, wearing Chryssalid shells would probably look really cool.
• The removal of time units have severely crippled Chryssalids as they can no longer rely on their movement speed alone. This has slightly hurt their reputation as the most iconic alien of X-COM as they are very foolhardy and defiant of the new movement mechanics. They are at their full glory in the 1994 original X-COM.