Cydonia

NOTE: This article contains endgame spoilers. Read further at your own peril.

Cydonia is the generally-accepted name for the final mission of UFO: Enemy Unknown, in which X-Com assaults the alien menace at its source. A great deal of research is required to discover Cydonia, a great deal of engineering is required to reach it, and (naturally) a great deal of skill is required to assault it. Completing the mission wins the game; conversely, a failed assault on Cydonia loses the game.

The mission itself comes in two parts: "Mars: Cydonia Landing" and "Mars: The Final Assault". Each part has its own map, populated with different enemies; the crew you bring must complete both parts in sequence. But before that, of course, you must unlock the mission.

Getting to Cydonia

Cydonia or Bust

To assault the alien base at Cydonia, one must first know that there is an alien base at Cydonia. The path to find this out begins when X-Com interrogates a live alien, unlocking the research topic Alien Origins, which reveals that the hordes of UFOs assaulting Earth have a staging point somewhere in the Solar System. After this, interrogating an alien Leader (or Commander) will unlock the topic The Martian Solution, which establishes that this base is on Mars. Then, when an alien Commander is interrogated, Cydonia or Bust is unlocked, which gives the exact location of the alien stronghold - Cydonia. With this information, X-Com gains the ability to launch an attack on Cydonia and end the alien threat once and for all... assuming they have some way to get there.

The Ultimate Craft

One cannot simply fly a Skyranger to Mars. To reach Cydonia, X-Com must design a space-capable troop transporter. X-Com must first research the four key components of any UFO - Alien Alloys, Elerium-115, UFO Power Sources and UFO Navigation, unlocking the topic UFO construction which leads to a series of craft. The last of the series, the Avenger, is capable of flying to Cydonia, and (provided Cydonia or Bust has been researched), a button labelled "Cydonia" will appear when choosing an Avenger's destination.

Shopping list

The above two items - an Avenger and researching Cydonia or Bust - are technically the only requirements to assault Cydonia. However, as the mission is far harder than any other in UFO: Enemy Unknown, and a failed Cydonia assault results in losing the game, it is wise to prepare rather more extensively. Below is a list of things you may wish to acquire before making the attempt.

• Armour, preferably Flying Suits. By the time you get to Cydonia the aliens will largely be using Heavy Plasma, but any chance of avoiding death is better than none. Flying Suits are the best protection available, although their flight capability isn't as useful in the second half (due to the enclosed space).
  • Medi-Kits. The mission can be very long, and as such wounded soldiers will often die of their wounds if not treated.
• Heavy Plasma. Cydonia contains many heavily armoured aliens, so you'll want the biggest guns available. Some prefer to bring Laser Rifles with the squad (to save items) and take Heavy Plasma Guns from the dead fingers of the Sectoids in the first half of the mission, but you will at least need to have researched the weapon to use it. Bringing reloads is usually superfluous due to the aforementioned ability to loot aliens' corpses.
• Hovertanks, especially Hovertanks/Launcher. Hovertanks are fast and well-armoured, and the Hovertank/Launcher's ability to defeat a Sectopod toe-to-toe is not to be underestimated. The more powerful man-portable Blaster Launcher is also an option, but it strains your item limit, requires reloading after every shot, and may end up being used against you.
• Electro-flares or an Auto-Cannon loaded with Incendiary rounds. It's dark on Mars, so illumination is helpful. Incendiaries use less of your precious 80 items, but fire doesn't last very long.
• And last, but certainly not least: Psionics. There are many, many psionic aliens in Cydonia, and as such soldiers with low Psi-Strength will spend nearly all of their time under alien mind control. Offensive psionics (soldiers with high Psi-Skill armed with Psi-Amps) help a lot but aren't essential; psi-screening your troops, however, borders on essential. Some psi attacks will likely still get through, but every bit helps.

Mars: Cydonia Landing

Briefing

Your Avenger craft has landed in the region of Cydonia on the surface of Mars. Our information indicates that one of the pyramid constructions contains a green access lift to an underground complex. Once you have assembled all your soldiers in the lift area, continue to the next stage…

Description

First part is on the surface of Mars. Lots of Pyramid structures with singular windows, some with aliens inside, some empty. Only one has the entrance to the aliens HQ, the entrance being an area with glowing green floor. Now, this floor has 36 squares, or a 6x6 area. Anyhow, you can step onto that with as many people as possible, hit abort, and it'll bring them and whatever they're carrying to part 2. OR, you can just kill everything on the stage and everyone will go to part 2.

This is a night mission, so remember that the aliens can see much farther than you.

The surface is filled with many many Sectoids and Cyberdiscs. Much Commanders and leaders methinks, as there's Psi all around. I find this mission hilarious when I shoot a Cyberdisc, it blows up, and the chain reaction kills over 5 other Cyberdiscs. Plus many many Sectoids. It then turns into Pyramid hunting.

Despite urban legends, and common sense, your soldiers do not need power armor or whatever to breathe on the surface of Mars, feel free to send them up wearing coveralls.

The easiest way to look at this mission is that it is basically a Sectoid Battleship/Base crew in a one-of-a-kind map with a choice of two different winning conditions except that the navigators, engineers, and medics are substituted with leaders and commanders.

PC version sample Cydonia Landing Layout

Cydonia Landing in PC version

A random sample of the Cydonia Landing in Mars from PC version the game.

Alien deployment (surface)

Rank	Beg./Exp.	Vet./Gen.	Super.
Sectoid Soldiers	4	5	6
Sectoid Navigators	0	0	0
Sectoid Medics	0	0	0
Sectoid Engineers	0	0	0
Sectoid Leaders	3	4	5
Sectoid Commanders	3	4	5
Cyberdiscs	2	3	4
Totals	12	16	20

Tips

HWPs can follow you onto the lift and the next level if you use the tools at your disposal to widen the doorway for them.

Plasma weapons can do the job, too.

Try to blast away the top of the pyramid with the lift with a rocket, so every alien up there is killed.

Mars: The Final Assault

Briefing

The pyramid lift takes your battle weary soldiers deep below the planet's surface. They arrive in the heart of a large complex of tunnels and chambers. The alien brain is hidden somewhere in the labyrinth. It must be destroyed if the earth is to be saved from alien enslavement.

Description

Second part is almost like a Alien Base Assault, except larger; the base has 36 modules (6x6) instead of the normal 25 (5x5). It's filled with all manner of creatures: Ethereals, Sectopods, Silacoids, Celatids, and Chryssalids. Anyhow, you need to destroy at least one portion of a four-part Alien Brain (40 armor - pictured on the right) to win the mission (and the game). There's a whole bunch of heavily armed Ethereals defending the Brain Room. Of course, either a Blaster Bomb, or plain mind controlling one of them to shoot the Brain ends the mission easily... to be true to storyline, kill all opposition, then shoot the Brain pointblank with a Plasma-based weapon. Afterwards scramble for the lifts before the whole complex blows up (as shown in the PS movies).

This is UFO's only mixed crew mission. It's an Ethereal crew with a few extras, mainly Terror Units, from the other races. This mission only really needs a Blaster Launcher, and with luck, if you locate the command theatre right away, will be over in less than a few turns. If you want to bypass the "luck" element, you can take advantage of the fact that you can see unexplored terrain by moving the cursor over it. The brain room is quite recognisable, and once you've found it, it's simple enough to send Blaster Bombs there on your first turn. (If you choose to find the Command Center the harder way ("Blaster Launchers? Bah! Too impersonal for my taste") be aware that unlike the Alien Bases there can be dead ends).

An alternate way to do the final assault avoiding the carnage of the lifts or Blaster-bombing blind is to breach through an upper Brain Room wall from an adjacent garden or storage area with 2-3 Blaster Bombs. With a hole in the dirt wall, throw smoke in front of the brain and advance an Power Suited agent to kneel in front of the Brain. During their turn one of the Ethereals will open up with an Auto shot - missing the agent - sealing the fate of the Aliens.

PSX Cydonian base layout

The underground Cydonia base in the Playstation version of the game.

Unlike the PC versions of the game which have a randomly generated base, the Playstation version is always the same (see pic to the right). This has some important implications, because since you know where the brain room is, you can fire a couple Blaster Bombs and the mission will be over.

PC version random layout

Cydonia base in PC version

A random sample of the Cydonia base in Mars from PC version the game.

Alien deployment (underground base)

Rank	Beg./Exp.	Vet./Gen.	Super.
Ethereal Soldiers	2	3	4
Ethereal Leaders	1	2	3
Ethereal Commanders	3	4	5
Chryssalids	3	4	5
Silacoids	3	4	5
Celatids	3	4	5
Sectopods	2	3	4
Totals	17	24	31

As this is the first time in X-COM which has a "mixed" mission, the programmers didn't quite get the substitutions correct per se. The proper aliens and ranks show up, but substitution was used in some instances where it wasn't necessary. For instance, instead of just spawning Ethereal commanders normally, the programmers substituted commanders for the missing engineer rank and instead of spawning Ethereal soldiers normally they substituted them in lieu of commanders.

Rank Value	Normal Rank	Cydonia Rank
7	Terrorist #1	Sectopod
6	Soldier	Celatid
5	Navigator	Silacoid
4	Medic	Chryssalid
3	Engineer	Commander
2	Leader	Leader
1	Commander	Soldier

Tips

Go armed for bear. Bring many troops, the best weapons and best armour possible. The 80 Item Limit is perhaps your worst enemy.

The surface part of the mission is nothing special; you should however have some means of illuminating the battlefield. The Auto-Cannon with incendiary rounds (14 light sources per clip) can come in handy. Only equipment carried by your soldiers at the end of that stage will be taken into the base proper, so you maybe want to take it slowly and pick up some ammunition before killing the last alien or activating the lift. If your troops are low in energy/stamina, it is advisable to rest them a little before continuing on as well.

Underground is like any other base assault, only more so. More corridors to watch, more opponents hidden. Most enemies will take several hits to die, so when using conventional weapons you will need a great many seasoned troops. Even with the support of two or three Mind Controllers and Blaster Launchers each (Hovertanks are great as they carry 8 rounds yet count as only one item) you will need at least eight or ten men for the actual killing and may still only advance with utmost care. Also, sort out all known PSI weaklings and then some: With so many Ethereal Commanders around, you may see soldiers mind controlled who previously appeared to be absolutely safe even from panic attacks.