Cydonia

A two part mission. Note that this is a DO OR DIE mission. If you fail or hit abort at any time, the entire campaign ends, you lose. To have this mission available, you must research "Cydonia or Bust", and access it by launching an avenger. It'll either give the option to go to intercept or to Cydonia. The "Cydonia" button is at the top of the screen if you have an Avenger selected in the Geoscape.

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.

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. 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.

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.

... and for the masochist (cough cough try this) Total loadout.... 1 Psi-Amp & 1 Soldier with no armour. This works in every difficulty and the only way you can lose is if you get shot from an alien in its reaction, but with a soldier having 200+ time units you have plenty of time to find the first alien, control it (25 TU not a percentage!!) and find the way to the elevator or the brain.