Ethereal (EU2012)

The Ethereals are some of, if not the most powerful alien creatures you will ever encounter in the game. These ancient aliens are the true masterminds behind the alien invasion. They are humanoid in form and possess four arms. While they are physically quite frail the Ethereals have the greatest psionic abilities seen in the entire game, using them to obliterate the minds and bodies of your squad.

Dr. Vahlen identifies a specimen to be centuries old. Despite this Ethereals actually have a ton of health. (20 hit points in total on Classic and below.) Do not expect them to turn into a pile of dust when you shoot them.

You will only find Ethereals in UFO assaults or on the final mission. They prefer to send their underlings such as Mutons to do their dirty work.

Tactical Advice

When you face these ancient aliens prepare for a very tough fight. Do not expect SHIVs to be immune to them. Ethereals can use pure psionic force against their foes instead of purely mind centered attacks. These attacks actually do more damage to SHIVs than to regular humans as SHIVs have no Will to defend them.

Ethereals will usually only spawn on the bridge of UFOs, and in all but the "Cathedral" (final room of the Sanctuary Ship, and thus, the game), you will only ever face one Etherial at a time-- though on rare occasions, they will be spawned in another room of the UFO, save for Battleships, where it will always be on the bridge. This gives you ample time to prepare for the fight beforehand, like by having your Psi soldiers use Inspire and ending turn. Just be sure you have cleared any aliens wandering outside. Make sure everyone has a full weapon and a meaningful turn to work with. When you open the door to the bridge you should take control of the Muton Elites there if possible, they make useful fodder units and provide a fair bit of firepower against the Ethereal. Because of their low Will the Ethereal will often Psi-Lance a mind controlled Muton in preference to attacking one of your soldiers.

To be able to successfully use Psionics against an Ethereal you'll need a very high Will soldier, which can achieved through the use of Psi Armor, Mind Shields, and/or the Psi Inspiration/Combat Drugs abilities, otherwise it has a very high chance to fail. With some or all of those it can be possible to mind control an Ethereal, which is required for the "Xavier" Achievement. Given the difficulty and preparation required, using psionics on Ethereals is impractical for purposes other than the achievement.

All Ethereals have a chance to reflect shots back at the attacker, fortunately for much less than the weapon's normal damage.

A squad at full capacity shooting at the Ethereal will often be enough to bring it down in one turn, though if you're unlucky on reflects it can survive even that.

Ethereal

1st Appearance	{{{appears}}}
HP	20/20/20/25
Aim	N/A
Defense	40
Will	120
Movement	12
Easy/Normal/Classic/Impossible

These Ethereals are often seen commanding UFOs. Exercise extreme caution wherever these red robed fiends may be present. Heed the advice given above to bring them down.

Abilities:

• Psi Lance: Offensive Psi ability that deals more damage if the target fails a will challenge.
• Mindfray, offensive psionic ability that causes damage and lowers will/mobility/aim.
• Can Mind Control.
• Psi Drain: Drains up to 5 hitpoints worth of health from a friendly organic target. Cannot kill target(Can be used on mind-linked targets such as mind controlled squaddie)
• Rift, a powerful AoE attack that inflicts more damage if they fail a will challenge. It has the potential to do from 4 damage (if resisted) to 20+ (SHIV, since they have no will to resist.) Rift will persist on the map for one turn and damage anything that enters.
• Chance to reflect physical projectiles back at the attacker. The reflected attack deals reduced damage.
• High Will; resistant to psionic attacks.
• Ethereals explode upon death, dealing damage to all units within a fairly small radius.

Uber Ethereal

1st Appearance	{{{appears}}}
HP	25/25/25/30
Aim	N/A
Defense	40
Will	150
Movement	12
Easy/Normal/Classic/Impossible

This Ethereal commands the entire Alien Armada. He essentially has the same powers as regular Ethereals but the large stat bonuses he gains make him a formidable foe.

The Uber Ethereal is only encountered during the final mission.

Abilities:

• Psi Lance: Offensive Psi ability that deals more damage if the target fails a will challenge.
• Mindfray, offensive psionic ability that causes damage and lowers will/mobility/aim.
• Can Mind Control.
• Psi Drain: Drains up to 5 hitpoints worth of health from a friendly organic target. Cannot kill target(Can be used on mind-linked targets such as mind controlled squaddie)
• Rift, a powerful AoE attack that inflicts more damage if they fail a will challenge. It has the potential to do from 4 damage (if resisted) to 20+ (SHIV, since they have no will to resist.) Rift will persist on the map for one turn and damage anything that enters.
• Chance to reflect physical projectiles back at the attacker. Reflected attacks deal reduced damage. This has a higher probability of occurring with the Uber Ethereal than regular ones.
• High Will; resistant to psionic attacks.
• The Uber Ethereal is immune to Mind Control but not Psi Panic or Mindfray.
• Ethereals explode upon death, dealing damage to all units within a fairly small radius.
• Should the Uber Ethereal die, all remaining aliens die and mind controlled soldiers are released as well and the game ends in humanity's victory. Note that mind controlled aliens die after the control's duration expires.