Exploiting Mind Control

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Exploits - Mind Control Madness

Mind Control Madness

Civilian Traitors

Whenever you mind control another unit, it automatically returns to the alien side at the end of the aliens' turn. This is true even if you mind control a Civilian. While saving civilians leads to higher scores, "removing" them from play in this way then killing them off as aliens removes the risk of a score penalty should they be fall into trouble.

Resurrect Zombified Agents

also known as: Permanent Control of a Chryssalid/Tentaculat
To 'rescue' your zombified agent you must mind control/molecular control its zombie form then shoot it to make it hatch. The chrysallid/tentaculat that just hatched will appear to be hostile, but don't kill it. Next turn, and for the rest of the mission, it will be controlled by you without additional psionic actions. If you lost an agent to make a zombie and you use this trick, you can 'recover' the agent if the chrysallid/tentaculat version of the soldier survives until the end of the mission. The resurrected agent will be back at base.
If your pet chrysallid/tentaculat happens to get zombified, just repeat the steps to gaining permanent control. This action effectively regenerates your pet's health. However, each time this happens, you lose morale and the counter for the number of X-Com soldiers lost on that mission increases as if it were a different soldier being killed. So you may go in with 10 soldiers, but leave with 10 and -5 casualties.
This exploit can also be used when civilians get zombified. And, since the terror units have many TU, they make excellent scouts. You could give your pet alien a weapon, but they have terrible throwing and accuracy skills. However, if you give you pet a primed high explosive and send them off to scout, they will drop it when they die.

My Pet Alien

Any alien can be your agent's personal escort. Just remember to mind control the alien every turn. When there are large terrorists on a mission, you'll notice that they take up four squares. Each square has its own stats. If you mind control one quadrant, the other three quadrants still stay under alien control. If you move the large alien there is a good chance that it will shoot itself (if it can) via reaction fire. If the large alien does not shoot itself you can use up its TU to fire on hostiles, or use it to scout. Once the TU are used up, mind control another quadrant to keep using this alien. You can do this four times. Alternatively, you can target the other alien quadrants and make the terror unit shoot itself. This is worthwhile tactic to use on Cyberdiscs and Sectopods. Cyberdiscs explode on death while the Sectopod has a Laser Auto Shot which can dish out a maximum of 300 points of damage each shot.

Access the Alien Inventory Screen

When an alien is mind controlled, you can't directly see their inventory by clicking the inventory button. However, if you switch to a human soldier, and check their inventory, you can use the arrows in the top corner to cycle through all units.

WARNING: You will see that sometimes the alien will stack equipment on its right leg. If you remove an item from their right leg, make sure you enough time units to place it somewhere else. If you run out of time units, you will have to force a quit and cannot save your game. (press ALT-TAB, then CTRL-ALT-DEL, and terminate the process that corresponds to the game).

Use this exploit to change their inventory. You can give them weapons (eg: for Reaction Traning}, live grenades, or anything else. Remember to mind control them each turn if you use them as mules.

Exponential Mind Control

Any creature with psionic skill can use a psionic amplifier. Therefore, you can take control of, (eg:) an Ethereal and then toss it a psi-amp, use the alien inventory expolit, and have him pick it up. You can then use the Ethereal's psionic talents to take over other aliens. With the right application of psi-amp relay tosses and mind control, this can have an exponential effect of complete control of all the aliens in the very first turn.

Zombie's Permanent Control of Aliens via Stunning

1. Mind Control any 1x1 alien. Zombies are exempt from this as well as 2x2 terror units, but all the other aliens are fair game.
2. Stun that alien. Stun Bombs from the Small Launcher are the preferred method because the stun rod depends on alien status to function.
3. Revive the alien. You can either wait until the alien recovers on it's own, or use stimulant shots from a Medi-Kit to speed things along.
4. Wait until the start of your next round. After the alien wakes up it will appear as alien, but this just lasts for your present turn.

That's it, the alien should now be under permanent X-COM control. You can do anything with an X-COM alien as you can with a normal soldier: Directly access the aliens inventory screen without scrolling through all your guys first. Arm it and send it in as a advance scout into UFOs. In all practicality, they are yours to do with as you please.