Meld (EU2012)

The Meld is an alien substance introduced on Enemy Within whose precise origin and composition are unknown but which allows the aliens to perform cybernetic and genetic modifications on life forms, including humans. After its recovery from a battlefield and upon completing the necessary Research, the Meld can be used by XCOM to transform soldiers into Mech Troopers or to perform genetic augmentation on different parts of their bodies.

The Meld will mainly be recovered from the aliens, during Abductions or UFO missions, where there will be canisters spread around randomly on the battlefield. The containers are equipped with self-destruction devices with timers so it will be necessary to reach the canisters before time runs out to capture the substance. Explosions, and misses from any sufficiently powerful weapon may also destroy it.

Certain aliens (Mechtoid and Heavy Floater) will also provide small quantities of Meld with their corpses, upon completion of a mission.

Notes

• Meld is composed of organic nanomachines and needs to be researched (Meld Recombination) to be used.
• Meld cannot be sold at the Grey Market.
• All the abductions and UFO maps have been redesigned to include 2 Meld canisters.
• The 2 Meld canisters need to be captured during a certain timeframe, otherwise they will self-destruct forcing a player to move swiftly to find and capture them. 1 canister is located on a location easy to reach, another in a hard location. The canisters can be hidden to force a player to look for them.
  • Additionally, the Canisters are reported to spawn once per applicable map per playthrough: there will only be a certain number of canisters in a given campaign (unconfirmed - see [1]).
• When Meld canisters self-destruct they will explode and cause damage to any player units nearby.
• Meld canisters can be destroyed with explosives.
• When you kill all aliens on a mission you'll automatically recover any intact Meld containers, including still hidden ones.
• The Meld can be used to create either MEC Troopers (a new class) or to genetically increase any class abilities (Gene Mods).

• • In consideration of the limited number of Canisters, it's also been revealed that this leads to a choice of quality vs quantity for how you will spend the upgrades.
• The Meld also brings 2 new base facilities: Genetics Lab and Cybernetics Lab. Both cost §50 and require 3 power and 10 days to build. The Cybernetics Labs count as workshops and the Genetics Lab with Laboratories for adjacency bonus.
  • For consideration on building them early or late; whether you want 5 engineers, or low-level MEC troopers, with what limited resources you'll have early on, for example.
  • There are reflective Meld 'crystals' in the Ant Farm view. Zooming in on them, angled facets show a brick wall with a window, facets facing the camera seem to be reflecting a sprite of a green-irised eye.
• There is a small tutorial (optional) to show how Meld works.
• Some aliens, particulary Mechtoids and Heavy Floaters, do drop small quantities of Meld, as well.
• Meld also seems one of the items recoverable after you've completed the Alien Base mission.