Outsider (EU2012)

A being of pure energy, the Outsider commands UFOs for the Alien Forces. Although they possess no truly special abilities in tactical combat, Outsiders are required in order to progress further in the story. You will only find them on UFO assault missions.

Tactical Advice

As mentioned above, Outsiders have no special abilities unique to them that can be used in tactical battles. They seem to be able to disappear and reappear at will but they will only do this when you "trigger" them or when killed. Be advised that killing them is heavily unadvisable as you will need a live specimen in order to progress further into the story.

While they possess no unique powers, Outsiders make up for this with their great accuracy. Their accuracy is improves by 10 points on Classic and Impossible, making them some of the most accurate creatures in the game. However they have quite low health. They also only spawn when X-COM enters the bridge of a UFO, so make sure you are prepared before you enter the bridge.

While these aliens are not particularly dangerous, there is a certain trick to them. Since you need to capture one alive, this means you will need to run extremely close to them in order to perform a stun from the arc thrower. (Assuming you have in fact researched and built arc throwers.) This is a big deal because Outsiders will often go into Overwatch at the end of their turns. This means they can take a free shot at soldiers trying to advance on their positions. Assault soldiers can beat this as you can obtain lightining reflexes quite early on, allowing them to void reaction fire from them. A dash may be needed, so you might want to have rookie cannon fodder nearby to soak up fire from the Outsider on its turn before moving in for the stun.

Just in case the Outsider kills the guy with arc thrower you should bring an extra arc thrower (or two if you feel unlucky) in order to compensate for the damage. Remember, the Outsider can not aim at two your guys at once, so a team effort is a good plan.

Killing an Outsider will yield no profit, as the corpse will disappear when they die. Capture all the way!

Notes

• After you assault the alien base they will pull one final disappearing act and be replaced by Sectoid Commanders.
• Outsiders share the name and a few characteristics of the aliens from 2K Marins upcoming X-COM FPS. Their existence may be a joke pointed at 2K Marin.
• Outsiders are described by Dr Wahlen as "pure energy". The crystal left behind after stunning an Outsider is described by Dr. Shen as an "antenna" receiving a signal from the alien base. This may mean that Outsiders are some sort of energy-based avatar of the real UFO commander who remains in safety in the alien base.