Proximity Grenade

The portable mine, this little beauty uses a weighted base and ultrasonics to set up a 3-meter detection circle with a 5-meter explosion. Exceedingly useful for mining corridors in base defense missions or "softening up" aliens emerging from UFO doors.

Stats

• Damage: 70, Explosive
• Size: 1x1
• Weight: 3
• TU cost: 30 to prime, + throwing cost
• Buy Price: $500

Earning Experience The Hard Way

Unlike other explosives, the Proximity Grenade does not give Firing Accuracy experience points for hits to the person throwing it (although this will give you Throwing experience). Instead, it gives Firing XPs to the person who triggers it to explode.

Unfortunately, the accompanying pain and death make it a dubious choice for earning experience, especially early in the game (when you don't have the armor to go near one). For more on experience points, see here.

Among the aliens, Mutons can survive the explosion handily. Keep a few snipers around so they won't live long enough to benefit from the experience.

Tips & Tricks

• On higher skill levels, many aliens can survive the blast of a proximity grenade. Mutons always shrug them off, some Snakemen and even the occasoinal Floater will survive. Even when a prox grenade doesnt kill, they are still useful to soften up targets and-- perhaps more importantly-- acting as burglar alarms. When you see a prox grenade go off, it will alert you to an alien in the area.
• PGs will trigger on movement on the far side of walls and doors, if dropped next to them. Therefore,
• When mining a door, aim for one square away from the door, not the square next to the door. This detonates the grenade after the door opens.
• PGs detect movement into, but not out of, the eight surrounding squares, meaning you can walk away from a mis-throw.
• PGs can safely be picked up by entering their square vertically (e.g. with flying suit).
• In some versions of the game, a bug allows an armed proximity mine to transfer its properties to some other item in the next mission, which then may explode unexpectedly.
• The mine can be destroyed by explosives. However, it's only advisable to destroy the mine if there's no alternative. Even with armour, the explosive should be set off as far away from the soldier as possible, as your under armour is by far your most vulnerable spot. Make no mistakes.
• Just like every other live grenade in the game, it's safe to pick up a live mine and reposition it. However, it's highly recommended that live mines not be used in the grenade relay manoeuvre.
• If all else fails, and you are trapped with nowhere to move and no way to diffuse the mine: just stay still. Don't move and wait until the bomb squad arrives (i.e., wait until the mission ends).

-- Collection of NKF-Sensei's posts by --JellyfishGreen 12:50, 25 Apr 2005 (BST)