Psi Lightning Rod

The Psi Lightning Rod (Also know as the Sponge tactic.) is a method of protecting your troops from Psi attacks. This method relies on the aliens targetiting agents with lower Psi Strength, and involves having 2-4 soldiers with lower Psi Strength than the rest of your squad, meaning that the aliens will target them instead of your main soldiers with better skills and Psi Strength. The way I use this tactic is by having two soldiers with 40-60 Psi Strength (The Psi Sponges/Lightning Rods.) and making sure the rest of the team have at least 65-70 Psi Strength; the aliens will almost always target the Psi Weaklings, rather than the rest of your team. However, an important thing to remember is that as the aliens will be targeting the sponges they will eventually be controlled, or sent berserk, or panicked by the aliens, and will be able to use whatever weapons they have to kill your good soldiers, so don’t give them Heavy Plasmas. I personally like to give my Psi Lightning Rods a Stun Rod in one hand, a Medikit in the other, a spare Plasma Pistol (Or Laser Pistol, really any Pistol will work.) on their belt, some grenades on the belt and some spare ammo for their Pistol, and some spare ammo for whatever the rest of my team is using in any other spare Inventory slots until they are at their max weight or out of Inventory space.

This tactic works just as well in Terror From The Deep as it does in Enemy Unknown, (1994) just remember to use the TFTD equivalent terms throughout the article.