Psionic Skill

Psi Skill is a rating of the effectiveness with which the soldier can use his inherent psionic ability.

Starting Values

New recruits will always begin with a value between 16 and 24. This is awarded upon completion of first month's Psi Lab training.

Maximum Caps

An X-COM soldier's Psi Skill has a combat increase cap at 100, but can continue to grow past that through Psi Lab training.

Improvement

Psi Skill increased through use of Psi on the battlefield, and through Psi Lab training. Both successful and unsuccessful psi attempts during combat result in improvement.

Psi Skill will increase from 0 to 6 points per combat mission, depending on how many times you attempt a Psi action (Panic or Mind Control). Only the number of attempts matters - your current skill level does not affect the number of points awarded. With one attempt, an average of approx. 1.7 points are awarded (range 0-3). With 9 attempts, approx. 4.0 points are awarded (range 2-6). Above approx. 10 attempts, very little additional points are awarded. Because you can get a +6 roll when at cap-1 (99) if you have enough attempts, it is possible to have a Psi Skill of up to 105 (cap+5). For more info, see Soldier Experience.

The above numbers are based on testing with successful Mind Controls. Failed Psi attempts cause the Psi experience byte to increase by a third as much as successful ones. So Psi failures do help you gain skill points, but at a lower rate. 30 failures (vs. 10 successes) will get you to the top of the experience-versus-points plateau.

Unlike any other skills, Psi Skill is not truly capped. Although you will cease to get any more combat increases once you reach 100, you will still get approx. 2-3 skill points per month as long as you stay in Psi training. MikeTheRed: This has not been well tested - additional increases have been seen at 3 months into training past the cap of 100 - I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually trails off to 0 as it gets higher, like other XCOM stats. Not that it matters... you'll never fail a mind control with a Skill of 100 (or even ~60!), if your Psi Strength is fairly high.

Also note that Psi Lab training (for a given month) is lost if the soldier is transferred to another base, even if the destination base has Psi Lab space available.

See Also

Psi Strength