Psionics

Psionic Aliens

Sectoid Leaders, Sectoid Commanders, and all Ethereals, have Psionic abilities to create Panic (reduce Morale) or attempt Mind Control. Be very wary. Murphy's Law says the first soldier to succumb to Mind Control will be in the perfect position to shoot your squad in the back with a Rocket Launcher.

If an alien spots any member of your squad, even the tank, during the alien turn, the squad is at risk of attack. The weak soldiers will be targeted most often, and will likely be nicknamed "psi-puppets" by their teammates, if anyone survives. Any soldiers found to be psi-weak should be taken off the combat roster and given base-defense duty -- or just fired outright.

Countering psionic attacks and tactics:

Re-assign.

The former doctrine on psionically attacked soldiers also applies to soldiers who have been psionically screened. Namely, soldiers weak in psi-strength or who have become victims of psionic attack should be sacked or re-assigned at the earliest opportunity for the safety of the rest of the squad. If retained on active duty they should never be knowingly sent on missions against psionic capable aliens. Veteran soldiers who are psionically weak but otherwise worth keeping can be assigned to a secondary craft or interception base, strictly for use on missions against Mutons and other non-psionic aliens.

JellyfishGreen: I tried jotting down the names of the puppets as a reminder to fire them later, or use as decoys.

Disarm.

Some commanders forgo any chance of reaction fire, and have all soldiers drop their weapons at the end of the turn and pick them up on the next turn. Should any soldiers be mind-controlled in the intervening alien turn, at least they'll be unarmed.

Decoys.

Zombie's experimental results tell us the soldier with the lowest psi-strength is always chosen as the victim in a psionic attack, even if he's out of line-of-sight of either enemy or ally. The game AI is skipping any LOS requirement. - Psi-puppet soldiers should NOT be used as alien hunters. Disarm them as soon as possible, preferentially before the mission.

If such soldiers are deployed against psionic capable aliens, they may still have use in limited roles. Do not give them any weapons or grenades. Well, maybe smoke grenades.

1. Unarmed medic or equipment operator. If controlled, they cannot injure other soldiers. If panicked, they'll drop the equipment.
2. Non-lethal weaponry. Stun Rods or stun guns again prevent injury of other soldiers but the risk of control and loss of tactical advantage remains.
3. Decoy. The unarmed soldier lets themself get mind-controlled rather than shot. If they are under mind control, the soldier will often be spared by the alien. Every mind-control attack on the "decoy" is one less attack on the rest of the squad and one more psionic alien kept busy. Note your other soldiers may shoot a controlled decoy on sight, and the aliens will shoot a panicked decoy on sight. An extremely risky tactic for the soldier but survival can be extended by blockading the decoy into a closet with other soldiers or tanks and turning your back to them.
4. Launcher Operators. Simply a soldier with a launcher and no ammo. The soldier either stands on a pile of ammunition, or is handed the ammunition on demand in combat. Once the weapon is loaded, the round is immediately spent before the end of the turn. This way, if controlled, the soldier will have an empty weapon and thus be harmless. This allows the weak willed soldier to contribute somewhat to the fight whenever you regain control of them.

If there are two or more psionic aliens, you may need more decoys to keep them all busy.

Kill the puppetmaster.

Find and kill the alien doing the mind control. This will free those who were under its control. The mind controller is frequently the highest-ranking alien you're facing, which means you'll likely need to penetrate the command center of the structure you're facing.

Remember that killing the aliens' ranking officers imposes a major morale penalty to the invaders, another bonus that shouldn't be underestimated. Many commanders have seen a seemingly invincible, mind-controlling attack force reduced to panic in the instant their commander is shot down. Even against Ethereals, all of which have psionic capability, this tactic is useful, since it will often buy you a round or two before other units start using Psionics and can panic even them.

Must... Fight... Harder... DIE!

If you can force a very successful round of attacks, the morale penalty this imposes on the aliens may bring on panic, or at least enough disarray to bring a temporary stop to their psionic attacks. Such a round also raises the morale of your own troops, which gives them a greater degree of psionic resistance.

Roll with it.

Kamikaze tactics have also been used but cannot be recommended here.

HWP's can continue to be used in all roles against psionic capable forces as they are immune.

Heavy Support Weaponry (Blaster Launchers, Rocket Launchers) should only be assigned to soldiers with high psionic strength to prevent its counteruse.

If all forces are equipped with Power Suit, which is proof against light ballistic weaponry, standard rifles and pistols can be freely issued with little risk of lethality even if counterused. Note Ethereals are less affected by these weapons than Sectoids. For them, we recommend the Auto Cannon/HE.

- JFG, with credits to the adventurous NKF-sensei whose field reports I freely draw from. --JellyfishGreen 14:50, 19 Apr 2005 (BST)

-Jasonred: In fact, you can safely issue them Laser Pistols if you're all armed with Flying Suits, possibly Powered Armor is enough. And as duly noted, Laser Weapons are Not Too Shabby.

-MikeTheRed: In my experience, laser pistols can hurt you in flying suits. Specifically, if you're shot in the back. So they are great for "firing squads" (all your guys facing MC'd aliens), but not when aliens might MC you. (And don't turn your back when doing a firing squad!)

-NKF: " Just to add to this, a laser pistol, with 46 laser, does between 0 - 92 damage (See: Damage). Therefore, only your front plates will be truly invulnerable to laser pistol damage. On the other hand, you have a chance of being damaged from pretty much every other direction, and you cannot always guarantee that you'll be facing your attacker at all times.

The only real consolation is that laser pistols won't kill you outright for each hit, but lots of little hits can indeed build up to a lot of damage. I'd much rather recommend an autocannon/HE or the standard pistols/rifles for this exercise. Direct hits from the ACHE can probably cause a tiny amount of damage, but the ammo will not be unlimited like the laser pistol, and the autocannon is also the slowest burst weapon in the game, despite its name, which gives you time to get away and seek cover. Another bonus is that it works a lot better on superhuman ethereals than the pistol/rifle! "

Psionic Soldiers

You won't know exactly what your soldiers' psionic resistance or skills are until you build a Psi Lab and run them through a screening process (in batches of 10). Soldiers with a high Psi Strength (80 or higher) should be trained further and kept in the "rear guard" during combat. Do not use them as scouts, or front line troops -- they will soon become your most valuable soldiers.

After a month or two of Psi training, your best soldiers will be able to mind-control weaker aliens, such as Mutons. Your soldiers' Psi Skill can be increased very quickly by equipping them with Psi-Amps, leaving them in the Skyranger, and having them attempt to panic units every chance they get. See Experience Training#Psionic Skill training for more details.

My New Pet Alien

Some skilled psionic operators have had success with simply attempting control of every alien encountered and disarming them, then using the controlled alien as a scout to find more aliens, then controlling the newly discovered alien as a new scout and leaving the old one for a mop-up squad, repeat process as TU's permit. Once you start taking control of aliens that are psionic themselves, this has a certain avalanche effect as you can spend the alien's TU's on mind control as well. As noted in Exploits you do have to throw them a spare Psi-Amp to take advantage of this.

Easiest actions with a controlled unit are movement and firing or dropping the held weapon. It is possible but tricky to do more (see Alien Inventory Trick.) Disarmed aliens make for excellent Experience Training fodder.

Remember aliens will revert to alien control unless re-aquired on the next turn.

Oddities: Large units; Gaining permanent control of a Chryssalid/Tentaculat

Psionic Formulas

Psionic Attack Strength (PAS) = (Psi Strength) * (Psi Skill) / 50
Psionic Resistance = (Psi Strength) + (Psi Skill/5)
 
Panic Base Chance = 44% + Attacker PAS - Target Resistance
   MC Base Chance = 24% + Attacker PAS - Target Resistance

These formulas differ slightly from the ones that appear in the Official Strategy Guide, but have been discovered through testing and are believed to be correct.

The further away a target is from its attacker, the lower the chance an attack will succeed. The above formulas only apply in cases where the attacker is adjacent to the target. This also means that beyond a certain distance, aliens can only panic certain units, not mind-control them. The exact influence of distance on psionic attacks is not yet known.

Overall, it's clear that Psi Strength plays the greatest factor in defense, and that Panic Attacks are more likely to succeed. But Mind Control is much more... useful.

Summary of Alien Psionic Resistance

Figures are for (any rank)/Leader/Commander, Beginner level - Superhuman level

Fractional portion (if any) is rounded off'.

Floater:    35/40/45 - 41/47/53
Snakeman:   40/45/50 - 47/53/58
Sectoid:    40/60/62 - 47/70/72
Ethereal:   58/69/75 - 67/81/88
Muton:      25 - 29
Reaper:     35 - 41
Chryssalid: 50 - 58
Celatid:    60 - 70
Silacoid:   80 - 93
Zombie:     80 - 93
Cyberdisc:  100 - 116
Sectopod:   100 - 116

Summary of Alien Psionic Attack Strength

Figures are for Beginner level - Superhuman level

Fractional portion (if any) is rounded off.

Sectoid Leader:     50 - 67
Sectoid Commander:  60 - 81
Ethereal Soldier:   40 - 55
Ethereal Leader:    54 - 74
Ethereal Commander: 65 - 88

See Also

• Field Manual: Psionics
• Psi-Lab
• Psi-Amp
• Mind Shield
• Mind Probe
• Experience
• Experience Training
• Molecular Control