Site Recon (EU2012)

Mission Intro, Brief & Objectives

Our sources report a developing incident in Newfoundland, up the coast from St. John's. A fishing village has gone dark; reports from intel sources suggest alien involvement. We should send in a team to investigate the site and figure out what happened. The fishing village still shows no signs of life. The nature of the aliens' involvement is unknown, as is the type and level of resistance. Extreme caution is warranted. Investigate the site Identify and eliminate all opposition

Source: XCOM: Enemy Within DLC

Notes

• This mission involves a Chryssalid hive.
• Site Recon is always the first Council mission after you fight Chryssalids for the first time, during your first playthrough of EW, (in other words: anytime after your first Terror mission). In later playthroughs it becomes a random Council mission, although still limited so that it won't appear before your first Terror Mission.
  • The lone Chryssalid in Friends in Low Places of the Slingshot DLC on easy doesn't count towards your next council mission becoming Site Recon. ^[Verify?]
  • On normal or above, however, it does.
• To complete the mission you'll need to move a soldier to the ship's bridge and activate the transponder. Afterwards your squad will have 8 turns to get back to the Skyranger deployment zone. Any soldiers left outside after that timer will be killed by the air strike that will take place afterwards.
• As the whole area is carpet-bombed into oblivion, you will not be receiving a massive surplus of Chryssalid corpses for sale and resources.
• You will only face Chryssalids and Zombies on this mission. Equip accordingly.
• The Council reward is Panic reduction for Canada.

Tactics

• There are a few scattered Zombies along the way; best to destroy them, lest you get blindsided by a Chryssalid coming from behind, such as the one in the first large building, and another outside "inland" from it in a narrow corridor.
• Any hanging fish/sharks may also release the Krak-- Chryssalid. Some may wait until the transponder activation and trigger on your way out.
  • You can preemptively destroy the hanging fish/sharks with a cover destroying attack (grenades, MEC's Collateral Damage, etc.) to kill the Chryssalids inside (MEC Flamethrowers only work if the fish is on the ground, while Kinetic Punch works on the hanging ones).
  • Chryssalids can't attack on the turn they hatch.
• When going for the transponder, send a unit or two to the transponder and have the rest cover the ship's hold. The Chryssalids will only spawn one at a time for the first few turns, so you should have no trouble at first killing them as they appear.
• If you wait for several turns before you activate the transponder, the flood of Chryssalids will eventually trickle and stop. Afterwards move a soldier to the transponder and on the next turn you'll be able to activate it and get out of the ship without any bugs hassling you on the way.
• You shouldn't have too much trouble reaching the extraction zone in the time allowed, but you'll still need to do a lot of dashing.
• Remember there's nothing but Chryssalids here so you don't need to use cover as you run.
  • And also that the bugs and the walkers don't use cover either; so bring your heavy hitters, even if their aim isn't as good.
  • Anyone with Overwatch-related abilities, such as Opportunist, Close Combat, and Sentinel will really shine in this mission--- watch those ammo levels, though.
• Chryssalids spawn at the ship in increasing numbers as time goes on - luckily you should be at the extraction zone before the waves that spawn 3 at a time can catch up to you.
  • Keep your squad together unless you're really short on time. If you let some soldiers fall behind and they have to spend actions defending themselves, it'll only cost you more time.
• You're only fighting Chryssalids and you don't get any artifacts at the end anyways. Have fun with those explosives, Commander!