Stun Rod

To use a stun rod the soldier wielding it has to be adjacent to the alien and facing the target. It's very dangerous to use early in the game when you have low TU soldiers with bad armor. But it's the only practical means to capture an alien Navigator or Sectoid Leader/Commander as early as possible, so it is an important piece of equipment to find a way to get the best out of.

Stats

Power: 65 Stun Size: 3 high x 1 wide Weight: 6 TUs: Stun: 30% (Accuracy 100%) Cost: $1,260 Sell Price: $945

While technically a two handed weapon, the stun rod is guaranteed to hit your target regardless as to whether the other hand is free - So long as you are standing directly beside your enemy, and facing them.

Usage Notes

Remember aliens you stun for research purposes will die unless brought back to an Alien Containment facility.

A Stun Rod will not work on X-COM-controlled units, so you cannot use them against soldiers which have gone berserk, alas. They will also not work on aliens presently under X-COM Mind Control -- though they will work against X-COM soldiers under alien Mind Control.

Tips

Early in the game, put this weapon on your more expendable soldiers - there's a good chance they will die! It's a good idea to carry a pistol in the other hand as a backup. The pistol can also be used to slightly damage a unit before/after a capture attempt or if they're suffering from smoke inhalation (to push them over the consciousness edge).

The easiest place to get a Navigator before you can use a Mind Probe is inside a Large Scout. Usually 1 or 2 hang around inside near the UFO Navigation, and it's comparatively safe to go through a door and stun one. The alien inside the central room is normally an Engineer and carries a Small Launcher on higher difficulties / mid-game; this can be used to your advantage.

Setting an alien on fire can make capturing it much easier. It lowers their health and firing accuracy each turn they BBQ, making them safer to approach and easier to stun. Plus it doesn't give wounds which could kill them while unconscious. Finally, they tend to waste all their TUs running away from the fire. I'm not 100% certain, but I think when a unit goes unconscious they stop burning as well.

Jasonred : I think so too regarding the burning. Also, early in the game, stun rods might be best used in swarms. I.e. get 2-3 men to dogpile a target alien with stun rods. Always try to approach from BEHIND aliens so as to avoid reaction fire. ALSO, I normally would NOT use the pistols. If I'm not mistaken, shooting an alien who has full TUs can cause him to spin around and shoot you back. Stun rods, for some reason, do not seem to activate reaction fire under certain conditions. (Do they activate reaction fire at all?) So, it's safer to whack em from behind 2-3 times with a stun rod than to shoot once then stun.

Also, be very wary concerning stun rods and ELEVATION.

NKF : Jasonred, a stun rod attack will indeed attract a reaction shot - and the fact you have to spend TUs walking up to the alien increases the chance of the alien reacting as soon as it is made aware that a soldier tried to attack it. See more on Reactions.

user: reaction shot for alien triggered only if the stun-rod soldier moves one step, if another comes up from behind the alien and tries to stun, but failed, reaction 'focus' of alien moves to this soldier. the first soldier can now move away without trigger alien fire. This above, is only if alien is facing away from soldiers

Ethereal Cereal: My testing shows that using a Stun Rod will only trigger "delayed" reaction shots -- that is, it behaves exactly as "user" described. See reaction fire triggers.

Activating Melee Attacks For Other Items

Every item in the game has a melee weapon rating, however the melee attack command has been disabled for all items but the stun rod. One unusual work-around is to stack the stun rod on top of another item in one of your hand slots. This has the effect of displaying the stun rod as the active weapon and hiding the ammo counter. However, when the attack menu is brought up, the stun command will now show that it requires 50% of your TUs to use and you will also get the firing commands for the stacked weapon.

Do not be fooled however by the now more expensive stun command as this new attack is deadly and will kill its target. The strength of the attack differs based on different objects, so you will have to experiment to find a good combination, as not all weapons have the same melee strength. Some do nothing, while others will kill a healthy superhuman sectopod in one hit. Try guns, grenades and even corpses if you're desparate.

See Item Stacking Bug for instructions on item stacking.