Talk:Ethereal

Rarely seen? I see nothing but these after half to three quarters of a year.

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Agreed, they don't seem rarer than any other race. We also should think about removing this statement:

"If X-COM ground forces encounter Ethereals on Earth, it will usually be at an Alien Base, or terror site."--Trotsky 00:33, 4 July 2006 (PDT)

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Etherals are not common until later in the game. By the time you're seeing them on a regular basis, you should be ready to head off to Cydonia.

- Bomb Bloke

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True. But there is no reason why they should appear more often in terror sites or bases than in crafts.--Trotsky 02:54, 4 July 2006 (PDT)

Flying Ethereals

Ethereals fly half of everywhere on the later levels. It's NOT uncommon to have an Ethereal on L1(above the ground) floating in midair waiting to peg your troops with reaction fire. Arrow Quivershaft 11:40, 16 May 2008 (PDT)

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Personally I've only ever seen them fly once, maybe even twice... And that was to hop straight onto a building that was next to them. You say they tend to do it more often as the game progresses?

- Bomb Bloke 18:24, 16 May 2008 (PDT)

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I misspoke slightly. While I do see them set up midair sniping positions fairly often(Especially at night!), I meant to say I see them fly more often on higher difficulty levels. I should also note that I tend to wait around for significant periods before launching Cydonia, often a few years, so I see a lot of Ethereals. Arrow Quivershaft 18:43, 16 May 2008 (PDT)

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I never found they fly when play with beginner difficulty though. L-Zwei 21:44, 16 May 2008 (PDT)

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Happens to me. Dunno, really. Just saying in my experience they do actually fly an awful lot, or more generally hover to snipe(over cornfields is most annoying but a close second is using flight to leave through the hole that used to be the roof of the crashed UFO.) Arrow Quivershaft 21:47, 16 May 2008 (PDT)

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I don't see ethereals very often, but on the rare occasions i do, they fly a lot. this is why fighting any number of etherals at night is a recipe for disaster. i once wiped hitting a small scout at night because it turned out the guy in the back with a heavy plasma was psi-weak, plus i didn't want to have to kill anyone off - (name here)

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This sounds like a good excuse to try out the special debug flag Seb76 found.

- Bomb Bloke 20:44, 17 May 2008 (PDT)

I'd be willing to bet they fly as often, and for the same reasons, as Floaters.--Ethereal Cereal 11:55, 1 June 2008 (PDT)

Any plans for adding a tactics section on how to deal with them? As it stands, they are one of the most powerful encounters out there on account of their massive indirect combat abilities and sectopod support.

No harm in creating a section to assist in defeating them. It's the early meeting with them before you've screened your troops that often proves to be the hardest time for players. Some strategies on how to cope during this time would be welcome. However, since Ethereals merely have more than others rather than being truly unique (like the Chryssalids) it may be at the risk of duplicating information that is already elsewhere (like understanding psi mechanics and how to defend against it - and using more firepower to take down the Sectopod). But again, no harm in adding such a section. - NKF 22:54, 29 July 2008 (PDT)

P. S: You can sign your discussion posts by entering three or four tilde's ( ~~~~ ).

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If ALL the ethereals are cleverly flying around level 9 of the map at night, you will DEFINITELY have to abort. (if you still can) Jasonred 01:49, 28 February 2009 (CST)

I suspect that this would not happen, as Alien placement is more or less pre-determined by the route and map files. But yes, it would be even harder than having one Ethereal spotter up in the sky outside human sighting range. Spike 06:36, 28 February 2009 (CST)

Weapon Rankings Vs. Ethereals

%TUs per kill (average; FA=50):

HvyPlas	 31
Blast Bmb	 33
PlasmaR	 49
HE Pack(XCU)	 51
HvyLas (XCU)	 55
Stun Rod	 72
LaserR	         90
PlasmaP	 96
HE Pack	113
HvyLas	        135
RocketLg	147
Alien Grd	154
LaserP	        185
HC - AP	229
RocketSm	239
Prox Grd	242
Stun Bmb	242
AC - AP	321
HC - HE	340
AC - HE	420
Grenade	529
Rifle	        704
Pistol        1188

Spike 21:24, 27 February 2009 (CST)

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During my time of playing, I always had the impression that Ethereals were very resilient to explosives, incendiary and AP rounds and even plasma - however, they were practically one-shot-kills to lasers. I never really went into the math but I was surprised that laser/heat was not mentioned. Was this a false impression of mine? I'd still be confused because, foremost, a buddy and I used to play this day and night and we learned our lesson to have at least one laser rifle in the craft in late game.

Sparki 16:56, 21 November 2011 (EST)