Hive Queen and Faceless.

[Rikokrates]

What do people think about these bastards being able to detect your concealed shinobis before they have even spawned on the map?

Just had a trap mission, at the time I didn't realise it was a trap as I detected it with 2.5 days on the timer and boosted with intel to 101% My shinobi was scouting ahead and had vision on 3 pods, a faceless decided to reveal itself even though my shinobi was still concealed and well away from it. 3 pods activated on their turn; squad wipe....

Blacksite mission Shinobi was scouting a path ahead to the vial room, Hive Queen spawned and killed her, instantly...

Personally I think that is total B.S, especially if you go along the shinobi stealth path (the left one) choosing perks like covert etc...

[Dwarfling]

That's XCOM baby?

Even the base game is notoriously harsh when you don't know how things work. I still remember my first Avatar fight.

[Rikokrates]

It's not knowing how things work, I't's about not being able to counter...

How are you supposed to spot the hive queen?
How are you supposed to avoid faceless if you haven't been notified they will be on a mission?

When running the spy missions the faceless transform miles away, probably too far imho but on the regular missions the spawn on their turn too which gives you no means to counter them.

[nmkaplan]

Battle scanners and/or scanning protocol will spot and reveal burrowed chrysilids.

[Dwarfling]

All chryssalids unburrow themselves after a couple of turns, run around, then burrow back. Audio queues let you know right away that there're chryssalids around, and let you know more or less the direction where they might be. You can take battle-scanners on the Shinobi.

As far as Faceless go, if the Alien Infiltrator Dark Event isn't running, you'll find them only in Capture VIP missions. I heard maybe regions with high strenght can have them, not sure.

[Rikokrates]

Battle scanners and/or scanning protocol will spot and reveal burrowed chrysilids.

All chryssalids unburrow themselves after a couple of turns, run around, then burrow back. Audio queues let you know right away that there're chryssalids around, and let you know more or less the direction where they might be. You can take battle-scanners on the Shinobi.

As far as Faceless go, if the Alien Infiltrator Dark Event isn't running, you'll find them only in Capture VIP missions. I heard maybe regions with high strength can have them, not sure.

Thanks guys these points are good to know, I never thought scanning protocol a viable choice but I know now I was wrong.

It was indeed a capture VIP mission, I managed to win despite my initial though of "squad wipe" 24/26 aliens killed, dead Shinobi, everyone else reked. I'm lucky rocket damage is so variable and breaking l.o.s overwatch strat is op...

[nmkaplan]

As far as Faceless go, if the Alien Infiltrator Dark Event isn't running, you'll find them only in Capture VIP missions. I heard maybe regions with high strenght can have them, not sure.

I believe you get faceless on capture VIP missions at strength 5 and above. Xwynns has mentioned it a couple times. Below str5, you definitely won't see faceless.

[WanWhiteWolf]

All chryssalids unburrow themselves after a couple of turns, run around, then burrow back. Audio queues let you know right away that there're chryssalids around, and let you know more or less the direction where they might be. You can take battle-scanners on the Shinobi.

As far as Faceless go, if the Alien Infiltrator Dark Event isn't running, you'll find them only in Capture VIP missions. I heard maybe regions with high strenght can have them, not sure.

I am pretty sure Hive Queen does not move.

Had a situation where I knew it was there due to sound queue but I couldn't do anything about it (didn't have a scanner). After 7 turns or so I moved my Shinoby to bait it out. It hits pretty hard as well.

I think Chrysalids are a bit to powerful in the current state. Even if you bring scanners you cannot expect to know exactly where they are just by the sound info. And let's face it, you cannot wait 3 turns of doing nothing just because a cryssalid might be there. Moreover, combatives is bugged and doesn't work against them.

Luckily they are not a common enemy.

[Rikokrates]

I am pretty sure Hive Queen does not move.

In the black site? It moved as it demolished half the back wall for me, without giving it's position away...It was my first run on the black site so didn't know one even existed!

I believe you get faceless on capture VIP missions at strength 5 and above. Xwynns has mentioned it a couple times. Below str5, you definitely won't see faceless.

It was on a dark vip capture mission though the region was strength 3.

[Zyrrashijn]

It was on a dark vip capture mission though the region was strength 3.

Probably Lib3, there's a +2 Alert modifier on Lib3's. Or you underinfiltrated and thus the Alert level went up.