So I just tried the first alien base mission after you build the skeleton key. I have been doing great in the game so far, no deaths and have been beating the missions a bit easier than I expected I would be. Then I get to this mission, and the Crysallids (however you spell it) are fucking bullshit! Their movement range is huge and they fuck you up so fast! I have restarted the mission 3 times and have gotten wrecked all 3 times! I find it impossible so far because you can't do anything until you spot them and then they get their turn and run right up on you and completely wreck you. Now I'm all up for having a few of my guys die and just keep on going, but when my whole squad gets wiped its pretty much game over. Am I supposed to rank up my guys more or get more research done before I try this mission? Or are you supposed to just do it right away and I should suck it up until I beat it? It just feels impossible right now, so I don't know if I'm behind in research or my guys aren't leveled enough or what. Any suggestions?

So I just tried the first alien base mission after you build the skeleton key. I have been doing great in the game so far, no deaths and have been beating the missions a bit easier than I expected I would be. Then I get to this mission, and the Crysallids (however you spell it) are fucking bullshit! Their movement range is huge and they fuck you up so fast! I have restarted the mission 3 times and have gotten wrecked all 3 times! I find it impossible so far because you can't do anything until you spot them and then they get their turn and run right up on you and completely wreck you. Now I'm all up for having a few of my guys die and just keep on going, but when my whole squad gets wiped its pretty much game over. Am I supposed to rank up my guys more or get more research done before I try this mission? Or are you supposed to just do it right away and I should suck it up until I beat it? It just feels impossible right now, so I don't know if I'm behind in research or my guys aren't leveled enough or what. Any suggestions?

@CJduke: Make very small advances (within the blue movement radius), and have basically everyone end their turn in overwatch? That way, the Chrysalid A) probably won't be able to attack you because they'll have to spend their whole turn moving the maximum distance towards you, and B) you'll get a bunch of free overwatch shots and hopefully soften them up a bitt.

Also, if they group up at all, try to use the heavy's rocket on them, as that takes out most of their HP.

That being said, if the game throws enough of them at you at once, it is definitely rough, and yeah, if your technology isn't that advanced, they are quite a threat. At least you're not on a "terror" mission where you're trying to rescue civilians; I had one of those that was all Chrysalids and they were just messing up civilians left and right. There were so many Chrysalids and zombies that literally my whole team was taking a shot every single turn, to the point that half my team starting using their pistol because I couldn't afford even one turn to reload. It was awesome/terrifying.

The Crysalids are fairly useless if you send all your guys into the middle of an open area and activate overwatch. As long as there are no other enemies around you don't need the cover, and line of sight becomes more important. I have completed several missions with these enemies, but I have yet to be hit by them a single time, using this strategy.

Wait till you get the surprise at the end. It ended my first Ironman play through. The best advice I can give is to keep inching one guy forward into his blue movement area and as soon as it causes the aliens to spawn run him back and just have the rest of your guys in Overwatch at least one move behind. Then when they start rushing in fall back in waves alternating reload and overwatch as needed. Though to be honest that's how I play all my missions, but I found that one really needs it.

I dunno if I just got lucky or what, but every time I ever encountered Crysallids in the game they would just run next to me and then it would be my turn, and I killed them every time. Not once did they actually attack any of my guys.

I only managed to get past this mission (on normal ironman, mind you) by waiting until I had near-full plasma weaponry, improved arc throwers, and three sets of titan armor. So basically, gear up your guys, that mission is SCREWED UP!

@Turambar: Yeah I have been trying not to use explosives since this is the first time I've seen them, I want to get the autopsy and what not but maybe I will have to.

@BisonHero: @S0ndor: Yeah I always make really small advances no matter what, the problem has been that I can't stand in the open because on my first encounter there was 2 thin men poisoning and shooting me and on the second encounter there was 3 floaters -__-

@crusader8463: LOL can't wait

Yeah Overwatch is your best friend on that level. They pop up pretty regularly after that so if you have to blow them into little bits its worth it to get through the level and get the autopsy later. Also focus fire on any Sectoid Commanders that Mind Control your dudes will release them. Saving liberally too. Probably not in the spirit of the game (seems like a lot of people are playing on ironman) but meh. I'm gonna beat it first then try to Ironman it. Also just curious, what's your squad set up?

I'm playing on easy, so I don't know if this even applies, but the key is to move only one guy at a time so when they trigger they just run next to you and all of your guys get to shoot at them. Also end every turn in overwatch, never ever dash if there is a possibility of Chrysalids near by. I have never been hit by one so far.

Better weapons definitely help so you can take them down for sure before they get to attack. I have had more trouble with Berserkers to be honest since they have so much health and get to move every time you attack them.

Basic rule to survive is to never dash into an unknown area. If you move normally and end in overwatch you are pretty safe. Also only have one "pointman". So that the first move you make in a turn is the advancing one so that if there are enemies there you have all your action points (except one) left. Try to avoid "bunnyhopping" your guys. I mean if you use overwatch you will get a shot off, but it's maybe not the shot you would take if you had the choice. Also overwatch shots have an aim penalty on dashing enemies (except a sniper with the opportunist skill). Always keep your options open.

Overwatch works really well with dealing with the alien base. That and making sure to reload when convenient.

@CJduke: As long as you don't kill them with the explosives, don't you still get the body? Rockets only do 6 damage so you can easily soften them up and have the rest of your guys cut them down.

There is no time limit on the mission, so you can just keep researching stuff and buying laser/plasma weapons, capturing enemies for free weapons, and build better armors before you tackle the mission. Although, I did lose 2 countries putting off the alien base assult. So do this at their own risk!

@StarvingGamer said:

@CJduke: As long as you don't kill them with the explosives, don't you still get the body? Rockets only do 6 damage so you can easily soften them up and have the rest of your guys cut them down.

I think you can blow the Chrysalids up, they are not carrying anything. Of course you want to capture one alive if you can.

@MiniPato said:

There is no time limit on the mission, so you can just keep researching stuff and buying laser/plasma weapons, capturing enemies for free weapons, and build better armors before you tackle the mission. Although, I did lose 2 countries putting off the alien base assult. So do this at their own risk!

Yeah, you can stall for a pretty long time, but the game will force you to do the mission at some point, you can't keep all the countries happy indefinitely. They just give you more and more abduction missions and they always raise the panic in two regions and lowers on one. Doing the base mission lowers panic on all regions.

An Assault with Close Quarters Reaction (Approach within 4 tiles and soldier reaction-fires), and slow and steady Overwatching with tohers saved my life so many times against the Chrysalid spawns.

Edit: ps: You can't capture chrysalids. WHEN YOU FIRE AT AN ENEMY, YOU CAN CLICK MORE INFO TO SEE THE BUFFS AND DEBUFFS ON THE TARGET

Also, with a soldier with a TAZOR, only enemies with a blue ring can be stunned. If they can't be, the ring doesn't appear. So just blow the Chrysalids away.

As long as you go in with at least some laser weapons chrysalids should be all killable in a single turn by a 6 man squad. The area is very confined so chances are they will bunch together, so use a rocket launcher or grenades to soften them up, and then mop up with the rest of the team. A colonel sniper with a laser weapon can pretty much kill 2 chrysalids solo in a turn. And even half leveled assault can likewise take out a single chrysalid per turn.

The first alien bae mission was a breeze, compared to the bullshit I had to deal with during the Overseer mission.

An ethereal, 2 sectopod squads and about 5 muton elites all bunched up together in a tiny UFO with no way to split them up.

@seannao said:

Edit: ps: You can't capture chrysalids.

Oh that's good to know. Also kind of a bummer. I wanted to see one of those things scratch the class of the imprisonment chamber in wanton desperation.

Cool thanks for the help everybody

Still get nightmare about the sounds the  Crysalids  made in the first game. 

I felt the same way tc, but finally beat it. The keys are: go really slow w/lots of overwatch like others have said, and be sure to use up your grenades and rockets. Frequent saves of course. The layout you get for the base matters too. Don't be afraid to reload and possibly get a little easier map(some have many more choke points).

The mission is a pain, but honestly it's more useful than any other part of the game. It reduces worldwide panic by 2 when you clear it, and you get just under 300 credits worth of loot from it, assuming MOST of the base survives.

Find a choke point, take cover, overwatch until they show up and enjoy seeing them die.

@Zaccheus: @Zaccheus said:

I'm playing on easy, so I don't know if this even applies, but the key is to move only one guy at a time so when they trigger they just run next to you and all of your guys get to shoot at them. Also end every turn in overwatch, never ever dash if there is a possibility of Chrysalids near by. I have never been hit by one so far.

Better weapons definitely help so you can take them down for sure before they get to attack. I have had more trouble with Berserkers to be honest since they have so much health and get to move every time you attack them.

Basic rule to survive is to never dash into an unknown area. If you move normally and end in overwatch you are pretty safe. Also only have one "pointman". So that the first move you make in a turn is the advancing one so that if there are enemies there you have all your action points (except one) left. Try to avoid "bunnyhopping" your guys. I mean if you use overwatch you will get a shot off, but it's maybe not the shot you would take if you had the choice. Also overwatch shots have an aim penalty on dashing enemies (except a sniper with the opportunist skill). Always keep your options open.

Thats what I did had 2 snipers 2 heavy's in Over watch on high ground then ran an assault back and forth worked really well only had 1 wounded

Oh yeah, lost my Shepard to a chrysalid in this mission... I guess the XCOM universe is a lot harsher than Mass Effect...

what i did was at the beginning i go to the left lane and then go straight untill your down, go really slow. i had no problems but then again i had 6 guys 2 snipers 1 heavy, 2 support with heath packs and 1 assualt. i moved slow always in cover and when i had cleared all enemies i reloaded on all my guys..

and when i got the to last part with the 2 teleporters i turned left and keept on high ground and put every character in place and then took my assault guy down to spot the last guy and wreck him up. ended up taking 1 dmg on my heavy thats it. the snipers are really goot especially if you unlock the thing that i cant remember whats called but it allows you to throw out a scanner thingy... im tired

@The_Laughing_Man said:

Still get nightmare about the sounds the Crysalids made in the first game.

The worst part was that not only did they have a 100% chance to convert your dudes AND after killing a zombie it turned into another Chrysalid, but their walking animation wasn't very fast so as it approached one of your dudes and he misses all of his snap shots you go "No... no... no... NO NO NO NO NONONONONONONONO FUCKING SHIT!"

@Grillbar said:

what i did was at the beginning i go to the left lane and then go straight untill your down, go really slow. i had no problems but then again i had 6 guys 2 snipers 1 heavy, 2 support with heath packs and 1 assualt. i moved slow always in cover and when i had cleared all enemies i reloaded on all my guys..

and when i got the to last part with the 2 teleporters i turned left and keept on high ground and put every character in place and then took my assault guy down to spot the last guy and wreck him up. ended up taking 1 dmg on my heavy thats it. the snipers are really goot especially if you unlock the thing that i cant remember whats called but it allows you to throw out a scanner thingy... im tired

The battle scanners are situationally useful.

The other thing you can get on that promotion, disabling shot, is WAY better. You have your squad for line of sight. The ability to cause an alien's weapon to malfunction and give you a free turn is INVALUABLE in getting your Arc Thrower in range to collect free plasma rifles.

@The_Laughing_Man said:

Still get nightmare about the sounds the Crysalids made in the first game.

The worst part was that not only did they have a 100% chance to convert your dudes AND after killing a zombie it turned into another Chrysalid, but their walking animation wasn't very fast so as it approached one of your dudes and he misses all of his snap shots you go "No... no... no... NO NO NO NO NONONONONONONONO FUCKING SHIT!"

The problem I had was I had 6 Chrysalids that were just on the other side of the hump near the pillars near the end. They were at the bottom of the hump and my guys were on top of the hump, so they could only see a few squares in front of them. When the Chrysalids were getting spotted they could close in AND attack in the same turn. So I was losing 1-2 guys just spotting them, even with my guys on Overwatch.

Also, some of the percents are total crap I think. I had two snipers shooting at the Chrysalids with headshots. It was 85% chance to hit and 45% chance for a critical hit. I reloaded the same save over a dozen times and I could not get a single critical hit with it and EVERY single time one of the snipers missed. Either the first one hit and the second one missed or the first one missed and the second one hit, each and every time.

Just completed my first base with 0 casualties and captured the commander!! Took it nice and slow. My guys all had Plasma/Laser weapons. I have a full levelled sniper that gets a free shot if you kill an enemy thats not in cover. Brilliant for taking out floaters and Chrysalids (might need softening up first). I recommend a couple of support guys with suppression skill. It works wonders for getting in close for them captures.

Had no idea it lowered the worldwide panic by 2 points!! Could not have come at a better time. Was about to loose a bunch of countries.

I can't imagine Chrysalids are that hard to deal with on that mission. They seem much more dangerous in panic missions when there are people everywhere that can be turned. The two enemy types I encountered were Mutons and Cyberdisks. There were like four of those assholes and I learned the hard way that they have grenades as well.

just did it (playing on normal though) and didn't lose a man, two snipers/two supports/assault/heavy. Move very slowly and overwatch alot. only used 1 rocket and never grenades. Carapace armor and laser weapons across the board.

Am I advancing through the story too fast or researching the wrong stuff? When I got to the first base mission I had ONE laser rifle and everything else was stock.

@VooDooPC: All random numbers are seeded at the start of a mission, which means no amount of reloading will change the outcome of a single shot. You'd need to "waste" a number, either by letting the aliens shoot at you first, or by having someone else in your squad shoot. This is pretty much how Firaxis does random numbers, it's the same in Civ 5 except there's an option to generate a new seed on reload in that game. Presumably they left that option out to make it harder.

In your case, you would've had to shoot with another of your squaddies either before taking shots with your snipers, or in between their shots.

If you like, and what I did, is just wait for the base assault...it doesn't disappear, there are no negative consequences to waiting, and you can get all the way up to Archangel Armor if you wait long enough, and heavily armed firestorm interceptors.

You go in with full laser weaponry, and archangel armor (particularly with advanced flight), and alien grenades, and you shouldn't have a problem with the base...if the chrysalids are giving you a hard time, take some chitin armor plating on a couple guys instead of grenades and have them run point.