XCOM Enemy Unknown Enemy Guide: Chryssalid

XCOM Enemy Unknown was released in 2012.  It is a remake of the popular 1994 game.  XCOM is a turn based strategy game in which you try to halt an alien invasion.  You choose what you want to research and what you want your engineers to build, as well as managing your troops and relations with all of the countries in the XCOM project until a mission comes up.  Once you accept the mission you get a taste of the real gameplay.

You will drop 4-6 soldiers into an area where they will have one of several objectives, though you will always have to fight aliens, which will develop and you will end up fighting stronger enemies the farther into the game you progress.  Each turn your soldiers get two actions.  One is to move, and then you can move again or fire your weapon, reload, etc.  You will need to move your troops into cover, hopefully flanking the enemy’s position in order to get bonuses to aim and  critical hit chance.

The Chryssalid is an incredibly dangerous enemy, especially at the beginning of the game.  They are usually encountered on terror missions, which make them even more dangerous.  Chryssalids can move incredibly far and have high health in comparison to the other aliens you’ve faced at that point (sectoids, thin men, floaters).  Their movement is high enough to run down any soldier and kill them with a brutal melee attack that never misses.  Once a Chryssalid is seen, it must be killed.

If a Chryssalid kills something, the very next turn, that corpse will rise up as a zombie and will get to move and attack immediately.  Never have anyone stand next to a corpse killed by a Chryssalid.  It is effective to have everyone on overwatch for when the zombie stands up and takes a step.  After a few turns, usually at the beginning of the third turn, these zombies will turn into a juvenile Chryssalid.  When this happens, they will have slightly less health than a fully developed one, but they will have just as much movement and more than  enough damage potential to kill your soldiers.  Sometimes when this happens, it will not move, and other times it will get a full turn.  Stay cautious in case it gets to move immediately.  If you don’t kill Chryssalids fast enough, they could run around killing civilians.  If this is done on the other side of the map, you could end up fighting an entire army of chryssalids, which usually spells death for an early squad.  Even with titan armor, without chitin plating, two hits can kill most soldiers.

Heavy weapons are the best way to deal with Chryssalids.  They usually stick together in groups, so shoot the group with a rocket and then finish off the weakened ones with other weapons.

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