Using Mines

[antihippy]

How do you get effective use of mines? I'm doing the Montero mission and I am hating it. There's cultists everywhere & it's almost impossible to find somewhere to snipe them. So I guess I should mine areas? Deploy motion trackers to attract cultists and bugs to the right place and blow them up. But they always seem able to step over the mines. It's only rarely that an enemy steps on one.

How do you use mines effectively?

Been looking around the net and the advice is pretty basic and poor.

And sneaking around the enemy is almost impossible because of the number of nests and random spawns on this mission.

Also laying loads of mines is really boring and time consuming!

[lynchie72]

Lay the mines next to doors and junctions. They work very well for me. But I have enemy health on medium difficulty. Hard for everything else (except detection time set to Very Hard). At higher difficulties enemies may be able to tank some of the mine damage.

Use deployable motion trackers to lure enemies away from where you want to go.

If there's too many Aliens around because the detection level meter has filled up consider extracting and coming back with a fresh squad. It'll have reset to easy.

Use the drone to plot the route ahead you want to take. Aliens will ignore it but cultists will fire upon it.

[Sagit84]

There is also a bug I've noticed on Montero on PS5 where some mines are not triggered by enemies. I've seen alien on the map walk over to the mine. Standing on it for a while (ispecting it or something) and the moving again on its merry way. The mine was not tripped (they sometimes only dismemeber them, especially warriors) because it is still visible on the map. Happened with cultists as well.

[Stig783]

I basically used the mines to cover corridors or pathways the Aliens may use. Any area I pass through I will usually lay a mine behind me for cover in case something comes up behind me. Mining locations of where Aliens spawn is a good technique also, you will find hived shaped entrances where the Xenos spawn or enter the map. Mining those can help you from being overwhelmed.

[antihippy]

Thanks guys. I still haven't got my head around mines but looks like I am at least heading in the right direction, just need to practise more. I'm not playing on a PS but I've noticed that the Aliens just wander past and sometimes over the top of the mines. I end up wondering if I should have brought the pheromone mines to make them effective?

[Sagit84]

Originally posted by antihippy:

Thanks guys. I still haven't got my head around mines but looks like I am at least heading in the right direction, just need to practise more. I'm not playing on a PS but I've noticed that the Aliens just wander past and sometimes over the top of the mines. I end up wondering if I should have brought the pheromone mines to make them effective?

It appears there is a bug on this particular mission that makes mines not detonate sometimes.

[gorkon (Dingo) ☯]

Just kill them all

[Nikas Zekeval]

Originally posted by antihippy:

Thanks guys. I still haven't got my head around mines but looks like I am at least heading in the right direction, just need to practise more. I'm not playing on a PS but I've noticed that the Aliens just wander past and sometimes over the top of the mines. I end up wondering if I should have brought the pheromone mines to make them effective?

If you observe the main map, you can spot patrol patterns. Then scoot out to lay some mines on an unoccupied part of that path and clear out of the area. Late game you can get a xenotech that will attact aliens to mines in their line of sight.

One thing, there seems to be an IFF so your marines won't set one off. This also seems to prevent it going off if your marines are in the blast area when an alien runs into it. Something to consider if you are detected scrambling away from a freshly laid mine.

Originally posted by Sagit84:

There is also a bug I've noticed on Montero on PS5 where some mines are not triggered by enemies. I've seen alien on the map walk over to the mine. Standing on it for a while (ispecting it or something) and the moving again on its merry way. The mine was not tripped (they sometimes only dismemeber them, especially warriors) because it is still visible on the map. Happened with cultists as well.

Was this a drone or cultist? I noticed that on the Montero that the sentry guns wouldn't target some cultists, the ones that show up with a '?' over them.

[Sagit84]

Originally posted by Nikas Zekeval:

Originally posted by antihippy:

Thanks guys. I still haven't got my head around mines but looks like I am at least heading in the right direction, just need to practise more. I'm not playing on a PS but I've noticed that the Aliens just wander past and sometimes over the top of the mines. I end up wondering if I should have brought the pheromone mines to make them effective?

If you observe the main map, you can spot patrol patterns. Then scoot out to lay some mines on an unoccupied part of that path and clear out of the area. Late game you can get a xenotech that will attact aliens to mines in their line of sight.

One thing, there seems to be an IFF so your marines won't set one off. This also seems to prevent it going off if your marines are in the blast area when an alien runs into it. Something to consider if you are detected scrambling away from a freshly laid mine.

Originally posted by Sagit84:

There is also a bug I've noticed on Montero on PS5 where some mines are not triggered by enemies. I've seen alien on the map walk over to the mine. Standing on it for a while (ispecting it or something) and the moving again on its merry way. The mine was not tripped (they sometimes only dismemeber them, especially warriors) because it is still visible on the map. Happened with cultists as well.

Was this a drone or cultist? I noticed that on the Montero that the sentry guns wouldn't target some cultists, the ones that show up with a '?' over them.

Ive seen multiple times on Montero map that alien comes to the mine, enters its detonation radius, stops for a while looking at it and moves along again. Mine never detonates. It happens mainly on this mission although I've seen it happen rarely on Atmospheric Processor and Pharos Spire.

[Barbarian]

I think too many players rush through the map and dont get the details. It is smart to look at the tactical map for a few minutes to see enemy movement patterns. It is fun to see the aliens do the same route several times before suddenly change direction. If you do so you can try out different places to lay the mines.

I have also seen the alien stand over the mine and it does not detonate. Curiously human enemis get killed when being in the radius of the mine. So it may be a bug.

[Sagit84]

Originally posted by Barbarian:

I think too many players rush through the map and dont get the details. It is smart to look at the tactical map for a few minutes to see enemy movement patterns. It is fun to see the aliens do the same route several times before suddenly change direction. If you do so you can try out different places to lay the mines.

I have also seen the alien stand over the mine and it does not detonate. Curiously human enemis get killed when being in the radius of the mine. So it may be a bug.

The excetion appears to be warrior which is not killed by mine but got its legs blown off and keeps on crawling down the corridor.