Long War: Capturing an Outsider

[LooksLikeDaniel]

Normally, captures are not all that much of a problem for me. However, outsiders have that damned regeneration ability, which means I can't just wear it down and go in for the stun when I'm good and ready. They've also got enough firepower to one-shot my people, which makes getting in close problematic.

What are some good strategies for taking outsiders alive?

[Paddelboot]

Suppression, Flashbang, Acid Grenades? To wear down their health w/o killing them, use pistols, maybe grenades and MEC flamethrowers.

[LooksLikeDaniel]

Originally posted by Paddelboot:

Suppression, Flashbang, Acid Grenades? To wear down their health w/o killing them, use pistols, maybe grenades and MEC flamethrowers.

That's generally the standard procedure, but as I said, the regen kinda ♥♥♥♥♥ it.

[szmind]

I would add to this that my setup includes:
- either 2 soldiers with arc-thrower
- or 1 engineer with arc-thrower and Repair + 1 officer with Command
So that I can take 2 arc-thrower shots in one turn. If these fail I kill him and go home hoping for more luck next time.

HOWEVER: I admit to playing with slightly increased chances to stun (56-63% instead of 48-54%). I truly believe that dr Shen would not make a crap that works on 50/50 basis :), so I set UFO_PSI_LINK_SURVIVE=0.7 in DefaultGameCore.ini.

[draxthewickedone]

Originally posted by LooksLikeDaniel:

Originally posted by Paddelboot:

Suppression, Flashbang, Acid Grenades? To wear down their health w/o killing them, use pistols, maybe grenades and MEC flamethrowers.

That's generally the standard procedure, but as I said, the regen kinda ♥♥♥♥♥ it.

I failed to see how outsiders regen is interfering in your capture attempt in any way. It does not activate during your turn, it will not lower your soldiers aim, or their dmg or stun chance or anything for that matter.

It is the same procedure as with any other alien. You wear down its health, try to stun it, if it fails use command, if it fails again you kill it. As simple as that.

If you have 3 arc thrower charges and REALLY want to capture that particular outsider you can use sniper with disabling shot, and then next turn try it for the 3rd time.

Regarding the getting in close, it is very simple: do not get spotted. If outsider is not activated, he will not shot. Use scanners and/or motion tracker, then use "walls" of the ship which block his los.
Approach from that direction, hug the walls with your soldiers and end your turn. Next turn jump in with all your soldiers. Outsider will not have any chance.

[red255]

with improved arc throwers it just needs somewhere in the lower 3 or 4 HP.

mayhem suppressions will take off 2 HP, disable shots are generally non-lethal.

You trigger the outsider with a nice breach. you shoot it with a less than lethat weapon, if it needs more damage you mayhem suppress it.

then you send your engineer in and make the stun attempt. if it fails you use a command charge on your engineer and try again.

if it fails again you generally kill the outsider and try on a differnet ship.

regen shouldn't be an issue.

[Rax Savvage]

just surrounded it and then activate it with tazer crews all around em
give it nowhere to run nor hide n zap its face full o tazer

[Gertjan]

pistols and 'mayhem' overwatch are great ways to take off only a handful of HP, and the overwatch will indeed keep them down for a turn, giving you a second turn.
after a second turn, you would be out of charges anyway, so you can just kill him