Plasma Pistol?

[NIKKE Reference]

Can anyone lend me a bit of knowledge, please?

I have all the plasma weapons unlocked, but not the pistol. So I was just wondering if there was a plasma pistol in the game as I've never come across one so far.

I would really like to give my sniper a better side arm than the laser pistol.

Thanks for your time.

[FireStorm20]

Its a common problem:)

To research plsma pistol you need to get one (capture the alien so the weapon doesnt explode) , but only secotid soliders got one and sectoid commanders.So if you passed the phases of the game when they appear, oyu are out of luck.You can wait and do misiion after mission , sometimes, rarely but sometimes, even late game secotids will appear on a mission.

[NIKKE Reference]

Originally posted by FireStorm20:

Its a common problem:)

To research plsma pistol you need to get one (capture the alien so the weapon doesnt explode) , but only secotid soliders got one and sectoid commanders.So if you passed the phases of the game when they appear, oyu are out of luck.You can wait and do misiion after mission , sometimes, rarely but sometimes, even late game secotids will appear on a mission.

Thanks for the reply.

Do the sectoids that have the mind control ability carry one? In my current game I haven't come up to them yet. So I'm wondering if capturing one of them might work, or do they only have the light plasma rifle too?

[FireStorm20]

Yeah mind controlling sectoids are sectoid commanders and they carry plasma pistols.Thats waht i personally usually do , capture one of them for plasma pistols research.

[NIKKE Reference]

Thanks a lot, pal. I managed to capture of of them and get the research.

I had no idea the sectoids carried pistols, but now I do. Thanks again.

[Traul]

That's a failure of the game. Once Ethereals are unlocked, Sectoid commanders could become roaming aliens so that you don't lose access to the pistol.

[ThunderGr]

Your best chance to capture one is at the base mission. I *always* capture the sectoid commander there alive. Once I had to fire at him with simple pistols to weaken him enough, before I could capture him. The rifles do a lot of critical damage and may kill him.

[FireStorm20]

Originally posted by ThunderGr:

Your best chance to capture one is at the base mission. I *always* capture the sectoid commander there alive. Once I had to fire at him with simple pistols to weaken him enough, before I could capture him. The rifles do a lot of critical damage and may kill him.

Imho you are wrong.Base mission in itself is long and can be difficult, at the end you will have most propbably at least injured soldiers, the sectoid commander can be hard to reach in one turn, and you loose one item slot for the whole long mission for the arc thrower/

Imho capturing a sectoid commander after the base mission , when they replace the outer space guy and are in every ufo is your safest and easiest way to do it.Specially if oyu splash small/med ufo its pretty easy just put all your gang at the door to the room after killing all other aliens and you are sure to catch them in a small room, easily reachable in the first turn.

Unless you need plasma pistol earlier, then sometimes i try to capture a normal secotid when i see they start to get replaced by other aliens but are still present in missions.

[Milk]

The best chance to get a PP is after the base mission, when the sectoid commanders are on the UFOs. You can safely clear out the area, and can confine the sectoids to a small area. The bad thing is that there are usually more than one of them (sometimes 3).

The good news is that by this point in the game (depending on how long you wait) you should have Titan Armor and at least a few plasma weapons. You can easily kill the sectoids with point blank plasma rifle fire, and the good news is that their plasma pistols are relatively weak by now, so standing in the open is not seriously dangerous. SCs will usually only use MC if they have a bad shot on you, so stand right up to them while out in the open (make sure your soldier can survive 6 points of damage to be safe).

You really don't have to rush the game, so take as long as you need.

[ThunderGr]

I did have some difficulty capturing him alive in Classic Ironman(the case I described was there), but the arc thrower is always at the second slot of my supports and I never do the Base mission before I have enough experienced soldiers for that, so, in my experience, since the sectoid commander is always alone, he is the perfect victim.

[Milk]

Originally posted by ThunderGr:

I did have some difficulty capturing him alive in Classic Ironman(the case I described was there), but the arc thrower is always at the second slot of my supports and I never do the Base mission before I have enough experienced soldiers for that, so, in my experience, since the sectoid commander is always alone, he is the perfect victim.

Sure, as long as you can close the distance quickly and your men can afford to take damage (assuming you have all your men alive). I'm not saying it's impossible or even hard, but that it's a lot more inconvenient.