how to use a medkit and why are grenades so bad?

[firestar587]

pretty much the title

can't even to find the way to use the medkit and grenades only explode about 50% of the time? what? i lost 2 troops to this because i thought "its a grenade surely it will deal damage every time"
this makes no sense
who is making these grenades that only explode half the time?

[GhostyGG]

You use medkits the same way you you use a weapon. Equip it in one hand, click on it, then click on the person you want to use it on.

Grenades, like frag grenades, only explode at the end of your turn or at the start of certain turn, depending on what you're using(this is so that grenades that miss won't immediately kill you). Smoke grenades and stun grenades are supposed to explode immediately.

If you use C4 they only explode at specific times you arm them.

I would not recommend using smoke grenades, as on higher difficulties they do not impede the vision of sebellian or other alien types (they get bonuses that cancel out smoke effect). And the smoke also hinders your own ability to hit targets, which is counter-intuitive. I've seen way too many people pack smoke grenades at the beginning of missions and waste TU's trying to shoot aliens through smoke or while losing troops trying to hide in smoke.

[firestar587]

Originally posted by Regular Ghost:

You use medkits the same way you you use a weapon. Equip it in one hand, click on it, then click on the person you want to use it on.

Grenades, like frag grenades, only explode at the end of your turn or at the start of certain turn, depending on what you're using(this is so that grenades that miss won't immediately kill you). Smoke grenades and stun grenades are supposed to explode immediately.

If you use C4 they only explode at specific times you arm them.

I would not recommend using smoke grenades, as on higher difficulties they do not impede the vision of sebellian or other alien types (they get bonuses that cancel out smoke effect). And the smoke also hinders your own ability to hit targets, which is counter-intuitive. I've seen way too many people pack smoke grenades at the beginning of missions and waste TU's trying to shoot aliens through smoke or while losing troops trying to hide in smoke.

thank you i was so confused

[biogoo]

Smoke is a defensive tool that works against all but sebillians (presumably because they fight better in night as well, but I dont know how exactly it is integrated into the game). Use it after you shoot, or when you cannot run out of enemy sight.

Keep in mind that other grenades also produce a kind of smoke - it just isnt as strong as the smoke from smoke grenade. The stun gas as well as smoke from fires started by explosions has 1/2 effect of a smoke grenade.
The effect of smoke gets higher with the amount of smoke tiles between the shooter and the target. So even a stun grenade smoke can cause a lot of misses if you have to shoot through the whole thing. Smoke does not block line of sight in any way though.

[GhostyGG]

Originally posted by biogoo:

Smoke is a defensive tool that works against all but sebillians (presumably because they fight better in night as well, but I dont know how exactly it is integrated into the game). Use it after you shoot, or when you cannot run out of enemy sight.

Keep in mind that other grenades also produce a kind of smoke - it just isnt as strong as the smoke from smoke grenade. The stun gas as well as smoke from fires started by explosions has 1/2 effect of a smoke grenade.
The effect of smoke gets higher with the amount of smoke tiles between the shooter and the target. So even a stun grenade smoke can cause a lot of misses if you have to shoot through the whole thing. Smoke does not block line of sight in any way though.

Sebellians don't get bonus penalties because the ingame lore states that they have thermal vision or something. So smoke and night missions literally doesn't affect them at all. Smoke penalties only apply to your soldiers, really, as the aliens accuracy is so good that they can spam people through it. Add to the fact that aliens generally outnumber you and they can take turns shooting you through fog of war until they land a hit. From what I remember, grenade throws are really costly, so you can't even run a good distance and then throw it. Even if you're in good cover the aliens can still suppress you in smoke. I spent my first 50 hours of gameplay using smokes and other utility like i did xcom, but in my experience 9 out of 10 times smokes don't make any difference when they can still snipe you across the map.

As far as I'm concerned, you don't really need smoke in the early game if you've got a shield guy and a heavy weapons guy. Even without shields, riflemen paired with heavy weapons is still better than smokes. You're much better off spending time units suppressing with stun grenades and SAW fire. The gas grenades are much better since they actually force the aliens to move away or stay out of the area. AND heavies can shoot into fog of war as well, so you can easily suppress aliens out of LOS.