Advice against Faceless

[alexshiro]

These guys have a nasty habit of activating when I don't expect and messing things up for me.
Can I do anything to prevent the from killing my dudes/destroying cover at the wrong time? Do they follow any rules for activation that I've missed?

[talemore]

Kill all civilians, battle scanner works too. Faceless civilians are ignored in terror missions.

[KRON]

If they are still disguised they will activate when you come to them too close or when every other alien on the map is dead.
As to how you can distinguish real civillians and faceless, look at them if the aliens are near them. Real civillians will flee if an alien comes to them too close, the disguised faceless will stay.
Also, yeah, battle scanner and scanning protocol will reveal them on the spot.

[Cutlass Jack]

They basically activate under two circumstances. The main one is you just get too close to one thinking they're a civilian you're trying to rescue. The second circumstance is when most other aliens are already dead, they'll reveal themselves.

The approach I usually use is to never try and rescue a civilian unless they're in immediate danger. Try and do the rescue on the initial move action so they can use the second part of their move to get out of range or shoot if the rescue turns out out to be a Faceless. Also, try and have others nearby with free actions so they can fire on it.

Alternately you can just ignore civilians and just focus on killing aliens as fast as possible so the faceless reveal themselves without you being near them.

[Cris]

Battle scanner is the best way for me.

[Abrakadabra]

Safe civilians along the way when there's no other hostiles about.

Stay away from any civilian when engaging pods. At least like 4 or more tiles. Faceless that get activated because you killed all other pods wont attack in the same turn they reveal themselves.

Unless your guys are too close and activate a faceless by proximity. They will swipe the guy, hit the car next to them and detonate that car and/or break the floor which your soldier is also using, not only damaging the soldier with its considerable talons, but also breaking the floor and causing indirect fall dmg. This combination will kill soldiers.

Treat each civilian you see as a faceless. Either approach and rescue the civilian when you have all actions left on your squad, squad is close enough to cover the soldier approaching the the civiian and! you arent fighting any pod.

If that isnt possible, stay away from all civilians. multiple tiles. 6+ tiles would be a safe bet. Whenever faceless got revealed after I killed eerything else or almost ? everything and wasnt in immediate proximity to the faceless they didnt move and attack in the same turn. They wont ever attack in the same turn if you are far enough away. At least thats the rule that emerged after several playthroughs. Not entirely sure if thats exactly how it works but this is how I perceived it and its always been like that. Im 99 % positive.

[Abrakadabra]

I can also only recommend building a few tanks. That is grenadiers or rangers that you buff with the strongest + health pcs you can find. Preferably grenadiers which you also give the extra armor buff. Give each of those tanks 1 - 3 + health guerilla ops. Those tanks can survive even a crit + fall dmg.

Let those tanks rescue civilians and have them as the front guy. A ranger with high dodge works too but Id rather take a huge health pool in early to midgame. As I said, you can even get pretty close to civilians e.g. when trying to get advantageous positions while fighting a pod or multiple pods close to the civilians or main civilian groups. Just make sure, theres like 4 or 5 tiles between you and them. Im not sure if even 3 tiles would be enough. But they do seem to have some reach. They might be able to cover 2 tiles with their melee attack? But im not sure. Just to be sure I have at least 4 tiles between me and a faceless and as long as I do that they never reveal and attack in the same turn.

[Slippery Williams]

I personally ignore civilians and use those turns to kill the aliens as quickly as possible. Always keep your squad a few spaces apart so he can't swing and hit multiple guys (further apart if enemies that use grenades are onsite).

NEVER hide nearby explosive cover like cars since I'm their turn they can easily swing and blow up the car in their turn.

A bladestorm ranger or Templar, especially with a 'grants immunity on kill' style ability is great bait for them.

I like to use the defence protocol on someone like a ranger with a shotgun if you have the ability with the specialist that grants an extra overwatch with the defence boost. On the last turn don't move your specialist and use the defence protocol on the ranger, then put your specialist on overwatch with his second move. That way you have 2 overwatches to help cover your squad in case a faceless reveals.

[Slippery Williams]

Originally posted by iluvpumpum:

I can also only recommend building a few tanks. That is grenadiers or rangers that you buff with the strongest + health pcs you can find. Preferably grenadiers which you also give the extra armor buff. Give each of those tanks 1 - 3 + health guerilla ops. Those tanks can survive even a crit + fall dmg.

Let those tanks rescue civilians and have them as the front guy. A ranger with high dodge works too but Id rather take a huge health pool in early to midgame. As I said, you can even get pretty close to civilians e.g. when trying to get advantageous positions while fighting a pod or multiple pods close to the civilians or main civilian groups. Just make sure, theres like 4 or 5 tiles between you and them. Im not sure if even 3 tiles would be enough. But they do seem to have some reach. They might be able to cover 2 tiles with their melee attack? But im not sure. Just to be sure I have at least 4 tiles between me and a faceless and as long as I do that they never reveal and attack in the same turn.

Come to think of it I think they can attack from 2 spaces away so bladestorm isn't infallible

[Fluff Bunny]

I've also found the best way to save civilians is to ignore them.

I save more civilians locating and killing the aliens as fast as possible than rescuing civilians whilst aliens still roam. Faceless not an issue if you're not running up to civilians too.

[Greb]

Battle scanner and scanning protocol, or just wipe the area clean of alien life.

Ignore all civilians you can unless they block routes, just focus on sanitising the area without activating them even with scanners, since when activate that's another moderately high HP annoyance to deal with. Once everything is dead they'll wake up and spend a turn moving towards you, giving you ample time to set up an overwatch trap.

Firing Frost grenades into the crowded Haven HQ is another good tactic. I haven't attempted firing Flashbangs at civilians to check if they're Faceless or not, it might work, dunno.

[talemore]

Anyone can be a faceless, even you.

[Purple Sauce]

Overwatch, they become easy once your units are stronger as well. But early on baiting them into overwatch or falling back are the best scenarios.

[Daddy Shark]

I always just ignore the civvies and go for the aliens. Once you've wiped them all out the faceless will reveal themselves.

[Charmiskit]

Just kill the aliens and ignore civilians. Unless you activated every pod on the map, their 1-kill-per-turn rate will mean they'll all be dead before you kill them.