Smash And Grab Technique

[Arclight]

Ive been playing XCOM- Enemy Unknown as it is here in merry old England. And have got quite good at it. After years of playing it I manged to find a PC copy as my playstation one was annoying me with its continuing lengthening of loading screens.

 

Ive been reading this forum for months now and today ive noticed a topic on a "smash and grap" technique used on alien Bases. After reading the thread I still couldnt figure out how this was possible.

From what I could understand in a nutshell, you stun an alien and revive him and kill off his buddies, then pick up the elerium and abort the mission.

Question - how do you pick up the elerium? Ive never managed to be able to do this. maybe im getting the wrong end of the stick could someone explain.

 

(Edit by BB: Changed thread title. Sorry, it bugged me. )

[Quantifier]

if there is a ufo power source, on the same tile lies crystal of elerium. normally the only way to get it is total victory, because then you get everything that was on battlefield.

if you destroy power source with non-explosive weapon, you can then stand on that tile and pick up elerium. it is important not to use explosive weapon, as it will destroy items on the ground, including elerium.

[Aralez]

Sometimes if you arrive at a crashed UFO there are small crystals lying on the ground, i discovered them on a polar mission first. At the first look i thought there was an alien grenade, but when i picked it up it was elerium.

[Zombie]

Arclight: Since I'm practically the "king" of the smash 'n grab technique, I'll try my best to explain it.

 

You probably already know that in order for X-COM to "win" a mission, ALL the aliens have to be neutralized one way or the other. By "neutralized", I mean "incapacitated", either killed or stunned. If one alien remains alive and standing under it's own power, the mission doesn't end. This is what is behind the whole point of a smash 'n grab.

 

The first thing I do when I get to an alien base is look for a potential alien target. When I find one, I stun it (usually with a Stun Rod). Then I pick the stunned alien up with a soldier having a high strength rating, and haul it somewhere safe. Next, I send in my medics to revive the alien with Medi-Kits. Once that alien is standing on it's own, I can safely kill the remaining aliens at the base. Since there is still an alien alive, the alien base mission ends when I want it to, not when the last alien gets killed. This gives my troops the precious time they need to grab all the corpses, weapons, equipment, and Elerium and haul it back to the green staging rooms.

 

If there is a module at that base that has the 2 Power Sources in it, there's Elerium powering them. I take a Heavy Plasma and shoot out the orange collider, then position a soldier so he/she is standing over what is left. On the ground is an Elerium crystal which previously powered the PS. I pick up those crystals and bring them back to green rooms.

 

When all my guys are standing safely on the green floor (not on the red lift), I abort the mission. Everything that is physically in those green rooms will be recovered. Because I did not destroy the command center of the base or kill the last alien, the base remains intact. When my troops return back home, I reassign them to a different transport and start the whole process over again. This way, my soldiers get the stat increases, plus get all the loot. A win-win situation for everyone including the aliens, since they still have their base.

 

I hope this explanation is satisfactory. If not, speak up. I'll be glad to answer any questions you have!

[Arclight]

The explaination was great, after all this time of playing it ive never even tried to pick up the Elerium, I never knew you could. Cheers people. Im off to pick up the spoils of war.

[Quantifier]

Aralez: you play with xcomutil, right?

custom shapes of ufos may change location of engine, but map doesn't change where elerium will be, it is always on the same tile.

i don't think it could happen in plain version of x-com.

[Aralez]

Yes, Xcomutil here. And i wondered why i never had seen them before...

[Mzuz]

I'm glad I heard about this. I never realized that this was possible. There is an snakeman base right next to me, I'm going to have to give the "smash-n-grab" a shot.

[Zombie]

If you do try this tactic, may I suggest some things?

 

1) Bring along the Blaster Launcher. Sure, you can scavenge them off the aliens, but if they get trigger happy early on, you would want one around. Blasters are good for killing multiple aliens grouped together. If there are Chryssalids present, well, you get the idea.

 

2) Heavy Plasma's all the way. All my troopers get one of these simply because it can mow down practically everything in one or two shots. Doesn't matter if you are using up Heavy Plasma ammo by the boatload, the aliens will have plenty to resupply your future missions.

 

3) Need I say you are going to need multiple Medi-Kits? Bring at least 6. Sometimes those stimulant injections don't do much, so having multiple medics carrying the revive potion around comes in handy. Be forewarned: every once and a while you may use up all your stim shots and the alien still isn't awake. In this case, you are going to have to "wait it out", that's to say wait till the alien comes to on it's own. Though rare, it does happen. Just make sure not to kill all the aliens before the stunned one wakes up.

 

4) Give everyone a Stun Rod. If you have the Small Launcher researched, give every other soldier one. You never know who is going to be in the best position to stun, so if most soldiers have one you are in good shape. Save the Stun Bombs for when the aliens are too far away to sneak up on them.

 

5) If your soldiers have Psi, well, then it's a piece of cake. Use a soldier's psi to mind control an alien. Make it drop it's weapons, then make it move somewhere safe. (Any small room with a single door, or an upstairs room with single lift is an excellent location). When the alien is back under his own control the next round, make sure there is a soldier covering the door or blocking the lift to keep him from wandering off. Also, you may want to drop the soldier's weapons (or put them in a backpack), so your trooper won't inadvertantly kill the alien you are trying to "save".

 

That's about it for the tactical and practical aspects. You can do whatever you want in the end, but at least listen to my advise: I have personally led thousands of these missions. :lol:

[Arclight]

Ive been trying this tactic out, and no luck. Ive attacked several ships and alien bases, with no lose of men (thanks to psi) after destroying several power supplies and storage devices in the bases i cant find any elierium. The power supply when destroyed leaves the wreckage but no goods, and the storage devices in the base explode no matter what weapon i use to destroy it. Its possible the version of the game im running doesnt have this option. Im running gold edition with an XP patch.

[NKF]

It really doesn't matter, as the windows version is just a tweaked dos version, so it'll be there.

 

Only power units will have elerium. If you check your overhead map near any power source that you've seen, check that it has an 'item' on top of it (items that can be picked up show up as white marks on the overhead map). If it has something, then this power source is powered.

 

There's one main structure in an alien base that has a power unit with elerium, and it's that large area one with a small corridor that leads up to four storage rooms. Head up there - but watch out for any aliens.

 

The room to the south (relative to the directions on the overhead map), there will be two power units. Only one unit will have elerium.

 

Use a heavy plasma, or laser rifle, and shoot the power unit away and you should be able to pick up a pod of elerium.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

Me notes:

 

I grabbed some save game samples from Hobbes to check a glitch in my map viewer. Checking ones of his saves out, my viewer showed a few bits of elerium lying in the desert sand. Must be XComUtil that puts that there.

 

Elerium looks, on the battlescape display, like a small purple ball. You see those power supplies? You see that purple dot on them? That's actually the eleirum item.

 

(I assume you can see the purple ball in-game. It's been that long since I've played a proper map; I spend most of my time looking at my map viewer...)

 

Not all alien bases have elerium in them. Again, don't use explosive ammo to destroy those power supplies, or you'll lose what is there.

 

A final note, be careful using psi on aliens! Make sure they drop *all* of their equipment, as besides their guns, they also have *grenades*.

[Arclight]

lol, nothing worse than taking over an alien making him drop his gun, and then getting all your men wipped out my a grenade, on the next turn

[Mzuz]

Go figure the first base I try this tactic on has no alien powerplants to destroy and take the elerium. lol...oh well. There are about 5 other bases around, I'm sure one of them will have what I'm looking for.

 

My guys are decked out at this point. all have flying armor, all heavy plasmas, 2 people with blast bomb launchers, and 2 psi guys, plus 2 plasma hover tanks (fantastic scouts).

 

The funny thing is, that the base was a snakeman base. So the dreaded Chryssalids where there. Thankfully there was only 3 of them.

[Zombie]

I should have mentioned that there usually are Power Sources at an alien base. Most of them do, but not always. Gee, me being a logic buff and all, you would think I would have caught that. Oh well. Anyways, there may be 0, 1, 2, 3 or even 4 modules that house the power sources at an alien base. That equates to 0, 2, 4, 6 or 8 power sources. For computer users, only one power source is "powered" with Elerium, the other is not. Therefore you're looking at recovering a maximum of 200 units (4 power sources * 50 units/power source = 200). However, Playstation users will notice that all alien Power Sources are "powered" by Elerium. I have recovered 400 units of Elerium from a few alien base missions I went to using the Playstation.

 

Obviously, we all know what a Power Source looks like - we've seen them thousands of times when visiting UFO landing (and sometimes crash) sites. In an alien base they are found in the upper level, south-west corner of the module. You know, the one with the corridor leading up to a room with 4 doors. Take the south door, and inside you'll find the Alien Entertainment, a power transfer conduit (at least that's what I call it), and the two Power Sources.

 

Check the base of the two Power Sources. If you are using the computer version, only one will have a purple dot signifying it is "powered". Do not use high explosive ammunition or grenades anywhere near those power sources, as even the smallest explosion will destroy the sensitive Elerium crystals. I use the Heavy Plasma to shoot out the orange collider, but Plasma Rifles or even the Heavy Laser has enough power to destroy it. Sadly, Laser Rifles just aren't strong enough to do this (I tested this today to make sure). So if you don't have plasma technology researched early on, and you want to do an alien base smash n' grab, blow the dust off those Heavy Lasers as they are the only terran weapon capable of destroying the orange collider.

 

If you get to an alien base and notice that there are no Power Sources there, don't fret. Just recover everything you possibly can, and come back to that base again a while later. Alien base modules spawn randomally, so the next time you visit there the set-up will be different. Heck, if you get into the alien base and notice that no power sources are present, you don't even have to fight if you don't want to. Just get all your troops back into the green area and abort. Then come back.

[Jman4117]

I the PC versions, if you have one pair of power supplies, you get 50 elerium. If you are lucky and come across to sets of them, you seem to get 100 from the other set.

 

As for those Snakemen, just destroy the base and get the high score for it since you have a lot more of them around anyways to go raiding.

[NKF]

Or keep them around for the supply ships. Supply ships don't carry terror units, and they come with 150 elerium (per ships). Snakemen by themselves are no better than flightless floaters. Still, even if you just go after the supply ships, there's plenty of resources and experience to go around. Then there are other bases, of course.

 

I'd aim for a floater base if you want to use smash-and-grab. You can mow them down with anything and everything. And I mean anything. I mean it! Argh! Really.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

Seriously, the only races I wouldn't muck with for a smash n' grab are the Sectoids and Ethereals. Other than that, the rest are fair-game for one simple reason: The Great Equalizer. What is the Great Equalizer, you may ask? The Heavy Plasma!

 

As long as you have the Heavy Plasma on those alien base smash n' grab missions, Floaters and Snakemen will normally go down with 1 hit. Mutons are a little bit tougher, requiring on average 2 hits. However, just because they have a high health rating, doesn't mean you should avoid them all together. Mutons are the easiest race to mind control. That fact alone drastically reduces the mission time if your troops are psi-trained. The less time your troops spend in harm's way, the greater the chances they will live to fight another day.

 

The first smash n' grab mission I ever attempted was with Mutons. I didn't have psi yet, nor did I have Heavy Plasma's. The only weapons of interest I had was the Laser Rifle, Heavy Laser, Rocket Launcher and High Explosive. Since the explosives were destroying my loot, I switched to the Laser Rifle. While they don't deal that much damage on a per-shot basis, multiply that by 6 shots per soldier and a 3 soldier hunter/killer unit, and you are looking at an average potential of 2070 points of damage per round, assuming all the shots connect. Needless to say, I recovered more loot and protected the vital Elerium supply from disappearing.

 

For players who are not comfortable fighting Mutons, Snakemen bases are good, but Floaters are even better, since you won't have to deal with Chryssalids.

[Ross]

Why do smash and grab? Isn't total victory a whole lot better?

[sluissi]

you do smash and grab on a base and you are able to harvest the weapons, elerium and other items over and over again... the base doesn't dissappear because you retreat, so it replenishes...

[NKF]

On top of that, the base will attract supply ships. Either attacking the base, or just the supply ships, will fulfil your quota for the month. At least it'll keep you out of the red, as the base generates activity points a lot slower than you can earn your activity points.

 

Ever had months where nothing seemed to be happening? This avoid this and keeps your monthly score at a healthy level.

 

Due to the semi-random nature of the game, it does make it look unusual that the aliens will merrily replenish their weapon supplies AND rebuild, refurbish and bascially move around their base modules for each of your visits to the base.

 

Their bases must be set like those picture puzzles where one tile is missing so that you can move the rest of the tiles about until you can put all of them in sequence. Brilliant.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

Ever hear of modular living space? There are no walls. The only thing that separates the different living areas are dividers attached to tracks mounted on the ceiling. Sorta like closet doors. Those dividers can be positioned an a myriad of combinations to make one gigantic room, or multiple smaller ones as the need arises. The only "room" or module with permanent walls is the bathroom for obvious reasons.

 

Alien bases are quite similar in nature. Every time you visit, those "dividers" are in different places. The only permanent module in this case is the command center. Modules in an alien base happen randomally, and in different places. For instance, there may be an alien "garden" one time, but the next time you visit it won't be there.

 

My original intentions for the smash n' grab was simply for soldier training, nothing more. However, once I found out that you can abort with all the loot too, well, let's just say that I found alien base missions much more rewarding than Supply Ship raids. An alien base is always there, ready to be ransacked at an instant. Supply Ships happen infrequently, and the aliens never carry Blaster Bombs. This is the loot that is the hardest to come by.