Synonium Device

[Sanic]

For the life of me I cant find the thing, Ive searched room after room Ive been on this mission from start to finish for more then 4 hours now and I cant find it. I read other posts and have pictures too but still cant find anything like it. Can anyone please give me a step by step from starting at the start point ( all the blueish disco type squares on the ground) to where I go and look for next. Do I go to the top and work my way down or just go to the bottom and look for a stair case or a certain elevator. I have got to a room with 2-4 lobstemen guarding it their is a large hole they like to fall down but every time I get close they fire the multi angle rocket thing and blow me all up and Im no where close to getting to that hole.

 

anyways thanks, Im a big fan of xcom from when i was a kid and searching along I happen to find it again. I almost beat xcom 1 but moved and lost the game files a couple years ago and just now got xcom 2 and looking foward to playing more expecially since I just got the first armor so my buddys dont die in one shot now Im working on disrupter so i can mind control their guys see how they like it. My guys get mind controlled or panic very easy even know i they all our able seamen and one is the next rank up from that.

 

Also to everyone else I found this nifty strat guide if you ever need more help but i will mention it does have spoilers.

 

https://www.xcomufo.com/tftdsg.txt

[Zombie]

For the life of me I cant find the thing, Ive searched room after room Ive been on this mission from start to finish for more then 4 hours now and I cant find it. I read other posts and have pictures too but still cant find anything like it. Can anyone please give me a step by step from starting at the start point ( all the blueish disco type squares on the ground) to where I go and look for next. Do I go to the top and work my way down or just go to the bottom and look for a stair case or a certain elevator. I have got to a room with 2-4 lobstemen guarding it their is a large hole they like to fall down but every time I get close they fire the multi angle rocket thing and blow me all up and Im no where close to getting to that hole.

Have you seen this post? From the start point, you work your way down to the bottom and then work your way over and up again in the different modules. A lot of these modules on the upper levels are interconnected, so you'll need to sweep them while another part of your squad below does the same.

 

The Synomium module can only be accessed from below. Just take the steps and then the lift to reach the top floor where the device is located.

 

- Zombie

[Sanic]

Well first off I'm glad to see such a quick response, normally good games from back in time all the forums like these ones our dead and unused much like a game called Warheads I was into. Anyways yes that was the original post I read before making my own. However my post above was asking about the colony mission in where you have have to destroy one device. I did find it in a small whole on lvl 1 that had 4 windows blocking the ability to toss anything in. Once side out I just dropped in a sonic nade and ran and it was an easy win. Took forever just to get into the place with all the aliens. The pics on your other post our not the same one that I saw perhaps if you have the time you can post ones for colony missions in case someone in the future finds these forums with that question.

 

I saw you pics and DLed them, I found one of those areas (assuming their in more then one device) but it compacted with enemies from above and some below so I haven't got in yet. Is their more then one of these devices I need to blow up and if yes how many?

 

I really need to research heavy sonic I'm getting my butt kicked in here and i don't want to start a new game

 

thanks for the help zombie you are a gentleman and a scholar.

 

-Sanic

[NKF]

Our forums aren't a hive of activity as they used to be, but we have a core of dedicated fans who still hang around to give advice to new and returning players alike.

 

Each colony and artefact site only has one synonium device on the second (interior) map.

 

The map Zombie posted was for the ground (level 0) layer of the synonium device module - you found the hole that leads to it. Tossing a grenade through the hole is the easiest way to destroy the synonium device. Otherwise you have to contend with 3 Lobsterman commanders in that room. They're still drill and thermal shok bomb fodder.

 

The one Zombie posted further down is the black chamber found at Artefact sites, which leads to the Synonium device.

 

 

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

If any of this is a repeat from what NKF mentioned, just ignore. I wrote this before I checked who posted.

 

Well first off I'm glad to see such a quick response, normally good games from back in time all the forums like these ones our dead and unused much like a game called Warheads I was into.

The X-COM games are nothing like other games. These stand the test of time and are popular to this very day. We may have lulls in the forum activity here, but feel free to post. There's always someone around to answer questions and provide tips.

 

Anyways yes that was the original post I read before making my own. However my post above was asking about the colony mission in where you have have to destroy one device. I did find it in a small whole on lvl 1 that had 4 windows blocking the ability to toss anything in. Once side out I just dropped in a sonic nade and ran and it was an easy win. Took forever just to get into the place with all the aliens. The pics on your other post our not the same one that I saw perhaps if you have the time you can post ones for colony missions in case someone in the future finds these forums with that question.

Oh, ok. I thought you meant an alien artifact site. IIRC, you don't need to destroy the synomium device in an alien base - you just need to kill everyone. If you are planning to do a surgical strike and just take it out and make a run for it, then yes. There's a hole in the ceiling above the synomium device, so all you need to do is get upstairs and toss a Sonic Pulser down the hole (or shoot at it, whatever tickles your fancy). Sure, I'll include the pics here:

 

 

I saw you pics and DLed them, I found one of those areas (assuming their in more then one device) but it compacted with enemies from above and some below so I haven't got in yet. Is their more then one of these devices I need to blow up and if yes how many?

There's only one Synomium device in a base so if you destroy one you are all set.

 

thanks for the help zombie you are a gentleman and a scholar.

You are very welcome. Glad to help.

 

- Zombie

[Sanic]

You both continue to impress me, very thorough easy to understand information, my compliments

 

-Spoiler alert-

I found a very easy way to blow up the device. I came from the top left corner of the room. All of my soldiers were at the start and I took one down which was armed with the multi directional rocket thing. Once I got to the tip of the room ( only 15 spaces away from the elevator to Marine start no less) I shot the rocket going up one level aimed at the elevator but rather then trying to go up the elevator which was my original idea I decided to take out the floating brain looking guy in the left upper opening. While I did miss the brain guy the rocket when flying above him exploded and after the turn completed I got a message saying i destroyed the device. I was confused on how but after going to the last save I figured out ( if anyone hasn't already) you can blow up the device from the floor below as I accidentally did. The brain guy lived but I ran out quick so I beat the artifact mission ( since the 1st level the pyramid was really close) in about 8 turns

 

 

Again thank you for the pictures they are very helpful. I just lost funding with USA but Im still making about 7-8mill a month from the rest since I have had only excellent scores. I found the colony that was targeting US but it seem unfruitful to attack it since they already got US and unfortunately in this game their is no way to get a country back once its gone. I wish they made a patch that allowed you to get countrys lost back just make it take alot of work or something

 

Anyways wishful thinking for now. I'm 2 days away from getting a global transmission network up and running so I can find the darn deep one craft to get me the better armors but at least I learned to sack old rines with low bravery stats and get better, I played a mission where it took me almost 50 turn to win cause I would sit their waiting for all the rines i had left to be not panicked or berserk. I have MC disruptor as well but no matter how many times I try I can never get an alien to panic or take control, is their any trick to this? seem all aliens have 60+ bravery

 

Anyways thanks again! -Sanic

[Sanic]

Also how do you get pictures to work pressing "print screen" button and pasting in paint is how I normally do it but when i do it comes up like this:

 

Win Print screen from game

[Zombie]

You both continue to impress me, very thorough easy to understand information, my compliments

We aim to please.

 

Again thank you for the pictures they are very helpful. I just lost funding with USA but Im still making about 7-8mill a month from the rest since I have had only excellent scores. I found the colony that was targeting US but it seem unfruitful to attack it since they already got US and unfortunately in this game their is no way to get a country back once its gone. I wish they made a patch that allowed you to get countrys lost back just make it take alot of work or something

Well, it may be unfruitful from a economic standpoint because the country isn't funding anymore, but it will usually be fruitful from a score standpoint. You'll get a lot of points from destroying an alien base (almost twice as many as in Enemy Unknown) and you'll also eliminate that 5 points/day deduction when an alien base remains on the map. Of course, bases are really dangerous to attack so sometimes you may have to wait until your soldiers have better stats.

 

Anyways wishful thinking for now. I'm 2 days away from getting a global transmission network up and running so I can find the darn deep one craft to get me the better armors but at least I learned to sack old rines with low bravery stats and get better, I played a mission where it took me almost 50 turn to win cause I would sit their waiting for all the rines i had left to be not panicked or berserk. I have MC disruptor as well but no matter how many times I try I can never get an alien to panic or take control, is their any trick to this? seem all aliens have 60+ bravery

Aliens target weak psionic soldiers for MC or panic attacks. If your strength and skill are low, the panic attack will probably succeed in which case your morale is lowered by 110-Bravery. But Bravery is basically meaningless to screen for in rookie soldiers since even the best initial value of 60 will deduct 110-60=50 morale. All that soldier needs is one more successful panic attack and morale will dip below 50 thus bringing on panic, berserk or sometimes nothing. Your screening should focus primarily on psionic strength as that is the stat which prevents the aliens from waging successful panic attacks.

 

To take a screenshot, use F12 instead. That will create a file which looks like shot0000.tga in your game directory. Tga is short for targa, so you'll need to find a program to open that up such as your favorite photo editing program or IrfanView, then save that to png. PNG provides much better image quality for X-COM screenshots than .jpg.

 

- Zombie

[Sanic]

Got it thanks, I got my network up and dropen UFOs like fly's with my new sonic oscillators.

 

Is their any easy way to find Deep ones? Ive dropped almost 15 subs and none of them have deep ones on them for me to capture.

[Zombie]

Deep Ones tend to show up a lot on land-based Gillman port terror missions early on. However, Gillmen are phased out slowly and you only may find Tasoths later in the game. If you wait a while, a mixed crew mission will usually have a Deep One, so be sure to get those Thermal Shok Launchers researched ASAP. Or psi works good too.

 

- Zombie

[D2theG84]

Got it thanks, I got my network up and dropen UFOs like fly's with my new sonic oscillators.

 

Is their any easy way to find Deep ones? Ive dropped almost 15 subs and none of them have deep ones on them for me to capture.

 

You wont find any Deep Ones on downed UFO's. Get them from terror missions. Make sure you are aware of the research bug before you use the ones you capture.

[Sanic]

You wont find any Deep Ones on downed UFO's. Get them from terror missions. Make sure you are aware of the research bug before you use the ones you capture.

 

Thanks that helped alot I was checken out all the downed gillian and Tasoth ships to no dice but Ill do that next. Which ships only do terror missions and what is the research bug?

[Zombie]

The Battleship only does terror missions. The research bug he's talking about is (I assume) the armor part of the tree. You need a Deep One corpse to start initial research into armor, but you need to research Aqua Plastics, Plastic Aqua Armor and Ion Beam Accelerators before you start researching the live Deep One.

 

- Zombie

[Sanic]

battleship I got it but which mission will they be on, Ive check a lot of them and none of them so far I've seen say mission: Terror or something like that.

 

Yes I did research all of that so I should be good just need to find a live deep one now!

[Zombie]

battleship I got it but which mission will they be on, Ive check a lot of them and none of them so far I've seen say mission: Terror or something like that.

Do you have a Transmission Resolver built? Unless you have that, you just will not know what mission a USO is on. Battleships are primarily for terror missions, but some are used for pre-scouting the area or for base building. Best to just leave the Battleships alone if you need a live Deep One. Still no guarantees it'll be Gillman for the primary race though.

 

I myself had this exact same problem in my previous game and ended up waiting for the Mixed Crews and finally got a live Deep One from that. I just used Plastic Aqua Armor, Sonic Pulsers and Sonic Rifles until then.

 

- Zombie

[Sanic]

After waiting a long time I finally got a terror mission and yes I found a deep one on it but for some reason Im missing my thermic lances to capture it alive and I messed up my save file so I cant go back arg the only thing I have is the thermal shock launcher but when I use it on the alien is for some reason kills the alien and i cant figure out why ( the gun that shoots the small round ammo that i though you could cap live aliens with) Ive tryed shooting the round further away and right on him kills the deep one every time

[Sanic]

Ok so I figured you can do direct hit you have to fire far away from him to down em without killen. Now the thing is when I go to take off with him ( I saved right before ) ( and I dragged him by back pack all the way to the ship) weather I drop him on the ground or keep him in the pack when i lift off it gives me one of 2 different messages, either it will say 2 aliens killed ( I killed one right outside the landing zone) or 1 killed one captured but in either scenario when I check research their is nothing new in the list and I have 2 deep ones in my body selling list ( I always keep one of each case i missed research)

 

Is my game bugged? that would be most disappointing considering how much i put into this game. also in my research tab I have heavy thermic lance, alien origins, Gauss & sonic defense, and 4 live aliens which if I research I get no information from and they dont disappear off my list (???)

 

All quite frustrating!

[NKF]

Beyond the alien recovery weirdness (which can sometimes happen), it sounds bugged. The game can get unstable at times through normal play (generally after a while) and strange things can start happening. Generally solved with a restart. I recommend that you quit the game entirely, restart it and reload your save and try it all again and see if the thermal shok bombs are working properly. Easiest way to check is to just fire at a building or one of your own aquanauts. If the either are still standing (and no physical damage is dealt to the aquanaut's health), then it's working fine.

 

The other way is to go back to the Geoscape and check the Ufopedia and make sure that the thermal shok bombs aren't dealing HE damage. If they are, then your game has been modified.

 

Are you using any patches or game enhancers by the way?

 

If you could, can you zip and post a copy of your save here?

 

If you're having trouble with putting a new captured alien into containment, we've devised a simple method of re-setting your containment by simply starting a brand new game and saving it in a separate slot, and then copying the ASTORE.DAT file from the new save into your current save. That completely wipes out the containment and you can start filling it with new aliens.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

The other way is to go back to the Geoscape and check the Ufopedia and make sure that the thermal shok bombs aren't dealing HE damage. If they are, then your game has been modified.

If that's the case (and you aren't using any game enhancers), reinstall the game somewhere, go into the Geodata folder and copy obdata.dat and paste that into your bugged game. Should set that straight.

 

Are you using any patches or game enhancers by the way?

 

If you could, can you zip and post a copy of your save here?

Can't add attachments in this forum, but it can be done in the X-COM support forum so feel free to add it there.

 

By the way, I edited the topic title to reflect the Synomium Device in an Alien Colony to keep it separate from the other topic.

 

- Zombie

[Pastshelfdate]

We aim to please.

 

 

Well, it may be unfruitful from a economic standpoint because the country isn't funding anymore, but it will usually be fruitful from a score standpoint. You'll get a lot of points from destroying an alien base (almost twice as many as in Enemy Unknown) and you'll also eliminate that 5 points/day deduction when an alien base remains on the map. Of course, bases are really dangerous to attack so sometimes you may have to wait until your soldiers have better stats.

 

You may already be using that base to farm for supply ships. Zrbite is easier to get (so often found, even on crashed alien craft) than Elerium was in Enemy Unknown/UFO Defense, but does Terror use more of it? Now that the alien colony off the USA coast is a bit obsolete for the aliens, they may not send more supply ships. I've noticed that with such a colony in my game, so I finally took it out. I'm sure the more experienced players will have more specific input on the subject of using colonies against the aliens.

 

 

Aliens target weak psionic soldiers for MC or panic attacks. If your strength and skill are low, the panic attack will probably succeed in which case your morale is lowered by 110-Bravery. But Bravery is basically meaningless to screen for in rookie soldiers since even the best initial value of 60 will deduct 110-60=50 morale. All that soldier needs is one more successful panic attack and morale will dip below 50 thus bringing on panic, berserk or sometimes nothing. Your screening should focus primarily on psionic strength as that is the stat which prevents the aliens from waging successful panic attacks.

 

Don't dump all you psionically weak marines. One or two on a mission, armed only with incendiary ammo, will attract all the molecular control attacks, be harmless to marines in any armor, and if the aliens cause these stalking horses to go berserk, a night/deep mission area can be lit up, using the alien turn.

 

To take a screenshot, use F12 instead. That will create a file which looks like shot0000.tga in your game directory. Tga is short for targa, so you'll need to find a program to open that up such as your favorite photo editing program or IrfanView, then save that to png. PNG provides much better image quality for X-COM screenshots than .jpg.

 

- Zombie

 

I could be wrong, but I think PNG files are also a lot smaller, while still displaying as well on a 1028 x 760-something screen. I love PNG, and IrfanView is a nice program. Thanks, Zombie.

 

- Pastshelfdate

[Pastshelfdate]

Oh, and before I forget again, it may be worth your while to fight your way into the small room within a room that contains the Synomium Device, just so you can see it. I can't find the image, now, but a few weeks ago, I found a photo from a Doctor Who episode, one with the 6th (Colin Baker) Doctor, with something that looked exactly like the multiple rings design of the Synomium Device. I wish I could find it again, to add to the sightings in other works, on the UFOpaedia site section that covers them.

 

- Pastshelfdate

[Tsathoggua]

Another good trick that avoids approaching the thing from below is to shoot those windows out from a distance, then drop a disruptor pulse round down the hole. you bbetter be a good shot, but if your lucky one or more of the commanders due to the insane hardcase nature of lobstermen may only be knocked out. To be dragged back with your team, or possibly all killed outright. Its worth destroying the synomium device as a first priority in a surgical strike, then sticking around to slug it out to the last bug. Good idea to bring along a coelacanth or better yet a displacer/sonic tank, those pack an awful lot of ammunition and do a respectable amount of damage, plus being somewhat resistant even to lobsterman claws and sonic cannon fire, and more or less immune to those pain in the arse tentaculats (best way to deal with them is use the displacer tank/s as scout/s to take point and follow up with thermal shock launchers, gas cannons loaded with HE shells, and disruptor pulse launchers. I usually load 3-4 men with vibroblades due to the effectiveness against lobstermen and somewhat against tasoth. each also packing a sonic cannon, spare clip, medkit, one soldier at random with a motion scanner, for those annoying bug hunts where some cowardly little swine hides somewhere needing a change of underwear taking hours to root out.

 

And against the tentaculats, chances are your team will find a lot of disruptor pulse launchers, plus spare rounds for them in the first section, I like to tool everyone not carrying a drill/shock launcher/sonic cannon combination, or not with a stun rod and gas cannon, dark holes invite disruptor pulse rounds from afar, reserving the heavy weapons guys for reaction fire and the very last to move. Sonic tanks can scout a long way and do survive well the outer edges of such a blast. They work great to draw fire, only to move off round a corner next turn whilst a squaddie sticks a disruptor pulse round or a couple of sonic pulsers, or a hail of gas cannon fire using HE and willy pete rounds (why they specified the use of WP I do not know, if you can't store it in sealed amps under inert gas then white phosphorus is actually best STORED under water, It doesn't keep burning under water, you'd want thermite grenades for that, now that stuff really does keep going until it feels like stopping or its bunt through everything it touches, leaving a slag of red hot oxides and molten metal everywhere. Copper oxide thermite actually explodes unlike the other variants. Wheras I've only seen white phos ignite spontaneously when I've withdrawn some from its container full of water and left it to warm up in the air (or whilst distilling it in vacuo, and then having some get loose, when its warm its pyrophoric enough, and if ignited, is sure as hell intense. Damned awful stuff even the tiniest speck of a burn will mess you up good, through the toxicity of the stuff. Had a bad experience there once, after getting a a little tiny bit on the arm, left that arm shaky and almost parkinsonesque for a month at least, couldn't pick up a knife, fork etc, and definitely couldn't write. That, was from a little bit of the stuff not all that much larger than about 1/4th the size of a 4mm BB gun shot. Hurt like hell, but the toxicity of the stuff was the worst by far.)

 

Those rounds shouldn't work under water at all, although its nasty enough on land.xp

 

The gas cannon HE or incendiary shells do work well for lowering the health of a tentaculat enough to stun it. You really, really don't want to let them live once they are down though, just dump another HE round or sterilize the locale with explosives, the more the merrier. Those things can never be TOO dead. Or stun them, revive the blasted things with a medkit, and then hit them with drills, or just hit the KOed tentaculat with a grenade or HE round while its down. Go pop a grenade right up the backside after recovering a living specimen and a corpse

[sp1ke]

DPLs are for wussies. ;-)

[Tsathoggua]

They are also good for breaching, especially alien bases and they come into their own when deploying teams wearing mag ion armor. Idea being to treat ic the upper roof of the base like a can of meat. Wallop a big hole in the top then glide in and drop sonic pulsers, cut loose with sonic cannon and shock cannon.

[sp1ke]

Breaching is for wussies who are scared to rush a door. Just because there's probably a pack of Tasoths with 120 TUs and Sonic Cannons standing behind it in inaccessible nooks and crannies. :-)

 

Breaching really is cheating, it messes up the aliens routes and they don't react to it properly, they become dumb. Breaching is too easy.

 

Seriously though, winning the game with Mag Ion Armour and DPLs isn't very challenging. The aliens can't use their own DPLs and flying abilities very well, and they totally can't cope when humans get those abilities. And those armour levels. They don't change tactics. They don't start using drills, which is what we would do.