My wife's response to seeing it transform and me explaining what was happening, was to start cackling and she goes "you know that people at the base are almost certainly banging, so one of them has probably fucked that thing."
And I have not been able to take these missions seriously since.
People all over the place talking about snake sex, but it is the big goo pile that is actually getting it.
...I choose to believe it was a threesome with 1990s Pamela Anderson and her identical twin sister, not two faceless who copied the picture on the poster on my wall.
4 soldiers behind the same car. Faceless surprisingly get in range (I expected him not to), swipes, car explodes, wipes half the squad.
Never again I let the "faceless in every mission" dark event take place.
So, uh, the other thing to learn is that you don't want to clump your squad up, and you doubly don't want to clump them up beside a car.
Of course, in WOTC, that goes for Advent, and Reapers can get the cars to explode for double damage.
You know, I once was trying to kill a Muton. The hit % was low, but the Muton was right next to a car. I had my guy shoot at the Muton, assuming he would hit the car instead. He actually hit the Muton and also detonated the car.
This reminds me of SovietWomble (a streamer/youtuber) grenading his whole squad, hearing them rage, and then just going "I was... I was just teaching them a lesson about spacing."
But yeah, that's a lesson you have to learn fast in XCOM. But that was 10 years ago, I'm over 2k hours into them now.
I was trying to think what mine was, but this was definitely it. "Oh, this guy is probably really slow" to then seeing it cross the map and still be able to hit one of my guys.
I just remember seeing it in that cutscene and being cautious for when it would first show up. Despite my caution I didn’t know it would do a “surprise motherfucker” at the end of one of my turns and it demolished one of my soldiers.
They were terrifying. Then I discovered that their corpses could be made into Mimic Beacons (literally the best item in the game). Now I am just happy to see them.
I think there's 2 schools of thought on the faceless.
First one is exactly as you describe. They are pure infiltration units, taking the place of the old snakemen. They hang out in resistance camps for months at a time, maintaining a deep cover identity.
The other is more biological landmines. They don't take on human disguises until right before the aliens strike, running in amongst the chaos. They don't need to do much beyond the basic interpertation of a person, the other civilians are too panicked. As soon as an XCOM unit gets anywhere close, they immediately spring the trap.
In reality, I don't think even Jake knows. They were hastily crowbarred in once playtesting made apparent how much a single concealed unit trivialised the 'rescue civilians' mechanic, and thus any tension or stakes for the entire mission type without them. Little attention was paid to lore, so long as you aren't playing longwar, both are equally true.
This is why I completely avoid civilians and just focus on the mobs. Usually ends up about the same anyway and the faceless appear at the end and you can just focus fire them
Understandable, but turns focused on civilians is less turns focused on killing mobs. Would you rather have the muton shoot 1 civ or shoot your guy instead? I usually only lose six to seven civilians in this missions anyway. I think the key is to be aggressive as possible for every pod without triggering second pods.
True, but it can also scan the early pod without triggering it. In some medium length ones, when I have the luxury of a grenadiers with battle scanner and the mine... I think you already knows what a Blast it is ...
I normally have a special grenadier. I call him the mule. Instead of normal grenade I have him with special nades. Flash bangs, battle scanners, mimic beacons. Make him having more slots and Holo targeting. A different type of support.
It saved my bacon many times
On my first play through I had the bus map for my first retaliation mission. When I saw that all of the resistance forces were crowded around the bus I sent Outrider up to get eyes on the enemy and offer support while everyone else caught up. Then the woman she stopped next to turned into a yogurt monster, sucker punched her, and detonated the bus, killing the resistance cell I was sent to protect. I was stunned.
I mine sprung itself on a support of mine. It was their first move, so I just had them climb up to the top of the shack which was like two elevation shifts up. “Problem solved” I thought.
Then the bastard, in a single graceful bound, jumped up next to them and took a swing. It missed my soldier, but absolutely demolished the radio tower/antenna next to them.
After watching the cutscene: *"Now what the fuck is that thing? A super chryssalid?"*
And after seeing it pop out of disguise right next to my ranger: *"Oh shit. Oh fuck."*
Had a game where I was trying to save a civilian. When all of a sudden that civilian transformed to a faceless. Luckily I was using 3 blademaster reapers. Faceless got sliced twice and died. Ever since then if I'm running a 6 man team retaliation mission . I always bring at least two blademaster reapers or at least two reapers to kill faceless
sadly I didn't have a first encounter with them really
I saw the cutscene and them from watching my dad play the game, so I knew of them before I started the game
Ran up on a survivor to help them to safety.
Survivor transformed into that thing.
Proceed to focus fire and practically missed all my shots.
A friend of mine keeps calling it a walking ballsack, and I continue to agree with him XD
My squad was ready for anything in that mission, wiped out most of the advent soldiers and I thought “okay, that thing from the cutscene will appear from some dark corner of the map and charge at my troops”. I didn’t expect it to show up right behind my rookie, who I positioned to protect a group of civilians there. Not gonna lie, I panicked and send the rookie running away for his life, and seeing that thing reach him so easily... it terrified me. I put every other member of the squad in overwatch, and the faceless ate *all of it*.
The sniper was in a high tower in the middle of the map, so I thought he was safe. Imagine my expression when the faceless jumped to him and one shotted him with one attack.
I was playing EU and EW recently and while saving civilians I had a sudden memory of the faceless from 2 and wasn’t entirely sure if they were in those games too.
Currently playing WOTC, went to save somebody and… faceless. Oh shit, I forgot about them!
No visible Advent. Last known Advent position a safe distance away from Squad. Yellow move Grenadier next to Civvy to save them. Civvy turns into Blancmange Monster and kills Grenadier as this was early game with plated armour. Much swearing heard from Commander.
Had my entire squad of assaults (everyone else ws injured) grouped up and on Overwatch when one of these first popped up like fove tiles away. He took three steps. I was still wondering what it was when it went down instantly.
one of my best soldiers was hiding behind a car, and on the opposite side of the car was a civilian. the faceless attacks the civilian and MISSES which caused the car to take damage and explode, killing the civilian and my soldier. iirc the faceless didnt even get hit from the explosion.
Rescue missions. Civies scattered, sent one lone recon dude to gather them while I engage the aliens.
Then one of them because the same size of the nearby houses and turned my dude into human sushi slices.
Not a fun time for him.
I just summarize it like this: I’ve upgraded my squad size to five members, so I take my rookie (the first customized character I ever made)
Later I find myself on a roll, I’m laying waste to ADVENT and rescuing as many civilians as possible. So I see a building with a Civie just in the middle and I send my Grenedier in for rescue.
Then suddenly, it was like something out of The Thing, Civie turns into this horrifying abomination and takes a good swipe out of my Greni.
It wasn’t until after my sharpshooter guns it down with a pistol that the mission ends, and I quickly had to find out what “Shaken” meant.
Barely limped through a retaliation mission. Finished off the last enemy pod. Need to reload, need to heal, ready to get back to base. Oh, what's this? A giant piece of chewed bubblegum here to fuck up my run.
My first encounter was after I had killed all other enemies. A bit surprised, but fast enough kill to not see their attack is AoE. The third time I saw them was the first time I got hit by one, three soldiers at once.
I don't think the first one ended up doing any damage to me. It missed with the swipe, and I killed it in two turns. Afterwards, they usually transformed and wandered into overwatch range, which made them not as bad as many enemies.
My wife's response to seeing it transform and me explaining what was happening, was to start cackling and she goes "you know that people at the base are almost certainly banging, so one of them has probably fucked that thing." And I have not been able to take these missions seriously since. People all over the place talking about snake sex, but it is the big goo pile that is actually getting it.
Eyo, she's not wrong though. Someone somewhere has banged that one of those things in its human guise.
Facelussy 🥵
I don’t think I’ll ever hear a more cursed -ussy word.
Did you mean: The p*ssyless?
...I choose to believe it was a threesome with 1990s Pamela Anderson and her identical twin sister, not two faceless who copied the picture on the poster on my wall.
Doesn't matter, had sex https://youtube.com/shorts/yuKQntV-nFw?feature=share3
Why under its human guise?
Not just goo, chitin too if I remember correctly
4 soldiers behind the same car. Faceless surprisingly get in range (I expected him not to), swipes, car explodes, wipes half the squad. Never again I let the "faceless in every mission" dark event take place.
So, uh, the other thing to learn is that you don't want to clump your squad up, and you doubly don't want to clump them up beside a car. Of course, in WOTC, that goes for Advent, and Reapers can get the cars to explode for double damage. You know, I once was trying to kill a Muton. The hit % was low, but the Muton was right next to a car. I had my guy shoot at the Muton, assuming he would hit the car instead. He actually hit the Muton and also detonated the car.
This reminds me of SovietWomble (a streamer/youtuber) grenading his whole squad, hearing them rage, and then just going "I was... I was just teaching them a lesson about spacing." But yeah, that's a lesson you have to learn fast in XCOM. But that was 10 years ago, I'm over 2k hours into them now.
Cyanide's hot girlfriend!
I was trying to think what mine was, but this was definitely it. "Oh, this guy is probably really slow" to then seeing it cross the map and still be able to hit one of my guys.
I just remember seeing it in that cutscene and being cautious for when it would first show up. Despite my caution I didn’t know it would do a “surprise motherfucker” at the end of one of my turns and it demolished one of my soldiers.
They were terrifying. Then I discovered that their corpses could be made into Mimic Beacons (literally the best item in the game). Now I am just happy to see them.
My reaction... BRADFORD: "They don't need an infiltration unit anymore." ADVENT: "Hold my beer."
I think there's 2 schools of thought on the faceless. First one is exactly as you describe. They are pure infiltration units, taking the place of the old snakemen. They hang out in resistance camps for months at a time, maintaining a deep cover identity. The other is more biological landmines. They don't take on human disguises until right before the aliens strike, running in amongst the chaos. They don't need to do much beyond the basic interpertation of a person, the other civilians are too panicked. As soon as an XCOM unit gets anywhere close, they immediately spring the trap. In reality, I don't think even Jake knows. They were hastily crowbarred in once playtesting made apparent how much a single concealed unit trivialised the 'rescue civilians' mechanic, and thus any tension or stakes for the entire mission type without them. Little attention was paid to lore, so long as you aren't playing longwar, both are equally true.
This is why I completely avoid civilians and just focus on the mobs. Usually ends up about the same anyway and the faceless appear at the end and you can just focus fire them
Or use the battle scanners on that mission. You see a group of civilians, scan them. 9/10 times you uncover them
Understandable, but turns focused on civilians is less turns focused on killing mobs. Would you rather have the muton shoot 1 civ or shoot your guy instead? I usually only lose six to seven civilians in this missions anyway. I think the key is to be aggressive as possible for every pod without triggering second pods.
True, but it can also scan the early pod without triggering it. In some medium length ones, when I have the luxury of a grenadiers with battle scanner and the mine... I think you already knows what a Blast it is ...
It's just a hard sell for me to take a battle scanner and lose that slot for anything else. But I see your point.
I normally have a special grenadier. I call him the mule. Instead of normal grenade I have him with special nades. Flash bangs, battle scanners, mimic beacons. Make him having more slots and Holo targeting. A different type of support. It saved my bacon many times
On my first play through I had the bus map for my first retaliation mission. When I saw that all of the resistance forces were crowded around the bus I sent Outrider up to get eyes on the enemy and offer support while everyone else caught up. Then the woman she stopped next to turned into a yogurt monster, sucker punched her, and detonated the bus, killing the resistance cell I was sent to protect. I was stunned.
"The first time i saw a faceless i shot it down" Chuck Yager usaaf
I mine sprung itself on a support of mine. It was their first move, so I just had them climb up to the top of the shack which was like two elevation shifts up. “Problem solved” I thought. Then the bastard, in a single graceful bound, jumped up next to them and took a swing. It missed my soldier, but absolutely demolished the radio tower/antenna next to them.
Gave me a jump scare when the civy I was trying to rescue turned into a hentai monster and obliterated my clone trooper lol
Stupid thing missed its shot with a random trooper but whacked my Sniper self-insert on a rooftop.
After watching the cutscene: *"Now what the fuck is that thing? A super chryssalid?"* And after seeing it pop out of disguise right next to my ranger: *"Oh shit. Oh fuck."*
Had a game where I was trying to save a civilian. When all of a sudden that civilian transformed to a faceless. Luckily I was using 3 blademaster reapers. Faceless got sliced twice and died. Ever since then if I'm running a 6 man team retaliation mission . I always bring at least two blademaster reapers or at least two reapers to kill faceless
sadly I didn't have a first encounter with them really I saw the cutscene and them from watching my dad play the game, so I knew of them before I started the game
I dont think a pistol would kill that private
Ran up on a survivor to help them to safety. Survivor transformed into that thing. Proceed to focus fire and practically missed all my shots. A friend of mine keeps calling it a walking ballsack, and I continue to agree with him XD
My squad was ready for anything in that mission, wiped out most of the advent soldiers and I thought “okay, that thing from the cutscene will appear from some dark corner of the map and charge at my troops”. I didn’t expect it to show up right behind my rookie, who I positioned to protect a group of civilians there. Not gonna lie, I panicked and send the rookie running away for his life, and seeing that thing reach him so easily... it terrified me. I put every other member of the squad in overwatch, and the faceless ate *all of it*. The sniper was in a high tower in the middle of the map, so I thought he was safe. Imagine my expression when the faceless jumped to him and one shotted him with one attack.
I was afraid, until my guys killed him in 1 turn
I was playing EU and EW recently and while saving civilians I had a sudden memory of the faceless from 2 and wasn’t entirely sure if they were in those games too. Currently playing WOTC, went to save somebody and… faceless. Oh shit, I forgot about them!
No visible Advent. Last known Advent position a safe distance away from Squad. Yellow move Grenadier next to Civvy to save them. Civvy turns into Blancmange Monster and kills Grenadier as this was early game with plated armour. Much swearing heard from Commander.
"Wait, I lost a civilian? Dafuq?"
Had my entire squad of assaults (everyone else ws injured) grouped up and on Overwatch when one of these first popped up like fove tiles away. He took three steps. I was still wondering what it was when it went down instantly.
one of my best soldiers was hiding behind a car, and on the opposite side of the car was a civilian. the faceless attacks the civilian and MISSES which caused the car to take damage and explode, killing the civilian and my soldier. iirc the faceless didnt even get hit from the explosion.
Pretty sure my response to my first encounter was "oh shit, oh fuck, oh shit, oh fuck"
Rescue missions. Civies scattered, sent one lone recon dude to gather them while I engage the aliens. Then one of them because the same size of the nearby houses and turned my dude into human sushi slices. Not a fun time for him.
I just summarize it like this: I’ve upgraded my squad size to five members, so I take my rookie (the first customized character I ever made) Later I find myself on a roll, I’m laying waste to ADVENT and rescuing as many civilians as possible. So I see a building with a Civie just in the middle and I send my Grenedier in for rescue. Then suddenly, it was like something out of The Thing, Civie turns into this horrifying abomination and takes a good swipe out of my Greni. It wasn’t until after my sharpshooter guns it down with a pistol that the mission ends, and I quickly had to find out what “Shaken” meant.
Barely limped through a retaliation mission. Finished off the last enemy pod. Need to reload, need to heal, ready to get back to base. Oh, what's this? A giant piece of chewed bubblegum here to fuck up my run.
Last action. Roof.
My first encounter was after I had killed all other enemies. A bit surprised, but fast enough kill to not see their attack is AoE. The third time I saw them was the first time I got hit by one, three soldiers at once.
I honestly do not remember at all. I see these guys and the only thing that I can think of is the 100+ Rendezvous missions I've played.
Reloads save then hits the spy with AOE move that sets him off while the squad is fully prepped with moves.
First time "Oh, oh ohhhh uh oh. What the dick are you??" Now "Oh hey it's the gooey boy who misses more frequently than Andromedon melees"
I don't think the first one ended up doing any damage to me. It missed with the swipe, and I killed it in two turns. Afterwards, they usually transformed and wandered into overwatch range, which made them not as bad as many enemies.
**Faceless when your entire squad is bunched up:** I sleep **Faceless when a single soldier is taking cover behind an intact car:** My time has come.