X-COM: Enemy Unknown - Will and Psi power question

The Game Room
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Warning! This thread will contain spoilers for the mid/late game!

Ok, I have gotten to the point where I have a pretty kick ass squad and have them equipped with plasma weapons, the Titan armor, etc. All research is finished, I created the Foundry and finished all the research for that, a Firestorm ship with plasma weapons or better in every port, etc. All the Officer Training School upgrades have been purchased, including the Will bonus.

I have developed a Psi lab and begun testing my soldiers. The ones with less than 70-ish will and no Psi skills have been rotated out of the lineup and dismissed. I have 3 soldiers with Psi skills and 80+ Will, the rest with various will scores ranging from 50’s to 70’s. The Gallop Chamber is built but I can’t use it. My current mission is “develop your soldiers Psi skills” or something similar.

I don’t want to look up walkthroughs and get major spoilers, I just want some specific information on how to proceed.

  1. I have a few soldiers that are on max level with 70+ will but no Psi abilities (testing negative). Should I scrap these guys or is their high will enough even with no Psi powers?
  2. I am in the process of recruiting rookies (who become squaddies right away thanks to the Officer Training School upgrade). These newbs have decent bonuses to Will when they level up. They typically spawn with between 45 and 55 Will, and maybe 1 in 5-7 have Psi powers when I test them as soon as they arrive. If I let them level up once or twice and boost their will, would I get more Psi powers out of them or is that determined at creation?
  3. What exactly do you need to use the Gallop Chamber? One soldier with very high Will (my highest is 86), or a bunch with Psi powers, or what are the criteria? About 6-7 of my soldiers are on Psi rank 3 but I can’t use the Chamber yet and the game won’t tell me exactly what I need to do.
    I am currently in the process of training a bunch of rookies. It helps that I got 2-3 of the escort missions recently, which have all or mostly all Thin Men in them (good Psi target practice without being too dangerous). But I’d like some advice on whether I’m on the right track with trying to get ALL soldiers to have Psi abilities or if you just need high will on all of them.
  4. Early on one of my scientists warned me that using explosive weapons reduces the amount of usable gear I can take away from missions. But unless you use the Arc Thrower to stun aliens, the crap they are carrying explodes on death anyway. Am I missing something? Unless the battle takes place on an alien ship I don’t see much difference between shooting and using grenades/rocket launchers to kill aliens.
  5. Is there a point to using any armor other than the Titan? I don’t really need to fly and the mind shield armor seems like it would be kind of useless unless you have soldiers with really low will?

This is a great game, and I really like the way they updated it to keep it fresh instead just making a clone of the original with better graphics. (I have posted about a similar game, UFO: Extraterrestials, which is basically the original with better graphics - once you download a few mods). I am having a blast so far, and intend to replay it again with the Slingshot expansion.

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#1: I never bothered to even select for soldiers with high will, so yes, you’re fine unless you’re playing on some sort of crazy difficulty. It’s really not necessary to “game” the game at all on normal.

#2: No idea.

#3: Dunno; I had assumed it was just a soldier with maxxed out Psi ranks. That’s all it seemed to want from me.

#4: You lose weapon fragments if you use explosives, and weapon fragments are used for practically everything. (Well, exageration, but they’re used in a lot of stuff).

#5: Ghost armor is REALLY NICE. Actually, so is Archangel, because it’s instant high ground and unobstructed line of sight for a sniper. Honestly, Titan Armor is the one I find a little bit…well…not pointless, but it’s the armor I put on guys who “don’t need anything better.”

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There’s an armor that will boost a soldiers psi ability significantly. That might help you activate the Gallop Chamber.

Also, aside from the weapon fragments, explosives tend to destroy the alien corpses, which are useful as research items, manufacturing components, and an extra source of cash on the black market.

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  1. If you can kill psionic enemies in two turns or less, you don’t need high Will. You only need high Will for defense to stop them using Mind Control, and you’ve got a full turn to kill the psionic alien before the mind controlled soldier can start shooting you.
  2. The chance is determined when you test them. I think the bonus from Will gains outweighs the penalty from high rank, but I’m not sure.
  3. The Volunteer must be wearing Psi armor.
  4. As mentioned, explosives destroy weapon fragments, which you need for research.
  5. I use Titan armor, Ghost armor and Psi armor. Ghost armor makes your troops faster and more mobile, and lets them turn invisible. This works really well with Squad Sight, both to get the snipers into position and to spot for them without being detected. Heavies use it well too, since they can fire once with Bullet Storm and then cloak.
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I now have 5-6 soldiers with maxed out Psi Rank (but none of them were hired after the Will upgrade), still have no solders capable of using the Gallop Chamber. Maybe once I get some of the newer guys with high will promoted a bit more…
Also will try equipping the testees with Psi armor. I didn’t think about that.

I didn’t think about using archangel armor for snipers, that is a good idea. My current snipers are pretty badass already with squad sight and double tap. Being able to fly around the map and get a greater line of sight would make them even more effective. I am also considering using ghost armor for the heavies.

I am still having a bit of a tough time with Ethereals Psi attacks. I’ve managed to kill them so far, although I’ve taken much damage from their mind attacks.
Last night my guys surrounded an ethereal and he mind controlled one of them (65ish will). I managed to kill the ethereal without too much trouble, but it was the last alien, and when I went to the mish recap screen the mind controlled soldier apparently died when the ethereal did. I’d assumed when you killed the ethereal he would be released, but no. So it’s reload time.

Didn’t really notice that I get no weapon fragments when using explosives. I tend to only use those when I can hit 3 or more aliens with one blast anyway. So it won’t be a big deal to use less grenades and rocket launchers.

Thanks for answering my questions, this has been very helpful! Now on to save the world…

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  1. Miller is right. You must put psi armor on one of your team to use the Gollop Chamber. Make it your highest psi.

  2. Mind shields grant +30 will. You need ethereal corpses to build them.

  3. Be careful with archangel armor on indoor missions. It is possible to get stuck to the ceiling.