Sure, they only use them at close range but it’s basically a one shot kill.
I’m pretty sure they do 80 damage (no armour taken into account) on hit. Then 80 the next turn, 70, 60, etc the turns after. Since your soldiers usually have 160-200 health that’s 1-2 turns to save them. If you don’t have any med packs, or they’re too far away, or your poisoned guy is already damaged. Then you’re dead.
At least their OP weapons have to deal with armour.
One thing that should be done at the start of each mission is to examine each enemy as they are discovered. To see which weapons they have, so you can decide how close to get and still be safe.
Squad gear set up is important as well. Everyone in the squad has two med packs. One in a ready slot and one in the pack.
Yes, the poison is insanely powerful and yes is should be dialed down some, but allot of the damage can be avoided or dealt with.
Sure. I play exactly as you describe, though usually with just one medpack per soldier. I rarely run out. It’s more when I’m at 160 or less hp and get destroyed in one hit that bothers me.
Also, for the most part I do avoid them just fine. It’s just when they come round a corner after another enemy has spotted you and you don’t get a chance to see them while they don’t have to close any distance. Or when you’ve disabled their gun and they run half a map and still spray. (I’m pretty sure it’s a 1 AP action… They seem to use it after running further than they can with their guns, which are 2AP).
I feel like a reasonable poison number would be 30-40. Maybe up to 60 if they removed the on-hit damage too. Considering it’s supposed to be an over time status it would just make sense for it to be much lower so that people don’t cure it immediately or lose.
Technically, to me anyway all the soldiers are covered head to toe in armor. The helmets, I’d have to assume allows the lower face and neck to be exposed. From the cloud of green that surrounds the head I imagine it’s airborne. But the distance they travel and still are able to attack or perform anything is just something else about the imbalance of the game.
Yeah. Unless your guy is missing a helmet or is wearing an open helmet then they could be presumed to be wearing gas masks. Wouldn’t mind nearly as much if they spat 80 acid damage. Acid is weak since it’s a flat 10 damage per turn. Wouldn’t mind if poison stacked that way too and 80 poison damage was 80 damage over 8 turns. Honestly though, I think acid needs a buff.
I always felt their movement distance was pretty fair but I do pretty much max out the speed of every soldier I have, so maybe it’s just fair because my guys can move way too far as well.
I think the original design for Phoenix Point was one that saw soldiers dying rather frequently. The aliens are tough, and fighting back the virus is supposed to feel dreadful. You will take losses, and a lot of them.
At least that’s the way it’s SUPPOSED to be. In reality, replacing a soldier is costly af and nobody wants to deal with soldiers getting KIA. The game becomes a frustrating mess that leaves us rage quitting if we allow our troops to constantly fall to the aliens’ overwhelming abilities.
That being said, the poison really shouldn’t be a problem dude. You have snipers right? Disabling the Arthron heads is really simple, and if you pop a med kit as soon as you become poisoned, you should be fine. If your troops are falling in ONE turn because of poison, then it’s time to start investing in some strength points.
You need to adapt to the aliens as much as they adapt to you. Trust me, if the devs read all these complaints and “dial down” the arthron poison and the siren mind control and the Chiron range and this and that, it will basically feel like a cake walk with NO challenge.
As I said, it’s not a problem most of the time. It’s when unseen enemies come around corners and spit poison, or when they lumber half a map then spit. Yeah, I could survive an extra turn maybe if I put more than 8 extra points into strength but that’s really not worth it. The poison simply does too much damage. It also doesn’t help at all if my soldier is already damaged.
It’s the combination of ignoring armour, doing immediate damage and then doing massive DOT afterwards.
My snipers usually have better targets than the heads too. Like the overpowered machine guns that do 50 damage a shot and shred armour. Most crabmen have shields too and it makes hitting their heads pretty difficult unless you flank them from their right or get quite close.
If the devs read all the complaints and changed things then the game would be made easier and that would make it more fun. We’re talking about the easiest difficulty levels here. If you want a challenge then go try to play legendary difficulty without using any OP ability combos like sniper/heavy unload, berzerker strip grenade launcher, full infiltrator squad, etc.
The only reason people are finding the game easy at the moment is an over-reliance on borderline exploits. Every map should be possible to complete with rookie soldiers and basic gear. Especially if the game was designed with the idea of soldier deaths being acceptable. It’s just not though.
Heavy armor appears to offer protection against poison. My heavy has resisted multiple poison attacks.
Aside from that, take Miller’s advice from The Expanse: watch your doors and corners. If you don’t know what’s around the bend, don’t get too close without multiple soldiers overwatching it.