Siren question - disabling head

When aiming at the Sirens head there is written, that disabling the head removes the ability to mind control.
Can someone please confirm this?

I`m too afraid to finde out the hard way :wink:

Yes it does
The turn AFTER the head is knocked out

Confirmed itā€™s true, disabling the head removes Siren mind control ability but if the situation you already got mind controlled, you have to kill the siren to remove the effect.

Strange, I got mindcontrolled, THEN disabled the head, the soldier was released out of mind control next round. :confused:

Yes it works like that.

Clarifying: Disabling head prevents mind control. However, if a unit is already under mind control, disabling head only takes affect the next turn. In other words the unit is still under mind control, but it is removed on the enemyā€™s next turn. Killing the siren removes mind control on that turn. However, the unit that was under mind control has no action points until the next turn. Either way the mind controlled unit is free from control.

1 Like

Thanks, apologize for my bad English.

But be careful, paralyzed siren keeps mind control. So Hera sniper doesnā€™t do the job.

@djoles77:
I experienced this already :slight_smile:

Disabling head removes 30 max willpower.
So if the Siren has 30 WP it canā€™t keep mind-control on its turn.
But if the Siren has 50 WP (it happened to me in a very special mission), you really have to kill it.

1 Like

This so to be clear, disable Siren head doesnā€™t disable Siren control. Check details, itā€™s not mentioned because it doesnā€™t.

But also I didnā€™t knew that Siren with head disabled had will forced to zero, it looks more like a bug because detail mention WP lost not WP max lowdown.

Details mention ā€œmax WP loss: 30ā€
So for Sirens with 30WP it is technically equivalent to force them to 0 (max WP now 0).
Disable head with a sniper (hopefully one shot with some perks), kill an other Pandoran and it will panic. Use a PDW guy with ā€œBiochemist perkā€ to make it panic until the end of times.

But for Sirens with 50WP their max falls to 20WP so they can still keep a mind-control (unless latest patches changed something).

That is a really important point! If you destroy the Head the mind controlled unit is IN THE NEXT round no more mind controlled.
That means if you have a priest which can make damage through his ability mind crush your unit will take damage! I just had this Situationā€¦

In my opinion Shooting the sirens head should therefore have the same Effekt like killing the siren. It make no sense that there is a difference.

Actually she still maintains her control up until HER turn, where she realize that ā€œoh sh*t, my head hurts - I canā€™t make this puppet to do what I wantā€. :slight_smile:

If all aliens will gain ability to heal their broken body parts (so Siren will be like regenerating Triton) it will make the difference, as she no longer will have disabled head and her Will Points cap wonā€™t be decreased and if she will stand in the mist (or any other alien nearby will somehow regenerate her WP), she will regain Will Points to still maintain control. At least this is how I see ā€œupgradedā€ aliens which I want to put in my balancing mod. :slight_smile:

1 Like

Uiā€¦ that would make sirens to the hardest enemies. In my opinion there must always be a realistic possibility / Chance to free the soldiers before they must shoot at their friends. Defeating the head is now the possibility. Killing the siren is due to armor and hitpoints currently no realistic possibility. This would be very frustrating. Hope your balancing mod provides the defenders of earth with a fair Chanceā€¦

Definitely. Few of my assumptions:

  • First of all Mind Control wonā€™t be such devastating as it is currently (not so inevitable).
  • It will show as a mutation for Sirens later on. So you will first meet Sirens who are only strong melee fighters. :slight_smile:
  • There will be maximum cap for Siren number on the mission - at least for those missions who would be winnableā€¦ watch next point
  • I plan to put indicators to combat briefings to show that fight can be too hard for a single approach and will require retreat. Still participation in such combat will decrease strength of lair (citadel) which launched attack (if you will manage to thin enemy numbers).
  • Later on (really late in the game) almost any alien including Siren will be feared - of course there will be ways to deal with them, but you know - this is evolving threat. So extending campaign too long can lead to player loss if he wonā€™t have all the best weapons and fully trained soldiers (it still can be hard with those goals met). But donā€™t be afraid I plan to do so, that there will be time to upgrade and evolve on your own. Harder difficulties may decrease available time. :slight_smile:

So far my mind-controlled soldiers never did anything to my other guys after I disabled the sirenā€™s head, even if they are technically still mind-controlled. So for all intents and purposes, the control ends when the head is disabled.

Thats correct but if you do a mind Crush with your priest in that current turn your soldiers is still an enemy (for the game mechanics) and will get damage. Only if you Kill the siren your soldier is no more an enemy.
Thats the difference.

The more general difference is your soldier get Will decrease from enemies killed. Thereā€™s no point to trivialize, and make head destroyed stop control.

The tail can be a better target, and torso can be an option. To stop a control sometimes Siren Will at zero is possible. Have your soldier Will at zero and then panic is another option to manage a control. Panic with Priest skill in another option for a soldier controlled. Far Cry will allow control most soldier controlled. Sometimes a Tech can be a good offering for enemy control. Also you can give up Assault RF and unequip weapons. A soldier controlled with a Heal kit equipped seems put it in priority its use and itā€™s still better than a shotgun shoot. Overwatch will be avoided by a Siren, sometimes it can be useful. Thereā€™s more but I donā€™t remind right now.

Then translation error in my language, or not for all Sirens, couldnā€™t test clearly yet (without tedious save/reload).

EDIT: Translation error, but yeah max lowered.