XCOM 2 Tips: Chryssalid Tactics Guide (How to Kill Chryssalids for Beginners)

Welcome to my series of tips for XCOM 2. Today we'll talk about how to kill chryssalids, what their abilities and strengths are, their weaknesses, and how battlefield tactics for handling them more easily.

I'll continue uploading these tutorial videos with XCOM 2 tips assuming there is viewer interest. If you're interested in seeing a particular topic covered, please let me know in the comments.

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XCOM 2: The Story So far - Earth has changed. Twenty years have passed since world leaders offered an unconditional surrender to alien forces. XCOM, the planet's last line of defense, was left decimated and scattered. Now, in XCOM 2, the aliens rule Earth, building shining cities that promise a brilliant future for humanity on the surface, while concealing a sinister agenda and eliminating all who dissent from their new order.

Only those who live at the edges of the world have a margin of freedom. Here, a force gathers once again to stand up for humanity. Always on the run, and facing impossible odds, the remnant XCOM forces must find a way to ignite a global resistance, and eliminate the alien threat once and for all.

Key Features:
• XCOM ON THE RUN: Take command of the Avenger, an alien supply craft converted to XCOM's mobile headquarters. New open-ended gameplay lets you decide where to guide your strike team, how to grow popular support, and when to combat enemy counter-operations.
• RECRUIT RESISTANCE FIGHTERS: Five soldier classes, each with its own skill tree, let you create specific soldiers for your tactical plan.
• TACTICAL GUERRILLA COMBAT: New gameplay systems offer more tactical flexibility in combat. Use concealment to ambush enemy patrols. Loot enemies for precious gear and artifacts. Rescue VIPs and save fallen comrades by carrying them to the extraction point.
• A NEW BREED OF ENEMY: A diverse cast of enemies from powerful new alien species to the ADVENT, enforcers of the alien regime, offer a distinct tactical challenge.
• RESEARCH, DEVELOP AND UPGRADE: Configure and build rooms on the Avenger to give XCOM new capabilities on the battlefield. Use your Scientists and Engineers to research, develop and upgrade weapons and armor to fit your preferred tactics.
• EACH MISSION IS A UNIQUE CHALLENGE: Go on missions around the world, from wildlands to the heart of the alien-controlled megacities, to the depths of alien installations. There are virtually infinite combinations of maps, missions and goals.
• CREATE CUSTOM MODS: Community-focused tools allow you to create your own campaign, tactical gameplay, aliens, classes, strategy game features, and share within the Steam Workshop.
• ENGAGE IN HEAD-TO-HEAD MULTIPLAYER: Mix-and-match squads of humans and aliens and battle head-to-head on randomly-generated maps.

According to Firaxis Statistics, Rangers have the most kills of any class. They are followed closely by sharpshooters while specialists were dead last.

[azurepai]

Imho the meanest chryssalids are still the ones from the original X-Com:
1 - A whole load of Time Units, meaning they could walk long distances
2 - Very hard to kill
3 - Their melee attacks would instantly kill. No matter how much HP or armor their victim had.
4 - Killed victims turned into zombies, which were also tanky as heck
5 - Zombies would turn into full-fledged chryssalids unless you could kill them with incendiary ammo
6 - Original X-Com didn't have pods so these guys would be roaming the map and attacking civilians from turn 1
7 - It was considered viable to shoot a civilian so they wouldn't be attacked by a nearby chryssalid

[gamester]

I'm just glad that there's no Cryssalid King/Queen. *That* would be absurdly terrifying.

[jackmanleblanc]

3:33 okay that overwatch shot and kill was really freaking cool.

[dinosaurfan]

Honestly, these Chryssalids are so much easier to deal with than the Enemy Unknown ones ever were, mostly because of how late they're introduced in comparison to Enemy Unknown and the fact that the corpse doesn't turn into a zombie that could potentially kill your troops before it turned into a Chryssalid. Sure, they spawn more now to compensate, but I find it just as hard to kill the spawner before a single Chryssalid spawns as it is to kill the zombies in Enemy Unknown, and the zombies could actually do stuff. Granted they're probably easier to me because I grew to hate them so much that I just learned most tactics that were good at killing them and adapted those tactics to XCOM 2

[WaterWolf]

Still not as bad as the 1994 xcom chryssalids. They could run from outside spotting range to you and kill you. Not to mention that they never seemed to die but go unconscious, but that could be me.

[xrobledo]

my chryssalid story was from x-com enemy unknown, the mid story mission and my team was rushed by chryssalids right from the front door. only two men survived out of a six man group. i dont know how but those two completed the mission without getting hit at all and killing every thing on their own. the best sniper and heavy i have ever seen.

[Nope-htcc]

I didn't play any previous xcoms other than 2 I thought
Why not go veteran
Mission 5
Achievement Unlocked
Heroes of the resistance
In case u don't know that means everyone on the squad dies

[zander]

Your videos are super helpful! I just started playing XCOM2 and with no previous XCOM exp these videos are great. I have played other games similar like Shadowrunner but there's so much more to this game I love it!

[DigitalRRS]

That triple takedown at the end was so damn satisfying

[MrBnjjackson]

This is the one great use in the game I've found for bladestorm with a buff melee ranger

[davidabonyi]

How to kill chryssalids? Put two rangers/templars with bladestorm adjacent to eachother in front of them. Any bug coming to attack will trigger BOTH bladestorms, dying before doing any damage. The other bugs will charge and die the same way.
Assasin Katana will also go a long way helping you to kill them with one action.

[ShadowHunter]

Last night I had a nightmare about chrysallids today I'm recommended this video...

[zeeger]

Fire is your best friend against Chryssalids, they cannot use their melee attack while burning, effectively rendering them useless. Fire also does increased damage to them i think like 6 to 8 bonus.

[orangesoda]

Hey, just want to make sure you know that you're the reason I was able to get good enough to beat my first legendary ironman. Big pp to you.

[Backseatsman]

Chrysallids in XCOM 2 I feel like got nerfed into the ground (no pun intended) but they appear so late in the game that they aren't a threat also since the game usually shows you via camera where there borrowing you just set up overwatch in that general area. They should of buffed them and made killed soldiers and civis turn into zombies outright on their turn plus their burrowing ability.

[vc]

Wished I'd thought of recording it, but I had a laugh one time. Managed to activate 2 pods of these guys, so I ran my Ranger up front and used the others to dent their health as much as they could. Come next turn, 6 still alive Chryssalids all charge the one Ranger standing close to of them die consecutively to Bladestorm, most enemies I've ever killed during an enemy turn in one game.

[nil]

interesting. my strategy for dealing with cryssalids heavily involves flamethrowers on my e.x.o suit equipped grenadiers for area denial and incendiary grenades for softening them up. Alternatively, i sometimes use acid bombs/grenades against them to good effect. I also equip my rangers with magnetic shotguns and my grenadiers with magnetic autocannons with the shredder ability and talon rounds (or dragon rounds) for an even deadlier effect.

[aboithatsaboi]

i once had 3 chryssalids surround my ranger because i wanted to focus on the gatekeeper but all 3 chryssalids missed

[brettmitchell]

I’ve played a 160 hours in this game and never thought of evacuating an injured soldier and continuing the fight. 🙄🤔

[trainermac]

I have to agree with what you said about blade storm that it can beat them up pretty bad Andy i never would have thought to use the hellweave vest against them