How to fight ghosts

[hairybert]

It's my first XCom Files run. As I soon learned and as discussed elsewhere, it's very painful to play XCF as a newbie without being spoiled, so I've read a lot in the wiki.

I'm on Commendation II, my standard weapons are BlackOps Sniper rifle, BlackOps Shotgun mostly (started a bit experimenting with Light Cannon and Thrasher Heavy Shotgun lately). Now I got a "Ghosts! in the Asylum!" mission, which took me by surprise.

From looking at
https://xcf.trigramreactor.net/master/article/STR_BUG_EYE_GHOST
standard guns with kinetic damage don't make sense (which I also learned the hard way). Apparently, Psi weapons would be by far the best choice (which I don't have). So what are good weapons for fighting those ghosts (are there any)? Maybe Tasers for dealing electric damage (but with the disadvantage of their very small clip)? Also, what is the "DAMAGE" damage type? (This one is listed with 100% in the wiki.)

[Amoebka]

Tasers, electric clubs, flame gloves, lasers and sonics if you have any.

Anti-ghost PSI weapons will start appearing after you resolve the initial few ghost missions.

[Juku121]

Also, what is the "DAMAGE" damage type?

It's the 'special' damage type, used by a few specific weapons like sanity damage during certain missions, dog barks, Avatar 'tentacles', and a couple of others.

[hairybert]

thanks for your answers. Indeed the mission appears to be doable by equipping everyone with a taser pistol + a few extra clips, since the ghosts are not very dangerous, apparently. Also have a single flame glove which I gave to my best psi person (psi strength 94). The mission feels completely different from everything before. (Variety is always good!)

btw psiclones don't work well for me. electric clubs are much better.

[psavola]

FWIW, the asylum mission is one of the best opportunities to train your agents on the side, because the ghosts in there won't hurt you. The most important thing is to keep track of all the bug-eyes so they don't wake up and start wandering around. I usually pile them up in a couple of places or blast the remains with a grenade.

Melee them with stun sticks (training melee is the most crucial thing to make most agents ready for martial arts training), use pepper spray on the bug eyes to get bravery (if you have unlocked pepper spray), etc. You can also ineffectively shoot a couple of them if you need firing practise. You can also preprime a couple of grenades at mission briefing and throw them at the big ghosts at turn 1 (so not to mess you up if someone panics or gets stunned).

[Rag]

The first ghost mission is fun but I had a lot of difficulty in the next mission types

Spoiler:

How are you meant to deal with the Poltergeists? Using dogs and scouting drones didn't help as they had to be within range of their attacks to see them. In the end I had to wait until I got Laser Tanks before doing these missions to tank the hits as they searched for them

[Amoebka]

Their telekinetic stone throws or whatever it is deals kinetic damage, and not that much of it. Just wear liquidator armor or better and deduce their location by looking at where the shots come from. Klein bottle grenades have a very generous blast radius, and getting caught even on the very edge is deadly to ghosts because of their psi-damage vulnerability.

AI units are the best way, but you don't really need a laser tank. An outrunner or a large flying drone will suffice. They are not immune to throws, but they can survive them for a while.

[Rag]

Their telekinetic stone throws or whatever it is deals kinetic damage, and not that much of it. Just wear liquidator armor or better and deduce their location by looking at where the shots come from. Klein bottle grenades have a very generous blast radius, and getting caught even on the very edge is deadly to ghosts because of their psi-damage vulnerability.

AI units are the best way, but you don't really need a laser tank. An outrunner or a large flying drone will suffice. They are not immune to throws, but they can survive them for a while.

I never did make an Outrunner, it does look good but I was worried it couldn't survive being shot at a lot like tanks but if their armour is good enough for such attacks I should try them out next time I do a new game. It would definitely help to have something to soak up hits earlier on, thanks.

[hairybert]

Good idea to use that mission for training.
I didn't see this possibility as the ghosts made one of my soldiers run amok in their first turn. So I tried to get the mission done fast and efficiently.

A side note on training from the bugs thread
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=5047.msg166123#msg166123
Using a psi attack when the psi skill of the agent is still not unlocked does not contribute to training (neither first nor secondary stats)!

[Empiro]

The first Ghost mission is basically training. Deploy a full squad though. Take plenty of Tasers and you'll be fine. If you're patient, it's even a good melee training mission with stun batons.

Later missions require more planning. It's a good time to break out any laser weapons you might have collected. There's no better time to use them.

The Laser Tank makes these missions a cakewalk, but the Rocket Tank is good enough too, because nothing can hurt it.

[Solarius Scorch]

Got my first haunted house. After 2 attempts, I decided it's not worth it; it's doable with 16 people, but the losses would be too great. I can take the 50 points penalty.

Maybe I'll try in a year or so.

[psavola]

Unless you have lasers and preferably armors that can keep off those poltergeist flings (or a tank that can shrug off anything), I often want to get started with haunted farms. Far fewer enemies. And definitely keep off many of those investigation missions until you have such gear.