Sectopod hitpoints messed up?

[Ted]

On a terror mission I got 3 sectopods and a bunch of ethereals.  On the first sectopod I kept shooting and shooting it, hitting with LOTs of heavy plasma rounds, and it wouldn't drop.  Finally when I hit it with a blaster bomb it died.  The next sectopod I nailed it with 3 alien grenades as well as a bunch of heavy plasma fire, and still it didn't drop.  Once I finally had my blaster bomb reloaded I nuked it and it died. 

On the last sectopod I nailed it again and again and again with heavy plasmas, 2 alien grenades, (I was starting to run low), and still it lived.  When I nuked it with a blaster bomb it died along with 3 civilians.

Someone might want to take a look at how damage to the sectopods is being calculated.

Ted

[Warboy1982]

that's just how sectopods are. they have insane amounts of armour and health, and they are highly resistant to most forms of damage, including plasma and high explosive.
if you're playing with TFTD damage rules, your only hope is flanking them.

[CoolKid]

On a terror mission I got 3 sectopods and a bunch of ethereals.  On the first sectopod I kept shooting and shooting it, hitting with LOTs of heavy plasma rounds, and it wouldn't drop.  Finally when I hit it with a blaster bomb it died.  The next sectopod I nailed it with 3 alien grenades as well as a bunch of heavy plasma fire, and still it didn't drop.  Once I finally had my blaster bomb reloaded I nuked it and it died. 

On the last sectopod I nailed it again and again and again with heavy plasmas, 2 alien grenades, (I was starting to run low), and still it lived.  When I nuked it with a blaster bomb it died along with 3 civilians.

Just use blaster launcher and don't bother to use another weapons because mostly u can't penetrate his armor. One blaster bomb for one sectopod i think is enough if u hit them IN THE FACE!

[Solarius Scorch]

Just use blaster launcher and don't bother to use another weapons because mostly u can't penetrate his armor. One blaster bomb for one sectopod i think is enough if u hit them IN THE FACE!

Ooooooor you can you the Heavy Laser.

[CoolKid]

Ooooooor you can you the Heavy Laser.

Heavy laser beat sectopod? Are you serious? I haven't tried it before. Because i never use heavy laser (*Liiieeeessssss*)

I guess i should try that. Thx for info.

[Align]

Well, I had a personal mod that gave the heavy laser autoshot capability and landed almost on top of 4 Sectopods in a downed terror ship mission. They were handily dealt with.
In hindsight I probably shouldn't have given the heavy laser autoshot capability...

[Brian]

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Sectopod#Notes breaks this down pretty well if you haven't read it.  The "Alien Stats" page may also be useful.

TL;DR: "a Sectopod is immune to standard grenades, and almost immune to Alien Grenades... From the front, the Laser Rifle, Heavy Plasma and Heavy Laser will on average take 22, 18 and 4 hits for a kill. From the back it is 6, 5 and 2 hits respectively."

[Ted]

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Sectopod#Notes breaks this down pretty well if you haven't read it.  The "Alien Stats" page may also be useful.

TL;DR: "a Sectopod is immune to standard grenades, and almost immune to Alien Grenades... From the front, the Laser Rifle, Heavy Plasma and Heavy Laser will on average take 22, 18 and 4 hits for a kill. From the back it is 6, 5 and 2 hits respectively."

This is when it sucks to land at a terror city and waiting right outside the aircraft are 2 sectopods, (and a couple ethereals waiting for opportunity shots).  It's danged hard to flank them when you are coming down the ramp 2x2.

Ted

[Solarius Scorch]

*ahem* Someone hasn't been reading reports on their desk!

"The robot is sturdily constructed with powered armor capable of resisting most forms of attack, in particular plasma weapons.  However, the sensing circuitry seems particularly vulnerable to laser weapons."

This is when it sucks to land at a terror city and waiting right outside the aircraft are 2 sectopods, (and a couple ethereals waiting for opportunity shots).  It's danged hard to flank them when you are coming down the ramp 2x2.

Yeah, it sucks.

[Ted]

This is funny.  Last night I was playing along and doing pretty good on my latest game, (first game in 4 years), and it was getting kind of late so when a terror mission popped up for some city in Nigeria I think, so I decided to skip it.  The council loved me, and money was pouring in, so I figured who cares if I lose Nigeria.   The same thing happened a little later for some other small county city and I skipped it as well.

Imagine my surprise when the game pops up and says I lost because the council lost faith in me.  Luckily for me we have auto-save.  So I go back and reload the autosave game and do the terror mission.

Boy was I thrilled when the doors opened and right in front of me is a Sectopod and an Ethereal Leader.  I had 16 troops loaded with a variety of gauss rifle types, plus some rocket launchers.  I figured every weapon I had at the sectopod and didn't scratch it.

Then to make things more fun, I reloaded the game and tried again with my Psi guy who mind controls the Ethereal Leader who has some fancy fusion AOE gun.  That takes about 10% of the sectopod's HPs.    Yay.  Then, after firing, I decide to move the EL to cover.  He turns to the right, and sure enough there is another sectopod there.    He moves around and I can see 2 more EL's and and Ethereal Soldier.

Wow, things aren't looking good for the home team.

So what do I do?  I go out and google how to kill a sectopod.  And in an interesting turn of fate I find this thread, which I started 4 years ago when I must have gotten the exact same mission. 
Life can be funny some times.

Ted

P.S. This time around I don't have any blaster bombs, I don't have a single laser canon, (gauss had been doing pretty well for me so far).  And I have to win this mission or it's game off.

[7Saturn]

Well, there's a huge difference between not even showing up at all and first landing there, then taking off immediately. So if push comes to shove, land there, and then just go home. Cheaper on personnel and negative points.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Blaster bomb and heavy laser or tank laser are the best ways to kill sectopods in vanilla, but there are at least ten other ways to take them down--only some of these require patience:

1.) stun bomb
2.) heavy plasma auto shot or plasma hovertank to the back
3.) fusion hovertank
4.) incendiary damage -- especially with autocannon
5.) laser rifle to the back
6.) hit it repeatedly with large rockets, tank rockets, or high explosives
7.) if you have more than one sectopod: get between them. They may miss you and hit each other.
8.) mind control it and have it shoot itself (might not work in OXC but works in vanilla)
9.) stun rod
10.) put a few soldiers/tanks near it and try to convince aliens to use blaster, stun, or grenades on the group + sectopod (if you don't have the tech to use them)

On beginner difficulty, they are much easier to kill. Weapons such as laser pistols, proximity grenades, and heavy cannons can beat them. You can also use a mind probe to check if you're doing any damage at all.

[7Saturn]

7.) if you have more than one sectopod: get between them. They may miss you and hit each other.
8.) mind control it and have it shoot itself (might not work in OXC but works in vanilla)

But the combination works superbly. Take one to shoot the other. Even if the other isn't going down right away, there's a decent chance that it will reaction fire. And then, during the aliens turn, it's very likely, that it will shoot »your« Sectopod (again). If your MC-Guy is good, that's one of the safest way. But once you have reached the required level of Psi, you shouldn't have a big problem with them anyways. For one thing, you can always MC it and then blast its back with your own guys, without any fear of reprisal...

[The Reaver of Darkness]

And if you can't kill it but you can control it, turn on psi-capture.

[Ted]

This reminds me, I've never learned the details of how psi works.  For example my main psi guy has a 100 strength, and a 45 skill.  He is able to fairly easily capture the Ethereal Leaders, but he has never been able to capture a sectopod.  When I check it with a mind probe it says the sectopod has a pstrength of 108, but no skill.  What's that mean for now easily my psi guy can mind control him?  Is 108 high enough that my 100 plus 45 skill will never succeed?

Ted