Destroying a cyber disc

[sergeant Zael]

Hello fellow commanders , i have a question about Cyber discs.
So my first terror mission all of the sectoids are eliminated and the only one is left is a pesky cyber disc, so i fired rockets on him, i throwed grenades on him, and an entire gas station exploded around him, the cyber disc is on fire yet he is not down, so what needs to be done  to eliminate it?

my entire unit is almost down i am left with three soldiers and two of them are panicked , so i don't want to abort the mission because of one cyberdisc, any suggestions ?

[Arthanor]

Large rockets is the usual vanilla answer. High explosive packs can also work, but those are risky. If you have them, repeated fire from laser weapons can do it too. Or you might even just wait a few turns out of sight. If it is on fire, it could well die soon.

[Phoenix7786]

Your conventional ballistic weaponry can also do the trick, but it'll be like cutting down a tree with a butter knife.

[Countdown]

Stun rod FTW. 

PS - That will probably get you killed, but I actually did that once through dumb luck. It was stopped right in front of me and didn't kill me so I stunned it. Took 2 hits I think (playing on beginner).

[sergeant Zael]

Thank you for your replies, so cyber discs are that difficult ? with three soldiers left should i abort the mission ?
And use ballistics and used all of my explosives 

[Countdown]

They're not that hard with better guns, but regular rifles will take a lot of shots. Three guys can do it just fine though; I wouldn't abort, especially with only one left.

If you do have stun rods you might actually want to give that a try. Hide around a corner near it so you're close at the start of your turn. Then go up and stun it. Twice should knock it out. The key is getting close and not getting shot on its turn or from reaction fire.

[Phoenix7786]

Welcome to X-com, by the way! We're happy to have you!

[sergeant Zael]

They're not that hard with better guns, but regular rifles will take a lot of shots. Three guys can do it just fine though; I wouldn't abort, especially with only one left.

If you do have stun rods you might actually want to give that a try. Hide around a corner near it so you're close at the start of your turn. Then go up and stun it. Twice should knock it out. The key is getting close and not getting shot on its turn or from reaction fire.

Well my only soldier that was not panicked got killed by the cyberdisc and the other fled to the skyranger in panic, they even got panicked in the sky ranger itself  .
so that was a failure.

Welcome to X-com, by the way! We're happy to have you!

Thank you very much Phoenix7786 , it's very kind of you.

[Phoenix7786]

We're all very kind here. By all means ask questions, pick our brains. No such thing as dumb questions here (my post history is full of those) and no shame in newb questions as a fresh-faced player.

[Boltgun]

Heavy cannons with AP do damage them, even if it does not work instantly. Autocannons with incendiary in auto shot are guaranteed damage afaik.

Anyway, failing a terror mission is not the end unless you did terribly with your UFO hunt.

[7Saturn]

so cyber discs are that difficult ?

Well, it depends. On beginners level, they should be killable. Wait 'till you see Sectopods... 

with three soldiers left should i abort the mission ?

Depends also on, if you are able to use alien weapons of a kind. Then I'd suggest going to get some from the corpses. But...

And use ballistics and used all of my explosives 

...that'd be an option anyways. It's a little bit harder, but should be doable. But there's always that possibility that... yes, that's x-com... =)

PS - That will probably get you killed,

I don't think so. Cyberdiscs only explode when dying, not when stunned. At least that's what I thought. Otherwise you would never catch a living one, but one does, occasionally.

[Arthanor]

Actually, you never catch a living one. The best you can do is a corpse by kIllinois it with explosives or stuning it (which kills it but prevents it from blowing up). The only way to get the UFOPaedia article on the live one is by interrogating aliens (can't remember if it's medic or engineer).

[7Saturn]

I was under the impression, that one can research a stunned (and therefore not dead and therefore living) Cyberdisc. That you can get that from medics as well, is true. But not the only way, you get research results about them.

[Arthanor]

As far as I know, you cannot capture a stunned cyberdisc. This is also stated on its UFOPaedia page

[Countdown]

I don't think so. Cyberdiscs only explode when dying, not when stunned.

Right, they don't explode when stunned, I only meant it "will probably get you killed" trying to get that close without being shot.

sergeant Zael, sorry my advice got you killed. If I had read your post closer I would have said to wait until the other two guys were done panicking before going after it. That way you'd have three guys to work together taking it down. I think morale goes up by 15 every time they panic, so eventually they would have been usable again.

***A note about the UFOPaedia article. It states that a stun bomb will set off the explosive reaction and only a stun rod is safe. But in OpenXCom (tested in the latest nightly) that is not true. You can use a stun bomb and it won't explode. So that's either a mistake in the UFOPaedia or a change that OXC made. If it was a change, then it was a good call. Why should it react differently to a stun bomb than stun rod?