A thread for little questions

[BBHood217]

One more.  What's the best way to capture an ethereal?  I mean there has to be a better way than savescumming with cattle prods.

[Martin]

I think small launchers work. They are difficult to hit in melee, not so much with guns.

For guardians, just shoot them, they are tough enough to survive most guns and merely be stunned and do not bleed.

[greattuna]

One more.  What's the best way to capture an ethereal?

Lucky Star. Its damage is just that good.

That aside, we can take a look at your standard ethereal commander resistances (worst case):

0% choking: knockout grenades are no-go;
40% charm: bad touch requires melee, seduction will fail, and wand of peace is not strong enough;
50% daze: obviously, handles don't work that well, but there are plenty of other daze sources, like stun bombs, which will work well enough vs. ethereals. You'll need more than one though;
50% mind: very few sources of mind stun damage (namely, only lucky star and mental whip), but they both will work to some degree since they ignore armor;
70% electric: don't hit them with prods, use lassos instead;
100% bio: there's only one weapon IIRC that stuns with bio damage, that'd be impaler, but if you have it, it'll be even better than lucky star.

[BBHood217]

What's a good and convenient cutting melee weapon for killing stunned units as well as cutting up enemies in general?  I thought the ghost dagger was it, but it does mind damage so I'm not sure I can use it to instakill stunned units.

[ivandogovich]

Any weapon that does cutting damage should allow for a Coup de Grace (killing of a stunned enemy held in one hand with the melee weapon in the other).  Even a shiv works well.  Its 1x1, very fast (trains reactions), pretty accurate and great for melee training in general.  All my gals carry one.  As for guaranteed insta-kills with a cutting weapon?  The answer is, it varies.  Barbed dagger is nice for Strong Gals.  Axe, Saber, Tech Blade all good too.  Your results also depend on the enemy, their armor, resistances, and difficulty to hit.

[BBHood217]

So the ghost dagger can't do coup de graces?  Then I guess I better start carrying shivs.

[HT]

Soo, what's the easiest and fastest way to acquire Rare Earth elements? I'm at the starting months and I just noticed that the Pirate suits got a small buff at the expense of requiring said rare item, which I can't get right now.

Also, what's the difference between the Blackhat and the Pirate suit in your opinion? I would say they're more or less the same but the latter works slightly better for melee.

[Serpentium]

Cavern Hunts are the way to go for easy Rare Earth Elements. Go for [Our Culture] > [Survival] > [Animal Skinning] > [Cavern Hunting]. Make torches and javelins along the way once you research Survival so you can start cave hunting as soon as you get the tech.
Or...
If you want to spend money to get the REEs right away, just research [Visit Nearby Town] > [Call a Meeting] > [Our Culture] and hold on to one of your Rare Earth Elements. Once you reach Our Culture, research the Rare Earth Element so you can start buying them from the shop.

As for the differences between the Blackhat and Pirate outfit, I tend to go for the pirate suit for my high melee girls so they can get to bashing and capturing people for research. I use the Blackhat as my go to for everyday needs, since it gives a boost to many stats. And after that, I go for the rogue on High Bravery gals when I go on night missions, since it makes my gals just a bit harder to see for the AI.

[BBHood217]

I think the vibro blade has finally solved all my cutting problems.  It slices, it dices, it coup de graces, it's small enough for infiltrations (1x2), and it's usable underwater and in space.

But now I have a new problem: How do you deal with those seemingly unbreakable metal walls in the Bank Robbery and Raynerd missions?  Or are they really indestructible and alternate ways of getting inside are in fact the only ways?

[Marza]

With some proper digging equipment, those metal walls can be destroyed.

Spoiler:

Fusion torches are the acetylene welders in the Piratez world and can be used to cut through those walls. Mining lasers are just about powerful enough to work as well. If you want a giggle as well, try a nuclear demo charge or even a mininuke.

There are probably other methods as well and they'll all work against UFO hulls too.

[legionof1]

If you have a max Str gal and are willing to spend awhile hammers can break through both with good rolls thanks to the terrain dmg modifers.

[Dioxine]

Even more likely so if you give the gal a +strength armor or/and employ a Freak. Also, of course, high explosive and dynamite work on most walls due to their own terrain demolition modifiers.

[AngelicJoker]

Can anyone post some screenshots of their base placement around the globe?  I can never quite figure out how to cover all the major land masses.  I usually end up with gaps around northern Africa and a few in Europe/Asia.

[Ethereal_Medic]

My setup covers the most important regions for a decent coverage using hyperwave-decoders in every hideout.

Islands like hawaii can be target of interest for enemy bases. If you have almost all landmasses scanned at a 30min interval, you can't miss any movement across the globe.
Speaking of hawaii, my second enemy base was a mercenary base right on top of hawaii. Guess they needed a cozy holiday place instead of the cold and dry surface of mars.

The locations can vary considering where your first base is located. I prefer to start in europe (germany) and place the second base in north-america. This way I can ship around most areas with hot-environment. 3rd is usually russia/asia and 4th australia. 5th is south america, 6th for africa (the whole continent using the hyperwave decoder to it's fullest potencial) and the last 2 go to the poles.

[AngelicJoker]

That's almost exactly the same coverage I have on my map.  I guess I'll have to live with those gaps.