Hi all,

I just ran into a few Micronoid Aggregate. I've never been able to capture those alive, so I have a couple of questions about them.
1) How to catch a MA alive?
2) What tech do you miss when you won't capture a live MA?

1) Pray it's the last alien left alive, fire a couple of machine gun rounds into it and then hit it with stun grapples from various angles. It seems to need to be injured on harder settings in order to stun it.

2) You'll miss out on a LOT of new tech. I can't go into any more detail without spoiling the plot, but the Micronoid Aggregate is a pivotal plot point in the game.

Having said that, I'm sure you can complete the game without it, but you'll have a FAR harder time doing so.

Hmm... so kill all the aliens first, then try to stun the MA with a Stungrapple. I really don't like stungrapples, they run out of ammo very quickly. I'll bring a lot of those then.
I'll miss out a lot of tech?! Okay time to stun one of those babies.
Thanks for the swift reply, much appreciated.

Stun Grapples recharge, so you won't run out of ammos, and they can be quite a powerful sidearm! I always equip all agents with at least one, extremely effective in close quarters.
And yeah, you can't finish the game without a live micronoid, IIRC.

You don't really need them, but as I recall, they will give you Toxin clip type C, which is very powerful so if you rely on Toxiguns, it's worth getting them. I always went with the Devastator cannons instead.

You can always send a squad of consisting only of androids to the mission, since they are immune to psi attacks. Getting a live MA is a piece of cake then. The rest of the mission may be a problem though, depending on how far the aliens have moved up on the tech tree, how well you're equipped and how many androids you have.

This is just one way of course, there's a number of other successful approaches.

Thanks for all the comments, very cool.
I've been playing around with Stungrapples, but I don't like them very much. I've tried stunning poppers and hyperworms. They dropped down quite well, they are lower class aliens. But against antropods, skeletoids and the other higher class aliens, they don't do much. Of course I first wound the alien I want to stun first and then try to stun it, but to no avail. No matter how much I try, the sucker won't go down. I don't need a live antropod or live skeletoid, it's purely to get to know the weapon. But it does make me worry how the Stungrapple will fare against a Micronoid Aggregate and even worse; a Psimorph ( ). I mostly rely on Toxiguns, because a Devastator Cannon will most of the time kill a MA with one shot. I've always disliked Psi (Hey, I'm not an alien and Psi is an alien weapon. The grudge goes back two wars. )
Any thoughts on how to proceed?

Stun grapples - ah, brilliant weapons. They're the only stun weapon that'll work against micronoids. Gas doesn't affect them and Psi stun is useless on them because micronoids are THE top psi units in this game.

You need to understand how the grapples work. How much does the stun grapple do? 90 Stun wasn't it? Any alien you need to stun must have its health brought down to a level that's under twice that amount. That's about 180 hit points. Lots of aliens like the multiworm, micronoids, the megaspawn and the psimorphs have huge amounts of hitpoints.

I'd suggest firing the stun rounds into the micronoid right away, and shoot it with a weaker weapon such as a plasma gun until it stops moving (but still appears on the overhead map) (all the while firing the stun grapple as it recharges). If the mission doesn't end, have someone stand on top of it to keep it stunned, then quickly clear off the map.

The toxigun can be used, but I suggested using something weaker so that it doesn't knock off too much health.

Also, it isn't compulsory to leave the micronoids till the very end, however the reason for it is so that you can avoid losing the micronoid from critical wounds if it gets any from the attacks you performed on it.

Everything you do to capture a micronoid can also be used against the psimorphs. Only, psimoprhs also take on stun damage from stun grenades.

As suggested, use androids for the capture. You can bring in humans or hybrids, just keep them well away from the micronoids that you want to capture.

Note, against anthropods and skeletoids (and later on, human guards), the stun grapple stops working once they start wearing disrupter shields. The shield neutralises the attacks, basically. They will continue to work against unshielded enemies though.

- NKF

As for skeletoids and anthropods: stun grenades are your friends. I am not sure if you really need to wound them, as I recall the grenades are quite strong. I seem to remember that one could take a multiworm down quite quickly. I could be wrong, seeing as how it's been long since I captured a live multiworm. Of course, the stun grapple is still needed.

By the way, I abused Psi heavily, there's nothing like making the alien prime his grenade put it in the backpack and go kamikaze on his friends. Plus it's an easy way to collect personal disruptor shields if you're not using toxiguns like me.

Okay, I didn't know the Personal Disruptor Shield caught/neutralises all the shots from the Stungrapple. That explains a lot.
I've yet to encounter a few more Micronoid Aggregates, so I haven't had the opportunity to try and stun them.
Hope the aliens will send some my way pretty quick.
Thanks for the feedback guys. Thumbs up for you.

Oh, and I've always been able to complete the game without a live MA. Sometimes it was quite a struggle, but doable. I hope I'll get some more exciting tech. I can't believe I've never tried stunning a MA before. Stupid me. A game wich is 10 years old still holds sectrets for me.


Edit: typo's

Believe it or not, the only real tech you need to win this game is some transport capable of interdimensional travel (the Biotrans being the earliest - and most ideal) and the ability to research the alien buildings. Everything else is just a bonus of sorts.

You can find Micronoids in two locations in this game. The first alien building, and the green Bomber UFO.

- NKF

It's always about the bonusses, isn't it? Hehehe...
I've been hoping the aliens would send in another couple of bombers, but nothing sofar. So the first alien building do you say heh? Okay, off to the sleeping chambers! Thanks!

The first alien building is generally the best place to get them, but if you do miss it then, you're not out of luck. Yet.

Bombers become standard fare for the UFO fleet later on. In fact, if you are in the habit of wiping out the alien fleet on a regular basis, the Bomber frequently respawns at the start of the week. The ones that always respawn are the two capital ships. They're accompanied by either two medium sized ships or three probes. The bomber and an escort (or was it two bombers?) are common. If you leave the bomber alone, there's a good chance it'll pop into the city.

So you have plenty of chances until you destroy the command centre. That halts the reconstruction of UFOs every week.

- NKF

Hokay, I have been playing Apocalypse for a veeeery long time a few weeks ago. Let's just say that by the time I beat the game, it was October in game time. Due to problems in the game (I lost Marsec early on) I couldn't destroy the aliens, so I began slowly constructing my fleet of Biotrans's. Anyway, not to go on telling the entire story (and there's plenty to tell, believe me), I had a long time to study the aliens and their craft. Anyway, when the aliens send their last new ships they can come in several combinations. The first is Mothership + Escort. When you see this, you're in trouble, because the aliens are going for a base attack. The second is Mothership + Battleship + 2 Escorts. These will go for infiltrating the city. The third is Mothership + Battleship (there can be two of each). They will drop the Overspawn(s). The last is the one you're looking for: Mothership + Battleship + 2 Bombers. Their mission is to destroy the city.
There are several ways to get the bombers. The first is to get them while they're still coming for the first time (they come with the Assault ship as I recall). If you don't manage to shoot them down, you can wait for the above mentioned combination. But if you couldn't take them down then, you're far less likely to take them down when the big fish arrive (unless your fleet has grown). If you can't take them down then, you'll have to resort to other methods, and that is going for the alien dimension. There you can get them on a mission, or if that fails, you'll have to get the bomber to attack Megaprimus. If there is an alien ship that you haven't shot down, and is not appearing in Megaprimus any more, be sure not to destroy all of them in the alien dimension, because their number is limited, and they won't be created any more. While the only thing you really need to beat the game are the Biotrans's, having better ships makes your life easier. So you need to concentrate on two things: having a large fleet at home - 30 Biotrans's or their equivalent will do. And avoiding attacking the alien ship in their dimension. Try to make runs for the alien buildings. If you keep being successful, the aliens will get very, very angry. How angry? So angry that they'll send a huge fleet to literally raze Megaprimus to the ground. That's what you're waiting for.
And remember, whenever you see a new alien ship, concentrate all your forces on shooting it down. They are vital for getting better ships.

Fantastic! So much good advise! This is absolutely fantastic!
I really appreciate all the advise you guys give. Quite fun to hear so much about the game I almost revere.
I never bothered much with the Biotransport, I've always gone for the Retaliator and the Annihilator. But mostly only the Retalliator, I just love that ship with the enignes at the tip of it's wings. Much more beautiful than the Annihilator. Also the Biotransport doesn't have that much place for armaments.
So the hit and run attacks on the aliens in their own dimension is the way to get them angry. I keep hoping for them to send me an assault ship and a two bombers, that was the case the first time. When I get home I'll start attacking the aliens on their turf.

If you want the best protection, then by all means go for the Annihilator. 3x small and 2x large disrupter shields do provide a lot of protection. The Biotrans is an adequate transport - not a fighter, but it does have quite impressive small shield space.

One good trick to tackling the alien dimension is to quickly head to the right-most side of the map (on the top-down map, otherwise this'll be the lower-right edge on the iso map). There's a bit of a dead-zone where the UFOs won't fly to. So, once your ship hits the alien dimension fly as quickly as you can to the right. (tip: if you've got more than one ship, you can have three ships enter the alien dimension simultaneously by entering different gates)

Some UFOs that were close to you may chase after you, but most UFOs will not travel that far. Once you are safe, you can wait and let your shields recharge.

From here, watch the UFOs until they separate from the rest of the fleet, then swoop in and destroy it, then flee to the right again and recharge the shields. Keep picking off lone UFOs and you'll eventually be able to tailor the UFO fleet make up to whatever you like by leaving particular UFOs that you'd want to enter the city. Or just destroy the fleet outright and wait for the new bomber to respawn at the end of the week.

This strategy allows you to use something as weak as small fleet of 4 -5 Explorers to wipe out the entire alien dimension fleet, even with their amazingly small shield capacity.

- NKF

Hehehe... that's just a downright sneaky tactic.
As soon as I've captured a Micronoid Aggregate I'll post again. Maybe even a small story as to how I captured it.

Another question about the alien creatures. Are the Queen and the Micronoid Aggregate are the only "real" aliens in this X-Com adventure? The rest are just bio-engineered?
The break with the traditional aliens from X-Com UFO Defense and X-Com TFTD (and the cool retro-style of this X-Com world) are what make me love this episode of X-Com. If I had the time I would love to remake all the 3D models, maybe even the superhuman cityscape. Wow, that would be so cool.

Haha, that's a good one, NKF. Anyway, the reason I mentioned Biotransports was that I had to make do with them, because Marsec was on the Alien side, and I had lost almost all of my ships. The only chance I had then was to make a huge fleet and try to knock down one of the UFOs from the groups I mentioned above. Since Marsec was under the Alien control, the only weapon I could arm the Biotransports was the Laser Defense Array (by Megapol). That weapon has a pathetic range and damage, but I had no choice. And then the most unexpected thing happened. The aliens decided to raze a few buildings to the ground. Only this time they picked the wrong organization (can't remember which). You can imagine my surprise when I realized that the Mothership had lost half of its armor. So I launched all of my ships consisting of some 20 Biotransports, 1 Valkyrie and 1 Hoverbike, and helped bring the Mothership down. That allowed me access to Light Disruptor Beams and a few other things, and with that a chance for survival. There's quite a few interesting stories there, but I have no time to tell them all now.

Anyway, the good thing about Biotransports is that they can take quite a beating, due to their high armor. So a swarm tactic with them is acceptable if you are stuck like me. Otherwise, build Retaliators and Annihilators.

As far as the Micronoids and the Queen go, I believe you are right. Not sure if the queen is engineered or not though.

The queen and the entire worms at various stages of their life cycle appear to be an alien species of their own. Everything else on the other hand has little in common with each other. They look made. Brainsuckers are vehicles for micronoid invasion. Poppers are bombs on legs. Megaspawn and overspawn are just there to make a mess. Spitters - eh - were made to slobber. Anthropods and the skeletoids were probably made specifically as tool weilding footsoldier that could use and operate all this wacky techno-organic technology that the micronoids picked up along the way, using giant overgrown mushrooms as vessels. Like the first two games, a rag tag motley crew of random aliens brought together by smarty pants aliens to terrorise the earth.

The psi morphs are possible an exception. They still look grown as well, but you can just imagine these creatures that communicate with the mind floating about peacefully in some quiet backwater dimension until the micronoids came in and took over. Then again, psimoprhs are probably just like some overgrown potato stuffed with micronoids.

In any case, it looks like worms, flu bug masterminds and thingies for fighting. And mushrooms. Big mushrooms.

- NKF

Hahaha... nice description.
So, possibly only the Micronoid Aggregate is a "real" alien. Why then not make more Queens and hatch aliens more quickly? Ah well, if we were the aliens in this game we would do it so much more effectively. Those X-Com idiots wouldn't stand a chance.

Technically speaking, you'd need to feed your army. The alien dimension looked pretty barren to me.