Lobstermen

[Ego Terrorist]

How do you kill them, I've recently gotten into TFTD and in one of the mission I was investigating a downed UFO/USO, my men deploy out of the Triton and I start to secure the LZ one of my men spots a Lobster man. "Okay this shouldn't be too hard..." I say as I command the man who spotted it to auto fire on it. 1 hit and it's still standing. I then bring in two other men who snap and auto at the Lobsterman. 3 hits - not a scratch. "Okay, lets bring in the heavy support." Gas Cannon, Hydrojet and Torpedo Launcher All fire and all hit, small rocket, and several blasts of AP impact against it's hard shell. "Ah, pants." I then bring in another 2 and there shots finally finsh off the Lobsterman, it goes down and thankfully the mission ends as the other lobsterman was already dead.

 

Is there an easier way to kill 'em early on in the game! and whats the best way to kill them overall - in ranged combat preferably!!

[Jh316]

Even with a sonic cannon it can take a few hits. Just try and get HTH weapons.

[NKF]

Well, lobstermen take 1/2 damage from all explosives, so toss them out, although multiple sonic pulsers and or DPL torpedoes (later on) should do the trick. Recall: pulsers don't get blown up very easily by explosives, so you can have multiple detonations on the same turn.

 

Lobstermen take double damage from stun weapons. Thermal tazers and shok launchers are what you want. Once they're unconscious, any light explosives like GC/HJ-HE shells and magna-blast's will kill them.

 

Vibroblades are also worth getting, as they go right through the lobsterman's armour. If you manage to get a calcinite corpse very early on, you shouid be able to get these pretty quickly.

 

If you're desperate, gauss rifles and heavy gauss can kill them. Sonic-tech is a lot better though. Well, considering the sonic pistol is way better than the heavy-gauss in almost every aspect, it's not surprising. Sonic cannons and the blasta-rifle are generally more effective.

 

- NKF

[PHOENIX]

Go Sonic Cannon and Sonic Plusers! Using humaniod weaponary on lobster men is pretty much useless... Research the alien stuff as fast as possible! I'm not too sure if the Gauss technology will do anything to the losterman, but I'm sure its better than using the other weapons you start out with.

[Crazy Photon]

Well, it is possible to kill Lobstermen with Gauss weapons, I remember that in my prior game of TFTD I had to assault a Lobsterman battleship in Febraury with only gauss rifles, in superhuman difficulty... that was a great battle, and a massacre too (lost many soldiers), but it was worth it, as I recovered the battleship almost intact, and captured the commander too

 

Anyway, I don't recommend facing them with Gauss as they take half the damage...

[NCC-1701-F]

Lobstermen eat gauss for breakfast! They just plain suck. My advice....... "Shoot accurately shoot often, with any weapon

[Scott]

They take half damage from gauss? Craaaaaaap! What's the freakin' point of gauss weapons then?

[Tammy]

Well, lobstermen stun easily, which is nice. Besides, gauss is pretty good for the aliens without exoskeletons.

[Scott]

Well, lobstermen stun easily, which is nice.  Besides, gauss is pretty good for the aliens without exoskeletons. 

I stand by my statement of craaaaaap.

[Tammy]

Nah...I'm serious. If you have stun capability, they can't touch ya.

 

(Oh, I sent you a PM, by the way...kind of a welcome sort of thing.)

[NKF]

Simply put:

 

- They receive twice as much paralysis from stun attacks.

- They receive full damage from hand-to-hand weapons. (bypasses armour)

- Explosives do half as much.

- Every other weapon also seems to do only half as much. This is mostly because the damage caused is halved first from their natural armour, and then reduced even further by their exoskeleton's armour (the 'armour' stats you see in the stat screen).

 

That's mostly the reason why Gauss weapons aren't terribly good against them. Now compare the heavy gauss cannon against the sonic pistol. It's outclassed in almost every aspect except price and resource requirements! Size, weight, clip capacity, stopping power, firing speed, etc. The sonic pistols are actually quite formidable weapons when you look at it that way. (I like to mention this every time gauss weapons come up... so sue me!)

 

The only thing really going for Gauss rifles and pistols are their speed and price. I agree with Tammy in that they're not the best weapons for Lobstermen. Heh, some of my first few encounters with a lobsterman was with dart guns (the only weapon in the entire X-Com series that I truly loathe) and gauss pistols. What a mess!

 

- NKF

[Mouse Nightshirt]

Well, the first time i came across a Lobsterman, I said to myself "Damn this", so I got my guy to run over there, and start beating the c*** outta him, and then all the other guys came over and started kicking him. Once he was kncoked unconcious, we took him home, and cooked him in 10 gallons of lightly salted water, with a few herbs, for about 30-45 mins. Finally, we served it with a sprig of parsely and a fine white sauce...

 

No, wait... you can't do that can you...

[Scott]

I remember the first time I played TFTD... things were going pretty well, I was harpooning Aquatoids and Gillmen left and right, then I downed a small sub, and got my ass kicked by like four Lobstermen that just refused to die.

[NKF]

Um, Mouse, I thought the lobstermen were already cooked. I mean, lobsters are mostly a darkish colour and they turn a bright red after they're boiled.

 

Of course, why bother? These are aliens, and their giant nautilus float in the wrong direction anyway.

 

- NKF

[tftd fan]

He he he! This discussion is outclassed already.

 

PLEASE WHY ANYBODY HERE RECOGNIZE HTH WEAPONS as the best way to get rid of them?

 

Get Calcinite asap, they will bring you thermic lance. They rock! The heavy thermic lance are my favorite weapon.

 

Although you'll need soldier to good time units to get close to them , what is sad somehow in early stages of the game.

 

Does somebody knows if incediary bolts or Phosphorous clips does good effect on lobsters?

[Mouse Nightshirt]

We've already said that. NKF said it twice, the second post by Jh316 said it, and its been said on several occasions that stunning is an even better way to take them down. We know that HTH are one of the best ways to dispose of them, so calm down!

[Tammy]

Sorry, dear, but I still like stunning them, as I can do that from a distance without all that pesky running about the map.

[iggy]

On superhuman difficulty, was is a good strategy to get close to a lobsterman (consisitently, aka without dying much)? Going around one and then suprising it from behind is good, but that usually takes too many tu's.

[NKF]

Personally, I've never really developed any particular strategy for using the HTH weapons. I just have everyone carry a sonic gun and a vibroblade of some sort and pull it out whenever a HTH attack would be more suitable than a ranged attack. In many confined spaces like the colonies and inside buildings, you tend to get a lot of chances to use them. Like the pleasure cruise mission for example. All those room cubicles and that little closet near where you start where there's almost always one alien waiting in one of the alcoves.

 

Recently, from a strategy I developed in UFO for approaching aliens, you can get someone to use the MC Reader to examine the alien's stats before you try to rush up to them and poke them with your drills. No TU's means no alien opportunity fire.

 

Also, some aliens tend to walk about carrying vibroblades of their own (and 4 sonic pulsers!). They really don't know how to use their own drills -- So you might as well walk up to them and, uh, demonstrate. Don't do this with lobstermen, of course. They have their natural bash attack.

 

I've also noticed a lot of aliens walk about with absolutely no weapons on them. Usually alien 'technicians'. Just be careful, since aliens tend to put their weapons away after throwing a grenade, so its hard to tell if they really are unarmed or otherwise.

 

Oh, and don't forget the alien's sense of self preservation when it comes to using PWT torpedoes. The alien carrying the launcher won't shoot at you if you're standing right next to it.

 

- NKF

[NCC-1701-F]

Lobstermen are just plain bad.......lets face it

however, i would really like to get some good recipies, so far all i've heard is roasting with a gauss rifle.... i've heard it tastes just like chicken

[Fox]

Gauss technology is very good in some cases. My perfect Alien Colony assaults go all normal soldiers equipped with Gauss Rifles, and Thermal Shoks plus 4 extra rounds in backpack.

 

Gauss Rifles are really awesome because on the first part of the colony mission, you fight Tasoth, Aquatoid, and Tentaculat. All of which can be killed fairly easily by a Gauss Rifle shot. Then throw in the fact that you have auto fire, and your guys are experienced enough to hit them at least once or twice, you can maul the first part.

 

The re-equip screen on the second part of the colony comes on for a reason: switch all your guys' weapons from Gauss Rifles to Thermal Shoks... for free. Then just have a blast! Lobstermen cry and run away, sometimes even soiling their exoskeletons.

 

And hell, if the Thermal Shoks run out, you've always got your good old Gauss rifles to grease em with as a last resort!

[NCC-1701-F]

I'm using xcomutil so the gauss weapons have unlimited ammo, like the laser's in UFO, which made them my main weapon.... Because i've run out of ammo, especially beofre i can use sonics but even so..... running out of ammo on any mission is bad, very bad, but you get great training in grenade use....