Cyberdiscs are an alien terror unit accompanying Sectoids. As with all terror units, they can be encountered on Terror Missions, Base Defences, with a Terror Ship or Battleship, Alien Base Assaults and finally in Cydonia.

The Cyberdisc's only means of attack is its plasma cannon, which deals an impressive 130HP damage. As if that wasn't bad enough, the Cyberdisc will generally explode upon death (this can be avoided, see notes below) with an average strength of 120 and damage radius of 7 (diameter 15). Always keep this blast area in mind when engaging them, as it can easily harm or kill nearby soldiers, civilians, or occasionally aliens.

Cyberdiscs cannot be taken alive; they will self-destruct if disabled with stunning weapons. Sometimes explosively, unless the Stun Rod is used.

Statistics

TUs: 62-71 Health: 120 Energy: 90-104 Reactions: 64-79 Strength: 90-97 Bravery: 110 Firing Accuracy: 30-70 Throwing Accuracy: N/A Psi Skill: N/A Psi Strength: 100-116 Damage: 130 TUs- Snap: 30% (Accuracy 75%) Aimed: 60% (Accuracy 110%)

Live specimen

( Note: it is not possible to capture one, the only way to get this report is to get it from a captured medic.) This miniature flying saucer is an automated terror weapon armed with a powerful plasma beam. The anti-grav propulsion gives it a big advantage in difficult terrain. Its primary function is destruction and terror in the service of the Sectoid race.

Autopsy

The Cyberdisc is well shielded and is particularly good at withstanding explosive ammunition. The primary anti-gravity system is too badly damaged to gain any understanding of its functioning.

Note: you may have difficulty getting an intact corpse because of its explosive nature. Shoot the Cyberdisc to kill it when its one level above the ground, it drops down to ground level, hits the ground and becomes a corpse, THEN the explosion goes off where it was just hovering: ie: at one level off the ground. Guaranteed works if corpse falls flat. Or you could just stun it with a Stun Rod and bypass the explosive characteristic altogether (Stun Bombs set off the self-destruct).

Another way to get a cyberdisc corpse is to shoot it with an explosive weapon, or get lucky with a grenade, to kill it. This negates the usual explosion and keeps the corpse since it was there AFTER the explosion.

Notes

The following are some miscellaneous notes on the Cyberdisc:

The Cyberdisc takes 0.8x damage from armour-piercing weapons.

It takes 0.6x damage from high explosives.

It has a flat profile (smaller than a Sectoid), making for a harder target (per square).

Takes up 4 squares on the battlescape.

Is the Sectoid's equivalent of a HWP. It has very high health, Psionic Strength, and bravery, making it tough to disable.

Unlike human HWPs, it has very high reactions and firing accuracy. This, combined with its powerful plasma shot, make it capable of one-hit killing many targets.

Can attack up to 3 times in one turn. It fires with such frequency that many commanders have mistaken it for an auto-shot. If a one-hit kill fails, 3 hits from this has a VERY good chance of killing.

On any mission where the Sectoids have their Cyberdisc terror unit, they will also have a Leader capable of Psionics. However, not all missions with Sectoid Psionics will have Cyberdiscs, e.g. Supply Ships.

Take this hovering manhole cover down with (in this order): High Explosive packs, Laser Rifles, Heavy Rockets, Tank Rockets, Heavy Lasers, Alien Grenades, Laser Pistols, or Tank Cannon. Heavy Cannon (AP only) can be used but you will need the massed fire of half a full squad for a whole turn to bring down just one disc. Forget standard Rifles or Pistols - they're just too tough. HE rounds (Heavy Cannon or Auto Cannon) and regular Grenades (even Proximity mines) are almost totally ineffective. Of course, once you have Plasma weapons, things start to look up.

If two or more Cyberdiscs are close together, the self-destruct explosion from one may be enough to bring down the second or even cause a chain reaction. Mutually Assured Destruction (or MAD for short) is a great way to kill these creatures without using advanced weaponry; if you have psionics, MC one quarter of the unit then send it within line of sight of the closest Sectoid. Usually the Sectoid will reaction fire and kill the Cyberdisc and the resulting explosion will kill the Sectoid too. Even the act of firing on the Cyberdisc with its own weapon may precipitate reaction fire from nearby Sectoids, thus assuring that if the initial shot didn't do enough damage to kill, the reaction fire should.

Although they cannot be captured, Cyberdiscs take damage from Stun Rods and Stun Bombs and will not explode if they are finished by one. This is very useful if a Cyberdisc spawns in the small storage room (1st floor right north of the central lift) on a battleship ground assault mission or a Terror Ship (the overlooks on L1 are notorious for this). What otherwise might make it necessary to sacrifice some soldiers to kill it, this at least gives your men a chance. In fact, out of the starting weapons, the Stun Rod is the most effective vs Cyberdiscs - if you can get close enough.

Because of its large size, Cyberdiscs take roughly quadruple damage from explosive weapons; rather, they take damage once for every segment caught in the blast. This is another way to take down stuck or camping Cyberdiscs without losing men. But because of their strong armour and high resistance to HE, this is only effective with very powerful explosives (Blaster Bomb, HE Pack, Heavy Rocket, Alien Grenade).

You might try fighting armoured vehicles with armoured vehicles. Standard Cannon tanks have limited effectiveness against Cyberdiscs (midway between Heavy Rockets and HC-AP), but have the ammo to keep slugging away for a relatively long time, if they can avoid being reduced to slag themselves. Rocket-armed tanks are initally more effective, but very soon run out of ammo. And 4 soldiers with Rocket launchers are about 4 times as destructive as the Rocket tank (though with limited ammo the soldiers will likely run out of ammo twice as fast as the tank). Laser tanks are even better - but 4 soldiers with Laser Rifles are about 3 times as destructive as one Laser tank. Unfortunately, until you get the more heavily armoured and better gunned hovertanks, using tanks against Cyberdiscs is improvisation, not a battle-winning tactic.

