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Currently, I am battling three cyberdiscs on a terror mission. Cyberdiscs appear to have very powerful weaponry and they shift into different forms.

What gear and abilities are best used to combat cyberdiscs?

Are there any particular squad tactics I should be using when engaging one?
(For example, are any of the forms weaker than the others?)

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3 Answers 3

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Bear in mind that the selected difficulty affects your decision making.

The cyberisc has two modes, obviously:

  1. Saucer: increased movement. I've been told on Classic they get crit immunity here.

  2. Combat: it puts out lots of damage, but is very vulnerable.

Because of the high amount of HP a disc has, you need to focus fire. But you also need to be wary of it's helper drones, which can heal it. These are extremely easy to destroy, so don't waste high damage attacks on them but do take them out first unless you are extremely confident you can "alpha strike" the cyber disc. There is nothing more painful than reducing one to low hp only to have it withdraw and get healed a bunch. Behavior I have witnessed on normal.

I don't know if it is particularly vulnerable to a type of damage (I don't think my autopsy said, I'll double check when I get home). Also, do not bunch up. It can hurl plasma grenades and tends to do so when you give it a nice cluster of 3+ targets.

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  • And note that you will see "devious" behavior like that more often above Normal difficulty. But it's definitely there on normal. Do not ask me about the time I more or less had to kill the same cyberdisc 3 times :(
    – peacedog
    Commented Oct 11, 2012 at 15:59
  • At one point your heavy guys can get a perk that give +100% dmg against robotics, the only use is against these
    – JF Dion
    Commented Oct 12, 2012 at 14:37
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    @ JeffD I believe there is one other enemy besides Cyberiscs and Drones that counts as robotic, actually.
    – peacedog
    Commented Oct 12, 2012 at 14:46
  • You can use a heavy's rocket to blow up the drones (and deal damage to the cyberdisc). Drones don't drop any loot except for their corpses anyway, so there's no downside to the rocket; and HEAT Ammo also applies to rocket damage.
    – Paul Z
    Commented May 13, 2013 at 17:12
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    @JFDion It must be said that HEAT Ammo, which confers an additional 100% damage against robots for trainied Heavies, applies to Cyber Discs, Drones, and Sectopods; the latter being the primary reason to train for HEAT Ammo.
    – bpcookson
    Commented Sep 9, 2013 at 18:00
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Make sure you have a heavy with heat ammo. The increased damage against machines is very good.

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  • I'm not sure but I think HEAT ammo somehow gets applied to grenades too. I once had my heavy chuck an alien grenade at a cyberdisk and it did 10 damage to the disc and the nearby drones. Normally these grenades are a fixed 5 damage, so I suspect HEAT ammo is the reason.
    – Elbyron
    Commented Nov 7, 2012 at 18:46
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use your heavy class guy. Spec the right way and dont shy away with your rocket. Rockets are pretty good since the splash damage can kill the drones. The Heavy class has the ability Shredder Rocket which gives 33% more damage then they also have HEAT ammo which doubles the damage for any mech type enemy. Holo Targeting is also a great initiator if you dont have rockets, this will insure your team mates will kill it in one turn.

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  • Good advice but what do you mean by "spec the right way"?
    – Shykin
    Commented Oct 12, 2012 at 16:56
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    He meant you should take useful anti-cyberdisk skills. To reiterate: Holo-Targeting helps your team to kill disk in one turn, but Bullet Swarm is also obviously good; Shredder Rocket; HEAT Ammo.
    – Orc JMR
    Commented Oct 22, 2012 at 5:50
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    The sniper's "In The Zone" ability can be very useful as well - those drones never have cover and are easy to hit, so you can often take both of them out AND have time left for a shot at the 'disc after.
    – Shadur-don't-feed-the-AI
    Commented Nov 6, 2012 at 10:55

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