Scythers are impossible to beat for me

[reasonpolice]

I seriously have no idea what to do against them. They outrange turrets and pretty much any weapon a colonist can hold (other than I think the Lee Enfield and the M24), and they one-shot colonists. It just completely takes all the fun out of the game for me. I have literally never beaten a scyther attack.

I have been 1v4'd by a scyther as early as one month into the game.

Just now I got 3v10'd by them so I'm rage-posting.

How the fuck are you supposed to beat a super long-range, super accurate enemy that incapacitates or kills colonists in one shot?

[Lost Cause]

I seem to be having issues attaching images...

basicly a kill box is an enclosed room at the entrance to your base. it typically has a very narrow 1 tile wide entrance which has a corner in it. that way enemies are forced to come round a corner to attack you which robs them of any range advantage. within that box you can place as many turrets as you can fit, just be sure to keep them safely spaced out. you can also have your people ready at the far end hiding behind butchers tables.

Sythers rush ahead and are killed off quick and easy, but the big ones... those require a bit more work and their inferno cannons are a pain in the tail end. which is why you use butcher tables. you can fire over them but not move over them, so if your people are set on fire they don't rush out into the middle of a hail of gunfire X.x stick a door beside the butchers tables and lock it and you have yourself an idiotic colonist proof barrier

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So here's a Horribly Untrustworthy Link

[Nasikabatrachus]

Scythers can be very difficult indeed, but one thing to remember is that they will typically target turrets if they're closer to the turret than to a colonist. Even without a killbox, which doesn't really seem like my personal idea of fun, you can beat scythers by setting up multiple turrets and having colonists armed with long rifles standing close by.

Scythers and centipedes are also relatively easy to take down in close quarters, especially if you can isolate them from other mechanoids. Again, without building a killbox, you can structure your base to have lots of opportunities to tackle mechanoids in close quarters. Basically, the one thing you really don't want is to be staring down the death robots in the middle of an open field without anything between your mans and the death robots. I've also noticed that individual centipedes don't do very well when surrounded, but that's much harder to pull off with scythers.

So, concrete advice: build two or three turrets at least to defend particular areas when you're at a stage when you can expect mechanoids, use constructed walls and natural rock to take advantage of right angles so they can't necessarily destroy your turrets or shoot your colonists from such a great distance, and retreat as far as possible when necessary. Killboxes are all of these things packed as tightly as possible, but you don't really need them to beat mechanoids.

One more exploit-y way that I haven't tried recently is to retreat into your base and just let them beat up your doors. The AI, at least a version or so ago, really liked taking down doors at the expense of attacking colonists, so you could literally shoot scythers in the back while they ran from door to door bashing everything in.

[reasonpolice]

Thanks for the replies, dudes!

I'll have to try to fortify a little better, seems like my bases have been a little too open.

I actually don't have trouble with centipedes because they don't even hit you at medium to long range. Seems like you guys have more trouble with them with the "kill-box" method. I'm gonna go with Nasika on this one and try to find something in between.

[codyo]

Scythers and centipedes are also relatively easy to take down in close quarters, especially if you can isolate them from other mechanoids.

In my experience going into melee with mechanoids is instant death. I assumed it was because they're robots, which would make them super hard hitters.

[Wex]

Going melee with scythers is viable: Power armor the guy hyperweave (or devilstrand) pajama underneath the armor, HELMET! Also, grab a decent melee weapon obviously.

A good tactic with the huge caterpillars, is: take one of your fastest colonists, give him a couple of bionic legs, make him run from cover to cover, so the caterpillar start shooting but can't hit.
Make them shoot each other. Also, they target the closest colonist, so your sniper squad can pick them at their lesiure.

[Nasikabatrachus]

Scythers and centipedes are also relatively easy to take down in close quarters, especially if you can isolate them from other mechanoids.

In my experience going into melee with mechanoids is instant death. I assumed it was because they're robots, which would make them super hard hitters.

I didn't mean melee; that's my experience as well. Just, you know, colonists on one side of a small-ish room, a centipede on the other. Then again, my experience has come from a lot of different alphas, so some of it might simply be out of date.

The only solution? SCIENCE

[Dr. Z]

Scythers should really be taken on in close combat, although the fights in your OP must be increadible bad luck because I managed to win 4 colonists vs 3 scythers without losses and they don't ALWAYS one shot you.

The thing is that scythers have a long aim time which can be exploit in close combat (a little gameplay mechanic abuse is also included): If you have at least one shotgun you can put one guy at the edge of a wall and as soon as the scythers targets him you move him one square back. The scyther now can't see him anymore but it also can't move till the aim time is over, this is where you can shotgun the hell out of it and if your lucky you hit the optical sensors and then it's easy to take out because I never saw a scyther engaging in close combat when not forced to it by an enemy.

Centipedes on the other hand are a real struggle for me, because they just eat so many goddamn bullets without dying. At least when they have charge blasters I made good experiences with turrets because they seem to never hit turrets with that gun for some reason (might be either a bug or incredible luck). Again as soon as the optics are gone, it's relativeley easy.

EMP effects are also really good becasue they stun them for a good chunk of time and you can just put all your colonists next to the thing and fire away. Just don't forget to stop the time once so you know when to retreat, otherwise there could be a nasty suprise.

[Riftmaster]

I've beaten some by alternatively peeking colonists out of  multiple hard cover areas (as in, rocks, no LOS) to fire at them, ducking back in just before they fire.

Usually they retarget and start their charge time again.

But it's much easier to lure them into an ambush - say gather a bunch of colonists behind a rock wall, forcing the scythers to come around a corner a close range.  Might lose a couple.

I use the first tactic on centipedes as well...usually it works best if you have 3-4 cover locations and can force it to target one area, then another, never getting a good shot.

That's for taking out scythers and centipedes with just colonists.  And it helps to have better weapons...

I also once dmged a couple by blowing up the ancient ship section they were sitting next too...heh

[Klitri]

Honestly, if you send 2-3 colonists with a melee weapon in, they can take down a scyther easy. However chances of fighting one scyther alone? Low. Use EMP grenades and mortars to help you get an edge over robots. The EMP stun lasts a decent amount of time.

[shmooe]

I seriously have no idea what to do against them. They outrange turrets and pretty much any weapon a colonist can hold (other than I think the Lee Enfield and the M24), and they one-shot colonists. It just completely takes all the fun out of the game for me. I have literally never beaten a scyther attack.

I have been 1v4'd by a scyther as early as one month into the game.


Just now I got 3v10'd by them so I'm rage-posting.

How the fuck are you supposed to beat a super long-range, super accurate enemy that incapacitates or kills colonists in one shot?

they do not outrange M-24. But you cant just run at them you have to sneak little by little. and use hopfully more then 1 M-24 but they will just stand there and take hits without shooting back. as far as close range. you need to have a few guys and mellee them around a corner or somewhere he cant shoot. you will get hurt but it will die. otherwise make a death box and they are easy. I find 4 or 5 of the fat boys to be much much MUCH harder then even 4 or 5 Scythers. If you really want to make them easy. Make a 1 tile wide hallway and enough 1 tile bump outs for only your colonists and cover the floor in sandbags. they cant even fight and will get shot and melleed trying to get past the sand

[Menuhin]

Positioning is definitely key to fighting scythers.  Open field against them is pretty much suicide.  But the AI will almost always pick the closest target, so you can either let them target a turret.  Or if you have some "junky" colonists (i.e. incapable of hauling, depressive) you can run them around closer to mech so he'll be targeted, giving your other colonists time to aim.  Beyond this, and what I normally do is keep good allies.  And give them a call when you get a difficult fight.  They may not always seem like a whole lot of help, but don't underestimate the amount of fire they can end up drawing from the mechs (or raiders).  Using them as a meat shield can save your colonists, and the cost is even slightly offset by the loot from your fallen allies.