XCOM: Enemy Unknown

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

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Xavier

Xavier

Mind Control an Ethereal. Single player only.

10

How to unlock the Xavier achievement in XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Definitive Guide

Xavier
Mind Control an Ethereal. Single player only.

This achievement can be quite easy if you have the proper ability's.... Along with the Officer Training School Bonus of Iron Will (The Will bonus gained during promotions increases) you can use the Psi Inspiration (30 pts.), Psi Armor (says +30 pts. but when equipped only shows +20 pts.) and Smoke Grenade with Combat Drug enhancement (20 pts.) for a huge boost to Will.

On a strong Will character (I've had one with 105) plus the 20 from Psi Armor, 20 from Combat Drugs, and the 30 from Psi Inspiration you can get close to a 50% possibility.

There are also things that will lower your Will as well so make sure that:
1. No other squad members are dead or all squad members will suffer a penalty to will.
2. The squad member you are using the psionic attack with is undamaged (full health) or he will suffer a penalty to Will. This is also the case for any aliens that are damaged, which makes hitting them with Mindfray (see last EDIT) and Mind Control easier.

I was successful in Mind Conrolling the first Etheral you meet (without the Psi Armor as its not available for research until later) with a 35% chance, Using the above abilitys and a Support Colonel with 105 will.

EDIT: I've made some small scale tests and it seems that the Mind Shield (+30 Will) currently helps immensely. Even though it says protects against enemy psionic attacks it does help boost youre own psionic attacks as well.

It also looks like the Combat Stims dont actually add any points to Will at all...

EDIT: BAD T0AST has brought to our attention that MINDFRAY (duh, why didnt i think of that) which lowers the enimes accuracy, mobility, and Will by 25, stacks with other MINDFRAY.
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15 Oct 2012 12:07

33 Comments
In addition to psi inspiration, I strongly recommend using mind fray. Its success rate is a full 30 Will points (30%) higher than mind control and it lowers your target's Will by 25, and it stacks. Once you get your target down with 2 or 3 mind frays, his Will will be so low that your mind control will have success rates in the 90s.

I started with a 34% success rate for mind fray and a measly 4% for mind control. Two successful mind frays later the success rate for mind control became 54% which was good enough for my attempt.
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By BAD T0AST on 17 Jul 2013 22:31
I don't know if the Combat Stims would help any, it says strengthens the user's will but then they specifically say against panic....
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By UnjustlyVicious on 15 Oct 2012 14:17
Oooh, that raises % nicely! Oh, and the Psi Armor is 30 points, not 20. :)
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By RougeRogue1 on 15 Oct 2012 16:45
The psi armor says it raises will by 30, however it only adds +20 to your will if you check your stats.
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By xDartz xNVx on 16 Oct 2012 05:43
Well thats something i hope they fix, 30 sounds much better... but, I'd probabbly still use ghost anyway and archangel on my sniper class.
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By UnjustlyVicious on 16 Oct 2012 15:23
I just got the achievement after reading UnjustlyVicious guide. Only thing I did different after 2 failed attempts was throw two smoke grenades with combat drugs in it. Don't know if that will double the effectiveness but I succeeded.
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By RAVIOLICAPONI on 17 Oct 2012 00:55
Congratulations ^^

Sometimes the order in which you do things can greatly alter the outcome of what you're trying to do. So if you fail try loading and doing things in a diffrent order, or just diffrent things.
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By UnjustlyVicious on 17 Oct 2012 02:51
Attention, I have added quite abit more detailed information about this achievement and the Will statistic to make this achievement MUCH easier (as well as all psionic attacks).

Also added information from xDartz xNVx about psi armor.
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By UnjustlyVicious on 19 Oct 2012 05:10
Just got this two and I used two soldiers with the psionic boost two smoke grenades with stims and then combat stims and it gave me a 18% chance. I then saved and tried twice and then got it on the second time. I did this when you shoot down the overseer.
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By Jodymack on 21 Oct 2012 17:21
I took two psychics for this one, making sure one of them had inspiration for the will bonus. Psi-armor on the one doing the mind controlling, mind fray on the ethereal with both (not certain if it stacks), inspiration (aoe) on both, wounded the thing pretty heavily, made sure he was the last one standing...and got up to a 62% chance. Then I saved the game in a separate slot and had to reload 10 times before I finally got him. Once he was controlled, I just used his aoe ability to make him kill himself.
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By Kez001 on 21 Oct 2012 18:17
To view your stats during a fight press the left stick, then you can see if it stacks or not.
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By UnjustlyVicious on 21 Oct 2012 19:23
You can also press the left stick while targeting an alien to see your shot modifiers.
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By UnjustlyVicious on 21 Oct 2012 19:24
If the ethereal gets off a mind control first, firing disabling shot at that squad member can help you wait it out. After I hit him with mind fray my assault who was wearing psi armor and mind shield had 100% to MC him. For luls, have the ethereal drop a psi storm on himself.
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By Ursiform on 26 Oct 2012 23:52
Does anyone know if you can stack mind shields? IE; would it be worth me finding another psy soldier to double up? I only have 1 so far so can't try it
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By Quantum Binman on 28 Oct 2012 04:48
Psi-suit and mind shield worked first time, odds were 64% IIRC, with a Support Colonel trying it.
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By Zoku Gojira on 19 Nov 2012 04:39
OK, your enemy will decrease their will like your soldiers by getting hit. As the Ethereal will reflex your normal gun's ammo to the shooter, I used a heavy soldier shot shredder rocket to the Ethereal, then use a psi-gifted assault mindfray it, and it's got last 2 blocks HP left. The last step, another psi-gifted support under combat drugs smoke mind controlled the Ethereal w/ 70%+(don't really remember exact %) hit chance.
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By Tsukimi on 21 Nov 2012 17:43
I had a strange amount of luck. I used combat drugs and psi inspiration on my colonel sniper that only had 81 will. I didn't damage the etheral, didn't have psi armor or mind shield, and it said it was a zero percent chance, but it worked.
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By PerpetualMindG8 on 22 Nov 2012 02:41
Did this with a 'Heavy' at a base Will of 71; +20 Psi Armor; +30 Psi Inspiration; +30 Mind Shield (151 Will) on a Ethereal with 100% Health; 89% Chance to Hit. ....First try! No need for combat stims. Honestly, I don't think the stims do much anyway.
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By AC1DGro0ve 3o3 on 18 Dec 2012 20:22
might have been overkill, but i sent three guys against him. All three had mind shields and psi armour. kept all three guys in close proximity so on my turn had the first two use psi inspiration on all three of them, then had the third guy attempt the mind control. The Ethereal was 100% health and i was given 100% chance of mind controlling him. which i got. Didn't use stims or drug smoke.
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By AmorousAardvark on 12 Feb 2013 06:57
First mission after my psi guy got his psi armour, got sent to UFO landing mission, no special equipment at all. Will was about 81, no mind shield. Mind controlled the Ethereal with odds at 21%, clearly very lucky but it's doable with the most basic setup. I should note the other team had zapped the Ethereal down to around 4 or 5 bars of HP first.
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By yossariano on 24 Feb 2013 11:47
I had 3 Gifted wearing their magic armor approach the ethereals in the temple. Mindfray + Mindfray + Mind Control was all it took. No inspiration, drug smoke, special hats, or any of that other stuff.
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By Lt Davo on 25 Feb 2013 18:51
Does Psi Inspiration last the entire level or does it lose effect after X turns?
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By OldMateClown on 06 Apr 2013 08:39
I think I got lucky. 70 Will plus combat drugs and psi inspiration gave me a 6% chance to hit him and I beat the odds ;)
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By DillionDay on 25 Apr 2013 10:00
Great call Toast. That's exactly what I did. I had 4 psionic characters, and three mind frays later, my main psi person, with so many bonuses it was crazy, had a 50% mind control chance. It worked for me, and I finally got the achievement!!

Thanks to all the commenters for giving tips, and props to UnjustlyVicous for the post!
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By Zatosan on 24 Aug 2013 09:03
Agreed Zatosan and thank you. I will edit to add this, and give credit there, thank you BAD T0AST ^^
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By UnjustlyVicious on 30 Aug 2013 02:35
CLOWN TASTIC 08 said:
Does Psi Inspiration last the entire level or does it lose effect after X turns?
It only lasts for 2 turns, and you must be within 3 tiles. It takes another 4 turns to cooldown
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By UnjustlyVicious on 30 Aug 2013 02:58
I had a guy with will 77 and it was a 2% chance to succeed. On the next mission I gave him the helmet and armour and it jumped to 72% to succeeds. Highly recommend those two items
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By DeviSlator on 27 Jun 2016 13:40
I was with 43% chance.. Reloading my save and retrying. Them when I decide to take some damage from ethereal left him with 3 bars.. got it on the first try
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By MasterHouze on 13 Jul 2016 01:22
Got it at 40%. Damaged Ethereal. Psi armor is a must in my experience.
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By XICANO TOKER818 on 29 Apr 2017 23:38
Got this today at 25%. I missed the first time, then I reloaded the save and did some actions with my other soldiers first to change the RNG. In my experience if I saved and reloaded and repeated an action, I would always get the same outcome. Do things like suppress the Ethereal to change the RNG, then save and try again. I got it on my second try with this method. If it doesn't work for you, repeat a third time
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By Greek Ingenuity on 07 Jan 2022 03:16
This guide was really helpful. I had attempted this on a couple of missions before and met with disastrous results. Worked like a charm this time. I found it was really helpful to make sure to clear the rest of the map first before opening the door of the UFO where the Ethereal was. This made it easier to focus my Colonel's attention on the task at hand. Oh, and if you have someone with incredibly low Will, it might be a good idea to have them draw back so they don't get mind controlled. You can't mind control an Ethereal while they are mind controlling one of your crew.
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By Kirkless on 17 Oct 2012 20:28
I thought this achievement was going to be quite a bit harder, but to be fair I was playing on Casual difficulty. Here's what I did:

Final level, in the final room with the 2 ethereals that spawn, I moved my Psi soldier in. He has 75 base Will, plus Psi Armor, Mind Shield, and Psi Inspiration on himself the turn before the ethereals spawn. When I went to use Mind Control, there was a 100% chance of success.
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By Cornerscout on 28 Apr 2014 23:07
did it with an heavy either with stats 72+20 amor+30 shield- half health of the ethereal and a chance of 75%- without using anything else- second try it worked. its not necessary to have high stats! its the same with chance of an hit- my heavy always has an chance less than 50% with his lmg and most times he hits the enemy- most when i wanna shoot robotics- most times between 13 and 30% and 3/4 of the try he is succesful.. srry 4 my bad english
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By LoA Manai on 11 Jul 2016 14:51
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Ethereal aliens start to appear near the end of the game. You need to rank up a PSI soldier to the 3rd rank so that the mind control ability becomes available.

The game difficulty and your will both determine the chances of success for a mind control. Get your highest will PSI soldier, give them PSI armor on Easy difficulty and this should be enough to mind control an Ethereal.

If you are still having problems raising your success chance, you can use the mind shield accessory combined with will enhancing gas from your support class, Upon taking control of the ethereal the achievement will unlock.
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02 Apr 2016 00:00

1 Comment
Adding on to what you've already mentioned - using PSI Inspiration (ideally from another friendly unit, so your future mind controller unit is able to move freely) also helps beefing up Will, which in turn beefs up your mind control success rate.
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By northerncluster on 18 May 2016 23:30
Ethereal aliens start to appear near the end of the game. You need to rank up a PSI soldier to the 3rd rank so that the mind control ability becomes available. The game difficulty and your will both determine the chances of success for a mind control. Get your highest will soldier, give them PSI armor on Easy difficulty and this should be enough to mind control an Ethereal. If you are still having problems raising your success chance, you can use the mind shield accessory combined with will enhancing gas from your support class. Upon taking control of the ethereal the trophy will unlock.
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27 Sep 2013 02:22

2 Comments
Also can be done at the very end of the game, in the final room of the ship
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By sem04ka_a on 07 Jan 2014 11:06
True. it can be done on any ethereal within the game once you've unlocked mind control
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By RoguexCanadian on 08 Jan 2014 00:16

Ethereal aliens start to appear near the end of the game. You need to rank up a PSI soldier to the third rank so that the mind control ability becomes available. The game difficulty and your will both determine the chances of success for a mind control. Get your highest will soldier, give them PSI armor on Easy difficulty and this should be enough to mind control an Ethereal. If you are still having problems raising your success chance, you can use the mind shield accessory combined with will enhancing gas from your support class.

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Later in the game you will have the opportunity to unlock psionic abilities in your fighters. Taking control of enemies is one of the highest level skills. The irony of the trophy is that you need to take control of a psionically strong alien, who can capture anyone he wants with the power of his mind.

To increase your chance, you need to use any means that increase your willpower and decrease it for your opponent. Among the boosters, this is primarily psionic armor, it is also a smoke grenade with medicine (one of the abilities of the support class), and a buff available to second-level psionics (works also on oneself). Combat stimulants do not increase willpower (but only reduce susceptibility to panic), and these aliens also do not experience the disadvantages of being wounded or killed by their comrades. If you have several psionicists on your team, they may first try to weaken your target's will (this is their most basic skill).

There is another option, of course - luck, sometimes even a 10% chance is enough. Just keep in mind that rebooting and “hammering” the alien with control is useless, the game saves the state of the random number generator, so if you repeat the same action after each reboot, the result will always be the same.
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21 Oct 2012 14:51

4 Comments
To maximize the chance of success, you need to build up the will of the psionicist before attempting. This:

- psi armor

- mental shield in an additional slot for a fighter

- apply the Inspiration perk from the psi branch the turn before

- if there is a support upgraded to smoke grenades, this is another +20 from a smoke grenade.

Thus I got a will of about 180 (the base was about 80)

At a high level of difficulty, the Ethereal has a will of 110. The chance to hit is the difference between the will of the psionicist and the Ethereal. In my case, the probability was 70%, it worked the first time.
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By Partisan on 19 Nov 2012 11:28
Before capturing him with an arc thrower, wound him severely, so that 1 or 2 cells remain on the health scale and the job will be done. This also applies to other extraterrestrial species.

I never bothered with pumping up my psionics in the game, only in the last hall of the game, and I don’t know why I did it....
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By kinodoom on 19 Jan 2013 19:26
Got it in the last room at the end of the game. A psionicist who, according to the plot, had to be put in the gollop chamber so that he could find the main alien ship. Dressed him in psi armor. There are 2 ethereals in the last room, it is impossible to take control of one, but the chance of “taking control” of the second was 100%.
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By riojohn on 22 Apr 2013 11:24
I'll add a hint. For the trophy you need to take control of an alien named Ethereal. It replaces the Outsaider and is also usually located in the center of the ship. With the help of a relay, you will always know whether there is Ethereal on the ship or not. Ethereal himself is a very strong fighter with a lot of lives, but the problem is that he is always guarded by 2-3 Elite Mutons. You will need at least 2 soldiers with psi abilities, one of which should be level 3, and the other level 2. At the 2nd level of psionic abilities, a choice appears between: strengthening the Will parameter (Will, the more a fighter has, the better, since the success of psionic abilities depends on it) and sending panic to the enemy. Don't forget about other tricks that can help (see tip above)

The plan for the assault is this: you need to infiltrate the ship, kill everyone, make a safe manually before storming the room with Ethereal and his guards (after 10-20 assaults on the plates, you will study the layout well and know where the “captain” usually sits). We rush in and try to kill the Mutons in one turn, otherwise you will lose a fighter on the next one. When there is only one Ethereal left, we begin to bombard it with weakening grenades, use the enhancement of psi abilities (all fighters with psi must stand nearby), then we try to scare it and eventually capture it.

Before using panic and capture, we make another safe manually. As Demure1 wrote, a reboot will not change your result, BUT if you take a step at least one cell and use psionic abilities, the result may be different (the same works with shooting). The problem is that Ethereal is very resistant to mind lock and the success rate is about 10% with a Will stat greater than 120, so you will need many attempts. As soon as you capture it, you will immediately receive a trophy. After receiving the trophy, the mission will not end (if before that you killed all the aliens and Ethereal is the last one left). You will need to launch the safe before capturing and kill Ethereal (it is better, of course, to stun and capture) or wait 4 turns until the Mind control ends (the select button allows you to force the end of the turn)
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By nektras on 05 Nov 2012 13:17
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Take control of the most powerful enemy in the game, Ethereal. This can only be done by a squad member with psi ability and under a decent buff to increase willpower (such as -1) Psi-Inspiration) Smoke bomb increasing stats 3) stimulants (like honey pack only blue )
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16 Dec 2012 19:38

1 Comment
Stimulants do not help in this situation. You should use Mind Shield instead. Although the description says that it increases defense against psychic attacks, it also gives a bonus to willpower (Will). Willpower is reduced by the death of your allies during battle, as well as the damage received by this character. Try to keep everyone alive + in full health.
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By Monkishprawn on 26 Mar 2017 14:06