Needle Grenade

The Needle Grenade is a new explosive weapon that uses an item slot introduced in XCOM: Enemy Within.

In-Game Description

“	A variant on the Frag Grenade, this weapon does equivalent damage over a much larger area, but the projectiles cannot penetrate cover. Thus, units in cover relative to the center of the blast area will be unaffected.	”
– Engineering description, XCOM: Enemy Within

Description

A "needle" grenade is an anti-personnel fragmentation weapon that is designed to disperse shrapnel upon exploding, minimizing environmental collateral damage, while causing bodily harm to any unit within range.

Production Specifications

Prerequisites: Chryssalid Autopsy (Research)

Production Time: Immediate

Production Cost:

• §22
• 2 Chryssalid Corpses
• 7 Engineers

Tactical Info

• Increased blast radius (5-tile radius) compared to standard frag grenade (2-tile radius)
• Like frag grenade deals 3 base explosive damage to units in radius
• Units in cover relative to center of blast radius will not take damage

Notes

• In common with all grenade types, Needle Grenades are 100% accurate and deal consistent base damage across their radius.
• Tactical advantages in using this grenade include:
  • Wounding/killing enemies clustered near an ally or civilian in cover.
  • Covert Data Recovery and UFO Crash Site / Landing Site missions, as it minimizes the risk of damaging valuable equipment.
• Think carefully about producing these: Chryssalid corpses are rare and difficult to acquire, and also necessary for Chitin Plating.

Trivia

• This is how fragmentation grenades actually work, shredding the target with shrapnel rather than crushing it with a concussive blast wave.
• The damage that the Needle Grenade inflicts is considerably lower than one might expect due to game balancing. In a real world scenario the rending caused by the grenade would almost certainly lead to internal bleeding, ruptured organs and likely a complete fatality when used on a 'soft' or unarmoured target: Sectoids, Thin Men, EXALT soldiers, etc.