Viper

Aside from being memes of the Internet, the Vipers are one of the units that should wreak havoc to your units during the early game. These snake-like creatures that seem to wear bikini are famous for their disruptive attacks and insane agility. They have great dodging skills, and even if you hit them with guns, you are going to just “graze” them. During the early game, your soldiers have awful hit rates, so you are going to approach the Vipers very carefully. Grenades do work wonderfully against these foul alien creatures, especially the Flashbangs because the latter interrupt the Bound.

There are two skills that Vipers use, Bound and Poison Spit.

Bound is a two-step skill, first, a Viper should successfully pull a unit into its position using its long tongue. If this is successful (has moderate hit rate), the Viper will constrict the unit and deal constant damage until the unit is dead. The bound unit cannot attack or move, and can only be rescued when the viper receives damage. This should be taken seriously because when a unit is bound, the entire gameplan is, for the lack of a better word, f*cked. You have to rescue this bound unit which is more often than not trapped in the enemies’ territory.

Poison Spit is used by Vipers when it notices that your units are groups OR they are protected by several covers. This is an AOE attack that deals damage upon cast and has a very high chance of inflicting poison against any hit unit. The poison lingers in the area for several turns and any unit passing through it will be poisoned as well. Including organic alien units except CODEX. Robotic units are immune, as well as Psi Operatives with Fortress passive skill.

Vipers, most of the times, will not Bound two units at the same time (if they happen to be in the same squad). They can evade most attacks, even if coming from a Ranger, most especially coming from a Ranger in the early game. Do not worry, the Vipers fall off the cliff as you go deep into the game. Just survive and in no time, you will dealing major damage against these pests.