Subset Games Forum

I don't know if this is a bug or a deliberate design choice, but this happened to me. I was on a mission with the cataclysm event, which makes several tiles on the map sink away. The enemies I was fighting had the Blast Psion status that made them explode on death and damage any adjacent tiles. I killed several enemies by pushing them into the bottomless pits caused by the cataclysm event, but they would still explode, destroying the buildings above ground and damaging the grid, because those buildings were technically adjacent to the bottomless pit those enemies fell in.

I haven't tested it, but I assume the same applies to any enemy who explodes on death for some reason. And maybe it also happens if they fall in water?

I don't think it should work this way, because it's counterintuitive and punishes the player for trying to use environmental kills to avoid the explosion on death.

This is intended. I remember asking about it in the Beta. I don't remember the actual story justification but the gameplay justification is consistency. Every time a Vek dies for any reason, it explodes. You don't have to guess. Did it die with the explodey psion alive on the board? Then it explodes.

I also vaguely recall making an observation myself, perhaps the psion doesn't make them explode on death, but upon noticing that they will die.

On second thought I should have worded my post differently. I agree that game mechanics should remain consistent and that enemies should always explode on death. The issue here is one of presentation: the enemies are shown to be falling underground, then you hear the explode sound off-screen, and then units and buildings above ground take damage. I was initially confused why I was taking damage, because I had assumed that by pushing enemies into the ravine, I would be avoiding the explosion.