I have an idea for a new Pandoran enemy type that fills two missing tactical specialties among the current lineup of Pandoran enemy species. I think the Pandorans are missing a dedicated support caster and Mist Bioengineer unit type in the game.

The Mist is a lot less dangerous in-game than it is in the Phoenix Point short stories. Exposure to the in-game Mist makes Pandorans harder to detect and restores one Will Point to Pandorans in Mist each turn, while automatically revealing operatives in the mist and causing them to lose two Will Points each turn. But these negative effects are relatively minor compared to how infectious, deadly and mind-enthralling the Mist is in the lore. The Mist doesn’t even appear all that much in missions anyway. I think it would be better if the Mist is actually treated as an evolving Pandoran enemy in its own right, where it becomes more prevalent in missions, more dangerous to humans and more supportive to Pandorans over time through the course of a Phoenix Point campaign.

To make this happen in-game, I think it would be appropriate to introduce a new Pandoran enemy type that focuses on spreading, modifying and evolving the Mist. A new support caster ‘Mist Bioengineer’ type of Pandoran enemy that is highly intelligent but physically weak and vulnerable in a straight fight, similar to Zerg Defilers in Starcraft 1 or Abathur in Starcraft 2. It would lack any normal attacks and have low hit points but would protect itself by having a stealth rating and staying behind the other frontline types of Pandorans, so that finding and killing them would require aggressive scouting by operatives.

There could be two main types of this new unit. One mutation variant that concentrates on increasing the offensive capabilities of the Mist, where it can launch Mist bombs at operatives that disperses Mist that deals a variety of different damage-over-time and debuff effects against operatives.

Another mutation variant would be one that concentrates on increasing the defensive and support capabilities of the Mist, where it spreads Mist locally around nearby Pandorans that slowly heals the Pandorans in the Mist, gives them greater Will Point regen per turn or converts Pandoran corpses into worm/mindfragger eggs that hatch soon afterwards, for example.

Each variant of the Mist Engineer support caster would also have the ability to enhance the Mist effects of other Pandorans capable of generating Mist, such as Mist Sentinels, Mist Emitter arm Tritons and Mist launcher/Mist carapace Scyllas, based on the same Mist enhancement mutations that the Mist Bioengineer Pandorans on the map would possess.

A first draft name idea for this new Mist Bioengineer support caster Pandoran enemy type could be the ‘Miasmancer’ or something similar to that.

In my opinion, there are still tactical roles and niches left unfilled among the current lineup of Pandoran enemy species. I think the Pandorans a missing a heavy assault/pressure unit enemy type, created specifically for attacking heavily defended havens, capable of breaching its way through haven fortifications and buildings to clear a path for other Pandoran enemies, act as a big tough distracting fire magnet to draw haven defender’s fire away from other types of Pandorans, and rampaging it’s way through major concentrations of haven defenders to break them up.

The Juggernaut Pandoran enemy concept that didn't end up getting implemented in the released game, could be just the thing to fill those missing roles in the Pandoran enemy type lineup. I think Juggernauts really would be worth adding to the game as a new type of Pandoran enemy.

The Juggernaut should have the ability to smash through walls and obstacles just by moving through them (just like if it was using the Demolition State ability of the Juggernaut bionic torso). It could have a wide Area-Of-Effect melee attack using its arms, or have a variant with a ranged combat mutation that has many different random guns embedded into its forearms that it can fire inaccurately but simultaneously in a wide cone-shaped arc. There is easy potential to create a whole new set of mutations for Juggernauts that can allow for the creation of different types of Juggernaut variants with many possible combinations of weaponry and abilities that reflect its intended battlefield roles.

I know a lot of players might not be enthusiastic about introducing yet another type of high Hit Point bullet sponge enemy that can deal a lot of damage, but that could be counterbalanced by giving the Juggernaut several different types of small, hard to hit external organs/body parts on the Juggernaut’s body that could act as specific weak spots that debuff the Juggernaut when the weak spot organs are crippled/destroyed.

For example, say if the Juggernaut had a body part/organ that gives the Juggernaut a Rapid Regeneration ability. If the small, hard-to-hit organ that gives the Juggernaut Rapid Regeneration was damaged to the point of being crippled/destroyed, then not only would it remove the Rapid Regeneration ability but also cause high bleed damage over time. Another example might be having a small sensory organ on the Juggernaut’s head that when crippled/destroyed, could daze the Juggernaut for one turn or reduce its perception stat to the point of leaving it almost blind. Yet another example might be an organ that when crippled/destroyed, causes the Juggernaut to have double damage vulnerability to special damage types like acid, poison or fire.

But there’s one thing I’ve always wanted to know about the Juggernaut concept art. Is the Juggernaut supposed to have a maw in it’s chest? Because the concept art makes it look as if the Juggernaut has a giant set of jaws in it’s chest. Can the Juggernaut eat operatives whole using that? Can we free swallowed operatives before they die by killing Juggernauts quickly enough? If so, then that is both horrifying yet awesome. Perfect for Phoenix Point.

While this is quite true I do not think there needs to be a lot of innovation or new enemies to add to this state of the game. Right now there are individual descriptions for each mutation "stating" that certain arthrons possess different capabilities with the later ones supposedly taking a "commanding role" over other versions of its species. This specifically could be implemented as a couple of new heads/arms/carapaces to reflect that description, and as they have taken the time to write these this was probably something they wanted to implement.

Something I could see as a great improvement would be to tie the umbras to specific melee classes of arthrons that ruch in to try and "suicide" as it itself knows about its post mortem capabilities. And tying buffing or lesser psychic capabilities to supportive arthrons with viral machine gun would also make a lot of sense!

I have only played the one year edition so I don't know about how it has been before, Hopefully i'm not suggesting old stuff!

The larva concept art looks nice https://phoenixpoint.info/blog/2017/10/29/new-jericho-starts-to-take-shape

Make one new line of hard -type soldier at human foe/friendly fractions bases-something like leader of base defense forces,like coordinator, with new support /attack skills,like military-named mini-boss.Can random release in defense base forces,when we attack/steal on enemy base

A sea snake. Spits poison and paralyses.

Trilobite which is hard to shoot due to very low height. Envelopes the soldier and kills it the next turn if not interrupted.

Squid-like creature that grapples soldiers entangling them and slowly drains hp from them. Can grapple several units at ones. Shooting tentacles releases the grapple.

Leech: Similar to mindfragger but instead of mind control do high damage every turn when attached to soldier. Can by removed same way as mindfrager.