Why do the cars the soldiers are hiding behind keep exploding

xcom-enemy-unknown

On most maps I've seen so far, cars are a pretty common form of cover. However, they seem to have a tendency to explode, killing my soldiers. Some of them it's pretty obvious why they exploded, as they were on fire at the time, but twice I've had cars explode for no discernible reason, both times losing me soldiers and once causing me to fail a mission. Why are they exploding, and is there any prior indication that they are going to do so?

Best Answer

Cars indeed have a damage threshold, 2 of them, even!

First threshold prevents it from catching fire or exploding. (Pistol hitting a car for example) Then once that one is passed the car catches fire. The second one is where it explodes straight away.

Things to remember when using cars for cover or shooting at them:

  • Cars caught fire during your turn explode on your next turn.
  • Cars caught fire during an enemy turn explode on their next turn.
  • Cover remains after a car blew up!
  • You can use grenades and rockets to target and blow up cars before using their cover.
  • Kills done by cars are like grenades and rockets they yield no materials only a corpse (fragments)

From what I read, others report that grenades kill cars instantly, where in my games they never do that. It seems higher difficulty is higher threshold. I play impossible so as such I will not note my damage expectations and experiences.

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