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I'm having trouble understanding when the Assault ability "Flush" works and when it doesn't. From the XCOM wikia page:

Fire a shot that causes enemies to run out of cover. The shot is easy to hit with, but does reduced damage.

That page goes on to say that Flush adds +30 to Aim, halves the damage, and that even on a miss it can force a target to move. But I've tried it several times, and the Muton at the business end hasn't budged.

Are there certain enemies this doesn't work against? Are they protected from moving if they're in full cover, or they have cover from two directions?

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    Hmm, that's odd... It worked for me on every enemy I tried this on. Maybe it's a bug? Wouldn't surprise me, given the incredibly high number of bugs I've encountered in XCOM so far.
    – Nolonar
    Commented May 26, 2013 at 20:45
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    When you say you've "tried it several times, and the Muton...", do you mean, you've reloaded a save and tried the same maneuver at the same point? Remember that XCom saves the random seed, so if you reload and try the same actions, you'll get exactly the same results.
    – user37917
    Commented May 27, 2013 at 3:33
  • @StevenBurnap That's a great point to consider for others having this issue. I reloaded and changed up the order of my actions (shot a different Muton, had someone else take the shot, moved to a different position), which I think should allow for a different outcome (but didn't in this case).
    – Impirator
    Commented May 28, 2013 at 21:09
  • Does it cause the alien to move immediately, or only on their next turn? I've tried flush a couple of times and never seen it seem to have any effect.
    – AlexC
    Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 17:34
  • I've tried using flush 3 times (different occasions), and it only worked once, so I gave up on it. I think there's some random variable at work. The one it worked on was a sectoid, I failed to flush a floater and a thin man. So, that might have something to do with it.
    – Benubird
    Commented Jan 20, 2017 at 13:12

1 Answer 1

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Flush works as stated on the wiki page and there should be no situations where the cover will prevent a flush effect from succeeding as the intended function of the skill is to force enemies from that cover. A target that ignores the movement factor essentially violates the intended effect of the skill. Most enemies should be susceptible to the flush attack (I have not tried to flush Sectopods yet) including enemies that doesn't utilize cover such as the Berzerker or the Cryssalid. A Muton under the influence of Blood Call should also be flush-able.

If this behavior was observed only once or twice throughout the whole game I would write it off as a bug, but if you keep seeing it often, there may be an additional factor involved I am not aware of which influences the flush attack.

One situation I can think of that may prevent an enemy from moving out of cover is that the enemy is blocked in by the environment or other characters which would result in there being no available path to use. For example a unit in a corner cover where all adjacent map cells in the movement grid are either on fire or are occupied by other units.

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  • So, Flush has consistently worked for me since this occasion, which makes me think a glitch was the culprit. Thanks for the reassurance!
    – Impirator
    Commented May 28, 2013 at 21:10
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    Speaking from experience, it's possible to flush Sectopods.
    – Shadur-don't-feed-the-AI
    Commented May 29, 2013 at 12:34

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