Is there a downside to killing civilians outside of retaliation missions?

Question

I encountered the dark event where Faceless appear on missions besides retaliation missions. I've found the most effective way to find faceless is to throw grenades at civilians. If they die, they were a civilian; if they survive, they're a faceless.

Is there a downside to killing civilians in this way?

Possible duplicate of How can I tell if a civilian is a Faceless? — Neon1024, Feb 09 '16 at 15:29
@DavidYell These are two different questions, although the practical answer to this is probably contained in that other question, being that targeting civilians with grenades brings up a warning while targeting Faceless doesn't. — IllusiveBrian, Feb 09 '16 at 15:34
@DavidYell The Faceless thing was an example. I also kill civilians when they're in the way or are annoying me. The other question doesn't discuss that. — Comic Sans Seraphim, Feb 09 '16 at 15:35
If you look at it from the civilian's POV, I would said that probably yes... :-D — SJuan76, Feb 09 '16 at 15:47
@BlueRaja-DannyPflughoeft It's not. It's about the civilians who aren't in retaliation missions and cannot be saved. — Comic Sans Seraphim, Feb 09 '16 at 16:08
Whoops, you're right. Comment removed and +1 for the question :) — BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft, Feb 09 '16 at 16:12
Righto, I've retracted my close vote, but I would recommend an edit to the question to make it more specific and thus easier to differentiate. — Neon1024, Feb 09 '16 at 16:43
While the question phrasing makes it slightly different from http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/254597/is-there-a-point-in-saving-more-civilians-in-xcom-2 I think the overall answer is the same... — Taegost, Feb 09 '16 at 18:49
@taegost See my previous comment and the new question title. This is not about retaliation missions. — Comic Sans Seraphim, Feb 09 '16 at 20:52
@Studoku - Ah I see your clarification now. I haven't come across any missions outside of the Retaliation ones that had civilians that mattered... Or is that what you're talking about? The civvies just standing around that flee when the combat starts but don't actually have a counter tied to them? — Taegost, Feb 09 '16 at 20:56

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 11 '16 at 05:47

10

No, there is no downside to killing civilians. I've killed hundreds of civs in hijack, defense, and guerilla op missions with no impact on either the mission rating, the well being of my troops, or the well being of my own mind.

That's right, you can still get Flawless ratings from missions even if you kill civilians.

The way I see it, if they don't get out of your way, they become cannon fodder.

answered Feb 11 '16 at 05:47

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In my opinion this answer would have been even better without the last sentence. We should stick to facts around the stack exchange. – Christoph Grimmer Jan 05 '19 at 09:41

Is there a downside to killing civilians outside of retaliation missions?

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