Far from over, you still got plenty of time. you do not loose once the avatar projects get's all pips. imho the best strategy is to expand as quickly as possible towards regions with avatar facilities and complete the skulljack. let the avatar project complete all pips and then start doing all the facilities/story missions. that way you get powerful items/squads before you do the story missions.
XCOM 2
- Thread starter thecrazyscot
- Start date
I agree with this. Maybe not let it complete, but certainly wait a bit. IMO you want predator armour and magnetic weapons before you attempt the first black site. Predator armour is so good as it gives you an extra utility slot.
One mistake I made is not getting wet work early. Having lots if high rank soldiers enables you to better recover from cock ups.
I guess the medic trade off is that you have to accept that without a medic you basically have to use utility slots on other soldiers. But imo their perks usually make up for this.
Covering fire is not actually as useless as it first seems. A later perk guardian allows the specialist to chain over watch. So it can be useful. You can also give it to your sniper with kill zone, which again is fairly useful when you have a lot if active enemies. Rather than shoot you can just use that and over watch and you get a free shot on action and movement. Which is actually quite good and much better than taking a shot.
SupremacyKing2
Deity
Really? That's good to know. I assumed it was game over when the avatar projects gets all the pips because I kept getting the scary message from the leader guy about how we can't allow the aliens to complete this project.
I already did the skulljack. Set up a perfect overwatch ambush on the codex too when it first appeared.
I've expanded to 4 regions (I think). I started in Western US. I've made contact with all of the US (got the US bonus) and made contact with western and eastern europe. I've already knocked one black site facility out (mexico). I have magnetic weapons and predator armor (I love that armor) on everyone. I got some special ammo and grenades too. There is a black site facility in eastern europe. I was going to do the black site mission in eastern europe but my best sharpshooter still needed 1 day to heal so I waited. then I got the very difficult retaliation mission so I did that. Unfortunately, that mission went horribly even with my predator armor and advanced weapons. I started with a beserker, shield bearer and some advent troops right next to me. I took them all out but lost the sharpshooter. Then, I proceeded to the nearby building and rescued some civilians only to get swarmed by 3 mutons, a codex and 2 sectoids. And I lost 3 more soldiers. So I had my last soldier evac.
But I will wait and rebuild my squad a bit. Thanks for the info.
SupremacyKing2
Deity
I already got predator armor and magnetic weapons on all my guys so that is good. Yeah, I love predator armor. I am using one utility slot for grenades and one for the nanovest. My guys actually have pretty good health.
I always go for the increased squad size one as my first one. I figure that having an extra soldier is important. But maybe wet work should be the first one and then get increased squad size second?
No increased squad size should always be your first pick. But your second should be wet work or if available squad size 2. The squad size perks allow more soldiers on missions, which means more experience for more people. And also easier missions.
Personally i think nano vest is a waste. It only provides 1 extra health, which is pretty sucky. It might be useful occassionally for rookies early on in the game so they dont get one shotted, but with predator armor you are much better off taking utility items and frag grenades/special grenades. One person should always have a flashbang handy. A flashbang removes psionics as a weapon for sectoids (or kills a zombie outright if one has been animated and you then flashbang the sectoid). On top of this they also disorient enemies and give a penalty to their "to hit" roll. Mimic beacons are another very useful item. If you cant kill that many aliens, or one of your soldiers is flanked after tripping another pod, then toss one of these things and the aliens will target it instead. And it takes at least 2 shots, but sometimes 3 or more to kill, so that basically nullifies a pod of 3 instantly. Battle scanners can be helpful early on as they reveal faceless on terror missions. Other than that you should be taking medikits and not taking a medic with you on missions.
Just so im sure on this - you do know that you can change the angle that swords are used right? if you use the sword strike button, then you dont get a choice (same with skull jack), but if you move your mouse next to the unit you want to attack you can manipulate which angle they approach from, and you can attack over cover. This means that you can actually leave your ranger in cover after attacking. They are still in a forward position, but not totally unprotected.
They best sword perk is, if you are interested:
Spoiler :
SupremacyKing2
Deity
Thanks for the tips. I do make sure some of my guys have frag grenades, flash bangs, and acid grenades. I still like nanovests early on before predator armor. But now that predator armor gives me enough slots, I think I will take medkits with me instead.
Wolfbeckett
Jerkin' and nonsense.
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Well, it kind of is in a way... there are hacking rewards that show up occasionally which permanently add +20 to your soldier's hacking stat, try to get those whenever you can.
Wolfbeckett
Jerkin' and nonsense.
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I feel like the pacing of this game is kind of weird, it feels like aliens get introduced at weird times and don't hang around long. We already talked about chryssalids being way too easy for the time in the campaign they show up earlier in the thread, but when I thought about it more, berserkers are also oddly timed. I only saw one berserker in my entire game, They were introduced just in time to be overshadowed by archons and sectopods. I also feel like technology researches rather faster than it should, I had plasma weapons by the time I was about halfway through the game. Game could definitely use another balance pass IMO.
SupremacyKing2
Deity
Speaking of hacking, I find it very useful. A lot of the mission where you need to use hacking (stop a detonation, hack a computer, hack open a chest) are timed missions. So, being able to complete that objective at a distance is very helpful because it means you don't need to rush as much and can overwatch a bit more. It makes the missions much easier.
Also, has anyone had the "downed ufo" mission where you have to infiltrate a downed flying saucer and stop the distress beacon? That was a very intense mission. Getting rid of the patrols outside the ufo was super easy but getting inside the ufo was tough because it was crawling with vipers and mutons in my mission. I had my squad right outside the door to the ufo and I knew that busting in would be difficult because the aliens were well entrenched. I used acid grenades and gas grenades first, then busted in with as many of my soldiers as I could. It was a Close Quarter Combat nightmare.
Also, has anyone had the "downed ufo" mission where you have to infiltrate a downed flying saucer and stop the distress beacon? That was a very intense mission. Getting rid of the patrols outside the ufo was super easy but getting inside the ufo was tough because it was crawling with vipers and mutons in my mission. I had my squad right outside the door to the ufo and I knew that busting in would be difficult because the aliens were well entrenched. I used acid grenades and gas grenades first, then busted in with as many of my soldiers as I could. It was a Close Quarter Combat nightmare.
Wolfbeckett
Jerkin' and nonsense.
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Hacking is actually another place that I feel needs some balancing. Last night I had an available hack where the tier one reward, the easier one to get, was to refund all of my squad's actions. That's absurdly powerful, it might as well say "instantly kill any pod of aliens". I had 2 high level mechs, an Andromedan, and a couple of regular advent troopers up at the time and I easily steamrolled all of them because each of my guys got two turns in a row. Ridiculous.
Hacking is intended to be a high risk/reward proposition. You speak of a great result but I had my second ironman run ruined by trying to hack a heavy MEC, losing the 60% control chance, and getting wiped my micro missiles. (which is incidentally why I am not doing ironman for my third run, I want to finish this game)
SupremacyKing2
Deity
Presumably, you invested in hacking to increase your odds. My specialists are usually not very good at hacking so they can do the main hack reward but the odds for the second reward are very low.
SupremacyKing2
Deity
Randomness is one of those things that makes the game "interesting". Sometimes you can get very lucky and sometimes it just ruins your whole day. I've had missions where I am ridiculously lucky. In one mission, my soldier was down to a couple hp and a stun lander rushes up to stun him. I think that soldier is dead. Nope. the stun lancer misses. Then, the other aliens shoot from afar and also miss. My soldier lives and I am able heal and pull him back and he does not die on the mission. Other missions, I have 80% shots and I miss a couple and the aliens don't miss and I lose 1-2 soldiers.
PhilBowles
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The problem in that regard is that the risks and rewards tend not to correlate with the difficulty - as mentioned, the Distraction hack (the squad recovers all used hitpoints) is the easier option where it appears, while at least when it showed in my playthrough it had no downside (risk of activating a mob when all mobs were active).
There can be very serious downsides with minor positive rewards, or conversely major boosts with no real downside (which includes most haywire options - defence boosts for individual robotic units really don't do very much if you fail, while gaining control is a big reward and shutdown - which rarely fails - is essentially an auto-kill. To the point that, if you have a haywire specialist on a mission, the mission will be substantially easier if you have robotic enemies than if you don't).
I only tried flashbangs once and wasn't impressed - smoke just seems a better way to achieve the same result, since you can control who you protect and it offers protection against all aliens, and as far as I can tell to much the same degree, not just the two or three caught within a flashbang radius. Are there higher-level aliens against which flashbangs are more useful?
Wolfbeckett
Jerkin' and nonsense.
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Flashbangs are good early on because they can interrupt sectoid psi abilities. So if one your guys gets mind controlled, flashbang, mind control ends. Later on you can just one shot sectoids and end the mind control that way. Overall I was a bit disappointed in flashbangs, I used them a lot early on because I was used to Long War where they're awesome but it felt like they aren't nearly as effective in this game, maybe just because the tactical game is easier in general so it's almost always better to go for more offense over defensive options like flashbang.
flashbang are quite good:
they reduce aim, they reduce the movement range which is important so you can't get flanked or stun lancer rushed and they cancel psi zombies. for some reason i still go for regular damage grenades.
i started a legendary run and the difficulty is quite insane in the early game.
they reduce aim, they reduce the movement range which is important so you can't get flanked or stun lancer rushed and they cancel psi zombies. for some reason i still go for regular damage grenades.
i started a legendary run and the difficulty is quite insane in the early game.
SupremacyKing2
Deity
Not sure about high level aliens. Flash bang grenades seem pretty decent at slowing down the low level aliens. It might be my imagination but disoriented aliens seem to move less. They sometimes try to shoot but miss because of the aim penalty. Sometimes, they try to run but get caught in my overwatches.
BvBPL
Pour Decision Maker
The distraction reward, the one that restores the squad's action points, is potentially the most overpowered reward. It can really change an engagement.
Of course other rewards are potentially powerful as well. A facility lead, for example, could change the strategic game.
Two solutions readily present themselves. One could be making distraction only appear as a choice when the squad is still in concealment. That would give a boost when you are setting your guys up, but not in the middle of a firefight.
The other would be to split the rewards like many others. Give the easy one a bonus that grants the hacker two action points (to make up for loosing one for the hack) and the harder one to restore the squad's action points.
So, maps and mission types. I've noticed a few different map types. You've got high urban, slums, suburban, and wilderness (including Advent bases and Advent train raids).
Those different map types have different strategies. The high urban maps have a lot of verticality and a lot of long, wide roads and plazas. They would seem to heavily favor snipers hitting the enemy from above. The slums have close together buildings with some verticality. I think rangers can really shine here by sneaking around for slums. Grenadiers are pretty frequently highly useful in all map types for their grenade demolition except for the wilderness maps where early grenades cannot easily destroy trees and heavy rocks.
Some missions seem to prefer certain map types. VIP extraction (both of allies and takin Advent VIPs) seem to favor the high urban maps. Protect the device and destroy the device maps seem to favor the slum and suburban ones. Hack the device and procure the item missions may have the broadest spectrum appearing across multiple map types. I'm not sure if these map types are the only ones that that those missions can appear on, but they appear to prefer those map types (and I could be wrong).
So mission types differ on how they treat both the time limit and whether you need to evac or destroy all enemies. For VIP missions, you need to evac from a specific location and have a time limit that runs through the whole mission (although I think it is longer than the time limit for most other mission types). For hacking, procure the item, and destroy the device, there is a time limit initially until you complete the task in question at which point you simply need to clean up the remaining enemies and do not need to evac. For protect the device, you need to defeat all enemies before they destroy the device, no time limit but enemies will often start shooting at the device from turn one creating a de facto time limit. The same de facto time limit applies to retaliation missions which do not require evacing. Supply raid missions require you to destroy all enemies, no time limit, no evac. There is also no time limit for facility missions but you do need to evac for them after completing the objective.
A relevant different exists between the evac missions and non-evac ones. In most missions, you obtain any corpses and the like from the mission. However, if you evac you do not receive those corpses. Corpses are important for a variety of research and building tasks.
VIP missions are probably the most difficult, generally. The combination of having a hard time limit and a specified evac position can make a for a difficult mission. Plus you have a vulnerable VIP in tow. If it is for the kidnapping of an Advent VIP then you need to knock him out and have someone carry him (or kill him for a lesser reward). When you are extracting a friendly VIP you may start out of concealment or you may need to break him out of prison. Your specific extracting point may be a bit difficult to get to as well. However, if you bomb the evac site (or the enemy does), a new evac site will be created. This can be good or bad because you don't have any control over where the evac site lands. If you have a few turns to spare but are up against many enemies who are settled in to good defensive positions then it may be a decent ploy to bomb your own evac site. Then again, if you are down to two turns and just in range you might want to be a bit more careful with your explosives. You cannot call your own evac sites for VIP missions. Keep in mind that if one of your operatives falls unconscious or dies during a evac mission you will need to carry the body to keep the operative and his gear. Because carrying an operative essentially deprives you of two units, it isn't a bad idea to priotorize enemies that can knock a unit unconscious, most notably stun lancers but also mutons and Andros.
That said, VIP missions provide valuable intel and when you extract a friendly VIP you get a new staff member (which can include rescuing a previously captured XCOM operative). So bring your top guys for VIP missions and keep moving.
Be aware that picking up a unit does not take an action (although it cannot be done after you've completed your actions), but dropping the unit does take an action.
By the way, it can be worth considering calling for evac during a mission even if things are generally going well for you. It is possible to generally be in tactical command but have a trooper suffering from poison, fire, acid, or another ailment that may kill him. In that situation, calling for an evac and pulling that operative can be a good way to save the operative.
Of course other rewards are potentially powerful as well. A facility lead, for example, could change the strategic game.
Two solutions readily present themselves. One could be making distraction only appear as a choice when the squad is still in concealment. That would give a boost when you are setting your guys up, but not in the middle of a firefight.
The other would be to split the rewards like many others. Give the easy one a bonus that grants the hacker two action points (to make up for loosing one for the hack) and the harder one to restore the squad's action points.
So, maps and mission types. I've noticed a few different map types. You've got high urban, slums, suburban, and wilderness (including Advent bases and Advent train raids).
Those different map types have different strategies. The high urban maps have a lot of verticality and a lot of long, wide roads and plazas. They would seem to heavily favor snipers hitting the enemy from above. The slums have close together buildings with some verticality. I think rangers can really shine here by sneaking around for slums. Grenadiers are pretty frequently highly useful in all map types for their grenade demolition except for the wilderness maps where early grenades cannot easily destroy trees and heavy rocks.
Some missions seem to prefer certain map types. VIP extraction (both of allies and takin Advent VIPs) seem to favor the high urban maps. Protect the device and destroy the device maps seem to favor the slum and suburban ones. Hack the device and procure the item missions may have the broadest spectrum appearing across multiple map types. I'm not sure if these map types are the only ones that that those missions can appear on, but they appear to prefer those map types (and I could be wrong).
So mission types differ on how they treat both the time limit and whether you need to evac or destroy all enemies. For VIP missions, you need to evac from a specific location and have a time limit that runs through the whole mission (although I think it is longer than the time limit for most other mission types). For hacking, procure the item, and destroy the device, there is a time limit initially until you complete the task in question at which point you simply need to clean up the remaining enemies and do not need to evac. For protect the device, you need to defeat all enemies before they destroy the device, no time limit but enemies will often start shooting at the device from turn one creating a de facto time limit. The same de facto time limit applies to retaliation missions which do not require evacing. Supply raid missions require you to destroy all enemies, no time limit, no evac. There is also no time limit for facility missions but you do need to evac for them after completing the objective.
A relevant different exists between the evac missions and non-evac ones. In most missions, you obtain any corpses and the like from the mission. However, if you evac you do not receive those corpses. Corpses are important for a variety of research and building tasks.
VIP missions are probably the most difficult, generally. The combination of having a hard time limit and a specified evac position can make a for a difficult mission. Plus you have a vulnerable VIP in tow. If it is for the kidnapping of an Advent VIP then you need to knock him out and have someone carry him (or kill him for a lesser reward). When you are extracting a friendly VIP you may start out of concealment or you may need to break him out of prison. Your specific extracting point may be a bit difficult to get to as well. However, if you bomb the evac site (or the enemy does), a new evac site will be created. This can be good or bad because you don't have any control over where the evac site lands. If you have a few turns to spare but are up against many enemies who are settled in to good defensive positions then it may be a decent ploy to bomb your own evac site. Then again, if you are down to two turns and just in range you might want to be a bit more careful with your explosives. You cannot call your own evac sites for VIP missions. Keep in mind that if one of your operatives falls unconscious or dies during a evac mission you will need to carry the body to keep the operative and his gear. Because carrying an operative essentially deprives you of two units, it isn't a bad idea to priotorize enemies that can knock a unit unconscious, most notably stun lancers but also mutons and Andros.
That said, VIP missions provide valuable intel and when you extract a friendly VIP you get a new staff member (which can include rescuing a previously captured XCOM operative). So bring your top guys for VIP missions and keep moving.
Be aware that picking up a unit does not take an action (although it cannot be done after you've completed your actions), but dropping the unit does take an action.
By the way, it can be worth considering calling for evac during a mission even if things are generally going well for you. It is possible to generally be in tactical command but have a trooper suffering from poison, fire, acid, or another ailment that may kill him. In that situation, calling for an evac and pulling that operative can be a good way to save the operative.
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