It’s probably fair to assume most of the XCOM 2 community isn’t new to the franchise. Countless new fans were created with the series’ 2012 reboot, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, but many of those playing XCOM 2 have been following the franchise for two decades now. And there are some major curveballs to contend with this time around.
We’ve spent a few dozen hours with XCOM 2 at this point, taking a variety of approaches to combat, research and even the various events your organization must respond to while trying to repel the aliens who’ve taken control of Earth. Anyone new to the series might want to start with our Beginner’s Guide to XCOM 2. But here are a few tips for experienced XCOM players trying to make heads or tails of the newly-released sequel to Enemy Unknown.
Don’t Build A Shadow Chamber In The Shielding Power Coil
The opportunity to build a room free of power consumption costs can be enticing in XCOM 2. But it’s important to do the math for these sorts of situations before making a decision. Players’ toughest choice will likely be whether they should build the Shadow Chamber or a bolstered Power Relay. The former normally requires five power units; the latter, by default, provides ten. And that can be doubled once you’ve got a couple of engineers to station inside. So it’s a pretty simple choice.
Use The Environment
Eventually, players will begin to encounter increasingly powerful turrets on the roofs and watch towers of ADVENT facilities. The bad news is that they will frequently have high armor, rendering small arms fire relatively useless. The good news is players can destroy the floor beneath the turret to make short work of an otherwise deadly problem. On a smaller scale, doors can be closed to eliminate an enemy’s line-of-sight and explosive barrels can be used to damage large groups of enemies. The point is, Firaxis is letting players use the environment to their advantage much more frequently in XCOM 2.
Free Your Friends
It can be frustrating when Vipers manage to bind one or more of your soldiers. But it won’t seem so bad once you’ve freed your fighters and the soldier(s) in question gets revenge. Dealing small amounts of damage (1-3 points) doesn’t seem to be enough to make Vipers drop their prey. But landing a shot with a primary weapon, particularly one loaded with experimental ammunition, is usually enough to loosen its grip. And once your ally has been freed, they still get to take their full turn. And would you look at that….there’s a Viper in point-blank range, just waiting to be shot.
Overwatch Is Overrated (For Defenders)
Overwatch can be a powerful ability when used properly. But if you don’t have the element of surprise its damn near useless. No one does a better job of highlighting that fact than ADVENT forces.
Don’t let fear of Overwatch keep you from repositioning your fighters as needed. Just deal damage to the unit(s) currently on guard. And that’s not the only way to avoid the problem. The Shadow Step perk prevents Rangers from triggering Overwatch, making Slash an effective counter against nearby enemies monitoring the battlefield. Grenadiers’ Suppression ability can also be used to cancel Overwatch while simultaneously reducing the target unit’s chance to hit for one turn.
Avoid The Jack-Of-All-Trades
Soldiers should be highly specialized, trained to complete specific tasks and serve specific roles on whatever missions they’re deployed. There will be times when it makes sense to take perks from both tech trees for a given class. Prime example: we’d recommend taking Phantom and Run and Gun on any ranger in your squad. But you probably don’t want to mix-and-match perks from the Specialist’s Battle Medic and Combat Hacker trees. Both are valid builds but the perks don’t have much cross-tree synergy.
Invest Wisely
Supplies and Intel are both finite resources. You’ll need plenty of the former just to keep your barracks full and plenty of the latter just to establish connections between various branches of XCOM. So what little currency you have left to spend must be spent wisely. Build radio relays in any region under XCOM influence as quickly as possible, to increase your monthly income, and try to minimize squad casualties.
Nanovests are a great example of a bad investment. They use up ADVENT Trooper corpses and Supplies, both of which you'll need to build Predator armor (a byproduct of the Plate Armor research) in a few hours. So save your resources. Similarly, now that players free up all their gear with one click, you don’t need more than one of any utility item (i.e. the skulljack) except for the medkits. Make sure you have enough medkits for every healer in your party.
Don’t Over Extend Yourself
There’s nothing wrong with turning down the occasional mission, particularly when your best fighters are sidelined with injuries, despite what XCOM 2 would have you believe. You might have to re-establish contact with a particular region or pay a similarly minor price for ignoring the mission. But that’s nothing compared to the sense of loss you’re going to feel when the hodge-podge team of veterans and rookies you send to raid a convoy get slaughtered by the ADVENT forces defending their supplies.
Ranger School
The official name for the Avenger’s educational facility might be Guerrilla Training School but it might as well be called Ranger School. Unless things are going really weird with your campaign, rangers will be the class you find yourself needing to replace most frequently. Apparently, death is a pretty common occurrence when you decided to bum-rush large aliens with a machete. Who would’ve guessed?
Don’t let XCOM 2’s unseen Sorting Hat determine whether or not you have a steady supply of rangers to send charging forth. Use Guerrilla Training School to ensure you always have the soldiers you need.
Rangers Can Earn Extra Turns
One of the most efficient combos we've discovered so far is giving a Hair Trigger weapon mod to all of our high-level Rangers. Though it's not guaranteed, the chance for a bonus action becomes particularly deadly when you remember the Implacable perk gives you an extra move action on any turn where the ranger gets one or more kills. Combined, that's an entire (one move + one action) extra turn anytime the Hair Trigger effect is activated.
Size Matters
As soon as you’ve built a Guerrilla Training School, your first priority should be increasing the size of your squad. Like Enemy Unknown, squads in XCOM 2 top out at six soldiers. But every gun counts; particularly when having that extra spot in your squad is the difference between bringing one healer and two. Don’t go broke paying the research costs to increase the size of your squad. That said, both upgrades should be a priority every time you start a fresh XCOM 2 campaign.
Be Patient
It can be tempting to pull the trigger when a wandering patrol gets close. But players are much better served keeping the entire team in Overwatch, ready to ambush the enemy if they’re spotted, and hoping to maintain Concealment for another turn. In many cases, patrols can be learned within a couple of turns. Most enemy patrols either walk back and forth, in a straight line, or complete a lap around whatever building or structure they’ve been assigned to. Avoid the fight for as long as possible but make sure you’re ready to quickly dispatch any enemies that wander too close.
Watch For Suspicious Activity
The actions of civilians are a great way to gain an bit of extra intelligence about the battlefield. Civilians fleeing unexplored parts of the map are usually running from undiscovered ADVENT forces, especially during Retaliation events. Conversely, civilians who don't seem to be reacting to the chaos unfolding around them are probably Faceless in disguise. Sometimes, it's the little details that will save your whole squad.
The Fall Damage Is Real
You might be surprised by how effective fall damage can be in XCOM 2. We didn't realize it until we stumbled into a bad situation during a recent VIP extraction. Without getting into too much detail, our favorite sniper found herself cornered on the roof of a two-story building. Using an EXO Suit-equipped Grenadier, we fired a rocket through a second floor window, destroying that level and the ceiling. The rocket dealth minor damage but the enemy soldiers took another five points after falling two stories to the ground below. Suddenly, the ambushers had just one HP left...making clean-up pretty easy. Don't be afraid to level the playing field when enemies seek higher ground or try to push you off of yours. Just make sure you're using your explosives effectively.
Other Tips:
- Complete the Plate Armor research as soon as possible
- Magnetic Weapon research should also be a priority
- Try to eliminate other enemies before engaging a Codex
- Research requires enemy corpses much more frequently in XCOM 2
- Don’t recruit Avenger staff or soldiers from the Black Market
- Stun Lancers have a chance to stun when attacking but still deal lethal damage
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for more XCOM 2 coverage throughout 2016 and for however long Firaxis continues to support XCOM 2 in the months ahead.
