XCOM 2 has quite a few classes for your soldiers to settle down within. Each one has a variety of different abilities to help you win some wars. Feb 5, 2016 - Tell us what you think by submitting your own XCOM 2 user review. Each new class has a direct analogue in Enemy Unknown, but can be. Oh my goodness, XCOM 2 is hard. Harder than Enemy Unknown and wholly unfamiliar to boot. So hard, in fact, that you may need an XCOM 2 guide to help you. Because while you’ll want to save the surprise of which alien does what to the spleen of your colonel for the battlefield, it can’t hurt to know the particulars of the soldiers fighting on your side. Been clocking in the hours in your own campaign? Tell us what you think by submitting your own XCOM 2 user review. Each new class has a direct analogue in Enemy Unknown, but can be turned to utterly different ends. Here’s the advice we would have given ourselves before starting a campaign for the first time. Before all those awful mistakes etched in the memorial wall. For each of the four fundamental classes, there are basic abilities your soldiers are given as soon as they leave rookiedom behind and become squaddies. Then, with every additional rank, you’re given a choice between two skills from parallel disciplines. The Sharpshooter can pull from the sniper and gunslinger skillsets; the Ranger from scout and assault; the Grenadier from demolitions expert and heavy gunner; and the Specialist from battle medic and combat hacker. XCOM 2 Sharpshooter guide
Sniper
Gunslinger
Bide your time Most missions start in stealth mode, allowing your squad to get into position around an unsuspecting ADVENT patrol and take them out in two turns flat. Or that’s the theory. When you’re not fighting against the clock, exploit the luxury of a spare turn – settle in to enjoy the extra aim endowed by Aim or Steady Hands. Make like U2 and get excited about elevation A rooftop vantage point has always been important in XCOM, and that’s doubly true for the sequel’s snipers. Acquire Death From Above early and you can follow up a rifle kill with a good pistoling. If all goes to plan, you could be shooting twice as often in a turn. Speaking of which… Pick the right mods (and we’re not talking about the Long War) Have you seen what Kill Zone can do? When you could be making four or five headshots per turn, the number of bullets in your clip becomes a matter of paramount importance. Mod your finest sniper’s weapon with an expanded magazine, readily available as a battlefield drop, and it might mean another yellow-blooded ragdoll splattering against the tiles. Bring up the rear – but don’t fall behind Squadsight was considered essential by veteran commanders of Enemy Unknown, and in apparent recognition of that fact Firaxis have granted it to sharpshooters as standard. But bear in mind that many missions require you evac your squad in a hurry. If your crack sniper is perched in a tower on the wrong side of an ADVENT base, it doesn’t matter how many hit points she has – she’ll be left behind. XCOM 2 Ranger guide
Scout
Assault
Calm the flip down David m potter the impending crisis ebook free. You’re going to struggle to keep your rangers alive to begin with. That’s because Firaxis have taken the mad dash of XCOM 1’s run-and-gun assault skill to its logical conclusion: a high-damage melee attack you can pull off even after a sprint. Administered using an actual sword. It’s all terribly exciting, but that’s going to make you careless. Just remember the fundamentals: you still want to be behind some semblance of cover whenever possible, and you still don’t want to wind up flanked. Tactics 101: Minimise risk There are things you can do to help your ranger’s odds of seeing the debrief screen. Where in Blood Bowl it’s best to save your riskiest actions ‘til last, here it can make sense to do the opposite. If there’s even the slightest chance your sword-swinger might end up exposed at the end of their turn, ensure your sniper has the intended stab-ee in their sights too. Especially since… Do the maths The chance of failure might be higher than you think. It should be obvious, but the way it’s presented means it isn’t: percentage-to-hit isn’t the only dice roll you need to consider. If your enemy has six hit points remaining and your arc blade slices away four-to-six with each hit, you’re looking at a 66% possibility they’ll still be standing afterwards. When a standing ADVENT soldier can mean point-blank disaster, you don’t want to leave too much to fickle fate. They’re called scouts: use them as such Phantom and Conceal are invaluable lower-level skills that allow you to retain a degree of stealth even after first blood. Many missions in XCOM 2 offer you the option of an early evac, leaving you weighing up the objective against the potential for heavy losses. Scout ahead with a concealed ranger and you can see exactly what you’re up against before making the call. XCOM 2 Grenadier guide
Demolitions expert
Heavy gunner
Eat shreddies for breakfast Armour is a serious new consideration in XCOM 2. Rather than simply beefing up enemy hit points, it’s now a separate bar that reduces all incoming damage until it’s specifically stripped away. Grenades will do the trick, but once you’ve run out of those, you’ll be grateful for a soldier who can ruin a chestplate with one, well-placed shot. A little bomb goes a long way The common characteristic all grenadiers have over XCOM 1’s heavies is range. You can now punt a plasma grenade onto a muton’s lap from a considerable distance – and you’ll want to, especially once ADVENT start calling in reinforcements to whittle down your already-weakened troops. Smoke bombs and flashbangs can save the life of a faraway comrade in a fix, too. Befriend the engineers If a grenadier really wants to increase their chances of battlefield survival, they’ll make a cuppa for Chief Shen and friends down in robotics. The advanced launcher is within easy reach from the off, and you can ask engineering to develop experimental explosives in the Proving Grounds. It’s pot luck which you’ll get first, but you might just land an incendiary or acid grenade and be laughing as the hit points slide off those sectoids. Best of all, those kind of improvements are transferable should your beloved demolitions expert be, er, not making cuppas anymore. Obliterate the objective Occasionally you’ll be tasked with destroying an information relay before deadly intel is passed to ADVENT’s superiors. On a good day, you’ll get a clear shot at it from concealment. With a couple of well-placed plasma grenades, you could be ready to evac before the enemy have even unholstered their laser weapons. XCOM 2 Specialist guide
Battle medic
Combat hacker
Find a good spot If you can get behind cover that’ll serve you well for a few turns, your specialist can contribute plenty to the fight. GREMLIN actions don’t automatically end the turn – so it’s possible to bolster the health or defence of an ally while firing off a few rounds of your own, so long as you don’t also need to move to a better position. Give them the medikits Traditionally, XCOM first-aid has been a messy business. You’re asking one soldier, usually with problems of their own, to run over and revive another, always in a compromised position. As soon as your specialist has Medical Protocol, however, you’re away – sending your robot whizzing above the battlefield to where it’s needed. Upgrade to the nanomedikit early on to get the highest possible number of hit points for your inventory space. Have fun with the shiny, new hacking… XCOM 2 has a fancy new mechanic whereby you send your drone to a nearby turret or CCTV station and it brings up a hacking screen. You’re given a percentage chance of success, and often a slim chance of unlocking extra goodies for the global map. You’ll want to make use of it where possible: the very best rewards include turret takeovers and control of a randomly-picked enemy unit on the map. …But don’t get carried away The most alluring rewards are locked behind some seriously unfavourable percentages. Fail your 49% hack and you’ll at the very least lose concealment, and with it the element of surprise that enables those dramatic patrol takedowns. Rule of thumb: don’t accept any percentage you wouldn’t take as a shot. Okay, let’s get this gear packed up – there’s a war to fight, you know. But wait – what’s that? Two purple eyes, glowing out from the shadows at the back of the barracks. It’s XCOM 2’s psi-operative. The fifth Beatle. The green power ranger. The one with all the spells. XCOM 2 Psi Operative guide“Let’s be honest,” says Firaxis’ Jake Solomon of the psi-op. “They’re wizards.” XCOM 2’s only extra-curricular class, the psi-op is made available once you’ve murdered a sectoid, cracked its skull open, splashed out on an expensive psi-lab facility and then put a soldier through a gruelling training process. But since you’ve gone to all that effort, Firaxis have compensated by making the psi-op ludicrously overpowered as compared to its peers.
Telepath
Resonant
N.B. Abilities are unlocked through training in the psi-lab, not by gaining XP. They appear in randomised batches, unrestricted by rank. Mech peace with your limitations Some of XCOM 2’s enemies are robots. Robots don’t have brains you might twist to your own purposes. They’re therefore resistant to most of your psionic advances, and best left to somebody else on the squad. Perhaps that grenadier you equipped with armour-shredding gear? Having said that… Don’t waste your own explosives when you could use somebody else’s Should you be lucky enough to have access to it, Fuse is a frugal way to deal with a gaggle of enemies. Without the psi-op, squads can all-too-easily run low on grenades as battle wraps up – leading to lethal consequences if a shipload of ADVENT troopers arrives unexpectedly. Better to remotely detonate the grenade attached to a muton corpse, or the rockets strapped to a mech’s steely back, and save your bombs for later. Dominate Even in a soup of intensely powerful spells, Domination is an alphabetti A-grade ability. The psi-op picks one enemy on the battlefield and turn it into an ally, controlling its moves and attacks for the duration of the fight. Unlike turret hackings, there’s no possibility of the victim awaking from their stupor. Use them as scout and scourge, taking the risks you never would with your own soldiers. Hunker down Every psi-op is the product of intense training. There’s no limit to the number of abilities they can learn, if you’re willing to spare the time to learn them. By the time you’ve got a magus with a brainful of spells, they represent a considerable investment by the world’s premier anti-alien military force. So for Central’s sake, keep them out of unnecessary trouble. You’ll never forgive yourself. And that’s it! All our advice. Please direct any complaints about lost squaddies to the ADVENT administration – but do share your own tips in the comments.
XCOM 2 is getting a new expansion called War of the Chosen, and developers Firaxis claim it’s twice the size of add-ons they’re worked on before. Yes, that means it’s 100% larger than Enemy Within, the big expansion rework of the last XCOM game that added new maps, mechs, and gene-alteration. If you’re into XCOM, you’ll love our list of the best strategy games. So, it’s big, but what exactly does it offer? Here’s everything we know about XCOM: War of the Chosen. XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – Release DateIt’s out very soon. In fact, you’ll be able to playXCOM 2: War of the Chosenon August 29. The page is even live on Steam already. Bang it on your wishlist if you want. XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – TrailerXCOM 2: War of the Chosen – The ChosenThe Chosen are a trio of persistent enemies that will haunt you across your XCOM 2 campaign. Inspired by Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis System, these enemies will morph and react to you as your force repeatedly encounters them, growing in strength as the war efforts push on. Each time you encounter them they’ll have a slightly different skill set, demanding that you constantly adjust your tactics. These alien bosses grow in power via a resource called Knowledge, which they can gain in a variety of ways, including by kidnapping your best and brightest troops. If they gain too much Knowledge they will eventually shoot down the Avenger and try to seize you, the Commander, in a unique mission. If you’re captured that’s it: your campaign is over. Like the orcs in the Nemesis System, XCOM’s The Chosen will have distinct personalities. They taunt you during combat, referring to previous battles, which adds a whole new level of character to XCOM. This should alleviate the copy/paste feeling that the game’s procedural generation can sometimes cause. The three Chosen are siblings, and each come with their own unique strengths. They’re also worthwhile targets since you’ll be able to claim their equipment upon killing them, and their weapons are by far the best in the game. The AssassinFocused on duty and honour, the Chosen Assassin will turn up when you least expect it, cloaking and getting right up in your grill with a sword. The HunterThe Hunter is a long-range expert who will keep your squad pinned down and pop heads with sniper fire. This Chosen has a sense of humour – not surprising considering he’s voiced by Nolan North – and a keen aim. The WarlockExpect unpredictable attacks from this warrior-wizard. A religious fanatic, The Warlock won’t grant you any empathy. XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – RebelsYou will want to track down and kill The Chosen before the endgame, otherwise those final missions will be nearly impossible, what with three super-powerful extra enemies bearing down on you. To do that, you’ll need the help of three rebel factions that each have unique abilities. The only problem is… they hate each other. Each faction is tracking a specific member of the Chosen, and aiding them in their fight will help gain your favour. This is done through Covert Actions, a new strategy feature that sees you send a duo of soldiers on a mission for a faction. Successful Covert Actions will gain you influence, and eventually allow you to hire a faction’s special hero unit. Factions also provide Resistance Orders, which are bonuses similar to Civilization’s Policies. For example, the Skirmisher faction has Double Agent, which when equipped will trigger one Advent soldier in every mission to defect to your side. Another example is an order that removes a block of progress from the Avatar Project every month. You can have multiple Resistance Orders active, but you’ll start the game with the ability to assign only one. Like the Chosen, each faction – the Templars, Reapers, and Skirmishers – will have their own abilities and philosophies. Those philosophies are also likely to make co-operating with all three of them tricky, but we do know that there is an achievement to be unlocked for befriending all three of them. You’ll want to chum up to all of them, too; hero class soldiers are powerful units in battle and can also aid your efforts in the game’s strategy layer. The ReapersThe Reapers’ hero units are stealth marksmen and saboteurs. They operate from concealment using a skill called Shadow Shot that ensures there’s a chance they won’t be revealed when firing (although repeated shots lower the chance of staying hidden). They can throw claymores from stealth without giving away their position, and use the Remote Start skill to detonate parked cars with double radius and double damage. Their Banish skill also allows them to empty an entire magazine of ammo into an enemy target. The SkirmishersSkirmishers are alien/human hybrids and defectors from the Advent army. They are essentially one-man battalions, capable of massive destruction if used correctly thanks to the free extra action they get if somebody attacks them. They can use both actions to shoot, and their Overwatch allows them to use any single-action ability – such as throwing a grenade – rather than just fire their weapon. Skirmishers also have access to the Battlelord ability, which when triggered provides them with a free action every time an enemy unit takes an action. The TemplarsTemplars are the wildcards of the bunch. Psionic masters with melee-only attacks, they work a little differently to regular units, since they generate Focus with each attack. As Focus builds, the Templar’s attacks do greater damage, their defence increases, and they can move further distances. At higher levels they even gain the ability to deflect damage back at opponents. Their Ionic Storm ability uses up all gathered Focus to unleash bolts of lightning on nearby foes, while Ghost creates a clone to aid in battle. Deploy them right, keep them alive, and Templars can be devastating in the late stages of a battle. XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – The LostIt won’t just be The Chosen you have to worry about, as this expansion also introduces The Lost – a swarm of angry, mutated humans that will attack both sides of any given conflict. War of the Chosen takes us back to humanity’s abandoned cities, and they are absolutely riddled with these not-zombie zombies. These messed up creatures don’t move individually. They attack in large swarms and are drawn to the sound of combat. Once they show up, everyone will be fighting for their lives against these mindless hordes, aliens and XCOM alike. Expect some multi-threat chaos, basically. The Lost are governed by the Sitrep system, which rebalances missions by adjusting their core elements. If The Lost Sitrep is applied, you can expect to fight these zombies. There’s more to it that that, though; if The Horde Sitrep is applied, there will be twice as many Lost swarms. These interlink with other elements, too; there’s a Dark Event called Lost World that when active will put Lost swarms in every mission played that month. XCOM 2: War of the Chosen new featuresThere are plenty more additional features beyond the new factions and enemies. Indeed, War of the Chosen is a much bigger expansion than any XCOM 2 DLC and the Enemy Within pack for the previous XCOM game. One of the key new features is Soldier Bonds, which sees compatible units build a band of brothers-style relationship over multiple missions. When you deploy these soldiers together, they’ll have access to a set of abilities based around their bond that should make them incredibly powerful assets. For example, these buddies can fire simultaneously, or negate debuffs when stood together. You certainly won’t want to separate them, nor let one be killed; the death of a bonded comrade will send to survivor into a rage state similar to panic from the base game. Should the worst happen, though, survivors can form bonds with new soldiers. Keeping your pals together won’t be so easy, of course. Not only is there the ever-looming threat of permadeath, but soldiers now suffer fatigue if you send them on too many subsequent missions. You’ll need to rotate through your roster a lot more to keep your men and women fighting fit, and ensure that bonded units are both energised enough to be fielded together. Soldiers can now develop quirks. For example, a unit can become ‘obsessive’, meaning they constantly require their weapon’s magazine to be full. If it’s not, they may ignore one of your orders and reload instead. This can be cured by putting units through the new Infirmary building. Propaganda is being woven into the campaign, with the ability for you to write on posters and craft mottos for your teams. A Photobooth mode allows you to take snapshots of soldiers as they return from missions, adding filters and posing your squaddies. These photos will then appear in the world as posters, encouraging people to join the rebellion. There’s also a resistance DJ that will discuss your victories and defeats on the Avenger’s radio (voiced by Jake ‘son of Gary’ Busey), and an Advent news channel that will broadcast stories covering up XCOM’s successful missions. Combined with brand new opening and end cinematics, War of the Chosen should have far more narrative flavour than the base game. The previously mentioned Sitreps don’t just apply to the Lost; they can force you to play in very different ways. For example, one Sitrep will allow your squad to re-enter concealment, but will also increase the difficulty of the mission to compensate for that. Sitreps should ensure that every War of the Chosen mission feels distinctly different to ones featured in the original XCOM 2 campaign. Things are being changed around in the HQ, too. Your scientists can have Breakthroughs and Inspirations. The former provides bonuses for specific projects, such as higher damage for a weapon, while the latter reduces the time to research. However, both must be accepted immediately when the in-game pop-up occurs, otherwise they’ll be lost. This means you’ll need to weigh up the benefits of putting your current research projects on hold to accept a Breakthrough or Inspiration. The Advanced Warfare Centre has been replaced with three new buildings: the Infirmary, the Resistance Ring, and the Training Centre. As mentioned previously, the Infirmary is a medical facility used to cure soldiers of negative quirks. The Resistance Ring allows you to embark on Covert Actions, and the Training Centre is where new abilities are purchased. Yes, not all abilities are earned for simply ranking up these days. The new Faction Hero units must purchase their skills with Ability Points, which are gained in battle for doing general manoeuvres such as flanks. Each soldier has a Combat Intelligence score which modifies the amount of AP earned. Back at HQ, AP is spent on unlocking skills for Hero units. Regular soldiers can also have AP spent on them at the Training Centre; while they’ll still earn skills for ranking up, AP can be used to unlock skills from their unused skill tree, or even teach them the abilities from other classes. That’s all the intelligence we’ve managed to harvest from the alien corpses found by the PCGN team, but we’ve always got soldiers on the lookout for new data. Check back regularly for new War of the Chosen news, Commander.
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