Having trouble with XCOM 2?
Don’t worry. Thousands of players are struggling with 2K and Firaxis’ latest tactical strategy game, trying to make heads or tails of all the changes introduced in XCOM 2. There are new enemies, new soldier classes, new facilities for XCOM organization’s mobile command center and loads more. Fortunately, we’ve already slogged through dozens of battles, figuring out which strategies from Enemy Unknown are still effective in XCOM 2 and which tactics need an update. Some of the information below might seem a bit obvious to experienced players. But hopefully we’ve rounded up enough information for new XCOM players to get started down the path to success.
Don’t Trust The Numbers
Telling you not to trust the statistical component of XCOM might seem a bit counterintuitive. But any experienced XCOM player will tell you the series’ chance-to-hit percentages have always felt laughably inaccurate. That trend continues with XCOM 2. We’ve lost count of the times we’ve whiffed on melee attacks with 90-plus percent projected chance for success or fired helplessly into the air when standing just a few feet from an enemy. Yes, players should still take any shot with a high chance of success. Just remember what game you’re playing when that “perfect shot” flies right past your target.
Cover Is Crucial
Every member of your team should be in cover at the end of your turn. No exceptions. When available, full cover is best – even if it means giving yourself a slightly lower chance to hit your current target – but any cover will do. But make sure you’re paying attention to what you’re hiding behind. Burning cars will eventually explode; dealing significant damage to nearby units. And some objects, like trees and park benches, can be destroyed pretty easily.
Just remember the same is true for your opposition. If you’re having trouble killing an alien combatant, who’s hiding in full cover, use a grenade to expose them to gunfire from the rest of your squad.
Concealment Is Key
XCOM 2 introduces a new player state, called Concealment, which adds an element of espionage to the game. And we can't overstate how useful Concealment can be. Waiting until the perfect moment to reveal your squad will frequently mean the difference between life and death. Don’t break Concealment until you see your current mission objective and a few soldiers are waiting in Overwatch to ambush whatever unit(s) is first alerted to your presence.
We’re fans of the Phantom perk, which keeps rangers concealed if they weren’t personally spotted by an enemy. Experienced Rangers can also regain Concealment once per combat, via the Conceal perk, which can be useful when making a hasty exit. Everyone else will have to rely on old-fashioned cover.
Rookies First
There are going to be moments when you have to risk the lives of your soldiers. The reasons will vary; from saving civilians during an ADVENT retaliation event to getting the lay of the land during the opening moments of a new mission. No matter how well you plan, there will be a moment where you have to send one unit forward and hope for the best. Make sure that unit is a rookie.
Soldiers are going to die during the XCOM 2 campaign. You need to make peace with that now because life is going to be a whole lot harder for your squad if you’re constantly marching your top soldiers out to their doom. The more experienced your fighter, the more indispensable they are to the organization. More importantly, opportunities to replace them with highly-experienced volunteers are both rare and expensive. New recruits only cost 25 supplies. You do the math.
Keep Experimenting
Once you’ve built a Proving Ground for the Avenger, XCOM 2 gives players the option to research new types of grenades and ammunition. You’ll need Elerium Cores to complete the process, along with a few days of research time, but the resulting creations can be devastating on the battlefield. We’ve already discovered tracer rounds, which improve a soldier’s aim, dragon rounds, which have a chance to light enemies on fire, and poisonous ammunition that slowly kill enemies from the inside. And there’s just as much diversity among grenades, from acid-filled explosives to incendiary devices.
There’s No Place Like Home
Don’t forget to go back to Resistance HQ from time to time. XCOM headquarters can be used to improve facility construction speed, reduce the recovery time for wounded soldiers or collect Intel to be spent at the Black Market. It’s a nice change of pace from the sitting and waiting players had to endure, between tasks, in XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Players still need to venture outside the walls of Resistance HQ pretty frequently, to take part in guerrilla ops or recover new supply drops. You can’t just sit around and wait for the aliens to come to you but make sure you’re not a stranger at XCOM HQ, either.
Get The Most Out Of Each Turn
There aren’t many moments when you can set off a chain of events with a single action. But being able to recognize those situations, and knowing how to execute on them, can be devastating against mankind’s alien overlords. For example, killing a Sectoid will cause mind-controlled soldiers to revert back to your team and reanimated zombies to disappear. Alternately, a grenade might be used to detonate a burning vehicle, dealing two sets of explosion damage to anyone caught in the blast radius. The most successful XCOM 2 players will be those who make the most of every opportunity they’re given.
Build Some Healers
Any soldier can carry a medkit in XCOM 2. But no class makes for a better healer than the Specialist, thanks to a skill tree focused on remote healing and removing debuffs from your squad. By using a Gremlin drone, which can’t be targeted by enemies, specialists can heal teammates anywhere on the battlefield. After a few promotions, they can even stabilize soldiers who are bleeding out or clear the head of panicked/disoriented fighters. Once you’ve got a couple of dedicated healers, you can explore more aggressive builds for the specialist class, too. But make sure you’ve got a few doctors first.
Know Your Enemy
Knowing which enemy(s) to prioritize on the battlefield is arguably as important as any other piece of advice on this list. Knowing how to (and how not to) kill them is even more so. XCOM 2 is going to feel like it’s impossible to beat if you’re focused on picking off ADVENT soldiers while a Sectoid breaks your ranks or an Advanced MEC ]rains mortar shells down upon your team. Each time you engage the enemy, identify the deadliest combatant still on the battlefield and figure out if it’s possible to remove them without exposing one or more members of your team to certain death. And then, if you must, take a moment to decide whether or not those deaths might be worth it.
Build An Advanced Warfare Center
Early on, XCOM 2 will encourge the player to build a Shadow Chamber as quickly as possible. Once you've finished that task, your next priority should be building an Advanced Warfare Center. The facility serves a variety of purposes, from decreasing soldiers' recovery times to unlocking latent abilities in your fighters as their battlefield experience grows. And those abilities are the backbone of some of the game's deadliest combinations.
Autopsy Everything
Unlike the alien autopsies in Enemy Unknown, researching the aliens in XCOM 2 (in some cases) is a multi-phase process. Researching your fallen foes also remains the most consistent means of unlocking new technology for your ragtag band of fighters. Obviously, there will be times when other research takes priority -- like Plate armor and Magnetic weaponry -- and there are times when researching other tech trees will instantly complete a particular autopsy. But, particularly during the first few hours of your campaign, try to squeeze in as many alien autopsies as you can.
Take Control Over Movement
If you've ever had a soldier inexplicably run through a burning fire or pool of acid, you know the frustration that can come from XCOM 2's pathfinding systems. Thankfully, there's a solution. Firaxis just forgot to tell everyone.
If you hold the CTRL button, while moving your soldiers around the map, you can use a checkpoint system that gives players more control over the path their soldiers take from Point A to Point B. We're not sure why a tutorial wasn't included in the game, and wouldn't be shocked if one is added in an upcoming patch, but at least now you know!
A few other quick tips:
- NEVER try to melee a Muton. It won’t end well.
- Vipers can grab/pull soldiers through solid objects
- Faceless destroy cover when they attack
- The Return Fire perk is useful if enemies frequently rush your Sharpshooters
- Grenadier’s Suppression ability breaks Overwatch
- Retreating sucks but it’s better than losing soldiers
- Flanking is the best way to deal with enemies in full cover
- Utility items carried by soldiers killed in action are lost forever, even if you complete your mission
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.
