Xcom 2 Tips And Tricks

Xcom 2 Tips And Tricks

Xcom 2 Tips: The focus here is on helping you win the ground battles in XCOM 2. If you’re looking for help building your base and managing the global resistance efforts, check out our guide right here. Humanity is on the ropes at the start of XCOM 2. Aliens haven’t just invaded; they’re here, they run pretty much everything and they’re secretly working to destroy us all.

The only people that see the threat for what it is are your allies in the human Resistance, but you don’t have the numbers to push back in force. That leaves only one option: waging a guerrilla ground war. The E.T.s have superior numbers and weapons, but you’ve got the benefit of a clever mind and a small-yet-mobile squad.

Xcom 2 Tips And Tricks
Xcom 2 Tips And Tricks
XCOM 2 is a deep game, and as such, can be a bit overwhelming. We compiled a list of tips for use when starting out a game, to give you the best possible advantage going in. There are tips here for everyone, and if you have your own, feel free to click that edit button and share it with your fellow XCOM players!

“And then some people went over 50 missions because they were playing more methodically, taking their time.

XCOM 2 features the same content across all versions: The same gameplay, the same story, and the same maps. That said, modding and mods are limited to the PC version of the game. All the downloadable content from the PC version will be for sale on consoles at the time of launch.

On June 7, 2016, it was announced that XCOM 2 would be released on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 6, 2016, in North America, September 8, 2016, in Australia and September 9, 2016, in Europe. The console versions of the game were developed by The Workshop.

Xcom 2 War Of The Chosen Tips

First Thing You Do, Feel Out The Battlefield

XCOM 2 has a “Fog of War” effect that keeps you from seeing the full battlefield, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a sense of how thing’ll play out. Zoom all over the map and you’ll get a feel for the bounds of the map, your objectives, and where enemies may be lurking.

ABC: Always Be in Cover

This is a very basic tip, but: Under no circumstances should you leave an XCOM soldier out in the open. Unless you’ve done a last-ditch hail mary to kill the last of your enemies, every turn should end with all of your soldiers behind some sort of cover. Preferably with that cover between you and your enemies.

Blood Those Rookies

It’s impossible to rely on the same 4-6 soldiers for every mission. Even if you can keep them alive, they’ll eventually get wounded, and some wounds take forever to heal. So you’re going to need a big roster of veteran soldiers, ideally somewhere between 10-12 in size. The best way to get everyone’s experience and specialization is to blood them in early in the game; better to have them cut their teeth in the first couple of missions than be sending rookies in against the game’s tougher enemies later out of necessity.

Learn Skills That Let You Break The Rules

In XCOM 2, characters get two big actions per turn, which usually consist of moving and attacking. Some of the game’s best abilities break the hell out of that rule. For example, the Ranger has an “implacable” skill that lets her/him move again any time they get a kill. “Run and gun” is another great Ranger skill that lets you have an extra action after you’ve moved twice in the same turn. If you combine those skills, you can theoretically take four actions in a single turn. That’s huge.

More good rule-breaking skills:

  • The Specialist’s “ever vigilant” ability automatically puts them on overwatch at the end of a turn where they used both actions to move.
  • “Lightning hands” lets Sharpshooters take a free pistol shot. “Serial” is a ruinous top-tier Sharpshooter ability that lets you chain together sniper kills until you run out of ammo or targets.
  • “Chain shot” lets Grenadiers take a second shot at an enemy if the first is successful. It’s got a pretty steep aim penalty, though, so it’s best to use this one only when your grenadier has an alien flanked, or in times of serious desperation. “Salvo” is a higher level Grenadier ability that lets them fire a grenade or rocket at the start of their turn and also fire their weapon.

Xcom 2 Tips Reddit

Xcom 2 Tips Reddit

1. If an enemy hides behind a good, solid cover, yet is suspiciously non-active and refrains from attacking your soldiers, you should be cautious – there’s a good chance that he’s a bit, and when you close in on his position to flank him you will reveal a group of hidden enemies, waiting to trap you.

2Try to always have 1-2 Flashbang Grenades and at least a single Mimic Beacon at your disposal. The former will allow you to decrease the effectiveness of your enemies, while the latter gives you the chance to divert the attention of aliens off your troops, which is extremely valuable when you’ve pulled too many enemies on your squad.

3Picking the proper type of ammo can significantly increase the effectiveness of your soldiers when dealing with certain types of enemies. You should be the most interested in A.P. Rounds, Bluescreen Rounds and Talon Rounds – more on them can be found in the chapter about ammunition.

4From a certain moment in the game, enemies equipped with armor (yellow squares) and shields (red squares) will start appearing on the battlefield. As far as the latter goes, those are simply bonus health points, but the armor itself is a thing you should be extremely cautious about – each point of armor decreases the damage your soldiers deal by 1. It can be shredded with the help of grenades, and some of Grenadier’s abilities.

5If you aren’t absolutely certain that there isn’t any enemy around the corner (especially if you are not in conceal mode anymore), never, ever use sprint to move around the battlefield. By doing so you can easily fall into a group of enemies, completely unprepared.

6The same goes for moving when almost all of your soldiers are done and out of action points and only a single soldier can do something – if that’s the case, and if you’re not short on the timer, you should always end your turn (either by getting into overwatch or by hunkering down) and wait for the rest of your team. There’s nothing worse than running into a group of enemies when your soldiers are done with their actions and can’t do anything.

7Don’t ever leave your soldiers in solitude, without protection, even if they are behind a really good cover. A Viper can easily pull a soldier to himself across the whole screen, enemy reinforcements (or a disguised as a civilian Faceless) might appear very close to a lone soldier. This is especially important for sharpshooters, as this class is not the most effective one in close combat. Try to move your soldiers in pairs, so that you always have someone to help out.

8If an enemy hides behind a good, solid cover, yet is suspiciously non-active and refrains from attacking your soldiers, you should be cautious – there’s a good chance that he’s a bit, and when you close in on his position to flank him you will reveal a group of hidden enemies, waiting to trap you.

9Try not to clump up your entire team. A lot of enemies have an area of effect attack at their disposal, not to mention grenades – the more scattered your soldiers are, the fewer chances for an enemy hitting multiple of them with a single attack.

10. There will be numerous enemies on the battlefield each time, but there are some of them that should be taken care of as quickly as possible. Those are Sectoids (thanks to their mind-controlling abilities), Vipers (because of the fact that they can pull your soldier towards them and immobilize him), and Advent Stun Lancers (who can stun, or even make your soldier unconscious and unable to do anything for the rest of the mission).

11Mind controlling ability, as well as zombie reanimation one which the Sectoid uses can be stopped by simply killing the enemy casting it, or by hitting him with a Flashbang.

12To break free of the binding ability used by the Viper, all you have to do is to inflict a few points of damage to the enemy.

13If any of your soldiers becomes unconscious, use the Specialist’s Revival Protocol ability and the soldier will be back in action.

Xcom 2 Ironman Tips

XCOM 2 does a great job of mixing up mission parameters so you are forced to vary your tactics as the situation demands. Many missions have time constraints forcing you to plow ahead. For missions that do not, though, you should take as much time as you need to scope out the scene and set up to engage the enemy on your terms.

Concealment is a new mechanic that allows your squad to get the drop on unaware enemies. Take the time to position your troops with cover and high ground to do the most damage, then set all but one member of your squad to overwatch. Attack the unsuspecting aliens with the last soldier and enjoy the ensuing slaughter.

Xcom 2 Starting Tips

1. Save early, save often

There’s no sugar-coating this: XCOM 2‘s save file system is broken. While the autosave feature is aggressive, this holdover bug from the previous game has a nasty habit of slapping the wrong dates and times on your save files. For those that like to save and reload during a mission, the unsorted list of files can be a nightmare.

All of which means you should get into the habit of manually saving your game at key moments. If nothing else, make one save in each mission before you make any moves on your first turn. There’s no “mission restart” feature, so doing this at least gives you a way to wipe the battlefield and start fresh if you’re not happy with how the fight went down.

2. Know your soldiers’ roles

This might seem obvious to some, but snipers aren’t generally a good fit for close-quarters combat. Knowing what each member of your squad can do and how to best leverage their talents is vital in XCOM 2. Generally speaking, moving everyone as a group is safest. Though you should always be ready to switch that up according to a mission’s needs. If you’re not on a timer, for example, finding safe, high ground for your sharpshooter is a huge help.

Keep your rangers and their deadly melee attack at the front of any advance. They make great scouts, especially as they level up. Grenadiers should fall in right behind them, ready to spray the field with bullets or blow up obstacles using heavy explosives.

Specialist units can hang back a bit, regardless of whether you’ve upgraded them for healing or combat. Their Gremlin drones have the considerable range and don’t have to worry about distance screwing up their accuracy, as they never miss. During more mobile missions, it can be a good idea to move any sharpshooters and specialists together in a group so they can back each other up.

3. Don’t burn your turns

Each soldier in XCOM 2 can typically perform no more than two actions on a given turn, though that gets cut down to one if you attack with your first action. That said, there’s nothing requiring you to use both actions consecutively.

It’s often valuable when you’re first scouting a map to move a single soldier forward into uncharted territory and then, once you know the lay of the land ahead, position other soldiers around your scout based on what you learn. Sometimes it might make sense to move your scout forward a second time, though make sure you’ve got one or two soldiers in Overwatch — meaning they’ll take potshots at any enemy that appears — before you do.

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Every map in XCOM 2 is randomly generated, so there’s no standard strategy that works every time. The best thing to do is to always move cautiously. Even when you’re on a mission timer, there’s no harm in using each soldier’s actions one at a time, as opposed to burning them both on a dash. Never dash into a location that you haven’t scouted yet.

4. Concealment is a powerful weapon

An ambush in XCOM 2 can take many forms. Early on, an easy setup involves putting all but one of your soldiers in Overwatch then having that last soldier fires a shot. The suddenly-awakened enemies will scatter after that first shot, and your responding Overwatch fire should bring most or all of them down.

Later on, as enemy numbers increase and the range of attacks brought to bear against you grows, an all-Overwatch setup isn’t as effective. Some foes are extremely deadly unless you can bring them down before they attack, so for occasions when you need to focus fire in specific directions the randomness of Overwatch works against you.

As with most strategies in XCOM 2, your best bet is to keep paying attention and learning how your enemies behave. Note which ones can lay waste to a squad with one attack. Which ones have area-of-effect abilities? Much like your own squad, the E.T.s each have their own role. Watch how each one behaves and learn how to counteract the biggest threats before they can mess you up.

Xcom 2 Tips For Beginners

ABS: Always Bring a Sniper

XCOM 2 offers a variety of different classes you can bring with you into the field. Among them are Sharpshooters, AKA snipers, and they are absolutely crucial to battlefield dominance. You can mix and match the other classes, but you should always bring at least one sniper. If you can, put ‘em on a high vantage and leave them there. They’ll save your bacon more than once.

IF, BMS: In Fact, Bring Multiple Snipers

Have one well-versed in sniper skills, another with a mix of sniper and pistol skills (lightning hands is awesome) and frequently put both on overwatch. As long as you keep them well-positioned, they work as both a versatile offense and a defensive shield against ambushes, all while mostly staying out of harm’s way. Be sure to give them weapon upgrades that increase their accuracy.

Then Again, Don’t Be Afraid To Mix It Up

It can be tempting to settle into having a favorite squad and taking the same troops on every single mission, but XCOM 2 is a lot more ruthless with its mission variety than XCOM 1 was.

Stop, Wait, Reload

On missions that don’t have a timer, there is one important strategy we recommend. Enemies aren’t “activated” until someone on your team sees them. Once you finish one firefight, take a turn and allow everyone on your team to reload. It’s very easy to run out of ammunition at a crucial juncture, especially in the early goings. Reload even if your soldier has only fired a single time. There’s no real penalty for waiting for an extra turn to re-engage, and you never know when that last bullet will be the one that saves your whole squad.

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