8 hard-earned tips you’ll need to take back Earth in XCOM 2

0

0

XCOM is a notoriously punishing series of strategy games, and the newly-released XCOM 2 is no different. In many ways it’s significantly harder than its predecessor, Enemy Unknown. While the in-game tutorials do a good job of laying out the basics of how it works, there is an immense amount of second-order knowledge that has to be earned in the field. Since we’ve had a month or so of playing the game, here are some starting pointers based on that experience. While much is the same as its predecessor, many of the changes to gameplay alter tactics on a fundamental level, so these should be useful to both series veterans and fresh-faced recruits alike.

Related: XCOM 2 review

Look at all of your options before making a move

Since XCOM is a turn-based game, you have the luxury of unlimited time to make each move. Every turn, you should start off by cycling through your whole team to assess their options, rather than just taking actions in the automatic order. With a finite number of actions, you want to make sure that every move is as efficient and effective as possible.

If you have time, take it

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. Until concealment is broken, the enemies have a smaller radius of awareness, which is clearly telegraphed so you can maneuver freely around them. 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.

Watch out for Sectoids

The cute, little, bobble-headed grunts of the first game have grown up. In addition to being larger and generally more intimidating looking, the infusion of human DNA into the Sectoids has greatly enhanced their psionic capabilities and made them a far greater threat in the field. Sectoids can now attack your soldiers psionically, causing negative effects that range from disorienting or incapacitating your troops for a turn to outright taking control over them, which can be a brutal swing in the alien’s favor, depending on your positioning when it happens. They can also revive fallen foes as zombie puppets.

You should prioritize taking out Sectoids as quickly as possible. If they do manage to start wreaking psionic havoc, take them down first, since this will return control of your hijacked soldiers and disable any zombies.

Lead with explosives

Armor works a bit differently in XCOM 2 than its predecessor. The yellow lozenge at the end of a character’s health bar acts as a constant reduction on all damage taken. However, armor can be “shredded” by explosives (or normal Grenadier attacks with certain upgrades), which permanently removes it for all subsequent attacks. Furthermore, many of the cover-providing environmental elements can be destroyed by grenades. Accordingly, it is often best to lead a round of attacks with explosives, which will shred armor, destroy cover, and generally make enemies more vulnerable to attacks from the rest of your squad, ensuring the most value for your actions. This is especially pertinent for ambushes from concealment, when unwitting enemies are more closely clustered than they will be once engaged.

Grow the resistance early and often

While the Geoscape strategic metagame is certainly much more interesting XCOM 2 than building satellites in Enemy Unknown, there are certain similarities to how your should approach it. The game will present you with lots of tempting options for ways to spend your time in the Avenger, picking up valuable resources or recruits. Focus on expanding the resistance early in the game, contacting new regions, and building radio towers in regions you own, once you have researched them. Both of these will increase your monthly supply income, which is critical to your long term success.

Radio towers also have the added bonus of reducing the intel cost of contacting new regions, which is based on the distance to the nearest tower. Global access becomes increasingly important as the game goes on and you are prompted to investigate alien facilities around the world. Having to spend weeks contacting multiple new regions in order to access a critical story mission or Avatar Project facility on the other side of the world can completely kill your momentum.

Get a jump on psychics

The fifth soldier class introduced in XCOM 2, the Psi Operative, works differently from the others. Instead of gaining promotions through field experience, Psi Operatives level up through training in a specialized facility on the Avenger. Moreover, rather than progressing linearly through a sequence of choices for new abilities, Psi Operatives choose each successive ability to train from a random selection, meaning they can get access to their most powerful abilities from the beginning, or learn both abilities from the same tier. These powers can be extremely impactful in the field, so it behooves you to get a jump on training your Psi Operatives as early as possible, which is easy with some focused research.

In order to access Psi Operatives, first kill a Sectoid in the field. Instructing Dr. Tygan to complete the Sectoid Autopsy will unlock the Psionics research project, which will in turn let you build the Psi Lab. Stick a fresh recruit in there and start them training, and you’ll be mind-controlling aliens in no time. Staffing the Lab with an engineer or gremlin accelerates the training substantially.

Don’t underestimate stealth Rangers

Rangers, which are XCOM 2‘s variant of the Assault class from Enemy Unknown, are particularly attuned to the new concealment mechanics. While the Assault track of abilities fills a similar role as heavy damage-dealers, including their signature “Run and Gun,” the Scout track allows them to remain concealed after the rest of the squad is revealed, do more damage from concealment, and drop back in once per mission, among other abilities. Having at least one stealthy Ranger can be extraordinarily useful for scouting ahead of the squad to get the drop on enemies, flanking powerful enemy positions, or powering past the rest of the squad toward objectives while the bulk of the enemy force is distracted.

Manage your engineers

Base-building in XCOM 2 involves a bit of light worker-placement, as you assign a growing pool of engineers to clear out debris, build, or staff facilities. It is important in the long run to make sure that they are used as effectively as possible. Chief Shen is good about informing you whenever an engineer is idle, but also be mindful of those who might be staffed in a room that is not being used, such as in the Proving Ground without a project, or the Psi Lab without a trainee. The Workshop facility can turn one engineer into two equivalent Gremlin drones for adjacent rooms, so be sure to build it in one of the two center rooms to get the most flexible utility out of it.

• Hands on: Far Cry Primal
• Hands on: XCOM 2

from Planet GS via John Jason Fallows on Inoreader http://ift.tt/1UZ3gqe
Will Fulton

John Jason Fallows

See author's posts