getting a 100% is like winning the lottery,one of my operatives was only 1 meter away from an advent soldier,and that very fucking operative had a minigun,and only 68% chance? Sure afterall he did hit em,BUT WHO THE FUCK CAN MISS AT DAT DISTANCE? MOSTLY WHEN HE HAS A MINIGUN
christian torres pss... Thats nothing, I had 1 grenadier flanking a viper with 98% (with scope & perception pcs equipped) & it missed the freaking shot. I scream WHAAAT THA FAAACK!?!?!?!?
Jonathan Rivera I missed with 2 78% shots with 2 different people at point blank range. It was the first time I actually shouted out "wft?" and got in shit off the wife. Usually I just accept it as it's part of the package.
My "WTF?" moment was with sniper-duo, who have taken the higher ground and were trying to eradicate advent commander. 84% on sniper rifle shot? Missed. Death from above, 63% on pistol. Miss. Next sniper - 70~ish% - and another miss. And then the last attack was from a ranger with a sword for 90~%... that missed. It was my best mission imo, barely over 40% of shots hitting the target, while almost all of them being over 50% chance.
Занудный Лис yeah, I have had some really poor rng lately. Had a good run on commander difficulty, with me getting close to completion but made some stupid mistakes that got my best squad taken away, then went to shit. Lost them all as I forgot to keep an eye on the counter on a vip mission. Ever since then, I cannot get no further than the 3rd mission due to absolute rotten luck. Frustrating game to say the least.
Forgot the most important one - never make moves that can lead to spotting too many aliens. This is by far the biggest concern in the tactical part of the game. As long as aliens are not spotted, they are not spawned, just simulated as a patrol. After encountering one group - being very careful not to "see to much" and trigger more groups pays off in a big way. Even if you can get a nice flank but would see a lot of terrain going there - forget it. At best you get one shot at enemy who no longer gets 40% from cover, at worst you just brought extra 3 enemies to the fight. It's simple math, even if you kill 2/3 aliens in this group but spot one more group you'll get 4 aliens acting on the next turn. If you only kill 1/3 it's 2 aliens acting and you'll kill them almost certainly on next round... than you can go hunt next pack.
I am learning that quickly lol. I lost all but 1 of my crew on the second mission on my first run because of that. Fucking Sectoid triggered and really got the party going.
They must have changed this or something, because I just started playing xcom 2, and on the second mission, I kept walking past a group that were on the highway above me, and I never spotted them, yet they would constantly drop down behind me and spot me, every time I tried to quickly pass them without fail. So I ended up hiding my soldiers beneath them, set them all up with LoS and overwatch (concealed) and bam, instantly killed the two of them with a free turn. Might also be difficulty dependent? Idk, I'm stupid and selected the 2nd hardest and don't want to change it.
Late but sometimes it may help if you don’t go further than where the blue squares are. If you encountered a group, you can always run back to cover instead of being out in the open for the aliens to shoot at
new tip, when mousing over squares to move a soldier, enemies will get a little crosshair icon next to their health bar. this indicates that the soldier will be able to see them from that square if he was to move there. also that the enemy will be able to see the soldier. so no more "what do you mean i cant see him!" shouting at screen moments after you moved your soldier into position.
+Fulmetal Only problem with this (and the flanking mod) is that sometimes your soldier is so far from the alien, that you can't see it without scrolling, and once you scroll, the crosshairs change depending on where the mouse is.
+Fulmetal Only problem with this (and the flanking mod) is that sometimes your soldier is so far from the alien, that you can't see it without scrolling, and once you scroll, the crosshairs change depending on where the mouse is.
I would insist on getting magnetic weapons first, not armor. Killing the all the enemies before your turn ends is how you succeed in this game, not by having extra HP for when you get shot. Don't get shot. Taking one hit can end the entire campaign when one soldier gets stabbed unconscious for only 2 damage, thus panicking two of your squad members, thus giving the aliens another free turn, thus getting your troops killed, thus forcing you to take more ineffective rookies on subsequent mission, thus resulting in mission failure, thus resulting in campaign failure. Taking cover and hoping for the best is NOT a good way to play this game, Moving to get the best shots possible and murdering the shit out of the Aliens is. Advanced grenade launchers + Sniper on the high ground for 100% hit chances, + early shard guns for 10 damage flanking crits, combat protocol, grenades, grenades, GRENADES. Your soldiers can have 1 HP and it wouldn't matter if you know how to kill advent scum. And yes, this is the way to go on EVERY difficulty.
Oh forgot. the shadow chamber is AMAZING. not only do you need it for story reasons. once you have it it will Tell you Exactly how many enemies are on a mission map and what kinds they are. So you can tailor your squad to the mission.
OMG I am about ready to smash this game because of the stupidity of the game, 92% chance to MISS???? It dont matter how good you are, or your guy, the random percentage is crap. And the turn based system stinks when I get 1 or 2 moves they get 3 in more cases then not. I was an xcom fan, the last two games ruined my enjoyment for this series because of this ripping us off bull.
Bio logy then explain how I can shove a grenade up the aliens rectum and only takes 2 damage, but a sword can cut through a wall, doing 8 damage and bring half the wall down with it.
Sword > Frag grenade at least for a single target, better upgrade to plasma grenades. The game is tough for sure, I had to try the very first real mission 7 times before I got it right and was struggling with the campaign a lot but eventually I got the hang of it. The thing is, while the game is tough it's not unfair unless you are playing on one of the higher difficulties. Just takes some practice and when everything finally falls into place and you get your first Flawless run the feeling of accomplishment is nice. Not a game for everyone certainly, takes a lot of patience and willingness to overcome the rather steep learning curve.
Brian M wow the hit percentage is easily made for example pick a number between 1-100 if it greater than 75% a hit else missed. To make crits pick a number from 1-100 if it greater than 90% crit damage
Protip: when performing rescues/retaliation ops, use scanners when approaching a large crowd of civilians, any faceless in the scanner's range will reveal themselves automatically.
According to other's who got the preview builds, the continent bonuses are randomized. In that case, it's not always Asia that has that bonus and it might not even appear in your campaign.
Tip: Holding CTRL key allows you to set a waypoint on soldier's movement path. Nice if you don't like the default most direct path. Can't figure out how to make it work with Ranger slash though.
I have two. 1. Mission required hacking targets, such as prisoner doors or detonators, have very good loot in them that only a fairly good hacker can get. Try to hack these with Support whenever possible. 2. The weapon mods applied to a Sharphooter's Sniper Rifle does not apply to their pistol. But any experimental ammo they are carrying does apply. In addition, the effect of experimental ammo can trigger on the miss damage generated by stock mods.
Tip No. Something-or-another: Just because you can hack the ADVENT mechs, does not mean its a good idea to do so... specially doing it twice in one mission...
True. An addendum to my previous statement, in light of EE recent success at hacking; If you have a high enough chance to succeed in a hack a ADVENT MEC, go for it, otherwise, dont. You will regret it, and you soldiers will likely not appreciate the now harder to hit MEC.
Tip No. ** Flashbang Grenades are especially useful later in the game, they stop "Codex" enemies from doing their 'clone' thing, they also affect the giant eyeball thingy, and they break mind control and zombiefication. Tip No. ** The Advanced Warfare Center is another must have building early in game, it not only allows you to retrain soldiers to re-assign abilities (perks) if you decide you don't like the one you gave them, but also it will randomly add a "non-class" ability (perk) to soldiers when they level up. So you might end up with a Sharpshooter with the 'Rapid Fire' perk for total OP'ness. Also, forget 'Predator' armor, as it requires dead bodies to construct and isn't that much better than the Kevlar in reality. Instead, save up your resources, and go straight to 'Warden" armor as this is an "infinite" armour (once researched/constructed all troops can equip it) it also has two (2) inventory slots. (plus it looks WAY cooler) Once you've saved up some resources, then you can make EXO and WAR suits for individual soldiers. EXO suits give any soldier wearing it an extra "AOE ability, and WAR suits are for Grenadiers, allowing them to add some truly awesome extra AOE attacks.
+lrg162 It takes forever to research all prerequisites to get the top tier end-game Warden armor, using starter armor until then especially on high difficulty Ironman would be suicide.
Man, wish I'd watched this video before I started playing. Took me AGES to get the Guerilla School because I went for the Advanced Warfare Center first (the "random bonus skills on level-up" bit was just too tempting, and has admittedly paid off rather well, like a Ranger with Hail of Bullets and a Grenadier with Untouchable), but then I had to build a bunch of other stuff (Proving Grounds, another Power Relay, Resistance Comms etc) so it took me AGES to get around to it. It's also good to know that I don't have to panic about the Avatar Project, especially after I fluffed a Guerilla Ops mission which would have removed 2 points of completion on it (I saw a Skulljack of opportunity during it and went for it, unaware that it would spawn a Codex, which fucked me up so badly that I got bogged down in dealing with it and failed to reach the objective in time), meaning the project was 1 unit from completion before I even raided my first blacksite.
Armour stops death as easy but doesn't really reduce recovery time, a small amount of health loss can still result in "gravely wounded" and leave your soldier out of action for weeks, so don't go 100% by this videos description of armour. Always flank and stay in cover is the best way to not die and don't huddle troops together
The best tip I've found is really more of a workaround for wonky controls: if you have an assault (sorry, "ranger") with the Slash ability, figuring out how to target it properly drove me absolutely nuts. If you actually select Slash from the menu, it seems to pick an angle of attack at random, and it's almost always a terrible choice. What you do instead is *do not* select Slash from the menu, just mouse over the enemy you want to attack, and then move your mouse to an adjacent square. If your soldier has Slash, a blade icon will show up on the square. Right-click (or whatever) as normal to move there, and you will move and slash, hopefully ending up in more cover than the default would have given you.
getting caught by the UFO is a great thing. not only are those missions super fun, but it is probably the best way to spread out a ton of xp across your entire barracks. Also, surprised you left out flashbangs, bringing up a solid number 2 slot right behind mimic beacons in terms of OP, flashbangs make it near impossible for enemies to hit you AND remove/prevent pretty much every special ability they can do. Mind control, zombies, grabs, whatever it is you fear, flashbangs got you covered.
+AkaRystik I KNOW RIGHT ?? I got caught and couldn't believe my LUCK. Free xp, no shit ass timers and ALL THE TROOPS you want. After creating a fucking GLASSED zone where there was no cover in front of the ship ( too much ka-boom! ) I was literally FARMING them.
0:43 love the coyote time there. . .heavy gunner, shoots through the floor to kill an alien, then hunkers back down, only to then notice there's no floor beneath them and only then do they fall ..
Important note, Mimic Beacons do NOT force aliens to attack them, they just have a very strong weighting. If something else manages to outweigh the mimic beacons with regards to how attractive a target it makes. I have specifically seen an Andromedon lob acid at a group of bunched soldiers rather than attack the beacon. I believe that the weighting of bunched troops is the only thing that can exceed the mimic beacons weighting, but it's likely there are other things that are capable of doing it as well.
+ASpace Ostrich If yopu put the beacon in the open they are PRONE to attack it unless you have another in the open closer to them. If they can hit an open target they kinda see that as alot of value damage, regardless of target.
tips GTC is first thing you should buy and 2 med kits, then for first 10 missions only gather Intel at base,the do advant officer autopsy's to unlock proving grounds and build your game around these three main tips and you will be in stoppable and always a step ahead of advant
Another Tip guys that took me a while to figure out ( call me a noob if u must ) But If you press F and C they lower and raise the level and you can use movement commands on roofs and high ground without the shadow of the building in your way forcing you to move on the ground floor. This was not explained ( if it was I missed it ) lol! :D
+Opticalx T and G change the zoom level of the camera, very useful if you are looking for the line of sight indicators on enemies that are farther away.
How to win Xcom: -bring atleast 2 grenadiers -preferably 3 or even 4 grenadiers -Mag+Gauss before Armor -Autopsy Faceless for Meme-ic bacon and Mutons for Plasma
+Yann Bofferding Isn't there still an ambushing mechanic using overwatch? i.e. you set your team into position set their overwatch and then have one of your team attack? I think what they patched was the AI behavior that EE was exploiting in which he waited for the enemies to spot him and uses his overwatch to get free shots at the enemy while they run for cover once they activate and then gets his turn to finish them off. If thats the case it just means you have to take better care to make sure you ambush and don't pull an "Oh Hi" style of ambush.
+Wrath Nine yes you can still attack and use overwatch the exploit was away to robe the enemy of an attack on your men so you got technically two turns to fire on them before they could shoot back
+Yann Bofferding You can actually still do it with proximity mines. Lob one right under the feet of enemies, then they move next turn, set it off, and it accomplishes pretty much the same thing.
+Jacob Thomas I've been really impressed with how well they've made the gunslinger class. My two highest ranking soldiers are a sniper and a slinger, and I think the slinger has actually done more total damage. They can pretty quickly get to a point where they can get off three shots in a turn, and with a plasma pistol that can be a lot of damage. I mean, I
i played first time ironman veteran difficulty didn't use sword attacks or rangers at all because i didn't think they were any good (and they all died in the beginning anyway) and no mimic beacons just snipers and grenadiers with one hacker my most useful tactic was to use 3 grenadiers and 2 snipers and 1 hacker the grenadiers would all have grenade build on them and 1 sniper used faceoff to finish everyone to get items 1 sniper in the back for sniping. and a specialist with offensive build now i play with much more information about the game on ironman commander and I need more tactics to win My most useful tips DON'T ATTACK MUTONS WITH A SWORD (my colonel died because of it) USE FLASHBANGS they are so fucking useful they deny codex from cloning, sectoids from using psi abilities (and kill the zombie if already casted) and deny mutons from blocking sword attacks(and lancers can't use melee) LEARN psi abilities early on you need the mind control perk asap. it's not the enemy you will gain from doing it but the enemies draw their fire on it and makes the game so much easier. Don't use all your intel early on in the black market you will cry when a facility is 3 places further and you need to stop the avatar project (nearly fucked up a near perfect run by doing this) Choose a class that you DON'T play early on so much that don't invest so much (rangers are a good example you have to upgrade their swords and guns) you can also give up snipers compeletely. and late game bring them back Psi units and specialists use same guns so they are a good way to save money. Don't play with rookies after the first month. build a guerilla tactics school and train your rookies to squaddies. free leveling and doesn't cost anything always have someone trained there until month 4 Don't go for scanning sites that offer alloys only. you will get craploads of them anyway at the raid missions also you can buy it from black market. If you do get a ranger make a sword build. especially blademaster perk. you can do so much with the blademaster perk. (like putting the soldier on the enemy reinforcement red smoke and watch them all get sliced) you can also go slice a berserker and leave it there for the enemy turn the berserker will 100% try to attack the blademaster and then it will slice it to pieces. REMEMBER your troops' abilities. i can't stress this enough name them or colour code. like if you have a ability that gives more aim by hunkering down then USE IT. i don't personally even thake that aim ability because i never hunker down i don't like playing like that. or if you get free overwatch after using all points on movement then don't move 1 step and overwatch use them both to get to full cover or something If you want to use swords then always back down some steps and let enemy push you to your discovered position this way you don't trigger additional pods (you don't want to do that) Don't use rangers at all if you're a beginner they are just baits. they are very powerful and agile but. yeah in wrong hands you will get rekt ( i assume you play on ironman)
+irou95 I have to disagree about Rangers, when used properly they're one of the best classes, especially early on in high difficulty ironman. The mistake you're presumably making based on pure sword builds, is choosing Blademaster over Phantom, which is critical. One can still use swords, as +2 damage doesn't matter very much in the long run while you apply stun/burn, enemies gain more health and your team does more aoe damage to soften them up. Phantom is probably the most OP skill in the game and the easiest decision to make between two skills. You get it very early (1st ranger promotion) and the ability to see enemy pods before engaging is godly compared to face-checking entire maps each mission, which can often begin engagements while out of position and causes problems. Waiting solely until you've created psi-soldiers with mind control do to the same job is fun to use, but comparatively a luxury waste of time and resources. It's even possible to keep the cloak up... detect the enemy, get in position and take them out using the rest of the team without using the Ranger, so he stays cloaked and searches for the next pod, repeat and rinse. And then later the other skills I like on them are Shadowstep, Run'n Gun, Bladestorm, Untouchable (high sword synergy) and Rapid Fire. I just installed a mod that makes swords 100% accurate, so I might try Reaper out more.
ytubeanon don't play with mods that help you that much. if i had 100% accuracy with swords i would play 5 rangers and 1 grenadier. and i didn't say one should stop playing ranger completely Meant that you can just not upgrade their guns and maybe use one for recon only so never reveal it unless needed a last blow to someone with low health. also you can use rangers anyway until magnetic guns are needed
This is probably just me, but to tell who's who I create colors for each rank to help me tell who I should get to accomplish tasks. Rk= Orange, Sq=Yellow, Cl=Purple, Srg=Red, Li=Green, and Cp=Black.
I dress my specialist medic in white to remind me to keep him at the back of the group where he can heal from a distance, and my sniper in black to remind me to put her on a rooftop. Rookies are in green and anyone suffering reduced will is yellow and these will both be kept out of harm's way and given some easy kill shots to help with their experience / will. Psi ops, SPARKs, grenadiers and rangers are distinctive looking and interchangeable enough so they all get to have their own styles without colour coding.
"Firaxis was paying attention" - God damn all streamers and youtubers for using exploits before release, i had so many plans in my head that included this strategy.
+kubamakar22 why was this even "patched". This seemed like a perfectly valid tactic and I thought was even intentionally included with all the concealment stuff. Set up an ambush, when they enter it it triggers, why was that not just a thing?
+LNX Gaming It is - what was patched was that you'd leave a soldier vulnerable so that they'd discover you during your turn, giving you an ambush AND a full turn. You can still do it, except now they can shoot your exposed soldier, which makes perfect sense.
Jiri Van den I understand now, I was thinking they would see you behind cover and stuff if the range overlapped but I was just confused. Playing it made it make sense.
Great video, very informative. However you are wrong about the Mimic beacon nerf, that Asia only provides the 50% GTS credit. All the continent bonuses are randomized per game.
First playthrough, I didn't upgrade armor until all my dudes were getting one shotted, so then when I went to upgrade it I didn't have the fucking trooper corpses to do it because I sold them for supplies, and the regular troops don't show up mid game, so I was just fucked.
heres a tip: rely on basic grenade early game. The earliest levels are filled with low health enemies, where blowing them up is better than risking a miss. Most of the other early enemies can be killed by the ranger.
What about tips on how to prioritize missions on the world map. Its really not clear in what order we should proceed... I've made a mistake going forward with a difficult mission because i thought i had to complete it.
EE is legitimately one of the smartest people I know. And not being able to watch him play xcom was quite hard x) But I just don't want to spoil anything major. So, thank you for this video, at least I can watch it with no fear xD
Tip: Always take specialist to gorilla missions where you need to hack objective with counter. Being able to stop counter from well secured cover will save lives. Tip2: Always take Ranges with Phantom and snipers to gorilla missions where you need to destroy objective with counter. Killing objective with squad sight super convenient.
Additional tip and minor spoiler for dlc Archon kings. viper kings, and beserker queens can move anytime you preform an action other then something like lightning hands. They also have a ton of health, appear randomly, and try to escape if their health drops to half. Also they don't give a flying f*** about mimic beacons. If you see a beserker queen killing its allies *let it* then move in for the kill. If you have the children of anarchy dlc a lot of the helmets can actually have a positive effect on your soldiers, so you can google that.
Best tip: Save and reload when needed, not sure what's around that corner, save, you're almost at the extraction zone but it's been a while since you fought anything, save
You mentioned continent bonus for Asia in tip for GTS. CONTINENT BONUSES ARE RANDOM AND CHANGE FROM CAMPAIGN TO CAMPAIGN. I think that the game chooses a bonus for each continent from a list, and there are more possible bonuses than continents, because I have had some bonuses appear in some campaigns and not others.
Enemy Unknown will always be king of XCOM. Just so much more freedom to do what YOU want, although the graphics in these new games are great but I miss taking a Squad of 25 !!! into battle.
While fighting the Archon King and one of his Archon minions (plus a turret, obviously, as that's where I'm going with this), I threw a grenade at him to try and hit all three. Could only manage him and the turret, but I realized that it killed the turret by destroying the floor. Very handy, as turrets can be somewhat of a pain to deal with when there's an Alien Ruler or other enemies around.
Never used mimic beacons, even after making one. I don't know why I thought it would be the kind of decoy that just attracts enemies towards it instead of something defensive, like a proper holographic decoy. I will use that more often, now. It even looks cooler than I thought it would.
Oh and last, but not least, I was TRYING to get attacked by a UFO again, because I like doing it. So many reinforcements and you can get turrets as an upgrade! Those missions are fun! Of course I had a mod that turned off alien rulers for that and the council missions, so... maybe be careful about that.
He's right about those god damn UFO's I thought I could handle it but got bogged down in infinite reinforcements and had to sacrifice my full team of well experienced guys and girls because I didn't understand that without prior knowledge that event is BS. It literally crushed my top team in the avatar countdown and cost me my playthrough.
A few corrections and additions. #1: While using falling damage is indeed useful, just remember that enemies dying because of this, contribute 0 XP to your soldiers. #2: While G.T.S is important to get early on, the AWC is even more important. The AWC speeds up the recovery process of injured soldiers and more importantly, grants your soldiers extra random abilities. If you wait too long before building the AWC, you might miss out on some of the VERY awesome abilities that your soldiers might have gotten through leveling up. So if you already got a high level soldier and they missed out, there is no way for them to get this ability (unless using mods) #6: The reason for most injuries is usually your soldiers inability to take down hostiles effective enough. The best way to prevent deaths is not to "tank" the damage, but rather not being shot in the first place. You do this by killing the enemy right away. Especially early on. Weapon research before armor. Every single time... #8: "Aliens are forced to shoot at mimic beacons" WRONG! The mimic beacon creates a high value target which most aliens will target, but you should never rely on this. Always take care and NEVER leave your soldiers out in the open, even if you are using mimic beacons. #10: (SPOILER) Getting caught by a UFO is random chance, when you press the "evade" button and at some point sooner or later in your campaign, you will get caught.
EnterElysium : i know this is an Old video, but the workshop 2:34 , if you made a mistake on adding a workplace to engineers can you move it ? It may cause some kind of repercussions? i also know its an older game, but looks interesting. Good tip for the overwatch 6:53
these will work for me when i play the game again and i got it i done the basic's but i didn't know if i should panic or not of that project now i know i don't need to panic anymore haha thank's dude
Tip #who cares: Granadier soldier with Salvo and deep pockets abilities can turn one proximity mine into 2! Get both proximity mines in the midst of an unsuspecting ADVENT group for a whopping 16 points damage, pair with a grenade and a good Sniper's Killzone to unleash hell on the enemy.
As someone who started playing last week and is learning all the minutia it can not be stated enough: GET THE PREDATOR ARMOR EARLY. While you ideally don't want the armor for HP as the goal is to not even get hit, the ability to carry 2 items will save you a lot of headaches. Grenadiers with 2 boom booms and a boom boom launcher massacre enemy cover, armor, and is really good for initiating fights. Don't like that shot percentage? Boom boom. Caught out in the open suddenly? Bright boom boom. Everything goes boom more frequently with predator armor.
Haven't been able to do a controlled test, but human enemies that show !loot destroyed can still drop loot. If resurrected and die by non-explosive means, they will drop the loot. Unsure if death by severed connection causes it aswell. I've only killed the zombies first in those circumstances. ( Sectoids )
If you have the Shock Trooper mod... Killing the enemy with the flame thrower counts as a grenade; Also.... over watch concealment traps... still work quite amazingly.... just make sure the people are set then throw a grenade... immediately takes the concealment away but leaves everyone over watched and you can just fuck their entire group up with in 1 turn.... works great against any thing with armour...
GeorgiaBabylon most do, the game is hard, and always different..Ive restarted twice and each time you continue to learn bonuses, penalties, what loadouts to use etc...great game
I kind of wish he hadn't mentioned the insta-killing turrets via falling thing, since that seems like one of those tactics which is much more fun to figure out on your own or discover accidentally.
+OriginalTharios How would a stationary turret survive having the floor they're attached to break away? If nothing else, the turret should get disconnected from anything they're attached to, and if its wireless, it'd still need support to be able to remain stationary when firing.
+NWCtim I did it for the first time without knowing, and it was a pretty good feeling. :) Well, truth be told I was torn between "woo! I am a tactical genius!" and "wait, it's *gone*? did I just exploit a bug?" ;)
EE the continent bonuses are random the mimic beacon doesn't force the aliens to attack it they attack the unit with the lowest defence so if an alien is flanking a unit it will ignore the mimic beacon also finally always give gunslingers experiment ammo's they are the best class for it
+Trent Porter it depends on your roll with soldier abilities are. I got a specialist with rapid fire. RAPID FUCKING FIRE, blue screen rounds against mechs and shit went downhill for mech enemies in the endgame
I really enjoy using my gunslinger with dragon rounds since burning works on most enemies organic or not with a few exception. Just built blue screen rounds. However I would like to ask for a moment of silence to Maj. Kelly for his passing after the bout against his first andromedon. His efforts to the cause will never be fogotten
yea its not good in the early game till you start stacking the skull-jack and hack buffs but i also recommend one of the hacking re balanced mods because i find even in the late game the 2rd hack option is still really low. so low i've seen the first option be something around the 80-90 range and the second option was 30-40
Should I just suspect trial and error on every mission? Like doing a mission a second or third time to learn the map and enemy movement. I should not expect to ace a mission on first try?
I hardly ever use rooftops, there is the line of sight issue which makes some rooftops inexplicably transparent, while they may look solid you can actually see and shoot through them, that goes for both aliens and xcom soldiers. The AI has on a number of occasions shot at someone with normal gunfire and removed the tile upon which my soldier was standing thus causing falling damage. I do love however when aliens take the roof spots, it usually means my grenadiers have an easier day. I do however make exception of a sniper or two in a high safe rooftop on a few missions but altogether I just avoid them late game.
I have been given conflicting information. I also heard that getting better armor doesn't help as much since the chances of getting major - minor wounds are completely random at the end of the mission.
I believe whether or not a wound is minor or major depends on how many units of health lost in relation to total health. So any armour that increases your maximum health or reduces the damage taken will improve your damage compared with total health ratio - so for example if your guy has 4 HP and takes two damage then the 50% health lost may make it classified as major, but if he had armour that gave him 6 HP then the damage ratio would only be 33% and may mean it is classified as a minor injury.I'm not sure of the maths and the percentages which determine when a minor becomes major but I get the impression there are a number of hidden scaling in the background that determines an injury of a few days, a week or two, or in the case of being revived in combat a month.
I recommend weapons over armor. Even with better armor your troops will get raped on higher difficulties. So it is better to kill the enemy quickly, before he can land shots on you.
I'd like to know if you can come out in proper camouflage patterns for climate or area of operations like slums of Toronto it might give you some freedom from dull cover
on mimic beacons. . i have seen enemies ignore my mimic beacon to instead throw a grenade to hit 2 of my guys instead. and i dunno, but i think the rulers are immune to mimic beacons as well. i have thrown a mimic to distract a rule and the ruler just ignores it and attacks my guys anyway
+Honest Phil It's not as good as he claims in the video. Mimic Beacons are considered "high value target" by the aliens, but they are not "forced" to shoot at them. They are good and useful, but never rely on them entirely.
TIP: It's risky, but you don't need to ambush the first squad you see when concealed. If careful (and lucky), you can sneak your way close enough to act on the objective without fighting and being discovered beforehand. This way you could essentially pull off quick hit-and-run guerilla strikes.
+TESI303 Not true. Once you are "close" the enemy squads start to suspiciously change their pathing to CONVERGE ON YOU...even though supposedly they don't know you are there. It's basically the AI cheating.
***** No. This doesn't happen *all the time.* I've been able to sneak to my target without engaging in combat. Then 2-3 turns to engage, plant explosive or kidnap/kill VIP then rush off to extraction zone.
TESI303 Playing on Commander. Once they get "clsoe" but not enough to spot, they immediately switch their route to converge on me. I reloaded many times just to test this. 14 times and 14 times they changed direction, even going through buildings to box me in. Usually on the timed missions. Haven't tried the VIP ones.
***** Just played again on Veteran. Was able to sneak by a very close patrol that diverted its own path to avoid discovering me. So discovery is not 100% guaranteed and sneaking is viable but dangerous. A perfect mix for an Xcom game
Dave Krohl Its a turn-based tactical game... Yes, there is strategy in it, but it's not a "Real Time Strategy". You're the one calling it "Real Time", which it definetily is not and will never be.
SpiritReacher My bad man I've just seen it be called an RTS by SEVERAL UA-cam reviews so blame them don't kill the messenger 😂 and btw they are basically the same thing mate
Dave Krohl There is a difference between Strategy and Tactical games, Dave. Strategy games are about warfare and have lots of 4X components. Tactical games are more puzzle-y in nature and require thinking ahead.
Is it still true that when you hack a turret to control it and succeed, the turret stays in your control until it is destroyed or the mission ends? Or has that been changed..
Excellent tips Elysium, thanks! Now on to continue the waiting game. Another question for you Elysium or anyone who has played XCOM EW: Long War. I have 450+ hours on long war but on the Normal Difficulty long war. What difficulty should I start with on XCOM 2? Thanks!
+MrRyIke Commander, it is hard, but not impossible. Main problem with legend is, that u will get way more higher prices and construction time, while aliens don't.
Sadly, LW strategies don't work in the new game, besides a few basic ones as, 1. Don't use half cover 2. Smokes are your best friend 3. Keep your squad close, but not too close
All depends when they find you during their turn they may have already used an action when moving or they may have an action left to take cover and shoot.
I wish I knew which armors are for everyone and which one is individual. I thought the predator armor was like the Nanoscale vest where you have to build one for each soldier.
+Typical Otaku quite true, some of the projects in the proving ground are general upgrades that effect everything, like the nanomedkit. and some of the build items at the engineer workshop ( like the nanoscale vest ) are single items.. It would be great to either have all of the single items in the proving ground and all of the tech upgrades in the workshop or some mention of it in the item description.
here's a tip: if it's less than 100% expect a miss and the bullets to ricochet off the wall and kill one of your squad members
getting a 100% is like winning the lottery,one of my operatives was only 1 meter away from an advent soldier,and that very fucking operative had a minigun,and only 68% chance? Sure afterall he did hit em,BUT WHO THE FUCK CAN MISS AT DAT DISTANCE? MOSTLY WHEN HE HAS A MINIGUN
christian torres pss... Thats nothing, I had 1 grenadier flanking a viper with 98% (with scope & perception pcs equipped) & it missed the freaking shot. I scream WHAAAT THA FAAACK!?!?!?!?
Jonathan Rivera I missed with 2 78% shots with 2 different people at point blank range. It was the first time I actually shouted out "wft?" and got in shit off the wife. Usually I just accept it as it's part of the package.
My "WTF?" moment was with sniper-duo, who have taken the higher ground and were trying to eradicate advent commander. 84% on sniper rifle shot? Missed. Death from above, 63% on pistol. Miss. Next sniper - 70~ish% - and another miss. And then the last attack was from a ranger with a sword for 90~%... that missed.
It was my best mission imo, barely over 40% of shots hitting the target, while almost all of them being over 50% chance.
Занудный Лис yeah, I have had some really poor rng lately. Had a good run on commander difficulty, with me getting close to completion but made some stupid mistakes that got my best squad taken away, then went to shit. Lost them all as I forgot to keep an eye on the counter on a vip mission. Ever since then, I cannot get no further than the 3rd mission due to absolute rotten luck. Frustrating game to say the least.
Forgot the most important one - never make moves that can lead to spotting too many aliens. This is by far the biggest concern in the tactical part of the game. As long as aliens are not spotted, they are not spawned, just simulated as a patrol. After encountering one group - being very careful not to "see to much" and trigger more groups pays off in a big way. Even if you can get a nice flank but would see a lot of terrain going there - forget it. At best you get one shot at enemy who no longer gets 40% from cover, at worst you just brought extra 3 enemies to the fight. It's simple math, even if you kill 2/3 aliens in this group but spot one more group you'll get 4 aliens acting on the next turn. If you only kill 1/3 it's 2 aliens acting and you'll kill them almost certainly on next round... than you can go hunt next pack.
I am learning that quickly lol. I lost all but 1 of my crew on the second mission on my first run because of that. Fucking Sectoid triggered and really got the party going.
They must have changed this or something, because I just started playing xcom 2, and on the second mission, I kept walking past a group that were on the highway above me, and I never spotted them, yet they would constantly drop down behind me and spot me, every time I tried to quickly pass them without fail. So I ended up hiding my soldiers beneath them, set them all up with LoS and overwatch (concealed) and bam, instantly killed the two of them with a free turn. Might also be difficulty dependent? Idk, I'm stupid and selected the 2nd hardest and don't want to change it.
This helped me so much, thanks. I kept LOOKING for them because I wanted to just have them on my radar
Late but sometimes it may help if you don’t go further than where the blue squares are. If you encountered a group, you can always run back to cover instead of being out in the open for the aliens to shoot at
new tip, when mousing over squares to move a soldier, enemies will get a little crosshair icon next to their health bar. this indicates that the soldier will be able to see them from that square if he was to move there. also that the enemy will be able to see the soldier.
so no more "what do you mean i cant see him!" shouting at screen moments after you moved your soldier into position.
+Fulmetal THANK YOU! Thank you very much :D This is so damn helpfull!
Christoph Hößelbarth youre welcome :)
+Fulmetal Unless you're EE and not paying attention.
In this case, plenty f shouting at the screen.
+Fulmetal Only problem with this (and the flanking mod) is that sometimes your soldier is so far from the alien, that you can't see it without scrolling, and once you scroll, the crosshairs change depending on where the mouse is.
+Fulmetal Only problem with this (and the flanking mod) is that sometimes your soldier is so far from the alien, that you can't see it without scrolling, and once you scroll, the crosshairs change depending on where the mouse is.
I would insist on getting magnetic weapons first, not armor. Killing the all the enemies before your turn ends is how you succeed in this game, not by having extra HP for when you get shot. Don't get shot. Taking one hit can end the entire campaign when one soldier gets stabbed unconscious for only 2 damage, thus panicking two of your squad members, thus giving the aliens another free turn, thus getting your troops killed, thus forcing you to take more ineffective rookies on subsequent mission, thus resulting in mission failure, thus resulting in campaign failure. Taking cover and hoping for the best is NOT a good way to play this game, Moving to get the best shots possible and murdering the shit out of the Aliens is. Advanced grenade launchers + Sniper on the high ground for 100% hit chances, + early shard guns for 10 damage flanking crits, combat protocol, grenades, grenades, GRENADES. Your soldiers can have 1 HP and it wouldn't matter if you know how to kill advent scum. And yes, this is the way to go on EVERY difficulty.
Solid advice right here
Yep. The best defence is dead aliens. The best way to achieve that is with better weapons.
I thought that too. Magnetic weapons is always the first thing I go for, especially on the higher difficulties its paramount.
Tip #1
never try
90 chance to hit?
they'l miss
WELCOME BACK TO XCOM BABY!
9 chance to hit?
holy shit its a triple critical!
Hmoody-TH Only if its advent or the aliens
1 health left? Crit for 12 damage
I've missed a 99% shot before. I don't think I've ever hit a shot under 20%
Oh forgot. the shadow chamber is AMAZING. not only do you need it for story reasons. once you have it it will Tell you Exactly how many enemies are on a mission map and what kinds they are. So you can tailor your squad to the mission.
+KiTronics Yeah, really good to know when to bring anti-armour and when to bring flashbangs.
I wish I watched this before I spent 10 hours on Xbox playing inefficiently.
OMG I am about ready to smash this game because of the stupidity of the game, 92% chance to MISS???? It dont matter how good you are, or your guy, the random percentage is crap. And the turn based system stinks when I get 1 or 2 moves they get 3 in more cases then not. I was an xcom fan, the last two games ruined my enjoyment for this series because of this ripping us off bull.
Bio logy then explain how I can shove a grenade up the aliens rectum and only takes 2 damage, but a sword can cut through a wall, doing 8 damage and bring half the wall down with it.
Sword > Frag grenade at least for a single target, better upgrade to plasma grenades. The game is tough for sure, I had to try the very first real mission 7 times before I got it right and was struggling with the campaign a lot but eventually I got the hang of it. The thing is, while the game is tough it's not unfair unless you are playing on one of the higher difficulties. Just takes some practice and when everything finally falls into place and you get your first Flawless run the feeling of accomplishment is nice. Not a game for everyone certainly, takes a lot of patience and willingness to overcome the rather steep learning curve.
Brian M wow the hit percentage is easily made for example pick a number between 1-100 if it greater than 75% a hit else missed. To make crits pick a number from 1-100 if it greater than 90% crit damage
ADDGAM3R same
One of the big tips I think should be noted is Reloading no longer Ends your turn automatically it just uses one action point.
Not sure why I never thought about that for turrets very nice.
I've only recently purchased this game, but every time I destroy the floor underneath turrets, they just float in mid air.
@@crosseightyeight lmao they probably patched it then.
Protip: when performing rescues/retaliation ops, use scanners when approaching a large crowd of civilians, any faceless in the scanner's range will reveal themselves automatically.
According to other's who got the preview builds, the continent bonuses are randomized. In that case, it's not always Asia that has that bonus and it might not even appear in your campaign.
+Steph_Man Yup - they are drawn from a pool with varying degrees of awesomeness - I misspoke and should probably add an overlay correction.
+EnterElysium Then why didn't you? :)
Tip: Holding CTRL key allows you to set a waypoint on soldier's movement path. Nice if you don't like the default most direct path. Can't figure out how to make it work with Ranger slash though.
I have two.
1. Mission required hacking targets, such as prisoner doors or detonators, have very good loot in them that only a fairly good hacker can get. Try to hack these with Support whenever possible.
2. The weapon mods applied to a Sharphooter's Sniper Rifle does not apply to their pistol. But any experimental ammo they are carrying does apply. In addition, the effect of experimental ammo can trigger on the miss damage generated by stock mods.
Heh I have a gunslinger build sniper that combined with a gunslinger build destroys rebots
Tip No. Something-or-another: Just because you can hack the ADVENT mechs, does not mean its a good idea to do so... specially doing it twice in one mission...
+Schregger :'(
+EnterElysium Or forgeting that your Specialist didnt get Haywire protocol...
*DIMITRI'S SALTY*
+Schregger On the other hand, if you can hack the ADVENT MEC during an Avenger defence mission. You have now won that mission.
True.
An addendum to my previous statement, in light of EE recent success at hacking; If you have a high enough chance to succeed in a hack a ADVENT MEC, go for it, otherwise, dont. You will regret it, and you soldiers will likely not appreciate the now harder to hit MEC.
*****
Except if you forget that no one in the team has haywire protocol
*Dimitri is still salty*
(If you dont know, see the XCOM2 stream.)
Tip No. ** Flashbang Grenades are especially useful later in the game, they stop "Codex" enemies from doing their 'clone' thing, they also affect the giant eyeball thingy, and they break mind control and zombiefication.
Tip No. ** The Advanced Warfare Center is another must have building early in game, it not only allows you to retrain soldiers to re-assign abilities (perks) if you decide you don't like the one you gave them, but also it will randomly add a "non-class" ability (perk) to soldiers when they level up. So you might end up with a Sharpshooter with the 'Rapid Fire' perk for total OP'ness.
Also, forget 'Predator' armor, as it requires dead bodies to construct and isn't that much better than the Kevlar in reality. Instead, save up your resources, and go straight to 'Warden" armor as this is an "infinite" armour (once researched/constructed all troops can equip it) it also has two (2) inventory slots. (plus it looks WAY cooler) Once you've saved up some resources, then you can make EXO and WAR suits for individual soldiers. EXO suits give any soldier wearing it an extra "AOE ability, and WAR suits are for Grenadiers, allowing them to add some truly awesome extra AOE attacks.
+lrg162 It takes forever to research all prerequisites to get the top tier end-game Warden armor, using starter armor until then especially on high difficulty Ironman would be suicide.
Man, wish I'd watched this video before I started playing. Took me AGES to get the Guerilla School because I went for the Advanced Warfare Center first (the "random bonus skills on level-up" bit was just too tempting, and has admittedly paid off rather well, like a Ranger with Hail of Bullets and a Grenadier with Untouchable), but then I had to build a bunch of other stuff (Proving Grounds, another Power Relay, Resistance Comms etc) so it took me AGES to get around to it. It's also good to know that I don't have to panic about the Avatar Project, especially after I fluffed a Guerilla Ops mission which would have removed 2 points of completion on it (I saw a Skulljack of opportunity during it and went for it, unaware that it would spawn a Codex, which fucked me up so badly that I got bogged down in dealing with it and failed to reach the objective in time), meaning the project was 1 unit from completion before I even raided my first blacksite.
Armour stops death as easy but doesn't really reduce recovery time, a small amount of health loss can still result in "gravely wounded" and leave your soldier out of action for weeks, so don't go 100% by this videos description of armour. Always flank and stay in cover is the best way to not die and don't huddle troops together
The best tip I've found is really more of a workaround for wonky controls: if you have an assault (sorry, "ranger") with the Slash ability, figuring out how to target it properly drove me absolutely nuts. If you actually select Slash from the menu, it seems to pick an angle of attack at random, and it's almost always a terrible choice. What you do instead is *do not* select Slash from the menu, just mouse over the enemy you want to attack, and then move your mouse to an adjacent square. If your soldier has Slash, a blade icon will show up on the square. Right-click (or whatever) as normal to move there, and you will move and slash, hopefully ending up in more cover than the default would have given you.
getting caught by the UFO is a great thing. not only are those missions super fun, but it is probably the best way to spread out a ton of xp across your entire barracks. Also, surprised you left out flashbangs, bringing up a solid number 2 slot right behind mimic beacons in terms of OP, flashbangs make it near impossible for enemies to hit you AND remove/prevent pretty much every special ability they can do. Mind control, zombies, grabs, whatever it is you fear, flashbangs got you covered.
+AkaRystik I KNOW RIGHT ??
I got caught and couldn't believe my LUCK. Free xp, no shit ass timers and ALL THE TROOPS you want.
After creating a fucking GLASSED zone where there was no cover in front of the ship ( too much ka-boom! ) I was literally FARMING them.
Been dying around the clock since I bought the game. Thanks a lot for your tips!!
0:43 love the coyote time there. . .heavy gunner, shoots through the floor to kill an alien, then hunkers back down, only to then notice there's no floor beneath them and only then do they fall ..
Important note, Mimic Beacons do NOT force aliens to attack them, they just have a very strong weighting. If something else manages to outweigh the mimic beacons with regards to how attractive a target it makes. I have specifically seen an Andromedon lob acid at a group of bunched soldiers rather than attack the beacon. I believe that the weighting of bunched troops is the only thing that can exceed the mimic beacons weighting, but it's likely there are other things that are capable of doing it as well.
+ASpace Ostrich True. I had a Mech shoot rockets at a group of my soldiers, while the other enemies went for the beacon.
+ASpace Ostrich If yopu put the beacon in the open they are PRONE to attack it unless you have another in the open closer to them. If they can hit an open target they kinda see that as alot of value damage, regardless of target.
tips GTC is first thing you should buy and 2 med kits, then for first 10 missions only gather Intel at base,the do advant officer autopsy's to unlock proving grounds and build your game around these three main tips and you will be in stoppable and always a step ahead of advant
Another Tip guys that took me a while to figure out ( call me a noob if u must ) But If you press F and C they lower and raise the level and you can use movement commands on roofs and high ground without the shadow of the building in your way forcing you to move on the ground floor. This was not explained ( if it was I missed it ) lol! :D
+Opticalx If available, using the mouse wheel also does this as well.
+Opticalx You could also do it in XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
+Opticalx T and G change the zoom level of the camera, very useful if you are looking for the line of sight indicators on enemies that are farther away.
How to win Xcom:
-bring atleast 2 grenadiers
-preferably 3 or even 4 grenadiers
-Mag+Gauss before Armor
-Autopsy Faceless for Meme-ic bacon and Mutons for Plasma
Continent bonuses are random so Asia won't magically get you any particular bonus
ChuckieJ Gaming o
EE's most used tactic is now void! Looks like the games will be harder without the overwatch traps!
+Yann Bofferding Isn't there still an ambushing mechanic using overwatch? i.e. you set your team into position set their overwatch and then have one of your team attack? I think what they patched was the AI behavior that EE was exploiting in which he waited for the enemies to spot him and uses his overwatch to get free shots at the enemy while they run for cover once they activate and then gets his turn to finish them off.
If thats the case it just means you have to take better care to make sure you ambush and don't pull an "Oh Hi" style of ambush.
+Wrath Nine yes you can still attack and use overwatch the exploit was away to robe the enemy of an attack on your men so you got technically two turns to fire on them before they could shoot back
+Yann Bofferding You can actually still do it with proximity mines. Lob one right under the feet of enemies, then they move next turn, set it off, and it accomplishes pretty much the same thing.
I believe my sniper has 90 kills.. expanded magazine + is just so good when tied with a well placed grenade
+Jacob Thomas "Serial" is the new "In the Zone"
+Garrett Carter yeah thanks
+Jacob Thomas I've been really impressed with how well they've made the gunslinger class. My two highest ranking soldiers are a sniper and a slinger, and I think the slinger has actually done more total damage. They can pretty quickly get to a point where they can get off three shots in a turn, and with a plasma pistol that can be a lot of damage. I mean, I
i played first time ironman veteran difficulty
didn't use sword attacks or rangers at all because i didn't think they were any good (and they all died in the beginning anyway)
and no mimic beacons
just snipers and grenadiers with one hacker
my most useful tactic was to use 3 grenadiers and 2 snipers and 1 hacker
the grenadiers would all have grenade build on them and 1 sniper used faceoff to finish everyone to get items
1 sniper in the back for sniping. and a specialist with offensive build
now i play with much more information about the game on ironman commander and I need more tactics to win
My most useful tips
DON'T ATTACK MUTONS WITH A SWORD (my colonel died because of it)
USE FLASHBANGS they are so fucking useful they deny codex from cloning, sectoids from using psi abilities (and kill the zombie if already casted) and deny mutons from blocking sword attacks(and lancers can't use melee)
LEARN psi abilities early on you need the mind control perk asap. it's not the enemy you will gain from doing it but the enemies draw their fire on it and makes the game so much easier.
Don't use all your intel early on in the black market you will cry when a facility is 3 places further and you need to stop the avatar project (nearly fucked up a near perfect run by doing this)
Choose a class that you DON'T play early on so much that don't invest so much (rangers are a good example you have to upgrade their swords and guns) you can also give up snipers compeletely. and late game bring them back
Psi units and specialists use same guns so they are a good way to save money.
Don't play with rookies after the first month. build a guerilla tactics school and train your rookies to squaddies. free leveling and doesn't cost anything always have someone trained there until month 4
Don't go for scanning sites that offer alloys only. you will get craploads of them anyway at the raid missions also you can buy it from black market.
If you do get a ranger make a sword build. especially blademaster perk. you can do so much with the blademaster perk. (like putting the soldier on the enemy reinforcement red smoke and watch them all get sliced) you can also go slice a berserker and leave it there for the enemy turn the berserker will 100% try to attack the blademaster and then it will slice it to pieces.
REMEMBER your troops' abilities. i can't stress this enough name them or colour code. like if you have a ability that gives more aim by hunkering down then USE IT. i don't personally even thake that aim ability because i never hunker down i don't like playing like that. or if you get free overwatch after using all points on movement then don't move 1 step and overwatch use them both to get to full cover or something
If you want to use swords then always back down some steps and let enemy push you to your discovered position this way you don't trigger additional pods (you don't want to do that)
Don't use rangers at all if you're a beginner they are just baits. they are very powerful and agile but. yeah in wrong hands you will get rekt ( i assume you play on ironman)
+irou95 I have to disagree about Rangers, when used properly they're one of the best classes, especially early on in high difficulty ironman. The mistake you're presumably making based on pure sword builds, is choosing Blademaster over Phantom, which is critical. One can still use swords, as +2 damage doesn't matter very much in the long run while you apply stun/burn, enemies gain more health and your team does more aoe damage to soften them up. Phantom is probably the most OP skill in the game and the easiest decision to make between two skills.
You get it very early (1st ranger promotion) and the ability to see enemy pods before engaging is godly compared to face-checking entire maps each mission, which can often begin engagements while out of position and causes problems. Waiting solely until you've created psi-soldiers with mind control do to the same job is fun to use, but comparatively a luxury waste of time and resources.
It's even possible to keep the cloak up... detect the enemy, get in position and take them out using the rest of the team without using the Ranger, so he stays cloaked and searches for the next pod, repeat and rinse. And then later the other skills I like on them are Shadowstep, Run'n Gun, Bladestorm, Untouchable (high sword synergy) and Rapid Fire. I just installed a mod that makes swords 100% accurate, so I might try Reaper out more.
ytubeanon don't play with mods that help you that much. if i had 100% accuracy with swords i would play 5 rangers and 1 grenadier.
and i didn't say one should stop playing ranger completely
Meant that you can just not upgrade their guns and maybe use one for recon only so never reveal it unless needed a last blow to someone with low health.
also you can use rangers anyway until magnetic guns are needed
This is probably just me, but to tell who's who I create colors for each rank to help me tell who I should get to accomplish tasks. Rk= Orange, Sq=Yellow, Cl=Purple, Srg=Red, Li=Green, and Cp=Black.
Max McClintock thats actually a good idea
I dress my specialist medic in white to remind me to keep him at the back of the group where he can heal from a distance, and my sniper in black to remind me to put her on a rooftop. Rookies are in green and anyone suffering reduced will is yellow and these will both be kept out of harm's way and given some easy kill shots to help with their experience / will. Psi ops, SPARKs, grenadiers and rangers are distinctive looking and interchangeable enough so they all get to have their own styles without colour coding.
"Firaxis was paying attention" - God damn all streamers and youtubers for using exploits before release, i had so many plans in my head that included this strategy.
+kubamakar22 Can still be done with a mimic beacon.
+kubamakar22 why was this even "patched". This seemed like a perfectly valid tactic and I thought was even intentionally included with all the concealment stuff. Set up an ambush, when they enter it it triggers, why was that not just a thing?
+LNX Gaming It is - what was patched was that you'd leave a soldier vulnerable so that they'd discover you during your turn, giving you an ambush AND a full turn. You can still do it, except now they can shoot your exposed soldier, which makes perfect sense.
Jiri Van den I understand now, I was thinking they would see you behind cover and stuff if the range overlapped but I was just confused. Playing it made it make sense.
+kubamakar22 I think the most famous UA-camr who regularly exploited this strategy was BeagleRush, I think that was even named after him.
Great video, very informative. However you are wrong about the Mimic beacon nerf, that Asia only provides the 50% GTS credit. All the continent bonuses are randomized per game.
First playthrough, I didn't upgrade armor until all my dudes were getting one shotted, so then when I went to upgrade it I didn't have the fucking trooper corpses to do it because I sold them for supplies, and the regular troops don't show up mid game, so I was just fucked.
Based
heres a tip: rely on basic grenade early game. The earliest levels are filled with low health enemies, where blowing them up is better than risking a miss. Most of the other early enemies can be killed by the ranger.
What about tips on how to prioritize missions on the world map. Its really not clear in what order we should proceed... I've made a mistake going forward with a difficult mission because i thought i had to complete it.
Bonuses are radomized, so Asia won't always have the same bonus, and this bonus might not be in your game.
I never played xcom and when xcom 2 game to psplus I got excited to play but I am struggling. I hate those minds control aliens.
Flasbbangs break mind control and are generally the something you should take on every mission
Thanks for the tip on mimic beacon. Saw it was something to make but did not know it was this good.
Mimic beacons also utilise cover so if possible throw then in a visible spot with cover so that survive longer and draw more fire
EE is legitimately one of the smartest people I know. And not being able to watch him play xcom was quite hard x) But I just don't want to spoil anything major.
So, thank you for this video, at least I can watch it with no fear xD
Thanks that helped a lot. I decided to pick this up after playing midnight suns. My 1st Xcom game.
Thanks for telling me about Predator Armor. I thought the Exo Suit was the extent of earlier game armor, so thanks for letting me know.
I wish i knew these things before hand. I learned all this on the fly from just playing the game.
Tip: Always take specialist to gorilla missions where you need to hack objective with counter. Being able to stop counter from well secured cover will save lives.
Tip2: Always take Ranges with Phantom and snipers to gorilla missions where you need to destroy objective with counter. Killing objective with squad sight super convenient.
Additional tip and minor spoiler for dlc
Archon kings. viper kings, and beserker queens can move anytime you preform an action other then something like lightning hands. They also have a ton of health, appear randomly, and try to escape if their health drops to half. Also they don't give a flying f*** about mimic beacons. If you see a beserker queen killing its allies *let it* then move in for the kill. If you have the children of anarchy dlc a lot of the helmets can actually have a positive effect on your soldiers, so you can google that.
Best tip: Save and reload when needed, not sure what's around that corner, save, you're almost at the extraction zone but it's been a while since you fought anything, save
1st time playing this I always wondered why I was getting my ass handed to me
I beat the game awesome 👏 😎
This is why we love Elysium. He plays soo much XCom
You mentioned continent bonus for Asia in tip for GTS. CONTINENT BONUSES ARE RANDOM AND CHANGE FROM CAMPAIGN TO CAMPAIGN. I think that the game chooses a bonus for each continent from a list, and there are more possible bonuses than continents, because I have had some bonuses appear in some campaigns and not others.
I just start playing this game, thanks for the tips :)
Enemy Unknown will always be king of XCOM. Just so much more freedom to do what YOU want, although the graphics in these new games are great but I miss taking a Squad of 25 !!! into battle.
Startraxxion it's called mods
I did not know about the fall damage. Thank you for the tips!
1:20 - take the floor down (I know it's been 8 years... shut up, I love the game) - but this is brilliant.
I think that the aliens don't necessarily always shoot the mimic beacon, I think they will still shoot the target they have the best chances to hit.
No, its kind of dumb, but they have to shoot the mimic beacon no matter what
While fighting the Archon King and one of his Archon minions (plus a turret, obviously, as that's where I'm going with this), I threw a grenade at him to try and hit all three. Could only manage him and the turret, but I realized that it killed the turret by destroying the floor.
Very handy, as turrets can be somewhat of a pain to deal with when there's an Alien Ruler or other enemies around.
Never used mimic beacons, even after making one. I don't know why I thought it would be the kind of decoy that just attracts enemies towards it instead of something defensive, like a proper holographic decoy.
I will use that more often, now. It even looks cooler than I thought it would.
Oh and last, but not least, I was TRYING to get attacked by a UFO again, because I like doing it. So many reinforcements and you can get turrets as an upgrade! Those missions are fun!
Of course I had a mod that turned off alien rulers for that and the council missions, so... maybe be careful about that.
He's right about those god damn UFO's I thought I could handle it but got bogged down in infinite reinforcements and had to sacrifice my full team of well experienced guys and girls because I didn't understand that without prior knowledge that event is BS. It literally crushed my top team in the avatar countdown and cost me my playthrough.
A few corrections and additions.
#1: While using falling damage is indeed useful, just remember that enemies dying because of this, contribute 0 XP to your soldiers.
#2: While G.T.S is important to get early on, the AWC is even more important. The AWC speeds up the recovery process of injured soldiers and more importantly, grants your soldiers extra random abilities. If you wait too long before building the AWC, you might miss out on some of the VERY awesome abilities that your soldiers might have gotten through leveling up. So if you already got a high level soldier and they missed out, there is no way for them to get this ability (unless using mods)
#6: The reason for most injuries is usually your soldiers inability to take down hostiles effective enough. The best way to prevent deaths is not to "tank" the damage, but rather not being shot in the first place. You do this by killing the enemy right away. Especially early on. Weapon research before armor. Every single time...
#8: "Aliens are forced to shoot at mimic beacons" WRONG! The mimic beacon creates a high value target which most aliens will target, but you should never rely on this. Always take care and NEVER leave your soldiers out in the open, even if you are using mimic beacons.
#10: (SPOILER) Getting caught by a UFO is random chance, when you press the "evade" button and at some point sooner or later in your campaign, you will get caught.
EnterElysium
: i know this is an Old video, but the workshop 2:34 , if you made a mistake on adding a workplace to engineers can you move it ? It may cause some kind of repercussions? i also know its an older game, but looks interesting. Good tip for the overwatch 6:53
these will work for me when i play the game again and i got it i done the basic's but i didn't know if i should panic or not of that project now i know i don't need to panic anymore haha thank's dude
Forgot about reload not ending your turn if its your first action.
Tip #who cares: Granadier soldier with Salvo and deep pockets abilities can turn one proximity mine into 2! Get both proximity mines in the midst of an unsuspecting ADVENT group for a whopping 16 points damage, pair with a grenade and a good Sniper's Killzone to unleash hell on the enemy.
What graphics settings do you use? Wondering because I'm having some trouble with frame rates with a gtx970
As someone who started playing last week and is learning all the minutia it can not be stated enough: GET THE PREDATOR ARMOR EARLY. While you ideally don't want the armor for HP as the goal is to not even get hit, the ability to carry 2 items will save you a lot of headaches. Grenadiers with 2 boom booms and a boom boom launcher massacre enemy cover, armor, and is really good for initiating fights. Don't like that shot percentage? Boom boom. Caught out in the open suddenly? Bright boom boom. Everything goes boom more frequently with predator armor.
I do wish there was a way to put your guys in a non-concealed overwatch when you're concealed. It just makes freakin sense.
save and save often. and don't do ironman unless you're ready to lose 6 characters because of 1 bad pull
Haven't been able to do a controlled test, but human enemies that show !loot destroyed can still drop loot. If resurrected and die by non-explosive means, they will drop the loot. Unsure if death by severed connection causes it aswell. I've only killed the zombies first in those circumstances. ( Sectoids )
If you have the Shock Trooper mod... Killing the enemy with the flame thrower counts as a grenade; Also.... over watch concealment traps... still work quite amazingly.... just make sure the people are set then throw a grenade... immediately takes the concealment away but leaves everyone over watched and you can just fuck their entire group up with in 1 turn.... works great against any thing with armour...
I am new to this game and this KIND of game and i suck :(
GeorgiaBabylon most do, the game is hard, and always different..Ive restarted twice and each time you continue to learn bonuses, penalties, what loadouts to use etc...great game
I kind of wish he hadn't mentioned the insta-killing turrets via falling thing, since that seems like one of those tactics which is much more fun to figure out on your own or discover accidentally.
+OriginalTharios How would a stationary turret survive having the floor they're attached to break away? If nothing else, the turret should get disconnected from anything they're attached to, and if its wireless, it'd still need support to be able to remain stationary when firing.
+NWCtim I did it for the first time without knowing, and it was a pretty good feeling. :) Well, truth be told I was torn between "woo! I am a tactical genius!" and "wait, it's *gone*? did I just exploit a bug?" ;)
I died 10 times on 1st mission...love this game
Just started playing - thanks for the tips!!
EE the continent bonuses are random
the mimic beacon doesn't force the aliens to attack it they attack the unit with the lowest defence so if an alien is flanking a unit it will ignore the mimic beacon
also finally always give gunslingers experiment ammo's they are the best class for it
+Trent Porter it depends on your roll with soldier abilities are. I got a specialist with rapid fire. RAPID FUCKING FIRE, blue screen rounds against mechs and shit went downhill for mech enemies in the endgame
or you could just make him a hacking god and give your gunslinger bluescreen rounds with fanfire.
I really enjoy using my gunslinger with dragon rounds since burning works on most enemies organic or not with a few exception. Just built blue screen rounds. However I would like to ask for a moment of silence to Maj. Kelly for his passing after the bout against his first andromedon. His efforts to the cause will never be fogotten
+The Troubleshooter also hacking is really unreliable in early game I find
yea its not good in the early game till you start stacking the skull-jack and hack buffs but i also recommend one of the hacking re balanced mods because i find even in the late game the 2rd hack option is still really low. so low i've seen the first option be something around the 80-90 range and the second option was 30-40
EE, thanks for posting this! Can't wait for tomorrow!
what are the first four buildings that one should make? not including power relays
Should I just suspect trial and error on every mission? Like doing a mission a second or third time to learn the map and enemy movement. I should not expect to ace a mission on first try?
holy hell I had no idea about making gremlins in the workshop I just figured they worked like they did in the last game
Did my first playthrough of XCOM 2 a few days ago. I never got the predator armor; warden armor was the last one I got.
I hardly ever use rooftops, there is the line of sight issue which makes some rooftops inexplicably transparent, while they may look solid you can actually see and shoot through them, that goes for both aliens and xcom soldiers. The AI has on a number of occasions shot at someone with normal gunfire and removed the tile upon which my soldier was standing thus causing falling damage.
I do love however when aliens take the roof spots, it usually means my grenadiers have an easier day.
I do however make exception of a sniper or two in a high safe rooftop on a few missions but altogether I just avoid them late game.
this helped me A LOT. Thank you
Great info, tyvm. One piece of advivce; slow down just a touch.
I have been given conflicting information. I also heard that getting better armor doesn't help as much since the chances of getting major - minor wounds are completely random at the end of the mission.
I believe whether or not a wound is minor or major depends on how many units of health lost in relation to total health. So any armour that increases your maximum health or reduces the damage taken will improve your damage compared with total health ratio - so for example if your guy has 4 HP and takes two damage then the 50% health lost may make it classified as major, but if he had armour that gave him 6 HP then the damage ratio would only be 33% and may mean it is classified as a minor injury.I'm not sure of the maths and the percentages which determine when a minor becomes major but I get the impression there are a number of hidden scaling in the background that determines an injury of a few days, a week or two, or in the case of being revived in combat a month.
continent bonuses differ every time you play, so covering asia doesnt always give you a certain bonus
I recommend weapons over armor. Even with better armor your troops will get raped on higher difficulties. So it is better to kill the enemy quickly, before he can land shots on you.
I'd like to know if you can come out in proper camouflage patterns for climate or area of operations like slums of Toronto it might give you some freedom from dull cover
on mimic beacons. . i have seen enemies ignore my mimic beacon to instead throw a grenade to hit 2 of my guys instead. and i dunno, but i think the rulers are immune to mimic beacons as well. i have thrown a mimic to distract a rule and the ruler just ignores it and attacks my guys anyway
After beating the game without watching any vids...I've been playing all wrong the entire time :-(
never cared for strategy tactics game, bought on recent sale, is a absolute blast. I sucked early on but am getting better but way fun so far.
I've made the Predator armor, but only 1 of my soldiers equipped it, and it does not allow me to make more. Can anyone tell me what is the reason?
Didn't know that mimic beacon is so good, gotta get one of those.
+Honest Phil It's not as good as he claims in the video. Mimic Beacons are considered "high value target" by the aliens, but they are not "forced" to shoot at them. They are good and useful, but never rely on them entirely.
I was really surprised w the game. Didn't at all care about trying this game until it was a free PS plus download. It's actually really good
RIP David 4:30
It is not a Captain. It is Commander Obvious.
You've forgotten to say that we should use mouse to move units.
TIP: It's risky, but you don't need to ambush the first squad you see when concealed. If careful (and lucky), you can sneak your way close enough to act on the objective without fighting and being discovered beforehand. This way you could essentially pull off quick hit-and-run guerilla strikes.
+TESI303 Not true. Once you are "close" the enemy squads start to suspiciously change their pathing to CONVERGE ON YOU...even though supposedly they don't know you are there.
It's basically the AI cheating.
***** No. This doesn't happen *all the time.* I've been able to sneak to my target without engaging in combat. Then 2-3 turns to engage, plant explosive or kidnap/kill VIP then rush off to extraction zone.
TESI303
Playing on Commander.
Once they get "clsoe" but not enough to spot, they immediately switch their route to converge on me.
I reloaded many times just to test this.
14 times and 14 times they changed direction, even going through buildings to box me in.
Usually on the timed missions.
Haven't tried the VIP ones.
***** Just played again on Veteran. Was able to sneak by a very close patrol that diverted its own path to avoid discovering me. So discovery is not 100% guaranteed and sneaking is viable but dangerous. A perfect mix for an Xcom game
TESI303
I rather just blow away the first pod them proceed "detected" onwards.
It offsets the risk of aggroing 4-5 pods at a time.
Just finished my first mission with no one dying! It feels great getting everyone out of there alive :) my first RTS game and it's actually addicting.
Dave Krohl This isn't an RTS. Not even close.
SpiritReacher not even close? Lmfao good one 😂 if you think that stategy games and RTS's aren't even close then you gotta get your eyes checked mate.
Dave Krohl Its a turn-based tactical game... Yes, there is strategy in it, but it's not a "Real Time Strategy". You're the one calling it "Real Time", which it definetily is not and will never be.
SpiritReacher My bad man I've just seen it be called an RTS by SEVERAL UA-cam reviews so blame them don't kill the messenger 😂 and btw they are basically the same thing mate
Dave Krohl There is a difference between Strategy and Tactical games, Dave. Strategy games are about warfare and have lots of 4X components. Tactical games are more puzzle-y in nature and require thinking ahead.
Is it still true that when you hack a turret to control it and succeed, the turret stays in your control until it is destroyed or the mission ends? Or has that been changed..
Excellent tips Elysium, thanks! Now on to continue the waiting game. Another question for you Elysium or anyone who has played XCOM EW: Long War. I have 450+ hours on long war but on the Normal Difficulty long war. What difficulty should I start with on XCOM 2? Thanks!
Commander difficulty according to TB
+MrRyIke Commander if you want some challenge. Maybe even Legend if you consider yourself to be really good but that may be masochistic.
+MrRyIke Commander, it is hard, but not impossible.
Main problem with legend is, that u will get way more higher prices and construction time, while aliens don't.
Sadly, LW strategies don't work in the new game, besides a few basic ones as,
1. Don't use half cover
2. Smokes are your best friend
3. Keep your squad close, but not too close
+Gergle the half cover lesson was drilled back into my head the hard way
Brilliant video, thanks for making it
I don't feel like getting attacked by a UFO is that bad. It's just another fun mission, giving you the opportunity to level up your soldiers.
That is strange... I was able to use the 'overwatch trigger trap' as you dubbed it right the way through my last campaign game.
He said "will often" you can get lucky, but don't count on it.
All depends when they find you during their turn they may have already used an action when moving or they may have an action left to take cover and shoot.
I wish I knew which armors are for everyone and which one is individual. I thought the predator armor was like the Nanoscale vest where you have to build one for each soldier.
+Typical Otaku vests are items that require an item slot. armors are worn in the armor slot
Gilad Mitrani that makes a lot of sense.
+Typical Otaku quite true, some of the projects in the proving ground are general upgrades that effect everything, like the nanomedkit. and some of the build items at the engineer workshop ( like the nanoscale vest ) are single items..
It would be great to either have all of the single items in the proving ground and all of the tech upgrades in the workshop or some mention of it in the item description.