ysbreker

XCOM 2

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The level of randomness in missions can be quite crazy. I launched a mission before quitting for the day, but as I started playing again the next day, I realized that I had enough supplies to upgrade my gear, and so I loaded an earlier save, bought some stuff, and launched the mission again. The first time I had 12 turns to reach an enemy VIP that was perhaps 4-5 full sprint turns away from me, but the second time the VIP was less than 2 full sprints away from me. I basically beat the mission in 2 or 3 turns (excluding evac) because the VIP was killed by an exploding car that was set ablaze by an overwatch shot. I reloaded the game because I wanted to see what happens if I bring the VIP in alive, and things got a lot tougher because I triggered a codex, 2 stun lancers and 2 Faceless in basically one turn.

 

The only overly stressful missions so far have been the retaliation ones, and there the randomness can be a real pain in the ass. In my first retaliation mission, the aliens had already killed several civilians before I even reached the one nearest to me.

 

The sense of progress in this game is mostly really satisfying. I like how almost everything costs roughly the same amount of supplies, so that I can buy and upgrade my stuff as I see fit without feeling that I have to be saving resources for some next tier of stuff, which in turn would considerably increase my pay grade. I also appreciate that most of the equipment upgrades are applied automatically to every soldier. My soldiers are constantly getting more badass, and it feels super good to be able to destroy a bunch of tough enemies before they have time to do anything.

 

I still dislike the Avatar project counter. I understand why it is there, but I don't like having a doomsday clock that is spread across tens of hours (?) of gameplay. This makes it almost impossible "get a feel for it", unless  you are committed to playing the campaign multiple times. For example, my counter is about three quarters full, I have two facilities (one in my region with 1 pip, and the other two regions from my region with 2 pips) on the map, and am about to build a shadow chamber. What should I prioritize here? Should I even be worried yet? Have I already messed things up? Impossible to know, I guess, unless I read a bunch of posts by other players. Again, I can understand the design decisions here, but the stress over the uncertainty of possibly already having fucked up my campaign is just not for me.

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Again, I can understand the design decisions here, but the stress over the uncertainty of possibly already having fucked up my campaign is just not for me.

 

It doesn't sound like you've fucked up the counter management at all, that sounds about normal from my two playthroughs.  I've run the counter up to just 2 pips left in each playthrough and then managed to start getting it under control. 

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It's a common technique on legendary runs to let the counter max out, because at that point any further bad events can't make it worse, then catch it right before time runs out.

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I still dislike the Avatar project counter. I understand why it is there, but I don't like having a doomsday clock that is spread across tens of hours (?) of gameplay. This makes it almost impossible "get a feel for it", unless  you are committed to playing the campaign multiple times. For example, my counter is about three quarters full, I have two facilities (one in my region with 1 pip, and the other two regions from my region with 2 pips) on the map, and am about to build a shadow chamber. What should I prioritize here? Should I even be worried yet? Have I already messed things up? Impossible to know, I guess, unless I read a bunch of posts by other players. Again, I can understand the design decisions here, but the stress over the uncertainty of possibly already having fucked up my campaign is just not for me.

It doesn't sound like you've fucked up the counter management at all, that sounds about normal from my two playthroughs.  I've run the counter up to just 2 pips left in each playthrough and then managed to start getting it under control. 

 

Yeah, don't worry about the counter unless the game explicitly tells you that you are about to lose. As long as you're expanding towards them, there's always a facility to hit and it's almost easier to roll back the counter than for it to go up.

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Phew, that makes me feel better. I feel like I've had a handle on the actual fighting portion, but still having trouble with the metagame.

 

I'm just getting into bigger/crazier enemies, I feel like I've botched the weapon upgrades because after the first level of tech upgrades I feel like I haven't hit any newer upgrades in a very long time even through I've researched all that I can for the most part. I have yet to Skulljack a dude, I still need to do that.

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I'll keep beating the Skullmining drum, and if a player regularly runs 2 specialists, I'd even argue that a second Skulljack would pay for itself.  An extra 20 intel a mission is ridiculously valuable, since it can be converted into every other resource in the game and at relatively sane costs, compared to what it costs in supplies to recruit new engineers or soldiers. 

 

I suspect that a potential Legendary strategy might be to field multiple Specialists early on and attempt to Skullmine 40-60 intel per mission.  A 70 percent shot at an instakill would also help make up for the early inability to one-shot a lot of enemies. 

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Oh, do you don't have to fight a Codex every time?

 

Nope, that only happens on the first Skulljack that is story related.  Skulljacking (it has its own icon) is only used twice in the game, both times story related.  Skullmining is an upgrade researched in the Proving Grounds, and once it is unlocked it adds a new Skullmining icon to your actions that can be used once per mission.  It has a 70 percent chance to hit.  On a miss, it does a guaranteed 2 points of damage.  On a hit, you get the option to hack the soldier which seems to always have a minor intel cache as the first option, and either a large intel cache or the location of a hidden facility as the second option.  I never go for the second option, as even with a higher level specialist I prefer the almost guaranteed small cache versus the chance of failure of the second one.   Even if you fail the hack, it is an auto-kill on the enemy, regardless of hitpoints.  I think it can only be used on human shaped enemies.  An enemy who is shielded by a shieldbearer seems to always be missed (might be bad luck, but the couple of times I've tried to Skullmine a shielded enemy I've missed).  I haven't tried to see if I can put a second Skulljack onto a soldier yet, that could be potentially interesting (I'm betting you can't since most other items are limited to one per type, but maybe). 

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Ok, so I don't have to worry about the counter too much yet. Thanks!

 

Holy shit, my latest mission was rough. I thought I had everything figured out with my badass squad, when I got a new retaliation mission. I made one move with my soldier and immediately triggered two groups of enemies. This was the first time encountered both berserkers and improved versions of advent soldiers. I managed to kill them in a couple of turns with pretty much everyone in my squad taking some damage. I immediately triggered another squad of enemies, this time one berserker and two mutons. I moved my best, most damaged soldier to safety and triggered a faceless one. At the end, all of my team survived, although 5 out 6 got wounded.

 

I guess this means that I should be upgrading my weaponry, so that it won't take ages to kill advent troops from now on. I thought I would absolutely hate sectoids and vipers because of their mindcontrol and tongue pull abilities, but in many cases they actually turn combat situations into interesting puzzles ("Ok, so I need to hit the viper to release my soldier, who can then run to the sectoid and try to kill it to release the other soldier from mind control"). Advent soldiers are just boring, with the exception of Advent stun lancers who are fucking annoying.

 

Edit: I did not understand how Skullmining worked and therefore did not even research it yet. Maybe I should. Probably should use Proving Grounds a lot more in general. How does the Proving Grounds armor work? Are there any penalties in using E.X.O. suit (or whatever it is called)?

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Oh, I just assumed it would be too overpowered to have an instant kill and it would always spawn a Codex. That's nice to know.

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Ok, so I don't have to worry about the counter too much yet. Thanks!

 

Holy shit, my latest mission was rough. I thought I had everything figured out with my badass squad, when I got a new retaliation mission. I made one move with my soldier and immediately triggered two groups of enemies. This was the first time encountered both berserkers and improved versions of advent soldiers. I managed to kill them in a couple of turns with pretty much everyone in my squad taking some damage. I immediately triggered another squad of enemies, this time one berserker and two mutons. I moved my best, most damaged soldier to safety and triggered a faceless one. At the end, all of my team survived, although 5 out 6 got wounded.

 

I guess this means that I should be upgrading my weaponry, so that it won't take ages to kill advent troops from now on. I thought I would absolutely hate sectoids and vipers because of their mindcontrol and tongue pull abilities, but in many cases they actually turn combat situations into interesting puzzles ("Ok, so I need to hit the viper to release my soldier, who can then run to the sectoid and try to kill it to release the other soldier from mind control"). Advent soldiers are just boring, with the exception of Advent stun lancers who are fucking annoying.

 

Edit: I did not understand how Skullmining worked and therefore did not even research it yet. Maybe I should. Probably should use Proving Grounds a lot more in general. How does the Proving Grounds armor work? Are there any penalties in using E.X.O. suit (or whatever it is called)?

 

The EXO suit has a sweet heavy weapon, additional HP but lacks and extra grenade slot it seems!

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With armor, you have:

 

Basic Tier - One utility slot, not real bonuses to speak of

 

Second Tier:

 

Predator (I think) - Some health bonus, no armor, 2x Utility Item slots

EXO Suit - Health Bonus, Heavy Weapon Mount (any class), 1x Utility Item, 1 armor point

Spider Suit - Health Bonus, no armor, bonus movement, Grapple ability (which is fucking amazing, it's a free action point, even allows snipers to fire after grappling), 1x Utility Item

 

Third Tier:

 

Warden Armor - Bigger Health Bonus, 1 Armor Point, 2x Utility Item slots

WAR Suit - Bigger Health Bonus, 2 Armor Points, Advanced Heavy Weapon mount, 1x Utility Item slot

Wraith Suit - Health Bonus, no armor, bonus movement, Grapple, Wraith (doesn't cost an action, lets you walk through walls, twice per mission), 1x Utility Item slot

 

I really like the balance in abilities between the different armors.  I think they overall made them a lot more diverse and valuable than the armors in EU.

 

Edited to add: I initially assumed I would want an EXO/WAR suit on everyone because of the heavy weapon, but I can't stress the benefit of the Grapple's free move enough.  Being able to move to flank, get a sniper in position, get in range of a Skullmine, etc., are all so incredibly valuable when you need them. 

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Yeah, Spider suit sounds awesome. Sniper positioning has been a huge pain in the ass in the more hectic/surprising missions.

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2 minor addition to bjorn's otherwise comprehensive list is:

-Wraith suits also increase your dodge chance

-War Suits give you a activated shield which gives you and nearby soldiers the equivalent defence to heavy cover (iirc)

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2 minor addition to bjorn's otherwise comprehensive list is:

-Wraith suits also increase your dodge chance

-War Suits give you a activated shield which gives you and nearby soldiers the equivalent defence to heavy cover (iirc)

 

Haha, I forgot about those because I seem to never dodge shots and I find the shield ability to be more or less worthless.  The one time it can come into play is if someone is in cover and activates it to provide additional angles of cover to other people.  But I almost never remember I have it, so I never actually remember to do that. 

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I find the shield ability to be more or less worthless.  The one time it can come into play is if someone is in cover and activates it to provide additional angles of cover to other people.  But I almost never remember I have it, so I never actually remember to do that. 

 

It says "Grenade us, please" way too much for me to ever risk it.

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Deffo that too, put two people within grenade radius of each other and it's just a magnet for enemies with grenades. 

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This ini tweak totally works for Xcom 2 so anyone suffering from lot of seemingly random stuttering please give it a try

 

http://steamcommunity.com/app/200510/discussions/0/846960628563773260

 

 

Edited to add: I initially assumed I would want an EXO/WAR suit on everyone because of the heavy weapon, but I can't stress the benefit of the Grapple's free move enough.  Being able to move to flank, get a sniper in position, get in range of a Skullmine, etc., are all so incredibly valuable when you need them. 

 

Yeah, grapple's completely free move (doesn't even cost 1 action, it is on cooldown though) is amazing on most maps cause Xcom 2 maps have lot of vertical spaces to it.

 

Only mission I would skip out on grapple is probably the last mission which is weirdly flat compare to rest of the game.

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Some just thoughs on a few mods which I have been using:

 

Quickstart: Very useful if you which to skip Gatecrasher to test something or just go straight to the game, you still got the loot and four for your character will get a promotion.

 

Character Pool Initial Start: This mod tries to enforce that your agents came first from the character pool, but you need a great quantity of them, otherwise the game still create random ones to fill potential gaps or unbalance.

 

Timer tweaks: this one add four turn to all timed mission and two for ufos.

 

Mods which free all customization might conflict with or another, right now I have one which just unlock customization which would be locked by rank (which I think is working fine) both two others which I tried didn´t work. I think while trying some mods, caused one of my character to have a non armor visual, where his armors came from that exo armor but he had no legs.

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I almost had my entire run ruined last night because I was tired and being dumb.  I was doing the UFO intercept mission, and just meandered my way slowly back to extraction after destroying the thingie that grounded us.  Figured I'd get some of my less experienced characters some kills to level them up on a mission where they could be guarded by my experienced people.  Everything was going fine.  I had everyone back within sprint distance of extraction.  It was getting late and I was a tired.  The next squad dropped, and it was four Mechs, three whites and one red.  I wasn't positive I could take them all out in one turn, so I decided to call it quits.  Sprinted everyone to extraction assuming that it would be like a normal extraction, where you can leave even after having sprinted.  If I wouldn't have been tired, I would have noticed that I wasn't getting that option after sprinting the first couple of people in. But I didn't, and I spinted all fucking 10 of my people into extraction.  Then it went to the aliens turn.  I just moaned, "Oh noooooooo."  The three white mechs all made it within firing range.  The first grenaded my nicely packed troops, the second fired, and took my best grenadier into bleeding out and the third fired another grenade.  No one else went down, but almost everyone was down to 3HP or less.  If that red mech would have made it in range, I would have been facing losing 6-7 soldiers to another grenade shot.  It's a fucking miracle I escaped without actually losing anyone.

 

My next mission is a terror mission, and most of my people are still healing.  I've got a colonel ranger, a few mid-level people and my good Psychonaut.  I quit before starting it.

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Mimic beacons just got hit by the nerf bat. Price increased to 75, can't take cover, and shots always hit.

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Mimic beacons just got hit by the nerf bat. Price increased to 75, can't take cover, and shots always hit.

 

Probably for the best. They were an optimal strategy, to the point of being unfun.

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don't ever get saturation fire for now cause it has about 50/50 chance of setting your gunner on fire.

 

Haha, what?

 

 

Probably for the best. They were an optimal strategy, to the point of being unfun.

 

Yeah, I've intentionally only kept one equipped so I don't overly rely on them. 

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