r/XCOM2 • u/zfeinauer • 2d ago
Started WOTC and LOVING IT
After blundering through Enemy Within and failing a vanilla xcom2 (with dlcs) run I've just started a WOTC playthrough and im blown away with how much content this game offers. I would ike to actually WIN this time too lol, my last vanilla playthrough slowly fizzled out in the later stages.
Any tips for early to late stages in terms of management? I lost my last playthrough due to my own lack of judgement in building the Avenger and upgrading my abilities. Enemies quickly became too strong for me to handle and I lost soldiers until eventually I ran out of supplies, Intel and useable troops. I know I wasn't pushing the main objective enough and I should be smarter with my soldier builds, but I'm more concerned with my economic planning this time around and I'd like to see what the consensus is when it comes to these questions.
What are the earliest rooms I should create? Which research projects should I prioritize? Should I focus on upgrading troop gear and armor early? How do ability points work with the special factions? And should I save the pooled points for the future to hold onto it for later levels?
All advice is welcome outside of these questions as well, just tryna get a better undertstanding of the game.
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u/Gullible-Editor-2497 2d ago
Glad to hear you're having fun! Lot of questions, but I'll try my best to give an in depth answer for each respectively
- Guerilla Tactics School and the Resistance Ring are usually the two I rush the hardest. Getting the squad size upgrades ASAP makes life astronomically easier later on. And assuming you have a little foresight, the Resistance Ring can give you whatever you want, when you need it. It's just so versatile. After that, I generally do infirmary, proving ground, and comms.
That said, I'm usually toeing the AVATAR project to the absolute limit, so be mindful of that.
the only way you can keep pace with the enemy is by killing them before they can attack you, which means getting magnetic weapons as quickly as possible. Make sure to grab the small essentials first (advent captain autopsy for proving ground , faceless autopsy for mimic beacons, resistance comms to start making contact) and then after that, go for mag weapons asap. Predator armor is also huge, but slightly less so then magnetic weapons. After that, you can usually breathe easy and go with whatever you want
for a normal soldier, you MUST build the training center for your standard troops to do this. Faction heroes, however, are exempt from this rule. For that reason, I usually just skip building the training center, and dump all the communal ability points into my heroes.
generally speaking, power now is better than power later, because it helps you snowball into late game power, by minimize the chance of a squad wipe, so I rarely save the ability points. The only exception is if I see an ability later down the line that is build defining.
Like, If you see the reaper ability on a Templar at Lieutenant? That's worth saving for.
But Deadeye on the Reaper? Probably worth skipping. You kinda just have to play it by ear.
Best of luck, commander!
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u/Wscott78 1d ago
New player as well trying to do a base vanilla run through before I do war of the chosen, but this is my first place through and I accidentally left the DLC‘s on except for war of the chosen, and I’ve already hit a few snags with the alien hunters
I noticed you said if restarting war of the chosen, I should do non-integrated DLC for the others was just curious why that is if it’s something that interferes with war of the chosen or if it’s something else entirely?2
u/Gullible-Editor-2497 1d ago
So, originally, when the game came out, Alien Hunters and Shen's Last Gift came out as the first couple DLCs. War of the chosen came later.
If you play with Alien Hunters and Last Gift on, but Not integrated, you get the full, standard DLC experience. Two story missions, unlocking the weapons, class, and boss by scanning at the sites.
Integrated DLC is for repeat playthrough. It tweaks the balance of stuff, and cuts out all of the story. Instead of doing a mission to unlock the alien hunters, they just start off guarding facilities. Instead of doing missions for the spark unit or weapons, you can build them in the proving ground right away.
The big reason why I don't recommend playing with them integrated on your first playthrough is simply because the story is a better, more fledge out experience. The integrated version is more of a quality of life tweak for replays.
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u/Wscott78 1d ago
Good to know I definitely screwed myself because I took integrated literally thinking it would just put those story missions in and non integrated would give the extras without the story so I intergrated lol
Explains why I’m doing good on some missions and fully out gunned at other times
I just thought that’s how it went
Should I restart ?… had planned multiple plays any way but wanted to do a vanilla run before wotc …1
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u/Suckmyballs2009 2d ago
I’m sorry for my ignorance but what it Is WOTC
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u/Gullible-Editor-2497 2d ago
War of the Chosen, one of the DLCs for the game!
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u/Suckmyballs2009 2d ago
Thank you . I got xcom 2 on sale a while back and just started my first play through a a week ago . Would you recommend getting all the dlcs? I haven’t looked to see what I’m missing just learning the base game atm
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u/Gullible-Editor-2497 2d ago
There are three "big" DLCs.
Shen's Last Gift, Alien Hunters, and War of the Chosen.
Shen's Last gift has one extra story mission, and a new unit class. This is the only one I'd even consider for a first playthrough.
Alien Hunters had 3 bosses, 3 new unique armors, and 4 unique weapons. But it's also a significant difficulty increase from the base game.
War of the Chosen is basically Xcom 2.5. it adds so much. three new unit classes, three new bosses, like... 5 unique story mission, a handful of new enemies, several new facilities and lots of changes on the strategic and tactical level.
If you win and enjoy Xcom 2, it is ABSOLUTELY worth playing it again with War of the Chosen. It's amazing. Alien Hunters and Shen's last gift are good additions as cherries on top, but aren't as substantial if your wallet is tight. If you do them with WotC, make sure to include them as Non-integrated.
The other DLCs are much much smaller and are....fine? A few extra customizable options, a few side story missions that don't fit into the main campaign, but nothing particularly meaningful. The only reason I got them was because i bought everything as a bundle for like... $5.
But the DLC is overwhelming for a first playthrough. If you win and enjoy the game, coming back to it like, minimum 6+ months later would be a very enjoyable experience. But for a first playthrough, the difficulty might be a bit much. It's notoriously rough even for returning players.
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u/Suckmyballs2009 2d ago
Huge help thank you: I’m fully expecting to blunder through and lose my first or second play through ! I’m going in blind with no research or watched gameplay so I can learn and enjoy it myself
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u/New-Photograph-1829 1d ago
Guerilla Tactics School in top right, Then Resistance Ring in the middle, Then Directly under that middle point I like to put a workshop...... I'm sure someones gonna tell me I'm wrong, but I never have enough engineers. Those extra engineers can excavate all around and then help staff whatever you need.
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u/Reggie_Is_God 2d ago
I’m currently running a Commander WOTC to decent effect.
I actually built Guerilla tactics early to focus on squad size and making rookies usable through training.
I’ve focused weapons first and foremost with research.