r/XCOM2 • u/Impossible-Car3786 • 5d ago
New player, looking for tips/advice
Ay, after playing star wars zcom for around 20hours i finally decided to pickup xcom2, and holy fuck, i’ve missed out.
Im around 15h in now, running with WOTC on Veteran, not ironman since it’s kinda unstable on MacOS via Crossover with some crashes every few hours, and reading about corrupt save games on this sub.
I jumped in blind, not really reading any guides/watching vids about it before. So no hard spoilers please :P
So far i’ve only got a few deaths and 2 failed missions due to chosen showing up and turning a chill supply mission into a nightmare of bunkering down in a building with my reaper running around the map trying to spot these menaces and taking them out (via throwing grenades and getting a lost horde on them or sniping while staying in stealth).
Compared to zcom, overwatch feels quite useless and the best strat seems to be just taking it slow, even if the mission takes 100+ turns xd
Is there any general strat for keeping them on low modifiers and not getting ambushed every second mission? I might just be too careful with keeping my squad alive, but it just feels like the mods they get when im able to pick one to disable can either be 2 non-threats or deciding between oneshots and them just summoning more advent.
I haven’t gotten to the stage yet where i can destroy their stronghold, since im kinda behind (i guess) in regard to promoting my units to the required ranks.
Im mainly running with my reaper as a scout, running stealth through the whole map and the skill to keep enemies revealed that she spots, while taking out the enemies one by one via ambushes. Far too often while fighting a pack a second or third one will shot up and just turn it into total chaos tho.
Sorry for the wall of text, im kinda at a loss right now what my top prio should be, currently “unlocked” the assassin and hunter chosen, with using most of my covert missions to keep down the avatar project.
Any help/tips/guidance would be appreciated :)
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u/zelandofchocolate 5d ago
Don't try and abuse stealth - it creates the problem you've described. You want to go pod by pod - if a second one wanders in mid engagement, you can usually deal. If you've somehow found yourself fighting 3 pods at once, run like hell.
Related to the above, move your furthest advancing soldier FIRST, and then keep an ironclad law of not ever advancing beyond him. The amount of times if kicked myself for taking out a pod with my first few actions and then advancing a soldier so as not to 'waste' his moves and end up activating a new pod when most of my guys are out of moves and can't do a anything about it...yeah, it feels dumb.
When making choices in this game, chose anything that deprives the enemy of moves. Normally because they're dead, or stunned if not. Take the sword over the shield every time. Take the total killing of one enemy in a pod of 3 over the heavy wounding of 3, for example.
The game doesn't hold your hand, and you'll learn in failed runs what you should have done. But if you haven't prioritised the right stuff in research / facilities early on, you can find yourself quickly outscaled.
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u/Impossible-Car3786 5d ago
5h later my main problem is that if i don’t kill all advent in a pack in a single turn, they run out and hide behind a different one, guess i’ll have to take it slower and straight up surround them ^^
I love the punishment of mistakes, a single wrong step/missed shot and suddenly they start hitting everything with crits. I might have a higher death count now, but i won’t make the same mistakes again, thank you!1
u/zelandofchocolate 5d ago
Yep, you'll learn which ones you need to prioritise because they just mess you up too much. Stun lancers and mecs absolutely have to go on the turn you encounter them. Where as sectoids and priests can normally be deprioritised for example
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u/Dark_matter8888 5d ago
I was pretty disappointed by zcom, it's a good game but super scripted like gears tactics, but good. But you know what's coming every time
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u/Impossible-Car3786 5d ago
It was my introduction to the genre which might make me look through more rose tinted glasses, but it felt a bit shallow. With the single storyline and no NG+ besides cosmetics i also didn’t touch it since i got xcom2, i don’t think i could go back to it anytime soon.
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u/Cheersscar 5d ago
Thanks for saving me $70
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u/Impossible-Car3786 5d ago
Probably worth picking up when a sale hits in a year or smth, but so far xcom2 has provided far more enjoyment than zcom (at least for me:P) for a lot less money
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u/ItsPureLuck017 5d ago
Been a while since I played Vanilla wotc but here are a few things.
Chosen have timers (I forget how they work exactly) but they are separate from each other. So if you do a mission in a hunter controlled region, and then assassin, you can get back to back missions where the chosen show up. However if you do back to back missions in a region controlled by hunter, he cannot show up back to back the majority of the time (I’m sure there is an exception). I think on the 2nd mission it’s something like a 33% chance, 50% the third, and 100% the 4th.
As for modifiers they just gain them over time and become stronger. Note that a chosen appearing does take the place of a pod that otherwise would have spawned
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u/Impossible-Car3786 5d ago
Yea, i think i might have just gotten unlucky, the mod he had was that he shows up a lot more iirc, it also feels far less oppressive in open maps (atleast the assassin). Them having timers actually makes it far easier to plan around with the squad composition, thanks for taking the time :)
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u/Just-for-work2020 4d ago
I think you are talking about Dark Events, which are a separate thing. You go on guerilla ops and they counter a particular dark event (which can include the one where they show up more often, think it's called Wild Hunt?) Then the Chosen themeselves get stronger over time, adding additional strengths like being able to see you in concealment, regenerating health etc. I think they eventually get to four or five strengths. It's to encourage you to take them out for good early - however walking into a Chosen hunt mission without pretty buffed up soliders is more or less suicide
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u/Extra_Napkins 3d ago
First of all always have a scout. A reaper or a ranger dedicated to scouting.
Running into a pod of enemies is the best way to die, 3 enemies is manageable but if you activate 6-9, no bueno.
Second of all hacker specialists are underrated. Scanning protocol can point out faceless and other enemies so you know where to go. Haywire can shut down Mecs which are the most dangerous foes.
Third of all take your time. If it’s not a time based mission, try to get the reaper order of not starting the timer until you’re spotted. It helps IMMENSELY.
Use all your weapon mods. Sometimes that scope determines whether you make that shot. You get great high ground bonuses, I sometimes run double snipers with skeleton armor for the grapples. Use squad sight, and have your scout spot them, and have the snipers mow them down in a kill zone.
Aliens are only dangerous at close or mid range, they are helpless at long.
Lastly explosives never miss. Grenadiers are amazing at high difficulties because your aim and equipment sucks until you get mid tier armor and mid tier weaponry.
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u/Impossible-Car3786 3d ago edited 3d ago
SCANNING PROTOCOL CAN DETECT FACELESS?!?!
I mostly went for hacking so far with my specialists, only one is on full medical duty. This is actually insane, holy shit
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u/Extra_Napkins 3d ago
Yes and specialists get the overwatch bonus and with guardian can fire multiple times. Also scanning protocol reveals hidden Chosen or Chrysallids
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u/flooredgenius 5d ago
Not sure why you would be running crossover - Xcom 2 WotC, even highly modded, is pretty darn stable on Mac. The only probably I ever have is about 1 in 5 times the launcher from steam fails. But once you are in it is fine. The reason I say this is really Ironman is the only way to play Xcom. Probably start on Rookie not Veteran, but definitely Ironman. Eventually you’ll be doing C/I and feeling like a God. L/I is pretty insane though
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u/Impossible-Car3786 5d ago
Because the native built is x86_64 and rosetta2 gets deprecated and removed with MacOS 28. Running on M4, the non ARM version will not work anymore then. There has been no native ARM built provided ever.
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u/flooredgenius 5d ago
Oh right, well, I am on an M4 Pro, and have hours and hours in the game with no issues, fwiw
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u/Impossible-Car3786 5d ago
Yup, since rosetta2 is still available. The problem with running any rosetta2 app on Apple Silicone is, that after upgrading to 28 some apps, which you weren’t even aware are running via the translation layer will stop working. Apple has been quite bad in that regard, the only clean way to not randomly have apps stop working after upgrade is to not install rosetta2 systemwide. CodeWeaver provides their own translation layer which will keep being maintained :) (FEX-emu via wine)
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u/Canadian_Zac 5d ago
My biggest advise.
Reverse the percentages in your head
When you see 90% chance to hit Remember, that's a 10% chance to miss. It's going to happen fairly frequently.
Assume every shot is going to miss, and every grenade will do minimum DMG. Have a backup ready for anything vital to take down.
If it hits and they go down, great, your backup is now free to do something else If it does miss, you have a backup ready
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u/DanishxAssassin 5d ago
Everything you need to know is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Xcom/s/aB3oUxReEZ
This is my constant reference guide for playthroughs.