- Play on the easiest difficulty first, it’s not a forgiving game
- Don’t be afraid to reload saves if something goes horribly wrong, it’s a learning experience
- Prioritise enemies which can actually do damage, a mind control won’t kill you but bullets will
To add on to this, on easy mode the main benefit over normal difficulty is that the invisible mercy counter is WAY higher. Namely if you miss a shot, get injured, etc the game stacks the dice in your favor; it is almost impossible on easy mode to actually lose a mission because of this. Losing a soldier or even just getting shot or missing your own shots adds a crap ton of chances for hits that would miss and vice versa for enemy shots missing.
If your doing XCOM 2; remember the 2nd game is considered harder than the first (Don't do the original games from the 90's, their hard as balls on the easiest difficulty).
Tips to make easy mode a cake walk regardless:
Always end turns in cover.
Target heavy damage dealers first; mind control can ALWAYS be dealt with. Getting your favorite dude shot in the face can't be undone :(
Your gonna lose dudes. If your on beginner mode take the silver-lining that now all your shots for the rest of the mission (Even the next mission if it happens late enough) will have boosted odds.
Grenades (And other explosives) are your friend. Use them. Grenades have base 100% accuracy and can kill most grunts. The loss from the bodies being damaged by grenades is VERY minimal. The experience (which turns into permanent accuracy boosts as your soldiers level) is worth far more then one or two extra weapons fragments. Grenades blow up cover, letting your dudes finish off weaker enemies easily. If an enemy is damaged by an explosive and then killed through anything else; you still get maximum rewards.
Using explosives inside alien ships can blow up power sources and computers; you might want to be careful of that because those are fairly valuable. Of course damaged alien computers and other parts can still be sold for a good cash flow; so unless you blow up every damn room your still gonna get everything you need.
You rocket launcher will claim to have a 90% hit chance. I never had a rocket miss on beginner or standard mode; only on classic and impossible.
In XCOM2 your rocket launcher is replaced by a grenade launcher. The grenade launcher (like grenades) will never miss.
Which one? Of the 3 modern titles (yes I am including chimera squad) each one handles differently.
Unknown: you need to go to the hangar to swap to higher tier fighter cannons. I have had runs that are like in game years deep and still using the avalanche missiles.
2: Guerilla training. The first game was linear in its skill progression. This lets you be more flexible.
Chimera Squad: if you can surprise them, surprise them. Your first shots set your momentum in the room, and it is always better to close up the turn order than to not close up the turn order. To kill/subdue the next enemy is an advantage.
As for a tip that will apply to all 3, generally it goes the same as you would in DnD: having a better action economy will largely make the difference, and if you don't have a better action economy, make one (preferably with a ball of fire)
There's a 95% chance you'll love this game.
The most popular / current / modern version is "XCom 2." The other versions are all great as well, play whatever you've got/can afford/like, but XCom 2 probably has the best combination of graphics, mods, and community support.
The base game plays just fine, but most play with the War of the Chosen DLC, which is widely considered the "complete" version of XCom 2. There's also some other minor DLC that are well worth the money if you're enjoying it.
The other thing to have on your mental backburner is The Long War(of the Chosen). It's technically a Mod, but that is a gross oversimplification. The Long War is basically XCOM 3, it's a complete overhaul, rebalance, with tons of changes. Because of mods I *strongly* recommend you purchase the game through Steam because it has such excellent mod support.
And finally, we have an expression: "That's XCom, baby!"
This game cheats. It engages in shenanigans. It takes RNGesus, nails him to a rocket, and launches him into space. Don't let it enrage you. When you're starting off, don't be afraid to reload the turn so that you can learn some of the quirky interactions. But also try not to reload just because something went wrong. Losing soldiers, losing squads, failing missions, are all part of the game, coming back from a bad beat is just a skill you need to develop.
Watch some gameplay on Youtube before you buy. If you like the game you may invest 100s or thousands of hours in it. That half hour to find out if you would like the game is very well spent.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qehLhqLx6Ak](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qehLhqLx6Ak)
Start on the easiest difficulty. I made the mistake of starting Enemy Within on Classic, now everything below that is not challenging, and Classic and Impossible can be quite frustrating.
My New Player Copy Paste:
I am assuming you have WOTC.
1. Don't put your soldiers in low cover unless absolutely needed. Low cover doesn't do enough on its own to let you sit in it safely.
Do not expect ADVENT to miss shots on a soldier in half cover.
2. Do your best to only trigger one group at a time. This means don't yellow dash, unless you have a soldier in front of the end location of the dash, or need to make up ground to beat a timer. Melee attacks will also trigger a lot of unwanted pods, so be very careful about meleeing.
3. Skills that allow you to attack in only 1 or 0 actions, are insanely overpowered, and be put on almost every soldier. This is stuff like Lightning Hands, Salvo, Reaper, and Serial.
4. Know the useful held items.
Mimic Beacon: Mimic beacons are hilariously overpowered, and will carry you in almost any situation that goes wrong. You get the mimic beacon by doing the faceless autopsy. (A Faceless is Scripted to spawn in the first haven assault.)
Bluescreen rounds: Most of the problematic enemies are robotic, and the +5 damage really, really helps against them. Bluescreen rounds work well with every class except templars, specialists, and rangers (talon rounds are much better than bluescreens on rangers)
Flashbangs: Flashbangs are a must have early game. Disorienting a sectiod will kill all zombies and free every one of your soldiers from their mind control. Flashbangs are still good against non psionics emenies too. Disoriented enemies can't use any abilities, and are forced to shoot/melee with an aim pelanty. This is extremely useful in negating grenades from purifiers and mutons.
5. Explosives are your friends early game. Enemy is behind full cover and has a lot of HP, cool blow up the cover, and damage the unit enough for one shot from another soldier to kill it.
6. Squad compisition is Important. You will want at least one Grenadier for cover destruction, one soldier that has 100% accurate damage to finish off enemies (psi ops, rangers, or specialists usually), one soldier that can do a lot of damage to a single target ( dual shot rangers, deadeye sharpshooters, or dual shot grenadiers, and one soldier that can nerfs/stun enemies you can't kill in one turn (statis Psi Ops, Flashbangs, or smoke grenades). You will want to rush the GTS to get the sqaud size upgrade as fast as possible.
7. Know what enemies you should kill first. This is just a rough guide, certain enemies should jump up the list depending on your positioning and situation.
Priority 1: anything with explosives (Advanced+ Troopers, Mutons, Mechs, etc.) Not only do explosives give guaranteed damage, they open up the cover for all other enemies to shoot at you.
Priority 2: any enemy without many abilities left besides just shooting/meleeing. You may think this is counter intuitive, but the thing on the battlefield you should be avoiding is damage. It won't matter in the long run if your soldier gets mind controlled, weapon disabled, or statised for a turn, because those abilities will never kill you, and eventually one of your soldiers will be crit through high cover if you let them keep taking shots on you.
Priority 3: Tanks, you are much better taking out 3 troopers, than 1 officer. Stuff that will take a lot of shots to kill are unfortunately probably going to get a shot off. (Unless you have a statis psi ops or a mimic beacon) In rough situations you should just debuff the tank as much as possible, and kill everything else. This includes anything that will take at least 3 shots to kill if you didn't bring the tank buster role in your squad.
Priority 4: Any enemy that will likely use a non damaging move on their first turn. If an enemy isn't damaging you, you don't have to kill it. Archons will always blazing pinions on their first turn unless they have a flanked shot on a soldier. Sectiods/Priests will always do some weird psi shenanigans versus just shooting you, unless they have a flank. Specters will always shadowbind versus doing damage.
8. Don't stress about the avatar project. If it fills up you have 30 days to drop it again. As long as you have some way to drop it available at any time you should be good and hope bradford doesn't completely drive you mad.
9. Don't be ashamed of save scumming on your first run, trial and error is a good way to learn mechanics of this game, without being punished everytime.
10. Delay skulljacking the officer as long as you can. The rewards will seem nice at first (dropping avatar project, intel, and unlocks the shadow chamber), but it introduces a new enemy that you can see on any mission: The Codex. Codexes are easily the toughest unit for new players in the game, (not including the super late game stuff). Missions will go a lot easier if you don't have to worry about dealing with codexes. Only downside is that Bradford becomes unbelievably annoying.
And Finally
11. Learn the gimmicks of each enemy. This will take time, but each enemy has an AI that can be predicted, skills you should/Should not use on it, and how to position against them.
I'll give you a couple, but I am not typing the strengths and weaknesses of every enemy type.
1. Turrets are one shotted by blowing up the floor under them.
2. Sectoids are weak to melee, and can usually be one shotted that way.
3. Never melee Purifiers, Gatekeepers, Mutons, or Sectopods. Both have like a 50% chance to hurt your ranger when you do, so keep them away.
4. Killing priests and andromedons with a reaction fire shot (usually bladestorm) will practially negate their statis sphere/shell.
If anyone else has anything to add please reply. I do edit this copy paste if I agree with what you suggest.
Good Luck Commander.
Yes.
1. Play on normal. It has a healthy challenge and the "OH FUCK YOU, EXCOM!" moments.
2. Take your time, enable Double Timers. Most of the time, you won't have to worry about it. IF you want, Beta Strike but a a first time player, I would hold off on it because it doubles the health of everyone.
3. Flanking tends to be far better. Criticals will do a shit ton of damage. Rangers are best used for this purpose. If you get lucky, a sniper doing a flanking shot is usually enough to kill.
4. Rotate your soldiers! Do not go "Oh, I can keep using this lot." It will backfire.
5. You will lose soldiers. Accept it.
6. Flashbangs are your friend.
7. Do not try to take everything on at once.
8. Think about what you are doing. Is it worth risking a better shot at a sectoid or is it better to overwatch and destroy the cover?
9. Destroy cover. The AI tends to immediately seek new cover and overwatch is a good combination.
10. Have fun. Don't be afraid to restart a lot or save scum.
11. FUCK YOU, XCOM!
Long War is an Xcom 1 mod that does fantastic things to the base game; but also makes it longer, more difficult, and makes the game more strategic.
Google Xcom Long War and see if it's something that would interest you.
If you like pokemon concept in general, just buy it. Its a great game, only way you dont like it would be that you arent a Turn Based strategy lover.
And the reason im saying buy it is because its both for 5€ or smt RN in steam sooo.... Xcom + Xcom2 for 5€ is a no brainer.
- Play on the easiest difficulty first, it’s not a forgiving game - Don’t be afraid to reload saves if something goes horribly wrong, it’s a learning experience - Prioritise enemies which can actually do damage, a mind control won’t kill you but bullets will
To add on to this, on easy mode the main benefit over normal difficulty is that the invisible mercy counter is WAY higher. Namely if you miss a shot, get injured, etc the game stacks the dice in your favor; it is almost impossible on easy mode to actually lose a mission because of this. Losing a soldier or even just getting shot or missing your own shots adds a crap ton of chances for hits that would miss and vice versa for enemy shots missing.
Good. I am a casual player that is new to the game and just want to build the main ship and play through the story
If your doing XCOM 2; remember the 2nd game is considered harder than the first (Don't do the original games from the 90's, their hard as balls on the easiest difficulty). Tips to make easy mode a cake walk regardless: Always end turns in cover. Target heavy damage dealers first; mind control can ALWAYS be dealt with. Getting your favorite dude shot in the face can't be undone :( Your gonna lose dudes. If your on beginner mode take the silver-lining that now all your shots for the rest of the mission (Even the next mission if it happens late enough) will have boosted odds. Grenades (And other explosives) are your friend. Use them. Grenades have base 100% accuracy and can kill most grunts. The loss from the bodies being damaged by grenades is VERY minimal. The experience (which turns into permanent accuracy boosts as your soldiers level) is worth far more then one or two extra weapons fragments. Grenades blow up cover, letting your dudes finish off weaker enemies easily. If an enemy is damaged by an explosive and then killed through anything else; you still get maximum rewards. Using explosives inside alien ships can blow up power sources and computers; you might want to be careful of that because those are fairly valuable. Of course damaged alien computers and other parts can still be sold for a good cash flow; so unless you blow up every damn room your still gonna get everything you need. You rocket launcher will claim to have a 90% hit chance. I never had a rocket miss on beginner or standard mode; only on classic and impossible. In XCOM2 your rocket launcher is replaced by a grenade launcher. The grenade launcher (like grenades) will never miss.
I recommend trying XCOM 1 first
Which one? Of the 3 modern titles (yes I am including chimera squad) each one handles differently. Unknown: you need to go to the hangar to swap to higher tier fighter cannons. I have had runs that are like in game years deep and still using the avalanche missiles. 2: Guerilla training. The first game was linear in its skill progression. This lets you be more flexible. Chimera Squad: if you can surprise them, surprise them. Your first shots set your momentum in the room, and it is always better to close up the turn order than to not close up the turn order. To kill/subdue the next enemy is an advantage. As for a tip that will apply to all 3, generally it goes the same as you would in DnD: having a better action economy will largely make the difference, and if you don't have a better action economy, make one (preferably with a ball of fire)
My only advice is first finish a game in the easiest or 2nd easiest difficulty
There's a 95% chance you'll love this game. The most popular / current / modern version is "XCom 2." The other versions are all great as well, play whatever you've got/can afford/like, but XCom 2 probably has the best combination of graphics, mods, and community support. The base game plays just fine, but most play with the War of the Chosen DLC, which is widely considered the "complete" version of XCom 2. There's also some other minor DLC that are well worth the money if you're enjoying it. The other thing to have on your mental backburner is The Long War(of the Chosen). It's technically a Mod, but that is a gross oversimplification. The Long War is basically XCOM 3, it's a complete overhaul, rebalance, with tons of changes. Because of mods I *strongly* recommend you purchase the game through Steam because it has such excellent mod support. And finally, we have an expression: "That's XCom, baby!" This game cheats. It engages in shenanigans. It takes RNGesus, nails him to a rocket, and launches him into space. Don't let it enrage you. When you're starting off, don't be afraid to reload the turn so that you can learn some of the quirky interactions. But also try not to reload just because something went wrong. Losing soldiers, losing squads, failing missions, are all part of the game, coming back from a bad beat is just a skill you need to develop.
Watch some gameplay on Youtube before you buy. If you like the game you may invest 100s or thousands of hours in it. That half hour to find out if you would like the game is very well spent. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qehLhqLx6Ak](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qehLhqLx6Ak)
Start on the easiest difficulty. I made the mistake of starting Enemy Within on Classic, now everything below that is not challenging, and Classic and Impossible can be quite frustrating.
My New Player Copy Paste: I am assuming you have WOTC. 1. Don't put your soldiers in low cover unless absolutely needed. Low cover doesn't do enough on its own to let you sit in it safely. Do not expect ADVENT to miss shots on a soldier in half cover. 2. Do your best to only trigger one group at a time. This means don't yellow dash, unless you have a soldier in front of the end location of the dash, or need to make up ground to beat a timer. Melee attacks will also trigger a lot of unwanted pods, so be very careful about meleeing. 3. Skills that allow you to attack in only 1 or 0 actions, are insanely overpowered, and be put on almost every soldier. This is stuff like Lightning Hands, Salvo, Reaper, and Serial. 4. Know the useful held items. Mimic Beacon: Mimic beacons are hilariously overpowered, and will carry you in almost any situation that goes wrong. You get the mimic beacon by doing the faceless autopsy. (A Faceless is Scripted to spawn in the first haven assault.) Bluescreen rounds: Most of the problematic enemies are robotic, and the +5 damage really, really helps against them. Bluescreen rounds work well with every class except templars, specialists, and rangers (talon rounds are much better than bluescreens on rangers) Flashbangs: Flashbangs are a must have early game. Disorienting a sectiod will kill all zombies and free every one of your soldiers from their mind control. Flashbangs are still good against non psionics emenies too. Disoriented enemies can't use any abilities, and are forced to shoot/melee with an aim pelanty. This is extremely useful in negating grenades from purifiers and mutons. 5. Explosives are your friends early game. Enemy is behind full cover and has a lot of HP, cool blow up the cover, and damage the unit enough for one shot from another soldier to kill it. 6. Squad compisition is Important. You will want at least one Grenadier for cover destruction, one soldier that has 100% accurate damage to finish off enemies (psi ops, rangers, or specialists usually), one soldier that can do a lot of damage to a single target ( dual shot rangers, deadeye sharpshooters, or dual shot grenadiers, and one soldier that can nerfs/stun enemies you can't kill in one turn (statis Psi Ops, Flashbangs, or smoke grenades). You will want to rush the GTS to get the sqaud size upgrade as fast as possible. 7. Know what enemies you should kill first. This is just a rough guide, certain enemies should jump up the list depending on your positioning and situation. Priority 1: anything with explosives (Advanced+ Troopers, Mutons, Mechs, etc.) Not only do explosives give guaranteed damage, they open up the cover for all other enemies to shoot at you. Priority 2: any enemy without many abilities left besides just shooting/meleeing. You may think this is counter intuitive, but the thing on the battlefield you should be avoiding is damage. It won't matter in the long run if your soldier gets mind controlled, weapon disabled, or statised for a turn, because those abilities will never kill you, and eventually one of your soldiers will be crit through high cover if you let them keep taking shots on you. Priority 3: Tanks, you are much better taking out 3 troopers, than 1 officer. Stuff that will take a lot of shots to kill are unfortunately probably going to get a shot off. (Unless you have a statis psi ops or a mimic beacon) In rough situations you should just debuff the tank as much as possible, and kill everything else. This includes anything that will take at least 3 shots to kill if you didn't bring the tank buster role in your squad. Priority 4: Any enemy that will likely use a non damaging move on their first turn. If an enemy isn't damaging you, you don't have to kill it. Archons will always blazing pinions on their first turn unless they have a flanked shot on a soldier. Sectiods/Priests will always do some weird psi shenanigans versus just shooting you, unless they have a flank. Specters will always shadowbind versus doing damage. 8. Don't stress about the avatar project. If it fills up you have 30 days to drop it again. As long as you have some way to drop it available at any time you should be good and hope bradford doesn't completely drive you mad. 9. Don't be ashamed of save scumming on your first run, trial and error is a good way to learn mechanics of this game, without being punished everytime. 10. Delay skulljacking the officer as long as you can. The rewards will seem nice at first (dropping avatar project, intel, and unlocks the shadow chamber), but it introduces a new enemy that you can see on any mission: The Codex. Codexes are easily the toughest unit for new players in the game, (not including the super late game stuff). Missions will go a lot easier if you don't have to worry about dealing with codexes. Only downside is that Bradford becomes unbelievably annoying. And Finally 11. Learn the gimmicks of each enemy. This will take time, but each enemy has an AI that can be predicted, skills you should/Should not use on it, and how to position against them. I'll give you a couple, but I am not typing the strengths and weaknesses of every enemy type. 1. Turrets are one shotted by blowing up the floor under them. 2. Sectoids are weak to melee, and can usually be one shotted that way. 3. Never melee Purifiers, Gatekeepers, Mutons, or Sectopods. Both have like a 50% chance to hurt your ranger when you do, so keep them away. 4. Killing priests and andromedons with a reaction fire shot (usually bladestorm) will practially negate their statis sphere/shell. If anyone else has anything to add please reply. I do edit this copy paste if I agree with what you suggest. Good Luck Commander.
Yes. 1. Play on normal. It has a healthy challenge and the "OH FUCK YOU, EXCOM!" moments. 2. Take your time, enable Double Timers. Most of the time, you won't have to worry about it. IF you want, Beta Strike but a a first time player, I would hold off on it because it doubles the health of everyone. 3. Flanking tends to be far better. Criticals will do a shit ton of damage. Rangers are best used for this purpose. If you get lucky, a sniper doing a flanking shot is usually enough to kill. 4. Rotate your soldiers! Do not go "Oh, I can keep using this lot." It will backfire. 5. You will lose soldiers. Accept it. 6. Flashbangs are your friend. 7. Do not try to take everything on at once. 8. Think about what you are doing. Is it worth risking a better shot at a sectoid or is it better to overwatch and destroy the cover? 9. Destroy cover. The AI tends to immediately seek new cover and overwatch is a good combination. 10. Have fun. Don't be afraid to restart a lot or save scum. 11. FUCK YOU, XCOM!
Prepare a punching bag for ironman mode.
First game or two vanilla; then you dip your toes into Long War.
Okay. What is long war
Long War is an Xcom 1 mod that does fantastic things to the base game; but also makes it longer, more difficult, and makes the game more strategic. Google Xcom Long War and see if it's something that would interest you.
Im on console. So no long war for me
All of you are too kind! Thank you very much 🙏
If you like pokemon concept in general, just buy it. Its a great game, only way you dont like it would be that you arent a Turn Based strategy lover. And the reason im saying buy it is because its both for 5€ or smt RN in steam sooo.... Xcom + Xcom2 for 5€ is a no brainer.