XCOM 2 Tips – Enemies, Turns, Overwatch, Soldier Roles, Upgrades, Black Market

XCOM 2 tips to effectively manage your soldiers, base and guide the resistance to dominate the Alien forces. 

XCOM 2 is quite tough; especially in the beginning when your troops are vulnerable and start panicking at the smallest of unforeseen accidents.

XCOM 2 Tips

This entire thing, however, is accompanied by a sense of acquiring rewards in case everything goes as it is supposed to. This guide outlines some basic tips that will help you start off your XCOM 2 journey in a less miserable way:

Deal with Stun Lancers
During early game, Stun Lancer pose a greater threat than Sectoids and Vipers. While there are chances of missing, these can render a soldier unconscious which is quite bad in a 4-man squad.

Therefore, you need to use grenades in order to blow their cover and eliminate them first turn. You can also go on the offense in order to take them down with the first attack and have explosions in order to complete the job.

Luring the Vipers Out
You need to break Vipers’ hold by a single-shot; giving soldiers the window to head behind cover and deal with now-in-the-open Vipers. It is also a good idea to continue dealing with them from a distance and use a single-shot to end the hold.

Knowing the Countdown
While playing the timed evacuation missions, you need to understand that as soon as countdown hits ‘1’, it means your last turn – so do not wait for it to reach ‘0’. Another thing to note here is that a sprint to the evacuation zone may also save you.

Turn-Ending Actions
It is a good idea to understand that there are some upgrades that grant you a free reload and reloading does not consume a turn. Moreover, rocket firing does not consume both actions and same goes for Gremlin actions. Lastly, picking wounded soldiers up does not cost an action, however, putting them down does – so make sure to bear these small things in mind.

Improve Your Aim
There are multiple stats that demand your attention, but none of them is as important as aim. While the aim stat naturally increases as your soldiers rank up, but there are plenty of other things that also aim drastically.

However, do note that there are many cases when aim is not as important as other stats. For example, a Ranger should also focus more on Health or Speed instead of aim – choices, choices.

Overwatch is OP
I cannot stress enough at how good Overwatch is! This basically readies soldiers to fire anything in their field-of-vision. This cannot only be used in order to set up ambushes, but also rescue a soldier who has gone too far ahead and is in danger.

Look After Your Soldiers
It usually happens that players equip one of the soldiers with weapons and gear, only to find them down in the field.

In these cases, you need to send someone in order to pick him up, keep him alive, and make sure to extract them in order to keep those precious weapons and gear.

Perma-Death
Since the game features a perma-death system, you cannot afford to lose soldiers outside in the field. This will not only erase them from existence, but you will also lose your precious items; therefore, you need to pay special attention to the previous tip and never leave your soldiers behind and ensure that you always extract them even if they are hardly capable of walking.

Use Every Man at Your Disposal
Needless to say, but injured soldiers require some time to recover which is where soldier rotation kicks in. You need to avoid relying on a couple of soldiers too much and use every soldier at your disposal. You should consider having different soldiers, leveling them up together, and keep on rotating them so as to avoid trouble.

Upgrades – Key to Success
It goes without saying that in order to shine in the field, your soldiers need to well-equipped with the best weapons and gear. It is solely upon you to research latest tech., crafting new items, and keep your soldiers up-to-dated.

In addition to this, you should also consider focusing your attention on armor which will provide you with additional equipment slots and much more.

Pre-Planning
It does not take thing long to go south in XCOM 2 and for this very reason, you need to pre-plan everything and always have a backup plan at your disposal.

You need to understand the way percentage works in the game and have something if something goes south. Even a 100 per cent shot can still graze an enemy.

A Tip About Grenadiers and Sharpshooters
It is a good idea to understand that Grenadiers can launch any type of grenade which includes Flash Grenades and Smoke Grenades. You need to benefit from it as your soldiers can only take one type of damaging grenade.

The same is the case of Sharpshooter’s Pistol which can use any type of ammo; not just the sniper rifle.

Soldier Roles
Once again, it goes without saying, but you cannot expect your Sharpshooter to close the gap and eliminate enemies from a close range; your Sharpshooter needs to be on the high ground. The basic idea is that you need to

Understand how the Project Avatar Functions
In order to continue, you need to delay the Project Avatar as much as possible! This can be done by attacking alien facilities, completing story objectives, and more. This will allow you to play the game at your own pace, chip down the bar whenever you see fit, and continue going.

Benefit from the Line-of-Sight Indicator
The LoS feature is probably the game’s one of the best new features. While moving your soldiers, you will see a small crosshair next to enemy’s HP bars which basically indicate that you will be able to see that specific enemy if you head to the square you are moving over. In addition to this, it also helps avoiding roaming patrols who have not yet spotted your squad.

Concealment – Do it Right
There is no doubt that Concealment is a powerful tool in XCOM 2.

However, never in your journey, you should try and use it in order to sneak past multiple patrols as they will eventually catch upto you and you will find yourself in dire trouble. This, however, does not hold true in all cases as in some cases; doing so is ideal.

Therefore, you need not spam it and judge what the situation demands before making a decision.

Keep Checking the Black Market
The Black Market is basically a shop where you can buy/sell goods which are truly amazing. Note that the Black Market restocks after every supply drop, therefore; it is a good idea to check in regularly in order to acquire new gear, boosts, and more.

Make a Habit of Saving Your Progress
Lastly, since there is no ‘Restart Mission’ feature in the game, you should develop a habit of saving your progress often; especially before some big moments.

Also make sure to share your own tips with us in the comments section below!

Haider is a freelance contributor, who loves video games, playing guitar, and aviation. He is a competitive FPS player and also enjoys exotic RPG games like Diablo and Xenogears (his favorite game of all time) ...