I played that mission without sound (headset had died), is there any sort of warning that there might be something messed up happening? I might just avoid the skulljack, I have 1 day to new armor!

I never used grenades in the previous game. But they seem like an absolute must for this game. Especially for low turn counter missions. You can blow out walls to give soldiers better shots or you can save turns going up to doors.

Knocking out the floor beneath a Sectoid pod and having them fall down 3 stories is very, very satisfying.

@gaspower: The facilities also generate one progress to the Avatar project. It's not monthly, but since you have 3-4 facilities on the map (which were all located in crazy places for me) you get 2 blocks from that usually, plus the one from the Avatar itself. It's too fast though. You start the game with 3 and it adds 2 in the first month for me every time. Then it's 2-3 every month from that point on. On my second run I lost 4 months in, I believe. It goes that fast.

@azrailx: @yothatlimp: Yeah every time there was that objective I had to attempt it under almost ideal conditions, which meant being safe when taking a group out and leaving the target to be skulljacked alone, which in itself is super risky esp. with the second target being a Codex.

@yothatlimp: im avoiding spoilers as best i can with skulljack

here is why skull jacking can get fuxed:

Yeah, it was the only time in the game so far i thought it was unfair.

It spawned behind me, I had 2 advanced soldiers in front of me, and killed 4 of my dudes in ~2 turns. Boo.

Don't go on rooftops if you expect to encounter enemies like Faceless who have AOE attacks. They can destroy the roof you're standing on, causing you to fall through to the ground even if they miss you. I fell into a room with a pod of aliens I didn't even know was there yet.

@mike: Also, don't fire on enemies which are below you, but within a few tiles. I've had my squad shoot through the floor they are standing on, causing the floor to break, which usually results in them taking a tumble. They really need to fix this one, as I've become ultra paranoid around roof edges.

Also, be careful if using the "Saturation Fire" skill with you Grenadiers, as that also seems to hit the square they are on, but in this case it tends to light them on fire.

I would advise against trying to remain concealed all the way to an objective. Last night I attempted a stealthy approach on a 'difficult' mission with no turn timer and it ended in spectacular failure.

I stealthed around the first pod (which I only heard, didn't see), came across a second, and then rerouted into a third. With nowhere to go I went back to the second pod and engaged, but I had "activated" the third pod and they wandered into the fray. That's when I retreated - right into the first pod. In the end I had 1 mech, 2 troopers, 2 vipers, 2 mutons, and 2 codex all activated at once. Flanked on all sides, nowhere to go... squad wipe.

I don't know, maybe being stealthy is a viable option for players better than I, but it wasn't for me.

@zevvion: In my current play through, there was only two up I believe and I was saving Intel and credits for expansion initially then every 4 weeks (it varies, sometimes it's more, sometimes less) a new facility gets built. I was just able to ride out the doom ticker and I was able to do a facility mission first before I even Skulljacked an Advent officer and I was on the verge of unlocking a new region that had one. I think doing the Skulljack objective might be the trigger that accelerates more facility development but I'm still not sure.

Oh also a tip, I'm not sure if this was mentioned but Skullmining would also be able to get you info on a facility that you haven't reached yet so even if you haven't contacted that region, you can still attack it if you Skullmine successfully. That's why I always equip the Skulljack on a Specialist because of their hacking skill. The only downside if you fail is the feedback damage, which isn't enough to kill (I think its about 4-5 IIRC). That's how I was able to get info on a facility in Indonesia, which was super far in my playthrough and I had that as an insurance policy if I couldn't unlock another region in time. Another thing is that if you already discovered all the Facilities and there isn't a new one built yet, that option is still there but I think you almost always fail it. I decided to test it out in a different save if that was the case and sure enough even if that was the higher percentage option, it'll fail. Otherwise, if that isn't the case, go for that Facility info option.

@bane: I made this same mistake the first time I did the blacksite facility. Was trying to sneak my way past a turret...by foolishly sneaking right up the middle, and popped 3 pods at once. I think it's still a viable strategy but recommend sticking to the edge of the map to minimize catastrophe if you get caught.

Hrm, what's a good tip I can add...skulljacking for story reasons is guaranteed, so anyone can do it, but skullmining successfully requires some pretty good hacking stats and has pretty harsh repercussions if you fail, with no chance to cancel like you can with hacking towers. I lost a Ranger from a failed attempt of skullmining a shieldbearer, because feedback effect did 6 damage. Equip it on your best Specialist, and make sure they're full health before attempting (or save scum)

Don't forget that most missions let you summon an evac point at anytime, anywhere. One mission, my medic specialist was bleeding out (thank you GTS upgrade) and I was able to save him by having my sniper pick him up and evac out. Sucks having to do rest of mission with less people but better than a permanent loss.

Explosives will blow up dropped items, but DoT effects from grenades like fire or acid afterwards will drop items without issue. Have a Hazmat Vest-equipped Ranger swoop in there and grab that shit!

I really can't recommend mines enough btw. They are just so powerful, like grenades on steroids. And considering explosives can now crit with the right upgrades I literally had a mine take out a heavy mech in one hit on classic difficulty, from full hp to 0 all the way through 3 point of armor (and his slightly dinged buddy too).

Having 2 grenadiers throughout most of the game, by the time I blew up an alien facility during those mission types there was frequently only like 1/3rd of it left standing anyway.

• When you are selecting where to move a soldier you can confirm which units they'll be able to target from your currently selected tile by looking for a little red crosshair icon that shows up next to the enemy's health bar.

Simple tip but it is new to this game and can help when enemy positioning with cover is a bit ambiguous.

Hit Capslock on the after-mission load screen (where it shows your soldiers sitting in the skyranger with your stats) and it skips it. Seems to be a completely artificial load. Skipping it doesn't add to any later load times that I can find. It'll look like it froze for like 2 seconds then give you the button prompt to continue back to base.

Simple thing, and I'm not sure it's ever stated: but the Gremlins have armor-piercing on mechanized enemies. Unless I'm misreading the situation: I noticed this when I had a mech with 4 health and 2 armor. Sent my combat drone over to at least winnow it down, it did 4 damage and outright killed it.

Yeeeeeeeep! Found THAT out the hard way.

"Take THIS, Muto-<BLOCK! PUNCH!> OH GOD NO THAT'S SO MUCH DAMAGE!"

@undeadpool: I think it's in a tooltip somewhere, but I don't remember where I saw it. But yeah, the Gremlin attacks ignore armor on mechs. Super useful later especially with the top tier Combat Hacker skill.

Just found this out, not something I've read anywhere yet, but ticking damage like Poison from Venom Rounds can proc Execute from the Repeater attachment. Pretty weird.

So that probably applies to dragon rounds as well. That's a really nice tip.

Also I don't know if it's mentioned yet but if applying burning on enemies has the same effect as it is on your squad, then they can't go into overwatch if they're burning.

@cybexx: Yeah though there could have been a better way to show line of sight since there are cases wherein zooming out causes the cursor to be on a different level of a structure instead of the ground so there isn't a way to tell sometimes if you can hit them. It's really annoying.

Don't follow the tutorial, building the Proving Grounds at the very beginning is a very bad move, instead build the training facility and increase your squad size.

Does anyone know how the leveling works? I know you cant level up more than once per mission, but I don't know if your XP pool stays the same, or if it caps it per level.

Hacking becomes super-valuable later on, taking control of a sectopod is glorious.

@undeadpool: I know the feeling, my previous tactic of "They can't kill you if they're dead" + Arc Blade was my favourite option until I met the Muton. Major Ranger (and my only one) killed and on ironman. I spent hours scoring to check the Muton was the only one that could do this. *cough* Berserker *cough*

@gaspower+ @cybexx: Pressing Z will zoom out, as long as you hold it.

Random recommendation: Ranger with a superior laser sight and talon rounds on a shotgun.

It's huge. I described how much I liked the Mimic Beacon earlier in this thread and hacking an enemy serves both as a distraction to soak up enemy attacks and yes the Sectopod is fantastic. Even the stun can totally save a mission. I also recommend people do the research on Skull Mining, which allows an equipped Skulljack to give you like 60 points in hacking I believe which is really helpful.

The drone attacks are also great because as talked about above they do ignore armor. The final ability you get to basically EMP bomb your drone is fantastic.

I almost restarted the whole game because of this. It set me back and I came very close to loosing but managed to get to the point where I could start knocking down the Avatar counter. That's the right way to do it for sure. Proving Grounds can wait a little bit.

@tennmuerti: Well now I am trying those mines! I love the destruction in this game. I also get a thrill on the alien complex missions because I just load up on explosives. Not since Silent Storm have I had so much fun tactically blowing shit up.

Probably on the mission briefing where the map is still loading and your squad is in the skyranger since that's where the tooltips show up.

Crit Rangers are the only kind of ranger, every other kind is inferior!

My tip: Get Capacitor Discharge (Combat Hacker Colonel) ASAP. It can almost one shot a Heavy MEC later, and, in my last mission, mid-august, I used it to one shot a Super-heavy turret, a Heavy MEC, and finish off an Archon and Gatekeeper. WAYYYY more useful than Restoration, which by the time you get it, only 1 or 2 of your soldiers are getting hurt, more than the health it gives you. "They can't hurt you if they're dead".

Armour Piercing rounds are also incredibly useful. Put them on a Sniper with Kill Zone and a Plasma Lance and you can kill multiple armoured enemies. Using them with Deadeye on a Sectopod and you can almost halve it's health. Have a Gunslinger with Bluescreen rounds too and you can kill a Sectopod with just the two of them. Possibly even just the Gunslinger, if they have Fan Fire, Lightning Hands and Quickdraw. 5 shots, with a Beam Pistol, does (If the Sectopod's Armour is shredded) 45 - 50 damage in total.

Here's a little trick. Give a Ranger Bladestorm and a Mimic Beacon. Have the Ranger drop the beacon nearby and he'll get free Bladestorm damage on any enemies that come to investigate it, then you can clean them up with the shotgun. Then pop Conceal and reposition for another flanking shot.

Skills I like for Rangers are Phantom, Shadowstrike, Conceal, Bladestorm, Untouchable, and Rapid Fire. Swords are pretty much garbage compared to shotguns, so I skip the sword skills except for Bladestorm.

If you aren't running a Phantom Ranger in every single mission, you are really missing out. It's a total game changer.

@mike: While in the late game I would agree swords are not up to par with shotguns. In the early game with the free +2 dmg talent and the fact that you can get the 2nd tier sword insanely early via simple autopsy, makes sword rangers a very reliable and a much more damaging option. My blademaster ranked up to colonel like way way ahead of everyone, just because she was constantly finishing off enemies and one shotting sectoids left and right.

The lategame sword build kind of transitions into a similar role to a sniper sharpshooter: cleanup crew; due to Reaper.

@tennmuerti: Except that swords can often put your Ranger in a very dangerous position, rarely crit compared to shotguns, and almost never have a 100% chance to hit like shotguns do at close range. On the lower difficulties sword is probably fine, especially early on, but on Legend it is just too risky and unreliable. Not to mention being completely by shotguns once a couple of techs are researched. On Legend you just can't risk a sword miss and often times crits are necessary, which is why shotguns are usually outfitted with Laser Sights for the +crit chance.

On the lower difficulties though, skill choice, misses, and other mistakes are easily survivable and usually not that big of a deal.

@mike: Early on you are not really going to have 100% hit rate with shotguns either unless you are 1 or 2 squares away plus flanking and even then, and by that point it's as risky as a sword. The crit early on is not necessary as the 2nd tier sword + talent put out ridiculous dmg for that stage in the game, more then most crits, every time. Also the risk is largely mitigated by untouchable, which is quick to get since the sword rangers rank up like crazy.

Make no mistake I fully agree that as soon as you hit those later stages the shotgun is a straight up better option, with 100% hits and over 100% crit rates being a thing. Just saying that there is a possible time and a place for sword rangers too, they are not always inferior. Even tho stealth shotty rangers are so godly and I myself love them for their tactical usefulness much more.

I may be wrong, but swords seem to be better for some enemies than others. They seem to do extra damage, or maybe have a higher crit chance, against "squishy" enemies (sectoids, Vipers) but be pretty crappy against Advent troops and robits?

@commanderozzy: Ah thanks for pointing out the zoom toggle.

@thomasnash: There might be a slight exception to Vipers since it has a higher chance to miss against them compared to other squishy enemy types due to their defense and dodge being high.

It just means swords are literally unbalanced though. It should be risk/reward. Not risk/mistake. Swords should have a fairly high chance to hit to be somewhat more in line with shotguns. Getting 100% chance to hit with a shotgun from 5 tiles away and getting 87% chance to hit with a sword from point blank range which does less damage is real, real stupid. I've thought long and hard about it, but I ended up changing the settings so swords are more reliable to hit. Still not 100%, but at least they hit most of the time now, instead of missing a lot.

As for more tips, or actually rather just a heads up: Mimic Beacon decoys that get murdered can apparently be reanimated by Sectoids. Which is weird and hilarious.

I'd say building the Guerilla Training School is almost a necessity to build right off the bat because:

1. You get access to the Increased Squad Size perks, which I feel is essential to not get destroyed.
2. You can train recruits to get their initial promotion so you aren't stuck flat on your ass when your top guys are put out of commission for 2+ weeks.

I also really like to rush the Proving Grounds to get the special grenades. Sectoids? Throw fire at it. MECs? Douse it with acid. A bunch of Advent troops? Toss a fart bomb.