I just fought and killed my first etherial and I got a glowy orb for doing that. I haven't researched it because I don't want to activate anything, but the huge ship in the sky screams endgame to me. How close am I to beating it?

Close, but you can research the orb without going past the point of no return. It really depends on how much you want to grind from here on.

You're getting close but you definitely won't accidentally activate the endgame without the game giving you several prompts about it.

The point of no return takes the form of a giant window with red text that tells you very clearly you can't go back past this point and ask if you want to proceed. So go ahead and research everything you can.

@Pr1mus said:

The point of no return takes the form of a giant window with red text that tells you very clearly you can't go back past this point and ask if you want to proceed. So go ahead and research everything you can.

What do I want to do in terms of getting stuff or achievements on my first run? I'm in the month of August and I just bought some ghost armor and I can now use plasma rifles.

@golguin: Do you have plasma sniper rifles too? If not, you are definitely going to want them. Also, I wouldn't worry about achievements on your first playthrough. If you are looking to get them all you need to do multiple playthroughs anyway.

@golguin said:

@Pr1mus said:

The point of no return takes the form of a giant window with red text that tells you very clearly you can't go back past this point and ask if you want to proceed. So go ahead and research everything you can.

What do I want to do in terms of getting stuff or achievements on my first run? I'm in the month of August and I just bought some ghost armor and I can now use plasma rifles.

If you can make ghost armor and plasma rifles you are nearing the end of researches as far as equipment goes. There's a few other types of armors but they're more sidegrades than upgrades. There's also plasma snipers/heavy weapons and alloy cannon for the best shotguns. You definitely need to research psi armor and research into psionics labs and soldier. As far as achievements goes i don't know. Just try to research everything i guess and continue to do mission as long as you want/can. If you've got everything you need to tackle the ending of the game you can always wait it out for as long as you can before going in.

@Pr1mus said:

@golguin said:

@Pr1mus said:

The point of no return takes the form of a giant window with red text that tells you very clearly you can't go back past this point and ask if you want to proceed. So go ahead and research everything you can.

What do I want to do in terms of getting stuff or achievements on my first run? I'm in the month of August and I just bought some ghost armor and I can now use plasma rifles.

If you can make ghost armor and plasma rifles you are nearing the end of researches as far as equipment goes. There's a few other types of armors but they're more sidegrades than upgrades. There's also plasma snipers/heavy weapons and alloy cannon for the best shotguns. You definitely need to research psi armor and research into psionics labs and soldier. As far as achievements goes i don't know. Just try to research everything i guess and continue to do mission as long as you want/can. If you've got everything you need to tackle the ending of the game you can always wait it out for as long as you can before going in.

I've researched everything available on the list except for the etherial thing and the psi armor. I haven't made a psionics lab because I'm out of room on the left side of the base and I still haven't interrogated a muton elite. I did interrogate the etherial and it said I got all research credit for all technology, so maybe I don't need to interrogate anything anymore? I also will have all my sats up by the end of this month (2 left) and after that I shouldn't get anymore multiple abductions right? I can play without fear of something crazy happening as a grind for stuff I haven't built yet right? I have plenty of stuff I can't build in the foundry because I don't have weapon fragments, so I'll need to do that.

@golguin: I don't remember about getting abduction mission of not when you have satellite coverage everywhere.

Psi armor and Psionic Labs/Soldier are a requirements for finishing the game. That with researching the ethereal device will be necessary to unlock the last mission.