I personally love this guy, his voice isn't annoying he does interesting games and overall his challenge stuff is pretty good, he explains it all really well. And he's good for both content and background content. A+ small youtuber
yes that's summed up what I thought today. especialy someone who isn't into Xcom can follow this guy well (especially if they watch this series from ep1) and that's great!
“Build a man of fire, he’ll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.” Such a great quote, had me laughing for a while.😂
Tbh, the game is meant to be played in a way where you kill before they get to take shots at you. Shredding is better because it prevents you from getting shot (by killing heavy armored enemies) instead of taking the shots which will put your soldier out of commission for weeks anyways.
@@melecaogaming1567 fair but also note that I prefer playing with the increased health modifier for longer tactical encounters. With the increased health it's not very likely to clean sweep an entire mission so having extra armor helps mitigate the damage that is inevitably going to happen. Also the explosive damage resistance is very helpful. I can put grenadiers by cars for cover if nothing else is around or is needed to get a good shot. So when the aliens attack and cause the car to explode it's not nearly as life threatening.
If you are doing it on console, make sure to back up your information frequently. I lost a solid 30+ hours because the stupid game crashed while auto saving and deleted my save. I imagine it's probably the same on PC too, but there might be some mods you can download to avoid it. Also be mindful of any mission that has the lost in it, they seem to cause crashes the most. Anyway, figured I'd share in hopes of saving someone else the heartbreak I experienced.
Kinda the same story for me. I also found out that XCOM 2 has the steam workshop too. There's a tank mod that's pretty sweet. It's a little OP but still quite a bit of fun.
Same here! Hadn't played in ages, watched this series for the last couple months, and now I have beaten the game a few times, vanilla and then with mods, and now Im considering longwar. I am so glad he reignited my tactics game passion!
One thing to note about VIP Lost missions: The timer isn't really a deadline, more of a safety net. You can still reach the VIP after the timer expires, the only thing that happens is that Lost Swarms will start spawning every turn.
I think I figured out an even more painful challenge: Story Units Only. This means you gotta do the tutorial, gotta get outrider, Mox, the obligated templar, the sparks from the DLC.
I see one problem to that. The fatigue mechanic means that it's nearly impossible to complete the game without skipping a lot of missions, which quickly leads to a game over.
This would be tricky. I am thinking perhaps a "no buying soldiers" run might be more manageable. It would also allow you to get troops as mission rewards.
I can only imagine the aneurysm Valen would be experiencing if she was still with Xcom and witnessing this excessive, apocalyptic display of explosions.
That... was wilder than I expected. It's like the game knew how strong grenadiers are and was trying to nerf them with the most nonsensical rng. Congrats on sticking through with it to the end, awesome outro, and I can't wait for the sharpshooter video ;P
8:15 Blast padding also increases your armor by 1. It can mean the difference between life and death, particularly so at low levels. I'd have strongly recommended to take blast padding in some of your men early into the game, and retrain them later
Now there is only one of the great four left, the unseen force horrasing the enemies being untouchable themselves, the predators of xcom. The sharpshooter's The shitters of early game, no mobility , no way to shread. Have fun
This is going to be an interesting one. Grenadiers are one of the strongest classes early game, and while I think they scale very well, they feel more like support classes late game than actual DPS carries so will see. They also have very bad aim, so I'm expecting a lot of misses this run.
I think this will be the opposite of the ranger run. Fairly straightforward in the early game but increasingly challenging the further the game progresses.
From mid-game onwards the Gunner abilities are massive. I will often retrain a Grenadier to switch from grenades to canon use. Shred, holotarget, hail, chain, saturation etc.turn them into DPS beasts. Tracer ammo, Aim PCS, scopes and magazines or auto loaders should be prioritised.
@@jerometruitt2731 I didn't mean, that grenadiers are not putting in work by the lategame. I absolutely love grenadiers but their role switches from reliable killer and bane of every enemy in the earlygame to more of a supportive role that shreds armor, uses utility grenades and weakens pods before your rangers and snipers go on their killing spree and reliably finish of the weakened enemies with guaranteed hits and abilities like serial or reaper.
Wow, for a game that’s known for bullying it’s players with malicious RNG, I don’t think I’ve seen XCOM 2 so determined to ruin a play through. But Drifter, you pulled it off in style. I love the meta story telling and extra cinematic cues- the 1812 Overture Montage was an especially nice touch. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how the Sharpshooters fare!
AI: "What class is he doing this time? Oh, wait, grenadiers! Set shenanigans to maximum and put the odds of successful killshots half what it says on screen. This is not a drill!"
Great comeback on this one. This campaign sounds like it would have been a perfect one for my Expected Accuracy Score (EAS) stat. It essentially quantifies the "we're missing SOOOOO many easy shots" effect, by calculating how many shots a soldier has hit above or below what's "expected" from the shot percentages. A note about the Chosen Sarcophaguses (Sarcophagi?). Shots against objects like that have a base 100% chance to hit, however when you use an ability, any inherent aim penalty from that ability also gets applied. So all of your Chain Shots actually had 85% chance to hit instead of 100% because of the -15 aim penalty. The same thing will apply to Deadeye on your Sharpshooter run, fyi.
I always take shredder, but buy up blast padding later on in the campaign. The +1 armor is nice once you stack it with a war suit, and the explosion damage reduction is just a cherry on top.
@@thewizardmelech2718 but if u play on legend u might not have training center up once the armored enemy show up.. training center is always my 6th or 7th building depending on how well i do on the injured and neg trait
1:35:01 You're 100% correct. If you have the upgrade that damages psionic attackers, the Codex takes a hit for each unit she psi-bombs. It's a fantastic anti-codex tool.
Random time for TH-cam to recommend this, but I'm glad it did, because I've been having fun watching these challenge runs. It also reminds me of one mission I had where my Grenadier went SO far into Beast Mode that I ended up saving him as a permanent addition to my games. Was running a 3-man supply raid with my Skirmisher, Sharpshooter and the MVP Grenadier (codename Juggernaut). Managed to take two enemies out, but my Skirmisher went down and my Sharpshooter had to evac. This left my Grenadier dealing with two Stun Lancers, a Sectopod, and either a Sectoid, Priest or Shielderbearer (I can't remember which, but I'm leaning towards the latter because I believe that was when I learned Bluescreen Rounds could bypass their shielding). Not only did he manage to dodge every single attack the Stun Lancers flung his way, he managed to two-shot the Sectopod from full health and armour and then proceeded to wipe the floor with everyone else, winning the mission for me
You are correct about Feedback dealing damage for EACH individual target in a multitarget effect. I have had Codices and Gatekeepers basically fry themselves by attacking a squad with an AoE effect. It is very satisfying, and even more satisfying when it's with something that doesn't do damage on the first turn, or at all. One of my favorites is leaving a mind-controller unit with only a small number of HP so they self-terminate when they attempt mind control on the next turn. Feedback is probably my favorite Templar order.
8:20 Occasionally I would take blast padding early on just for the extra armor. The explosive resistance is just a bonus for me. Most heavies would still have shredder though.
The thing about blast padding is it’s an early game buff not a late game one as taking it allows you to put off armor upgrades for a bit as your guys are capable of tanking some hits at least until mechs show up. (Mechs being one of the first enemies that can shred) while shredder is a late game buff to destroy armor of your enemies.
hell yes, been looking forward to this one! It'll be interesting to see the juggling of the limited supplies of explosives even though they are very powerful, vs setting up gunners who may suffer from their low aim
That run was insanity. I cant wait to see the next one! I was not disappointed by the number of grenade uses. The mission with all the pods in one spot was hilarious as well as the lost mission with the Assassin where like 1/2 of the building was missing.
I was just wondering when the next challenge will air and thanks to a lucky refresh I see it went online 2 minutes ago. Love your content man, and this is probably one of the best birthday gifts I received today, ^^ keep up your good work, you deserve more attention.
I have made a habit of starting a video of yours and dragging it on my second monitor to listen to while I am playing XCOM2 myself. It's calming enough for me to stay calm and collected when a pod of a Muton and Andromedon run into battle while I am fighting with a sectopod and 2 advanced soldiers and some reinforcements ^^
One thing this series is great for is drilling down deep into each class and subclass. We get to see a lot more niche situations that a normal campaign wouldn't necessarily trigger.
Thank you for getting me back into xcom 2, ive been looking for a game to play and you made me fall in love with xcom again. Also when i get pissed I can just watch you miss 95% instead
This was a fun one, and this whole series has been A+. I like the short format. Last time I tried this I took 5 grenadiers and a psi operative on the final mission on Legend difficulty and I got wiped out. That was just the final mission, didn't even try to do the whole campaign that way. It really looks like having Death From Above makes a huge difference to the final room action economy.
I do take blast padding occasionally. I run a lot of mods, so not only do Advent use more grenades, but there are often more of them, and really tanky. In a vanilla run, I double back if I got extra points to spare, but it's rarely a priority.
Yess! Such a long video, have been in need of some Xcom podcast :D I do love the rate at which you upload these videos, i just hope you don't burn yourself out.
I tend to find that if a unit has 3 actions like the chosen or Sectopod. It makes them lose 1 action unthaws them allowing them to move and attack or dash. I assume the Avatar might have 3 actions they can do
Sometimes it won't even do that, i've had a frozen sectopod which on its turn, became tall, moved, shot at my soldier, moved again and then shot at the same soldier, killing them. Because fuck me i guess.
Amazing video as usual glad to see all the explosion rag doll physic in xcom 2 is hilarious wonder how many kills the sniper can get also the scene of chungking grenades at all the frozen pods at the same time is hilarious and satisfying great work
i have no words of advice from what i have learned to give for this video, grenadiers are really straight foward and really dont have any unwriten or hidden stats about how they work like other classes do good job on that run cant wait for the next one
I am at least 80% certain that if a weapon has attachments, it will be upgraded to the next tier and keep those attachments. Also I love the continued evolution of the class name in the rules, it's simple but hilarious Edit - Also the reason some abilities miss the Sarcophagous is because all shots against it are set to 100%. however abilities like Rapid Fire/Chain Shot/Banish have a -Aim modifier that's applied *after* the shot is set to 100%, making it not 100% anymore
0:35 well grenadiers are highly inaccurate (compared to other classes) and grenades are limited. So it would be kinda like the specialists run since Grenadier is a support class, although with the right combination of builds you may breeze through the game. My guess before finishing the video
During your last mission there seemed to be some sort of glitch where your Grenadiers were regularly hitting enemies. Can anyone explain this? Usually in XCOM, if it says 87% chance to hit, it's a coin flip whether you miss or not.
Before watching. I don't have much faith on this one. haha Good luck! 8:33 Also, for real. Why is it always the warlock with you? 20:45 Have you ever thought that Leeson might be a Faceless sabotaging XCOM?
YES! This is the one I've been waiting for! Explosions and gunfire all around! Good fun. Shame you live on the other side of the planet, I would have loved to catch the stream.
Avatars apparently are one of those enemies on who Frost Bomb doesn't fully work, instead, it just reduces their action points by 1. Other such enemies are Chosen and, if I'm not mistaken, Sectopods and Gatekeepers. Not sure why it was able to move *and* Mind Control though. Guess it has 3 action points like Sektopod? Not sure, never checked.
I don't know if the Avatar has 3 actions, but the Sectopods, Gatekeepers, and Avatars should be the only enemies that lose an action instead of a turn. Chosen and Rulers should be affected like normal, which is why the Frost Bomb is OP against the Rulers.
@@vegeta002 Chosen *do* only lose 1 Action Point as far as I remember. And Rules have their own interaction with it, as instead of losing a single 2-action turn they lose several 1-action ones.
If there's nothing super important I almost always spend the extra points to pick it up, especially if it shows up on a ranger because they can get some crazy armour values and tank a lot of stuff.
Avatars, as with… one other enemy type… I apologize, it’s been a long while since I’ve played through the game… but they are only frozen for a single turn, which runs out at the start of the next enemy turn. Either that, or they’re frozen for 0 turns, which means it runs out on the enemy turn. Either way, frost bombs do jack all against Avatars.
So I was playing XCom and got the site rep that makes only advent units spawn and I remembered that previously you saw that a gatekeeper spawned. Well I saw that one was going to be in the mission because of the shadow chamber so apparently Gate Keepers count as ADVENT
Blast Padding is a nice cheap AP skill once you have the training facility, the amount of times that one extra armour has reduced injury time or keeping my soldier alive is nice. Plus it’s works against Archon Pinions (including Archon King) plus helps against dying Sectopods and Gatekeepers, sometimes you simply can’t move and just have to tank its dying blasts.
Honestly, with the amount of shredding grenadiers have with all their grenades, taking the Blast Padding might have been the better choice for a majority of the troops. Some of the deaths might have been prevented with an additional armor.
@@merrydiscusser6793 really? i find it beyond worthless having the option to always shred even when the grenades run out or when chain shotting a sectopod just always has more utility for me
@@SuperVideoman2012 Honestly depends on the amount of armor shred you already have on your rooster. If you only got one or two grenadiers in your rooster, you probably want them to shred. In this specific situation, having only grenadiers, you have tons of shred and won't really run out of grenades. Basically: The more amount of shred you already have available, the less valuable every new grenadier with shred becomes. And Blast Padding might safe one of your soldiers, allowing them to continue shredding which they can't if they are dead. The acid bomb on the squad wipe mission for example might not have been that devastating if those soldiers had the Blast Padding.
I keep checking your channel for the sharpshooters only run because that one is going to be the real challenge. Can't wait. Please also upload your failures if you have any
While this was a brutal campaign, it was the closest one could get to a proper guerrilla resistance: explosions, explosions, death, and explosions. Can’t wait for Sharpshooters Only. If you’re taking ideas for continuing the “Only” series, might I suggest Bolt Casters Only? One shot, one kill (you’ll hope 🤞). A true challenge that opens up class variety, but restricts powerful weapon mods and traits like Serial, Rapid Fire, and Chain Shot. Good luck, Commander.
Drifter: Casually mentions he burned down the Elder's church. Warlock: So you have chosen death. Also I'm not that far in but the motto this time better be that the Geneva Convention is merely a suggestion, if not then you did it wrong.
Im really loving the analytical play by play. I've played this game 700hrs (at least that's what steam says) but I also played in on console...so that history is lost. It's always enjoyable to see someone else's reaction to situations and make the same silly mistakes we all do. I'll admit it....sometimes I lose a guy and I'm like "nope" - reload
I eagerly await the Sharpshooter Playthrough, I think it will turn out quite nicely because Sharpshooters might as well be 2 different Classes (Sniper and Gunslinger) who synergize well with each other (I.E. Gunslingers with Face Off setting up killing sprees for Snipers with either Death From Above or Serial)
Ok so in order. Blast padding also adds +1 armor which guarantees they will live from 1 shot in the early game (Armor applies before 50% crit damage) making it useful early on and with spare points you get shread since its cheap at 10 points. Second the Avatar, they are treated like chosen and massive enemies like Sectopod and Gatekeepers, they only loose 1 action point EDIT: ok just saw the squad wipe i think a little studying on enemy priorities is in order as there is alot of focus on enemies which don't do much of anything if they live compared to ones that shoot back. A mimic beacon might not have even helped as Acid bomb is the highest priority for an Andromedon and will use it if no flank is present and has 5 tile wide radius. I think I will see the next run on stream cause improvement can be made to these runs
Yup. Mimic Beacon has the highest priority for the enemies, more than any of their usual actions. It's not just another body enemies may shoot. That's why it's so good.
Gernadier's are one of my least used class, solely for their accuracy stat. When one miss could spell and end to a soldier, I don't find them all that useful. Use them mostly for suppression and shredding, a unit that can take a hit, but when it comes to a proper KO, Gernadier's are out the window.
The absolute bs in this run is astonishing. I’ve watched all the others, and I don’t know if the game was just done with your shit or what, but this is incredible. I thought either the specialist or the reaper vids were your lowest point, and then this vid came along and blew them completely out of the water lol. Can’t wait to see how the sharpshooter run goes
I got sick and have just been rewatching your previous videos yesterday because I have to stay in bed anyway. Then I wake up and the Grenadier video is out :) From a huge XCOM2 fan (1000+ hours), thank you for your work! P.S.: Also, I like taking Blast Padding on some Grenadiers who aren't gun-focused, but grenade-focused. The extra point of armor really helps should the Grenadier come under fire. You usually tend to equip EXO and WAR suits on Grenadiers, which is together 4 armor points. Basically a tank.
That sounds right about the codex destroying itself. I had a gatekeeper cast gateway on me during Lost mission. It reanimated like 20 zombies between Lost and Advent soldiers. I had a ranger down where everything revived, and thought, “well, we’re about to see how good Bladestorm is.” Each and every one of those reanimations proc’d that psionic feedback resistance order, massively killing the gatekeeper. Which then killed those 20 or so zombies. *phew*
I personally love this guy, his voice isn't annoying he does interesting games and overall his challenge stuff is pretty good, he explains it all really well. And he's good for both content and background content. A+ small youtuber
What I love is his channel is growing fast only like 2 months ago he had just over 100 subscribers now he has 5,000
facts
Much love.
yes that's summed up what I thought today. especialy someone who isn't into Xcom can follow this guy well (especially if they watch this series from ep1) and that's great!
My favorite xcom youtuber easily
“Build a man of fire, he’ll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.” Such a great quote, had me laughing for a while.😂
Jajajajajaja god
I personally love blast padding. The extra armor point really stacks up when combined with war suits
Same
I enjoy getting it later on using the soldier points, but usually I find shredder is better
@@joelebrown4355 same, I always circle back to it if I have extra ap.
Tbh, the game is meant to be played in a way where you kill before they get to take shots at you. Shredding is better because it prevents you from getting shot (by killing heavy armored enemies) instead of taking the shots which will put your soldier out of commission for weeks anyways.
@@melecaogaming1567 fair but also note that I prefer playing with the increased health modifier for longer tactical encounters. With the increased health it's not very likely to clean sweep an entire mission so having extra armor helps mitigate the damage that is inevitably going to happen.
Also the explosive damage resistance is very helpful. I can put grenadiers by cars for cover if nothing else is around or is needed to get a good shot. So when the aliens attack and cause the car to explode it's not nearly as life threatening.
Your vids have single handedly gotten me back into xcom2. Im even attempting my 1st iron man. Thanks for the content drifter :)
If you are doing it on console, make sure to back up your information frequently. I lost a solid 30+ hours because the stupid game crashed while auto saving and deleted my save. I imagine it's probably the same on PC too, but there might be some mods you can download to avoid it. Also be mindful of any mission that has the lost in it, they seem to cause crashes the most.
Anyway, figured I'd share in hopes of saving someone else the heartbreak I experienced.
The Warlock sends his regards
Kinda the same story for me. I also found out that XCOM 2 has the steam workshop too. There's a tank mod that's pretty sweet. It's a little OP but still quite a bit of fun.
Same here! Hadn't played in ages, watched this series for the last couple months, and now I have beaten the game a few times, vanilla and then with mods, and now Im considering longwar. I am so glad he reignited my tactics game passion!
Same
One thing to note about VIP Lost missions:
The timer isn't really a deadline, more of a safety net. You can still reach the VIP after the timer expires, the only thing that happens is that Lost Swarms will start spawning every turn.
The mission where everyone is frozen, is called "Winter King". I couldn't think of a better name
I think I figured out an even more painful challenge: Story Units Only.
This means you gotta do the tutorial, gotta get outrider, Mox, the obligated templar, the sparks from the DLC.
That's masochistic.
I love it
I see one problem to that. The fatigue mechanic means that it's nearly impossible to complete the game without skipping a lot of missions, which quickly leads to a game over.
This would be tricky. I am thinking perhaps a "no buying soldiers" run might be more manageable. It would also allow you to get troops as mission rewards.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast At that point, wouldn't it just be an easier version of your hero runs?
What about: only psy ops???
Or: only one soldier of each class/ the rest are rookies???
That ADVENT Captain was actually on her way to becoming a Skirmisher.
The Control Implant malfunctioned during that mission.
which mission?
52:10 here you go
I can only imagine the aneurysm Valen would be experiencing if she was still with Xcom and witnessing this excessive, apocalyptic display of explosions.
That... was wilder than I expected. It's like the game knew how strong grenadiers are and was trying to nerf them with the most nonsensical rng.
Congrats on sticking through with it to the end, awesome outro, and I can't wait for the sharpshooter video ;P
8:15 Blast padding also increases your armor by 1. It can mean the difference between life and death, particularly so at low levels. I'd have strongly recommended to take blast padding in some of your men early into the game, and retrain them later
Now there is only one of the great four left, the unseen force horrasing the enemies being untouchable themselves, the predators of xcom.
The sharpshooter's
The shitters of early game, no mobility , no way to shread. Have fun
I seriously love this series, I'm not afraid to say that these are the best Xcom 2 related videos on TH-cam, just keep it up man
Thank you.
This is going to be an interesting one. Grenadiers are one of the strongest classes early game, and while I think they scale very well, they feel more like support classes late game than actual DPS carries so will see. They also have very bad aim, so I'm expecting a lot of misses this run.
I think this will be the opposite of the ranger run. Fairly straightforward in the early game but increasingly challenging the further the game progresses.
ye my only kills are grenades with most of them
From mid-game onwards the Gunner abilities are massive. I will often retrain a Grenadier to switch from grenades to canon use. Shred, holotarget, hail, chain, saturation etc.turn them into DPS beasts. Tracer ammo, Aim PCS, scopes and magazines or auto loaders should be prioritised.
My Grenadiers always put in work especially late game.
@@jerometruitt2731 I didn't mean, that grenadiers are not putting in work by the lategame. I absolutely love grenadiers but their role switches from reliable killer and bane of every enemy in the earlygame to more of a supportive role that shreds armor, uses utility grenades and weakens pods before your rangers and snipers go on their killing spree and reliably finish of the weakened enemies with guaranteed hits and abilities like serial or reaper.
Wow, for a game that’s known for bullying it’s players with malicious RNG, I don’t think I’ve seen XCOM 2 so determined to ruin a play through. But Drifter, you pulled it off in style. I love the meta story telling and extra cinematic cues- the 1812 Overture Montage was an especially nice touch. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how the Sharpshooters fare!
Bruh the accuracy on that first Warlock encounter: "That's XCOM baby!"
AI: "What class is he doing this time? Oh, wait, grenadiers! Set shenanigans to maximum and put the odds of successful killshots half what it says on screen. This is not a drill!"
Great comeback on this one. This campaign sounds like it would have been a perfect one for my Expected Accuracy Score (EAS) stat. It essentially quantifies the "we're missing SOOOOO many easy shots" effect, by calculating how many shots a soldier has hit above or below what's "expected" from the shot percentages.
A note about the Chosen Sarcophaguses (Sarcophagi?). Shots against objects like that have a base 100% chance to hit, however when you use an ability, any inherent aim penalty from that ability also gets applied. So all of your Chain Shots actually had 85% chance to hit instead of 100% because of the -15 aim penalty. The same thing will apply to Deadeye on your Sharpshooter run, fyi.
I always take shredder, but buy up blast padding later on in the campaign. The +1 armor is nice once you stack it with a war suit, and the explosion damage reduction is just a cherry on top.
You may want to switch your order around. Blast padding is always useful no matter what but shredder doesn't do that much until mid game.
@@thewizardmelech2718 but if u play on legend u might not have training center up once the armored enemy show up.. training center is always my 6th or 7th building depending on how well i do on the injured and neg trait
1:35:01 You're 100% correct. If you have the upgrade that damages psionic attackers, the Codex takes a hit for each unit she psi-bombs. It's a fantastic anti-codex tool.
Random time for TH-cam to recommend this, but I'm glad it did, because I've been having fun watching these challenge runs. It also reminds me of one mission I had where my Grenadier went SO far into Beast Mode that I ended up saving him as a permanent addition to my games. Was running a 3-man supply raid with my Skirmisher, Sharpshooter and the MVP Grenadier (codename Juggernaut). Managed to take two enemies out, but my Skirmisher went down and my Sharpshooter had to evac. This left my Grenadier dealing with two Stun Lancers, a Sectopod, and either a Sectoid, Priest or Shielderbearer (I can't remember which, but I'm leaning towards the latter because I believe that was when I learned Bluescreen Rounds could bypass their shielding). Not only did he manage to dodge every single attack the Stun Lancers flung his way, he managed to two-shot the Sectopod from full health and armour and then proceeded to wipe the floor with everyone else, winning the mission for me
"It's a covert mission on a neighborhood"
"Yeah there will be a lot of cover when we're done"
You are correct about Feedback dealing damage for EACH individual target in a multitarget effect. I have had Codices and Gatekeepers basically fry themselves by attacking a squad with an AoE effect. It is very satisfying, and even more satisfying when it's with something that doesn't do damage on the first turn, or at all. One of my favorites is leaving a mind-controller unit with only a small number of HP so they self-terminate when they attempt mind control on the next turn. Feedback is probably my favorite Templar order.
“What makes me a good demoman? WELL IF I WAS A BAD ONE I WOULDN’T BE HERE TALKING ABOUT IT”
8:20 Occasionally I would take blast padding early on just for the extra armor. The explosive resistance is just a bonus for me. Most heavies would still have shredder though.
The thing about blast padding is it’s an early game buff not a late game one as taking it allows you to put off armor upgrades for a bit as your guys are capable of tanking some hits at least until mechs show up. (Mechs being one of the first enemies that can shred) while shredder is a late game buff to destroy armor of your enemies.
hell yes, been looking forward to this one! It'll be interesting to see the juggling of the limited supplies of explosives even though they are very powerful, vs setting up gunners who may suffer from their low aim
That run was insanity. I cant wait to see the next one! I was not disappointed by the number of grenade uses. The mission with all the pods in one spot was hilarious as well as the lost mission with the Assassin where like 1/2 of the building was missing.
I was just wondering when the next challenge will air and thanks to a lucky refresh I see it went online 2 minutes ago.
Love your content man, and this is probably one of the best birthday gifts I received today, ^^ keep up your good work, you deserve more attention.
Happy birthday. :)
I have made a habit of starting a video of yours and dragging it on my second monitor to listen to while I am playing XCOM2 myself.
It's calming enough for me to stay calm and collected when a pod of a Muton and Andromedon run into battle while I am fighting with a sectopod and 2 advanced soldiers and some reinforcements ^^
One thing this series is great for is drilling down deep into each class and subclass. We get to see a lot more niche situations that a normal campaign wouldn't necessarily trigger.
Thank you for getting me back into xcom 2, ive been looking for a game to play and you made me fall in love with xcom again. Also when i get pissed I can just watch you miss 95% instead
This is basically a “Fuck you rng” run and that feels so good
This was a fun one, and this whole series has been A+. I like the short format.
Last time I tried this I took 5 grenadiers and a psi operative on the final mission on Legend difficulty and I got wiped out. That was just the final mission, didn't even try to do the whole campaign that way. It really looks like having Death From Above makes a huge difference to the final room action economy.
What a perfect run to showcase just how hard XCOM can screw players over, and how much leeway grenadiers can give you in spite of that.
I do take blast padding occasionally. I run a lot of mods, so not only do Advent use more grenades, but there are often more of them, and really tanky. In a vanilla run, I double back if I got extra points to spare, but it's rarely a priority.
Yess! Such a long video, have been in need of some Xcom podcast :D
I do love the rate at which you upload these videos, i just hope you don't burn yourself out.
I tend to find that if a unit has 3 actions like the chosen or Sectopod. It makes them lose 1 action unthaws them allowing them to move and attack or dash. I assume the Avatar might have 3 actions they can do
Losing 1 action instead of 1 turn is apparently standard for Sectopods, Gatekeepers, and Avatars. Anyone else should lose a full turn.
Sometimes it won't even do that, i've had a frozen sectopod which on its turn, became tall, moved, shot at my soldier, moved again and then shot at the same soldier, killing them.
Because fuck me i guess.
@@goldengolem4670 changing heights is a free action
@@Lordbowser666 It still moved twice and shot twice when it has 3 actions
@@goldengolem4670 must be a skill issue
This man singlehandedly brought me to buy XCOM2 and I finished my first campaign yesterday .Thank you
Congrats. Did you do the original or the WOTC campaign?
@@Ironica82 WOTC
@@Tacom01 Nice. Now tiss time to mod it up for some extra fun
That last kill was a perfect end to a campaign with so much bad RNG. I have to admire your effort on this one, good on ya.
the leeson redemption moment had me gasp out loud. another great run, drifter
Looking forward to the video Drifter, I am glad to see Leeson is getting the respect he deserves
Man that advent captain that saved your soldier is definitely joining the Skirmishers after that mission lol
Found this game om switch on sale and now having a blast. From missing a point blank shot to sniping with a shotgun. Thanks for getting Me into it
That's, and I can-not stress this last part enough, *XCOM, BABY!*
I only recently found your channel.
This run was my favorite so far, and I loved the outro!
Amazing video as usual glad to see all the explosion rag doll physic in xcom 2 is hilarious wonder how many kills the sniper can get also the scene of chungking grenades at all the frozen pods at the same time is hilarious and satisfying great work
i have no words of advice from what i have learned to give for this video, grenadiers are really straight foward and really dont have any unwriten or hidden stats about how they work like other classes do good job on that run cant wait for the next one
I am at least 80% certain that if a weapon has attachments, it will be upgraded to the next tier and keep those attachments. Also I love the continued evolution of the class name in the rules, it's simple but hilarious
Edit - Also the reason some abilities miss the Sarcophagous is because all shots against it are set to 100%. however abilities like Rapid Fire/Chain Shot/Banish have a -Aim modifier that's applied *after* the shot is set to 100%, making it not 100% anymore
I can confirm that weapons with modifications are upgraded when squad upgrades are installed
I know they are normally upgraded, but not sure about if the weapon is out on a covert op at the time.
@@TheDriftersBroadcast I assume not, but I can't be sure
0:35 well grenadiers are highly inaccurate (compared to other classes) and grenades are limited. So it would be kinda like the specialists run since Grenadier is a support class, although with the right combination of builds you may breeze through the game.
My guess before finishing the video
43:35 that's some satisfying shit right there
During your last mission there seemed to be some sort of glitch where your Grenadiers were regularly hitting enemies. Can anyone explain this? Usually in XCOM, if it says 87% chance to hit, it's a coin flip whether you miss or not.
Randomly found one of your Xcom 2 videos and enjoy them. Keep up the good work.
I have never even played xcom 2 but I find these runs so fascinating. I legitimately get so excited seeing these in my in box you would not believe
You should definitely play it.
"Sarcoohugs" 😂 you gotta call it that in every campaign now
Before watching. I don't have much faith on this one. haha Good luck!
8:33 Also, for real. Why is it always the warlock with you?
20:45 Have you ever thought that Leeson might be a Faceless sabotaging XCOM?
it all makes sense!
hell i bet red devil was too for a time since they had a nasty habit of dying in the second mission for some time
Great outro props for the person who gave you the idea
I like watching runs over and over again, because if he has bad luck he is just like : “well that didn’t go that well, but who cares”.
I am a blast padding fan. I enjoy having units with an extra point of armor
YES! This is the one I've been waiting for! Explosions and gunfire all around! Good fun. Shame you live on the other side of the planet, I would have loved to catch the stream.
Avatars apparently are one of those enemies on who Frost Bomb doesn't fully work, instead, it just reduces their action points by 1. Other such enemies are Chosen and, if I'm not mistaken, Sectopods and Gatekeepers. Not sure why it was able to move *and* Mind Control though. Guess it has 3 action points like Sektopod? Not sure, never checked.
I don't know if the Avatar has 3 actions, but the Sectopods, Gatekeepers, and Avatars should be the only enemies that lose an action instead of a turn.
Chosen and Rulers should be affected like normal, which is why the Frost Bomb is OP against the Rulers.
@@vegeta002 Chosen *do* only lose 1 Action Point as far as I remember. And Rules have their own interaction with it, as instead of losing a single 2-action turn they lose several 1-action ones.
Glad I found your chanel amazing content and very intesting editing and voiceover
I love these challenge runs and Leeson getting the skulljack for its the most suicidal job that we have.
Been waiting for the episode where drifter turns each battlefield into a no mans land of explosive residue and no more cover! Good luck Drifter
Love this channel and these vids. Always know I can hit like before it even starts
Absolutely phenomenal content from one of my favorite games ever, keep up the good work!
“No matter how many ADVENT come, we just blow them up”
Famous ambiguous words
Love the vids man! Can't imagine how long these take to put together, but they're really great to watch!
I always buy blast padding later for ap just because a point of armor is a point of armor
If there's nothing super important I almost always spend the extra points to pick it up, especially if it shows up on a ranger because they can get some crazy armour values and tank a lot of stuff.
Awesome video, ty so much
I can`t wait for you to finish up the classes and go for the ultimate challenge: "Rookies only"
Nooooo. :(
i loved the part were you got squad wiped by your own grenadier and then came back, i could hear the rocky theme playing in the background
“I am heavy weapons guy” -literally everyone
Bought xcom2 because I felt I could take it after watching your play throughs and I'm glad I did the game is pretty good
Great outro.
Avatars, as with… one other enemy type… I apologize, it’s been a long while since I’ve played through the game… but they are only frozen for a single turn, which runs out at the start of the next enemy turn. Either that, or they’re frozen for 0 turns, which means it runs out on the enemy turn. Either way, frost bombs do jack all against Avatars.
The outro was fire.
Kudos, claps, finger snaps, explosions.
I could be having the shittiest day and then 1 of these videos gets released and it's an instant improvement
Yes, waited for that^^
Blast padding is useless unless you plan around it. Using the right build and luck, you can have a someone with like four armor points to them
That mission where you blow up all the entrances to your building and let everyone fight the lost was so crazy!
So I was playing XCom and got the site rep that makes only advent units spawn and I remembered that previously you saw that a gatekeeper spawned. Well I saw that one was going to be in the mission because of the shadow chamber so apparently Gate Keepers count as ADVENT
That's some blatant false advertising haha.
Blast Padding is a nice cheap AP skill once you have the training facility, the amount of times that one extra armour has reduced injury time or keeping my soldier alive is nice. Plus it’s works against Archon Pinions (including Archon King) plus helps against dying Sectopods and Gatekeepers, sometimes you simply can’t move and just have to tank its dying blasts.
Honestly, with the amount of shredding grenadiers have with all their grenades, taking the Blast Padding might have been the better choice for a majority of the troops. Some of the deaths might have been prevented with an additional armor.
@@merrydiscusser6793 really? i find it beyond worthless having the option to always shred even when the grenades run out or when chain shotting a sectopod just always has more utility for me
@@SuperVideoman2012
Honestly depends on the amount of armor shred you already have on your rooster. If you only got one or two grenadiers in your rooster, you probably want them to shred. In this specific situation, having only grenadiers, you have tons of shred and won't really run out of grenades.
Basically: The more amount of shred you already have available, the less valuable every new grenadier with shred becomes. And Blast Padding might safe one of your soldiers, allowing them to continue shredding which they can't if they are dead. The acid bomb on the squad wipe mission for example might not have been that devastating if those soldiers had the Blast Padding.
I keep checking your channel for the sharpshooters only run because that one is going to be the real challenge. Can't wait. Please also upload your failures if you have any
While this was a brutal campaign, it was the closest one could get to a proper guerrilla resistance: explosions, explosions, death, and explosions. Can’t wait for Sharpshooters Only.
If you’re taking ideas for continuing the “Only” series, might I suggest Bolt Casters Only? One shot, one kill (you’ll hope 🤞). A true challenge that opens up class variety, but restricts powerful weapon mods and traits like Serial, Rapid Fire, and Chain Shot. Good luck, Commander.
Fuckin' Leeson man. Only 20 minutes in and he needs his god damn redemption arc.
This will be a *BLAST*
I thought It was going to be a jolly grenade lobbing adventure, not this struggle-filled madness :0
Drifter: Casually mentions he burned down the Elder's church.
Warlock: So you have chosen death.
Also I'm not that far in but the motto this time better be that the Geneva Convention is merely a suggestion, if not then you did it wrong.
I love these videos! Thank you mate!
Im really loving the analytical play by play. I've played this game 700hrs (at least that's what steam says) but I also played in on console...so that history is lost. It's always enjoyable to see someone else's reaction to situations and make the same silly mistakes we all do. I'll admit it....sometimes I lose a guy and I'm like "nope" - reload
I eagerly await the Sharpshooter Playthrough, I think it will turn out quite nicely because Sharpshooters might as well be 2 different Classes (Sniper and Gunslinger) who synergize well with each other (I.E. Gunslingers with Face Off setting up killing sprees for Snipers with either Death From Above or Serial)
Ok so in order. Blast padding also adds +1 armor which guarantees they will live from 1 shot in the early game (Armor applies before 50% crit damage) making it useful early on and with spare points you get shread since its cheap at 10 points.
Second the Avatar, they are treated like chosen and massive enemies like Sectopod and Gatekeepers, they only loose 1 action point
EDIT: ok just saw the squad wipe i think a little studying on enemy priorities is in order as there is alot of focus on enemies which don't do much of anything if they live compared to ones that shoot back. A mimic beacon might not have even helped as Acid bomb is the highest priority for an Andromedon and will use it if no flank is present and has 5 tile wide radius. I think I will see the next run on stream cause improvement can be made to these runs
The andromoden will always shoot at the mimic beacon over acid bombing a cluster of troops.
Yup. Mimic Beacon has the highest priority for the enemies, more than any of their usual actions. It's not just another body enemies may shoot. That's why it's so good.
Gernadier's are one of my least used class, solely for their accuracy stat. When one miss could spell and end to a soldier, I don't find them all that useful. Use them mostly for suppression and shredding, a unit that can take a hit, but when it comes to a proper KO, Gernadier's are out the window.
They compensate for that with grenades which are reliable source of damage
@@jacklarsen4578 Can't KO with them without losing loot, and you need loot. So why use Grenadier when any other class has more accuracy?
The absolute bs in this run is astonishing. I’ve watched all the others, and I don’t know if the game was just done with your shit or what, but this is incredible. I thought either the specialist or the reaper vids were your lowest point, and then this vid came along and blew them completely out of the water lol. Can’t wait to see how the sharpshooter run goes
Imagine this with a permanent lost on every mission dark event. Sounds spicy
Consider the following: Blast Padding adds +1 Armor.
Iirc avatar is counted as a boss enemy so like with the chosen, you can only freeze upto a single action instead of a turn.
I bought xcom 2 today because of your vids. Im loving it so far
I got sick and have just been rewatching your previous videos yesterday because I have to stay in bed anyway. Then I wake up and the Grenadier video is out :)
From a huge XCOM2 fan (1000+ hours), thank you for your work!
P.S.: Also, I like taking Blast Padding on some Grenadiers who aren't gun-focused, but grenade-focused. The extra point of armor really helps should the Grenadier come under fire. You usually tend to equip EXO and WAR suits on Grenadiers, which is together 4 armor points. Basically a tank.
That sounds right about the codex destroying itself.
I had a gatekeeper cast gateway on me during Lost mission. It reanimated like 20 zombies between Lost and Advent soldiers. I had a ranger down where everything revived, and thought, “well, we’re about to see how good Bladestorm is.”
Each and every one of those reanimations proc’d that psionic feedback resistance order, massively killing the gatekeeper. Which then killed those 20 or so zombies.
*phew*
That sounds amazing haha.
Leeson is an advent agent. I'm convinced of this entirely.