If playing Festering Skies, I don’t steal faction ships until after the first Behemoth sighting. Steal them after that they already become preloaded with weapons and misc modules. Before the Behemoth, I just activate closest base with a Manticore.
This is the video I was looking for. Huge help as a first time player, Ive been running around with 1 ship because it felt unworth to get another. Totally wrong, much appreciated on the vid
35+ minutes is not just tips, it's the whole shaft! On the subject of reverse engineering - i would humbly submit that if you steal aircraft from Synedrion(what with the brutal rep penalty current patch have introduced) you might as well reverse-engineer their SR or you will run out of ammo well before you learn how to produce it the legit way. In fact, in my current playthrough i ended up building a few Pythagoras's, and Synedrion was by far the last faction i got to 50% with(through *almost* no fault of my own).
I personally find New Jericho is the most difficult faction to deal with early on. Due to armor, armor piercing weapons and all their heavies have rocket launchers -.-
@@eviljoshy3402 Same, that's why NJ rep tends to grow the fastest in my games - i don't want to start shit with their troops, i don't want their aircraft and, all else being equal - i'd rather side with them over Anu when given an either-or choice.
@@Self-replicating_whatnot I like NJs plane for air combat just because the anu blimp is too slow. Their armadillo is also nice if I run vehicles. I do like their guns and incendiary tech. Love their technician for healing. Synedrion has the most accurate weapons and best tech IMO. Medical nanites, mist repellers, research boost, nanotech, paralyzing weapons. I mostly use the infiltrator as a sub class for other characters. Like assaults or snipers for sneak attack. If my snipers aren't packing ravens for armored targets, they are using synendrion snipers. Anu has cheap mutations when I'm high on mutagens, shotguns, acid and 2 good classes. Mainly a priest with a frenzy head.
But the pain of melting down a precious pythag and clogging the research lineup.... I take the point. will need to test in a fresh campaign, though if you just say nice things about synedrion during every random event they may still be your first or second faction to diplo up. the old days of stealing 7 aircraft are gone though, lest we forget
@@PerunAU Ironically, higher difficulty level seems to promote skipping more of the game. Or I just go a very unlucky draw with my map: Playing on Veteran (1st playthrough), I have only NJ at coast, ANU inland and one lonely SYN haven in between. Up to now (18.01.) I got 3 or 4 havens attacked, and all where NJ ones. No way I get good relations with SYN anywhere soon, so I used up the mag I got for the pistol, then reversed engineered it. Could it be that haven attacks are much more common on higher difficulties, and therefore getting ressources and diplo points from them much more frequent?
I don't think so. There are different ways to play the game. So you find out that you could do better after the first run. And after the second and so on. It would be easier to have a single clear way to win but it would also reduce the replay value.
@@svenweihusen57 Committing dozens of hours going down the wrong path because the game didn't teach you about the alternatives you could and should be considering isn't exactly good design imo. I'm currently in the situation where I am considering restarting my game, but only because a lot of the game was very unintuitive. For example the whole time I've been playing I had no idea that diplomacy missions don't hurt your alignments. I've been avoiding doing them for this single reason and now I'm learning this crucial bit of information not in the game, but in a TH-cam video. Raiding a faction and then going "sorry sorry let's be friends again", and then raiding them some more the next week... yeah that didn't happen in my campaign, but only because I didn't know this is something you're supposed to be doing to get ahead in this game.
Well, nevermind about those diplomacy missions. Seems I wasn't in the wrong avoiding them. The author of the video contradicted himself and proceeded to recommend against them towards the end of the video.. I don't know what happened there.
@@GoblexterThe author meant two different kinds of diplomacy missions. One is to raid/sabotage opposing faction's heavens, and the other is unlocked at 25/50/75% support threshold. If you didn't catch that, than no wonder you are complaining about the game being too ambiguous. My advice would be to pay attention to the things you are trying to interact with.
Teleporting equipment is not a strong cheese, rather an economical gamble. Sure, you can just share Equipment, but that's how you get the A team wiped out in an ambush.
I wish the game had lower than Rookie difficulty. I started a couple of times and i have no idea when i stuck and why, is it close to the end game, is it middle. Would be awesome to have Story Mode difficulty where you can have 1 ship and 1 team and just enjoy the game with your main team which you stick with and actually finish the game.
Ooo that’s the power point guy We meet again It’s really funny how when I need western perspective on military stuff I watch Perun and when I need a guide on a new strategy game I find him again.
Just wanted to say, love your videos, have found them very useful. Would like one on the assault class when you get the time. I am going to have to start again, as I haven’t got enough of the map open for where I am at time wise, especially for where you seen to be at a similar time. I haven’t even seen anything about ancient tech, what story mission starts that up?
Beginner with few days in here. I don't know if I missed it but I don't think you talked about mist repellers. Since your recommendation to avoid most researches made this a lot more complex, do we avoid mist repellers altogether or is it still fine to research and build them on our bases? I see in this video you don't have them on your bases. Is there a reason for it? Wouldn't it help slow down the mist and prevent starvation of populations?
Regarding the endgame faction research, I was confused at first why I couldn't choose the other factions' endings despite having done all of their final research and penultimate missions, too. It seems that you can only do the final mission for the faction whose endgame research you did first! Then, only the final mission for that faction spawns. The only other ending you can choose at any point is the Phoenix Point ending, but - unlike for the other faction research - that one actually tells you that it locks out the other endings...
Owned this game since only-Epic days and so much has changed. Now I am playing with all dlc on steam. Your guide is the way to beat this new meta. Gone are the days you just need 2 team with 2 Tiamats, also food productions were keys. Phoenix point has bad design and bad strategic layers, but the real ballistic model and ability to aim different body parts make me never wanna play Xcom again.
I'm beginning to have problems combating The Pure, I forgot you can have multiple teams with aircraft for missions, I'm still running 6 man teams in mission's.
I had someone from a haven I was defending join me after the battle. I figured it was something new they added. Now that the game is available for consoles I hope the modding community develops. I only have 5 mods for the game and 4 of them are made by the same author. This game has the foundation for something amazing but they didn't open it up to workshop like XCOM 2 did. I have over 1k hours into WOTC and the modding community is the reason for that.
@@eviljoshy3402 As I have no idea what you are talking about, yes, you might need say something more. Considering I lately got L4D2 for 1.49 on Steam, I guess all the modding did not do much for the developers; Keep in mind, it's all about how much revenue a game generates for the given investment, not about if players are still playing the game 10 years later - those player should have bought the 1st, 2nd and 3rd sequel in that time, not been playing the old game and sitting on their wallets.
@@memyshelfandeye318 Left4Dead2 is over a decade old yet people still play it. That has to do with the game being so much fun but also it helps that there are tons of mods for the game. In a sense it keeps the game fresh. That's what I was going for when I suggested they open up PP(lol) to the steam workshop. Without mods I probably would have cleared xcom 2 once, again when wotc came out and called it a day. Yet the modding community keeps me coming back. That's how you make a good game. One that people keep playing long after a competitor comes out.
@@eviljoshy3402 I think he's asking about why the developer should care if people are playing their game 10 years later. The answer to which is that if they are playing the game 10 years later, it keeps the game, its IP, and its developer fresh in that person's mind. If I'm playing a game that long because I enjoy the mods for it, and the developer releases another game of a different genre but the same IP, I'll probably take a look at it just because I'm a long-time fan of the IP (example: Halo Wars). If the developer releases another game in the same genre but a different IP, I'll probably take a look at it just because they've produced games that I'm a long-time fan of (example: Destiny). Some people will play an awesome game from a specific developer, and then follow everything that developer does, regardless of genre or IP. While a lot of credit for the lifetime of the game could (and should) be put down to the modders if that is what has kept the game interesting, the fact is they had to work with the framework of the developer's game...and if that framework is bad, they won't bother or it won't make a difference. So an extensive and varied modding community *DOES* help the developers. While it may not help them with that specific game, it is practically free advertising for their future games.
I have yet to find ANY reason to have an Access Lift in a base, past the initial clearing. They really seem to be there only to give you some materials. Even on max difficulty, I have yet to resort to running from a Pandoran invasion force - reloading exists for such cases anyway.
I gotta say it sounds good and all to steal a plane from one of the havens at the start.. but boy are those soldiers they send wiping the floor with mine.. headsets even behind full cover, it is as if they dont want you to steal planes at the start..
On the easy difficulty what he is saying is not as important. Don't forget.It's a video game and if you lose you can always replay that is the goal. build and research what you want So you have fun. If you die and lose the game. Just replay it. To me this whole video is centered towards people that do not wanna lose at all and are only focused on winning. Which is also very good information.But it doesn't feel like this is fun To me at least. If it's your first play through , expect to die. just experiment
First of all, MANY thanks, amazing video. As someone who came back to the game for a (soon) new playthrough: Has the Mutation / Weapon Meta changed a lot from your last videos some month ago? For example i see in a lot of videos more and more tentacle mutations which where crap before? Has most stayed the same of can you give some pointers about those changes :) ? Thanks in advance!
I need to redo the T1 weapon video. The list of changes is way too long, Assault rifles are no longer garbage for example. The mutation meta, my personal opinion may or may not be out of step here, but unless you're focused on cost and nothing else, I think the tentacles are still not great. It's more AP efficient than a neuraliser, but the stat profile isn't great, it's WP hungry, and for hard captures i'd probably be using the ranged options or an Aspida a lot of the time. The changes were that it lost its steal nerf, gained +1 speed, and had its paralysis upped to 24 from memory. Which compares to the 16 you get off using 2AP and a neuraliser. I'd say it's now AN option if you want to capture things, and it's mutagens (so can be cheap) but there are still better options out there.
should you activate bases you cant reach? just wondering if you should start scanning a soon as possible. this game is so much more complicated then xcom 2. just feel overwhelmed eith all the choices. looking forward to any of your other guides for beginners.
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I cant see inside the buldings. On the videos when one of our troops inside, the roof become invisible. But mine on Xbox is not. Is there a way?
I'd say it's a mistake to overlook the two faction tech. Laser turrets and PDW don't have an ancient counterpart, ancient is may better in general but a few choice researched wepons can be a big help IMO.
Ignore is probably a strong word. They're luxuries. You get them once you've got the critical stuff. You want them at a point where you can afford both the resource and time cost required to make them, AND when there's nothing more important for you to be working on. For me, that means you've gotten progress critical things like capture tech, the big strategic layer techs, that you're pushing the story and have your T3 research timed so that you'll have weapons unlocked around the same time the resources start to come in. Plus, you issue a lot more shotguns or sniper rifles than you do PDWs normally, so even more of a premium on the ancient tech. So in a sense I agree with you, there's a case for some of these techs. I just didn't want people to fall into the trap of trying to research all of them, at the cost of the most critical stuff.
@@PerunAU I agree with your priorities and there is o denying how much of a step up the ancient tech is, especially for shotguns and sniper rifles. Perhaps it's an over run from previous patches but i've found way too many people overlooking the technician's damage potential when paired with the advanced laser tech, well worth a look and the time investment required IMO but as you say, it's less of a squad wide upgrade than the ancient tech, as such less useful less often but certainly worth a look.
The new update gives -22 opinion to a faction you raided. I don't think raiding multiple aircrafts are viable early stage since you want to trade with the factions for resources.
Hello! I am finding this game pretty hard in managing all the stuff that is going on, i do pretty good in battles, i never lose people and go out with low to none dmg, but the red mist is taking everything, allied bases getting attacked all the time, my bases getting attacked all the time, can't upgrade researches fast enough, i am pretty good on food but i am almost out of tech and materials since i am repairing base all the time and making guns/ammo all the time, its really frustrating, all i am doing atm is defending havens and my base, cleared couple of nests and one lair, i see a Citadel between my allies and my base, but i can only bring 6 people with me and i don't think that will be enough to kill the Scylla and survive without a loss or two, i did banished The Pure by attacking their Fortress, i am Aligned with Anu but aside from that...i am struggling and its only on Veteran. I started playing like 10 days ago, i really like this game but its so frustrating, can you give me some tips? How to get rid of the red mist and reduce attacks on my base and allied ones? Thank you!
One question: What's the in-game date? That rate of attacks seems like you're probably at least in February, maybe later? The other thing to check is if you have enough soldiers in the air. Do you have what you need to defend and knock out bases and clear story missions at the same time? If you want to salvage that game. I'd say you need to start cleaning the board of Pandoran bases. That probably means getting two aircraft together (carrying 8 troops) and going in and smacking all of the bases (including that citadel) that are generating the attacks. If you can see a Pandoran base, it should be marked for death. If you can't see Pandoran bases, it means you might benefit from better satelite coverage as if a base within satelite range launches an attack you automatically detect it. Attack> defence when it comes to holding back the pandorans. As for the mist, repellers can buy you some time but they'll cost you a bunch of mats and tech it sounds like you don't really have, so I'd focus on building up resources through defences and exploration while cleaning out the bases generating the attack spam. You can then maybe put up a mist repeller in 1-2 of the worst mist covered bases. It's hard to say more without seeing your geoscape, but my biggest tip would be to pull together a really good 8 person alpha squad and go crush some Pandoran targets and get the story /diplomacy missions advancing again. It'll slow the Pandorans, give you a big resource boost, and get you closer to winning the game.
I love xcom 2...this game is awsome but what I have noticed....the stealth aspect it's gone.. there isn't any chance ti sneak...enemy's already know your there the minute you arrive
that's actually not true. View and detection ranges are pretty high by default, but once you start deploying stealth gear and infiltrators you can start playing the stealth game. Also different enemies have different perception scores, so detection ranges vary. Stealth is in the game, it's just not as obvious and more specialised than in XCOM2.
You never ever build food production tbh. You shouldn't need it, if you do you're most likely doing something wrong, and raid missions are a trap indeed. I like getting a training base up early just to avoid having to fight sirens etc. with lvl 3 troops XD. You can do it but it forces you to play slower and I hate that even though it's definitely a good idea. I'm not sure if it got patched but in haven defense missions you could control the allied troops and make them suicide or kill eachother so they might drop some gear :) as long as you can take the will hit it might result in a free item.
I'm pretty sure food production in 100% a trap. Even if it was a starting tech, the rate of return is too low to justify it against just about anything else you could spend your resources on (other than, like, spamming storages or something). My first training creche usually goes up pretty quickly with 3-4 training centres. That levels recruits pretty quickly, though most troops only sit at base while waiting for an aircraft to deploy them, then they can learn by doing (since you end up with more SP if you deploy as opposed to just use training bases).
No farms? Bah, by mid-game I have so many farms I have a constant supply of resources and can build enough equipment for 20-30 soldiers. That way I don't have to constantly swap out gear between squads which gets tedious as eff.
swapping is not cheesing 🤣 . and most of your soldiers will be augments/mutated anyways. My tips for legend players, only build 2 teams, steal a anu blimp as soon as you got 8 MAIN team soldiers with the best perks for their archtype. put 3 training centers in a base you can defend. start recruiting team 2 soldiers, send em to train. only recruit good soldiers with the best perks. once you got the behemoth roaming steal a 3rd ship to deal with flyers. use mutoids to help defend, they only cost 50 mutagens. keep team 2 to defend while main team go out and does the main missions, you can start moving units from main team to team 2 as you find units with better perks. stay in europe., you can pretty much ignore. north/south america. get the behemoth manticore asap and main team can pretty much defend the whole map.
These Videos have been life savers.... seriously Your awesome... except I cannot seem to steal a ship.... the enemy kick the holy livin shit out of me... what.. am I doing wrong? I mean ... it isn't even a close game .. they flick me away like a booger on a fingernail.....
Is this Synedrion I presume (they're the hardest to raid) What are you going in with and what on their side is doing the damage? Is it snipers picking you apart in the open from beyond visual range?
@@PerunAU Thank you ~ I have 1 heavy 2 assaults and 2 snipers. My heavy doesn't do anything damage wise to their heavy and then another heavy shows up while I try to use my snipers to kill the heavy since my assaults don't do any damage to the heavy and the enemy snipers just lay waste to my team before I can even take out their heavy because it soaks up so much damage. And then since they know where I am they all converge on me before I can get to the ship.. If I try to make a run for the ship they destroy the ship. Maybe I am just bad but I did used to play a lot of Xcom.. I love this game so far I just got it last weekend and I have been watching your videos thank you for making them.
Hey y’all maybe you can help this noob about to jump into the Behemoth edition, never having played PP. I’m an xcom veteran who plays ironman legend (xcom2). I know enough to know PP has many different mechanics across both the strat and tactical layer and I won’t be able to just jump in knowing what to do right away. So…. 1. What difficulty should I start on? 2. Should I start with the DLC active?
Just my 2 cents. All DLC active, Hero, if you're an ironman legend player. You'll learn the tactical side of things quickly enough, and while your first run won't be perfect (you might lose more global pop than you'd like on an optimal run because your XCOM experience won't transfer to the strat layer well) I think you'd make it through just fine. Plus if it's too forgiving you might get bored if you're used to the I-L stakes.
@@PerunAU thank you. It also seems like a recent update made some pretty serious balance fixes so while I expect it to be hard, I’m hoping the crazy difficulty spikes should be a little more manageable than for the OG players.
Well, your tips are quite useful and well received, but I'm seriously trying to study my own way of playing, so i: Never steal aircrafts (did before but from NJ) Build stuff straight away in bases to push both production and research Reverse engineering some NJ equipment, like purification grenade, since i don't agree with NJ and every choice i take push their relationship down, so their research would arrive way too late in the game The problem is, i noticed something that bugs me, the faster i achieve things, the faster Pandorans evolve, i constantly get charun (was that the name of the Pandoran that shoots worms?) At the third or sometimes at the second update, along with terror sentinels and corruption nodes, why is that?
@@PerunAU makes sense, as I'm still trying to figure out which factors are, but one thing i noticed, activating festering skies and/or corrupted horizons speed evolution up, is it just my impression?
I don't recall there being any major spoilers in this one, but I'll listen to it again in case I missed something. There are a lot of 'spoilers' I'm going to need to cover in order to outline strategy in future videos, but I may need to start including warnings. It is hard to adjust for the fact that much of the community is now new to the game, but I'll keep a focus on it.
@@IshanDeston Thanks. I wouldn't consider that a spoiler really because it's just a point of lore rather than an actual mission you run, and the tech related to it is significant for the strategy layer. But out of respect to people who are still on their first playthroughs, I'll try to be more vague on those details in future. Thanks again for raising this.
Playing quickly means winning in two months???? What? I guess I have never played a game like this. I am also disabled from pain and a perfectionist completionist. Do does that mean I would be playing this game for three years for 12 hours a day? I guess I better restart at a lower level to learn this game. I just started an hour ago at the second to highest difficulty. This game sounds like nothing I have ever played before. It sounds like it's a little like the game risk on steroids and age of empires. Am I going to play 500 hours and then realize that I need to start over? At what point do you get a complete grasp of this game? I am pretty damn smart so how many hours will I play this before I say ah ha start over and be happy?
I saw this video for the first time around 10 months or more, when I first played Phoenix Point. Now I was thinking of playing it again and searched for this video only to find it and realise that it was by Perun, whom I now follow because of his indepth talks about supplies and the war in Ukraine. Wow.
In the video there's mention of the possibility to get an free aircraft when remote activating a base. I havent seen any such "free" aircraft? Is it perhaps a feature when playing with festering skies dlc?
Just came across this, and I really enjoyed the video! One thing I am extremely confused by is how are you possibly beating the Ancient Site missions without upgraded gear? The Hoplites seem to always come in huge quantities and positively WRECK my soldiers even in the mid-late game. I can't even imagine trying to do that early game with tier 1 weaponry.
24:00 Researching live aliens gives you bonus damage against them. This is crucial with lesser weapons and still useful with tier 3 weapons for aliens with insane amounts of HP. So don't skip that research.
10/10 - This is exactly the video I was hoping you'd make next. I'm 180 hrs of playtime into my first playthrough (I assume, that's pretty bad) and made a buuuuunch of the mistakes you've outlined here, which makes the game start to feel like a treading-water sort of grind by the time you're mid-game, starved of resources and struggling to keep on top of everything. Coming from X-Com, I thought, oh SWEET I get MORE THAN ONE BASE?? I'll build that second one up ASAP to keep ahead of the curve. Now I have like 10 of them, pretty much all completely built up with shit I never really needed, have researched EVERYTHING, allied with all factions and only just got the final Ancient refinery to actually start building those weapons, which makes all that other gear basically redundant. I had no idea you could cut a profit purely from trade! What a game-changer! I would also add with the advice about building Living Quarters/Hospitals, it makes no sense to have these facilities in bases that are geographically close, put them on either side of the globe so you've generally got a "rest/heal" base within range of whatever conflict you're fighting. 2 such bases seem to be enough for that.
I feel like this game is close enough to XCOM that people are tempted to port over assumptions that work in that game...and then get burned for them. If you've survived 180 hours on a single run then you're probably bloody good at the tactical battles, since you're grinding through end-game Pandorans who must be attacking you and havens all over the place, just sounds like your economic progression was a bit all over the place. Trade accounts for quite a significant chunk of my income through the entire game, so if you miss that 'free money' then that will absolutely slow you down. Strongly agree with you on rest bases, I think I use 2-3
Sweet. Awesome tip and strategy guides to the overall game. Thanks for this. I know that its your opinion and wont argue one way or another. If you disagree, just dont do it. Dont argue.
Thanks. I know there are going to be some of these ideas that are more controversial than others, but hopefully most of them make sense to people. I've also found the Phoenix Point community (like the Dominions community that I also do a lot of content for) is very supportive and engages pretty positively in discussions, even when people disagree over strategy.
I mean, I do try my best to equip every operative with a personal set of gear... But sometimes the recruitment just gets ahead of the economy, and I am forced to shuffle the gear a little. Yes, I still manufacture it as soon as I can. But I believe that this approach is also viable, and less cheesy than just teleporting the same 9 sets. The way I see it, my more acclaimed, veteran operatives have their own, customised gear, while the rookies get the Phoenix-issued weaponry (and whatever armour is free at the moment rather than the specifically matched sets I'd otherwise use).
I’m in my first ever run and I’ve tried to go in completely blind. It was such a big mistake, I’m almost into February already and just got my 3rd team, all the scavenging missions I’m finding are high difficulty in the mist at night, and that wouldn’t normally be a problem but I just got a loaded fucking intel report with some boney looking snake thing and some big ass quadruped worm launcher, I’ve been cruising up to this point haven’t lost a soldier yet, but something tells me that the next time I get ambushed I’m gonna get screwed. Still not sure who I wanna ally I’m closest to the disciples but I’m thinking synedrion because the anti mist stuff is pretty cool, not sure if it’s actually useful in the long run but from the past few mission I’ve had to do in the mist I’m thinking it will be.
What about Mutoids? Doesn’t that make Mutagens more important? As well as the autopsy research to get their Pandora’s abilities? Or are they a mechanic better left ignored?
In one of your infiltrator class video you totally undervalue the technician. No wonder if you skip adv. laser weapons. Just for the fun i build a team with only Infiltrator/Technicans. These laser towers can do 600 dmg. And due to remote controll they do it twice per Technician per round. Also if the are close to empty or damaged, pick them up and place them again.
Info confirmed. These laser pew-pew are cool indeed. Actually, I've build a highly mobile and tanky squad with 2 techs and assault heavies with trooper/close quaters/self def. perks. Some of them aren't even carrying heavy weapons -- they just fly around and shoot/blast things with high accuracy from laser rifles and smgs. You have to have a dedicated demolisher to shred armo, though.
If you have the corrupted horizons DLC researching aliens will also unlock alien abilities for the mutoids which is a new type of soldier that relies on the mutagen resource. I wouldn't say the advice given here isn't gd anymore, rushing T3 weapons is a totally valid strategy but researching aliens is less of a "trap" since they literally make a class of soldeir more powerful. Another CON of this strategy is that since you rely on the factions to research their own tech you'll get their tech that much later, so for weapons this isn't a big deal but this also affects tech for augments and more importantly the exclusive faction classes thus limiting your options for multi-classing...
Thanks for an excellent video ;) i love this game but always seem to struggle in the midgame, i've played hundreds of hours but im yet to see the second half of the game ;( Specifically 1. not being to access enough of the globe to do missions or scavenging etc, (im guessing after watching your video its because of lack of satellite coverage) 2. how to defeat the ancients at the archaeology sites, even with maxed out characters i get destroyed (and without tier 2 weapons allround that would surely be even more difficult ) Anyway im going to start a new game following your advice and see how it goes (and im only playing on veteran lol) Keep up the great work! :)
War Cry and stun weaponry ftw. War Cry drops them to 2 AP and a little stun makes almost every enemy completely helpless regardless of how strong or advanced they are. The only exception is the Siren with mind control. Augmented heads on your soldiers that has the neuralize ability ends that problem.
I like this game too, and yeah, mid-game is a slog. This game's biggest issue is that so many things require heavy HEAVY long-term investment with ABSOLUTELY NO payoff until the very end. Like in xcom your tier 2 weapons and armor come mid game and are a massive upgrade. But so many of the straight upgrades from starting gear in this game require you to get chummy with a faction, AND research their stuff, AND build something in your bases, AND capture certain areas, AND build certain components AND research yet another t hing, and all that time you get NOTHING of value until you finally do all of it.. it's really difficult to maintain excitement during the whole process.
Something I've been doing that now looks like a mistake: leaving a garrison in a base. I see all that red around a base (like in SE Asia in this video) and I want to put a dozen soldiers and maybe a vehicle in there! Looking around the internet, though, it sounds like we get more than enough warning, as long as you've got a team somewhere in the hemisphere. Now I've got to see about getting all those troops out of Australia...
Thank you! As someone who logged untold hours of Xcom UFO Defense Force, Phoenix Point satisfies that itch, but I’ve forgotten what it means to really hustle. Even the old Xcom rewarded the player for not researching the tech that advanced the story and research all of the second tier that could be found beforehand. This is a different rhythm and vids (both these tips-based and play-throughs drive that notion home. Appreciate your work! Cheers!
I'm a total newbie, I started my first game a few days ago after watching your playthrough. Synedrion was the first faction I discovered. After the latest update, stealing a Helios early game is a -18 penalty. Is stealing a single aircraft, let along 2, is even viable with such penalty?
One is still a good idea I think. since by exploring you get opinion gain. A second would have to wait. I stole 6 on the old system most games. that's a bit less than 2 on the new system. so I'd cut down to one raid early and time it more carefully. The priority on getting free manticores from other bases is much higher now.
Came here after I got absolutely destroyed entering lategame (playing on Heroic). My economy was shit and every 'Extreme' threat mission was detrimental to the campaign. I'll wipe my tears and enter another one backed with the solid information from this video. Cheers. This game completely failed at teaching the player a lot of things they should know beforehand.. but, maybe that is indeed my XCOM background factoring into how I played the first time.
Dude, why do you still have access lifts? Demolish it right away, first thing. Piercing weapons, very useful. Reverse engineering, very usefull. You will end up having nothing to research if you play it right. Rushing things: not necessary. The game gives plenty of time, if you try to lose on purpose it will take forever to reach the game over screen. I doubt thay anyone lost the game due to being slow. This is also true for missions, wasting action points hiding pays more than going for the objective right away. Unlike XCOM there is no time sensitive situations. The game is meant to last for many hours of fun. Also, if you don't progress the story, Pandorans will not evolve. Research everything else BEFORE key research. You will never find a Scylla before having alien containment and other important story tech. Take your time and enjoy. Never do scavenge missions, you don't need the resources, you need the skill points later in the game. You don't even have to open the boxes, just enter the map and leave in the first turn. Skill points quick and easy.
Playing my current campaign on legendary I unfortunately fell for a few of these traps, I raided allies for materials early and built a few fabrication plants so I can quickly build up Manticores to fight the festering skies. This helped in short term as I was able to immediately counter the Festering Skies and get several small teams out exploring. I invested into food production which will take time to see returns on. I have not stollen a single air craft as (unpopular opinion) the middle of the ground Manticore is not bad! Usually 6 dudes is all I need for most missions. Another unpopular opinion, using vehicles is not a bad idea. They offer some cheesy time consuming strategies for haven defense. I was able to take down my first Scylla using 3 rookies and an Armadillo because it acted as a nice fast moving tank to kite it around until the heavy with the grenade launcher shreded enough armor so that the priest can panic lock the Scylla with a redeemer rifle. I managed to do a haven defense using only one assault and an Armadillo by rallying all the defenders in the first turn and using the Armadillo to tank damage. Now in the mid game the thing killing me is: the constant need for tech resource, corruption because the Acheron refuses to show up, and glitched probes that I can't manufacture even though I have a powered archeology lab. It was damaged while being constructed which I think may have gliched it. I'm building a second lab to see if the glitch gets fixed. If not, I'm stuck trying to win with tier 2 equipment.
Manticores are not bad aircraft, and with the rebalance to the game they'll be more important than ever. They're inferior to the Helios for team purposes, but they're good enough. They do fall down a bit on range though, which can sometimes be important. Vehicles can be used for some fun cheese, and they're cheap for the number of slots they occupy. I just think they seduce you with the short term power spike. Eventually, one max level soldier is going to out-perform a vehicle, let along three max level soldiers. Winning with T2 equipment is very possible (there are some great t2 weapons) but that's a very painful bug. As for tech, it's usually the hardest of the resources to obtain, I usually lean heavily on trade to make that work.
I am not wasting resources on building ships I stole 3 of em early game and only those which are alredy weaponized otherwise not wort much. I came to the same onclusion this game is "soulslike" in strategy game with behemoth dlc it raises the difficulty.
By the time you finish watching all these tutorial videos you could have beaten the game. It would be nice if people made concise guides. Don't get me wrong I appreciate the detail - but so many videos by so many people are like 30 - 40 minutes long
"do not reverse engineering of equipment" - can't agree with it. SOME equipment is worth reversing. For example, Bulldog AR. You can aquire it at the 1-4 first days and they are (in some battles, e.g. vs Anu or New Jericho) more profitable then the Ares, because of their armor shredding. You can waste many days, waiting for "Gauss technology" from NJ, it's easier to reverse Bulldog and craft some of them... Same about autopsies - if you do "Arthron autopsy" research, then "shotgun" research, then kill a Siren and do "Siren autopsy", after it you can research and manufacture the Slamstrike - the best weapon for disabling enemy head or hand.
Ok im not exactly in to win the game, but to enjoy the game. So skiping bunch of reaserch is well....skipped content. Can anyone tell me how to prolong the campaign as much as possible?
Skipping might not mean you never do it, it might just mean you do it after you've focused down the critical path a bit. In the end those, these were tips to win, and that's not everyone's goal. If you want to stretch the game, You want to change your research goals a bit. You'll want mist-repelers because those will let you protect havens from Mist-caused starvation and generally help protect humanity longer. You'll want to basically have a global footprint, so you can see and defend all havens, and you'll want to try and take out the behemoth when you can, so it can't destroy havens. The basic point here is that you need to adjust your plan to focus on protecting havens from attacks and starvation, because population loss is what eventually ends the game. Please don't think this video means i'm dismissing your playstyle either. I wrote these tips to help people that want to win quickly, but the game is there to be enjoyed, and if you want a nice long campaign, holding the line for humanity with a global team of elite troops, I say go for it!
@@PerunAU Alright bro, thanks for the tips. Your vid is great, did learn alot from it. Just trying to implement some tips into my long campaign playstile. :D That's why I liked Firaxis Xcom 1 more than I did Xcom 2 (which has that damn doom clock)
Trick question from noob - Why is playing fast and skipping half the game a good thing? Not criticising your strategy but rather the game itself. What am I missing? Seems like a great game to just mellow through...
On PS5 you can't steal/raid a ship and continue to play. There is some kind of bug that eliminates the crew that stole the ship from doing any missions of any kind whatsoever anywhere on the map. Eventually the game locks up and you can't play it. This happened to me twice. I tried it the first game and I couldn't do anything after I stole the helios. I could trade with the stolen ship but my main group could do no missions, nothing. They just flew around as havens got destroyed by the Pandorans unable to land and deploy. I started a new game, stole another helios and the exact same thing happened again. And then it locked up. This happened today February 3rd. I checked for an update and it said I had the most recent update soooooo..... if you're playing this on PS5..... you can't steal a ship early in the game or you won't have a game to play at all unfortunately.
The only thing you need to know about is that saving the game every turn saves your ass. Here in console the game crashes very often during loading screens and you can lost all your progress of the mission
I wonder how much of this holds up with the terror of the void mod? And do people really go through the game that fast? Is it really supposed to be done by march/april?
Honestly, the pressure of the strategy element outside of combat turn me off these xcom style games. It gives me stress that drains my motivation to play.
Going from watching your Sunday military videos to watching a video about gaming is abit of a trip.
If playing Festering Skies, I don’t steal faction ships until after the first Behemoth sighting. Steal them after that they already become preloaded with weapons and misc modules. Before the Behemoth, I just activate closest base with a Manticore.
This is the video I was looking for. Huge help as a first time player, Ive been running around with 1 ship because it felt unworth to get another. Totally wrong, much appreciated on the vid
35+ minutes is not just tips, it's the whole shaft!
On the subject of reverse engineering - i would humbly submit that if you steal aircraft from Synedrion(what with the brutal rep penalty current patch have introduced) you might as well reverse-engineer their SR or you will run out of ammo well before you learn how to produce it the legit way. In fact, in my current playthrough i ended up building a few Pythagoras's, and Synedrion was by far the last faction i got to 50% with(through *almost* no fault of my own).
I personally find New Jericho is the most difficult faction to deal with early on. Due to armor, armor piercing weapons and all their heavies have rocket launchers -.-
@@eviljoshy3402 Same, that's why NJ rep tends to grow the fastest in my games - i don't want to start shit with their troops, i don't want their aircraft and, all else being equal - i'd rather side with them over Anu when given an either-or choice.
@@Self-replicating_whatnot I like NJs plane for air combat just because the anu blimp is too slow. Their armadillo is also nice if I run vehicles. I do like their guns and incendiary tech. Love their technician for healing.
Synedrion has the most accurate weapons and best tech IMO. Medical nanites, mist repellers, research boost, nanotech, paralyzing weapons. I mostly use the infiltrator as a sub class for other characters. Like assaults or snipers for sneak attack. If my snipers aren't packing ravens for armored targets, they are using synendrion snipers.
Anu has cheap mutations when I'm high on mutagens, shotguns, acid and 2 good classes. Mainly a priest with a frenzy head.
But the pain of melting down a precious pythag and clogging the research lineup....
I take the point. will need to test in a fresh campaign, though if you just say nice things about synedrion during every random event they may still be your first or second faction to diplo up.
the old days of stealing 7 aircraft are gone though, lest we forget
@@PerunAU Ironically, higher difficulty level seems to promote skipping more of the game. Or I just go a very unlucky draw with my map: Playing on Veteran (1st playthrough), I have only NJ at coast, ANU inland and one lonely SYN haven in between. Up to now (18.01.) I got 3 or 4 havens attacked, and all where NJ ones. No way I get good relations with SYN anywhere soon, so I used up the mag I got for the pistol, then reversed engineered it.
Could it be that haven attacks are much more common on higher difficulties, and therefore getting ressources and diplo points from them much more frequent?
I'm a bit sad to hear how much of the tip is "don't engage with the game here, it's a trap" feels kinda rough for the player and designer
I don't think so. There are different ways to play the game. So you find out that you could do better after the first run. And after the second and so on. It would be easier to have a single clear way to win but it would also reduce the replay value.
@@svenweihusen57 Committing dozens of hours going down the wrong path because the game didn't teach you about the alternatives you could and should be considering isn't exactly good design imo. I'm currently in the situation where I am considering restarting my game, but only because a lot of the game was very unintuitive.
For example the whole time I've been playing I had no idea that diplomacy missions don't hurt your alignments.
I've been avoiding doing them for this single reason and now I'm learning this crucial bit of information not in the game, but in a TH-cam video.
Raiding a faction and then going "sorry sorry let's be friends again", and then raiding them some more the next week... yeah that didn't happen in my campaign, but only because I didn't know this is something you're supposed to be doing to get ahead in this game.
Well, nevermind about those diplomacy missions. Seems I wasn't in the wrong avoiding them. The author of the video contradicted himself and proceeded to recommend against them towards the end of the video.. I don't know what happened there.
@@GoblexterThe author meant two different kinds of diplomacy missions. One is to raid/sabotage opposing faction's heavens, and the other is unlocked at 25/50/75% support threshold. If you didn't catch that, than no wonder you are complaining about the game being too ambiguous. My advice would be to pay attention to the things you are trying to interact with.
Teleporting equipment is not a strong cheese, rather an economical gamble. Sure, you can just share Equipment, but that's how you get the A team wiped out in an ambush.
Thanks so much for this, first actual strategy guide I have seen.
I wish the game had lower than Rookie difficulty. I started a couple of times and i have no idea when i stuck and why, is it close to the end game, is it middle. Would be awesome to have Story Mode difficulty where you can have 1 ship and 1 team and just enjoy the game with your main team which you stick with and actually finish the game.
Game journalist mode
@@penguinmaster11321 true that white boy
Independent heavy legs are good because they have almost as much armor, but don't have the -1 Speed.
I am going to get this on steam. Good to know this stuff before getting in to make it more enjoyable start.
Ooo that’s the power point guy
We meet again
It’s really funny how when I need western perspective on military stuff I watch Perun and when I need a guide on a new strategy game I find him again.
Just wanted to say, love your videos, have found them very useful. Would like one on the assault class when you get the time.
I am going to have to start again, as I haven’t got enough of the map open for where I am at time wise, especially for where you seen to be at a similar time.
I haven’t even seen anything about ancient tech, what story mission starts that up?
Beginner with few days in here. I don't know if I missed it but I don't think you talked about mist repellers. Since your recommendation to avoid most researches made this a lot more complex, do we avoid mist repellers altogether or is it still fine to research and build them on our bases? I see in this video you don't have them on your bases. Is there a reason for it? Wouldn't it help slow down the mist and prevent starvation of populations?
Thanks for this. I basically had no idea what I was doing at this level.
Regarding the endgame faction research, I was confused at first why I couldn't choose the other factions' endings despite having done all of their final research and penultimate missions, too. It seems that you can only do the final mission for the faction whose endgame research you did first! Then, only the final mission for that faction spawns. The only other ending you can choose at any point is the Phoenix Point ending, but - unlike for the other faction research - that one actually tells you that it locks out the other endings...
Your tip 6: ancient tech, doesn't that require dlc? If so, and we don't own the dlc, which research if any would be skippable? Thanks!
Thanks A TON for this!
Glad it was helpful!
Just bought the game to play on steam deck great video thanks for the tips
Owned this game since only-Epic days and so much has changed. Now I am playing with all dlc on steam. Your guide is the way to beat this new meta. Gone are the days you just need 2 team with 2 Tiamats, also food productions were keys. Phoenix point has bad design and bad strategic layers, but the real ballistic model and ability to aim different body parts make me never wanna play Xcom again.
I'm beginning to have problems combating The Pure, I forgot you can have multiple teams with aircraft for missions, I'm still running 6 man teams in mission's.
Awesome tips! Thank you!
Super helpful, thank you!!
Excellent video
I had someone from a haven I was defending join me after the battle. I figured it was something new they added. Now that the game is available for consoles I hope the modding community develops. I only have 5 mods for the game and 4 of them are made by the same author. This game has the foundation for something amazing but they didn't open it up to workshop like XCOM 2 did. I have over 1k hours into WOTC and the modding community is the reason for that.
You bought the game - so they got the money. Why should they care if you can play for 10 or 1000 hours because some modder added stuff?
@@memyshelfandeye318 left4dead. Need i say more?
@@eviljoshy3402 As I have no idea what you are talking about, yes, you might need say something more. Considering I lately got L4D2 for 1.49 on Steam, I guess all the modding did not do much for the developers; Keep in mind, it's all about how much revenue a game generates for the given investment, not about if players are still playing the game 10 years later - those player should have bought the 1st, 2nd and 3rd sequel in that time, not been playing the old game and sitting on their wallets.
@@memyshelfandeye318 Left4Dead2 is over a decade old yet people still play it. That has to do with the game being so much fun but also it helps that there are tons of mods for the game. In a sense it keeps the game fresh. That's what I was going for when I suggested they open up PP(lol) to the steam workshop. Without mods I probably would have cleared xcom 2 once, again when wotc came out and called it a day. Yet the modding community keeps me coming back. That's how you make a good game. One that people keep playing long after a competitor comes out.
@@eviljoshy3402 I think he's asking about why the developer should care if people are playing their game 10 years later.
The answer to which is that if they are playing the game 10 years later, it keeps the game, its IP, and its developer fresh in that person's mind.
If I'm playing a game that long because I enjoy the mods for it, and the developer releases another game of a different genre but the same IP, I'll probably take a look at it just because I'm a long-time fan of the IP (example: Halo Wars). If the developer releases another game in the same genre but a different IP, I'll probably take a look at it just because they've produced games that I'm a long-time fan of (example: Destiny). Some people will play an awesome game from a specific developer, and then follow everything that developer does, regardless of genre or IP.
While a lot of credit for the lifetime of the game could (and should) be put down to the modders if that is what has kept the game interesting, the fact is they had to work with the framework of the developer's game...and if that framework is bad, they won't bother or it won't make a difference.
So an extensive and varied modding community *DOES* help the developers. While it may not help them with that specific game, it is practically free advertising for their future games.
I have yet to find ANY reason to have an Access Lift in a base, past the initial clearing. They really seem to be there only to give you some materials.
Even on max difficulty, I have yet to resort to running from a Pandoran invasion force - reloading exists for such cases anyway.
thanks so much bud!
Just started the behemoth edition how does scanning work? Only from your bases or some other way?
Yay!
I gotta say it sounds good and all to steal a plane from one of the havens at the start.. but boy are those soldiers they send wiping the floor with mine.. headsets even behind full cover, it is as if they dont want you to steal planes at the start..
On the easy difficulty what he is saying is not as important. Don't forget.It's a video game and if you lose you can always replay that is the goal. build and research what you want So you have fun. If you die and lose the game. Just replay it. To me this whole video is centered towards people that do not wanna lose at all and are only focused on winning. Which is also very good information.But it doesn't feel like this is fun To me at least. If it's your first play through , expect to die. just experiment
First of all, MANY thanks, amazing video.
As someone who came back to the game for a (soon) new playthrough: Has the Mutation / Weapon Meta changed a lot from your last videos some month ago?
For example i see in a lot of videos more and more tentacle mutations which where crap before? Has most stayed the same of can you give some pointers about those changes :) ?
Thanks in advance!
I need to redo the T1 weapon video. The list of changes is way too long, Assault rifles are no longer garbage for example.
The mutation meta, my personal opinion may or may not be out of step here, but unless you're focused on cost and nothing else, I think the tentacles are still not great. It's more AP efficient than a neuraliser, but the stat profile isn't great, it's WP hungry, and for hard captures i'd probably be using the ranged options or an Aspida a lot of the time.
The changes were that it lost its steal nerf, gained +1 speed, and had its paralysis upped to 24 from memory. Which compares to the 16 you get off using 2AP and a neuraliser.
I'd say it's now AN option if you want to capture things, and it's mutagens (so can be cheap) but there are still better options out there.
@@PerunAULamy Tranks m8. It Would be amazing if you could do an Update video 🤓👍
Very helpful thank you
Some spoiler warnings would've been nice...
Uh can i ask how your factions are not more hostile towards each other tho if its on pc prob a mod to keep them quiet
should you activate bases you cant reach? just wondering if you should start scanning a soon as possible. this game is so much more complicated then xcom 2. just feel overwhelmed eith all the choices. looking forward to any of your other guides for beginners.
I cant see inside the buldings. On the videos when one of our troops inside, the roof become invisible. But mine on Xbox is not. Is there a way?
I grap aircraft and they went air combat and then huge ship shows up and starts destroy havens
If you do that base gets hit you screwed
I'd say it's a mistake to overlook the two faction tech. Laser turrets and PDW don't have an ancient counterpart, ancient is may better in general but a few choice researched wepons can be a big help IMO.
Ignore is probably a strong word. They're luxuries. You get them once you've got the critical stuff. You want them at a point where you can afford both the resource and time cost required to make them, AND when there's nothing more important for you to be working on.
For me, that means you've gotten progress critical things like capture tech, the big strategic layer techs, that you're pushing the story and have your T3 research timed so that you'll have weapons unlocked around the same time the resources start to come in.
Plus, you issue a lot more shotguns or sniper rifles than you do PDWs normally, so even more of a premium on the ancient tech.
So in a sense I agree with you, there's a case for some of these techs. I just didn't want people to fall into the trap of trying to research all of them, at the cost of the most critical stuff.
@@PerunAU I agree with your priorities and there is o denying how much of a step up the ancient tech is, especially for shotguns and sniper rifles.
Perhaps it's an over run from previous patches but i've found way too many people overlooking the technician's damage potential when paired with the advanced laser tech, well worth a look and the time investment required IMO but as you say, it's less of a squad wide upgrade than the ancient tech, as such less useful less often but certainly worth a look.
The new update gives -22 opinion to a faction you raided. I don't think raiding multiple aircrafts are viable early stage since you want to trade with the factions for resources.
Hmmm, so the game doesnt really offer multiple winning pathways of playstyles?
But how do you speed up Geoscape Camera speed?
It starts soooo slooooow!
Hello!
I am finding this game pretty hard in managing all the stuff that is going on, i do pretty good in battles, i never lose people and go out with low to none dmg, but the red mist is taking everything, allied bases getting attacked all the time, my bases getting attacked all the time, can't upgrade researches fast enough, i am pretty good on food but i am almost out of tech and materials since i am repairing base all the time and making guns/ammo all the time, its really frustrating, all i am doing atm is defending havens and my base, cleared couple of nests and one lair, i see a Citadel between my allies and my base, but i can only bring 6 people with me and i don't think that will be enough to kill the Scylla and survive without a loss or two, i did banished The Pure by attacking their Fortress, i am Aligned with Anu but aside from that...i am struggling and its only on Veteran.
I started playing like 10 days ago, i really like this game but its so frustrating, can you give me some tips? How to get rid of the red mist and reduce attacks on my base and allied ones? Thank you!
Try researching Synedrion's mist repeller
One question: What's the in-game date? That rate of attacks seems like you're probably at least in February, maybe later?
The other thing to check is if you have enough soldiers in the air. Do you have what you need to defend and knock out bases and clear story missions at the same time?
If you want to salvage that game. I'd say you need to start cleaning the board of Pandoran bases. That probably means getting two aircraft together (carrying 8 troops) and going in and smacking all of the bases (including that citadel) that are generating the attacks.
If you can see a Pandoran base, it should be marked for death. If you can't see Pandoran bases, it means you might benefit from better satelite coverage as if a base within satelite range launches an attack you automatically detect it.
Attack> defence when it comes to holding back the pandorans.
As for the mist, repellers can buy you some time but they'll cost you a bunch of mats and tech it sounds like you don't really have, so I'd focus on building up resources through defences and exploration while cleaning out the bases generating the attack spam. You can then maybe put up a mist repeller in 1-2 of the worst mist covered bases.
It's hard to say more without seeing your geoscape, but my biggest tip would be to pull together a really good 8 person alpha squad and go crush some Pandoran targets and get the story /diplomacy missions advancing again. It'll slow the Pandorans, give you a big resource boost, and get you closer to winning the game.
seems complicated, and more complex than x-com
I love xcom 2...this game is awsome but what I have noticed....the stealth aspect it's gone.. there isn't any chance ti sneak...enemy's already know your there the minute you arrive
that's actually not true. View and detection ranges are pretty high by default, but once you start deploying stealth gear and infiltrators you can start playing the stealth game.
Also different enemies have different perception scores, so detection ranges vary.
Stealth is in the game, it's just not as obvious and more specialised than in XCOM2.
So-Steal aircraft at start of game?
You never ever build food production tbh. You shouldn't need it, if you do you're most likely doing something wrong, and raid missions are a trap indeed.
I like getting a training base up early just to avoid having to fight sirens etc. with lvl 3 troops XD.
You can do it but it forces you to play slower and I hate that even though it's definitely a good idea.
I'm not sure if it got patched but in haven defense missions you could control the allied troops and make them suicide or kill eachother so they might drop some gear :) as long as you can take the will hit it might result in a free item.
I'm pretty sure food production in 100% a trap. Even if it was a starting tech, the rate of return is too low to justify it against just about anything else you could spend your resources on (other than, like, spamming storages or something).
My first training creche usually goes up pretty quickly with 3-4 training centres. That levels recruits pretty quickly, though most troops only sit at base while waiting for an aircraft to deploy them, then they can learn by doing (since you end up with more SP if you deploy as opposed to just use training bases).
Man ive never seen a game that didnt want you to play it so bad
No farms? Bah, by mid-game I have so many farms I have a constant supply of resources and can build enough equipment for 20-30 soldiers. That way I don't have to constantly swap out gear between squads which gets tedious as eff.
Wait a damn minute.
You can COMBINE two transports and take more than one set of soldiers into a mission!? How???
swapping is not cheesing 🤣 . and most of your soldiers will be augments/mutated anyways.
My tips for legend players, only build 2 teams, steal a anu blimp as soon as you got 8 MAIN team soldiers with the best perks for their archtype. put 3 training centers in a base you can defend.
start recruiting team 2 soldiers, send em to train. only recruit good soldiers with the best perks.
once you got the behemoth roaming steal a 3rd ship to deal with flyers. use mutoids to help defend, they only cost 50 mutagens.
keep team 2 to defend while main team go out and does the main missions, you can start moving units from main team to team 2 as you find units with better perks. stay in europe., you can pretty much ignore. north/south america.
get the behemoth manticore asap and main team can pretty much defend the whole map.
These Videos have been life savers.... seriously Your awesome... except I cannot seem to steal a ship.... the enemy kick the holy livin shit out of me... what.. am I doing wrong? I mean ... it isn't even a close game .. they flick me away like a booger on a fingernail.....
Is this Synedrion I presume (they're the hardest to raid)
What are you going in with and what on their side is doing the damage? Is it snipers picking you apart in the open from beyond visual range?
@@PerunAU Thank you ~ I have 1 heavy 2 assaults and 2 snipers. My heavy doesn't do anything damage wise to their heavy and then another heavy shows up while I try to use my snipers to kill the heavy since my assaults don't do any damage to the heavy and the enemy snipers just lay waste to my team before I can even take out their heavy because it soaks up so much damage. And then since they know where I am they all converge on me before I can get to the ship.. If I try to make a run for the ship they destroy the ship. Maybe I am just bad but I did used to play a lot of Xcom.. I love this game so far I just got it last weekend and I have been watching your videos thank you for making them.
@Ryan Rainer Thanks for your reply I've been avoiding playing the game since I posted that I'll try your suggestion.
Hey y’all maybe you can help this noob about to jump into the Behemoth edition, never having played PP.
I’m an xcom veteran who plays ironman legend (xcom2). I know enough to know PP has many different mechanics across both the strat and tactical layer and I won’t be able to just jump in knowing what to do right away. So….
1. What difficulty should I start on?
2. Should I start with the DLC active?
Just my 2 cents.
All DLC active, Hero, if you're an ironman legend player. You'll learn the tactical side of things quickly enough, and while your first run won't be perfect (you might lose more global pop than you'd like on an optimal run because your XCOM experience won't transfer to the strat layer well) I think you'd make it through just fine. Plus if it's too forgiving you might get bored if you're used to the I-L stakes.
@@PerunAU thank you. It also seems like a recent update made some pretty serious balance fixes so while I expect it to be hard, I’m hoping the crazy difficulty spikes should be a little more manageable than for the OG players.
37 soldiers?? Is that really needed? Im at 16 with three squads…
16 soldiers in 3 squads means you are running 5-6 man squads. I try and run the max 8 man squads on higher difficulties.
Well, your tips are quite useful and well received, but I'm seriously trying to study my own way of playing, so i:
Never steal aircrafts (did before but from NJ)
Build stuff straight away in bases to push both production and research
Reverse engineering some NJ equipment, like purification grenade, since i don't agree with NJ and every choice i take push their relationship down, so their research would arrive way too late in the game
The problem is, i noticed something that bugs me, the faster i achieve things, the faster Pandorans evolve, i constantly get charun (was that the name of the Pandoran that shoots worms?) At the third or sometimes at the second update, along with terror sentinels and corruption nodes, why is that?
I feel like i should do a video on pandora evolution speed. A number of factors go into it
@@PerunAU makes sense, as I'm still trying to figure out which factors are, but one thing i noticed, activating festering skies and/or corrupted horizons speed evolution up, is it just my impression?
ancient weapons ruined the weapon economy of phoenix point. Iv played games with modded weapons that are better balanced than these things.
You know, doing a video because of the "new people" then dropping a spoiler and going "spoilers!" after the fact... is a D-bag move.
I don't recall there being any major spoilers in this one, but I'll listen to it again in case I missed something. There are a lot of 'spoilers' I'm going to need to cover in order to outline strategy in future videos, but I may need to start including warnings.
It is hard to adjust for the fact that much of the community is now new to the game, but I'll keep a focus on it.
@@PerunAU You mention one of the faction missions being on the moon and then go "spoilers!"
@@IshanDeston Thanks. I wouldn't consider that a spoiler really because it's just a point of lore rather than an actual mission you run, and the tech related to it is significant for the strategy layer. But out of respect to people who are still on their first playthroughs, I'll try to be more vague on those details in future.
Thanks again for raising this.
Playing quickly means winning in two months???? What? I guess I have never played a game like this. I am also disabled from pain and a perfectionist completionist. Do does that mean I would be playing this game for three years for 12 hours a day? I guess I better restart at a lower level to learn this game. I just started an hour ago at the second to highest difficulty. This game sounds like nothing I have ever played before. It sounds like it's a little like the game risk on steroids and age of empires. Am I going to play 500 hours and then realize that I need to start over? At what point do you get a complete grasp of this game? I am pretty damn smart so how many hours will I play this before I say ah ha start over and be happy?
He means in game time. Real time completing a campaign takes maybe 20 hours
I saw this video for the first time around 10 months or more, when I first played Phoenix Point. Now I was thinking of playing it again and searched for this video only to find it and realise that it was by Perun, whom I now follow because of his indepth talks about supplies and the war in Ukraine. Wow.
In the video there's mention of the possibility to get an free aircraft when remote activating a base. I havent seen any such "free" aircraft? Is it perhaps a feature when playing with festering skies dlc?
It is, nigguh
Just came across this, and I really enjoyed the video! One thing I am extremely confused by is how are you possibly beating the Ancient Site missions without upgraded gear? The Hoplites seem to always come in huge quantities and positively WRECK my soldiers even in the mid-late game. I can't even imagine trying to do that early game with tier 1 weaponry.
24:00 Researching live aliens gives you bonus damage against them.
This is crucial with lesser weapons and still useful with tier 3 weapons for aliens with insane amounts of HP. So don't skip that research.
What does it mean to research "live aliens"? Is it captured aliens you are reffering to, and if so how do you research them?
I have captured aliens, but havent seen much to do with them yet.
Okay I think I found it. Seems like you get new options of "vivisection" in the research-list.
10/10 - This is exactly the video I was hoping you'd make next. I'm 180 hrs of playtime into my first playthrough (I assume, that's pretty bad) and made a buuuuunch of the mistakes you've outlined here, which makes the game start to feel like a treading-water sort of grind by the time you're mid-game, starved of resources and struggling to keep on top of everything. Coming from X-Com, I thought, oh SWEET I get MORE THAN ONE BASE?? I'll build that second one up ASAP to keep ahead of the curve. Now I have like 10 of them, pretty much all completely built up with shit I never really needed, have researched EVERYTHING, allied with all factions and only just got the final Ancient refinery to actually start building those weapons, which makes all that other gear basically redundant. I had no idea you could cut a profit purely from trade! What a game-changer! I would also add with the advice about building Living Quarters/Hospitals, it makes no sense to have these facilities in bases that are geographically close, put them on either side of the globe so you've generally got a "rest/heal" base within range of whatever conflict you're fighting. 2 such bases seem to be enough for that.
I feel like this game is close enough to XCOM that people are tempted to port over assumptions that work in that game...and then get burned for them.
If you've survived 180 hours on a single run then you're probably bloody good at the tactical battles, since you're grinding through end-game Pandorans who must be attacking you and havens all over the place, just sounds like your economic progression was a bit all over the place. Trade accounts for quite a significant chunk of my income through the entire game, so if you miss that 'free money' then that will absolutely slow you down.
Strongly agree with you on rest bases, I think I use 2-3
"I'm well into the mid game" (22.01.2047)
Checking my game at 22.01.2047 with 9 troops and 2 aircraft and _sweating_
Sweet. Awesome tip and strategy guides to the overall game. Thanks for this. I know that its your opinion and wont argue one way or another. If you disagree, just dont do it. Dont argue.
Thanks. I know there are going to be some of these ideas that are more controversial than others, but hopefully most of them make sense to people. I've also found the Phoenix Point community (like the Dominions community that I also do a lot of content for) is very supportive and engages pretty positively in discussions, even when people disagree over strategy.
You should be able to argue if you disagree, just do it politely.
@@robertsiems3808 Agreed. You got the gist of it, so I wont discuss the semantics in the wording.
I mean, I do try my best to equip every operative with a personal set of gear... But sometimes the recruitment just gets ahead of the economy, and I am forced to shuffle the gear a little. Yes, I still manufacture it as soon as I can.
But I believe that this approach is also viable, and less cheesy than just teleporting the same 9 sets.
The way I see it, my more acclaimed, veteran operatives have their own, customised gear, while the rookies get the Phoenix-issued weaponry (and whatever armour is free at the moment rather than the specifically matched sets I'd otherwise use).
Agree not cheesy just a logical approach that I used to do on all my xcom runs.
I’m in my first ever run and I’ve tried to go in completely blind. It was such a big mistake, I’m almost into February already and just got my 3rd team, all the scavenging missions I’m finding are high difficulty in the mist at night, and that wouldn’t normally be a problem but I just got a loaded fucking intel report with some boney looking snake thing and some big ass quadruped worm launcher, I’ve been cruising up to this point haven’t lost a soldier yet, but something tells me that the next time I get ambushed I’m gonna get screwed. Still not sure who I wanna ally I’m closest to the disciples but I’m thinking synedrion because the anti mist stuff is pretty cool, not sure if it’s actually useful in the long run but from the past few mission I’ve had to do in the mist I’m thinking it will be.
What about Mutoids?
Doesn’t that make Mutagens more important? As well as the autopsy research to get their Pandora’s abilities?
Or are they a mechanic better left ignored?
You have access lifts in every base you showed us and they're useless. Scrap them. Interesting video otherwise.
Knocking down a facility gets enough resources for one more weapon. Imagine you demolish your apartment and get a Beretta as reward 😀
In one of your infiltrator class video you totally undervalue the technician. No wonder if you skip adv. laser weapons. Just for the fun i build a team with only Infiltrator/Technicans. These laser towers can do 600 dmg. And due to remote controll they do it twice per Technician per round. Also if the are close to empty or damaged, pick them up and place them again.
Info confirmed. These laser pew-pew are cool indeed. Actually, I've build a highly mobile and tanky squad with 2 techs and assault heavies with trooper/close quaters/self def. perks. Some of them aren't even carrying heavy weapons -- they just fly around and shoot/blast things with high accuracy from laser rifles and smgs. You have to have a dedicated demolisher to shred armo, though.
If you have the corrupted horizons DLC researching aliens will also unlock alien abilities for the mutoids which is a new type of soldier that relies on the mutagen resource. I wouldn't say the advice given here isn't gd anymore, rushing T3 weapons is a totally valid strategy but researching aliens is less of a "trap" since they literally make a class of soldeir more powerful. Another CON of this strategy is that since you rely on the factions to research their own tech you'll get their tech that much later, so for weapons this isn't a big deal but this also affects tech for augments and more importantly the exclusive faction classes thus limiting your options for multi-classing...
Nice to see an updated guide most of the ones I've found although good are a year or so old, thx.
Thanks for an excellent video ;) i love this game but always seem to struggle in the midgame, i've played hundreds of hours but im yet to see the second half of the game ;(
Specifically 1. not being to access enough of the globe to do missions or scavenging etc, (im guessing after watching your video its because of lack of satellite coverage)
2. how to defeat the ancients at the archaeology sites, even with maxed out characters i get destroyed (and without tier 2 weapons allround that would surely be even more difficult )
Anyway im going to start a new game following your advice and see how it goes (and im only playing on veteran lol) Keep up the great work! :)
War Cry and stun weaponry ftw. War Cry drops them to 2 AP and a little stun makes almost every enemy completely helpless regardless of how strong or advanced they are. The only exception is the Siren with mind control. Augmented heads on your soldiers that has the neuralize ability ends that problem.
I like this game too, and yeah, mid-game is a slog.
This game's biggest issue is that so many things require heavy HEAVY long-term investment with ABSOLUTELY NO payoff until the very end. Like in xcom your tier 2 weapons and armor come mid game and are a massive upgrade. But so many of the straight upgrades from starting gear in this game require you to get chummy with a faction, AND research their stuff, AND build something in your bases, AND capture certain areas, AND build certain components AND research yet another t hing, and all that time you get NOTHING of value until you finally do all of it.. it's really difficult to maintain excitement during the whole process.
Something I've been doing that now looks like a mistake: leaving a garrison in a base. I see all that red around a base (like in SE Asia in this video) and I want to put a dozen soldiers and maybe a vehicle in there! Looking around the internet, though, it sounds like we get more than enough warning, as long as you've got a team somewhere in the hemisphere.
Now I've got to see about getting all those troops out of Australia...
Thank you! As someone who logged untold hours of Xcom UFO Defense Force, Phoenix Point satisfies that itch, but I’ve forgotten what it means to really hustle. Even the old Xcom rewarded the player for not researching the tech that advanced the story and research all of the second tier that could be found beforehand. This is a different rhythm and vids (both these tips-based and play-throughs drive that notion home. Appreciate your work! Cheers!
I'm a total newbie, I started my first game a few days ago after watching your playthrough. Synedrion was the first faction I discovered. After the latest update, stealing a Helios early game is a -18 penalty. Is stealing a single aircraft, let along 2, is even viable with such penalty?
One is still a good idea I think. since by exploring you get opinion gain. A second would have to wait.
I stole 6 on the old system most games. that's a bit less than 2 on the new system. so I'd cut down to one raid early and time it more carefully.
The priority on getting free manticores from other bases is much higher now.
I feel like even this guide most of it is going over my head😂 literally just started
Look forward to see your next play through after the changes from the last patch. Think it’s changed things a lot from your current game.
Came here after I got absolutely destroyed entering lategame (playing on Heroic). My economy was shit and every 'Extreme' threat mission was detrimental to the campaign.
I'll wipe my tears and enter another one backed with the solid information from this video. Cheers. This game completely failed at teaching the player a lot of things they should know beforehand.. but, maybe that is indeed my XCOM background factoring into how I played the first time.
this looks like this game is super hard. I am playing it for like 3hours and i dont even want continue after this video lol.
More! Give me more!
Dude, why do you still have access lifts? Demolish it right away, first thing. Piercing weapons, very useful. Reverse engineering, very usefull. You will end up having nothing to research if you play it right. Rushing things: not necessary. The game gives plenty of time, if you try to lose on purpose it will take forever to reach the game over screen. I doubt thay anyone lost the game due to being slow. This is also true for missions, wasting action points hiding pays more than going for the objective right away. Unlike XCOM there is no time sensitive situations. The game is meant to last for many hours of fun. Also, if you don't progress the story, Pandorans will not evolve. Research everything else BEFORE key research. You will never find a Scylla before having alien containment and other important story tech. Take your time and enjoy. Never do scavenge missions, you don't need the resources, you need the skill points later in the game. You don't even have to open the boxes, just enter the map and leave in the first turn. Skill points quick and easy.
Playing my current campaign on legendary I unfortunately fell for a few of these traps, I raided allies for materials early and built a few fabrication plants so I can quickly build up Manticores to fight the festering skies. This helped in short term as I was able to immediately counter the Festering Skies and get several small teams out exploring. I invested into food production which will take time to see returns on. I have not stollen a single air craft as (unpopular opinion) the middle of the ground Manticore is not bad! Usually 6 dudes is all I need for most missions. Another unpopular opinion, using vehicles is not a bad idea. They offer some cheesy time consuming strategies for haven defense. I was able to take down my first Scylla using 3 rookies and an Armadillo because it acted as a nice fast moving tank to kite it around until the heavy with the grenade launcher shreded enough armor so that the priest can panic lock the Scylla with a redeemer rifle. I managed to do a haven defense using only one assault and an Armadillo by rallying all the defenders in the first turn and using the Armadillo to tank damage. Now in the mid game the thing killing me is: the constant need for tech resource, corruption because the Acheron refuses to show up, and glitched probes that I can't manufacture even though I have a powered archeology lab. It was damaged while being constructed which I think may have gliched it. I'm building a second lab to see if the glitch gets fixed. If not, I'm stuck trying to win with tier 2 equipment.
Manticores are not bad aircraft, and with the rebalance to the game they'll be more important than ever. They're inferior to the Helios for team purposes, but they're good enough. They do fall down a bit on range though, which can sometimes be important.
Vehicles can be used for some fun cheese, and they're cheap for the number of slots they occupy. I just think they seduce you with the short term power spike. Eventually, one max level soldier is going to out-perform a vehicle, let along three max level soldiers.
Winning with T2 equipment is very possible (there are some great t2 weapons) but that's a very painful bug. As for tech, it's usually the hardest of the resources to obtain, I usually lean heavily on trade to make that work.
I am not wasting resources on building ships I stole 3 of em early game and only those which are alredy weaponized otherwise not wort much. I came to the same onclusion this game is "soulslike" in strategy game with behemoth dlc it raises the difficulty.
Hey @Perun does the 4th DLC change anything regarding the global strategy?
The only thing you didn't cover that I wish you did is mist repel. Is it a trap?
By the time you finish watching all these tutorial videos you could have beaten the game.
It would be nice if people made concise guides.
Don't get me wrong I appreciate the detail - but so many videos by so many people are like 30 - 40 minutes long
"do not reverse engineering of equipment" - can't agree with it. SOME equipment is worth reversing. For example, Bulldog AR. You can aquire it at the 1-4 first days and they are (in some battles, e.g. vs Anu or New Jericho) more profitable then the Ares, because of their armor shredding. You can waste many days, waiting for "Gauss technology" from NJ, it's easier to reverse Bulldog and craft some of them...
Same about autopsies - if you do "Arthron autopsy" research, then "shotgun" research, then kill a Siren and do "Siren autopsy", after it you can research and manufacture the Slamstrike - the best weapon for disabling enemy head or hand.
Ok im not exactly in to win the game, but to enjoy the game. So skiping bunch of reaserch is well....skipped content. Can anyone tell me how to prolong the campaign as much as possible?
Skipping might not mean you never do it, it might just mean you do it after you've focused down the critical path a bit. In the end those, these were tips to win, and that's not everyone's goal.
If you want to stretch the game, You want to change your research goals a bit. You'll want mist-repelers because those will let you protect havens from Mist-caused starvation and generally help protect humanity longer.
You'll want to basically have a global footprint, so you can see and defend all havens, and you'll want to try and take out the behemoth when you can, so it can't destroy havens.
The basic point here is that you need to adjust your plan to focus on protecting havens from attacks and starvation, because population loss is what eventually ends the game.
Please don't think this video means i'm dismissing your playstyle either. I wrote these tips to help people that want to win quickly, but the game is there to be enjoyed, and if you want a nice long campaign, holding the line for humanity with a global team of elite troops, I say go for it!
@@PerunAU Alright bro, thanks for the tips. Your vid is great, did learn alot from it. Just trying to implement some tips into my long campaign playstile. :D
That's why I liked Firaxis Xcom 1 more than I did Xcom 2 (which has that damn doom clock)
Trick question from noob - Why is playing fast and skipping half the game a good thing?
Not criticising your strategy but rather the game itself. What am I missing? Seems like
a great game to just mellow through...
On PS5 you can't steal/raid a ship and continue to play. There is some kind of bug that eliminates the crew that stole the ship from doing any missions of any kind whatsoever anywhere on the map.
Eventually the game locks up and you can't play it. This happened to me twice. I tried it the first game and I couldn't do anything after I stole the helios. I could trade with the stolen ship but my main group could do no missions, nothing. They just flew around as havens got destroyed by the Pandorans unable to land and deploy.
I started a new game, stole another helios and the exact same thing happened again. And then it locked up. This happened today February 3rd. I checked for an update and it said I had the most recent update soooooo..... if you're playing this on PS5..... you can't steal a ship early in the game or you won't have a game to play at all unfortunately.
The only thing you need to know about is that saving the game every turn saves your ass. Here in console the game crashes very often during loading screens and you can lost all your progress of the mission
Don't need buildings, many tiers of weapons, research, nor building aircraft. Sounds like a balance issue.
I do not do aircraft stealing of principle. We are saving humankind, not plundering last bastions of hope are we?
I wonder how much of this holds up with the terror of the void mod? And do people really go through the game that fast? Is it really supposed to be done by march/april?
Now that the Terror from the Void mod has been released, when will you revisit Phoenix Point?
It’s the archeology also in the base game (none of the dlc activated(?
Honestly, the pressure of the strategy element outside of combat turn me off these xcom style games. It gives me stress that drains my motivation to play.
Or I can just build a million farms and have thousands of food for giggles
Great vid. My only question is how do you clear the excavation sites with the basic T1 weapons?