Can I beat XCOM 2 WOTC using only LW2 Sharpshooters?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- Episode 26 of my XCOM challenge run series. My attempt at an XCOM 2 WOTC challenge run, using only the LW2 Sharpshooter class.
Support me on Patreon for great perks, including early access to videos like this one: / thedriftersbroadcast
Watch these challenge runs in full on my second channel. The Drifter's Archives: / @thedriftersarchives
Twitch: / thedriftersbroadcast
All music featured is listed in the end credits of the video.
Free sound effects from www.fesliyanst... and mixkit.co/
Download the XCOM 2 TDB Community Character Pool: drive.google.c...
XCOM 2 Challenge Run Playlist: • Can I beat XCOM 2 WOTC...
Regular Mod List:
[WotC] Revival Protocol Fixes
[WOTC] New Promotion Screen by Default
Evac All - WotC
X2WOTCCommunityHighlander v1.24.0
Defense Matrix Sabotage Fix
[WOTC] Cost-Based Ability Colors
[WotC] Instant Loot
[WOTC] SPARK Repair Fix
Dont Unequip
[WOTC] Commander Avatar Restoration
Stop Wasting My Time - WotC
Reward Decks Refresher
[WotC] Mod Config Menu
Missing Packages Fix + Resource
[WotC] Gotcha Again
[WotC] Numeric Health Display
[WOTC] Detailed Soldier Lists
[WOTC] Less Overwatch Lock Ups!
[WOTC] Extended Personnel Info
Insider Knowledge Fix
(WOTC) Starting Soldiers
[WOTC] Alien Hunters Community Highlander v1.24.0
[WOTC] Faster Reload Animations
(WOTC) Zip Mode Combat Protocol Camera Fix
[WOTC] No Enemy Intro
Immersive Strategy Layer
Hush Little Chosen
Narrative Control
Missing Packages Fix - Parcels and Maps Edition
Let me grab some popcorn. Hmmm probably a lot of popcorn 😁 Edit : Just brutal from beginning to end
Hope you enjoyed it, mate!
@@TheDriftersBroadcast I Very much did 👌👌
Watching Perry, the useless survivor morph into a grizzled, vengeance-seeking badass was the character development I didn't know I needed. My man undertook an entire hero's journey and became vital to ensuring humanity's survival. The run may have been painful, but it was so worth it in the end.
ADVENT evil incorporated, foiled by Perry yet again
Might be the first time I've seen a mission with 100% fatality rate but still a success
That's what we call a Pyrrhic Victory. The main objective was completed, but everything else was nothing but tragedy.
The irony is LW2 sharpshooter are exceedingly powerful... When paired with other classes that can scout and break cover for them
Extremely powerful, and can use the “Useless” holotargeter to help allies as well.
Their issue is their lack of mobility, flexibility, and close range options.
But they bring THE firepower, massive aim and damage bonuses make them sooooo good in firefights and picking off outpositioned and unaware targets.
1:01:23 The AI will always know where you are when you are concealed, and after a certain amount of turns, the AI will be ordered to home in on your exact position if they are not in combat with either your non-concealed soldiers or another enemy. Doesn't matter if the enemies are activated or not. The only difference that makes is the speed of the animations. There is a mod that stops the AI from doing this however, the Stealth Overhaul mod. It prevents the AI from knowing where your soldiers are if they cannot see them, or at least it prevents them from acting upon that knowledge if it doesn't prevent the AI from knowing. It basically makes stealth missions possible.
Man, that‘s such bs.
I thought the stealth overhaul mod just makes concealment more like a reaper's? I can't find anything that makes the AI from knowing where the soldiers are tho
@@joetrump5750 bit late, but i can say that it is true, i did a lot of reaper only run and exclusively doing mission in full stealth when possible. There is multiple instance where the enemy suddenly just home on my reaper even though no alarm is triggered even a sectopod just bum rush through walls.
Commander, our sharpshooters perform their best when positioned at
*l o n g r a n g e*
But what about
*Bradford Meme*
Close range?
confused Bradford noises
I read that in Bradfords voice exactly as you intended and got a good chuckle out.of it. Thanks.
I like to imagine before you said the thing, you just ran miles and radio'd the answer
I love the tiny subplot of the Frost Bomb repeatedly trading hands between the XCOM and the ADVENT. At least the ADVENT does not bother using it, though.
fun fact about getting critted through full cover or after being flashbanged
in base game (LWoC changed it) hit roll and crit roll happen at the same time, so if you have 15% chance to hit and 15% chance to crit every hit will be critical
this is why so often when someon shoots through full cover and hits its a crit
Ok, well that checks out
Yeah and (for anyone who wants to avoid that bs) there’s a WotC mod that changes aim rolls to LWOTC style. I recommend adjusting the graze band if you do, but that’s mostly up to personal preference.
@@anteyehero Add in the extra information mod to gain the true BS experience. Now you will know exactly how incredibly well ADVENT rolled when they crit you through full cover and one shot you, making you saltier when you miss a 90% shot right afterwards.
It sort of makes sense. If you are behind cover and fighting, the only bits poking out will be critical. Ie: your head.
3 hours? Oh no…
What do you mean oh no...? It's great!
Don't get me wrong, I feel really bad for him and wish he will regain his sanity after this.
Oh god it's 3 hours
This will be fun
OH YES!!!!!
2:58:47 I think serial is the one to blame. This perk actually does reduced damage for every kill just like the reaper perk for the LW perks.
What an emotional roller coaster of "It's over bros..." and "We're so back bros!
I genuinely thought that some of the squad wipe outs would make you restart, I know I would have.
Guys, I saw that serial was on cooldown for the 1-2 damage grendade. If I recall, there is a damage penalty for every extra attack you make, so you must have made a few attacks and then it applied to the grenade. Weird edgecase stuff.
Duncakes: "Wanna see me one-shot a Gatekeeper? Wanna see me do it again?"
"I got a mod that disables ambush missions-"
THERE WASA MOD FOR THAT?! Shiiit, I know what I'm grabbing in two hours, thirty minutes!
If you can't get it or more likely, it doesn't work, I suggest just using the ttc command with your soldiers and teleporting to the extraction on turn one, that's what I do
You are 100% valid in disabling ambush missions. Playing games should be fun and fun is often subjective in games, but as long as someone is having fun with their game, that's all that should matter
1:06:22
"i will not be stopped not by you or advent or the lost or anyone i will win this run or see it burn to ashes around me"
-arcturus drifter
Sadly a lacking amount of SC2 mods for Xcom 2, tho entertaining to find nevertheless
"She's taking the MEME Beacon!" (43:36 and following)
That gave me a good laugh, Drifter! Well done.
I love to imagine these challenge runs from an in Character perspective. Can you imagine?
*Bradford, covered in blood, is carrying the commander to safety after the tutorial - to the tune of a jangling Shotgun and Machete on his tactical belt*
Bradford: "Don't worry commander, we've learned a lot about how to fight these invaders in the years since they arrived! XCOM won't go down easy this time."
Drifter: "That's great Bradford, glad to be back. I want you to start by training all of our troops to use a sniper rifle."
'Close range?'
Never feel bad about using that. I absolutely love it.
Me when Drifter doesn't use the Close Range meme often enough:
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
This is by far the most cursed run I have ever seen you or anyone do. The game just kept beating you over the head with the worst luck imaginable. This is the true definition of what can go wrong will go wrong. Absolutely brutal. Props for sticking with it. This would break most people.
the amount of joy i feel every time i hear "close range" is funny, how just that line just make me laugh so hard.
Just as much as i enjoy all the crossed out classes at the beginning card with the rules.
You know that erasing the old class and replace it with the new one would be easier, but the commitment to the bit is remarkable, and will always bring me joy.
Drifter's brand new feature film: Lord of the RNGs - Return of the Sharpshooter
The issues with sharpshooters in vanilla are way less pronounced in LW2. Also they're definitely not meant to be a single class playthrough, but just 2-3 operatives you field in the missions without timer on them (or on the extended ones). In LW2 crits are calculated a bit differently (the guaranteed crit situations are easier to engineer), grazes are a bigger deal (you miss less but graze more), and afaik you get to the final promotions faster. So yeah, I disagree on them being the worst class (that goes to LW2 grenadiers), but they're definitely the worst SOLO class, that's absolutely true. You'll probably have a way easier time with the rest, just because they can pick more diverse sets of ranged weapons, and I'm really looking forward to the Technical class, because there's just bound to be some wonderful collateral damage on civilians and heaps of war crimes on display.
I've done a similar run to TDB with LW SS. Comparatively speaking, Drifter had the worst luck I have ever seen this whole run and he still managed to pull through. With a little favorable RNG, this run probably wouldn't have been half as bad.
Early on too, I noticed SS class, unlike most classes, you really want to spread them out to optimize their range and angles of fire... most classes this would be a bad idea, but give how SS work, this could have eased his early game a bit despite all the RNG.
They are still arguably the weakest LW class, but not as bad as this video made them look. A brutal Murpheys Law campaign
Those runs are turning into full blown blockbuster size movies, and I’m all in for that!
Well, this explains why the wait for this video was so long.
Yeesh. The level of suffering in this run! I think you made the right call to power through and get it done with sooner rather than later. I can imagine how freely the salt flowed.
I think you have actually pushed the frontier of what is possible in XCOM 2 with this run. I don't think I've ever seen a run go so low and yet come back.
Alfa Mike Foxtrot = AFM = Audios, matriarch fornicator!
I genuinely laughed out loud at a 16-damage graze in the final mission. The sheer absurdity of this run!
The Perry arc! Useful only because he lived, to exacting revenge for his fallen comrades, to helping secure victory. What a lad!
I rather strongly suspect that what we've seen in this run is a foretaste of the 50,000 subscriber special run: Incredible pain, yet perhaps better performance in the early game than the Long War Sharpshooters simply because they can move and shoot with better accuracy at, ahem, *close range!*
Unfortunately the mod author who ported the Long War classes to basegame arbitrarily decided 'Fun is illegal' so we don't get pistols for this run.
Yeah, I found out the hard way that Long War's Sharpshooters are balanced around utility slot pistols. (I hadn't played long war yet, and just wanted to try the classes.) They are total garbage, a strict downgrade from vanilla Sharpshooters, without them. Holotargeters are too situational to serve as a replacement for the ability to perform even a weak and basic attack, let alone a replacement for the Gunslinging ability tree.
I wouldn't say they are a direct downgrade at least in LW2 (I have not used the LW2 Class mod in vanilla but am playing LW2) but I can certainly see how they'd be horrific in vanilla.
@whitepaws60
I'm only talking about vanilla.
apparently atleast these ported LW2 sharpshooters have the 'steady aim' by default and can take both DFA and snap shot.
LWOTC (and possibly LW2?) campaign sharshooters only allow you to pick one, so you dont get the discount Serial-DFA.
That might make for even more painful experience, even if you could have pistols.
.
One of the reasons I don't jive with LW2, I really don't like what they did to the Sharpshooter class.
Lads. The infamous run is here. Grab out the snacks, we're getting a full movie out of this
drifter decided to eliminate every single enemy from the game at the end, my favorite canon ending where chimera squad never happened
0%. 100%. Corporate wants you to tell the difference between these two numbers. "They're the same number."
1:00:59 Fun fact about loot drops, loot dropped by a dead alien will have a different pool compared to loot drops from dead ADVENT. ADVENT generally carry lower quality stuff and no elerium cores, while aliens carry the good stuff
The march of the musketmen has been done! Thank you for finishing this. All that patience and salt spilled. I knew this was gonna suck the minute I saw it posted at my late night but jeebus. Congrats on rolling the boulder up the mountain, Sisyphus. XD
thanks for showing me XCOM2 - you have just singled handedly ruined my social live, as well as my sleeping scedule - love your content, been binge waching it for weeks now ;)
I have been progressively watching this video over like the past week as something to watch before bed and honestly the story created here was so fun to watch.
The miserable start, the squadwipe victory, Perry and Tony's incompetence which eventually gave Perry the greatest Xcom soldier arc I've ever witnessed, the catastrophe with the Berserker, all the forced captures and interrogations with the bad chosen at the start.
I've loved XCOM for a long while and had always wondered what it would like to suffer so many casualties and ups and downs in a run, and I could never let myself play runs I thought were doomed. But watching this, maybe I should play more doomed runs because this was truly great. I can't imagine how awful it was to grind all the stuff you did offscreen though. But in the end it was awesome, thank you for this amazing video :)
as someone who loved sharpshooters in my first playthrough i almost exclusively used the pistol. got an early upgrade to my pistol damage research basically made them my go to over any sniper rifle options in that playthrough. by the end i managed to deal 137 damage with just one soldier, one granted bonus action and just the pistol, killing 28 enemies, one of which was a full health chosen.
doing an entire campaign with sharpshooters and no pistol just sound like a special kind of suffering....
Just dropping a comment for the algorithm after watching that whole marathon of agony. Good job, man. Ho-lee-schitt.
Drifter: I'm going to use just LW2 Sharpshooters.
X-Com 2: So... you have chosen to *suffer...*
These multi-hour videos are usually boring and crappy. This is the exception; great and entertaining commentary throughout, and good explanations for what’s going on for audio listeners. You earned my like and subscribe; good job, man!
These challenge runs are absolutely the best XCOM 2 content on TH-cam. Thank you for taking the time to record these and edit these long form videos. I will watch every one to come.
Followed by my own run on the steam deck 😎
58:18 Aggression: "I'm not sure if this includes enemies that are spotted by Squadsight" - According to the ufopaedia, it does. Some perks have a small yellow questionmark in the corner, when you mouseover that you get more details about the ability, I can't check in-game but I'm pretty sure this info can be found there.
This may be the greatest challenge run of any video game I’ve ever seen. This sure beats several movies I’ve seen as far as engagement goes.
I watched the archive episodes of this run at least three times each. Not because I enjoy your pain or anything that misanthropic. But watching you snatch victory from the jaws of defeat on so MANY occasions was an actual legit learning experience. I have just over 3k hours in XCOM 2 and regularly play heavily modified and tweaked campaigns, but man was the sheer amount of bullshit in this run mind blowing.
And yes. The sharpshooter without a pistol is just fucking BS. That wrecked so much of the versatility in the class.
I don’t recommend them for a solo run (they wouldn’t really add anything new from a solo run perspective), but if you want to play with what I think are better versions of most of the LWOTC classes I highly recommended the proficiency classes. They’ve become my default class collection since I found them a few years ago.
that memorial in the middle of the video reminds me of my first month in the old Xenonouts
12:05 just to adress your doubt on the mather, at least in my country military, there two types of high accuracy slow fire type of soldiers, the sniper being the typical stereotype of the title, high on buildings, hiding on bushes firing from far away undetected and the Marksman, wich here we call it "designated shooter" wich is a soldier who will provide precise targeting while being near or with the squad, keeping up with the other troops, this type of marksman usually carry a lighter gun that is also accurate while the sniper carry the typical big heavy gun for long shots.
This was a great run. So many moments when I thought the run would be ended only for you to dominate in the end. Sorry this run was so rough for you but the entertainment from it is so great I just got done watching and I'm going to re-watch again right now. Thanks for your dedication and never forget close range.
I JUST started playing Xcom 2 WOTC again and you upload, nice.
Damn that was a brutal run.. congrats on succeeding despite everything
Woah, three hours? Gee, time to see my favorite TH-camr go bonkers with this challenge run, much to my amusement.
Quite the marathon with a pile of casualties to match
Good job on pulling this one back from the brink!
Just loving this defeatist commentary all the way through. "5 useless troops instead of 4" . Lovely
Thank you Drifter. My day needed this
As a good business man once said while running from a horde of zombies:
“Run or shoot? Run or shoot!? RUN OR SHOOT!?”
I'm late to the party but oh boy was this a goldmine of content to watch.
The outcome was both expected and unexpected. LW sharpshooters are even more hyperspecialized than their vanilla version so the fact they perfomed so miserably in the early-mid game wasn't a surprise at all. You powering through it all and getting a win anyway was indeed a surprising chad moment. Great job on that one.
The modder that ported the class absolutly did you dirty by denying pistols for the class but at the same tame they did some good by giving snipers the "brace weapon" ability which is granted by the stock attachment in LW proper instead of it's vanilla's "damage upon miss".
Holotargeter might be worse when compared to vanilla grenadier but in LW it's the ONLY way to apply that buff, so kinda a mute point.
I am still loving all your challenge series and I can't wait until you play some actual LW with all of it's overhauls to the gameplay.
Always a great decade when Drifter uploads another XCOM 2 Challenge run!
I thought me stumbling through a failed run of normal mode of this game was suffering enough, but this is special.
Certainly a tough slog. Thanks for the effort. As part of a squad of other classes of soldiers the Sharpshooters are OK, but alone, not so much as you have shown us.
This was my introduction to your channel and let me say it was glorious.
2:13:12 I misheard that as "another cancer mission" and was like fair enough :D Honestly gg for putting yourself through this misery run, the comeback and eventual victory must have felt so good after all that bs you encountered haha
It was a hard wait, but worth it. Thank you for the long-form.
the first run i watched via stream vod... I was waiting for this one.
my thoughts- yeaaah, this mods version of LW2 sharpshooters are a joke. I've seen holotargeter using classes that i think You'd actually like, Drifter.
anyway, you were one heck of a trooper for not just finishing this run, but editing it as well. good job, I'm so glad to see it, and any other run you do.
I think the sharpshooters play much stronger when you have a diverse set of soldiers. They just do so much damage, so they just need support from other classes who aren't as narrow in their abilities
It feels good to use 1/8 of a day to watch drifter’s video where my character is on the title of the vid and he is possibly the mvp of thevrun.
Your perseverance piqued my interest. Subbed, liked, commented. You flagellant you. Bravo!
1:53:41
as a wise man once said:"beware of an old man in a profession where men die young"
Finally finished binge-watching these challenge runs. I love your content and I'm eager to watch you channel continue to grow! Oh and congrats on pulling this off. I'd never play this game again after this challenge.
Also, please NEVER do away with the "close range" bit. I eat it up every time
Love the content as always. Great narration, editing, and dedication to the series!
As a person who has played nothing but Long War of the Chosen for the past 3+ years - this title makes me a tiny bit sad. I'm not through the video yet, but I foresee a criminal underuse of Death From Above:
+20(ish) aim for steady/stock (it's an attachment in LW with 3 tiers, rather than an ability)
+5 for regular high ground
+5 for depth perception pcs (also ignores dodge)
+10 for Damn Good Ground
+12 for Lone Wolf
===========
+52(ish) aim on each shot - which means you're ignoring full cover
Then the refunded action point for a kill from Death From Above is used to steady again for the next turn.
Additionally, in the Long War mod, you can train any soldier as an officer - a soldier who can grant other soldiers an action point while retaining their normal abilities. Officers are where the holotargetter with phantom build really shines, even without a pistol. I almost never give my Sharpshooters Snap Shot anymore, but I see how it is an attractive choice (especially with the whole skill tree hidden)
tl;dr: Love that you're doing the Long War classes within the regular game, but there's definitely some LW features missing in the base game that don't allow the LW classes to reach their full potential.
This run is the epitome of the phrase "that's Xcom baby."
this was a great vid, I was looking at my mod list and while I watched, I remembered that you can reenable vanilla classes with your Long War classes. You can also disable your Long War classes. By itself you might be thinking, "then what's the point of installing a mod that adds Long War classes in the first place?" I was thinking you could reenable the vanilla Ranger and disable all but the Long War Ranger, that way all of your rookies become one of 2 Rangers if you ever wanted to do another Rangers Only Run. I imagine you want to get through Technicals, Specialists, and Shinobis first. Look foward to your next run Drifter
What's crazy is that the whole length of this video is basically how long Drifer spent in each individual mission
“Spending some AP from the community pool… hopefully it’s worth against the Gatekee- it’s a sewer map.”
*Anguished screaming of Drifters past*
25:40 the timing of the voiceover and the gameplay there was mint
The screwed part of this run is that in LW2, every class gets a pistol and all the abilities. Including the sharpshooter.
Poor Drifter.
I know you still have more LW2 classes to go through, but I think it would be super cool to see you do a Stormrider run afterwards. Talk about close range!
It is only me that after the epic speech about Perry killing the queen was expecting a "missed"?
Always nice to go to youtube and learn what the next three hours of my life will be.
I had to wake my wife up to show her a new TDB XCOM challenge
(Ive never spoken to a woman in my life)
fucking based
Reading a comment and deciding whether to call the FBI, the morgue, or mental health services challenge level: Impossible.
Plot twist: OP is a happily married mute.
28:12 congratulations you made mimic beacon and canon fodder proud today
Ma! Maaaaa! The 360 no scope kiddies are back!
Hey Drifter, i got an idea for a short and sweet (i hope) challenge run: all characters at ur barracks start at max lvl, but there is a catch, they lvl down instead of up. Lvling form max lvl to one below takes as much exp as normal lvling from 1 to 2, lvling from lvl 2 to 1 takes same exp as lvl from 1 lvl below max going to max lvl. And all new recruits are rookies ofc. Building that lets u specialise rookies are allowed (maybe. Not very sure about that part).
Can u get enough advantage early on and preserve good troops for final mission? Lets find out
P.S. I doubt such a mod exists, but i hope some modder can make it for u
Fair play drifter, I’ve seen some bs in your runs but this one took it to another lever.
The moment you see the video length, you know this is gonna be something painful
ODST Romeo: "What am I suppose to do with a sniper rifle in a ship?"
This run was so brutal holy moly. Can't wait for the alien runs
Time to watch drifter suffer yippee
What a comeback, 2 gate keepers one shoted, and a massacre of advent, nice to see
I hear Walken speech about where kept that mimic beacon and frost bomb.
I did the same.
I still can't believe this run was a victory. I mean with 19 lost soldiers that's just absurd!
The hunter gets a lot of shit for being the easiest chosen. But when he wants to be, he can be devastating.
I'm not sure about the specifics, but it looks like the captains don't actually have LoS on the mimic beacons when they are ignoring them. They might just have in their AI that it is better to use holo targeting first sometime, and that leaves them with a single action they choose to shoot with instead of moving to flank.
Xcom: missing 3 99% shots in a row
An Alchemist run could be interesting, short range but there are other chemthrower types to get around fire immunity.
1:27:52 - That poster is what I like to call, "foreshadowing."
30:00 man you're fine, I feel you on this.
I swear Perry just faced so many severe losses, unfair situations that he became an apex predator on this run. He's so experienced, that nothing will bring him down
This is peak guilty pleasure for us. It's hell for you, but entertainment for me and I am not sorry.
THREE HOURS of drifter ? i know what im doing this weekend!
hope you're doing good man! have a fantastic week!
You too!
Nice comeback mate!
I mean, plot armor still worked this time. Not participating in this run was a big W for Zeonzy.
Ok YT decided I shouldn't get to see notifications for this channel for like 7 months, WTF
I know there's no pistols in this run. But it's still weird to see Drifter have a sharpshooter run without cowboy hats!
Thank you for this playthrough! The amount of torture you put yourself through.
Epic story of Perry. The lone survivor of the old guard who finally avenged his teammates.
PS. Any way to have a custom character from the watchers?
Yep, it's a viewer reward on Twitch. Just need to get some Twitch points by watching the streams and then redeem the reward.
I wanna see a long war playthrough on this channel. Doesn't even have to be a one class run, just one of long war 2.