I think the reason the game is full of "mimic beacon" enemies is that the game designers don't want to *beat* you, they want to *scare* you. They want to make you feel like it's a hard fight, but they don't want it to actually be so hard that players give up. So the enemies all have these scary debuffs and special abilities that *could* kill you if you ignored them for a few turns, but which are actually less efficient than just shooting you. And when you make the obvious counter-maneuver - killing the zombie-maker, moving away from the blazing pinions, etc - you feel like a tactical genius because that ability was obviously totally OP but you figured out how to beat them anyway.
I am 100% sure that Xcom 2 is NOT a fair game. It manipulates the result of each mission. In some missions, the AI purposely does not play rationally and simply do stupid moves to let you win. In some missions, the AI simply let most of your critical shots even with very high chances of hitting miss and set you up for a miserable situation. It is missing a lot of critical data, such as the dodge numbers of different enemies. To form an educated strategy, you need to know the formula for calculating the ultimate probability of hitting a particular enemy. Those probability figures shown to you in each mission are in NO way the actual probability figures because many of the shooting results simply do not match the probabilities. Even if the probability of missing an enemy is 70%, 4 consecutive misses has a probability of only 0.7^4 = 0.24. But that happens very often just when you need it. And it doesn't depend on your weapon and skill upgrade. And the game doesn't tell you that some enemies simply can't be overwatched. You need to fail a mission miserably to learn it. And I believe there is some serious bugs in the so-called overwatch. You see you enemies walk around setting up their positions even when you have set up a very good overwatch trap. Your soldiers simply refuse to shoot. The stupid communication during the game is not helping. It is actually the opposite. It is trying its best to make you nervous and let you fall into the alien's traps. Yup I believe the communication guy works for the aliens. I simply turn off the sound just to avoid being annoyed by the stupid communication. This game is very stupid. I've had enough after playing this game intensively for 2 weeks. I bought this game this November. I believe the developer has raised the difficulty of this game by changing the AI over time.
@@trumplostlol3007 The AI is the exact same as on release, dont kid yourself. Also the percentage shown in the game is literally the exact same percentage used for the dice roll, there is no tomfoolery going on there, its just in your head. The only thing youd have to be aware of is that the percentage shown is rounded, meaning if it shows you 100%, it can be something like 99.95% behind the scenes. "Even if the probability of missing an enemy is 70%, 4 consecutive misses has a probability of only 0.7^4 = 0.24" 24% is not a low probability, of course it happens often, as it should happen statistically every 4th time given the same scenario. The only thing going on here is that you remember the misses better then the times you actually hit, which is simply a bias engrained in our humans cognition, which you have to be aware of. Yes the game makes use of chance/rng, but that doesnt make it unfair. If you failed your mission or even lost a squad mate due to 1 or 2 bad dice rolls, I have to ask you is that because of the rng or because you fucked up tactically somewhere else? I can guarantee you that 99.99% of the time its the latter.
There's a reason basic advent troopers had a higher kill count than almost every other enemy when the website still tracked stats They don't waste time with fancy abilities that may not work, they just shoot you in the face lmao. Simple but effective
I’d say advent officers with those red helmets are deadlier, just because of their buff with accuracy. So I’d argue they’re the worst. But I guess they need basic advent troopers to do that
Same reason my medic has a higher killcount than my sniper. He doesn't use fancy abilities every turn, he doesn't need a complicated setup and a kill zone, he just walks casually around the corner and shoots a mofo in the back of the head with a mag rifle.
@@averagejoey2000 You are using your sniper wrong. With the right build they can clear maps. A long range sniper with a stealthed scout spotting ahead is absolutely devastating. A pistol based one with face off can clear a bunch of mobs at once. A medic should never come close to either of their kill counts, even if they never heal.
One of the most important things to remember in XCOM; fight as few opponents at a time as possible. If you have the capability to take a killing shot on a low-level enemy, take it instead of damaging a higher-level enemy (with some exceptions). That was what I learned first.
@@ladywaffle2210 a more accurate way to say it is get rid of the most aggressive actions. A sectapod has many actions and they can use all of them aggressively so say deleting them with bluescreens rounds fanfire is a good call.
@@vivil2533 Yeah but that can change. X-COM enemy unknown was a great teacher of this. Enemies typically outnumbered you and you had to often weigh the cost of who to eliminate first. Bezerkers, Sectopods and Chryssilids we're prime targets because of how easily they could maime your forces.
This game is all about Action Economy and Target Priority. If you're dealing with multiple pods, you're goal to cull weak or grouped up enemies quickly in one turn. The fewer enemies alive, the less actions they can take. Target Priority is for dealing with a single pod or multiple pods that has a high threat target, like a Codex. Flashbangs are the most valueable item in the entire game, mimic beacons are great, but they did get nerfed. Flashbangs do not affect allies, have a large blast radius, stop all Psionic powers, and reduce enemy hit chance tremendously, they also block the Codex powers including their Clones, allowing you to burn them up.
Interesting, I learnt some stuff from this comment the game never told me about Flashbangs. I was always too scared having one would backfire on me and get someone killed. I think I want to try flashabngs now, thanks!
The Codex is another one of those enemies that seems like a high threat but is actually a low priority. If you don't attack them, they don't make a clone. If there's only one of them, 99% of the time, what they're going to do is use their psionic bomb, whose damage can be avoided. Yes, it will drain your ammo, but how much does that matter when all of their podmates have been massacred and it's just them left? There's still plenty of non-gun options to fight them with (and pistols), and anyone with an autoloader can reload, move, and shoot in the same turn as well. Whereas attacking them on the first turn of an encounter will almost certainly use at least 3 actions to eliminate what is largely a non-threat. Really the ACTUAL threat they present is that using area effect attacks may result in your problems getting worse due to causing them to clone, and the clone is usually not somewhere that further area effect attacks will hit them (but Faceoff probably will)
@@NewOldEBM more fun uses for flashbangs: preventing advent priests from sustaining when they should die, preventing grenades, clearing overwatches or suppression, crowd control when there's too many enemies to kill, slowing down enemies like the faceless or chrissalids so they (hopefully) won't quite make it to you and attack (or miss if they do), helping limit friendly fire from men mind controlled by the warlock (they won't break his mind control but they can disorient the man under his control). Edit: basically when things get out of control, a flashbang might just save your butt.
Huh, I never knew that flashbangs were good. I've played the game so many times now and literally never bothered with the flashbangs not even once. Next playthrough I'll try one out.
I think this is a major reason why it was so easy to transition from fire emblem to XCom for me, since fire emblem often does the same thing, making you feel like you need to rush to kill or recruit someone, when in reality you have time to slow down a second.
I remember they started that with Enemy Unknown. They saw that players were being to defensive, so they added some mechanics that would trick the player into taking more risky maneuvers and getting themselves killed.
It's actually a very common concept in all turn based games. Dnd calls it action economy. "The side with the most actions usually wins." I do love seeing people realize this concept and I enjoy seeing how game devs exploit this concept even more.
Try missing a 100% hit on an Ethereal in the first game, only to have him wipe 2 guys next turn.. Then miss a 100% hit in the second game, only to have them kill the ranger who set up the kill... The RNG is flawed.
@@Skizzy461 2 times? The odds of that are unlikely. I hear too many people use that response.. If it's got a decimal, then they should use it. This rounded number nonsense is crap. The RNG is ridiculous.
Xcom is a turn based puzzle game, the goal of each turn is to remove the chance of enemy action against you. The sectoid spending a turn to use an ability is a enemy Who isnt taking action against you. The tropper with 2hp Who will shoot at your troops is an enemy that will take action against you.
Though it does depend on the setup - if you have a sectoid and a trooper 2 moves away from the rest of the group, they'll either get panicked or mind controlled with no way to remov that
@@dearelusive9557 No, it's very much both. The puzzle element comes from using all the tools at your disposal to rig the odds in your favour as much as possible.
This all really fits with the game's theme of guerilla warfare and conspiracies. *Smokes blunt.* The war isn't on the streets or in the jungles, it's in your head maaaaaaan.
Sectoids early game have a lot of health, and your soldiers don’t have much ways to do enough damage without wasting too many actions/shots. Basically anything you can kill, is one less of an enemy that can attack you. And from my experience a sectoid will more often then not raise a zombie if there is a body it can rise. Personally started seeing them as a more of a “tank” unit then an “attacker” unit.
Sectoid are vulnerable to melee so make sure to bring a ranger. Early game it may not be a one slash kill so you need to set up an ambush, kill the trooper and officer first, leave a body for sectoid to raise dead, and dont get too close to him to mind control cause he prioritizes that.
I always have one ranger on my team (they are my favorite base class). Once you get blademaster, they one shot sectoids, so it makes everything that much easier.
Some of this is just coming to understand the enemy AI. Sectoids prioritize psionics for instance. Be careful using these rules if using any AI improving mods. Also if flanking you the sectoid may choose to just murder your man over psionics. Been there, it sucks.
@@matthewphillips6512 that wouldn't surprise me there's been so many situations where there's so many aliens I'm screwed but the last two or three just overwatch instead of further punishing me.
@@matthewphillips6512 On lower difficulties they have a cap and their forced to take subpar actions occasionally Commander and legend take those shackles off, and let the AI be a little smarter
Quick tip: if a Berserker is close to an enemy, say an important one like a Chosen or a group of Mutons then shoot that over all the others, it'll send it into a rage attacking the closest unit regardless of the owner which means that the other units will have to spend their turn taking out the Berserker or repositioning
@@olegoleg258 Same here, I just checked the wiki though and it says: "When enraged it appears to attack its own teammates if no XCOM soldiers are within dashing distance." I've got to try that now
@NRGY yes, if you use something like a sniper with squadsight to shoot the beserker while everyone else is hidden, it'l start killing anything around it 😂
I remember completing XCOM 2 years ago when it first came out but recently I completed a War of the Chosen campaign for the first time, it was so hard but you really do end up learning this type of stuff through trial and error. Which enemies to target etc, especially when you have a Chosen on the board spawning in or the Berserker Queen etc. It's really cool though because you feel like you're learning the game and afterwards you actually do end up performing so much better as a result.
So cool to see XCOM 2 content so far after its release, a very good video which made me question my own tactics now that I’m playing Legend difficulty for the first time
If someone is coming into this game for the first time, this video has some fair advice. I built an ironman classic win on a pile of losses. XCOM teaches you about resource efficiency. Why waste bullets on a shield bearer that will cost you hp on three of your guys when you could still nade and shoot down the opposition from cover anyway. Why waste time on sending in a full squad when you can send in two rangers loaded with mimic beacons divert, extract your target, and bail without firing a shot. I perhaps became overly Draconian in my methods when I realized, a rookie with an assault rifle out of cover becomes a mobile mimic beacon with overwatch.
Difficulty adds nothing to the game experience, the changes only effect macro economy or are just strait cheats for the AI. The base mechanics work at all levels.
Draconian - "(of laws or their application) excessively harsh and severe." Your methods are neither laws nor the application of laws. Note, these are governmental laws, if it needs to be said, not mathematical laws or such.
@@Mythraen heh if disobeying an order from a superior officer in a military order is a violation of the uniform code of military justice, then I would say that such orders could be considered in fact, draconian.
@@sevenayashinedown1283 That's obviously a massive stretch. I gave you the definition. Your usage didn't match it. You can learn from it or not. That's the end of my involvement.
Friend put this forward that, A tank is not a tank, Unless he can generate enough "threat" to demand attention Otherwise he becomes negligible X-COM genrates threat to distract you from the real danger, Action economy and DPS
If you haven't tried them, I definitely recommend giving them a try. They have a much larger area of effect than other grenades and also reduce enemy aim and movement. So if you end up with multiple pods of aliens active at once, then a flashbang can be a big help in surviving.
well the disorientation screws with the Sectoid's psionics, including maintaining control over a mind controlled soldier or a reanimated humanoid, I believe Stasis also cancels out Mind Control and Reanimation in a similiar manner, so if you were to cast Stasis on your mind controlled soldier or that dang Priest responsible for the mind control then you got your soldier back, but unless the mind controlling enemy has multiple soldiers under their control you're better of using Stasis on the victim rather than the culprit as it will protect them until they can act again
One of the biggest leaps in skill is when you realize that Sectoids are NOT priority targets, after that every other aspect of the enemy's play just makes much more sense.
Hmm…how dare you reveal to me, years after I crushed the game, that I was so easily distracted every encounter and never noticed! Like a battering Ram I put my head down and pushed through. Im just gonna tell myself that even though I constantly fell for the distractions, the discipline I used to maintain squad coherency and force protection persevered. 😃
He's not right though... the sectoid is the most threatening by far. It can ravage your action economy and should be dealt with first. The only thing he's right on is not to shoot its face in. A flashbang basically turns it off for 2 turns as it has no psi and can't hit anything. Then shoot the other dudes based on who isn't flashed. His idea of not targeting the sectoid first only applies if shooting is the only way to disable it, but its not. Flashbangs are a go to.
@@himedo1512 The point of the video is to teach you to predict what the enemy units will do on their first turn. Shieldbearers, Archons, Sectoids, Codexes, Priests and even Gatekeepers are all significantly more likely to take an action that doesn't immediately impact your soldiers, thus can be ignored and dealt with on the second turn. Action economy is as much about using your actions efficiently as it is about understanding the enemies actions, and using that knowledge to preserve your future actions. It would be terrible action economy to allow one of your soldiers (and thus, two actions) to be removed from the board because you targeted an enemy that actually won't do anything substantial. For completeness, here is the list of actions those aforementioned enemies will do: Shieldbearer - shield, can be removed by killing the shieldbearer on turn 2, has little effect if other enemies are eliminated first. Archon - blazing pinions, can easily be dodged on turn 2. Sectoid - raise zombie, which isn't able to attack until next turn. Codex - psionic bomb, which can be really annoying especially early game, but is largely inconsequential as long as you can move your troops. Hard countered by autoloaders. Priest - stasis, puts a soldier out for a turn but they can be brought back easily on turn 2, and are immune to all damage. Gatekeeper - gateway, can deal some damage in a large area but unlikely to kill soldiers, very likely to aim at nearby corpses to raise zombies rather than injure troops. Heck even the Sectopod has one - wrath cannon, sits and charges a straight beam attack that is incredibly easy to dodge and takes up the sectopod's whole turn. The enemies you should be really targeting first are Andromedons, Mutons, Stun Lancers, and MECs. These all have attacks that are guaranteed to hit and very likely to kill your soldiers.
@@MGSLurmey true. At the point of the game where literally any other enemies exist, sectoids are low priority. But it can reasonably assumed we're talking only troopers, captains, and sectoids. In which case any conversation about other units is irrelevant. Because late game makes this discussion irrelevant since you'll probably just one-tap the sectoid regardless
I used another metric: try to limit their damage output as fast as possible. That means sometimes hitting troopers and sometimes hitting the big damage dealers: depended who were more open That is why the mimic beacon is soo good: it limits their damage output for an turn.
And as a potential bonus since they are willing to target it they will position or clump up in a compromising way begging for a nade or anything that goes *boom*
this is by far the most important xcom 2 video on youtube, there is no drawn out long ass introductions, you get to the point straight away and manage to make things easy to understand. i got 130 hours in xcom 2 and beatean the game a few times and i still come back to this video
While sectoids are a major threat and do need to be dealt with ASAP, it just so happens that one of the most effective ways to deal with them is "kill the basic advent trooper first".
For me the biggest problem was moving away from setting up overwatch ambushes. Because despite all enemies standing in the open, all ovewatch shots would miss and than the enemies would get 1.5 turns to turn the table.
That's why when breaking concealment I just use my sniper to kick it off then play out the turn. Overwatch ambushes are best used when the enemy arrives in their transports and only get a movement turn and can't attack. They get slaughtered pretty easily.
@@billygrantham5380 It can be useful in War of the Chosen if you get the card from the Skirmishers that eliminates one action from the enemy if they were discovered on your turn.
You're just doing it wrong. Thats a failed ambush. If the enemy discovers one of your soldiers on thier turn, instead of you shooting them, it cuts their turn short. You still get overwatch reactions but they get half a turn, then its your turn again. This is very powerful. You need the enemies to blunder into your ambush. What you need to do is set everyone on overwatch and leave a dude in the path of a patrol. They'll seem, overwatch happens. 95% of the time They'll just run to cover without doing anything else. Then its your turn again.
@@himedo1512 I learned this by complete accident. I though I had a dope overwatch ambush set up but totally forgot to move the unit i was scouting with. So ended my turn, they moved, discovered my scout, ran away and got shot, then I swept the rest up on my next turn. Completely changed how I played the game moving forward.
I've been spending the last 100 hrs of my time playing Legendary Ironman. I'm at my 14th restart of the campaign, I'm now kicking the game's ass thanks to people who makes xcom guide like you.
I hope for 3 they give us a TRUE modern version of "Terror From the Deep" like they teased at the end of X2 - because any classic gamer will tell you, the original XCOM 2, Terror From the Deep, was 100% pure blood-curdling nightmare... just say the word "Tentaculat" to one of us... watch the PTSD hit hard.
I hope they will change mission types from a pure sweep and kill everything. Also I really liked about chimera squad is not worrying about how to handle pods. So many reloads due to my last soldier moving and pulling another pod
That opening point about target prioritisation is very true, I hadn't given it much thought and perhaps just believed i'd learned to play and gotten better at the game but actually what did I learn? I used to target the strongest enemy and remove the biggest threat first like you said but now I tend to only do that if I feel they pose a bigger threat than the rest present. Now I tend to target the weaker threats and ensure I eliminate them so that I only need to worry about the single strong enemy, putting cover, overwatch and giving me as many turns against them to flank, heal, shoot, buff, uncover etc while they only get one action which will either take a turn to hit that I can dodge without problem or will do some damage but I can prepare/recover from easily.
And this is why a bunch of enemy mods were made to change up this concept adding additional layers of risk on enemy priorities. Sectoid abductors for example can stun someone with a shot and if they're close enough they will kidnap your soldier like a chosen. Advent commanders reworked have way more health than their weaker counterparts and if you kill their squad first, he gets to summon 2 more squads for free. He also can return fire. Muton elites hit hard but have relatively lower accuracy than normal and while they may look frightening with 16 hp and 4 armor, they typically waste their first turn putting on a personal shield for 4-8 more ablative armor. Honestly the modding community is very enjoyable flipping the game on its head and letting you relearn it all again.
Your description of shieldbearers reminds me of the medic mechs in Front Mission 4. Annoying, but any turn they are healing, they are not shooting. But if you see a sensor mech, it must die immediately because it can call in missile attacks from way out of normal range.
Props on that Mimic comparison, wowed indeed. 100% spot on, we are such suckers... I only recently realized how incredibly dangerous the troopers are in the beginning , and that alone changed the early game enough to ensure a successful playthrough. That and making sure to unlock Adv Warfare asap before your squad starts getting too many promotions, so you can maximize on the hidden traits.
as someone who figured it out after some time of going back on saves, I find this video actually a very interesting analysis, I didn't know the enemies were planned to be this way, I always thought my strategy was just a play style that matched how I like to play most games... also, Sectopods and MECs are still a big pain in the ass if you can't hack them
I first found out about Xcom 2 after seeing Angry Joe review it years ago. Then watching ChristopherOdd’s playthroughs really taught me a ton about how the game works, before I bought it myself. There is quite a difference between Commander difficulty and Legend. My latest Legend difficulty play through (with mods,) had the enemies target my best and highest ranked soldiers, which delayed my hunt the chosen and sabotage ring missions, and resulted in a very difficult assault on the Avenger mission. I’m breezing through it now though.
I’m playing WOTC as we speak and I found this video so helpful - thank you! Never really used mimic beacons before but I guess I got to get Lily to build me some now!
Crazy I never thought of the flashbang against the alien menace....I used it all the time in Human Threats. Lol. But never the Sections. Damn I feel dumb. Lol
None of us can think of everything on our own, and that's why I do these videos. Even a veteran player might pick up a new trick or two and that's always a good thing!
This is interesting, as someone who played the game a lot on release, this was an early lesson for me, and in fact one that carries through as I play Midnight Suns. I take out the threats first. Early on I realized that the sectoid was more likely to try and resurrect a soldier I killed that directly attack me. That meant if I could take out one or 2 smaller guys that would have targeted me, I was less likely to take damage. What I loved about the game as I played it was often it was the decisions I made BEFORE engagement that would dictate my success. Did I waste a grenade on an opening salvo on small less effective units only to find myself short of an armor shredding grenade later in the mission, one that might have allowed my sniper to take out a tough enemy before they could act. In X-Com, the way you moved, the loadouts you made, your choices of research, all played a key role in how a fight would play out, and I love that about the game.
number one: the action economy will kill you before debuffs do number two: party buffers don't matter if you kill there party number 3: scary doesn't equal powerful
Now that you mention it, this “mimic beacon tactic” that the enemy uses… playing on our suppositions about tactical priorities… is actually in the story. The Commander- the player- was captured by ADVENT and they used simulators in order to draw out tactical information which they would use to “program” their ADVENT units. So, Firaxis actually managed to give an in-lore explanation as to why our own in-game strategies from XCOM 1 would work against us. The further brilliance of this is that we can still beat ADVENT in XCOM 2. The elders learned the wrong lessons from the simulations. They thought the strategies in and of themselves were the key to success, not realizing the real prize was the mindset by which those strategies were formulated in the first place. They are trapped by their own suppositions and cannot adapt to the strategies we use against them. We, on the other hand, CAN learn from our mistakes. We can adapt, we can restrategize, we can wipe our suppositions from the board and work off a new thought process. This is why the elders were doomed to fail, and why we were destined to succeed, so long as we never give up.
Just to sum it up, if the enemy is more support oriented (doesn't directly attack on their first turn) just leave em be and focus on the more imminent threats.
i'd say using a flash depends on the situation, sectoids will usually waste their first turn on a revive (if possible) and later on go for mindspins, so saving the flashbang for the next turn is a bit better. Some like Priest should be flashbanged sooner since they tend to put someone in stasis on the first turn, which isnt deadly, but losing a guy for a turn is quite annoying.
@@rage3100 I find that I'd prefer a single guy be in stasis to having a single guy shot, 100% of the time if it's a 1-pod scenario. I do my utmost to make sure they actually use their psionics since that wont kill me
This is the single most helpful video of Xcom 2 I've seen. This changed my mind completely and made even harder difficulties possible for me. It's also an amazing and clever bit of game design! Feels good not having to save scum to get through some previously "unfair" encounters.
Playing it on Switch is a nightmare, lol. Enormous loading times, freezes, crashes. Luckily I was still able to beat it, but I'll be getting it on PC soon.
My favorite thing to do is, I take 2 or maybe even 3 Snipers, I find a few good tall spots away from the enemy, and I use a “bounding overwatch” tactic, with cross map sniping. As for target priority. I always revaluate my threat assessment every turn as the situation unfolds. “What ability’s do they have including the risk of those abilities? how often have I observed them using said abilities? are they armed? if so is it a ranged weapon? If Melee, can they get to one of my guys on their turn? if not, prioritize ranged attackers” etc I have seldom fallen for the trap you warned of in the video above. (My primary issue is that I almost constantly miss “100%” shots, from any range, regardless of my operative’s skills. I do everything perfectly and still lose) Never discount the effectiveness of enemy grunts, or even mid standard enemies. Especially when they have guns. They always get lucky at the worst time. And not just in X-COM. This mindset works for everything, most if not all strategy games, halo, etc. But for it to be effective (particularly if playing a non-turn based game) it must become second nature. If you’re not aware that you’re even doing it, then you can effectively make extremely complex decisions on the fly, seemingly without thinking about it, with less risk of mistakes. (And even when you make a mistake, the near automatic analysis will let you identify and correct many of those mistakes before they get too out of hand) And true victory is always achieved in the preparation before battle starts. In X-COM 2 that would be unit position and intel before the enemy detects you, and the combat begins. “victorious warriors win first and then go to war while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win” Sun Tzu
So the epiphany was recognizing that the most dangerous thing enemies can do is shoot at you (or otherwise damage you). No matter how flashy or devastating an enemy's ability might seem, if an enemy is almost guaranteed to do something *other* than shoot at you on their first active turn, they're not the immediate priority. Nice.
Well done, 1st lesson over, you prioritise the enemies who are actually gonna hit you on the next turn. On higher difficulties you learn that the ai sends a pod to you whilst another pod is lurking at the edge. Sending a melee unit to a sectoid for example usually activates the 2nd pod! Always use scouts. It's also normal (for me) for 1 soldier to get hit or even die in the 1st mission - Gatecrasher. And pretty much normal (for me) I will lose at least 1 soldier in the early missions. Accept it, it's not a gamebreaker and then you're ready for ironman mode :)
Nice analysis. I stumbled upon this video some time after finishing XCOM2, and you reminded me just how much I liked killing sectoid and seeing three zombies drop with him mere steps from my soldiers. Also, stun lancers were shot on sight. I usually took two snipers when I expected them to show up.
“Tapcat you clearly intelligent but delusional man.” For me, I always make sure a trooper is dead nearby the sectoid to hopefully force a zombie rez. Edit: OMG you madman you played the infamous scene from Deliverance!!
Grenades are king in this game. Removes armor, health, and cover all at the same time. Next is armor to soak damage. Then sniper rifles to eliminate the big baddies. Piece of advice name and design your squad mates after your friends and youll care about them so much more.
@@Juanirva In my experience, the shield bearers and they psionics are not THAT far apart on the gameplay timeline, but that's probably because I pursue psionics as hard as I can. It's my favorite class/unit.
The real secret to xcom-2 is just use reapers...enemies can't kill you if they are ambushed to death before their turn procs. Pre-wotc it is the same, it just requires a lot more patience without a reaper's crazy recon abilities.
For a moment "the hell you talking about the sectoid murders everyone with their shots in often one hit" but then I realized "ah, right, long war. The enemy is no longer there to make you feel powerful but to actually kill you"
Man you've got thr voice of a late night DJ, soothing and calming haha I constantly get battered on this game. Never made it to the end. Maybe I need to try your ideas out. Never used the mimic beacon
I have been away from your channel for a while, as I have been playing lots of ARPGs. I come back and love the injection of comedy and such. Nice touches!
Wow! This is real simple advice (the best advice usually is), but I never "flipped my thinking around" like that until now. Thank you TapCat for giving me what I needed to finally beat this monster of a game. The video is at just the right length and is very well written and paced.
The intro is literally me, I had such strong struggles every mission that I'd consistently lose soldiers every mission without save scumming, until I finally turned the difficulty down from Veteran to Rookie.
Some people are too stubborn to make the switch and get so frustrated that they quit instead. Personally, I think your approach is much better. Pull back and give yourself a chance to learn without constantly getting your head beat in.
So true. it took longer to figure out some other later game priorities, but once I realized a sectoid will pretty much always just zombify any corpse you give it I always made my first priority to give it a body so it didn't dare try shooting us.
So, my main strategy has typically been, keep in teams of 2-3. Each team moves in tandem across the map. Gives me a bit more flexibility when one team runs into the enemy. The team that initially engages will just shoot at anything they can hit. Doesn’t matter what the unit is. Second group will pick off weak targets or armored targets. It basically lets me get flanking shots every encounter.
"The mimic beacon is one of your most powerful peices of equipment... Sectoids Shieldbearers Archons enemies of that type, they are the mimic beacons..." Damn mans really just turned my entire world upside down.
What's hilarious to me is that Advent gets nerfed by the expansion. Their early unit roster gets expanded with useless things like priests and flamethrower troops. The latter love setting the ground on fire, which is completely inconsequential in 90%+ of situations. The increased unit variety reduces the amount of shooty bois and mechs that show up to fight you, thus reducing hospital times and mortality rate for your squads.
I can totally relate to that statement... Don't be fooled into thinking that you can take what you learn from the past and, apply it to the sequel... You will be humbled.
at some point in playing you get to the level where you abuse the ai so much you can even predict which less agressive enemy is the least likely to attack Or trick the agressive units in targeting what you want (blow the cover of a stun lancer with a bladestorm ranger nearby so he will most likely try to stab you instead of shooting you)
As happy as I would be to play a well executed Marvel strategy game, I've also been waiting for XCOM 3 for quite some time and would dearly love to see it sooner rather than later!
Another few tidbits - the Frostbomb will also stop any Sectoid shenanigans the same as flashbanging them (and likewise stops Codex from multiplying) And the shield from the shieldbearers take additional damage from combat protocol and capacitor discharge (I have not tested bluescreen rounds but I imagine they work too) basically negating the shield entirely. So if you're in a bind and need to deal with a bunch of shielded enemies that are bunched up, fire that discharge and watch all their shields just disappear (and very likely disorient them too)
I've definitely had some difficulties in that game at times and then eventually it became almost like a puzzle where all you have to do is just find the Right moves and you'll get flawless missions almost every time
I knew about these tactics by playing the game and through trial and error, but, when it was pointed out that these enemies are literal mimic beacons my mind was blown.
holy heck....I was having the same problem as you. But unlike you, I wasn't smart enough to figure out a strat that worked and quit the game. Now I feel inspired to give the game a try again!
There's a concept in gaming - I learned about it in the tabletop roleplaying scene - called the Action Economy. The more actions a side can do, the more the encounter is tipped in their favor. If you sink the entire squad's turns into taking down one large enemy, that's all well and good. But the rest of the enemy will proceed to do all of their actions. The enemy's total strength is only marginally diminished. Sometimes, the best course of action is to remove chaff. Thin their numbers, while it's early enough to save yourself headaches. The elite units presented here are more force multipliers. They make a strong force even stronger. If they're reduced from the outset, there's less force to multiply.
I agree with that. In particular if I'm facing multiple pods and the enemy's numbers are really out of hand, I'm looking for as many kills as I can get just to reduce the number of shots, grenades, etc. that are about to come our way. My typical prioritization goes almost completely out the window at that point. What you're describing can also apply to a single pod with one extremely powerful enemy, of course but it seems like a much stronger effect as the number of bad guys climbs.
Just want to say, I love your guides, I was watching your Iron man commander playthrough in the background during my own, and I beat it yesterday, so I currently have 2 more commander achievements and the legend playthrough along with the 10 achievements for war of the chosen, which I've watched nothing on, so I get that blissful learning experience again, gonna run through WOTC on veteran iron man first time for stakes.
I have to say that I always enjoyed this game, but the time always got me down and I never finished the game. BUT I watched some of your videos (again, because I do enjoy the game) and you got me to download and install it again. I watched your base build guide, was still a little lost (enough to get some enjoyment out of figuring a few things out) and DID finish the game last night. What a blast. For me... I'm great at the combat and tactical stuff but the overall game strategy was always a bit off-putting. Got it figured out and thanks for the help. What a fun last couple missions!!! I had no idea. LOL
Never underestimate defensive and utility options in this game. Battle scanners are one of the most OP items anywhere, so are rangers (REAPERS!!!) that can stay in stealth even if it's just for their eyes. One of the dirtiest ship defenses I've pulled of late in a LW campaign involved an undetected reaper spotting for two snipers to destroy the objective and taking off leaving upwards of 20 aliens to shake their fists in anger. The double claymore 12 man kill being the other highlight. You have access to things like rockets and squadsight that outrange the enemy vision and the battle scanner will allow you to see without activating the enemy pod. You can get effectively a second, maybe third ambush each mission if you can spot enemies, put your squad on overwatch then hit them all and blow their cover with a rocket. That sectoid will be highly ineffective if a sniper kills him before the fight starts from squadsight range while the troopers and commanders die or take heavy damage from squad fire as they run for cover. I know XCOM2 forces you to move quickly with a lot of time constraints but which is faster, activating a pod now and taking 3 turns to clean them up or spending one turn setting up, activating it next turn and killing them all before they get to cover? I could get into uses for hunker down especially if you send one soldier to collect an objective in time and they are in a dangerous position, smoke and frost grenades as well, but this comment is long enough already.
I think the reason the game is full of "mimic beacon" enemies is that the game designers don't want to *beat* you, they want to *scare* you. They want to make you feel like it's a hard fight, but they don't want it to actually be so hard that players give up. So the enemies all have these scary debuffs and special abilities that *could* kill you if you ignored them for a few turns, but which are actually less efficient than just shooting you. And when you make the obvious counter-maneuver - killing the zombie-maker, moving away from the blazing pinions, etc - you feel like a tactical genius because that ability was obviously totally OP but you figured out how to beat them anyway.
That's a very interesting point, and you could easily be onto something there.
This is much more obvious is Chimera Squad, I feel.
I am 100% sure that Xcom 2 is NOT a fair game. It manipulates the result of each mission. In some missions, the AI purposely does not play rationally and simply do stupid moves to let you win. In some missions, the AI simply let most of your critical shots even with very high chances of hitting miss and set you up for a miserable situation. It is missing a lot of critical data, such as the dodge numbers of different enemies. To form an educated strategy, you need to know the formula for calculating the ultimate probability of hitting a particular enemy. Those probability figures shown to you in each mission are in NO way the actual probability figures because many of the shooting results simply do not match the probabilities. Even if the probability of missing an enemy is 70%, 4 consecutive misses has a probability of only 0.7^4 = 0.24. But that happens very often just when you need it. And it doesn't depend on your weapon and skill upgrade. And the game doesn't tell you that some enemies simply can't be overwatched. You need to fail a mission miserably to learn it. And I believe there is some serious bugs in the so-called overwatch. You see you enemies walk around setting up their positions even when you have set up a very good overwatch trap. Your soldiers simply refuse to shoot. The stupid communication during the game is not helping. It is actually the opposite. It is trying its best to make you nervous and let you fall into the alien's traps. Yup I believe the communication guy works for the aliens. I simply turn off the sound just to avoid being annoyed by the stupid communication. This game is very stupid. I've had enough after playing this game intensively for 2 weeks. I bought this game this November. I believe the developer has raised the difficulty of this game by changing the AI over time.
@@trumplostlol3007 have you considered getting good?
@@trumplostlol3007 The AI is the exact same as on release, dont kid yourself.
Also the percentage shown in the game is literally the exact same percentage used for the dice roll, there is no tomfoolery going on there, its just in your head.
The only thing youd have to be aware of is that the percentage shown is rounded, meaning if it shows you 100%, it can be something like 99.95% behind the scenes.
"Even if the probability of missing an enemy is 70%, 4 consecutive misses has a probability of only 0.7^4 = 0.24"
24% is not a low probability, of course it happens often, as it should happen statistically every 4th time given the same scenario.
The only thing going on here is that you remember the misses better then the times you actually hit, which is simply a bias engrained in our humans cognition, which you have to be aware of.
Yes the game makes use of chance/rng, but that doesnt make it unfair. If you failed your mission or even lost a squad mate due to 1 or 2 bad dice rolls, I have to ask you is that because of the rng or because you fucked up tactically somewhere else? I can guarantee you that 99.99% of the time its the latter.
Okay, that mimic beacon comparison to the enemy, did wow me, congrats, that was good
Thanks, it kind of rocked my world when I thought of it but you never know if other people will just roll their eyes.
Sectoids are most dangerous when the cosen appear as they can cause ur troops to be out of position
@@TapCat yea I'm not gonna lie my first strategy is always shoot who closest first so I guess that wasn't a problem I ran into
@@quincyking010 the counter to sectoids is to kill the weakest advent soldier and get to half cover.
@@jeffduckworth3714 why half cover? So they can use mine control or some?
There's a reason basic advent troopers had a higher kill count than almost every other enemy when the website still tracked stats
They don't waste time with fancy abilities that may not work, they just shoot you in the face lmao. Simple but effective
I’d say advent officers with those red helmets are deadlier, just because of their buff with accuracy. So I’d argue they’re the worst. But I guess they need basic advent troopers to do that
Reminds me of the P90 demonstration in Stargate.
@@laszlo3547 "This is a weapon of war. It is meant to KILL your enemy"
Always liked that scene :)
Same reason my medic has a higher killcount than my sniper. He doesn't use fancy abilities every turn, he doesn't need a complicated setup and a kill zone, he just walks casually around the corner and shoots a mofo in the back of the head with a mag rifle.
@@averagejoey2000 You are using your sniper wrong. With the right build they can clear maps. A long range sniper with a stealthed scout spotting ahead is absolutely devastating. A pistol based one with face off can clear a bunch of mobs at once. A medic should never come close to either of their kill counts, even if they never heal.
Can't get damaged if no one shoots you. So generally speaking just culling the aggressive units numbers is always better.
One of the most important things to remember in XCOM; fight as few opponents at a time as possible. If you have the capability to take a killing shot on a low-level enemy, take it instead of damaging a higher-level enemy (with some exceptions). That was what I learned first.
@@ladywaffle2210 a more accurate way to say it is get rid of the most aggressive actions. A sectapod has many actions and they can use all of them aggressively so say deleting them with bluescreens rounds fanfire is a good call.
@@ultimaterecoil1136 That is a very good way to describe it, yes.
Ever heard the term "action economy"
It's a pretty common concept in dnd, the side with the most actionst usually wins.
@@vivil2533 Yeah but that can change.
X-COM enemy unknown was a great teacher of this. Enemies typically outnumbered you and you had to often weigh the cost of who to eliminate first. Bezerkers, Sectopods and Chryssilids we're prime targets because of how easily they could maime your forces.
This game is all about Action Economy and Target Priority. If you're dealing with multiple pods, you're goal to cull weak or grouped up enemies quickly in one turn. The fewer enemies alive, the less actions they can take. Target Priority is for dealing with a single pod or multiple pods that has a high threat target, like a Codex. Flashbangs are the most valueable item in the entire game, mimic beacons are great, but they did get nerfed. Flashbangs do not affect allies, have a large blast radius, stop all Psionic powers, and reduce enemy hit chance tremendously, they also block the Codex powers including their Clones, allowing you to burn them up.
Interesting, I learnt some stuff from this comment the game never told me about Flashbangs. I was always too scared having one would backfire on me and get someone killed. I think I want to try flashabngs now, thanks!
The Codex is another one of those enemies that seems like a high threat but is actually a low priority. If you don't attack them, they don't make a clone. If there's only one of them, 99% of the time, what they're going to do is use their psionic bomb, whose damage can be avoided. Yes, it will drain your ammo, but how much does that matter when all of their podmates have been massacred and it's just them left? There's still plenty of non-gun options to fight them with (and pistols), and anyone with an autoloader can reload, move, and shoot in the same turn as well.
Whereas attacking them on the first turn of an encounter will almost certainly use at least 3 actions to eliminate what is largely a non-threat. Really the ACTUAL threat they present is that using area effect attacks may result in your problems getting worse due to causing them to clone, and the clone is usually not somewhere that further area effect attacks will hit them (but Faceoff probably will)
@@NewOldEBM more fun uses for flashbangs: preventing advent priests from sustaining when they should die, preventing grenades, clearing overwatches or suppression, crowd control when there's too many enemies to kill, slowing down enemies like the faceless or chrissalids so they (hopefully) won't quite make it to you and attack (or miss if they do), helping limit friendly fire from men mind controlled by the warlock (they won't break his mind control but they can disorient the man under his control).
Edit: basically when things get out of control, a flashbang might just save your butt.
Huh, I never knew that flashbangs were good. I've played the game so many times now and literally never bothered with the flashbangs not even once. Next playthrough I'll try one out.
@@beleagueredbeluga5228 Same. I'm kinda dumb and never really bother with any items...probably not a good strategy...
I think this is a major reason why it was so easy to transition from fire emblem to XCom for me, since fire emblem often does the same thing, making you feel like you need to rush to kill or recruit someone, when in reality you have time to slow down a second.
*Laughs in Shiro*.
I remember they started that with Enemy Unknown. They saw that players were being to defensive, so they added some mechanics that would trick the player into taking more risky maneuvers and getting themselves killed.
@@surrenderwhenisayso769 I don't have any of these games except XCOM 2, so saying Shiro reminds me of Destiny.
It's actually a very common concept in all turn based games. Dnd calls it action economy. "The side with the most actions usually wins."
I do love seeing people realize this concept and I enjoy seeing how game devs exploit this concept even more.
@@surrenderwhenisayso769 oh gods. This dammn brat. Its so stupid that he must be rushed saved because he has the strength of a paper Tiger
In XCOM the biggest threat is the RNG gods. Missing a 92% hit chance results in dead soldiers and punching holes in walls 😆
Try missing a 100% hit on an Ethereal in the first game, only to have him wipe 2 guys next turn.. Then miss a 100% hit in the second game, only to have them kill the ranger who set up the kill... The RNG is flawed.
@@DivShadow haha I believe it's just using rounded whole numbers. The actual chance might be like 99.6% and you just hit the 0.4% miss
@@Skizzy461 2 times? The odds of that are unlikely. I hear too many people use that response.. If it's got a decimal, then they should use it. This rounded number nonsense is crap. The RNG is ridiculous.
Punching holes in the walls which triggers sight of another enemy squad! 🤦🏾♂️
I missed a 99% once.
And one time I threw a grenade and it said missed.....not possible....but Xcom
I always thought the mimic beacon was overpowered....I was right, but I didn't realize I was falling for one as well.
So is shooting the enemy, Rangers / Grenades / Powered Weapon / WAR Suit spam, Sniper with bluescreen, I never bothered with MBs.
@@acetraker1988 "The best defense is a good offense", "the best support is removing the enemy".
Xcom is a turn based puzzle game, the goal of each turn is to remove the chance of enemy action against you.
The sectoid spending a turn to use an ability is a enemy Who isnt taking action against you. The tropper with 2hp Who will shoot at your troops is an enemy that will take action against you.
Though it does depend on the setup - if you have a sectoid and a trooper 2 moves away from the rest of the group, they'll either get panicked or mind controlled with no way to remov that
I love this description
its more gambling than a puzzle
@@dearelusive9557 No, it's very much both. The puzzle element comes from using all the tools at your disposal to rig the odds in your favour as much as possible.
@@edwardking9359no it’s not
This all really fits with the game's theme of guerilla warfare and conspiracies. *Smokes blunt.* The war isn't on the streets or in the jungles, it's in your head maaaaaaan.
In my head, I could basically hear Labowski saying that as I ready your comment.
@@TapCat "I'm talking about the xeno that pissed on my rug!"
"Dude... xeno is not the preferred nomenclature. Extraterrestrial please."
Sectoids early game have a lot of health, and your soldiers don’t have much ways to do enough damage without wasting too many actions/shots.
Basically anything you can kill, is one less of an enemy that can attack you. And from my experience a sectoid will more often then not raise a zombie if there is a body it can rise. Personally started seeing them as a more of a “tank” unit then an “attacker” unit.
Action economy
sectoid priority number 1 is actually getting a flanking shot, if he can't then he goes for the psionics
doing anything other than stabbing a sectoid makes my eye twitch
Sectoid are vulnerable to melee so make sure to bring a ranger. Early game it may not be a one slash kill so you need to set up an ambush, kill the trooper and officer first, leave a body for sectoid to raise dead, and dont get too close to him to mind control cause he prioritizes that.
I always have one ranger on my team (they are my favorite base class). Once you get blademaster, they one shot sectoids, so it makes everything that much easier.
Some of this is just coming to understand the enemy AI. Sectoids prioritize psionics for instance. Be careful using these rules if using any AI improving mods. Also if flanking you the sectoid may choose to just murder your man over psionics. Been there, it sucks.
AI mods turn Xcom 2 into a different beast. A lot of the useless actions some units do are dropped in favor of executing you on the spot.
I also believe that the AI has a cap on 'offensive' actions like shooting and grenades
@@matthewphillips6512 that wouldn't surprise me there's been so many situations where there's so many aliens I'm screwed but the last two or three just overwatch instead of further punishing me.
@@matthewphillips6512 On lower difficulties they have a cap and their forced to take subpar actions occasionally
Commander and legend take those shackles off, and let the AI be a little smarter
There is one Mod that forces you to throw those rules out of the window…
_Direct Control._
Quick tip: if a Berserker is close to an enemy, say an important one like a Chosen or a group of Mutons then shoot that over all the others, it'll send it into a rage attacking the closest unit regardless of the owner which means that the other units will have to spend their turn taking out the Berserker or repositioning
Wait wait wait wait, berzerkers attack allies? I've...never had that?
@@olegoleg258 Same here, I just checked the wiki though and it says: "When enraged it appears to attack its own teammates if no XCOM soldiers are within dashing distance." I've got to try that now
@NRGY yes, if you use something like a sniper with squadsight to shoot the beserker while everyone else is hidden, it'l start killing anything around it 😂
Wow thank you
I remember completing XCOM 2 years ago when it first came out but recently I completed a War of the Chosen campaign for the first time, it was so hard but you really do end up learning this type of stuff through trial and error. Which enemies to target etc, especially when you have a Chosen on the board spawning in or the Berserker Queen etc. It's really cool though because you feel like you're learning the game and afterwards you actually do end up performing so much better as a result.
LW2 or LWOTC: Hold my beer
War of the chosen on commander difficulty on iron man mode is probably the best xcom experience that exists.
So cool to see XCOM 2 content so far after its release, a very good video which made me question my own tactics now that I’m playing Legend difficulty for the first time
If someone is coming into this game for the first time, this video has some fair advice. I built an ironman classic win on a pile of losses. XCOM teaches you about resource efficiency. Why waste bullets on a shield bearer that will cost you hp on three of your guys when you could still nade and shoot down the opposition from cover anyway.
Why waste time on sending in a full squad when you can send in two rangers loaded with mimic beacons divert, extract your target, and bail without firing a shot.
I perhaps became overly Draconian in my methods when I realized, a rookie with an assault rifle out of cover becomes a mobile mimic beacon with overwatch.
Difficulty adds nothing to the game experience, the changes only effect macro economy or are just strait cheats for the AI. The base mechanics work at all levels.
Honestly advent must be super goody in your games cause the data they from you had degraded 10%
Draconian - "(of laws or their application) excessively harsh and severe."
Your methods are neither laws nor the application of laws. Note, these are governmental laws, if it needs to be said, not mathematical laws or such.
@@Mythraen heh if disobeying an order from a superior officer in a military order is a violation of the uniform code of military justice, then I would say that such orders could be considered in fact, draconian.
@@sevenayashinedown1283 That's obviously a massive stretch.
I gave you the definition. Your usage didn't match it.
You can learn from it or not.
That's the end of my involvement.
Friend put this forward that,
A tank is not a tank,
Unless he can generate enough "threat" to demand attention
Otherwise he becomes negligible
X-COM genrates threat to distract you from the real danger,
Action economy and DPS
i always prioritized attacks on the ones i could kill with the next shot
Nah I think you should prioritize the one who can damage your troops first.
Usefull tips. Thanks. I did not know flash bangs were removing mind control and undead. I might start bringing them into my campaigns.
If you haven't tried them, I definitely recommend giving them a try. They have a much larger area of effect than other grenades and also reduce enemy aim and movement. So if you end up with multiple pods of aliens active at once, then a flashbang can be a big help in surviving.
well the disorientation screws with the Sectoid's psionics, including maintaining control over a mind controlled soldier or a reanimated humanoid, I believe Stasis also cancels out Mind Control and Reanimation in a similiar manner, so if you were to cast Stasis on your mind controlled soldier or that dang Priest responsible for the mind control then you got your soldier back, but unless the mind controlling enemy has multiple soldiers under their control you're better of using Stasis on the victim rather than the culprit as it will protect them until they can act again
One of the biggest leaps in skill is when you realize that Sectoids are NOT priority targets, after that every other aspect of the enemy's play just makes much more sense.
Hmm…how dare you reveal to me, years after I crushed the game, that I was so easily distracted every encounter and never noticed! Like a battering Ram I put my head down and pushed through. Im just gonna tell myself that even though I constantly fell for the distractions, the discipline I used to maintain squad coherency and force protection persevered. 😃
He's not right though... the sectoid is the most threatening by far. It can ravage your action economy and should be dealt with first. The only thing he's right on is not to shoot its face in. A flashbang basically turns it off for 2 turns as it has no psi and can't hit anything. Then shoot the other dudes based on who isn't flashed. His idea of not targeting the sectoid first only applies if shooting is the only way to disable it, but its not. Flashbangs are a go to.
@@himedo1512 The point of the video is to teach you to predict what the enemy units will do on their first turn. Shieldbearers, Archons, Sectoids, Codexes, Priests and even Gatekeepers are all significantly more likely to take an action that doesn't immediately impact your soldiers, thus can be ignored and dealt with on the second turn.
Action economy is as much about using your actions efficiently as it is about understanding the enemies actions, and using that knowledge to preserve your future actions. It would be terrible action economy to allow one of your soldiers (and thus, two actions) to be removed from the board because you targeted an enemy that actually won't do anything substantial.
For completeness, here is the list of actions those aforementioned enemies will do:
Shieldbearer - shield, can be removed by killing the shieldbearer on turn 2, has little effect if other enemies are eliminated first.
Archon - blazing pinions, can easily be dodged on turn 2.
Sectoid - raise zombie, which isn't able to attack until next turn.
Codex - psionic bomb, which can be really annoying especially early game, but is largely inconsequential as long as you can move your troops. Hard countered by autoloaders.
Priest - stasis, puts a soldier out for a turn but they can be brought back easily on turn 2, and are immune to all damage.
Gatekeeper - gateway, can deal some damage in a large area but unlikely to kill soldiers, very likely to aim at nearby corpses to raise zombies rather than injure troops.
Heck even the Sectopod has one - wrath cannon, sits and charges a straight beam attack that is incredibly easy to dodge and takes up the sectopod's whole turn.
The enemies you should be really targeting first are Andromedons, Mutons, Stun Lancers, and MECs. These all have attacks that are guaranteed to hit and very likely to kill your soldiers.
@@MGSLurmey true. At the point of the game where literally any other enemies exist, sectoids are low priority. But it can reasonably assumed we're talking only troopers, captains, and sectoids. In which case any conversation about other units is irrelevant. Because late game makes this discussion irrelevant since you'll probably just one-tap the sectoid regardless
“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.”
- Sceneca
Truth of life right there, actually realizing that is how I cured depression. At least mostly.
Sceneca! Love it.
I heard that Seneca was pretty good too:
" All cruelty springs from weakness."
@@sommmeguy Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well.
@@keanuxu5435 That's an awesome quote by Seneca. Who'd a think a guy from hundreds of years ago could still school us?
@@davidevans7477 great cure if your life is fine and you're depressed for no reason. A lot different outcome if your life actually sucks tho
I used another metric: try to limit their damage output as fast as possible. That means sometimes hitting troopers and sometimes hitting the big damage dealers: depended who were more open That is why the mimic beacon is soo good: it limits their damage output for an turn.
And as a potential bonus since they are willing to target it they will position or clump up in a compromising way begging for a nade or anything that goes *boom*
this is by far the most important xcom 2 video on youtube, there is no drawn out long ass introductions, you get to the point straight away and manage to make things easy to understand.
i got 130 hours in xcom 2 and beatean the game a few times and i still come back to this video
Thank you, that's high praise and I'm glad to hear that this video was so helpful for you!
Couldn’t agree more. The sectoid isn’t the biggest threat. The biggest threat is the guys with the guns.
While sectoids are a major threat and do need to be dealt with ASAP, it just so happens that one of the most effective ways to deal with them is "kill the basic advent trooper first".
For me the biggest problem was moving away from setting up overwatch ambushes. Because despite all enemies standing in the open, all ovewatch shots would miss and than the enemies would get 1.5 turns to turn the table.
That's why when breaking concealment I just use my sniper to kick it off then play out the turn. Overwatch ambushes are best used when the enemy arrives in their transports and only get a movement turn and can't attack. They get slaughtered pretty easily.
@@billygrantham5380 It can be useful in War of the Chosen if you get the card from the Skirmishers that eliminates one action from the enemy if they were discovered on your turn.
You're just doing it wrong. Thats a failed ambush. If the enemy discovers one of your soldiers on thier turn, instead of you shooting them, it cuts their turn short. You still get overwatch reactions but they get half a turn, then its your turn again. This is very powerful. You need the enemies to blunder into your ambush. What you need to do is set everyone on overwatch and leave a dude in the path of a patrol. They'll seem, overwatch happens. 95% of the time They'll just run to cover without doing anything else. Then its your turn again.
@@himedo1512 THIS
@@himedo1512 I learned this by complete accident. I though I had a dope overwatch ambush set up but totally forgot to move the unit i was scouting with. So ended my turn, they moved, discovered my scout, ran away and got shot, then I swept the rest up on my next turn. Completely changed how I played the game moving forward.
Now Commander, I thought we talked about this and agreed you'd say that Troopers were unimportant, barely an inconvenience.
Super easy
By George, you might be right.
Well well well
More Balatan.
I've been spending the last 100 hrs of my time playing Legendary Ironman. I'm at my 14th restart of the campaign, I'm now kicking the game's ass thanks to people who makes xcom guide like you.
That's awesome, anyone who can win on Legend Ironman is crushing it!
"Holding up about as well as a snowcone in hell"
Oh how I missed your wordplay tap :)
its so crazy that xcom 2 is still getting videos made about it.
i hope for 3 they give us even more stuff to play with.
I hope for 3 they give us a TRUE modern version of "Terror From the Deep" like they teased at the end of X2 - because any classic gamer will tell you, the original XCOM 2, Terror From the Deep, was 100% pure blood-curdling nightmare... just say the word "Tentaculat" to one of us... watch the PTSD hit hard.
I hope they will change mission types from a pure sweep and kill everything. Also I really liked about chimera squad is not worrying about how to handle pods. So many reloads due to my last soldier moving and pulling another pod
Alien powers: "I can mind control people and raise the dead!"
Human powers: "I can shoot you. In the face. Really hard."
The alien who mind controlled your gun wielding soldier: "so can I."
@@derpdadouch3654 Until you flash him with a sparkly light and make a loud noise in their ear.
@@animorph17 You got me there my dude. With a hefty chuckle and a tip of the hat I wish you a great rest of your day/night!
I don't know how you knew, but I was gonna jump back into XCOM 2 in the next week- so these tips are very much appreciated
That opening point about target prioritisation is very true, I hadn't given it much thought and perhaps just believed i'd learned to play and gotten better at the game but actually what did I learn? I used to target the strongest enemy and remove the biggest threat first like you said but now I tend to only do that if I feel they pose a bigger threat than the rest present. Now I tend to target the weaker threats and ensure I eliminate them so that I only need to worry about the single strong enemy, putting cover, overwatch and giving me as many turns against them to flank, heal, shoot, buff, uncover etc while they only get one action which will either take a turn to hit that I can dodge without problem or will do some damage but I can prepare/recover from easily.
Yes! This is the sign of another XCOM playthough. I welcome it!
Perhaps you want to stream it this time, for a change, uh ;
And this is why a bunch of enemy mods were made to change up this concept adding additional layers of risk on enemy priorities. Sectoid abductors for example can stun someone with a shot and if they're close enough they will kidnap your soldier like a chosen. Advent commanders reworked have way more health than their weaker counterparts and if you kill their squad first, he gets to summon 2 more squads for free. He also can return fire. Muton elites hit hard but have relatively lower accuracy than normal and while they may look frightening with 16 hp and 4 armor, they typically waste their first turn putting on a personal shield for 4-8 more ablative armor. Honestly the modding community is very enjoyable flipping the game on its head and letting you relearn it all again.
I hope and wish that this video is a sign that a new playthrough series is coming 🤗
I have been thinking about it, but I'm also trying to do more guides and the two goals don't play well together.
Your description of shieldbearers reminds me of the medic mechs in Front Mission 4. Annoying, but any turn they are healing, they are not shooting. But if you see a sensor mech, it must die immediately because it can call in missile attacks from way out of normal range.
Props on that Mimic comparison, wowed indeed. 100% spot on, we are such suckers... I only recently realized how incredibly dangerous the troopers are in the beginning , and that alone changed the early game enough to ensure a successful playthrough. That and making sure to unlock Adv Warfare asap before your squad starts getting too many promotions, so you can maximize on the hidden traits.
95% chance to hit an enemy = miss 50% of the time.
95% chance to dodge an enemy = 100% chance that character is dead.
GREAT VIDEO! 3 playthroughs and I had no idea flash breaks mind control
Glad I could help!
as someone who figured it out after some time of going back on saves, I find this video actually a very interesting analysis, I didn't know the enemies were planned to be this way, I always thought my strategy was just a play style that matched how I like to play most games... also, Sectopods and MECs are still a big pain in the ass if you can't hack them
I first found out about Xcom 2 after seeing Angry Joe review it years ago. Then watching ChristopherOdd’s playthroughs really taught me a ton about how the game works, before I bought it myself. There is quite a difference between Commander difficulty and Legend. My latest Legend difficulty play through (with mods,) had the enemies target my best and highest ranked soldiers, which delayed my hunt the chosen and sabotage ring missions, and resulted in a very difficult assault on the Avenger mission. I’m breezing through it now though.
I did the exact same thing except that I didn't play the game yet. But I will, on Commander difficulty.
I’m playing WOTC as we speak and I found this video so helpful - thank you! Never really used mimic beacons before but I guess I got to get Lily to build me some now!
Good luck, I hope they help get you out of some tight spots!
Crazy I never thought of the flashbang against the alien menace....I used it all the time in Human Threats. Lol. But never the Sections. Damn I feel dumb. Lol
None of us can think of everything on our own, and that's why I do these videos. Even a veteran player might pick up a new trick or two and that's always a good thing!
This is interesting, as someone who played the game a lot on release, this was an early lesson for me, and in fact one that carries through as I play Midnight Suns. I take out the threats first. Early on I realized that the sectoid was more likely to try and resurrect a soldier I killed that directly attack me. That meant if I could take out one or 2 smaller guys that would have targeted me, I was less likely to take damage. What I loved about the game as I played it was often it was the decisions I made BEFORE engagement that would dictate my success. Did I waste a grenade on an opening salvo on small less effective units only to find myself short of an armor shredding grenade later in the mission, one that might have allowed my sniper to take out a tough enemy before they could act. In X-Com, the way you moved, the loadouts you made, your choices of research, all played a key role in how a fight would play out, and I love that about the game.
yooo loved that vaas scene u added lmao fitted perfect
You took the words of my mouth
2:33 it's something i say: If your smart ideas don't work, try something dumb. Because maybe it's your perception of smart and dumb that is wrong
Wait until you play long war 2 and you think "taking 3 snipers on a mission is a terrible idea, right?"
So let due to the rng mechanics, no wonder why people tell me Sniper and Ranger are considered the “best” classes in the game
That Mimic beacon analogy was good.
Wow, new style xD Love the classic memes.
Yup, wanted to try something new and also am making a real effort to put more of my personality, sense of humor, etc. into new videos.
The cool thing about finding XCOM 2 a few days ago is all the awesome tips that exist for me to watch/read!! Thanks!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for the lesson commander Tap 😃
Tapcat this is probably the most usefull video you ever done about xcom2 gg mate
number one: the action economy will kill you before debuffs do
number two: party buffers don't matter if you kill there party
number 3: scary doesn't equal powerful
Now that you mention it, this “mimic beacon tactic” that the enemy uses… playing on our suppositions about tactical priorities… is actually in the story. The Commander- the player- was captured by ADVENT and they used simulators in order to draw out tactical information which they would use to “program” their ADVENT units. So, Firaxis actually managed to give an in-lore explanation as to why our own in-game strategies from XCOM 1 would work against us.
The further brilliance of this is that we can still beat ADVENT in XCOM 2. The elders learned the wrong lessons from the simulations. They thought the strategies in and of themselves were the key to success, not realizing the real prize was the mindset by which those strategies were formulated in the first place. They are trapped by their own suppositions and cannot adapt to the strategies we use against them. We, on the other hand, CAN learn from our mistakes. We can adapt, we can restrategize, we can wipe our suppositions from the board and work off a new thought process. This is why the elders were doomed to fail, and why we were destined to succeed, so long as we never give up.
Very well said!
Just to sum it up, if the enemy is more support oriented (doesn't directly attack on their first turn) just leave em be and focus on the more imminent threats.
dont attack the thing that can be made irrelevant for multiple turns, with just a flashbang. who'd have thought
i'd say using a flash depends on the situation, sectoids will usually waste their first turn on a revive (if possible) and later on go for mindspins, so saving the flashbang for the next turn is a bit better. Some like Priest should be flashbanged sooner since they tend to put someone in stasis on the first turn, which isnt deadly, but losing a guy for a turn is quite annoying.
@@rage3100 I find that I'd prefer a single guy be in stasis to having a single guy shot, 100% of the time if it's a 1-pod scenario. I do my utmost to make sure they actually use their psionics since that wont kill me
This is the single most helpful video of Xcom 2 I've seen. This changed my mind completely and made even harder difficulties possible for me.
It's also an amazing and clever bit of game design! Feels good not having to save scum to get through some previously "unfair" encounters.
Thank you, I'm glad the video was so helpful and I agree that the devs at Firaxis are evil geniuses!
The real trap is expecting it to run on console.
Playing it on Switch is a nightmare, lol. Enormous loading times, freezes, crashes. Luckily I was still able to beat it, but I'll be getting it on PC soon.
It runs pretty good on my ps5. I bought the first game on Switch and yeah it’s definitely ass on there, but no problems on PlayStation
My favorite thing to do is, I take 2 or maybe even 3 Snipers, I find a few good tall spots away from the enemy, and I use a “bounding overwatch” tactic, with cross map sniping.
As for target priority. I always revaluate my threat assessment every turn as the situation unfolds.
“What ability’s do they have including the risk of those abilities? how often have I observed them using said abilities? are they armed? if so is it a ranged weapon? If Melee, can they get to one of my guys on their turn? if not, prioritize ranged attackers” etc
I have seldom fallen for the trap you warned of in the video above.
(My primary issue is that I almost constantly miss “100%” shots, from any range, regardless of my operative’s skills. I do everything perfectly and still lose)
Never discount the effectiveness of enemy grunts, or even mid standard enemies. Especially when they have guns. They always get lucky at the worst time.
And not just in X-COM. This mindset works for everything, most if not all strategy games, halo, etc.
But for it to be effective (particularly if playing a non-turn based game) it must become second nature. If you’re not aware that you’re even doing it, then you can effectively make extremely complex decisions on the fly, seemingly without thinking about it, with less risk of mistakes.
(And even when you make a mistake, the near automatic analysis will let you identify and correct many of those mistakes before they get too out of hand)
And true victory is always achieved in the preparation before battle starts. In X-COM 2 that would be unit position and intel before the enemy detects you, and the combat begins.
“victorious warriors win first and then go to war while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win” Sun Tzu
So the epiphany was recognizing that the most dangerous thing enemies can do is shoot at you (or otherwise damage you). No matter how flashy or devastating an enemy's ability might seem, if an enemy is almost guaranteed to do something *other* than shoot at you on their first active turn, they're not the immediate priority. Nice.
I didn't expect an XCOM 2 vid, but it sure is a welcome surprise!
Love it, cheers Tapcat!
Well done, 1st lesson over, you prioritise the enemies who are actually gonna hit you on the next turn.
On higher difficulties you learn that the ai sends a pod to you whilst another pod is lurking at the edge.
Sending a melee unit to a sectoid for example usually activates the 2nd pod! Always use scouts.
It's also normal (for me) for 1 soldier to get hit or even die in the 1st mission - Gatecrasher. And pretty much normal (for me) I will lose at least 1 soldier in the early missions.
Accept it, it's not a gamebreaker and then you're ready for ironman mode :)
Nice analysis. I stumbled upon this video some time after finishing XCOM2, and you reminded me just how much I liked killing sectoid and seeing three zombies drop with him mere steps from my soldiers. Also, stun lancers were shot on sight. I usually took two snipers when I expected them to show up.
Totally agree that stun lancers are a very high priority target!
This video has been on my "watch later" list since it's been out, finally watched it!
Lol, better late than never!
“Tapcat you clearly intelligent but delusional man.”
For me, I always make sure a trooper is dead nearby the sectoid to hopefully force a zombie rez.
Edit: OMG you madman you played the infamous scene from Deliverance!!
Lol, I couldn't resist although I had to edit that down a LOT to keep from getting a bit too... intense.
In this video, TapCat learns about action economy in turn-based combat.
In all honesty, I had never heard of an action economy until the past year or so. So, yeah, I basically had to get there on my own!
And then you mod the game and make the ai better.
Flank Horror town
Grenades are king in this game. Removes armor, health, and cover all at the same time. Next is armor to soak damage. Then sniper rifles to eliminate the big baddies. Piece of advice name and design your squad mates after your friends and youll care about them so much more.
For the shield bearer, I use my Psion to dominate him, and make him use his shield on MY squad :D
That's pretty sweet!
Yeah but that's mid to late game, it becomes way easier once you get those fancy units
@@Juanirvawhat does that have to do with anything?
@@Juanirva In my experience, the shield bearers and they psionics are not THAT far apart on the gameplay timeline, but that's probably because I pursue psionics as hard as I can. It's my favorite class/unit.
Nice! Back to OG Tapcats stuff.
The real secret to xcom-2 is just use reapers...enemies can't kill you if they are ambushed to death before their turn procs. Pre-wotc it is the same, it just requires a lot more patience without a reaper's crazy recon abilities.
I love the additional classes in WOTC. Reapers are so good for scouting, not to mention the abilities to just destroy enemy squads.
For a moment "the hell you talking about the sectoid murders everyone with their shots in often one hit" but then I realized "ah, right, long war. The enemy is no longer there to make you feel powerful but to actually kill you"
Man you've got thr voice of a late night DJ, soothing and calming haha
I constantly get battered on this game. Never made it to the end. Maybe I need to try your ideas out. Never used the mimic beacon
Thanks for the kind words. I highly recommend trying the mimic beacon, it can really help your troops avoid taking wounds when the sh*t hits the fan.
I have been away from your channel for a while, as I have been playing lots of ARPGs. I come back and love the injection of comedy and such. Nice touches!
Welcome back!
What's really beating me up is missing that 99% probability hit.
Wow! This is real simple advice (the best advice usually is), but I never "flipped my thinking around" like that until now. Thank you TapCat for giving me what I needed to finally beat this monster of a game. The video is at just the right length and is very well written and paced.
Glad it was helpful!
The intro is literally me, I had such strong struggles every mission that I'd consistently lose soldiers every mission without save scumming, until I finally turned the difficulty down from Veteran to Rookie.
Some people are too stubborn to make the switch and get so frustrated that they quit instead. Personally, I think your approach is much better. Pull back and give yourself a chance to learn without constantly getting your head beat in.
This guy said “XCOM: Enemy Unknown” and “XCOM: Enemy Within” like Enemy Within was a standalone.
Me, who didn't play any other xcom game before: I don't have such weaknesses
Ranger with Bladestorm: "Hey guys, just thought I'd come over and join your group patrol"
What a high quality and well delivered xcom 2 video. Subscribed. I will definitely check out the rest of you content, commander.
Thank you, welcome to the channel!
I’ve never seen such high quality gameplay of xcom 2 on a graphic level before
So true. it took longer to figure out some other later game priorities, but once I realized a sectoid will pretty much always just zombify any corpse you give it I always made my first priority to give it a body so it didn't dare try shooting us.
Yeah, I can't overstate how big of a turning point it was for me when I stopped targeting them first. I had been so frustrated up to that point!
So, my main strategy has typically been, keep in teams of 2-3. Each team moves in tandem across the map. Gives me a bit more flexibility when one team runs into the enemy. The team that initially engages will just shoot at anything they can hit. Doesn’t matter what the unit is. Second group will pick off weak targets or armored targets.
It basically lets me get flanking shots every encounter.
"The mimic beacon is one of your most powerful peices of equipment... Sectoids Shieldbearers Archons enemies of that type, they are the mimic beacons..." Damn mans really just turned my entire world upside down.
What's hilarious to me is that Advent gets nerfed by the expansion. Their early unit roster gets expanded with useless things like priests and flamethrower troops. The latter love setting the ground on fire, which is completely inconsequential in 90%+ of situations. The increased unit variety reduces the amount of shooty bois and mechs that show up to fight you, thus reducing hospital times and mortality rate for your squads.
I can't argue with that, I love seeing priests and purifiers in a new pod!
I can totally relate to that statement... Don't be fooled into thinking that you can take what you learn from the past and, apply it to the sequel... You will be humbled.
at some point in playing you get to the level where you abuse the ai so much you can even predict which less agressive enemy is the least likely to attack
Or trick the agressive units in targeting what you want (blow the cover of a stun lancer with a bladestorm ranger nearby so he will most likely try to stab you instead of shooting you)
Man I miss XCOM, I really hope Firaxis is working on XCOM 3 and not only on the XCOM-Marvel project.
As happy as I would be to play a well executed Marvel strategy game, I've also been waiting for XCOM 3 for quite some time and would dearly love to see it sooner rather than later!
Another few tidbits - the Frostbomb will also stop any Sectoid shenanigans the same as flashbanging them (and likewise stops Codex from multiplying)
And the shield from the shieldbearers take additional damage from combat protocol and capacitor discharge (I have not tested bluescreen rounds but I imagine they work too) basically negating the shield entirely. So if you're in a bind and need to deal with a bunch of shielded enemies that are bunched up, fire that discharge and watch all their shields just disappear (and very likely disorient them too)
I've definitely had some difficulties in that game at times and then eventually it became almost like a puzzle where all you have to do is just find the Right moves and you'll get flawless missions almost every time
The whole Deliverance scene made me subscribe. Fucking hilarious lol
I knew about these tactics by playing the game and through trial and error, but, when it was pointed out that these enemies are literal mimic beacons my mind was blown.
holy heck....I was having the same problem as you. But unlike you, I wasn't smart enough to figure out a strat that worked and quit the game. Now I feel inspired to give the game a try again!
Best of luck if you do!
There's a concept in gaming - I learned about it in the tabletop roleplaying scene - called the Action Economy. The more actions a side can do, the more the encounter is tipped in their favor.
If you sink the entire squad's turns into taking down one large enemy, that's all well and good. But the rest of the enemy will proceed to do all of their actions. The enemy's total strength is only marginally diminished. Sometimes, the best course of action is to remove chaff. Thin their numbers, while it's early enough to save yourself headaches.
The elite units presented here are more force multipliers. They make a strong force even stronger. If they're reduced from the outset, there's less force to multiply.
I agree with that. In particular if I'm facing multiple pods and the enemy's numbers are really out of hand, I'm looking for as many kills as I can get just to reduce the number of shots, grenades, etc. that are about to come our way. My typical prioritization goes almost completely out the window at that point. What you're describing can also apply to a single pod with one extremely powerful enemy, of course but it seems like a much stronger effect as the number of bad guys climbs.
Just want to say, I love your guides, I was watching your Iron man commander playthrough in the background during my own, and I beat it yesterday, so I currently have 2 more commander achievements and the legend playthrough along with the 10 achievements for war of the chosen, which I've watched nothing on, so I get that blissful learning experience again, gonna run through WOTC on veteran iron man first time for stakes.
I have to say that I always enjoyed this game, but the time always got me down and I never finished the game. BUT I watched some of your videos (again, because I do enjoy the game) and you got me to download and install it again. I watched your base build guide, was still a little lost (enough to get some enjoyment out of figuring a few things out) and DID finish the game last night. What a blast. For me... I'm great at the combat and tactical stuff but the overall game strategy was always a bit off-putting. Got it figured out and thanks for the help. What a fun last couple missions!!! I had no idea. LOL
Never underestimate defensive and utility options in this game. Battle scanners are one of the most OP items anywhere, so are rangers (REAPERS!!!) that can stay in stealth even if it's just for their eyes. One of the dirtiest ship defenses I've pulled of late in a LW campaign involved an undetected reaper spotting for two snipers to destroy the objective and taking off leaving upwards of 20 aliens to shake their fists in anger. The double claymore 12 man kill being the other highlight.
You have access to things like rockets and squadsight that outrange the enemy vision and the battle scanner will allow you to see without activating the enemy pod. You can get effectively a second, maybe third ambush each mission if you can spot enemies, put your squad on overwatch then hit them all and blow their cover with a rocket. That sectoid will be highly ineffective if a sniper kills him before the fight starts from squadsight range while the troopers and commanders die or take heavy damage from squad fire as they run for cover. I know XCOM2 forces you to move quickly with a lot of time constraints but which is faster, activating a pod now and taking 3 turns to clean them up or spending one turn setting up, activating it next turn and killing them all before they get to cover?
I could get into uses for hunker down especially if you send one soldier to collect an objective in time and they are in a dangerous position, smoke and frost grenades as well, but this comment is long enough already.