Support NeoGAF

[Sullichin]

First hostage rescue mission. Got the minimum of 6 rescued, moved one of my dudes and it triggered some shapeshifter alien appearing, who immediately killed me in one hit.

What the fuck am I supposed to do?

 

[Xamtheking]

First hostage rescue mission. Got the minimum of 6 rescued, moved one of my dudes and it triggered some shapeshifter alien appearing, who immediately killed me in one hit.

What the fuck am I supposed to do?

That guy is scripted in, depending on difficulty you might have 1 or 2 in that mission
How the mission normally goes down is people ignore the civvies and just shoot the aliens, because killing all them nasties wins the mission as long as at least 6 civilians are alive
Just kill the bad people

 

[Incendiary]

ALSO! This may seem obvious, but acid eats through floors. I discovered this when I acid'd some aliens on the roof, who ran into the room below, and then halfway through the firefight I was interrupted when everybody in the room was covered in acid.

Haha, yeah I found this out when I acid grenade'd a MEC on a roof and it died, then two turns later my Ranger who was hiding in the building below got a nasty surprise as acid + the MEC's corpse dropped on his head. It was pretty goofy because the corpse landed in an upright position so it looked like the MEC was alive again.

PCSes drop as loot sometimes but they are quite rare.

As for Intel, you can select it as a wait bonus in your Resistance HQ or you can Skulljack/Skullmine Advent troops on missions with your Specialist

I've been getting mostly Elerium cores as loot, with occasionally a weapon part. Not that I'm complaining, my Proving Ground has been tossing out all sorts of good shit with the cores.

But man, fuck me. I haven't used the Skulljack at all outside of the mission where you had to use it. Didn't even think you could get Intel that way. Guess I'm arming my Specialists with Skulljacks now.

 

[Sblargh]

First hostage rescue mission. Got the minimum of 6 rescued, moved one of my dudes and it triggered some shapeshifter alien appearing, who immediately killed me in one hit.

What the fuck am I supposed to do?

Don't rescue civilians unless it's your very first action on the turn, so you have the entire squad to kill it in one turn.

If a faceless activate automatically on their turn, it gets a free attack, if you activate it on your turn, it doesn't. Which is why I try to always use my first move each turn to save a civilian, actually hoping to find the faceless.

 

[Weebos]

First hostage rescue mission. Got the minimum of 6 rescued, moved one of my dudes and it triggered some shapeshifter alien appearing, who immediately killed me in one hit.

What the fuck am I supposed to do?

Scanning or killing all the other aliens will reveal those guys so you don't have to facecheck them.

 

[Sullichin]

That guy is scripted in, depending on difficulty you might have 1 or 2 in that mission
How the mission normally goes down is people ignore the civvies and just shoot the aliens, because killing all them nasties wins the mission as long as at least 6 civilians are alive
Just kill the bad people

Don't rescue civilians unless it's your very first action on the turn, so you have the entire squad to kill it in one turn.

Ah I'll start over and try that. With the aliens killing a civilian seemingly every turn I figured I should handle rescuing them first.

 

[mbpm1]

Sword inna face. Disable that, assholes!

Same, but then I get blasted by Andromedons

i've seen them once and they all died first turn because they crowded around each other, ripe for grenades. Literally 1 Grenadier killed them because of the Salvo ability not costing an action if explosives are used on first move.

Second time I saw them I was on a terror mission and ran my concealment ranger over about 5 feet and spotted them. Set up an ambush and let them have it. Felt good to surprise them for a change.

First hostage rescue mission. Got the minimum of 6 rescued, moved one of my dudes and it triggered some shapeshifter alien appearing, who immediately killed me in one hit.

What the fuck am I supposed to do?

Blow up all the civilians, don't save anyone.

Well basically I think you're supposed to not use all your turns saving anyone since if you stop close by one they will reveal themselves

 

[Incendiary]

This game can be really tough sometimes, but every once in a while you just nail a mission and it feels incredible

I had a nearly flawless mission where I ambushed a pod of three tough enemies without them getting a single attack off - then I acid grenade'd a pod of three Vipers who all died from Acid Burn before they got a shot off. Then the last pod attacked my Mimic Beacon and I was able to kill 2 out of 3 - the last guy got to throw a grenade, otherwise I would have had a perfect mission that was ranked "difficult." Made me feel deserving of the title of XCOM Commander.

 

[Admodieus]

I had a nearly flawless mission where I ambushed a pod of three tough enemies without them getting a single attack off - then I acid grenade'd a pod of three Vipers who all died from Acid Burn before they got a shot off. Then the last pod attacked my Mimic Beacon and I was able to kill 2 out of 3 - the last guy got to throw a grenade, otherwise I would have had a perfect mission that was ranked "difficult." Made me feel deserving of the title of XCOM Commander.

Yeah, my go-to strategy is now overwatch ambush + grenade/rocket launcher to light the candle for the first pod I see and it's just the best. Sometimes I even use Aid Protocol to give my grenadier an overwatch shot as well, just for fun.

 

[MonorailCat]

Is there a way to show enemy health in numbers?
On larger enemies it can get quite annoying to count all the little blips just to know, if it is a guaranteed kill (the blinking health on targeting only shows max damage)

 

[Incendiary]

Something I forgot to mention: sometimes I think the AI is smarter than I give it credit for. Was doing a routine "protect the relay" mission and all the enemies concentrated fire on my best soldier - a Grenadier Major who fucks everything up. I got out of the mission intact except for she was wounded - and is now out of commission so I have to do a facility mission without my best soldier.

These aliens are tricksy, I tell ya.

Just got fucked on my 4th attempt. Got caught setting up an ambush and it all went to shit. FUCK.

Before I start a new one, please can I have some strategy tips?

Not like in-game, but stuff on the world map, as I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. Basically what and when should I scan certain stuff? I feel like I'm wasting most of my days.

Thanks!

Make contacts as much as possible - radio relays help as well. Try and get 3 or 4 Engineers quickly, having a lot of guys in your base helps immensely when clearing out later floors and boosting your power/available contacts. Also scan for supply raids - they unlock non-timed missions that you start in concealment and if you don't destroy everything you get a lot of loot/supplies/etc to help with building.

Also be picky as to which dark events you counteract based on what scanning locations you have available - for example if you have a supply scan on the board and one of the dark events is "supply drop reduced by 50%" you can let that one go and focus on something else, then scan the supplies already on the board to make up for it.

Hope that helps a little!

 

[Salty Catfish]

Yeah, my go-to strategy is now overwatch ambush + grenade/rocket launcher to light the candle for the first pod I see and it's just the best. Sometimes I even use Aid Protocol to give my grenadier an overwatch shot as well, just for fun.

Fuck yeah, kicking things off with a rocket is the only way to fly. The flamethrower heavy weapon is tempting but I feel like I use a rocket every single mission and it's great.

 

[Falk]

Yeah, Engineers actually translate directly into (a limited) income thanks to the excavation mechanic. Getting 2-3 early feeds into itself, whereas if you have a bunch of scientists early all you do is tech faster into things you can't afford.

 

[Khoryos]

Fuck yeah, kicking things off with a rocket is the only way to fly. The flamethrower heavy weapon is tempting but I feel like I use a rocket every single mission and it's great.

I've been getting some good mileage out of the Shredder - you think the rocket is a better bet?

 

[bjaelke]

Is there a way to show enemy health in numbers?
On larger enemies it can get quite annoying to count all the little blips just to know, if it is a guaranteed kill (the blinking health on targeting only shows max damage)

[MOD] Show Health Values

 

[Lanrutcon]

Yeah, ok. The holoduke is kind of silly. 100% they're going to patch it.

 

[Salty Catfish]

I've been getting some good mileage out of the Shredder - you think the rocket is a better bet?

Right now my only heavy weapon options are the normal rocket or the flamethrower so I'm not sure. I looked it up though and that sounds better since the damage decrease would easily be compensated by the damage buff for all the overwatch dudes.

 

[Rhaknar]

I must be really shit at the game because I struggled with this first blacksite mission even with 6 guys and some exo suits and whatnot lol. The room where

Spoiler

the vial

was full of soldiers and a mech was a bitch, I couldnt NOT trigger 2 groups.

Lots of reloads but no deaths in the end (becase all the reloads were from full on wipes lol), carried a unconscious rookie to evac

6 wounded and/or gravely wounded from that. in fact right now I dont have enough healthy soldiers lol >_<

 

[Lister]

[MOD] Show Health Values

So awesome. It's almost like we make a wish on GAF and the next day if not the next hour, there's a mod for it. This game is going to be whatever you want it to be, and because of that it's likely to have very long legs. Dare I say, SKyrim level of legs?

 

[mbpm1]

So awesome. It's almost like we make a wish on GAF and the next day if not the next hour, there's a mod for it. This game is going to be whatever you want it to be, and because of that it's likely to have very long legs. Dare I say, SKyrim level of legs?

Sectopod level legs

I must be really shit at the game because I struggled with this first blacksite mission even with 6 guys and some exo suits and whatnot lol. The room where

Spoiler

the vial

was full of soldiers and a mech was a bitch, I couldnt NOT trigger 2 groups.

Lots of reloads but no deaths in the end (becase all the reloads were from full on wipes lol), carried a unconscious rookie to evac

5 wounded and/or gravely wounded from that. in fact right now I dont have enough healthy soldiers lol >_<

It depends on your loadout.

One thing I like is that even at near?-endgame I'm still having to carefully consider who I'm bringing along and what I'm putting on them. I've had missions lost and won based on one soldier having mindshield or not.

It's almost never a bad thing to have grenadiers though

 

[Sullichin]

Love this game and keep thinking about it at work. I hope my posts here go from asking questions / being utterly confused and scared to continue, to helping other people...

I don't want to fuck myself over with the strategy layer by ignoring important things. I found this pretty hard to manage in XCOM EW with the satellites. Eventually everything came crashing down. The equivalent here seems to be scanning new sites, but I'm a little confused how it works. Also don't want to focus on the wrong research, if its possible to build myself into a corner. I think I've only researched decrypting a data pad, and then went on to magnetic weapons, because I assume it's the next tier of weapons from the beginning.

So, is there any sort of general guide I can reference? I don't mind starting the game over again and I'm sure I will again... but i'd rather avoid some of the trial and error of figuring out what's important. It's pretty overwhelming!

 

[Incendiary]

I must be really shit at the game because I struggled with this first blacksite mission even with 6 guys and some exo suits and whatnot lol. The room where

Spoiler

the vial

was full of soldiers and a mech was a bitch, I couldnt NOT trigger 2 groups.

Lots of reloads but no deaths in the end (becase all the reloads were from full on wipes lol), carried a unconscious rookie to evac

5 wounded and/or gravely wounded from that. in fact right now I dont have enough healthy soldiers lol >_<

My first blacksite mission I did with a squad of five and no weapon/armor upgrades except for a better sword. It was a biiiiitch but I felt like a true commander by the end of it because I was employing different strategies based on different situations/pod encounters.

But there's nothing like having to decide to kill the soldier you customized and named after yourself, because he's mind-controlled and if you don't put him down you're probably going to face a total squad wipe and lose the entire mission when the vial is in sight. Didn't even get a proper burial, had to leave my body behind because I had to quick evac before more reinforcements showed up.

But yeah, those missions are tough. Even with good equipment, the pod designs are really interesting this game because you have to prioritize what you target, and God help you if you activate two at the same time.

 

[Sciz]

The title of the thread is a reference to Faith No More, isn't it ?

I've been assuming it was a shoutout to this song.

 

[TC McQueen]

Love this game and keep thinking about it at work. I hope my posts here go from asking questions / being utterly confused and scared to continue, to helping other people...

I don't want to fuck myself over with the strategy layer by ignoring important things. I found this pretty hard to manage in XCOM EW with the satellites. Eventually everything came crashing down. The equivalent here seems to be scanning new sites, but I'm a little confused how it works. Also don't want to focus on the wrong research, if its possible to build myself into a corner. I think I've only researched decrypting a data pad, and then went on to magnetic weapons, because I assume it's the next tier of weapons from the beginning.

So, is there any sort of general guide I can reference? I don't mind starting the game over again and I'm sure I will again... but i'd rather avoid some of the trial and error of figuring out what's important. It's pretty overwhelming!

Here's the optimal facility build order for the early game:
-Build power room in middle of first layer
-Build Resistance Comms
-If you have 2+ engineers, assign one to the power room
-Build Guerrilla Tactics School

 

[mbpm1]

But there's nothing like having to decide to kill the soldier you customized and named after yourself, because he's mind-controlled and if you don't put him down you're probably going to face a total squad wipe and lose the entire mission when the vial is in sight. Didn't even get a proper burial, had to leave my body behind because I had to quick evac before more reinforcements showed up.

Very metaphorical

 

[Weebos]

The Advanced Warfare Center is the one that gives your soldiers random extra perks right?

I had it in my first campaign and got the perks all the time, in my second one I have had it from the beginning of the game and have only seen the perk popup once, am I missing something?

 

[Khoryos]

The Advanced Warfare Center is the one that gives your soldiers random extra perks right?

I had it in my first campaign and got the perks all the time, in my second one I have had it from the beginning of the game and have only seen the perk popup once, am I missing something?

Only the favour of RNGesus.

 

[Archaix]

The Advanced Warfare Center is the one that gives your soldiers random extra perks right?

I had it in my first campaign and got the perks all the time, in my second one I have had it from the beginning of the game and have only seen the perk popup once, am I missing something?

Is it related to whether or not the center is staffed when you get a promotion? Just throwing it out there, no idea if true and the tooltip only says that staffing an engineer/gremlin will reduce wound recovery time. I do know I got shredder on my shotgun ranger ridiculously early in the skill tree though and that was pretty amazing.

 

[mbpm1]

The Advanced Warfare Center is the one that gives your soldiers random extra perks right?

I had it in my first campaign and got the perks all the time, in my second one I have had it from the beginning of the game and have only seen the perk popup once, am I missing something?

Only had it happen once during 25+ hours so far

I kind of wish there were more possible bonuses looking at it. Random bonuses are fun

I'm sure a mod will fix that though

 

[Poodlestrike]

Only the favour of RNGesus.

.

This game REALLY punishes you for trying to have protracted firefights... between the turn limits and all the wacky new abilities the Aliens have, you really do need to be pushing hard all the time. Sectoids are unbelievably dangerous if you leave them sitting there for a few turns, but if you take the initiative and force them out of cover and flank and whatnot they collapse like a house of cards.

 

[Sulik2]

First hostage rescue mission. Got the minimum of 6 rescued, moved one of my dudes and it triggered some shapeshifter alien appearing, who immediately killed me in one hit.

What the fuck am I supposed to do?

Battlescanners reveal the shape shifters too.

 

[Sullichin]

Here's the optimal facility build order for the early game:
-Build power room in middle of first layer
-Build Resistance Comms
-If you have 2+ engineers, assign one to the power room
-Build Guerrilla Tactics School

Thanks! Can't recall exactly what I did.. believe I have resistance comms built and am waiting for gurilla tactics to finish, first month just finished.


Is there any way to make sure that your squad won't fire on a mind-controlled friendly in overwatch?

Getting the hang of dealing with sectoids.. the strategy to have a dead advent soldier or civilian around so they reanimate them instead of trying mind control is pretty useful. I'm also quite happy when they decide to panic or disorient a soldier instead. I've actually had a panicking soldier shoot out of turn, kill an enemy and run away to a pretty safe place. But I've seen them do some stupid shit too.

Battlescanners reveal the shape shifters too.

Sweet. I don't think I even have that available for research yet.

 

[iosefe]

First campaign is pretty much done

Doing the avenger defense down to my last 3 guys and the game freezes


Time to reroll on Easy mode

 

[Calcium]

Ugh, the Avatar Project just jumped up 2 squares in less than five minutes. Give me a damn chance to fix things before they escalate. I sincerely hate this mechanic.

 

[Weebos]

Only the favour of RNGesus.

That must be it, I lost that first campaign too, oh well.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Thanks! Can't recall exactly what I did.. believe I have resistance comms built and am waiting for gurilla tactics to finish, first month just finished.


Is there any way to make sure that your squad won't fire on a mind-controlled friendly in overwatch?

Getting the hang of dealing with sectoids.. the strategy to have a dead advent soldier or civilian around so they reanimate them instead of trying mind control is pretty useful. I'm also quite happy when they decide to panic or disorient a soldier instead. I've actually had a panicking soldier shoot out of turn, kill an enemy and run away to a pretty safe place. But I've seen them do some stupid shit too.



Sweet. I don't think I even have that available for research yet.

You do, you get them from the Advent trooper research

Plus, though they don't get much of a boost from the Grenade launcher, they do get launched from it all the same, so if you stick them in their utility slot you can launch them across the map.

 

[Sullichin]

You do, you get them from the Advent trooper research

Plus, though they don't get much of a boost from the Grenade launcher, they do get launched from it all the same, so if you stick them in their utility slot you can launch them across the map.

So that would replace my grenadier's grenade? Hmm. I don't know about that. She was wounded last mission but totally saved my ass the one before, blowing shit up.

 

[Poodlestrike]

So that would replace my grenadier's grenade? Hmm. I don't know about that. She was wounded last mission but totally saved my ass the one before, blowing shit up.

No, no, I mean the middle slot. Between the two grenades.

Wait, is that linked to the first armor upgrade?

 

[mbpm1]

Middle slot is by default locked, yeah.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Middle slot is by default locked, yeah.

Ah, right.

 

[Archaix]

No, no, I mean the middle slot. Between the two grenades.

Wait, is that linked to the first armor upgrade?

Yes, and second upgrade for the exo suit.

 

[Calcium]

Waiting to establish contact with a new region and the damn Avatar meter jumps up yet another notch. That is 3 in less than 10 minutes. What the hell, man. I am beyond fucked.

 

[Sullichin]

Yes, and second upgrade for the exo suit.

Oh damn. I'm researching magnetic weapons.. should I / could I have researched an armor upgrade first?

Can you equip upgraded armor on rookies? Man, I have so many questions about this game.

 

[Shake Appeal]

a specialist who is mostly medic, but have haywire instead of revival.

I was going back and forth on gremlin heal/combat protocol. Then I discovered that combat protocol does a guaranteed four damage with a gremlin upgrade.

Which is... amazingly powerful at the stage I'm at.

 

[mbpm1]

Oh damn. I'm researching magnetic weapons.. should I / could I have researched an armor upgrade first?

Can you equip upgraded armor on rookies? Man, I have so many questions about this game.

Both are good for their own reasons imo

Yes.

I was going back and forth on gremlin heal/combat protocol. Then I discovered that combat protocol does a guaranteed four damage with a gremlin upgrade.

Which is... amazingly powerful at the stage I'm at.

Guaranteed damage is v nice in this game.

Fuck off with your dodging bs Codex

 

[Palmer_v1]

Same. My first campaign, I had it pop 3 times before i bailed.

I've now played a decent bit further, and haven't had a single bonus ability trigger.

 

[Madouu]

My biggest question so far is how much time can I afford missions to stay up on the map for before shit happens. Do they disappear after a certain amount of time?

 

[Gaz_RB]

Archon's man....they take so much damage and they are so hard to hit. Worst combination.

Also the Ranger's Conceal ability saves lives.

Waiting to establish contact with a new region and the damn Avatar meter jumps up yet another notch. That is 3 in less than 10 minutes. What the hell, man. I am beyond fucked.

What is it sitting at now?

Mine has been consistently about 2 pips from completion. I kind of like it as it keeps me focused on entering new territory and expanding communication. And hitting Black Sites, which is always fun.

My biggest question so far is how much time can I afford missions to stay up on the map for before shit happens. Do they disappear after a certain amount of time?

Black Sites are there forever. The other missions expire really quickly.

 

[mbpm1]

Archon's man....they take so much damage and they are so hard to hit. Worst combination.

Also the Ranger's Conceal ability saves lives.

Don't forget BLAZING PINIONS! where they fly up 700 feet into the sky and become unhittable.

 

[Onimusha78]

When do you unlock the attitude options? Kinda pissed that the ten or so characters I created and gave backstories/personalities, are having them be contradicted by their attitudes. For example the guy who had his wife and children murdered in front of him is always smiling like an idiot.

Also is there anyway to have character be promoted into a particular class or is it just random?