I literally have played it the same way cuz I thought that's how it was going to be stay close together and high ground I'm only at the part where you get your first engineer and so far the invaluable member of my team has been a sharp shooter just the fact that they can shoot from so far away has been incredible
@@avirei98 get squadsight and for your second sharpshooter skill get the one that allows you to use overwatch while using squadsight. Youll thank me later.
Secret Xcom2 combat zone tactics: 1.- Starting your mission check the bounds of the Area, and your objectives waypoints. That way you can plan your path and avoid being surprised from behind. -.- Separated, but not alone, spread your soldiers, but within linesight of each other, this is to minimize the damage from AoE attacks, to protect your soldiers from snake attacks, heal. And if you position your men well, the enemy will struggle to find good cover and they tend to group together...ready to be blown up by a grenade. 3.- Have a scout ranger, this soldier´s mission is to recon the area in search of enemies and don´t trigger them until you are ready (reloaded, well positioned etc.). Be careful, this scout must not be spotted until the very end at least, and avoid making the mistake of advancing your other troops too close so that they spot the enemy, that would ruin your "ambush". 4.- Speaking of ambushes, if you try to ambush multiples enemy pods (if you feel confident you can pull this off), the first one to react will always be the one that got attacked, so the overwatch shoots can be wasted in that group (looking at snipers). 5- Give your sharpshooters the grapping hook. This gives them 3 main advantages a) The grappling hook doesn´t cost a move, so they can get into position and shoot inmediatelly. b) They tend to lag behind, so it can help minimize this c) They can get into high positions and get shot bonuses. 6.- Having a hard shot? Throw a grenade. This does 2 of three things. a) Garanteed damage. b) Destroys cover, so that other soldiers have an easier shot. c) If the enemy lives at the end of turn, they must relocate, possibly wasting a turn. 7.- Hacking towers only work while concealed. So get those bonuses before your ambush. 8.- Mind controll your enemy. Not only you get a powerful ally and eliminate an enemy, but they also will attract enemy fire and reposition themselves. The perfect scapegoat. 9.- Mimic beacons can be put behind cover, so that they can endure more shots. 10.- Killing a 3 health enemy is better than damaging 10 health another one. Getting one guy less to shot at you will improve your chances of survival, even if it is a weak one.
@@PawanSingh-vu4yx It was a glorious 56 hours I never knew I always wanted I also never hit reload on a game so many times I let go of some soldiers cause its unavoidable The ones I saved became my main 2 squads
My first campaign ever (not invcluding the one i lost after 4 missions) I had the most clutch moment. Soldiers wiped many times, Avatar project was gonna finish in 3 hours and I sold my entire inventory to buy rookies for one last ditch attempt at a facility. I eventually have 1 guy left, facing a single enemy trooper. Both miss each other twice before i manage to shoot him, plant the bomb and escape. Avatar stopped. Then I managed to climb RIGHT BACK UP, failing missions only to save lives and increase exp, eventually having god tier team and winning big. My first play through was amazing. Purely amazing.
This feels like an in-game combat training option. I imagine there being a cutscene where all your troops enter a lecture hall, sits down, you come up on stage and then the cutscene goes into this video Excellent work! Greetings from XCOM’s B (Bad) Company, 1st Recon platoon
I think the biggest difference is that XCOM EU encouraged you to play safe and slow, moving methodically through the map and dealing with one enemy group at a time. But in XCOM 2, most missions have a timed or fragile (or both!) objective that you have to race to secure/protect/extract, which forces you to play more aggressively and recklessly.
I don't know if I am the only one who have notice that but I feel like the game is punishing you for save scumming. Every time I reload a combat turn to get everything perfect, the first guy to shoot, usually a soldier with 80+~90+% to hit, will ALWAYS miss even though he hit the first time and I do the exact same thing than before saving/loading... Maybe that's just me, but in order to make him hit again I have to play my turn order in a complete different way. And I think it's not impossible the game store the information of reloading a turn multiple times and punishes you for that :/
I never imagined when I recorded this that it would still be as popular as it is 7 years later. I think it speaks to how well XCOM 2 has endured as well as how much new players tend to struggle with it.
@@TapCat indeed, I recently played x-com enemy within and than replay x-com 2. Struggle hard enough above Normal to have needed a refreshing when the opposition was forcing me to check out a tactic guide. Who rests is eventually resting in his skills. Great video.
Every time I play a turn- based strategy game, I always find myself wishing "If only this was more like Xcom 2". The devs really nailed the gameplay mechanics.
Same thing happened to me literally yesterday. My specialist was down to 2 health, an alien took a flanking shot at close range and... missed. I really thought she was coming home in a body bag and was quite grateful for the miss!
in the same turn I had an assault being flanked and shot by about 2 enemies and he missed both shots of a rapid shot with 99% chance to hit (it was actually not in this exact order)
TapCat simply the game was cheating for you.... Check my xcom video about why xcom is a shit, turn on subs. There my last 1hp soldier was missed several times on LEGENDARY...
The one object that I try to carry from day one in the campaign is the flashbang. It will disable sectoids' psi abilities. Later in the campaign when you encounter codexes and avatars, flashbangs will prevent them from teleporting and cloning. Keep it with you at all times, it's amazing whether you use it as an opener or as a disabler.
Þórarinn Snorrason I use when there's distance between me and the enemy and avoid using it on sectoids cause they don't shoot (unless flanking) and use psi instead preventing them would just give them a shot on you
Well, in vanilla, you should absolutely abuse sectoid's horrible AI by letting it summon while you get closer and to the flanks. On the other hand I run a mod that makes them smarter, so now they use their other abilities more and even sometimes use their pistol!
I was stuck on a mission for quite a while after watching this I got through it! I was clumping my groups together and not taking out the right enemies first. I survived with no casualties. Thank you.
A great tactic is to use a ranger with stealth abilities as a forward scout. Know where the the enemy pods are so you can isolate them and take them out. If you need to, use the ranger's shadowstrike ability to get a big hit and then conceal them again afterwards.
Even though I had put real thought into the content and felt like it was the best advice I could pass on while keeping it short, I was actually a little anxious about the title for fear that people would think it was nothing but clickbait. Glad to hear you liked it, hope it helps!
I think all of us want to land those shots and there will be times when we have to grit our teeth after missing a crucial shot. That said, the random factor in combat keeps the game dynamic and unpredictable so I'm okay with the system overall.
Thanks for all of your guides, finished the game on commander difficulty a few days ago and will soon move onto a legend playthrough (which as you can imagine i'm dreading) couldn't of done it without you!
Thank you, I really appreciate the positive feedback. Also, very happy to hear that you've been able to successfully work your way up through Commander, because that is already a high hurdle to clear. Best of luck on Legend!
Under this quarantine, I have been making use of my time to catch up on some games in my back catalog. Chief among them, obviously, is XCOM. Starting this game the first time, it felt like I was bashing my head against a wall, but in the most fun way possible. I had literally no idea what I was doing. Then I discovered your channel. Fast forward about a week, I am moving into the final mission and I gotta thank you. I never thought facing down three archons, an andromedon and a gatekeeper would be something that would make me say " you guys are gonna need more firepower." You have made me a better tactician. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for these vids. I was about to give up on Xcom a few days ago but stuck with it, tried some new tactics and build orders, and made it much, much further. BUT, one bad mission yesterday wiped out my entire 6 person squad of my most experienced soliders, and now I need to start again (ironman mode).
Ironman mode really can be brutal, can't it? It makes victories so much more rewarding but failed missions can be so incredibly punishing. Best of luck in the new campaign!
For when to use grenades, rockets, and other cover destroying explosives, always go for groups first. If not, go for the next best option, target enemies on top hollow buildings , not only will the explosion itself deal damage, but the fall the enemy takes will deal a decent amount of damage (plus, it's one of the only opportunities to find some funny ragdolls, as enemies will go floppy once they go airborne). Finally, enemies behind high cover, for possible cover destruction or chip damage.
Everyone should also keep in mind that your ranger has access to the deadliest weapon in the game, their sword. I found that for my playstyle in particular that having two of them on the squad makes the game feel more like enemy unknown
Rangers and sharpshooters are broken as hell like imagine you start talking and the guy next to you in a few milliseconds pulls out a katana slices you in half then puts the katana back in their sheath Then sharpshooters have the ability to shoot everything they see after using a free action to shoot something
Hi TapCat. This is a superb high-level tactical guide, thanks for posting. I've been chewing through your content like a sharpshooter in Kill Zone, it's all really good stuff.
Man, years late I know, but this is shockingly helpful advice. I found XCOM EU easy on normal difficulty, but was struggling with XCOM 2. I watched this video and it all seemed like relatively obvious advice, nothing I didn't know, but as soon as I conciously applied these tips it was like I fucking unlocked the whole game somehow. I mean, I also learned a lot from my repeated failures beforehand, but this took it to the next level. Thanks, dude.
Thank you. I really struggled with this guide because a really detailed video would probably be an hour long and general advice seemed so... general. In the end, I felt like there was enough here to help at least some people get over the hump but I totally get what you're saying about it sounding obvious at first glance. I'm glad that it you ultimately found it helpful!
ussually when i spread out i tend to awake more enemies as the vision increases and once one member is seen they are all seen. is one of the major flaws in their game design.
DS YAMO you just need to be far enough away that you aren’t grouping multiple people in aoe of a grenade. So you shouldn’t be that far apart. Plus there’s always scout build rangers to give you an idea where enemies are and how to avoid them. And battle scanners
Daniel Worden unless you trigger a pod when you go in for a 100% crit flank on a ranger. But a maxed out ranger can likely survive one turn due to the dodging one free hit with implacable. Plus there is always mimic beacons. Unless you trigger a gatekeeper or sectapod pod or something nasty from one of the dlcs ( god help you if its alien ruler. )But if such things are possibly in play honestly just let the Muton or whatever it is you were trying to flank get a turn it’s not worth getting something nasty into play. If you are facing things that threatening most flankable enemies won’t one shot anyone because you should have solid armor at that point. Well except maybe one of the chosen but if you let one of the chosen stay around that long you’ve got bigger issues then a possible squad wipe.
Honestly the best piece of advice in the whole video was right at the end. All of the worst disasters I've had playing Xcom came about because I got greedy.
Decided to give this game another go as I came from XCom EU and kept getting ruined. Enemy priority is the biggest turn point and now I’m enjoying the game and rekindling my love of the series. Such a huge learning curve. Also research priorities played a big part, don’t let the game tell you how to play, play how you want to play. Great video and I have learnt even more watching it.
I first played Xcom’s to over a year ago. And around the time I bought it I watched this video for the first time. I took multiple things on what it said to heart and found myself being wildly successful. Thanks for putting this out there for newer players like myself.
Another tip to consider is that order matters!! Look at all your troops and try decide which order of action will give the best results. Maybe destroy the cover with a grenade before shooting with a specialist. Try killing an enemy with a ranger first instead of using 1 of 3 precious sniper rounds.
TapCat oh man... Orphan gave me the PTSD. Hardest boss they've created so far, I'm thinking. Even harder than Darkeater Midir.. because Orphan has no weakness.
Grenadiers with holotargeting, blue screen rounds, and chain shot are deadly to gatekeepers. Soften it up with one taking a singe shot to start shredding and get holotargeting applied and the other chain shots for massive damage. Pretty much anyone else on the squad can finish up what's left. Mimic beacons are also very helpful if you need a turn to set that up.
Hi, such a great video! I am about a month in and want to offer up a couple caveats for new players. My first playthrough on veteran ended instantly. I had no idea when the avatar meter was full, you actually lost the game. It was so brutal already and after only a couple hours of gameplay, there was no way this could mean I lost. ITS True! When I saw this, it basically made me salivate for being good enough to play legend, ironman. Currently I am unashamed to say I save before every mission, and scope out every possible avenue for success. Like you said in the beginning of the video, Learn ALL THE TACTICS. I consider this training for when it really counts. I think some people get so caught up in pride that they wont actually learn this incredibly in depth tactical combat game. Again, probably the best solid advice I have seen in the wide xcom tactical guides world, such an important video! I agree wholeheartedly with all the strategy.
Awesome post, thank you so much both for watching and sharing your experience with XCOM 2 so far. I think a lot of gamers get trained to play a game once and move on. XCOM 2 is more a long journey than it is a sprint to a destination. It will reward multiple plays by those who try to learn and improve with each iteration. And if you invest enough of yourself to beat the game on Legend Ironman, I think you'll find it one of the most satisfying gaming accomplishments of your life. Good luck, Commander!
Just bought XCOM2 and XCOM2: War of the Chosen, played the original XCOM many years ago and I see alot of similarities and improvements. Really like the high level strategic view advise of how to tackle the turn based combat for XCOM 2. Followed the KISS method to the T... Keep it simple shooter.. Good job.
If I ever play another War of the Chosen campaign, I'd consider doing some tips videos. I just wouldn't trust myself to make any now because it's been so long since I played.
just when it feels like im geting good the fucking snake show up. i move they attack, i reload they attack, i fart behind a tree they attack. what is the best way to take care of the fucking things. thanks and great video
azrael80304 Something I learned to do is get a heavy in a position it will likely attack him by binding. have specialist increase his defence. If it falls for it, hit with a ranger and finish it off with heavy. Don't suppress it, it's more likely to use poison and tongue ability.
phantom komodo Same here. Game has been ruined in my opinion, make easy setting easy not just slightly less hard-core. Most comments online say the same.
Drag a sharpshooter around with you for the first few missions until they earn Lighting Hands. (Right path, third one down?) After that, give them Armor Piercing Rounds and they'll be your single most powerful soldier. The first time I got to the section of the game with Sectopods (and the only time, I haven't played much), my gunslinger was really the only reason no one died.
Thank you TapCat. This very video (especially Tip #3 Know thy enemy) helped me from getting crushed on beginner to breezing through on ironman Commander. Yes after watching some of your videos I made it trough on I/C on my second play through ^^
TapCat, not only did your videos inspire me to try Commander Ironman in XCOM 2, this one in particular got me to realize that my current game a) wasn't a failure and b) was starting to derail because I was being careless and relying on Veteran level tactics. I decided to take a different approach and keep going, and not only did I manage to salvage the mission that I thought was going to outright fail, I have continued to dominate (for the most part... lmao) as I did when this campaign began. So thanks!
Wow, that's fantastic, I'm glad to hear that you turned around what looked like a hopeless situation! Good luck with the Ironman campaign, Commander level is no joke but it sounds like you're on track for a big win.
Thanks dude! Actually, that campaign did wind up failing anyway (had a "forced retreat" mission go bad and basically my entire A team was going to be captured no matter what), but I started over right away and now I am pleased to say that... I finally won! Whoo-hoo! xD Such an amazing feeling to finally conquer this freaking game... Now that that's over, I am going to play around with some experimental team setups that I had been thinking about, just for fun. And maybe one day... Legend Ironman? o.O It could happen... lol
hey tap cat. just subscribed to your channel Ik this isn't related to the video but I wanted to say that for having such a low sub count your video quality is amazing commentary isn't to dull or to energetic in a way that's off putting and your advice especially with xcom has been extremely helpfull. keep up the awsome work and thank you
Thank you very much for the kind words. The sub count is indeed small but it's grown about 25% in the past few weeks and that's certainly a plus. The recent XCOM guides are just a first step in my quest to go beyond Let's Plays and bring more variety to the channel. So far, the response has been very positive and hopefully we can keep that going.
You need to be careful not to spread the line of sight so you don't wake up other enemy pods, yes. But staying put and having a 50% shootout with the enemy isn't exactly strategy either (and when the enemy has infinite troops is downright insanity). The key is to find the balance between the two, and also the reason why a soldier that can stay concealed once the squad is revealed is so important. Battlefield vision is king and queen in this game.
@@gabrielbogari7063 Sure, this is sound advice that can help me get further in the game but GROUP OVERWATCHES BABY. WHOLE FIRING SQUAD OVERWATCH TILL THE DAY I DIE. *whole squad misses. Enemy secton runs up and kills a dude, sending the rest into panic.*
Pooling characters within 3 spaces of each other...especially on a roof...is just asking for a mission fail. Or at least guaranteed damage. Thats the idea behind spreading out Optimally, your scout will leave you plenty of room to spread out within the area you've already revealed. You don't have to spread out horizontally. Attacking groups with missiles or nades takes highest priority in enemy AI. A good, tight, yet sufficiently spread formation would be Front X X X X X Back or X X XX X While your scout just hangs out ahead, either plotting a path or maybe working backwards until only one pod is sighted so it can respond in an emergency. But throw in varying elevations and stagger the side characters linearly and you'll usually have enough angles of fire to tag any enemy regardless of cover, without the need to flank or move past them for a shot. Group up and just one bad angle is a near guaranteed miss for everyone.
@@TapCat Thanks! Unfortunately, I just lost all of my best soldiers to the Blacksite. I took it on before I was ready and got pinned down by multiple pods (that's what people call the groups of aliens, right?)
I really want to thank you for everything. I was awful at this game and just couldn’t improve even 80+ hours into the game, I was unable to see what I was doing wrong and refused to go to a lower difficulty. After watching most of your tips and guides I’m finally understanding just how truly atrocious my decisions were, I got better and I’m even managing Flawless runs now. Now the only thing bothering me is the game crashing after a brutal 2 hour long fight between the Aliens, way to many Lost to count, and The Assassin all coming at my squad at once... it just had to crash after I won and I now I have to reload a save.
Man, I feel your pain. When I played War of the Chosen, I really came to hate the missions where it had aliens, lost, and chosen all on the same map. They always took me forever to clear and I remember once I had to abandon the mission just to keep from losing soldiers. Very sorry to hear that you have to re-play a successful run! On the other hand, I'm very glad that my videos helped you do better in the game. Good luck the rest of the way!
When you've got 8 turns to extract the VIP and you have a Sectopod, Shieldbearer, MEC Trooper, Andromadon, Two Vipers, Two Faceless and Three Advent Troopers between you and the evac point
Holy crap! You earned a subscriber!I haven't really noticed I was just spraying my bullets and not flanking which resulted in lots of reloading saves and getting my first soldier killed. I tried reloading to save him but couldn't since he always bled out before evac. I guess that's another tip I need to learn, that I need to accept tragic losses 😂
Hey!! Try playing UFO2Extraterrestrials with a single soldier. For the UFO2Extraterrestrials has recently been X-mod implemented in the official Steam version of the game so you may enjoy many camera improvements, visualised crash site bombing and other improvements.
Ok I just beat xcom 2 for the first time and my advise is to save after ever major decision and if it doesn't work out re load the save XD and thx this vid helped me beat the game
Congratulations! Especially when you're starting out, saves can really help you not just correct mistakes but find out what happens if you follow a different path. You can learn a LOT in a single campaign that way.
TrueProGamer Ironman all the way, one of the strongest features of this game is the ability to provoke emotions. Imagine the tragedy of losing your fully customized favorite soldier, I love it.
mean mole--I've had the game for 3 days and after getting familiar with the basics started Iron Man play. The greta thing about IM is you don't have to remember to save your game. The worst thing about IM is it not being worth reloading the same game. :D I love the challenge!!!
As much as this game annoyed me with its array of bugs, and crashing on release week it has really come into its own. I think I've even figured out how best to deal with the new bosses in the expansions. Still haven't done an ironman run because the whole team can easily get wiped out because I accidentally hit a button, and I can't afford to replace my TV, and elite controller right now.
I hear you. I love the elation that comes from beating a tough mission on Ironman mode but watching one (or more) of your favorite soldiers die a bloody death because you missed 3 90% shots in a row or stepped forward a few tiles and activated another 2 pods of aliens is a devastating experience. Or, ahem, so I've been told.
You might get a kick out of this. In my most recent game I 1 shotted the archon boss with 1 shot from my sniper with a 5% repeater. Same happened with the berserker boss, but I had half killed him before the repeater bagged him.
Thanks for sharing that, I think the repeater kills like that are hilarious. If I ever get one on an alien ruler I think I can guarantee that it will come when I've gotten it down to its last few health because the RNG hates me. ;)
Would be interesting to know the % of viewers that come to these videos after losing a long campaign and realize they need to start over with a fresh look (like me). Awesome to see so much interest in these games, I can't get enough of this gameplay.
What's amazing to me is that even after so many years, these videos still get a lot of views and people are still playing and invested in XCOM 2. I know that many people get frustrated and quit but it's a rare game that keeps pulling people in for more after 6+ years.
5:00 i dont no if i agree with that because the sectoid can take one of your soldiers out instantly with mind controll. Especially with a 4 man squad that can be devistating early on in missions.
He can, but you not only have 3 shots left to bring him down you can also throw a flashbang and end the mind control immediately. Also, as long as you've killed at least one ADVENT soldier he's more likely to spend his turn resurrecting one of them (and flashbangs help there as well). Honestly, just don't leave the base without at least one flashbang and you should be fine.
I tried the Equilibrium movie setup, 4 Grammaton clerics in group (full pistol specials), one hacker with granades, and one heavy. Heavy and Hacker make way, they kill all the possible armours, the tactics work better if there are more enemies, since all of them can run to the center, get cover and shoot as many times as many enemies are there. And also they have free shots for thougher guys.
So, with me actually gitting gud at the game after 130 hours (And by that I mean, getting 2 perfect Missions in a row, one of which being the Viper Cave) I can wholeheartedly say you completely nailed it here. Great Video. Actually inspires me to maybe tackle some Xcom Content myself. Late or not. Thank you for making this. :D
Yes, the Archon might not be an immediate threat the turn he activates *BUT* on the next turn he will get next to one of your soldiers nearby and hit them with his high damage weapon or swing. Until the late mid game this is my arch enemy.
It's definitely a plan as you go type game. Most of the time that I plan on flanking with a ranger the enemy reacts so that I have to flank with a specialist from a different angle or something.
Know when to pull a soldier back. If for some reason you go to move your last soldier out front and they trigger a pod with their first move, don't be afraid to move them backwards and out of range for those aliens. Unlss you're very pressed on a timed mission, it might keep that soldier from being teed off on by the whole squad.
The one thing I hard dissagree with here is the threat of the blazing pions ability. You say you can "just move out of the way" but it's not that easy. If you are fighting on a map without an abundance of cover, being forced to reposition can have catastrophic consequences. What blazing pions does is it's an ultimatum. "Move out of your carefully selected possitions or put all your soldiers in one-shot range without any cover", that is OP as hell. So yeah, if there is an abundance of cover or if you were planing to move out most of your soldiers the next turn anyway, then it's not a big deal. But in most instances it forces you to waste a turn, or puts you in a disadvantageous position compared to the ailiens.
By far one of the best things about XCOM games are the level design; rather than being just for aesthetic, they prove to provide advantages or disadvantages depending on how you act.
One tip (not sure if this is worth it or not) but i tend to funnel enemies in to one of my soldiers over watch lines of sight. So, set soldier A around a corner to an enemy that the enemy cannot see, keep the soldier B further back. The enemy runs for soldier B as he cannot see soldier A,and runs right in to his over watch. Boom, pretty much guaranteed hit.
To the best of my knowledge, overwatch isn't any more effective (or more likely to hit) if the soldier is initially out of sight. It sounds like it worked well for you so I'd definitely call that a win, but you could probably get a similar result without working quite as hard to get there.
Just a fun fact Advent Troopers are responsible for between 45%-50% of all Xcom Casualties. Then officers with 20%-25%. This is from the official Xcom 2 stat tracking page.
My strategy with codex's has always been to stall them until they are the last enemy in the currently revealed pod of enemies because of their cloning ability upon taking damage, and spreading our soldiers because of their psionic bombs, basically eating a turn due to disabling my weapons and forcing movement. Unless is have an auto loader, apparently those load after the disable so, pretty neat counter. Unless I have a ripjack soldier to kill her instantly after the shadow chamber is made
Just started playing on Ironman.🤬 One bad turn can cost you the entire mission and squad. While I'm definitely not against playing this game non-ironmen mode to learn, iron Man mode really is the way it's meant to be played. Start save scumming to the point where you have a group of badass elite troops and the game will start throwing brutality at you. It scales and deaths are a part of war. In my opinion iron Man mode as maddening as it may be, is the way to play this game. Right now I'm trying to crawl out of the first Advent project discovery with one Ranger/One bar, an unconscious Specialist, a Sniper/3 bars, and reinforcement dropping in. Extraction is but 2 turns away. Maddening, but also thrilling. Those lessons will sink in lot harder than if you just reload a couple turns back. Appreciate the video. I'll have to put a lot of this in use after this more than likely failed mission simply because I ran a sniper up into a good position too far. Never was a fan of Scanners and Nanoscale vests until Ironman. 🤣
All good basic common fundamentals. Slight caveat which i feel even beginners should be aware of. Gaining a flanking position can go very wrong if it necessitates opening up any new tiles. Those new tiles can contain a new pod, which is bad. Basically try to flank only on map areas you have uncovered. This limits your flanking options considerably. Welcome to XCOM 2.
The moment you mentioned platforming I *screamed internally* idk why I just forget or don’t think about doing this. Flanking, actions, spreading out etc I’m fine with. Just platforming causes aliens to jump down on me from the fucking sky’s.
I know this is an old vid, but I want to add that it's a bad idea to bank on one unit's move to make or break a turn/battle. If you think missing one shot will ruin you, then you're doing it wrong. It's best to commit multiple unity, or the whole team to make sure that priority target goes down. Which leads to my next point; I know many people say not to waste your actions on doing too much overflow dmg, but its better to do 8 dmg to an enemy with 5hp and only have one other to deal with next turn, than to do 4 dmg to 2 enemies and still have both of them around. This leads heavily into positioning, you can have a sniper for example take the first shot, then a scout can be free to polish off that target if it's still alive or, if it did go down already, set that scout up to prepare for next turn or engage another enemy which the sniper couldn't see/reach.
I'm new to this game, attempting to beat it on ironman legend. Learning as I go, I'm now in attempt #95 according the save file menu. I've honestly had more success keeping soldiers relatively close and not flanking often, just to avoid pulling other groups. Attracting other pods is easily the worst mistake I can make, so I just stay close, blow up cover, attempt to freeze/flash any survivors, and just take my chances that way. I'm sure I'm not breaking new ground here, so I am curious of there's something critical I'm missing to maintaining that balance between turtling through missions, and spreading out and looking for opportunities. Also, I enjoy your content, keep it up.
Well, I certainly wouldn't recommend Legend/Ironman for someone who is new to the game for starters. Most people would have quit in frustration well before their 95th attempt, though, so I salute your fortitude! My concerns is that you're basically consigning yourself to an RNG lottery against the aliens. You're cutting yourself off from tactical options that would help for fear of activating other pods (which certainly can happen!). In trying to minimize your downside, you're also setting a ceiling for how well you'll do and I'm pretty doubtful you'll ever beat the game that way. One of the reasons playing on lower difficulties is useful is that if you activate too many enemies, the AI will have some of them do basically nothing so you don't get overwhelmed. You can learn how to balance the aggression you need to do well with a degree of prudence without getting your squad wiped repeatedly. And not playing on Ironman means that a single mistake won't permanently wipe out all of your best men. But more important than having a safety net, Ironman prevents you from using reloads as the single best learning tool there is. If you save when you land on a mission map, it gives you the chance to try different approaches with the same squad against the same enemies using different tactics. Or if you reload a save from your home base, you can send a different squad on the same mission and see what that does for you. The map will change a little but most of the rest will be the same. You can learn a ton in a short time that way. All that said, you could beat the game without ever changing the difficulty. It will be a pretty horrible experience, but you could learn enough to get there. I don't see that happening, however, if you stick to an extremely limited tactical approach and never experiment to find a more effective approach. In the end, of course, it's up to you what approach to use. Good luck!
Reading this, I've decided that if this one fails, I'll start a new normal/commander run before trying again. Also I just started using battlescanners and it's giving me considerably more freedom in movement, so it's definitely getting better. Not playing ironman has felt... kinda like cheating. While, yes, it's a good learning tool, it keeps a lot of the variables the same so, it's easy to just win by memorizing the levels and enemy locations. And being a kind of perfectionist, I'm scared of having that temptation to just reload to avoid deaths or even injuries. But yeah, if this fails I'm toning it down after.
I hear what you're saying on Ironman and I think whether it feels "cheaty" going without will partly depend on how you use it. For example, if you play well but lose a soldier, then you could reload solely for the sake of a better result and that might be a bit cheap. But if you feel like your choices were off, trying a different approach will help you see whether there was a more effective way through the engagement. Maybe the thing you wish you'd done would turn out to be even worse and that would be good to know. And remember that you can also replay missions that you win if you can think of an alternate approach that would be interesting. It's not just about erasing mistakes, it's trying out different options in different situations to see what works best for you. I'd also say that if Ironman is where your heart is, then consider a campaign without it purely as a practice run for learning purposes. You can't win or lose because it doesn't count for you anyway. Your main purpose would be to learn as much as possible and if you reload a mission 5 times to figure out how to beat it, then who cares? You aren't doing it to brag that you beat the mission/game, but to prepare yourself for the next Ironman campaign which is the one that will actually count for you. Obviously, the best outcome would be for you to crush it in your current campaign! If not, I hope you're able to ease up on yourself and enjoy learning outside of the Ironman pressure cooker.
great tips here, this is my first time playing and on the first mission, well I had to try it about 5 times, I got my butt handed to me, but these tips really helped, thanks mate, you have a new sub :)
Sage advice, and I'd also add that you should never go on a mission without at least one flashbang - they clear mind control, stop the snakes gripping your soldiers, cause confusion, and block the damn Codex cloning abilities. Can't blow up everything... :)
In the wotc dlc, I was doing a retaliation mission and the sniper guy showed up. I thought I was toast if I didn't kill him, so I sent my troops after him. Turns out the rebel teammates that spawn did like 3/4 of his health pretty much immediately without me having to do a single thing, then he did that attack where you can move out of the way and one of my snipers killed him. I thought I was screwed but he was a lot easier than I thought lol
About appearances and effectiveness. Stasis ability of your psi-troopers is the most effective tool in their arsenal. Not void rift, not psi-spear. Because it lets you incapacitate the most dangerous enemy, kill the others and leave that dangerous enemy to fight you 1 against 6. I use it on gatekeepers and those two-storey killer robots all the time.
Also, by appearances, you would expect heavy troopers to be the most damage dealing instrument, with all those grenade launchers and miniguns. While in reality they come out to be the least useful troops, especially after you start making exo-suits. Rivaled only by specialists. But those can sabotage robots at least. While the most damage dealing trooper is... no, it is not even the ranger with his double-shot ability. It is the sniper, and not even with his rifle, but with a pistol. You might think kill-zone is snipers most effective ability, no, the best ability is face-off (and triple shot later on). You can face like 6 enemies and 2 snipers will run into the middle and eliminate 5 out of 6. An no cover will help, since you sniper has the best aim. With lightning hands and triple-shot, you can make 5 pistol shots at the chosen in a single turn which might be enough to kill it after lobbing couple grenades at him with snipers teammates to remove that armor. BTW special ammo affect their pistols as well, with armor-piercing rounds your sniper will not even need those 2 grenades prior to killing literally anyone.
the combat is way different. I just tried the first mission in Xcom 2 tonight and you have to play a lot more defensively and try and get bonus to your shot chance and get lucky with some over shot(s) to start out it seems. Pretty standard strategy really, it's just a lot more extreme it seems in 2. Game definitely seems a ton harder.
you're right expecially when u came from a Xcom Enemy within, hulking with an awesome mech and realize that spark sucks in comparison, you correct your game style and then Long war 2 appear and screw up all things -.-
Advice: Spread out
Me, playing XCOM for the first time: *Enters battlefield like a Swat Force Breaching a building*
Exactly
You predicted chimera squad lmao
You want them to have the shared grenade experience :)
I literally have played it the same way cuz I thought that's how it was going to be stay close together and high ground I'm only at the part where you get your first engineer and so far the invaluable member of my team has been a sharp shooter just the fact that they can shoot from so far away has been incredible
@@avirei98 get squadsight and for your second sharpshooter skill get the one that allows you to use overwatch while using squadsight. Youll thank me later.
Secret Xcom2 combat zone tactics:
1.- Starting your mission check the bounds of the Area, and your objectives waypoints. That way you can plan your path and avoid being surprised from behind.
-.- Separated, but not alone, spread your soldiers, but within linesight of each other, this is to minimize the damage from AoE attacks, to protect your soldiers from snake attacks, heal. And if you position your men well, the enemy will struggle to find good cover and they tend to group together...ready to be blown up by a grenade.
3.- Have a scout ranger, this soldier´s mission is to recon the area in search of enemies and don´t trigger them until you are ready (reloaded, well positioned etc.). Be careful, this scout must not be spotted until the very end at least, and avoid making the mistake of advancing your other troops too close so that they spot the enemy, that would ruin your "ambush".
4.- Speaking of ambushes, if you try to ambush multiples enemy pods (if you feel confident you can pull this off), the first one to react will always be the one that got attacked, so the overwatch shoots can be wasted in that group (looking at snipers).
5- Give your sharpshooters the grapping hook. This gives them 3 main advantages
a) The grappling hook doesn´t cost a move, so they can get into position and shoot inmediatelly.
b) They tend to lag behind, so it can help minimize this
c) They can get into high positions and get shot bonuses.
6.- Having a hard shot? Throw a grenade. This does 2 of three things.
a) Garanteed damage.
b) Destroys cover, so that other soldiers have an easier shot.
c) If the enemy lives at the end of turn, they must relocate, possibly wasting a turn.
7.- Hacking towers only work while concealed. So get those bonuses before your ambush.
8.- Mind controll your enemy. Not only you get a powerful ally and eliminate an enemy, but they also will attract enemy fire and reposition themselves. The perfect scapegoat.
9.- Mimic beacons can be put behind cover, so that they can endure more shots.
10.- Killing a 3 health enemy is better than damaging 10 health another one. Getting one guy less to shot at you will improve your chances of survival, even if it is a weak one.
@Fuzzy Bunny Same!
I officially picked up the game just 2 weeks ago
@@taochi100 happy
@@PawanSingh-vu4yx It was a glorious 56 hours I never knew I always wanted
I also never hit reload on a game so many times I let go of some soldiers cause its unavoidable
The ones I saved became my main 2 squads
I had to stop for a bit cause my wife got mad I was playing. More then paying attention to her.
This comment gave more advice than an entire 10 minute slow speaking video smfh
I swear to god that tom hanks is giving me the advice.
IIFoUnDaTiOnZzII nah man it's the Elcor from Mass Effect!!!
IIFoUnDaTiOnZzII There's a Viper in my boot
lol...
sounds more like a slightly excited ben stein
I was thinking Squidward (or however you spell that)
My first campaign ever (not invcluding the one i lost after 4 missions) I had the most clutch moment. Soldiers wiped many times, Avatar project was gonna finish in 3 hours and I sold my entire inventory to buy rookies for one last ditch attempt at a facility. I eventually have 1 guy left, facing a single enemy trooper. Both miss each other twice before i manage to shoot him, plant the bomb and escape. Avatar stopped. Then I managed to climb RIGHT BACK UP, failing missions only to save lives and increase exp, eventually having god tier team and winning big. My first play through was amazing. Purely amazing.
That's awesome!
I'm on my second play through and I'm finding more and more depth to this game. It's fantastic. I can't wait for the 3rd installment.
I almost cried when my sniper missed three times in a row.
This feels like an in-game combat training option. I imagine there being a cutscene where all your troops enter a lecture hall, sits down, you come up on stage and then the cutscene goes into this video
Excellent work!
Greetings from XCOM’s B (Bad) Company, 1st Recon platoon
Unfortunately XCOM 2 has a pretty shit tutorial for new players. It teaches them almost nothing about tactics.
@@victuz yeah I’m learning that right now. :(
"If you come from XCOM EU and you use the same tactics, you're going to get roughed up"
Boy did I learn this the hard way.
I think the biggest difference is that XCOM EU encouraged you to play safe and slow, moving methodically through the map and dealing with one enemy group at a time. But in XCOM 2, most missions have a timed or fragile (or both!) objective that you have to race to secure/protect/extract, which forces you to play more aggressively and recklessly.
My top five ways to dominate combat:
1. Save scum
2. Save scum
3. Save scum
4. Save scum
5. Save scum
Lol, okay, but if you combine your 5 with sound tactics then you'll REALLY dominate!
TapCat That is why I'm watching. great video.
Thanks, I appreciate that!
DarthCuda Exactly! I'm a save SCUMMER!!!! & Proud of it. (hey the game is random - "RNG", so why not let me finesse it?)
I don't know if I am the only one who have notice that but I feel like the game is punishing you for save scumming. Every time I reload a combat turn to get everything perfect, the first guy to shoot, usually a soldier with 80+~90+% to hit, will ALWAYS miss even though he hit the first time and I do the exact same thing than before saving/loading... Maybe that's just me, but in order to make him hit again I have to play my turn order in a complete different way. And I think it's not impossible the game store the information of reloading a turn multiple times and punishes you for that :/
7 years later, still very mutch accurate and useful for new commanders.
I never imagined when I recorded this that it would still be as popular as it is 7 years later. I think it speaks to how well XCOM 2 has endured as well as how much new players tend to struggle with it.
@@TapCat indeed, I recently played x-com enemy within and than replay x-com 2. Struggle hard enough above Normal to have needed a refreshing when the opposition was forcing me to check out a tactic guide. Who rests is eventually resting in his skills.
Great video.
Every time I play a turn- based strategy game, I always find myself wishing "If only this was more like Xcom 2". The devs really nailed the gameplay mechanics.
@@TapCatFirst time XCOM player here, I also find your videos super helpful! Cheers.
@@TapCat Just nabbed the game on sale, so im happy to have a longstanding tip video to help avoid frustration and beating my head in the wall.
And if everything else fails, try praying.
I had 2 mutons fail a shot against a wounded sniper thanks to that
Same thing happened to me literally yesterday. My specialist was down to 2 health, an alien took a flanking shot at close range and... missed. I really thought she was coming home in a body bag and was quite grateful for the miss!
In the next mission, a random trooper scores a critical hit against a full-covered soldier. Then a nearby soldier panics and shots down a companion
Lol, that's XCOM baby!
in the same turn I had an assault being flanked and shot by about 2 enemies
and he missed both shots of a rapid shot with 99% chance to hit
(it was actually not in this exact order)
TapCat simply the game was cheating for you.... Check my xcom video about why xcom is a shit, turn on subs. There my last 1hp soldier was missed several times on LEGENDARY...
The one object that I try to carry from day one in the campaign is the flashbang. It will disable sectoids' psi abilities. Later in the campaign when you encounter codexes and avatars, flashbangs will prevent them from teleporting and cloning. Keep it with you at all times, it's amazing whether you use it as an opener or as a disabler.
Þórarinn Snorrason I use when there's distance between me and the enemy and avoid using it on sectoids cause they don't shoot (unless flanking) and use psi instead preventing them would just give them a shot on you
Well, in vanilla, you should absolutely abuse sectoid's horrible AI by letting it summon while you get closer and to the flanks. On the other hand I run a mod that makes them smarter, so now they use their other abilities more and even sometimes use their pistol!
Y’all use flashbangs, the only things I use are medkits and grenades, also snipers are op af
Sincerely,
Mr. Centurion
I love snipers but nothing beats run & gun/rapid fire shotgun to the face :)
I did not know that Flashbangs had all those effects. Must try it sometime, because I may have only used flashbang 2-3 times in 250+ hours.
I was stuck on a mission for quite a while after watching this I got through it! I was clumping my groups together and not taking out the right enemies first. I survived with no casualties. Thank you.
That's fantastic work, Kyle. Really glad to hear that my video helped you, good luck as you continue the campaign!
Holy shit Tom Hanks plays xcom?! How many times did you say "There's a snake in my boot!" when the vipers got you
I wish I had thought to say that during one of my Let's Play series for XCOM 2, that would have been hilarious!
A great tactic is to use a ranger with stealth abilities as a forward scout. Know where the the enemy pods are so you can isolate them and take them out. If you need to, use the ranger's shadowstrike ability to get a big hit and then conceal them again afterwards.
Excellent video, man. One of the few real videos out there about *tactics* that isn't just clickbait. Kudos.
Even though I had put real thought into the content and felt like it was the best advice I could pass on while keeping it short, I was actually a little anxious about the title for fear that people would think it was nothing but clickbait. Glad to hear you liked it, hope it helps!
I just purchased X2 this past week, and I'm on my 4th campaign....Thanks for the stress saving tips!
Happy to help, good luck!
Ever hate it when you have a 80% chance and still miss?
I think all of us want to land those shots and there will be times when we have to grit our teeth after missing a crucial shot. That said, the random factor in combat keeps the game dynamic and unpredictable so I'm okay with the system overall.
i got 90%hacking and failed 10 consecutive times...
No because this game is perfect and built for that to happen. Missing 80% shot is just randomness at work.
TapCat ...and have a plan B. You can't expect an aggressive attack that uses everyone's moves up to come off every time
Try 90% you scrub
I'm way late to the party on this game but your channel is the best and most helpful XCOM 2 content I've found. Wish you were still making these.
Just jumping into Xcom 2. Loved Enemy unknown. But this one is rough lol. Thanks for the video.
Thanks for all of your guides, finished the game on commander difficulty a few days ago and will soon move onto a legend playthrough (which as you can imagine i'm dreading) couldn't of done it without you!
Thank you, I really appreciate the positive feedback. Also, very happy to hear that you've been able to successfully work your way up through Commander, because that is already a high hurdle to clear. Best of luck on Legend!
Under this quarantine, I have been making use of my time to catch up on some games in my back catalog. Chief among them, obviously, is XCOM. Starting this game the first time, it felt like I was bashing my head against a wall, but in the most fun way possible. I had literally no idea what I was doing. Then I discovered your channel. Fast forward about a week, I am moving into the final mission and I gotta thank you. I never thought facing down three archons, an andromedon and a gatekeeper would be something that would make me say " you guys are gonna need more firepower." You have made me a better tactician. Keep up the good work.
Thank you, I'm very happy to hear that my videos were so helpful and congrats on what I'm certain will be the successful conclusion of your campaign!
Thanks for these vids. I was about to give up on Xcom a few days ago but stuck with it, tried some new tactics and build orders, and made it much, much further. BUT, one bad mission yesterday wiped out my entire 6 person squad of my most experienced soliders, and now I need to start again (ironman mode).
Ironman mode really can be brutal, can't it? It makes victories so much more rewarding but failed missions can be so incredibly punishing. Best of luck in the new campaign!
For when to use grenades, rockets, and other cover destroying explosives, always go for groups first. If not, go for the next best option, target enemies on top hollow buildings , not only will the explosion itself deal damage, but the fall the enemy takes will deal a decent amount of damage (plus, it's one of the only opportunities to find some funny ragdolls, as enemies will go floppy once they go airborne). Finally, enemies behind high cover, for possible cover destruction or chip damage.
Everyone should also keep in mind that your ranger has access to the deadliest weapon in the game, their sword. I found that for my playstyle in particular that having two of them on the squad makes the game feel more like enemy unknown
Rangers and sharpshooters are broken as hell like imagine you start talking and the guy next to you in a few milliseconds pulls out a katana slices you in half then puts the katana back in their sheath
Then sharpshooters have the ability to shoot everything they see after using a free action to shoot something
I enjoyed this video. Especially because he kinda sounds like Tom Hanks.
Hi TapCat. This is a superb high-level tactical guide, thanks for posting. I've been chewing through your content like a sharpshooter in Kill Zone, it's all really good stuff.
I'm very glad to hear that you're finding my videos useful. Thank you for taking the time both to watch and to comment!
Just bought this game yesterday and I've been watching your tutorials. You've been super helpful! Cheers man!
This video lulled me to sleep, I'm now watching the next morning... Lol
Man, years late I know, but this is shockingly helpful advice. I found XCOM EU easy on normal difficulty, but was struggling with XCOM 2. I watched this video and it all seemed like relatively obvious advice, nothing I didn't know, but as soon as I conciously applied these tips it was like I fucking unlocked the whole game somehow. I mean, I also learned a lot from my repeated failures beforehand, but this took it to the next level.
Thanks, dude.
Thank you. I really struggled with this guide because a really detailed video would probably be an hour long and general advice seemed so... general. In the end, I felt like there was enough here to help at least some people get over the hump but I totally get what you're saying about it sounding obvious at first glance. I'm glad that it you ultimately found it helpful!
1. You're videos are insanely helpful. 2. Your voice is smooth as butter man.
Thanks, much appreciated!
You have a very soothing voice, has anyone told you that?
It's been mentioned once or twice, but I appreciate you taking the time to say it even so!
So soothing a voice I fell asleep 2 minutes in. What was the advice?
The ultimate edition is $30 on psn. Game is hard af lol I'm new to these games, but I love it!!!
That's a great deal, hopefully a lot of people will scoop it up at that price!
Now they are both on ps now, but I suck at it, but still I recognize they are both great games
“Try different things.”
Me looking at my squad of only rangers: Hehehe, this outta work.
Run in
Stab someone
Leave with implacable
And if one of your favorite character dies go to options “load game” become a legend
ussually when i spread out i tend to awake more enemies as the vision increases and once one member is seen they are all seen. is one of the major flaws in their game design.
DS YAMO you just need to be far enough away that you aren’t grouping multiple people in aoe of a grenade. So you shouldn’t be that far apart. Plus there’s always scout build rangers to give you an idea where enemies are and how to avoid them. And battle scanners
Daniel Worden unless you trigger a pod when you go in for a 100% crit flank on a ranger. But a maxed out ranger can likely survive one turn due to the dodging one free hit with implacable. Plus there is always mimic beacons. Unless you trigger a gatekeeper or sectapod pod or something nasty from one of the dlcs ( god help you if its alien ruler. )But if such things are possibly in play honestly just let the Muton or whatever it is you were trying to flank get a turn it’s not worth getting something nasty into play. If you are facing things that threatening most flankable enemies won’t one shot anyone because you should have solid armor at that point. Well except maybe one of the chosen but if you let one of the chosen stay around that long you’ve got bigger issues then a possible squad wipe.
@Daniel Worden lmao what was that nigga on about
Honestly the best piece of advice in the whole video was right at the end. All of the worst disasters I've had playing Xcom came about because I got greedy.
Decided to give this game another go as I came from XCom EU and kept getting ruined.
Enemy priority is the biggest turn point and now I’m enjoying the game and rekindling my love of the series. Such a huge learning curve. Also research priorities played a big part, don’t let the game tell you how to play, play how you want to play.
Great video and I have learnt even more watching it.
I first played Xcom’s to over a year ago. And around the time I bought it I watched this video for the first time. I took multiple things on what it said to heart and found myself being wildly successful. Thanks for putting this out there for newer players like myself.
Glad to hear it, and thank you for the positive feedback!
Sorry for any typos. And thanks for responding.
5:40 "Prepare your ass."
That is easily the most commented on clip I've ever used in one of my guides. You'd almost think that people don't like lancers! ;)
TapCat TBH, I hate lancers. I had one of my most powerful grenadiers knocked unconscious by one. They still look cool, though.
Another tip to consider is that order matters!! Look at all your troops and try decide which order of action will give the best results.
Maybe destroy the cover with a grenade before shooting with a specialist. Try killing an enemy with a ranger first instead of using 1 of 3 precious sniper rounds.
This is a really good tip, I agree wholeheartedly!
Very true. For example, I like to "soften" them up with other classes and then have a Ranger with Untouchable finish them off.
@@marco1173untouchable impairable and bladestorm
It’s like a pre colonel reaper but only works on two enemys
I've tried to make a full Squad of Psions and it works really well, especially when you get all of their abilities learned.
This is advice that applies not only to Xcom 2. This is advice for life xD
(Especially the last one)
XCOM 2 Punishes the player Brutally if they play the game like enemy Unknown or within and I'm talking about Dark Souls Brutal.
I Have No Name yep..loke Bloodborne bad
Robert Armstrong Orphan of Kos bad? Not that much.
Orphan of Kos was brutally hard for me. One of the few bosses in the game I didn't manage to solo.
TapCat I never played it myself but I heard that it's a Savage.
TapCat oh man... Orphan gave me the PTSD. Hardest boss they've created so far, I'm thinking. Even harder than Darkeater Midir.. because Orphan has no weakness.
There is no tip that will stop a giant Pokemon ball from crashing through my cover and one-shotting me.
Grenadiers with holotargeting, blue screen rounds, and chain shot are deadly to gatekeepers. Soften it up with one taking a singe shot to start shredding and get holotargeting applied and the other chain shots for massive damage. Pretty much anyone else on the squad can finish up what's left. Mimic beacons are also very helpful if you need a turn to set that up.
“When in doubt, frag out”
Sincerely,
Mr. Centurion
@@ms.centurion9708 is that a Rocky and Bullwinkle Reference?
Texlith Graves No clue, is it? I’ve never watched Rocky and Bullwinkle, I know about it though
Sincerely,
Mr. Centurion
Against pokemon balls, I usually start with grenades or AP ammo.
Hi, such a great video! I am about a month in and want to offer up a couple caveats for new players. My first playthrough on veteran ended instantly. I had no idea when the avatar meter was full, you actually lost the game. It was so brutal already and after only a couple hours of gameplay, there was no way this could mean I lost. ITS True! When I saw this, it basically made me salivate for being good enough to play legend, ironman. Currently I am unashamed to say I save before every mission, and scope out every possible avenue for success. Like you said in the beginning of the video, Learn ALL THE TACTICS. I consider this training for when it really counts. I think some people get so caught up in pride that they wont actually learn this incredibly in depth tactical combat game. Again, probably the best solid advice I have seen in the wide xcom tactical guides world, such an important video! I agree wholeheartedly with all the strategy.
Awesome post, thank you so much both for watching and sharing your experience with XCOM 2 so far. I think a lot of gamers get trained to play a game once and move on. XCOM 2 is more a long journey than it is a sprint to a destination. It will reward multiple plays by those who try to learn and improve with each iteration. And if you invest enough of yourself to beat the game on Legend Ironman, I think you'll find it one of the most satisfying gaming accomplishments of your life. Good luck, Commander!
Excellent tutorial series and LP's, thanks! Great vibe too :-) After watching these I can finally play XCOM2 with a decent level of proficiency.
Thank you, glad to hear you found the videos helpful!
Just bought XCOM2 and XCOM2: War of the Chosen, played the original XCOM many years ago and I see alot of similarities and improvements. Really like the high level strategic view advise of how to tackle the turn based combat for XCOM 2. Followed the KISS method to the T... Keep it simple shooter.. Good job.
Hey TapCat! If you ever get the itch to play again, I would LOVE a XCOM 2 : WOTC tips series. Thank you!
If I ever play another War of the Chosen campaign, I'd consider doing some tips videos. I just wouldn't trust myself to make any now because it's been so long since I played.
just when it feels like im geting good the fucking snake show up. i move they attack, i reload they attack, i fart behind a tree they attack. what is the best way to take care of the fucking things. thanks and great video
I actually did a whole video about how to handle vipers. Check out my XCOM 2 Tips / Guides playlist and hopefully that will help.
TapCat yeah I just started watching your videos and I came across that. good shit and thanks for the reply .
azrael80304 Something I learned to do is get a heavy in a position it will likely attack him by binding. have specialist increase his defence. If it falls for it, hit with a ranger and finish it off with heavy. Don't suppress it, it's more likely to use poison and tongue ability.
azrael80304 ik I play the easiest difficulty and it's still hard as shit
phantom komodo
Same here. Game has been ruined in my opinion, make easy setting easy not just slightly less hard-core. Most comments online say the same.
Drag a sharpshooter around with you for the first few missions until they earn Lighting Hands. (Right path, third one down?) After that, give them Armor Piercing Rounds and they'll be your single most powerful soldier. The first time I got to the section of the game with Sectopods (and the only time, I haven't played much), my gunslinger was really the only reason no one died.
Thank you TapCat. This very video (especially Tip #3 Know thy enemy) helped me from getting crushed on beginner to breezing through on ironman Commander. Yes after watching some of your videos I made it trough on I/C on my second play through ^^
That's fantastic, great job!
TapCat, not only did your videos inspire me to try Commander Ironman in XCOM 2, this one in particular got me to realize that my current game a) wasn't a failure and b) was starting to derail because I was being careless and relying on Veteran level tactics. I decided to take a different approach and keep going, and not only did I manage to salvage the mission that I thought was going to outright fail, I have continued to dominate (for the most part... lmao) as I did when this campaign began. So thanks!
Wow, that's fantastic, I'm glad to hear that you turned around what looked like a hopeless situation! Good luck with the Ironman campaign, Commander level is no joke but it sounds like you're on track for a big win.
Thanks dude! Actually, that campaign did wind up failing anyway (had a "forced retreat" mission go bad and basically my entire A team was going to be captured no matter what), but I started over right away and now I am pleased to say that... I finally won! Whoo-hoo! xD Such an amazing feeling to finally conquer this freaking game... Now that that's over, I am going to play around with some experimental team setups that I had been thinking about, just for fun. And maybe one day... Legend Ironman? o.O It could happen... lol
these videos are still helpful for me today, very enjoyable production quality and structure ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thank you, I really appreciate it!
hey tap cat. just subscribed to your channel Ik this isn't related to the video but I wanted to say that for having such a low sub count your video quality is amazing commentary isn't to dull or to energetic in a way that's off putting and your advice especially with xcom has been extremely helpfull. keep up the awsome work and thank you
Thank you very much for the kind words. The sub count is indeed small but it's grown about 25% in the past few weeks and that's certainly a plus. The recent XCOM guides are just a first step in my quest to go beyond Let's Plays and bring more variety to the channel. So far, the response has been very positive and hopefully we can keep that going.
I realized and liked this video twice.
One with ps4 (2018)
On the PC(2019)
I wish you could double like because I've learn so much. Thank you!!
This is one of the nicest compliments I've gotten in a long time, thank you!
Spread out your soldiers... so you can activate other enemy pods. No way dude.
You need to be careful not to spread the line of sight so you don't wake up other enemy pods, yes. But staying put and having a 50% shootout with the enemy isn't exactly strategy either (and when the enemy has infinite troops is downright insanity). The key is to find the balance between the two, and also the reason why a soldier that can stay concealed once the squad is revealed is so important. Battlefield vision is king and queen in this game.
@@gabrielbogari7063 Sure, this is sound advice that can help me get further in the game but GROUP OVERWATCHES BABY. WHOLE FIRING SQUAD OVERWATCH TILL THE DAY I DIE. *whole squad misses. Enemy secton runs up and kills a dude, sending the rest into panic.*
@@weebcraft6829 Also your mission timer is just one turn away and that Reaper who could reach the Xcom hacking station is now dead
I agree with you. Spreading out can also be a disaster. Multiple pods can lead to a TPK.
Pooling characters within 3 spaces of each other...especially on a roof...is just asking for a mission fail. Or at least guaranteed damage. Thats the idea behind spreading out
Optimally, your scout will leave you plenty of room to spread out within the area you've already revealed. You don't have to spread out horizontally. Attacking groups with missiles or nades takes highest priority in enemy AI.
A good, tight, yet sufficiently spread formation would be
Front
X X
X
X X
Back
or
X X
XX
X
While your scout just hangs out ahead, either plotting a path or maybe working backwards until only one pod is sighted so it can respond in an emergency.
But throw in varying elevations and stagger the side characters linearly and you'll usually have enough angles of fire to tag any enemy regardless of cover, without the need to flank or move past them for a shot. Group up and just one bad angle is a near guaranteed miss for everyone.
About to start my first game, and I'll try to keep these in mind and be as versatile as possible.
Best of luck to you!
@@TapCat Thanks! Unfortunately, I just lost all of my best soldiers to the Blacksite. I took it on before I was ready and got pinned down by multiple pods (that's what people call the groups of aliens, right?)
I really want to thank you for everything. I was awful at this game and just couldn’t improve even 80+ hours into the game, I was unable to see what I was doing wrong and refused to go to a lower difficulty. After watching most of your tips and guides I’m finally understanding just how truly atrocious my decisions were, I got better and I’m even managing Flawless runs now. Now the only thing bothering me is the game crashing after a brutal 2 hour long fight between the Aliens, way to many Lost to count, and The Assassin all coming at my squad at once... it just had to crash after I won and I now I have to reload a save.
Man, I feel your pain. When I played War of the Chosen, I really came to hate the missions where it had aliens, lost, and chosen all on the same map. They always took me forever to clear and I remember once I had to abandon the mission just to keep from losing soldiers. Very sorry to hear that you have to re-play a successful run!
On the other hand, I'm very glad that my videos helped you do better in the game. Good luck the rest of the way!
That was very useful mate, thanks for the video. Its free on PSN right now and its a pretty cool game.
When you've got 8 turns to extract the VIP and you have a Sectopod, Shieldbearer, MEC Trooper, Andromadon, Two Vipers, Two Faceless and Three Advent Troopers between you and the evac point
at that point just walk on foot away from the enemy
When you see this vid and everything makes sense but you know that in xcom, whenever in doubt, retreat and overwatch usually gets the job done.
Fool, it’s “When in doubt, blow it up”
Sincerely,
Mr. Centurion
Holy crap! You earned a subscriber!I haven't really noticed I was just spraying my bullets and not flanking which resulted in lots of reloading saves and getting my first soldier killed. I tried reloading to save him but couldn't since he always bled out before evac. I guess that's another tip I need to learn, that I need to accept tragic losses 😂
Sadly, those losses are a part of the XCOM experience.
Hey!! Try playing UFO2Extraterrestrials with a single soldier. For the UFO2Extraterrestrials has recently been X-mod implemented in the official Steam version of the game so you may enjoy many camera improvements, visualised crash site bombing and other improvements.
Ok I just beat xcom 2 for the first time and my advise is to save after ever major decision and if it doesn't work out re load the save XD and thx this vid helped me beat the game
Congratulations! Especially when you're starting out, saves can really help you not just correct mistakes but find out what happens if you follow a different path. You can learn a LOT in a single campaign that way.
TrueProGamer Ironman all the way, one of the strongest features of this game is the ability to provoke emotions. Imagine the tragedy of losing your fully customized favorite soldier, I love it.
mean mole--I've had the game for 3 days and after getting familiar with the basics started Iron Man play. The greta thing about IM is you don't have to remember to save your game. The worst thing about IM is it not being worth reloading the same game. :D I love the challenge!!!
Iron man rips out your heart and replaces it with lead. If I lose my number 1 sniper, I'm close to tears.
that is dark soul mode...u want some new led tv , don't you?
As much as this game annoyed me with its array of bugs, and crashing on release week it has really come into its own. I think I've even figured out how best to deal with the new bosses in the expansions. Still haven't done an ironman run because the whole team can easily get wiped out because I accidentally hit a button, and I can't afford to replace my TV, and elite controller right now.
I hear you. I love the elation that comes from beating a tough mission on Ironman mode but watching one (or more) of your favorite soldiers die a bloody death because you missed 3 90% shots in a row or stepped forward a few tiles and activated another 2 pods of aliens is a devastating experience. Or, ahem, so I've been told.
TapCat hehe
You might get a kick out of this. In my most recent game I 1 shotted the archon boss with 1 shot from my sniper with a 5% repeater. Same happened with the berserker boss, but I had half killed him before the repeater bagged him.
Thanks for sharing that, I think the repeater kills like that are hilarious. If I ever get one on an alien ruler I think I can guarantee that it will come when I've gotten it down to its last few health because the RNG hates me. ;)
I managed to hit a 1% shot on an alien ruler that caused the repeater to activate making it a one-shot
Would be interesting to know the % of viewers that come to these videos after losing a long campaign and realize they need to start over with a fresh look (like me). Awesome to see so much interest in these games, I can't get enough of this gameplay.
What's amazing to me is that even after so many years, these videos still get a lot of views and people are still playing and invested in XCOM 2. I know that many people get frustrated and quit but it's a rare game that keeps pulling people in for more after 6+ years.
5:00 i dont no if i agree with that because the sectoid can take one of your soldiers out instantly with mind controll. Especially with a 4 man squad that can be devistating early on in missions.
He can, but you not only have 3 shots left to bring him down you can also throw a flashbang and end the mind control immediately. Also, as long as you've killed at least one ADVENT soldier he's more likely to spend his turn resurrecting one of them (and flashbangs help there as well). Honestly, just don't leave the base without at least one flashbang and you should be fine.
TapCat Thanks. Good to know. I played Xcom EU and just started 2. It's definitely different so your videos have really helped. Thanks again.
Happy to help, good luck!
I tried the Equilibrium movie setup, 4 Grammaton clerics in group (full pistol specials), one hacker with granades, and one heavy.
Heavy and Hacker make way, they kill all the possible armours, the tactics work better if there are more enemies, since all of them can run to the center, get cover and shoot as many times as many enemies are there. And also they have free shots for thougher guys.
So, with me actually gitting gud at the game after 130 hours (And by that I mean, getting 2 perfect Missions in a row, one of which being the Viper Cave) I can wholeheartedly say you completely nailed it here. Great Video. Actually inspires me to maybe tackle some Xcom Content myself. Late or not. Thank you for making this. :D
You're more than welcome, glad you enjoyed it!
Yes, the Archon might not be an immediate threat the turn he activates *BUT* on the next turn he will get next to one of your soldiers nearby and hit them with his high damage weapon or swing.
Until the late mid game this is my arch enemy.
They say dying in a battle royal or FPS causes gamer rage, try missing a shot in Xcom
missing a 99% shot in Xcom*
It's definitely a plan as you go type game. Most of the time that I plan on flanking with a ranger the enemy reacts so that I have to flank with a specialist from a different angle or something.
Know when to pull a soldier back. If for some reason you go to move your last soldier out front and they trigger a pod with their first move, don't be afraid to move them backwards and out of range for those aliens. Unlss you're very pressed on a timed mission, it might keep that soldier from being teed off on by the whole squad.
The one thing I hard dissagree with here is the threat of the blazing pions ability. You say you can "just move out of the way" but it's not that easy. If you are fighting on a map without an abundance of cover, being forced to reposition can have catastrophic consequences. What blazing pions does is it's an ultimatum. "Move out of your carefully selected possitions or put all your soldiers in one-shot range without any cover", that is OP as hell. So yeah, if there is an abundance of cover or if you were planing to move out most of your soldiers the next turn anyway, then it's not a big deal. But in most instances it forces you to waste a turn, or puts you in a disadvantageous position compared to the ailiens.
By far one of the best things about XCOM games are the level design; rather than being just for aesthetic, they prove to provide advantages or disadvantages depending on how you act.
One tip (not sure if this is worth it or not) but i tend to funnel enemies in to one of my soldiers over watch lines of sight. So, set soldier A around a corner to an enemy that the enemy cannot see, keep the soldier B further back. The enemy runs for soldier B as he cannot see soldier A,and runs right in to his over watch. Boom, pretty much guaranteed hit.
To the best of my knowledge, overwatch isn't any more effective (or more likely to hit) if the soldier is initially out of sight. It sounds like it worked well for you so I'd definitely call that a win, but you could probably get a similar result without working quite as hard to get there.
Just a fun fact Advent Troopers are responsible for between 45%-50% of all Xcom Casualties. Then officers with 20%-25%.
This is from the official Xcom 2 stat tracking page.
Thanks for posting, that's really interesting and I didn't even realize that you could look that up!
My strategy with codex's has always been to stall them until they are the last enemy in the currently revealed pod of enemies because of their cloning ability upon taking damage, and spreading our soldiers because of their psionic bombs, basically eating a turn due to disabling my weapons and forcing movement. Unless is have an auto loader, apparently those load after the disable so, pretty neat counter. Unless I have a ripjack soldier to kill her instantly after the shadow chamber is made
Bluescreen rounds
Just started playing on Ironman.🤬 One bad turn can cost you the entire mission and squad. While I'm definitely not against playing this game non-ironmen mode to learn, iron Man mode really is the way it's meant to be played. Start save scumming to the point where you have a group of badass elite troops and the game will start throwing brutality at you. It scales and deaths are a part of war. In my opinion iron Man mode as maddening as it may be, is the way to play this game. Right now I'm trying to crawl out of the first Advent project discovery with one Ranger/One bar, an unconscious Specialist, a Sniper/3 bars, and reinforcement dropping in. Extraction is but 2 turns away. Maddening, but also thrilling. Those lessons will sink in lot harder than if you just reload a couple turns back. Appreciate the video. I'll have to put a lot of this in use after this more than likely failed mission simply because I ran a sniper up into a good position too far. Never was a fan of Scanners and Nanoscale vests until Ironman. 🤣
All good basic common fundamentals. Slight caveat which i feel even beginners should be aware of. Gaining a flanking position can go very wrong if it necessitates opening up any new tiles. Those new tiles can contain a new pod, which is bad. Basically try to flank only on map areas you have uncovered. This limits your flanking options considerably. Welcome to XCOM 2.
The moment you mentioned platforming I *screamed internally* idk why I just forget or don’t think about doing this. Flanking, actions, spreading out etc I’m fine with. Just platforming causes aliens to jump down on me from the fucking sky’s.
I know this is an old vid, but I want to add that it's a bad idea to bank on one unit's move to make or break a turn/battle. If you think missing one shot will ruin you, then you're doing it wrong. It's best to commit multiple unity, or the whole team to make sure that priority target goes down. Which leads to my next point; I know many people say not to waste your actions on doing too much overflow dmg, but its better to do 8 dmg to an enemy with 5hp and only have one other to deal with next turn, than to do 4 dmg to 2 enemies and still have both of them around. This leads heavily into positioning, you can have a sniper for example take the first shot, then a scout can be free to polish off that target if it's still alive or, if it did go down already, set that scout up to prepare for next turn or engage another enemy which the sniper couldn't see/reach.
You forgot the most important advice: saaaaaaaaave! Often! :)
Fair enough!
I'm coming back to this game after a few years away..
Good piece of advise. (If you play the video on 1.5x he sounds exactly like Salman Khan from Khan Academy)
Very helpful and very clearly spoken. Especially for us not native americans. Thanks
Tips to surviving gate crasher, hunker down 1 guy which is the guy who threw the grenade at the start of the ambush and have the rest shoot far away.
Have a sharpshooter. Make him a gunslinger. Use Faceoff to kill 8 enemies in last mission.
or 6 enemies and 30 lost in a random mission... mistakes where made
You sound like the head pixie from the fairly odd parents and it fills me with nostalgia from when I’d watch that show with my dad, thank you
#1 TIP for TOTAL DOMINATION: save save save save save save save save save
I'm new to this game, attempting to beat it on ironman legend. Learning as I go, I'm now in attempt #95 according the save file menu. I've honestly had more success keeping soldiers relatively close and not flanking often, just to avoid pulling other groups.
Attracting other pods is easily the worst mistake I can make, so I just stay close, blow up cover, attempt to freeze/flash any survivors, and just take my chances that way.
I'm sure I'm not breaking new ground here, so I am curious of there's something critical I'm missing to maintaining that balance between turtling through missions, and spreading out and looking for opportunities.
Also, I enjoy your content, keep it up.
Well, I certainly wouldn't recommend Legend/Ironman for someone who is new to the game for starters. Most people would have quit in frustration well before their 95th attempt, though, so I salute your fortitude! My concerns is that you're basically consigning yourself to an RNG lottery against the aliens. You're cutting yourself off from tactical options that would help for fear of activating other pods (which certainly can happen!). In trying to minimize your downside, you're also setting a ceiling for how well you'll do and I'm pretty doubtful you'll ever beat the game that way.
One of the reasons playing on lower difficulties is useful is that if you activate too many enemies, the AI will have some of them do basically nothing so you don't get overwhelmed. You can learn how to balance the aggression you need to do well with a degree of prudence without getting your squad wiped repeatedly. And not playing on Ironman means that a single mistake won't permanently wipe out all of your best men.
But more important than having a safety net, Ironman prevents you from using reloads as the single best learning tool there is. If you save when you land on a mission map, it gives you the chance to try different approaches with the same squad against the same enemies using different tactics. Or if you reload a save from your home base, you can send a different squad on the same mission and see what that does for you. The map will change a little but most of the rest will be the same. You can learn a ton in a short time that way.
All that said, you could beat the game without ever changing the difficulty. It will be a pretty horrible experience, but you could learn enough to get there. I don't see that happening, however, if you stick to an extremely limited tactical approach and never experiment to find a more effective approach. In the end, of course, it's up to you what approach to use. Good luck!
Reading this, I've decided that if this one fails, I'll start a new normal/commander run before trying again.
Also I just started using battlescanners and it's giving me considerably more freedom in movement, so it's definitely getting better.
Not playing ironman has felt... kinda like cheating. While, yes, it's a good learning tool, it keeps a lot of the variables the same so, it's easy to just win by memorizing the levels and enemy locations. And being a kind of perfectionist, I'm scared of having that temptation to just reload to avoid deaths or even injuries.
But yeah, if this fails I'm toning it down after.
I hear what you're saying on Ironman and I think whether it feels "cheaty" going without will partly depend on how you use it. For example, if you play well but lose a soldier, then you could reload solely for the sake of a better result and that might be a bit cheap. But if you feel like your choices were off, trying a different approach will help you see whether there was a more effective way through the engagement. Maybe the thing you wish you'd done would turn out to be even worse and that would be good to know. And remember that you can also replay missions that you win if you can think of an alternate approach that would be interesting. It's not just about erasing mistakes, it's trying out different options in different situations to see what works best for you.
I'd also say that if Ironman is where your heart is, then consider a campaign without it purely as a practice run for learning purposes. You can't win or lose because it doesn't count for you anyway. Your main purpose would be to learn as much as possible and if you reload a mission 5 times to figure out how to beat it, then who cares? You aren't doing it to brag that you beat the mission/game, but to prepare yourself for the next Ironman campaign which is the one that will actually count for you.
Obviously, the best outcome would be for you to crush it in your current campaign! If not, I hope you're able to ease up on yourself and enjoy learning outside of the Ironman pressure cooker.
Fair enough. Thanks man!
great tips here, this is my first time playing and on the first mission, well I had to try it about 5 times, I got my butt handed to me, but these tips really helped, thanks mate, you have a new sub :)
Really glad to hear that you found the video helpful, and good luck in the rest of your campaign!
Sage advice, and I'd also add that you should never go on a mission without at least one flashbang - they clear mind control, stop the snakes gripping your soldiers, cause confusion, and block the damn Codex cloning abilities. Can't blow up everything... :)
Flashbang grenades are very useful. Especially in the early game, I consider them to be almost mandatory.
In the wotc dlc, I was doing a retaliation mission and the sniper guy showed up. I thought I was toast if I didn't kill him, so I sent my troops after him. Turns out the rebel teammates that spawn did like 3/4 of his health pretty much immediately without me having to do a single thing, then he did that attack where you can move out of the way and one of my snipers killed him. I thought I was screwed but he was a lot easier than I thought lol
Xcom 2 taught me that I’m my darkest hour, I’ll always resort to prayer. Sometimes the gods spare my soldier, and sometimes they take them away.
About appearances and effectiveness. Stasis ability of your psi-troopers is the most effective tool in their arsenal. Not void rift, not psi-spear. Because it lets you incapacitate the most dangerous enemy, kill the others and leave that dangerous enemy to fight you 1 against 6. I use it on gatekeepers and those two-storey killer robots all the time.
Also, by appearances, you would expect heavy troopers to be the most damage dealing instrument, with all those grenade launchers and miniguns. While in reality they come out to be the least useful troops, especially after you start making exo-suits. Rivaled only by specialists. But those can sabotage robots at least. While the most damage dealing trooper is... no, it is not even the ranger with his double-shot ability. It is the sniper, and not even with his rifle, but with a pistol. You might think kill-zone is snipers most effective ability, no, the best ability is face-off (and triple shot later on). You can face like 6 enemies and 2 snipers will run into the middle and eliminate 5 out of 6. An no cover will help, since you sniper has the best aim. With lightning hands and triple-shot, you can make 5 pistol shots at the chosen in a single turn which might be enough to kill it after lobbing couple grenades at him with snipers teammates to remove that armor. BTW special ammo affect their pistols as well, with armor-piercing rounds your sniper will not even need those 2 grenades prior to killing literally anyone.
Also a reaper with extended magazine on her rifle and banish ability is a beast
Tom Hanks plays Xcom that is very cool :D
Kryptic Studios Corp ikr
on 1.5 speed this video is amazing
THIS should have been the first tip =D cheers my d00d
Gotta stretch that time to past 10 minutes to get all that youtube dough
You just saved me 3 minutes of my life
the combat is way different. I just tried the first mission in Xcom 2 tonight and you have to play a lot more defensively and try and get bonus to your shot chance and get lucky with some over shot(s) to start out it seems.
Pretty standard strategy really, it's just a lot more extreme it seems in 2. Game definitely seems a ton harder.
you're right expecially when u came from a Xcom Enemy within, hulking with an awesome mech and realize that spark sucks in comparison, you correct your game style and then Long war 2 appear and screw up all things -.-