0:00 Don’t Worry Too Much About Capturing Aliens 0:48 Consider Skipping Beam Weapons Research 1:57 You Can Ignore Civilians During Terror Attacks 3:01 Low Cover is No Cover 3:34 Aliens Will Try To Remove Your Advantage 4:19 Managing Panic and Picking Abduction Missions 7:22 Press Tab After Issuing Orders 7:48 Play on Normal Difficulty 8:26 Don’t Worry About Laboratories on Harder Difficulties 9:02 All The Skill Ability Upgrades Are Good 9:36 Build Experience With Kills 10:45 Hold Off On Building The Hyperwave Relay 12:00 XCOM Enemy Unknown - What To Sell? 12:58 Forget The Tutorial The Second Time You Play 14:00 Some Explosives Are A Guaranteed Hit 14:49 Only Give One Soldier a Medikit 16:08 Fail a Few Times Before You Complete The Game 17:19 Demolishing to Replace Buildings With Upgrades 17:44 Getting The Most Out of Adjacency Bonuses 18:24 I Love The Workshop Rebate 18:57 Overwatch Can Work For and Against You 20:05 Low-Percentage Shots and Overwatch 21:15 EMP Firestorm Weapons Are Very Strong 22:42 You Cannot Stun The Cyberdisc or Sectopod 24:48 Considerations For Your Air Defence 25:42 Tips on Launching Satellites 26:24 Tips On What To Build And When 27:15 Officer Training School and The Nuance of Decision 28:25 Early Game Item Preference 28:54 When To Conduct The Alien Base Assault 31:07 There’s a Quick Save Function 31:55 All Three Pistol Upgrades Are Different 32:16 A Few Tactical Notes 33:35 XCOM is a Good Game
I literally just downloaded it for vita. Well not literally maybe I had it for like a week now. This game is no joke. All ps3 ps2 era games are goated. All these new games are remakes of these good games.
Laser research is cheap in terms of time and fragments. 440 man hours for the complete tree, and the upgrade in firepower makes one hit kills more likely, especially at Classic or Impossible. Also you can give assaults laser rifles and get the laser shotgun and sniper rifle after heavy lasers. You need 340 man hours just for the light plasma rifle, and that hits no harder, albeit with improved accuracy, than a laser rifle. Two other things, three with EW. One, you are more likely to snag a live sectiod earlier, and cut that beam research in half. Plasma needs a live Muton, May normally, with a single chance earlier with Slingshot. Two, heavy laser research also gets you a fighter laser cannon. Which increases you ability to shoot down aliens. Three, with EU heavy lasers also give you the second MEC main gun.
I am still surprised that this video gets so many views. Right now, the game is 12 years old, and it still has loyal players who are looking online for tips. That is the mark of a good game. I wish they would update games like Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper 2 and Theme Hospital to modern standards.
I just wanted to stop by and tell you that I sincerely appreciate the work you put into this. I just started playing this in June of 2024, coming off of Wasteland 3 and Gears Tactics. XCOM has been kicking my butt, but your guide has been crazy helpful. I’ve watched it more than once, and I feel like I’m still taking in new info. Genuinely, thank you.
This has actually happened to me maybe 3 times in the last 15 hours, as my support guy also has the move 3 extra squares ability, so often is near the front lines.
I have finished the game on Impossible - Ironman. Many of these suggestions are applicable, however an "expert" will understand you are not too familiar because there is zero mention of the "Hunger Down" ability which is probably the single most important ability in the highest difficulty. Which, btw, its a total nutsell!
I don't know if this was covered later, but there was one case where Overwatch beats taking the shot after encounter, and that's after running into a ghosty squid. For whatever reason, your 1% to hit exhausted state turns into a normal Overwatch shot.
WHAT a *GREAT* video!!! I also want to add a counter argument to your overwatch thoughts. I have found great outcomes to using "Same-turn" overwatch when theres not yet enemies near my troops. I came across this kinda accidently. When PODs first appear they are NEVER in optimal cover. They always are in the open and then run to optimal cover. I feel like I have had more success in moving half of my furthest soldiers into overwatch and then moving my assault into fog while leaving 1-2 soldiers in standby. If assault triggers a new POD the overwatch troops get open-cover shots on the runners. Then run and gun and the standbys cleanup after.
Thank you for the video about this old but great game! I would add that XCOM offers something special: emergent narrative. If you play on ironman, then all decisions count and you have to roll with your bad luck and mistakes. This makes the experience totally different from when you can reload. Not recommended until you have finished the game once, and have a grasp of the mechanics. But after that, the biggest tip is to start an ironman campaign (any difficulty you can manage). You will create a true story with great highs and deep lows. You will lose soldiers that you can't afford to miss. But this will also force you to adapt your playstyle and become a much, much better player.
In many cases Enemy Within is superiour to X Com 2: it's harder and more unforgiving, it's more atmospheric, better sound and music effects and the Aliens are way more creepy. Despite the weaker graphics, i prefer Enemy Within. I miss enemies like the Chosen though. That's a real X Com 2 strongpoint. Anyway, really useful guide. Thanks for that!
Really bad advice for for second point: Always rush Beam weapons. High difficulty demands you wipe the enemies as fast as possible, so have more damage is always better
First time i played xcom was in the 90s it got it from a magazine something gaming monthly it had like 5 free pc games i got XCOM i got escape from monkey Island duke nukem but xcom is gold tier video gaming its like chess
I'd recommend playing classic to start, don't save scum, learn the game, get lasers, and feel the pain of your star assault missing that clutch 95% shot. There's some good tips here but steam rolling normal difficulty or save scumming will make your experience far less impactful in my experience.
While I mostly agree, I found my first play through of xcom 2 on veteran, when I was new, helped motivate me to play, learn, and ultimately just enjoy the game. It also gave me confidence to try tackling commander. I tried commander from the get-go with vanilla, and the game bullied me often for just my lack of experience. It's been a few years, and I now have two commander ironman wins under me, and I am working on legend ironman. I take yearly breaks between campaigns, but always come back. I think the strong foundation from learning the game through veteran was far superior to just gritting my teeth through commander, even if commander arguably forced me to be better or lose.
I think there a point to abandon attempts of levelling up soldiers with damaging perks in early game. No rocketeer, no infantry. We have Assault, gunner, scout(max mobility - to know where the aliens by looking for take yellow cells, low profile) with flush-perk + LMG (flush against flyers). Heat ammo+ flush (against drones and seekers😊) Medic or engineer (it's important) with dense smoke and repair(engineer). Sniper with disabling shots and low profile, take sniper rifle, after disabling shot - use marksman rifle+ (top many maps with bad sight lines on abductions, even ufo crash sites are stretched with hills all over it to block shots. Also u need Medic with hi cap ammo to support gunner with additional supression against thin men and sectoids. Extreme caution while moving forward. Killing 3-6 enemies up to 2 pods. No ap, he grenades. A lot of dense smoke and supressions 2x with flush 3x, disabling shots 1x. + allowed capturing aliens(if air game your high priority, then u run out of cash very fast, cause u need 3 labs, late officers training school, and 6 birds instead of 4. A lot of weapon fragments. All this is until mid May) . So we need exalt cash rewards + rewards for capturing aliens. Next steps require a lot of alloy, so get slingshot missions completed. But before laser weapon for soldiers we need 2 workshops, foundry(enhanced avionics, rockets, etc) and repair bay to put down laser's cost.
if i hadn't played normal, i would just be so confused. i prefer to understand the overall game loop so i know what im doing with research and stuff. for me, i got a bit of that 'experience' by saving the dlc missions for classic. maybe it's just me or i should have paid attention, but i didn't even realize reaction shots had a (big) penalty or that hunker down doubled the cover bonus early on. there's also know the line of sight stuff. if you know that, then starting and staying on classic may be the way to go. after a bit more experience, my advice is that whether you started on normal or classic, once you're ready to get serious, go serious on impossible. same ai, but more challenging/balanced for the alien horde. the fun is at the start anyway. classic is a bit too easy in the sense that you don't really get to have the ai challenge you depending on how good you are. then when it hits you, you're fighting the more complex aliens which is confusing. fight harder sectoids on impossible, instead of developing the wrong habits while breezing through classic sectoids.
It was a strategic "Not Doin it" situation. I figured the XCOM video on its own wouldn't get much traction (and it hasn't, it only has 1.8K views to date). I guessed that another four weeks of work to do "Enemy Within" wasn't a good idea.
0:00 Don’t Worry Too Much About Capturing Aliens
0:48 Consider Skipping Beam Weapons Research
1:57 You Can Ignore Civilians During Terror Attacks
3:01 Low Cover is No Cover
3:34 Aliens Will Try To Remove Your Advantage
4:19 Managing Panic and Picking Abduction Missions
7:22 Press Tab After Issuing Orders
7:48 Play on Normal Difficulty
8:26 Don’t Worry About Laboratories on Harder Difficulties
9:02 All The Skill Ability Upgrades Are Good
9:36 Build Experience With Kills
10:45 Hold Off On Building The Hyperwave Relay
12:00 XCOM Enemy Unknown - What To Sell?
12:58 Forget The Tutorial The Second Time You Play
14:00 Some Explosives Are A Guaranteed Hit
14:49 Only Give One Soldier a Medikit
16:08 Fail a Few Times Before You Complete The Game
17:19 Demolishing to Replace Buildings With Upgrades
17:44 Getting The Most Out of Adjacency Bonuses
18:24 I Love The Workshop Rebate
18:57 Overwatch Can Work For and Against You
20:05 Low-Percentage Shots and Overwatch
21:15 EMP Firestorm Weapons Are Very Strong
22:42 You Cannot Stun The Cyberdisc or Sectopod
24:48 Considerations For Your Air Defence
25:42 Tips on Launching Satellites
26:24 Tips On What To Build And When
27:15 Officer Training School and The Nuance of Decision
28:25 Early Game Item Preference
28:54 When To Conduct The Alien Base Assault
31:07 There’s a Quick Save Function
31:55 All Three Pistol Upgrades Are Different
32:16 A Few Tactical Notes
33:35 XCOM is a Good Game
A 2024 guide for a 12yr old game. 😮
I will still be new for those who never have played it.
@@mikb5165And a good refresher as I haven't played it for so long.
I literally just downloaded it for vita. Well not literally maybe I had it for like a week now.
This game is no joke. All ps3 ps2 era games are goated.
All these new games are remakes of these good games.
Such a great game in every aspect, I've just purchased for 0,99€ last weekend and you still wonder?😂 Best gaming deal in my life.
I'm currently playing it again after 5-6 years
Going to play XCOM for the first time after buying it since 2016. Thanks for these great tips!
How'd it go, man?
Laser research is cheap in terms of time and fragments. 440 man hours for the complete tree, and the upgrade in firepower makes one hit kills more likely, especially at Classic or Impossible. Also you can give assaults laser rifles and get the laser shotgun and sniper rifle after heavy lasers.
You need 340 man hours just for the light plasma rifle, and that hits no harder, albeit with improved accuracy, than a laser rifle.
Two other things, three with EW. One, you are more likely to snag a live sectiod earlier, and cut that beam research in half. Plasma needs a live Muton, May normally, with a single chance earlier with Slingshot.
Two, heavy laser research also gets you a fighter laser cannon. Which increases you ability to shoot down aliens.
Three, with EU heavy lasers also give you the second MEC main gun.
I am still surprised that this video gets so many views.
Right now, the game is 12 years old, and it still has loyal players who are looking online for tips.
That is the mark of a good game.
I wish they would update games like Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper 2 and Theme Hospital to modern standards.
I just wanted to stop by and tell you that I sincerely appreciate the work you put into this. I just started playing this in June of 2024, coming off of Wasteland 3 and Gears Tactics. XCOM has been kicking my butt, but your guide has been crazy helpful. I’ve watched it more than once, and I feel like I’m still taking in new info. Genuinely, thank you.
Equip only one medkit.
Aliens kill your medkit carrying support.
Squad: surprised Pikachu face.
😎
This has actually happened to me maybe 3 times in the last 15 hours, as my support guy also has the move 3 extra squares ability, so often is near the front lines.
@@kmetcalfe I always thought that was an odd support class perk. Would make more sense for the assault class imo.
It's for this reason I have 2 people carry one lol
I have finished the game on Impossible - Ironman.
Many of these suggestions are applicable, however an "expert" will understand you are not too familiar because there is zero mention of the "Hunger Down" ability which is probably the single most important ability in the highest difficulty.
Which, btw, its a total nutsell!
I don't know if this was covered later, but there was one case where Overwatch beats taking the shot after encounter, and that's after running into a ghosty squid. For whatever reason, your 1% to hit exhausted state turns into a normal Overwatch shot.
You improved on the voice being less monotone, nice
Was just looking to replay enemy within and found this. Really handy as a refresher!
WHAT a *GREAT* video!!! I also want to add a counter argument to your overwatch thoughts. I have found great outcomes to using "Same-turn" overwatch when theres not yet enemies near my troops. I came across this kinda accidently. When PODs first appear they are NEVER in optimal cover. They always are in the open and then run to optimal cover. I feel like I have had more success in moving half of my furthest soldiers into overwatch and then moving my assault into fog while leaving 1-2 soldiers in standby. If assault triggers a new POD the overwatch troops get open-cover shots on the runners. Then run and gun and the standbys cleanup after.
Excellent guide. Thank you for your obvious effort in making this.
Thank you for the video about this old but great game!
I would add that XCOM offers something special: emergent narrative. If you play on ironman, then all decisions count and you have to roll with your bad luck and mistakes. This makes the experience totally different from when you can reload. Not recommended until you have finished the game once, and have a grasp of the mechanics. But after that, the biggest tip is to start an ironman campaign (any difficulty you can manage). You will create a true story with great highs and deep lows. You will lose soldiers that you can't afford to miss. But this will also force you to adapt your playstyle and become a much, much better player.
In many cases Enemy Within is superiour to X Com 2: it's harder and more unforgiving, it's more atmospheric, better sound and music effects and the Aliens are way more creepy. Despite the weaker graphics, i prefer Enemy Within. I miss enemies like the Chosen though. That's a real X Com 2 strongpoint. Anyway, really useful guide. Thanks for that!
I’ve been playing this game for last 3 days, never touched XCOM before and it’s really amazing deep and balanced , thanks for really useful tips
True. Plus, it still looks pretty good for an old game.
Officer training school, for the extra 2 crew is amazing, allows for cleaner battles
I started playing xcom 2 less than 2weeks, and let me tell ya, is SO good, straight up addictive, is totally my new confort game!
Awesome video for 2024! I'm on my journey of completing xcom , then doing the second game! 😊
Really bad advice for for second point: Always rush Beam weapons. High difficulty demands you wipe the enemies as fast as possible, so have more damage is always better
Honestly I’ve had a few play throughs where I rely on capturing super early to steal their plasma rifles to skip mag
I still bring grenades and rockets for UFO missions. Sometimes it is a choice between explosives or a dead teammate, and I choose the explosive.
True 👍
Great video man
I love the tips and tricks in the video
I am actually playing my 7th run ln ironsteel mode and its good to have advantage
Literally just bought this off line the other day.. and am playing it for the first time on 360 .. what cool game I've never looked into..
Best tips for Xcom
Thank you 😊
Do you have tips about Enemy Within?
First time i played xcom was in the 90s it got it from a magazine something gaming monthly it had like 5 free pc games i got XCOM i got escape from monkey Island duke nukem but xcom is gold tier video gaming its like chess
Good video!
Love this game been replaying the series
I'd recommend playing classic to start, don't save scum, learn the game, get lasers, and feel the pain of your star assault missing that clutch 95% shot. There's some good tips here but steam rolling normal difficulty or save scumming will make your experience far less impactful in my experience.
Takes nerves of steel to play this game without a bit of save scumming. 😎
I pick my main soldier, and if he dies then I restart.
While I mostly agree, I found my first play through of xcom 2 on veteran, when I was new, helped motivate me to play, learn, and ultimately just enjoy the game. It also gave me confidence to try tackling commander. I tried commander from the get-go with vanilla, and the game bullied me often for just my lack of experience. It's been a few years, and I now have two commander ironman wins under me, and I am working on legend ironman. I take yearly breaks between campaigns, but always come back. I think the strong foundation from learning the game through veteran was far superior to just gritting my teeth through commander, even if commander arguably forced me to be better or lose.
I think there a point to abandon attempts of levelling up soldiers with damaging perks in early game. No rocketeer, no infantry. We have Assault, gunner, scout(max mobility - to know where the aliens by looking for take yellow cells, low profile) with flush-perk + LMG (flush against flyers). Heat ammo+ flush (against drones and seekers😊) Medic or engineer (it's important) with dense smoke and repair(engineer). Sniper with disabling shots and low profile, take sniper rifle, after disabling shot - use marksman rifle+ (top many maps with bad sight lines on abductions, even ufo crash sites are stretched with hills all over it to block shots. Also u need Medic with hi cap ammo to support gunner with additional supression against thin men and sectoids. Extreme caution while moving forward. Killing 3-6 enemies up to 2 pods. No ap, he grenades. A lot of dense smoke and supressions 2x with flush 3x, disabling shots 1x. + allowed capturing aliens(if air game your high priority, then u run out of cash very fast, cause u need 3 labs, late officers training school, and 6 birds instead of 4. A lot of weapon fragments. All this is until mid May) . So we need exalt cash rewards + rewards for capturing aliens. Next steps require a lot of alloy, so get slingshot missions completed. But before laser weapon for soldiers we need 2 workshops, foundry(enhanced avionics, rockets, etc) and repair bay to put down laser's cost.
if i hadn't played normal, i would just be so confused. i prefer to understand the overall game loop so i know what im doing with research and stuff. for me, i got a bit of that 'experience' by saving the dlc missions for classic. maybe it's just me or i should have paid attention, but i didn't even realize reaction shots had a (big) penalty or that hunker down doubled the cover bonus early on. there's also know the line of sight stuff. if you know that, then starting and staying on classic may be the way to go.
after a bit more experience, my advice is that whether you started on normal or classic, once you're ready to get serious, go serious on impossible. same ai, but more challenging/balanced for the alien horde. the fun is at the start anyway. classic is a bit too easy in the sense that you don't really get to have the ai challenge you depending on how good you are. then when it hits you, you're fighting the more complex aliens which is confusing. fight harder sectoids on impossible, instead of developing the wrong habits while breezing through classic sectoids.
The best game ever-also you have the best name ever. I’ll follow you to ends of the earth, Commander Ted Nipples!
Dude, can you do a X-Com WATC?
About play this game on my ps3 its been so long
Can crystallids be captured?
No, it wouldn't let me stun one.
Finally a good vid with tips...lots of crap out there...
Pretty sure overmatch can trigger on two squares
Tank you
You forgot about EW
It was a strategic "Not Doin it" situation. I figured the XCOM video on its own wouldn't get much traction (and it hasn't, it only has 1.8K views to date). I guessed that another four weeks of work to do "Enemy Within" wasn't a good idea.
3:04 if full covers are not available, just hunker down instead of overwatch (if you're not shooting or throwing grenades).