With the recent War of the Chosen DLC expansion for XCOM 2, several new structures are available for construction on the Avenger. This has been leaving many players wondering about the best build order for the Avenger and its structures.
While I don't believe there is a truly incorrect method in how you start building, there are certainly some strategies that are more useful than others. Despite every structure being important, I'm a huge proponent of the idea that you can make nearly any build order work. But it's worth keeping in mind that the first several structures you work toward will set the tone for your whole campaign.
In this XCOM 2 guide, I'm going to go over a streamlined build order for the Avenger that should suit your playstyle and goals for the WotC campaign. (Want to skip the rundown and jump straight to the finalized build order? Click here.)
Things to Consider Before Starting Your Build Order
Before you can know what an 'optimal' build order for the Avenger is, there are several things you should consider first:
- Your play style
- The difficulty you're playing on
- Whether or not Ironman is enabled
- Random possibilities (not friendly ones)
Personally, I prefer a high risk, high reward style of play for my A team. I like to utilize two rangers and their melee abilities. In WotC, I support these rangers with a Skirmisher, Templar and a support specialist. I also play on Commander difficulty. As a result of this team style, it's quite common for my soldiers to get injured. So my priorities would be different than someone who takes a slightly safer or more standardized approach.
The final consideration -- those random possible that can and will affect your game -- will likely be heavily dependent on Dark Events and what strengths or weakenesses your Chosen enemies have. You'll often have to play these by your ear and adapt quickly.
Personalizing your build order is going to be a large part of developing your system to get what you want out of your early game. However, the first two buildings on the avenger will usually be the same in every play through.
What to Build First in XCOM 2: WotC
The first three buildings you choose are potentially the most important factors in how smoothly your early game runs. Assuming you've skipped the 'Lost and Found' tutorial to War of the Chosen, the list of buildings you can construct immediately after your first mission is as follows:
- Guerrilla Tactics School
- Resistance Ring
- Training Center
- Laboritory
- Workshop
- Power Relay
This list is in descending order based on importance -- which means the GTS (Guerilla Tactics School) and Resistance Ring should be your first two buildings. There are a number of reasons for this that I'll outline below.
Squad size is an extremely important factor in deciding fights against ADVENT, so starting with the GTS is possibly the best option for everyone. It allows you to send more squadies to flank around enemies, scout more efficiently, and potentially deal much more damage. Additionally, the GTS has other bonuses you can unlock that will further increase your soldiers' ability to fight.
The Resistance Ring is a new structure added with War of the Chosen. Covert actions can be executed from this ring -- and these actions come with many possible rewards and outcomes. From the Resistance Ring you can begin to track down the Chosen, counter their attempts at sabotage, and lay the groundwork to rescue captured XCOM operatives. There are also potential material rewards for covert actions, and even permanent stat increases to soldiers who participate in these actions.
For those reasons alone, starting with the Resistance Ring is just as viable as starting with the GTS, depending on what approach you want to take. But either way, you'll want to consider building these two structures on your Avenger before worrying about anything else.
Everything else on the list above is not as useful to rush as your first or second building. The Training Center is something you will definitely want to build -- but only after you've entered the mid-game and have build the Resistance Ring and GTS. If you build it any earlier, you won't have enough ability points or even enough soldiers of the appropriate rank to utilize the Training Center to its maximum potential.
Workshops and Laboratories are even less useful early on due to the low number of Scientists and Engineers. But with the Resistance Ring, recruiting Scientists, and Engineers becomes a lot easier.
Xcom 2 War Of The Chosen Tips
Finally, you simply don't need to rush a power relay. You'll start out with plenty to get going on your campaign against ADVENT.
What To Build Later On in XCOM 2: WotC
After you have a few wins against ADVENT under your belt and you've researched a couple of technologies, the next two structures you build are going to be important: The Proving Grounds and the Infirmary.
I won't delve into a detailed explanation of why the Proving Grounds is an important build choice, but I will say that it's going to be a requirement for the skulljack -- so you need it to complete the main story.
Much like the Resistance Ring above, the Infirmary is a new structure in War of the Chosen that allows for faster healing. And it also lets you staff soldiers with negative traits so that they can lose one of those negative traits every five days. Staffing an Engineer in the Infirmary lets you heal wounded soldiers at twice the rate, which is a huge boon at certain points in the game. Essentially, building the Infirmary should be a priority because it's vital that your XCOM squadies are ready to fight.
Complete Build Order for XCOM 2: WotC
Xcom 2 Long War War Of The Chosen Full
Like I said earlier, the 'best' build for your Avenger in War of the Chosen is one that aligns not only with your play style, but also with the game's mechanics.
You may have noticed my omission of support structures such as Power Relays and Workshops or Laboratories. That's because there isn't really any point in the game where you simply must build them. I've finished XCOM 2 many times without ever building some of these support structures. While you should opt to build Power Relays over Exposed Power Coils for maximum output on your Avenger, you should do this according to when you actually need additional power -- not any specific timetable.
Resistance Comms are also omitted here, as they're another structure that you should only build when you really need it.
With all that in mind, a finalized, optimum build order that works for most players is as follows:
- Resistance Ring
- Guerrilla Tactics School
- Infirmary
- Proving Grounds
- Training Center
- Psi Lab
- Shadow Chamber
XCOM is generally far less brittle, and far more devastating when you build the Avenger in this general order. You unlock the ability to send soldiers on covert actions early on -- allowing you to establish early access to the three resistance groups, their soldiers, and their abilities.
An early Infirmary build means you can staff an Engineer in the structure and cut the healing time for your XCOM soldiers in half, while opening up a staffing option that can remove their negative traits. An upgraded Infirmary allows you to create Hypervital modules, which removes any wounds or fatigue on a soldier for one mission so that you can make use of them. (Just remember that you can only use this once per soldier for the entire campaign.
Building the Proving Grounds is useful once you're in the early mid game so that you can construct the skull jack for the primary story mission -- and later on it's great for working on sparks and other extremely useful equipment.
Later on in the mid game, the Training Center is useful when you finally have enough ability points to utilize it and improve your soldiers.
And last but not least, the Psi Center and Shadow Chamber are useful toward the late game, and should be focused on last because their requirements bar you from constructing them earlier in the campaign.
---
There you have it! That's the best build order for the Avenger that I've discovered in my time playing War of the Chosen. If you have any questions or build order suggestions of your own, leave them in the comments below! And be sure to check out the rest of our XCOM 2 guides for more tips and tricks that will help you through the WotC DLC.
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XCOM 2: War of the Chosen | |
---|---|
Cover art featuring the Chosen (from left to right, Hunter, Assassin and Warlock) | |
Developer(s) | Firaxis Games |
Publisher(s) | 2K Games |
Series | X-COM |
Engine | Unreal Engine 3.5 |
Platform(s) | |
Release | August 29, 2017 |
Genre(s) | Turn-based tactics |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen is an expansion pack for the 2016 turn-based tactics video game XCOM 2. It was released for Windows on August 29, 2017. Versions for macOS and Linux were released on August 31, 2017.[1]
- 2Release
- 3Reception
Gameplay[edit]
XCOM 2 is a turn-based tactics video game. The War of the Chosen expansion makes changes to XCOM 2's campaign structure and adds new enemies, new hero characters, modifiers, and more behaviors for characters.
The expansion introduces a new set of enemy aliens called the Chosen, three elite alien warriors tasked by the Elders to defeat XCOM and recapture the commander: the Assassin, which uses stealth and is able to kidnap the player's soldiers directly from the battlefield, the Hunter, an alien-human hybrid that uses long range rifles, and the Warlock, who uses psionic powers and can summon additional enemies during battle. As the game progresses, the Chosen gain new exclusive abilities over time, and eventually become able to launch a direct attack on the Avenger. The Chosen continue to appear occasionally during missions even after being defeated, and can only be killed for good once their base is destroyed as well.
The game also introduces three rebel factions that antagonize each other, but grant special hero classes once their allegiance is earned; the Reapers, specialized in sniping and stealth, the Templars, who developed unique psionic abilities and the Skirmishers, former ADVENT soldiers with exclusive equipment and tactics. Each faction also provides covert ops missions in which soldiers can be deployed to obtain extra resources, delay the Avatar project, or gather info about the Chosen's strongholds, including other benefits. Other new features include a revamped strategic layer and the 'Bond' system, in which pairs of soldiers develop special abilities that are accessible when both are deployed during a mission, and when bonded soldiers are killed, their partners enter temporarily in a 'berserk mode', ignoring orders but with a great boost in their stats. For research, breakthroughs and inspirations are made to increase the speed that researchers work at, sometimes instantly being able to complete a project.
The expansion also adds a neutrally-aligned zombie-like enemy type called the Lost, former humans that will attack both the ADVENT and XCOM in battle, along with new ADVENT units with exclusive abilities.[2]
Release[edit]
War of the Chosen was announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017. It was released on August 29, 2017.[3]
Tactical Legacy Pack[edit]
An add on for the game called 'Tactical Legacy Pack' was released in October 9, 2018. It features a series of missions set between the events of XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2, new items, new maps and the option to play the game using either the original XCOM: Enemy Unknown's soundtrack or an all-new soundtrack based on X-COM: UFO Defense, the first game of the original X-COM series.
Reception[edit]
Reception | ||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen received 'generally favorable' reviews from professional critics according to review aggregator website Metacritic.[5]
IGN's reviews editor Dan Stapleton praised the amount of variety War of the Chosen added to the mission objectives and campaign of XCOM 2. Although he found there to be some balance issues, he thought that both the Hero classes and the Chosen were great additions.[7]Game Informer reviewer Ben Reeves was impressed by the amount of content included in the expansion, noting that it could almost have been a standalone game.[6]
Accolades[edit]
Eurogamer ranked the game 46th on their list of the 'Top 50 Games of 2017',[8] while Polygon ranked it 17th on their list of the 50 best games of 2017.[9] Readers and staff of Game Informer voted it for 'Best Strategy Game'.[10][11] It also won the award for 'Best Expansion' in PC Gamer's 2017 Game of the Year Awards;[12] and was nominated for 'Best Strategy Game' at The Game Awards 2017,[13] and for 'Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year' at the 21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.[14] It won the award for 'Game, Strategy' at the 17th Annual National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards, whereas its other nomination was for 'Game Engineering'.[15][16]
References[edit]
- ^'The fight for Earth rekindled — XCOM® 2: War of the Chosen released on macOS and Linux'. Feral Interactive. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
- ^Kelly, Andy (July 12, 2017). '12 new features in XCOM 2 expansion War of the Chosen'. PC Gamer. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
- ^Newhouse, Alex (June 12, 2017). 'E3 2017: XCOM 2 Expansion Announced, Adds Shadow Of Mordor-Esque Nemesis System'. GameSpot. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
- ^'XCOM 2: War of the Chosen for PS4 Reviews'. Metacritic. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
- ^ ab'XCOM 2: War of the Chosen for PC Reviews'. Metacritic. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
- ^ abReeves, Ben (August 24, 2017). 'XCOM 2: War of the Chosen'. Game Informer. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
- ^ abStapleton, Dan (August 24, 2017). 'XCOM 2: War of the Chosen Review'. IGN. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
- ^Eurogamer staff (December 26, 2017). 'Eurogamer's Top 50 Games of 2017: 50-41'. Eurogamer. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
- ^Polygon staff (December 18, 2017). 'The 50 best games of 2017'. Polygon. Retrieved February 12, 2018.
- ^Game Informer staff (January 4, 2018). 'Game Informer's Best Of 2017 Awards (Page 4)'. Game Informer. Retrieved January 4, 2018.
- ^Cork, Jeff (January 4, 2018). 'Reader's Choice Best Of 2017 Awards (Page 4)'. Game Informer. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
- ^PC Gamer staff (December 15, 2017). 'Best Expansion 2017: XCOM 2: War of the Chosen'. PC Gamer. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
- ^Makuch, Eddie (December 8, 2017). 'The Game Awards 2017 Winners Headlined By Zelda: Breath Of The Wild's Game Of The Year'. GameSpot. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
- ^Makuch, Eddie (January 14, 2018). 'Game Of The Year Nominees Announced For DICE Awards'. GameSpot. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
- ^'Nominee List for 2017'. National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers. February 9, 2018. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
- ^'Horizon wins 7; Mario GOTY'. National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers. March 13, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
Externals links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=XCOM_2:_War_of_the_Chosen&oldid=897634440'
During E3 2017 this week, the expansion War of the Chosen was announced for XCOM 2, after a few teases from the team prior to the show. And it’s a massive expansion. So massive, many members of the team wanted to turn it into XCOM 3.
Speaking with Polygon, XCOM designer Jake Solomon said War of the Chosen has enough features to form “the basis of a sequel.” Doing so would have called for a new narrative, though he said.
Miss anything from E3 2017? Get all the games, news and trailers from the biggest show of the year here.
“But for us a sequel also requires an entirely new narrative, we’re very systems-oriented and so, for us, this is an opportunity to make a new experience, a new game,” he said. “But we’re not going to totally replace the narrative.”
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XCOM 2: War of the Chosen greatly expands upon the campaign, and provides the player with access to three new resistance factions, each with their own Hero class. There will new enemies to content with alongside new missions, environments and more strategic depth.
Below you will find a list of features which demonstrate the size and scope for War of the Chosen:
- New Factions & Hero Classes: Three additional factions – the Reapers, Skirmishers and Templars – each with its own Hero class.
- The Chosen: A deadly new enemy force that will kidnap, interrogate and kill XCOM’s soldiers. They can even invade the strategy layer and ravage XCOM’s global operations.
- New Alien and Advent Threats: Adopt new tactics to counter a deadly new alien known as the Spectre, the explosive attacks of the ADVENT Purifier, and the psionically charged ADVENT Priest.
- New Environments and Mission Objectives: Players can engage in wide-ranging tactical missions, from abandoned cities devastated by alien bio-weapons during the original invasion, to underground tunnels and xenoformed wilderness regions.
- Enhanced Strategy Layer: Manage relations with factions while countering enemy operations from the Avenger.
- Greater Customization & Replayability: Soldiers cultivate bonds with compatible teammates for new abilities and perks, while the SITREP system dynamically adds new modifiers to the tactical layer to make sure every missions provides a unique challenge.
- Challenge Mode: New regular community challenges that rank players on a global leaderboard.
As with previous expansions Shen’s Last Gift and Alien Hunters, players can start a new campaign when War of the Chosen drops for XCOM 2 August 29 on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
It will be released for Mac at a later date courtesy of Feral Interactive.
XCOM 2 is getting a new expansion called War of the Chosen, and developers Firaxis claim it’s twice the size of add-ons they’re worked on before. Yes, that means it’s 100% larger than Enemy Within, the big expansion rework of the last XCOM game that added new maps, mechs, and gene-alteration.
If you’re into XCOM, you’ll love our list of the best strategy games.
So, it’s big, but what exactly does it offer? Here’s everything we know about XCOM: War of the Chosen.
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – Release Date
It’s out very soon. In fact, you’ll be able to playXCOM 2: War of the Chosenon August 29. Id card workshop 5.0 keygen 1. The page is even live on Steam already. Bang it on your wishlist if you want.
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – Trailer
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – The Chosen
The Chosen are a trio of persistent enemies that will haunt you across your XCOM 2 campaign. Inspired by Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis System, these enemies will morph and react to you as your force repeatedly encounters them, growing in strength as the war efforts push on. Each time you encounter them they’ll have a slightly different skill set, demanding that you constantly adjust your tactics.
These alien bosses grow in power via a resource called Knowledge, which they can gain in a variety of ways, including by kidnapping your best and brightest troops. If they gain too much Knowledge they will eventually shoot down the Avenger and try to seize you, the Commander, in a unique mission. If you’re captured that’s it: your campaign is over.
Like the orcs in the Nemesis System, XCOM’s The Chosen will have distinct personalities. They taunt you during combat, referring to previous battles, which adds a whole new level of character to XCOM. This should alleviate the copy/paste feeling that the game’s procedural generation can sometimes cause.
The three Chosen are siblings, and each come with their own unique strengths. They’re also worthwhile targets since you’ll be able to claim their equipment upon killing them, and their weapons are by far the best in the game.
The Assassin
Focused on duty and honour, the Chosen Assassin will turn up when you least expect it, cloaking and getting right up in your grill with a sword.
The Hunter
The Hunter is a long-range expert who will keep your squad pinned down and pop heads with sniper fire. This Chosen has a sense of humour – not surprising considering he’s voiced by Nolan North – and a keen aim.
The Warlock
Expect unpredictable attacks from this warrior-wizard. A religious fanatic, The Warlock won’t grant you any empathy.
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – Rebels
You will want to track down and kill The Chosen before the endgame, otherwise those final missions will be nearly impossible, what with three super-powerful extra enemies bearing down on you. To do that, you’ll need the help of three rebel factions that each have unique abilities. The only problem is… they hate each other.
Each faction is tracking a specific member of the Chosen, and aiding them in their fight will help gain your favour. This is done through Covert Actions, a new strategy feature that sees you send a duo of soldiers on a mission for a faction. Successful Covert Actions will gain you influence, and eventually allow you to hire a faction’s special hero unit.
Factions also provide Resistance Orders, which are bonuses similar to Civilization’s Policies. For example, the Skirmisher faction has Double Agent, which when equipped will trigger one Advent soldier in every mission to defect to your side. Another example is an order that removes a block of progress from the Avatar Project every month. You can have multiple Resistance Orders active, but you’ll start the game with the ability to assign only one.
Like the Chosen, each faction – the Templars, Reapers, and Skirmishers – will have their own abilities and philosophies. Those philosophies are also likely to make co-operating with all three of them tricky, but we do know that there is an achievement to be unlocked for befriending all three of them. You’ll want to chum up to all of them, too; hero class soldiers are powerful units in battle and can also aid your efforts in the game’s strategy layer.
The Reapers
The Reapers’ hero units are stealth marksmen and saboteurs. They operate from concealment using a skill called Shadow Shot that ensures there’s a chance they won’t be revealed when firing (although repeated shots lower the chance of staying hidden). They can throw claymores from stealth without giving away their position, and use the Remote Start skill to detonate parked cars with double radius and double damage. Their Banish skill also allows them to empty an entire magazine of ammo into an enemy target.
The Skirmishers
Skirmishers are alien/human hybrids and defectors from the Advent army. They are essentially one-man battalions, capable of massive destruction if used correctly thanks to the free extra action they get if somebody attacks them. They can use both actions to shoot, and their Overwatch allows them to use any single-action ability – such as throwing a grenade – rather than just fire their weapon. Skirmishers also have access to the Battlelord ability, which when triggered provides them with a free action every time an enemy unit takes an action.
The Templars
Templars are the wildcards of the bunch. Psionic masters with melee-only attacks, they work a little differently to regular units, since they generate Focus with each attack. As Focus builds, the Templar’s attacks do greater damage, their defence increases, and they can move further distances. At higher levels they even gain the ability to deflect damage back at opponents. Their Ionic Storm ability uses up all gathered Focus to unleash bolts of lightning on nearby foes, while Ghost creates a clone to aid in battle. Deploy them right, keep them alive, and Templars can be devastating in the late stages of a battle.
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – The Lost
It won’t just be The Chosen you have to worry about, as this expansion also introduces The Lost – a swarm of angry, mutated humans that will attack both sides of any given conflict. War of the Chosen takes us back to humanity’s abandoned cities, and they are absolutely riddled with these not-zombie zombies.
These messed up creatures don’t move individually. They attack in large swarms and are drawn to the sound of combat. Once they show up, everyone will be fighting for their lives against these mindless hordes, aliens and XCOM alike. Expect some multi-threat chaos, basically.
The Lost are governed by the Sitrep system, which rebalances missions by adjusting their core elements. If The Lost Sitrep is applied, you can expect to fight these zombies. There’s more to it that that, though; if The Horde Sitrep is applied, there will be twice as many Lost swarms. These interlink with other elements, too; there’s a Dark Event called Lost World that when active will put Lost swarms in every mission played that month.
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen new features
There are plenty more additional features beyond the new factions and enemies. Indeed, War of the Chosen is a much bigger expansion than any XCOM 2 DLC and the Enemy Within pack for the previous XCOM game.
One of the key new features is Soldier Bonds, which sees compatible units build a band of brothers-style relationship over multiple missions. When you deploy these soldiers together, they’ll have access to a set of abilities based around their bond that should make them incredibly powerful assets. For example, these buddies can fire simultaneously, or negate debuffs when stood together. You certainly won’t want to separate them, nor let one be killed; the death of a bonded comrade will send to survivor into a rage state similar to panic from the base game. Should the worst happen, though, survivors can form bonds with new soldiers.
Keeping your pals together won’t be so easy, of course. Not only is there the ever-looming threat of permadeath, but soldiers now suffer fatigue if you send them on too many subsequent missions. You’ll need to rotate through your roster a lot more to keep your men and women fighting fit, and ensure that bonded units are both energised enough to be fielded together.
Soldiers can now develop quirks. For example, a unit can become ‘obsessive’, meaning they constantly require their weapon’s magazine to be full. If it’s not, they may ignore one of your orders and reload instead. This can be cured by putting units through the new Infirmary building.
Propaganda is being woven into the campaign, with the ability for you to write on posters and craft mottos for your teams. A Photobooth mode allows you to take snapshots of soldiers as they return from missions, adding filters and posing your squaddies. These photos will then appear in the world as posters, encouraging people to join the rebellion. There’s also a resistance DJ that will discuss your victories and defeats on the Avenger’s radio (voiced by Jake ‘son of Gary’ Busey), and an Advent news channel that will broadcast stories covering up XCOM’s successful missions. Combined with brand new opening and end cinematics, War of the Chosen should have far more narrative flavour than the base game.
The previously mentioned Sitreps don’t just apply to the Lost; they can force you to play in very different ways. For example, one Sitrep will allow your squad to re-enter concealment, but will also increase the difficulty of the mission to compensate for that. Sitreps should ensure that every War of the Chosen mission feels distinctly different to ones featured in the original XCOM 2 campaign.
Things are being changed around in the HQ, too. Your scientists can have Breakthroughs and Inspirations. The former provides bonuses for specific projects, such as higher damage for a weapon, while the latter reduces the time to research. However, both must be accepted immediately when the in-game pop-up occurs, otherwise they’ll be lost. This means you’ll need to weigh up the benefits of putting your current research projects on hold to accept a Breakthrough or Inspiration.
The Advanced Warfare Centre has been replaced with three new buildings: the Infirmary, the Resistance Ring, and the Training Centre. As mentioned previously, the Infirmary is a medical facility used to cure soldiers of negative quirks. The Resistance Ring allows you to embark on Covert Actions, and the Training Centre is where new abilities are purchased. Yes, not all abilities are earned for simply ranking up these days.
The new Faction Hero units must purchase their skills with Ability Points, which are gained in battle for doing general manoeuvres such as flanks. Each soldier has a Combat Intelligence score which modifies the amount of AP earned. Back at HQ, AP is spent on unlocking skills for Hero units. Regular soldiers can also have AP spent on them at the Training Centre; while they’ll still earn skills for ranking up, AP can be used to unlock skills from their unused skill tree, or even teach them the abilities from other classes.
That’s all the intelligence we’ve managed to harvest from the alien corpses found by the PCGN team, but we’ve always got soldiers on the lookout for new data. Check back regularly for new War of the Chosen news, Commander.
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