User:Ditto51/Ditto51's Guide to Impossible in XCOM: Enemy Unknown (EU2012)

This is my guide on how to complete XCOM: Enemy Unknown on impossible, which is extremely hard because of the sharp increase to Floaters and Thin Men with their health increasing from 4 to 6 as well as Sectoids increase to 4 from 3.

Starting Country

While you may want to go for North America for the cheaper aircraft, it probably won't be as beneficial when compared to Africa's All In bonus, Europe's Expert Knowledge and South America's We have ways.

The All In Bonus grants you a 30% increase to your funding, which will suffer greatly from the lack of satellites being launched

The Expert Knowledge bonus makes your Labs and Workshops cheaper and cheaper to maintain, helping to decrease research time along with workshop time, prices and adjectent workshops grant your a 7% rebate.

We Have Ways is another good bonus that makes your interrogations and autopsies be completed faster. This bonus however is located on the easiest continent to cover, with only two countries, so it may be easier to cover South America with satellites when you get the chance rather than starting there.

The First Mission

Your grenades will be your best friend for the duration of the first mission (and beyond), they may no longer be able to oneshot kill the Sectoids but they can weaken them and remove their cover, and thus allow other members of your squad to finish them off with the Rifle or [[Pistol (EU2012)|Pistol].

IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT YOU USE YOUR PISTOL SO THAT YOU DON'T RUN OUT OF AMMO IN YOUR RIFLE

Well placed Grenades can also take away the cover of thee Sectoids while also harming them to the point that they are oneshot killable with your pistol. And with that you should be able to win the opening mission with few casualties.

Back at Base

Xeno-Biology is a must do first research project followed by the Arc Thrower because of the need to capture a live alien and complete the Alien Base Mission in order to bring the panic levels down enough so that you don't lose eight countries within the first three months.

A Medikit is also a must build as well as at least one satellite, more if you can afford it.

Supports and Assaults

Your support soldiers should be put on ice until you research Plasma Weaponry, or at the very least the Laser Rifle

You Assaults soldiers should be put on ice until you research armour for them to wear, thus allowing them to survive the Sectoid Plasma Pistol which basically has a guarrentted hit after the assault had run and gunned to get closer to an alien he is shooting.

First Abduction

If by chance one of the rewards is a high level Heavy then go for it, the heavies will just about save your life. If not then go for Scientist, you'll need them in order to complete the necessary research quicker.

Consider taking along a rookie instead of a support because of the possibility that the Rookie will be promoted to a heavy who are your new best friends with the ability to hold two grenades and fire both a normal rocket (oneshot Floaters, Thin Men and Outsiders.) and a shredder rocket (oneshot Sectoids). Taking rookies instead of Assault soldiers before you get armour because of the relative probability that if you run and gun you are going to get yourself killed, or activate more alien packs.

If an alien that has been activated has moved off screen, DO NOT give chase. Overwatch and wait for it to run back, otherwise you risk waking up more squads before you have finished dealing with the other squad.

Always remember that you are not penalised for damaged – destroying cover does not effect any monthly income, so use your grenades to blow the Sectoid cover away and leave them open to the rest of your squad to shot them in the face.

Outcome of Research and Engineering

If the Arc Thrower research is completed

Before UFO Assault

If your lucky then you can have both Xeno-Biology and the Arc Thrower researched before the first UFO appears (Always a Small Scout). You do not need to have the Alien Containment built in order to house and capture an Outsider.

Small Scout Crash

Treat this as a normal mission and take out the squads one by one, once both Sectoid Squads are down, wake up the Outsider, use a grenade to lower his health and destory his cover before running up with an Arc Thrower and stunning him. Granting you the ability to research it the second you get a Sectoid.

If the Arc Thrower research and Alien Containment are completed

Before UFO Assault

If you're lucky then you can have both Xeno-Biology and the Arc Thrower researched and also the Alien Containment before the first UFO appears (Always a Small Scout). With both are completed then you can take two Arc Throwers and two grenades.

Small Scout Crash

When you come across your first squad of Sectoids you'll want to take out two and use one of the grenades to weaken a Sectoid before you run up to him and stun him with the Arc Thrower. Then before assaulting the UFO, you should find and deal with the second squad of Sectoids. And then follow the same method as above to capture the Outsider, and so you can get onto the alien base within the first or second month.

Nothing is completed

Deal with the UFO as if it were an abduction mission, use your grenades wisely and take out the Outsider on the same turn that you meet him.

Lasers

After you finish the research of the Arc Thrower and the live aliens you should begin researching into Lasers, and if you got a live Sectoid then you will get the Beam Weapons Research credit allowing for them to be completed faster than normal.

Slingshot or Random Council Mission

Pros and Cons of the Slingshot Council Missions

Pros	Cons
Early access to the OTS	No Panic Reduction
A Lieutenant class heavy, who can be very useful with their oneshot kill rockets
Early access to Mutons and their Plasma Rifles (Not LPR)
You get a Battleship*

*It is not worth researching the things you retrieve from the battleship.

Pros and Cons of Normal Council Missions

Pros	Cons
Panic Reduction	No extra weapons other than the Light Plasma Rifle that can be taken from a stunned Thin Men
No Mutons, only Thin Men	No Battleship

Either way if you stun a Thin Man then you get to research the LPR and as a result you get to research the Plasma Cannon, essentially skipping both the Phoenix Cannon and the Laser Cannon.