https://www.ufopaedia.org/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=Tacobandit744&feedformat=atomUFOpaedia - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T07:05:21ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.35.4https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Multiplayer_Builds_(EU2012)&diff=44531Multiplayer Builds (EU2012)2013-02-01T21:53:36Z<p>Tacobandit744: Some of the info that I posted a long time ago was incorrect (Chryssalids can't zombify aliens)</p>
<hr />
<div>== Chryssalid & Thin Man ==<br />
<br />
*2 Chryssalids<br />
*2 Thin Men<br />
*1200 points to spend on whatever you like.<br />
Pros: This build provides a well balanced army, with the scouting/potential zombyfying power of the chryssalids, the mobility/moderate damage of the thin man, and the rest are to cover your personal tastes(you will have 1200 points to spend after the first 4). Can decimate sectoid commanders, and can replenish lost teammates if they're human. High powered low squad teams can be ganged up on.<br />
<br />
Cons: Must be very careful with your thin men. Try to take a roof asap with your chryssalids, followed by your thin men, and the rest cover the rear. Chryssalids have melee only, so they are VERY vulnerable to snipers. I suggest ganging up on snipers asap. Beware of high upgrade assault class w/ chitin plating, chryssalid attack does 4 damage max, and can't poison in titan armor.<br />
<br />
Tips: Go for weak units first. Weaken them first, then zombiefy them to add to your chryssald collection. Keep your thin men safe. If the enemy has a sniper with plasma, best advice is to poison and surpress it, followed by Chryssalid flank. If the enemy has sectoid commanders. gang up on them. their mind attacks don't work, and they take full damage and get poisoned. If the enemy has cyber discs, hide and draw them into a trap, preferably inside a building.<br />
<br />
<br />
== 3 Sectoid Commanders == <br />
<br />
*3 Sectoid commanders<br />
*1 Sectoid<br />
(total 10000 points)<br />
<br />
Pros:<br />
*You have 3 MC and 3 grenades. Also your mindfray can be deadly since you got 3 of them too. Works best against small squad without mind shield.<br />
<br />
Cons: <br />
*They're kind of slow.<br />
*If your opponent have cyberdisk or mind shield soldier, you'll have hard time dealing with them.<br />
*No access to roof<br />
<br />
Tips: If you MC an enemy unit, consider using their abilities, especially grenades. Since you lose control of them if your SC dies!<br />
<br />
<br />
== Archangel Sniper == <br />
<br />
*1 Dead eye sniper with Plasma rifle and Archangel armor<br />
<br />
*'filler' units, which will serve as eyes for the sniper.<br />
<br />
Pros: Very good at defensive play. your opponent will have hard time reaching your sniper.<br />
<br />
Cons: Can be weak against swarming opponents. You will kill one unit per turn reliably, but rest of your squad will be weaker than opponent's. Combat stims soldier can be pain, since they don't get critted and takes half damage.<br />
<br />
Tips: Best on Boulevard map. In Grand cemetery and Trainyard it is solid. Weaker in Police station. After your sniper's shot, consider hunkering down your scout, if they can't kill something. Your main damage comes from sniper and he needs spotters to be alive.<br />
<br />
<br />
== "Laser Tank" Squad == <br />
<br />
*1 Commando class Assault with Titan armour, a Scatter Laser and an optional medkit.<br />
*3 Rookie Soldiers armed with standard armour and Light Plasma rifles.<br />
*1 Rookie Soldier armed with a Skeleton Suit, a SCOPE and a light plasma rifle.<br />
(Note: Rookie counts as a class, selected specifically in the Soldier class menu.)<br />
Cost: Aproximately 9700, extra 300 points spending money if you are not worried about getting the first turn.<br />
<br />
Pros: <br />
*High critting, fast moving monster Assault Soldier with around 20 health and the ability to fire twice. (Rapid fire ability.)<br />
*"First Mate" type unit with good mobility that is hard to hit. (Guy in Skeleton suit.)<br />
*Strong support team with decent accuracy.<br />
*Flexible build. The assault soldier is the only essential unit to this build.<br />
<br />
Cons: <br />
*No real defence against psionics. (Though the build's flexibility lets you take a mind shield in exchange for a soldier or some weapons.)<br />
*May be hard to get the assault close to snipers. (When you do they can really get shredded.)<br />
*All humans are extremely suceptible to Chryssalid attacks. Again, swith out the riflemen if you feel unsafe.<br />
*Assault may find it hard to hit Cyberdiscs and other flying units.<br />
*Assault may find itself in a big ambush situation. (Health might save you here, but always be sure to look before you leap.)<br />
<br />
Tips:<br />
<br />
Agressive scouting and "seek, locate, destroy" tactics are how you should truly be using this squad. Keep your Assault out of the fight until you have a good flanking opportunity, the element of surprise is key to this build's success. Keep scouting for enemies ''before'' sending in your Assault over unexplored territory.<br />
<br />
Try to keep the Assault hidden as much as possible while advancing towards a hostile. Get the assault as close as possible to enemies, flanking ideally. Use rapid fire when the opportunity presents itself, do not save it! You can use rapid fire every turn. Use your better judgement when the enemy is too far away, one accurate shot might be better than 2 Rapid Fire shots. As for Run and Gun, you might want to save that for assassination attempts against higher tier enemies. Note the assault has Lightning Reflexes too so do not be too scared of reaction fire.<br />
<br />
You might want to give your assault a medkit, it has saved my assault numerous times. A mind shield may be useful too but there is no guarantee that your enemy will use psionic units.<br />
<br />
If the worst comes to pass, retreat your Assault into a small room if possible and heal. Keep doing overwatch until your opponent gets impatient and attacks the room. They will usually be at your mercy at that point.<br />
<br />
Be smart with the support group but do not fret too much if you lose a few. The Assault is really the backbone of the build. Keep in mind that you should not sacrifice the riflemen completely, it is a gross waste of points.<br />
<br />
You can change the support team as much as you want. Again, the Laser Assault is the only really essential soldier. The above team is very effective though. A Sectoid or two can suppress enemies, locking them in place for a surprise attack from your Assault.<br />
<br />
As for the assault's weapon, a Scatter Laser is the most cost effective. Its high crit chance makes it a good alternative to a rifle and with the health you're packing you can afford to get up close enough to offset its limited range.<br />
<br />
<br />
== Tanky Smokejumpers & Medic == <br />
<br />
5 Smokejumpers with LPR and Chitin<br />
1 Medic with LPR, Skeleton suit and Medikit<br />
(9750p)<br />
<br />
Pros:<br />
*6 units, which allows to overwhelm super soldiers.<br />
*Units have good aim(SJs have 80 and medic has 92) and nice HP. (all units have 11, cannot be killed with any non-critical attacks.)<br />
*Good chance to get the first turn.<br />
*Many smoke grenades.<br />
*Can revive critically wounded units.<br />
<br />
Cons:<br />
*If you put units too close, they can be vulnerable to AOE attacks.<br />
*No access to roof<br />
<br />
Tips:<br />
If one of your unit got MC'ed, ignore him and kill the MC'er. MC'ed unit won't be able to oneshot the mates.<br />
Although medic have highest aim, keep him in back. reviving critically wounded soldier is key to win, and you don't want medic killed. He have sprinter perk and skeleton suit, which allows move to any unit that critically wounded from back.<br />
<br />
== Medic Squad ==<br />
<br />
5 Medics with LPR and medikit<br />
1 Sectoid<br />
(total of 9900p)<br />
<br />
Pros:<br />
*Medics have good mobility thanks to the sprinter perk<br />
*You got total of 15 medikits, you'll never run out of them.<br />
*5 dense smoke, which have larger radius and more defense.<br />
*Can revive critically wounded units.<br />
<br />
Cons:<br />
*Only 9 hp<br />
*No access to roof<br />
<br />
Tip: You can force opponent to retreat by dense smoke, since they'll have hard time shooting them. But watch out for explosives or psi attacks. If you suspect overwatch trap, you can place smoke in midway. Move back your wounded unit and heal it. If you thinks there are too many medikits, you may swap them with scope or chitin(no sectoid in this case)<br />
<br />
== "Brain and Brawn" == <br />
*Sectoid Commander<br />
*Muton Elite<br />
*Regular Muton<br />
<br />
Pros:<br />
*Psionic Capabilities<br />
*Sectoid Commander with Mind Control power<br />
*Two tough bodyguards for the Sectoid Commander<br />
*Three grenades<br />
<br />
Cons:<br />
*Small squad might be outnumbered<br />
*Mutons are quite suceptible to Mind Control<br />
*Slow units provide limited scouting abilities<br />
<br />
Tips:<br />
Keep the Sectoid far in the back, hidden if possible.<br />
<br />
Have your Mutons scouting ahead. When you spot an enemy check if it is worth Mind Controlling.<br />
<br />
If a unit you have spotted is Mind Control worthy, try to take it over. If you have chosen wisely, the unit you have under your control will be central to the enemy plans. This might cause a crumble in the enemy forces within the 3 turns you have the unit.<br />
<br />
The Mutons are very competent fighters. The Muton Elite is notoriously difficult to hit. Both Mutons pack a heavy load of firepower and are very accurate killers.<br />
<br />
Another great advantage is the grenade capabilities of your squad. Altogether the grenades will do 15 damage, though you may be aiming them at different targets. 15 points of assured damage is priceless in a game where no shot is certain and there is also the amazing area of effect potential as well. You may want to save it for tearing up tight knit groups.<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category: Enemy Unknown (2012)]]</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Alien_Life_Forms_(EU2012)&diff=40806Alien Life Forms (EU2012)2012-11-02T20:31:46Z<p>Tacobandit744: /* Sectoid */</p>
<hr />
<div>There are a number of Alien Life Forms to be encountered during the First Alien War, each with a unique set of strengths, weaknesses and abilities. Know your enemy; your soldiers' lives depend on it.<br />
<br />
All weapons carried by the aliens explode when they are killed. Captured weapons are indistinguishable from built weapons of the same type.<br />
=Races=<br />
==[[Sectoid_(EU2012)|Sectoid]]==<br />
[[File:Sectoid (EU2012).jpg|thumb]]<br />
Sectoids are a basic, weak unit with an average ranged attack. They are capable of some psionics. Killing a unit that is performing '''Mind Merge''' will also kill the unit receiving the merge.<br />
*'''Mind Merge''': the merged ally receives +1 hit points, increased accuracy, & increased critical hit chance.<br />
<br />
Killing a sectoid will leave behind 2x weapon fragments.<br />
<br />
==[[Thin Man (EU2012) | Thin Man]]==<br />
[[File:Thin Man (EU2012).png|right|thumb|]]<br />
Thin Men are weak, highly mobile units with an average ranged attack. They use a light plasma rifle, making them more accurate than Sectoids, but they don't pack as much firepower as other enemies.<br />
* '''Poison Spit''': Causes damage each turn for ''up to'' 3 turns to any unit poisoned by the cloud of spit. Being poisoned reduces a unit's accuracy.<br />
* Thin Men explode into a cloud of poison upon death. Moving into this cloud has the same effect as being poisoned by their spit attack.<br />
* '''Leap''': Allows the Thin Man to jump vertically up onto high ground (e.g., roof tops).<br />
* Note: Units carrying a medikit or titan armor are immune to the Thin Man's poison.<br />
*''Trivia: The Thin Man's face is a caricature of Sid Meier, boss of Firaxis. Sid's face has a habit of popping up in his games.''<br />
<br />
'''Gray Market description:'''<br />
"The Thin Man cadaver begins to severely decomposed severely decompose within hours after death, giving off an overwhelming stench which may relate to toxins stored within its body" <br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable" width="70%" <br />
|+ Weapons Used<br />
|- <br />
! width=""50px" align="center" | Weapon !! Damage !! Critical Chance !! Terrain Damage !! Range !! Reaction Angle !! Reaction Range !! Size !! Abilities<br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"<br />
| align="center" |[[Thin Man Light Rifle (EU2012)|Thin Man Plasma Light Rifle]]|| align="center" | 4 || align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 125 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | 200 || align="center" | NA || align="center" | Large || align="center" |Suppression 20%<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<!-- THIN MAN is LONG ---><br />
<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==[[Floater (EU2012)| Floater]]==<br />
[[File:Floater (EU2012).png|thumb]]<br />
A fast and aggressive flying unit with a light plasma rifle. They prefer to use their mobility to outflank your squad, and their high mobility grants them an innate defensive bonus. They can be especially dangerous to Snipers.<br />
* '''Launch''': The Floater can launch to any point on the map (ends its turn).<br />
* Floaters are always considered to have at least Light cover even in the open or when flying, unless in proper cover and Flanked. This bonus ''does not'' stack with existing cover bonuses - they only recieve the best cover.<br />
{| class="wikitable" width="70%" <br />
|+ Weapons Used<br />
|- <br />
! width=""50px" align="center" | Weapon !! Damage !! Critical Chance !! Terrain Damage !! Range !! Reaction Angle !! Reaction Range !! Size !! Abilities<br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"<br />
| align="center" |[[Floater Light Rifle (EU2012)|Floater Plasma Light Rifle]]|| align="center" | 6 || align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 125 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | 200 || align="center" | NA || align="center" | Large || align="center" |Suppression 20%<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==[[Floater (EU2012)#Heavy Floater| Heavy Floater]]==<br />
[[File:Heavy Floater (EU2012).png|right|thumb]]<br />
A tougher version of the regular Floater with considerably more hit points than a Floater, and a more powerful variant of the Plasma Rifle. They also carry an Alien Grenade.<br />
* '''Evasion''': Enemies targeting this unit when it is airborn suffer a -20 Aim penalty.<br />
* '''Launch''': Move anywhere on the battlefield in a single turn. Launch cannot be used indoors.<br />
* '''Bombard''': Throw or launch grenades over exceptionally long distances. <br />
{| class="wikitable" width="70%" <br />
|+ Weapons Used<br />
|- <br />
! width=""50px" align="center" | Weapon !! Damage !! Critical Chance !! Terrain Damage !! Range !! Reaction Angle !! Reaction Range !! Size !! Abilities<br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"<br />
| align="center" |[[Floater Heavy Plasma (EU2012)|Floater Heavy Plasma]]|| align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 125 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | 200 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | Large || align="center" |Suppression 35%<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==[[Muton (EU2012)| Muton]]==<br />
[[File:Muton (EU2012).png|right|thumb]]<br />
Mutons are very strong units and carry a respectably powerful Plasma Rifle, though they are susceptible to psionics. Wounding a Muton without killing it can intimidate your soldiers and lower their Will.<br />
* '''Suppression''': Can fire a special shot that gratns reaction fire at a single target. The target also suffers a -30 Aim penalty.<br />
* '''Blood Call''': Unleash a bestial roar that inspires nearby allies of the same species to greater speed, focus, and resolve for 2 turns. 4 turn cooldown.<br />
* '''Intimidate''': Reacts unpredictably when wounded, provoking panic in enemies.<br />
* Mutons carry Alien Grenades, allowing them to injure multiple troops at once and destroy cover.<br />
* They carry light rifles on first month they appear, and rifles after that month.<br />
{| class="wikitable" width="70%" <br />
|+ Weapons Used<br />
|- <br />
! width=""50px" align="center" | Weapon !! Damage !! Critical Chance !! Terrain Damage !! Range !! Reaction Angle !! Reaction Range !! Size !! Abilities<br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"<br />
| align="center" |[[Muton Light Rifle (EU2012)|Muton Plasma Light Rifle]]|| align="center" | 6 || align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 125 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | 200 || align="center" | NA || align="center" | Large || align="center" |Suppression 20%<br />
|-<br />
| align="center" |[[Muton Rifle (EU2012)|Muton Plasma Rifle]]|| align="center" | 8 || align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 125 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | 200 || align="center" | NA || align="center" | Large || align="center" |Suppression 20%<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==[[Muton (EU2012)#Muton Elite| Muton Elite]]==<br />
<br />
<br />
An even tougher version of the regular Muton, armed with a powerful Heavy Plasma. They are not noticeably more resistant to psionic attack, though.<br />
* '''Suppression''': Can fire a special shot that grants reaction fire at a single target. The target also suffers a -30 Aim penalty.<br />
* '''Bombard''': Throw or launch grenades over exceptionally long distances.<br />
* Enemy Defense: -20% Hit<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable" width="70%" <br />
|+ Weapons Used<br />
|- <br />
! width=""50px" align="center" | Weapon !! Damage !! Critical Chance !! Terrain Damage !! Range !! Reaction Angle !! Reaction Range !! Size !! Abilities<br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"<br />
| align="center" |[[Muton Heavy Plasma (EU2012)|Muton Heavy Plasma]]|| align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 125 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | 200 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | Large || align="center" |Suppression 35%<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==[[Muton (EU2012)#Muton Berserker| Berserker]]==<br />
[[File:Muton Berserker (EU2012).jpg|right|thumb]]<br />
Berserkers are extremely strong and very tough melee units, susceptible to their own bloodlust; they have a habit of chasing after whichever unit damaged them last (uncontrollable in multiplayer?). They are also quite resilient to psionic attack.<br />
* '''Bull Rush''': Charges through cover and causes damage to any units within a small radius.<br />
* '''Blood Lust''': Allows the Berserker to charge an enemy that wounds it.<br />
* '''Hardened''': Hardened units receive extra protection against critical hits (-60% chance to crit)<br />
{| class="wikitable" width="70%" <br />
|+ Weapons Used<br />
|- <br />
! width=""50px" align="center" | Weapon !! Damage !! Critical Chance !! Terrain Damage !! Range !! Reaction Angle !! Reaction Range !! Size !! Abilities<br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"<br />
| align="center" |Muton Blade|| align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 33 || align="center" | 125 || align="center" | 2 || align="center" | NA || align="center" | Small || align="center" | No reaction shot<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==[[Outsider (EU2012)|Outsider]]==<br />
[[File:Outsider (EU2012).jpg|right|thumb]]<br />
Outsiders are relatively fragile alien units that are only encountered on UFO missions. They will not spawn until an XCOM soldier approaches the bridge(the room containing the flight computer). Their purpose seems to be to defend that position, as they will not go far beyond it. <br />
* Outsiders do not seem to possess any particularly unique abilities, though capturing one is required to progress the main plot. They are not usually encountered on larger UFOs. After the alien base mission they are replaced by sectoid commanders or ethreals. <br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable" width="70%" <br />
|+ Weapons Used<br />
|- <br />
! width=""50px" align="center" | Weapon !! Damage !! Critical Chance !! Terrain Damage !! Range !! Reaction Angle !! Reaction Range !! Size !! Abilities<br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"<br />
| align="center" |[[Outsider Light Rifle (EU2012)|Outsider Plasma Light Rifle]]|| align="center" | 4 || align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | 200 || align="center" | NA || align="center" | Large || align="center" |Suppression 30%<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==[[Chryssalid (EU2012)|Chryssalid]]==<br />
[[File:Chryssalid.png|right|thumb]]<br />
Chryssalids are fast melee units. Their '''Implant''' attack is particularly dangerous. Their corpses can be used to make Chitin Vests, an equippable item that makes your soldiers tougher and more resilient to melee damage. Since melee attacks ignore cover, Chryssalids are best fought by abandoning cover completely, falling back into the open, and concentrating your fire. Note: Chrssalids are where the changes in the action system are most notable. While not fundamentally different from their counterpart in the original, so long as you are far enough away to force them to dash they are significantly less dangerous, often running right up to your soldiers and ending their turn there.<br />
* '''Stun Immune''': This unit cannot be stunned with the Arc Thrower; taking a live specimen is not possible.<br />
* '''Leap''': Allows vertical leaps onto elevated surfaces during movement.<br />
* '''Poisonous Claws''': "''Poison enemies wounded by a melee attack.''"<br />
* '''Implant''': "''Victims are implanted with a Chryssalid egg if they are killed by the attack. (not from poison caused by Poisonous Claws.''" - A successful implant converts the victim into a zombie that eventually hatches into another Chryssalid a couple turns later. Killing the zombie seemingly prevents this transformation from occurring.''<br />
* '''Hardened''': Hardened units receive extra protection against critical hits (-60% crit chance).<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==[[Cyberdisc (EU2012)| Cyberdisc]]==<br />
[[File:Cyberdisc Open (EU2012).jpg|right|thumb|Cyberdisc - open assault form]]<br />
[[File:Cyberdisc Closed (EU2012).jpg|right|thumb|Cyberdisc - closed disc form]]<br />
<br />
Cyberdiscs are strong, flying robotic units with a powerful plasma barrage attack that frequently destroys cover even if it fails to hit the target. When in their 'closed' form, they take less damage and are highly resistant to Critical Hits. They are always accompanied by a pair of Drones, which can repair them during combat. They are immune to most psionic attacks.<br />
* Can throw an Alien Grenade to attack multiple soldiers at once.<br />
* Cyberdiscs automatically 'close-up' into their disc form after being attacked. In their closed form, they are almost immune to Critical Hits.<br />
* '''Death Blossom''': An area of effect attack dealing high damage to all units within a few spaces in all directions.<br />
* Cyberdiscs explode upon death, dealing damage to all units within a fairly small radius.<br />
<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==[[Drone (EU2012)|Drone]]==<br />
[[File:Drone (EU2012).jpg|right|thumb]]<br />
Drones are weak flying robotic units with a weak ranged attack. Their purpose is to repair accompanying Cyberdiscs and Sectopods during combat.<br />
* With Foundry Upgrades, the Arc Thrower can be used to 'hack' Drones and seize control of them for the duration of a mission.<br />
<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br />
<br />
<br />
==[[Ethereal (EU2012)|Ethereal]]==<br />
[[File:2012-10-14 00005.jpg|right|thumb]]<br />
Physically weak, slow units with high health and powerful psionic attacks.<br />
<br />
* '''Psi Lance''': Offensive Psi ability that deals more damage if the target fails a will challenge.<br />
* '''Mindfray''', offensive psionic ability that causes damage and lowers will.<br />
* Can '''Mind Control'''.<br />
* '''Psi Drain''': Drains up to 5 hitpoints worth of health from a friendly organic target. Cannot kill target(Can be used on mind-linked targets such as mind controlled squaddie)<br />
* '''Rift''', a powerful AoE attack that inflicts more damage if they fail a will challenge.<br />
* Chance to reflect physical projectiles back at the attacker.<br />
* High Will; resistant to psionic attacks.<br />
* Ethereals explode upon death, dealing damage to all units within a fairly small radius.<br />
<br />
==[[Sectoid (EU2012)#Sectoid Commander| Sectoid Commander]]==<br />
[[File:Sectoid Commander (EU2012).png|right|thumb]]<br />
The Sectoid Commander is a slightly stronger Sectoid with more psionic capabilities. They have much more health than normal Sectoids, but are otherwise unremarkable aside from their Mind Control ability.<br />
<br />
* '''Mind Fray''': Causes the target to lose grip on reality, inflicting penalties to Aim, Will, and mobility and doing 5 base damage. Lasts 2 turns, 1 turn cooldown.<br />
* '''Mind Control''': Very difficult psi technique that, if successful, grants control of the target for 3 turns. <br />
* '''Greater Mind Merge''': Merge Minds with all lesser allies of the same species nearby, granting them +25% critical chance and +1 health.<br />
* Enemy Defense: -20% Hit<br />
<br />
* Carries Plasma Pistol & Alien Grenade.<br />
* Will use psi attacks against targets with a low Hit chance. If trying to capture one, sometimes its best to leave a soldier out of cover and eat a plasma pistol shot instead of taking a psi attack.<br />
<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br />
<br />
<br />
==[[Sectopod (EU2012)| Sectopod]]==<br />
[[File:Sectopod (EU2012).jpg|right|thumb]]<br />
An extremely strong robotic unit that can use both its turn moves for attacking. Frequently escorted by Drones. They are immune to most psionic attacks. Make as much use of Smoke Grenades, Heavy Cover, and Psionic Fields as you can.<br />
* '''Cannon Fire''': Beam attack that causes high damage and grants free Overwatch. If the Sectopod does not move, Cannon Fire can be used twice (against different enemies).<br />
* '''Cluster Bomb''': Mark a large area, and after one turn, saturate it with a barrage of explosive minibombs. - Uses both of the Sectopod's actions for that turn. It enters a special deployed state and aims at the target location; on the following turn, it bombards the target area with many small explosives. Using this ability prevents a Sectopod from using its Plasma Beam above.<br />
* '''Hardened''': Hardened units receive extra protection against critical hits (-60% crit chance)<br />
<br />
<br />
* Seems to have a longer sight range than most units.<br />
* Note: Due to its superior firepower, use of suppression may be necessary to render its attacks far less dangerous, but practically guaranteeing a double attack. Do not stack units too close together or the Sectopod may choose to target them with the Cluster Bomb attack. Using Plasma / Heavy weapons or Mind-controlled cannon-fodder against this unit is also recommended.<br />
* The Heavy's ''HEAT Ammo'' promotion applies to ''all'' weapons, and can allow them to inflict ''vast'' amounts of damage to Sectopods; combined with Bullet Swarm, a pre-positioned Heavy with a Heavy Plasma can easily kill or cripple a Sectopod in one turn, or even destroy two that have already taken significant damage. HEAT ammo also affects rockets. A non-crit with a Heavy's rocket can do 16 points of damage.<br />
* The Heavy's ''Shredder Rocket'' promotion can also be used to make the Sectopod take additional damage from all other attacks.<br />
* Snipers can use their ''Headshot'' or ''Disabling Shot'' powers to cripple or inflict serious damage to a Sectopod, especially if they have the ''Double Tap'' promotion.<br />
* If you see Cluster Bomb being prepared, RUN.<br />
<br />
==[[Ethereal (EU2012)#Uber Ethereal| Uber Ethereal]]==<br />
Same as the Ethereal, but with larger stats and a higher projectile reflection chance.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
=Alien Stats Table=<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
{| class="wikitable" width="100%" style="text-align: center<br />
|- <br />
! width="15%" | Name <br />
! width="20%" | HP<br />
(Easy/Normal/Classic/Impossible)<br />
! width="8%" | Aim<br />
! width="8%" | Defense<br />
! width="8%" | Will<br />
! width="8%" | Movement<br />
! width="33%" | Notes<br />
|-<br />
|Sectoid<br />
|3/3/3/4<br />
|65<br />
|0<br />
|10<br />
|12<br />
|Gains one extra health if the target of a mind merge, the aim and critical hit chance also rises<br />
|-<br />
|Outsider<br />
|3/3/5/5<br />
|70<br />
|0<br />
|20<br />
|12<br />
|Receives an additional +10 Aim and +5 Movement from bonuses on impossible. Tied for highest accuracy in the game.<br />
|- <br />
|Thin man<br />
|3/3/4/6<br />
|65<br />
|0<br />
|15<br />
|15<br />
|Deals 2 less damage on normal/easy<br />
|-<br />
|Floater<br />
|3/4/4/6<br />
|50<br />
|0<br />
|10<br />
|12<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|Chryssalid<br />
|8/8/8/8<br />
|Melee<br />
|10<br />
|120<br />
|20<br />
|Hardened, Deals +2 damage on classic/impossible, Immune to stunning<br />
|-<br />
|Zombie<br />
|10/10/10/10<br />
|Melee<br />
|0<br />
|120<br />
|8<br />
|Deals +2/+4 damage on classic/impossible, Immune to stunning<br />
|-<br />
|Muton<br />
|8/8/10/10<br />
|70<br />
|10<br />
|10<br />
|12<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|Drone<br />
|3/3/5/7<br />
|60<br />
|10<br />
|Mechanized<br />
|12<br />
|Requires 'Drone Hack' arc thrower upgrade to 'hack'<br />
|-<br />
|Cyberdisk<br />
|16/16/20/20<br />
|70<br />
|10<br />
|Mechanized<br />
|18<br />
|Hardened while in closed form, Immune to stunning<br />
|-<br />
|Sectoid Commander<br />
|10/10/14/14<br />
|85<br />
|20<br />
|90<br />
|12<br />
| +25/35 will on classic/impossible<br />
|-<br />
|Muton Berserker<br />
|20/20/20/25<br />
|Melee<br />
|20<br />
|80<br />
|17<br />
|Hardened, Deals +1/3 damage on classic/impossible<br />
|-<br />
|Sectopod<br />
|30/30/30/30<br />
|80<br />
|30<br />
|Mechanized<br />
|12<br />
| Immune to stunning<br />
|-<br />
|Heavy Floater<br />
|12/12/14/16<br />
|70<br />
|10<br />
|25<br />
|12<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|Muton Elite<br />
|14/14/14/18<br />
|80<br />
|20<br />
|20<br />
|12<br />
| +10 defense on classic/impossible, +10 additional aim on impossible<br />
|-<br />
|Ethereal<br />
|20/20/20/25<br />
|N/A<br />
|40<br />
|120<br />
|12<br />
|Hardened, +25/35 will on classic/impossible<br />
|-<br />
|Uber Ethereal<br />
|?/?/25/?<br />
|N/A<br />
|40<br />
|?<br />
|?<br />
|Hardened<br />
|}<br />
</div><br />
Melee attacks always hit.<br />
Hardened reduces critical chance by 60% against the target.<br />
On Classic and Impossible, Aliens receive +10 aim and +10 crit chance bonus.<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category: Enemy Unknown (2012)]]</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Alien_Life_Forms_(EU2012)&diff=40805Alien Life Forms (EU2012)2012-11-02T20:31:10Z<p>Tacobandit744: /* Sectoid */</p>
<hr />
<div>There are a number of Alien Life Forms to be encountered during the First Alien War, each with a unique set of strengths, weaknesses and abilities. Know your enemy; your soldiers' lives depend on it.<br />
<br />
All weapons carried by the aliens explode when they are killed. Captured weapons are indistinguishable from built weapons of the same type.<br />
=Races=<br />
==[[Sectoid_(EU2012)|Sectoid]]==<br />
[[File:Sectoid (EU2012).jpg|thumb]]<br />
Sectoids are a basic, weak unit with an average ranged attack. They are capable of some psionics. Killing a unit that is performing '''Mind Merge''' will also kill the unit receiving the merge.<br />
*'''Mind Merge''': the merged ally receives +1 hit points, increased accuracy, & increased critical hit chance.<br />
<br />
Killing a sectoid will destroy its Plasma Pistol into 2x Weapon Fragments.<br />
<br />
==[[Thin Man (EU2012) | Thin Man]]==<br />
[[File:Thin Man (EU2012).png|right|thumb|]]<br />
Thin Men are weak, highly mobile units with an average ranged attack. They use a light plasma rifle, making them more accurate than Sectoids, but they don't pack as much firepower as other enemies.<br />
* '''Poison Spit''': Causes damage each turn for ''up to'' 3 turns to any unit poisoned by the cloud of spit. Being poisoned reduces a unit's accuracy.<br />
* Thin Men explode into a cloud of poison upon death. Moving into this cloud has the same effect as being poisoned by their spit attack.<br />
* '''Leap''': Allows the Thin Man to jump vertically up onto high ground (e.g., roof tops).<br />
* Note: Units carrying a medikit or titan armor are immune to the Thin Man's poison.<br />
*''Trivia: The Thin Man's face is a caricature of Sid Meier, boss of Firaxis. Sid's face has a habit of popping up in his games.''<br />
<br />
'''Gray Market description:'''<br />
"The Thin Man cadaver begins to severely decomposed severely decompose within hours after death, giving off an overwhelming stench which may relate to toxins stored within its body" <br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable" width="70%" <br />
|+ Weapons Used<br />
|- <br />
! width=""50px" align="center" | Weapon !! Damage !! Critical Chance !! Terrain Damage !! Range !! Reaction Angle !! Reaction Range !! Size !! Abilities<br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"<br />
| align="center" |[[Thin Man Light Rifle (EU2012)|Thin Man Plasma Light Rifle]]|| align="center" | 4 || align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 125 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | 200 || align="center" | NA || align="center" | Large || align="center" |Suppression 20%<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<!-- THIN MAN is LONG ---><br />
<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==[[Floater (EU2012)| Floater]]==<br />
[[File:Floater (EU2012).png|thumb]]<br />
A fast and aggressive flying unit with a light plasma rifle. They prefer to use their mobility to outflank your squad, and their high mobility grants them an innate defensive bonus. They can be especially dangerous to Snipers.<br />
* '''Launch''': The Floater can launch to any point on the map (ends its turn).<br />
* Floaters are always considered to have at least Light cover even in the open or when flying, unless in proper cover and Flanked. This bonus ''does not'' stack with existing cover bonuses - they only recieve the best cover.<br />
{| class="wikitable" width="70%" <br />
|+ Weapons Used<br />
|- <br />
! width=""50px" align="center" | Weapon !! Damage !! Critical Chance !! Terrain Damage !! Range !! Reaction Angle !! Reaction Range !! Size !! Abilities<br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"<br />
| align="center" |[[Floater Light Rifle (EU2012)|Floater Plasma Light Rifle]]|| align="center" | 6 || align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 125 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | 200 || align="center" | NA || align="center" | Large || align="center" |Suppression 20%<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==[[Floater (EU2012)#Heavy Floater| Heavy Floater]]==<br />
[[File:Heavy Floater (EU2012).png|right|thumb]]<br />
A tougher version of the regular Floater with considerably more hit points than a Floater, and a more powerful variant of the Plasma Rifle. They also carry an Alien Grenade.<br />
* '''Evasion''': Enemies targeting this unit when it is airborn suffer a -20 Aim penalty.<br />
* '''Launch''': Move anywhere on the battlefield in a single turn. Launch cannot be used indoors.<br />
* '''Bombard''': Throw or launch grenades over exceptionally long distances. <br />
{| class="wikitable" width="70%" <br />
|+ Weapons Used<br />
|- <br />
! width=""50px" align="center" | Weapon !! Damage !! Critical Chance !! Terrain Damage !! Range !! Reaction Angle !! Reaction Range !! Size !! Abilities<br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"<br />
| align="center" |[[Floater Heavy Plasma (EU2012)|Floater Heavy Plasma]]|| align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 125 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | 200 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | Large || align="center" |Suppression 35%<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==[[Muton (EU2012)| Muton]]==<br />
[[File:Muton (EU2012).png|right|thumb]]<br />
Mutons are very strong units and carry a respectably powerful Plasma Rifle, though they are susceptible to psionics. Wounding a Muton without killing it can intimidate your soldiers and lower their Will.<br />
* '''Suppression''': Can fire a special shot that gratns reaction fire at a single target. The target also suffers a -30 Aim penalty.<br />
* '''Blood Call''': Unleash a bestial roar that inspires nearby allies of the same species to greater speed, focus, and resolve for 2 turns. 4 turn cooldown.<br />
* '''Intimidate''': Reacts unpredictably when wounded, provoking panic in enemies.<br />
* Mutons carry Alien Grenades, allowing them to injure multiple troops at once and destroy cover.<br />
* They carry light rifles on first month they appear, and rifles after that month.<br />
{| class="wikitable" width="70%" <br />
|+ Weapons Used<br />
|- <br />
! width=""50px" align="center" | Weapon !! Damage !! Critical Chance !! Terrain Damage !! Range !! Reaction Angle !! Reaction Range !! Size !! Abilities<br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"<br />
| align="center" |[[Muton Light Rifle (EU2012)|Muton Plasma Light Rifle]]|| align="center" | 6 || align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 125 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | 200 || align="center" | NA || align="center" | Large || align="center" |Suppression 20%<br />
|-<br />
| align="center" |[[Muton Rifle (EU2012)|Muton Plasma Rifle]]|| align="center" | 8 || align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 125 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | 200 || align="center" | NA || align="center" | Large || align="center" |Suppression 20%<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==[[Muton (EU2012)#Muton Elite| Muton Elite]]==<br />
<br />
<br />
An even tougher version of the regular Muton, armed with a powerful Heavy Plasma. They are not noticeably more resistant to psionic attack, though.<br />
* '''Suppression''': Can fire a special shot that grants reaction fire at a single target. The target also suffers a -30 Aim penalty.<br />
* '''Bombard''': Throw or launch grenades over exceptionally long distances.<br />
* Enemy Defense: -20% Hit<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable" width="70%" <br />
|+ Weapons Used<br />
|- <br />
! width=""50px" align="center" | Weapon !! Damage !! Critical Chance !! Terrain Damage !! Range !! Reaction Angle !! Reaction Range !! Size !! Abilities<br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"<br />
| align="center" |[[Muton Heavy Plasma (EU2012)|Muton Heavy Plasma]]|| align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 125 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | 200 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | Large || align="center" |Suppression 35%<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==[[Muton (EU2012)#Muton Berserker| Berserker]]==<br />
[[File:Muton Berserker (EU2012).jpg|right|thumb]]<br />
Berserkers are extremely strong and very tough melee units, susceptible to their own bloodlust; they have a habit of chasing after whichever unit damaged them last (uncontrollable in multiplayer?). They are also quite resilient to psionic attack.<br />
* '''Bull Rush''': Charges through cover and causes damage to any units within a small radius.<br />
* '''Blood Lust''': Allows the Berserker to charge an enemy that wounds it.<br />
* '''Hardened''': Hardened units receive extra protection against critical hits (-60% chance to crit)<br />
{| class="wikitable" width="70%" <br />
|+ Weapons Used<br />
|- <br />
! width=""50px" align="center" | Weapon !! Damage !! Critical Chance !! Terrain Damage !! Range !! Reaction Angle !! Reaction Range !! Size !! Abilities<br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"<br />
| align="center" |Muton Blade|| align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 33 || align="center" | 125 || align="center" | 2 || align="center" | NA || align="center" | Small || align="center" | No reaction shot<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==[[Outsider (EU2012)|Outsider]]==<br />
[[File:Outsider (EU2012).jpg|right|thumb]]<br />
Outsiders are relatively fragile alien units that are only encountered on UFO missions. They will not spawn until an XCOM soldier approaches the bridge(the room containing the flight computer). Their purpose seems to be to defend that position, as they will not go far beyond it. <br />
* Outsiders do not seem to possess any particularly unique abilities, though capturing one is required to progress the main plot. They are not usually encountered on larger UFOs. After the alien base mission they are replaced by sectoid commanders or ethreals. <br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable" width="70%" <br />
|+ Weapons Used<br />
|- <br />
! width=""50px" align="center" | Weapon !! Damage !! Critical Chance !! Terrain Damage !! Range !! Reaction Angle !! Reaction Range !! Size !! Abilities<br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"<br />
| align="center" |[[Outsider Light Rifle (EU2012)|Outsider Plasma Light Rifle]]|| align="center" | 4 || align="center" | 10 || align="center" | 0 || align="center" | 27 || align="center" | 200 || align="center" | NA || align="center" | Large || align="center" |Suppression 30%<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==[[Chryssalid (EU2012)|Chryssalid]]==<br />
[[File:Chryssalid.png|right|thumb]]<br />
Chryssalids are fast melee units. Their '''Implant''' attack is particularly dangerous. Their corpses can be used to make Chitin Vests, an equippable item that makes your soldiers tougher and more resilient to melee damage. Since melee attacks ignore cover, Chryssalids are best fought by abandoning cover completely, falling back into the open, and concentrating your fire. Note: Chrssalids are where the changes in the action system are most notable. While not fundamentally different from their counterpart in the original, so long as you are far enough away to force them to dash they are significantly less dangerous, often running right up to your soldiers and ending their turn there.<br />
* '''Stun Immune''': This unit cannot be stunned with the Arc Thrower; taking a live specimen is not possible.<br />
* '''Leap''': Allows vertical leaps onto elevated surfaces during movement.<br />
* '''Poisonous Claws''': "''Poison enemies wounded by a melee attack.''"<br />
* '''Implant''': "''Victims are implanted with a Chryssalid egg if they are killed by the attack. (not from poison caused by Poisonous Claws.''" - A successful implant converts the victim into a zombie that eventually hatches into another Chryssalid a couple turns later. Killing the zombie seemingly prevents this transformation from occurring.''<br />
* '''Hardened''': Hardened units receive extra protection against critical hits (-60% crit chance).<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==[[Cyberdisc (EU2012)| Cyberdisc]]==<br />
[[File:Cyberdisc Open (EU2012).jpg|right|thumb|Cyberdisc - open assault form]]<br />
[[File:Cyberdisc Closed (EU2012).jpg|right|thumb|Cyberdisc - closed disc form]]<br />
<br />
Cyberdiscs are strong, flying robotic units with a powerful plasma barrage attack that frequently destroys cover even if it fails to hit the target. When in their 'closed' form, they take less damage and are highly resistant to Critical Hits. They are always accompanied by a pair of Drones, which can repair them during combat. They are immune to most psionic attacks.<br />
* Can throw an Alien Grenade to attack multiple soldiers at once.<br />
* Cyberdiscs automatically 'close-up' into their disc form after being attacked. In their closed form, they are almost immune to Critical Hits.<br />
* '''Death Blossom''': An area of effect attack dealing high damage to all units within a few spaces in all directions.<br />
* Cyberdiscs explode upon death, dealing damage to all units within a fairly small radius.<br />
<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
==[[Drone (EU2012)|Drone]]==<br />
[[File:Drone (EU2012).jpg|right|thumb]]<br />
Drones are weak flying robotic units with a weak ranged attack. Their purpose is to repair accompanying Cyberdiscs and Sectopods during combat.<br />
* With Foundry Upgrades, the Arc Thrower can be used to 'hack' Drones and seize control of them for the duration of a mission.<br />
<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br />
<br />
<br />
==[[Ethereal (EU2012)|Ethereal]]==<br />
[[File:2012-10-14 00005.jpg|right|thumb]]<br />
Physically weak, slow units with high health and powerful psionic attacks.<br />
<br />
* '''Psi Lance''': Offensive Psi ability that deals more damage if the target fails a will challenge.<br />
* '''Mindfray''', offensive psionic ability that causes damage and lowers will.<br />
* Can '''Mind Control'''.<br />
* '''Psi Drain''': Drains up to 5 hitpoints worth of health from a friendly organic target. Cannot kill target(Can be used on mind-linked targets such as mind controlled squaddie)<br />
* '''Rift''', a powerful AoE attack that inflicts more damage if they fail a will challenge.<br />
* Chance to reflect physical projectiles back at the attacker.<br />
* High Will; resistant to psionic attacks.<br />
* Ethereals explode upon death, dealing damage to all units within a fairly small radius.<br />
<br />
==[[Sectoid (EU2012)#Sectoid Commander| Sectoid Commander]]==<br />
[[File:Sectoid Commander (EU2012).png|right|thumb]]<br />
The Sectoid Commander is a slightly stronger Sectoid with more psionic capabilities. They have much more health than normal Sectoids, but are otherwise unremarkable aside from their Mind Control ability.<br />
<br />
* '''Mind Fray''': Causes the target to lose grip on reality, inflicting penalties to Aim, Will, and mobility and doing 5 base damage. Lasts 2 turns, 1 turn cooldown.<br />
* '''Mind Control''': Very difficult psi technique that, if successful, grants control of the target for 3 turns. <br />
* '''Greater Mind Merge''': Merge Minds with all lesser allies of the same species nearby, granting them +25% critical chance and +1 health.<br />
* Enemy Defense: -20% Hit<br />
<br />
* Carries Plasma Pistol & Alien Grenade.<br />
* Will use psi attacks against targets with a low Hit chance. If trying to capture one, sometimes its best to leave a soldier out of cover and eat a plasma pistol shot instead of taking a psi attack.<br />
<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br />
<br />
<br />
==[[Sectopod (EU2012)| Sectopod]]==<br />
[[File:Sectopod (EU2012).jpg|right|thumb]]<br />
An extremely strong robotic unit that can use both its turn moves for attacking. Frequently escorted by Drones. They are immune to most psionic attacks. Make as much use of Smoke Grenades, Heavy Cover, and Psionic Fields as you can.<br />
* '''Cannon Fire''': Beam attack that causes high damage and grants free Overwatch. If the Sectopod does not move, Cannon Fire can be used twice (against different enemies).<br />
* '''Cluster Bomb''': Mark a large area, and after one turn, saturate it with a barrage of explosive minibombs. - Uses both of the Sectopod's actions for that turn. It enters a special deployed state and aims at the target location; on the following turn, it bombards the target area with many small explosives. Using this ability prevents a Sectopod from using its Plasma Beam above.<br />
* '''Hardened''': Hardened units receive extra protection against critical hits (-60% crit chance)<br />
<br />
<br />
* Seems to have a longer sight range than most units.<br />
* Note: Due to its superior firepower, use of suppression may be necessary to render its attacks far less dangerous, but practically guaranteeing a double attack. Do not stack units too close together or the Sectopod may choose to target them with the Cluster Bomb attack. Using Plasma / Heavy weapons or Mind-controlled cannon-fodder against this unit is also recommended.<br />
* The Heavy's ''HEAT Ammo'' promotion applies to ''all'' weapons, and can allow them to inflict ''vast'' amounts of damage to Sectopods; combined with Bullet Swarm, a pre-positioned Heavy with a Heavy Plasma can easily kill or cripple a Sectopod in one turn, or even destroy two that have already taken significant damage. HEAT ammo also affects rockets. A non-crit with a Heavy's rocket can do 16 points of damage.<br />
* The Heavy's ''Shredder Rocket'' promotion can also be used to make the Sectopod take additional damage from all other attacks.<br />
* Snipers can use their ''Headshot'' or ''Disabling Shot'' powers to cripple or inflict serious damage to a Sectopod, especially if they have the ''Double Tap'' promotion.<br />
* If you see Cluster Bomb being prepared, RUN.<br />
<br />
==[[Ethereal (EU2012)#Uber Ethereal| Uber Ethereal]]==<br />
Same as the Ethereal, but with larger stats and a higher projectile reflection chance.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
=Alien Stats Table=<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
{| class="wikitable" width="100%" style="text-align: center<br />
|- <br />
! width="15%" | Name <br />
! width="20%" | HP<br />
(Easy/Normal/Classic/Impossible)<br />
! width="8%" | Aim<br />
! width="8%" | Defense<br />
! width="8%" | Will<br />
! width="8%" | Movement<br />
! width="33%" | Notes<br />
|-<br />
|Sectoid<br />
|3/3/3/4<br />
|65<br />
|0<br />
|10<br />
|12<br />
|Gains one extra health if the target of a mind merge, the aim and critical hit chance also rises<br />
|-<br />
|Outsider<br />
|3/3/5/5<br />
|70<br />
|0<br />
|20<br />
|12<br />
|Receives an additional +10 Aim and +5 Movement from bonuses on impossible. Tied for highest accuracy in the game.<br />
|- <br />
|Thin man<br />
|3/3/4/6<br />
|65<br />
|0<br />
|15<br />
|15<br />
|Deals 2 less damage on normal/easy<br />
|-<br />
|Floater<br />
|3/4/4/6<br />
|50<br />
|0<br />
|10<br />
|12<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|Chryssalid<br />
|8/8/8/8<br />
|Melee<br />
|10<br />
|120<br />
|20<br />
|Hardened, Deals +2 damage on classic/impossible, Immune to stunning<br />
|-<br />
|Zombie<br />
|10/10/10/10<br />
|Melee<br />
|0<br />
|120<br />
|8<br />
|Deals +2/+4 damage on classic/impossible, Immune to stunning<br />
|-<br />
|Muton<br />
|8/8/10/10<br />
|70<br />
|10<br />
|10<br />
|12<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|Drone<br />
|3/3/5/7<br />
|60<br />
|10<br />
|Mechanized<br />
|12<br />
|Requires 'Drone Hack' arc thrower upgrade to 'hack'<br />
|-<br />
|Cyberdisk<br />
|16/16/20/20<br />
|70<br />
|10<br />
|Mechanized<br />
|18<br />
|Hardened while in closed form, Immune to stunning<br />
|-<br />
|Sectoid Commander<br />
|10/10/14/14<br />
|85<br />
|20<br />
|90<br />
|12<br />
| +25/35 will on classic/impossible<br />
|-<br />
|Muton Berserker<br />
|20/20/20/25<br />
|Melee<br />
|20<br />
|80<br />
|17<br />
|Hardened, Deals +1/3 damage on classic/impossible<br />
|-<br />
|Sectopod<br />
|30/30/30/30<br />
|80<br />
|30<br />
|Mechanized<br />
|12<br />
| Immune to stunning<br />
|-<br />
|Heavy Floater<br />
|12/12/14/16<br />
|70<br />
|10<br />
|25<br />
|12<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
|Muton Elite<br />
|14/14/14/18<br />
|80<br />
|20<br />
|20<br />
|12<br />
| +10 defense on classic/impossible, +10 additional aim on impossible<br />
|-<br />
|Ethereal<br />
|20/20/20/25<br />
|N/A<br />
|40<br />
|120<br />
|12<br />
|Hardened, +25/35 will on classic/impossible<br />
|-<br />
|Uber Ethereal<br />
|?/?/25/?<br />
|N/A<br />
|40<br />
|?<br />
|?<br />
|Hardened<br />
|}<br />
</div><br />
Melee attacks always hit.<br />
Hardened reduces critical chance by 60% against the target.<br />
On Classic and Impossible, Aliens receive +10 aim and +10 crit chance bonus.<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category: Enemy Unknown (2012)]]</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Defense_(EU2012)&diff=40804Defense (EU2012)2012-11-02T20:29:13Z<p>Tacobandit744: /* Bonuses to Hit */</p>
<hr />
<div>Defense reduces the chance of being hit. Each point of Defense reduces the chance to be hit by 1%. In addition, using Suppression to reduce an enemy's chance to hit indirectly increases defense. Some aliens have innate Defense bonuses. <br />
<br />
<br />
= Sources of Defense =<br />
Defense comes from armor, smoke grenades, altitude, [[Cover (EU2012)|cover]], and abilities.<br />
<br />
== Cover ==<br />
*Low Cover: +20 <br />
*High Cover: +40 <br />
<br />
== Abilities ==<br />
*Hunker Down (all): Doubles cover bonus, but reduces sight range.<br />
*Tactical Sense (Assault): +5 per enemy in sight (max +20). <br />
*Damn Good Ground (Sniper): +10 vs targets on lower elevation (in addition to normal bonuses).<br />
*Low Profile (Sniper): Low cover counts as high cover.<br />
** Works only for stationary cover and does not work with low cover bonus provided by the Evasion ability of the Archangel Armor.<br />
*Smoke Grenade (Support): +20 to all units in area.<br />
** Dense Smoke: increases Smoke Grenade bonus to +40.<br />
*Telekinetic Field (Psionic): +40 to all units in a large area.<br />
*Enemy Defense (Alien): +10 to +40 depending on the species and difficulty.<br />
<br />
== Armor ==<br />
*[[Skeleton Suit (EU2012)|Skeleton Suit]]: +10<br />
*[[Ghost Armor (EU2012)|Ghost Armor]]: +20<br />
*[[Psi Armor (EU2012)|Psi Armor]]: +10<br />
<br />
== Notes ==<br />
* Defense provided from cover applies against shots coming from the frontal 180 degree area, a straight line that matches the direction the cover comes from. You can imagine whatever you are covering against extending forever to both sides.<br />
* There is no difference at which precise angle the shot comes, all that matters is whether it comes from the front of your line of cover or from behind it (where you are). As long as the shot comes from the other side from where you are, your cover defense bonus applies. If the attacker is on the same side of cover as you, you gain no defense bonus from the cover, and the attacker gains an additional bonus to critical hit because you are Flanked (see [[Flanking (EU2012)|Flanking]]).<br />
* Lacking cover (standing in the open or being flanked) provides no bonus or penalty to Defense. Aliens tend to prioritize uncovered targets in their line of sight. <br />
* Being behind scenery, behind another unit, etc. does not influence defense or decrease chance of being hit at all. In a situation when one can see the target, it does not matter if there are several scenery objects or other units in between (Sectopods, cars, debris, etc.) It only matters whether the target has an adjacent cover, and is not considered flanked.<br />
** You can always tell if you have low or full cover when moving based on the shield icon. When it's half filled-in that's low cover, and fully filled in means full cover. If there's no shield on a side, you don't have a line of cover in that direction.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
=Countering Defense Bonuses=<br />
Enemies with an innate natural defense in high cover are often very difficult, if not impossible to hit. There are several ways to improve your chances counter the defense bonus of a target. Increasing the Hit of the unit, removing the target's cover, or using an ability that ignores the target's cover <br />
<br />
==Bonuses to Hit==<br />
The simplest way to overcome Defense is to increase Aim/Hit. Soldiers automatically gain an increase in Aim for each rank they increase (See [[Soldiers (EU2012)|Soldiers]] page for details). Some equipment and abilities also increase Aim. When bringing new recruits along in battle with experienced soldiers, it is often helpful to equip them with these items to increase their chance of scoring a hit and getting experience for kills.<br />
<br />
*S.C.O.P.E.: +10<br />
*Light Plasma Rifle: +10<br />
*Holo-Targeting (Heavy): +10 to allies attack vs the same enemy.<br />
*Damn Good Ground (Sniper): +10, in addition to height bonus.<br />
*Executioner (Sniper): +10 vs targets with less than 50% health.<br />
*Height: +20, applies to all targets at a lower elevation.<br />
<br />
==Removing Cover==<br />
Using explosive weapons, ie Grenades and Rockets, is the main method of removing cover. Mid to late game when the aliens begin fielding stronger troops, grenades are unable to kill them in a single blast. The strength of grenades then becomes their ability to destroy the nearby environment and remove the target's cover bonus. Another possibility is using the [[Classes (EU2012)#Assault|Assault's]] Flush ability to force the enemy to leave it's cover and move to the open.<br />
<br />
==Attacks that Ignore Defense==<br />
These abilities do not use the standard Hit vs Defense mechanic and are best used against targets with a low chance of hit whether because of distance, high cover, or other reasons.<br />
<br />
*Suppression (Heavy, Support, some Aliens): Target is -30 Aim to all attacks until next turn, provides automatic reaction shot if target moves. <br />
** Danger Zone (Heavy): Suppression affects enemies within 2 squares of the target.<br />
** Mayhem (Heavy): Suppression attacks to do a small amount of damage.<br />
* Psionic Attacks: These abilities attack Will instead of Defense so they ignore innate defense bonuses, cover, and distance penalties.<br />
** Mind Fray: 5 Damage. Reduces the target's Aim (-25), Will, and Movement.<br />
* Explosives: Rockets and Grenades target a location, not a unit so their chance to hit is not affected by defense.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
= See also =<br />
*[[Classes (EU2012)|Classes]]<br />
*[[Cover (EU2012)|Cover]]<br />
*[[Armor (EU2012)|Armor]]<br />
<br />
[[Gameplay_Mechanics_(EU2012)| Back to Gameplay Mechanics]]<br/><br />
[[Enemy_Unknown_(EU2012)| Back to Main Page]]<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category: Enemy Unknown (2012)]]</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Multiplayer_Builds_(EU2012)&diff=40371Multiplayer Builds (EU2012)2012-10-26T01:55:00Z<p>Tacobandit744: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Chryssalid/Thin Man build'''<br />
<br />
2 Chryssalids<br />
2 Thin Men<br />
2 sectoids, or whatever you want.<br />
<br />
Pros: This build provides a well balanced army, with the scouting/potential zombyfying power of the chryssalids, the mobility/moderate damage of the thin man, and the rest are to cover your personal tastes(you will have 1200 points to spend after the first 4). Can decimate sectoid commanders, and can replenish lost teammates. High powered low squad teams can be ganged up on.<br />
<br />
Cons: Must be very careful with your thin men. Try to take a roof asap with your chryssalids, followed by your thin men, and the rest cover the rear. Chryssalids have melee only, so they are VERY vulnerable to snipers. I suggest ganging up on snipers asap. Beware of high upgrade assault class w/ chitin plating, chryssalid attack does 4 damage max, and can't poison in titan armor.<br />
<br />
Tips: Go for weak units first. Weaken them first, then zombyfie them to add to your chryssald collection. Keep your thin men safe. If the enemy has a sniper with plasma, best advice is to poison and surpress it, followed by Chryssalid flank. If the enemy has sectoid commanders. gang up on them. their mind attacks don't work, and they turn that 3200 point unit into a 3000 point unit for you. If the enemy has cyber discs, hide and draw them into a trap, preferably inside a building.</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Multiplayer_Builds_(EU2012)&diff=40370Multiplayer Builds (EU2012)2012-10-26T01:45:31Z<p>Tacobandit744: Added a squad build</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Chryssalid/Thin Man build'''<br />
<br />
2 Chryssalids<br />
2 Thin Men<br />
2 sectoids, or whatever you want.<br />
<br />
Pros: This build provides a well balanced army, with the scouting/potential zombyfying power of the chryssalids, the mobility/moderate damage of the thin man, and the rest are to cover your personal tastes(you will have 1200 points to spend after the first 4). Can decimate sectoid commanders, and can replenish lost teammates. High powered low squad teams can be ganged up on.<br />
<br />
Cons: Must be very careful with your thin men. Try to take a roof asap with your chryssalids, followed by your thin men, and the rest cover the rear. Chryssalids have melee only, so they are VERY vulnerable to snipers. I suggest ganging up on snipers asap. Beware of high upgrade assault class w/ chitin plating, chryssalid attack does 4 damage max, and can't poison in titan armor.</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Soldier_Skills_%26_Equipment_Guide_(EU2012)&diff=40262Soldier Skills & Equipment Guide (EU2012)2012-10-23T22:50:32Z<p>Tacobandit744: </p>
<hr />
<div>=='''A not so brief guide to class abilities'''==<br />
<br />
When choosing perks there is a big debate about to how to build them, with a variety of opinions depending on your personal play style and preferences. The fundamental question that must always be asked when making a promotion is one of specialization vs. variety. Does the ability gives you a new skill or does it enhance the unit/squad current capabilities?<br />
<br />
The Assault class is the most clear cut example of this: nearly all of its choices are between increasing the Lethality/Defense of the unit, either turning into to frontal assault unit or into a flanking unit. Or you can mix both or even give it an unique squad ability by choosing the '''Flush''' perk, which forces the enemy out of cover. <br />
<br />
Again, all of this options depend on your style and strategy and their effectiveness will also depend on the map and type of aliens faced. But at the beginning it may be confusing to realize all of the advantages and shortcomings of each class. Take for example the Heavy. Early on, the Heavy can be a major source of damage for your team, but due to the much lower accuracy numbers of the class at higher ranks their ability to be a primary source of direct damage falls off sharply. An inversion would be the sniper. Early on they are weak and difficult to manage but once they have some experience under their belt and a good weapon they will carry your squad.<br />
<br />
The important thing to remember is that the advice in this guide will fall into two categories. Some of the recommendations are just that, advice that you may choose to ignore if you so wish. There are in fact many successful ways to run a squad that involve wildly divergent tactics. However, there are some points that are not recommendations per se. Some options in the skill tree exist that are false choices. It seems like they may be equivalent or one is slightly better than the other but in practice one of the two options is so much vastly better than the other that it changes the situation from a choice to a calculation. This guide will attempt to outline the different points as well as give approximate weights to the talents where it is not 100% a clear cut choice.<br />
<br />
=='''How to build a Heavy'''==<br />
<br />
The primary weapon of the Heavy is the LMG and its laser and plasma evolutions. The weapon has a base damage of 5 which puts it in the high damage category, along with the Sniper Rifle and the Shotgun. It has worse critical chance than either, but it doesn't have the severe accuracy drop off that the Shotgun suffers from at any significant range and it doesn't suffer either the close range penalty or double action cost of the Sniper Rifle. At first glance it is one of the best weapons in the game and in the early game it will be. <br />
<br />
There is of course a hitch, in this case is the Heavy himself. Base accuracy of all soldiers is 65 but unlike his peers the Heavy only gets 10 more points over the course of his life, with a Colonel capping out at 75. This means that at mid range and under optimal conditions the best Heavy will hit 75% of the time. If the target is in light cover that chance degrades to 55% and under heavy cover there is only a 35% chance to deal damage. With a scope you can improve a Heavy's aim to 85 but compared to the base Colonel accuracy numbers of an Assault, a Support or a Sniper, which are 89, 90 and 105 respectively you can see why the Heavy suffers. <br />
<br />
Over a given hundred shots the percentile hit chance is a equal percentile modifier to Damage meaning that assuming all enemies are in light cover the base Heavy does on average a little more than half his listed Damage. This means that a Heavy at the top of the tech tree is doing the same as a Sniper at the bottom, less when you factor in the massive critical hit chances that the Sniper rifle enjoys, if they are both using weapons of the same tech level. This is discounting special abilities such as the Heavy's power to fire twice in a round, but suffice it to say that for every ability that the Heavy gets the Sniper of equivalent rank will gain an ever more insurmountable advantage. Now compared to a Support whose best weapon caps at 8 damage and who gets only 1 shot in a round the heavy certainly does do more adjusted damage, but here in lies the problem. In real combat conditions you don't do an average damage based on your aim. You either hit and deal full damage, or miss and do none. If a Sniper did twice as much damage with half the accuracy it's use as a unit would go from predictable to a coin toss and it's usefulness would drop from amazing, to marginal.<br />
<br />
Here is the thing. In a turn based game the fundamental risk comes from uncertainty. If you are sure that an attack or ability will trigger then you can plan accordingly. Calculate exactly how much damage you can expect from all your units and use that to plan out a course of action. When abilities fail to trigger you are forced to make plans that accommodate this, namely, you need to devote more resources to a target than would under ideal conditions be needed, lest you whiff a final shot find yourself staring at a Sectopod with 5 hit points and it is now his turn. The binary nature of success and failure of individual actions maps to to the binary success and failure states of each turn. This is the beauty and the folly of a turn based game. The fact that a Heavy dealing with a standard foe in low cover with a 55% chance to hit cannot be relied on to make the shot means that you'll have to choose, both in game and during promotions on how to increase that accuracy or use the Heavy instead to prepare the Alien for the kill. <br />
<br />
This is the paradox of the heavy, they have amazingly high damage weapons but they require careful planning to make it an useful tool, and to be aware of the shortcomings that some choices can have, specially regarding perk selection. <br />
<br />
'''Bullet Swarm vs. Holo Targeting'''<br />
* Bullet Swarm gives you massive tactical flexibility no matter how you chose to build the Heavy, Holo-Targetting a +10 Aim increase ONLY to other units firing at the same alien. <br />
* Bullet Swarm allows for Fire and Move, Fire and Reload or Fire and Fire when high firepower is crucial. The issue, as mentioned above, is the lack of Aim of the Heavy - which makes this ability more useful in close range fights. <br />
* The LMG has only 3 rounds, even if you take supression, you need bulletswarm to Supress two rounds in a row.<br />
<br />
A Colonel heavy with a scope shooting at an enemy in optimal range in low cover has as mentioned above a pathetic 65% chance to hit. If you go with bulletswarm and spend a full round trying to make the shot you have a 12.25% chance of missing totally a 42.25% chance of hitting twice and a 45.5% chance of tagging them at least once. Meaning that you will an 88.75% chance of hitting something. At lowest rank this woult be a 79.75% chance to hit something, with a 30.25% of hitting twice. <br />
<br />
Even though you might feel that there is a good choice here, there isn't. Using your heavy to set up shots might seem like a good idea, but statistically it does not work. The problem is two fold, first, at the lowest levels when holotargetting could most likely be useful, the power of at most 3 small 10 point bonuses does not produce more hits than an extra attack. Take the above situation. Enemy in light cover, heavy takes the first shot, then one of each class chimes in.<br />
<br />
4 shots with heavy with holotargetting taking the first shot. All soldiers at recruit level<br />
<br />
-7.487% chance of 4 hits<br />
<br />
-27.422% chance of 0 hits<br />
<br />
5 shots with heavy using bullet swarm. All soldiers at recruit level.<br />
<br />
-1.845% chance of 5 hits<br />
<br />
-13.325% chance of 4 hits<br />
<br />
-11.603% chance of 0 hits<br />
<br />
As you can see, the extra attack is better in every way. Not only are you going to have a higher chance of getting 4 hits you will have a golden chance to hit with 5. Futhermore given the fact that the heavy has one of the better weapons, capable of killing any low level enemy in one hit the hits that a heavy can make are worth more. Not to mention, this is a scenario skewed heavily in the favor of the holotargetting heavy. There are almost no early game circumstances where you will have a reason or the opportunity to make 4 attacks on 1 enemy. <br />
<br />
I hope that one thing becomes very clear. NEVER take holotargetting. <br />
<br />
'''Suppression vs. Shredder Rocket'''<br />
This defines your heavy as either an explosives platform or a suppression platform. I will make the argument that simply put, supports are better at suppression and heavies should be blowing things up. Yes supports can't suppress an area, yes they can't use mayhem to deal damage with suppression but here is the rub, supports have a higher ammo lower damage weapon with much greater accuracy. The reaction shot movement provokes will much more likely hit, the loss of damage is lower, there is less reloading needed and supports have much more versatile ability to specialize. A heavy with a shredder rocket has a 5 automatic damage weapon, that will hit exactly where put it almost all the time and close the rest of the time, and will amplify all damage against a target while removing its cover, in a wide area of effect. It is a limited use weapon but it will save you much more consistently than suppression. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''HEAT vs. Rapid Reaction''' is also clean cut. Many people who go the supression route think that this is perfect. Suppress an enemy, use flush to force a move, let the heavy get 2 free attacks. This is a failure state. First, reaction shots are made at a 15 point penalty and as we have previously stated heavies have crap accuracy. Second, the only way you get a second shot is if the first hits, combine this with the aforementioned crap accuracy and you will rarely see this promotion trigger and even if it does trigger you still have to hit with it, at a similar penalty. On the other side of the equation HEAT ammo doubles damage against robotic opponents and affects all heavy class abilities, including rockets. Put simply, in Xcom, robots are the devil. The cyberdisc and the sectopod are two of the deadliest enemies you will face, anything that hastens them to the grave is awesome. A cyberdisc is a deadly early game opponent who can deal 7 damage on a normal attack with a high critical chance, or fling a 5 damage grenade half way across the map. It can and will one shot your mates, no one below major has a reliable chance of living, and only then if they are at full health. A rocket from a HEAT heavy will deal 14 damage base, and can crit for more. Shredder rockets will do 10 and allow your sniper a good shot at a OHKO. Not to mention, you will blow the drones that hover around the disc or the sectopod sky high. Choose HEAT, a heavy who can attack twice can one shot a cyberdisc or wipe a sectopod if both attacks hit.<br />
<br />
<br />
The next choice is less clear cut. '''Grenadier''' gives 2 grenades, '''danger zone''' gives AOE supression and 2 tiles extra area on rockets. Both are good abilities and the question of which you want depends highly. The benefits are more intangible and are linked to your final choice of what you want your heavy to be doing. I am going to step back from (semi)objective analysis and offer an opinion. I chose grenadier becuase by the time you reach this point, no one else on your team should be carrying grenades. Your sniper needs his scope, your assualt needs armor of some type and even if she doesn't cause you are rocking titan she should be doing a lot more damage with basic attacks than with a grenade, supports might be a good choice to heft a grenade but they generally are better with arc throwers, med kits or armor/scope. Heavies get natural damage ablation and mutiple use actions. They have such bad accuracy that you aren't losing much by throwing an attack out the window, and the power that grenades have to damage terrain and remove cover offers a much more powerful buff to accuracy than a scope. The final argument for grenadier is simply that grenades are amazing breeching tools. You don't want to be using your rockets to breech but grenades can be a worthwhile trade. Danger zone is lessened in value because you aren't or shouldn't be picking up supression, 2 extra tiles is nice on your rockets and is certainly worth more than a grenade if it brings another enemy into range, but rockets are inherently less flexible than grenades as with their full round cost. Don't feel obligated to get grenadier, it isn't mandatory.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Rocketeer vs. Mayhem:''' To many this is the a tough choice, but it isn't. Mayhem adds max of 3 damage to supression which we don't have and adds 2 damage to your rockets, of which you get only 2 (regular and shredder). Rocketeer on the other hand gives you a second rocket. Assuming that you don't even get the blaster launcher upgrade you are still falling behind by 3 damage, and lose the flexibility of a second rocket. Since we have already decided that the heavy needs to be blowing things up to be reliable thus, anything that offers him more chances to be reliable is good. Thus, more rockets beat better rockets. With double grenades you have 5 bombs that can reshape the battlefield in your favor.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''How to equip a heavy''': More than any other class, the heavy shouldn't be worrying about their primary weapon. By all means upgrade the LMG if you can spare the resources, but there is a greater return on investment on other classes. Namely your sniper and then your assualt need their weapons maxed ASAP, these are the classes that will be dealing your damage and the Xrays drop plasma rifles and light plasma like confetti that your supports or assaults can use, thus obliviating the need to buy them. Moreover the damage scaling is not as significant. With a five damage base a heavy can reliably kill in one hit sectoids, thin men and floaters on classic. To one shot the next tier of enemies a heavy needs to upgrade to plasma.<br />
<br />
<br />
Armor is the really deceptive choice for a heavy. Choosing a heavy armor for your heavy seems right, but you would be wrong. The role that we are looking to give to our heavy is not that of a walking tank. That is you assault. He needs to be mobile and capable of placing explosives precisely, while not being left behind. While carapace armor for everyone is always a wise choice compared to basic armor, you should be considering skeleton and ghost as your primary armors. Heavies don't get any inherent bonus from heavy armor, unlike the assault, instead they get a flat 2 point reduction in damage, meaning that they don't require a huge HP pool from titan or archangel. Skeleton/Ghost armor offers your heavy a couple amazing bonuses. First is that it gives you 3 extra move and the ability to grapple to the top of structures. Mobility powers are great. Second they give you defense bonuses, 10/20 respectively. A clean miss is much better than more HP. Late game, in low cover, you can get a 40 point defensive shift if you are wearing ghost armor. All late game enemies do more than 10 damage a shot, and the 4 lost HP vs titan or 2 hp vs archangel or 1 in the case of skeleton vs carapace, is compensated by the clean misses. 20% off a 100% attack doing 10 damage is an average 2 HP gain. This makes ghost even under the worst case scenario better than archangel flat out and much closer to titan than it seems. A heavy in ghost armor or skeleton armor is more useful and almost as survivable. Psi armor when appropriate.<br />
<br />
<br />
Your final slot should be a grenade, if you ducked out on grenadier or if you are going to doing a terror mission, then feel free to improvise. <br />
<br />
=='''How to build a Sniper'''==<br />
<br />
The sniper is the primary damage class that you will employ and suffers from a small problem of feast and famine. Snipers depending on the level will either be an unstoppable murder engine snuffing out at least one enemy every round, or they will spend most of the time running around useless trying to get a line of sight. Now building a sniper depends greatly on managing this problem, maximizing the good times and minimizing the bad. Snipers have the best basic aim progression of any class, reaching 105 at colonel. With a scope and high ground you can expect at have 98% or greater accuracy against an enemy in high cover and you can make the shot from across the map in a position of perfect safety. How can we assure this? Well lets go into the skills.<br />
<br />
'''Snap Shot vs. Squad Sight:''' DO NOT BE FOOLED! There is almost no circumstance under which you should ever be taking snap shot. To do so is a waste of epic proportions and you might as well be using another class instead of a sniper. Now this being said, if you are trying some weird 6 sniper team there is a possibility that this might be okay but lets examine. First snap shot applies a 20 point penalty to any single action shot. Early game, this makes your shots unhittable. A corporal sniper firing at mid range against an enemy in low cover has a 28% chance to hit. A colonel has 65% chance but good luck getting there. Second a sniper who wishes to have options in terms of close range engagement has other talents that can be used to do so. The gunslinger perk can give you a base damage of 6 with no aim penalties with a plasma pistol if you have a terrible need to move and shoot. Squad sight on the other side of the coin essentially defines a sniper. Sniper rifles have a range cap of 100 which roughly translated is 4 times your vision range, or most of the map. Only thing is that you will never get this range unless you have squad sight. A squad sight sniper doesn't need to be right behind to your assault to cover them. They can do that from the spawn.<br />
<br />
'''Gunslinger vs. Damn Good Ground:''' This is a question of enhancing strength vs. coving weakness, only I put the order wrong. Gunslinger covers your weakness at close range and inability to scoot and shoot. Damn good ground makes you better at sitting on to of the world sniping the hell out of people. With a scope and maximum elevation, damn good ground offers perfect chance to hit opponnents in high cover. Without this perk you are slightly less than perfect but gunslinger makes it so that you can actually fight at close range and not fail. This is a tossup depending on your style. Just keep in mind that archangel armor does trigger the DGG perk, giving you slightly better than low cover worth of defense for free and an enhanced chance to hit.<br />
<br />
'''Disabling Shot vs. Battlescanner:''' Of all the choices that you will make as a sniper this matter the least. Disabling shot is for the most part patently inferior to blowing someones head off. It is harder to make, does less damage and is on a cooldown. That being said, it can be very useful in capturing enemies and can once in a blue moon save your butt if you don't have the firepower to kill a sectopod or a cyberdisc. Battlescanner on the other hand gives you intelligence, which is invaluable, but cannot be thrown far from the sniper who likely will be in the back. Still, it can find enemies without triggering them thus allowing a sucker punch. Neither one of these perks will define your sniper and you should feel free to choose them depending on your mood. One notable point however is if for some insance reason you are building a front line snap shot sniper get battle scanner. You don't need squad sight to see through the scanner and it is the only way you can extend your vision. Also you will be close in and will have the proximity to throw it.<br />
<br />
'''Executioner vs. Opportunist:''' This is another non choice. Executioner is a piddling 10% bonus that only triggers on low HP enemies. Snipers should be one shotting high HP enemies and pretty much the only people this will apply to are sectopods, who already we have ways of dealing with. Opportunist on the other hand means that your overwatch will do just as much damage at the same hit chance as your normal attacks and given the insane range on sniper overwatch allows you to protect soldiers all across the map.<br />
<br />
'''In the Zone vs. Double Tap:''' The colonel level talent of a sniper is pretty much godlike no matter what you chose. ITZ is streaky and you maybe able to kill 8 aliens a turn. But you should be aware of its conditions, to trigger ITZ you must hit, and kill an enemy out of cover or flanked. Practically speaking your sniper will never be flanking anyone, he will be well behind your entire line. So you'll have to destroy cover or target exposed aliens, like melee or flying units(flying units looks like to be in cover, but they're exposed units in terms of ITZ). Another way to trigger is overwatching and killing a alien in move(which is exposed obviously), it'll give you bonus action next turn. As for the other choice, Double Tap is reliable. DT gives you second shot even if you unluckily miss first shot, every other round. And helps killing alien with large HP pool, like Sectopods.<br />
<br />
'''Equipping your sniper''' is really simple. Give him a scope, give him archangel, get him the biggest gun you can get as fast as you can get it. For a sniper an upgraded weapon is your first combat priority. If he is above the tech curve the rest of your squad could be carrying pea shooters for all that it matters.<br />
<br />
=='''How to build an Assault'''==<br />
<br />
Next to the sniper the assault is your big damage dealing class. The critical chance of an alloy cannon is lower than a plasma sniper rifle but the damage is the same and the assault has all sorts of tools to enhance their burst damage and given the correct circumstances they can easily do more damage than any other class. On top of this they are tough and mobile. Also assualts are the only class that has a choice of primary weapons and are perhaps the only class that doesn't have a clear cut build path. So without further ado...<br />
<br />
'''Tactical Sense vs Aggression''' is the start of the divergent path, defense or offense. One offers you a mounting defense bonus per enemy in sight, the other a mounting critical chance. Which one you chose should be dependant on how you are planning to play the assault. If you chose the shotgun as your primary weapon you should be taking defense perks. To put it mildly, shotguns do a ton of damage, you don't need to worry about doing more, you need to worry about surviving the stupidity a combination of run and gun and a short short rang weapon produce. As previously mentioned a 20 point defensive shift is stupendously potent. Furthermore defense bonuses become exponentially more effective as they stack. Light cover, plus ghost armor, plus max tactical sense, plus a dense smoke grenade means that the Assault has a 100 point defense shift, making him effectively invulnerable to any aimed attack. Even negating his cover via flanking means that given the accuracy numbers of most enemies he is still unhittable. Aggression should only be taken when you are using an assualt rifle as a primary, you need to make up the loss of damage that the weapon entails and you also will be in better cover most of the time with less people trying to murder you, thus needing less defending.<br />
<br />
'''Lightning Reflexes vs. Close and Personal''', In a way these skills duplicate each other, and provide one of the only easy choices in the tree. Put simply, lightning reflexes is better. Both of them are closing skills. One gives you immunity to an overwatch shot, which is amazing, the other gives you a 30% critical chance to adjacent foes that degrades with distance. The idea being that with one you can survive to close and with the other you can make the kill once you are there. Needless to say while combining aggression and close and personal can give you a theoretical 80% critical on basic attacks the fact that you are already capable of dealing massive damage with good critical chance with a basic shotgun and good positioning should point to why not getting splattered by a sectopod plasma overwatch is better. Also, since the bonus is contingent on distance you should think twice before getting it for an assault rifle build.<br />
<br />
'''Flush vs. Rapid fire:''' In Xcom, murder is usually the best solution. The major question that need be asked is 'will this help me kill'. Of these two skills we have a clear winner in the murder category. Taking a pair of shots, even at a 15% penalty will almost always offer not only a statistically greater chance of a hit but will offer you the chance to knock the damage ball out of the park. If you are running a scoped up assault rifle build focusing on high crit, this is a no brainer. However, if you want a reliable way to ding an enemy from range then this might be a good idea. Remember, the chance to hit is much higher on a flush than a basic attack and you can expect a near 100% chance even at extended range. Homerun numbers are great but flush can be a reliable tool, especially if you are running alot of assaults in a squad. Which is always a good idea.<br />
<br />
'''Close Combat Specialist vs. Bring 'em On:''' This is a choice. If you are planning on a shotgunner CCS is not a perk to miss. It is a godsend against charging melee, or the poor fool that wanders through a door you are next to. Or just in any close range engagement. In contrast Bring Em On has no range requirement, but if you aren't rocking the critical side of the tree it is a very streaky talent. Under ideal circumstances, you can get a 14 damage critical from a plasma rifle, or two of them if you hit and crit on both of your rapid fire shos. Much more if you get Killer instinct at colonel rank. Needless to say, this is an amazing amount of damage, enough to waste near on anything. Critical rates on an plasma rifle with a scope and the critical abilities will still hit a flat 80%, 50% if you chose lightning reflexes or if you aren't at point blank range. Higher if you flank a foe. As you can see this isn't a cut and dry situation. Both rifleman and shotgunner are viable.<br />
<br />
'''Resiliance vs. Killer Instinct:''' on one hand you have immunity to critical hits, on the other hand you have a 50% damage bonus to your critical hits if you trigger your signature ability. If you have chosen to brawl then grab immunity to crits. It means you can't be take out in one round by any single foe and it takes luck out of the equation. Killer instinct on the other hand only shines if you have been mining the tree for bonus crit chance. That being said, you can do some retarded stuff with killer instinct. Run at full dash to a good position, open up with rapid fire and blow a sectapod or an ethereal away in one fell blow, or two as the case may be.<br />
<br />
'''Equipping the Assault''' is going to be more of the same. The answer is always ghost armor. Statistically it is just plain better. Now I wouldn't hold it against anyone who chose titan, but in the end Titan is just not as good for the up and coming assault trooper. The conditioning ability that is gained on being promoted to major gives 2 extra HP when wearing Ghost Skeleton and Psi armor, and 4 when wearing carapace, archangel and titan. The HP totals are as follows. Skeleton gives 5, Ghost , Carapace and Psi give 8, archangel give 12 and Titan 14. Now the most bang for your buck early game is obviously carapace, but once you have the money you should be investing in ghost. Why? Well for all the previously mentioned reasons plus one. In terms of survival defense beats HP most of the time, mobility is the bread and butter of an assault trooper and here is the final reason. Cloak gives a +100% chance to crit. This means that a cloaked assault can expect to reliably crit against a hardened target if they are playing the shotgunner game, and the rifleman can be sure of a crit. A massive killer instinct enhanced rapid fire crit that will level any foe you chose.<br />
<br />
In terms of your free slot, the best choice is situational. I personally like chitin plating for my CQC troopers and scopes for riflemen. The extra 4 HP offsets the losses that I sustain from not going titan and gives you virtual immunity to chrysalids and berserkers. For riflemen the scope gives you accuracy and crit chance. Which is peachy. Use psi shields when appropriate.<br />
<br />
=='''How to build a Support'''==<br />
<br />
If you want to double up on a class, supports should be your first choice. Sure they aren't as sexy as some of the others but they bring alot more to the table than most suspect. First of all, supports can shoot. They have great base accuracy and full HP progression. Even without a scope a support has a 90 aim. Beyond that they get to have 2 secondary items once they hit major, allowing unparalelled customization. Furthermore they are fast, unless you have a stroke while promoting them and accidentally click the covering fire button they will be the quickest unit on the map. This along with their solid offensive and defensive abilities makes them the most reliable unit that you have. A team of nothing but supports would be than optimal but would be entirely possible. <br />
<br />
'''Sprinter vs. Covering fire:''' Now I know I said you had to be having a stroke to chose covering fire and that is maybe a bit harsh, but I stand by the statement. The issue is simply this. Covering fire will never help you. Why? Well lets look at the ability. It grants you a reaction shot any time a unit under your overwatch or supression fire. Sounds good right? No its not. You just took a shot against a unit in cover that you could have fired on on your turn at a -15% penalty. It is nice if you are supressing an enemy and it is also decent if you have the sentimel ability but the truth is that as Genghis Khan proved, mobility is victory. The ability to chose your ground is vital.<br />
<br />
'''Field Medic vs. Smoke and Mirrors:''' I ain't gonna lie. Smoke is awesome. Once upgraded it has all sorts if nifty perks and even in its base form a free 20 point defense shift is great. Still med kits are great too, and having 3 instead of 1 is also awesome. So this is a choose your awesome moment. As you always should have minimum 2 supports you can grab one of each. As a personal preference I tend to favor field medic, but a med kit is an inventory slot you have to spend and field medic tends to mandate one. Now having more options is good, but so is having more healing. A pure utility support can have chitin plating and an arc thrower or nanoweave and a scope. Thus make your choice not based on smoke alone, but on flexiblity.<br />
<br />
'''Revive vs. Rifle supression,''' Chances are that you are screwed if you are relying on revive. Rifle supression can keep you from being screwed. The choice is simple and obvious. Of you find yourself favoring revive then you might instead want to have multiple field medics and just keep your soldiers topped off in terms of health.<br />
<br />
'''Dense Smoke vs. Combat drugs:''' In the end the question of what makes you tear your hair out is answered by this choice. If getting your head blown off by a muton elite really grinds your gears, then dense smoke, a stunning 40 point defense shift that turns no cover into heavy cover and heavy cover into immunity to being shot, is a must. If panic is your fear and getting mind raped by sectoid commanders or ethereals is the bane of your existance then combat drugs is for you. A decent will bonus a critical bonus and a defense bonus all rolled into one. Personally I hate getting shot, and while ethereal's make me want to vomit blood out of sheer frustration, they are frankly quite rare, and my standard tactic of 'blow them to kingdom come' generally prevents retaliation. This is a personal choice.<br />
<br />
'''Savior vs. Sentinel:''' Do you want to heal or harm? What kind of question is that! This is Xcom. You want to harm those Xray scum. Now don't get me wrong, healing 10 points in one charge is awesome, but shooting twice on overwatch is even better. With improved med kits you should be healing 6 per charge anyways, and if you went with the multi medic route you can still top off the squad without worry. One of the most important things about sentinel is that it solves the problem of overwatch overkill. The ability triggers a second overwatch attack only if the first fails to kill the target, thus preventing those embarassing moments where your squad all open fire on a floater and blow him to the moon, only for a muton to wander unchecked into heavy cover and crit your prized soldier in the face.<br />
<br />
'''Equipping your support''' is simple. Get skeleton armor first, then upgrade to ghost or psi depending. I have already gone into alot of detail as to why ghost armor is the best armor. A support wearing it can traverse 13 squares on one move. A dash from another class in heavy armor is 14. This is silly amounts of mobility. In terms of guns you have the choice of plasma or light plasma. I find that while light plasma and a scope is great early and can be obtained fast, it is offensively too inferior to use. Go for the big numbers and get a plasma rifle. Still one thing should be mentioned. Supports get a great return on investment in terms of lasers. The basic rifle allows them to one shot all the low tier enemies. In terms of secondary items go with what you feel. Med kit, scope, chitin, arc thrower. The important thing about supports is that they are flexible and should never be bound to a single setup.</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Soldier_Skills_%26_Equipment_Guide_(EU2012)&diff=40261Soldier Skills & Equipment Guide (EU2012)2012-10-23T22:44:09Z<p>Tacobandit744: </p>
<hr />
<div>=='''A not so brief guide to class abilities'''==<br />
<br />
When choosing perks there is a big debate about to how to build them, with a variety of opinions depending on your personal play style and preferences. The fundamental question that must always be asked when making a promotion is one of specialization vs. variety. Does the ability gives you a new skill or does it enhance the unit/squad current capabilities?<br />
<br />
The Assault class is the most clear cut example of this: nearly all of its choices are between increasing the Lethality/Defense of the unit, either turning into to frontal assault unit or into a flanking unit. Or you can mix both or even give it an unique squad ability by choosing the '''Flush''' perk, which forces the enemy out of cover. <br />
<br />
Again, all of this options depend on your style and strategy and their effectiveness will also depend on the map and type of aliens faced. But at the beginning it may be confusing to realize all of the advantages and shortcomings of each class. Take for example the Heavy. Early on, the Heavy can be a major source of damage for your team, but due to the much lower accuracy numbers of the class at higher ranks their ability to be a primary source of direct damage falls off sharply. An inversion would be the sniper. Early on they are weak and difficult to manage but once they have some experience under their belt and a good weapon they will carry your squad.<br />
<br />
The important thing to remember is that the advice in this guide will fall into two categories. Some of the recommendations are just that, advice that you may choose to ignore if you so wish. There are in fact many successful ways to run a squad that involve wildly divergent tactics. However, there are some points that are not recommendations per se. Some options in the skill tree exist that are false choices. It seems like they may be equivalent or one is slightly better than the other but in practice one of the two options is so much vastly better than the other that it changes the situation from a choice to a calculation. This guide will attempt to outline the different points as well as give approximate weights to the talents where it is not 100% a clear cut choice.<br />
<br />
=='''How to build a Heavy'''==<br />
<br />
The primary weapon of the Heavy is the LMG and its laser and plasma evolutions. The weapon has a base damage of 5 which puts it in the high damage category, along with the Sniper Rifle and the Shotgun. It has worse critical chance than either, but it doesn't have the severe accuracy drop off that the Shotgun suffers from at any significant range and it doesn't suffer either the close range penalty or double action cost of the Sniper Rifle. At first glance it is one of the best weapons in the game and in the early game it will be. <br />
<br />
There is of course a hitch, in this case is the Heavy himself. Base accuracy of all soldiers is 65 but unlike his peers the Heavy only gets 10 more points over the course of his life, with a Colonel capping out at 75. This means that at mid range and under optimal conditions the best Heavy will hit 75% of the time. If the target is in light cover that chance degrades to 55% and under heavy cover there is only a 35% chance to deal damage. With a scope you can improve a Heavy's aim to 85 but compared to the base Colonel accuracy numbers of an Assault, a Support or a Sniper, which are 89, 90 and 105 respectively you can see why the Heavy suffers. <br />
<br />
Over a given hundred shots the percentile hit chance is a equal percentile modifier to Damage meaning that assuming all enemies are in light cover the base Heavy does on average a little more than half his listed Damage. This means that a Heavy at the top of the tech tree is doing the same as a Sniper at the bottom, less when you factor in the massive critical hit chances that the Sniper rifle enjoys, if they are both using weapons of the same tech level. This is discounting special abilities such as the Heavy's power to fire twice in a round, but suffice it to say that for every ability that the Heavy gets the Sniper of equivalent rank will gain an ever more insurmountable advantage. Now compared to a Support whose best weapon caps at 8 damage and who gets only 1 shot in a round the heavy certainly does do more adjusted damage, but here in lies the problem. In real combat conditions you don't do an average damage based on your aim. You either hit and deal full damage, or miss and do none. If a Sniper did twice as much damage with half the accuracy it's use as a unit would go from predictable to a coin toss and it's usefulness would drop from amazing, to marginal.<br />
<br />
Here is the thing. In a turn based game the fundamental risk comes from uncertainty. If you are sure that an attack or ability will trigger then you can plan accordingly. Calculate exactly how much damage you can expect from all your units and use that to plan out a course of action. When abilities fail to trigger you are forced to make plans that accommodate this, namely, you need to devote more resources to a target than would under ideal conditions be needed, lest you whiff a final shot find yourself staring at a Sectopod with 5 hit points and it is now his turn. The binary nature of success and failure of individual actions maps to to the binary success and failure states of each turn. This is the beauty and the folly of a turn based game. The fact that a Heavy dealing with a standard foe in low cover with a 55% chance to hit cannot be relied on to make the shot means that you'll have to choose, both in game and during promotions on how to increase that accuracy or use the Heavy instead to prepare the Alien for the kill. <br />
<br />
This is the paradox of the heavy, they have amazingly high damage weapons but they require careful planning to make it an useful tool, and to be aware of the shortcomings that some choices can have, specially regarding perk selection. <br />
<br />
'''Bullet Swarm vs. Holo Targeting'''<br />
* Bullet Swarm gives you massive tactical flexibility no matter how you chose to build the Heavy, Holo-Targetting a +10 Aim increase ONLY to other units firing at the same alien. <br />
* Bullet Swarm allows for Fire and Move, Fire and Reload or Fire and Fire when high firepower is crucial. The issue, as mentioned above, is the lack of Aim of the Heavy - which makes this ability more useful in close range fights. <br />
* The LMG has only 3 rounds, even if you take supression, you need bulletswarm to Supress two rounds in a row.<br />
<br />
A Colonel heavy with a scope shooting at an enemy in optimal range in low cover has as mentioned above a pathetic 65% chance to hit. If you go with bulletswarm and spend a full round trying to make the shot you have a 12.25% chance of missing totally a 42.25% chance of hitting twice and a 45.5% chance of tagging them at least once. Meaning that you will an 88.75% chance of hitting something. At lowest rank this woult be a 79.75% chance to hit something, with a 30.25% of hitting twice. <br />
<br />
Even though you might feel that there is a good choice here, there isn't. Using your heavy to set up shots might seem like a good idea, but statistically it does not work. The problem is two fold, first, at the lowest levels when holotargetting could most likely be useful, the power of at most 3 small 10 point bonuses does not produce more hits than an extra attack. Take the above situation. Enemy in light cover, heavy takes the first shot, then one of each class chimes in.<br />
<br />
4 shots with heavy with holotargetting taking the first shot. All soldiers at recruit level<br />
<br />
-7.487% chance of 4 hits<br />
<br />
-27.422% chance of 0 hits<br />
<br />
5 shots with heavy using bullet swarm. All soldiers at recruit level.<br />
<br />
-1.845% chance of 5 hits<br />
<br />
-13.325% chance of 4 hits<br />
<br />
-11.603% chance of 0 hits<br />
<br />
As you can see, the extra attack is better in every way. Not only are you going to have a higher chance of getting 4 hits you will have a golden chance to hit with 5. Futhermore given the fact that the heavy has one of the better weapons, capable of killing any low level enemy in one hit the hits that a heavy can make are worth more. Not to mention, this is a scenario skewed heavily in the favor of the holotargetting heavy. There are almost no early game circumstances where you will have a reason or the opportunity to make 4 attacks on 1 enemy. <br />
<br />
I hope that one thing becomes very clear. NEVER take holotargetting. <br />
<br />
'''Suppression vs. Shredder Rocket'''<br />
This defines your heavy as either an explosives platform or a suppression platform. I will make the argument that simply put, supports are better at suppression and heavies should be blowing things up. Yes supports can't suppress an area, yes they can't use mayhem to deal damage with suppression but here is the rub, supports have a higher ammo lower damage weapon with much greater accuracy. The reaction shot movement provokes will much more likely hit, the loss of damage is lower, there is less reloading needed and supports have much more versatile ability to specialize. A heavy with a shredder rocket has a 5 automatic damage weapon, that will hit exactly where put it almost all the time and close the rest of the time, and will amplify all damage against a target while removing its cover, in a wide area of effect. It is a limited use weapon but it will save you much more consistently than suppression. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''HEAT vs. Rapid Reaction''' is also clean cut. Many people who go the supression route think that this is perfect. Suppress an enemy, use flush to force a move, let the heavy get 2 free attacks. This is a failure state. First, reaction shots are made at a 15 point penalty and as we have previously stated heavies have crap accuracy. Second, the only way you get a second shot is if the first hits, combine this with the aforementioned crap accuracy and you will rarely see this promotion trigger and even if it does trigger you still have to hit with it, at a similar penalty. On the other side of the equation HEAT ammo doubles damage against robotic opponents and affects all heavy class abilities, including rockets. Put simply, in Xcom, robots are the devil. The cyberdisc and the sectopod are two of the deadliest enemies you will face, anything that hastens them to the grave is awesome. A cyberdisc is a deadly early game opponent who can deal 7 damage on a normal attack with a high critical chance, or fling a 5 damage grenade half way across the map. It can and will one shot your mates, no one below major has a reliable chance of living, and only then if they are at full health. A rocket from a HEAT heavy will deal 14 damage base, and can crit for more. Shredder rockets will do 10 and allow your sniper a good shot at a OHKO. Not to mention, you will blow the drones that hover around the disc or the sectopod sky high. Choose HEAT, a heavy who can attack twice can one shot a cyberdisc or wipe a sectopod if both attacks hit.<br />
<br />
<br />
The next choice is less clear cut. '''Grenadier''' gives 2 grenades, '''danger zone''' gives AOE supression and 2 tiles extra area on rockets. Both are good abilities and the question of which you want depends highly. The benefits are more intangible and are linked to your final choice of what you want your heavy to be doing. I am going to step back from (semi)objective analysis and offer an opinion. I chose grenadier becuase by the time you reach this point, no one else on your team should be carrying grenades. Your sniper needs his scope, your assualt needs armor of some type and even if she doesn't cause you are rocking titan she should be doing a lot more damage with basic attacks than with a grenade, supports might be a good choice to heft a grenade but they generally are better with arc throwers, med kits or armor/scope. Heavies get natural damage ablation and mutiple use actions. They have such bad accuracy that you aren't losing much by throwing an attack out the window, and the power that grenades have to damage terrain and remove cover offers a much more powerful buff to accuracy than a scope. The final argument for grenadier is simply that grenades are amazing breeching tools. You don't want to be using your rockets to breech but grenades can be a worthwhile trade. Danger zone is lessened in value because you aren't or shouldn't be picking up supression, 2 extra tiles is nice on your rockets and is certainly worth more than a grenade if it brings another enemy into range, but rockets are inherently less flexible than grenades as with their full round cost. Don't feel obligated to get grenadier, it isn't mandatory.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Rocketeer vs. Mayhem:''' To many this is the a tough choice, but it isn't. Mayhem adds max of 3 damage to supression which we don't have and adds 2 damage to your rockets, of which you get only 2 (regular and shredder). Rocketeer on the other hand gives you a second rocket. Assuming that you don't even get the blaster launcher upgrade you are still falling behind by 3 damage, and lose the flexibility of a second rocket. Since we have already decided that the heavy needs to be blowing things up to be reliable thus, anything that offers him more chances to be reliable is good. Thus, more rockets beat better rockets. With double grenades you have 5 bombs that can reshape the battlefield in your favor.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''How to equip a heavy''': More than any other class, the heavy shouldn't be worrying about their primary weapon. By all means upgrade the LMG if you can spare the resources, but there is a greater return on investment on other classes. Namely your sniper and then your assualt need their weapons maxed ASAP, these are the classes that will be dealing your damage and the Xrays drop plasma rifles and light plasma like confetti that your supports or assaults can use, thus obliviating the need to buy them. Moreover the damage scaling is not as significant. With a five damage base a heavy can reliably kill in one hit sectoids, thin men and floaters on classic. To one shot the next tier of enemies a heavy needs to upgrade to plasma.<br />
<br />
<br />
Armor is the really deceptive choice for a heavy. Chosing a heavy armor for your heavy seems right, but you would be wrong. The role that we are looking to give to our heavy is not that of a walking tank. That is you assault. He needs to be mobile and capable of placing explosives precisely, while not being left behind. While carapace armor for everyone is always a wise choice compared to basic armor, you should be considering skeleton and ghost as your primary armors. Heavies don't get any inherent bonus from heavy armor, unlike the assault, instead they get a flat 2 point reduction in damage, meaning that they don't require a huge HP pool from titan or archangel. Skeleton/Ghost armor offers your heavy a couple amazing bonuses. First is that it gives you 3 extra move and the ability to grapple to the top of structures. Mobility powers are great. Second they give you defense bonuses, 10/20 respectively. A clean miss is much better than more HP. Late game, in low cover, you can get a 40 point defensive shift if you are wearing ghost armor. All late game enemies do more than 10 damage a shot, and the 4 lost HP vs titan or 2 hp vs archangel or 1 in the case of skeleton vs carapace, is compensated by the clean misses. 20% off a 100% attack doing 10 damage is an average 2 HP gain. This makes ghost even under the worst case scenario better than archangel flat out and much closer to titan than it seems. A heavy in ghost armor or skeleton armor is more useful and almost as survivable. Psi armor when appropriate.<br />
<br />
<br />
Your final slot should be a grenade, if you ducked out on grenadier or if you are going to doing a terror mission, then feel free to improvise. <br />
<br />
=='''How to build a Sniper'''==<br />
<br />
The sniper is the primary damage class that you will employ and suffers from a small problem of feast and famine. Snipers depending on the level will either be an unstoppable murder engine snuffing out at least one enemy every round, or they will spend most of the time running around useless trying to get a line of sight. Now building a sniper depends greatly on managing this problem, maximizing the good times and minimizing the bad. Snipers have the best basic aim progression of any class, reaching 105 at colonel. With a scope and high ground you can expect at have 98% or greater accuracy against an enemy in high cover and you can make the shot from across the map in a position of perfect safety. How can we assure this? Well lets go into the skills.<br />
<br />
'''Snap Shot vs. Squad Sight:''' DO NOT BE FOOLED. There is almost no circumstance underwhich you should ever be taking snap shot. To do so is a waste of epic proportions and you might as well be using another class instead of a sniper. Now this being said, if you are trying some weird 6 sniper team there is a possibility that this might be okay but lets examine. First snap shot applies a 20 point penalty to any single action shot. Early game, this makes your shots unhittable. A corporal sniper firing at mid range against an enemy in low cover has a 28% chance to hit. A colonel has 65% chance but good luck getting there. Second a sniper who wishes to have options in terms of close range engagement has other talents that can be used to do so. The gunslinger perk can give you a base damage of 6 with no aim penalties with a plasma pistol if you have a terrible need to move and shoot. Squad sight on the other side of the coin essentially defines a sniper. Sniper rifles have a range cap of 100 which roughly translated is 4 times your vision range, or most of the map. Only thing is that you will never get this range unless you have squad sight. A squad sight sniper doesn't need to be right behind to your assault to cover them. They can do that from the spawn.<br />
<br />
'''Gunslinger vs. Damn Good Ground:''' This is a question of enhancing strength vs. coving weakness, only I put the order wrong. Gunslinger covers your weakness at close range and inability to scoot and shoot. Damn good ground makes you better at sitting on to of the world sniping the hell out of people. With a scope and maximum elevation, damn good ground offers perfect chance to hit opponnents in high cover. Without this perk you are slightly less than perfect but gunslinger makes it so that you can actually fight at close range and not fail. This is a tossup depending on your style. Just keep in mind that archangel armor does trigger the DGG perk, giving you slightly better than low cover worth of defense for free and an enhanced chance to hit.<br />
<br />
'''Disabling Shot vs. Battlescanner:''' Of all the choices that you will make as a sniper this matter the least. Disabling shot is for the most part patently inferior to blowing someones head off. It is harder to make, does less damage and is on a cooldown. That being said, it can be very useful in capturing enemies and can once in a blue moon save your butt if you don't have the firepower to kill a sectopod or a cyberdisc. Battlescanner on the other hand gives you intelligence, which is invaluable, but cannot be thrown far from the sniper who likely will be in the back. Still, it can find enemies without triggering them thus allowing a sucker punch. Neither one of these perks will define your sniper and you should feel free to choose them depending on your mood. One notable point however is if for some insance reason you are building a front line snap shot sniper get battle scanner. You don't need squad sight to see through the scanner and it is the only way you can extend your vision. Also you will be close in and will have the proximity to throw it.<br />
<br />
'''Executioner vs. Opportunist:''' This is another non choice. Executioner is a piddling 10% bonus that only triggers on low HP enemies. Snipers should be one shotting high HP enemies and pretty much the only people this will apply to are sectopods, who already we have ways of dealing with. Opportunist on the other hand means that your overwatch will do just as much damage at the same hit chance as your normal attacks and given the insane range on sniper overwatch allows you to protect soldiers all across the map.<br />
<br />
'''In the Zone vs. Double Tap:''' The colonel level talent of a sniper is pretty much godlike no matter what you chose. ITZ is streaky and you maybe able to kill 8 aliens a turn. But you should be aware of its conditions, to trigger ITZ you must hit, and kill an enemy out of cover or flanked. Practically speaking your sniper will never be flanking anyone, he will be well behind your entire line. So you'll have to destroy cover or target exposed aliens, like melee or flying units(flying units looks like to be in cover, but they're exposed units in terms of ITZ). Another way to trigger is overwatching and killing a alien in move(which is exposed obviously), it'll give you bonus action next turn. As for the other choice, Double Tap is reliable. DT gives you second shot even if you unluckily miss first shot, every other round. And helps killing alien with large HP pool, like Sectopods.<br />
<br />
'''Equipping your sniper''' is really simple. Give him a scope, give him archangel, get him the biggest gun you can get as fast as you can get it. For a sniper an upgraded weapon is your first combat priority. If he is above the tech curve the rest of your squad could be carrying pea shooters for all that it matters.<br />
<br />
=='''How to build an Assault'''==<br />
<br />
Next to the sniper the assault is your big damage dealing class. The critical chance of an alloy cannon is lower than a plasma sniper rifle but the damage is the same and the assault has all sorts of tools to enhance their burst damage and given the correct circumstances they can easily do more damage than any other class. On top of this they are tough and mobile. Also assualts are the only class that has a choice of primary weapons and are perhaps the only class that doesn't have a clear cut build path. So without further ado...<br />
<br />
'''Tactical Sense vs Aggression''' is the start of the divergent path, defense or offense. One offers you a mounting defense bonus per enemy in sight, the other a mounting critical chance. Which one you chose should be dependant on how you are planning to play the assault. If you chose the shotgun as your primary weapon you should be taking defense perks. To put it mildly, shotguns do a ton of damage, you don't need to worry about doing more, you need to worry about surviving the stupidity a combination of run and gun and a short short rang weapon produce. As previously mentioned a 20 point defensive shift is stupendously potent. Furthermore defense bonuses become exponentially more effective as they stack. Light cover, plus ghost armor, plus max tactical sense, plus a dense smoke grenade means that the Assault has a 100 point defense shift, making him effectively invulnerable to any aimed attack. Even negating his cover via flanking means that given the accuracy numbers of most enemies he is still unhittable. Aggression should only be taken when you are using an assualt rifle as a primary, you need to make up the loss of damage that the weapon entails and you also will be in better cover most of the time with less people trying to murder you, thus needing less defending.<br />
<br />
'''Lightning Reflexes vs. Close and Personal''', In a way these skills duplicate each other, and provide one of the only easy choices in the tree. Put simply, lightning reflexes is better. Both of them are closing skills. One gives you immunity to an overwatch shot, which is amazing, the other gives you a 30% critical chance to adjacent foes that degrades with distance. The idea being that with one you can survive to close and with the other you can make the kill once you are there. Needless to say while combining aggression and close and personal can give you a theoretical 80% critical on basic attacks the fact that you are already capable of dealing massive damage with good critical chance with a basic shotgun and good positioning should point to why not getting splattered by a sectopod plasma overwatch is better. Also, since the bonus is contingent on distance you should think twice before getting it for an assault rifle build.<br />
<br />
'''Flush vs. Rapid fire:''' In Xcom, murder is usually the best solution. The major question that need be asked is 'will this help me kill'. Of these two skills we have a clear winner in the murder category. Taking a pair of shots, even at a 15% penalty will almost always offer not only a statistically greater chance of a hit but will offer you the chance to knock the damage ball out of the park. If you are running a scoped up assault rifle build focusing on high crit, this is a no brainer. However, if you want a reliable way to ding an enemy from range then this might be a good idea. Remember, the chance to hit is much higher on a flush than a basic attack and you can expect a near 100% chance even at extended range. Homerun numbers are great but flush can be a reliable tool, especially if you are running alot of assaults in a squad. Which is always a good idea.<br />
<br />
'''Close Combat Specialist vs. Bring 'em On:''' This is a choice. If you are planning on a shotgunner CCS is not a perk to miss. It is a godsend against charging melee, or the poor fool that wanders through a door you are next to. Or just in any close range engagement. In contrast Bring Em On has no range requirement, but if you aren't rocking the critical side of the tree it is a very streaky talent. Under ideal circumstances, you can get a 14 damage critical from a plasma rifle, or two of them if you hit and crit on both of your rapid fire shos. Much more if you get Killer instinct at colonel rank. Needless to say, this is an amazing amount of damage, enough to waste near on anything. Critical rates on an plasma rifle with a scope and the critical abilities will still hit a flat 80%, 50% if you chose lightning reflexes or if you aren't at point blank range. Higher if you flank a foe. As you can see this isn't a cut and dry situation. Both rifleman and shotgunner are viable.<br />
<br />
'''Resiliance vs. Killer Instinct:''' on one hand you have immunity to critical hits, on the other hand you have a 50% damage bonus to your critical hits if you trigger your signature ability. If you have chosen to brawl then grab immunity to crits. It means you can't be take out in one round by any single foe and it takes luck out of the equation. Killer instinct on the other hand only shines if you have been mining the tree for bonus crit chance. That being said, you can do some retarded stuff with killer instinct. Run at full dash to a good position, open up with rapid fire and blow a sectapod or an ethereal away in one fell blow, or two as the case may be.<br />
<br />
'''Equipping the Assault''' is going to be more of the same. The answer is always ghost armor. Statistically it is just plain better. Now I wouldn't hold it against anyone who chose titan, but in the end Titan is just not as good for the up and coming assault trooper. The conditioning ability that is gained on being promoted to major gives 2 extra HP when wearing Ghost Skeleton and Psi armor, and 4 when wearing carapace, archangel and titan. The HP totals are as follows. Skeleton gives 5, Ghost , Carapace and Psi give 8, archangel give 12 and Titan 14. Now the most bang for your buck early game is obviously carapace, but once you have the money you should be investing in ghost. Why? Well for all the previously mentioned reasons plus one. In terms of survival defense beats HP most of the time, mobility is the bread and butter of an assault trooper and here is the final reason. Cloak gives a +100% chance to crit. This means that a cloaked assault can expect to reliably crit against a hardened target if they are playing the shotgunner game, and the rifleman can be sure of a crit. A massive killer instinct enhanced rapid fire crit that will level any foe you chose.<br />
<br />
In terms of your free slot, the best choice is situational. I personally like chitin plating for my CQC troopers and scopes for riflemen. The extra 4 HP offsets the losses that I sustain from not going titan and gives you virtual immunity to chrysalids and berserkers. For riflemen the scope gives you accuracy and crit chance. Which is peachy. Use psi shields when appropriate.<br />
<br />
=='''How to build a Support'''==<br />
<br />
If you want to double up on a class, supports should be your first choice. Sure they aren't as sexy as some of the others but they bring alot more to the table than most suspect. First of all, supports can shoot. They have great base accuracy and full HP progression. Even without a scope a support has a 90 aim. Beyond that they get to have 2 secondary items once they hit major, allowing unparalelled customization. Furthermore they are fast, unless you have a stroke while promoting them and accidentally click the covering fire button they will be the quickest unit on the map. This along with their solid offensive and defensive abilities makes them the most reliable unit that you have. A team of nothing but supports would be than optimal but would be entirely possible. <br />
<br />
'''Sprinter vs. Covering fire:''' Now I know I said you had to be having a stroke to chose covering fire and that is maybe a bit harsh, but I stand by the statement. The issue is simply this. Covering fire will never help you. Why? Well lets look at the ability. It grants you a reaction shot any time a unit under your overwatch or supression fire. Sounds good right? No its not. You just took a shot against a unit in cover that you could have fired on on your turn at a -15% penalty. It is nice if you are supressing an enemy and it is also decent if you have the sentimel ability but the truth is that as Genghis Khan proved, mobility is victory. The ability to chose your ground is vital.<br />
<br />
'''Field Medic vs. Smoke and Mirrors:''' I ain't gonna lie. Smoke is awesome. Once upgraded it has all sorts if nifty perks and even in its base form a free 20 point defense shift is great. Still med kits are great too, and having 3 instead of 1 is also awesome. So this is a choose your awesome moment. As you always should have minimum 2 supports you can grab one of each. As a personal preference I tend to favor field medic, but a med kit is an inventory slot you have to spend and field medic tends to mandate one. Now having more options is good, but so is having more healing. A pure utility support can have chitin plating and an arc thrower or nanoweave and a scope. Thus make your choice not based on smoke alone, but on flexiblity.<br />
<br />
'''Revive vs. Rifle supression,''' Chances are that you are screwed if you are relying on revive. Rifle supression can keep you from being screwed. The choice is simple and obvious. Of you find yourself favoring revive then you might instead want to have multiple field medics and just keep your soldiers topped off in terms of health.<br />
<br />
'''Dense Smoke vs. Combat drugs:''' In the end the question of what makes you tear your hair out is answered by this choice. If getting your head blown off by a muton elite really grinds your gears, then dense smoke, a stunning 40 point defense shift that turns no cover into heavy cover and heavy cover into immunity to being shot, is a must. If panic is your fear and getting mind raped by sectoid commanders or ethereals is the bane of your existance then combat drugs is for you. A decent will bonus a critical bonus and a defense bonus all rolled into one. Personally I hate getting shot, and while ethereal's make me want to vomit blood out of sheer frustration, they are frankly quite rare, and my standard tactic of 'blow them to kingdom come' generally prevents retaliation. This is a personal choice.<br />
<br />
'''Savior vs. Sentinel:''' Do you want to heal or harm? What kind of question is that! This is Xcom. You want to harm those Xray scum. Now don't get me wrong, healing 10 points in one charge is awesome, but shooting twice on overwatch is even better. With improved med kits you should be healing 6 per charge anyways, and if you went with the multi medic route you can still top off the squad without worry. One of the most important things about sentinel is that it solves the problem of overwatch overkill. The ability triggers a second overwatch attack only if the first fails to kill the target, thus preventing those embarassing moments where your squad all open fire on a floater and blow him to the moon, only for a muton to wander unchecked into heavy cover and crit your prized soldier in the face.<br />
<br />
'''Equipping your support''' is simple. Get skeleton armor first, then upgrade to ghost or psi depending. I have already gone into alot of detail as to why ghost armor is the best armor. A support wearing it can traverse 13 squares on one move. A dash from another class in heavy armor is 14. This is silly amounts of mobility. In terms of guns you have the choice of plasma or light plasma. I find that while light plasma and a scope is great early and can be obtained fast, it is offensively too inferior to use. Go for the big numbers and get a plasma rifle. Still one thing should be mentioned. Supports get a great return on investment in terms of lasers. The basic rifle allows them to one shot all the low tier enemies. In terms of secondary items go with what you feel. Med kit, scope, chitin, arc thrower. The important thing about supports is that they are flexible and should never be bound to a single setup.</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Soldier_Skills_%26_Equipment_Guide_(EU2012)&diff=40259Soldier Skills & Equipment Guide (EU2012)2012-10-23T22:40:39Z<p>Tacobandit744: </p>
<hr />
<div>=='''A not so brief guide to class abilities'''==<br />
<br />
When choosing perks there is a big debate about to how to build them, with a variety of opinions depending on your personal play style and preferences. The fundamental question that must always be asked when making a promotion is one of specialization vs. variety. Does the ability gives you a new skill or does it enhance the unit/squad current capabilities?<br />
<br />
The Assault class is the most clear cut example of this: nearly all of its choices are between increasing the Lethality/Defense of the unit, either turning into to frontal assault unit or into a flanking unit. Or you can mix both or even give it an unique squad ability by choosing the '''Flush''' perk, which forces the enemy out of cover. <br />
<br />
Again, all of this options depend on your style and strategy and their effectiveness will also depend on the map and type of aliens faced. But at the beginning it may be confusing to realize all of the advantages and shortcomings of each class. Take for example the Heavy. Early on, the Heavy can be a major source of damage for your team, but due to the much lower accuracy numbers of the class at higher ranks their ability to be a primary source of direct damage falls off sharply. An inversion would be the sniper. Early on they are weak and difficult to manage but once they have some experience under their belt and a good weapon they will carry your squad.<br />
<br />
The important thing to remember is that the advice in this guide will fall into two categories. Some of the recommendations are just that, advice that you may choose to ignore if you so wish. There are in fact many successful ways to run a squad that involve wildly divergent tactics. However, there are some points that are not recommendations per se. Some options in the skill tree exist that are false choices. It seems like they may be equivalent or one is slightly better than the other but in practice one of the two options is so much vastly better than the other that it changes the situation from a choice to a calculation. This guide will attempt to outline the different points as well as give approximate weights to the talents were it is not 100% a clean cut choice.<br />
<br />
=='''How to build a Heavy'''==<br />
<br />
The primary weapon of the Heavy is the LMG and its laser and plasma evolutions. The weapon has a base damage of 5 which puts it in the high damage category, along with the Sniper Rifle and the Shotgun. It has worse critical chance than either, but it doesn't have the severe accuracy drop off that the Shotgun suffers from at any significant range and it doesn't suffer either the close range penalty or double action cost of the Sniper Rifle. At first glance it is one of the best weapons in the game and in the early game it will be. <br />
<br />
There is of course a hitch, in this case is the Heavy himself. Base accuracy of all soldiers is 65 but unlike his peers the Heavy only gets 10 more points over the course of his life, with a Colonel capping out at 75. This means that at mid range and under optimal conditions the best Heavy will hit 75% of the time. If the target is in light cover that chance degrades to 55% and under heavy cover there is only a 35% chance to deal damage. With a scope you can improve a Heavy's aim to 85 but compared to the base Colonel accuracy numbers of an Assault, a Support or a Sniper, which are 89, 90 and 105 respectively you can see why the Heavy suffers. <br />
<br />
Over a given hundred shots the percentile hit chance is a equal percentile modifier to Damage meaning that assuming all enemies are in light cover the base Heavy does on average a little more than half his listed Damage. This means that a Heavy at the top of the tech tree is doing the same as a Sniper at the bottom, less when you factor in the massive critical hit chances that the Sniper rifle enjoys, if they are both using weapons of the same tech level. This is discounting special abilities such as the Heavy's power to fire twice in a round, but suffice it to say that for every ability that the Heavy gets the Sniper of equivalent rank will gain an ever more insurmountable advantage. Now compared to a Support whose best weapon caps at 8 damage and who gets only 1 shot in a round the heavy certainly does do more adjusted damage, but here in lies the problem. In real combat conditions you don't do an average damage based on your aim. You either hit and deal full damage, or miss and do none. If a Sniper did twice as much damage with half the accuracy it's use as a unit would go from predictable to a coin toss and it's usefulness would drop from amazing, to marginal.<br />
<br />
Here is the thing. In a turn based game the fundamental risk comes from uncertainty. If you are sure that an attack or ability will trigger then you can plan accordingly. Calculate exactly how much damage you can expect from all your units and use that to plan out a course of action. When abilities fail to trigger you are forced to make plans that accommodate this, namely, you need to devote more resources to a target than would under ideal conditions be needed, lest you whiff a final shot find yourself staring at a Sectopod with 5 hit points and it is now his turn. The binary nature of success and failure of individual actions maps to to the binary success and failure states of each turn. This is the beauty and the folly of a turn based game. The fact that a Heavy dealing with a standard foe in low cover with a 55% chance to hit cannot be relied on to make the shot means that you'll have to choose, both in game and during promotions on how to increase that accuracy or use the Heavy instead to prepare the Alien for the kill. <br />
<br />
This is the paradox of the heavy, they have amazingly high damage weapons but they require careful planning to make it an useful tool, and to be aware of the shortcomings that some choices can have, specially regarding perk selection. <br />
<br />
'''Bullet Swarm vs. Holo Targeting'''<br />
* Bullet Swarm gives you massive tactical flexibility no matter how you chose to build the Heavy, Holo-Targetting a +10 Aim increase ONLY to other units firing at the same alien. <br />
* Bullet Swarm allows for Fire and Move, Fire and Reload or Fire and Fire when high firepower is crucial. The issue, as mentioned above, is the lack of Aim of the Heavy - which makes this ability more useful in close range fights. <br />
* The LMG has only 3 rounds, even if you take supression, you need bulletswarm to Supress two rounds in a row.<br />
<br />
A Colonel heavy with a scope shooting at an enemy in optimal range in low cover has as mentioned above a pathetic 65% chance to hit. If you go with bulletswarm and spend a full round trying to make the shot you have a 12.25% chance of missing totally a 42.25% chance of hitting twice and a 45.5% chance of tagging them at least once. Meaning that you will an 88.75% chance of hitting something. At lowest rank this woult be a 79.75% chance to hit something, with a 30.25% of hitting twice. <br />
<br />
Even though you might feel that there is a good choice here, there isn't. Using your heavy to set up shots might seem like a good idea, but statistically it does not work. The problem is two fold, first, at the lowest levels when holotargetting could most likely be useful, the power of at most 3 small 10 point bonuses does not produce more hits than an extra attack. Take the above situation. Enemy in light cover, heavy takes the first shot, then one of each class chimes in.<br />
<br />
4 shots with heavy with holotargetting taking the first shot. All soldiers at recruit level<br />
<br />
-7.487% chance of 4 hits<br />
<br />
-27.422% chance of 0 hits<br />
<br />
5 shots with heavy using bullet swarm. All soldiers at recruit level.<br />
<br />
-1.845% chance of 5 hits<br />
<br />
-13.325% chance of 4 hits<br />
<br />
-11.603% chance of 0 hits<br />
<br />
As you can see, the extra attack is better in every way. Not only are you going to have a higher chance of getting 4 hits you will have a golden chance to hit with 5. Futhermore given the fact that the heavy has one of the better weapons, capable of killing any low level enemy in one hit the hits that a heavy can make are worth more. Not to mention, this is a scenario skewed heavily in the favor of the holotargetting heavy. There are almost no early game circumstances where you will have a reason or the opportunity to make 4 attacks on 1 enemy. <br />
<br />
I hope that one thing becomes very clear. NEVER take holotargetting. <br />
<br />
'''Suppression vs. Shredder Rocket'''<br />
This defines your heavy as either an explosives platform or a suppression platform. I will make the argument that simply put, supports are better at suppression and heavies should be blowing things up. Yes supports can't suppress an area, yes they can't use mayhem to deal damage with suppression but here is the rub, supports have a higher ammo lower damage weapon with much greater accuracy. The reaction shot movement provokes will much more likely hit, the loss of damage is lower, there is less reloading needed and supports have much more versatile ability to specialize. A heavy with a shredder rocket has a 5 automatic damage weapon, that will hit exactly where put it almost all the time and close the rest of the time, and will amplify all damage against a target while removing its cover, in a wide area of effect. It is a limited use weapon but it will save you much more consistently than suppression. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''HEAT vs. Rapid Reaction''' is also clean cut. Many people who go the supression route think that this is perfect. Suppress an enemy, use flush to force a move, let the heavy get 2 free attacks. This is a failure state. First, reaction shots are made at a 15 point penalty and as we have previously stated heavies have crap accuracy. Second, the only way you get a second shot is if the first hits, combine this with the aforementioned crap accuracy and you will rarely see this promotion trigger and even if it does trigger you still have to hit with it, at a similar penalty. On the other side of the equation HEAT ammo doubles damage against robotic opponents and affects all heavy class abilities, including rockets. Put simply, in Xcom, robots are the devil. The cyberdisc and the sectopod are two of the deadliest enemies you will face, anything that hastens them to the grave is awesome. A cyberdisc is a deadly early game opponent who can deal 7 damage on a normal attack with a high critical chance, or fling a 5 damage grenade half way across the map. It can and will one shot your mates, no one below major has a reliable chance of living, and only then if they are at full health. A rocket from a HEAT heavy will deal 14 damage base, and can crit for more. Shredder rockets will do 10 and allow your sniper a good shot at a OHKO. Not to mention, you will blow the drones that hover around the disc or the sectopod sky high. Choose HEAT, a heavy who can attack twice can one shot a cyberdisc or wipe a sectopod if both attacks hit.<br />
<br />
<br />
The next choice is less clear cut. '''Grenadier''' gives 2 grenades, '''danger zone''' gives AOE supression and 2 tiles extra area on rockets. Both are good abilities and the question of which you want depends highly. The benefits are more intangible and are linked to your final choice of what you want your heavy to be doing. I am going to step back from (semi)objective analysis and offer an opinion. I chose grenadier becuase by the time you reach this point, no one else on your team should be carrying grenades. Your sniper needs his scope, your assualt needs armor of some type and even if she doesn't cause you are rocking titan she should be doing a lot more damage with basic attacks than with a grenade, supports might be a good choice to heft a grenade but they generally are better with arc throwers, med kits or armor/scope. Heavies get natural damage ablation and mutiple use actions. They have such bad accuracy that you aren't losing much by throwing an attack out the window, and the power that grenades have to damage terrain and remove cover offers a much more powerful buff to accuracy than a scope. The final argument for grenadier is simply that grenades are amazing breeching tools. You don't want to be using your rockets to breech but grenades can be a worthwhile trade. Danger zone is lessened in value because you aren't or shouldn't be picking up supression, 2 extra tiles is nice on your rockets and is certainly worth more than a grenade if it brings another enemy into range, but rockets are inherently less flexible than grenades as with their full round cost. Don't feel obligated to get grenadier, it isn't mandatory.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Rocketeer vs. Mayhem:''' To many this is the a tough choice, but it isn't. Mayhem adds max of 3 damage to supression which we don't have and adds 2 damage to your rockets, of which you get only 2 (regular and shredder). Rocketeer on the other hand gives you a second rocket. Assuming that you don't even get the blaster launcher upgrade you are still falling behind by 3 damage, and lose the flexibility of a second rocket. Since we have already decided that the heavy needs to be blowing things up to be reliable thus, anything that offers him more chances to be reliable is good. Thus, more rockets beat better rockets. With double grenades you have 5 bombs that can reshape the battlefield in your favor.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''How to equip a heavy''': More than any other class, the heavy shouldn't be worrying about their primary weapon. By all means upgrade the LMG if you can spare the resources, but there is a greater return on investment on other classes. Namely your sniper and then your assualt need their weapons maxed ASAP, these are the classes that will be dealing your damage and the Xrays drop plasma rifles and light plasma like confetti that your supports or assaults can use, thus obliviating the need to buy them. Moreover the damage scaling is not as significant. With a five damage base a heavy can reliably kill in one hit sectoids, thin men and floaters on classic. To one shot the next tier of enemies a heavy needs to upgrade to plasma.<br />
<br />
<br />
Armor is the really deceptive choice for a heavy. Chosing a heavy armor for your heavy seems right, but you would be wrong. The role that we are looking to give to our heavy is not that of a walking tank. That is you assault. He needs to be mobile and capable of placing explosives precisely, while not being left behind. While carapace armor for everyone is always a wise choice compared to basic armor, you should be considering skeleton and ghost as your primary armors. Heavies don't get any inherent bonus from heavy armor, unlike the assault, instead they get a flat 2 point reduction in damage, meaning that they don't require a huge HP pool from titan or archangel. Skeleton/Ghost armor offers your heavy a couple amazing bonuses. First is that it gives you 3 extra move and the ability to grapple to the top of structures. Mobility powers are great. Second they give you defense bonuses, 10/20 respectively. A clean miss is much better than more HP. Late game, in low cover, you can get a 40 point defensive shift if you are wearing ghost armor. All late game enemies do more than 10 damage a shot, and the 4 lost HP vs titan or 2 hp vs archangel or 1 in the case of skeleton vs carapace, is compensated by the clean misses. 20% off a 100% attack doing 10 damage is an average 2 HP gain. This makes ghost even under the worst case scenario better than archangel flat out and much closer to titan than it seems. A heavy in ghost armor or skeleton armor is more useful and almost as survivable. Psi armor when appropriate.<br />
<br />
<br />
Your final slot should be a grenade, if you ducked out on grenadier or if you are going to doing a terror mission, then feel free to improvise. <br />
<br />
=='''How to build a Sniper'''==<br />
<br />
The sniper is the primary damage class that you will employ and suffers from a small problem of feast and famine. Snipers depending on the level will either be an unstoppable murder engine snuffing out at least one enemy every round, or they will spend most of the time running around useless trying to get a line of sight. Now building a sniper depends greatly on managing this problem, maximizing the good times and minimizing the bad. Snipers have the best basic aim progression of any class, reaching 105 at colonel. With a scope and high ground you can expect at have 98% or greater accuracy against an enemy in high cover and you can make the shot from across the map in a position of perfect safety. How can we assure this? Well lets go into the skills.<br />
<br />
'''Snap Shot vs. Squad Sight:''' DO NOT BE FOOLED. There is almost no circumstance underwhich you should ever be taking snap shot. To do so is a waste of epic proportions and you might as well be using another class instead of a sniper. Now this being said, if you are trying some weird 6 sniper team there is a possibility that this might be okay but lets examine. First snap shot applies a 20 point penalty to any single action shot. Early game, this makes your shots unhittable. A corporal sniper firing at mid range against an enemy in low cover has a 28% chance to hit. A colonel has 65% chance but good luck getting there. Second a sniper who wishes to have options in terms of close range engagement has other talents that can be used to do so. The gunslinger perk can give you a base damage of 6 with no aim penalties with a plasma pistol if you have a terrible need to move and shoot. Squad sight on the other side of the coin essentially defines a sniper. Sniper rifles have a range cap of 100 which roughly translated is 4 times your vision range, or most of the map. Only thing is that you will never get this range unless you have squad sight. A squad sight sniper doesn't need to be right behind to your assault to cover them. They can do that from the spawn.<br />
<br />
'''Gunslinger vs. Damn Good Ground:''' This is a question of enhancing strength vs. coving weakness, only I put the order wrong. Gunslinger covers your weakness at close range and inability to scoot and shoot. Damn good ground makes you better at sitting on to of the world sniping the hell out of people. With a scope and maximum elevation, damn good ground offers perfect chance to hit opponnents in high cover. Without this perk you are slightly less than perfect but gunslinger makes it so that you can actually fight at close range and not fail. This is a tossup depending on your style. Just keep in mind that archangel armor does trigger the DGG perk, giving you slightly better than low cover worth of defense for free and an enhanced chance to hit.<br />
<br />
'''Disabling Shot vs. Battlescanner:''' Of all the choices that you will make as a sniper this matter the least. Disabling shot is for the most part patently inferior to blowing someones head off. It is harder to make, does less damage and is on a cooldown. That being said, it can be very useful in capturing enemies and can once in a blue moon save your butt if you don't have the firepower to kill a sectopod or a cyberdisc. Battlescanner on the other hand gives you intelligence, which is invaluable, but cannot be thrown far from the sniper who likely will be in the back. Still, it can find enemies without triggering them thus allowing a sucker punch. Neither one of these perks will define your sniper and you should feel free to choose them depending on your mood. One notable point however is if for some insance reason you are building a front line snap shot sniper get battle scanner. You don't need squad sight to see through the scanner and it is the only way you can extend your vision. Also you will be close in and will have the proximity to throw it.<br />
<br />
'''Executioner vs. Opportunist:''' This is another non choice. Executioner is a piddling 10% bonus that only triggers on low HP enemies. Snipers should be one shotting high HP enemies and pretty much the only people this will apply to are sectopods, who already we have ways of dealing with. Opportunist on the other hand means that your overwatch will do just as much damage at the same hit chance as your normal attacks and given the insane range on sniper overwatch allows you to protect soldiers all across the map.<br />
<br />
'''In the Zone vs. Doubletap:''' The colonel level talent of a sniper is pretty much godlike no matter what you chose, but here is the thing. One of them is Ares and the other is Zeus, and while we all love the red god there is only one king. In the Zone is streaky. It will often do nothing compared to, sometimes equal and on rare occasions surpass doubletap. The difference is thus. For ITZ trigger you must hit, and kill an enemy out of cover or flanked. Practically speaking your sniper will never be flanking anyone, he will be well behind your entire line. So this is limited to only out of cover enemies, who fall in two categories. Melee enemies and enemies whose cover has been destroyed. Of the out of cover enemies that you encounter remember that unless you can kill in one, it doesn't count. Muton berserkers cannot be killed in one from full, neither can sectopods. Flying units are considered to be in cover. Now if you have a pair of bomb throwing, rocket launching, cover wrecking heavies on your team you could possibly set up situations where your sniper can go to town. Leveling whole squads in one round, until he runs out of ammo, which is 4 early game and 8 late. The other hand is Doubletap which gives you 2 shots, hit or miss, every other round. Why this is better should be immediately obvious. First of all it is predictable, second off it can pluck people out of cover, third it gives better focus fire. An ITZ sniper will never get more than 1 shot at a sectopod or an ethereal. A DT sniper always will. <br />
<br />
'''Equipping your sniper''' is really simple. Give him a scope, give him archangel, get him the biggest gun you can get as fast as you can get it. For a sniper an upgraded weapon is your first combat priority. If he is above the tech curve the rest of your squad could be carrying pea shooters for all that it matters.<br />
<br />
<br />
=='''How to build an Assault'''==<br />
<br />
Next to the sniper the assault is your big damage dealing class. The critical chance of an alloy cannon is lower than a plasma sniper rifle but the damage is the same and the assault has all sorts of tools to enhance their burst damage and given the correct circumstances they can easily do more damage than any other class. On top of this they are tough and mobile. Also assualts are the only class that has a choice of primary weapons and are perhaps the only class that doesn't have a clear cut build path. So without further ado...<br />
<br />
'''Tactical Sense vs Aggression''' is the start of the divergent path, defense or offense. One offers you a mounting defense bonus per enemy in sight, the other a mounting critical chance. Which one you chose should be dependant on how you are planning to play the assault. If you chose the shotgun as your primary weapon you should be taking defense perks. To put it mildly, shotguns do a ton of damage, you don't need to worry about doing more, you need to worry about surviving the stupidity a combination of run and gun and a short short rang weapon produce. As previously mentioned a 20 point defensive shift is stupendously potent. Furthermore defense bonuses become exponentially more effective as they stack. Light cover, plus ghost armor, plus max tactical sense, plus a dense smoke grenade means that the Assault has a 100 point defense shift, making him effectively invulnerable to any aimed attack. Even negating his cover via flanking means that given the accuracy numbers of most enemies he is still unhittable. Aggression should only be taken when you are using an assualt rifle as a primary, you need to make up the loss of damage that the weapon entails and you also will be in better cover most of the time with less people trying to murder you, thus needing less defending.<br />
<br />
'''Lightning Reflexes vs. Close and Personal''', In a way these skills duplicate each other, and provide one of the only easy choices in the tree. Put simply, lightning reflexes is better. Both of them are closing skills. One gives you immunity to an overwatch shot, which is amazing, the other gives you a 30% critical chance to adjacent foes that degrades with distance. The idea being that with one you can survive to close and with the other you can make the kill once you are there. Needless to say while combining aggression and close and personal can give you a theoretical 80% critical on basic attacks the fact that you are already capable of dealing massive damage with good critical chance with a basic shotgun and good positioning should point to why not getting splattered by a sectopod plasma overwatch is better. Also, since the bonus is contingent on distance you should think twice before getting it for an assault rifle build.<br />
<br />
'''Flush vs. Rapid fire:''' In Xcom, murder is usually the best solution. The major question that need be asked is 'will this help me kill'. Of these two skills we have a clear winner in the murder category. Taking a pair of shots, even at a 15% penalty will almost always offer not only a statistically greater chance of a hit but will offer you the chance to knock the damage ball out of the park. If you are running a scoped up assault rifle build focusing on high crit, this is a no brainer. However, if you want a reliable way to ding an enemy from range then this might be a good idea. Remember, the chance to hit is much higher on a flush than a basic attack and you can expect a near 100% chance even at extended range. Homerun numbers are great but flush can be a reliable tool, especially if you are running alot of assaults in a squad. Which is always a good idea.<br />
<br />
'''Close Combat Specialist vs. Bring 'em On:''' This is a choice. If you are planning on a shotgunner CCS is not a perk to miss. It is a godsend against charging melee, or the poor fool that wanders through a door you are next to. Or just in any close range engagement. In contrast Bring Em On has no range requirement, but if you aren't rocking the critical side of the tree it is a very streaky talent. Under ideal circumstances, you can get a 14 damage critical from a plasma rifle, or two of them if you hit and crit on both of your rapid fire shos. Much more if you get Killer instinct at colonel rank. Needless to say, this is an amazing amount of damage, enough to waste near on anything. Critical rates on an plasma rifle with a scope and the critical abilities will still hit a flat 80%, 50% if you chose lightning reflexes or if you aren't at point blank range. Higher if you flank a foe. As you can see this isn't a cut and dry situation. Both rifleman and shotgunner are viable.<br />
<br />
'''Resiliance vs. Killer Instinct:''' on one hand you have immunity to critical hits, on the other hand you have a 50% damage bonus to your critical hits if you trigger your signature ability. If you have chosen to brawl then grab immunity to crits. It means you can't be take out in one round by any single foe and it takes luck out of the equation. Killer instinct on the other hand only shines if you have been mining the tree for bonus crit chance. That being said, you can do some retarded stuff with killer instinct. Run at full dash to a good position, open up with rapid fire and blow a sectapod or an ethereal away in one fell blow, or two as the case may be.<br />
<br />
'''Equipping the Assault''' is going to be more of the same. The answer is always ghost armor. Statistically it is just plain better. Now I wouldn't hold it against anyone who chose titan, but in the end Titan is just not as good for the up and coming assault trooper. The conditioning ability that is gained on being promoted to major gives 2 extra HP when wearing Ghost Skeleton and Psi armor, and 4 when wearing carapace, archangel and titan. The HP totals are as follows. Skeleton gives 5, Ghost , Carapace and Psi give 8, archangel give 12 and Titan 14. Now the most bang for your buck early game is obviously carapace, but once you have the money you should be investing in ghost. Why? Well for all the previously mentioned reasons plus one. In terms of survival defense beats HP most of the time, mobility is the bread and butter of an assault trooper and here is the final reason. Cloak gives a +100% chance to crit. This means that a cloaked assault can expect to reliably crit against a hardened target if they are playing the shotgunner game, and the rifleman can be sure of a crit. A massive killer instinct enhanced rapid fire crit that will level any foe you chose.<br />
<br />
In terms of your free slot, the best choice is situational. I personally like chitin plating for my CQC troopers and scopes for riflemen. The extra 4 HP offsets the losses that I sustain from not going titan and gives you virtual immunity to chrysalids and berserkers. For riflemen the scope gives you accuracy and crit chance. Which is peachy. Use psi shields when appropriate.<br />
<br />
=='''How to build a Support'''==<br />
<br />
If you want to double up on a class, supports should be your first choice. Sure they aren't as sexy as some of the others but they bring alot more to the table than most suspect. First of all, supports can shoot. They have great base accuracy and full HP progression. Even without a scope a support has a 90 aim. Beyond that they get to have 2 secondary items once they hit major, allowing unparalelled customization. Furthermore they are fast, unless you have a stroke while promoting them and accidentally click the covering fire button they will be the quickest unit on the map. This along with their solid offensive and defensive abilities makes them the most reliable unit that you have. A team of nothing but supports would be than optimal but would be entirely possible. <br />
<br />
'''Sprinter vs. Covering fire:''' Now I know I said you had to be having a stroke to chose covering fire and that is maybe a bit harsh, but I stand by the statement. The issue is simply this. Covering fire will never help you. Why? Well lets look at the ability. It grants you a reaction shot any time a unit under your overwatch or supression fire. Sounds good right? No its not. You just took a shot against a unit in cover that you could have fired on on your turn at a -15% penalty. It is nice if you are supressing an enemy and it is also decent if you have the sentimel ability but the truth is that as Genghis Khan proved, mobility is victory. The ability to chose your ground is vital.<br />
<br />
'''Field Medic vs. Smoke and Mirrors:''' I ain't gonna lie. Smoke is awesome. Once upgraded it has all sorts if nifty perks and even in its base form a free 20 point defense shift is great. Still med kits are great too, and having 3 instead of 1 is also awesome. So this is a choose your awesome moment. As you always should have minimum 2 supports you can grab one of each. As a personal preference I tend to favor field medic, but a med kit is an inventory slot you have to spend and field medic tends to mandate one. Now having more options is good, but so is having more healing. A pure utility support can have chitin plating and an arc thrower or nanoweave and a scope. Thus make your choice not based on smoke alone, but on flexiblity.<br />
<br />
'''Revive vs. Rifle supression,''' Chances are that you are screwed if you are relying on revive. Rifle supression can keep you from being screwed. The choice is simple and obvious. Of you find yourself favoring revive then you might instead want to have multiple field medics and just keep your soldiers topped off in terms of health.<br />
<br />
'''Dense Smoke vs. Combat drugs:''' In the end the question of what makes you tear your hair out is answered by this choice. If getting your head blown off by a muton elite really grinds your gears, then dense smoke, a stunning 40 point defense shift that turns no cover into heavy cover and heavy cover into immunity to being shot, is a must. If panic is your fear and getting mind raped by sectoid commanders or ethereals is the bane of your existance then combat drugs is for you. A decent will bonus a critical bonus and a defense bonus all rolled into one. Personally I hate getting shot, and while ethereal's make me want to vomit blood out of sheer frustration, they are frankly quite rare, and my standard tactic of 'blow them to kingdom come' generally prevents retaliation. This is a personal choice.<br />
<br />
'''Savior vs. Sentinel:''' Do you want to heal or harm? What kind of question is that! This is Xcom. You want to harm those Xray scum. Now don't get me wrong, healing 10 points in one charge is awesome, but shooting twice on overwatch is even better. With improved med kits you should be healing 6 per charge anyways, and if you went with the multi medic route you can still top off the squad without worry. One of the most important things about sentinel is that it solves the problem of overwatch overkill. The ability triggers a second overwatch attack only if the first fails to kill the target, thus preventing those embarassing moments where your squad all open fire on a floater and blow him to the moon, only for a muton to wander unchecked into heavy cover and crit your prized soldier in the face.<br />
<br />
'''Equipping your support''' is simple. Get skeleton armor first, then upgrade to ghost or psi depending. I have already gone into alot of detail as to why ghost armor is the best armor. A support wearing it can traverse 13 squares on one move. A dash from another class in heavy armor is 14. This is silly amounts of mobility. In terms of guns you have the choice of plasma or light plasma. I find that while light plasma and a scope is great early and can be obtained fast, it is offensively too inferior to use. Go for the big numbers and get a plasma rifle. Still one thing should be mentioned. Supports get a great return on investment in terms of lasers. The basic rifle allows them to one shot all the low tier enemies. In terms of secondary items go with what you feel. Med kit, scope, chitin, arc thrower. The important thing about supports is that they are flexible and should never be bound to a single setup.</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Gameplay_Mechanics_(EU2012)&diff=40191Gameplay Mechanics (EU2012)2012-10-23T04:49:31Z<p>Tacobandit744: </p>
<hr />
<div>==Action System==<br />
<br />
In ''[[EU (2012)|Enemy Unknown 2012]]'' the gameplay has been simplified when compared to previous titles, possibly with the intention to attract a wider console audience. Thus, [[Time Units]] have been removed and replaced with a two-part action system, where each unit can perform 2 Actions during its turn. <br />
<br />
===Moving and Firing===<br />
In a single turn, a soldier has two Action points. The soldier's class and abilities determine the options available for their 1st and 2nd Actions. The following rules are a brief summary of how Actions work: <br />
<br />
* A unit may perform 1 or 2 Actions each turn.<br />
* Some actions (firing [[Sniper Rifle (EU2012)|Sniper Rifle]] or [[Rocket Launcher (EU2012)|Rocket Launcher]]) may only be performed as the 1st Action and consume both Action points.<br />
* A unit's turn automatically ends after the unit: <br />
# Performs any action other than Move on its 1st Action.<br />
# Performs a 2nd Action after moving as the 1st Action.<br />
* The following [[Abilities (EU2012)|Abilities]] change the above rules:<br />
** '''Bullet Swarm''' - Heavy can Fire + Fire/Move/Surpress/Overwatch.<br />
** '''Double Tap''' - Sniper can Fire + Fire (Can also use Headshot or Disabling shot for either but not both due to cool down).<br />
** '''Run & Gun''' - Assault can Dash + Fire but not Dash + Equipment.<br />
** '''Snap Shot''' - Sniper can Move and Fire with a Sniper Rifle at reduced accuracy.<br />
<br />
===List of Actions===<br />
These are general actions that can be performed by your soldiers during the fight, depending on their [[Equipment (EU2012)|Equipment]] and [[Classes (EU2012)|Class]].<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable" width="50%" <br />
|+ Movement Actions<br />
|- <br />
! width="50px" align="center" | Action !! Description <br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"<br />
| align="center" | '''Move''' || align="center" | Walk<br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | '''Dash''' || align="center" | Fast movement. Provides defensive bonus against enemy reaction fire.<br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | '''Grapple''' || align="center" | Move and use Grapple hook use to reach a higher position. <br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | '''Hunker Down''' || align="center" | Doubles cover bonus & provides immunity to critical hits, but reduces sight radius. <br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | '''Toggle Flight''' || align="center" | Activates flight mode on Archangel armor. Doesn't cost as an action point.<br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | '''Ascend/ Descend''' || align="center" | Go up/down one level while flying. Doesn't cost as an action.<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
{| class="wikitable" width="50%" <br />
|+ Weapon Actions<br />
|- <br />
! width="50px" align="center" | Action !! Description <br />
|- style="vertical-align:top;"<br />
| align="center" | '''Fire''' || align="center" | Shoot weapon at enemy/area.<br>4 types of weapon shots: Standard, Headshot, Disabling and Free.<br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | '''Grenade''' || align="center" | Throw grenade.<br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | '''Stun''' || align="center" | Can incapacitate targets for capture, easier if target's health is reduced. <br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | '''Suppress''' || align="center" | Fires at the area around the target to reduce its aim.<br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | '''Overwatch''' || align="center" | Takes a shot at the next enemy that moves through that unit's line of sight. A small (?how much?) Aim penalty applies.<br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | '''Reload''' || align="center" | Spend a full action to reload weapon.<br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | '''Psionic''' || align="center" | Perform a series of mental and physical attacks using Psionics. <br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
{| class="wikitable" width="50%" <br />
|+ Other Equipment Actions<br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | '''Heal Wound''' || align="center" | Use Medikit to heal Health Points.<br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | '''Stabilize/Revive''' || align="center" | Use Medikit to stop bleeding and/or revive an injured soldier. <br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | '''Combat Stim''' || align="center" | Use Medikit to temporarily increase a soldier's Will and reduce damage taken. <br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | '''Ghost''' || align="center" | Makes the soldier invisible for 1 turn or until attacking. Doesn't cost as an action.<br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | '''Battle Scanner''' || align="center" | Throw a scanning device to increase your vision. <br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Sound==<br />
* Both your soldiers and the aliens are able to sense one another's presence by detecting any noise produced by the other side as a result of movement or firing. <br />
<br />
==Morale==<br />
* Squad members are affected by morale and can panic on the battlefield, moving and firing uncontrollably on friend and foe alike. Losing squad members increases this chance while higher-ranked squad members and Officer Training Upgrades reduce this chance.<br />
<br />
==Environments==<br />
* Everything is destructible with the exception of floors/ceilings and bringing down entire buildings.<br />
<br />
* Explosions can start fires which can spread each turn. These prevent movement across them but that can be countered with special armor.<br />
<br />
* Entering buildings is much more dynamic than in previous games. Squad members can break through windows to enter buildings, kick down doors or quietly open them in standing on either side of the door frame. The two former options increase the chance enemies will hear you and come to investigate.<br />
<br />
* Roofs and elevated positions can be utilized for better line of sight and squad tactics. Beyond traditional stairs and ladders, squad members can use drain pipes or armor upgrades to grapple or jet pack to higher elevations. From the demo, it seems that you can get down from a roof anywhere, so long as the drop is less than three elevation.<br />
<br />
* There are weather effects in the game as well as day/night however they have no effect on game play.<br />
<br />
==Tactics==<br />
* Overwatch: Overwatch only allows a shot against the first unit spotted. For example, if you put a soldier on overwatch and they fire at the first enemy to move, any subsequent enemies moving through that soldier's line-of-sight will not be fired upon. The same applies to aliens overwatching against you. For example, you could use a high-HP unit (e.g., SHIV) to draw enemy reaction fire and then follow-up with a more vulnerable unit's move. This could also work against you if you're being flanked by multiple units the same turn. Take notice that overwatch has reduced chance to hit, cannot crit and only happens if unit '''moves''' within your sight range, so if you stop as soon as you get into overwatching unit's view, overwatch will not trigger. <br />
<br />
* Alien encounters: Sometimes aliens are setup to spawn at a given point on the map, such that they do not move until discovered by one of your units. Upon discovery, the aliens interrupt your squad's turn and immediately move (but do not take action/attack). They tend to move relative to the unit discovering them and either attack that position (e.g., aggressive Floaters) or take cover against that unit's position (e.g., Sectoids, Thin Men). Therefore, if you're on a mission where time/turns don't matter (e.g., mission brief indicates no civilians; no countdown timer for mission objectives) you should move units one movement each at a time. In other words, don't immediately dash a unit as far as possible, especially without overwatch protection. Cycle through your whole squad giving each unit their first move before deciding whether to move each again or take action. Otherwise, you may encounter a group of aliens that can quickly flank that forward unit while the rest of your squad is out of moves/actions. Also, you may hinder your ability to purposefully flush the aliens toward a choke point, bunch them up in range of a specific unit (e.g., Heavy who can still fire his rocket, in Sniper LOS), or limit them to an area of the map with poor cover (e.g., explodable vehicles, half-cover).<br />
<br />
* Taking advantage of alien squad script: Aliens can never attack you unless you "awaken" them first (a cinematic has played where camera shows a bunch of aliens) and when alien squad is provoked, they never take any offensive action or overwatch, only move. This means that you are never in danger of receiving any damage unless you have an unfinished alien alive from a provoked pack on the map. Therefore, there is not much incentitive to stay in cover when there are no "provoked" aliens alive - rather, having suitable cover in range of 1 movement is enough. Taking advantage of this fact, you can beat enemy in tactical quite easilly and without casualties. If you keep your people together (you can even stand in the open and on adjacent tiles), and advance slowly, every time going on overwatch with all your soldiers, you can make it so that aliens pop up on their turn (all except immobile squads, which are rare). This will make them trigger your overwatch, and then run to cover, and give you a full turn to either take them down or retreat into cover and setup an overwatch ambush. When having 2 squad sight snipers on a team, this usually lets you take down any alien squad before they even get a chance to fire a shot at you, and if they live, you retreat into cover which is beyond their line of sight, so that your snipers can squad-sight-overwatch enemy advance, which will finish them off. Take opportunist on snipers to have better hit chance on overwatch and lightning reflexes on assault to discover remaining enemies (letting snipers take care of them) without getting damage.<br />
<br />
* Do not provoke more aliens: Each extra tile you reveal (get sight on) can have next alien pack waiting. Provoking them when you are not ready can prove fatal. This means that for example, if you've just finished fighting cryssalids and have only one soldier with action points remaining, never move him in a position where he'd uncover new area, because if you happen to find new aliens there, they'll get to attack you before you can do something about it. However, ending turn, you either get aliens on their turn (they do their free movement, you get your turn to attack them) or dont (again, you have full action points to do something).<br />
<br />
*The changes in the action system are most notable when fighting Chryssalids. While fundamentally the same as their counterparts in the original, they are significantly less dangerous this time around because of the two action system. Instead of moving to a position where they can reach you next turn, they will dash up to your squad and end their turn standing right next to you, allowing them to be easily picked off. <br />
<br />
[[Category: Enemy Unknown (2012)]]</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Tactics_(EU2012)&diff=40186Tactics (EU2012)2012-10-23T01:04:22Z<p>Tacobandit744: added another tactic</p>
<hr />
<div>Leap frog your way forward on maps while also rotating through your squad's first move before deciding to perform a second move.<br><br />
Overwatch, or fire if you encounter something along the way.<br><br />
This helps you maintain battlefield awareness including map size, squad spacing, and flank openings.<br />
<br />
It will also help make sure you have someone with a move left to take action should you encounter aliens.<br />
<br />
Save putting your soldiers on overwatch until the end of the turn. This tactic is important for 2 reasons. 1. Aliens get a free move when they are seen and if the alien moves into view of a soldier that has already been put on overwatch they cannot use that turn to fire. You have to rely on them having a reaction shot during the alien's turn. 2. If you want to move them somewhere else you can't because they are locked once on overwatch.<br />
<br />
Alternatively, put several secure units (like snipers) into overwatch before revealing enemies. Your soldiers will open fire on aliens as they scramble for cover and the penalty to reaction fire will be more than compensated by the absence of a cover penalty. If you follow this up with careful Run & Gun tactics you can clean up weaker groups before they have a chance to fire at you.<br />
<br />
Also, with all the other equipment such as medkits and nano fiber vests and such, the grenade is often overlooked. It is a good idea to have at least one grenade on hand, because a grenade is guaranteed damage, regardless of cover. Better yet, it destroys cover, making a poor shot into an easy shot.<br />
<br />
'''Cover vs Firing'''<br />
<br />
While shooting at enemies is always better than nothing, if you miss or don't kill the target, said shooter is exposed to return fire. Unless you are<br />
confident in the shot, or have a second shooter, it may be a good idea to hunker down.<br />
<br />
Hunkering down in full cover gives -80 acc to enemy aliens, making it highly likely that nearly all alien shots will miss, or in the worst case scenario,<br />
non critical damage. This is especially useful for scouts, as they can mark targets for snipers and live to spot the next turn. Be sure to hunker down as the last move, so the scout spots for all your shooters.<br />
[[Category: Enemy Unknown (2012)]]</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Soldier_Skills_%26_Equipment_Guide_(EU2012)&diff=40108Soldier Skills & Equipment Guide (EU2012)2012-10-22T06:20:53Z<p>Tacobandit744: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''A not so brief guide to class abilities'''<br />
<br />
There are some classes where there is a debate to be had on how to build them, for others this is not the case. The fundamental question that must always be asked when making a promotion is one of economy. Does the ability actively enhance your ability to kill? Simply put, if you have 1 round, will this ability somehow increase the chances you will remove an enemy unit from the board? Failing to enhance your lethality, will this ability help you survive to the next round? Finally failing the above two, does this ability help you in some intangible way? There are exceptions to this ordering, but most of them are not real exceptions. They are merely an illusion where the power of an ability to assist in killing quickly and reliably is underestimated.<br />
<br />
<br />
Take for example the Heavy. I like talking about the Heavy because off all the classes the Heavy has the most divergent and discordant set of specializations. Early on, the Heavy fufills the role of damage engine and carries the team around him by directly murdering anything that stands. If you continue to use him like this, by mid game he is struggling and come endgame will have no place on your team. This being said, the Heavy has a role on his team, but it is simply not the same role that he plays in the early game. So lets get into it.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
'''How to build the Heavy and a Discussion of Predictability'''<br />
<br />
<br />
The primary weapon of the Heavy is the LMG and its laser and plasma evolutions. The weapon has a base damage of 5 which puts it in the high damage category, along with the sniper rifle and the shotgun. It has worse critical chance than either, but it doesn't have the severe accuracy drop off that the shotgun suffers from at any significant range and it doesn't suffer either the close range penalty or double action cost of the sniper rifle. At first glance it is one of the best weapons in the game and in the early game it will be. There is of course a hitch. It wouldn't be much fun if there wasn't. The hitch in this case is the Heavy himself. Base accuracy of all soldiers is 65 but unlike his peers the Heavy only gets 10 more points over the course of his life, with a colonel capping out at 75. This means that at mid range and under optimal conditions the best heavy will hit 75% of the time. If the target is in light cover that chance degrades to 55% and under heavy cover there is only a 35% chance to deal damage. With a scope you can improve a heavy's aim to 85 but compared to the base colonel accuracy numbers of an assault, a support or a sniper, which are 89, 90 and 105 respectively you can see why the Heavy suffers. <br />
<br />
<br />
Over a given hundred shots the percentile hit chance is a equal percentile modifer to damage meaning that assuming all enemies are in light cover the base heavy does on average a little more than half his listed damage. This means that a heavy at the top of the tech tree is doing the same as a sniper at the bottom, less when you factor in the massive critical hit chances that the sniper rifle enjoys. This is discounting special abilities such as the heavy's power to fire twice in a round, but suffice it to say that for every ability that the heavy gets the sniper of equivalent rank will gain an ever more insurmountable advantage. Now compared to a support whose best weapon caps at 8 damage and who gets only 1 shot in a round the heavy certainly does do more adjusted damage, but here in lies the problem. In real combat conditions you don't do an average damage based on your aim. You either hit and deal full damage, or miss and do none. If a sniper did twice as much damage with half the accuracy it's use as a unit would go from predictable to a coin toss and it's usefulness would drop from amazing, to marginal.<br />
<br />
<br />
Here is the thing. In a turn based game the fundamental risk comes from uncertainty. If you are sure that an attack or ability will trigger then you can plan accordingly. Calculate exactly how much damage you can expect from all your units and use that to plan out a course of action. When abilities fail to trigger you are forced to make plans that accomodate this, namely, you need to devote more resources to a target than would under ideal conditions be needed, lest you whiff a final shot find yourself staring at a sectopod with 5 hit points and it is now his turn. The binary nature of success and failure of individual actions maps to to the binary success and failure states of each turn. This is the beauty and the folly of a turn based game. The fact that a heavy dealing with a standard foe in low cover with a 55% chance to hit cannot be relied on to make the shot means that they represent an inherent weak link in any line up. In any percentile system, there is a magical line of reliability that occurs somewhere around 80% at that point you can 'rely' on a sequence of events occuring and take tactical gambles.<br />
<br />
<br />
This is the paradox of the heavy, they have an amazingly high damage weapon but no way to turn it into a useful tool. Early game when everyone sucks the heavy is no worse, and usually better than his team mates at murder via bullets. Many people then make the fallacy of transitioning the heavy into a supression unit. The assumption is that a heavy has many tools to increase the power of his supression including the power to make multiple reaction shots, and eventually supress in an area and do damage to all the units under supression. This is a great idea, except that better than supressing an enemy is killing him. If an enemy is under high cover a heavy can supress him and wait for the next round for a flank, hoping that the supression is enough to keep the enemy fom hurting your team, or the heavy could lob a grenade and destroy the cover entirely, do damage and allow a team mate to achieve a kill on a now exposed foe.<br />
<br />
<br />
This brings me to the best way to build a heavy. The first choice that you have to make in your heavy is '''Bullet Swarm vs. Holotargetting'''. One gives you massive tactical flexibility no matter how you chose to build the heavy, the other gives a situational +10 aim buff. For obvious reasons, the ability to attack then move, attack then reload, reload then attack or attack then attack is crucial. Even if you for some reason decide to go the supression/squad support route, a supression attack costs you 2 ammo from your 3 ammo weapon. Without high tier foundry upgrades you must reload after every supression if you want to supress again. The ability to reload and then supress is a godsend. Also, even if the heavy has crap accuracy, when crysallids are in your face you don't need to be a good shot to kill them, and the awesome damage of a LMG can be used to great effect, twice. This is not a choice. Take holotargetting at your own peril.<br />
<br />
<br />
Next choice is the first really defining choice you have to make. '''Supression vs. shredder rocket'''. This defines your heavy as either an explosives platform or a supression platform. I will make the argument that simply put, supports are better that supression and heavies should be blowing things up. Yes supports can't supress an area, yes they can't use mayhem to deal damage with supression but here is the rub, supports have a higher ammo lower damage weapon with much greater accuracy. The reaction shot movement provokes will much more likely hit, the loss of damage is lower, there is less reloading needed and supports have much more versatile ability to specialize. A heavy with a shredder rocket has a 5 automatic damage weapon, that will hit exactly where put it almost all the time and close the rest of the rime, and will amplify all damage against a target while removing it's cover, in a wide aoe. It is a limited use weapon but it will save you much more consistently than supression. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''HEAT vs. Rapid Reaction''' is also clean cut. Many people who go the supression route think that this is perfect. Supress an enemy, use flush to force a move, let the heavy get 2 free attacks. This is a failure state. First, reaction shots are made at a 15 point penalty and as we have previously stated heavies have crap accuracy. Second, the only way you get a second shot is if the first hits, combine this with the aforementioned crap accuracy and you will rarely see this promotion trigger and even if it does trigger you still have to hit with it, at a similar penalty. On the other side of the equation HEAT ammo doubles damage against robotic opponents and affects all heavy class abilities, including rockets. Put simply, in Xcom, robots are the devil. The cyberdisc and the sectopod are two of the deadliest enemies you will face, anything that hastens them to the grave is awesome. A cyberdisc is a deadly early game opponent who can deal 7 damage on a normal attack with a high critical chance, or fling a 5 damage grenade half way across the map. It can and will one shot your mates, no one below major has a reliable chance of living, and only then if they are at full health. A rocket from a HEAT heavy will deal 14 damage base, and can crit for more. Shredder rockets will do 10 and allow your sniper a good shot at a OHKO. Not to mention, you will blow the drones that hover around the disc or the sectopod sky high. Choose HEAT, a heavy who can attack twice can one shot a cyberdisc or wipe a sectopod if both attacks hit.<br />
<br />
<br />
The next choice is less clear cut. '''Grenadier''' gives 2 grenades, '''danger zone''' gives AOE supression and 2 tiles extra area on rockets. Both are good abilities and the question of which you want depends highly. The benefits are more intangible and are linked to your final choice of what you want your heavy to be doing. I am going to step back from (semi)objective analysis and offer an opinion. I chose grenadier becuase by the time you reach this point, no one else on your team should be carrying grenades. Your sniper needs his scope, your assualt needs armor of some type and even if she doesn't cause you are rocking titan she should be doing a lot more damage with basic attacks than with a grenade, supports might be a good choice to heft a grenade but they generally are better with arc throwers, med kits or armor/scope. Heavies get natural damage ablation and mutiple use actions. They have such bad accuracy that you aren't losing much by throwing an attack out the window, and the power that grenades have to damage terrain and remove cover offers a much more powerful buff to accuracy than a scope. The final argument for grenadier is simply that grenades are amazing breeching tools. You don't want to be using your rockets to breech but grenades can be a worthwhile trade. Danger zone is lessened in value because you aren't or shouldn't be picking up supression, 2 extra tiles is nice on your rockets and is certainly worth more than a grenade if it brings another enemy into range, but rockets are inherently less flexible than grenades as with their full round cost. Don't feel obligated to get grenadier, it isn't mandatory.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Rocketeer vs. Mayhem:''' To many this is the a tough choice, but it isn't. Mayhem adds max of 3 damage to supression which we don't have and adds 2 damage to your rockets, of which you get only 2 (regular and shredder). Rocketeer on the other hand gives you a second rocket. Assuming that you don't even get the blaster launcher upgrade you are still falling behind by 3 damage, and lose the flexibility of a second rocket. Since we have already decided that the heavy needs to be blowing things up to be reliable thus, anything that offers him more chances to be reliable is good. Thus, more rockets beat better rockets. With double grenades you have 5 bombs that can reshape the battlefield in your favor.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''How to equip a heavy''': More than any other class, the heavy shouldn't be worrying about their primary weapon. By all means upgrade the LMG if you can spare the resources, but there is a greater return on investment on other classes. Namely your sniper and then your assualt need their weapons maxed ASAP, these are the classes that will be dealing your damage and the Xrays drop plasma rifles and light plasma like confetti that your supports or assaults can use, thus obliviating the need to buy them. Moreover the damage scaling is not as significant. With a five damage base a heavy can reliably kill in one hit sectoids, thin men and floaters on classic. To one shot the next tier of enemies a heavy needs to upgrade to plasma.<br />
<br />
<br />
Armor is the really deceptive choice for a heavy. Chosing a heavy armor for your heavy seems right, but you would be wrong. The role that we are looking to give to our heavy is not that of a walking tank. That is you assault. He needs to be mobile and capable of placing explosives precisely, while not being left behind. While carapace armor for everyone is always a wise choice compared to basic armor, you should be considering skeleton and ghost as your primary armors. Heavies don't get any inherent bonus from heavy armor, unlike the assault, instead they get a flat 2 point reduction in damage, meaning that they don't require a huge HP pool from titan or archangel. Skeleton/Ghost armor offers your heavy a couple amazing bonuses. First is that it gives you 3 extra move and the ability to grapple to the top of structures. Mobility powers are great. Second they give you defense bonuses, 10/20 respectively. A clean miss is much better than more HP. Late game, in low cover, you can get a 40 point defensive shift if you are wearing ghost armor. All late game enemies do more than 10 damage a shot, and the 4 lost HP vs titan or 2 hp vs archangel or 1 in the case of skeleton vs carapace, is compensated by the clean misses. 20% off a 100% attack doing 10 damage is an average 2 HP gain. This makes ghost even under the worst case scenario better than archangel flat out and much closer to titan than it seems. A heavy in ghost armor or skeleton armor is more useful and almost as survivable. Psi armor when appropriate.<br />
<br />
<br />
Your final slot should be a grenade, if you ducked out on grenadier or if you are going to doing a terror mission, then feel free to improvise. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''How to build a sniper and a discussion of incomparables'''<br />
<br />
<br />
The sniper is the primary damage class that you will employ and suffers from a small problem of feast and famine. Snipers depending on the level will either be an unstoppable murder engine snuffing out at least one enemy every round, or they will spend most of the time running around useless trying to get a line of sight. Now building a sniper depends greatly on managing this problem, maximizing the good times and minimizing the bad. Snipers have the best basic aim progression of any class, reaching 105 at colonel. With a scope and high ground you can expect at have 98% or greater accuracy against an enemy in high cover and you can make the shot from across the map in a position of perfect safety. How can we assure this? Well lets go into the skills.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Snap Shot vs. Squad Sight:''' DO NOT BE FOOLED. There is almost no circumstance underwhich you should ever be taking snap shot. To do so is a waste of epic proportions and you might as well be using another class instead of a sniper. Now this being said, if you are trying some weird 6 sniper team there is a possibility that this might be okay but lets examine. First snap shot applies a 20 point penalty to any single action shot. Early game, this makes your shots unhittable. A corporal sniper firing at mid range against an enemy in low cover has a 28% chance to hit. A colonel has 65% chance but good luck getting there. Second a sniper who wishes to have options in terms of close range engagement has other talents that can be used to do so. The gunslinger perk can give you a base damage of 6 with no aim penalties with a plasma pistol if you have a terrible need to move and shoot. Squad sight on the other side of the coin essentially defines a sniper. Sniper rifles have a range cap of 100 which roughly translated is 4 times your vision range, or most of the map. Only thing is that you will never get this range unless you have squad sight. A squad sight sniper doesn't need to be right behind to your assault to cover them. They can do that from the spawn.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Gunslinger vs. Damn Good Ground:''' This is a question of enhancing strength vs. coving weakness, only I put the order wrong. Gunslinger covers your weakness at close range and inability to scoot and shoot. Damn good ground makes you better at sitting on to of the world sniping the hell out of people. With a scope and maximum elevation, damn good ground offers perfect chance to hit opponnents in high cover. Without this perk you are slightly less than perfect but gunslinger makes it so that you can actually fight at close range and not fail. This is a tossup depending on your style. Just keep in mind that archangel armor does trigger the DGG perk, giving you slightly better than low cover worth of defense for free and an enhanced chance to hit.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Disabling Shot vs. Battlescanner:''' Of all the choices that you will make as a sniper this matter the least. Disabling shot is for the most part patently inferior to blowing someones head off. It is harder to make, does less damage and is on a cooldown. That being said, it can be very useful in capturing enemies and can once in a blue moon save your butt if you don't have the firepower to kill a sectopod or a cyberdisc. Battlescanner on the other hand gives you intelligence, which is invaluable, but cannot be thrown far from the sniper who likely will be in the back. Still, it can find enemies without triggering them thus allowing a sucker punch. Neither one of these perks will define your sniper and you should feel free to choose them depending on your mood. One notable point however is if for some insance reason you are building a front line snap shot sniper get battle scanner. You don't need squad sight to see through the scanner and it is the only way you can extend your vision. Also you will be close in and will have the proximity to throw it.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Executioner vs. Opportunist:''' This is another non choice. Executioner is a piddling 10% bonus that only triggers on low HP enemies. Snipers should be one shotting high HP enemies and pretty much the only people this will apply to are sectopods, who already we have ways of dealing with. Opportunist on the other hand means that your overwatch will do just as much damage at the same hit chance as your normal attacks and given the insane range on sniper overwatch allows you to protect soldiers all across the map.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''In the Zone vs. Doubletap:''' The colonel level talent of a sniper is pretty much godlike no matter what you chose, but here is the thing. One of them is Ares and the other is Zeus, and while we all love the red god there is only one king. In the Zone is streaky. It will often do nothing compared to, sometimes equal and on rare occasions surpass doubletap. The difference is thus. For ITZ trigger you must hit, and kill an enemy out of cover or flanked. Practically speaking your sniper will never be flanking anyone, he will be well behind your entire line. So this is limited to only out of cover enemies, who fall in two categories. Melee enemies and enemies whose cover has been destroyed. Of the out of cover enemies that you encounter remember that unless you can kill in one, it doesn't count. Muton berserkers cannot be killed in one from full, neither can sectopods. Flying units are considered to be in cover. Now if you have a pair of bomb throwing, rocket launching, cover wrecking heavies on your team you could possibly set up situations where your sniper can go to town. Leveling whole squads in one round, until he runs out of ammo, which is 4 early game and 8 late. The other hand is Doubletap which gives you 2 shots, hit or miss, every other round. Why this is better should be immediately obvious. First of all it is predictable, second off it can pluck people out of cover, third it gives better focus fire. An ITZ sniper will never get more than 1 shot at a sectopod or an ethereal. A DT sniper always will. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Equipping your sniper''' is really simple. Give him a scope, give him archangel, get him the biggest gun you can get as fast as you can get it. For a sniper an upgraded weapon is your first combat priority. If he is above the tech curve the rest of your squad could be carrying pea shooters for all that it matters.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Building your Assault, or the joy of the juggernaut'''<br />
<br />
<br />
Next to the sniper the assault is your big damage dealing class. The critical chance of an alloy cannon is lower than a plasma sniper rifle but the damage is the same and the assault has all sorts of tools to enhance their burst damage and given the correct circumstances they can easily do more damage than any other class. On top of this they are tough and mobile. Also assualts are the only class that has a choice of primary weapons and are perhaps the only class that doesn't have a clear cut build path. So without further ado...<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Tactical Sense vs Aggression''' is the start of the divergent path, defense or offense. One offers you a mounting defense bonus per enemy in sight, the other a mounting critical chance. Which one you chose should be dependant on how you are planning to play the assault. If you chose the shotgun as your primary weapon you should be taking defense perks. To put it mildly, shotguns do a ton of damage, you don't need to worry about doing more, you need to worry about surviving the stupidity a combination of run and gun and a short short rang weapon produce. As previously mentioned a 20 point defensive shift is stupendously potent. Furthermore defense bonuses become exponentially more effective as they stack. Light cover, plus ghost armor, plus max tactical sense, plus a dense smoke grenade means that the Assault has a 100 point defense shift, making him effectively invulnerable to any aimed attack. Even negating his cover via flanking means that given the accuracy numbers of most enemies he is still unhittable. Aggression should only be taken when you are using an assualt rifle as a primary, you need to make up the loss of damage that the weapon entails and you also will be in better cover most of the time with less people trying to murder you, thus needing less defending.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Lightning Reflexes vs. Close and Personal''', In a way these skills duplicate each other, and provide one of the only easy choices in the tree. Put simply, lightning reflexes is better. Both of them are closing skills. One gives you immunity to an overwatch shot, which is amazing, the other gives you a 30% critical chance to adjacent foes that degrades with distance. The idea being that with one you can survive to close and with the other you can make the kill once you are there. Needless to say while combining aggression and close and personal can give you a theoretical 100% critical on basic attacks the fact that you are already capable of dealing massive damage with good critical chance with a basic shotgun and good positioning should point to why not getting splattered by a sectopod plasma overwatch is better. Also, since the bonus is contingent on distance you should think twice before getting it for an assault rifle build.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Flush vs. Rapid fire:''' In Xcom, murder is usually the best solution. The major question that need be asked is 'will this help me kill'. Of these two skills we have a clear winner in the murder category. Taking a pair of shots, even at a 15% penalty will almost always offer not only a statistically greater chance of a hit but will offer you the chance to knock the damage ball out of the park. If you are running a scoped up assault rifle build focusing on high crit, this is a no brainer. However, if you want a reliable way to ding an enemy from range then this might be a good idea. Remember, the chance to hit is much higher on a flush than a basic attack and you can expect a near 100% chance even at extended range. Homerun numbers are great but flush can be a reliable tool, especially if you are running alot of assaults in a squad. Which is always a good idea.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Close Combat Specialist vs. Bring 'em On:''' This is a choice. If you are planning on a shotgunner CCS is not a perk to miss. It is a godsend against charging melee, or the poor fool that wanders through a door you are next to. Or just in any close range engagement. In contrast Bring Em On has no range requirement, but if you aren't rocking the critical side of the tree it is a very streaky talent. Under ideal circumstances, you can get a 14 damage critical from a plasma rifle, or two of them if you hit and crit on both of your rapid fire shos. Much more if you get Killer instinct at colonel rank. Needless to say, this is an amazing amount of damage, enough to waste near on anything. Critical rates on an plasma rifle with a scope and the critical abilities will still hit a flat 100%, 70% if you chose lightning reflexes or if you aren't at point blank range. Higher if you flank a foe. As you can see this isn't a cut and dry situation. Both rifleman and shotgunner are viable.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Resiliance vs. Killer Instinct:''' on one hand you have immunity to critical hits, on the other hand you have a 50% damage bonus to your critical hits if you trigger your signature ability. If you have chosen to brawl then grab immunity to crits. It means you can't be take out in one round by any single foe and it takes luck out of the equation. Killer instinct on the other hand only shines if you have been mining the tree for bonus crit chance. That being said, you can do some retarded stuff with killer instinct. Run at full dash to a good position, open up with rapid fire and blow a sectapod or an ethereal away in one fell blow, or two as the case may be.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Equipping the Assault''' is going to be more of the same. The answer is always ghost armor. Statistically it is just plain better. Now I wouldn't hold it against anyone who chose titan, but in the end Titan is just not as good for the up and coming assault trooper. The conditioning ability that is gained on being promoted to major gives 2 extra HP when wearing Ghost Skeleton and Psi armor, and 4 when wearing carapace, archangel and titan. The HP totals are as follows. Skeleton gives 5, Ghost , Carapace and Psi give 8, archangel give 12 and Titan 14. Now the most bang for your buck early game is obviously carapace, but once you have the money you should be investing in ghost. Why? Well for all the previously mentioned reasons plus one. In terms of survival defense beats HP most of the time, mobility is the bread and butter of an assault trooper and here is the final reason. Cloak gives a +100% chance to crit. This means that a cloaked assault can expect to reliably crit against a hardened target if they are playing the shotgunner game, and the rifleman can be sure of a crit. A massive killer instinct enhanced rapid fire crit that will level any foe you chose.<br />
<br />
<br />
In terms of your free slot, the best choice is situational. I personally like chitin plating for my CQC troopers and scopes for riflemen. The extra 4 HP offsets the losses that I sustain from not going titan and gives you virtual immunity to chrysalids and berserkers. For riflemen the scope gives you accuracy and crit chance. Which is peachy. Use psi shields when appropriate.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Supports and why they are your backbone'''<br />
<br />
<br />
If you want to double up on a class, supports should be your first choice. Sure they aren't as sexy as some of the others but they bring alot more to the table than most suspect. First of all, supports can shoot. They have great base accuracy and full HP progression. Even without a scope a support has a 90 aim. Beyond that they get to have 2 secondary items once they hit major, allowing unparalelled customization. Furthermore they are fast, unless you have a stroke while promoting them and accidentally click the covering fire button they will be the quickest unit on the map. This along with their solid offensive and defensive abilities makes them the most reliable unit that you have. A team of nothing but supports would be than optimal but would be entirely possible. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Sprinter vs. Covering fire:''' Now I know I said you had to be having a stroke to chose covering fire and that is maybe a bit harsh, but I stand by the statement. The issue is simply this. Covering fire will never help you. Why? Well lets look at the ability. It grants you a reaction shot any time a unit under your overwatch or supression fire. Sounds good right? No its not. You just took a shot against a unit in cover that you could have fired on on your turn at a -15% penalty. It is nice if you are supressing an enemy and it is also decent if you have the sentimel ability but the truth is that as Genghis Khan proved, mobility is victory. The ability to chose your ground is vital.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Field Medic vs. Smoke and Mirrors:''' I ain't gonna lie. Smoke is awesome. Once upgraded it has all sorts if nifty perks and even in its base form a free 20 point defense shift is great. Still med kits are great too, and having 3 instead of 1 is also awesome. So this is a choose your awesome moment. As you always should have minimum 2 supports you can grab one of each. As a personal preference I tend to favor field medic, but a med kit is an inventory slot you have to spend and field medic tends to mandate one. Now having more options is good, but so is having more healing. A pure utility support can have chitin plating and an arc thrower or nanoweave and a scope. Thus make your choice not based on smoke alone, but on flexiblity.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Revive vs. Rifle supression,''' Chances are that you are screwed if you are relying on revive. Rifle supression can keep you from being screwed. The choice is simple and obvious. Of you find yourself favoring revive then you might instead want to have multiple field medics and just keep your soldiers topped off in terms of health.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Dense Smoke vs. Combat drugs:''' In the end the question of what makes you tear your hair out is answered by this choice. If getting your head blown off by a muton elite really grinds your gears, then dense smoke, a stunning 40 point defense shift that turns no cover into heavy cover and heavy cover into immunity to being shot, is a must. If panic is your fear and getting mind raped by sectoid commanders or ethereals is the bane of your existance then combat drugs is for you. A decent will bonus a critical bonus and a defense bonus all rolled into one. Personally I hate getting shot, and while ethereal's make me want to vomit blood out of sheer frustration, they are frankly quite rare, and my standard tactic of 'blow them to kingdom come' generally prevents retaliation. This is a personal choice.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Savior vs. Sentinel:''' Do you want to heal or harm? What kind of question is that! This is Xcom. You want to harm those Xray scum. Now don't get me wrong, healing 10 points in one charge is awesome, but shooting twice on overwatch is even better. With improved med kits you should be healing 6 per charge anyways, and if you went with the multi medic route you can still top off the squad without worry. One of the most important things about sentinel is that it solves the problem of overwatch overkill. The ability triggers a second overwatch attack only if the first fails to kill the target, thus preventing those embarassing moments where your squad all open fire on a floater and blow him to the moon, only for a muton to wander unchecked into heavy cover and crit your prized soldier in the face.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Equipping your support''' is simple. Get skeleton armor first, then upgrade to ghost or psi depending. I have already gone into alot of detail as to why ghost armor is the best armor. A support wearing it can traverse 13 squares on one move. A dash from another class in heavy armor is 14. This is silly amounts of mobility. In terms of guns you have the choice of plasma or light plasma. I find that while light plasma and a scope is great early and can be obtained fast, it is offensively too inferior to use. Go for the big numbers and get a plasma rifle. Still one thing should be mentioned. Supports get a great return on investment in terms of lasers. The basic rifle allows them to one shot all the low tier enemies. In terms of secondary items go with what you feel. Med kit, scope, chitin, arc thrower. The important thing about supports is that they are flexible and should never be bound to a single setup.</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Soldier_Skills_%26_Equipment_Guide_(EU2012)&diff=40107Soldier Skills & Equipment Guide (EU2012)2012-10-22T06:16:25Z<p>Tacobandit744: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''A not so brief guide to class abilities'''<br />
<br />
There are some classes were there is a debate to be had on how to build them, for others this is not the case. The fundamental question that must always be asked when making a promotion is one of economy. Does the ability actively enhance your ability to kill. Simply put, if you have 1 round, will this ability somehow increase the chances you will remove an enemy unit from the board. Failing to enhance your lethality, will this ability help you survive to the next round. Finally failing the above two, does this ability help you in some intangible way. There are exceptions to this ordering, but most of them are not real exceptions. They are merely a illusion where the power of an ability to assist in killing quickly and reliably is underestimated.<br />
<br />
<br />
Take for example the heavy. I like talking about the Heavy because off all the classes the heavy has the most divergent and discordant set of specializations. Early on, the heavy fufills the role of damage engine and carries the team around him by directly murdering anything that stands. If you continue to use him like this, by mid game he is struggling and come endgame will have no place on your team. This being said, the Heavy has a role on his team, but it is simply not the same role that he plays in the early game. So lets get into it.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
'''How to build the Heavy and a Discussion of Predictability'''<br />
<br />
<br />
The primary weapon of the heavy is the LMG and its laser and plasma evolutions. The weapon has a base damage of 5 which puts it in the high damage category, along with the sniper rifle and the shotgun. It has worse critical chance than either, but it doesn't have the severe accuracy drop off that the shotgun suffers from at any significant range and it doesn't suffer either the close range penalty or double action cost of the sniper rifle. Superficially it is one of the best weapons in the game and early game it will be. There is of course a hitch. It wouldn't be much fun if there wasn't. The hitch in this case is the heavy himself. Base accuracy of all soldiers is 65 but unlike his peers the heavy only gets 10 more points over the course of his life, with a colonel capping out at 75. This means that at mid range and under optimal conditions the best heavy will hit 75% of the time. If the target is in light cover that chance degrades to 55% and under heavy cover there is only a 35% chance to deal damage. With a scope you can improve a heavy's aim to 85 but compared to the base colonel accuracy numbers of an assault, a support or a sniper, which are 89, 90 and 105 respectively you can see why the Heavy suffers. <br />
<br />
<br />
Over a given hundred shots the percentile hit chance is a equal percentile modifer to damage meaning that assuming all enemies are in light cover the base heavy does on average a little more than half his listed damage. This means that a heavy at the top of the tech tree is doing the same as a sniper at the bottom, less when you factor in the massive critical hit chances that the sniper rifle enjoys. This is discounting special abilities such as the heavy's power to fire twice in a round, but suffice it to say that for every ability that the heavy gets the sniper of equivalent rank will gain an ever more insurmountable advantage. Now compared to a support whose best weapon caps at 8 damage and who gets only 1 shot in a round the heavy certainly does do more adjusted damage, but here in lies the problem. In real combat conditions you don't do an average damage based on your aim. You either hit and deal full damage, or miss and do none. If a sniper did twice as much damage with half the accuracy it's use as a unit would go from predictable to a coin toss and it's usefulness would drop from amazing, to marginal.<br />
<br />
<br />
Here is the thing. In a turn based game the fundamental risk comes from uncertainty. If you are sure that an attack or ability will trigger then you can plan accordingly. Calculate exactly how much damage you can expect from all your units and use that to plan out a course of action. When abilities fail to trigger you are forced to make plans that accomodate this, namely, you need to devote more resources to a target than would under ideal conditions be needed, lest you whiff a final shot find yourself staring at a sectopod with 5 hit points and it is now his turn. The binary nature of success and failure of individual actions maps to to the binary success and failure states of each turn. This is the beauty and the folly of a turn based game. The fact that a heavy dealing with a standard foe in low cover with a 55% chance to hit cannot be relied on to make the shot means that they represent an inherent weak link in any line up. In any percentile system, there is a magical line of reliability that occurs somewhere around 80% at that point you can 'rely' on a sequence of events occuring and take tactical gambles.<br />
<br />
<br />
This is the paradox of the heavy, they have an amazingly high damage weapon but no way to turn it into a useful tool. Early game when everyone sucks the heavy is no worse, and usually better than his team mates at murder via bullets. Many people then make the fallacy of transitioning the heavy into a supression unit. The assumption is that a heavy has many tools to increase the power of his supression including the power to make multiple reaction shots, and eventually supress in an area and do damage to all the units under supression. This is a great idea, except that better than supressing an enemy is killing him. If an enemy is under high cover a heavy can supress him and wait for the next round for a flank, hoping that the supression is enough to keep the enemy fom hurting your team, or the heavy could lob a grenade and destroy the cover entirely, do damage and allow a team mate to achieve a kill on a now exposed foe.<br />
<br />
<br />
This brings me to the best way to build a heavy. The first choice that you have to make in your heavy is '''Bullet Swarm vs. Holotargetting'''. One gives you massive tactical flexibility no matter how you chose to build the heavy, the other gives a situational +10 aim buff. For obvious reasons, the ability to attack then move, attack then reload, reload then attack or attack then attack is crucial. Even if you for some reason decide to go the supression/squad support route, a supression attack costs you 2 ammo from your 3 ammo weapon. Without high tier foundry upgrades you must reload after every supression if you want to supress again. The ability to reload and then supress is a godsend. Also, even if the heavy has crap accuracy, when crysallids are in your face you don't need to be a good shot to kill them, and the awesome damage of a LMG can be used to great effect, twice. This is not a choice. Take holotargetting at your own peril.<br />
<br />
<br />
Next choice is the first really defining choice you have to make. '''Supression vs. shredder rocket'''. This defines your heavy as either an explosives platform or a supression platform. I will make the argument that simply put, supports are better that supression and heavies should be blowing things up. Yes supports can't supress an area, yes they can't use mayhem to deal damage with supression but here is the rub, supports have a higher ammo lower damage weapon with much greater accuracy. The reaction shot movement provokes will much more likely hit, the loss of damage is lower, there is less reloading needed and supports have much more versatile ability to specialize. A heavy with a shredder rocket has a 5 automatic damage weapon, that will hit exactly where put it almost all the time and close the rest of the rime, and will amplify all damage against a target while removing it's cover, in a wide aoe. It is a limited use weapon but it will save you much more consistently than supression. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''HEAT vs. Rapid Reaction''' is also clean cut. Many people who go the supression route think that this is perfect. Supress an enemy, use flush to force a move, let the heavy get 2 free attacks. This is a failure state. First, reaction shots are made at a 15 point penalty and as we have previously stated heavies have crap accuracy. Second, the only way you get a second shot is if the first hits, combine this with the aforementioned crap accuracy and you will rarely see this promotion trigger and even if it does trigger you still have to hit with it, at a similar penalty. On the other side of the equation HEAT ammo doubles damage against robotic opponents and affects all heavy class abilities, including rockets. Put simply, in Xcom, robots are the devil. The cyberdisc and the sectopod are two of the deadliest enemies you will face, anything that hastens them to the grave is awesome. A cyberdisc is a deadly early game opponent who can deal 7 damage on a normal attack with a high critical chance, or fling a 5 damage grenade half way across the map. It can and will one shot your mates, no one below major has a reliable chance of living, and only then if they are at full health. A rocket from a HEAT heavy will deal 14 damage base, and can crit for more. Shredder rockets will do 10 and allow your sniper a good shot at a OHKO. Not to mention, you will blow the drones that hover around the disc or the sectopod sky high. Choose HEAT, a heavy who can attack twice can one shot a cyberdisc or wipe a sectopod if both attacks hit.<br />
<br />
<br />
The next choice is less clear cut. '''Grenadier''' gives 2 grenades, '''danger zone''' gives AOE supression and 2 tiles extra area on rockets. Both are good abilities and the question of which you want depends highly. The benefits are more intangible and are linked to your final choice of what you want your heavy to be doing. I am going to step back from (semi)objective analysis and offer an opinion. I chose grenadier becuase by the time you reach this point, no one else on your team should be carrying grenades. Your sniper needs his scope, your assualt needs armor of some type and even if she doesn't cause you are rocking titan she should be doing a lot more damage with basic attacks than with a grenade, supports might be a good choice to heft a grenade but they generally are better with arc throwers, med kits or armor/scope. Heavies get natural damage ablation and mutiple use actions. They have such bad accuracy that you aren't losing much by throwing an attack out the window, and the power that grenades have to damage terrain and remove cover offers a much more powerful buff to accuracy than a scope. The final argument for grenadier is simply that grenades are amazing breeching tools. You don't want to be using your rockets to breech but grenades can be a worthwhile trade. Danger zone is lessened in value because you aren't or shouldn't be picking up supression, 2 extra tiles is nice on your rockets and is certainly worth more than a grenade if it brings another enemy into range, but rockets are inherently less flexible than grenades as with their full round cost. Don't feel obligated to get grenadier, it isn't mandatory.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Rocketeer vs. Mayhem:''' To many this is the a tough choice, but it isn't. Mayhem adds max of 3 damage to supression which we don't have and adds 2 damage to your rockets, of which you get only 2 (regular and shredder). Rocketeer on the other hand gives you a second rocket. Assuming that you don't even get the blaster launcher upgrade you are still falling behind by 3 damage, and lose the flexibility of a second rocket. Since we have already decided that the heavy needs to be blowing things up to be reliable thus, anything that offers him more chances to be reliable is good. Thus, more rockets beat better rockets. With double grenades you have 5 bombs that can reshape the battlefield in your favor.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''How to equip a heavy''': More than any other class, the heavy shouldn't be worrying about their primary weapon. By all means upgrade the LMG if you can spare the resources, but there is a greater return on investment on other classes. Namely your sniper and then your assualt need their weapons maxed ASAP, these are the classes that will be dealing your damage and the Xrays drop plasma rifles and light plasma like confetti that your supports or assaults can use, thus obliviating the need to buy them. Moreover the damage scaling is not as significant. With a five damage base a heavy can reliably kill in one hit sectoids, thin men and floaters on classic. To one shot the next tier of enemies a heavy needs to upgrade to plasma.<br />
<br />
<br />
Armor is the really deceptive choice for a heavy. Chosing a heavy armor for your heavy seems right, but you would be wrong. The role that we are looking to give to our heavy is not that of a walking tank. That is you assault. He needs to be mobile and capable of placing explosives precisely, while not being left behind. While carapace armor for everyone is always a wise choice compared to basic armor, you should be considering skeleton and ghost as your primary armors. Heavies don't get any inherent bonus from heavy armor, unlike the assault, instead they get a flat 2 point reduction in damage, meaning that they don't require a huge HP pool from titan or archangel. Skeleton/Ghost armor offers your heavy a couple amazing bonuses. First is that it gives you 3 extra move and the ability to grapple to the top of structures. Mobility powers are great. Second they give you defense bonuses, 10/20 respectively. A clean miss is much better than more HP. Late game, in low cover, you can get a 40 point defensive shift if you are wearing ghost armor. All late game enemies do more than 10 damage a shot, and the 4 lost HP vs titan or 2 hp vs archangel or 1 in the case of skeleton vs carapace, is compensated by the clean misses. 20% off a 100% attack doing 10 damage is an average 2 HP gain. This makes ghost even under the worst case scenario better than archangel flat out and much closer to titan than it seems. A heavy in ghost armor or skeleton armor is more useful and almost as survivable. Psi armor when appropriate.<br />
<br />
<br />
Your final slot should be a grenade, if you ducked out on grenadier or if you are going to doing a terror mission, then feel free to improvise. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''How to build a sniper and a discussion of incomparables'''<br />
<br />
<br />
The sniper is the primary damage class that you will employ and suffers from a small problem of feast and famine. Snipers depending on the level will either be an unstoppable murder engine snuffing out at least one enemy every round, or they will spend most of the time running around useless trying to get a line of sight. Now building a sniper depends greatly on managing this problem, maximizing the good times and minimizing the bad. Snipers have the best basic aim progression of any class, reaching 105 at colonel. With a scope and high ground you can expect at have 98% or greater accuracy against an enemy in high cover and you can make the shot from across the map in a position of perfect safety. How can we assure this? Well lets go into the skills.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Snap Shot vs. Squad Sight:''' DO NOT BE FOOLED. There is almost no circumstance underwhich you should ever be taking snap shot. To do so is a waste of epic proportions and you might as well be using another class instead of a sniper. Now this being said, if you are trying some weird 6 sniper team there is a possibility that this might be okay but lets examine. First snap shot applies a 20 point penalty to any single action shot. Early game, this makes your shots unhittable. A corporal sniper firing at mid range against an enemy in low cover has a 28% chance to hit. A colonel has 65% chance but good luck getting there. Second a sniper who wishes to have options in terms of close range engagement has other talents that can be used to do so. The gunslinger perk can give you a base damage of 6 with no aim penalties with a plasma pistol if you have a terrible need to move and shoot. Squad sight on the other side of the coin essentially defines a sniper. Sniper rifles have a range cap of 100 which roughly translated is 4 times your vision range, or most of the map. Only thing is that you will never get this range unless you have squad sight. A squad sight sniper doesn't need to be right behind to your assault to cover them. They can do that from the spawn.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Gunslinger vs. Damn Good Ground:''' This is a question of enhancing strength vs. coving weakness, only I put the order wrong. Gunslinger covers your weakness at close range and inability to scoot and shoot. Damn good ground makes you better at sitting on to of the world sniping the hell out of people. With a scope and maximum elevation, damn good ground offers perfect chance to hit opponnents in high cover. Without this perk you are slightly less than perfect but gunslinger makes it so that you can actually fight at close range and not fail. This is a tossup depending on your style. Just keep in mind that archangel armor does trigger the DGG perk, giving you slightly better than low cover worth of defense for free and an enhanced chance to hit.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Disabling Shot vs. Battlescanner:''' Of all the choices that you will make as a sniper this matter the least. Disabling shot is for the most part patently inferior to blowing someones head off. It is harder to make, does less damage and is on a cooldown. That being said, it can be very useful in capturing enemies and can once in a blue moon save your butt if you don't have the firepower to kill a sectopod or a cyberdisc. Battlescanner on the other hand gives you intelligence, which is invaluable, but cannot be thrown far from the sniper who likely will be in the back. Still, it can find enemies without triggering them thus allowing a sucker punch. Neither one of these perks will define your sniper and you should feel free to choose them depending on your mood. One notable point however is if for some insance reason you are building a front line snap shot sniper get battle scanner. You don't need squad sight to see through the scanner and it is the only way you can extend your vision. Also you will be close in and will have the proximity to throw it.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Executioner vs. Opportunist:''' This is another non choice. Executioner is a piddling 10% bonus that only triggers on low HP enemies. Snipers should be one shotting high HP enemies and pretty much the only people this will apply to are sectopods, who already we have ways of dealing with. Opportunist on the other hand means that your overwatch will do just as much damage at the same hit chance as your normal attacks and given the insane range on sniper overwatch allows you to protect soldiers all across the map.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''In the Zone vs. Doubletap:''' The colonel level talent of a sniper is pretty much godlike no matter what you chose, but here is the thing. One of them is Ares and the other is Zeus, and while we all love the red god there is only one king. In the Zone is streaky. It will often do nothing compared to, sometimes equal and on rare occasions surpass doubletap. The difference is thus. For ITZ trigger you must hit, and kill an enemy out of cover or flanked. Practically speaking your sniper will never be flanking anyone, he will be well behind your entire line. So this is limited to only out of cover enemies, who fall in two categories. Melee enemies and enemies whose cover has been destroyed. Of the out of cover enemies that you encounter remember that unless you can kill in one, it doesn't count. Muton berserkers cannot be killed in one from full, neither can sectopods. Flying units are considered to be in cover. Now if you have a pair of bomb throwing, rocket launching, cover wrecking heavies on your team you could possibly set up situations where your sniper can go to town. Leveling whole squads in one round, until he runs out of ammo, which is 4 early game and 8 late. The other hand is Doubletap which gives you 2 shots, hit or miss, every other round. Why this is better should be immediately obvious. First of all it is predictable, second off it can pluck people out of cover, third it gives better focus fire. An ITZ sniper will never get more than 1 shot at a sectopod or an ethereal. A DT sniper always will. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Equipping your sniper''' is really simple. Give him a scope, give him archangel, get him the biggest gun you can get as fast as you can get it. For a sniper an upgraded weapon is your first combat priority. If he is above the tech curve the rest of your squad could be carrying pea shooters for all that it matters.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Building your Assault, or the joy of the juggernaut'''<br />
<br />
<br />
Next to the sniper the assault is your big damage dealing class. The critical chance of an alloy cannon is lower than a plasma sniper rifle but the damage is the same and the assault has all sorts of tools to enhance their burst damage and given the correct circumstances they can easily do more damage than any other class. On top of this they are tough and mobile. Also assualts are the only class that has a choice of primary weapons and are perhaps the only class that doesn't have a clear cut build path. So without further ado...<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Tactical Sense vs Aggression''' is the start of the divergent path, defense or offense. One offers you a mounting defense bonus per enemy in sight, the other a mounting critical chance. Which one you chose should be dependant on how you are planning to play the assault. If you chose the shotgun as your primary weapon you should be taking defense perks. To put it mildly, shotguns do a ton of damage, you don't need to worry about doing more, you need to worry about surviving the stupidity a combination of run and gun and a short short rang weapon produce. As previously mentioned a 20 point defensive shift is stupendously potent. Furthermore defense bonuses become exponentially more effective as they stack. Light cover, plus ghost armor, plus max tactical sense, plus a dense smoke grenade means that the Assault has a 100 point defense shift, making him effectively invulnerable to any aimed attack. Even negating his cover via flanking means that given the accuracy numbers of most enemies he is still unhittable. Aggression should only be taken when you are using an assualt rifle as a primary, you need to make up the loss of damage that the weapon entails and you also will be in better cover most of the time with less people trying to murder you, thus needing less defending.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Lightning Reflexes vs. Close and Personal''', In a way these skills duplicate each other, and provide one of the only easy choices in the tree. Put simply, lightning reflexes is better. Both of them are closing skills. One gives you immunity to an overwatch shot, which is amazing, the other gives you a 30% critical chance to adjacent foes that degrades with distance. The idea being that with one you can survive to close and with the other you can make the kill once you are there. Needless to say while combining aggression and close and personal can give you a theoretical 100% critical on basic attacks the fact that you are already capable of dealing massive damage with good critical chance with a basic shotgun and good positioning should point to why not getting splattered by a sectopod plasma overwatch is better. Also, since the bonus is contingent on distance you should think twice before getting it for an assault rifle build.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Flush vs. Rapid fire:''' In Xcom, murder is usually the best solution. The major question that need be asked is 'will this help me kill'. Of these two skills we have a clear winner in the murder category. Taking a pair of shots, even at a 15% penalty will almost always offer not only a statistically greater chance of a hit but will offer you the chance to knock the damage ball out of the park. If you are running a scoped up assault rifle build focusing on high crit, this is a no brainer. However, if you want a reliable way to ding an enemy from range then this might be a good idea. Remember, the chance to hit is much higher on a flush than a basic attack and you can expect a near 100% chance even at extended range. Homerun numbers are great but flush can be a reliable tool, especially if you are running alot of assaults in a squad. Which is always a good idea.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Close Combat Specialist vs. Bring 'em On:''' This is a choice. If you are planning on a shotgunner CCS is not a perk to miss. It is a godsend against charging melee, or the poor fool that wanders through a door you are next to. Or just in any close range engagement. In contrast Bring Em On has no range requirement, but if you aren't rocking the critical side of the tree it is a very streaky talent. Under ideal circumstances, you can get a 14 damage critical from a plasma rifle, or two of them if you hit and crit on both of your rapid fire shos. Much more if you get Killer instinct at colonel rank. Needless to say, this is an amazing amount of damage, enough to waste near on anything. Critical rates on an plasma rifle with a scope and the critical abilities will still hit a flat 100%, 70% if you chose lightning reflexes or if you aren't at point blank range. Higher if you flank a foe. As you can see this isn't a cut and dry situation. Both rifleman and shotgunner are viable.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Resiliance vs. Killer Instinct:''' on one hand you have immunity to critical hits, on the other hand you have a 50% damage bonus to your critical hits if you trigger your signature ability. If you have chosen to brawl then grab immunity to crits. It means you can't be take out in one round by any single foe and it takes luck out of the equation. Killer instinct on the other hand only shines if you have been mining the tree for bonus crit chance. That being said, you can do some retarded stuff with killer instinct. Run at full dash to a good position, open up with rapid fire and blow a sectapod or an ethereal away in one fell blow, or two as the case may be.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Equipping the Assault''' is going to be more of the same. The answer is always ghost armor. Statistically it is just plain better. Now I wouldn't hold it against anyone who chose titan, but in the end Titan is just not as good for the up and coming assault trooper. The conditioning ability that is gained on being promoted to major gives 2 extra HP when wearing Ghost Skeleton and Psi armor, and 4 when wearing carapace, archangel and titan. The HP totals are as follows. Skeleton gives 5, Ghost , Carapace and Psi give 8, archangel give 12 and Titan 14. Now the most bang for your buck early game is obviously carapace, but once you have the money you should be investing in ghost. Why? Well for all the previously mentioned reasons plus one. In terms of survival defense beats HP most of the time, mobility is the bread and butter of an assault trooper and here is the final reason. Cloak gives a +100% chance to crit. This means that a cloaked assault can expect to reliably crit against a hardened target if they are playing the shotgunner game, and the rifleman can be sure of a crit. A massive killer instinct enhanced rapid fire crit that will level any foe you chose.<br />
<br />
<br />
In terms of your free slot, the best choice is situational. I personally like chitin plating for my CQC troopers and scopes for riflemen. The extra 4 HP offsets the losses that I sustain from not going titan and gives you virtual immunity to chrysalids and berserkers. For riflemen the scope gives you accuracy and crit chance. Which is peachy. Use psi shields when appropriate.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Supports and why they are your backbone'''<br />
<br />
<br />
If you want to double up on a class, supports should be your first choice. Sure they aren't as sexy as some of the others but they bring alot more to the table than most suspect. First of all, supports can shoot. They have great base accuracy and full HP progression. Even without a scope a support has a 90 aim. Beyond that they get to have 2 secondary items once they hit major, allowing unparalelled customization. Furthermore they are fast, unless you have a stroke while promoting them and accidentally click the covering fire button they will be the quickest unit on the map. This along with their solid offensive and defensive abilities makes them the most reliable unit that you have. A team of nothing but supports would be than optimal but would be entirely possible. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Sprinter vs. Covering fire:''' Now I know I said you had to be having a stroke to chose covering fire and that is maybe a bit harsh, but I stand by the statement. The issue is simply this. Covering fire will never help you. Why? Well lets look at the ability. It grants you a reaction shot any time a unit under your overwatch or supression fire. Sounds good right? No its not. You just took a shot against a unit in cover that you could have fired on on your turn at a -15% penalty. It is nice if you are supressing an enemy and it is also decent if you have the sentimel ability but the truth is that as Genghis Khan proved, mobility is victory. The ability to chose your ground is vital.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Field Medic vs. Smoke and Mirrors:''' I ain't gonna lie. Smoke is awesome. Once upgraded it has all sorts if nifty perks and even in its base form a free 20 point defense shift is great. Still med kits are great too, and having 3 instead of 1 is also awesome. So this is a choose your awesome moment. As you always should have minimum 2 supports you can grab one of each. As a personal preference I tend to favor field medic, but a med kit is an inventory slot you have to spend and field medic tends to mandate one. Now having more options is good, but so is having more healing. A pure utility support can have chitin plating and an arc thrower or nanoweave and a scope. Thus make your choice not based on smoke alone, but on flexiblity.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Revive vs. Rifle supression,''' Chances are that you are screwed if you are relying on revive. Rifle supression can keep you from being screwed. The choice is simple and obvious. Of you find yourself favoring revive then you might instead want to have multiple field medics and just keep your soldiers topped off in terms of health.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Dense Smoke vs. Combat drugs:''' In the end the question of what makes you tear your hair out is answered by this choice. If getting your head blown off by a muton elite really grinds your gears, then dense smoke, a stunning 40 point defense shift that turns no cover into heavy cover and heavy cover into immunity to being shot, is a must. If panic is your fear and getting mind raped by sectoid commanders or ethereals is the bane of your existance then combat drugs is for you. A decent will bonus a critical bonus and a defense bonus all rolled into one. Personally I hate getting shot, and while ethereal's make me want to vomit blood out of sheer frustration, they are frankly quite rare, and my standard tactic of 'blow them to kingdom come' generally prevents retaliation. This is a personal choice.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Savior vs. Sentinel:''' Do you want to heal or harm? What kind of question is that! This is Xcom. You want to harm those Xray scum. Now don't get me wrong, healing 10 points in one charge is awesome, but shooting twice on overwatch is even better. With improved med kits you should be healing 6 per charge anyways, and if you went with the multi medic route you can still top off the squad without worry. One of the most important things about sentinel is that it solves the problem of overwatch overkill. The ability triggers a second overwatch attack only if the first fails to kill the target, thus preventing those embarassing moments where your squad all open fire on a floater and blow him to the moon, only for a muton to wander unchecked into heavy cover and crit your prized soldier in the face.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Equipping your support''' is simple. Get skeleton armor first, then upgrade to ghost or psi depending. I have already gone into alot of detail as to why ghost armor is the best armor. A support wearing it can traverse 13 squares on one move. A dash from another class in heavy armor is 14. This is silly amounts of mobility. In terms of guns you have the choice of plasma or light plasma. I find that while light plasma and a scope is great early and can be obtained fast, it is offensively too inferior to use. Go for the big numbers and get a plasma rifle. Still one thing should be mentioned. Supports get a great return on investment in terms of lasers. The basic rifle allows them to one shot all the low tier enemies. In terms of secondary items go with what you feel. Med kit, scope, chitin, arc thrower. The important thing about supports is that they are flexible and should never be bound to a single setup.</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:Alien_Missions_(EU2012)&diff=40106Talk:Alien Missions (EU2012)2012-10-22T06:10:58Z<p>Tacobandit744: </p>
<hr />
<div>I decided to start this page. I don't know whether to just give general info or add tips for completing the mission.--[[User:Tacobandit744|Tacobandit744]] 02:02, 22 October 2012 (EDT)<br />
<br />
Actually there is a "Mission Types" category already here. What is supposed to go here then, the overall alien mission?--[[User:Tacobandit744|Tacobandit744]] 02:10, 22 October 2012 (EDT)</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Difficulty_(EU2012)&diff=40105Difficulty (EU2012)2012-10-22T06:08:14Z<p>Tacobandit744: </p>
<hr />
<div>= Starting Funds =<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable" <br />
|+ <br />
|- <br />
! align="center" | Difficulty<br />
! align="center" | North America<br />
! align="center" | South America<br />
! align="center" | Europa<br />
! align="center" | Africa<br />
! align="center" | Asia<br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | Easy<br />
| align="center" | §465<br />
| align="center" | <!--S Am--><br />
| align="center" | <!--E--><br />
| align="center" | <!--Af--><br />
| align="center" | §315<br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | Normal<br />
| align="center" | <!--N Am--><br />
| align="center" | <!--S Am--><br />
| align="center" | <!--E--><br />
| align="center" | <!--Af--><br />
| align="center" | <!--As--><br />
|-<br />
| width="10%" align="center" | Classic<br />
| width="10%" align="center" | §300<br />
| width="10%" align="center" | <!--S Am--><br />
| width="10%" align="center" | <!--E--><br />
| width="10%" align="center" | <!--Af--><br />
| width="10%" align="center" | <!--As--><br />
|-<br />
| align="center" | Impossible<br />
| align="center" | <!--N Am--> <br />
| align="center" | <!--S Am--><br />
| align="center" | <!--E--><br />
| align="center" | <!--Af--><br />
| align="center" | <!--As--><br />
|}<br />
<br />
= Easy =<br />
* 150% of monthly funds income<br />
* Base global panic starts at 0<br />
* Most alien activity only raises panic by 1 if left unchecked<br />
* Aliens are dumber, and there aren't as many of them<br />
* Your soldiers have 1 bonus hitpoint<br />
* Soldiers cost $10<br />
* You receive officer training school<br />
<br />
= Normal =<br />
* 100% of monthly funds income<br />
* Base global panic starts at 0<br />
* Most minor alien activity raises panic by 1 in left unchecked with some events doing up to 3<br />
* Aliens have their AI mostly unshackled<br />
* Soldiers have no bonus hitpoints<br />
* Soldiers cost $10<br />
* 37 units of free electricity<br />
* You receive officer training school<br />
<br />
= Classic =<br />
* 100% of monthly funds income<br />
* Base global panic starts at 8 (1 per location)<br />
* If unchecked alien activity causes at least 1 panic, but will often cause 2 or 3<br />
* There are even more aliens per mission<br />
* Aliens receive bonuses: accuracy (10%), critical chance and/or damage (must be proven).<br />
* Alien AI is unshackled<br />
* Soldiers have -1 hitpoint<br />
* Soldiers cost $15<br />
* 30 units of free electricity<br />
* You receive no officer training school<br />
<br />
= Impossible =<br />
* 100% of monthly funds income<br />
* Base global panic starts at 16 (2 per location)<br />
* If unchecked alien activity causes at least 2 panic, but will often cause even more<br />
* There are even more aliens per mission<br />
* Aliens receive bonuses: hitpoints, accuracy (10%), critical chance and/or damage (must be proven).<br />
* Alien AI is unshackled<br />
* Soldiers have -2 hitpoints<br />
* Soldiers cost $15<br />
* 30 units of free electricity<br />
* You receive no officer training school<br />
<br />
[[Category: Enemy Unknown (2012)]]</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:Difficulty_(EU2012)&diff=40104Talk:Difficulty (EU2012)2012-10-22T06:05:00Z<p>Tacobandit744: </p>
<hr />
<div>Sources:<br />
* http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/87242/what-are-the-differences-between-normal-and-classic-difficulties<br />
* http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?150076-Differences-in-Difficulties<br />
I think also the starting money differs what is not included here. I will add it later today. [[User:Jarcionek|Jarcionek]] 10:17, 20 October 2012 (EDT)<br />
<br />
If starting funds depends on country you choose to start, then it must be equal to X+monthly income of the country you have satellite covered. So, 300 on Classic NA means X=300-180(NA)=120 startings funds. Am I wrong?<br />
If that's true, then on Easy starting funds will be 465(on NA)-270(NA on Easy)=195.<br />
Nite<br />
<br />
Starting funds on Classic for NA are still 300.--[[User:Tacobandit744|Tacobandit744]] 02:05, 22 October 2012 (EDT)</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Talk:Alien_Missions_(EU2012)&diff=40103Talk:Alien Missions (EU2012)2012-10-22T06:02:12Z<p>Tacobandit744: Created page with "I decided to start this page. I don't know whether to just give general info or add tips for completing the mission.--~~~~"</p>
<hr />
<div>I decided to start this page. I don't know whether to just give general info or add tips for completing the mission.--[[User:Tacobandit744|Tacobandit744]] 02:02, 22 October 2012 (EDT)</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Alien_Missions_(EU2012)&diff=40102Alien Missions (EU2012)2012-10-22T06:00:52Z<p>Tacobandit744: </p>
<hr />
<div>During the course of EU, you will encounter numerous alien missions that you must stop.<br />
<br />
'''Abductions'''<br />
<br />
The default mission for the whole game, abductions are places the aliens harvest humans for unknown purposes. You will have 3 places to choose from, each with a different reward. Care must be taken when choosing, as you cannot go to all 3, and there will be panic at the other 2 sites you did not visit. <br />
<br />
This is your basic "kill all the aliens" mission with no civilian interference.<br />
<br />
'''Terror Sites'''<br />
<br />
After a while, usually at the end of the month, the aliens will launch a terror site on a city. Ignoring it is a very bad idea, as this will most likely cause the country to defect as well as raise the panic in the other countries that lie in the same continent.<br />
<br />
These missions can be extremely difficult, so bring your best men. At every terror site there WILL be Chryssalids, so be prepared. Cyberdiscs may also appear with them.<br />
<br />
The goal is to rescue all the civilians, and kill all the aliens. Panic reduction on a completed terror mission is based on the number of civilians saved.<br />
<br />
'''Bomb Defusal'''<br />
<br />
The council will send you a transmission informing you that the aliens have planted a bomb, and offer you a reward, often in the form of cash or scientists/engineers, and panic reduction in that country.<br />
<br />
When you land your troops, a timer will appear telling you how many turns you have until the bomb detonates. You must delay the bomb by cutting off the energy supplies in the form of green boxes. Each cut supply gives you an extra turn. Speed is of the essence as you start with 3 turns, so pushing forward is a must. Be careful not to rush too much, as the aliens will make short work of you.<br />
<br />
After pushing up, you will eventually find the bomb. After defusing it, aliens (usually thin men) will drop down over the map and will be in overwatch. The goal now is to kill all aliens and reach the transport.<br />
<br />
Refusing this mission will not result in panic.</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Alien_Missions_(EU2012)&diff=40099Alien Missions (EU2012)2012-10-22T05:58:44Z<p>Tacobandit744: </p>
<hr />
<div>During the course of EU, you will encounter numerous alien missions that you must stop.<br />
<br />
'''Abductions'''<br />
<br />
The default mission for the whole game, abductions are places the aliens harvest humans for unknown purposes. You will have 3 places to choose from, each with a different reward. Care must be taken when choosing, as you cannot go to all 3, and there will be panic at the other 2 sites you did not visit. <br />
<br />
This is your basic "kill all the aliens" mission with no civilian interference.<br />
<br />
'''Terror Sites'''<br />
<br />
After a while, usually at the end of the month, the aliens will launch a terror site on a city. Ignoring it is a very bad idea, as this will most likely cause the country to defect as well as raise the panic in the other countries that lie in the same continent.<br />
<br />
These missions can be extremely difficult, so bring your best men. At every terror site there WILL be Chryssalids, so be prepared. Cyberdiscs may also appear with them.<br />
<br />
The goal is to rescue all the civilians, and kill all the aliens. Panic reduction on a completed terror mission is based on the number of civilians saved.<br />
<br />
'''Bomb Defusal'''<br />
<br />
The council will send you a transmition informing you that the aliens have planted a bomb, and offer you a reward, often in the form of cash or scientists/engineers, and panic reduction in that country.<br />
<br />
When you land your troops, a timer will appear telling you how many turns you have until the bomb detonates. You must delay the bomb by cutting off the energy supplies in the form of green boxes. Each cut supply gives you an extra turn. Speed is of the essence as you start with 3 turns, so pushing forward is a must.<br />
<br />
After pushing up, you will eventually find the bomb. After defusing it, aliens (usually thin men) will drop down over the map and will be in overwatch. The goal now is to kill all aliens and reach the transport.<br />
<br />
Refusing this mission will not result in panic.</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Alien_Missions_(EU2012)&diff=40097Alien Missions (EU2012)2012-10-22T05:48:03Z<p>Tacobandit744: </p>
<hr />
<div>During the course of EU, you will encounter numerous alien missions that you must stop.<br />
<br />
'''Abductions'''<br />
<br />
The default mission for the whole game, abductions are places the aliens harvest humans for unknown purposes. You will have 3 places to choose from, each with a different reward. Care must be taken when choosing, as you cannot go to all 3, and there will be panic at the other 2 sites you did not visit. <br />
<br />
This is your basic "kill all the aliens" mission with no civilian interference.<br />
<br />
'''Terror Sites'''<br />
<br />
After a while, usually at the end of the month, the aliens will launch a terror site on a city. Ignoring it is a very bad idea, as this will most likely cause the country to defect as well as raise the panic in the other countries that lie in the same continent.<br />
<br />
These missions can be extremely difficult, so bring your best men. At every terror site there WILL be Chryssalids, so be prepared. Cyberdiscs may also appear with them.<br />
<br />
The goal is to rescue all the civilians, and kill all the aliens. Panic reduction on a completed terror mission is based on the number of civilians saved.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Bold text'''</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Alien_Missions_(EU2012)&diff=40096Alien Missions (EU2012)2012-10-22T05:46:24Z<p>Tacobandit744: more information</p>
<hr />
<div>During the course of EU, you will encounter numerous alien missions that you must stop.<br />
<br />
'''Abductions'''<br />
<br />
The default mission for the whole game, abductions are places the aliens harvest humans for unknown purposes. You will have 3 places to choose from, each with a different reward. Care must be taken when choosing, as you cannot go to all 3, and there will be panic at the other 2 sites you did not visit. <br />
<br />
This is your basic "kill all the aliens" mission with no civilian interference.<br />
<br />
'''Terror Sites'''<br />
<br />
After a while, usually at the end of the month, the aliens will launch a terror site on a city. Ignoring it is a very bad idea, as this will most likely cause the country to defect as well as raise the panic in the other countries that lie in the same continent.<br />
<br />
These missions can be extremely difficult, so bring your best men. At every terror site there WILL be Chryssalids, so be prepared. Cyberdiscs may also appear with them.<br />
<br />
The goal is to rescue all the civilians, and kill all the aliens. Panic reduction on a completed terror mission is based on the number of civilians saved.</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Alien_Missions_(EU2012)&diff=40095Alien Missions (EU2012)2012-10-22T05:38:07Z<p>Tacobandit744: Started it up, will add more shortly</p>
<hr />
<div>During the course of EU, you will encounter numerous alien missions that you must stop.<br />
<br />
'''Abductions'''<br />
<br />
The default mission for the entire game, abductions are places the aliens harvest humans for unknown purposes. You will have 3 places to choose from, each with a different reward. Care must be taken when choosing, as you cannot go to all 3, and there will be panic at the other 2 sites you did not visit. <br />
<br />
This is your basic "kill all the aliens" mission with no civilian interference.</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Flanking_(EU2012)&diff=40093Flanking (EU2012)2012-10-22T05:31:30Z<p>Tacobandit744: </p>
<hr />
<div>A flanked target is indicated with a yellow shield. This target receives no benefits from cover and chances to score a critical hit against it are increased by 50%.<br />
<br />
In order to be considered a flank, the flanker must be somewhere behind the flankee, as shots directly from the side do not count as an official flank.<br />
<br />
See Also: [[Cover (EU2012)|Cover]]<br />
<br />
[[Category: Enemy Unknown (2012)]]</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Flanking_(EU2012)&diff=40092Flanking (EU2012)2012-10-22T05:31:10Z<p>Tacobandit744: additional info.</p>
<hr />
<div>A flanked target is indicated with a yellow shield. This target receives no benefits from cover and chances to score a critical hit against it are increased by 50%.<br />
<br />
In order to be considered a flank, the flanker must be somewhere behind the flanked, as shots directly from the side do not count as an official flank.<br />
<br />
See Also: [[Cover (EU2012)|Cover]]<br />
<br />
[[Category: Enemy Unknown (2012)]]</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Critical_Wounds_(EU2012)&diff=40091Critical Wounds (EU2012)2012-10-22T05:26:18Z<p>Tacobandit744: grammer fixes ( it's soldier, not solider)</p>
<hr />
<div>After sustaining more damage than the Soldiers hitpoints, the Solider will either become critically wounded or die.<br />
<br />
<br />
== Critically wounded ==<br />
<br />
When a soldier is critically wounded, you have three turns to save that soldier. Saving a soldier can be done by stabilizing or reviving the wounded soldier with a medikit or finishing the mission before the wounded soldier bleeds out.<br />
Each time a soldier becomes critically wounded, it will receive a permanent penalty to its willpower. After several critical wounds, it may be a good idea to sack/use a mind shield, depending on its rank.<br />
<br />
'''Stabilizing'''<br />
<br />
Any character with a medikit can stabilize a critically wounded soldier. Move into healing range and select the "Stabilize" action. A stabilized soldier will not die from its current wounds (don't play with grenades), but will not become active again for the duration of that mission. After the mission, the soldier will be gravely wounded and will take a fairly long time to become active again.<br />
<br />
NOTE: Aliens can and WILL shoot soldiers that you stabilize. Make sure you clear the area of attacking aliens before stabilizing the soldier.<br />
<br />
'''Reviving'''<br />
<br />
Reviving a soldier can only be done by a soldier in the support class with the appropriate skill. A revived unit will become active again during the mission with 33% of it's maximum hitpoints (including armor or items bonus).<br />
<br />
== Death ==<br />
Death is permanent, once a soldier is dead, he/she is gone forever, unless you go back to an earlier save in which said soldier was still alive.<br />
Every soldier that dies will have his/her name added to the memorial wall in the Barracks, where the number of missions, the number of kills, and the mission in which the soldier died is shown.</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Critical_Wounds_(EU2012)&diff=40090Critical Wounds (EU2012)2012-10-22T05:20:02Z<p>Tacobandit744: minor grammer fixes</p>
<hr />
<div>After sustaining more damage than the Soldiers hitpoints, the Solider will either become critically wounded or die.<br />
<br />
<br />
== Critically wounded ==<br />
<br />
When a Solider is critically wounded, you have three turns to save that Solider. Saving a Solider can be done by stabilizing or reviving the wounded Solider with a medikit or finishing the mission before the wounded solider bleeds out.<br />
Each time a solider becomes critically wounded, it will receive a permanent penalty to its willpower.<br />
<br />
'''Stabilizing'''<br />
<br />
Any character with a medikit can stabilize a critically wounded Solider. Move into healing range and select the Stabilize action. A stabilized Solider will not die from it's current wounds (but don't play with grenades), but will not become active again for the duration of that mission. After the mission, the Solider will be gravely wounded and will take a fairly long time to become active again.<br />
<br />
NOTE: Aliens can and WILL shoot soldiers that you stabilize. Make sure you clear the area of attacking aliens before stabilizing the soldier.<br />
<br />
'''Reviving'''<br />
<br />
reviving a Solider can only be done by a solider in the support class with the appropriate skill. A revived unit will become active again during the mission with 33% of it's maximum hitpoints (including armor or items bonus)<br />
<br />
== Death ==<br />
Death is permanent, once a soldier is dead, he/she is gone forever, unless you go back to an earlier save in which said soldier was still alive.<br />
Every soldier that dies will have his/her name added to the memorial wall in the Barracks, where the number of missions, the number of kills, and the mission in which the soldier died is shown.</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Critical_Wounds_(EU2012)&diff=40089Critical Wounds (EU2012)2012-10-22T05:18:49Z<p>Tacobandit744: added a note</p>
<hr />
<div>After sustaining more damage than the Soldiers hitpoints, the Solider will either become critically wounded or die.<br />
<br />
<br />
== Critically wounded ==<br />
<br />
When a Solider is critically wounded, you have three turns to save that Solider. Saving a Solider can be done by stabilizing or reviving the wounded Solider with a medikit or finishing the mission before the wounded solider bleeds out.<br />
Each time a solider becomes critically wounded, it will receive a permanent penalty to its willpower.<br />
<br />
'''Stabilizing'''<br />
<br />
Any character with a medikit can stabilize a critically wounded Solider. Move into healing range and select the Stabilize action. A stabilized Solider will not die from it's current wounds (but don't play with grenades), but will not become active again for the duration of that mission. After the mission, the Solider will be gravely wounded and will take a fairly long time to become active again.<br />
<br />
NOTE: Aliens can and WILL shoot soldiers that you stabilize. Make sure you clear the area of attacking aliens before stabilizing the soldier.<br />
<br />
'''Reviving'''<br />
<br />
reviving a Solider can only be done by a solider in the support class with the appropriate skill. A revived unit will become active again during the mission with 33% of it's maximum hitpoints (including armor or items bonus)<br />
<br />
== Death ==<br />
Death is permanent, once a soldier is dead, he/she is gone forever, unless you go back to an earlier save in which said soldier was still alive.<br />
Every Soldier that dies will have his/her name added to the memorial wall in the Barracks, where the number of missions, the number of kills and the mission in which the soldier died is shown</div>Tacobandit744https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Tactics_(EU2012)&diff=40088Tactics (EU2012)2012-10-22T05:15:19Z<p>Tacobandit744: added another tactic</p>
<hr />
<div>Leap frog your way forward on maps while also rotating through your squad's first move before deciding to perform a second move.<br><br />
Overwatch, or fire if you encounter something along the way.<br><br />
This helps you maintain battlefield awareness including map size, squad spacing, and flank openings.<br />
<br />
It will also help make sure you have someone with a move left to take action should you encounter aliens.<br />
<br />
Save putting your soldiers on overwatch until the end of the turn. This tactic is important for 2 reasons. 1. Aliens get a free move when they are seen and if the alien moves into view of a soldier that has already been put on overwatch they cannot use that turn to fire. You have to rely on them having a reaction shot during the alien's turn. 2. If you want to move them somewhere else you can't because they are locked once on overwatch.<br />
<br />
Alternatively, put several secure units (like snipers) into overwatch before revealing enemies. Your soldiers will open fire on aliens as they scramble for cover and the penalty to reaction fire will be more than compensated by the absence of a cover penalty. If you follow this up with careful Run & Gun tactics you can clean up weaker groups before they have a chance to fire at you.<br />
<br />
Also, with all the other equipment such as medkits and nano fiber vests and such, the grenade is often overlooked. It is a good idea to have at least one grenade on hand, because a grenade is guaranteed damage, regardless of cover. Better yet, it destroys cover, making a poor shot into an easy shot.<br />
<br />
[[Category: Enemy Unknown (2012)]]</div>Tacobandit744