Alien Life Forms (LWR)
Support Units
Like XCOM's own support units, these aliens are not especially threatening in a simple firefight, but instead improve the effectiveness of other alien units. They can heal and buff the stronger aliens in the collective, forcing the player to be more thoughtful in their target selection and damage output.
Sectoid
| Appears | Level 1 |
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Sectoids behave in much the same way as you'd expect from vanilla, with low Mobility, HP and Aim. Basic Sectoids have access to a few psionic powers. All Sectoids technically have the Gunslinger perk to cancel their offset from using pistols, but do not gain extra damage.
Their signature Mind Merge ability is significantly more powerful, now granting the target +25 to aim, crit, and will, but has a long cooldown. Sectoid squad leaders get the Low Profile perk.
Drone
| Appears | Level 1 |
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Drones could be encountered right from the beginning of the game. They can come in groups of their own or attached to Sectoid squads, and later they will accompany more powerful mechanized units like Cyberdiscs and Sectopods. Drones behave similarly to vanilla, but, like most mechanized units, have some damage reduction. Their constant light cover from flying with damage reduction and ability to mutually repair can make them extremely frustrating to kill.
Thin Man
| Appears | Level 1 |
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Thin Men are quite similar to vanilla, with high mobility, mediocre aim and low will. The main change is that their acid no longer deals any damage. Instead, the corrosion effect lowers aim and mobility by 20%, removes flat DR, and prevents passive healing. Acid clouds dissipate within 2 turns, but the corrosion debuff lasts until the end of the mission.
Outsider
| Appears | Level 1 |
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Outsiders in Long War Rebalanced are even more dangerous than vanilla Outsiders. They have passive HP regeneration and a substantial amount of DR, meaning it will take a concerted effort from the whole squad to take them down early game. In addition, their Growth ability causes them to gain increased stats as the mission goes on, beginning from the start of mission. Leaving them alone until the end of the mission is ill-advised. Like vanilla, Outsiders are mostly found in charge of UFOs, usually holed up on the bridge, but not always. Like in Long War, they will occasionally patrol. On larger ships and later encounters, Outsiders spawn in pods of 3 to 6.
When you first meet them, fighting Outsiders in a war of attrition across cover is a bad idea, since their HP regen and relatively high damage and accuracy with their Alien Carbines means they may well win. Neutralizing the Outsider with Flashbangs and Suppression while you move your troops up to set up for a one turn kill is more effective. Note that their regenerative abilities will increase over the course of your game.
Chryssalid
| Appears | Level 1 |
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Chryssalids are similar to vanilla Chryssalids. They have much greater mobility and defense, and gain the Hardened ability, making them extremely agile armored threats, but they no longer have HP regen, and have less HP overall with the exception of pod leaders.
Explosives remain an effective counter to Chryssalids, since they'll frequently charge in a tightly packed group on first sight, and are difficult to hit with most weapons. Similarly, Concussion Grenades can debilitate a whole group of Chryssalids by reducing their mobility by 40%, which brings it considerably under the range a Concussion can be thrown. Chryssalids are immune to acid, so Acid Grenades won't reduce their mobility. A Close Combat Assault can frequently finish off weakened Chryssalids. The MEC Flamethrower is also quite effective; aside from the damage (especially with the Jellied Elerium upgrade) it can cause the Chryssalids to panic, and they may then run away from your soldiers instead of towards them.
Damaging them can drastically reduce their lethality thanks to Red Fog lowering their mobility and melee damage.
Zombie
| Appears | Level 1 |
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Zombies in Long War Rebalanced are even faster than in vanilla, but are no longer immune to acid. They can occasionally spawn as a member of Chryssalid pods on any mission, and it is also be possible to encounter them as a special pod spawn during Terror missions, in which four to five identical zombies will spawn in a group.
Damaging them can drastically reduce their lethality thanks to Red Fog lowering their mobility and melee damage.
Seeker
| Appears | Level 2 |
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Seekers can be found both in pods made up entirely of Seekers, and accompanying squads of other aliens. This indirectly makes them more dangerous than vanilla, since a Seeker itself isn't much threat, but a Seeker supporting other aliens can be a deadly distraction. As mechanized units they have some damage reduction, and gain +2 DR when strangling, which makes them extremely difficult to damage with low power weapons like pistols and carbines.
Battle Scanners are available to Engineers and Scouts as carried items, and the Proximity Sensor item can detect and uncloak nearby aliens, providing early counters to Seekers. They have a habit of going into Overwatch while in stealth, so if you're waiting out Seekers without a Battle Scanner, try moving a soldier, one might reveal itself to take a pot shot at you. Any explosive/area effect attacks (bar the MEC Flamethrower; Seekers are fireproof - though an 'IMMUNE' popup will still appear) that catch an invisible Seeker in their area will force them to decloak.
Floater
| Appears | Level 2 |
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Floaters behave identically to vanilla Floaters, but gain the Tactical Mobility ability, granting them +15 defense while in flight or in cover, making them even more elusive.
Muton
| Appears | Level 2 |
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Mutons are similar to vanilla Mutons, and will start with Alien Carbines and later upgrade to Alien Rifles. Mutons have a new Deflection Shield ability which activates when they dash or end their turn with AP remaining, and grants them defense and crit resistance against ranged attacks that scales with distance.
Specialist Units
These units are all significantly more dangerous than those listed in the combat section. Their abilities are designed to exploit specific weaknesses in the XCOM squad, but in turn, each of them has their own glaring weakness that can be exploited. For example, a single Berserker can effortlessly savage a smoke and suppression based squad composition, but will crumble to a well-placed chem grenade.
Cyberdisc
| Appears | Level 3 |
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Cyberdiscs are similar to vanilla Cyberdiscs, and are usually accompanied by two to three Drones, and usually prefer to throw their grenade if an eligible soldier is in range rather than shooting.
Cyberdiscs pose a significant threat throughout the game. Early on their high health pool makes them difficult to kill unless you have more than one soldier with HEAT Ammo/Warheads, or a soldier with Shredder Ammo/Rockets. Their movement range can take you off guard as it's close to that of a Chryssalid; if they're not dealt with quickly or retreated from, they are very likely to flank and hit you with raw firepower, move up next to you and use their powerful Death Blossom attack, or simply fire long-range explosives at you.
The Drones escorting a Cyberdisc are of course more dangerous as well (see the main Drone entry), primarily because they can tag a target with Holo-Targeting, making it easier for the parent Cyberdisc (and any other enemies, for that matter) to hit the victim. Drones can be distracted by damaging the Cyberdisc (in which case they will fly back to repair it) but this is hardly an ideal strategy.
One important note about the Cyberdisc is that they only have extremely high base DR as long as they're closed. A Cyberdisc must open up in order to attack with its cannons or grenade, and will immediately return to closed form if hit by an incoming attack.
Mechtoid
| Appears | Level 4 |
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Mechtoids behave identically to vanilla Mechtoids. Like vanilla, they will appear with Sectoid escorts, and later with Sectoid Commanders.
Mechtoids are one of the few "big" units vulnerable to psionics - Mind Fray will restrict their movement and prevent them from charging to flank as well as reducing their accuracy. Psi Panic will completely disable a Mechtoid. Their Will is a little higher than regular troops, but not stellar, so are excellent targets for psionics anyway due to the large amount of firepower a successful psionic attack will neutralise. Chem Grenades will hurt their accuracy a bit.
The Psi Shield granted to Mechtoids by Mind Merge grants a massive amount of temporary health. As a result, it is absolutely essential that you find and kill the Sectoid that set up the link (helpfully indicated by the purple streams) and eliminate them.
While Mechtoids do not explode for damage, a Mechtoid that falls backwards in a fight it will crush cover it lands on. Be careful not to destroy your own cover in close quarters combat.
Berserker
| Appears | Level 4 |
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Berserkers can also be Squad Leaders, meaning the first Berserkers you see could have terrifying amounts of health.
Like Chryssalids and Zombies, anything you can do to slow down a Berserker will greatly reduce its threat. They now have greater DR from Hardened. They are particularly weak to psionics due to their low will. Concussing a Berserker will reduce its half-movement range to well below Concussion throw range, so is a good way to neutralize a Berserker you're not ready to kill.
Berserker Leaders have a new Overpower ability, which grants them an overpowering aura. Non-SHIV XCOM units within their line of sight perform a will test against 50% of the their will after each move or action taken. Failing this will test ends the unit's turn immediately. This can countered with psionics, either by reducing their will or causing them to panic. Additionally, the Steadfast ability grants immunity to being overpowered.
Two well placed Close Combat Specialist Assaults can also quickly make short work of even a group of Berserkers while a grenade or rocket makes them to run all at once towards the CCS trap. Beware of low ammunition shotguns.
Sectoid Commander
| Appears | Level 5 |
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Sectoid Commanders represent a substantial step up from their early game counterparts, and carry new psionic abilities as well as better statistics. Sectoid Commanders in Long War Rebalance are braver, and greatly prefer using psionic abilities over shooting, making them even more effective in their role.
Their Greater Mind Merge is now extremely powerful, granting the target +100 aim and crit in addition to the +25 will, but now has a cooldown.
They also gain the Distortion ability which distorts reality around them, making non-psionic attacks 65% less effective against them, and granting nearby allies +10 defense. In addition, Squadsight is ineffective against them.
Heavy Floater
| Appears | Level 6 |
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The Heavy Floater is improvement over the original Floater. Unlike regular Floaters, Heavy Floaters can throw grenades, and with the Bombard perk, they can throw them very far.
Alpha Units
Muton Elite
| Appears | Level 6 |
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Muton Elites are looking similar to Mutons, but with a red armor and a helmet.
They appear as pod leaders first, usually in pairs like normal Mutons, in the late game they entirely replace Mutons on missions. Care must be taken, as they have a lot of firepower at their disposal. Their heavy plasma weapons are both destructive and highly damaging, and they still benefit from Blood Call. As they appear as pod leaders, a lot of their good perks trigger earlier than they actually appear in hordes, making Muton pods very dangerous.
One using Psionics to attack them should take care too, as they gain high will and Neural Damping.
Sectopod
| Appears | Level 7 |
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Sectopods are massive mechanical war machines. Approach with extreme caution, as taking them down is extremely difficult without suffering casualties. As with all aliens, their strength and power progresses with time, making them even more dangerous as the war drags on.
By the time you encounter these units, you should hopefully be well on your way to finishing your campaign!
Ethereal
| Appears | Level 8 |
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The floating psionic leaders of the alien race are more brave than before, but usually do not pair with other Ethereals. Using a Psionic Lance attack that is based on will as well as the feared Mind Control and Rift abilities, Ethereals represent the pinnacle of psionic deadliness. Ethereals regenerate health, and although they lack the defense, Hardened and reflection capabilities they used to have, they now have the Distortion ability like Sectoid Commanders, and Overpower.