Dark Events (LW2)

Dark Events in Long War 2 come in two forms: tactical research upgrades and strategic operations. The former represent ADVENT building up the strength of its forces over time, and are permanent once applied; the latter represents the Aliens conducting operations of its own to cripple XCOM at the strategic layer, and last for a designated time frame.

Much like vanilla Dark Events, certain designated missions can be conducted to interrupt and prevent the Dark Event from occurring - but unlike vanilla, you will not be given the opportunity to do so if you do not have contact with the region the Dark Event spawns in. Since the only way to identify them is to increase your resistance network as wide as possible, it is inevitable that some Dark Events will trigger outside of your coverage regardless of how diligent of a commander you are.

Tactical Research Upgrades

Over time, the ADVENT and Alien ground forces will gain increases in combat effectiveness, as denoted by additional perks and equipment. Each upgrade applies to a limited set of enemy types, and only a certain random percentage of enemies will actually have the upgrade.

These Dark Events are permanent once triggered; this system serves as the Long War 2 equivalent of Long War 1's Alien Research, where aliens gain boosts to stats and bonus perks over time. In this case, however, the bonuses are random and tied to interruptible Dark Events, so you have a chance of encountering powerful upgrades early on or of stopping upgrades from occurring.

Tactical Dark Events
Dark Event	Units Affected	Chance	Project Requirement	Project time to complete	Weight
Scopes (+5 Aim)	All ADVENT	33%	None	21-28 days	5
Laser Sights (+10 Crit)	All ADVENT	33%	None	21-28 days	5
Firewalls (+15 Hack Def)	All Mechanicals	100%	None	21-28 days	5
Conditioning 1 (+1 HP)	All Enemies	75%	4th Month	7-9 days	100
Conditioning 2 (+1 HP)	All Enemies	75%	7th Month	7-9 days	100
Conditioning 3 (+1 HP)	All Enemies	75%	10th Month	7-9 days	100
Veterans (+5 Aim)	All Enemies	25%	None	12-15 days	5
Defense (+5 Defense)	All Enemies	33%	None	12-18 days	5
Advanced Servos (+1 Mobility)	All Enemies	60%	Encountered MEC	18-21 days	5
Aggression	ADVENT Stun Lancers (Mk3) Archons Mutons	20%	Encountered Muton	14-21 days	5
Center Mass	All enemies	16%	None	18-24 days	5
Close Combat Specialist	Archons	100%	Encountered Archon	12-16 days	5
Combat Awareness	ADVENT Sentries	50%	Encountered Sentry	14-18 days	5
Cutthroat	ADVENT Stun Lancers Faceless	67%	Encountered Stun lancer	12-16 days	5
Damage Control	ADVENT MECs ADVENT Turrets Codices Gatekeepers Sectopods	20%	Encountered Codex	14-21 days	5
Deadshot	ADVENT Avatars (Mk3) Vipers, Najas, & Sidewinders	50%
Hard Target	Archons Codices Vipers, & Sidewinders	25%	Encountered Viper	14-21 days	5
Hunter's Instincts	Vipers, Najas, Sidewinders, Avatars	33%	Encountered Viper	14-18 days	5
Infighter	ADVENT Stun Lancers ADVENT Avatars	50%	Encountered Stun lancer	8-10 days	5
Iron Skin	All Robotic Enemies	100%	Encountered MEC	12-16 days	5
Formidable	ADVENT Officers ADVENT Grenadiers ADVENT Avatars (Mk3) ADVENT Rocketeers (Mk2, Mk3) ADVENT Shieldbearers (Mk2, Mk3) Mutons (Mk2, Mk3)	15%	Encountered Mk2 Officer	12-21 days	5
Grazing Fire	ADVENT Officers (Mk3) ADVENT Gunners ADVENT Avatars ADVENT Sentries (Mk3) ADVENT Troopers (Mk3) Mutons (Mk3)	25%	None	18-21 days	5
Lethal	All Aliens	8%	Encountered Gatekeeper	18-21 days	5
Lightning Reflexes	ADVENT Avatars ADVENT Stun Lancers	20%	Encountered Stun lancer	14-18 days	5
Resilience	Codices	100%	Encountered Codex	10-14 days	5
Sapper	ADVENT Officers (Mk3) Mutons	25%	Encountered Muton	12-15 days	5
Shadowstep	Codices	100%	Encountered Codex	14-21 days	5
Shredder	ADVENT Gunners ADVENT Avatars Mutons (Mk3)	15%	Encountered Mk2 Officer	14-18 days	5
Tactical Sense	ADVENT Officers	50%	Encountered Mk2 Officer	18-21 days	5
Will to Survive	Sectoids Vipers, Najas & Sidewinders	15%	None	14-21 days	5
Viper Rounds	All Advent	12%	None
Greater Faceless (+4 HP, +2 Mobility, +5 Aim, +5 Def)	Faceless	75%	Encountered Faceless	10-14 days	5

Strategic Operations

ADVENT will attempt to place severe limitations on XCOM operations at the strategic level, in much the same way that many Dark Events functioned in vanilla. Fortunately, while they are crippling, they are of limited duration.

Strategic Dark Events
Dark Event	Description	Duration	Project time to complete	Weight
Air Patrols	Halves the Avenger's contribution to activity detection	21-28 days	8-15 days	5
Rural Checkpoints	Reduces haven supply gathering by 50%	14-16 days	10-15 days	5
Counterintelligence Sweep	Reduces haven intel gathering by 50%	14-16 days	12-16 days	5
Rural Propaganda Blitz	Reduces haven recruiting by 50%	14-16 days	14-16 days	5
Haven Infiltration	Doubles chance of new rebels being faceless	45-60 days	10-15 days	5
Minor Breakthrough	Adds one doom to Avatar Project		15-20 days
Major Breakthrough	Adds two doom to Avatar Project
Midnight Raids	Doubles cost of new recruits
Alien Cypher	Increases intel costs by 33% (25% on Rookie)
Resistance Informant	Reduces detection chance for haven retaliations by 90%	21-28 days
Alien Infiltrator	Adds Faceless to missions
Infestation	Adds Chryssalids to missions
Rapid Response	Reinforcements arrive more often in missions
Vigilance	Enemies have increased detection range
Show of Force	Increases the number of enemies in missions