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
Aggression	ADVENT Stun Lancers (Mk3) Archons Mutons	20%
Center Mass	All ADVENT Forces and Aliens	16%
Close Combat Specialist	Archons	100%
Combat Awareness	ADVENT Sentries	100%
Cutthroat	ADVENT Stun Lancers Faceless	100%
Damage Control	ADVENT MECs ADVENT Turrets Cyberus Gatekeepers Sectopods	20%
Deadshot	ADVENT Psi Witches (Mk3) Vipers, Najas, & Sidewinders	50%
Hard Target	Archons Cyberus Vipers, Najas, & Sidewinders	33%
Infighter	ADVENT Stun Lancers ADVENT Psi Witches (Mk3)	100%
Iron Skin	All Robotic Enemies	100%
Formidable	ADVENT Officers ADVENT Grenadiers ADVENT Psi Witches (Mk3) ADVENT Rocketeers (Mk2, Mk3) ADVENT Shieldbearers (Mk2, Mk3) Mutons (Mk2, Mk3)	15%
Grazing Fire	ADVENT Officers (Mk3) ADVENT Gunners ADVENT Psi Witches (Mk3) ADVENT Sentries (Mk3) ADVENT Troopers (Mk3) Mutons (Mk3)	33%
Lethal	All Aliens	8%
Lightning Reflexes	ADVENT Psi Witches (Mk3) ADVENT Stun Lancers	20%
Resilience	Cyberus	100%
Sapper	ADVENT Officers (Mk3) Mutons	25%
Shadowstep	Cyberus	100%
Shredder	ADVENT Gunners ADVENT Psi Witches (Mk3) Mutons (Mk3)	15%
Tactical Sense	ADVENT Officers ADVENT Psi Witches (Mk3)	50%
Will to Survive	Sectoids Vipers, Najas & Sidewinders	15%
Viper Rounds		25%
Template:Greater Faceless (LW2) Greater Faceless	Faceless	75%

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.

No information is available.