EXALT Units (Long War)

EXALT units are largely unchanged from their vanilla incarnation in terms of behavior, though like Aliens, they gain progressive health, damage, and accuracy increases over time, and can also gain new perks.

EXALT personnel start out using basic ballistic weaponry equivalent to your own, but eventually upgrade to Beam Laser weapons. Unlike vanilla, EXALT's laser weapons have self-destruct dead-switch systems built in. It should be noted that if the operator is hit with a powerful electrical shock, such as the Arc Thrower, then the weapon's dead-switch is disabled, and thus it can be retrieved. This allows Commanders to augment their reserves of basic laser weapons (for arming second-line personnel) through capturing equipment if desired.

Commanders should beware that EXALT units can now spawn in alien missions later in the game, immediately given away by the regular EXALT static-filled chatter. They may also spawn as the Scout/Navigator unit for alien pods, and EXALT pods in alien missions can be led by aliens. The implications are clear; EXALT cells have begun working with the aliens openly, or the aliens are mind-controlling EXALT personnel. Either way, be careful; EXALT agents may not progress past beam laser weapons, but their elite operatives can easily boast as much health as an experienced XCOM operative in heavy armor and have a similar array of perks available.

EXALT will not do an instant and complete switch to Elite units. At first, their elites will pop up in fairly small groups, maybe one or two pods per Covert Op. Eventually, however, almost every EXALT agent on a given operation will be an Elite.

Curiously, if the EXALT base is raided before all EXALT cells have been destroyed, EXALT units that spawn later in game will be armed largely, if not exclusively, with the standard ballistic weaponry they carried when they first appeared.

Operative

Standard EXALT operative. Armed with a ballistic rifle and high-explosive grenade.

Perk List: Opportunist, Aggression, Tactical Sense, Suppression, Bring 'Em On, Lightning Reflexes, Resilience, Light 'Em Up

Elite

Armed with a laser rifle, alien grenade, and basic gene mods.

Perk List: Grenadier, Opportunist, Aggression, Lightning Reflexes, Bombardier, Resilience, Light 'Em Up, Sharpshooter, Covering Fire, Suppression, Tactical Sense

Sniper

Frequently one of the least dangerous agent types, simply because EXALT agents like to get up close and personal with the objectives - an area in which sniper rifles perform extremely poorly, especially in Long War. Expect trouble if you are running a Covert Extraction mission or there are other EXALT agents on the objective during Data Recovery, though, as snipers will be less inclined to move around and more liable to start shooting effectively.

Perk List: Sharpshooter, Low Profile, Squadsight, Aggression, Executioner, In The Zone

Elite

Elite Snipers use a beam laser sniper rifle, but are otherwise fairly unremarkable. Be wary of them when encountered during missions against the aliens; they are more capable of devastating standoff fire since they don't have a objective to rush for and will generally have very high chances to crit thanks to their perk lists.

Perk List: Squadsight, Sharpshooter, Aggression, Lone Wolf, Mayhem, In The Zone, Bring 'Em On, Combined Arms, Low Profile

Heavy

Heavily armed, EXALT's Heavy troopers present a significant threat to your units, especially since they can possess the HEAT Ammo/Warheads perk.

Perk List: Covering Fire, Grenadier, Danger Zone, Light 'Em Up, Will To Survive, HEAT Ammo, Mayhem, Javelin Rockets

Elite

Swapping their ballistic LMG for a laser model, and packing an alien grenade, Elite Heavies are even more dangerous. They also gain the Iron Skin genemod as before, reducing damage taken by 1.

Perk List: Danger Zone, Javelin Rockets, Light 'Em Up, Grenadier, Will To Survive, HEAT Ammo, Mayhem, Bombardier, Rocketeer, Tactical Sense,

Medic

EXALT medics function much the same as their regular counterpart. They can deploy smoke and heal allies.

Perk List: Covering Fire, Tactical Sense, Sprinter, Savior, Opportunist, Regeneration, Sentinel

Elite

Medics, but better. They have a wider array of perks at their disposal, on top of the Regen Pheromones genemod.

Perk List: Covering Fire, Suppression, Tactical Sense, Dense Smoke, Sprinter, Regeneration, Savior, Opportunist, Low Profile, Sentinel, Light 'Em Up

EXALT Weapons

Since the reworked tech levels/weapons use the EXALT weapon models and images for their representations, you will no longer recover their ballistic weapons: thus, you cannot equip those weapons (technically), nor sell them, nor will you receive Council requests for them.

However, stunning them does make them drop their Laser weapons (also Alien Grenades, even though text says they explode upon stun), so you may be inclined to do so to further supply your troops, given the cost and time for fabrication: of which, EXALT begins using Laser weaponry soon enough (some time after you should be), that it is a viable alternative if you are delayed/want to delay in your own production. In that, the weapons dropped are still the Laser Rife (Elite Operative and Elite Medic), Autoblaster aka Heavy Laser (Elite Heavy), and Sniper Rifle (Elite Sniper). As all of EXALT's weapons remain with those three vanilla weapon types: they do not carry, for example, the laser versions of Marksman Rifles or Heavy Rifles.

It would be prudent to make an effort to regularly stun for the Laser Rifles, as a Long War Foundry project allows the Blueshirts to equip spare Laser Rifles in the XCOM Base Defense missions: the slightly better damage, and especially the +6 to aim, makes them much better fighters.