Infantry (Long War)

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Infantry

The Infantry class borrows elements from vanilla XCOM's Assault and Heavy classes. Their signature ability is Light 'Em Up, which behaves identically to the vanilla Heavy's Bullet Swarm perk.

Primary Weapon: Carbines, Assault Rifles, Battle Rifles, SMGs, Shotguns.

Secondary Weapon: Pistols, Machine pistols, Sawed-off shotgun.

Class-Limited items: None

Abilities

Rank	Ability
Specialist	Light 'Em Up Standard shots no longer end the turn, if taken as the first action.
	No other bonuses.
Lance Corporal	Steadfast Never panic as a result of getting wounded, allies panicking, allies getting wounded or killed, or the intimidation ability.	Executioner Confers +10 aim and +10 critical chance against targets at or below 50% health.	Covering Fire Allows certain reaction shots to trigger on many enemy actions, not just movement (excludes reload, overwatch, and hunker down actions).
	Provides +5 Will.	No other bonuses.	Provides +3 Aim.
Corporal	Aggression Confers +10% critical chance per enemy in sight (max +30%). Aliens visible via squadsight are not counted for bonus.	Tactical Sense Confers +5 Defense per enemy in sight (max +20).	Opportunist Eliminates the Aim penalty on reaction shots, and allows reaction shots to cause critical hits.
	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Sergeant	Ranger Confers +1 damage with primary weapons, rocket launchers, MEC secondary weapons and sidearms. Negates the long-range accuracy penalty with sidearms when shooting beyond 14 meters.	Gunslinger Confers +1 damage with sidearms and negates the long-range accuracy penalty when shooting beyond 14 meters.	Suppression Fire a barrage that pins down a target, granting Opportunist reaction fire against it if it moves. Imposes a -30 penalty to aim and reduces range of many area-of-effect attacks, including grenades. Also negates overwatch from the target while suppression is active. Lastly, enemy AI prioritizes breaking the suppression by shooting the suppressor, so it functions as a mini-taunt. Not possible with shotguns, sniper rifles, or strike rifles.
	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses
Tech Sergeant	Sharpshooter +10 critical chance in all situations, +10 Aim against enemies in full cover.	Lock N' Load Primary weapons receive one additional shot or burst before a reload is required, and you may reload your primary weapon as the first action of your turn without ending the turn.	Will to Survive Gain 1.5 Damage Reduction (DR) if in cover and not flanked.
	Provides +4 Aim.	No other bonuses.	Provides +2 Will.
Gunnery Sergeant	Extra Conditioning Confers 1-4 bonus health based on which type of armor is equipped. Heavier armor increases the bonus.	Bring 'Em On Confers 1-4 bonus damage during critical hits (which is then multiplied by 50% due to the critical hit). The damage is higher when more enemies are in view (including squad sight vision). This results in +1.5 dmg for 1-2 enemies, +3 dmg for 3-4 enemies, +4.5 dmg for 5-6 enemies, +6 dmg for 7 or more enemies.	Sentinel Allows two reaction shots during Overwatch, instead of only one.
	Provides +4 Aim, +4 Will, +1 Mobility.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Master Sergeant	Vital Point Targeting Confers 2 bonus damage with primary guns, and +1 damage with sidearms, against humans and alien targets whose species have been autopsied.	Resilience Confers immunity to critical hits.	Rapid Fire Take two shots against a single target in quick succession. Each shot carries a -15 penalty to Aim.
	Provides +2 Aim, +2 Will.	Provides +3 Will.	No other bonuses.

Stat Progression

Rank	/level	total	/level	total	/level*	total*
Specialist	1	1	4	4	5(6)	5(-6)
Lance Corporal	0	1	4	8	5(6)	10(-12)
Corporal	0	1	4	11	3(4)	13(-16)
Sergeant	1	2	4	14	3(4)	16(-20)
Tech Sergeant	0	2	3	17	3(4)	19(-24)
Gunnery Sergeant	0	2	3	21	3(4)	22(-28)
Master Sergeant	1	3	3	25	3(4)	25(-32)

• Note that even without Hidden Potential switched on there is a Random (1) Will per level. This is properly shown in brackets. Psionic soldiers receive additional random will as well.

Tactical Advice

Role: Medium Range Offense

Infantry are mid-range damage dealers. They can fire twice per turn if they don't move, which makes them excel at eliminating enemies by attrition. Because they must remain stationary to fire twice, they tend to perform best with assault rifles rather than shotguns, which are more position dependent - if you want a more mobile soldier who's designed for mobility and getting flanks, look to the Assault class. Infantrymen's ability to fire twice per turn makes them competitive with Snipers at direct damage. Due to their high fire-rate it is very important to keep an eye on the Infantry's ammunition, as it can run out very quickly.

Infantry have decent aim progression and have relatively uncomplicated builds - they have at least one talent at each rank that improves their proficiency with their primary weapon and also have a selection of defensive abilities available at each rank. The Infantry does have a powerful utility perk combination to improve overwatch in Covering Fire, Opportunist and Sentinel.

Sample Builds

Team Leader/Crit Infantry - Gene-modded direct attack build on early Infantry with balanced stats or particularly high aim, deploy with most squads on missions with low-moderate enemy counts. Also makes great officer material due to heavy reliance on primary weapon.

At Lance Cpl: Executioner for confirming kills. Periodically, you may want to grab Steadfast instead for your first officer candidate if they have low will, or for officers you plan on having babysit low-level troops.

At Corporal: Ranger for up to 2 additional damage per turn. Pistols don't deal enough damage (especially early on) to usually justify boosting for infantry, and most of your shots won't be from Overwatch.

At Sergeant: Aggression for confirming kills. OR Tactical Sense if the trooper has low mobility and thus can't always exploit full cover.

At Tech Sgt: Sharpshooter for bonus overall crit chance and for confirming kills on full-cover targets. OR Lock N' Load on early officers when you don't have many ammo upgrades, although reloading provides a great excuse to change cover!

At Gun Sgt: Bring em' On to help confirm kills when first fighting a pod. OR Extra Conditioning if you're grooming a future Field Commander officer.

At Master Sgt: Resilience for the bonus stats and protection for the officer, especially if running the combat rush genemod over secondary heart. OR Vital Point Targeting If you're happy with the infantry's movement and will and would rather increase potential damage by a further 4/turn.

Equip completed build with: Heavy Rifle weapons for bonus damage and clip size. Archangel armor (Aegis beforehand) for mobility and cover-agnosticism (getting a reliable +20% accuracy, while ensuring no melee or flanking attacks, is great!). Scope and Laser sight to counter Heavy Rifle aim penalty; situational third item if available.

No core psi talents. Take Neural Dampening (psi training impossible/undesirable on this build anyway), Depth Perception (even better flying aim), Adrenal Neurosympathy (kill things early in a fight to improve the efficiency of rest of squad), either skin mod, and Adaptive Bone Marrow (reduced wound time great for officers).

Fire Support - Overwatch Control/Support build on infantry with at least good base aim (especially those with high mobility). Deploy in squads that use a different class as the officer, on missions with large numbers of enemies expected (Transports, base assaults, terror missions, etc.).

At Lance Cpl: Covering Fire as a core perk, increasing overall aim and overwatch efficiency.

At Corporal: Opportunist as a core perk, making overwatch shots on grounded moving targets strictly better than standard shots (target doesn't get cover), and all other overwatch shots equivalent.

At Sergeant: Aggression to improve odds of a reaction shot critting. Suppression is ok if you lack other troops with good suppression builds, since you'll get a guaranteed opportunist reaction shot if the target takes any action, but very ammo intensive (2 shots for suppression, 3rd for reaction shot).

At Tech Sgt: Lock N' Load as a core perk, allowing at least two shots per turn regardless of ammo state once Sentinel is unlocked.

At Gun Sgt: Sentinel as a core perk, allowing three shots per turn when firing as first action, two shots after a move/reload.

At Master Sgt: Resilience for bonus stats, movement, and survivability. Vital Point Targeting is acceptable if you are content with your trooper's will and mobility and are ok with potentially losing them to a crit.

Equip completed build with: Heavy Rifle weapons for bonus damage and clip size (standard rifles are fine too, especially if you take vital point targeting at MSGT). Archangel for mobility/toughness (Aegis armor over Titan beforehand). SCOPE and laser sight/neural gunlink to cancel Heavy Rifle penalties or augment a standard rifle pick (latter resulting in extremely accurate reaction fire, enough to give any alien pause before trying to move). Situational third item if available.

Support/passive Psi talents recommended (Inspiration, Feedback, etc.), as you'll mostly rank up psi for the ability to safely use neural gunlink late in progression, and will be overwatching at end of most turns with enemy contact. No core gene mods, apart from one of the eye mods if available.

See also

Long War: Soldiers
	Soldiers Assault Infantry Rocketeer Gunner Sniper Scout Medic Engineer
	MEC Troopers Marauder Valkyrie Archer Goliath Jaeger Pathfinder Guardian Shogun
	Officers Psionics Gene Mods S.H.I.V.s