Mechanics (LW2)

To-Hit Mechanics

The following hit mechanics in Long War 2 have been modified:

Critical chance is no longer an absolute chance

In base XCOM 2 a 10% hit and 10% critical chance would land 10% of the time, and if it hit would always be a critical. This is no longer the case.

Dodge no longer supersedes crit. (In base XCOM 2 if dodge + crit chance was greater than hit, crit chance would be removed in favor of dodge.)

Soldiers can graze even if the target has no dodge (In base XCOM 2, grazes were only possible if the target had dodge stat)

These changes apply completely symmetrically to both sides

All units will now graze if their to-hit roll is “close” to the required to hit

This is referred to as the “Graze Band.” The measure of “close” is configurable in-game, and defaults to +/- 10%.

Example 1 : Base 70% chance to hit results in 60% chance of a normal damage hit and 20% chance of a graze. The displayed to hit is 70%.

Example 2 : Base 20% chance to hit results in 10% chance of a normal damage hit and a 20% chance of a graze. The displayed to hit is 20%.

Critical Hit Chance is now a chance to “promote” the damage type. A successful critical roll will:

Promote a graze hit to a regular damage hit

Promote a regular damage hit to a critical damage hit

Dodge Stat is now a chance to “demote” the damage type. A successful dodge roll will:

Demote critical damage hit to regular damage hit

Demote a regular damage hit to a graze

Demote a graze into a miss (configurable)

Good Angle Bonus Removed

The good angle bonus of XCom 2 vanilla is removed, this bonus used to give you aim bonuses as you got closer to a flanking angle. There are no bonuses to aim and crit until you are fully flanking a target now.

Consequences:

Low % shots are generally more likely to do something, but that something results in less damage, and is very unlikely to deal critical damage

90% to-hit and above won’t entirely miss enemies (unless they have dodge)

Dodge and Crit counter each other, so a high critical chance helps counter high dodge units, while a good dodge helps protect against critical hits

When using Not Created Equally, soldiers may have negative dodge, increasing the chance hits against them will be promoted

Example 1: 90% to hit, 50% to crit

In base XCOM 2, this will result in Critical damage 50%, Normal damage 40% of the time, Miss 10% of the time.

In Long War 2, this will result in Critical damage 40% of the time, Normal damage 50% of the time, Graze damage 10% of the time.

Pre-critical results are 80% hit, 20% graze. Critical chance promotes half of the normal hits (40% of total) to critical, and half of the grazing hits (10% of total) to normal hits.

Example 2: 20% to hit, 10% to crit

In base XCOM 2, this will result in Critical damage 10% of the time, Normal damage 10% of the time, Miss 80% of the time

In Long War 2, it will result in Critical damage 1% of the time, Normal damage 11% of the time, Graze damage 18% of the time, Miss 70% of the time

Pre-critical results are 10% hit, 20% graze. Critical chance promotes one tenth of hits so 1% normal hits become critical, 2% grazing hits become normal.

Movement

How far can my operatives move with their mobility?

After all modifiers of equipment, the number of tiles in a linear direction a soldier can move become:

Mobility: (blue move/yellow move)

• 10: 6/7
• 11: 7/7
• 12: 8/8
• 13: 8/9
• 14: 9/9
• 15: 10/10
• 16: 10/11
• 17: 11/11
• 18: 12/12
• 19: 12/13
• 20: 13/13
• 21: 14/14
• 22: 14/15
• 23: 15/15

So if blue movements are most important, the movement numbers to aim for are: 12,14,15,17,18,20,21 and 23

Enemy Patrol Behavior

To truly understand how patrols in LW2 are different, it's important to understand how they were in vanilla.

In vanilla, there would always be one pod that would be stationed between XCOM and the objective. If that pod was killed, another pod would move to come between XCOM and the objective. Even if the pods were not active, they would, in a way, know where XCOM was. In similar fashion, pod patrol routes would dynamically adjust based on the location of XCOM.

These mechanics have been done away with, and the patrol zones use a fixed line-of-play based on the objective position and XCOM's original spawn point; there are no longer updates based on current XCOM position (source).

Enemy Alert Levels

In Long War 2, enemy vigilance is more complex than in vanilla.

Green Alert Mode

Green alert level is most commonly the beginning of a mission when a squad is still in concealment. Advent has no idea that XCOM has infiltrated and as such, is on low alert. A pod activated on the alien turn in this state may take defensive actions (each unit has a percentage chance that scales with difficulty) such as hunkering or overwatch on activation, but will not make any offensive moves. In other words, they will not get a chance to take a free shot at XCOM.

Yellow Alert Mode

An enemy pod at Yellow alert level is not activated yet. However, it is aware of XCOM activity in the area due to sound from rocket/grenade explosions, gun shots, yelling civilians, or by finding the corpses of dead allies. Pods at this alert level will move toward any suspicious sounds they hear. If a pod is activated on an enemy turn, they may take opportunistic shots at XCOM or perform other such actions as they scamper for cover. Patrols in yellow alert run instead of walk, and may take certain actions (such as a Sectoid reanimating a corpse) even when not activated. You can use sound to create a diversion and draw pods away if you are attempting to stealth a mission or draw pods into your overwatch traps.

See the Sounds subpage for details.

Red Alert Mode

This is an activated pod.

Skyranger Evac Delay

Several factors affect the evac delay of the Skyranger including infiltration level.

Base Delay

• Rookie: 1 turn
• Veteran: 3 turns
• Commander: 3 turns
• Legend: 4 turns

Squad Size

• 1-3 soldiers: -1 turn
• 4-7 soldiers: no change
• 8 soldiers: +1 turn
• 9-10 soldiers: +2 turns
• 11-12 soldiers: +3 turns

Infiltration

• 0-29%: +3 turns
• 30-59%: +2 turns
• 60-99%: +1 turn
• 100-149%: no change
• 150-199%: -1 turn
• 200%: -2 turns

Active Infiltrations

• 7 or more infiltration missions including the current mission: +1 turn.

Status Effects

Disoriented

Disoriented units have -25 Aim, -6 mobility, and -25 will defense, and cannot use most abilities. Disoriented units may still move, shoot, and overwatch. These effects last until the end of the next friendly turn. Disorient will break overwatch and suppression when applied to a unit currently doing those actions. If Sectoids and Gatekeepers are hit they will lose any mind controls and their Psi Zombies will be destroyed. Disorient on a mind-controlled unit will not free them.

Stunned

Stunned units cannot act. Stunning a Sectoid or Gatekeeper will release any mind controls they have active, destroying their Psi Zombies.

Burning

Burn applies a two turn damage over time and lockout of most abilities. Burning enemies will take 1-3 damage twice. They can not perform ranged attacks or use most special abilities, but can still do melee attacks.

Poisoned

Poisoned units have a -25 Aim, -4 mobility, and takes 1 damage at the start of their turn. The effect will last for 3 turns of the affected unit and end on the 4th, though there is a chance on each turn for it to end early.

Acid Burn

Applies damage over time.

Detection Range

The radius at which enemies can detect you in concealment is called the Detection Range, and this scales based on a variety of factors.

Infiltration level

At baseline 100% infiltration, enemies will have their normal detection range. At infiltration rates below 100%, the enemy will have between between x1 and x1.25 of normal detection radius (i.e up to 1/4th more); conversely, at infiltration rates above 100%, the enemy will have between x1 and x0.8334 of normal detection radius (i.e. up to 1/6th less). The effect scales linearly; for example, at 50% Infiltration, enemy detection range gets a 1/8 bonus (half the maximum bonus of 1/4).

• <100% Infiltration: Base * [1 + ((100% - Infil%) x 1/4)]
• >100% Infiltration: Base * [1 - ((Infil% - 100%) x 1/6)]