Other Abilities (LWR)

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Accuracy Cap

Critical hit chance (otherwise known as 'Crit') is capped at the current hit chance. This means that a soldier with 100 crit and a 1% chance to hit will only have a 1% chance to crit due to a -99 accuracy cap.

Berserk

If multiple non-blueshirt soldiers on XCOM's team have died or are critically wounded, all other non-SHIV members gain the ability to go Berserk. Only 1 member of the squad can berserk each turn. A unit going berserk will prevent other beginning of turn affects from occurring such as enrage, fatigued, and exhausted. Berserk will only trigger if the aliens could see an XCOM unit at the beginning of their last turn.

Chance to Berserk = 0.5% x # of dead x # of enemies in vision

A berserked unit will enter an enraged state, reload if their ammo isn't full, may move towards the nearest enemy, may fire a shot (at +100 aim), and after done, will still be enraged with 2APs ready to go.

Bleed Out

XCOM soldiers and MECs uniquely will sometimes not die when their HP would be reduced below 1. Instead they will become critically wounded and begin to Bleed Out for 2-4 turns (turns can be increased with a respirator implant or the Dual Heart gene mod). At the start of each XCOM turn the timer is reduced, so often a 2 turn bleed out will only give XCOM 1 turn to react.

The chance that a soldier will receive a critical wound and bleed out (instead of just dying) is as follows:

Bleed Out Chance = 10 x [Max_Base_HP - Overkill_Damage]

Max_Base_HP is the natural max HP the character has without any armor or items. The overkill damage is how much damage the soldier received beyond 0. The Bleed Out Chance is clamped between 0% and 90%.

A soldier with the DualHeart gene mod will always bleed out the first time his health reaches 0 each battle.

While Bleeding Out, a soldier can be stabilized (preventing death) by a unit with a medikit or revived (return to battle with 33% HP and 1 AP) by a medic with both a medikit and the Savior perk. If a soldier's Bleed Out Timer expires, the soldier will die.

The Bleed Out Timer is normally invisible but is visible if the unit bleeding out has a respirator implant.

If the mission ends in a victory, any soldier bleeding out or stabilized will survive.

If the mission is abandoned, only soldiers bleeding out or stabilized in the drop zone will survive.

If the bleeding out soldier has a medikit, another soldier can use it to stabilize or revive them by moving within two tiles and pressing J.

Combat Readiness

When an XCOM unit ends the turn with an action point remaining it activates Combat Readiness:

+10 aim, +5 def, +0.6 mobility, +10% graze chance, and -10% rocket scatter until the end of the unit's next turn

Units that lose their steadied weapon because they can't see any enemies at the beginning or end of their turn will gain the Combat Readiness bonus.

Combat Readiness has no perk associated with it, but you can tell which units have the buff if you check their details (F1) or check their base HP color (it turns a lighter shade).

Concussive Blast

All explosive damage has the following effects:

1) Clears overwatch

2) Chance to disorient equal to half the percent of base HP lost

Corrosion

Acid grenades, acid spit, and certain melee attacks can apply the Corrosion effect:

Disables passive healing, strips 1 + 20% of armor HP at start of turn, -20% aim, -20% mobility, and -50% range for AoE attacks; lasts 4 turns

The only way to remove corrosion is through the use of a medikit. SHIVs cannot have corrosion removed from them before it expires or the mission ends.

Dash

When a unit (alien or XCOM) spends both AP points to move at the same time (a 'yellow' move) this is called dashing and increases movement by 20% (40% with the sprinter perk). Thus, a unit that dashes will be able to cover 2.4x it's mobility in tiles.

As well, when dashing, units will have 30 more defense against reaction fire.

Defuse

This ability is available to all soldiers. It allows them to defuse bombs. This ability will Hunker the soldier as he/she defuses the bomb. At the beginning of their next turn they will finish defusing the bomb at the cost of all of their AP.

Disoriented

Units hit by concussion grenades will become Disoriented:

Cancels overwatch and suppression, -30 defense, -30 will, -60 aim, -60% mobility/ability range, -60% melee damage, +60% scatter, lasts through 1 enemy turn

End-in-Idle

An end-in-idle action is any action where the unit that performs the action is Idle after the action. See Idle for more information.

Enrage

If multiple non-blueshirt soldiers on XCOM's team have died or are critically wounded, all other non-SHIV members gain the ability to Enrage. Berserk will only trigger if the aliens could see an XCOM unit at the beginning of their last turn.

Chance to Enrage = 2% x # of dead x # of enemies in vision

An enraged soldier:

- Deals +100% weapon damage

- Gains +100% mobility

- Gains +100% throw range

- Is immune to triggering non-suppression reaction fire

- Is immune to panic

Enraged soldiers can be identified because their AP pips will have turned red.

Elevated Position

Units at a higher altitude then an enemy receive the following benefits:

+5 aim and defense per tile higher (Capped at +30 aim and defense)

Note: Flying units receive the max (+30) defense bonus regardless of their height relative an enemy

Fatigued and Exhausted

Soldiers who enter a mission with fatigue may suffer a loss of APs (Action Points) at the beginning of each their turns:

Status	Effect	Chance (Modified by Campaign Length)	Notes
Fatigued	1 AP loss	1% per day of fatigue	Will not occur if Stimmed or Psi Inspired
Exhausted	2 AP loss	0.1% per day of fatigue	Will not occur if Stimmed or Psi Inspired

A NSLW game would decrease the chance per day of fatigue for fatigued/exhausted to trigger to 0.5%/0.05%.

A VLW game would increase the chance per day of fatigue for fatigued/exhausted to trigger to 2%/0.2%.

A ELW game would decrease the chance per day of fatigue for fatigued/exhausted to trigger to 4%/0.4%.

Flat DR

Any unit that has any Flat Damage Resistance (represented by grey pips on their HP bar) will have it reduced as their HP declines. Specifically, their Flat DR will be proportionally reduced as their total HP declines, from max flat DR at 100% HP reaching down to 0 flat DR at 0% HP.

This is not to be confused with % DR (represented by a grey shield to the left of their HP bar).

This is not to be confused with red fog which only kicks in when the unit has lost base HP and can be removed with certain abilities.

Flight

Soldiers with the Archangel or Seraph armors and Hover SHIVs have the Flight ability and a set amount of fuel to power the ability.

Flight consumes 1 fuel per turn while active. Toggling flight on or moving also consumes a fuel.

Units that are flying have their mobility set to 8.6, regardless of what their mobility was on the ground.

Warning: If the pilot is still hovering at 0 fuel they will be forced to land (and may land in a bad location).

Grapple

Units with certain light armors gain the grapple ability. Using the Grapple requires to unit to have 2 AP, costs 1 AP, and can propel the soldier up to 15 tiles. Each armor with the grapple ability grants unlimited uses during a battle.

Graze

Any attack that Grazes will deal 50% less damage. This occurs before any damage reduction is taken into consideration (it is a target modifier in the damage calculation process).

Some abilities turn shots into grazes (Advanced Perception, Brawler, Body Shield, Ever Vigilant), some melee attacks into grazes (Brawler, Chitin Plating), and some any damage into grazes (Combat Readiness, Repulsor Plating).

Hack

This ability is available to all covert operatives. It allows them to Hack Exalt data relays. This ability will Hunker the covert operative as he/she hacks the relay. At the beginning of their next turn they will finish the hack at the cost of all of their AP.

Once the Hack begins, all Exalt on the map will have their gunlinks scrambled -- they will be unable to use their primary weapon until they install new gunlinks. After the Hack the covert operative will also recover sensitive Exalt information from the relay.

Healing

Multiple healing abilities cause units to heal back lost HP. Some heal a unit a set amount of HP (e.g. +2 HP) and some heal a unit a portion of their lost HP up to a max (e.g. 50% of the unit's lost HP up to a max of 4 HP).

All healing abilities will always heal a minimum of 1 HP and capped by the unit's max HP. A few healing abilities will be capped instead by the units max base HP and this will be specifically stated in the abilities description.

Hidden

Various abilities can cause a unit to become hidden. They all work slightly differently but all share the similarity in that they cannot be targeted by the opposition and grants +30% crit.

Hunter (Jaeger) = Cloak: breaks on any non-movement action and end of turn

Stealth (Seeker) = Stealth: breaks on action

Concealment (Scout) = Concealed: breaks on any flank, any non-movement action, beginning of turn, any movement when aliens are in sight

Ghost Mode (Ghost Armor) = Ghosted: breaks at beginning of turn (but can be reactivated), breaks on non-movement actions

Shadowed (Shadow Device) = Shadowed: Breaks on any action and beginning of turn

Holo Target

Units that have been fired at by a weapon with Holo Rounds will become Holo Targeted:

Prevents concealment/stealth and grants +20 aim and +1 penetration to all shots at this unit for the next 3 turns

Home Ground

Units that are fighting in their home country gain the Home Ground bonus:

+10 will and +0.6 mobility

Hunker Down

Any biosoldier in cover can Hunker Down:

+50% DR from cover, x2 defense from cover, -50% chance to be hit by psionic attacks, lose all vision, ends the unit's turn

Hunkered units will have their base HP color turn grey.

Idle

Certain abilities vary based on whether or not a unit is idle. Being idle requires the soldier to be doing nothing that could be occupying their attention.

The following abilities cause a unit to NOT be idle:

Being suppressed, suppressing, stunned, maimed, steadying, overwatching, panicking, strangling, being strangled, hunkering

Low Hit Chances

In order to properly reflect a reasonable hit chance, while still keeping hit chance calculations as simple as aim minus defense equals hit chance, hit chances below 20% are tapered by half, and those below 10% are tapered again but by 80%. The result is that a shot that would have a 0% chance to hit (based on aim minus defense) would instead have a 10% chance to hit and you would need a calculated hit chance of -100% to reach an actual hit chance of 1%. Chances that have been tapered by half will be colored orange beside the 'to hit' in the F1 info screen. Chances that have been tapered by 80% will be colored red beside the 'to hit' in the F1 info screen.

The actual formula is:

if(iToHit < 20)
  iToHit += 0.5 * (20 - float(iToHit));
if(iToHit < 10)
  iToHit += 0.8 * (10 - float(iToHit)) ;

Note: All final hit chances are still clamped between 1 and 100.

Maim

All sidearms have the Maim ability:

Fire 2 shots at -20 aim that deal 1 damage each where any hits against a biologic target with 1 HP will Maim the target instead of dealing damage

Stun rifles will also Maim targets under 50% HP on a failed stun.

Any target that is Maimed will:

Skip the next turn and disable reactive abilities (e.g. Close Combat Specialist, Reactive Targeting Sensors, Overwatch)

Overload

Weapons with the Overload ability upgrade standard shots to have a chance to disorient mechanical units equal to 3x the percent of total HP they lost.

Overwatch

Overwatch can only be triggered if the unit has an enemy in sight. Using overwatch will overwatch all units currently in Line of Sight. Overwatching units will fire a reaction shot against any unit that was overwatched and that acts tile. Units on overwatch are 30% more likely to be critically hit.

Note: The act of going on overwatch triggers a single reaction shot (as opposed to all potential reaction shots).

Being hit by an explosive (Concussive Blast) or moving (from, for example, flush) will clear a unit's overwatch status.

Overwatch Indicators

The HUD icons for aliens will reveal who is overwatching you. A target icon appears at the top right of their alien head in the bottom right of the screen.

Aliens will have a red eye icon above their soldier/pawn if they are on overwatch. The eye will be teal for XCOM.

Allies that are in danger of triggering a reaction shot will have a red target icon just to the right of their HP. If they have a cover shield it will overlap the top right of the cover shield.

Panic

All panicked units have an 50% chance to recover each turn. If they are going to recover, they will receive a popup saying they are Regaining Control; otherwise they will remain panicking. A single panic will last a maximum of 4 turns.

There is a 2% chance that any panicked unit will recover immediately.

Specific abilities can directly cause panic (e.g. Intimidate, Psi Panic), but all Human units can also panic from taking damage or seeing their squad mates take damage. Exalt will panic less than XCOM and have only a 30% chance of triggering a panic roll when one of their panic events trigger.

Exalt Chances to Panic:

• 30% chance if they are hit for more than 30% of their remaining health (20 will test)
• 30% chance if a squad mate in vision dies (20 will test)
• 30% chance if a squad leader in vision dies (40 will test)

XCOM Chances to Panic:

• They are hit for more than 50% of their remaining health (30 will test)
• A squad mate in vision panics (0 will test)

Pin Point Accuracy

Whenever a shot has over 100% hit chance, half of the amount over 100 is added to the critical hit chance and is called Pinpoint Accuracy. It represents a soldier being so accurate that they are more likely to land a critical hit.

Point Blank

If two units are within 1 tile of each other but still protected by cover, they will gain a Point Blank bonus which will bypass many of the benefits of cover (even though they are technically not flanking).

Units at Point Blank will:

Bypass cover defense, bypass cover DR, and gain an crit bonus as if their target was exposed

This acts similar to if they were actually flanked. This does not, however, negate any perks or abilities that work when the target is protected by cover (as the target is still protected by cover).

Reaction Fire

Reaction fire is any shot that occurs when it is not that unit's turn (Eg: Overwatch).

Basic reaction fire has 2 properties different than normal fire:

It bypasses 50% of cover defense and 50% of cover damage resistance

It cannot crit

Reaction fire will trigger when a unit acts (uses any ability or moves >1 tile) and the firing soldier has a hit chance of 30 or higher.

Certain actions are quick enough that they won't trigger reaction fire, this includes:

Steady Weapon, Reload, Hunker Down, One For All

Suppression reaction fire will fire regardless of hit chance or action type.

Targets that trigger reaction fire when moving will be treated as uncovered.

Reaction fire can be upgraded with:

• Opportunist: Reaction shots can crit and gain +10 aim

Reaction fire will occur before the triggering unit has completed its action or movement. Unit's that take damage from reaction fire will have less stats when they go to complete their action. For example, using a psionic attack will have a lower hit chance if the unit took damage from a reaction shot and lost will due to red fog. However, hit chance of shots, target locations, and scatter are all calculated before any reaction fire and thus will not be affected by any damage taken before the action (unless, of course, the damage is fatal).

Reaction fire will not occur from or against units that are hidden (concealed, stealthed, shadowed, ghosted, or cloaked).

All reaction fire that damages a target has a chance to Stagger the target.

Red Fog

Damage to a unit's base HP causes Red Fog which:

Lowers aim and will by 1-35
Lowers melee damage by 1-70%
Lowers throw range by 1-35%
Lowers mobility by 0.6-4.0
Increases scatter by 1-100%

The amount of each of the maluses are directly proportional to % base HP lost. Damage to a unit's armor HP has no effect on red fog.

The second wave option Just a Flesh Wound turns red fog off.

Reload

Grants full ammo to the active weapon. Does not trigger reaction fire.

Scamper

Both XCOM and Aliens have the ability to Scamper when they first see each other.

Alien Scamper

When an alien pod is revealed all the aliens in the pod will move to more ideal positions (e.g. moving to cover) and will sometimes activate overwatch and/or a deflection shield.

If an enemy is currently engaged, new enemies that are revealed may be caught Off Guard and will not be able to Scamper. There is a 10% chance per each enemy engaged for new pods to be Off Guard. If a pod is Off Guard and there were more than 5 enemies engaged, each enemy engaged over 5 adds an additional 10% chance for the enemy pod to be Unprepared where they will not Scamper and will start with no ammo.

An exception to this is Melee Alien (Zombies, Chryssalids, Berserkers) which can never be off guard or unprepared.

For example, if you are engaged with 8 enemies and activate a new pod, the new pod will have an 80% chance to be Off Guard and then IF they are Off Guard they will have another 30% chance to be Unprepared (for a total chance of being unprepared of 24%).

XCOM Scamper

When an XCOM unit has completed his turn (0 AP remaining) and a new alien pod is revealed, that unit will receive the ability to Scamper: it can complete a 1AP move but cannot perform any actions. This can only occur once per unit each turn and only if the XCOM unit is not active (i.e. not overwatching, steadying a weapon, etc.). If XCOM has only 1 active soldier remaining they will lose the ability to scamper.

A known bug is that upon reloading a save game in the middle of a tactical battle, the game forgets if any units have already scampered and upon revealing another pod they will be able to scamper again.

Shaken

Every soldier that dies will Shaken the remaining soldiers, lowering their will by 5 for each death witnessed. Psi Inspiration can clear this effect.

Shred

Some weapons can Shred enemies. This means they will take extra damage from all regular sources.

Shredded: Damage received is increased by x% (where x is 20 + shred damage dealt) for the remainder of the battle.

Note that additional shred damage is calculated based off of damage dealt, not damage taken, so damage resistance do not modify the amount of shred applied.

Smoke (In Smoke)

To see the effects of being In Smoke click here:

Cover and Smoke

Stagger

All reaction fire that damages a target has a chance to deplete the targets remaining AP equal to twice the percent of max HP the target lost when it was hit.

% Chance to Stagger = 200 x Damage Dealt / Target's Max HP

Does not effect melee-only units (zombies, chryssalids, and muton berserkers).

Steady Weapon

Steadying a weapon grants the following:

Steadied shots taken at 2AP: Gain +50 aim and +2 penetration
Steadied shots taken at 1AP: Gain +35 aim and +1 penetration
Reduces rocket scatter by 50%

Units steadying a weapon are 30% more likely to be critically hit.

Steady is lost if unit acts, moves, is suppressed, is hit, or changes weapons. Steady is converted into Combat Readiness if unit can't see any enemies at the beginning or end of a turn.

Steady is only available if the unit can see an enemy.

Steadying a weapon does not trigger enemy reaction fire.

Stimmed

Units that use a Combat Stim on themselves will receive the Stimmed buff:

+2 regeneration, +1.3 mobility, +10 aim, +15 will, immunity to fatigued/exhausted, resists 50% of overpower, and 20% DR, lasts through 4 enemy turns

Stun

The stun rifle can be used to attempt to Stun autopsied biologic aliens (except for chryssalids). Stunned aliens can be brought home in stored in Alien Containment facilities for interrogations.

The stun rifle will always hit but the chance to stun will never be 100%. The chance is higher if the target is lower in HP.

Targets at or below half of their health will be Maimed if the stun fails.

Suppression

Targets that are hit with suppression will receive the Suppression effect:

Cannot use reaction fire, -35 aim, -35% mobility/ability range

At the start of their turn, Suppressed targets become Pinned if they are protected by cover, or take Suppressive Fire damage if they are not protected by cover.

Pinned means the unit will lose 1 AP.

Suppressive Fire

Suppressive Fire damage is equal to 30% of the the regular shot damage from the suppressing unit.

Units with the Mayhem perk can apply additional Suppressive Fire damage immediately when suppressing.

Units with the Danger Zone perk will apply Suppressive Fire to an area (at 50% damage) as well as the primary target (at 100% damage).