Second Wave (LWR)
In General
Second Wave options can be chosen when you start a new game. They offer simple but powerful alterations to the way the game can play.
Toggling Second Wave Options Mid-Game
If you have enabled the Dev Console, you can change second wave options mid-game by opening up the console (`) and typing the console command SetmedalpowerA followed by the second wave option you want to toggle on or off. As an example, you could type
`SetMedalPowerA 3
to toggle Predictable Potential on or off.
List of Second Wave Options
# | Name | Text | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
0 | Damage Roulette | Weapons have much wider range of damage. | Rolls damage randomization twice. |
1 | New Economy | The funding offered by individual council members is randomized. | Same as in vanilla EU. |
2 | Strict Screening | All soldier starting attributes (including unique soldiers) are fixed at the averages of soldiers' typical ranges with +5 will. | Overrides Balanced Soldiers (#31). By default soldiers will have randomized starting attributes. Selecting this option will revert to fixed starting attributes for all soldiers. |
3 | Predictable Potential | Promotion stat gains are non-random. | Replaces Hidden Potential, as that feature is now enabled by default. |
4 | Training Roulette | Each soldier's training tree will be partially randomly generated. | Does not affect MEC Troopers. Does not affect the initial preset soldiers unless Fresh Recruits (#33) is activated. |
5 | Save Scum | Loading a saved game will reset the random number seed. | Unchanged from Vanilla EW. |
6 | Predictable Damage | Damage is not randomized. Cancels out Damage Roulette (#0). | Replaces Red Fog, as that feature is now enabled by default. Red Fog can be disabled with Just a Flesh Wound (#34). |
7 | Absolutely Critical | Flanking shots receive +100 bonus (instead of +50) to critical hit chances. | Unchanged from Vanilla EW. |
8 | Not So Long War | Overall campaign length halved (as measured in number of missions, not calendar time). | |
9 | Very Long War | Overall campaign length doubled (as measured in number of missions, not calendar time). When combined with Not So Long War (#8), campaign length tripled instead. | |
10 | Results Driven | A country will offer less funding as its panic increases. | Funding ranges from 150-50% depending on panic. Starts at ~100% on Impossible. |
11 | Elite XCOM | All XCOM units gain +15% hit chance in all cases | Same as Cinematic Mode in Long War, but now provides +15 aim by default. |
12 | Air Domination | XCOM aircraft gain +100% fire rate. | Replaces Diminishing Returns. This option allows greater control over air game difficulty. |
13 | Wear and Tear | Items carried by soldiers will sometimes wear out after missions, even if the soldier isn't injured. | |
14 | Itchy Trigger Tentacle | Upon being revealed, some aliens may attempt to shoot at soldiers instead of moving or going into Overwatch on all missions. | Same as Long War. |
15 | War Weariness | Overall funding levels drop over time. | Funding drops from 130% to 40% over 18 months. |
16 | Bronzeman Mode | Allows restart of missions via Pause menu in Ironman mode. | Same as Long War. |
17 | Ease Into It | The first mission consists of only 10 sectoids. | Occurs regardless of difficulty. |
18 | Commander's Choice | You may select the class of each soldier upon promotion to specialist. | Use the cycle-soldier icons at the bottom of the class selection screen in the barracks view to rotate through the classes. For Controllers press L1/R1 or LB/RB or whatever you use to cycle soldiers. |
19 | Aiming Angles | Units receive an aim bonus the closer they are to flanking an enemy. | Same as Long War. |
20 | Mind Hates Matter | Genetically modified soldiers cannot undergo psi testing, and vice versa. | Same as Long War. |
21 | Hidden Trees | You cannot see perk options for ranks a given soldier has not attained. | |
22 | Durability | Items never need to be repaired. | |
23 | United Humanity | Exalt is inactive. Exalt troopers may still show up on some alien missions. | |
24 | The Friendly Skies | Your interceptors gain +15% hit chance during air combat. | |
25 | We Are Legion | Use 2 additional soldiers on Exalt covert op extraction and Exalt data recovery missions | |
26 | Defective Outsiders | Outsiders no longer gain attributes from the "Growth" perk. | Replaces Miracle Workers. |
27 | Gentle Aliens | Aliens lose 1 damage, 10 aim, 10 will, and 25% base HP. | Acts as a modifier to difficulty to help players better control the challenge they receive. |
28 | Hidden Chances | Enemy to-hit values will be hidden. | Replaces Perfect Information, as that feature is now enabled by default. |
29 | Recon | You will see meld cans and bomb nodes in the fog. | |
30 | Sturdier UFOs | UFOs (except fighters/destroyers) will always spawn a crash mission and never be destroyed in the air. | |
31 | Balanced Soldiers | New recruit attributes are balanced instead of fully randomized. Does not affect unique soldiers. | Similar to Long War where no recruit is clearly superior to another. Weighting of attributes: Mobility = 8, HP = 4, Aim = 2, Will = 1. |
32 | Wolverine Blood | Injury and Fatigue times are reduced by 50%. | |
33 | Fresh Recruits | Replaces the 15 intial preset soldiers with random recruits. Similar to Long War. | |
34 | Just a Flesh Wound | Turns off Red Fog. | With Red Fog, damage to units degrades their aim and will by 1-35, melee damage by 1-70%, throw range by 1-35%, flat DR by 1-50%, mobility by 1-6, and increases scatter by 1-100%. |
35 | Consistent Fatigue | Soldiers and MECs no longer receive fatigue based on the number of turns a battle takes, but base fatigue per mission is increased to 10 days. | Same as how fatigue worked in Long War. |