Shen's Last Gift DLC (XCOM2)

Shen's Last Gift is a DLC for XCOM 2. It adds a storyline mission, after which the Commander is granted the use of a new mechanical soldier class - the SPARK.

Introduction

At some point early in the campaign, Lily Shen's ROV-R Gremlin has its remote uplink activated, seemingly with her father's codes. The transmission is traced to a facility and, worried about the possibility of the Avenger's systems being compromised remotely, Bradford authorises a mission to investigate. Lily insists on going on the mission as well.

Lost Towers Mission

Lily is a required soldier in the squad that investigates the Lost Towers facility. The mission will fail if she dies. She is a specialist with high HP and Will and extremely high Hacking skill, with a range of specialist abilities from the Tech side of the tree, greatly empowered by her prototype ROV-R Gremlin. Her weapon can be selected, but she can't otherwise be given different items or armor.

The squad is dropped at the facility, where they quickly encounter derelict mechs which turn hostile upon activation. As the squad enter the facility they're taunted by a presence that is revealed to be an artificial intelligence created by Raymond Shen, named JULIAN. The AI was captured and corrupted by the aliens when humanity was defeated. After helping ADVENT to create mechs based on Raymond Shen's designs, it went insane and turned on its ADVENT controllers and took over the facility for itself. Air defences activate, making extraction impossible, and the squad is forced further in to the facility to find a solution.

The squad fights continuously spawning mechs while taking an elevator one soldier per turn to the second floor. There they encounter a chamber with a dormant mechanical soldier prototype. As Lily approaches the mech, JULIAN reveals why it lured Lily to the facility, demanding that she use her handprint authorisation to allow JULIAN to download in to the prototype in return for the squad's safe passage. Lily refuses, and instead activates the mech's original programming. A recorded message from Raymond Shen plays, informing Lily that the SPARK-01 prototype was programmed to be her guardian, to protect his true last gift to humanity - Lily.

JULIAN floods the floor with poison gas, but the SPARK seals the prototype room to protect the humans and goes out to hack the environmental controls to shut down the gas. The squad then fights through constantly spawning automated turrets to take the elevators to the roof two at a time. If the SPARK-01 is destroyed the mission fails. Luckily it's very tough.

On the roof, JULIAN makes a last bid to take possession of the SPARK by downloading in to a prototype Sectopod. JULIAN has extremely high health and armor. Derelict mechs will spawn each turn to attack the squad. Destroying JULIAN deactivates all other mechs and ends the mission immediately.

Tactical Advice

• As you might guess, the entire facility is packed with mechanical enemies, so Bluescreen rounds and EMP weapons will be incredibly effective, as will Specialists' tech abilities.
• DPS in general is very important in this mission due to the rapid spawning of many weak enemies, some of which explode in suicide attacks. Having the damage capability to kill them rapidly means more actions to focus on the objective.
  • The mechs and turrets have strong armor but low HP. Mag weaponry will usually one-shot a mech with no extra effort. Ballistic weaponry will be touch-and-go unless supplemented by AP or Bluescreen rounds.
• Lily's Combat Protocol and Capacitor Discharge are much more powerful than normal, dealing 10+ damage against mechanicals, easily one-shotting any normal mech or turret.
• Lily's high Hack also gives her a 100% chance to control any normal mech with Haywire Protocol, and very high chance of shutting JULIAN's Sectopod down for a turn (though you can't control JULIAN's Sectopod).
• SPARK-01's Shredder Gun shreds two pips of armor and its standard shots also shred, making an Overdrive from SPARK-01 a good opener on JULIAN.

SPARKs

Once the Lost Towers mission is complete, you will gain SPARK-01 as a soldier, and SPARKs will be available to build in engineering. SPARKs are tougher than normal soldiers and have standard mechanical immunity to poison and fire. They can also use heavy weapons as standard.

If you enable the DLC during a campaign already in progress, the Lost Towers mission will not spawn, but SPARKs will become available anyway after some research.