Shinobi (LW2)

The Shinobi serves as our primary scouting unit, using a sword to deliver stealthy close-range attacks.

• Primary: Rifle, SMG (default) or Shotgun
• Secondary: Sword

The Shinobi is closest to the vanilla Ranger class. They are specialists in stealth and short range combat.

"Saboteur" type Shinobi are pure infiltrators, skirting past even the most watchful eyes on the strategic and tactical layers of the game to ensure early warning on enemy forces before your main force encounters them, while losing out on potential squad damage each turn you choose not to break concealment.

"Kenshi" type Shinobi assassinate the enemy with their bladecraft, pure, simply, and lethally, and can slay even the most terrifying of enemies in a single strike if an ally has disoriented or stunned them, though great care must be taken to avoid brazen charges that provoke other enemy forces or leave the shinobi exposed to fatal retaliation.

The center-branch perks offer a variety of defensive and primary weapon perks, allowing a Shinobi to be built as a covert-capable light rifleman in battle (or a more defensible blade assassin). Remember that while the SMG is the weapon of choice for most Shinobi, you may find that Assault Rifles (and even sometimes shotguns) are better choices for certain direct-combat builds!

Abilities

Mouse-over for more information.

Rank	Ability
Squaddie	Phantom When the squad is revealed, this soldier remains concealed.	Fleche Attack any enemy within movement range with your sword. Deals +1 damage for every 4 tiles between your starting position and the target.	Slash Attack an adjacent target with your sword. Uses one action.
	Saboteur		Kenshi
Lance Corporal	Ghostwalker Activate this ability to reduce enemy detection range against you by 25% for the rest of your turn as well as the following turn. Four-turn cooldown.	Low Profile Makes partial cover count as full.	Cutthroat Your melee attacks against biological enemies ignore their armor, have a +15 critical chance, and do +2 critical damage.
Corporal	Shadowstep This soldier does not trigger overwatch or reaction fire.	Lone Wolf Gain +10 aim and +10 defense when 7 or more tiles distance from any ally.	Infighter Gain 25 dodge against attacks within four tiles.
Sergeant	Covert Enemies have 25% smaller detection range against you.	Hunter's Instincts Ranged attacks against flanked enemies deal +2 damage.	Blademaster All sword attacks deal +1 extra damage and have +10 Aim.
Staff Sergeant	Shadowstrike While concealed, gain +50 bonus aim and +50 bonus critical hit chance when attacking enemies.	Evasive Start each mission with 100 bonus dodge. The bonus is removed after you take damage for the first time.	Bladestorm Free sword attacks on any enemies that enter or attack from melee range.
Tech Sergeant	Conceal Immediately enter concealment once per mission.	Hard Target Gain 3 dodge per enemy you can see, up to a maximum of +30.	Coup de Grâce Sword attacks against unconscious, stunned, panicked or disoriented enemies have +50 aim, +50 crit and deal two points of additional base damage.
Gunnery Sergeant	Tradecraft This soldier has significantly reduced infiltration times while on missions.	Tactical Sense Gain 3 defense for each enemy you can see, up to a maximum of 15 defense.	Implacable If you score one or more kills on your turn, you are granted a single bonus move.
Master Sergeant	Serial A powerful chained shot ability. For every kill made with your primary weapon, your actions will be refunded but your damage and crit chance will be reduced for every subsequent attack.	Rapid Fire Fire twice in a row at an enemy. Each shot suffers an Aim penalty of -15. There is no cooldown on this ability.	Reaper A devastating chain melee attack where the first melee attack cannot miss. Each melee kill in Reaper mode grants an extra action, but further melee attacks have reduced damage.

Stat Progression

Rank	Per Level						Total
	Health	Offense	Will	Mobility	Dodge	Hacking	Health	Offense	Will	Mobility	Dodge	Hacking
Squaddie	0	2	8 - 16	0	2	5	0	2	8 - 16	0	2	5
Lance Corporal	0	2	8 - 16	0	2	5	0	4	16 - 32	0	4	10
Corporal	1	2	4 - 12	0	1	5	1	6	20 - 44	0	5	15
Sergeant	0	2	4 - 12	0	1	5	1	8	24 - 56	0	6	20
Staff Sergeant	0	2	4 - 12	0	1	5	1	10	28 - 68	0	7	25
Tech Sergeant	0	2	4 - 12	0	1	5	1	12	32 - 80	0	8	30
Gunnery Sergeant	1	2	4 - 12	0	1	5	2	14	36 - 92	0	9	35
Master Sergeant	0	2	4 - 12	0	1	5	2	16	40 - 104	0	10	40

This class also gains 1 point of strength, though it's not clear what that does.

Perk Details

• Ghostwalker reduces a solder's infiltration cost by 2%
• Tradecraft reduces a soldier's infiltration cost by 25%.
• Covert, though not mentioned in the description, reduces a soldier's infiltration cost by 5%
• Fleche calculates damage based on where the soldier started their turn, this can lead to big hits using an officer with command.
• If the shinobi has to run through fire on their Fleche path, they will not finish the attack before starting to burn. (even though the animation plays out)
• Bladestorm can trigger a Muton's Counter Attack.
• Shadowstep does not protect from a Muton's Counter Attack.

See Also

XCOM Units in Long War 2
Starting	Soldiers Assault Grenadier Gunner Ranger Sharpshooter Shinobi Specialist Technical
Unlockable	Psi Operative SPARK Officers