Suggestions for Equipping Troops (Apocalypse)

Overview

Here are some tips for equipping your troops.

Early game

If you like playing real-time action, always equip a stun grapple as your secondary weapon. Put machineguns, autocannons or whatever else you like as the main weapon and put a stun grapple in the second hand. This serves two functions. Firstly, it gives you a very strong weapon against those annoying close-combat aliens (multi-worms and poppers). Secondly, it will significantly increase your chances of capturing living aliens, something that is essential to developing toxi-guns.

Another idea is have all of your soldiers with two of the same weapon, it will increase your killing power. At first you will have worse accuracy, but it will pay off later as your soldier gets better. Have one soldier who is your 'stunner' with more stun grenades, and dual stun grapples.

Always carry several stun grenades on all your troops. Not only can you use them to capture aliens, stun gas also evaporates faster then smoke, so you can use stun grenades to clear smoke. Incendiary grenades can also be used for this purpose in a kind of rock-paper-scissors-esque fashion.

Lastly, an alien in stun gas will try to get out of the cloud and so it stops shooting at you, which is good. Each troop should always carry a medi kit, as you are bound to get hurt, and medi-kits save lives. Research and equip beam weaponry as soon as you can, since ammo is bound to run low.

Dual autocannons are exceptionally powerful in the hands of the right troopers, especially when loaded with explosive rounds, but are only viable in real-time mode due to the way weapons are handled in turn-based. In turn-based you merely lose accuracy when holding two weapons (you can't fire both at once), so it's better to have only one weapon in hand.

Mid-game

As soon as you have toxiguns, carry them on any mission where you will encounter only aliens, and don't carry other guns. Toxiguns have a high refire rate, so you can keep your other hand free for other things (like medkits), and you won't capture many energy shields without toxiguns. This also has the advantage of leaving your troops unable to harm one another if under psionic control (apart from grenades) - toxiguns don't harm humans, hybrids or androids.

As soon as you have energy shields researched, equip them. Equip other weapons you would like to use as you research them. The two kinds of alien grenade are quite usefull, and some of the other equipment is nice too.

Heavy Launchers and Mini Launchers are effective - if somewhat limited in ammunition and purpose - weapons. Use them for UFO assaults or other situations where accuracy is not your main concern; the missiles may not be blaster bombs but the do have at least some tracking. Their hefty punch can aid in softening up tightly packed UFO defenders and Megaspawn.

Late-game

Late game tactical combat is rather easy. You should have the energy shields, toxiguns, and Disruptor Armor that you need to take out the enemy easily. For combat against aliens, make sure your troops are equipped with toxiguns, plenty of the best ammo you have for them, some stun grapples to capture those few aliens you still need a live specimen of and stun grenades to take the aliens smoke advantage.

For raiding enemy buildings, you don't need energy shields if you have the Disruptor Armor. Equip your troops with dual Devastator Cannons (if for some reason you want to level the entire structure - a single dev is more than sufficient if you bother to aim), Disruptor Armor and any other weapons you would like to use. Only the heaviest of explosives or concentrated Devastator fire (which is a possibility in the later stages of the game, no matter the raid victim!) has any chance of hurting you with Disruptor Armor, so don't worry much about it.

Teleporters are almost cheating in Real Time, since they work instantaneously while the game is paused. This means you can pause at the precise moment before a projectile hits, or even while an explosive is detonating, and teleport your agent out of the way. Amazingly good.

Androids and Hybrids

Two opposites, androids are physically immensily strong compared to hybrids but the only effective psionic abilities are wielded by hybrids. Ideally, androids will have lots of extra equipment to either demolition everything or to replenish teammates supplies and hybrids travel as light as possible but with a Mind Bender even if they haven't received adequate psionic training.

Androids cannot increase their stats, however, so they should be recruited with atleast decent stats and given a fairly accurate weapons to compensate this.