William Carter (Bureau)

Agent Carter fufils the desire of many XCOM Commanders, in that he can finally take that damn shot himself that so many (future) XCOM Soldiers will have had no business missing at so close a range. As such, the rules of engagement are slightly different for him.

Attacking

Carter actually has several methods of aiming. When standing in the open, simply firing by using the left mouse button sprays unaimed fire in the general direction that he is facing, but recoil can be more easily directed for rapid-fire weapons (though any semblance of acuracy will not be in play). By holding the right mouse button, he takes aim, and left click takes the shot: a targeting reticule will glow red when a shot is over a valid target, even an alien in full cover: if it turns red while aiming, Carter can hurt it. Lastly, weapons with scopes can offer a even more accurate shot: if you can see it's polygons, you can hurt it-- but sustained fire will push too much to compensate for. Lastly, while in cover, Carter can also do unaimed cover fire, of a similar effect to the first described "aim," but can help make aliens think twice about popping out of their cover to try to flank.

Additionally, Carter can carry up to 3 of either type of grenade (ie: 3 frag, OR 3 sticky), or with a certain perk, up to 6. Simply hold down the grenade key (default: G), and use the mouse to aim: the arc wil be shown ending in a dome, and aliens that will be hurt (assuming they don't move) within the dome will be highlighted. Do not underestimate the usefulness of grenades: either they will hit and cause damage, or they will force the aliens to scatter to avoid getting caught in the blast: that's time that they're out of cover, and not shooting at you or your agents.

Whenever firing at or targeting an alien, it's orange HP bar will be shown at the top of a screen, along with it's desgination.

Aliens with shields will also have a blue bar: As their shields are a full-body system, any hit drains them of shield energy. If it's shields are not destroyed, they will slowly regenerate. If they are, you will have a window of oppertunity to finish killing the enemy before they manage to bring up new shields. Aliens with shields tend to not have impressive HP, but often have troublesome special abilities. Bringing down their shields often staggers them, keeping them open to attack, so it's a priority to take out any sheilded enemy first.

Armored foes are slighly different, in that they have separate armor plates, shown in a diagram next to their HP bar. For example, the Muton has separate plates for body armor, both legs, both arms, and it's head. It's possible to focus shots on it's head, destroying it's protective helmet before doing damage ot it's HP bar, and finlly killing it, all without scratching the rest of it's armor. Since your supporting agent's aim is not as good as yours, you may want to toss a grenade (and/or use AoE attacks) to damage all of an armored enemies plates first, if you wish to command your soldiers to focuse their fire on it as well.

Defense

Carter is an expert at getting the most out of a situation, so he is safe as long as he's in cover and not being flanked (exception: grenades and AoE attacks). Familiarity with alien firing patterns, and good timing to return fire will keep Carter safe. Don't forget to hit R to reload a clip. If he is being hit, part of a 'ring' will glow red onscreen, showing where the damaging fire is coming from. If an alien grenade lands nearby enough, the ring segment will glow with a grenade icon: move quickly to get out of range of the blast. Keep in mind that Carter can move while staying in cover: if the camera POV is perpencidular to the surface of cover, he can move along it by holding A or D.

When holding up against half-cover, three additional commands appear: up and shift allows him to vault over half-cover, and continuing to hold down those keys will let you immediatley break into a sprint. Meanwhile, hitting "V" will cause Carter to take cover on the opposite side of the wall: a good quick defensive manouver if you happened to find yourself being flanked. If alongside a wall of broken cover, Carter can dash between one portion and the next by pressing "A" or "D" to go to the end of one section of cover, and hitting Shift. If there is no next portion, you can simply go into a run from it, similar to vaulting.

Lasty, when moving, hitting C has Carter do a defensive roll quick-dodge.

Keep in mind that several abilites wielded by supporting agents lend well to defensive measures: familiarity with their optimal use is ideal. If an agent is incapacitated and bleeding out, you have a limited amount of time to manouver Carter to them, and find the right spot to hit E to revive them.

And if all else fails, there's no shame in falling back to a more secure position to take a moment to reload ammo and abilities--- if you have someplace to do so.

Abilities

• Leader
  • Rank 1: Alien Exposure (Unknown Effects.) | Heal
  • Rank 2: Lift (Raise targets out of cover.) | Stamina (Increases health)
  • Rank 3: Grenadier (Doubles grenade capacity.), Medic (Recharges heal ability faster.) | none
  • Rank 4: Silacoid (Deploys a friendly Silacoid.) | none
  • Rank 5: Lift Enhancement (Makes Lifeted enemies signifcantly more vulnerable to damage.), Corrosive Fluids (Increases Silacoid damage.) | Stamina
  • Rank 6: Drone (Deploys a friendly Drone.) | None
  • Rank 7: Combat Drone (Drones deployed are combat-focused with a Lift beam.), Medic Drone (Drones deployed are support-focused with a Heal beam.) | none
  • Rank 8: Mind Control (Controls and enemy's mind, making it fight it's allies.) | Stamina
  • Rank 9: Mind Merge (Makes Mind Control targets tougher and increases their damage.), Mind Rend (Inflicts significant damage on Mind Control targets when the ability ends.) | none
  • Rank 10: Squad Morale (Reduces all damage the squad receives.), Squad Inspiration (The entire squad's abilites recharge faster.) | none