A Stupidly Splendid Strategy to DOMINATE XCOM 2 (WOTC) on any Difficulty. (Mission Playthrough)
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- čas přidán 25. 09. 2022
- Full in-depth tutorial video: • The Strongest Unit in ...
Written tutorial: / the_strongest_unit_in_...
XCOM 2 (WOTC) is a game that tries frequently to corner you into making a choice that you'll soon come to regret. It uses the fear of this choice to steer you through nearly every aspect of the game. However, I have developed a mission strategy that uses one soldier to upend that entire pattern and annihilate everything that the game throws at you in the process. Without exaggeration, this is the cornerstone of the strongest squad in the game, and the essence of dominance. - Hry
Mother of God... I take back everything bad I ever said about Skirmishers.
It's all forgiven. They certainly don't make their brilliance obvious.
Ngl it's amazing to the skirmisher actually be what's advertised, the badass main character taking on a entire army in literal form...
I usually neglect skirmishers, and use them for covert ops duty eating all the random stats purely because I am not skilled enough to have my good units be out doing ops...
This rattles my brain and every XCOM instinct I have, and I love it. What a redemption arc for Return Fire! I've beaten L/I about 5 times now, and you've literally made the game feel like new for me again
Thank you for your comments. I hope it precipitates a 6th time for you as well!
Absolutely incredible. Your presentation and pacing as a commentator is top tier too.
I'd love to watch a playthrough of yours that tries to use this as strategy as much as possible and as earlier as possible in campaigns. Just to find out when this strategy is possible or isn't based on available skills/equipment ect!
I have plans to do something similar to that, just need a bit of time to get it going. Definitely stay tuned!
I agree
22:22 The Storm RAGES ON!! 😂😂😂
She Loves Bladestorm. Insaneously Funny! 😂
I'm playing the xcom series since the very first game. I just found your video a few days ago. They are really good and insightful. Even veterans like me can learn new things. I'll try your strategies on my next wotc campaign. You definitely deserve more subs. Keep up the good work.
Thank you for saying so. CZcams is something I try to fit in amongst the normal chaos of life, but I am going to try to sincerely make content that people will benefit from in some way. I hope your future campaign goes well!
I really enjoyed this. Subscribed!
I'm very glad that you did... and thank you. Genuinely appreciate it.
Got a LIKE and a SUB for how well this was done. Normally this would be an "Oh C**p" moment but seeing this strategy working this well, was very inspiring. Nicely done.
Very nice and I am going to start doing this much more. Thanks for showing me this.
This was fun to watch. Thanks for posting.
This is so good. Absolutely going to do this in my next run. Love it!
Please do! Let me know how it goes for you!
Made the weakest class turn into the strongest (medic), a joy to watch
Thank you for watching. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Give the medic a spider suit and a bolt caster, have good positioning and the class is pretty good.
templar is worse by far
@@jordonlegge9819yeah I think so
@@jordonlegge9819I still have no idea how to use Templar. But I freaking love the Skirmisher. Holy hell ppls sleep on him alot
Great showcase and presentation. A++
Loved it. Nobody in this community makes such in-depth strategy guide 🙇♂️🙇♂️🙇♂️
Thank you! I appreciate you watching and commenting as such.
Once I discovered how OP Rangers were with Bladestorm, Specialists with Guardian and Threat Assessment, and Skirmishers with their unique attacks and mobility, I have used all three in every game. But I never imagined to stack them this way, nor that Hunker Down stacked defense like that (I always assumed Hunker Down just turned any half cover into full cover.)
It's synthesizing all these together that makes this strategy so special.
Of course, it seems to be solely for late game, so you have quite a bit of game to go through to get here, if I'm not mistaken.
Skirmishers are truly the Battelords once you have the correct Synergy within its moves. It, if used and supported properly, decimates entire enemies on a single mission.
Brilliant! Strategy, presentation, dry humor, I wish all "tutorial" videos were done this way.
I've been playing XCom from the very start in the 90s on my first computer and despite my best intentions every single playthrough over the decades has devolved into save scumming. Even in late game when it becomes unneccessary, I'm so used to frequent reloads that I cannot help myself and do it, to get the optimal positioning/number of successful attacks/hacks per turn... That is why I never felt the urge to go Legendary or Ironman, because it just piles on the frustration. Plus for me a typical playthrough takes forever. To intentionally activate as many pods as possible is most rewarding for me, because of the shere amount of effort to attempt NOT to activate the pod around the next corner when the squad only has 2 remaining actions left!
I've recently revisited the game series with XCom (Enemy Within) and I'm now 80% through my vanilla XCom 2 campaign. I was resigned to putting the franchise back into cold storage, but this strategy will see me attempt Legendary Ironman with all DLC and expect the Skirmisher to drag me kicking and screaming to the very end of Advent! And I plan to check if I can use the defense stat in my current game to alleviate some frustration, too.
Thanks 👍
Oh, and by the way: loved the intro into the video and because I watched you other video first and knew what was "coming", I got a serious Dead Pool vibe from your masked squad member in white (who it turns out wasn't even the Skirmisher!). Honestly: your strategy makes a Skirmisher essentially into Dead Pool or Wolverine. He gets sliced and diced, burned and shot at, but shrugs it all of to take waves of enemies apart... Medics make him a comic book super hero!
Out of the box thinking. Luv it
Wow, I absolutely have to try this out! I'm surprised Spectres aren't a problem here; I thought they'd immediately go for Shadowbind like they usually do. It seems they just take regular shots if they don't see any other units.
They occasionally do use shadowbound on the skirmisher. However, the specialists can fix that through the application of resurrection protocol on the following turn. The net effect is that it causes no harm whatsoever.
Does a ressurected skirmisher still have hunker down?@@thereddestofgoats3640
Now, THIS is how you are meant to use the Skirmisher…
Fun! I dont have WOTC yet, though it's on sale now and wondering if it's advisable to get the Tactical Legacy pack too?
Skirmishes are op. My advent captain looking chick one goes ham.
I know I already commented but damn that was so good!
Do you have two skirmishes at this level so you can keep this strategy going mission to mission or do you use this just as a rest for the dream team to be ready for timed missions?
I do have two skirmishers at that level, but I'll also rotate in conventional squads (ranger heavy units) whenever I feel that the mission parameters are more in alignment with their skillset. Depending on how busy the month has been, some of the units may also need to rest from a willpower perspective. I'm familiar enough with the strategy that I can run in effectively in every scenario, but I always recommend that people play it safe while they're first learning it since it goes so very counter to convention.
@@thereddestofgoats3640 That makes sense, thanks for the detailed response so I don't get rolled the first time I try it. Appreciate it!!
@@brodyatkin3681 No problem whatsoever. I really hope your playthrough goes well!
beautiful
(heavy French accent) Such marvelous smelly cheese! (chef's kiss)
Loved this video, you have a new sub my friend
Thank you so very much. You are a man of such fine taste. (Twists the corner of my thin mustache)
Are you planning on making more content, or just did this to share this cool strategy?
Absolutely planning more content, but as I work full-time, the schedule for such things will be more sporadic and reliant upon when I'm able to record and edit it accordingly.
Amazing - the most I got from the Skirmisher was having them swing around almost the entire level picking up all the loot crates in 1 player & enemy turn!
I missed a bit though, why wasn't Return Fire activating?
Because of a few potential reasons I theorize. Either he's out of range of the enemy with his bullpup... or more likely than anything.... it's just busted ol' XCOM... If all of these abilities activated perfectly the killing would be vastly accelerated.
@@thereddestofgoats3640 ah OK, I was expected him to be blasting and slashing away like some 80s action movie!
@@LesterUnlimited In some missions I've had it fully activate. And it's glorious. But nothing is more reliable than retribution. I've gotten nearly 10 kills on a turn with that before. The good news is, since you'll likely never die, it isn't tremendously impacting that it doesn't trigger every time.
Amazing strategy and very well explained. But is it really fun to play that way? Because the most of the time you are waiting for the alien pods to do their thing and the xcom turns can be repetitive right? How this strategy behaves in another type of missions like timed missions.
Fun is in the eye of the beholder. Personally I find it enjoyable, but as I'm the progenitor of sorts, I'm biased and have enjoyed testing it in all manner of situations.
For other players that appreciate cheese, variation, dominance, or just weird things... they'll likely enjoy it too. However, I never recommend it as a replacement for playing with conventional tactics, because the true joy of the game is in the challenge therein.
For timed missions it does very well, but I wholeheartedly recommend players that are new to it to play with it on untimed missions until they're very familiar with its nuances. Because it represents an overwhelming departure from convention and thus can get them into trouble if they don't understand the timing constraints imposed on every turn.
@@thereddestofgoats3640 thanks for the answer! obviously I will try the strategy, it is the minimum. You have any mod installed that is needed for this strategy to work? (Your comment is duplicated by the way)
No mods needed. That's one of the key elements I enjoy about it... it's assembled largely from unused table scraps of the base (WOTC) game. Lemme know how it goes for you if you get a chance. Good luck!
You have inspired me to use my conel ranger in a more aggressive way utilising the specialist ability though
Running the chosen assassins sword
And using the reaper ability
To kill 1 targets place my self in hunker down next to a another target for the close quarter over watch on their turn
With the untouchable perk for afree miss makes the ranger incredibly dangerous
Only wish she had return fire 😢
Would of been sick
I play XCOM for these moments 8:54 getting flanked is also quite a funny one. Car explosions from overwatches, fall damage.
2 Hedgehog Skirmishers and 4 Medics? Seems a fine strategy I'd love to see how long they fare an endless lost horde.
The Pacer Gram Fitness Test dont have shit on this, 10/10.
Lol... I like your comparison.
Can i Replicate this strat at early stage of the game ?
Does a mindshield stop shadowbound? I notice you ignored the Assassin’s katana strike and Harbor Wave, so assuming you are using a mind shield.
Yes, I do use a mind shield. I go over optimal equipment for this build in my other video.
Mind shield does not protect against shadowbound, but every specialist can use revive protocol to wake him up without any issue.
Also, when the skirmisher is far away from the other units, the AI seldom initiates shadowbound, instead choosing to attack with the spectres over 95% of the time.
Before i saw this strategy I thought that the skirmisher was really interesting in design, but in reality it didn’t seem very good because you never want your solder to be attacked at all. I didn’t think that stacking defense and using return fire would be an effective strategy. I guess i was wrong.
Honestly you don't need all that much, a single spec can do a lot and makes missions much safer even early on (legend). I have a plan B that involves doing this, stacking aid + hunker down on a conveniently exposed unit, creating a makeshift, cooldown based mimic beacon. It's not a guarantee to miss everything and being targeted by all units, but if it does mitigate a few shots, its job is done.
Sure it takes three actions in total, but throwing a beacon takes two.(well, you can blue move, but) Even taking three it beats losing a unit altogether, panicking another... That's how squadwipes start, and one or two wounded units is better than a wipe and failed mission.
I usually bring two mimic beacons along and count on alternating with the cooldown of aid protocol if I'm anticipating really heavy combat.
Sometimes it's hard to avoid pulling multiple pods, you might run into a Ruler or something, reinforcements drop, Chosen appears... Having a plan B to these things is how you actually play tactically, I guess. Keeping numbers up and slowly taking out targets is important.
And you can still remove statuses such as unconscious, remote hack, heal, and do some damage. Not a bad class at all.
Maybe I missed it in the video, but how on earth is it that the elite specter never attempted to shadow clone your skirmisher??
They mostly prioritize shadowbound when there is a fellow soldier nearby that they can harm for having done so. That isn't to say they never shadowbound the skirmisher, but I'd say maybe 85% less than they normally would. Furthermore, even when they do, the medics immediately bring him out of it with resurrection protocol.
@@thereddestofgoats3640 Ah, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you for both the video and the response!
Just wanted to mention about the subject of chrisilids specifically from the perspective of an xcom 2 player I swear I keep hearing that everyone is terrified of chrisilids but every time i encounter a chrisilids they were less then nothing they are almost as weak as faceless but you don’t have that severe of a reaction for that kind of enemy from so many people so I suspect they are talking about xcom enemy unknown chrisilids so what the hell were they like what the fuck does those chrisilids have over there xcom 2 counterparts that can generate epic battle fantasy 3 monoliths levels of horror when they see one of those
Cause of X-Com (90's) chyrisslid's unit had twice the movement of Mid-tier soldiers, a sure hit melee attack with a status effect that turns the afflicted unit into a zombie, and then into second Chyrisslid. Oh, with explosive immunity and resistance to AP rounds.
And the look like trollish Xenomorphs. You can see why the trauma stuck around
Meanwhile Enemy Unknown cryssalids have insanely high willpower (So psionics in that game cannot protect you as the larger the willpower discrepancy the higher your chance to hit), crit resistance, enough health that you need a crit to kill one with ballistic-tier weapons, can one-shot a lot of early/midgame soldiers, frequently show up on terror missions, prioritize civilians over XCOM soldiers, move in a single action what your fastest soldier covers in a yellow move, and whenever they kill a human they create a zombie. The zombie is slow, but has lots of health and very high melee damage, and after five turns it morphs into a cryssalid. Melee attacks in Enemy Unknown also cannot miss.
Conventional wisdom for cryssalids in Enemy Unknown is you need to kill them on the turn you activate them or whatever your battle plan was is fucked even in mid-late game. They can be managed, but you really need to know what you're doing (And probably have some specialty equipment) or be so far into the game that all your soldiers fly. A lot of terror missions involving cryssalids would be extremely difficult if there wasn't an artificial limit on how many civilians the aliens can kill per turn.
Comparatively, XCOM 2 cryssalids are pathetic. Not as fast, not as tough, their reproductive system is a lot easier to interrupt, the addition of the ability to miss melee attacks and melee-armed XCOM units makes what they do less terrifying, the reduction of their base damage in favor of a special poison helps the player deal with them, the decoupling of psionic damage from enemy willpower allows easier countering, and they just don't show up very often in general.
The 90s Cryssalid is part of it, but Enemy Unknown cryssalids are a lot more recent.
So it's a complicated thing. Cryssalids in Enemy Unknown are stronger units compared to XCOM 2 cryssalids, as well as being stronger relative to the capabilities of XCOM when compared to XCOM 2 cryssalids, show up more frequently (You're basically guaranteed cryssalids on terror missions), and the basic gameplay systems of Enemy Unknown/Within are not as refined as XCOM 2's and a lot of the stuff XCOM 2 expands on happens to make cryssalids (And berserkers, and goddamn seekers) much scarier in Enemy Unknown than their counterparts in XCOM 2.
I don’t understand why the spectre isn’t a threat. Why doesn’t he shadowbind?
The spectres may have coded attack priorities that emphasize shadowbound when outnumbered, and shooting when they outnumber in close proximity.
Further, they do very rarely use shadowbound, but it is a complete non-issue because revival protocol breaks the shadowbound and returns him to normal again without any negative consequence.
@@thereddestofgoats3640 makes sense
what mods are u using?
[WOTC] Unrestricted Customization Redux
[WOTC] Capnbubs Accessories 2022
[WOTC] Alien Hunters Community Highlander v1.26.3
Still Stop Wasting My Time
Lost Autofire
robojumper's Squad Select
[WOTC] Detailed Soldier Lists
Blackmarket Usage
WOTC Male Hair Pack
WOTC Female Hair Pack
Stop Wasting My Time - WotC
Defense Matrix Sabotage Fix
Smart Overwatch All [WotC]
[Deprecated] New Promotion Screen by Default
Evac All - WotC
X2WOTCCommunityHighlander v1.26.3
[WOTC] Alien Hunters Armor Customization
[WotC] Mod Config Menu
Unrestricted Customization - Wotc
Custom Face Paints
Heresy!
😁 I'm not necessarily disagreeing, but how so in your eyes?
What's stopping vipers from tongue grabbing?
It has a percentage chance to hit as well, thus the defensive stack mitigates the likelihood of it connecting.
I see, this really reminds me of those mtg moments when people just "discover" new decks. Who knew there was a critical mass of these defensive perks that'd really have been there since WOTC came out.
@@GonzakoableThis really resonates. I had a lot of those MTG moments growing up because the buddy I played against most has a lot more money to spend on cards than I did, thus I had to figure out ways to compete with commons.
One last question, didn't hunker down cut down on the units visibility? Or am I thinking of xcom eu?
@@Gonzakoable Honestly, I have wondered this as well. I'm not certain, as I've never hunkered down, given the skirmisher an extra action from the bondmate, and then measured it. I've considered it, but never found the information vital to executing the strategy. If I ever do learn that, it would be kinda nice to know. I've theorized this may be part of Battlelord's failure to fully trigger. Good question though.
How did you find this strat?
Just thought it up upon looking at return fire and saying to myself "return fire would be pretty great if you could guarantee that they shot at you... and you survived it all."
Man why didn’t you make more?
I still intend to. Had some significant and unexpected family matters to attend to. Sadly, sometimes life throws you a big curve.
@@thereddestofgoats3640 yeah that should definitely come first, but good job on what you have
I get the strat sort of
But it cant be used all the time surely
1 hit gets u injured
The time u spend in recovery must be obsured
And the game nesses with u 2 u always get called into action 1 day before full recovery
If you watch my other video, it will go into detail about how often you can use it and how to optimize it. Basically, 2/3 of your missions can use this typically. The other 1/3 can be operated by the remainder of your strongest conventional squad members. Spending time scanning the Templar HQ can help with recovery time if need be.
@thereddestofgoats3640 cool
So why didnt u make more content u got a knack for this
Dude why do you only have two videos.
Had some unanticipated and severe family matters come up... sadly life doesn't always cooperate with my plans so it seems.
@@thereddestofgoats3640 yeah that's definitely the way of things sometimes. Sorry to hear it, I hope things get or have gotten better. ❤️
If you ever do get a chance to make more, you've got a sub waiting you.
For your first video I'm impressed that you did voiceover edits in post production. Great work my guy :D
czcams.com/video/A8CWTdge2PQ/video.html
Thank you very much. I'll be honest, prior to this I had never done any audio or video recording nor any editing of any kind. So this was pretty much my forced tutorial on which programs could even do such a thing and how to use them. A lot of trial and error... mostly error if I'm honest. 😆
"...go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead..."
Stop saying that. You'll get more likes.
🤷♂ First video ever... life be like that sometimes. I'll give it a go though.
@@thereddestofgoats3640 oh... yeah sorry man, looking back I see I said it kinda harshly. I guess I'm too used to commenting/arguing on stuff where the OP will never see it amidst a sea of people arguing : P so much of social media is kinda toxic like that, I guess it's rubbing off on me. I don't want to be like that though so: my bad.
@@kevinhutchings5241 Sincerely, I appreciate it. Not that I in any way think that you owe me an apology, but rather, I honestly value encountering anyone that is self-reflective enough to look at anything they do and have the humility to occasionally say to themselves, "Ya know... I wish I would have done that differently." It's admirable. And doubly so with someone that you don't know personally. So for whatever it is worth, I appreciate that element in you.
Only the templar can solo the entire game on legendary. Ergo, the skirmisher is weaker than the templar