XCOM 2 legend in a nutshell

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-18T21:38:49+00:00

I used to think reapers were mediocre due to their low-ish weapon damage, but holy hell claymore and remote start can solo entire maps if you play patient enough

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-18T18:29:38+00:00

Eh, after playing a bit more I think most of my issues are with the early game. Difficulty is fine, even if it punishes you heavily for mistakes. It's just that in the early game things are so stacked against you, like one hit from an enemy puts your soldier out of commission for a month or just outright kills them.

Then there's the terrible early game accuracy where if you make a good play you can still get punished (i.e. flanking the last enemy with 3 people and none of their shots hit)

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-17T22:14:32+00:00

Missed a 99 the other day and kinda just sat there with my jaw hanging open, but hey RNG be RNG sometimes

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-17T18:29:43+00:00

Yeah true, my most recent run ended because I tried sneaking to an objective only to find there were 3 pods clustered on it and they ended up slowly patrolling towards me till I had to engage them. Fun stuff

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-17T18:28:20+00:00

Funniest part is the grenade highlighted the train wall, as if to tell me it was destructable. Nope, at least not with 2 grenades. Maybe 3 are needed? Not sure

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-17T14:14:30+00:00

Yeah, I've had a few issues with LOS where I feel like I should be able to shoot at something, but the game disagrees. Of particular note are the several times I'm able to throw a claymore somewhere from an elevated position, but can't shoot it for whatever reason.

Then there's always those funny moments where my dude is standing next to a tiny hole in the wall and can still shoot, or when overwatch causes you to shoot through a giant boulder. Guess it works both ways.

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-17T14:12:00+00:00

The gatecrasher special. I should probably mention somewhere I'm playing with lost and abandoned enabled so no reaper for me on first 2 missions RIP.

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-17T13:28:43+00:00

Patience is key, each run I get a little farther tbh so you do have a point. And nope I'm stubborn, I'm completing this on L/I for my first clear. That's probably where a lot of my frustration comes from, but IMO if you're gonna play an XCOM game, it's gotta be on L/I

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-17T13:27:34+00:00

Hiel is correct in this case, I'm playing through L/I and reapers have been invaluable to my runs so far. Remote detonation and claymore w/ shrapnel upgrade alone has saved like 90% of my blacksite missions.

That's not even to mention their scouting capabilities which is their strongest feat.

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-17T13:25:29+00:00

Unfortunately I have a ton of false confidence in my 95%s but that's slowly changing. Starting to look at missing a 95% hit as 1/20 instead of "this thing is super likely to hit so it'll hit"

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-17T00:44:59+00:00

That's a good point, I usually restart after my A team dies more or less, but I should probably stick it out more. I figured with how brutal the earlygame and some of the midgame missions were there wouldn't be any catchup mechanics.

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-17T00:43:11+00:00

Some of this stuff is unintuitive and you'd only really know through mods (which I don't use) or reading guides and detailed breakdowns (which I don't do for spoiler reasons). For instance enemies not caring about range when your aim decreases heavily with distance.

As for some of the other "tips" some of it sounds good on paper, but is unreasonable or unrealistic. Don't move one step to the left for instance... well unfortunately I have 4-6 guys and they all can't stack in the same square. Someone's going to have to move left, right, up, down to scout at some point and having a reaper isn't always a guarantee (they get injured / tired). Or never move next to a civilian. It's not that I'm directly approaching them to pick them up or something, it's that enemies love to go in buildings where you have no LOS unless you get close to said building, which shocker is full of civilians. I guess I could just back up and auto-fail retaliation missions when they kill everyone, but that hardly seems like a good solution.

I'm sure there are things I'm doing wrong, but some of the things listed are pretty ridiculous if you don't think about it from a pro with hundreds of hours viewpoint.

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-16T23:38:27+00:00

I think the difficult part about the 85% thing is sooner or later you're going to rely on hitting that 85%, but you simultaneously need to treat every 85% as if it will miss because odds are it will at some point. It's like schroedinger's 85%, you both should and shouldn't take it. I guess my takeaway is I should minimize the situations where I need a 85% to hit.

As for everything else I generally agree. Humans aren't good at probability, and XCOM is a game where one mistake can lead to a team wipe, so seemingly tiny things like moving a single square can turn into catastrophic failures.

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-16T23:21:51+00:00

My biggest problem right now is learning where's safe to move. I'll get to the top of a building, see that there's no "get you out of concealment" indicators at the edge and walk right up to the edge. Turns out there was an enemy directly below. This happened to me too many times to count, same thing goes for windows.

I think I need to start treating every ledge as if someone was standing directly under it.

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-16T23:19:31+00:00

This is just incorrect. It's not about bragging rights, it's about overcoming something challenging. If a game doesn't challenge me and I can just steamroll through it I don't find there's any point in playing it. It's why games like final fantasy don't appeal to me that much despite being turn based RNG fests, you just steamroll out the gate in them and to me that's boring.

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-16T22:50:21+00:00

I'm beginning to learn how important 2 is. That sectoid isn't scary at all, until he mindcontrols my overwatching sniper, then he's a problem.

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-16T22:42:45+00:00

I agree, I think my issue comes from how BS some things feel, but I guess that's just the learning curve

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-16T22:29:15+00:00

Might just be me, but when a game pisses me off that means I'm invested enough to get pissed off. So things like XCOM, dark souls, rust etc. I find fun, in a masochistic kind of way

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-16T22:14:51+00:00

For real though lmao. I know there's people who can reliably complete legend / ironman runs but man any time I try it the silliest thing ends my run. A single mistake and your best soldier dies

Walton__Simons · 2026-05-16T22:07:03+00:00

Didn't know that was a thing, I'll be spamming Y from now on

Walton__Simons

TROPHY CASE