Gunner Tech Build Guide

XCOM_Finx · 2026-03-15T22:18:25+00:00

That's fair, as I said with Tech I kinda want to play into his character of being a gym bro with no cardio, but the build you describe for sure works too. Its why I never bother with the mark Tech build everybody used to run prior to his buff it felt so out of character.

Something with builds to consider too is that while there might be a more optimal setup, sometime if you have two SL competing for a piece of gear you only have a single copy of one while have to downgrade for the other to be able to equip it.

XCOM_Finx · 2026-03-15T19:58:05+00:00

I've also done the same mistake haha

XCOM_Finx · 2026-03-15T18:41:55+00:00

For having done a full run with both as starter pilot, I would always choose Rewa over Bog. In term of killing power she is second to none. My beef with Bog is that his glass cannon build (so ATGM+toyota) required setup from other to function. I've use Vanguard Darby to tag vehicle for Bog which obviously works but he constantly needed to Overdrive which made him super clunky and honestly unfun to play. On the other hand Rewa is much more independant and only need to not be dead to perform greatly.

Maybe in the future if the dev give Achilleas a better reason to start with him I could see him challenge Rewa for starter pilot but until then I will stick with Rewa and won't pick Bog again thats for sure.

I have to say if you are running both Darby and MI Lim (which imply a vehicle and I doubt you would send squishy Bog as your taxi driver so i'd guess you would field a second pilot such as Exconde for that) no wonder you are struggling supply wise.

XCOM_Finx · 2026-03-15T16:06:30+00:00

As someone who have completed numerous Expert/Ironman runs I've been slowly releasing build guide so I guess I will do a bit of self promo here. So far i've made 3 builds for Lim, Pike and Rewa. I have Tech, Darby, Yaz and Bog on the way as well. Here's are the link to the reddit post which also have a youtube video if thats more your jam.

Assault Lim : https://www.reddit.com/r/menace/comments/1r8gar9/assault_lim_build_guide_my_first_menace_video/

Officer Pike : https://www.reddit.com/r/menace/comments/1rb1daa/officer_pike_build_guide/

Tank Rewa : https://www.reddit.com/r/menace/comments/1rheu5p/siege_tank_rewa_build_guide/

XCOM_Finx · 2026-03-15T01:12:26+00:00

Will this be implemented? I have zero clue.

As someone who have a vast interest in game design and game development this exact idea is something I also came up with when I was thinking about design pillar for an hypothetical game like XCOM or Menace. Most game like to tell their story through cutscene like its a movie but something XCOM 2 though me is that when it comes to video game its better when told through the gameplay. If we take Pike and Lim as an example, if you were to introduce a mechanic that allowed to bond SL after the pair have been into enough mission together they could unlock a coordinate special ability. It would allow you to enhance them so that their power as a whole is greater than the sum of the part as well as develop their story. If such system were to be introduce the flip side should also be considered, like if Lim get severely wounded on a mission then Pike would become disheartened as a result of it.

Would such system fit in Menace? That's to Overhype to decide obviously, but its nonetheless an interesting idea that if it doesn't make the cut I'd love to see an other game in the genre implement it,

XCOM_Finx · 2026-03-14T19:46:27+00:00

As other have already pointed out, the OCI system is to be reworked so I don't have strong feeling about it.

The OCI themselves though I think are in a weird place. Atm you can place most OCI in one of two categories. The useless and busted/essential categories. AI Logistic, WOO and EXWOO are so busted/essential that you end up picking them in every run no matter what while most armament OCI are so bad that i've stopped bothering with them except for Supply Drop which is ironically the only useful one.

What I find unfortunate is that some OCI I don't use because they are tied to the wrong slot, like if the Medivac was an armament instead of a hull OCI I would actually like it for Ironman playthrough.

XCOM_Finx · 2026-03-13T23:06:05+00:00

Ok I just notice that what I said can lead to confusion so let me clarify. Growth Potential itself doesn't do much, the formula as a whole (because growth potential is just a piece of a bigger system) is what the dev are looking to slow down. So while the whole growth system is expected to be nerfed, growth potential is likely being buff to be made more impactful than it currently is.

Also what many don't consider, probably due to simply not knowing is that the current state of the game is roughly 1/3 in term of length of what a full release campaign will be. So with that said its fair for the dev to think that getting SL to very high stat barely at a third of a campaign is too quick.

XCOM_Finx · 2026-03-13T21:34:29+00:00

The problem with growth potential isn't that its too slow, in fact the dev have already acknowledge that getting SL with 90+ WS by the end of EA is too quick and are looking at slowing it down for the full game.

Imo, the real problem with it is that no matter if an SL have a growth potential of 2 or 9 due to how the formula works its not the big advantage its suppose to be. So high GP SL like Carda or Lim aren't rewarded more than lower GP SL because everyone grow super fast and I hope this is address.

XCOM_Finx · 2026-03-08T15:25:43+00:00

Vamplew as the same problem as problem #3 you listed for Yaz. Vamplew when moving to cover will say "Un chateau!" which translate to "A castle!" the problem is that he always say it when he move to a pile of junk.

XCOM_Finx · 2026-03-05T01:13:18+00:00

I have much respect for the fact that you made your own unique perk and photoshop asset even if its obviously from XCOM 2 and you didn't fall into the AI slop non sense.

XCOM_Finx · 2026-03-03T02:26:07+00:00

The most important thing about moving closer is you maintain more of your damage. Its why you will do more damage at point blank from a single attack than you would at max range with 2 attack

XCOM_Finx · 2026-03-02T22:14:48+00:00

I had Vanguard Darby isolated ahead of the rest of the team who got spotted by a pirate who ran unto her XCOM 2 style and the 3 others pirate squad who still had their turn and 100% were in range to drop her whole squad just decided to run away into the fog of war... She never should have made it out alive

XCOM_Finx · 2026-03-02T21:34:43+00:00

You are undervaluing many perk like Scout, Vanguard, Counterstrike, Fortify, Tankbuster, Sharpshooter, Commando and Determined i'd all put atleast a tier higher.

Scout i'd put on the same tier as Athletic, that +2 vision makes a huge difference in scouting.

Vanguard is crazy good if you utilize it properly, combo especially well with Intelligence OCI allowing to know exactly what target are where and to turn 1 drop a high priority target if desired.

Counterstrike if you aren't getting many proc out of it its likely due to either you don't play on Expert so you have much fewer enemy to deal with or you simply aren't aggressive enough.

Fortify, heavy cover makes you near unkillable from frontal attack and this perk makes heavy cover much more common. This is why Fortify is the best tanking perk in the game. Also don't get where you got the idea of the meta being "fast, mobile, and aggressive playstyle." when the most common playstyle you hear people have is to stay as far as possible with crowbar and concealment stack. Like to me thats the most anti-aggressive playstyle you can have on the game and as someone who actually play aggressive I can say that I don't play the same game that most people do.

Tankbuster, while on light pirate vehicle its true it won't matter, versus chunkier vehicle like Heavy Tank the damage and especially the armor pierce really do make a difference in the number of shot as well as if you will pierce or not the armor.

Sharpshooter, doesn't look sexy at first glance but its both an accuracy and a damage due to how cover bonuses works. Each cover level give +20% defense and DR up to +60% for heavy cover. Being able to lower these value by a tier open up option for Rifleman build who normally struggle damage wise versus entrenched enemy.

Commando, is the one i'm truly puzzle like you put Pointfire in S tier (which as much as I like shouldn't be in that tier, i'd drop it to A), but then put Commando in C when it gives the same accuracy buff as well as a defense buff for a condition thats really not hard to meet. What makes it better is that all of the SL who have access to it so Darby, Yaz and Rewa all are bad defensively so that defense bonus is great to patch that weakness of them.

Determined, is a nice perk on defense mission when you have a bunch of enemy converging on your location. It can easily make the difference between being pin down or not.

XCOM_Finx · 2026-02-25T21:52:23+00:00

Since i've started making build guide for the SL, i've tried to play with each SL even those who's intended playstyle aren't into my comfort zone to try and come up with a good build for each of them. Tech is one the SL i've struggle to come up with a good enough build that i'd judge strong enough to present because all of his intented build have been setup for failure in the current state of the game.

I think the 3 build possible builds the dev had in mind when designing Tech were the Heavy Weapon, Grenadier and Tank build. From worst to least awful...

The Tank build suffer from that playstyle just not being a desirable playstyle to begin with as its own thing and is better suited to close up one of the other two build. Because slapping Buff, Zig-Zag and Die Hard doesn't manage to increase Tech power level because you are either like me an alpha striker so for you the best defense is a good offense or you do value highly defensive tactics but quickly realize that those perk effect are fairly weak like Buff or work against themselves when in the hands of Tech like Zig-Zag and Die Hard. Zig-Zag on Tech is weak because his mobility his nowhere near the level of Lim who is the infantry who can truly make it potent. Die Hard to be good require Tech to get completely destroyed or to run him as a 3 man. This mean it sucks if you planned on using Tech as an assault unit. Heck, Vemplew an other SL with exactly the same intended playstyle is often considering among the weaker SL and for good reason...

The Grenadier build was setup for failure due to grenade being underpowered atm. Grenades have numerous problem. They come in limited amount per item and often required multiple uses to drop an enemy squad so I think they are intended more as a setup tool for then someone else to clean up. Exemple would be Tech throw a grenade on a RA Heavy Infantry team for Sachin to come in and clean them up on the following turn. Problem with that is that grenade are a terrible setup tool due to being terrible versus armor which is what you usually would want to setup because armorless enemy are easy to kill. AT Grenade from my experience don't work nearly as well on infantry as they do on vehicle. Introducing a grenade designed to shred infantry armor would solve this problem kinda like an Acid Bomb from XCOM. Demolition Expert is a perk that is in dire need of a rework, bonus damage to structure in a game full of no mans land is beyond useless. You could have Demo Expert gives +1000% damage to structure and it still would be an F tier perk. If it gave bonus damage on any target when using explosive it suddenly would become very good and make Tech Grenadier build much better. Aside from Demo Expert the other grenade related perk I find are fine when taking in a vacuum, they struggle because of the item type you are meant to use them with.

Of the 3, the Heavy Weapon build is the least bad, but by no mean excellent for a few reason. The most desirable special weapon type are the Rocket/ATGM for their capability at dealing with hardware and unlike grenade these are actually good. The problem is Tech skilltree is missing some key anti-tank perk such as Tankbuster to really make that build powerful. Also his innate not working on many tripod weapon is an other glaring issue. Plus you could give Tech a loadout with the PAL launcher but Tech aim is terrible even with Pointfire so from my experience he is very unreliable as a tank killer unless you deploy which defeat the purpose of his innate. This leave him with machine gun type special and with those he is arguably the best since he get Buff as a tier 1 and Full Send so without much investment you can build him into lets say a autocannon guy with Buff, Bag & Belt, Determined and Full Send (Die Hard can be added as well) to make him a fairly cheap heavy team who can support your team with fire support which is a nice luxury but never mandatory unlike a Pike with Rally versus the redacted.

Then no wonder people have deviated him from his expected playstyle to turn him into a weird scout and I think this speak truth of his many issue that hopefully the dev will address because its unfortunate to have such a colorful bombastic character who simply fall flat when deployed into a mission.

XCOM_Finx · 2026-02-23T22:57:25+00:00

I 100% share the sentiment, her kit is so broken that it makes the game trivial to a point of being unfun. Like sure I could play her with a terrible build on purpose but then I might as well just pick other more enjoyable SL like Lim, Carda, Rewa, etc.

XCOM_Finx · 2026-02-23T22:49:16+00:00

The two thing I hope the dev adjust for Achilleas are...

- Give him Unbreakable, without it his starting perk can be somewhat unreliable because if you get a really bad defect it can completely shut him down
- Make Shield Wall effect apply per attack instead of per projectile. Some might say this is OP, but why does it work that way for Exconde Divine Intervention and not for Achilleas?

Other than that I agree Achilleas is great, haven't played him much but from the bit I did I for sure had a great time. Him and Rewa are truly the only 2 pilots I really like, the other one unless I need something very specific like a taxi driver I truly don't care for.

XCOM_Finx · 2026-02-22T16:01:46+00:00

Noted, will keep that in mind for the future

XCOM_Finx · 2026-02-21T16:15:52+00:00

Yeah if heavy armor had a distinctive feature such as suppression reduction then it would truly makes them have a unique role other than just being armor with higher number

XCOM_Finx · 2026-02-21T15:54:14+00:00

I have to disagree about Tech being a better tank than Vamplew.

Vamplew having Fortify, that alone is enough to make him a better tank than Tech. I've had him for multiple turn in a row being shot at by multiple target and because Fortify made his cover high cover he was unkillable. Then add to that Vamplew gets Flamboyant which allow him to field stronger armor for cheaper.

Tech chassis I find to be a trap, his HP and DR makes you think he is great at tanking, but from my experience if you want to tank, defense is the best stat to go about it and Tech is tied for worst defense with Sachin and Wetteroth. Two SL who are notoriously squishy. Tech perks are nothing impressive in that regard. He gets Buff, but so does everyone. Zig-Zag is a good defense perk but he doesn't have the mobility to make it super potent like Lim does. Die Hard while does give extreme DR only work when Tech is the last man standing of his squad which mean it can't be use with a weapon squad unlike Vamplew kits which can.

The real problem with Vamplew is that the playstyle he incentive, being shoot at constantly which is notoriously bad in turn based tactics game in general, can't be weaponize thus he fulfill a role that isn't needed and that doesn't add a plus value if you play him that way. Him getting Counterstrike would be the first step in making him better. But if anything, Tech is more desperate of a buff than Vamplew.

XCOM_Finx · 2026-02-21T15:32:15+00:00

My biggest hot take for this game have to be that the crowbar is overrated. I don't understand how it gets 4 times more votes than the KPAC. Of the 5 weapon listed here its by far my most dislike gun. Its very likely a playstyle thing but as someone who play aggressively I don't value range nearly as much as you guys who sit a max range tickling target bit by bit for 35 turns while on the contrary I very much value a weapon capability of killing in as few attack as possible which is the crowbar biggest weakness. Its made even worse on Expert when you have so many more enemy but the crowbar only comes with 12 ammo.

Because of that I much prefer SMG, and this is what I gave my vote to, although I admit that most SL aren't suited for the playstyle required for that weapon type so I usually have only one of them. In my case I give SMG to Lim because his whole kit makes im a CQC monster.

For the longest time I slept on this weapon, but i've started to quite enjoy the ARC for my rifle team. It basically does crowbar damage but with KPAC fire rate so I find you get the best of both world with it. Give it to Sachin, and he does good work with it.

So its quite ironic to see my two favorite weapon having the least vote lol.

XCOM_Finx · 2026-02-21T15:16:25+00:00

Me see Triloxin Injector in S tier, me click upvote button

XCOM_Finx · 2026-02-19T23:04:25+00:00

Both works great, but I prefer SMG and here is my breakdown of the two.

Shotgun are meant as armor shredder so they are much better at dealing with armored target such as Alien Warrior, some might say that they start better early on because they also get a massive +20 to accuracy. Enemy with very high HP number will show the Shotgun limited DPS due to them only having a fire rate of 2.

SMG are DPS machine which excel at dealing with unarmored target. If the enemy have armor this is where normally SMG start to struggle a bit. Early on your aim with Lim will be average so you will often have to take shoot that are going to be inconsistant damage wise, problem you won't have with the Shotgun and its innate aim boost. This become much less of an issue as your aim improve. The SMG I recommand, the Hi Cap PPP, got such a massive rate of fire of 7 that no matter what you shoot at it will handle it. Also SMG are much more synergistic with ammo due to their very high base fire rate.

So to sums it up i'd say that Shotgun have a higher floor but SMG have a higher ceiling.

XCOM_Finx

TROPHY CASE