Current Events > Just beat Xcom 2 on rookie. How is this shit possible on a higher difficulty?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Pretty sure I had the best weapons/amor you could get and had a full squad of 6 maxed out characters

That last missions seems like it would be impossible without all of your team dying on anything outside easy/normal.
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Luck
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What classes did you have?

I've been playing on regular, and beyond a tough early start, it's been pretty easy. Ever since I got the ability to mind control people with my Psi Operative.... damn.
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Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

What classes did you have?

I've been playing on regular, and beyond a tough early start, it's been pretty easy. Ever since I got the ability to mind control people with my Psi Operative.... damn.

I went with 2 rangers (easily the most helpful for the entire duration of my playthrough). 2 heavy weapons guys, 1 sniper, and 1 mech person.
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By getting good

PC has loads of mods to make it harder so yeah
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XCOM pretty much boils down to kill things before they even get the chance to do anything to you.
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DarthAragorn posted...

By getting good

PC has loads of mods to make it harder so yeah

a lot of them aren't made to be beatable tho, they're more like endurance runs
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CasualGuy posted...

Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

What classes did you have?

I've been playing on regular, and beyond a tough early start, it's been pretty easy. Ever since I got the ability to mind control people with my Psi Operative.... damn.

I went with 2 rangers (easily the most helpful for the entire duration of my playthrough). 2 heavy weapons guys, 1 sniper, and 1 mech person.

With the Rangers, how did you play them? A lot of people think going sword is the best, but usually you do a shit ton more damage just walking up beside them and blasting point range with a shot gun.

Yeah, ever since I REALLY leveled up a Psi Operative, things have gotten easier. The ability, even ONCE, to dominate an enemy trooper is just wonderful. Put them out in the open and they absorb shots. Put them behind cover and you have 7 units instead of 6.
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XCOM 2 I think is more playable than XCOM 1 on the harder difficulties, but luck does factor in a bit at the higher levels too.
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That game is so fucking hard I cant even get past mission 3 without pulling my hair out

MFW I bought it and a month later it goes on PS+ and I haven't beaten 4 missions:
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Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

With the Rangers, how did you play them? A lot of people think going sword is the best, but usually you do a shit ton more damage just walking up beside them and blasting point range with a shot gun.

usually just shotgun. Only used the sword if it lead to a kill / there was no other enemies around.
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CasualGuy posted...

Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

What classes did you have?

I've been playing on regular, and beyond a tough early start, it's been pretty easy. Ever since I got the ability to mind control people with my Psi Operative.... damn.

I went with 2 rangers (easily the most helpful for the entire duration of my playthrough). 2 heavy weapons guys, 1 sniper, and 1 mech person.

Why no Specialist? They're actually pretty good. Far better than Supports were in the first XCOM.

I suppose on lower difficulties your squad configuration doesn't matter as much. And what you have going for deals a ton of damage. But if you want to try a higher difficulty, you'll probably want to use Specialists more often.
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I just don't even bother.

I have zero gift for strategy.
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GeneralKenobi85 posted...

CasualGuy posted...

Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

What classes did you have?

I've been playing on regular, and beyond a tough early start, it's been pretty easy. Ever since I got the ability to mind control people with my Psi Operative.... damn.

I went with 2 rangers (easily the most helpful for the entire duration of my playthrough). 2 heavy weapons guys, 1 sniper, and 1 mech person.

Why no Specialist? They're actually pretty good. Far better than Supports were in the first XCOM.

I suppose on lower difficulties your squad configuration doesn't matter as much. And what you have going for deals a ton of damage. But if you want to try a higher difficulty, you'll probably want to use Specialists more often.

I assumed Mech Person = Specialist?

I don't think the party configuration is that bad. Did you change out depending on the mission? Sometimes Snipers are just useless, and it's better to have a second Specialist over having a Sniper, for example.
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Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

GeneralKenobi85 posted...

CasualGuy posted...

Jeff AKA Snoopy posted...

What classes did you have?

I've been playing on regular, and beyond a tough early start, it's been pretty easy. Ever since I got the ability to mind control people with my Psi Operative.... damn.

I went with 2 rangers (easily the most helpful for the entire duration of my playthrough). 2 heavy weapons guys, 1 sniper, and 1 mech person.

Why no Specialist? They're actually pretty good. Far better than Supports were in the first XCOM.

I suppose on lower difficulties your squad configuration doesn't matter as much. And what you have going for deals a ton of damage. But if you want to try a higher difficulty, you'll probably want to use Specialists more often.

I assumed Mech Person = Specialist?

I don't think the party configuration is that bad. Did you change out depending on the mission? Sometimes Snipers are just useless, and it's better to have a second Specialist over having a Sniper, for example.

Oh by mech person I thought he meant the Spark that was added in one of the DLCs. Also, Sharpshooters are probably the second best class in the game if you make them Gunslingers. Just behind Phantom Rangers in my opinion.
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Ah, if we are talking Spark.... yeah, Specialists are amazing. Have one healer and one hacker buggery, and the Advent are messed up all the time while you are feeling awesome.
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Save scumming is how I do it.

The key really is to only alert one group of enemies at a time whenever possible. If you trigger multiple groups in a turn, and have to deal with like 6 or 7 of them, you're in trouble. .

I will say, it's got a weird difficulty curve in that if you prolong the campaign to the point where you're carrying a squad full of corporals, you can plow through most missions. It's harder if you're going through story missions quickly.
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I don't see the point of 'no save scum' when luck is such a factor, like you see all those memes of people's games imploding because they missed with a hitrate of 95%
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Doe posted...

I don't see the point of 'no save scum' when luck is such a factor, like you see all those memes of people's games imploding because they missed with a hitrate of 95%

Because RNG is a mechanic in the game, so it kind of defeats the challenge if you just save scum everything, unless you're just trying to go for 100% achievements.
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Doe posted...

I don't see the point of 'no save scum' when luck is such a factor, like you see all those memes of people's games imploding because they missed with a hitrate of 95%

Luck really isn't that huge of a factor. The way you're supposed to play is to do everything you can to avoid gambling on a shot. You only activate one pod at a time. You have some source of guaranteed damage to fall back on if your shot doesn't connect. You make liberal use of explosives. Of course sometimes you can play perfectly and still get screwed by RNG, but that's XCOM, baby.
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Hexenherz posted...

Doe posted...

I don't see the point of 'no save scum' when luck is such a factor, like you see all those memes of people's games imploding because they missed with a hitrate of 95%

Because RNG is a mechanic in the game, so it kind of defeats the challenge if you just save scum everything, unless you're just trying to go for 100% achievements.

The challenge for me is in figuring out the puzzle each mission poses. It's little different in my mind to restarting a Zelda dungeon after you die.

That said, I'll probably make an Ironman run at some point in part because loading times can be a pain
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One of these days I'll get good and try it again. But that game was fucking brutal.

I want to get into Divinity Original Sin 2 again as well, but there is just so much going on at the start that I can't wrap my head around anything. I love the combat, though
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