The Universe of XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K Games, XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a tactical turn-based strategy game. Released in 2012, it is a modern update to the classic X-COM series of the 1990s. The game places you in the command of the XCOM project, an international paramilitary organization established to defend Earth from an alien invasion. As the project commander, you will manage your base, conduct research, deploy troops, and make momentous decisions that may directly affect the progress and outcome of the war.
This guide will assist the new player community with getting started in the game. It also includes tips and strategies aimed at increasing the success rate of the player.XCOM: Enemy Unknown is your deep, richly rewarding experience, stretching both your tactical and strategic capabilities whether you are new to this series or an experienced strategy gamer.
The Basics
Before looking into some difficult concepts, one should know about the most basic mechanics and structures that govern gameplay in the first place.
1. The Two Phases of the Game
XCOM: Enemy Unknown consists of two separate phases: the strategic phase (sometimes called base management), and the tactical phase (combat missions). To win, you must excel in both aspects.
Strategic Phase: Here, you manage your base, research new technologies in your labs, build facilities, and generally manage your funds and resources. Any decision made at this phase may have adverse effects on your tactics for the next mission.
For example, you could research better weapons or armor that make your soldiers far more effective in combat against the enemy.
Tactical phase: It is during the combat missions where you must choose a group of soldiers and achieve the desired objectives from them.
The missions unfold turn-by-turn, and you will have only one opportunity to carefully plan your every move and anticipate enemy actions.
2. Resource Management
Resources in XCOM: Enemy Unknown are more important than anything else, but managing them well makes the difference between success and failure. The main resources you must manage are:
Credits: The currency used to pay for buildings, manufacturing equipment, and hiring soldiers.
Scientists and Engineers: Personnel that are needed for intense research of technologies and construction of equipment. More personnel means faster construction of new gear.
Alien Artifacts: Picked up from combat missions and integrated into research and manufacturing. Do not sell them lightly as they are most probably needed for important projects.
Meld: A precious resource from the Enemy Within expansion; it is used for genetic modifications and upgrades of MEC Troopers.
3. Managing Bases
The base is the main center from where all your operations run. Managing the base involves:
Building Facilities: Facilities such as labs, workshops, and satellite uplinks have to be built to further your technology and keep your globe covered.
Getting Your Base Bigger: As the game progresses, you will have to make excavations to create space for new facilities. Design your base layout to take full advantage of adjacency bonuses: whenever two facilities are linked to one another, one receives an additional boost such as extra resources or faster build times.
Managing Your Soldiers: Soldiers have to be kept healthy, equipped, and well-trained. Rank your soldiers higher to allow them new abilities. Assign them to different classes based on their skill sets.
Combat Mechanics and Strategies
In XCOM: Enemy Unknown, are the combat that arrests deep tactical gameplay, demanding nuanced planning and decision-making? This is how to handle the complications of the fight.
1. Getting to know the soldier classes
The main character classes of XCOM: Enemy Unknown are four; each has their own purpose in the fight:
Assault: Experts in close-range combat, weapons include shotguns and rifles; Run & Gun lets them move and fire in the same turn, making them perfect for flanking enemies.
Heavy guns: They are terror machines. They have mounted machine guns and rocket launchers. These deadly professionals do great damage and blow cover apart. They are also heavy against big numbers.
Support: Offers medical aid and tactical assistance to the squad. The support soldiers use smoke grenades to provide cover and medkits to heal wounded comrades.
Sniper: Mainly would attack from afar and pick off enemies. They work best when placed on elevated spots with a clear line of sight.
Each class has a skill tree that allows customization of their abilities as they gain experience. Select abilities that go well with your playstyle and the situation of your squad.
2. Cover and Lining Up
In shooting, cover and lining up could mean the world. Try always to keep your soldiers behind cover since this will diminish their chances of being hit by enemy fire. Cover has half cover (which is partial protection) and full cover (which is more protection). Always put full cover on priority whenever possible.
Flanking: Flanking can be a key military tactic in XCOM: Enemy Unknown. When we flank an opponent, it negates his cover bonus and offers our soldiers an excellent chance to hit him. Take advantage of your Assault’s Run & Gun ability to reposition your soldiers around enemy defenses.
Overwatch: Being the defensive ability in question, Overwatch allows your soldiers to respond by shooting enemies should they move into the line of sight during the enemy’s turn. Put your soldiers in Overwatch to protect the squad as it advances or the reinforcements.
Hunkering Down: If your soldier is in a precarious position and cannot be moved into defensive cover, give serious consideration to using Hunker Down on him or her. It boosts the person’s defense and makes him or her harder to hit, but it prevents the person from attacking on that turn.
3. Weapons and Equipment
Choosing the best weapons and equipment for your soldiers in combat can go a long way in making a difference in the fight.
Primary Weapons: Each class can use several types of primary weapons. Research these weapons further to increase their damage and effectiveness. For example, laser and plasma weapon research upgrades will greatly enhance the firepower of your soldiers.
Secondary Weapons: Certain classes may carry secondary weapons, such as pistols or grenades. These can create additional utility in combat: for example, a Sniper may pull out his pistol if he is not able to take the long-distance shot.
Armor: Armor, besides granting more health, provides abilities for each particular kind: For example, Titan Armor grants fire and poison immunity, whereas Ghost Armor enables the soldier to become invisible for some time.
Equipment: Give your soldiers additional equipment to fit their loadouts. Medkits, grenades, and scopes are among these; all of them provide different tactical advantages, so choose carefully based upon mission requirements and squad composition.
4. Enemy Types and Tactics
Knowing the various types of enemies and what makes them tick will ultimately help you devise strategies.
Sectoids: The alien agency at the lowest level of the spectrum, Sectoids, are weak but come in great groups. They can mind-merge to become stronger, but killing the merged Sectoid kills the one providing the enhancement as well.
Thin Men: These creatures are fast and use their poison attacks to great detrimental effect. They are fragile in nature but could be quite dangerous if not handled immediately.
Mutons: They are armored to the maximum and can do great damage. Let your Heavies remove their armor, then use concentrated firepower to finish them quickly.
Chryssalids: Fast and deadly in direct combat, they kill and zombify a soldier with a single hit. Keep distance and use focused firepower to prevent them from approaching.
Sectopods: The mightiest among alien units with heavy armor combined severe destructive attacks. Use all available resources to bring them down, including rockets and grenades.
Ethereals: These powerful psionic aliens can mind control your soldiers and mind blast them. Always target them first in any battle; use soldiers with high Will to resist their powers.
Panic and the Global Strategy
One of the many hardest things to handle in XCOM: Enemy Unknown is panic management. Panic levels rise in a country if it is left undefended and also when UFOs are left free and so forth-and finally, panic can cause countries to reduce their commitment to the XCOM setup, thereby reducing your funds until it is losing.
1. Deployment of Satellite Coverage
You can place the most emphasis on panic reduction by satteliting areas to extend the coverage of alien activities.
Launch Satellites Strategically: Place satellites over countries that are at high risk of panic or that provide significant funding and bonuses. Prioritize countries that are close to leaving the project.
Build Uplinks and Nexus Facilities: To support more satellites, build Satellite Uplinks and Nexus facilities in your base. These facilities should be placed next to each other to gain adjacency bonuses, allowing you to launch more satellites.
Intercept UFOs: Satellites allow you to detect and intercept UFOs. Successfully shooting down UFOs prevents them from causing panic and allows you to recover valuable alien technology.
2. Search and Management of Missions and Panic
At times, missions are presented as options between various locations with rewards attached to them.
Choose Missions Wisely: If more than one mission presents itself, always consider the rewards and the effects on the panic level. In case a country is about to exit, make sure to do a mission in that area to halt further panic.
Short-and-Long-Term Considerations: Occasionally, a conflict will emerge between short-term rewards, for example, cash or new soldiers, versus low panic levels in the long term. Take a few moments to think about the larger strategic impact of your decisions.”
Use Upgrades in the Officers’ Training School: Upgrades allow you to train soldiers more quickly to deploy on bigger squads, sufficiently counterbalancing the management of missions and panic levels. Focus on upgrades based on current concerns that need immediate attention, and consider long-term concerns as well.
Advanced Strategies and Tips
Once you are familiar with these core mechanics, more advanced strategies start to come into play. The tips will allow you to optimize your playthrough and confront some of the hardest challenges in the game.
1. Making Research a Priority
Research forms the nucleus of your scientific prowess within XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Prioritizing the most appropriate research should accordingly massively increase your chances of survival.
Focus on Weapon and Armor Upgrades Early: It is of great importance that soldiers’ firepower and survivability be enhanced first. Research laser and plasma weapons plus armor upgrades such as Carapace and Titan Armor to put troops one step ahead in combat.
Alien Autopsy and Interrogation Research Should Not Be Neglected Either: This might offer crucial upgrades and insights into alien weaknesses. Performing such autopsies and interrogations early will grant you with tactical advantages.
Plan for Psionics and MEC Trooper Development: If you have the Enemy Within expansion, put alternate efforts in researching the psionic and MEC Trooper technologies. These two are strong newly introduced capabilities for your team, but time and resource-intensive to set up.
2. Base Layout Optimization
Base layout can highly determine your efficiency in terms of developing and utilizing your resources.
Maximize Adjacency Bonuses: Having similar facilities next to one another can grant adjacency bonuses, such as reduced build times or increased power output. When planning your base layout, consider these adjacency bonuses to maximize resource efficiency.
Build Power Generators Early, nxt Thermal Generators: Power is necessary to build and maintain facilities. Ensure you construct power generators first, placing them at optimal locations so that there will be enough energy to support the growth of your base.
Expand Your Satellite Network: Prioritize building Satellite Uplinks and Nexuses to increase global coverage and reduce panic. Make sure you have enough power and engineers to back those expansions.
3. Mastering Combat Scenarios
XCOM: Enemy Unknown can become a rather unforgiving fight, especially as the game progresses. Developing higher combat skills will be essential in surviving shriller missions.
Use High Ground to Your Advantage: Units on high ground obtain aim bonuses and make better use of their weapons. Place your snipers and ranged units on high ground whenever possible to make them more accurate and harder to kill.
Coordinate Your Platoon’s Abilities: A lot of soldier abilities are designed so they are complementary to one another. For instance, let a Support soldier throw a Smoke Grenade for the Assault to advance, or have the Heavy use Suppression to pin down enemies so the Sniper can line up a shot.
Environmental Destruction Advantage: Some weapons-the grenades or rockets-can destroy enemy cover or even demolish entire structures. Use this opportunity to force enemies out of cover or give another line of sight to your squad.
Mind Control and Psionics: If you have managed to develop psionic powers, make sure to exploit them for some winning moments. Mind-controlling an enemy greatly offsets the balance of power, allowing you to fight against the enemy’s own strengths.
Handling Overwhelming Odds: Sometimes, you will be outnumbered or outgunned in a mission, and those are the opportunities where you should consider retreating to a defensible position, Overwatch-ing your enemies into a kill zone. Take down the enemies posing the biggest threat first, and don’t hesitate to throw grenades down liberal paths.
4. Combatting Chryssalids and the Terror Missions
These are perhaps the hardest missions to complete in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, mainly because of the Chryssalids.
Stopping Zombie Outbreaks: Chryssalids infect and turn civilians into zombies, which soon metamorphose into more Chryssalids. Prioritize targets and use heavy explosives to kill Chryssalids fast.
Saving Civilians: It’s best to save as many civilians as possible but do not overstretch your squad in the process. Finish any immediate threats and then rescue any remaining civilians. Support soldiers with medkits can heal wounded soldiers or evacuated civilians.
Dealing with Panic: Panic will level up if you fail in saving civilians or let Chryssalids run wild. Keep it under control by sending satellites and finishing other missions.
Endgame and Final Mission Preparation
When you enter the endgame phase in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, your focus will slowly shift to final mission preparation. In this period, consideration must be made of the most suitable planning and resources management so that your squad can go fully equipped for the final challenges.
1. Final Tech and Research Goals
The final research and development being carried out should indeed be completed before undertaking the final mission.
Psionic Soldiers: Should you have the psionics unlocked, be sure to train some soldiers with psionic abilities. These could turn out to be very important in the final mission, especially in dealing with Ethereal adversaries.
Best-in-Class Weapons and Armor: Arm your squad with the top weapons and armor available. Plasma weapons, Titan Armor, and Ghost Armor should be the norms for your final mission squad.
MEC Troopers and Gene Mods: If you are playing with the Enemy Within expansion, fully upgrade your MEC Troopers and gene-mod your soldiers to enhance abilities. Such upgrades can provide huge advantages in the last mission.
2. The team composition for the final mission is an elite and well-balanced team, capable enough to be expected to tackle all varieties of threats. Thus, keep in mind the following composition of the squad:
1-2 Assault: Their mobility and close-range firepower are paramount for flanking and eliminating high-value targets.
1-2 Heavies: Heavy is the Explosive class for such threats as heavily armored Alien or robots. Great against Sectopods and the like.
1 Support: The Support carries vital supplies for healing and protections like medkits and Smoke Grenades.
1-2 Snipers: Snipers act as the long-range support to dispatch enemies at distance. Probably keep one with a Plasma Sniper Rifle and the other with Snapshot to move with extra flexibility.
1-2 Psionics: If you happen to have psionics, bring a Psionic soldier with Mind Control and other Psionic abilities as these bring about tremendous upside during the final mission.
3. The Final Mission: Temple Ship Assault
The last mission, the Temple Ship Assault, is a multiphase operation terminating in a clash with the Ethereal Uber Enemy. Consider these preparations.
Reserving Resources: The last mission is long and brings with it several waves of enemies; therefore, make sure you save your medkits and grenades, as well as heavy weapon ammo, for the really difficult encounters.
Overwatch and Hunker Down Strategically: As you move forward through the mission, appoint Overwatch to protect the squad from ambushes and when under heavy fire, use Hunker Down to reduce damage.
Target Prioritisation: It would be good to eliminate the high-damage enemies first, like Sectopods and Ethereals. Have your Heavies and Snipers focus their fire on these while your Assault and Support soldiers take care of the smaller enemies.
The Final Battle: The battle against the Ethereal Uber Enemy will be tough. The Ethereal possesses strong psionic powers and can control your soldiers. Use your psionic soldiers to inhibit these acts, and then use all available firepower to bring the Ethereal down as quickly as possible.
Conclusion
XCOM: Enemy Unknown most compellingly marries in-depth strategy with the intense brutality of tactical combat. Achieving success requires distributing resources well, building the base optimally, and planning thoroughly during the strategic and tactical phases.
Keeping these strategies and tips in mind throughout gameplay will help you to rise to any challenge thrown at you by XCOM: Enemy Unknown and lead mankind to safety from an alien threat. Keep in mind that every action counts; the entire world rests on your decisions.