[PC/PS3/360] Xcom Enemy unknown

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Fenrir_valindri

Tried Impossible, and that is a step too far. Getting past the first mission alone is just wrestling with the RNG, doesn't matter how good you play it, it comes down to luck those first few missions till your troops get past the early ranks.

According to Steam's Achievement Tracker, no one on Earth has finished Impossible difficulty yet.

[Wandering_Youth]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

Nah, I put a Shiv in the same room as an Ethereal, alone, and nothing happened. They are really your backup if your soldiers all have low Will.

The AI is kinda of dumb for the Ethereal. They won't use Psi Rift if your SHIVs are too far apart, but if they get to close to each other, watch it out cause that ability hurts a ton.

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

According to Steam's Achievement Tracker, no one on Earth has finished Impossible difficulty yet.

For real?

Cripes, that must be a huge difficulty spike.

[Skane]

That's because of the absurd modifiers on Impossible. Your Rookies start with less health, 3+1. You get a -20 penalty to aim, while the AI gets a +20 to theirs'. More Aliens spawn. Etc...

Natch.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Skane

That's because of the absurd modifiers on Impossible. Your Rookies start with less health, 3+1. You get a -20 penalty to aim, while the AI gets a +20 to theirs'. More Aliens spawn. Etc...

Natch.

Once I mastered my Normal Perfect Save, I will try my hand at savescumming my way through Impossible difficulty. Modifiers be damned, I have powers over the RNG!

But before that, I need to perfect my technique on Normal. To know every trick in the book. To know the limits of what I can abuse.

[Fenrir_valindri]

After I get done with my Ironman run, I figure I'll give it a try

[SoldierOfDarkness]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

This means creating a psychic monster who has a Will score of 124. Enough to make Ethereals quiver in fear. I can raise that further with the Mind Shield and the Psi Armour, turning her into a Biotic God.

Ah yes a Biotic God, a being that has the power to destroy anything with the flick of the mind, we have dismissed those claims.

Ethereals would be helpless in front of a Shiv. A plasma Shiv with Overwatch can keep an Ethereal pinned down nearly indefinitely. And since you always know the Ethereal is in the middle of the ship, you can plan around neutralising it.
If you worry about mind control, the Shiv is the only way to go.

Really? Shivs have unlimited ammo? That's interesting.

I haven't had any problems with Ethereals yet. I mean they only stay in the command bridge which is pretty much locked until you've killed everyone and gotten there.

Whenever I get to a door, I get everyone set up there SWAT style and then I bash the door down and slaughter everyone within. Because of that the Ethereal and his bodyguards have no chance.

That's because of the absurd modifiers on Impossible. Your Rookies start with less health, 3+1. You get a -20 penalty to aim, while the AI gets a +20 to theirs'. More Aliens spawn. Etc...

Even on normal the AI seems to have 100% accuracy and dodge capabilities....only the Archangel armor is levelling the playing field a bit. Good lord I love that armor.

[Edge Meltdown]

When playing Ironman Impossible which research should I concentrate on? Squad maintenance (such as armors and weps) or Satellite (to lower the difficulty)

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Edge Meltdown

When playing Ironman Impossible which research should I concentrate on? Squad maintenance (such as armors and weps) or Satellite (to lower the difficulty)

Xcom is all about the Satellites, no matter the difficulty. The fact is in Impossible you need it more than ever just to buy time. You would have a ticking bomb that can only be delayed by Satellites deployed just before the end of the month.

No Satellites means no increased income, less radar coverage, more panics, etc. Your troop battles are just the means to get more money so you can get more satellites.

And don't forget, try to use story missions like the Alien Base Assult strategically. To decrease panic globally when there is no other way.

[Edge Meltdown]

All right. Also, is it a good idea to grind promotions and monthly salary in impossible difficulty after spreading satellites all over the globe. I did it on normal, so long as I ignore the priority research and 99 of my squadmate reached Col. ranks.

[Blaat]

I've learned two things today, so I thought I would share it with you guys:
1. DO NOT IGNORE THE ROOFS.
2. DO NOT IGNORE THE ROOFS.

I know that's technically one thing but it's a big one so I thought I'd mentioned it twice.
Seriously though, nothing is more fun when a Sectopod falls from the sky in the middle of your team, outflanking everyone and firing its BFG Laser gun at the nearest target (15 damage critical hit, she survived with 1 hp left) Luckily I had two heavies with the anti-robot ammo in my team.

Later in the same map (yup I'm stubborn like that) a Muton Elite pulled off the same trick. No one got hurt because it was the end of the turn for him.

It's almost like the aliens were watching Batman before I took down the ship.

Originally Posted by Edge Meltdown

When playing Ironman Impossible which research should I concentrate on? Squad maintenance (such as armors and weps) or Satellite (to lower the difficulty)

Last time I checked you can research weapons and armours while still getting satellites unless I'm missing something here?
Anyway research wise tech rush to Carapace Armor (alien materials -> Carapace Armor) as it will increase the survivability of your squad considerably.
Construction wise: set your base in a continent where you get at least one engineer at the end of month; when you get the abduction go for engineers as reward. In the beginning of the second month you should have 10 engineers and thus you can build a second uplink (make sure it's next to the first uplink for the extra satellite slot)

As friendly reminder: it's okay to lose countries. Instead of trying to safe everyone just prioritize who you want to safe and who you want to abandon. For example South America is useless both in terms of the continental bonus and the amount of money they give so ignore it.
On the other USA, Russia, all the $100 countries and Africa are important because of the continental bonus (in Africa's case) or the high amount of money they offer.

[Fenrir_valindri]

I have to disagree very strongly about South America's continental bonus being useless. It shaves off almost an entire month of research time, and lets you get access to many valuable bonuses for only 2 satellites

Typically, I'd recommend starting in North America for the starting cash and air force bonuses, then getting South America next to maximize the bonus.

I also personally went the opposite approach that people seem to favor here. I believe Laser weaponry and Scope are far more valuable then the defensive mods at the start. The extra damage and higher hit chance means you can outright kill threats before they even get a chance to return fire of you are positioning properly. Of course armor is still extremely important, but I would say at minimum you should have Laser Weaponry done before the first terror mission, otherwise the Chrysallids will tear your team apart.

[SoldierOfDarkness]

Finished the game

Spoiler:

Ending kinda felt empty since it just happened so fast.

Though it kinda makes sense throughout the game as to why the Aliens weren't just smashing Earth outright. Part of me was wondering if the council was in cahoots with the aliens in order to draw out the best humans.

I also hated how my favourite psyker died too.

[Duo Maxwell]

I always go for scope as soon as possible, but it feel kind of waste researching laser weapon when later on I'm going to replace them all with plasma one.

[Blaat]

While true it's a lot easier, faster and cheaper to get laser weapons than plasma weapons especially early game.

Originally Posted by Fenrir_valindri

I have to disagree very strongly about South America's continental bonus being useless. It shaves off almost an entire month of research time, and lets you get access to many valuable bonuses for only 2 satellites

Typically, I'd recommend starting in North America for the starting cash and air force bonuses, then getting South America next to maximize the bonus.

There are only two dissections that you want to get early rather than later for their bonuses (Muton and Thin Man) I'm guessing that in impossible you also want the temporarily aircraft bonuses (aim and dodge one) which means that the South American bonus would save you 8 days worth of research in early/mid game. In return you get a measly $150 per month.

Meanwhile you can get $250 by launching those satellites over Europe (Russia and Germany/UK) or go to Africa for $180 (Nigeria/South Africa) and you'll be 2/3 there for the African bonus.

Following your suggestion makes the game unnecessarily harder.

Originally Posted by Fenrir_valindri

I also personally went the opposite approach that people seem to favor here. I believe Laser weaponry and Scope are far more valuable then the defensive mods at the start. The extra damage and higher hit chance means you can outright kill threats before they even get a chance to return fire of you are positioning properly. Of course armor is still extremely important, but I would say at minimum you should have Laser Weaponry done before the first terror mission, otherwise the Chrysallids will tear your team apart.

I'm not so sure about this one. I had went for laser weapons first in my ironman classic game although I could only afford one laser weapon I didn't notice an increase of survivability until I had my entire team in carapace armour.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by SoldierOfDarkness

Finished the game

Spoiler:

Ending kinda felt empty since it just happened so fast.

Though it kinda makes sense throughout the game as to why the Aliens weren't just smashing Earth outright. Part of me was wondering if the council was in cahoots with the aliens in order to draw out the best humans.

I also hated how my favourite psyker died too.

Spoiler for end:

I am disappointed that I can't mind control the head alien. Also, surprisingly my sniper saved the day; the Boss was just standing there waiting to be sniped, and two shots from my sniper blew his head off.

Now for some bonus info: Mind Control is a silly skill.
Unlike the original Xcom, the controlled enemy can't move immediately and as such had to endure being a giant target for the enemy's turn. This means it usually wouldn't live long but is useful as a distraction.
In original Xcom, someone who just broke out of mind control would still be stunned for one turn. This allow you to kill them. But in the new game you can't shoot the controlled enemy and as such you get in trouble when it breaks free... and then immediately shoots you in the face.
Finally, an unusual discovery; because of the way the game is programmed, any unit that is currently mind controlling a unit is immune to mind control himself for the 3 turn duration. This is because the game was not programmed to deal with that eventuality, so the game just forbids you from doing so. This does mean you get a way to have mind control immunity for the final battle though.

[Fenrir_valindri]

Just saying what worked for me, I found Classic to be not that difficult, and am rampaging through Classic Ironman fairly easily as well.

Already up to the point were I have psychic soldiers and Titan + Ghost Armor, about to research into the specialized Plasma Weapons as well. I've only lost 4 soldiers so far and easily sweep aside the opposition in most missions. Heck, I only have 5 satellites in the air in total, though I have a few more waiting to be sent up once my Satellite Nexus goes online.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

In original Xcom, someone who just broke out of mind control would still be stunned for one turn. This allow you to kill them. But in the new game you can't shoot the controlled enemy and as such you get in trouble when it breaks free... and then immediately shoots you in the face.

That's odd. Whenever mind control ends for me, the Muton or other enemy who is freed from mind control just stands there just as my turn begins, allowing me to kill him easily.

[Tiberium Wolf]

Ok finished the game...

Had to load a save coz I killed a controlled unit(after leaving mind control) in the tunnel to the final boss and so my units couldn't pass... lol. Seems the ground got dmged.

I didn't quite get what the aliens wanted. Anyone mind clearing that up for me?

Kinda lacking ending.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

I didn't quite get what the aliens wanted. Anyone mind clearing that up for me?

Spoiler for end:

The Ethereals were the failed attempts to create a superior life form, and so they were left to their own devices by a more powerful species. The Ethereals were sad that they couldn't match up to the expectations of their creators, so they attempt to redeem themselves by trying to create their own replacement. In short, they were sad that they weren't good enough, and tried to "play god" to multiple species in a misguided attempt to follow in the footsteps of some greater race.

Just maybe, if they could be responsible for the creation of the ultimate life form, they could redeem themselves and no longer feel the eternal shame. And perhaps, they were hoping it could bring back their "god".

Maybe the Ethereals just wanted to be loved. To be told that "You did good". They desperately need a big hug and a shoulder to cry on. I have never seen a species so disgusted with themselves. Emo to the core