How to level up squaddies late in the game?

[verdigrau]

I admit I'm new to this series and am a fairly casual gamer. So I did OK in this game for a while on easy difficulty. But I'm now at the point in the game where the aliens are throwing Ethereals, Muton Elites, Heavy Floaters and Sectopods at me. All of my high-level squad members that went up to Colonel have now been killed so I'm starting my squad from scratch.

What I'm wondering is, am I just screwed at this point? Or can I just take on easy missions to help level these guys up before I progress further? I usually take the missions in the countries with the highest panic level but maybe I wasn't ready for those. Am I supposed to just sacrifice those countries while getting my squad ready on easier missions first?

Thanks!

[abaris]

You have to rotate in rookies and train them up as you progress through the game. The sooner you can get increased squad size to 6 soldiers the better. Keep a solid 4 or 5 man squad but on the non-main missions rotate in a lower ranked soldier and feed him kills. It will also help when you have to put soldiers out of order for a few days for psi training or mech/meld augments.

If you're at the point in the game where you're fighting sectopods with squaddies, it's time to start over.

Mission difficulty only affects the number of aliens that spawn, not the type. The number of months that have passed in game affect the types of aliens that show up.

[T-Bone Biggins]

This is a problem with all XCOM games and XCOM spiritual sequels, you have a good squad that worked well and a few mistakes later you are back to rookies who honestly cannot keep up if you didn't properly level up several soldiers. Depending on the exact game you can do a few things. In UFO:Aftershock I would have a few squads where all members within are the same level and rotate out squads, slowly raising the overall level of my entire fighting force across the entire campaign.

In XCom you can have 4 experienced soldiers and two rookies for a mission and come through alright most of the time, especially if you have equipment that can extend the lifespan and accuracy of said rookies available. And the nice thing is you can use the rookies as a sort of disposable resource, use them on point to flush out aliens or scout a spot you think is high risk, or use the rookie to make an end-run for some meld while you position the experienced squaddies to go in for the kill.

[WickedRequiem]

You know how, in MMO / diablo type games, you have people that spam "level 1 warrior, can someone level me up to lvl 99?".

[Traul]

Not all units need experience. Start with a core of SHIV and MEC, tag along a couple of rookies to level up, and rebuild your squad little by little.

[red255]

You can probably clear a map with a pair of hover SHIVs taking your time yeah. I'd suggest trying that. Squaddies with decent gear (ghost armor and plasma) should still be hard to smush.

[Uncle Taxfraud]

At this point there is basically no turning back
It is nearly impossible to beat the game with all squaddies when facing aganist Ethearals, Sectopods, and Heavy Floaters.
One suggestion i have is give your squaddies the best gear possible, as it will increase their chance of survival.
The next is bring along a SHIV or two. If you have the Hover SHIV, get it. Hover SHIV is best because flying gives it a heavy advantage in aiming. Your rookies will get experience from kills, no matter how low the health is. With the SHIVS, you want to soften up the enemies so your squaddies can take them out with minimal effort. After that it should go smoothly

[red255]

you get XP from winning a mission regardless of kills as well. basically surviving a mission is worth about 4 kills.

[Lord Solar Bear]

Rookies get a little bit of experience just for surviving missions, but my suggestion for late game is 1) get all of your officer training school upgrades, this will give your rookies level 2 for free and give them 25% more experience per kill and have them use explosives. Just blow every alien you see up and you should be fine, but don't risk one of your better soldiers to help keep them alive. If they die so what.
For the future though, you should be rotating soldiers from the very start. XCOM is a type of game where you could easily lose 3-5 soldiers in a single turn even if you're very good :)

[Fluellen]

Oh, I din't know. I quite like including a green soldier or two in each mission. If they have some experinced troopers to support them, they play a useful role, gain some experince. I also like to mix up the combination and perhaps leave snipers behind or heavies and have to fathom different tactics. If I want to focus on captures I take more supports. If not a lot of snipers. The game advice also suggests taking along rookies on easy missions. Latter in the game their are familiar missions and I send the 2nd team. And never take all the higher ranks except on the final key mission. But at classic and ironman I guess you never give an inch.

[red255]

Its unlikely to lose 3-5 guys if you are very good on classic. Probably not on impossible either. once they get good at least. You don't have a lot of options at squaddie.

I generally make a start team, MEC the heavy, maybe bench a second heavy (because Zhang)...so I have like 2 experienced heavies in reserve as I go forward.

and then when I hit PSI I generally bench my original Team in favor of PSI Squad. so I have that squad in reserve as well.

[Traul]

And most important: bench your colonels. Experience only comes in at a finite rate. Every colonel you take on a mission is a net XP loss for your squad as a whole. Once they are leveled they should only come out to fill gaps after you hit a rough patch.

[verdigrau]

Thank you for the tips guys. Yeah, I can see now that I should have hedged my bets. I was going all in on each mission, sending in only my best troops and, thus, risking them all.

[76561198034396398]

i usually take 1 rookie every mission that way i've usually got a good 30 soldiers by the time you get those mind controllers,rookies don't last long at that stage,use Crysallid chitin armor to up there HP

[Milk]

What I usually do is wait for a council mission and send in 5 rooks with a hover shiv (red suits optional).

Just give them some titan armor, some LPRs, maybe a few grenades (Alien/Ghost) and have fun.

This works because thinmen aren't really that much of a threat anymore since they lose their "1 hit KO" at that point, so it's easy to farm the council missions. Just be careful that you don't send them on the one with the mutons. It's still doable but it's significantly harder.

Don't mess around too much either. While less of a threat, there are tons of thinmen. If you get too fancy they can still focus fire and kill your guys.

[red255]

Squaddies who are also PSIONS can mind fray. a mind fray is pretty much 100% kill of Sectoids, thin men, and two mindfrays drop a muton.