Build the Skeleton Key? (Long War)

[Poindexter]

Enemy Within : Long War.

It's June 4 (game time).

I've had the ability to create the Skeleton Key for a couple of weeks.

However, maybe it was a mistake to have performed the needed (long) research, despite the game claiming it to be a high priority.

I have but one Captain.

Most of my soldiers are Lance Corporals.

Aside from a couple of scopes, my soldiers are using their original equipment.

I've only played Enemy Unknown, when it first came out.

As I recall, you only used the Skeleton Key to make the final assault on the enemy base (or am I wrong?).

I'm no where near being able to make that final assault.

I've not developed PSI.

Heck, I've only researched about 10 projects, total.

So, here's my question:

Is there some reason I should build the Skeleton Key now or soon?

Or, in long war, is its only purpose to allow enemy-base access as the last mission of the game?

I have some vague recollection of being able to see something with satellites after building the key.


Thanks for any input.

[Ditsch]

You need one skeleton key for each alien base you want to assault to retake the countries "Long War". In Classic you visit only one base in the whole story, in Long War you can raid as much as you want- just launch a satellite in a country which left the council and you gain acess to the base. Also useful if you are low on ressources. In my first base were about 45 aliens, and laser weapons and a useful armor will be a good idea

[yang573]

When the game says priority, it's just a "priority" to advance the story line and learn about the taliens. As Ditsch0815 said, in vanilla (he said classic), you perform one earth base raid in the entire game. This requires the skeleton key. However, in Long War, you can perform many base assualts. This requires you to launch a satellite over a withdrawn country, build a skeleton key, and then assualt the base in that country. That country then rejoins the council if you succeed. Only one base assualt is needed to advance the story line, but many are useful for the extra funding for liberating the country and for the many materials you'll recover. Don't build the skeleton key until you are sure you will want to raid a base (especially not with your equipment). The globe will stop with soldiers returning since it is a mission you'll have (that isn't time sensitive), and this is quite annoying if you aren't planning on raiding anytime soon.

As for research, you could of stopped with the arc thrower and even with just xenobiology. Xenobiology allows you to fulfill country requests for scientists, which help with research. I would get laser weapons right now, since that will be more helpful for killing aliens than better armor right now.

Look up Marbozir on youtube. He is doing a playthrough on classic that he recently changed to impossible.

[Nerevars Goat Univeron]

Note, the base raid isnt the final mission. Its not possible to develop PSI before raiding it, either

[happy]

as soon as you have captured an outsider you expose yourself to aliens attacking your base

if your top soldiers dont have double tap, you are most likely to get stomped when they raid your base

too early

[Nerevars Goat Univeron]

Originally posted by happy:

as soon as you have captured an outsider you expose yourself to aliens attacking your base

if your top soldiers dont have double tap, you are most likely to get stomped when they raid your base

too early

That only happens AFTER you do the base assualt. You can have a skeleton key for as long as you want before then without having to worry about being attacked

[Falentir]

Originally posted by Nerevar's Goat Butler:

Originally posted by happy:

as soon as you have captured an outsider you expose yourself to aliens attacking your base

if your top soldiers dont have double tap, you are most likely to get stomped when they raid your base

too early

That only happens AFTER you do the base assualt. You can have a skeleton key for as long as you want before then without having to worry about being attacked

Not always in Long War. The aliens can decide to attack the XCOM base even if you did not build any skeleton key, or stun any outsider. This can happen if the aliens have lots of resources and if they consider that you're a serious threat - in other words: if you're doing fine enough :)

I had my first XCOM base assault in September, with 42 EXALT soldiers (!) rushing into my facilities. I only attacked the first alien base in late November.

[Nebhead]

Originally posted by Nerevar's Goat Butler:

Note, the base raid isnt the final mission. Its not possible to develop PSI before raiding it, either

In the Long War mod, PSI can be obtained before the Alien Base Assault. Xeno Psionics can be researched after completing Xeno-Neurology (Arc Thrower) Xeno Genetics (Meld) and the Sectoid Autopsy. Xeno Biology is also required, but is a requirement to research all of the above anyways.

PSI abilities also have to be earned by Autopsies and Interrogations, and whilst the PSI Training takes time and has a percenage to work based on Will i.e. 45% chance to learn Mindfray, it can be repeated if the soldier fails - failing a PSI training session doesn't preclude the soldier from trying again. Of course, higher Will = higher percentage chance to suceed.

Originally posted by happy:

as soon as you have captured an outsider you expose yourself to aliens attacking your base

if your top soldiers dont have double tap, you are most likely to get stomped when they raid your base

too early

The Aliens in Long War can actually attack you at any time, but to do so, they must have ALOT of resources and they must consider you a major threat to their overall plan. Basically, this boils down to being a thorn in their side for too long. One mission they can do which gets them alot of resources is a landed large UFO, which is often a Harvester (built on an Abductor hull) and the Transport (built on a Supply Ship hull).

My first Alien Base Assault was after the XCOM Base Defense, which was "technically" in April 2016.

I say "Technically", because I saw the very large UFO Assault Carrier coming and actually shot it down, literally inches from the front door of my base. Had a Plasma Cannon Intereceptor with 15 kills for some extreme accuracy bonuses, plus all the Foundry upgrades for them. So yeah - DENIED!

In my own experience, I think that the Base Defense attempt came a few months after the Terror Missions started drying up - there was 2 Terror Missions in North America 7 days apart - Canada got hit on Christmas day lol, but from then there was nothing major at all until March when they tried to assault my base.

That said, one factor that really does annoy the Aliens is sucessfully assaulting one of their bases, which almost certainly will result in retailiation.

[Highscore]

Ok I built the skeleton key, but it disappeared. Can I not put it on my soldiers? Is it supposed to disappear?

[Kash]

Originally posted by Nerevar's Goat Butler:

Its not possible to develop PSI before raiding it, either

In long war it is.

[red255]

In long war a Ghost grenade is most of whats needed for an alien base assault and super skyranger though I do prefer to have pulse weapons and archangel armor.

[BrDFnick3]

get MEC as soon possible, as MEC has extended, allowing you to use more than one module for your MEC, as you can, like, MEC with grenade launcher and flamethrower, also, get PSI as soon possible, they are now able to get in early game, as long if one of your soldier can do test.

[Cypress, Master Spy of IKEA]

This thread was dead for over a year and a half, reviving it ain't cool man.

[red255]

Originally posted by Hank Hill:

This thread was dead for over a year and a half, reviving it ain't cool man.

yeah. I mean I saw my post, the beta of long war that was running at the time ghost grenades hadn't been nerfed. you could stock up a engineer or a medic with the proper perks with 9 of them giving the rest of your squad free turns (everyone clusters and shoots, then the medic tosses the grenade if anything active is left alive)

in the more recent version I used Smoke+TK field.

the smoke keeps you from being flank/critted. and the TK field buffs defense 40 so you got at least 60-80 defense even with no cover. and doesn't require an item slot.

Got out of some tight spots with that.