How to deal with the Viper king ?

[NanoFren]

From the get go I disliked the entire Ruler Reaction feature cause it simply throws the typical xcom mechanics out the window.

Still I decided to go with it, and used the freeze 'nades and stunnded the viper as often as possible. Sure enough I am able to hold up against it decently well not losing any soldiers and most of them ending up lightly wounded.

However, the viper king showing up on extraction missions, that is absolutely ridiculous and game breaking. It makes the whole thing literally impossible. I have yet to finish an extraction of that kind with more than two ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ guys making it out.
How do you deal with that ?

[Statboy]

I use the workshop mod "Rulers Take Normal Turns". I feel like rulers were meant for the most hardcore of the fanbase, and have documented how much they hurt new user sales. But they're here, and aren't leaving so just mod it out and make the game enjoyable to you. That's what I do.

Alternitivly if you keep the DLC active and never do the mission to investigate the doctors cryptic message, the rulers simply won't appear.

[talemore]

If you only have rookies and you face an alien ruler all you can do is to hope it will bait on the rookies while the VIP runs to the evac, then buy new recruits. We only care about the performance and if the VIP reaches the evac point the mission is over. No one cares about the man under the stage.
Gear up with the best or the worst, in this case it's a VIP mission so pick the worst. You can schedule when to encounter the alien rulers because they can spawn on most types of missions, sometimes it's better to skip the mission and other times you don't have any choice than to take the bullet and sometimes you can pick a blacksite and hope it spawns there.

[NanoFren]

Originally posted by Statboy:

I use the workshop mod "Rulers Take Normal Turns". I feel like rulers were meant for the most hardcore of the fanbase, and have documented how much they hurt new user sales. But they're here, and aren't leaving so just mod it out and make the game enjoyable to you. That's what I do.

Alternitivly if you keep the DLC active and never do the mission to investigate the doctors cryptic message, the rulers simply won't appear.

Alright well in that case never mind. By the way it was described (signs combat going and such) I always assumed it was a time critical mission. I always stared it as soon as I got it, in which case it turns out I was severely underequiped. If I can just delay it until I am better prepared to face the ruler, well that makes it do-able. Thanks for the intel.

Originally posted by talemore:

If you only have rookies and you face an alien ruler all you can do is to hope it will bait on the rookies while the VIP runs to the evac, then buy new recruits. We only care about the performance and if the VIP reaches the evac point the mission is over. No one cares about the man under the stage.
Gear up with the best or the worst, in this case it's a VIP mission so pick the worst. You can schedule when to encounter the alien rulers because they can spawn on most types of missions, sometimes it's better to skip the mission and other times you don't have any choice than to take the bullet and sometimes you can pick a blacksite and hope it spawns there.

I actually considered using rookies as cannon fodder on these kind of missions, even before the ruler, especially on extractions when doing a harder difficulty run, but I always found it to be quite taxing on the supplies, especially while they still cost 25 supplies. I guess it would still be worth it over losing an entire squad due to the ruler.

[rubyismycat]

this killed the game for me completely i uninstalled the game and have never played it again

[Kwic]

Originally posted by rubyismycat:

this killed the game for me completely i uninstalled the game and have never played it again

I beat the L/I with the DLC (rulers) the first time I played it without knowing anythiong about them except that I heard they had a lot of HP. I didn't know they acted every 'your acrion' but,

as I thaught that expecting the towers would remove some pip in the avatar bar, I waite, as usual, taht the bar was full to start the missions. It means that I had 6 guys with magnetic weapons I think.

Then it is doabale. I have to say that it surprised me a lot when the Queen Berseker spawned on a 8 turned timed mission, started to set my guys unconscious ! I finally finished the mission but it was close !

So, yes, you can do it, just wait a while before inspecting the towers.

[Archmage MC]

Get Magnetic weapons before you bother with that DLC, if you dont' disable the mission, Alien rulers wont appear until you complete the DLC mission.

Make sure you throw as many status effects at the ruler as possible. Acid and Fire being two huge ones. Gas and Flashbangs for more aim reduction, and a freeze when it summons the portal if you wanna try to kill it. If you have lacerate, you make them even easier since that magnifys the damage 2x or 3x from all your DoTs, which are doing like 10 damage every time you make a move plus your soldier damage.

[ich.glaub.mir.platzt.der.sack]

I just started with XCom 2 and I have no fking clue how to kill this thing or where it comes from? I restarted so many missions because this thing killed all of my 4 soldiers within a few rounds. I have no equipment yet, beside fragmentation granades and medikits. I have played like 3 or 4 missions and I had no idea i would trigger an endgame boss. Now I am stuck and cant even get a second territory. In every mission I start this guy shows up and kills my entire squad. I think I will start a new game so can someone tell me how not to trigger this kind of monsters or how i can deactivate them without mods?
I love the XCom Games and when I first got XCom EU I even beat it in Iron Man Mode so i am not new to the game but now I just can't even finish a single mission.

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by ich.glaub.mir.platzt.der.sack:

I just started with XCom 2 and I have no fking clue how to kill this thing or where it comes from? I restarted so many missions because this thing killed all of my 4 soldiers within a few rounds. I have no equipment yet, beside fragmentation granades and medikits. I have played like 3 or 4 missions and I had no idea i would trigger an endgame boss. Now I am stuck and cant even get a second territory. In every mission I start this guy shows up and kills my entire squad. I think I will start a new game so can someone tell me how not to trigger this kind of monsters or how i can deactivate them without mods?
I love the XCom Games and when I first got XCom EU I even beat it in Iron Man Mode so i am not new to the game but now I just can't even finish a single mission.

It sounds like when you started a new game you didn't fill the box on the page that shows your DLC. Which (unlike every other game that gives such an option ) will place the rulers in the game whether or not you want them there. Unlike if you did select it in which case you can just outright ignore the mission that will kick off them showing up in your game. At least until you want to kick it all off.
Because that's not in anyway confusing.

Most people at this point will point out that it does say as much on said page, but;
A) It only says this if you mouse over the option instead of just skipping past a thing you aren't giving any thought to because....
B) Most, if not all but all, other games don't do it like that.

Made the same mistake when I first moved from xcomEU/EW to xcom2.

Speaking of, one of the easiest ways (without mods) I found to deal with them is to have at least three troops in your team that can each hit them with something that does fire, poison and acid damage and one person (who can be one of the first three or a fourth person) with the freeze grenade.
This way, because when an enemy has these effects on them they take damage when they take their turn, these rulers that are taking free turns all the time are taking damage from those effects all the time.

[Zeonista]

Amanoob has it right. If you don't click the box in the game start to initiate the story line, things get set in motion. all the weapons show up for construction, and then BAM! Viper King shows up at the end of month 2. If you don't have at least a 5-man squad and all the hunter weapons equipped, soldiers WILL die. Yeah, that could be explained with more clarity, Firaxis.