Can't stop the Avatar Project

[IceWallow Come]

So I started a new game yesterday and it seems that I can't stop or slow down the Avatar Projest in any other way apart from assulting facilities. For some reason there has been an abscents of missions and the ones I do get don't slow down the Avatar Project at all. The Project is now on 9 bars and I don't think I'll be able to stop it unless I send my under equiped soldiers to the black site.

[Roderick]

Is there any urgent goal listet in the upper left corner on the strategic map?

[Halfinger]

You can do the black site any time, the aliens adjust to your current level. Missions don't reduce the timer. Also, as said, some urgent goal's will reduce it but I use them as a nice bonus.

[Skaldy]

which missions? general idea of skulljacking something reduces avatar projects fairly. First one gets one node second (killing the avatar) reduces 3. Other story oriented mission(forge, black site, gate) reduces 3 each. And liberating a region reduces 1.

How much time did you spend around the map anyway? I started a new game few days ago and on the 5th month holding onto special missions and some liberations because i moved it back to almost nothing atm.

Oh also if i remember right raising vigilance also slows down avatar project side events. But i tend to do it during late game when i start to ran out of special missions and liberations.

[Gamefever]

In the normal game, your supposed to target facilities to manage the Avatar Project.
There will be times that this goal upsets the order in which you do things and its pretty much normal.
You will find yourself making decisions that are not in line with your plan to save the game.

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by Master Chief:

So I started a new game yesterday and it seems that I can't stop or slow down the Avatar Projest in any other way apart from assulting facilities. For some reason there has been an abscents of missions and the ones I do get don't slow down the Avatar Project at all. The Project is now on 9 bars and I don't think I'll be able to stop it unless I send my under equiped soldiers to the black site.

Apart from facilities, only fulfilling story related objectives will reduce the timer. Regular missions dont, unless you fulfill an objective during one. (such as skulljacking a codex for example)

Also, you can probably get away with doing the black site mission. Most enemies (all except for one pod, in fact) scale with time. The longer you wait with doing that mission, the stronger enemies become.

[IceWallow Come]

ok thanks everyone for the help. I did delay a few story objectives on this turn, in fact I havn't built a proving ground yet so I'll get right on that.

[Wraithverge]

If you're lucky, you'll reset the avatar to one or zero, if you can do several blacksite missions in a row. I had that during the last playthrough. Had only 1 Avatar bar and was ready for the last missons.
To make things easier, consider stealthing your way to the target and blow it up, when you can manage to pull out your whole squad in one turn ;)

I managed to do that twice so far, didn't fire a single shot in those missions.

[Rosencrantz]

It's easy to panic on your first play through until you understand exactly how the bar works.

Only once all the pips get filled does the 30 day game over timer start ticking down, and you can pause it by doing something that removes a pip.

Story events and destroying facilities are what you need to do to remove pips. At 9 pips your not in immediate danger but should be actively moving towards being able to do a story event or a facility. As long as you keep moving forward towards facilities and the story events you should always have options to knock a few pips off when it starts to get a bit full.

[Gamefever]

Keep an eye out for Data Pads or I think they are called "Facility Data Pad"
You can research those and it will reveal a hidden facility, this could be to your benefit as it may reveal a location inside of one of the area's you have access too.

Otherwise you gotta be pushing out from the starting area always taking zones that get you closer to a facility rather than going for bonuses.

There is a radar facility you build on the Avenger and given it increases your network size its a seriously critical item to keeping your game going.

[GreyWolf_19]

My current play thru I ran the bar down to less than 10 days and did the 1st facility. It was actually easy as I have tier 2 and 3 weapons plus some armor upgrades and 2 blue screen rounds at this point.

Now I'm knocking down the pips pretty easily. So you can have plenty of time. Just keep doing any mission items on the left if you get real nervous. My 1st play thru was a disaster.

[Reoden]

If you're playing the unmodded game the AVATAR project is not really that big a threat. You won't actually lose the game if the progress bar for it is completed, that only starts a countdown that gives you a whole 20 days to set it back in any way, upon which if it fills back up you'll get a fresh new 20 day clock.

As well as hitting bases, most of the main story objectives will delay the avatar project (skulljack a captain or codex, etc).

It's pretty viable to just completely ignore the project missions/sites until the progress bar fills up, then run the clock down doing whatever else you need to be doing, and then hit a base or whatever when there's only a couple days left on the clock.