Gatekeepers.....tactical solutions....please

[oneilbell42]

First off, I am running the vanilla version of XCOM 2. On to the topic, I am having problems at times with dealing with the damn Gatekeeper.....When it spawns with a couple of Archons or advanced advent troopers, i can deal with it., but yesterday i had an encounter with 2 shield bearers, 1 archon, 2 advanced advent soldiers, a Mutoun and a Gatekeeper. My mission was to take out a communication node, I already handled a couple of Advent Pods and as i aproached the building, i was swarmed. Normally, when i see a Gatekeeper, i set my squad to overwatch, because everytime the Gatekeeper makes a move, it spawns an overwatch reaction. That tactic did not work this time due to all of the Advent activity. My Overwatch moves were wasted on lesser foes and my unit was wiped out......what is the best woakable tactic versus the gate keeper?

[rzL]

flashbang to disable psi non sense, mimic beacon to draw its fire, psi-ops with stasis/insanity/mind control, emp grenades have a chance to disable it as well i think

[Ygolnac]

Originally posted by oneilbell42:

Normally, when i see a Gatekeeper, i set my squad to overwatch, because everytime the Gatekeeper makes a move, it spawns an overwatch reaction. That tactic did not work this time due to all of the Advent activity. My Overwatch moves were wasted on lesser foes and my unit was wiped out......what is the best woakable tactic versus the gate keeper?

In my opinion in xcom2 overwatch works poorly in general, and especially at commander and legend.

There are certain foes that must be dealt with quickly, neglecting them the possibility to act entirely. For me gatekeepers are this kind of foe. Try to spwan them at the beginning of your turn, and focus fire on them with everything you have. Start with stuff that shreds, follow with holo-targeting guys. Don't mind the ice granade and mimic beacons, they are not usefull against gatekeepers.

If lesser foes are still standing at the end of your turn, and you have everyone in cover, it's not the end of the world.

Archons tend to use pigeons (if everyone is in cover and you have a group of soldiers close togheter) that don't do dmg and just force you to relocate, shield bearers tend to spawn shields that don't do any dmg too, advent soldiers take pppot shots and might trow a nade. Mutons are worst to leave alive, but better them than a gatekeeper.

At legend I've stopped to overwatch even for ambushes. 9/10 of times it's better to have soldiers with fresh moves than to prey rng gods.

[oneilbell42]

Damn.....I didn't know the flashbang would effect it in that way. I packed a bunch of smoke grenades. Stasis only stops it for one turn. Good when it is isolated. Gives you a chance to reposition, but when you are overwhelmed....well not quite as effective...

[red255]

disorient prevents psionic yes.
I usually use capacitor discharge.

general strategy for gatekeepers is to hit it with an acid bomb, then have my snipers shoot it with bluescreen rounds.

if I can't manage to bring it down you can turn it off with stasis, disorient it with capacitor discharge or a flashbang,

if you can hit it with an acid bomb then attempt to roll a rupture on him with salvo thats probably the easiest to take him down.

[oneilbell42]

Originally posted by Ygolnac:

Originally posted by oneilbell42:

Normally, when i see a Gatekeeper, i set my squad to overwatch, because everytime the Gatekeeper makes a move, it spawns an overwatch reaction. That tactic did not work this time due to all of the Advent activity. My Overwatch moves were wasted on lesser foes and my unit was wiped out......what is the best woakable tactic versus the gate keeper?

In my opinion in xcom2 overwatch works poorly in general, and especially at commander and legend.

There are certain foes that must be dealt with quickly, neglecting them the possibility to act entirely. For me gatekeepers are this kind of foe. Try to spwan them at the beginning of your turn, and focus fire on them with everything you have. Start with stuff that shreds, follow with holo-targeting guys. Don't mind the ice granade and mimic beacons, they are not usefull against gatekeepers.

If lesser foes are still standing at the end of your turn, and you have everyone in cover, it's not the end of the world.

Archons tend to use pigeons (if everyone is in cover and you have a group of soldiers close togheter) that don't do dmg and just force you to relocate, shield bearers tend to spawn shields that don't do any dmg too, advent soldiers take pppot shots and might trow a nade. Mutons are worst to leave alive, but better them than a gatekeeper.

At legend I've stopped to overwatch even for ambushes. 9/10 of times it's better to have soldiers with fresh moves than to prey rng gods.

The overwatch, at least in early missions, seemed to work against the Gatekeeper. I would not overwatch every squad member, I would have three attacking and set three to overwatch. I was able to take out the Gatekeeper in maybe two rounds that way. But in that situation, it was just us and him. The situation i encountered yesterday was a total tactical fail....i had no good cover and the gatekeeper hit my squad with a psi attack....killing one and critically wounding three. I

[learnedhand]

EMP grenades were built for gatekeepers and sectopods.

[red255]

Originally posted by learnedhand:

EMP grenades were built for gatekeepers and sectopods.

acid bomb + rupture on salvo grenadier, then fanfire from bluescreen rounds sniper. is a massive amount of AM damage, though i generally go serial now on my snipers.

[gudbrandur]

You can disable most abilities with certain effects.
A disoriented opponent looses all of its psy abilities and even shuts down many ongoing ones (mind control for example!).
A burnign opponent cant melee.
A poisoned foe has reduced hit chance.

A gatekeeper is succeptible to flashbangs and shredder attacks.
In fact, from experience I can tell you to never enter the field without a way to shred armor (grenades and the shredder ability) and flashbangs on a grenadier (huge AoE disable).
Trust me on this, a flashbang can turn a horrible death-filled turn into a mildly hurtful one.

[red255]

if you have 6 psionic soldiers you shouldn't need to shred armor, as PSI bypasses armor and you can just null lance everything you don't turn into mental puppets.

[Aranador]

I am a big fan of AP rounds, especially on my gunslingers. As powerful as bluescreen rounds are, I actually seldom pack more than one of those, as good tactics can get you past any enemy, and a variety of tools creates more opportunities for good tactics.

As mentioned above - being able to shred is also an important capability - those gatekeeper pods with lots of armoured units around just beg for the Acid Bomb.

Mimic Becon is your 'Get out of jail free' card - always carry one if you are not confident in your tactics. Flash Bangs are similar but have a few other tactical uses too.

Do not be afraid to die horribly over and over trying out every new thing and seeing what benefits and effects they have. XCOM is very much a game about learning by doing (and dying horribly). Remember, you are the Commander, it is your rookies that do the dying.

[Eggy]

EMP nade makes them an easy kill.

[Pippin123]

As mentionned above, setting up an overwatch trap is not efficient when there's too many ennemies. Using your abilities to Nuke your actual target is more effective. A good Sniper with Bluescreen rounds and quickdraw (allowing for a pistol shot before taking your Rifle shot) should be enough, once someone softened it with a shredding attack.

[_ALuX_]

Armor shred and just hitting it with everything I got is pretty much my strategy.

[DasReptar]

I never focused on building items, but upgrading weapons. I use grenadiers to shred the gatekeeps' armor, and snipers to nail them for criticals. No need to worry about what it reanimates if you can kill the gatekeeper before the next turn.

[Yxklyx]

The main problem here was that you were swarmed. That should only happen rarely.