Chosen on first retaliation mission.

[Fitcher]

I dont remember back when WotC came out that the first retaliation mission having a 100% chance for a chosen fight.
It was more like a chance and then even higher chance each mission after that.

the only change i got is that i bought the other DLC (alien hunter and shens gift) packs but i dont think they should change the chosen spawn.
I also tried to check the patch notes but could not find any information there.

[Lampros]

I have only played Legendary recently, so I do not know if it happens in other difficulties, but they spawn literally on every first retaliation mission for me. And yes, they can be quite difficult with a 4-man group. Personally, I think they should lay off for at least the first month, but I guess that's why it's Legend...

[Fringehunter7719]

It depends on whether you enable lost and abandoned, same as it did at launch of WOTC.

[Fitcher]

I only enabled Lost and abandoned the first time starting WotC after that i always had it off.
My issue at the moment is that i cant win the first retaliation mission because of the chosen always spawning on THAT mission and i dont have enough options on my soldiers to deal with it.

I am 100% sure it was not like that before with lost and abandoned off.

Just now i had a great game untill i got to the retaliation mission, had skirmisher as a starter and the Hunter chosen (witch i feel is the easies one) weak to skrimisher.

Cleared both pods with no damage taken, engaged the chosen and because of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ layout of the map he had grapple points all around my guys first thing he does is shots down my skrimisher, on my next turn i got him down to less then half health and then he took down my ranger (both bleeding at this point).

After that the rest of my guys just did not have any options to deal with him.

[happyscrub]

inb4 someone says, "That Xcom, baby"

[Fitcher]

well im not whining about losing the mission or having to restart, its more the changes i cant find any info on and i kind of want to confirm that i dont remember things wrong.

[happyscrub]

Start with templar.

Usually when you start as templar the chosen will be weak to templar atttacks and brittle too (take more damage from melee attacks).

Feed the templar 2 kills and then when the chosen shows up, you do TONS of damage

[Fringehunter7719]

Originally posted by Fitcher:

I am 100% sure it was not like that before with lost and abandoned off.

I'm 100% sure it wasn't – here’s an example of a discussion from that time where I stated the differences I was seeing http://steamcommunity.com/app/268500/discussions/0/1474222595301053494/#c1474222595302057331 there are plenty of other examples from that time, although it’s easier for me to find my own posts through my own search history. Probably one of us is misremembering, but I don't suppose it matters who.

I suppose it could also be down to using mods (I generally don't) or skipping missions (I don't think I've ever tried skipping one before the first retaliation).

Originally posted by Fitcher:

I only enabled Lost and abandoned the first time starting WotC after that i always had it off.
My issue at the moment is that i cant win the first retaliation mission because of the chosen always spawning on THAT mission and i dont have enough options on my soldiers to deal with it.

I sympathise, it’s an extremely tough mission to deal with, especially if you square up against the warlock.

I’ve read a few strategies for dealing with the chosen, that may be worth a try if you’re interested.

(i) Don’t contact any regions before the mission pops and evacuate out as soon as the chosen spawns in. Since you have no regions to lose it just costs you the mission rewards and makes a small deduction from your income instead of an increase.

(ii) Use a reaper start and feed your reaper enough kills on the gatecrasher together with the second mission to make sure they have remote start. Rest your reaper on the third mission (the one with lost) to make sure they are battle ready on the alien retaliation mission. Play the mission carefully, keeping all soldiers other than your reaper well back from the chosen to manipulate the chosen into getting into a position where you can hit it with a remote start and knock out over half its health. A follow up claymore will pretty much finish it off.

(iii) Plan to let the chosen daze one of your units, then deliberately leave the daze in place so the chosen extracts info and leaves.

I personally find (iii) to be the most reliable, but I’ve read lengthy and descriptive posts by people who swear by the others.

Originally posted by Fitcher:

Just now i had a great game untill i got to the retaliation mission, had skirmisher as a starter and the Hunter chosen (witch i feel is the easies one) weak to skrimisher.

Cleared both pods with no damage taken, engaged the chosen and because of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ layout of the map he had grapple points all around my guys first thing he does is shots down my skrimisher, on my next turn i got him down to less then half health and then he took down my ranger (both bleeding at this point).

After that the rest of my guys just did not have any options to deal with him.

It’s a pain and it can be very tough. The best tool against the hunter is a medikit and there’s always the option of evacuation if things go south. Two bleeding units carried out is a lot better than two fatalities and continuing a losing fight that may cost more soldiers.

The price of failure on the first retaliation isn’t too heavy if you haven’t already contacted another region, so best of luck.

[Tiasmoon]

Aye, with Lost and Abandoned off first Chosen appearance is 100% at first Retaliation mission.

Originally posted by Fringehunter7719:

(i) Don’t contact any regions before the mission pops and evacuate out as soon as the chosen spawns in. Since you have no regions to lose it just costs you the mission rewards and makes a small deduction from your income instead of an increase.

Definatly the best way to handle that problem. Not being ready for a Chosen at that point can easily cost you some of your best soldiers.

Originally posted by Fringehunter7719:

(ii) Use a reaper start and feed your reaper enough kills on the gatecrasher together with the second mission to make sure they have remote start. Rest your reaper on the third mission (the one with lost) to make sure they are battle ready on the alien retaliation mission. Play the mission carefully, keeping all soldiers other than your reaper well back from the chosen to manipulate the chosen into getting into a position where you can hit it with a remote start and knock out over half its health. A follow up claymore will pretty much finish it off.

If your really good with the kill feeding its possible to get a rank up in both Gatecrasher and the second mission, and have a Sergeant at the Retaliation mission. But that's pretty hard to achieve. Templars and Skirmishers are a bit more reliable in first Retaliation mission tho, imo.

By the way OP, the Hunter is easily the worst Chosen to be up against if your lacking explosives (to destroy what he grapples to and his cover). You'll want 2 Grenadiers against him if possible, and save those Grenades.

[Fringehunter7719]

Since the first chosen always has a faction weakness to your starting faction (although their second weakness and their strengths are randomised), I think happyscrub's templar start could work too.

Kill feed the templar on gatecrasher and the second mission, and then rest them on the lost mission. So long as you don't get a warlock that mind controls your templar or a melee invlunerability (not sure if that can actually happen as first strength or not on a templar start) you can probably afford to back all the way off the chosen with your squad and fight it 1v1 parry tanking. If the worst comes to the worst they'll get dazed and interrogated, which is a pretty acceptable outcome anyway.