Legendary

[ColorsFade]

I just beat the game on Commander/Ironman, but I'm not sure how to get through the first couple of missions on Legendary.

The numbers don't seem to work right on Legendary. Enemies at lower elevation firing on my guys in half-cover at higher elevation hit them every time. Meanwhile, my dudes on top of buildings/scaffolding have only a 2/3 chance to hit and seem to fail more often than not.

The second mission is always the "commander underground" mission. As soon as I break stealth on the first pod, the game goes to hell.

Sectoids show up from the first mission and start mind controlling my guys.

I'm just not sure how to deal with this. Obviously people do, but even watching YouTube, I cannot figure out Legendary. It seems like all the YouTube plays is just people getting massively lucky, which is not strategy... it's just luck.

I'm, like, the most unlucky XCOM2 player there is. So is there a strategy for guys like me? Is there something that works for those of us who have different odds from everyone else?

I mean, I know the game says it's a 61% chance to hit, but for me it might as well be a 10% chance, because that's about how often that shot hits.

[Venrez]

A few options :

If you have time permitting, as soon as you engage a pod, fight defensively moving backward. Take shots when you can, but move backwards between each shot. More often than not the AI will pursue you into entirely open ground without cover and following shots will annihilate them.

Explosive spam. Either bring lots of regular explosive grenades or flashbangs. Regular grenades can remove surrounding cover, damage multiple enemies and expose them to further shots that same turn. Flashbangs reduce their aim, remove / prevent mind control (say, if used on a Sectoid mind controlling someone, it is immediately cleared) and generally inhibits them. I prefer regular explosives though. Every Soldier should have one explosive, or at least have 2+ Grenadier class soldiers.

With the right skills, throwing a Grenade is also not turn-ending.

If the enemy has no explosive weaponry themselves, if you imagine a solid wall with a doorway like ---I I--- dont stand at the doorway where you can fire through. Stand one more block to the side. They are completely hidden from line of sight and more often than not the enemy will charge your position using both moves before being able to take a shot, leaving them exposed.

2 Rangers, 2 Grenadiers, 1 Templar and a Specialist is generally all-purpose and extremely effective versus everything, countering Psionics with Revivals and Flashbangs, Armor with Shredding, Environment, Armor, Cover and groups of enemies with explosives, Melee with Bladestorm and being mobile with a Templar to recover crates or whatnot. A Skirmisher fits in there too replacing anything but the Specialist. I find Sharpshooters EXTREMELY lacklustre outside of a very few specific niche situations and Reapers are only good at max-level with Banish. Otherwise they are a worse Ranger without any melee skills and half the firepower.

Scanning Protocol on the Specialist is extremely useful. It is a free, wider-range Battlescanner with unlimited uses and renders the Assassin Chosen significantly less dangerous. Most often if you can estimate her travel distance to you and pop it at the right moment, it can reveal her standing right in the open and you get 1 free turn to vaporize her. It reveals pods and scouts for you. It is also a free move that costs no actions and you still have all the other benefits the Specialist brings either as a Medic or Techie.

Dont use Sparks. They are inferior to organic Soldiers in pretty much every way. They are a nifty jack-of-all-trades kind of class but their negatives vastly outweigh their positives.

As soon as you can, ensure you have a type of munitions (Tracer, Dragon, Bluescreen rounds) and Vest (Plated, Stasis or Nanoweave) for every soldier is a must and provides huge benefits.

Know target priority. You see a Sectoid, an Advent Trooper and an Advent Officer. The Trooper is actually the biggest threat, with a nasty gun and explosive grenades. The Advent Officer might target-mark someone (dealing no damage) and the Sectoid might fail its Psionic attack or miss with its abysmal weapon scores. Flashbang or Grenade the lot of them, then focus-fire the Trooper. If he's down, the Sectoid is next priority.

Stunlancers are useless if you have someone with Bladestorm and position your squad correctly with the Ranger the most viable target for the Stunlancer to engage (and headbutt your sword like a free overwatch attack).

Lost should never be a threat. Rangers with Bladestorm annihilate them with no effort and all your firepower can be directed at any Advent.

Similarly, Codexes, Lost, Andromedon Suits (with the pilot dead, in second form) and Purifiers are virtually harmless and can often be ignored until last, provided you move around.

The Skulljack is a god-tier item. With an 80% chance to hit and a guaranteed kill if it does, it is an excellent option for wiping out pods of dangerous enemies. Single use only though and the 'hack' may feedback damage you if it fails. But it is still an excellent choice to bring a couple later on. It also puts you into melee range which has risk of engaging another Pod or leaving the Soldier exposed. Check your angles before attempting it.

At least 1 or 2 Soldiers with Bluescreen rounds and a high aim score are a necessity to deal with annoying Codexes and extremely dangerous Spectres. They also help versus Mecs and Sectopods.

If you have a Psionic soldier, Stasis is their most powerful ability. It effectively "kills" a single target enemy per turn, removing them from the fight entirely. It is also not turn-ending, so you can Stasis a target then do something else. You can stall a single target indefinitely until it is the last one left and then obliterate it. Even if they survive 5 other Soldier's fire, you can just Stasis it again. You can also save team mates with Stasis who get caught out in a bad spot. Especially good versus Sectopods, Gatekeepers and Priests.

[Just Paul]

‘A few’? That’s an awesome reply.

[Stardustfire]

venrez you missed the point i guess, he asked about the start,
at start you dont have a psi ops.
bluescreen is another thing you dont have at the start missions.
skulljack: see the two above...
codex, andromedons: see the three above....

to come to TS question and not the 0815 standard replys about mid and end game:
are we talking basic game or wotc? if its is wotc you can enable with what faction you want to start before the game in the advanced start options, and you start already with one of them than.

1. highted advantage: this dont gives you more cover, only better aim chance, so roofs are not an advantage but a deathtrap. they only give you low cover at best, and when it goes wrong you soldier dont get hit, but the roof he stands on, leading into him fall to death.

2. if your second mission is ever kill the general you are super lucky, thats the easyst mission there is. evade enemy contacts, search the general, kill general first, relax and kill the other pods one by one....

3. sectoids: if you play wotc and start with a templar, sectoid is no problem at all. if the templar crits the sectoid is instant death, sectoids have melee weakness. also the sectoid can only control what he sees, if you are not able to kill him on sight break los with him and go into OW.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

1. highted advantage: this dont gives you more cover, only better aim chance, so roofs are not an advantage but a deathtrap. they only give you low cover at best, and when it goes wrong you soldier dont get hit, but the roof he stands on, leading into him fall to death.

The best defense is a powerful offense, however, so using the more dangerous roof to help you kill them is still safer than using high cover on low ground to passively protect yourself.

[Aranador]

So, My strategy for legendary gatecrasher, is to reload until the map has a high point I can occupy while stealthed, for my first ambush attack. The +20pct to hit is vital for getting your rookies to actually hit something. You want to eliminate the first pod without taking a hit.

Pod 2 is usually the captain's pod, but might be the sectoid, or if the game hates you (it does) you'll get both. Anyway, I budget 2 grenades for each of those pods, and I anticipate that I am going to have to get off the roof and go after the pods. The priority is the captain over the troopers, and the troopers over the sectoid the first round of engaging the sectoid, but then all in on the sectoid for the second round against it.

I anticipate that one of my troopers will get shot in each engagement beside the first ambush. When they do, they get to high cover and plink as best they can, while the other soldiers push forward. Sometimes no one gets hurt. with WotC, you will also have a hero. Use your hero appropriately for what they are - each has their own use. Skirmisher is hardest to use well (but their HQ bonus is the best) but a lucky justice grapple on a captain will help a ton. Templars are amazing, but you'll probably also wind up triggering two pods at once, so they make things harder. Reapers give you fantastic battlefield scouting and can wreck a second pod of enemies before you engage, and overall are the easiest to start with as far as combat goes.

Also, if not already mentioned - Legendary is the first and only difficulty where the RNG is absolutely fair. There is no 'streak breaker' code to give us stoopid human minds the sense that we're going to succeed because we just failed 4 times. What this means for your playing, is you have to plan for when you fail, not if you fail, and allocate more resources to a given action to increase the total chance of success. and when even that fails, you have to be able to take the heart break, and try to recover.

[ColorsFade]

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

2. if your second mission is ever kill the general you are super lucky, thats the easyst mission there is. evade enemy contacts, search the general, kill general first, relax and kill the other pods one by one....

For me it's ALWAYS the 2nd mission, and I find it the hardest. I can never find the general before a pod reveals me.

I'll give it a second chance. Maybe I'll just have to not use Ironman mode and reload saves until I get the hang of Legendary.

That's kind of what I had to do with Commander as well. I played without Ironman, reloaded a few maps, and once I got about halfway through I figured I could do Ironman (which I did).

[ColorsFade]

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

venrez you missed the point i guess, he asked about the start,

Yeah... I've played the game a ton mate. I have 315+ hours on XCOM2.

I really just want to know how to get through those first 4 or 5 missions. Once I get that far, it's not so bad.

[Venrez]

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

venrez you missed the point i guess, he asked about the start,
at start you dont have a psi ops.
bluescreen is another thing you dont have at the start missions.
skulljack: see the two above...
codex, andromedons: see the three above....

to come to TS question and not the 0815 standard replys about mid and end game:
are we talking basic game or wotc? if its is wotc you can enable with what faction you want to start before the game in the advanced start options, and you start already with one of them than.

I know. But I am just listing general tips that may help in Legendary. Take them or leave them.

You wont finish a Legendary game even if you ace the early game by botching the late game.

I also never said that height was an advantage.

I also hate Sharpshooters with a passion.

I always fight at ground level regardless of what structures are around. Further extrapolated by my mention of explosives. Perhaps I should've made another point :

Do not take elevated terrain where the platform(s) beneath you are destructible. Ever.

[ColorsFade]

Originally posted by Venrez:

I also hate Sharpshooters with a passion.

Late game, they are amazing. They're really the only class that can single-handidly wipe out multiple enemies by themselves. They're particularly invaluable on the 2nd-to-last mission where you only get 3 soldiers to infiltrate the array.

Originally posted by Venrez:

I always fight at ground level regardless of what structures are around. Further extrapolated by my mention of explosives. Perhaps I should've made another point :

Do not take elevated terrain where the platform(s) beneath you are destructible. Ever.

I watched Syken's play of Legendary and he's always looking for high ground and shooting from there, especially early.

I did run into the explosive problem in my Commander play-through, but what I learned is to prioritize those targets that will blow up your floor and send you falling. Mechs go down first, then anyone with a grenade.

Using high cover for the aim bonus was what got me through Commander. It wasn't a tactic I used before then.

I guess I just need to figure out how to do that underground commander mission. That is the one that gives me the most fits.

[✪ Wuhan Warrior 🍉🍉]

I just won my first game on legendary ironman. Yes the second mission is a pain in the arse with the neutralising commander.

I managed to score two crits on him, which helped me immensely.

For the first mission, you need to keep reloading until u can take a fight on high ground. As for the sectoid, you gotta slowly do that overwatch frogging and hope he bumps into your guys with them opening shots on him. It's MUCH easier to get him then.

Good luck. After that, it's pretty much standard.

The only difference is how many enemies you face in Legend compared to Commander or Normal, which makes reapers/grenadiers etc invaluable.

[✪ Wuhan Warrior 🍉🍉]

Originally posted by Venrez:

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

venrez you missed the point i guess, he asked about the start,
at start you dont have a psi ops.
bluescreen is another thing you dont have at the start missions.
skulljack: see the two above...
codex, andromedons: see the three above....

to come to TS question and not the 0815 standard replys about mid and end game:
are we talking basic game or wotc? if its is wotc you can enable with what faction you want to start before the game in the advanced start options, and you start already with one of them than.

I know. But I am just listing general tips that may help in Legendary. Take them or leave them.

You wont finish a Legendary game even if you ace the early game by botching the late game.

I also never said that height was an advantage.

I also hate Sharpshooters with a passion.

I always fight at ground level regardless of what structures are around. Further extrapolated by my mention of explosives. Perhaps I should've made another point :

Do not take elevated terrain where the platform(s) beneath you are destructible. Ever.

I don't really know what to say....

But the lot of these points he mentions are bullocks.

I don't even think he's completed legend difficulty, nevermind whatever other difficulty in ironman mode.

Sharpshooters are my no.1 go-to soldier whenever I need to fill my rooster for missions. Once they get death from above, and chosen hunter's weapon, they single handedly carry the game for me aside from the other 3 special resistance soldiers.

High ground is so advantageous I can't begin to mention how much.

On legend it is absurdly important NOT TO REVEAL more pods than 1 especially in the first few missions. However, there are plenty of times where the pods are all clustered together and you can quickly find yourself overwhelmed with over 6-7 enemies in the early game.

You only need to prioritize your targets.

[ColorsFade]

Originally posted by Wuhan No.1™:

I don't really know what to say....

But the lot of these points he mentions are bullocks.

I don't even think he's completed legend difficulty, nevermind whatever other difficulty in ironman mode.

Sharpshooters are my no.1 go-to soldier whenever I need to fill my rooster for missions. Once they get death from above, and chosen hunter's weapon, they single handedly carry the game for me aside from the other 3 special resistance soldiers.

High ground is so advantageous I can't begin to mention how much.

On legend it is absurdly important NOT TO REVEAL more pods than 1 especially in the first few missions. However, there are plenty of times where the pods are all clustered together and you can quickly find yourself overwhelmed with over 6-7 enemies in the early game.

You only need to prioritize your targets.

I felt the same way after reading those comments and playing Commander. It's a big upgrade from Veteran, and I found all of YOUR points to be true.

Sharpshooters are awesome, like you said, with Death from Above. They can kill so many enemies all by themselves. They make grenadiers worthwhile, IMO, because a grenade can't really kill much on its own. But it can knock everything down enough so the Sniper just cleans them all up.

And the high ground... yeah.

You mentioned the three special resistance soldiers. I found the Reapers invaluable (for scouting pods) and the Templar was my favorite to use, but the Skirmishers seemed a bit weak to me. Mox was the one guy I found myself leaving out all the time. Maybe I missed how to build him?

[Commander Gorda]

Sharpshooters are needed for optimal play on legendary, which is using a concealed scout and pulling unactivated alien pods towards your other soldiers on overwatch.
Highground should always be used aswell and target prioritze the most dangerous threat.
Reapers are awesome and the best class in the game by far, templars are more situational but are uniqe and really good in some situations.
Skirmisher doesnt really have anything that other classes cant do better.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by ColorsFade:

but the Skirmishers seemed a bit weak to me. Mox was the one guy I found myself leaving out all the time. Maybe I missed how to build him?

Nah, you just understand that Skirmishers are poor generalists who are eclipsed in all their generalist duties by a grenadier.

[ColorsFade]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Originally posted by ColorsFade:

but the Skirmishers seemed a bit weak to me. Mox was the one guy I found myself leaving out all the time. Maybe I missed how to build him?

Nah, you just understand that Skirmishers are poor generalists who are eclipsed in all their generalist duties by a grenadier.

Okay, cool. I thought I might be missing something there.