what to 'Build' and 'Research' first?

[Speaty]

I know how to play the strategy games, but this game is a kinda unique...

there is no enough 'supplies' and 'inlet' to buy and such!
and if I build something wrong, I will be in critical situation, so,

I have 5 question:-
-what is the best method to farm supplies and intel?
-what is the best order to build rooms and make research?

since the game have time limit...
-do I have rush to investigate new mexico?
I always 'game over'

I want to expand my area, but I have only 3 contacts
-how to expand it contacts?
-what I do in the geomap?

and in general any one have major tips that make the game easy?

anyway, that's it for now
thanks,

[Hammer_Squirrel]

You can’t really farm supplies and intel. You’ll get them as the game progresses, with some degree of luck from the RNG, so you’ll need to made decisions about how you spend what you have. Missions and scanning (including Reaper HQ in WOTC) will have them as rewards so you need to balance getting the resources you need with other mission rewards and other scans.

Don’t rush the story missions; or do if you want to find out why you don’t want to.

Building the Guerrila Tactics School is a safe starting strategy since that gives you squad size upgrades, but Resistance Ring can be viable in WOTC. And the Resistance Comms facility lets you connect to new regions. GLHF

[Sanctified Reach 420]

rookie mode for you may man and the beginning of the game is less punishing.

[HazardHawk]

Originally posted by Hammer_Squirrel:

You can’t really farm supplies and intel. You’ll get them as the game progresses, with some degree of luck from the RNG, so you’ll need to made decisions about how you spend what you have. Missions and scanning (including Reaper HQ in WOTC) will have them as rewards so you need to balance getting the resources you need with other mission rewards and other scans.

Don’t rush the story missions; or do if you want to find out why you don’t want to.

Building the Guerrila Tactics School is a safe starting strategy since that gives you squad size upgrades, but Resistance Ring can be viable in WOTC. And the Resistance Comms facility lets you connect to new regions. GLHF

ADDING to this...

Research is going to basically lead you and it is a good idea to use any available research boosts which are presented at the top of available research list. Once Resistance Communications pops up and is researched, then you can contact other regions.

On Geomap, drop in scanning should start as focused on supplies as this is where you will start short. Once you have a couple of regions contacted, then focus more on intel as supplied can be gotten with intel from Black Market and are offered as rewards in various ways, by monthly regional income, but now Intel is where you will fall challenged as needed to expand.

NOTE: This is vanilla game advice for WotC. Any changes you make in setting up a game can easily change the sequences you need to follow for optimal access and progression.

Example, going into the advanced menu in setting up and choosing to start with templar instead of Lost mission or reapers and the game changes in how it presents itself to be played. Assign which chosen to encounter first and again change presentation. In other words, we can only give you basic in general advice as they way you set up your game and the way you choose to play is unique to you.

[khumak]

You really want Mag Weapons, Gauss Weapons, Resistance Communications, and Resistance Radio ASAP. After that the order doens't really matter. You need the weapon upgrades to avoid being overwhelmed by the aliens as they tech up. You need the resistance techs to expand. Pretty much everything else will fall into place naturally after that.

[Speaty]

good tips all ...
thanks

[Spelly83]

GTS first. You want your squad as large as possible as fast as possible.

Resistance Ring second. You get so many bonuses and stuff from that, even covert actions to lower the Avatar project level. If you have a risk of being ambushed on the covert op, rangers are great to assign to them. Sharpshooters are great because of infinite ammo pistols. And also send your best guy on ops with a promotion reward to get the rank of Captain and get Squad Size 2 faster.

Laboratory third for faster research.

Build the resistance ring above an alien power coil, the other buildings go in the two spots that are left.

Workshop fourth, and put it directly below the Ring. Workshops turn one engineer into two, and two into four if you upgrade it and staff another one. The staffed engineers provide "gremlins" that you can use to staff adjacent facilities, that's why the ring needs to be above it.

This strategy is dependent on there being an exposed power coil on the third level.

Somewhere along the way, you will run short on power. Ideally, build your power facility on top of a power coil. Gives you a lot more power.

Your next facilities are Proving Ground, Resistance Contacts, and Power Facility, but not in that order. Your needs dictate your build strategy.

Don't build anything else on top of power coils other than power relays. Other buildings don't require power when built there, A power relay on top of a power coil is the most space efficient for providing power, and you already need more buildings than you have spaces.

YMMV with where the game places your power coils.

Eventually, you'll want an Infirmary and a Training Center. Build order does not matter, it really depends on if you have a lot of injured soldiers and need them back on their feet faster. Shadow Chamber after, and a Defense Matrix last.

For Research, you want mag weapons, but you need to increase your income, so research resistance contacts as soon as it becomes available. Radio when you need to get more than the starting territories.

If the assassin is after you, do advent officer autopsy to get battle scanner...it reveals her. A Reaper can reveal the assassin if you flank her and she is in visual range. People also use explosives to reveal her sometimes if they do not have a Reaper or Battle Scanners. Sometimes the camera will show her movement, or be focused on a certain area during the Chosen turn. That's where you want to fire your grenade. Even if she is immune to explosives, it will still reveal her, and that's all you need.

The assassin has always been my first Chosen, tutorial or no. Don't know if it's always that way, but that first fight with her is very difficult if you don't know what to do. Huddle your entire squad together, and put them under the bridge, and don't bother with cover...means nothing to her. Literally cluster them up like a 6 pack out in the open, or as open as an area as you can find. I said you can reveal her with a Reaper, but I have not tried that strategy on the mission. I think she comes at you from the...Northeast part of the road? If you can't find her, she will hit one of your guys, and he may not survive the hit. She loves to target Mox, and if she kills her, that's a mission restart. (save right after you first meet her). If you are lucky, she will throw a daze grenade instead - she only does this if your guys are clustered up. Daze grenades do no damage, but squadmates will need attention before they can do anything. Reviving them is a free action for others, so make sure to do it. Sometimes they will be disoriented upon revival. You just have to deal with that if it happens. No matter what she does, after she attacks, she will run away, and hopefully, just behind some nearby cover outside (position your guys far from buildings). If she's outside, you probably have a good idea where she went. Take your guys over there and whack her. She's not hard to kill if your guys can actually attack her.

Sectoid autopsy to get mind shield if you see the warlock. Makes it so he can't use psy abilities on your dudes. You'll need more than one mind shield, and don't forget to put them on your guys.

A Templar with the Parry ability can solo the hunter, as he almost always targets the guy in his face. Always deal with other troops first, you want to fight any chosen by themselves. With the hunter, once you have the templar in his face Rend-ing and Parry-ing, pull your other guys back so that the Templar is the only target he can see. Makes it much more likely the hunter will stay focused on your invincible templar.

For general combat - grenadiers and rangers are great, because they have abilities in the early game that are guaranteed or close to guaranteed damage. You have to be careful with ranger sword attacks tho. You risk revealing another pod if you are not careful with your ranger. If you have a reaper, use them to scout ahead and see if it's safe to run in and stab the enemy.

[Zeonista]

Speaty i will give you answers and advice for playing vanilla XCOM 2. WOTC has its own set of priorities, but if you're playing the vanilla game, there are a few things that can always work for your benefit.

XCOM doesn't do farming for supplies and intel. Aside from the monthly donation by the Resistance, the game will have you go out and get them, and you will have to prioritize your collection goals for each game month. Intel gets you region contacts, Resistance radio beacons, and nifty perks at the Black Market. Supplies and materials let you build the good stuff. Both supplies and intel as per tutorial can be gained by scanning locations on the global map. Guerrilla Ops and Council Missions will alternately offer both as rewards for successful completion. And once the Black Market opens up in the second half of April or early May, you have a place to dump extra loot in exchange for supplies as well. Most of all, expanding Resistance Contacts gives a permanent increase to Monthly Supplies. Expanding control isn't only feel-good, it's necessary!

For vanilla XCOM 2, the Guerrilla Training School is always priority. This is for three big reasons.
1. The GTS allows you to decide which of the four basic types a Rookie can train for. Instead of random picks which can leave your force unbalanced or give you soldiers you don't want, you get to choose which soldiers you need. If you are using the option that gives soldiers random stats instead of the same starting numbers, this can make a difference.
2. At Sergeant level the GTS will allow you to expand the squad to five soldiers. At Captain rank you can expand the squad to six soldiers. You really need those extra slots by May, and definitely by June, or if you intend on going after the Black Site.
3. As each soldier class gains a Captain, a special ability is unlocked for each of them in GTS. The Sharpshooter and Ranger get +10% critical chance, the Grenadier gets a chance for grenade and rocket damage to crit per target, and the Specialist gets +10% to hit on Overwatch and their Overwatch shots can crti!

My next two room builds are usually Resistance Contacts, so I can more quickly enhance Supplies and scannable areas, and then a Power Supply, because I need more energy for the next things. After that, the progress of the campaign dictates what gets built. If there are many Scientists, build a Laboratory. If there is a UFO on the prowl and Turrets are researched, build Avenger Defense. If the R&D is coming hot and fast, build the Proving Ground. Save the Power Coils for the Shadow Ring and Psi Training facilities, as they use large amounts of power, but any facility built on a Coil adds zero monthly energy cost.

Now for the three granted Resistance Contacts. Use them to fill out your starting area. Note, you will always start in North America, Africa, or Asia. With North America or Africa it's possible to use all three contacts and then build a beacon to gain control of the continent and gain a bonus for it. The continental bonuses are really nifty and worth having! Asia requires four regions to complete, so expansion of Resistance Contacts will be mandatory. After that, look for the nearest Avatar facility that ADVENT has constructed. Expand towards it, so you can raid the site, destroy it, and set back the doomsday clock.

[Hammer_Squirrel]

Originally posted by Spelly83:

Laboratory third for faster research.

Build the resistance ring above an alien power coil, the other buildings go in the two spots that are left.

Workshop fourth, and put it directly below the Ring. Workshops turn one engineer into two, and two into four if you upgrade it and staff another one. The staffed engineers provide "gremlins" that you can use to staff adjacent facilities, that's why the ring needs to be above it.

This strategy is dependent on there being an exposed power coil on the third level.

Somewhere along the way, you will run short on power. Ideally, build your power facility on top of a power coil. Gives you a lot more power.

Your next facilities are Proving Ground, Resistance Contacts, and Power Facility, but not in that order. Your needs dictate your build strategy.

Don't build anything else on top of power coils other than power relays. Other buildings don't require power when built there, A power relay on top of a power coil is the most space efficient for providing power, and you already need more buildings than you have spaces.

YMMV with where the game places your power coils.

I wouldn't want to put the OP off of experimenting, but I rarely use laboratories or workshops, and I have a very different strategy for power coils. This advice should be taken with a grain of salt, and these are not hard and fast rules.

[Sindorei]

Farm alien alloys, you need them for all upgrades, otherwise you won't be able to build magnetic weapons long after its research completed.

[khumak]

Originally posted by Hammer_Squirrel:

I wouldn't want to put the OP off of experimenting, but I rarely use laboratories or workshops, and I have a very different strategy for power coils. This advice should be taken with a grain of salt, and these are not hard and fast rules.

I agree. Lab and Workshop are both low priority builds if you build them at all unless you're using mods that make them more useful. Building a second power relay and a second comms relay for instance would be a lot more useful unless you've gotten enough avenger power or resistance contacts as scanning bonuses that you don't need a second one.

Facility build order is still kind of an interesting issue though. I always build GTS first, nothing else really compares to the early game utility of that. Ring second is also pretty much set in stone for an unmodded game. My third facility is usually the training center so I can spend my APs on additional abilities for my soldiers. Then it's power relay, comms relay, proving grounds.

After that it kind of depends on what sort of bonuses I've accumulated but usually it's second power relay, second comms relay, psi lab, and then shadow chamber. Last is usually Infirmary. Workshop, lab, and defense matrix don't get built at all unless I destroy my second power relay and or comms relay at some point because I don't need them anymore.

Some people put proving grounds earlier in the build order than that, but I have found that if I do that I don't really have the supplies to really benefit from it. So I wait til I've expanded a little and built a few other less resource intensive facilities first. Not to mention upgraded weapons.

[Fringehunter7719]

Originally posted by Speaty:

-what is the best method to farm supplies and intel?

You can't really farm supplies or intel, but you can do things to improve your income with each of them. Get as many data pads and data caches as possible by making sure to not defeat enemies with explosives until you've seen a loot drop in a mission, whenever possible. Sell spare corpses and items at the black market. Buy Elerium at the black market and resell it when it's at double price. Dig your base clear faster for the bonus resources it provides. Things like that.

Originally posted by Speaty:

-what is the best order to build rooms and make research?

There are only a few rules to follow for buildings:

• Build GTS and Resistance Ring as the first two buildings, in whichever order you prefer. If you're playing vanilla rather than WOTC then GTS first as Resistance Ring won't exist.
  
• Never build a workshop. Ever. Short version of the reason why is because the power requirement costs you an engineer, the maintenance costs you a load of supplies every single month and the opportunity cost on another building is higher than the remaining tiny benefit, by a very large margin.
  
• Don't build power relays on power coils. Use power coils to build any two of the following three buildings: Psi lab (best choice), Resistance Communications or Shadow Chamber. The benefit is equal or larger, but you get it sooner, making these strictly better choices.
  
• Generally you want Engineers working on digging not on building facilities. Any time you assign an engineer to construction it provides you a short term gain on that facility against a long term delay on every other facility that comes later. If you have a clear reason for consciously wanting that tradeoff, that's ok, but don't make it a habit.

Research is more complicated. Generally you want to beeline for plated armor and magnetic weapons. Personally I'm convinced that armor is much more important, but most players prefer the opposite. In truth both work, and once you have both these upgrades along with plasma grenades, mimic beacons and bluescreen rounds the game tends to be much, much easier than it was at the start.

The key mistakes to avoid are:

• In WOTC taking breakthroughs just because they are offered. You will get a chance to get them at the end of the game or from the Resistance Ring if you skip them, so if it's not *immediately* beneficial then just skip it. This applies to pretty much anything that isn't +1 damage to conventional/magnetic/beam weapons until late in the game.
  
• Researching autopsies that aren't instant / selling corpses you need to make a research instant. If you don't know there's a threshold for each alien type, so that when you have that many of its corpse you can complete the autopsy instantly. Very few autopsies have rewards that are worth the time, so just use this mechanic to complete them, then sell off your stockpile afterwards.
  
• The exceptions to the last point are officers for story reasons, as well as faceless, mutons and MECs. These are worth doing immediately because they provide key upgrades (mimic beacons, plasma grenades and bluescreen ammo) that make the game much, much easier in each case. Sometimes sectoids need to be autopsied non-instantly, depending how much you like psi and how early you want it. This should not be before you have mag weapons and plated armor though.
  
• Passing up chances to buy scientists (and engineers) at HQ or the black market, or chances to get them as mission or rumour rewards.

Originally posted by Speaty:

since the game have time limit...
-do I have rush to investigate new mexico?

No. You only need to contact that region around the time you reach the full 12 pips on the doom meter so you have a guaranteed way of reducing it back. That gives you several months of leeway.

Originally posted by Speaty:

I want to expand my area, but I have only 3 contacts
-how to expand it contacts?

Build the Resistance Communications Facility, upgrade that facility, staff an engineer in the second slot of that facility (it gives twice as much benefit as staffing the first slot). You can also occasionally get upgrades to the cap via rumour scans on the geoscape and resistance ring missions in the base (in WOTC).

Originally posted by Speaty:

-what I do in the geomap?

Mostly just fly to your next rumour scan or choose a mission when one pops. There are some things you can do to optimise your play there though:

• Each mission will exist for about 24 hours before you automatically skip/fail it. This means if you only have 8 hours or less left on your current rumour scan you can choose to "skip" for those 8 hours and finish what you are doing before going to the mission, thus saving the hours of flight time back afterwards. But you need to be *really careful* doing this if you're playing ironman.
  
• Monthly supply drops roll over from month to month in almost all circumstances. Until you contact a region outside of your first continent you are 100% safe to let the supplies roll over and accumulate, saving yourself 3 days of scanning time every 3 weeks when you don't immediately need those supplies.
  
• Some rumours are pointless and you shouldn't waste time on them. Prioritise the valuable ones and skip the bad ones. The obvious candidate for skipping is "Assorted loot" rumours.
  
• You can scan at the three faction HQs for intel/healing/construction boost (or set the regular HQ to one of these three options in vanilla non-WOTC). Healing is good as a last ditch, but generally should be avoided. Intel only ticks each 2 days for a really, really paltry amount (4-8 at random, so 3 intel a day) and should never be used. Construction boost doubles the work rate of all engineers assigned to digging and boosts the base rate facilities get constructed to double as well. This is very powerful if used at the right time.

Originally posted by Speaty:

and in general any one have major tips that make the game easy?

• Learn target priorities: Low prio = sectoids, shieldbearers, codexes, spectres and melee units that you can move away from. Generally anything that won't immediately deal damage. High prio = Officers, Stun Lancers, Mutons, MECs, Sectopods and Gatekeepers. Generally anything that will hurt a lot, especially if it doesn't have that much HP compared to its damage output.
  
• Always bring a concealed scout. Phantom ranger or reaper so you know when you can move up in concealment safely so you don't waste turns out of your limited turn timer.
  
• Bring enough explosives. One per pod plus a spare is a good rule of thumb, although more is always better. Enemies without cover are so much easier to deal with.
  
• Use high ground. The accuracy bonus is important early game.
  
• Don't really use concealment ambushes except on the very first mission.
  
• Don't pull more than one pod at once. Prioritise not activating more enemies than you can handle over everything else, even if that flanking shot looks juicy and you think you're probably safe.
  
• Count enemy pods remaining. If you are on a 3 pod mission (e.g. easy or moderate rated mission on the Legend difficulty setting - reinforcement pods don't count) then you know you can flank with impunity after two pods go down.
  
• Always prioritise troop safety and the mission over other things. E.g. if you have to risk destroying loot or losing a soldier just destroy the loot. Don't even think twice!

[Spelly83]

Originally posted by Hammer_Squirrel:

Originally posted by Spelly83:

Don't build anything else on top of power coils other than power relays. Other buildings don't require power when built there, A power relay on top of a power coil is the most space efficient for providing power, and you already need more buildings than you have spaces.

YMMV with where the game places your power coils.

I wouldn't want to put the OP off of experimenting, but I rarely use laboratories or workshops, and I have a very different strategy for power coils. This advice should be taken with a grain of salt, and these are not hard and fast rules.

And what's your strategy for power coils?

[Hammer_Squirrel]

Originally posted by Spelly83:

Originally posted by Hammer_Squirrel:

I wouldn't want to put the OP off of experimenting, but I rarely use laboratories or workshops, and I have a very different strategy for power coils. This advice should be taken with a grain of salt, and these are not hard and fast rules.

And what's your strategy for power coils?

I was trying not to spoil future buildings, but the post above outlines the better options. You net more power by placing a power hungry building rather than a a relay

[Sindorei]

Originally posted by Fringehunter7719:

• Learn target priorities: Low prio = sectoids, shieldbearers, codexes, spectres

You got it the wrong way around, apart from melee, those are all high priority.

Shieldbearers make it very difficult to kill the aliens he shields, codexes will wreak havoc on your entire squad by constantly leaving them out of ammo and teleporting into flanking position, spectres stun-clone one of your soldiers, which is basically just a kind of MC, and sectoids seem to have high chance to MC after they ressed an alien, Vipers almost always pull one of your soldiers into a nasty spot.
And most melee aliens can reach you in 2-3 turns, they have a long movement range.

If you keep your squad properly in full cover, Troopers and Captains will mostly miss their shots anyway.

[Fringehunter7719]

Originally posted by Sindorei:

Originally posted by Fringehunter7719:

• Learn target priorities: Low prio = sectoids, shieldbearers, codexes, spectres

You got it the wrong way around, apart from melee, those are all high priority.

You're welcome to your opinion, but no, that has absolutely not been my experience (through numerous campaigns on L/I FWIW). Getting killed is what loses you missions and campaigns, not getting slightly delayed.

Codexes are a prime example. They will psionic bomb a group of soldiers you have clustered up. If you make that group contain 2-3 soldiers at most, and those soldiers not reliant on their primary gun (e.g. Grenadier, pistol Sharpshooter, Psi Op etc.), or have an autoloader charge available then they will waste a turn. Firing at codexes and failing to kill them actually makes them *more* dangerous than they would have been if you did nothing.

To be fair, by the time you release codexes you should be in a situation where you rarely, if ever, let aliens survive a turn on the map. It's just that if and when you do some are much less likely to cause you a critical hit that actually damages your campaign.

Anything that can be completely undone for no cost after the fact is less of a risk than something that cannot be reversed after the fact. Bluescreen rounds will help you do that in many of those examples.

I saw a Youtuber explain how he'd got this wrong just the other day as it happens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjk4tzZtoEo