Xenoplague Help

[Motive]

Are there any good guides for Xenoplague? I'm currently playing as the Dvar with Xenoplague and it just feels terrible.

It seems like the tech was meant to be a "swarm" style play... but pustules seem to have a very low spawn rate. Pustules also feel very weak in comparison to how hard they are to get, which leads me to believe they are supposed to be a quantity over quality unit, but again their spawn rate seems really bad.

My last battle with 8+ organics I only had 1 pustule spawn and it instantly became a destroyer. my previous 4 battles with organics had no spawn. (Doctrine running, 6 heroes in the combat) I'm on turn 52 of this game and I've managed to spawn about 9 Xenoplague units. None of the early tech feels powerful or really helpful to keeping my units alive.

I've been making sure I get Parasitic Infection on all biologicals as to have every opportunity to spawn a unit.

I assume I'm just doing it wrong. Any pointers would be appreciated.

[harleyquinrazer]

Dvar and Xenoplague is an unorthodox combination, so you'll have to work with what you have.

Pustules are weak and don't spawn often, but they take damage which your Dvar units should be taking. Since they were free to begin with, use them like the expendable units they are and keep production of Dvar faction units up to keep the expansion pace on track.

The Xenoplague mods are good, especially the early ones. If you're not making use of them extensively then it's no wonder you're complaining. The parasite gives HP and immunity to negative morale and mind control, while the muscles give massive impact to melee units and parasitic infection which increases the likelihood of post-battle pustules. Use them extensively. Even if the pustules don't spawn, the ability to stagger just about every land-bound unit early on should be used and abused.

Lastly, Xenoplague gives Dvar a third damage channel. You will still rely on firearms, melee and explosives. But the biochemical will help against the Quartzite monsters.

[Prometheus]

Ensuring you are spreading the plague is the key. I don't see how you could be having trouble tho. The spawn is an escalating chance for every kill that resets when you get it (one roll per battle). Getting a spawn and an upgrade is actually really good for a single battle but 8 units would be about right for pulling that off. You should be spawning every 3-5 kills. Here is a game I am playing that is on turn 26. This has been an especially prolific game, I have even lost some pustules:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2016932854

That is 4 Destroyers and 6 Pustules. I have been fighting to keep my energy positive because of the upkeep of all the free units, lol. I do have the doctrine of increased chance to spawn/grow if a hero is present. I'm sure it helps a lot.

As for the strength of Pustules. They are absurdly good. You might not be very good at playing melee though. A lot of folks get it wrong because some intuitive things you'd do with ranged you do not do with melee. Here is a copy and paste of a post I made on the official forum. Its a basic primer on melee combat.

Melee is a different beast from the usual play. You are right. Go aggro. Run up to an enemy, hit them with a melee attack. They are now staggered and under melee overwatch, meaning when they act on their turn your unit will hit them again, and also stagger an action point off them. A simple example: Run up a Frenzied to a Trooper. You hit it, now it has 2 AP. During their turn they shoot your Frenzied, they get one shot, you melee overwatch, they lose their last action point. Your melee unit effectively just got two solid hits in and negated two of your target's AP that turn. They can't even move away. You still get the melee overwatch hit. You also still get melee overwatch even when you sprint (go into red movement).

As a general overall strategy you need to learn different positioning and its hard to write a guide on that. However I've found spreading my units out and getting as many staggers as possible is ideal. Also it seems counter intuitive but if you have moved two melee units up to an enemy unit and staggered off two AP. Don't finish that unit off. Use your actions elsewhere. The reason is the unit only has 1 AP. Other enemies will have 3 AP so are more threatening now. Also since the enemy is weakened and under melee overwatch it will probably die to the melee overwatch. So let it. Save yourself that action to work on an enemy that isn't doomed.

[AyuMetrix]

Dvars and Xenoplague - not the best combination. IMHO, of course. If you want Dvar with Xenoplague, I recommend so strategy: play in defense, protect your domain and ASAP study Xenoplague line, and win with ultimate weapon (alpha-strain).

[andersphilip2000]

Playing this campaign myself just now for the first time aswell. Since the maps are random, I am not sure if it's always possible what I did. I rushed the doctrine that let's you increase the chance of spawns, and also went full on xenoplague with the side quest unit. He will eventually abandon you, but only after securing 6 spawns.

I spawned relatively close to the opposing dvar faction, so I rushed them with what I had managed to spawn + the units I had produced. Ignoring most economic buildings and techs. The dvar had splitted their troops, so taking their only city was quite easy, even took a colonizer of theirs off guard.

Went then full on defensive mode, as by this point you have not a lot of forces, and the Amazon will soon send 2-3 stacks at you. Build the defense buildings at the cities facing toward them, and rebuild your forces as far as you can. A tactical spell (can't remember the name) can deal 20% hp damage on a full stack, use it before engaging them.

Had 3 tries on this one before I got the rush chance, dvar only was 2 sectors away from my very early 2. City.

[Orclover]

I disagree with Dvar and Xeno not being very good, I found them to be an amazing combo. If you keep diseases running with your attacks with mods and tactical then you should be getting a pustule almost every fight. Keeping the lil blighters alive almost means having to use manual combat for every fight however as they tend to get killed fairly easy when the ai is running the show. In battles keep them behind cover and run them in after the enemy has been engaged at range already, they are actually fairly hard to hit thanks to their small size. Just place them next to an enemy while also keeping them in cover to the other enemies and they should survive combat. In my xeno games I just kept a stack or two of evolving pustules on their own following my other armies. Depending the enemies I might not even engage with them, or I would let them swarm up and take out any stragglers. Once they evolved they were a lil more uselful but the point was to eventually just get them to tier III anyways. But if you have plenty of them already they make amazing kamikazi units. They can jump in close and punish anything with annoying melee hits.

In the campaign I found the Dvar to be honestly overpowered with Xeno. Then again the Dvar are pretty OP on their own.

[Midas]

It's the same case with anything + xenoplague: You need a way to propagate the plague in the early game to get the ball rolling. I find the strategic and tactical ops are good for this, but Dvar has melee units, so you can use the melee mod to spread the plague too.

Once you have the plague pods and a few plague units, you'll have gribbly monsters popping out of the woodwork every turn.

edit: And, no, it's not a bad combo. None of the combos are bad, they all offer unique combos and complimentary benefits.