A Guide to XCOM Multiplayer

The multiplayer is pretty dead especially with XCOM 2, but for anyone who still wants to play XCOM Enemy Within competitvely or improve in its buggy multiplayer, here is my guide developed by various battles from vanilla to all the DLC and expansions.

How to Play Multiplayer

The multiplayer pits your team against another player's team. It is also the only part of the game where you can add alien units to your team.

For any loadouts or teams, you can add units that are worth a certain amount of point. There are three different limits you can set: 7.5k, 10k, 20k, or unlimited. This limit defines how many points are allowed in each player's loadout for that game, and any teams that cost above the limit cannot play in that game. Regardless of point total, each team can only have up to six units. Alien and Exalt units are worth a fixed amount of points, while Soldiers' points can vary based on what you skills, items, and gene mods that you select for them.

When the multiplayer game starts, both player's team spawn at opposite corners or sides of the map. At any point, when your opponent has no units to control, you win. Otherwise, gameplay is functionally the same as single player except that you cannot panic randomly unless you activate Intimidate or PSI Panic.

The Ideal Tournament Format and Rules

For multiplayer, everyone should play on Enemy Within over Enemy Unknown. There are various design and balance changes made in XCOM multiplayer such as:

• You can also have multiple teams or loadouts saved for multiplayer. In Enemy Unknown, you could only have one loadout saved, so forming a new team meant deleting your current one.
  
• Some units from the Enemy Unknown multiplayer have more balanced point values in Enemy Within multiplayer.
  
• There are more units, so there is a lot more unit diversity in multiplayer.
  
• XCOM soldiers can have gene mods.

Now the tournament format should be 10k on a random map with a turn time limit of 120 seconds. Here is my rationale.

• Ethereal's cost changed from 9.5k to 10.5k. The designers deliberately banned it from the 10k format, as with 9.5k, you could have this strong unit and then use a cheap unit as a scout. And at 20k, most teams would have an Ethereal. So the 10k limit encourages a more diverse metagame, whereas the 20k limit has the metagame revolve around it.
  
• Even if the Ethereal were to be banned, the 20k format is unbalanced and encourages stall. At 20k, most teams could afford a handful of very strong units to abuse an unbalanced gimmick such as a team of two super soldiers to abuse will and invisibility or a team of three Cyberdisc to abuse robotics. And at 20k, you can afford many units that have a lot of health and heal, stalling the game, whereas at 10k, rockets and other explosives can do enough damage to counteract stall or overwatch teams.
  
• The random map should counteract teams that work best at a map or a specific selection of maps. Thus, teams are formed to work with various maps and starting positions on the map.
  
• The 2-minute time limit is the biggest one the game can allow without allowing for unlimited time turns. The two minutes is more than enough for any experienced player to think and move. The two minutes accommodate for XCOM's buggy interface or lag.

Here is my set of rules which is not enforced by the game or game modes.

• Ghost armor and mimetic skin are banned. Both allow for XCOM soldiers who can be very strong without them be even stronger. And with mimetic skin, you can potentially stall the game out forever. In fact, mimetic skin is cheap enough for anyone to have a team of five rookies to run around invisible with mimetic skin. Without a renewal supply of AOE damage or Bioelectric Skin, you can never attack this team.
  
• The first turn is determined completely randomly. On multiplayer, the team with the lower point total is guaranteed to go first and only if both teams have the same total point cost is the first turn is determined randomly. Now the first turn advantage is pretty big, as the first-turn player can move their units without worry of overwatch or being spotted. Therefore, the first-turn player can set up the team strategy quite easily. Without this rule, players are encouraged to cut 25-1000 points from the 10k limit in order to have the first turn advantage.
  
• If no units are damaged, killed, or mind-controlled within 10 turns, the player with higher point total of units remaining wins. Units created by Chryssalids count for no points. This rule is to prevent excessively stalling and running away.

The Metagame

In my experience, at both 10k and 20k from vanilla to Enemy Within, the metagame always revolved around Mind Control and invisibility. So with the format above, the metagame revolves around Mind Control. Mind Control is very powerful since you can instantly remove a unit from enemy team and then use that unit as your own for a few turns. And if your opponent has no other units to control, even if your mind-controlled unit will eventually return back to your opponent’s control in a few turns or sooner, your opponent automatically loses. Nonetheless, it weakens the potential of high-cost Soldiers, Heavy Floaters, Mechtoids, and a few other units while also justifying the high cost of others such as a Cyberdisc.

What to Pick (Tiers)

Given the format, rules, and metagame stated above, I rank here in terms of S, A, B, and C. S-Tier describes units that should be on most team and are potentially the next units to get banned or nerfed. A-Tier denotes units that are strong but have at least one limiting factor that make it so they are not always recommended to be on every team. B-Tier contain units that can be potentially strong but require a certain complicated gimmick, uncommon situations, or inefficient for their cost. C-Tier have units that are rarely seen or has much better alternatives.

S

• Sectoid Commander (2700): The Sectoid Commander is the cheapest unit that can mind control. The next cheapest is Soldier with PSI Commander which costs 5550. With 90 Will, it can mind control most units on multiplayer while being mostly immune to mind control itself. At 10 HP with an innate 20 defense, it cannot be killed easily. It has extra utility with an Alien Grenade and Mind Merge.
  
• Non-Mec Soldier (>800): Now the soldier is the only unit with customization. Instead of ranking each individual configuration to the best of ability, I may write a guide on what configurations are better than others. But you cannot go wrong with most soldier configurations. In fact, a regular group of four soldiers can be one of the best teams in this format.
  
• Sectoid (500): This unit is not powerful on its own, but it is a cheap scouting unit. As a cheap unit, you can use 500 points to figure out where your opponent's units are, and it has extra utility with Suppression and Mind Merge. With the high likeliness that you have some points to spare, cheap scouts are quite helpful.
  
• Drone (400): This unit is also not powerful on its own, but it is a cheap scouting unit that cannot be mind controlled. It cannot overwatch, but it can fly and heal robotic units.

A

• Cyberdisc (5500): This unit can fly, attacks with Cyberdisc Cannon, has an Alien Grenade, and can use an AOE attack called Death Blossom. It is durable with high defense in closed form and 16 HP, and it has high aim and damage with its cannon. Not only is this unit strong, it is probably the best to counter mind control, as it cannot be mind-controlled. A Cyberdisc is worth 5500, but at 5500, you cannot add it easily to any team as you can with a Sectoid Commander.
  
• Mechtoid (3200): This unit also has 16 HP and attacks with Plasma Mini-Cannons. Now it does have 60% aim and 0 will, so it can miss a lot and be mind controlled 99% of the time. But to accommodate for the 60% aim, it can fire twice if it does not move, and if mind controlled, the opponent also has to deal with that 60% aim. With Mind Merge, a Mechtoid can gain a PSI shield of 6 HP and all incoming damage is halved.
  
• Heavy Floater (3000): This floater can fly, has 12 HP, attacks with a plasma rifle, and has an Alien Grenade. But at 25 will, it is also susceptible to mind control. Unlike a Mechtoid, however, getting your Heavy Floater mind-controlled can be quite costly. Its 70% aim with a plasma rifle can do a lot of damage to your team when used against you.

B

• Chryssalid (3000): This unit attacks at adjacent spaces, inflicting a lot of damage and potentially poison. It is a strong counter to any regular Soldier unit, as any regular Soldier that it kills adds a zombie unit to your team and thus potentially another Chryssalid. And with its leap and fast movement, it can attack most units within sight. But the Chryssalid must be hidden away, or else, the opposing Soldier units will be moved cautiously, preventing the Chryssalid from attacking. And a Chryssalid can be killed quite easily if shown within sight. With a map that may not have sight-blocking map elements, like any other melee-only unit, it can be ineffective. In the somewhat uncommon case that a team has no regular Soldiers, 3000 is a costly expenditure for a unit that only does above average damage at close range.
  
• Mec Soldier (>3500): Unlike a regular Soldier, a Mec costs at least 3500. So it has a minimum aim of 67% and 55 will. To raise that aim or will, the cost disproportionately raises more than if you were just to use a regular Soldier. And if mind-controlled, this unit can do a lot of damage to you. Now at 15 HP, it can endure a lot of damage especially with Shock-Absorbent Armor, and it can deal a lot of damage especially with Kinetic Strike.
  
• Thin Man (1100): With 65% and leap, he can move quite quickly and deal some damage with his light plasma rifle. But at 3 HP, it is quite a costly scout unit. It does have some utility with its Poison Spit.
  
• Exalt Elite units (varies): All of them have 80 will and are somewhat especially especially with Iron Skin. So while they are not as susceptible to Mind Control and are cheap for their utility, they have poor aim and poor skills.
  
• Muton Elite (2900): With 80% aim, it can deal a lot of damage with its Heavy Plasma, and has extra utility with an Alien Grenade. It is also durable at 14 HP, but like a Heavy Floater or a Mec, its susceptibility to Mind Control makes it quite costly especially if your opponent can use its 80% aim with a Heavy Plasma.

C

• Floater (1000): With 50% aim and 4 HP, they are simply too expensive as a scout. It can fly which is utility, but at 10 will, that flight and Launch can be more utility for your opponent. A drone is a much better choice.
  
• Muton (2200): With 70% aim and 8HP, the extra 700 are worth it just to have a Muton Elite instead.
  
• Exalt units (varies): They have the same poor aim but worse will than their Elite counterparts. They are cheaper, but have worse poor skills and weaker weapons.
  
• Seeker (2200): With invisibility, it is the best scout, but it costs 2200 and only has a Plasma Pistol. Its Strangle only works on human units and only works best on isolated units which is rare for a multiplayer match.
  
• Muton Berserker (4000): Like the Chryssalid, this monster must also be hidden, or else the enemy units will be moved farther away. And it can be killed easily if shown within sight especially if you cannot control it because of its Bloodlust. It is a much more durable Chryssalid that cannot create more units. It can break through walls via Bull Rush, but Bull Rush does not compensate for its lack of leap which would make it much easier close the distance between it and its potential victims. Really, it is too expensive especially when a Chryssalid is 3000.

Last Notes

At the end of the day, play the multiplayer the way you want to. The multiplayer is dead, and this guide seems not to exist anywhere else. So I just wanted to provide a guide especially when I transition more into XCOM 2.

Any constructive feedback, comments, or questions is welcomed especially in terms of the rankings I made.

Feel free to contact me if you want a match or either achievements: "Bubonic" or "Meet New People. Then Kill Them."

[Yoldra]

If anyone wants to go for the multi acheevo add me, play a multiplayer game that could be awesome or idk even just to make a new steam fend.

[Wads]

Anyone willing to help me win a MP match for the achievement? Want to 100% the achievements for this :(

[Howling-Owl]

I can't find any players in Multiplayer. :(

[Starkiller]

i would like to play a match to get those two achievements

[LEON]

I would like to play multiplayer but there are no players!

[Kalli]

Nice beginner guide for anyone interested in MP.

I still prefer this game over XCOM 2 MP.

[Bragolatch]

Great guide, Tks !

[Loopymoomoo]

I like the part where you actually tried to make the guide decent and helpful instead of memes

[Sleepy]

This was really helpfull, so thank you!

[Flair]

@Thecursedkatana Thank you