XCOM 2: The Long War basics

Tips, tricks, and explanations so you can learn all you need to take back Earth in this Long War. For the Long War Mod for XCOM 2.

Introduction to The Long War

The Long War is a total conversion mod for XCOM 2 that completely changes the gameplay, making the campaign longer, but adding lots and lots of tactical and strategic depth while adding many new weapons and classes. Its basically an Expansion Pack for XOCM 2 while not actually being one for how much content it gives you.

I will be periodically updating this guide as I play through my Long War campaign. If anyone would like to assist, please post below.

How to install the Long War mod for XCOM 2

1. Go to the Steam Workshop
2. Find the Long War 2 mod
3. Click Subscribe
4. Wait for the mod to download, start XCOM, and enable the mod.
5. Enjoy

Changes from Vanilla XCOM 2 to Long War

There are many changes from the base game that this mod does.

-Huge Overhaul to the Strategic side of the game. Including Resistance management and Infiltration system.
-Different difficulties do more than just tweak numbers, there are mechanics changes too, such as any diff higher than rookie not showing reinforcement flares.
-Much longer campaign length
-Many more classes. 11 in total, all with 3 sets of skills per tier.
-5 tiers of weapons, up from 3.
-Overhaul of many items.
-Weapon mods can be created at the Engineer labs
-Many more research paths and options
-Many new mission types and maps
-Many new weapons and abilities.
-Many new alien types.
-And much, much more.

The New Classes of Long War

With Long War, there are many new classes to use in order to help you win the war against the aliens. There are 11 classes in total, one being a DLC class. Additionally Long War also gives most classes the opportunity to become Officers. You may only take 1 officer per mission, and officers have their own tree alongside their normal tree.

You can also gain a side tree for non officers, giving them slightly more options such as better Pistol usage, more defensive capabilities, ext... These must be trained in the Advanced Warfare center, much like a Psi Op is trained in the Psi labs.

Soldier Experience is mostly gained from missions, which depend on how many aliens are on the map divided by squad size when completed, as well as kills made by the individual soldier. If the mission fails, soldiers can gain up to 50% of the XP they would've gotten from completing the mission depending on how many aliens they kill.

Note that all classes that use Rifles, SMGs, or Shotties can interchange these weapons. Classes that use any 'specialized' weapons other than these can only use that weapon type. Even so, some classes are far more effective with certain types of weapons than others which is what I have listed.

Sharpshooter

Sharpshooters are the Sniper class. You can choose to have them hang in the back, or move up with your squad, keeping them near the back but still mobile depending on your skill choices. Additionally Sharpshooters can mark targets with the Holotargeter, giving additional aim to other XCOM soldiers.

Sharpshooters have different builds. They can either do one gigantic hit on an enemy using their holotargeters to get more aim, crit, and damage on said enemy or multiple enemies, fire twice a turn on the same enemy, or constantly fire as long as they kill an enemy each shot. Finally there is the crit sharpshooter build, which lets a sniper finish off a wounded non Alien Leader enemy if they crit with Kubikuri, no matter how much HP they have.

Primary Weapon: Sniper Rifle
Secondary Weapon: Holotargeter

Shinobi

Shinobi are the 'stealth' class, as they start with a stealth skill right away. they are also the melee class, having very powerful skills that buff their secondary, the sword as well as talents to aid their flanking potential.

Shinobi can be used as your 'stealth' class, getting tons of stealth based skills that both reduce overall infiltration time when they're on the squad, to making them incredibly hard to detect and start/re-enter concealment in a mission, making them great scouts for your Sharpshooters. They also have the standard Slice N Dice build where they use Reaper and other sword talents to cut up a ton of wounded enemies.

Primary Weapon: SMG
Secondary Weapon: Sword

Ranger

The standard Infantry class, they can be specced to do some serious damage or become Overwatch monsters. Their iconic ability is the ability that firing their weapon will not end the turn if they have spare moves left. Additionally if they can get close to something, their Sawed Off Shotgun can do some incredible damage.

Let it be known that their damage is not to be laughed at. With high aim, crit, and the ability to use Double Fire... yeah they're pretty nuts.

Primary Weapon: Assault Rifle
Secondary Weapon: Sawed Off Shotgun

Assault

A class that primarily uses shotguns, this class does quite a bit of damage up close and has a good chunk of skills to keep them alive if they're in enemy lines or targets that helps them flank much better. They can also stun targets using their Arc thrower from a distance.

Assaults can be CQC Run and Gunners or long range stunners depending on their mobility. Aim isn't as needed since a shotty gives so much bonus aim at point blank.

Primary Weapon: Shotgun
Secondary Weapon: Arc Thrower

Gunner

The Heavy Weapons of the group, they can suppress targets in an area of effect, shred armor, and overall do quite a bit of damage. Their secondary is the Combat Knife, which lets them deal with enemies who try to come up close, much like a Muton, assuming you get the talent.

Until Suppression is fixed to not be so buggy, Gunners are usually used to shred armor and do lots of damage with Cylindrical Fire and Chain Shot.

Primary Weapon: Cannon
Secondary Weapon: Combat Knife

Grenadier

The Grenadier can destroy enemy cover, deal some serious damage with grenades which he can carry multiple of, or focus more on support grenades, even getting a special grenade from his skills that allow him to grant an ally concealment.

Grenadiers can either be offensive or support based, with the offensive ones able to blow away cover or blow up aliens without worrying about losing loot drops while support ones get things such as concealment grenades.

Primary Weapon: Assault Rifle
Secondary Weapon: Grenade Launcher

Specialist

The support of the group. With their GREMLINS and talents, they can either be your hackers, your medics, or Overwatch monsters. You'll usually be bringing one of these almost every mission thanks to their hacking and healing abilities depending on what you need for that mission. They are also needed if you want to stage ADVENT MECs at your resistance havens with their Full Override skill.

Primary Weapon: Assault Rifle
Secondary Weapon: GREMLIN

Technical

The Technical has access to the Gauntlet, which lets them use both a Rocket Launcher and a Flamethrower, and has skills to improve them. You can get more rockets or flamethrower fuel with a Heavy Weapons type armor without needing to make them first.
NOTE: The main rocket can deviate by 4 tiles, improved to 2 tiles with the squaddie talent "Fire in the Hole", note that if firing a rocket on a yellow move, you have an additional 2-4 tiles of scatter and a +60% scatter chance.

Primary Weapon: Assault Rifle or SMG
Secondary Weapon: The Gauntlet

Psi Op

A special class, Psi Ops level up inside the Psi Lab after getting xp from going on a mission. This powerful class has many abilities it can learn and use, all being quite powerful. Usually you'll only have a few of these powerful operatives, but thats fine as being able to permanently mind control an alien per mission, summon a huge rift like a grenade that can also mind control or cause aliens to panic, shield an ally or force an alien to skip a turn, give an ally an additional move, as well as other super powerful psionic abilities make them quite a force to be reckoned with. Oh, they can also become immune to explosives and give this benefit to other soldiers as well.
NOTE that they don't get access to all abilities like Vanilla and you have to pick and choose from the ones you have listed. In 1.1 they also gain 3 abilities the first time they are trained.

Primary Weapon: Assault Rifle
Secondary Weapon: PSI Amp

SPARK

A class gained from completing the DLC mission Shens Last Gift, these robots can be brought to any mission if they are wounded, although they can't become Officers. They can't hide behind cover, but have high defense to compensate for it. Additionally they get more armor than other soldiers baseline, can't be crit, can become high cover for other soldiers, and with the right talents, heal themselves and cause all nearby teammates to be untargetable, forcing the aliens to shoot the SPARK instead. Did I mention they can have more armor than a Sectopod?
NOTE: If an alien uses the SPARK as cover, move the SPARK away a tile before shooting the alien, as while its using the SPARK as cover, it gains full cover bonuses, even from the SPARK.

In 1.1 SPARKs gain more Aim/Ammo/Damage from their primary weapon and its upgrades, and 5 points of 'shield' health.

SPARKS can't use PCS, can't become Officers, can't gain AWC benefits, and are immune to most Officer commands.

Primary Weapon: Gatling Gun
Secondary Weapon: Shredder Cannon

Resistance Management

A new overhaul to the Strategic side of the game, you command and manage all the resistance havens that you have made contact with. There are numerous mechanics that this new part of the game entails, and its really important to understand what this does and how to use it to your advantage.

Haven Overview

Havens are where most of your monthly supply drops and missions will come from depending on the jobs you assign said resistance members to.

Havens do other things than just be your resource and mission generators though, they will sometimes send one of those resistance members out to a mission to help XCOM if that mission is in that region. These resistance members aren't as strong as an XCOM soldier, but if said resistance member has a few skills via leveling up, which is done through doing Haven stuff, an extra frag, flash or smoke grenade is always welcome.

Havens can also be advised by an XCOM staff member. Either a Scientist, Engineer, or Soldier can be staffed to advise a Haven, giving it additional bonuses.

Finally these haven members can die. If they die while out trying to help XCOM, they'll be removed from the roster and you'll need to recruit a new one. Same if they die during a retaliation mission or ADVENT raid mission.

Resistance Jobs

Inside the havens, you'll notice you have a list of resistance members, and you'll notice you can give them one of four jobs. Supply, Recruit, Intel, or Hide. I'll tell you what each of these do, as well as to how important they are.

Note that you can only have 13 haven members working jobs at once, all others will go into the 'hide' status.

Supplies
Haven members set to supplies will look for supplies to add to your monthly supply drop. Note that as the war goes on, you'll get less and less supplies from that region as they will have to look harder for supplies, taking the easiest to reach ones first.

If you see that you've lost resources because of an 'unknown cause' at your monthly recap screen, then that means you have an ADVENT spy and need to assign a soldier to supervise the haven until you find and kill it.

Recruit
Haven members set to Recruit will work and try to recruit more resistance members, or if they have the potential to be an XCOM soldier, a new soldier. If you have fully liberated an area, they will rarely also find Engineers and Scientists to recruit to XCOM.

Intel
By far the most important of the three jobs, Haven members set to Intel will generate intel for you every month, but this is only a side benefit. The real reason for this job is to help you locate missions. The more assigned to Intel, the more missions you'll find and the sooner you'll find them, giving you more time to infiltrate.

Additionally should the Avenger scan at a haven, it'll count for 7 or 8 Resistance set to the Intel job.

Hide
The hide job is when you want to reduce the notoriety and activity that resistance cell is producing. While in this job, that haven member will not contribute to grabbing ADVENT's attention, but also will not contribute anything to the other jobs. Hidden rebels will not show up on Defense missions or haven assaults.

Advising a Haven

By clicking on the portrait on the upper left area of a Haven, you can staff one XCOM staff member to advise the haven, giving additional benefits to the cell. This can be either a Scientist, Engineer, or XCOM soldier.

Scientist
When a Scientist is staffed at a haven, they will help Haven members set to the Intel job additional bonuses such as more intel and helping them detect missions even faster.

Engineer
When an Engineer is staffed at a haven, they will help Haven members set to the Supply job to gather additional resources.

XCOM Soldier
A staffed XCOM soldier has quite a few benefits. First all benefits the soldier gives increases as the Soldier's rank goes up. Staffed XCOM soldiers will give the haven additional recruitment power. They will also help the haven should ADVENT attack it (Equip them BEFORE you send them to advise a haven for this reason) and finally they will try to root out ADVENT traitors hiding inside your haven.

If you have a haven with no members, you MUST staff a soldier at that haven in order to recruit more haven members outside of an event.


Resistance Soldiers

In some missions you will be assisted by some armed resistance members. These are equivalent of Rookies, although some can have special abilities if they live and get kills on some missions or are recruited with them. Additionally on these misisons, if an XCOM soldier is overseeing the haven, they will also show up with the gear you gave them before you sent them to advise. Any MECs you have recruited to that settlement will also appear.

These Resistance Rookies will also use any spare weapons you have laying around your armory. Although they wont actually use the item in question, just have a copy of it in their hands.


We found a spy!

If a soldier is set to supervise your Haven, sometimes they'll find an ADVENT spy. You know you have a spy when you lose supplies at the end of the month due to an unknown cause. In this mission, you have to fight a few pods of enemies with your Supervise soldier and a few resistance members which are basically rookies, although if they have skills from leveling up they will have them here. If you have a MEC, they will also show up here and assist you.

Kill all enemies to complete this mission. If you need to EVAC, expect it to take a large amount of turns. Upon mission completion, you get to keep all corpses.

Defend the relay/supplies/civvies!

A mission where ADVENT will try to stop either your Supplies, Intel, or Recruiting power in that region if you ignore or fail it. You will have Resistance Rookies to help you out here.

Area Liberation

After doing enough missions that gather Intel, you'll be able to attack the ADVENT bases in that region. These missions are fairly challenging, but once complete you'll liberate that region. Once a region is liberated, you wont get missions in that region anymore besides a defense mission.

Haven Defense

See Mission section. Depending on how much of a pain your being to ADVENT, they'll dedicate their strength to attack your settlements.

infiltration Mechanic

The Long War has a new mechanic called Infiltration. This mechanic is used when you try to start pretty much any Offensive based XCOM mission. This is critical to how Long War works, and is one of the biggest mechanical changes inside the mod.

Infiltration Overview

Being a guerrilla ops based force, XCOM can't just drop into a fortified position and not expect to see 30+ enemies. Thus they must collect intel on the area and wait for the perfect moment to strike. That is what infiltration is. You can infiltrate as many areas as you want, as long as you have the soldiers to do so and enough left over to take on a defensive mission should one arise, as soldiers sent off to Infiltrate will not show up on your soldier list until they complete their mission.

When launching a mission, you'll see an expected enemy size from Light to Heavy to Swarming. This is the amount of enemies a map will have after reaching 100% infiltration. You can launch non critical missions with less than 100% infiltration, but you might see 2x, 3x, or more aliens on that mission. Additionally you can infiltrate up to 200%, which will further reduce enemy count past its initial projected amount, but this will never go any lower than Extremely Light. Additionally once your over 100% infiltration, the bonuses going to 200% give you isn't nearly as powerful.

You can additionally spend 25 intel to increase infiltration rate by 75%. This is retroactive, so if used when a mission is about to expire, it'll work just as well as if you use it when starting a mission, IE you wanna liberate a region and not spend 10-15 days on waiting for infiltration to go up.

ADVENT and the aliens also have a secondary thing that will determine things such as alien amount, pod size, detection radius, and the like. This is their Awareness meter. It can be, from best to worst, Vulnerable, Normal, Alerted, Guarded, Fortified, and Impregnable. What this means is that the worst this modifier is, the more extra enemies you will face in that mission. This does NOT include drop ships. This can only be reduced by fulfilling certain criteria, but usually that criteria is to wait a bit while you get more Infiltration. This mechanic is put into place so you can't just spend intel and launch a mission with whatever infiltration that gives you right away without consequences.

Finally when a mission expires on the GeoMap, you can choose to send the squad that you sent to infiltrate that area into the mission, possibly paying intel to increase the percentage, or abort the mission and bring them home.

Sending a Squad and What Affects Infiltration

You'll notice when sending out soldiers to infiltrate a mission, that you can send up to 10 soldiers. While you can do this, its often recommended to not send so many, as the more soldiers you have going to that mission, the longer it will take for your infiltration to go up. In the top right hand corner, there is an 'estimated time to 100% infiltration' which is based on having a squad of 5 soldiers. Less than that will reduce this number, more will increase it. Likewise, gear, soldier abilities, and soldier class will also affect this number.

The more gear your soldiers bring, unless its stealth based gear like an SMG, will increase the time it takes to get 100%. Likewise taking a loud class like Gunner, Grenadier, or Technical, will also increase the timer. Taking a class with stealth perks like Infiltrator and Tradecraft as well as others will reduce this timer. Chameleon suits are also great at reducing infiltration, but they take the spot of one of your utility armor items. They can allow you, with the right build, to get a 5 squad infiltration time down to 2 or 3 days though.

So its a game of trying to fit a squad that can work well on the mission, while also making it so that you can get to 100% infiltration before the mission expires.

AWC, Officers, and Other Avenger Facility Changes

When you start your Long War Campaign, you'll notice you can build an AWC right away. Often times your first building will be either the Guerilla Tactics school, or the AWC depending if you want to train your soldiers to have more combat abilities, or have an Officer to help with Infiltration times and mission objectives.

There where other facility changes, but they aren't as significant as the AWC/Guerilla Tactics.

Officers

A new extra tree that you get via the Guerilla Tactics facility. Officers can be trained whenever you have a Lance Corporal or higher, and need to be constantly trained here to get more Officer abilities. Officers can train the next rank of being an Officer once they've gotten a certain amount of experience, and this is retroactive.

Officers have access to some powerful group abilities. For starters, they get access to three baseline abilities which are amazing if your struggling on missions. The first lets them spend 10 intel to give you 2 extra turns on those timed maps. They also gain the Command ability, which lets them give up their turn to give 1 action point to anyone within their command range.
Finally they get a passive that gives Aim, Will, and Infiltration bonuses to the team if the Officer has been with that soldier before, which gets better and better the more times that officer stays with the same squad. This is not removed if you bring in a fresh soldier or put the Officer on a different squad.

Further down the Officer tree, they gain the ability to delay enemy reinforcements, make Rookies and other low aim soldiers fairly decent if they stick near the officer, and other skills.

Officers also are great to train up just to advise a non liberated Resistance Haven, as they have a super high recruitment chance and are great at dealing with ADVENT should they try to sabotage that haven.

AWC Changes

The AWC no longer gives you a random perk when you rank up, instead you can put a soldier inside the AWC to train an Offensive, Defensive, or Pistol skill. These skills can be quite powerful, such as giving a Grenadier a free smoke grenade (which is boosted by the support grenade talents), giving a Sharpshooter Shadowsight, or giving anyone Faceoff and Fan Fare among other powerful bonuses.

The skills you can learn are random, and you can only learn 3 Offensive or Defensive skills before you can no longer train that soldier in those with the AWC. You can learn 4 offensive, 4 defensive, and 8 pistol skills though if you so wish on each soldier. It just takes a lot of time.

Oh, and to get the accelerated heal rate, you need to staff a Scientist here, instead of an Engineer.

Other Facility Changes

Laboratory
Can staff up to 4 scientists if upgraded all the way. Takes 2 power and 50 supplies per upgrade. Significantly reduces Research time when staffed, and since Long War has far more research than the base game, its something to consider. Especially since its fairly cheap. There is also a continent bonus that makes labs even better, but it just staffs a 5th invisible scientist to the lab.

Workshop
Mostly unchanged from the base game, except it generates 1 power instead of taking power.

PSI Lab
Can only train 1 PSI Op at a time until you research Elerium. Can get fairly early on once you have a Scientist since Psionics is unlocked after autopsying a Sectoid. Can staff a scientist here to reduce training time of your PSI Op.

The New Hitroll System (Why did my shot Graze?)

In Long War, there is a different hit roll system than the vanilla game. This system is probably far more fair than the base game too, even if it doesn't feel like it.

If you've played Long War, you might notice that some of your shots 'graze' the target. This is caused by the target either dodging your hit or your hit landing in the Graze band. The graze band is an option you can configure at the Avenger in the options menu, which sets how hits int he game will work.

A graze band of 10 for example, the default, works like this. Say you have a 50% chance to hit. With a Graze band of 10, you have a 40% chance to hit, and 20% chance that you'll graze the target. this is because the graze band is set to 10, so both 1-% of your hit and miss percentage is turned into a graze roll. Aliens have this as well. This also means if you have a 90% chance to hit, unless the enemy has an innate dodge chance and dodges your graze, you will always hit the enemy, even if 10% of the time it only does graze damage.

Now unlike the base game, Crits are different. Instead of, if say you had a 10% chance to hit, with a 10% chance to crit, your hit would always be a crit. Now crits are on a different roll, and roll depending if you hit or not. If you hit or graze, your crit % rolls and either upgrades your shot to a crit or a hit respectfully. If you miss your crit% isn't rolled.

Dodge works inversely. 50 in dodge means that 50% of the time, you'll downgrade a Crit to a Hit, a Hit to a Graze, or a Graze to a Miss.

If you have hit over 100%, this will start to reduce an enemy's Dodge chance and also remove the graze band if its high enough.

So in conclusion, the Graze Band option gives you its number in graze accuracy, but also takes away that number from your hit accuracy.

New Enemies in Long War

There are lots and lots of new enemy types in long war. Most enemies have 2-3 tiers of power. Although some types of enemies, such as Vipers, have lots and lots of variations.

ADVENT Officer

• All Officer ranks can Mark a soldier. This uses 1 action.
  
• Advanced and Elite Officers also have a Grenade they can throw.

ADVENT MEC

• MEC Archers have more Micro Missiles than the base MECs and remember your position if you were seen earlier and know if you haven't moved. They can bombard you with their Micro Missiles from quite a long range away.
  
• MEC Longbows will engage Overwatch, have the same abilities as Archers, and have Biggest Booms(Explosives can crit)
  
• Superheavy MECs have Damage Control(+2 armor if attacked for 2 turns) and Fire Control(25) (Fire Control wont let Overwatch trigger unless they have a 25% chance or greater to hit, or if the enemy has Lightning Reflexes).

ADVENT Trooper

• Elite Troopers have a Grenade they can throw.

ADVENT Shieldbearer

• Elite Shieldbearers have 1 more armor and +2 shield amount on their ability.

ADVENT Stun Lancer

• Higher ranks have more armor.
  
• Elites have some extra dodge

ADVENT Turret

• All turrets have Squadsight

Archon

• Greater Archons have Lightning Reflexes

Berserker

• No change

Chryssalid

• Chryssalid Soldiers have Lightning Reflexes and a stronger melee attack ability.
  
• Chryssalid Hive Queens will destroy any cover they run through and have an even stronger melee attack ability.

Codex

• No Change

Faceless

• Can be hidden on missions. Shadow Chamber will not detect them. Can be hidden independent of any Dark Events, but ADVENT strength has to be high in the region.

Muton

• Each rank of Muton gets 1 additional armor over its previous rank.
  
• Mutons are immune to Berserker damage.
  
• Muton Centurions have AP rounds and War Cry.
  
• Muton Elites have AP rounds, War Cry, Tactical Sense, and Personal shield giving them 5 extra hp.

Sectoid

• Sectoid Commanders have AoE Mind Spin and AoE Reanimate Corpse as well as higher ranged defense.

Naja (Viper Variant)

• All ranks have Squadsight and Fire Control(25)
  
• Elites have Depth Perception(+5 aim and -25 enemy dodge if at a higher elevation)

Sidewinder (Viper Variant)

• All ranks have Shadowstep (Don't trigger Overwatch)
  
• Elites have Infighter(+25 dodge to attacks within 4 tiles) and Hit and Run (Can move after hitting with their primary weapon)

Viper

• Serpens and Elites have Lightning Reflexes.

ADVENT Gunner

• All ranks have AoE Suppression, Suppression, and Shredder.

ADVENT Sentry

• All ranks have Fire Control (25) and Ready for Anything. (Engage Overwatch after firing with your primary)
  
• Sentinals also have Tactical Sense (+5 defense per enemy it can see, up to 20)

ADVENT Grenaders

• Engineers have only Flash Grenades
  
• Grenadiers have Flash and Incendiary Grenades
  
• Heavy Grenadiers have Flash, Incendiary, Plasma grenades, Salvo(Can take another action after firing a grenade), and Biggest Booms.

ADVENT Rocketeer

• All Rocketeers have a rocket.
  
• Elite Rocketeers have Biggest Booms

ADVENT Drone

• All drone ranks have Stunner (2-4 sec stun, needs melee range) or Drone Beam (disorients target if it hits)

ADVENT Military

• Sergeants have Tactical Sense and Fire Control(25)
  
• First Sergeants also have Locked On.
  
• Generals have Mark Target, Tactical Sense, Ready for Anything, Defilade(+5 def to all nearby units in cover), Fire Discipline(+10 hit to Overwatch shots to all nearby units.)

ADVENT Special Forces

• Commandos have Shadowstep, Evasive (+100 dodge until damaged), Low Profile (Half cover is full cover), Hard Target(+5 dodge per enemy, up to 50), Lone Wolf (+10 aim and defense if no other allies are within 7 tiles)
  
• Shock Troopers have Aggression (+5 crit per enemy it can see, up to 30), Bring 'Em On!(1 crit damage per 2 enemies it can see, up to 8), Executioner (+10 crit and aim vs targets at half health)
  
• Scouts have Shadowstep, Lone Wolf, and +3 mobility
  
• Vanguard have Close Combat Specialist(attacks any enemy within 4 tiles that moves or fires), Close and Personal(+30 crit, reduced by distance to the enemy, losing 5 crit per tile), and Will to Survive(+1 DR if behind cover and shot through cover and +5 will)

New Mission Types and How to Win Them

There are lots of new mission types in Long War, many of which are quite fun but challenging.

Offensive missions require Infiltration, Defensive missions do not.

Missions that don't involve Rebel Rookies

Elimination

Offensive


Like it says on the tin, you are to eliminate all enemies.

You can collect corpses in this mission




Jailbreak

Offensive
In this mission, you have to break some resistance members out of jail. Think of this like a VIP mission, but instead you have 2+ VIPs, usually 3. Also these maps are quite large, so while its a chore to cross them, you can Solid Snake quite a few of them and not ever leave Concealment until you rescue the resistance members. At which point the Skyranger is only a dash or two away.

Blow up the Statue!

Offensive
Gatecrasher, except you don't have all rookies this time.


ADVENT Tower Raid

Offensive
For this and the ADVENT base assault, there is no expire time, so you can send as many soldiers as you want. I'd recommend the max. Especially for the base raid.

After doing enough missions in an area, eventually you'll get a tower raid mission. You'll be raiding the 2nd to last map in the game with lots of advent and aliens, with airship drops being fairly common. However when you finish the objective of hacking the console, you get a lengthy stun on all enemies on the map to clean up. You can bring 5 soldiers.

You can collect corpses in this mission


ADVENT Base Raid

Offensive
Once you finish raiding the ADVENT tower, your given the option of raiding the ADVENT HQ in the area. This map will ALWAYS be "Swarming" level of mobs, but you can infiltrate so that at least its "vulnerable" to decrease the mobs in the map. Most pods will wander towards the spawn, so you can just overwatch camp at the spawn until you clear them all out like you did in EU/EW. Once thats done, its off to find the 'Commanding' pod. Good luck!

You can collect corpses in this mission
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Resistance Rebel Missions

When having a mission with Rebel rookies, these rookies will equip any weapons in your armory that are of the Assault Rifle, SMG, or Shotgun type. They do not lose these weapons in the mission if they die however. Any rebels that die in these missions will reduce your rebel count in that region.

Additionally missions with armed rebels will also use your MECs in that region as well as the advisor if they are an XCOM soldier.


Spy Detected

Defensive


You have your XCOM advisor soldier and armed rebels for this mission. Hunt down that ADVENT spy!

You can collect corpses in this mission




ADVENT Stops Your Inte!

Defensive


A defend mission where you have your armed rebels on one side of the map defending a relay, and your squad on the other. You win by killing all ADVENT. There will be 1 reinforcements drop later on.

Losing or ignoring this mission halts Intel gain in the region for 21 days.


ADVENT Stops Your Recruits!

Defensive


You have to escort your rebels to the EVAC, then wait for the Skyranger to come back to EVAC your XCOM soldiers. The second EVAC for your XCOM soldiers can be in a different spot on the map. Do note this whole time, you will have constant ADVENT reinforcements, and one on the first turn!

Losing or ignoring this mission means you can't recruit for 21 days.


ADVENT Hits Your Supply Lines!

Defensive


In this mission, you have to defend your supply trucks from constant ADVENT reinforcements. Eventually after killing enough waves of ADVENT you'll win the mission. You have rebel rookies to help you.

Failure or ignoring this mission means no supplies from that region for 21 days.


ADVENT Invades your Haven! (Threat level 1)

Defensive
Your standard Retaliation mission from Vanilla. There are 4 levels of retaliation missions, but only threat level 1. 3 and 4 will show up as an actual 'retaliation' mission, Threat level 2 shows up as a guerilla op.


ADVENT Invades your Haven! (Threat level 2)

Defensive
Now we have the new ones. This one, you have to find and EVAC all your resistance members, then your soldiers. ADVENT will constantly attack you until you finally EVAC everyone.


ADVENT Invades your Haven! (Threat level 3)

Defensive


In this mission, you have to stay and defend an area until the Skyranger comes down. Each turn there will be a new enemy drop that you have to deal with. You also have to send someone out to collect your rebels in their camp, then bring them back to the EVAC. Any rebels left behind are killed. Don't use Jammer here, otherwise you'll have two waves spawn instead of one.


ADVENT Invades your Haven! (Threat level 4)

Defensive


You can only get this mission in areas you have liberated. How this mission works is that there are attack pods, and a defense pod next to a psionic relay. The mission is over when all enemies are killed and the relay is destroyed. While the relay is up, reenforcements will constantly be called.

Losing this mission means you have to reliberate that area again from ADVENT and build your resistance back up there.

You can collect corpses in this mission


More missions to come as I discover them!

Tactical Tips

Try to stick to Full Cover as much as you can. If you need to go to Half to get a really good flank shot, make sure your soldier wont get flanked afterwords.

Don't get Flanked, very explanatory

Always try to flank. This can be done by just flanking the enemy, blowing away their cover, and the like. This gives soldiers lots of aim and crit chance.

Don't neglect Flash grenades. A Flashbang disorients enemies, stopping them from using special abilities, reducing their movement range, and reducing their aim. Setting them on fire stops them from using special abilities, but doesn't lower their aim.

Try to not spend your action points on a dash (Yellow move) unless your a shinobi getting a melee kill or using Run and Gun. Go for a Blue move first, then a yellow move.

Shoot aliens Overwatching or Suppressing your allies to cancel those abilities. Additionally if you suppress aliens using these abilities they can no longer use them.

Don't be afraid to use grenades to just blow away cover.

Try to bring a Specialist on every mission, and possibly a Grenadier as well. The former can hack things, which means they'll almost always be useful, and the Greneder is great at blowing away cover if you get the Sapper skill.

FIRE IS AMAZING. If something is burning, it can't do anything but melee attack you.

Strategic Tips

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• Remember, this game is balanced around you not taking every mission that pops up. If you see one you can't do, unless its critical that you do it, you can often skip it.
  
• There IS an AVATAR project, but in order to see it you have to first build up the Resistance.
  
• If you own Alien Hunters DLC, make sure you enable it. This way you'll never see an alien ruler unless you finish The Nest mission with Bradford. You can still get the weapons though since they happen pretty fast.
  
• You can easily do Shens Last Gift DLC mission with laser weapons and AP rounds. Most soldiers will oneshot the MECs and Turrets. Just bring some armor shred for the boss since the SPARK can only shred once.
  
• Don't be afraid to sell things to the Black Market, just sell intelligently.

Advanced Strategy

The solo Assassin

Now, when you think of a class that uses rockets and flamethrowers, you don't really think of stealth as an option. But technicians are great at dealing with "Eliminate the enemy VIP". Why? Because they have rockets that, with a proper rocket build (Javelin rockets, Fire in the Hole, Salvo), they can easily attack the VIP and reach the EVAC on the same turn using a rocket. Often times you can just launch the rocket from the EVAC, kill the VIP with it, then EVAC, other times you need to get a bit closer, which Salvo lets you do, making rockets only cost one action instead of ending your turn.

How this works is you build the Technician for complete stealth. No or only stealth utility gear, SMG, and any stealth perks you might've gotten from the AWC. Next you run around the map, usually on the outside, until you manage to get to the EVAC. Finally, shoot the rocket at the VIP, killing them instantly and EVAC on that turn.

This strategy usually needs Javelin Rockets and its insane range boost to rockets in order to work, so you can't really use it reliably at the start of the game. But once you hit midgame, you can easily just have a soldier set to solo those VIP missions. Of course this comes with risk, since if that soldier is spotted before they get into position your in real trouble, and if they die or get mind controlled or bound or CCed in general, its mission over. Also since your eliminating the enemy VIP, you don't get as many rewards from the mission. But hey, finishing the mission and getting some rewards is better than skipping it.

Additionally you can use a Shinobi to accomplish the same thing, and have even more tiles to dash with, but for them you need to use the Alien Hunters DLC Melee axe, and use its free action axe throw to kill the VIP. This might not be possible until Stun Lancer Autopsy or Archon autopsy, depending on difficulty. However its a lot safer.


Burn the Relay!

Any missions with an alien relay can be quickly beaten by a Shinobi or Technicain, as their fire, if positioned correctly around an alien relay, can destroy it. I'm not sure why, but alien relays are considered environmental objects instead of enemies, so fire can destroy them. Obviously you use a fire grenade or your flamethrower, but you must be very careful as it might take a few turns for the relay to burn. There must also be a fire right next to the relay, if there isn't, the relay wont burn.

Note this also includes the Avenger Defense mission and the haven defense mission as well.


How to Handle a Supply Raid

If you've noticed, supply raids tend to have very low infiltration timers. There are two ways to do them.

1. Forgo infiltration, bring 10 squad members, and blow up all the aliens with explosives, shooting, and the like. Bring lots of Sapper Grenadiers and Technician rockets to blow away initial cover, so future pods wont have much cover to use and you'll be able to eliminate the first few pods you see. All pods but 1 will advance to your squad, so keep overwatching until none come for awhile, then go hunting for that last small pod. There are only 35-40 aliens on a 0% infiltration map.
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2. Bring lots of tradecraft shinobis with chameleon suits, and make sure all your squad is outfitted for infiltration. Chances are though that you wont be able to get the infiltration down low enough to reduce the alien count by too much. But if the alien amount was very light then this is a potential strategy.

The First Things to do in Your Long War Campaign

Starting a successful Long War campaign is tricky, especially the first time without any help as you need to learn all the nuances of the mod before you know how to efficiently start. Here are a few things I've learned playing that'll help you have a super strong start.

If you don't want to know what to do to start your campaign and want to start fresh, don't read below. This contains spoilers. (Although most of this is kinda spoiled if you read the archives in the commander's quarters.)



1. After your first mission, immediately start research on either Modular Weapons or Alien Biotech. If you are confident in your tactical ability and ability to manage your squads and soldiers, Resistance Comms as the first research is totally viable.
2. Next, go into your Armory tab, click Squad Management, and remove one of your healthy newly promoted Squaddies from the squad.
3. Next, go to Command, Resistance Management, and put that Squaddie as an overseer for your first Resistance Settlement.
4. Change ALL or ALL BUT ONE resistance members to Intel gathering, with the last one being Recruitment. DO NOT set any resistance members to Supplies until you kill the ADVENT spy inside your Haven. Otherwise that spy will kill all resources you gathered that month on the supply drop. I mean, it makes sense you have a spy, your starting the resistance after all.
5. Start building either an AWC or Guerilla Tactics school. Either one is fine. I like getting the AWC though as it lets you train soldiers to have pistol abilities, and an additional damage ability per turn per soldier is really really strong. Tactics is more if you wanna train your rookies how you want to, but that will become useless once a Commander's Choice mod is compatible with LW2.
6. After Biotech and Modular Weapons, you should research Hybrid Materials. If you still need Alloys or Elerium, don't be afraid to render the corpses you have. There is a reason why these research avenues are so cheap, they expect you to render corpses so you can begin research on them. You can research Resistance Comms before this to get another region contacted and thus more missions, but you may find you'll have more missions than you can take on at times.
7. Once you kill the spy, you can set one person to supplies, until you can have about 6 people working on intel minimum. Then you choose between recruitment or supplies, maybe 1 more person on intel later on.
8. Soon you should be on your way to Laser weapons and onto the rest of your Long War!

[Busty Deena]

So... is there a Long War compatible Commander's Choice mod yet...? :)

[TangentKing]

@gussev79 Thx.

[gussev79]

I storingly recomend use the following mods: extract corpses + playable aliens

[gussev79]

I use mods - playable aliens + extract corpses

[HatsMcHats]

hey, I'm not a hardcore Xcom player (my hardest XCOM2 campaign was on veteran/ironman) so on which difficulty should I start Long War 2?

[PaintedGamer]

another tip: on missions with Full Recovery, you only recover corpses you did not kill with explosives. watch those grenades

[Mersaw]

n order to not fail due to finish of avatar project, must I make contacts with all the resistance hq all over the world? I mean, I just played and then suddenly I see this advertisement that says that I lost and etc. How to prevent the lose?

[Net]

How do i kill the spy? How do i find out who it is?

[Caine]

@TheCap'n : You will get missions later on that allow you to recover corpses for research. Supply raids, ADVENT Troop columns, and several others. The new game is designed to take a while for you to get that Officer Corpse. Otherwise, you can actually hurt your game by developing too quickly in Long War. I know that sounds odd, but trust me, the whole point of Long War is to engage in a long and protracted guerrilla war with ADVENT. Have no fear, the opportunities for corpses and other goodies will come over time. Just be patient and develop your 40-50+ soldiers doing short quick missions. You'll be happy when you can deal with the tougher missions with soldiers who are about half-way through their skill sets.

[PaintedGamer]

are you supposed to recover enemy corpses after missions, or how does that work now? I can't make my Skulljack because I cant get an Officer corpse. is this a bug, or standard in LW2? if standard, how do I recover corpses?