An aggressive close-quarter combatant using pilfered ADVENT shield tech.


The Assault likes to get up close and personal with the enemy, her energy shield allows her to survive the experience.

This is not a Ranger, consider your tactics when building & using the Assault. It can be very tempting to just aggressively breach into an area with sledgehammer with your energy shield up and tank enemy fire... but this may activate more then you bargained for.

It is usually wiser to advance the Assault in areas where you control all the angles, think buildings, underground, etc, or where you have stealth recon already in place.



An experienced operator with questionable ethics, the Commando always gets the job done.


Light Up ADVENT with multiple shots per turn, then desperately knife a Sectoid to death when your ammo runs dry. Glory, credits and drinks all-round.

The Commando is a versatile asset who forms the backbone of any squad. She can deal a lot of damage very quickly, but relies on static firefights to fully achieve that potential. On timed movement missions liberal use of the combat knife just might give you that extra edge to win the day.

Just don't get too cocky - combat knife damage can vary wildly and you may roll very low.




A support class who delights in loud, concussive noise and crumbling architecture.


Destroy cover, shred armor, deploy smoke, flush the enemy, blow up a truck, raise hell. The Demo is a celebration of environmental destruction.

The Demo is fairly intuitive to play, they nearly always fire first to weaken your enemies position. This means they can be slow to rank up since they rarely get kills.

Not recommended for Lost, Beast or Stealth insertions.




If it bleeds then the Gunner can kill it.


The Gunner brings serious firepower to any mission in the form of the cannon. Lock down ADVENT with suppression, shred that mech and doomslay anything that gets too close with your sawn-off.

The Gunner has drawbacks you need to account for; a slow firebase, low aim and low ammo. Overcome these and you get an operative who can absolutely maul the enemy. The Gunner shines in protracted engagements where they can dig in and dictate the battle.

They have the highest HP growth stat of any operative, but the weakest will.



A genius combat hacker with a sadistic streak.


The Hactivist has terrible stats and relies heavily on the Gremlin to be combat effective.

This is not a specialist. The Hactivist can equip a wide array of weapons and be mediocre with all of them thanks to a terrible aim stat. Her flawed Heal ability - Cauterize - can actually kill you.

Save her for missions you require a hack solution.

An awe-inspiring sight on the battlefield, the Inferno wields their infamous gauntlet to terrible effect.


A redesign of the LW Technical, the Inferno is a supplemental class best used to disrupt enemy formations and apply wide AOE damage in a pinch, especially on Lost missions.

The Inferno should compete with the Assault or the Demo for a spot on the mission. While lacking the raw impact of either of those classes the Inferno should make up for it with increased versatility - you can build a Demo-Lite or perhaps an Assault-Zero through your perk picks.




A professional hitman for hire with a mysterious past.


The Marksman is an expert at long range engagement and selective target elimination. This is a return of the EU/EW Sniper with a twist - snapshot is unavailable. Instead you have various abilities which can be used after moving, such as rushed shot and point blank.

There are two main builds here, the first is the classic Death From Above sniper. Put a lone-wolf Marksman in an elevated position, covering the squad. Pick off enemies one by one with your exceptional crit hits. Best utilised in squads where she can sit far behind the main firing line, selecting the best terrain.

The second is the Rushed Shot agent. This Marksman keeps pace with the team, using pistol and Instinct 1 AP abilities. Whilst not as reliable or deadly as the DFA build, this agent will be far more flexible for mission planning.




They sense great fear in you.


In Chimera Classes and the community lore within Even More Backstories mod, Human psionic potential is a little different. With the installation of the ADVENT psionic network across the planet has come scattered reports and incidents of humanity's next evolution.

For those gifted few, psionic ability is a blessing and a curse. Constantly sought after, some escape ADVENT's sweeps to become frightened outcasts, cult leaders or indentured black market assets.

Which leads us to the Psionic Class. This is not a test-tube super soldier you only take on a single end-game mission. The Psionic is available immediately, although they have a low random spawn chance. You do not need a Psi Lab.

The Psionic is direct combatant, sowing confusion, fear and elemental damage among the enemy. Some abilities are dangerous and sap your own HP. Powerful effects such as mind control are greatly limited - Betrayal lasts a single turn and Soothe can only help a single ally.

These limitations means the Psionic is weaker in a support role then the vanilla Psi Operative but far more combat versatile. The Anomaly Path is random shuffled, meaning you might find certain combo's early on. I would encourage you to experiment and see how the Psionic can fit into different roles on your fireteam.




Omae wa mõ shindeiru. A talented sword and pistol user, striking from the shadows.


Talented combat artists, Shinobi operatives provide mission reconnaissance and direct assassination of dangerous enemy combatants. Choose your target carefully and eliminate them.

The Shinobi is not a Reaper, she is meant to break stealth and engage... hard.

Once engaged, the Shinobi plays as a reckless high crit/dodge varient of the Assault (she has a special Dodge growth stat to help with this). The Shinobi excels in controlled enviroments such as the Underground where there are less firing angles on her whilst up-close.

If Witcher Blade is taken, the Shinobi will outperform even the Inferno for anti-Lost duties.




A smart operator who employs tricks and misdirection to win the firefight.


The Support is our versatile field medic who aims to keep the squad alive in tough situations.

Unique to the class, the Support has an innate Heal Charge system which does not require medkits. You get 4 heal charges by default which the Medic tree will build upon.

If no-one requires healing, the Support shines when setting-up your firing plan. Deploy a flashbang or smoke, then holotarget an enemy so the team gets increased aim & crit chance against them.

Best utilised on long story missions.

(Gk) Erasels
How do you deal with the scarcity of healing?

Ignoring Cauterize, only the support has any type of it and even that is still weaker than the healing you get from the base game class (initially at least, still pretty early in the campaign).

The classes are intentionally gimped into certain roles, forcing you to forgo certain elements, like healing. This is intentional to increase the difficulty curve - no more magic healing mist deployed at range. Let's break down the layers of this.

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1) META - Taking Less Firefight Risks

Straight-up disclaimer, I only play on Legendary where hits in the early game are usually insta-gib fatal. The old memo of 'Low Cover is No Cover' rings true. After playing with Richards Classes Redux for 700 hours I can assure you that having a medic class holding all the healing WILL make you a better player as you take less risks.

Have an Assault? They can tank damage with their energy shield - if your team is facing shots then put everyone in high cover except the Assault, ayys will normally shoot the lowest defence unit.

Have a Gunner? Suppress the biggest ADVENT target instead of trying to kill it. Have a Psionic? Status cripple as many enemies as you can.

Do not charge in with a Templar or Assault unless you are certain you can handle that extra pod hiding in the fog. That extra pod WILL be there. With Chimera you must control the firefight at all times, or have counter-measures you can deploy.

Evacuation is always an option. If you have activated 3x pods and have no flashbangs, get out of there.

I'm aware this may ring as a sh*tty 'git-gud' attitude. Let's move on.

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2) GEAR - Make smart choices.

Predator Armor is suddenly much more important now. You can creatively murder ADVENT very well, but your operatives are squishy. Until then, you need to get creative.

Have a Demo? Then strip grenades from everyone else and pack medkits, smoke, flashbangs and plated vests. I usually put Plated vests on mission critical specialists such as the Hacktivist, that +1 HP usually is the difference from life or death in the early game.

If available, consider giving your Support class Movement boosting PCS and Spider Suits, so they can get to your casualty faster!

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3) SQUAD ROLES

Rock, Paper Scissors. Balance. Take a healthy mix if possible. A squad consisting of a Templar, Assault, Shinobi and a Inferno is just a huge close-range liability. On a similar note, a Marksman, Reaper, Psionic and Vektor-Rifle Support will lack both close-range crit damage and also medium range firepower.

A good squad - in my mind - will always have: 1x Close Range, 1x Recon, 1x Fire Support and 1x Mission Specialist.

What is a Mission Specialist? It's the exact tool you need to get the mission done. This could be a Hacktivist for a train hack mission, a Support for a healing on long Blacksite, or a Bladestorm Shinobi for a Lost City.

Depending on the perk paths you pick, classes can slip or overlap slightly when you need them to. In a horrible pinch, a Commando can Phantom scout for you, the Hactivist can be a healer, etc.

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4) STRATEGY LAYER CHOICES

After the first few missions, you get a feel for your roster, knowing what classes you have which ones you lack, etc. On Legendary tech and build times are triple increased, so you need to choose carefully.

It may be worth your while to pursue SPARKS and Exo-Suits if your roster is healthy at this point in time. Alternatively, if you are taking wounds then you need that Medbay asap.

SPARKS are really helpful for minimising wound times. They can also tank a few hits for you in a pinch, which otherwise would have gone onto your soldiers.

If you have a Blacksite mission, maybe not go on it until you have the exact team and perks you know you need for it.

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... I feel like I've lost my thread, we were talking about getting around the reduced Healing right? I'm just going to leave it here.