Vipers can become any class a regular soldier can become, though classes with primary melee or unique weapons dedicated to said class (Biotic and Necromancer to name a few) won't be fully compatible.


Vipers can use any Rifle-like primary weapon (Default primaries like Rifles, Shotguns, cannons, snipers, etc...)

Vipers can use unarmed/shard gauntlet weapons (If they have been configured to identify as one in XcomWeaponAnimations.ini).

Vipers can use Primary Pistol/Sidearms, in addition to Akimbo pistols. The Viper's Akimbo stance can be configured in XcomWeaponAnimations.ini from 1 of 4 options:

1 - Gun down/up
2 - Guns mid
3 - Guns down
4 - Guns up


Vipers can use all vanilla + LWOTC secondary weapons, in addition to Spec Ops knifes and Rocket launchers/DRLs. They also have the ability to switch between regular Psi amp casting animations and non-psi amp animations via bUseNonPsiAmpAnimsForPsiAmps in XcomWeaponAnimations.ini.


Vipers can also now Pull and Bind Other Vipers, Mutons and Sectoids (Config list of character groups and types located in XComCharacterAnimations.ini), in addition to justice also allowing the ability to pull such templates as well.

The Viper bind mechanics have also been reworked. No longer do binds deal guaranteed damage, and can be broken out of if the Viper fails a strength check against the bound target.
The formula of the bind check is: Vipers Strength + Sustained Bind/Bind Attack strength bonus - Target's Strength. The more checks the Viper wins against the target, the more severe the bind effects are.

Vipers generally have 2-3 options to do while binding (Aside from releasing the bind.)
Crush: Attempt to crush the target, dealing damage based on how many strength checks the Viper succeeds. Note: Bound Vipers cannot be crushed.
Choke: Attempt to choke the target, dealing slightly less damage, but also possibly disorientating them or knocking them unconscious. Note: While bound Vipers can be choked, they won't take damage and will only suffer from the potential effects from choke.
Subdue: Attempt to subdue the target, potentially disorientating, stunning or knocking them unconscious based on how much checks the Viper succeeds.

Most Viper AI has also been adjusted to these new bind mechanics also, and will attempt subdue bound targets if they are isolates or immune to crush.