Xcom 2 addon: The complete XCOM 2 DLC guide

The complete XCOM 2 DLC guide

Firaxis has a decent track record when it comes to making add-ons, but the XCOM 2 DLC run initially suffered from a few bad apples. Upon release, the pre-order bonus and day one content were subject to heavy flak. But in the years that followed the studio has managed to pull it together with later expansions being a lot more on par with what we’d want for such an excellent turn-based strategy game.

However, one of the game’s best expansions – XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – has caused more than a few niggles. With this release, XCOM 2 was pushed to its limit with new features; missions, enemies, and classes shoved into every hole. It also largely displaced much of the content that had been released before hand. When it comes to XCOM 2 DLC, not everyone takes the time to explain how different parts of the library interact together – which is where we come in.

Without further ado, here’s our complete guide to all of the XCOM 2 DLC available, with specific segments on how various bits fit in (or don’t) with the War of the Chosen expansion.

XCOM 2 dLC

Here is a quick summary of all of the XCOM 2 DLC released to date:

  • Resistance Warrior Pack
  • Anarchy’s Children
  • Alien Hunters
  • Shen’s Last Gift
  • War of the Chosen
  • War of the Chosen: Tactical Legacy Pack

XCOM 2: Resistance Warrior Pack

Originally a pre-order bonus, the Resistance Warrior Pack is a textbook example of an interesting concept ruined by a cynical execution. It’s meant to be a throw-back to XCOM 1 that adds four ‘resistance’ armours based around the old Enemy Unknown design — including a vest-covered sweater reminiscent of Central/Bradford’s outfit in XCOM 2 and the standard armour from the first game — alongside an additional rookie recruit meant to represent a veteran soldier that fought in the first war, sporting a slightly battered XCOM armour and a unique flattop hair.

Related: Read our XCOM: Chimera Squad review

The idea had a lot of potential, giving players the choice to try to rebuild the organization that was steamrolled by the aliens 20 years past using the same outfits and bringing a veteran soldier to the fight, but it is very much an early-game only deal. The armour is not a customization option, but an item called the Resistance Kevlar Armor, which becomes obsolete the moment a better model is researched. To make matters worse, there are four pre-set versions of the armour that can be chosen by changing the torso customisation options, but things like legs, arms, and shoulders can’t be touched, giving players a lot less freedom to design their own troops.

That is compensated very slightly by four face paint options added to the game, so ‘cosmetics’ is pretty much what this DLC boils down to; even the additional rookie soldier is unremarkable in any sense besides his looks.

Is it worth it?

Yes, if you like the military design of the first game’s armour and want more options to attain that look. This is a mostly cosmetic pack that will only really be useful in the very early-game DLC, so treat it as such.

XCOM 2: Anarchy’s Children

There were three DLCs released in 2016, none of which are available for sale individually anymore. The first of these was Anarchy’s Children which is another cosmetic-only DLC. It included more than 100 different customisation items based around the theme of ‘Anarchy’. These items range from clown face paints and piercings to mohawks and leather trousers, making your soldiers look like a band of edgy teens.

This DLC, while admirable in trying to offer the player more ways to customise their forces, also represents a surprisingly stark misconception of what the players liked about XCOM 2. Cosmetics are also really easy to mod in at this point, so at the time it probably wasn’t viewed as a great use of developer resources. To make matters worse, the sheer number of customisation options available virtually guaranteed that new recruits came with some pretty horrendous get-ups, forcing you to spend time changing them so that they didn’t look as ridiculous.

IS IT WORTH IT?

As mentioned above, it’s not actually for sale on its own, but is always bundled in as part of the XCOM 2 Collection which you’ll find on sale fairly regularly. As you’ll see below, War of the Chosen is very much worth buying so its hard to ignore this DLC, even if it is a bit naff.

XCOM 2: Alien Hunters

At the time, Alien Hunters was the first real content pack for XCOM 2 since launch, adding three new enemy bosses, three new suits of armour and four weapons, as well as a single mission where Bradford/Central is deployed to investigate these new enemies. This DLC made some waves uponrelease, creating very extreme opinions on both sides of the player.

The meat of the pack comes in the form of the three new ‘Alien Rulers’, powerful variations of the basic Viper, Archon, and Berserker units. Each is a unique character that is gone forever once killed, but they can be a pain to get rid of thanks to their immense health bar.

Related: The best strategy games on PC

A good portion of the player base found the Rulers to be badly balanced, thanks to their propensity to appear early in the campaign and keep showing up for every single mission afterwards. While there can only be one boss per level, they can react to every action a player takes (including passive ones like reloading if you don’t own War of the Chosen, more on that below) and have a tendency to escape through a psionic rift when suffering too much damage, forcing you to face them again later.

On the good side, their health usually freezes between appearances, meaning any damage inflicted to a ruler on a previous operation will be carried over to their next appearance, creating an interesting self-contained narrative where you slowly cripple a powerful boss. The DLC also adds four new weapons that can only be crafted once and are lost forever if abandoned on a mission, but their stats and special abilities such as the concealment-granting Shadowkeeper pistol or the Bolt Caster rifle can be effective in dealing with the new enemies.

Is it worth it?

As above, this is not available to buy on its own anymore but is always part of a collection that contains War of the Chosen, which fixes many of the issues outlined above.

XCOM 2: Shen’s Last Gift

The last of the 2016 DLC and another throwback to XCOM: Enemy Within, this expansion adds a new huge (seriously enormous) mission to investigate Chief Engineering Officer Dr. Raymond Shen’s last project before he passed away. The mission allows you to take his daughter along, Chief Engineer Lily Shen, and rewards you with a new robot class.

Before War of the Chosen, Shen’s Last Gift was the most well received XCOM 2 expansion. It includes a good, yet very lengthy mission, that ends up overstaying its welcome as it takes too long to complete.

Once finished you unlock the use of a SPARK robot, scratching that MEC-shaped itch left in XCOM 1 veterans’ lives. The robot levels up and can be customised with specialised weapons, tools, and armours, allowing them to play any role from defensive tanks to devastating close combat units.

Is it worth it?

Not that it’s available either anymore, but yes.

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen

This is XCOM 2’s biggest (and best) expansion, largely doing for XCOM 2 what Enemy Within did for the first game. It improves upon virtually every good facet of the base game and irons out many issues from the vanilla version, as well as the previous DLCs. It takes the experience to new levels by stretching it to the breaking point and filling in the gaps with exceptional new mechanics and toys.

The expansion is seriously too big to be summarised in a couple of paragraphs, so I suggest you read our XCOM 2: War of the Chosen review to find out more. But just to give you a quick round-up; this add-on includes three new squad classes, four new factions, multiple new mechanics, several enemy units, and a new special class of boss.

These bosses — the eponymous Chosen — are deadly, unique enemies and the centerpoint of the DLC, appearing throughout the whole campaign like your very own personal nemesis. There are three of them (a lot of War of the Chosen’s features number three), each with their own personality and motivations and each with unique stats and abilities generated at the start of a campaign, creating a bespoke experience for every run.

The new mechanics include things like squad bonds, that enhance the effectiveness of squad members that fight together and grants them bonuses and unique abilities, and the new Resistance Ring room, which allows you to contact three different rebel factions throughout the world and recruit them in your fight against ADVENT.

Is it worth it?

This is a fantastic and gigantic expansion to an already brilliant game, and regardless if you played XCOM 2 before or is just going to dip your toes on it for the first time, it is a definite must buy.

XCOM 2 War of the Chosen: Tactical Legacy Pack

A surprise free DLC that was free for owners of War of the Chosen for a short time, the Tactical Legacy Pack is a mix of serious storytelling and fan service. It’s worth noting that this is a DLC for War of the Chosen, not the base game itself so you’ll need that expansion to play this.

Focusing on the time between the fall of XCOM’s headquarters and the rescue of the Commander in XCOM 2, the pack features four campaigns chronicling the rise of the resistance. Told through the eyes of XCOM’s second-in-command, John “Central” Bradford, and Dr. Raymond Shen’s daughter Lily Shen, these ‘Central Archive’ missions are accessible as a standalone series of seven-mission-long challenges via the main menu.

Similar: The best tactical RPGs

Aside from bringing in new story elements through dialogue, the pack leans heavily on nostalgia, bringing back 28 different levels from XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM: Enemy Within — like the gas station, the dam, and the chrysalid pier — alongside the original game’s weapons and armours. Those can be used as sidegrade options during the main campaign, but the downside to that is that you first need to play all four Central Archive’s campaign to completion and achieve a bronze rating at the end, but the requirements are lax enough that this should be easy.

Is it worth it?

It is, as long as you don’t expect it to perfectly fill in the blanks nor change the way the game is played. This is better seen as a nice bite-sized series of XCOM 2’s campaigns, with a some added story bonuses for fun.

how does War of the Chosen expansion affect the 2016 DLCs?

War of the Chosen is a pretty big expansion, essentially changing the XCOM 2 experience from beginning to end. While cosmetic packs like the Resistance Warrior Pack and Anarchy’s Children are available from the start and are unaffected by this DLC,  but Alien Hunters and Shen’s Last Gift change drastically.

The first and most important change is the rebalance applied to Alien Rulers. Firaxis heard players’ complaints and fixed some of the most egregious issues with those bosses, such as enemy reactions and map-wide sight — they are now unable to react to passive actions like reloading and hunker down, and no longer detect your whole squad across the map like some clairvoyant demi-god. For those who own War of the Chosen, the Alien Rulers now provide a much more fair and enjoyable experience.

The second yet equally important change is to the way the story DLCs are integrated to the expansion. War of the Chosen greatly increases the number of early story missions, putting the player through a tailored meat grinder. Both DLCs were previously unlocked through early-game story missions, causing some conflict with War of the Chosen and potentially prolonging the time a player would take to get to the main campaign.

Complicating matters further, there’s the new stress mechanic added in War of the Chosen, which taxes soldiers mentally and physically the more missions they go on. To combat that, you must give them some much needed R&R time and not send them in a series of operations in a row — which immediately becomes a problem during Shen’s Last Gift’s three-part behemoth. War of the Chosen virtually guarantees that your whole squad will come off Operation Lost Towers shaken and exhausted, essentially docking a whole squad off-duty after one mission.

Related: The best XCOM 2 mods

In order to deal with that, War of the Chosen adds a new option when starting a campaign called Integrated Downloadable Content. It removes the Alien Hunters and Shen’s Last Gift missions from the game, adds the Spark class and all new weapons to the laboratories and Proving Grounds from the start, and spreads the Alien Rulers across Avatar Sites.

That integration is not obligatory, however, and players can opt to play the DLCs alongside War of the Chosen if they so choose. This will tie equipment and classes unlocks to their respective missions, and Alien Rulers will only be unleashed after the Bradford mission instead of being first encountered in hidden Avatar locations. However, regardless of your choice, the changes brought by War of the Chosen will still be in play, meaning Alien Hunters are re-balanced (and Sparks more effective) regardless of DLC integration or not.

War Of The Chosen Even Better

XCOM 2, upon its initial release, was met with high praise and was regarded as a step up from its predecessor, a successful reboot of a long-dormant franchise. Not content to just release a good sequel, Firaxis stepped up to the plate and hit another home run with the massive War of the Chosen expansion, which has been regarded as, essentially, XCOM 2. 5. They also released a spinoff, XCOM: Chimera Squad, last year.

RELATED: The Classes in XCOM: Enemy Within & XCOM 2: WOTC, Ranked

The base XCOM games are a blast, full of deep tactical gameplay and a decent amount of customization. Gamers have expanded even further on the game through mods over the years. Some are basic UI tweaks or simple gameplay adjustments; others are major overhauls that could be considered spin-offs all on their own. Here is a collection of some of the most essential mods to make any further War of the Chosen playthroughs feel fresh and new.

Updated August 15, 2021, by Matthew Mckeown:Firaxis’s classic turn-based strategy game has been given a new life with all the various unique and interesting mods the community has created for it over the years. With the collaboration of more popular modders becoming more frequent lately, larger and bolder projects have been released with some absolutely solid content making them arguably the best Xcom2 mods to have come out to date. Here are a few more that have recently been released and are proving popular for players.

15/15 Evac All

Who doesn’t like clicking twice, six to eight times to finish an already long, grueling mission? Most people! In particular, modder tracktwo must have really hated all that extra clicking at the end of missions, because they are the author of the Evac All mod.

A rather simple UI change, all this mod does is add an “evac all” option on the normal taskbar at the bottom of the screen when in the evac zone. Maybe not a game-changer exactly, but this is the kind of quality of life update that all large games could use. Truly, anything that reduces what would be 12 clicks with a full squad down to one is fantastic. It almost makes folks feel bad for XCOM 2 players on PS5 and their insane load times. No speed adjustments for them, the poor souls.

14/15 Robojumper’s Squad Select

Managing skills and load-outs of even one player character can be a hassle in some RPGs. Now, imagine a game where players control, level up, and customize dozens of different characters over the course of a 40+-hour campaign. What a headache! Luckily for all War of the Chosen players out there, Robojumper made squad management much less of a headache with his Squad Select overhaul.

RELATED: The Best Alien Invasion Games

This mod makes swapping out squadmates the matter of two clicks instead of several, making weapon swapping almost instantaneous, and even allows brave Commanders to send out more than six soldiers at once! Stats, health, willpower, and even skill information are all readily available without sifting through menu after menu after menu. Thank you, Robojumper.

Some gamers are never content to rest on their laurels. User DerBK loves XCOM 2 — one of the best western RPGs of all time — so much that he expanded his popular A Better Everything suite over to War of the Chosen. His various A Better Everything mods can change ADVENT behavior, the barracks XCOM uses to upgrade its soldiers, the missions players navigate, and the powerful Chosen bosses themselves.

Not meant to make War of the Chosen “harder,” per se, but the enemy AI changes just tend to make missions more dynamic, allowing long-time players to notice some significant changes that can truly make a playthrough feel new again. Just be sure to add the multiple mods properly, as some can be standalone, but some have dependencies that are required to work properly.

12/15 Musashi RPG Overhaul Suite

Musashi is probably the most prolific XCOM modder around. The most significant mod he has ever made would have to be the RPG Overhaul mod suite. It is a hefty, huge change in the game, altering almost every aspect at least a little bit. It could be an amazing squad-based strategy game all on its own.

Soldiers all start as the same class, now able to choose from 14 base specializations and 98 abilities total. Players truly get to build their own classes this way. Musashi’s recommended list of plugin mods can add everything from specific class loadouts — like a Jedi class with force abilities — to weapons like. ..lightsabers for the Jedi. RPGO works well on its own, but to get the fullest experience possible, be ready to download a lot of mods and weed out conflicts.

11/15 Stenchfury Modular Helmets/Armors

Creating badass alien destroyers is a major part of the fun of the X-COM series. The customization option present in the vanilla version of the game is nice, but it lacks a lot of depth — even with the free DLC they released a while ago — leading to a lot of similar-looking grunts. User Stenchfury, though, really kicks the customization up a notch with his modular helmets and armor.

RELATED: XCOM 2: The Best Skills, Ranked

The helmets in particular allow players to use any part of any headpiece and mash them all together to create truly individual looks. The combinations are endless. Some can be silly, some can be fierce. It’s all up to the player and their boundless imagination.

10/15 Augmentations

In the heat of war, especially war against terrifyingly advanced alien overlords who have already taken over the world, injuries will happen. In the base game, soldiers could sleep them off. Not with the Augmentations mod, which adds another layer of depth to soldier upkeep. This mod makes it so that grave wounds cannot be healed without cybernetic augmentations.

After proper research and construction, the augmented body parts will be applied to the wounded soldier. Their appearance will change, and you best believe extra benefits may come from having a metal torso — like a regenerating shield, for instance. It’s a fun mod that not only fits with the aesthetic and mood of the game but adds an interesting way to boost the viability and skill set of soldiers.

9/15 Lost Autofire

With the War of the Chosen add-on came the inclusion of XCOM’s version of zombies. The Lost, as they are called here, are pathetic little nothings, easily dispatched in high numbers. Players consider them more of a nuisance than a threat, due to the repeated need to confirm an attack.

A soldier with a fully loaded assault rifle could potentially attack eight times in one turn, and players would have to manually activate every attack. Thankfully, Musashi thought of all the suffering gamers out there and made this simple UI change that adds a Lost Autofire option, permanently, to the action bar. Sit back and relax as hordes of Lost are cleared out with two simple clicks.

8/15 Tactical Armory UI

Lots of turn-based games feature loads of weapons. A new one, RAM Pressure, features over 100 different weapons to fight aliens with. After a few add-ons or other mods, managing new weapons in the XCOM loadout screens got to be maddening at a certain point, particularly if using Musashi’s RPG Overhaul. So, the man himself took to the keyboard once again to bring players the Tactical Armory UI mod.

RELATED: The Most Difficult Enemies To Fight In The Xcom Games

This mod makes lists larger, easier to read, and much easier to sort through. He even included filters for specific weapon types. Having trouble finding a custom sniper rifle with attachments? Sort the list to snipers. It’s a practical addition for even vanilla playthroughs to add style to the soldier loadout menu.

7/15 Still Stop Wasting My Time

XCOM 2 is an almost infinitely replayable game, especially with mods. However, some things in the game proper just suck up too much time. Action cutscenes — a plague on some otherwise good games — have been viewed countless times. Scanning resource caches in the Avenger takes forever. Some battle animations take up half of any encounter. Why is there a 30-second animation every time a grenade is thrown?

Thankfully, Musashi fixed this for replayers with the Still Stop Wasting My Time Mod — updated for the War of the Chosen mod, hence the «Still» — which speeds up all the various animations that slow down the flow of gameplay. Never again will players suffer through the tedious 80-minute holo targeting animation. A nice bonus is that this mod seems to be almost universal, with no major conflicts.

6/15 Narrative Control

Oh, Central Officer Bradford. Sincerely, thank you so much for your service to this planet. But, for the love of all that is holy and good in this world, please stop talking. Players who have gone back in for another round or 50 of XCOM 2 have gotten very familiar with Bradford’s constantly repeated reminders.

Thankfully, user KongMD, also apparently fed up with the incessant interruptions, made the Narrative Control mod to silence the beloved war hero. Navigating the Avenger’s many rooms and menus will now be a quieter experience as all narrative moments are muted. KongMD also included instructions for further narrative exclusions — such as Avatar Project progress reports — but it requires some light code modification. It’s worth it, though. Players may miss out on some info referenced in Chimera Squad, but it is a small price to pay.

5/15 More Base Utility Slots

Perhaps one of the handiest War of The Chosen mods you can download, the More Base Utility Slots by Astral Descend. This add-on lets your squad bring in more items to a fight and it can be a massive help at times.

Often you can run out of grenades and medkits at the absolute worst moments, but with this installed, you can bring in an extra item. So you can bring double grenades, an extra medkit, and a scope or kit everyone out with some extra armor courtesy of the Nano Vests. An item that nobody ever uses in the base game as they take up the single slot you get, so why waste it right?

4/15 Civilians Revamped

Despite its updated style, there’s still quite the lifeless disconnect in the base game when it comes to the civilians as they often sit there mindlessly watching the destruction around them. Or in the case of reprisal missions, just stand there taking hits from Advent soldiers that are mercilessly gunning down their friends and family.

The Civilians Revamped mod by the combined efforts of Mr. Nice and MrShadowCX fixes this however by having civvies react in a normal human way to all the chaos. So now they’ll run, hide, and generally act more human, adding more immersion to the game which makes levels feel more alive, vibrant, and generally lived in.

3/15 The Hive

Arguably this is by far one of the hardest and best Xcom 2 mods you can download. The Hive, which was created by a team of 11 popular modders is an unforgiving but brutally fun addon that can cause complete anarchy at times, especially on some of the higher difficulty missions.

What this mod does is add a whole new Chryssalid faction to the game. Led by a gigantic Queen that is no pushover, this faction plays by its own rules, appears when it likes, has a solid roster of brutal monsters, and attacks Advent and Xcom soldiers alike. It’s a fantastic addition for those looking for more variety and depth to the game, so if you want an extra challenge download this or its expansion as both are great Xcom 2 mods.

2/15 World War L

The Lost at the best of times feel more like a nuisance than a real threat, but with World War L you can give them more of a fighting chance. One of the best Xcom 2 WotC mods created for the Lost faction, it gives them substantially more units, skins, and animations.

The end result is a massive zombie horde that’s filled with all sorts of monsters and people taken from all walks of life. So instead of those classic naked husks, you’ll get to see policemen, clowns, football players, or gigantic towering undead striding across the battlefield, and a myriad of other new monsters.

1/15 Bio Troops

Whilst the basic Advent infantry you’ll face in the base game offer quite the challenge, they can become stale and a bit of a pushover in the later stages of the game when your squad power level starts to snowball.

The Bio Troops mod counters this perfectly with another of perhaps the best Xcom 2 mods you will get to try as it adds more diverse Advent troopers to mow down. These green-clad lads use all sorts of nasty biotech and buffs that can devastate the unprepared. It also scales their difficulty up as you progress providing more of a challenge for even the most seasoned of Xcom Commanders.

NEXT: Turn-Based Strategy Games To Play If You Love XCOM 2

Files for XCOM 2

Everybody

Armor

Gameplay

Graphics

For adults 18+

Sounds

Interface

Error correction

Cards

Quests and Missions

Teams

Non-playable characters (NPCs)

Cloth

Optimization

Weapon

Official patches

Items

Hairstyles and Faces

Russifiers

Soundtracks

Assemblies

Skins

Creatures and Monsters

Transport

Utilities
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Russifiers

ХCOM 2 «Translation of the Jedi Class Revised mod»


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Gameplay

XCOM 2 «Long War of the Chosen Mod»


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Gameplay

XCOM 2 «Alien Hunters Community Highlander Mod»


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Gameplay,
Weapon,
Hairstyles and Faces,
Skins,
For adults 18+,
Builds

XCOM 2- War Of The Chosen: «Mod Collection (DLC), Amazon series V-18. 21. New armor, skins, weapons, accessories»


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Gameplay

XCOM 2 «AlternativeModLauncher 1.3.2»


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Gameplay,
Hairstyles and Faces

XCOM 2 «[WOTC] Skyrim Khajiit Cosmetics»


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Gameplay

XCOM 2 «Playable chosen — Early alpha 0.1»


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Gameplay

XCOM 2 «[WOTC] Commanders Choice»


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Gameplay

XCOM 2 «[WOTC] Better Armory Item Stats»


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Gameplay

XCOM 2 «[WOTC] Faster Banners»


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Gameplay

XCOM 2 «[WOTC] Rulers Regen»


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Gameplay

XCOM 2 «[WOTC] Disable Ruler Reaction»


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Error correction,
Russifiers

XCOM 2 «Full Russifier War of the chosen»


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Gameplay

XCOM 2 «[WOTC] Yet Another F1»


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Gameplay

XCOM 2 «[WOTC] Additional Icons»


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Gameplay,
Interface

XCOM 2 «[WOTC] New Target Icons»


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Gameplay,
Weapon

XCOM 2 «[WOTC] The Ax Mod»


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Gameplay

XCOM 2 «[WOTC] Rend The Lost»


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Gameplay

XCOM 2 «[WOTC] Fair Lost Targeting»


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Gameplay

XCOM 2 «Shivs (wotc)»


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Soundtracks

XCOM Legacy Original Soundtrack


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Gameplay

XCOM 2 «[WOTC & Vanilla] Smoke Grants Concealment»


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Movies and series

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Rumors

According to an insider, the first-person role-playing game Avowed will be released in early 2024

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Movies and series

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Industry

Madden NFL 23 fans furious after EA accidentally wiped player save data


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PC

Steam Sales Chart: Elden Ring was the best-selling game of the last week of 2022


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Movies and series

According to James Gunn, Disney did not interfere with the creation of «Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3″
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Movies and series

The new trailer for the anime adaptation of NieR:Automata Ver1.1a showed the twins Devolu and Popola


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Industry

Japanese developers reveal plans for 2023: Many long-awaited announcements from Konami and news about Dragon’s Dogma 2


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PC

Fan-made 3D remake of Fallout 2 Doom-style tech demo released


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Technologies

The neural network showed how the anime based on «The Lord of the Rings» would look like if Hayao Miyazaki were doing it


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Industry

The player compiled a chronology of games depicting the evolution of mankind, from Far Cry Primal to Cyberpunk 2077

Best XCOM 2 mods

These days, Firaxis has already reached the level of Bethesda in supporting the modding community, allowing the latter to make major changes to their game. In order not to let down its fans, the company announced a collaboration with Pavonis Interactive (creators of the original Long War mod for Enemy Unknown), with which they wanted to make modding tools as convenient and efficient as possible.

The most important thing to remember when installing mods for XCOM 2 is their compatibility with certain versions of the game, which is usually mentioned in the description of the modification. Most of our list is installed on the basic version (without add-ons) or on War of the Chosen (WotC). Be careful when downloading. nine0003

Mods for the base version (and WotC)

Evac All (WOTC)

After a few hours of playing, it becomes quite annoying when, after taking all your fighters to the extraction point, you have to watch how they leave the mission zone one by one. Evac All adds a magic button to the game, clicking on which will make all your soldiers leave task at the same time as . This not only looks much more impressive, but also saves time. One of the nicest mods ever.

Download Evac All

Grimy’s Loot (WOTC)

Just four words: Diablo-like loot.

This mod adds many new weapon upgrades to the game, all with their own characteristics, giving XCOM 2 gameplay a completely new facet that is so dear to the heart of any Diablo or Borderlands fan. And the list of these upgrades is really impressive:

  • 96 for the main weapon
  • 81 for armor
  • 45 for pistols
  • 45 for swords
  • 87 for gremlins
  • 45 for psi amplifiers
  • 45 for grenade launchers

Download Grimy’s Loot

Elerium Grounds

Somewhere in the middle to the very end of the game, Elerium Cores become as rare as Bitcoins in our world, and your Challenge Zones can sit idle for months waiting. Without new Cores, the production of new armor, heavy weapons, experimental ammunition and grenades suffers. Elerium Grounds allows, if you have completed all the necessary research, to produce these same cores. nine0003

What’s more, you can upgrade the Exosuit and Spider by adding armor to them, making them usable even at the end of the game. In this case, if you wish, you can install only one of the two parts of the mod. Please note that you will see a warning symbol when playing with WotC, however, there are no compatibility issues.

Download Elerium Grounds

Long War 2

The famous Long War mod is back with the launch of the Workshop for XCOM 2. With the official approval of Firaxis itself, Pavonis Interactive once again created a free mod that dramatically changes the game. nine0003

Long War 2 includes a longer campaign, new classes with unique abilities and mechanics, new multi-squad infiltration systems, advanced ADVENT AI, new enemies, and a new weapon type, submachine guns.

New classes have more customization options, and a separate Long War Perk Pack mod allows you to further diversify the perks on each rank by adding a third option. Personally, I like the commanders in LW2 most of all, they train in the appropriate building and give the squad certain bonuses. True, only one can be taken on a mission. nine0003

If you’re looking to breathe new life into vanilla, you won’t find a better fit. The original Long War for Enemy Unknown was a fantastic piece, and the second part is in no way inferior to it.

Download Long War 2

War of the Chosen mods

RPG Overhaul

Like Long War 2, RPG Overhaul completely changes the gameplay. Instead of a bunch of different classes, we get a Soldier, which can be upgraded with 98 (!) unique perks. With the help of Ability Points introduced in WotC, you can even improve parameters such as Health, Evasion, Accuracy and Will. nine0003

Other changes in this great mod include the ability to use any combination of primary and secondary weapons, equip in addition to the main slot, new ranks above the Colonel. The author, Musashi, recommends using it in conjunction with the other mods he has listed on his page.

Download RPG Overhaul

Instant Avenger Menus

Probably everyone who played XCOM 2 cursed the long transitions between rooms on the Avenger or switching to a «planetary» view. Instant Avenger Menus makes these transitions instantaneous, speeds up the customization of fighters before the start of the mission, and adds a few more useful time savers, allowing you to focus on what you love — destroying aliens. nine0003

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Capnbubs Accessories

Personally, I really like to make my soldiers unique, different from each other. Isn’t someone? I agree that the base game is all right with this, but CapnBubs Accessories expands its capabilities with a truly incredible variety of helmets, caps and other pieces. There are great Halo and Star Wars themed mods, but CapnBubs only adds gear that fits into the game world.

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A Better ADVENT

As many mod enthusiasts know from experience, it’s easy to download a bunch of mods and then forget which one you installed. Going through the game, I did not even realize that the new enemies added by A Better ADVENT were not from the original game at all, they fit in so organically. There are no super-powered enemies in ABA, but their abilities, used at the right time, can have a devastating effect on your squad. For example, a low-level ADVENT Spearman, having reached your fighters, can easily knock them out with his «goad». nine0003

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True Concealment

A major innovation in XCOM 2 is the stealth mechanic, which allows you to surreptitiously bypass the enemy and attack him stealthily. The only problem for her was the mission timer, whose presence sometimes makes no sense.

The True Concealment mod fixes this by pausing the timer until you are discovered. Note that this makes the game a little easier, so you might want to choose a higher difficulty. nine0003

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Shen’s Last Gift Mod

Mechatronic Warfare Pack

The SPARK is perhaps one of the most useless units in XCOM 2. It costs two whole Elerium Cores and a bunch of other resources, should act as a tank, but usually dies in the first more or less serious skirmish.